Layout

I started making a small quilt today... and am playing around with a few layout ideas. What do you think? Click on any for a closer look.


Squares

Arrow Down
Zig Zag

Target

Multi Zag

Left and Right (Not Connected)

Left and Right (Connected)

Multicoloured Lines

Flying Geese

Variated Flying Geese

Slowly

Once again autumn is here and I've been noticing the first few leaves slowly start to fall. I'm also back in school (as of July) and just spent the last week in an elementary school starting my first practicum placement for teaching.

I've been getting into the swing of things. One of the things I really wanted to do this fall was do more of the things I love to do, so I've been slowly getting back to sewing and went to an art gallery and second hand store this weekend and spent some time with a few people I love.

I also put my first listing up on Etsy in over a year, check it out here. I've a few more items to list, hopefully I'll have them up in the next couple of days.

Duck Dress

Back to School Bag

I'd take a better picture but I'm too tired.

Logic?

What's with white pants? What makes people ever think they're a good idea?

The View From Here

Dear Reader's Digest

Thank you for the many years of enjoyment and things that I have learned due to your monthly magazine. There is not a time in my lifespan of 30 years that I cannot remember not having Reader's Digest in the house, more specifically, in my parents' bathroom.

I can remember doing some sort of Language Arts assignment in grade 5 using Reader's Digest magazines. I can remember the surprise at finding people we knew who had written in with submissions for Life’s Like That, All in a Day’s Work, Humour in Uniform, Campus Comedy, Tales Out of School and As Kids See It. And friends and family, throughout the years, would always say "I have a story I should send in to Reader's Digest".

As an adult, it has been nice to receive a yearly subscription to RD from my Gramma, who always says you should never stop learning. These days, the new issues sit in my kitchen and housemates enjoy reading it when they sit down to eat breakfast or take a break at the table.

I have, however, been alarmed since this past summer to continually receive pieces of mail from numerous charities whom I know have purchased from or been given my mailing address from Reader's Digest. It started out with a neat set of address labels from the Muscular Dystrophy Association or some such organization. These were somewhat nice, although I was in the process of moving so the address would soon be null and void. Then, once I moved, I still received another set of Christmas address labels and seals from another charity at that same old address. I got a metal angel ornament from somewhere else. In the winter I also received some duck-themed labels from somewhere else. And then some with daffodils and irises and other flowers. And then the War Amps sent me some keychain tags. I actually like the War Amps (Drive Safe!) so I didn't mind that. Then I got some dog and kitten address labels.

And then this week I got a set of gift cards from another charity.

No less than two of these charities have sent me a nickel with their mailer, encouraging me to send it back (with more money).

It's not that I don't like address labels. And gift cards. and Christmas tree angel ornaments. But I've received 5 label sets in less than a year! I do send some mail, but certainly not enough to warrant having more than one set of address labels.

I don't know how to get off the junk mail list you sell my address on, but please remove me. If I cannot do it through such electronic means, let me know the mailing address and I'll send you a letter. I have a few address labels to use up.

Thank you!
Michelle

Dear Tom

Yes, I'm sure I really want to delete my MySpace account.

There are a few reasons:
1. I never use it.
2. I don't need this info floating around on the web for anyone to read.
3. Facebook has overtaken MySpace and we all know it. Facebook is way easier to search and find people you know. With MySpace, it was always hit and miss... near impossible to find people you knew.
4. No one I want to keep in touch with has just a MySpace account. They've all switched to Facebook.
5. The layouts here always looked cheap.
6. Tom was never really my friend, no matter how much he wanted to be.
7. I'd like to stop the birthday announcements I get from MySpace that never tell me whose birthday it actually is.
8. I'd like to stop the spam friend requests I get too.

Thanks Tom and co.! Best wishes upon your future endeavours. I'll give Mark Zuckerberg your regards.

Sincerely,
Michelle

Surprise!

