birthday boy

Happy belated birthday, Architect Uncle. Hope your day was perfect! XOXO

get ready to be dazzled

I’m not the only crafty one in the family. My youngest sister, Redhead Auntie (seen here as Ginger), recently marched down to the craft store and purchased herself a bedazzler. She had a 40% off coupon and an occasion. She and her roomies were getting geared up for a bar crawl to celebrate that my sister passed a big exam. Congrats Ginger! Such a huge accomplishment and you marked the occasion in style.

back from the beach

We are just back from a great week-long vacation on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The best part of the trip was watching two cousins meet for the first time. Our little guy and Alpine Baby got along just fine. The kisses (him) and face pats (her) were plentiful. I know he is missing his little cousin as much as I am missing her mom because he giggled and grabbed for the computer monitor any time Alpine Baby’s sweet little face made an appearance as we looked over the vacation photos this morning. Sigh… Good thing my BFF and her girls will be in town tomorrow to help fill the void.

just in from hawaii

Nope. Not a pineapple or a mango. Something even sweeter. I have new photos of my new baby niece, now one month old. Island Mom and Dad sound great. They are just soaking up every minute of their precious little girl. I won’t get into how much I want to hold this little one and giver her kisses all over, but boy is she making Hawaii feel even further away than it did before. But no need to dwell on that; I know I’ll meet her someday. The thought of Island Mom and Dad (so proud to be donning those new titles) and how happy they sound when we talk on the phone keeps me smiling. And of course, these photos. Well, they say the rest. Again, sweet little Island Baby–welcome to the family! We love you so much.

P.S. I love that little number you are wearing in the last photo. Something tells me that either your Mom or Dad made that for you with lots of love.

happy birthday papa!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!  You are as handsome, witty, charming and smaht as ever! And you don’t look a day older than you did in these photos that were taken last year on your birthday.  We can’t wait to celebrate poolside with you and the girls tomorrow. 

P.S.  “Smaht” spelled with an ‘h’ is not a typo in this case.  It’s just how you say it if you are from Boston. 

napkin rings for a growing family

I sewed up a set of cloth napkins and napkin rings for my mom for Mother’s Day.   I made personalized napkin rings for Grandmama (my mom), each of her children (my siblings), their significant others, and the grandchildren.  I had to leave one napkin ring blank because there was a grandchild on the way.  (Horray for Island Baby!)  I also made a few extras that will be personalized in the future. I am pretty sure that this family has a few more weddings and births on the horizon.   

Grandmama chose the printed fabric at the store where this talented blogger works when we were visiting Alpine Auntie in Salt Lake City.  It is a Moda print.  When she selected this particular fabric, my first response was “Are you sure you don’t want something a little more springlike?”  She look at the fabric, then at me, and said with a smile, “This is what I like.”  She has a good eye, because the napkins are beautiful and will go with the decor in her dining room perfectly.  I matched the print with a coordinating Kona Cotton to make double-sided napkins.   I used the same solid fabric for the rings and used rubber stamps with fabric markers to print the names.  The napkin rings are reversible, so if Grandmama is entertaining friends, she can just flip them over to the blank side. 

OK–Now we just need everyone to fly home so that we can have one big family dinner. When is everyone free? 

moms

I love Mother’s Day because I am a newish mom and the day feels like a bonus day.  An extra birthday of sorts. I also love the day because it gives us the chance to celebrate our moms and thank them for all the wonderful and generous things they do. We live very close to Grandmama (my mom) and Grammy (his mom) and I cannot say enough about how much of a blessing it is to have them nearby. Not only do both Grandmothers accept impromptu babysitting requests at the drop of a hat, but they also send over food and other goodies — just because. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Seriously. The list is endless. So, because we can never say it enough–THANKS MOMS! You are the best.

We invited our families over on Sunday for an outdoor Mother’s Day brunch. Grammy brought this beautiful apple cake and my mom brought a delicious quiche. We probably should have insisted that they take a day off from kitchen duties, but well, they offered… and they are really good cooks.

I made Grammy this bag, which compliments our strawberry patch beautifully.

I was happy with how it came out except for one small goof that happened when I sewed on the ruffle. You may be able to spot a little bit of raw edges poking out in the top right corner of the bag in the photo below. Just a tiny mistake. The kind of mistake a sewista grandmother can appreciate (and pretend not to notice).

This was my first attempt at 1) sewing a ruffle and 2) using fusible interfacing. I am always afraid of “firsts” when it comes to sewing, but neither task was all that difficult. Getting the bias fabric to go around the handle loop was a little tricky, but I used a zig-zag stitch and that seemed to hold it in place well. I think I may make another bag like this one but change the width so that it holds two bottles of wine. (I think this one is wide enough to hold three.) The bag was inspired by Amy Butler’s Chelsea Bag but I didn’t use a pattern. I came up with my own dimensions, made the handles round instead of rectangular, and added the ruffle. It is reversible and has a pocket inside. I love the lining fabric. So sweet and old-fashioned. I plan to use moreo f it to make myself a mini-quilt to drape over a certain little white rocking chair at some point soon.

P.S. That sweet little Mother’s Day flower (top photo) was made by my boy, with heavy assistance from his wonderful daycare provider. Three cheers for artsy craftsy mommy gifts!

my sister and her calf

Alpine Auntie has a thing for cows.  They are her favorite animal.  I think she once said that she would like to receive a cow for a wedding gift.  Well, her wedding came and went and no cow.  But now she finally has one.  She got it for Mother’s Day.  Best looking cow I’ve ever seen. 

