Festive!

You guys! We had us a Super Extra Awesome Funtimes christmas! Really, genuinely brill. With food and chums and The Fat Man and peanuts for reindeer (reindeer're all about the protein, flying requires muscle mass baby.) And gifties for my bear and chums and eating and eating and eating and chums. and REALLY BIG DEAL legal news (the good kind, I can't wait to tell you guys about it) and a New Year Soiree. And lounging around and reading books of dubious educational merit . And And And... Awesome.

Also a tiny bit of heartbreak. The switch to the big boy bed. Holy cats you guys! SO hard. (Teddy was stoked but I had to keep sneaking off to snivel.) And a writing assignment that must be good for me because it's brutal. I might get up the gumption to talk about it here in a bit.

Oh yah! I almost destroyed my computer and the ONLY copies of our pictures (um. backing up is a good idea. Turns out.) but my HEROIC sweetie and a good chum's BOY SCOUT PREPAREDNESS saved the day (thanks Ian).

I did miss my brother something fierce, he was gallivanting (GALLIVANTING I tell you!) around Europe. But he's home soon. Also! I have nefarious plans to lure my sis and her sweetie over here soon. Ok fine. Not that nefarious, I'm just going to ask her in a wheedly way a squillion times until she caves.

So far this '11 has been great and I have some REALLY BIG PLANS. Triathlon. Banjo. The BOOK. Driving (I'm not so excited about the last one).

Oh and hey! Want to see how many of my favourite guys it takes to cut down a toddler's hockey stick? This many!

OK, now I'm off to see what YOU'VE all been up to.

x

Man Gift Four - Eye Eye Captain!

These are more of a silly-thing-stocking-stuffer than an actual giftie, and I feel kind of cheaty calling this a tute. BUT I've given these to a bunch of people for various occasions and they're grin-inducing. So onto the list they go!
Ready?

=

Yup. That's it.
You grab a bag of googly eyes (I got mine from the dollar store), a handful of magnets (also from the dollar store) and some strong glue.
It's a good idea to stick your magnets to something metal before you apply the eyeballs, to make sure you're putting the eye on the wrong (repelling) side of the magnet. Next add a spot o' glue and an eyeball, then let them dry for a good while.
And that's it.
Presentation wise, you can stick them on bit of card with a face on it. And voila, anthropomorphic EVERYTHING! Is it a microwave? NO! it's Sir Nukesalot! Is it a fridge? No! it's MR. FRIDGE! Is it...

I've also made sticker versions. You can buy eyes with adhesive on the back already, but I use double-sided scrapbooking foam mount (cut into circles slightly smaller than the eyes) which means they can be stuck onto uneven surfaces. Like this:

And all of these.
I'd just like to note that the stickies are removable and don't damage surfaces, so while this might look like a spot of vandalism, technically it's more sort of Littering With Intent. (and I never mess with things that might compromise other folks safety, like warning signs or fire hydrants.)

Shiny, lucky (and kinda rambly)

You guys! This weekend has been super shiny and awesome. With tree acquiring and salt dough and tree trimming and bunting making and friends and dinner and cocktail hat making and and secret santa-ing and a hors d'oeuvre and 25 people squeezed in here. SHINY I tells you!

The tree was acquired early Friday morning from City TV's Charity Tree Deal. Whereby the kids at City fill up Dundas Sq with Christmas trees (and this year a SUPER jaunty tenor choir - LOVED those guys) and sell Christmas trees to raise money for The Food Bank. Which just works for me on a bunch of different levels. Firstly of all, the getting up early and walking down there, all bundled up makes it seem like an occasion. And the square smells so GOOD. And we get our tree and we get to make a donation to a charity that's a pretty big deal for me.
As an aside, can you imagine how difficult it would be to have to worry about something as basic as feeding yourself or your family? I'm IMMENSELY grateful never to have been in that position; but you guys, I feel like all that is is luck.
Where was I?
OH YAH! My sweetie carried the tree home two and a half city blocks for us, hoisted over his SHOULDER. And oooh la la but that man looks good getting his lumberjack on. Mouth-dryingly yum. Then of course we had to grump and wrangle about where exactly we were going to put it. (I won!).
The bear was WIGGLY with excitement about the whole process. And was an enormous help putting the lights on the tree. He's available for a modest fee if you're looking for a short blond to help out by standing on wires and cooing
"Izz so boot-a-wul (beautiful). You see? you see? Ours tree is Boot-a wul!"

