Fabric Swap - 100+ fat quarter tutorials....

Let me tell you, there are a squillion or more tutorials out there and I could have spent months finding even more for you! I admit I didn't check exactly how much fabric you needed for all these projects but I am pretty sure that you can make them all with one or two fat quarters, less for a lot of them. And don't be blaming me if you spend hours sucked into lots of 'new to you' blogs - some of them are hard to escape from, you have been warned! Many of these blogs have lots of other tutorials to offer so take a look around.

If you have any tutorials of your own that you would like to add to the list, add a comment with a link to it, cheers, I'll add this list to the tutorials page so you can easily find it again, there are a number of these tutorials I have already tried and now there are quite a number on my to do list :o)

Various book covers

reversible notebook Kirin notebook

moleskin cover at Keyka Lou Patterns

paperback cover by mairuru

passport cover at zakka zakka

journal cover from Bloom simple book cover by craftzine

For The Kids

baby soft book of colours at homegrown happy

fabric mobile at Sew Mama Sew

kids apron by Montessori by hand (sew liberated)

bunny pillow by missy ballance

basic bib at Nested

burp clothes at A Chelsea Morning

vintage skittles by London Mummy

travelling art kit at by little hands

bib at homemade with Jill

robot tooth pillow by goody goody

crinkle square toy by joy shope

counting bean bags by chez beeper babe

petite back pack by sew to speak

super hero head band by curly pops

kids travel pillow by maya*made

Softies

Molly monkey by mmmcrafts

lucy goosey by the long thread

alpaca by shishigirl

duck billed platypus at craftbits

scottie dog by allsorts

fabric lamb by patternbee

plush hedgehog at threadbanger

patchwork scottie dog by Denyse Schmit

bunny plush doll by a beautiful mess

kokeshi stuffie by Melly and Me

whale softie by small dream factory

RevoluzZzionary monster at revoluzZza

pointy kitty by wee wonderfuls

For The Home

Oven mitt by Design Sponge

napkins by windy hill designs

criss cross coasters by allsorts

napkins and pouch set by angharad

quilted tea cosy at messy jesse crafts

Trim Box by All Buttoned Up

patchwork floor mat by sew mama sew

peek-a-boo lampshade by pretty ditty

9 patch door stop by Oh franson

quilted hot pad at Sew Mama Sew

embroidery hoop ceiling art at tiny decor

mail sorter at bright and blithe

scappy hot pad at My Byrd House

appliqued coaster at fat orange cat

reversible rik-rak napkin at film in the fridge

Snap box by my little mochi

table runner by Crafts By Abby

sewing supply case at craftster

simple table runner by Fabric, Paper Thread

reversible appliance cover at sew mama sew

collapsible storage basket at sew 4 home

cushion cover with invisable zipper by kirin notebook

cozy bed warmers by make it do

place mats by reprodepot

Wearables

Eddie Cap by Mushroom Villages

summer slippers by lady harvatine

fat quarter baby skirt by wink designs

baby shoes by stardust shoes

kids belt at elsie marley

ellie tie on slippers at cut out and keep

Japanese owl brooch by jojoebi

winter muff at burda style

DIY nursing cover at prudentbaby

kids sized chef hat at curlypops

revisable sun hat at craftzine

Bags, Purses and Pouches

little boxy pouch by three bears

envelope purse by maya*made

tote bag by cicada daydream

dresden petal handbag by jemima bean

boxy pouch with strap at Dragoknit

wallet by confessions of a fabricaholic

Pouch with centre zip at London Mummy

pen pouch by never enough hours

fat quarter purse by we wilsons

string quilt pouch by mairuru

poochie bag by happy zombie

zippered pouch by twelve 22

fat quarter purse by goody-goody

draw string bag by skip to my lou

heart shaped pouch by purlbee

flat bottomed zipped pouch by pin and paper

flat and puffy coin purse by cotton and cloud

Everyday glam bag by u-handblog

Cases

eye glasses case by cottage industires

car CD holder at puking pastilles

fabric envelopes at design*sponge

knitting needle roll by grumperian

other cute zakka tutorials

tissue cover by stardust shoes

festive bunting by stitch.rip.repeat

fabric tomatoes at moda bakeshop

teacup pin cushion by mmmcrafts

camera strap cover by tidy mom

pinwheel pin cushion by pompom rouge

teacup flowers by the object project

fabric luggage tags at skip to my lou

hot frog by myrtle and eunice

tea wallet at is it nap time yet?

neck cooler from the small object

For The Pets

doggy poop bag holder by the b-line

doggy/kitty bed by pretty little things

Looking for some delicious fabric for a project or two, then pop over to my shop.

