Take care and keep safe :)
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
2020...........Is it over yet?
Christmas 2020 will not be forgotten......Al fresco gift giving.
I didn't get to see my grandkids in person only a few pictures. Too much of a health risk for me.
On a more positive note :)
I noticed that "Jenny of ELEFANTZ" is starting a free block of the month for 2021 called "Posies". Not too complicated. A little bit of applique and little bit of embroidery. I might give it a go but with a different colour scheme I think. Not a fan of pink.
Take care and keep safe:)
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Happy Halloween...............
.........next year because it's been cancelled in TO. We are in a stage 2 level of Covid so it is being encouraged to keep the kiddies home. It's hard to explain to the little ones why they can't trick or treat especially since they all go to school together and they all play on the street together.
Take care and keep safe:)
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Genealogy Humour or not.....
I mentioned the other day that I was working on my family tree. This is an ongoing project that I started about 20 years ago. Yes it is addicting.
Okay here is your chuckle for today. I have spent a wee bit of time (hours) looking for an Anastasia Ryan born about 1870 in Scotland not realizing I had her record since 2018. I twigged yesterday. LOL Take a look.
Anastasia = Hannah-Stacey!!!
I guess the poor registrar had never run across that forename before and just winged it. It's a very common name in certain parts of Ireland but not in the Scotland of 1870 it seems:)
Take care and keep safe !
Friday, October 23, 2020
I'm still here......
Not much has been happening sewing wise. I've been making masks because people will lose them.
I have spent hours chasing down DNA matches so I can figure out my family tree. I think I'm done with that for awhile except I have a second cousin who is my research mate who keeps on emailing leads. Then I get busy again.
Another thing which is much more exciting is that our house is finally on the market. We moved out in February and now it's October. I know what the heck. However, something called Covid did a number on the housing market. They are now showing our house under strict Covid guidelines.
So everybody please cross your fingers and say a wee prayer that some one buys our house soon so I can be less stressed.
Take care and keep safe :)
Friday, August 21, 2020
When In Doubt Get The Glitter Glue Out.........
As requested, I made two more pairs of "Crocs" for my GD's American Doll. I made another pair awhile ago and two days after there was a mishap. The strap on one shoe came off. No worries. It was easily fixed with Aleene's Original Tacky Glue. BUT.
I wasn't too happy at the time with the idea of using eyelets to attached the straps to the shoe. True enough it looked great sorta but it was really only cosmetic.
The mishap could have happened because the type of eyelet I was using wasn't correct but as far as I know they were the only type sold over the counter in my area.
See here is where the strap gave way. The eyelet pulled out because a) it might not be the correct type or b) the foam is too soft and stretchy to hold. Don't know but there were tears...GD's and mine :)
This little eyelet has to go through two layers of the craft foam and hold it together? May be if the shoe is sitting in a drawer and not played with.
I really didn't want to have to repair the new shoes later on so I put the eyelets through just the straps like this and then glued the straps to the shoes.
Looks the same to a 10 year old who really doesn't care about the finer points of shoe making. I did get a wee bit carried away with the glue gun on one of the straps. It left an ugly glob of glue and it bothered me. So annoying.
To hide it I covered the blue shoe with a thin layer of blue glitter glue. Sorry you can't see the glitter clearly in the pic but it turned out really pretty.
So, the point of all this is that if you are planning to make crocs like these beware the eyelet and maybe buy some glitter glue.
Take care and keep safe :)
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Little Shoes...........
I made some shoes for the GD's Wellie Wisher doll called Willa. The Wellie Wisher is another product from American Doll and in my humble opinion a much much cuter doll.
This is Willa......
And, here are the shoes I made. They are about 2 inches in length. They are fairly easy to make. I used a pattern from Pixie Faire called "Plain Jane Shoes" by Love U Bunches.
Take care and be safe :)
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
A Bit More Sewing........
A few more little outfits.
I had to shorten some track pants for a family member and used the bits I cut off to make a drop waist dress with pockets.
Then I made a skirt from a small piece of baby wale corduroy that I had completely forgotten about. My GD found it in my scrap drawer. It was a remnant I paid 10 cents for and I have lots left to make something else. It's so soft and a very bright pink :) This skirt is a free pattern that you can find here.
Last of all from another scrap she found I made some shorts.
Take care and keep safe:)
Saturday, August 8, 2020
Strangers In The Park........
The 10 year old is pretty good at entertaining herself and she has a best friend to play with that lives next door. The 16 month old is a whole other thing. He goes to a day care three mornings a week. When he comes home he has his lunch and then goes down for a nap. So that's 3 days covered pretty much :)
Two mornings a week he is taken to a local parkette by my husband, myself and his other granny. It's a great place with lots to do and he loves it. And, it does take three of us to watch him as he is a runner. He runs everywhere.
The other day we had five adults looking after him...me, my husband, his other granny and two great aunts. I find that very amusing.