Next came a foray into the unknown for me. We made salt dough! I'd never done it before, but I saw the how-to over at Aunt Peaches (have you been over there? YOU SHOULD! Really, she makes beautiful stuff, but even better, her writing is extraordinary; I went for the paper flowers and stayed for the laugh-out-loud-with-a-dash-of-heartbreak storytelling. I'm a fan.)

Anyhow, the bear and I whipped up a batch of salt dough gingerbread chaps. Only some genius (me) decided to add a bit of food colouring to the dough. They turned out the same anemic, fleshy pink as my legs after a long winter. Not cool. Creepy in fact. Like a trayful of nekkid faceless people. But we painted them a nice gingerbready colour on Friday night and we're all agree to never mention it again.


On friday night I also made a bit of bunting,

And some smooching paper birds.

And Saturday morning the bear and I made craft paper gingerbread guys to decorate for our secret santa shindig.

And lastly I got WAY overdressed for that self same party. See:

And I made a cocktail hat! Well technically I stuck 3 dollarstore coasters on a dollarstore headband and painted them black. But I'm totally calling it a cocktail hat! See:

It was a fun time. And you guys are all invited for Our New Year's Soiree!

Hey as an aside, I worry a bit about sounding smug when I write about the nice stuff in my life. BUT, I AM lucky and writing it down helps me remember that I am, and it helps me to pluck the shiny, awesome moments out of the drab ones. That said, I TOTALLY won't be offended if you skip the Lucky Me posts!
x

Man Gift ONE - Leather Patch Scarf

Hokay! We're rolling.
The first Man Gift project is quick, easy and a blatant designer knock off (a triumvirate of fun!) The "inspiration" for this scarf looks like this:

Cute right? Suave with just a hint of geography teacher (totally my favorite flavour).
It's A Maison Martin Margiela Leather Patch Scarf. And it can be yours (or your sweetie's) for the bargain price of three-are you kidding me- hundred and ten dollars US.
OR you could make one that looks a bit like this:

With buttery soft suede and a boiled wool mix that's so soft it's like it's made of kitten parts. For about $15-$20.

Wanna try? You'll need:
4 Suede patches (two ovals two rectangles) OR one "recycled" suede/leather item (coats or skirts give you LOTS to play with) OR suede/leather by the meter.
Scarf weight wool mix. You could either use the length (selvage to selvage, approx. 150cm) which means you can get away with using just 20-40 cm (be aware of patterns) OR you could buy 1.70-2 m it you want a longer scarf or if you're making a few scarves.

The nice thing about buying the smaller amount is that you can get The REALLY GOOD STUFF (you know the wool blends that are so expensive they make you kind of sweaty? Doesn't happen to you? OH.) Anyway the small amount combined with a 50% off sale at Fabricland means that the scarf is seriously luxe feeling but only cost about $12 (and 40 cm is enough to make two scarves).

The first step is to get your straight lines marked out:
I folded selvage to selvage, then marked my line with chalk.


(just as an aside, when I asked the lady in FabricLand for really straight cut she acted like I'd peed in her cereal and was super eye-rolling rude. But this is what a straight cut looks like there. So whatever lady... Phew good to get that off my chest.)

Right. Once you've got your STRAIGHT sides cut you should have something that looks remarkably like a scarf. Mmmm and soft.
With a boiled wool like this you could actually just leave the edges but I think that frayed edges look more scarfy. So I did that next, see:


The next part depends on weather you're using premade patches or recycled leather.
to make your own patches the first thing you do is make a template. I used a little serving dish to make mine. Mark your cutting lines (bog standard pen worked fine for me, chalk made a mess).


It you're using an old jacket or skirt bear in mind that the "wrong" side of the leather might be just as soft and less marked. And that you can rebuff suede (or make it even softer) with a clean, dry plastic scouring pad, just lay it down on a flat surface and scrub in little circles.

Next cut your patches out. I used my pinking shears because the patches on the original scarf have pinked edges but you totally don't have to, leather won't fray.

Right. Got your patches? Good. The next step is to sew those suckers on.
Getting the patches to stay in one place is half the battle here, because using pins will leave holes in your leather.
If you have some of that spray sticky stuff (um, the kind that quilters use? What is that called?) then have at it. But DO check if it marks on a scrap first. If not you could either...

