from the blue shed

reusable sandwich wraps - part 1

I saw David Suzuki speak at our public school when I was about 9 years old. I remember it making quite an impression. I saw him speak again on Friday night and it was an experience I will never forget. David Suzuki was asked what he would say if he gave one final lecture. The Legacy is his answer to that question. He crafted a very powerful and thought provoking evening about our impact on the environment. I wasn't expecting that I would be needing kleenex, well maybe I did. I have yet to completely relay the experience to my husband as I still get quite teary. He really is such a moving speaker. If you don't get a chance to hear his final lecture I suggest you buy the book

Coming home from an experience like that I started taking stock of our life, our household and our contribution. My humble start is going to be with the girls lunches. The aim - a package-less lunch. A friend of mine has been using reusable sandwich wraps for awhile now. I believe hers were made from oil cloth but seeing as I didn't have any, I thought some plastic table cloths would do the trick.

Materials

plastic table cloths / oilcloth
scissors
velcro with adhesive
ruler
pencil

1. Cut the material into a square measuring 24x24 cm. I then rounded the corners just because I thought it looked nice.
2. Attach the velcro to each corner, marrying up the 2 sides of the velcro on opposite corners with one side on the right side of the fabric and the other on the wrong side of the fabric.
3. I used sticky velcro and it stuck very securely to the fabric. You may want to do a running stitch through the centre of the velcro for extra re-enforcement.

Once you have your measurements this is such a quick an easy project! Go on and do it. You know you want to. Stay tuned for part 2 of reusable wraps. 

We were all asked this question, "What will your legacy be that you will leave for your/the children?" Oh dear, I am getting all choked up again... Check out the trailer to The David Suzuki Movie out soon.
    

first stitches

The season, and our holidays, are slowly coming to an end. Last week we were swimming, this week logs of wood have crept into the cottage and the fire is roaring. We are all rugged up in ugg boots and sweaters and finding cosy things to do. I kinda like it.

I have been waiting for the day when I could teach the girls how to sew. Piper has been asking to use my sewing machine for awhile now but I am not quite ready to share. This is the perfect place to learn how, by hand anyway. It reminds me of my summers on the screen porch at  our cottage. learning to sew and knit.
 



I gave Rowen a piece of plastic mesh so she could give it a go as well. I have to admit that there was more arguing than sewing, but in the end she was very happy with what she had accomplished.
 


I am going to miss lying around the place with my family, making and chatting. Did you know that it is bad luck to baste fabric with yellow or green thread? Just one of things I learnt yesterday along with the fact that my mum won an Oscar! Well, sort of. She worked on the movie The Young Winston in 1972 while working at Berman's as an apprentice seamstress. Among other costumes, she worked on this blue dress.

 It won that year for best costumes. How did I not know that?? She is full of surprises.

painted floor cloth - tutorial

Materials

Large piece of canvas
Matt latex/acrylic wall paint for base color
Acrylic craft paint for the design details
Fabric markers (optional)
Shoe glue (or something as strong as)
Clear water based varnished
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Paint brushes

First we cut our canvas to size leaving an extra inch on each side for the hem. We painted the canvas generously using an acrylic wall paint and allowed it to dry before applying a second coat. 

Now it's time to get creative! We used acrylic craft paint for the children's hand prints. We then attempted to use masking tape to create a striped border, but the quality of the tape thwarted our efforts. Cheap isn't always cheerful. We decided to use fabric markers to write all of the children's names and nicknames around the edge to create a border. This was a really cute result.


 
Once it was dry;

1. We used a ruler to draw a border around the outside of the canvas, 1inch in from the edge. We then drew a 45 degree angle at each corner.

2. We cut the four corners off along the 45 degree line. 

3. Flipped the canvas over. Ran glue along the edge and folded along our pencil line to create the hem.

4. We continued this on the other 3 sides.


We then painted the whole thing with varnish. We applied six coats, allowing the varnish to dry between each coat.


Voila! A personalized, durable floor cloth that can withstand washing, scrubbing and a whole lot of traffic.
 



The kids made this for my brother to say thank you for a great summer at his cottage. He's such a softie, he's going to love it. 

tie dye

We had such fun yesterday rediscovering the joys of tie dying. My SIL brought up all the accoutrements for tie dying with the kids. Well, it was intended for the kids, but we soon found ourselves scrambling for things to dye. I had forgotten how fun it was and how many different results you can achieve. I have to admit that I haven't been keen on the revival of tie dyed clothes, but as I wander through the shops of late I am starting to fall back in love with it, especially the dipped fabric (check out this months issue of Martha)
 
Our tie dye session in photos;




 

A colorful morning.

trolls and treasure

A little X factor from teams 2 and 3 in the Muskookoff that needed it's own post. See previous post to make sense of Muskookoff.

After a lunch time rest, the children woke up to find a note from the local troll explaining that he had doll-nabbed their stuffed animals. 


There was a bit of concern at first but once they realized they were in for a great adventure, they were up for it! My brothers had put together a hunt complete with birch bark clues that had the kids go by foot...


over rocks...


... and by boat


to the evil (water allergic) troll.


Once the troll was doused in water, Wicked Witch of the West style, they were free to rescue their toys and maybe find a little treasure???



My brothers are awesome.

good grief

I have been copping a lot of grief for my lack of blogging lately. I love it! Keep the abuse coming, it seems to be motivating me. We have been up to an obscene amount of activities considering the number of children, streetcars and subways it takes to go anywhere.

New projects have been started. This full post coming soon.