This is my friend Joanne. We went to college together, and then she moved back to British Columbia. I haven't seen her in four years. Then she threw me a surprise 30th birthday party on Saturday. Unfortunately she couldn't make it to the party, but still, she threw me a party from the other side of the country.

hurrah!

Just a quick official first post from my brand new Dell Vostro 1400. Hurray! I'll have more time to set things up on the weekend.

Update

The fan on my old borrowed desktop at home is sounding like a jetplane, and I am fearful of turning it on. It. Sounds. That. Bad. No. Actually. Worse.

Thus, my current proect is on hold.

However, I have a new laptop on order... how exciting is that? :)

28

29

30 to 30

Where Does the Time go?

Here it is March 9th already. Someone asked me a while ago when I was going to post again on this thing and I said next week, but in reality that next week was already at least a month ago. In all reality I think about posting here all the time... but I can't do it at work and I work eleven hours a day, and when I get home I don't really want to fire up my desktop and spend more time on a computer when I've already sat in front of one for the previous 8 hours straight and usually the three hours before that.

I miss blogging and I miss sewing. And I miss a lot of the other things I used to have time to do.

And I'm very glad I'm not planning to do this forever.

The Equation of Integrity

Every year January 1st comes. And every year we stay up, watch the ball drop, cheer, and bring in the new year. We look back on the old year, and wonder what that new year will bring. We hope for better things, and look back on both the tragedies and the triumphs. We can look back on what we have learned, and towards what we still need to learn.

January 1st never gets to be an ordinary day. And January 2nd is just the day after New Years Day… still getting used to the new digit we have to remember to write on the year on letters, notes, and cheques.

Then comes January 3rd. Life back to normal. One of the promised days we looked forward to at the end of the old year, a day when things could perhaps be better than they were. A resolution soon forgotten, to make every day like New Years Day. One more chance to start all over, one more chance to change and grow.

I’ve found often I live my life looking forward to the big things… looking forward to a certain day when some event is to happen, or I’m taking a trip, or I know some sort of change is coming. I too often want every day to be like New Year’s Day.

Someone told me once that God didn’t intend for us to live in the big events or expectant of such days, but rather in the inbetweens. The regular days.

I don’t know that I really believe that. I like to think that these big days, these big days are important. But they’re not any more important than the January 3rds. Or the March 14ths. Or the July 30ths. The sum of all these days, the ways we deal with them collectively, they make up who we are.

"We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength." - My Utmost for His Highest

Our handling of these big days, and the everydays, they add up. Adding together to get the final equation of life.

Back at It

So... I have internet in my room now. It's been a few years, I guess 5 to be exact. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon. But this also means that I can work on my blog a little bit more often, or a whole lot more often.

Blogger's been doing a lot of changes, the template editors are defintely a lot easier for those with no html experience to work with. I'll tweak this one for awhile and will at some point end up with something I'm satisfied with.

And the comments hopefully should be operational now. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Un)Announced Hiatus

Mikao's World is currently on hiatus until September. Summer's here, and Blogger's got too many issues for me to deal with.

Until then, enjoy the wonderful weather, see you in the autumn. :)

Flashback Friday: 2004-2005

These are a couple of scans of maintenance requests that I saved from the camp I worked at at the time:

Dear Blogger

Over the four and a half years I've been using Blogger, I've generally been satisfied with their product and services, and upgrades. I was thrilled when they started offering picture posting. And I was glad when they started offering a commenting service. The only thing I still wanted that they didn't provide was categories.

And then, along came the new BloggerBeta. And then along came the new Blogger.

One of the reasons I avoided switching over to the new Blogger was everyone I knew who had done it said DON'T DO IT (it's a pain), and also because I knew that even if Blogger said it was no big deal, it would be a big deal.

So the other day, when Blogger told me I had to switch or else, I really wasn't very impressed. Because I knew something would happen. And it did. Well, actually two major things happened:

a) My old archive templates are gone, so now everything in my archives has the current template. Not only are the hideously ugly templates gone, but also the links to the old comments (back in the day I once used a cople of other comment providers). I liked keeping things as they were the month that I published them. Now it looks like I wrote everything today, except for the date. I think that the template is an important part of the digital image that you present.

b) The comments are no longer working at all. Boo.