Fabric Swap - educational ideas.

When I set up this swap I figured swappers would fall into two categories, Montessorians who would add the fabric to the culture boxes and sewists who would use the fabric to make something, so this is the post to aid the Montessorisans.

I figured that the fabric could just be another object in the culture box or to be used to generate lesson plans. Here I have collected some ideas, I am sure there are more and I have tried to include links where possible. For those not in the know, a culture box contains items to spark an interest so that the child becomes inquisitive about the culture. It is usually used in conjunction with the continent work. We actually have a culture shelf with small items collected from around the world, a popular activity is matching the item with it's country of origin. These objects can be good discussion starters and lead the child in many directions, the ultimate goal is to provide the child with a better understanding of other cultures (whether they be in their own country or abroad).

• How to make cotton, linen, and silk and where this natural fibres originate from, it might be fun to do a life cycle of jeans or something similar. I am sure I saw some 3 part cards for a silk worm or silk production but I don't remember where, sorry.
• Focus on the fabric design, does the fabric use a dying method such as batik or Aizome or is it a print that represents the region, how do Scandinavian, Chinese and African designs differ? What are the influences of the designs? Are some colours more prevalent in some places? Why is that? Why not design some fabric yourself. For older kids you learn about repeat patterns and how to make them.
• How about comparing the traditional design with a modern one, do you think they both represent the culture? How has the fashion/design changed over the years, what has influenced the change? Are the traditional fabrics still used today?
• When comparing fabrics from different cultures are there any cultures where fabric is not an important part of life? (I was thinking along the lines of Amazon/African tribes that have not been influenced by modern culture)
• Learn about weaving, what is the warp and weft? Make up a small loom and give it a go yourself.
• There are different ways to produce a batik design try this or this for starters or how about trying tie dying like this or maybe this one.
• Print your own fabric, try potato prints or other vegetables or rubber stamps, use my tutorial here, how about trying your hand at silk screen printing or use freezer paper for the same effect.
• There was a project I saw on Artful Parent a while ago where they hammer flowers on the the fabric which make a really pretty pattern, but I can't find the link :o(

I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, if you have any other ideas please add them to the comments, feel free to share any links you have to cool projects.

The next post I will find some great projects using just a fat quarter of fabric.

There is still time to sign up for the fabric swap, pop over the THIS post to see what it is all about.

Waffle Snort Spotted.....

in the Philippines! This gorgeous little fella was made by Christy from Sweet Tidings, isn't he cute?

If you would like to make your own, patterns are available here, can't sew? No problem you can get one already made here, and they are on sale just now!

Make your own stamps - tutorial

As this month is Celebrate The Boy month over at Made and Made by Rae, I did another tutorial for you, not the one I had in mind, that will have to wait for another day!
Some of you might remember the kids drawing to rubber stamp tutorial I did a good while back well this is similar but a wee bit more impressive.

You will need:

• Rubber to carve, I like to use a thicker rubber for this type of project because the stamp won't be mounted on a wood block
• soft pencil
• sharp craft knife or carving tool
• ink pad, if you plan to do the stamping on a T-shirt, you will need fabric ink
• paper
• an image to carve
• something to stamp on
• iron (if stamping on fabric)

First you need to pick an image, if you are not much of an artist you can trace something or find some clipart you like, when you are making the stamp you will carve away all the white areas, the black will be the stamp, the image on the left will be the outline and the image on the right, the colour.

