BABY G's FANCY PANTS

Our poor little girl doesn't fit into one pair of her pants.  She has a closet full of dresses and not one pair of pants that aren't scandalous.  A few days ago I made her some sweet reversible pants from Anna Maria Horners Book, Handmade Beginnings.  I'll admit our little girl is like the shoemakers kid everyone, but her, has something made by me but her. For that reason I have promised myself that she and our home will be the benefactors of handmade goodness from now until Christmas prezzie season begins.

The pants were easy and quite quick to make. The only challenge is that my elastic keeps snapping and the pants become a bit too big.  The great thing about these are that they are reversible.  As a result she has worn them two days in a row and noone has a clue.  Tonight I'm going to whip up another two pairs in blue and gray.  I'll probably add pink because I can't help myself. I didn't think I would put her in pink all the time but it's just so sweet.  I can't resist.  

PS:  Aren't these photos great?  My friend, Andrea, took these and didn't even get annoyed when I tried to 'art direct' her.  She  successfully ignored my instructions and made it the pictures sweeter.

FOTO SCHOOL

I decided to up my time behind the camera and joined a flickr foto school hosted by Miss B.

I must admit it's quite fun.  Life is slow and silly these days which lends itself nicely to upping my photography skills.

This is Baby G just waking up from her nap.  It was chilly just before she went down so I put on a pair of baby legs.  

Tomatoes Tomatoes Everywhere!!!

It's official we have more tomatoes than we know what to do with.  We planted tomato seeds we received as a wedding present and ended up with hundreds of heirloom and zebra tomatoes.  If the 12 tomato plants weren't enough to keep us in business for the season the two bushels of tomatoes I bought from Fiesta Farms may have been a bit over the top.  Two bushels is in the neighborhood of 600 Roma tomatoes.  I know it's bananas.  But, I can explain I fell head over heels for Gayla Trail's book "Grow Great Grub" which led me to her blog which gave me so many tasty tomato recipes I needed to try them.  Typically Mike and I put up a bushel or two of plain old tomatoes but this year, thanks to Gayla, I made ketchup,  tried my hand at delicious oven dried tomatoes that Karyn posted about last year and finally made a few salsa recipes.  None have been perfect but I'm still trying.  I think the key might be roasting the tomatoes and removing the hot pepper seeds before putting them in.  

Some of you may be wondering where my five month old was?  Well she was giggling and cooing from her bumbo watching the craziness happen while I sang, made faces and rolled my tongue at her for the five straight days it took me to make it happen.  

Tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at a green tomato salsa. If it turns out G and I will be in the kitchen putting up some salsa.  We have about a hundred of these zebra tomatoes we need to make use of.  

PS:   I would give you the oven dried tomato recipe but I got it from the Grow Great Grub book and feel like it's not mine to post. 

HANDMADE HOLIDAY - one clutch of many

I took a leather clutch making class at the workroom a few weeks before the holidays and ended up making quite a few for people.  I can only show you this one because the others haven't been collected yet.  I made this one out of thick upholstery fabric.  I really like how it turned out.  The fabric was gritty enough not to show the glue I use to attach the fabric and the clasp.

HANDMADE HOLIDAY - men's tie

I made my Dad a tie.  Before I could take a detailed photograph in good lighting Christmas rolled around.  Then I completely forgot to do it.  You can't see the sweet floral detail on the back.  

This is my Dad early on Christmas morning opening his gifts.

This was his expression below when my Mom told him I made it for him.  I think he's screaming 'yeah!?!'

HANDMADE HOLIDAY - wrapping ideas

I love every aspect of gift giving.  Whether I make the gift myself or buy if from a store.  The final wrapping is no exception.  We're always rushing around and sometimes I lack in the presentation department.  I am happy with some of our gifts though.

I wrapped my Dad's tie (will post a little later) with a handmade handkerchief.  For little presents this is a very low environmental impact wrapping job.

I reused some of the tissue paper Mike brought home from one of his Christmas present purchases.  

Lastly, I thought I invented this wrapping technique when I was in highschool. Which was more than ten years ago but, unfortunately for me, despite how cute it is many, many people have done it.

HANDMADE HOLIDAY - handkerchiefs

We made a handmade Christmas pledge this year and some of the gifts included handkerchiefs. Ok, I made one a handmade pledge. Mike dedicated himself to our basement renovation. The pledge consisted of making at least all or part of every persons Christmas present on our list. This coupled with the fact that I hate using wrapping paper made the handkerchiefs an excellent prezzie choice.



Mike bought me a serger for my birthday so finishing these were quick and easy. I used three threads on my serger and pulled the lower looper nice and tight. I used some silky thread so the rolled edges feel nice and soft to the touch. I took the Serger Essentials class at the workroom and learned this technique plus a few more good ones. These handkerchiefs were made for our friend/designer, Erin, who helped us figure out a good layout for our basement renovation.


If you don't have a serger I would HIGHLY suggest buying one. I've had so much fun using mine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

My Mom makes a traditional cake called a vasilopita to celebrate the New Year. She makes it every and it has a coin hidden in it. This year I GOT THE COIN. I'm ashamed to admit that I am fiercely competitive about getting the coin each year and so invested that I can't ever remember getting it fairly. I try hard to hide my brattiness but I just can't. However, this year I told myself to suck it up and not be so crazy. What happened? I devested myself of the outcome and ended up with the coin in my piece of cake. It was quite thrilling to get it fair and square. I still feel bad about being such a psycho at my cousins house last year. Her boyfriend found it and I could not recover my obviously disappointed reaction before I got caught. They are still teasing me about it.

Greek people can be pretty superstitious and I am no expection. I keep creating all of these lovely images like thinking my labour and delivery will be a breeze, the baby will be quiet and well mannered all the time, and my transition from work to home won't really be as busy as I believe it to be. Needless to say I am oozing positivity. Happy New Year. Stay tuned for lots of posting on holiday present crafting.