and,

an attempt to grab creativity amidst the chaos.

My paintings always like visitors at www3.telus.net/galen/art



Monday, January 30, 2012

I've crossed over

There's no denying my trajectory now.
I'm not even a glue gun away
from crossing over into the depths of Craftopia.

You see:
I've been painting for a few years.
And then with the birth of this blog I started sewing.
Then there was the knitting,
and crocheting,
there may even have been some felting.


But really, you're nothing, certainly not craftastic
unless...
you
modgepodge.


And so,
after tripping over cell phone cables
and baby monitor same,
and with this great idea from Make It & Love It



I remove tongue from cheek,
while eating my words.



Kids R Nuts

At least mine are.
Don't get me wrong,
I like them that way.

Some of my favorite people are nuts.
Nope, all of my favorite people are crackers.

Pu has a scarf and was moaning that it didn't keep her cheeks warm.
I made her a cowl and by request it was really,
much
much more like a neck brace.


She really couldn't move much,
and liked it that way.


Then she started moaning and I said Pu...
"we can unbutton one of those bad boys and you could breathe."

Nooooooo!!!!

And off she went in her neck brace,
and warm cheeks.



Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Oh Baby, What Do You See?

We have a screamer.
And not in a sexy way.

When Yu is being held, she is the most adorable,
charming,
sanguine
doodle.

When she's not...
Mad Cow.

Especially in the C-A-R.
(I spell it for safety's sake)

Your safety, mine...the safety of the universe.

I know in my intellectual brain,
(what little is left and has not been eaten by child zombies)
that while my baby is doing everything in her little baby way to convince me she is be flayed alive, garroted and prison shived simultaneosly,
she is in fact communicating her profound distaste with her car seat and the car.


Long ago I bought this travel matt from a company called Raisin' Baby.
Now all but one piece is missing.
Probably in the dogs intestines.

So I made some new patches.

It's a little hanger that you can put on the back of the seat that
 your back-facing-child-hostage stares at.

I made some different little squares to swap in and out.
So just before my baby has plotted her own end between loud
LOUD
loud screams,
she instead thinks in her baby brain
"Oooh owl.
Reason to live!!"


Or maybe: "pretty flower will scream less, suck fist and think of meadows instead of killing mommy"


One can only dream the big dreams.


A little tribute to Chinese New Year

At Pu's preschool they celebrated
Chinese New Year.

Dressed head to toe,
red, red everywhere.


 Pu 'needed' a little celebratory bobble.

Happy year of the Dragon!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Ahoy Mates.

Sorry for the radio silence
faithful readers.

I've been single parenting for the past weekish
and the only stitching I've been game for
is stitching back my dignity and spirit with a giant piece of pie
and a serial killer TV show.

Phew.
I like my sweetie.
I like him especially at the 2 year old's bedtime :)

And now for further crafty news.

Santa came and left me with a...


Serger.
Gulp.
Thank you Santa!

I hope Santa will also contribute to the therapy
fund required to support learning to use one of these bad boys.



Rather than swearing loudly
 while making countless mistakes
on strips of garbage fabric,
I decided to swear loudly while edging flowers.


On sparkly linen.


Threading and changing thread on this machine,
is just as terrifying and daunting as reported.


Total madness without the video.

And even with...
did I mention the swearing?!?


Then I got bold.


And changed things.
Magical buttony, needly, thready things.

And I tried a rolled hem.

(centre petals).

Super cute,
but it does involve extra swearing and watching instructional videos
over
and over,
did I mention over?


In other anal retentive bulletins:
to make way for my new frenemy El Serge (r)
I found a new and better home for my ribbon stash.

Tucked away.

Off to eat pie and watch Dexter.

(Wait, The Sweetie is back, what's my excuse now?)



Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sewing Flops Abound!

I was inspired by this dress over the holidays from No Big Dill
(Katy's stuff is so lovely)

I thought to myself,
I could try a circle skirt.
All the cool kids say it's easy.

So I followed this tutorial from MADE.
And, clearly I can't do math.
Even when someone else does the math.

MY version of the circle skirt looked like I was hiding a bus underneath it.

Even though the white version was so excellent on her,
surely.

When I wear white, people stop me and try and
defibrillate me.

That's not very festive.

And so I scrapped it.

Then I made this little doodle.



And then...I slit the zipper with a seam ripper.


Dagnabbit!!!


I tried to use some 'stitch witchery'
but it just made my bitchery,


so I guess I have to replace the zipper.
On Organza.



Oh craptastic!!!!
Magic incantations or hot tips welcome.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A New Crafty Year Begins

Another little skirt to add to the uniform


And I was forced to add some tulle
to the tattered flower skirt.

Static cling was ruling my shimmy.


More accurately,
I was at risk of mooning
the Postie on my walk baby & dog
early morning march.

I think the tattered flowers are too tattered.
Will recreate a new version with a little less
rip and tear.