Colour over your image using a soft pencil, then flip the paper over and place it on top of your rubber, hold the paper still and rub over the image with your finger nail.
The image should be transferred onto your rubber, you might want to neaten up the image a little with your pencil but try and keep it as close as possible to the original image.

Now to get carving, you want to leave the marked areas and carve/cut away the rest.
Once you have the image carved you need to cut away the outside edge so you are leaving just the image, try and make the edges a clean cut.
Now give the stamp a test on a bit of scrap paper, when you do the test you will notice any little areas you might have missed or may need cleaning up. Once you have finished the outline stamp repeat the process for the colour stamp.
Give them both a test and make sure the edges are clean cut.
Now, the fun part, dab the ink pad onto your stamp, this sounds backwards but it really does work better than pushing the stamp into the ink. Use the colour stamp first and make your first stamp.
Now ink up the outline stamp with a darker colour, carefully place the stamp over the colour image and.. taaa daaaa.... cool huh?
Now go wild with them! I use VersaCraft inks which I think is a Japanese brand, I am not sure if the are widely available. The ones that you can use on fabric does say fabric and more on the box, you need to set the ink by ironing it before washing. Just place a piece of plain paper over the item and then press, without steam. If you are in Japan you can buy the inks and rubber at Tokyu Hands and Loft.
There is no end of possibilities, animals, robots, trains, planes.... usually the last photo would be of Ebi-kun modelling the new T-shirt BUT we only had a plain long sleeved shirt and he can't get it on over his cast, so you will just have to use your imagination, and whilst you are at it, imagine that I had ironed it too :o)

I will add this to the tutorials list that you can find by click on the button on the left and if you do use this tutorial, let me know, I would love to see what you come up with.

Pants in brown

Quick arm update - just got back from the doctor and he has to keep in in the cast for another week - Booo.

Sunday we went to Saitama Children's Zoo, which we are big fans of, they have added some new exhibits since last time we went including a capybara onsen! No photo's I am afraid, they weren't in the onsen when we got there. It did give me chance to take some photos on the new pants.
Remember the Full Pocket pants from the Spoonflower comp, well, you can now get them in brown and orange, Ebi-kun says that he likes the brown ones more than the blue! I was quite difficult trying to get a decent shot without his sling in view! I think we might have to try again once his arm is better.

So, if you want to get a pair, you can order them HERE and there is a tutorial HERE the instructions are also printed on the fabric.

Random shot of a dinosaur going for a walk.

Just a reminder, all boys fabric in the shop is on sale and there is still time to sign up for the fabric swap.

Fabric swap

Just a few days left to sign up! Here is an example of some fabrics, the top is a very traditional Japanese design on indigo dyed fabric, a way of dying fabric that has been used in Japan for centuries. The bottom fabric is a linen/cotton blend by Echino, Etsuko Furuya's label, her prints are becoming popular worldwide and she uses a unique combination of colours, I think she represents the modern Japan very well with her bold and funky designs.

You are not expected to buy designer fabric, often it is very expensive, and I only buy it if I drop on it in a sale, so either go with a design or look that you feel sums up the country you are representing right now. I am not going to specify what type of fabric you get but I would recommend steering clear of cheap and nasty polyester types, if in doubt go with cotton.

As for the size of the fabric, I think most countries use metric these days, just go with whatever your country uses, there is very little difference at the end of the day. You will need 2yds /2m of fabric, one of each type, a traditional and a contemporary. Fabric is usually sold off the bolt and is usually 44"/110cm wide (knits and upholstery weight fabric is often different). So you should have 2 pieces like this....

So, simple cut into 4 quarters like the diagram above, you send three to your swap partners and keep one for yourself.

I haven't received emails from everyone who has left a comment, so if you want to sign up drop me a line with your details. If you haven't received an email today from me then you are not signed up yet (remember to check your Spam box too).

Driving me nuts....