Just wing it, holding you patches and fabric firmly and going really really slowly.
Or
Use a bit of tape like this:
('scuse the lousy picture)
I used low tack masking tape and I stuck it to my shirt first to make it even LESS sticky. And of course I tested a whether it left marks on a scrap piece of suede first (nope it didn't). You need to stick it down as close to the edge as possible as you'll be sewing INSIDE the tape.

And... Sew away. ( I don't have a picture of this step - not enough hands) But I can tell you that I bought special leather needles for my machine. And then totally forgot to use them. So a regular needle works fine, turns out. The other thing is that you should go SLOW. Really really slow, adjusting and making sure you're flat when you need to.

Well HEY! almost done.
I put my patches on different sides. Like this see:

So the wearer can have softie suede next to their neck, and the oval patches are still visible. But you can do whichever.
A voila. One Man Gift!

Oh, and I shared here, here and here.

Manly Man Gifts

I'm pretty sure that I'm preaching to the choir here but firstly of all, Handmade gifties = finest kind.
They say, "Hey, I love you and I spent some time making this with my hands because you're awesome".
Which is easy when it comes to the girl types and the under 10's on one's list (and by "one's'" I totally mean mine).
But you guys. Crafting gifties for men folk over the age of 12 or so. YEESH.
So with that in mind, over the next three weeks or so I'm going to be working up some tutes for manly manly Man Gifts! And because I'll be making them the prerequisites are super easy and relatively quick. Quirky, useful, funny or beautiful (or a combination of those things) is a bonus.
They're all things that I have either given my boys (to good response) or they're things that I'll be giving them this year.
If you want to play along feel free to grab a button from the sidebar there ->
or hit me up with suggestions or links (ooou yes! links please!) to what YOU'VE made for the guys in your life in the comments.


Now! On to the projects...
First up a Designer Knock-off Leather Patch Scarf
Secondly, a Leather 'Tache Keychain
Third, a guest post and a MAN BAG (murse!?) from Farah Makes Stuff
Fourth, get your GOOGLY on with Googly Eye Magnets.
And watch this space!

Sushi Combo B - or "I can't believe I'm doing this again"

Is craft amnesia a thing? Maybe? I'm going to go with yes it is. Because what else could possibly explain the fact that I am making ANOTHER all-hand-stitched felt Christmas present for my bear?
Here's the rational,
Just recently Teddy has been ALL about the play cooking and play cooking needs play food right? (Right? Right?) And my kid's favorite food in the whole world is... sushi.

OK, firstly of all, I KNOW that makes me sound like a pretentious urbanite. In fact I just rolled my eyes at myself. But I can explain! Honest I can.
It's not like he honks down slabs of sashimi (well, aside from tuna, kid loves him some tuna) he just likes avocado Maki rolls and Eel nigiri and Miso Soup with big chunks of "tofes" (soft tofu).
Which when you break it down isn't that crazy, it's just rice and food that is squishy.
And I've been taking him to the sushi place for lunch since before he could sit up by hisself. Because I LOVE sushi (I lived in Japan for a while). And my sweetie DOESN'T like sushi, so Teddy and I go at lunchtimes about twice a month, and he's really good company.

This was taken almost a year ago, his hair is EVEN crazier now.

So Yah. That's why I'm making felt sushi. Want to see how it's coming on?

Like ziz! California rolls, partly finished Nigiri and Tamego.
I kind of love them. And they're super fun to make.
I've been making the design up as I went along and I thaught maybe I'd write a tute. BUT a quick cherche around the internets turned up this one from Carrie at Tao Of Crafts that is completely awesome. I'm SO making some edamame! Cuuute!

Some Very Weird Things

Remember the gifties I mentioned? The ones I made whilst taking a mental health break from sewing Castle Awesome? Well, now they are safely in the paws of their (bemused, slightly disturbed?) recipients, I can show you what they were.

For my chum Ali (of zombie walk fame), who is a horror movie aficionado I made this happy couple

It's ALIVE! it's ALIIIIIVE!

They're actually not finished in this picture, I popped them both on a key ring fixing, back to back. They're made of felt and have innards made of scraps of flexible chopping board plastic leftover from castle awesome.
I like that Doc Frank's Monster is rather punching out of his weight class, girlfriend-wise.

And for our chum James, a hand sewn leather mustache keyring. Of course!


I made a few of them for my favorite chaps, from a spot of recycled leather; but I didn't take pictures of any of them before giving them away, so here is James using his as a cunning disguise.

