Everyone say, "Huzzah!" for freezer paper!

Totally dig the freezer paper. Seriously. Experiment number one: ptero-chicken onesie. So, so happy with how it came out. Have a steggy stencil ready to go.

And one "whacha doin, mum?" shot

I also made this onesie for Kaia for Renaissance Festival. I didn't want to have to bother with actual wings to get in the way with a baby.

Dying to Sew

Ahhahaha.. er.. sorry, but.. come on, it had to be done. I didn't feel like I could find any great info without picking up a book on dying... so... instead of doing that, I winged it, of course. The dye preparations - Spinach, Beets and Tea, Coffee Grounds and Onion Skins, and Carrot tops and Goldenrod Flowers.

Glowing, OoooOOoOoooo! (Well.. it was fun.)

Boiling

Finished!

Boiled for an hour and a half, scrap material left in to dye over night. Apparently I didn't take a picture of the swatches. Well, everything but the spinach "worked". The brown was very pale, though I'm sure I know why. I just couldn't bring myself to sacrifice that much of my beloved coffee to the cause, so I used all used grounds and one tablespoon new grounds. I'm going to try adding walnut to it. The yellow was also pretty pale, I added turmeric. The purple is literally 3 dips of the dipstick of gentian violet, which came out very bright. The spinach did almost nothing. I don't think I used nearly enough. You're supposed to be getting the chlorophyll out of it and since I have some liquid chlorophyll I'm just going to use some of that. Same thing, less work, ...right? 

Take 2! The daycare kids had great fun stirring the onesies and a tea towel in a big bucket of vinegar water, and then putting them into the dyes.

 The onesies in their dye baths, left them in overnight.

 They came out really nice! The pale violet onesie I took out after a couple hours, the darker was in overnight, and I tied it with a rubber band.

Kaia in her turmeric dyed shirt and chlorophyll dyed jacket.

Sewin'

So i asked my mum if she would try to teach me how to make a pattern from outfits and sew them. She did her darndest in the limited time we had, and we made one pattern and got one jumper nearly done! Here's Gramma with our stunning little model. She is never this happy about us dressing her.

Tada! I think it will fit really nice when I get the chance to finish it.

The Green Tutu

Pretty happy with the pink tutu, I made a green tutu as well. These are taken out in the mossy, sand dune ridden woods in our backyard... so pretty.

The Pink Tutu

 Made a no-sew pink tutu and crown set for Miss Kaia...

Close-up of the top where the tulle attaches to the band.

Here she is in all her splendor!

 

 

Of Mice and Gnomes

Well, my gnome envy was getting to be too much for me. I wanted them so bad, but not only are they too expensive, I couldn't find any made without wool. So finally I decided to try my hand at them. I'm very happy with how they turned out, considering my complete lack of sewing skills what-so-ever. They are far from perfect, but I don't think she'll care much, at least, I hope not :D Here are first three, I plan to go through the rainbow, and then do the elements.

Oh, Gnomes!

I did end up making the entire rainbow and giving them to my niece for her birthday, I forgot to take a picture of the lot of them, though. I made the elements as well, which Kaia is lovin' on. I need to get a picture of them before they are too beat up. :)

 I also made some little organic mice for my nephew's birthday using this pattern from Sewing Stars.

The Demise of Three Flowers

Look, Grandma Karleen! I'm into plants, too! Into mercilessly crushing them to death, anyway.
Same thing, right?

 
First, I woo them...

*touch, touch*

*CRUSH*

 And I don't even care.

Tasty good times. (Actually she was quite disgusted with her little taste...)

Wallowing in my destruction.

24 Jul 08 - Kaia's crawling!

That's right, crawling! Well, by the time I got my heart out of my mouth and ran to grab the camera, she wasn't quite as energetically into it, so I didn't really get any good ones of her crawling. I got some cute ones, though!

She'd been going on hands and feet with her bum wwaaayyyy up in the air - so funny.

No, I don't feel like crawling any more right now, no matter how much you coax me!

What, mum?
 

 I might try a LITTLE bit more for Josh.

Now I'm just going to keep rolling onto my back.

Oh, I laughs at your pathetic attempts to get photographic evidence of me crawling!

My silly baby

Just some cute pictures of Kaia being goofy that I wanted to share.

 Cuddling with her quilt: 

 Now, you may not realize this, but not only are plants excellent conversationalists, they are also hilarious! Kaia and the house plant, an extended conversation.

Oh, so funny...