Ebi-kun and daddy-ebi were home on Saturday because of Ebi-kun's broken arm. They usually go to football practice but instead they stayed home to drive me nuts! I was trying to get some sewing done so I kicked them out of the house with a list with things like a hexagon, the number 7, a fire truck, a gatcha gatcha machine... and the camera and told them to take pictures of everything on the list. That bought be about an hour and half, then they were back, driving me nuts again. Ebi-kun really wanted to have a snowball fight, lack of snow and an arm in a sling was the problem. I gave him a pile of cotton pads (all out of balls) and they entertained themselves for ages. Of course, to have a snowball fight, one must wear the correct attire, a stripy towel cape or a knotted hanky on the head!

and, yes, I did manage to get some sewing done!

Free Download - knobless cylinder extension

Ebi-kun has been working with the knobless cylinders this week, mainly using the extension cards, it is a bit more of a challenge doing it with his left hand.
I decided to try a new extension card where he would have to build the pattern upwards it was defiantely more of a challenge, I might make a couple more. If you would like a copy of the file pop over to Lulu HERE to download it. You may use the printed version in that classroom or at home but please do not make multiply copies or try and sell it (yes, some people will try such things!)

I have a file of 20 extensions for sale on Lulu, you can find it here, it has come to my attention that there was a small problem with the file, which is now fixed, if you have purchased it in the last couple of months and had problem with the printing drop me a line with the date and content ID number and I will sort it out for you.

Still time to sign up for the Fabric Swap, if you have left a comment be sure to email me your details too, we have got a good mixture of people so far...

Saitama Craft Mafia

We are having a craft mafia meeting this Wednesday (24th) if you live in the area and want to join the fun drop me a line.

Salt Painting

We started off doing the iridescence ice experiment that I saw on 5 orange potatoes via the Crafty Crow. It didn't work quite as well as the one of 5 orange potatoes, I suspect that was because we didn't have neon food colouring, I have never even seen neon food colouring, I didn't know it existed. Ours was very pretty though.

We had a lot of food colour left (in Japan it is sold as pigment and you mix it with water) so we did the salt painting again, we did this a year or so ago but it is always fun to do again.

Get a dark piece of paper and draw a design on it with glue, sprinkle with salt and shake off the excess.
The fill your paintbrush with colour, last time we used water colours I think but food colour worked just as well, and lightly touch the salt with it. The colour will 'run' along the salt paths.
Suggest that the child puts a dab of blue next to the yellow and watch how the colour changes. When it is finished it is very pretty but it won't store, it might be best to forewarn your child if he or she is a hoarder!
Thank you for all the help with the fabric swap, if you have signed up please make sure you have emailed me your details, I don't have time to chase up every who leaves a comment and I wouldn't want anyone to miss out.

Finished

Yesterday Ebi-kun finished reading Fantastic Mr Fox, it is the first chapter book he has read by himself so he was very chuffed with himself when he finally finished it. We actually started just before Christmas but then it got lost with all the Christmas things so we started it again a couple of weeks ago.

One of the things I love about Rolad Dahl books is the way that he he describes things and his use of big words. There were several words in the book that were new to Ebi-kun so I wold ask him to guess what they meant from the context and often he got it right, he couldn't 'get' belch and when I told him it was burp he was reduced to a fit of the giggles. I was hoping the film would be released around the time he had finished the book but there is no sign of it in Japan :o(

So, his next book is the first in the magic tree house set, these books have been recommended by many friends so I am looking forward to seeing how he likes them.

Can you help?

I have about 13 people signed up for the fabric swap so far but would like to get more, more people, the more diverse the groups can be, so if you have a blog would you mind giving the swap a mention and direct your readers to this post, I would be extremely grateful.

http://jojoebi.blogspot.com/2010/02/about-time-for-new-swap.html

The swap is open to everyone, you don't have to be into Montessori or on the other hand you don't have to sew, everyone is welcome :o)

Workbooks

My aunt got Ebi-kun a set of workbooks a while back, they are the At Home With... series by Oxford University Press.

I don't want to go down that route of having a set number of pages in a work book to do a day or whatever so I have put the books in his 'work' box and kind of forgotten about them. Well, a couple of weeks ago he got them out and just started working on them, he sat for most of one day working his way through the books, he would do a page or two then have a rest as he would call it - I would call it tear-arsing around the house, then he would go back and do some more.