The cute is just killing me. That little pocket with that little stuffed cow friend inside!  How do I wish this little one could “graze” in my backyard every weekend.  Thank goodness she will be joining us for a summer vacation in a few months.  Otherwise, I think I’d go crazy.  I miss her.  And her mom and dad.  It stinks.  And I know I’m going to feel the same way once Island Auntie has her little one.  That big event will be happening in the next few weeks.  They live even further away.  Though the Cydermaker and I have pledged that we will make a trip to visit them in the next couple of years, so that helps.  But only a little.  ***Sigh.*** 

OK.  Enough of the “poor me.”  Thank goodness for digital photography and the internet.  Because I have these to make me smile and think about my sis and her dream-come-true.  Her sweet baby calf. 

 

 

nose to nose

The little guy took a trip to the zoo with Grandmama, my godmother, and two friends recently. My godmother took this shot. She’s taken many photos of my siblings and me over the years so its nice to see her continue the tradition with my kiddo. I am pretty sure she took these photos of my sisters in 1984.

Over the last few years, I completed three projects that involved digitizing tons of old family photos. Two projects, a cookbook for my mom and an album for my dad, used photos of my family; the other featured the Cydermaker’s family. It is great to have these files at my fingertips because I am able to create all sorts of little personal gifts and decorations using them. Christmas ornaments, note cards, advent calendars, cake toppers – you name it. I’d like to make those images more accessible to the rest of our family members because it is so much fun to browse through them. For now they sit idle on my hard-drive and backed-up on disc. I’ve added that task to the to-do list. Family members, stay tuned.

On the sewing project front, Mother’s Day gifts are coming along nicely. One down; two more to go. I am enjoying my new adventure in felting in particular because it has presented the opportunity to do some hand stitching — a great change of pace. I am also getting ever closer to completing my BFF’s baby quilt. Finally, two people (with great crafty blogs) asked about how I made Adventure Auntie’s charm bracelet, so I updated that post and explained the process. The sidebar now has a link.

In BIG family news, City Auntie has plans to move closer to home! We will miss our visits with her in New York, but are so thrilled that we will be able to see her more often around these parts. If anyone knows of anyone looking to hire a talented and hardworking newspaper layout editor/designer, I know of a lovely gal who is looking for a job in the Boston area.

charming namibia

The reason why I call my sister-in-law “Adventure Auntie” is because she saw all this (and more) in person when she spent a semester abroad in Namibia.

While in Namibia, Adventure Auntie conducted field research with this organization and worked to save endangered rhinos. She’s certainly earned her nickname, don’t you think?

At Christmas time, Adventure Auntie put together an amazing photo slideshow using our computer. Lucky for me, she left copies of her images on our hard drive. So to celebrate her birthday earlier this month, I made her this little gift. The toughest aspect of the project was choosing the images I wanted to reproduce. They make you want to hear the story behind each one. If you click on some of the photos you will see a tiny ant with an orange background, a soccer match, a giraffe, a fish carcass lion skull (semi-gruesome but I love the color), the moon….

I made a little bag to hold the charm bracelet and necklace. The lining of the bag has a safari theme. Redhead Auntie pointed out that the bag looks like it is intended to hold a single can of beer. It is perfect for all those elegant college students, like Adventure Auntie, who require only one can of beer to get them through a Friday night. Man. Pretty soon people are going to think this is a blog designed to showcase custom beer totes.

HAPPY HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, ADVENTURE AUNTIE! Glad you liked the silly gift and thanks for your comment letting me know about my original misinterpretation of the lion’s skull. (I should have been paying better attention during the slideshow at Christmas.

***UPDATE***

Here’s the how-to for this fairly straightforward project. I purchased Shrinky Dink brand shrink plastic for ink jet printers at the craft store. Make sure to carefully follow the directions they provide. The resizing of your photos is important. In order to get charms that were the size I desired, my original images were 1.18 inches (H) x 1.78 inches (W). They say that images will shrink to three times their original size after the baking process. If you use the same brand of shrink plastic that I used, and use the same dimensions for your photos, you will get a small charm that works nicely for a bracelet. You also have to adjust the saturation of the photos–the instructions explain this crucial step. After you print the images on the shrink plastic, you must cut out the charms and use a smaller sized hole punch to punch two holes on the top of each charm. You do this so that you have a place to thread the charms when you are ready to assemble the bracelet. I made a little template and used it as a guide so that all of my charms had their holes in the same spot.

I baked the charms on a piece of corrugated cardboard (the back side of a legal pad) and sprayed them with an acrylic glaze after baking. The baking process really is the neatest thing ever, just in case you didn’t already know. The Shrinky Dink people recommended a particular brand of spray glaze in the instructions. I don’t recall what it is, but just read their notes thoroughly. They also say that you can use clear nail polish, but I’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work as well. The images, when coated with nail polish, were cloudy. With the acrylic spray, they were crystal clear.

A clever way to set up your charms before you spray them is to roll packing tape so that the sticky side is all around the outside. Stick the “tape roll” onto the bottom of a shallow cardboard box and then affix the charms to the side of the tape that is facing up. This way, the charms will stay in place when you spray them. I don’t think I am explaining this well. Here is a photo:

Let the charms dry for 24 hours. Take a piece of thin leather or hemp cord and string it through the charms. Once assembled, add clasps to finish off the bracelet. You can buy the leather or hemp (I used leather) and clasps at a craft store. I bought extra cord and clasps so that Adventure Auntie could string a single charm on a necklace. I mean, if you are going to the trouble, why not throw in a necklace too?