Happiness is a Toddler in the Fall Leaves

Oh my goodness, we have had such exceptionally beautiful weather this fall!

We've been spending tons of time playing in the leaves.

Baby Beastie thinks the leaves are wonderful.

Fall is by far our favorite season. The very best for walkies in the woods.

It's been so warm that shoes haven't even been required.

Playing with Lily and Nammy made me remember how much fun we had in the leaves when I was a kid.

I think it's one of those joys you kind of forget until you have your memory jogged. 

So much happy.

These two!!!

My heart might just explode...

Halloween 2016

Here is a whole whack of Halloweenie type pics. We've had a fantastic time the last few weeks. From spooky snacks to costume experiments.

Lily trying out the candy bowl for size.

We filled it right up!

I was The Flying Nun and Mr. Jimmy was The Pope.

James made his own hat! I sewed up a gown for him and my hat was stitched together. My smock was from the Bride of Frankenstein from a few years back.

I made some Mini Di Virgini cakes (or Nun's Tits!!!) They were lovely white sponge with ricotta filling and an almond paste coating with a rum soaked cherry nipple. I was beat out, (rightly so!) by some delicious chocolate covered bacon brought by Nicole (She was dressed as a piggy).

Maggie made the Birthoween boy this mini altered monk statuette. She added some horns and a tail because the monk was being naughty and passing judgement. Maggs used STAEDTLER Fimo Professional to make the alterations to the monk. After she baked the piece I painted it out to match with some Genesis heat set oil paint.

Maggie made Austin and herself these fantastic masks.

She did a bit of makeup too!

We gave Lily heaps of choices for her Halloween costume. She decided that she was going to be a spider.

Even though she had a nasty head cold she managed to have a fantastic time.

I think she makes a pretty cute tarantula....

Hope you all had a great Halloween too!

Teeny Tiny STAEDTLER Fimo Nail Art Roses

Here are some more mini roses for nail art inclusions. I originally made them here. But have decided it needed a tiny tutorial video and some other colour examples. 

Thanks to STAEDTLER for the unlimited colour selections available.

Hope this is useful.

I'll be posting some pics of the roses once they are inside a set of nails.

Stay tuned!

Real Life

This is a picture heavy post. The last two weeks have been a blur of activity but things are slowly returning to normal around here. 

The kids came from the big city to spend Thanksgiving with us. They're puppy sitting for a few months for a wonderful family friend. Look at that mug!!!

The turkey was a smash! We poked lemon and sage under the skin and slathered it with butter.

Lily has decided that oatmeal is her breakfast of choice.

This is me, resting...

These two were in cahoots the entire time they were together.

Spent some amazing catch up time with my bestie making yummies and decorations with her for her parent's fiftieth.

Lily did art!

Sparkly, sparkly art....

Sparkles eventually come out of the bathtub, right?

Discovered the joys of slab sandwiches!!!

Sparkles are everywhere!

Even on the cookies!

The last of the local strawberries were decorated too.

And they're off. Back to the big city.

We miss them so when they go.

can't wait until they come back again.

Simplicity 3418 and Maggie's Spoonflower Robot Fabric

I'm so very in love with this little dress!

I used to make dresses like this for my girls when they were wee. Now I can make them for our Lily too!

This one is extra special because we've used the spoonflower fabric that we had printed from Maggie's robot drawing. This fabric was made for Maggs and we've never quite known what we were going to make from it. When Maggs and I saw this little dress pattern we knew it was the perfect make for the robots!

Can't wait to make more of these! I altered the pattern a wee bit to make it more wearable. I bound the inside of the collar with bias tape and made the ties at the back much thinner and shorter, but otherwise I left it as is.

The wee bit of lace at the collar and sleeve were from various family sewing boxes. 

Nice to add a bit of historical family sewing love.

Over all the finished dress is pretty spectacular!

Thirteen little buttons at the back.

Butterick B5625 Baby Aprons

We've been making many many sews this week. These two aprons turned out pretty great.

They're gifts for Lily who turns TWO this week!!!

Hard to believe. Time sure does fly.

This pattern is great for using up left overs from other projects. This one is made from left over Grandpa Jimmy shirt fabric. Maybe they can wear them at the same time and be all matchy!!! I used button plackets to close the sides of this one instead of the patterned tie.

Here's a great floral one. The fact that these aprons are two layers thick is great! They'll keep Lily tidy no matter what she decides to get into. My girls both used to wear aprons like this with just tights and a onesie underneath. Kind of like a mini housedress.

Here's the pattern. I can't wait to make the other outfits for next summer.

They're all adorable!

We' made some more bows for Lily too. Here she is modeling her latest one while she gets her nails done for her birthday party at Nammys. 

Can't believe she's two already....

Baby Blob Necklace

Here is another great baby craft with STAEDTLER Fimo Kids clay.

These are going to make fantastic gifts!

This is how the mixed colour discs that lily made the other day turned out. In case you missed it, we just let her mix some Fimo kids colours together and we helped her roll them out into a sheet. We used mini circle cutters to cut out the shapes and then we pushed them all back together in an arch shape,

After the pieces were baked, we drilled holes in each end to hang the piece.

We varnished the front of the baked clay and after it dried added a chain, clasp and bead.

How fantastic are these!?!

They look like they came from a fancy designer shop!

Get on this folks!

Those mini humans at your house could be rakin' in the big fancy designer bucks too.

Or at the very least, building heaps of self confidence by making these really pretty gifts for their posse.

Thumbprint Heart Pendants

We made these really cute necklaces from the thumbprint hearts that Lily made with us the other day.

I LOVE the way these turned out!

They were way too easy to make.

You'll need:

one block of STAEDTLER Fimo Kids in any colour you'd like.

(we used the sparkly pink one!)

a small heart mold (optional)

baby powder as a mold release.

a few jewelry findings, jump rings, lobster claws, metal beads and bails, head pins

double sided 1/4 inch satin ribbon

a few 1/4 inch beads to dangle from the necklace backs

thread to match and a needle

jewelry glue

We kneaded the clay and pushed bits into the heart mold. We dusted the mold with the baby powder first to be sure the clay would pop out easily. 

If you don't have a mold you could just cut out little heart shapes with a craft knife from a sheet of clay. 

We helped Lily push her finger or thumb gently into each heart. We used a piece of wire to poke a hole into the top of each heart. Then we baked the hearts on a parchment paper lined baking tray in a preheated 230 degree oven for 20 minutes.

To assemble the pieces we glued in an eye pin to the holes we made in each heart, 

attached a bail with a jump ring, 

threaded an appropriate length of ribbon through the bail, 

added a metal bead to each end of the ribbon, 

folded each end of the ribbon through a jump ring and sewed the ends closed, 

added a bead of glue and pulled the metal bead up to the jump ring, 

connected a lobster claw to one end with a jump ring,

added a chain of five or six jump rings to the other end,

finished the piece off with a bead on a head pin.

They look pretty from the back too!

These will make great Christmas pressies from Lily!

Perfect way to carry on the tradition of home made gifts,

She sure is proud of these!