Yesterday he got them out again, he is working on 4 of the books at the moment, phonics, handwriting (yes, with his left hand!) maths and English, he really likes doing it so there we have it. The other thing he really likes at the moment in the Wii fit which we bought at the weekend :o)

We had to go back to the hospital yesterday to get his arm checked, the Doc said it was doing OK and we have to go again next week for an X-ray, Ebi can't wait to have another x-ray! Whilst he was having his bandage changed there was a little old guy next to us having blood taken, Ebi-kun was fascinated about the process and was asking questions and making comments such as 'the blood looks black, why isn't it red?' Good to know that he won't be traumatised by the whole event.

Still time to sign up for the fabric swap, Gigig can you email me your details please?

And the Celebrate the Boy sale is still on in the shop.

A box from Auntie

Every now and then we get a box sent from my husbands aunt, it always amuses me, with what I consider to be odd contents, yesterdays box had...

2 heads of broccoli

1 cabbage

3 packs of ume boshi (pickles plums, their business is growing and pickling them)

a coin purse

small picture and frame

an apron

a bag of rice

3 lemons

a small pouch.

At home I would never think of sending anyone veg through the post or a bag of rice (that would cost an arm and a leg). The picture is a koi noburi, a boys day carp

And the purse is a fugu (blow fish) and it is all hand stitched, very sweet. The small pouch was in a plastic bag, I took it out and gave it a sniff then spent the next half hour sneezing, it was lavender and I am allergic to it urgh.

We also got ourselves a wii fit plus yesterday so we spend the afternoon and evening playing on that, what fun!

Don't forget to sign up for the fabric swap, Miri and Gigig can you email me your details please?

And the Celebrate the Boy sale is still on in the shop.

About time for a new swap?

I am getting those swap itches again and I have been wondering what to do next, a while a go a couple of people suggested a fabric swap, now up until now my swap have always been Montessori themed but I though it might be fun to have a swap where my non-Montessori readers could join in too BUT for it still have a use in Montessori circles.

This is how it will work, each group will have 4 members, that means each person has to send swap items out to 3 people.

You MUST be willing to ship internationally.

I will try and mix up the groups as much as possible but it always comes down to who signs up.

You will send two different fat quarters of fabric to each person in your group. One piece must be a traditional the other a contemporary print, from the country you are representing* plus a postcard of either where you are sending from or where you are representing.

What is a fat quarter? There is a full definition here but basically you will need to buy 2 yards of fabric (one traditional, one contemporary) and cut each one into 4 squares. You get to keep a fat quarter for yourself and send the other 3.

***if you live somewhere that uses the metric system, use 1m of fabric for each type instead of a yard***

What do you mean, the country I am representing? This is part is important for the Montessori side, I am thinking that these pieces of fabric can be put into the continent boxes and so it is important that you know where the fabric originated from. If you can find out the history of the fabric that you are sending, that would be great. You can choose to represent the country you reside in, and this is probably the easier option for most or you may just happen to have a stash of Gambian fabric or something similar that you are happy to part with, in which case you would be representing Gambia.

Why a fat quarter? A fat quarter is a decent sized piece of fabric and for those who intend to make something with their fabric it is more useful than a regular quarter yard. I hope to find some fat quarter tutorials to link to for those who are interested.

Can I sign up for more than one group? Sure, please let me know when you email me.

Now for the nitty gritty...

You have until February 27th to sign up. Swap items must be sent out by March 14th.

If you are interested in signing up you need to do 2 things, you need to do both so that I can double check if anyone has got lost.

1. Leave a comment on THIS post

2. Send me an email, details below.

email with FABRIC SWAP in the subject line to...

montessori.swapshop at gmail dot com

I DO NOT want your mailing address, you will swap these with your partners once you get your group. I do need the following info...

1. your name
2. email address
3. country you will represent

These swaps are done completely on trust and I can not be held responsible if your swap partner doesn't hold up their end of the bargain. I have enjoyed the swaps in the past, obviously otherwise I wouldn't keep doing them, occasionally I have had a bad egg in the group but all in all in has been a great experience and I have met some wonderful people. I encourage you to communicate with your swap partners, introduce yourself, share your passions etc. The groups that do this get so much more out of the swaps.