Now the other granny and her sisters...the GA's....are locals. They have lived in the neighbourhood all their lives and everyone knows them and they know everybody in turn. Unlike me and the husband...we are newcomers. I had noticed people looking at us but because of Covid they haven't made any advances to find out who we are.
On this particular day, the GA's, granny and myself found some park benches in the shade and had a nice little natter about this and that while my husband played with the grandson on the swings. It was a lovely day.
So, here we are sitting on the benches and I hear this little voice pipe up........"She's the granny that sews". I turn around and see a little girl standing with a couple of ladies. She was pointing at me. I smiled and the ladies nodded. I think they were a wee bit embarrassed.
I guess I'm not a stranger anymore..........I'm "The Granny That Sews".
Take care and keep safe :)
Thursday, August 6, 2020
Not much happening........
Take care and keep safe :)
Friday, July 24, 2020
WIP.........
Monday, July 20, 2020
Green Fairy Quilts...................
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Life According to Covid.......
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Not the Hockey Team................
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Knot Bag........
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Life goes merrily along.........
Take care and keep safe :)
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Not A Pincushion.......
So naturally the prize was about a fairy tale....the Frog Prince. This is a design by Cynthia Treen.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Another Pincushion fot the PPPP.......
It's been awhile since I posted on there because I haven't really been blogging. With all this "inside" time I have rediscovered how much I enjoy making stuff and blogging about it.
Take care and keep safe :)
Monday, June 8, 2020
The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade........
Friday, May 29, 2020
May The Force Be With You.......
I didn't have the same shade of grey tan felt that was suggested and since Michael's was not open I had to use what I had. I took a look at some pics online of the MF and it's all shades as is my version so I think I'm okay :)
I actually have a lot of grey felt from my mouse making days but the pieces are scraps basically. I did manage to squeak out the shape short of 1/8 of an inch on the length which was so lucky. Whew!!
Mollie at Wild Olive used Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy for the embroidery template. I have none so plan B.
I started the embroidery from the center and worked out from there. I used 3 strands of embroidery floss but I would rather have used perle cotton but I had none in grey. Since added to my future to buy list.
However when I went to put the pieces together I soon discovered that the felt I was using was a bit too soft. It's 100% wool felt. I think what would be best is the acrylic felt that you can buy for kids crafts. Much firmer and the edge will stay and not "fray" for want of a better description. I decided the best thing to do was line the felt using some cotton I had. I zig zagged the edge in grey thread. I rationalized that it looks like riveting...wink wink :)
I originally trimmed the fabric to a 1/4 seam allowance all around. Then I decided..... after my first attempt to sew the bits together...to trim off the fabric right to the edge of the felt.
Friday, May 22, 2020
Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade !!
LINK |
I know one pincushion that I'll definetly show but I think I should make a new one just because.
Take care and keep safe :)
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Can it get any worse..........?
There is very little in the house at the moment. Just some odd furniture and boxes of books and dishes to go into storage eventually. They did break into a small safe which is now toast and will have to be dumped. No worries as there was nothing in it. It seems that they took nothing and were extremely tidy thieves.
Then......
My brother lives in a building that is an apartment block for seniors and they all have their own suites but have communal areas for meals and such. They have just tested everyone for Covid and they have one case. The building has been in lock down since mid February. Very scary and worrying.
I'm really really tired of the year 2020.
Take care and stay safe!!!!
Friday, May 8, 2020
Blogger Issue re email notification.......
This email problem started about 4 or 5 years ago when Blogger did some sort of upgrade or change. It is not an unknown issue and I think it has stopped a lot of people from blogging.
Also, there are some commenters that you will never receive email notification from ever. I have about four followers like this. For this reason I check my blog comments so I don't miss them. This shouldn't happen and I don't know why. Sorry.
This explanation below is simplistic and I am making the assumption that the reader is not familiar with Blogger. I hope no one will take offence. I did it this way as I have written many how to guides for various systems and you cannot make the assumption that your audience knows what you know.
Here goes........
At the top left of your blog's front page you will see a link called "Design". Click on this. It will take you to the back end of Blogger.
On the left hand side there is an option called "Settings". Click on this.
You are now in the settings option area. You will see one called "Email".
All is good ....maybe....but maybe not.
Remove the email and click "Save settings".
Now reenter the email you wish to use for comment notification. Save settings again.
Repeat the above step again......remove your email......save settings.....input your email....save settings.
I know it doesn't make sense doing it twice or even three times but it is a necessary step.
You should then get an email from noreply+subscribe@blogger.com asking if you wish to subscribe to comment notification.
So in the perfect world the problem should be fixed :)
There is one other step to take just in case.
On the settings sidebar there is an option "Posts, comments and sharing".
Click on this and take a look to see what you have set up. The question is "Who can Comment?.
What you wish to choose is of course up to you but I personally think the best choice is to select "Anyone". If you restrict it to only users with Google Accounts then there will be some people who will not be able to leave comments ever.
So that's it. Hope this helps.
Take care :)