Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, my very few – and mostly spammer- blog readers.

I made these orange slice ornaments the other day, and they’re just gorgeous. They look like stained glass when in front of a light. I followed these directions, just in case you’re wondering. Mine only took an hour to dry, and they’re still a bit too toasty.

December has been an absolute flurry of activity, cowl sales have far exceeded my expectations, and I’m extremely thankful. You’ve made my family’s holidays much happier and comfortable. Also, as per the entry below, I bought myself an early 30th birthday present.

I should really be slowing down now with the fabric buying, but on my days off from my regular day job I go shopping. And I always find some gems. It took me THREE HOURS on Sunday morning to organize my fabrics, since I work on the floor at all times, and it tends to spread from one end of my house to the other, and here’s about HALF of what I have in stock:

And would you believe that I actually still sit on this chair and sew, perched on the edge? I hope to make all of these cut pieces of fabric into actual cowls over the holidays. Starting tomorrow at 2pm until January 2 at 10am I am on vacation! Horah! I have the best employer I could ask for (outside of myself, of course)!

Happy Holidays, all!

Oh, hello…

So, I bought a motorcycle today. I’ve never driven a motorcycle. Hell, I didn’t even SIT on this before buying it. But, the dream to own a motorcycle is about 30 years old. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want a motorcycle, and I have been promising myself that I’d buy one for years and years and years. This is an early 30th birthday present to myself.

And I have Etsy to thank. And hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of sewing cowls.

I can’t wait until spring!!!

Pip Robins is on DOOCE.

I am so excited I’m absolutely spinning. See her entry on Holiday for Her: Accessories and Clothing gift guide!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/piprobins

Oh, How Times Have Changed

Tonight I finished up my sister’s website, which I’ve been doing for years. This is the fourth time we’ve designed it, and this is by far the most simple. I’ve been developing websites since 1999, graduated top of my class from a IT college in 2002, and have been doing IT related jobs basically ever since. I had an enormous passion for it, that is, until my child was born and found a new meaning to life and have focused a lot of attention on natural parenting methods. Being a stay at home mom for 18 months I finally grew tired of surfing the internet and watching television during nap times, and my crafty side emerged after 27 years of never having it. Seriously, I was not crafty in the slightest for my entire life until my late twenties.

I’ve always loved to sew, and dabbled here and there. When I was a raver in the late 90s I made my own (totally and absolutely humiliating) phat pants (PHAT with a PH!) and a handbag or accessory here or there, but nothing like what I’m doing now.

When I decided to start experimenting, I knew I wasn’t going to go out and buy new fabrics when there was so much out there already. It became a mission- to really never have to enter a fabric store for anything other than thread. Why would I contribute to pollution the ocean with dyes used for new fabric construction, or the use of pesticides on cotton? Or the amount of oil that goes into producing new textiles? 99% of the fabrics I use are remnants from bolts of fabrics, or pieces of fabrics that were donated by someone that had no use for them anymore. This ensures they’re not in a landfill either!

It’s a lot of work to find good fabric, but my family and I make a day out of it every week, and we have a good time. I take all of that fabric home and wash it and often I can hardly sleep because of the excitement of working with it.

I’m proud of the things I’ve made with reclaimed fabrics. If you couldn’t already tell from this blog!

Pip Robins in Bento

I was recently approached by a brick and mortar store called Bento in Honesville, PA to carry my cowls. It looks like a really neat store, so I said sure! Here they are, all packaged and ready to go.

Wooden Branch Buttons

This weekend I asked my mom’s husband to help me make some wooden buttons. My mom and I took Ash out back on “an adventure” and found some old cherry wood branches from a couple of years ago that were dry. Derek brought out his miter saw and through a bit of trial and error, we were able to cut through them without the pieces flying away, never to be found again.

I brought the pieces home, dremeled some holes and sanded them with a couple of different strengths (or whatever you call it) of sandpaper and finished them with some pure beeswax, which made them extremely gorgeous, and voila. Done. I just love the way they look!

I’m going to handsew them onto the next series of cowls that I make. I’m even starting to sew children’s ones, so stay tuned!

Images of my new home II

Our bedroom (not shown: one king sized, one twin mattress smooched together to form a happy co-sleeping environment cause it’s not pretty)

Our kitchen. It’s very retro, with wainscoting, mustard paint and floral wallpaper. I love it though.

The flooring of the kitchen and my favorite part of the hardwood. Instead of all going in one direction like most houses nowadays, you get this puzzle-piece sort of look that adds so much more character.