So, what you waiting for? Go and sign up!

Annoyed

I was on twitter last night and saw a tweet that caught my eye, it soon became one of the top trending topics. Hidden Eloise, an indie artist was accusing Paperchase of stealing her artwork. You can read the post here and see the artwork being discussed. I noticed that this morning Paperchase have made a public statement and it looks like artwork agency they use are more to blame. I hope it all gets sorted out.

This type of thing really annoys me especially since the little guys have no way to take on massive companies such as Paperchase, there is the option to sue but that alone costs and arm and a leg. I am glad to see that in this case the power of the little people joining together and supporting one another can hopefully make a difference. It also proves that Twitter is not just a place to share what you had for breakfast and can infact be a powerful tool for the indie community.

Taking it easy...

The few things I had planned to do this week have gone out of the window since the arm incident, so we have had a pretty laid back week. Lots of reading, playing with cars and castles and a bit more TV watching than usual.

At night, I usually read Ebi-kun a couple of stories, then he reads by himself until he is ready to sleep but because of his arm it is difficult to get the books out and hold them to read them. I dug out the old CD player, spent quite some time hunting for the cable and set it up in his room, next to his bed. Then I realised that he wasn't going to be able to get the CD's out their cases. It's a good job I am crafty person... I rustled up this wee CD holder, just enough to hold 6 CD's, which I think is just enough for a little boy to be going on with.

There are 3 story CD's, one is pirate stories and another knight stories both from barefoot books and the third has 16 short stories such as Hansel and Gretel. He also has a nursery rhyme and song CD, French car songs which was a gift from my swap partner and then I made up a sleepy tunes CD for him. I haven't decided whether to keep this in his room once his arm is better or to move it out so that he can go back to reading by himself.

Ebi-kun declared the day that he did his arm that he was going to learn to write and draw with his left hand like Leonardo Da Vinci and true to his word.... a left-handed drawn robot.

He has also been practising writing and doing a good job although he write 's' backwards where as normally he doesn't. He is a very independent little chap and is doing quite well with most things but I am having to help with a lot too, I had forgotten how independent he had come and it seems to take much longer than usual to get dressed and the such like but we are getting there, slowly :o)

Arm update

Thank you for all your well wishes, Ebi-kun is taking it all in his stride and declared that he was going to learn to draw and write with his left hand like Leonardo da Vinci! We went back to the hospital, they changed the dressing, what he has is a half cast supporting the under side of the arm. So, first they put on one of those blue cool patches, I assume to reduce swelling, then put his arm in the hard half cast and then bandaged it up with an elasticated bandage. I have to change the cool sheet twice a day, this seems like a lot of man-handling to me, but I am not doctor.

Of course, we had to jazz up the boring white sling, we threw some ideas about, he fancied tie dying but the weather is miserable and we don't have a dryer so I didn't like that idea, then he decided he wanted a dragon on it, so I got the pens out when he was in bed... (it has his name at the bottom but I blurred it, you get the gist)

He was a happy chappy when he saw it even though my version of a dragon is rather cute and not a scary one!
Then yesterday I managed to burn the toast (definitely one of those weeks), instead of seeing it as a piece of burnt toast, I saw.... X-ray toast, Ebi-kun declared that I am a little bit crazy, maybe he is right :o) Didn't stop him eating it.

The day I have been dreading

It started out like any other day, we ran a few errands on the bike then stopped off at the park on the way home. It was a nice warm day and some of the older kids were out so Ebi-kun had someone to play with. It was lunch time and I was thinking about heading home, Ebi-kun was racing against the other boys then he fell, no biggie, he falls over all the time but this time he screamed and I knew that something was wrong.

I ran over and he was screaming about his arm, he could move his fingers but he was obviously in agony, luckily the park was full of mom's including one that spoke a little English (well, her English level is about the same as my Japanese so conversations never get very complicated). I had no idea which hospital to take him to, she suggested one but I had no idea where it was, then someone mentioned it was lunch time and it would be closed. Hina-chan's mama called them and they said to take him round she also offered to drive us.