I think the only solution to fix the latter issue to to pick a new ugly Blogger template, which I really don't want to do and don't have time at the moment to fiddle with and fix. So for now, things are staying as is. If you'd like to email any comments, you can feel free to do so at dialog at briercrest dot com . (Sorry, it's a pain, I know).

Barefoot

FYI, I checked into it, and driving barefoot is actually not illegal.

So there.

Flashback Friday, or Sunday

A family photo from a trip to Rock Lake, Manitoba, Summer 1993.

6 Weird Things

1. Whenever I go in a parking garage I tend to worry that it might fall down on me.

2. I like eating uncooked pasta. It's crunchy, but I'm not sure what the good-ness factor is.

3. I believe that "almond" is properly pronounced with a silent "L". You know, like "salmon." I'm not sure what your problem is that you pronounce it the wrong way.

4. Whenever I fly, I mentally count my carry-on pieces (i.e. 1. Backpack, 2. Scarf, 3. Jacket, 4. Water bottle) each and every time I get up and move (i.e. leaving restaurant, leavingn waiting area, leaving plane, etc.), and then when I get my checked pieces of luggage back, I have to add them to the tally too. If I didn't do this, I'd totally get way stressed out wondering whether or not I had forgotten something somewhere.

5. I love driving barefoot. And I always have flip flops under my car seats. It's not really intentional, just somehow they happen to find their way there in the summer and just stay there all winter.

6. I looked in Ontario for over two years for good cottage cheese. All I could find was weird Ontario cottage cheese... until... Super Wal*Mart opened. I wish I never had to go there, except... they sell the good cottage cheese and no one else does! It's just like western Canadian cottage cheese, hurrah!

(I've been seeing the "Six Weird Things About Me" meme around the crafting blogosphere, and although no one has tagged me, and I am choosing not to tag anyone (although feel free to snag the meme!)).

Horray

So I went to the mall tonight and a sweater I had tried on and didn't buy at full price a few months ago I got tonight for $7.95. How great is that?

:)

The Craft Report

Unfortunately I currently have no ability to upload photos anywhere, so I can't post any new pictures of what I've been up to lately. The past couple of days I've been designing and sewing new purses, I'm currently building up stock until I suppose I can again upload pictures.

Last night I dug through a bunch of vintage trims and ribbons and laces I had bought a while ago and found some rabbit ones I had forgotten I had, then I designed a rabbit outline for a felt applique... something I've been thinking about doing for awhile.

Life and Other Things

Hmm... severe lack of posting here. Due to many factors, including both busy-ness and laziness, and lack of internet time, and general lack of motivation.

So, what's new? I knit my first pair of socks a week or two ago. Suddenly all the lovely warm fall/spring-ish weather disappeared and winter arrived, and now there's all this snow and -15 temperatures, and our office can tend to be a tad cold most days, so socks seemed like a logical thing to make. I had the yarn already (some varigated blue and grey stuff), just had to figure out how to make them. So, I invented a pattern, and it all worked out quite well except if you look at the toes to closely. So now I've started the second pair (varigated green ones) and took a book out of the library to learn how to do a good toe decrease and the Kitchener Stitch, which was a lot trickier to figure out than I thought it should be. I have one of the new ones done so far, and another one just started. If I really work at it I can finish one in an evening and a half, with lots of breaks in between. So, I might perhaps get the other one done this weekend, but I might also do some new sewing projects.

If I get my kitchen table cleaned off. I started sorting some old photos a couple of nights ago but then I got busy doing other things and not being home and they're still all there.

In other news, I've been tutoring two students two times a week for exams, and have been busy looking for another part-time job to fill my time (and pay the bills and all). Looking for work is so exhausting.

That is all for now, I should go.

