15 minutes dress fix

Happy Thanksgiving to all! This morning I decided to take a couple of pictures of Bug in her pretty formal dress, and I noticed a little problem. Do you see it ??

 Look closer... Here.

Well, Bug is one of those string bean kids, show only grows one direction : UP, and fast at that. While short dresses are cute for babies and toddlers, I felt this was a lot of leg to show for a formal dress, even with tights underneath.

So a little stash dive later... I cut some 6" wide strips of satin that matched the sash color as closely as possible:

Folded in half, ironed and cut to size.

Then sewed into a loop

And added to the bottom of the skirt

Ahhh much better and it only took 15 minutes :)

Happy Thanksgiving !!

Striped chiffon scarf

Ideas come often at the least expected moment. While reorganizing the top shelf of one of the cabinets in my studio, I bumped into a box of chiffon scraps left over from my scarf sewing marathon last year. And I found the perfect match to a couple of them almost immediately. I whipped 2 scarves and a wrap in two sittings: Tuesday night and Saturday morning. Here is the first one I finished. 

Pink and cream tiny floral stripes, married with a light grey and shabby pink turned into a very feminine kimono scarf. 

I took advantage of the fantastic fall weather for some outdoor photos. Probably one of the last chances I get to do this before it gets too cold.

 

It will go to Cheryl, one of my fantastic readers and a quilter, who send me a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" quilting panel she wasn't using so I could make a second quilt with it - Thank you Cheryl!!

What I have been up to - Week 20

This has been a very extraordinary week to say the least. First thing on Monday, my manager announced he had resigned to take a position in Boston. His last day was Friday and the whole team has been quite shaken up. We have an interim manager until a decision is made about his replacement. Here is to hoping for a smooth transition, which ever way the company choose to go. 

Thursday I had another doctor's appointment (ugh). It turns out the surgery in March was not completely successful. So back to square one, or almost. Except with another team of doctors. My mood has been oscillating between utterly discouraged by the setback and hopeful because I like my new doctor a lot. I have more exams and doctors visits coming up. Hopefully they will figure out what is REALLY going on and fix it fast. Plus my hubby was out of town half of the week, in the middle of nowhere Canada (read no cell phone coverage), so an all over craptastic week.

In the crafting department, not so much got done because I have been so distracted by the situation at work and the whole thing with switching doctors.  I also finished staining the basement stairs which made access a bit of a challenge since my studio is down there and hoping over every other step is not something I wanted to do more than strictly necessary.

I played some more with Kanzashi flowers techniques with increasing success. 

And then I finally bound my mom's wallhanging. 

Last night I had some friends over for a small birthday party rolled up with a farewell party for my now ex-boss: crab cakes, ribs and Boston creme pie were on the menu along with good friends and some good laughs. My birthday is today. Just in case you were wondering, I'm still 21 (in my head) just with one more year of experience :) 

This morning, my friend Deedee took me out for brunch with Bug at the Cheesecake Factory(yumm). I had my favorite: eggs Benedict, and Bug was her adorable self the whole time. We got home and planted the flowers Deedee got for me. Then I check my email and found a ton of birthday wishes and also received a message from the hubby who is on his way back from Canada. Things were looking up. 

Deedee and Bug

As an added bonus, I just found out that the 500 readers mark for this blog was reached overnight. Thank you for the great birthday present!  I have a couple of giveaways lined up starting tomorrow to celebrate the milestone. Stay tuned: the first one will be posted tomorrow. 

Knock off is a knock out !

I'm quite blown away by the awesome feedback I received about the handbag knock off I finished last weeks.

  

I'm still trying to balance the new family dynamics and I didn't get a chance to respond to all those comments via email yet (got to save some time to craft too) but thank you everybody that took the time to write. 

THANK YOU!! 

You rock !

After the stressful past couple of weeks it feel wonderful to be back to crafting, blogging and it's such a great feeling to knock one out of the park! 44 comments and 3 features !! 

  

Thank you Michelle, Rebekah and Heather

 SOooo who wants a tutorial ? 

Updated Feb 20th

Some more features !?!

   

Adventures in the backyard

I have to share a little story because my neighbors are so awesome. We live in a townhouse built on a short hill. The back of our house faces a rather steep partly wooded slope with a small stream at the bottom. A couple of weeks ago, my husband decided that rather than tossing our halloween pumpkin in the trash it would make more sense to let nature reclaim it. So he tossed it in the slope in the compost pile. And off went the pumpkin, along with his wedding band... on the wooded slope, covered with a thick coat of fallen leaves. Yikes! 

I had no idea about what had happened until I spotted him rummaging through the leaves down the slope. After a while, he sheepishly admitted what had just happened. Of course it had to happen on a Sunday evening, shortly before sundown. We both shuffled leaves until it got pretty dark. No ring. 

The next day, my husband picked up a metal detector at a local construction equipment rental place and we spend a few more hours that evening and the next one poking around. Still nothing. On the third day, as he was leaving to work, my hubby ran into Al, our next door neighbor. Al is a police officer, well over 6-foot tall, wide as a tackle, and a great guy with a huge heart. My hubby explained the situation and as luck would have it, Al has some experience with metal detectors so he offered to take over the search while my hubby had to work. 

That same evening, as I got home, I got greeted by Al, a big grin on his face and my hubby's wedding band in his hand. Needless to say I gave him a great big hug even though he is not the hugging type. And my hubby got him a box of cigars. Al again saved the day. I couldn't ask for a better neighbor