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life... and I'm feeeeeeeelin'...

tiny bit hung over 'acshully.*
Last night was SO much fun you guys! Chums and chocolate and cheese and a spot of very good champagne (thank you lovely Mark!) a super New Year's make.

I made heaps of truffles, something I love doing, coating little balls of yum in more yum is really satisfying.
Here's what was left of them this morning as I (as blooming always) forgot to take pictures of them when they were all artfully arrayed,



Our chum Ian is a vegan, so I whipped together some Reese's PB cups inspired truffles sans dairy. And some almond and dark chocolate ones too. If you've a hankering for the recipes just let me know and I'll post them.

Our chum Ali brought cheese aplenty and caused something of a feeding frenzy. Mmmm cheese. And while we had intended to play Monopoly, we didn't get around to it, on account of the riotously fun times.

I hope you guys had as awesome a time as we did and are feeling as all "HELLS YAH!" about 2010 as we are.
xxx
*apologies to Nina Simone!

Castle Awesome - The Big Reveal

How the devil was your Yuletide? Ours was SUPER fun times. With PIE!

I finally put the last bloomin' stitch in the last bloomin' crenelation of Castle Awesome on Christmas Eve. The delay was because it was either take a break and make something else or toss the whole damn stinking thing down the garbage chute. On fire.
So I made some Very Weird Things, pics of the which will be posted once the Very Weird Things have been handed out as gifties.

As soon as I had finished the castle my sweetie decided that a photo shoot was in order, here's how that looks in his head:
Yup. Stormtrooper, Boba and a sand person. I LOVE it.

And here's what it looks like sans Lucas
That is Fred 2.0, notice his hair (mane?) and hoofs. And slightly skinnier neck. He's built for speed.

And here's the big reveal:



The longer version is HERE.
Opening gifties and lounging around and watching the bear poke his presents happily was HEAPS of fun. Also fun was how Crazy excited my sweetie was in the run up; Christmas eve he planned the big tree/present reveal with military precision and he wrapped all the Bear's presents so they were easily OPE-able by small monkey paws.

On Christmas day itself he rustled up a roast beast and trimmings and was ALMOST gracious about the catastrophic buttock kicking both he and I received at Monopoly.
Seriously, it was a brutal. Our chum Ian handed us our collective ass, but it was almost as if my sweetie had particularly angered the Monopoly gods by pooping in their knicker drawer. He was in jail 6 times. And he had a grand total of two properties. TWICE.

Present wise, I scored some very pretty earrings and a lovely sweater but more importantly, I had the BEST time with my boys AND my sweetie isn't back at work until after New Year's.
Oh and hey! did you see our tree? If not this is what it looks like:
and it smells yummy. OK. Done now.

Castle Awesome Update

As promised, the update on Castle Awesome.
So far I have got the inside all sewn up, some plastic cut up and a drawbridge made.
And Ivy, I have some ivy.
Interesting fact, my sister has the baddest embroidery skills in town. She totally totally does.

ME? Not so muchly, my embroidery has a touch of the maximum security prison about it; actually, maybe cons are awesome at the embroidery on account of all that free time. Who knows.
Anyway, here's the progress:

Felt? It'll Never Withstand the MIGHTY Trebuchet!*

You guys can keep a secret right?
Want a sneak preview of what I'm making my bear for Christmas? O do say yes! 'cause A'ly I'm dying to tell someone and two'ly if you have any super-clever ideas now would be the time to pony them up.

I'm making a felt castle. With a drawbridge and turrets! I snaffled the idea from here (isn't she clever? Yay for her!)

My version is a bit bigger, and instead of using cardboard I'll be using plastic, (because I hate the environment, though ironically, the felt is made of recycled plastic bottles).

I'm basing the basic shape on Bolton Castle, which I have renamed CASTLE AWESOME in my head. It's a late 14th century stone quadrangle fortress and it looks just like a castle should.
See:


So far mine looks like this:
Um, if you squint you can think of it as a post-siege castle. Heh.
But come back tomorrow, I'll be posting a picture a day as I go along. What I have made is THIS fellow:


He is Fred, the majestic charger. And he's MAJESTIC dammit and pose-able! He has a pipe cleaner skellington. Eventually he will also have tack. and eyeballs.
He's all my own design (could you tell, on accounta the bizarro?) and If you too have need of a majestic charger I'll be throwing together a tute over the next few days and if I'm feeling racy there will be a PDF.

*Such a nerd.