The doctor had a look at his arm and decided it needed an x-ray at this point Ebi-kun was in shock, all wobbly legged and white as a sheet but the doctor was "come on, your a boy, gambaru, do you best" (I am sure it would have been a different tale if he was a girl!) So, off we go for the x-ray, this is when the sobbing stopped and the questions started, poor technician probably wondered what had happened, Ebi-kun firing off a load of questions about how it all worked. He came out of the room super excited because he had seen his bones on the computer, that's my boy :o)

So, the outcome is a fracture near his wrist, he got what I can only describe as half a cast, they put a big wet pad on it then bandaged it up and now it is hard, we have to go back this morning to have it checked.

I really don't like going to the hospital here because of the language barrier, I can handle something simple like a cough or cold but get nervous when it is something else, what if I misunderstand or they misunderstand me? And even my basic Japanese goes out of the window, yesterday I managed to get the words arm and leg muddled up! Luckily, I now have a number of friends I can call if I need help and I have a great couple of neighbours too. I spent last night baking cookies and making a little bag to put them in as a thank you for the neighbour who took us to the hospital.

As for the little invalid, he is fine, slept OK last night, they gave us painkillers but he hasn't needed them, I think the excitement of the seeing the x-ray killed the pain.

Celebrate The Boy month

I have jumped on the MADE's Celebrate The Boy Month bandwagon and to kick it off all boys items in my shop have a 10% discount which I will refund after the purchase. If it says SALE in the title it is included in the offer.

new fabrics...

I have made a new album over on facebook with the fabric I bought yesterday, if you are a fan you have the chance to reserve any that you fancy, you can sign up here.

I am in love...

With my new bag!

My old bag is getting rather tatty at the edges and I snagged this Lotta Jansdotter fabric in the bargain bin a while ago thinking it would be perfect for a bag but then I couldn't decide on what style of bag until I saw the dapper day bag in Meg's Sew Liberated book. So, I decided Friday night that I had to make it but that meant using things entirely from my stash...hmmm well, the only bias binding I had enough of was bright pink and I had plenty of fabric left over from Spotty's bridle so pinky red lining it would be!

This is the first time I have attempted piping and it was surprisingly painless, I did consider skipping it but I am so glad I didn't, it gives the finished bag a more professional touch. Everything else was easy enough and explained clearly, even for me, the written directions challenged person that I am.

I did however have to make a few additions of my own, the first was a hoop to clip my keys onto, a pet hate is having to ferret around in the bottom of my bag to try and find them, I have found a hoop and a climbing caribina type clip on my keyring works wonders for my sanity. The second was an inside pocket, when you have a kid who has nose bleeds as often as mine you need to be able to grab tissues in a matter of seconds, I kind of wish I had added a pocket on the other side too but it is too late now.
I took it for a test run yesterday when I went fabric shopping and it is great, plenty big enough to fit all my junk in, mom's who are still carrying around a spare change of clothes for little ones, no problem, plenty of space. I even had a lovely little old lady in one of the stores ask if I had made it myself, when I said yes, she exclaimed 'subarashii' (superb) in a pitch that only little old Japanese ladies manage to obtain :o)

All in all a big thumbs up from me :O)

Spread The Love

I am not really into the lovey-dovey valentine thing and in Japan the girls give the boys fancy chocolates on Feb. 14th then the boys give the girls marshmallows on white day which is Mar. 14th and i am pretty sure that it is similar in Korea too but they also have black day on April 14th, where those who didn't receive anything go out and eat black noodles to celebrate being single.

So, instead of another hearty tutorial or idea I thought I would send out some bloggy love instead, these are a collection of blogs that I have recently discovered, currently loving or can't be parted with....

I am quite new to listening to podcasts and I think the Crafty Podcast by Sister Diane is my favourite, other podcasts have great content but the crafty podcast is edited so all those awful bits are taken out making it a much better listening experience. She also did a great video on craftypod the other day on how to make the most out of your google reader. (click here to watch it). If you read a number of blogs then you should get yourself onto google reader, it is amazing and so easy to keep a track of blog posts you like, I have about 200 blogs in my reader at the moment :o)

Another new-to-me blog is SwirlyThoughts, I have been a fan of cutable for some time but I only just discovered that Lynsey has a personal blog too! Then there is Made which I only discovered today but she is having a celebrate the boy month so I already love her.

