Birthday Goodness!

It is my eldest son's birthday today - he's a whopping 4 years old... "not three mommy, actually 4!"

Tempting as it was to run to the toy store and buy him a bunch of trains and track, or cars or games or gadgets, I wanted to concentrate on homemade gifts for my family this year, so I started planning his a couple of months back.

He is CRAZY about cars and loves them in all shapes and sizes and what he loves to do best with them is ride them over different textured surfaces and watch the wheels! It's adorable! He lays down towels, he flattens newspapers, he makes bridges over the sofa cushions etc. etc.

So I decided to make him a playmat that folds up into a little bag for travel (we're off to England at the end of the week!). In the process of researching playmat ideas, I came across a fabric play-house that opens up. I thought that would be perfect for storing the cars inside, so I made one of those too.

All the birthday gifts were travel-inspired this year... as in, inspired by the prospect of a 10 hr flight and needing MANY distractions. So the last piece of his present was an "I Spy Bag". I loved these little bags so much that I made them as favors for the kids who will be coming to his party later today.



All the fabric came from the thrift store (except for the felt, which is made from recycled pop bottles!).

Craftster

So... my new favorite obsession recently is Craftster.org!! I just Looove it. However, they have this (very sensible) rule that you can't post photos without having ten posts first... so I'm putting pics of some of my creations here so I can link to it.
Here's my wood-nymph costume I made for the Rio Rain Halloween thingy. Enjoy!

Crafty Crafty!

So... I LOVE February! I know, not that many people say that... it's cold, it's dreary, when I was in college, they called it "suicide month", but this February has been awesome for me!
The Christmas rush is over and the mall is very slow, so I have not been working very much. So I've had more time at home with my adorable boys and lots of family birthdays to craft for!
So here's some of my creations...
1. Messenger Bag for my littelest brother, made from thrift store T-shirts, plastic bags and a belt!
I did a simplified USA flag in reverse appliqué on the front (the white is from the sleeve of another t-shirt).
I made the shirt pocket from the red shirt into a pen-pocket on the inside of the bag.
The lining of the bag is made out of plastic grocery store bags. I took three bags at a time, cut off the handles and the strip along the bottom, sandwiched them between two layers of parchment paper and then ironed them (on the "rayon" setting). The heat from the iron fused the sheets of plastic together and made a thicker, sew-able "fabric". I then just sewed it together on my machine and popped it inside. The stiffness of the plastic "fabric" helped the bag keep its shape as the t-shirt fabric is pretty flimsy.
The strap is made from a belt (also from the thrift store). I liked the buckle detail, so I cut the belt 1/4 of the way down and attached the cut ends to either side of the bag. The loop for the button is one of my old hair-ties and the button is the only thing I bought brand new and just because I LOVED the shape of it. Actually, that button cost more than all the other materials for the bag!
BTW, the toes in the bottom picture belong to my adorable son!
2. Reversed Appliqué T-Shirt for not-so-littlest little brother
It is a simple guitar logo with "Steel Bear" (his weirdo rock name!) written next to it. Around the arm holes, it says "Steel Bear is going to Rock you like a Hurricane" and "It ain't over 'til you hear the Bear roar". The t-shirt itself and the fabric for the guitar insert are both from t-shirts I found at the thrift store.

I hope my boys like 'em!

Greening Gifting... literally?

This weekend we had our Rio Rain Christmas party... I know, a little late! But we just couldn't find a time before Christmas to get everyone together at a decent hour.
The party was awesome! The manager invited us all over to her place for a meal and gift exchange. She hired some local cooks to prepare an amazing meal of locally inspired dishes and let me tell you, it was phenomenal!
I tried very hard this Christmas to make my gifts as green as possible and I was even more aware of this for the Rio Rain party as it is an eco-friendly store, afterall.

So, it was a couples thing and we were supposed to have a guy gift and a girl gift. My wonderful better half was working on a gorgeous wooden box that we were going to fill with manly things... but at the last minute it didn't come together quick enough so I had to scramble. I ended up getting a cookbook from Ten Thousand Villages. It's called "More With Less" and it's similar in its goal to the other cookbook I have from there (see my previous post about Recipes from around the World) in that it tries to give recipes that help us reduce the excessive amount of food we consume in the West so that the rest of the world can have enough. More with Less is a great cookbook - full of homemade recipes. So I included a copy of the cookbook and then I made two of the snack recipes - some chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies and some cinamon-topped muffins.

I made little origami boxes out of parchment paper and wax paper to wrap them in. The cookies were funny because they called for peanut butter in the recipe, but we don't have any in our house because the kids can't eat it and close friends of ours have a son who is very allergic to peanuts. So I usually use sunflower seed butter instead. Little did I know that when sunflower seeds and baking soda/powder are combined, they turn green! So the whole batch of cookies ended up green! I looked it up online and discovered the route of the green and apparently it's not dangerous at all so I just left them like that. Now I know what to use come St Patrick's Day!