Laundromat Observances

Someone once told me that the laundromat is one of the best places to meet people. I'm not sure exactly what they meant by being a "best place" or by "meeting people." Like I wouldn't want to make life long friends at the laundromat. Granted, I like clean laundry, I like clean people. But clean people don't seem to frequent laundromats.

And after visiting one of the local laundromats for the first time yesterday, I can't say that I made any new friends. It wasn't very busy, but the only small talk I heard was "Sorry I left my laundry baskets in your way," and "Are you watching CMT? Because my kid wants to watch a cartoon."

From my general observances with my short-lived laundromat-frequenting career, I would say the following qualifications are true of most visitors:

a) Obviously, they don't own a washer and/or dryer, or are too poor to get the broken ones they have fixed.

b) They wait as long as is humanly possible before going to the laundromat again. I would deduce this is because they don't like to hang out there. Or they just don't like doing laundry in general. Maybe this is why they don't own laundry machines of their own.

c) They wear something to the laundromat that either doesn't match in the slightest, or is completely and utterly filthy.

d) If they have children, they are crazy kids who run around as much as they possibly can, no matter how many times their parent tells them not to.

e) They have vehicles in very poor repair. Like when the Lexus drives up and parks out front, you know it's going to another business in the plaza. But when a 1987 Chevy billowing smoke pulls up, you know they're getting out with their ripped garbage bag full of dirty clothes.

f) They tend to like plaid more often than not.

g) They generally do not know the basic rules of laundry sorting. Darks, lights, they all go together right? Horray for the grey category.

h) No matter how often they go to the laundromat, they tend to forget in between times exactly how the machines work. "Yeah, I know I was here last month, but I can never figure out how to get the washer to start".

i) They like CMT.

I love clean laundry. I mean, what is better than a dresser and a closet full of clean clothes? But I totally don't want to have to go back there again and listen to that horrible music and have that kid run by me a million times again.

Which will probably explain why the next time when I go I'll be wearing filthy clothes that don't match and I'll have forgotten how to work the machines. But maybe I'll make some new friends while I'm there and it will have all been worth it after all. ;)

TV Reminiscence

Yesterday when I went to the mall for mall food court Chinese food (because at the time I couldn't think of anything else on the planet I'd rather eat than that right then), I strolled into Best Buy afterwards because I thought "Hey, they have got to have Felicity Season 4, and cheap." After all, it's Best Buy. It's supposed to be cheap.

And I also thought in my head, "Hey, if Felicity's cheap, then I'll stroll on over to their tv department and buy a tv, and a dvd player while I'm at it, because a) i'll be saving so much money buying their cheap stuff, and b) I'll need a tv and dvd player to play the dvds anyways.

But nooooo. They only had season 2 and season 3. And they were $59.99 each. I don't call that cheap.

It's Almost Christmas and There is No Snow!

So... I wrote this post before Christmas to post then (Dec 21), but somehow it became a "draft" and was never posted. So pretend it's December 21st and you're just reading this then.

So it's almost Christmas... and really, there is no snow. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Well, here in Muskoka that is not exactly true, there are those dirty piles of almost melted snow like you would expect to find in late March or for most of the beginning of April. But it's DECEMBER. Where's all the snow.

But really, I wouldn't complain except if it weren't for next Monday. Christmas. It will be weird if there isn't any snow on Christmas.

I'm going up to Sudbury to be with relatives for the big day, so technically I think I'll have better chances of snow than if I were at my house closer to Toronto. And even up north in Alberta my Mom says things are melting.

This is shaping up to be a very weird winter. But I am glad that it has been mild and mainly snow-less and more specifically mostly snowstorm-less because driving up to Muskoka once a week for a couple of days would have been horrible in snowy and icy weather. But, guess what? Today was my last day ever working at OPC, I've trained my replacement so no more long drives. Or at least not quite so often.

Anyways, on to other things, presents.

I got a few of these tins from Wal*Mart to put homemade cookies in:
I ended up making rabbit sugar cookies with holly accents on their necks (you know, Christmas rabbits, they wear holly). I love the little snowman.