Ash’s bedroom doesn’t have a bed since it’s beside ours. Instead, it’s full of his toys. We found this shelving unit on the side of the road a couple of years ago, and we brought it in and I painted it a dark camo green. It was in our living room at the last place even though it was ugly and I bought another can of paint (I love cheap reject paint!) and now it’s in Ash’s room and I have fallen back in love with it. It’s solid wood and HEAVY.

I found this at Value Village about a year ago for $7.99 and it reminds me of my elementary school days. I couldn’t pass it up.

I found this table and chairs (wooden, of course) at a second hand store for $15 this spring. Ash finger paints on it, and I’ve never bothered to wash it off. There’s an inscription in the bottom, some little girl got it as a present in 1992.

The day before we moved to our new house, I went to Salvation Army and found this old, old, old (and very loved) doll house for $1.99. It came with a few pieces of wooden furniture and some plastic dolls. I’m getting Ash some Plan Toys dolls for his birthday, so I’ll be giving those back to the Sally Ann soon.

The day we took Ash home from the hospital we passed by this old record player on the side of the road, and as soon as we took him inside I ordered Clive back out to pick it up and bring it into our apartment. We’d just moved from Ontario and had no furniture (it took us six months to even get a couch), and so I was desperate for SOMETHING to fill the house with. We kept it in its crappy state until just recently, when I went to the paint store again to look for more reject paint, and found a neutral beige/ivory. A couple of coats, and it’s nearly done. I’m going to cover the speakers with some foam board with an old map of Paris, and it’ll be complete! I can’t wait to find time to do that. (It’s moved from our front entrance in the last picture to the office/dining room.) The total cost for this piece is $7.

The window above it I found about a month ago, outside of our apartment. I scooped it up immediately and ranks as my very favorite piece of street treasure. It’s filthy and has duct tape glue on the window pane and I absolutely fucking love it. We’ve got to rig it differently because right now the fishing line is showing and we don’t want it to. But it’ll do for now.

I’ve been focusing on artwork for this new house and made a couple of Etsy purchases, including one from my sister, and so I’m happy that this piece by Shannon Larratt has company on our walls.

Our backyard is overrun by weeds, but Ash loves going out there and “peeing in the grass.” He’s naked except for socks and shoes in this picture. Anything is better than peeing in his diaper, as far as I’m concerned. I mourn summer already.

So, that’s pretty much it. Our office/dining room isn’t very exciting, and the basement wouldn’t show well in pictures, so you don’t get to see those. I absolutely LOVE where we’re living and I feel so lucky to have found this gem of a home. It’s cozy and huge and I’m inspired by its every nook and cranny.

Images of my new home

Here are a few images of our house, not showing the mess or unpacked boxes. Even though I may hate them come winter when I’m paying outrages oil heating bills, I love these old heaters. They’re in every room.

Lovely Moss Terrariums

I’ve recently developed a fascination and utter love for Moss Terrariums. I’m not sure where it’s come from, other than seeing a lot of them on Etsy. I love their simplicity, I love the emotional connection I have to moss as a childhood plaything (I think this is a weird fact about me), and I especially love all the accessories people are coming up with to accompany them.

I especially love these, little gnome-sized clothes lines, complete with the day’s washings. And look at this! A fairy house with a swirly roof! To die for, people.

I started collecting some containers from Value Village this weekend to make some of my own for our new house.

Speaking of our new house, have I told you the news? Our current lease was supposed to end the first of August, leaving us homeless until August 20, which is the earliest move-in date for the new place, but by a stroke of good luck, our landlord is letting us stay here until that time, despite needing to get all the windows in our apartment replaced (which will still happen, just with us here). So, this is great news and it makes Clive and I feel like everything is sincerely coming together. He and I can’t wait to move. We’re so cramped in our current apartment because of the extreme lack of storage space available and how much we need in order to have a comfortable and cozy home. It seems like such a small detail, but it turns out it’s extremely important for our quality of living. I even started taking stuff out of my mother’s attic for the first time in my entire life (read: ten years worth of photo albums with an extrodinary amount of embarassing pictures) because I’ll finally have somewhere to keep them. I can’t wait to show you all pictures (and for those IRL friends, to have you over for Ash’s second birthday party).

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Have any of you Canadians been so fortunate to try Tim Horton’s breakfast sandwiches? This is not a light statement for me: they’re about 10928325x better than Egg McMuffins. Go try one if you haven’t already. They’re seriously fucking delicious.

CANADA DAY SALE!

For the rest of the week, all Canadian buyers can ignore the “USD” and pay in LOONIES instead! When you checkout, do not pay- instead, wait for me to send you an invoice in Canadian dollars. Happy Canada Day!