Midnight bread making lessons have been held.



Water falls have been discovered.


Craft made.



New activities found. I wish I was half as courageous as my girls.


Urban art admired (This is the front of my grade four teacher's house. He re-created this MC Escher piece out of stucco. Brilliant!)




And new materials purchased.


I had the morning to myself a few days ago to walk the city. I love walking this city. I hit Queen W and was in heaven. Fabric, bead and ribbon stores for blocks and blocks. I have stocked up and I am inspired once again. Back to the cottage for some serious making baking and creating. 
Will be in touch. I promise.

felt flowers

Here is a quick little how to for the flowers I embellished the girls leg/arm warmers with.

1. Cut a circle out of felt.
2. Cut a spiral into the circle. Trim the outside of the circle to create a neat edge.
 
3. Start with the point of the spiral and roll tightly into the center.
  
Sew through the base of the flower a few times to hold together.
   
To create a more open poppy-like flower, start rolling from the center of the circle out.
   
Sew a few beads into the centre.
 
 Cute.

leg/arm warmers - tutorial

The only good thing, in my opinion, about fashion from the 80's is leg warmers, and oh how good they are. On any given winter day my children can be found still running around in their summer dresses. I have found the perfect solution that they will actually wear. Yes that's right, the mighty leg warmer!

 leg/arm warmers

mens or womens socks  
thread 
scissors 
sewing machine
iron
buttons and fabric (if you would like to embellish them)
 

Cut the foot off of the sock just above the heel. I used a rotary cutter but scissors, of course, are fine.
  
Lie the tube of the sock flat and measure the width of the frayed edge of the sock. Cut open the foot of the sock making sure you leave maximum fabric to work with.  Cut a piece of fabric from the foot of the sock measuring 3" wide by  2 x the width of the measured frayed edge.
 
Fold this piece of fabric in half. Right sides together. Sew along the 3" edge to make a short tube.
   
To finish the raw edge off with a cuff;
1.  Iron open the seam of the tube just sewn. Slip the frayed edge of the sock into the tube just sewn, right sides together. Pin and sew.
2. Fold the sock inside out. Fold the new seam towards the edge of the sock and iron. Fold the edge of the cuff towards the wrong side 1/4 " and iron.
3. Fold the cuff one more time over the stitching, iron and pin.
4. Fold right side out and top stitch along the top of the cuff.
  
All done! Embellish with buttons or fabric flowers if you wish.
 
 
 They make a great quick and easy gift for a little person in your life.
 

Get warmin' some legs.

recycled notebook - tutorial

In 42 days I am embarking on a 35 hour, multiple plane journey across the planet with my 4.5 and 2.5 year olds on my own. The only thing that I am thinking about at the moment is entertainment. The 2.5 year old is not interested in watching movies but like her big sister, loves to draw and color. My mum recently reminded me of my first ever published books. Classic titles such as 'The half girl half unicorn and half rabbit thing' and 'Poems' with such gems as; " Witches egg, withes egg, I found a witch and it had an egg." It was 25 years ago. Looking at these lovely bound books using old wallpaper gave me an idea to add to the list of things to do on the plane;

     Materials

•  empty cereal box
•  decorative paper (measuring 1.5" larger than cereal box on all sides)
•  20 sheets plain A4 paper
•  double sided craft tape
•  60" of ribbon
•  needle and thread to complement ribbon
•  small envelopes
•  scissors
•  hole punch
•  ruler

Cut off sides of the cereal box leaving only the front and back. You will only need one of these pieces.
    

1. Center the cereal box card on the wrong side of the decorative paper. Cut the decorative paper so that it is 1.5" wider than the cereal box card on all 4 sides.  
2. Place double sided tape on all four sides, approx. 2" from each corner.
3. Fold and stick down one side of the paper followed by the opposite side.
4. Make 'present' corners on all 4 corners. 
5. Fold and stick down the remaining 2 sides.

    
Fold the paper covered card in half to create the cover of the notebook. Find the center of both the front and back covers longest edge. Punch a hole on each side. Cut 2 pieces of ribbon approx. 18" in length each. Thread a piece of ribbon through each hole and tie a bow leaving one tail long. Use your needle and thread to sew a few stitches through the center of the bows so they don't come undone.
 

Place double sided craft tape to on all 4 sides of one piece of the plain paper. Stick to the center of the inside of the notebook cover. Punch 2 evenly spaced holes in the spine of the notebook cover.
   
Fold all the remaining pages in half. Measure the distance of the holes punched on the notebook spine. Use this measurement to mark where to punch the holes on the loose pages. Thread the remaining ribbon from the outside of the notebook cover inwards. Bind the notebook cover with the remaining pages tying with a bow on the inside. Binding it this way will make it easy to replace the pages.
   
Seal 2 small envelopes and trim off the top to create a little pocket. Use the double sided tape to attach to the inside cover. I used rubber stamps to decorate every few pages for a cute surprise.
  
This given on the plane with a sparkly pen should surely give me at least 20 mins of respite. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Only 34 hours and 40 more minutes to fill.

guest post!

 Amy from Dealusional, a great blog full of bargains and giveaways, asked me if I would like to guest post. This is one of those great things about the blogging world. Sharing ideas and finding people with similar interests from all over the globe. Amy and I are on opposite sides of the planet. We have only been chatting for a few weeks, yet here we are! I love this encouraging blogging community.
I put together a little project to share with her readers. Head on over to Dealusional to check out Amy's blog and my little rescue and diy project.
 

 Thank you Amy!