Realllllly close up, a tiny bracelet I made. I love the cobalt beads.

And this carved rose-shaped shell, this necklace I love. I had a hard time boxing it up to send away to the intended recipient, so I hope they like it too!

A few pairs of earrings I made for assorted people this weekend.

And a few more.
And one set all "professionaled up" and ready to go. If you're interested in purchasing similar earrings, check out my store.

2006 In Review

Looking back at 2006, the year that was, in blog and in recollection, here are a few of the things and highlights that I most remember:

January: Can't say I remember all too much about the early wee months of the year. New Year's Eve I spent with a whole lot of people and friends in the town I now live in. Horrific event: The Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships (more pictures here). Voted. Began a slow but steady road to the miserable failure that was my 2006 blogging project.

February: I don't remember too much about this month either. My friend Heather got engaged. Really I remember nothing about February, other than the fact that it just would not quit snowing.

March: Jazzed up my template.. Made some new curtains (which btw, now hang in my bathroom, where the horse, painted in March, also lives). The Hot Rod clicked over 200 000km.

April: Went to Sudbury for Easter.

May: Had my big 28th birthday party. Canada took a census.

June: Saw Jeremy Camp and MercyMe at Canada's Wonderland. Applied for a couple of jobs, went to a job interview in Niagara Falls, went to the big annual Port Sydney Yard Sale, Jodi got engaged, got offered a job.

July: Started The Random Interview Project Part 3. Went to Sudbury with my friend Laura for a "vacation". Went back to my "old camp" for a day. Went to Manitoba to see my Gramma, Mom, and old housemate Tamara.

August: Got back from Manitoba. Put down a deposit on the apartment I would later move in to. Started packing.

September: Heather got married. I quit my job. Participated in a 9/11 blogging tribute for Valerie Silver Ellis. Got my full G licence and my wisdom teeth out. Moved 180km on September 30th.

October: Started my new job. Did a lot of driving between Muskoka and the York region. Had Thanksgiving in Ajax with the Yoshikis. Went to Ikea, got a new kitchen table and end table, sanded them, varnished them. Settled in to a new job and new apartment and new life (somewhat). Met the Woods. Pictures.

November: Still drove a lot between jobs. Marty came back to Gilmore Girls. Finished up a bunch of custom orders from my shop. Completed participation in the Holiday Ornament Swap '06.

December: Finished up the Winter 2006 Collection. Worked my last day at my old job (finally!). Went to Sudbury to spend Christmas with relatives.

So That Was Christmas

So, Christmas is all over and stuff and now it's back to regular old life, or something like it.

I went to Sudbury and spent the second Christmas of my life not at home with my immediate family... always weird and not quite the Christmas I fondly remember, but it's okay. Sometimes, well, most of the time, I somehow think that at 28 I should have somewhere else meaningful to go at Christmas or Christmastime. Still hasn't happened yet.

The Christmas Rundown, or Stuff I Did:

- worked my last day at OPC
- watched The Holiday
- watched The Nativity Story
- looked at a whole lot of pants that my cousin tried on that after the 25th pair all looked the same to me (I'm finding the older I get the more of an independent shopper I am)
- tried to convince a Starbucks employee or two to sell us their green tree decoration that wasn't for sale
- ate lots of chocolates
- did not have any stuffing Christmas Day
- petted a bunch of wild mallards (you just have to make sure they're more interested in eating the corn around your feet rather than biting your hands off because you're touching them)
- did not go to any Boxing Day Sales on Boxing Day because apparently there is some bylaw in Sudbury that stores have to be closed (? is exactly what I thought)
- forgot my turkey leftovers
- drove over 4 hours home again
- unpacked my presents
- wondered where the extra ice cream in my freezer came from

Swap Photos

A while ago I posted a link to Cake+Pie's First Annual Holiday Ornament Swap which I decided to delightfully participate in. I love internet projects like this.