Obviously I have a tonne of Montessori and child related blogs in my reader and it is really hard to pick out just a couple, Chasing Cheerios is in there and the link queen Shannon at Shannons sharings as is my montessori journey and I have been enjoying the slightly crazy ideas over at filth wizardry.

These are some of my 'always read no matter what' blogs and you will probably recognise some of them, paper-and-string home of the felt goddess Sarah, The Crafty Crow and One Pretty Thing, I have to read these because I am scared of missing out on something LOL. Print and pattern and sweet tidings are a great source of visual inspiration and sew mama sew is, strangely enough a great sewing inspiration blog.

Along with the always read blogs, I have the, 'been reading them since the beginning of time' blogs, these are ones that I started reading way back when and still love, of course there is Meg over at Sew Liberated who used to have Montessori by Hand, inside a black apple it was through this blog I got introduced to Etsy and How About Orange, more inspiration and time wasting links :o) I recently did a de-clutter of my google reader and many of the old blogs I used to read were given the boot or the owners, for whatever reason have stopped blogging.

And finally these are blogs I love because they make me smile, laugh or cry - yes, you Jodie at Ric-Rac, go and see the story of Ernst to see what I am talking about. Nikki at WhiMSy love always has some loonie idea up her sleeve, her last one was genius and Heather shinshu life makes you want to move to the outback of Japan one minute then not even venture there for a holiday the next. Finally, Katy at Sycamore Stirrings always has something new and interesting to share, I have been learning a lot about that little place called Luxembourg.

I hope I haven't upset anyone by not including them! It was a toughie picking a handful out of the 200 in my reader, as I said, I did a bit of spring cleaning, so I am now looking for some new-to-me blogs to read, so apart from mine ;o) which is your favourite blog and do you have one of your own?

Hanging pictures

When we built the house we had to tell the house maker which walls we wanted to hang things on so that they could reinforce them - that's right, we can't just hammer nails in willy-nilly! At first we just said do the lot but when the quote came back we had a major re-think and had to sit and plan where we would be hanging things. So, back before the house even had foundations I had planned to hand pictures going up the stairs and we have been in the house over 2 years now and only just got round to it!

I made calendars for various family members for Christmas but one was misprinted so I decided to make use of the pictures from that and add some of Ebi-kun's artwork into the mix. I am not a fan of sticking kids art on the fridge to get all battered and tatty, I wouldn't do it to my artwork so why be disrespectful to my son's work? I would much rather have it displayed properly. We went through his portfolio and pulled out a few favourite pieces, he helped choose which frame to put it in.
I also framed this caricature of Ebi-kun which we had done in Barcelona, a present for daddy-ebi but...Ebi-kun hates it, he says it is scary and neither me or daddy-kun like it much so I think we will be swapping it for something else!
Thank you for all the congratulations messages, immigration was actually painless. I went to get my revenue stamp first then went it, handed in my documents and got called up straight away, in and out in 2 minutes, maybe having to wait 9 months for the visa to be processed had something to do with it Ha! I will still have to go every 3 years to get my re-entry permit updated, what a faff! When we were finished we went to a friends house for lunch and a gossip/play, turned out to be a nice day out.

Rainbow Snow

We actually had some snow the night before last, of course Ebi-kun couldn't wait to get out there and play in it. By scraping all the snow off the car and stealing some from the neighbours we managed to get enough to make two little snowmen. We tried to use chalk to mark the faces but it didn't work so well.

So I got out the food colouring, I think I saw this on a blog somewhere but I don't bookmark snow activities since we rarely get any and I can't remember where or when I saw it! Anyway, I mixed up red, yellow and blue and we used pipits to paint the snowmen...

The end result was colourful albeit a little bit scary :o)

I am off to pick up my permanent residence visa this morning, it has only taken the 9 months to process it!