I was put in Swap Group 10 (out of 40! 400 people participated!), with 7 Americans, one other Canadian, and someone from the UK.

* Note that you can click on any photo to biggie-size it free of charge.

I took my ornament's inspiration from Matthew 2:10:

This past year I've been working a lot with corduroy and felt (and I had some festive-y colours lying around. And some vintage rick rack. Who doesn't love rick rack?

I played around with a few different colour combinations, for fun, and also because I didn't have enough of any one colour combo to make all of the ornaments exactly the same. But I thought it would also be nice to make each one slightly unique.

Packaging was of course important:


I used a clear plastic envelope for the outside, and included a blue plain sheet of paper with red punch-out stars. The back of the package I hand-wrote the verse that the "overjoyed" sentiment came from (seeing how the "overjoyed" on each star was machine stitched in my own hand as well)

Each star also got a Merry Christmas tag, with my website addresses on the reverse.

Completed packaging.

All the finished ornaments!
I haven't seen any of them pop up on the internet yet, but I do hope at least some of the recipients have received them and are enjoying them!

The ornaments I have received so far in return are:


A Norwegian heart from Annie Harrison of the USA, along with a lovely typed note about why they are special to her and why she participated in the project.


A goccoed cone from www.craftlog.org. I love the nature-y look of these.

Flower and Bees ornament from joybucket. This ornament matches my kitchen (where I've been hanging them all) perfectly!

Lovely cake from The Cake Parlour. Another pink one to match my weird kitchen colours.

Cute reversible tree from Robyn. Right now I've unfortunately forgotten her website address and I don't have it with me, sorry! Yet another pink one! I'm sensing a theme.


Fused glass ornament from Robyn of 3 Hip Sisters. This ornament came in a HUGE box and I really had no idea what to expect when opening it! So lovely and different!

Wonderful knitted Christmas tree from Sarah. We weren't in each other's swap groups, but she contacted me wanting to send me an ornament, so I sent her one as well. I love the little not-so-conventional-type-yarn (what exactly do you call that kind of yarn?) balls stitched into the tree.

There are three still somewhere out there in postal-land I assume, can't wait to see what else arrives in the mail. :)

Flashback Friday: October 25, 2003

Christmas in October in Moose Jaw.

This was Jodi's idea, to get dressed up, go out for supper in Moose Jaw at the Overseas Restaurant (I still crave Overseas often), and peruse the Christmas sales on Main Street. Later we went chose names and went to the mall to get goodies for our gift exchange that night, and then went back to our apartment in Caronport at school to I think watch a movie and also exchange gifts. I don't remember who had my name, but I got an electronic fake TetrisBrick Game that I eventually let my parents keep after I couldn't pry it from their hands. :)

This photo was taken in some store along Main Street. Yes, I did wear my "Sound of Music" dress in public.
Top Row: Kaia, Erin, Heather, Leanne, Rachel
Bottom Row: Candice, Leanne, Michelle
Missing: Photographer Jodi

Apparently Erin is getting married today.

Days Like This, Nights Like Tonight

I'm kinda glad that I don't have highspeed or unlimited internet access when I live alone, because I would literally sit on it all night and look and random junk and forget all the "important" sites I need to visit and instead look at a bunch of crappy ones and send a few pointless emails to assorted friends about random thoughts I had, like oh my goodness how great would bacon be right now?

But wait a second, it's 12:08AM. What am I doing on the internet? Thinking about bacon?

Winter 2006 Collection

After a busy weekend, these are in the shop.

Friday Flashback: Lady Speed Stick

This is a day late, but who doesn't love deodorant? This picture was taken my fourth year in dorm outside my shared room, so 2001-2002 sometime. Don't you love the faux-rock wall? Our bedrooms each had three different kinds of walls (white-painted drywall, textured white-painted plaster, and brown faux-wood panelling), and then the hallways were half textured plaster half rock.

I had this habit of never throwing my deodorant sticks out once they were done, and also they always tended to fall off the shelf where I kept them and would break inside (now I think "why didn't I just keep them somewhere else where they wouldn't fall?" but I guess I wasn't smart back then ;) ).

I think the name of the sent was "Romantic Musk" or something-Musk at least. The super tall one was from the US... everything always seems to be super-sized down there.

Update

It's been a busy day, but I did manage to put a few new items up in the shop. Last chance on any possible Christmas presents. :)

Diaper Bag

Suddenly all my close friends are having babies! Well, not all of them, but some of them. Crazy! :)

Rachel asked me to make her a custom diaper bag for her new role as mother to Nevin. I had never attempted to make a diaper bag before (and really in all actuality had no idea how one was actually constructed or what was required of a diaper bag), but Rachel did suggest the colours she wanted (tan and a blue fabric lining of some sort, with a bird stencil in blue but not pastel :), with a couple of pockets, divider in the main section), but other than that I had free reign to create. I love it when custom orders are like that, freedom to create, explore, work out, and make something fun.

I decided to do some research at the mall, but I steered clear of the upscale baby boutiques and instead just checked out diaper bags at Wal*Mart. Much less crazy in there. Some people have too much money to spend. I wanted to know what a regular mom would get in a diaper bag, not upscale-suburbia-mom.

So, ta dah:

I went with a elasticy-top pocket. I think that this can be versatile, baby bottles, booties, socks, baby fluff, etc. I don't have any experience with babies, but I know they have stuff.
Bird motif as per Rachel's request... a nice pale English-bluebird-kind-of-blue felt.

This picture looks weird. But that is what the full view looks like. I went with a nice beigey-tan fine-wale cordoroy. And look, the whole thing matches my bird wall post thing! :)

I finally settled on a plain blue lining for the interior. I looked all over for a Rachel-y kind of print of some sort that wasn't too baby-ish or lame, but the only one I found that I sort-of thought could possibly work was a coffee cups and coffee words print in a much paler blue, and I wasn't sure that was very diaper bag appropriate. And in the end I really like the way the two colours worked together. You'll notice I went with velcro fasteners. I've never used velcro on a bag before, but I thought it would work better in the rush of baby requirements than snaps would.
Detail of the tag and extra-duty X-reinforced strap stitching. The entire bagbody is reinforced with interfacing to make it a bit stiffer and to uphold to the elements of mothering and babying.

Hope that it serves all your needs well Rachel. :)

Holiday Ornament Swap Update

You might remember my earlier post on a Holiday Ornament Swap that I signed up for. I've received my first two ornaments, one from craftlog and one from joybucket. And I've discovered one more on the internet that I should be receiving as well from The Cake Parlour.

This photo is a little preview of the ornaments I made, I don't want to give away too much so it's just a glimpse. The embroidered sentiment comes from Matthew 2:10, "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed."

I can't wait to see what other ornaments I'll receive in the mail. The first two look great decorating my kitchen wall.

Friday Flashback: January 1980

I love this photo. Not only do I have a fistful of razors, I have my hand in the medicine cabinet!

I can remember my brother wearing that shirt at least five years after I did (good old hand-me-downs, I am pretty sure my older sister wore it before I did), it had little trains on it. Once I read this blogpost of someone's about how they wanted to start a company that made shirts for adults exactly like the favourite ones they had as children. I'd totally wear a shirt like that now.

Winter Bag

I finished a custom bag a few weeks ago, based on this bag I had done previously. The customer's daughter liked the original design, but wanted it in a heavier "winter" fabric. After a few emails, I suggested this brown fine-wale cordoroy that I had picked up, and it was agreed upon. She left me free to choose a matching lining, and I ended up going with the same lining as the original bag, and I quite like the way it turned out. Now, the bag is waiting under a Christmas tree for December 25th. :)



There are a few assorted tags that I use, this is one of my very favourites. When I went to visit my Gramma in August my Mom brought out a bunch of her rubber stamps and I created a variety of different tags. I love the cut-out leaf and the little extra squirrel. On the back I usually write care instructions and my website info.