My girl gift was my special project. We have had these really cute kids shirts in the store that have a rock-paper-scissors motif on them (they're made by Fig clothing) and all of the girls were complaining that we didn't get them in adult sizes! So I bought one and chopped out the motif and used it to adorn a skirt-bag. A friend of mine from Metro told me how to make a bag (purse) out of a lined skirt. It is very simple -
1. Measure from the waist down and determine how deep you want your bag to be. Then leave half an inch or so for seam allowance and cut a straight line across the bottom of the skirt. Save the scraps!
2. Trim the bottom corners so that they are a little more curved.
3. Turn the skirt inside out, pull the lining up and out of the way and then sew the bottom edge. I usually do a couple of runs on this to make it nice and strong.
4. Do the same thing with the lining, but leave a few inches un-sewn so that you can turn it the right side out.
5. Turn right side out, pulling the main body of the bag through the hole in the lining. Stitch up the hole by hand.
6. Using your off-cut from the bottom of the skirt, make two straps for the handles. Take the cut-off piece and cut it in half so you have two equally wide loops. Cut along the side-seam to make two strips of fabric. Fold the strips, right sides facing, and sew a seam down the length. Turn the strip inside out and fold the rough ends in, sew a seam to secure. Iron flat.
7. Attach the straps to the bag. Because the lining is already attached, I usually just sew them to the inside of the bag, with a square of stitching to secure them in place.
Ta-da! You're done!
For this bag, I used a skirt I bought for $1.69 from the Salvation Army. It was fully lined and had these cool little pockets on the front that made really cute pockets for the bag. I also used the collar from the kids shirt I took the motif from to make the stripe detail on the handles (I just ripped the stitches joining the collar to the shirt, cut the collar in half lengthwise and at the seam to make two strips.). You can't really tell from this photo, but I used a contrasting robins-egg blue thread throughout the bag and I found this fabulous button to match (also from Salvation Army!). The orange loop for the button was just leftover fabric from the t-shirt.

I also made a little "gratitude wrap" to go with this gift. It is just a little fabric pouch with pockets for cards, envelopes and stamps so you can keep all your "thank-you" supplies in one place. I got the idea from the fabulous Soule Mama website. I tried to follow her VERY SIMPLE PDF instructions but went HORRIBLY wrong!! Seriously...



I was thoroughly disgusted with myself but Mr Joyful made me pounce right back on that horse and try again. I'm glad he made me! The second time, I didn't bother with the batting in the middle and I changed the construction and fastenings... just kinda made it my own and I was much happier with the results!

I even used the leftover scraps from the pockets to make matching cards.




Finally, just to give all the gifts a little touch of eco-chic, I also made furoshiki fabric wraps to wrap up the gifts. I had read about them online somewhere and I thought they were a great idea... squares of fabric that you use as gift wrap but unlike paper, they can be used over and over for years to come. So I made a furoshiki for each gift and included a little write-up on what they were and how they could be tied.

The larger, black and silver square was made from a scarf I found at a garage sale. I lined it with some leftover black fabric to give it a little more weight so it could be re-used more (it was quite delicate otherwise). The beige fabric started life as fabric that I used to make a dress. The dress was horrible, so I re-used the fabric to make cushion covers, but they were too slippy on our leather sofas so here it is again... and it's perfect for the furoshiki!

I had a lot of fun crafting each of these gifts (and wraps!). They were all made mainly from recycled or re-purposed materials and they were unique... you definitely can't find this kind of stuff in the mall! We had an amazing time at the party... those people are a lot of fun to hang out with - a really great bunch of people. I am blessed indeed!

You know you're on the computer too much when...

So Google's "Gmail" has a funky new feature where the design in the background of the mail screen changes according to what the weather is like where you are. It's pretty cool 'cause it updates automatically throughout the day.

BUT... I can tell I'm spending too much time on the computer when I notice that the screen has changed to rain and I then look out the window and think "well, look at that, it is raining". The worst part is that my computer is FACING the window! I have to move my eyeball a fraction of an inch and I can see outside! What is the world coming to when I get weather "news" quicker on my computer than through my own window?!

In my defense, I was trying to find flights online... a HORRIBLE, ONEROUS task!! But still... :(

Oh Canada...

It is difficult to make it through the mall without a trip to the toy store for the kids to play with the Thomas set. Yes... they have their own train set at home, but there's something about the one in the store that is irresistible to them.

As I have pretty strict standards for the type of toys I let the boys have, I am rarely enticed by the toy-store offerings. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a wonderful new line of toys by Sprig Toys (www.sprigtoys.com). The toys are eco friendly and encourage active play (yipee!!). They're very cool - made from recycled plastic (mainly milk cartons) and wood shavings. And get this, the wood shavings are from our very own BC pines and the toys are manufactured in Canada!! Amazing! They even smell piney! They contain no paint - so we don't have to worry about those troublesome toxins sneaking in there. I am just so delighted to find such a conscientious product.

The toys themselves are a range of vehicles with little people that fit inside. The little dudes have headlamps which are powered when your child pumps the vehicle. There is also a big "rig" that the little people fit into and when the person is in the rig, it tells stories and has music. The great thing is there are no batteries (can I get a hallelujah from the choir?!!) and the kids actually have to run around and get the toys moving to generate enough power for the lights and sounds to work. That's what I like - a bit of bribery to motivate physical activity! I am certain that my boys will love these, but I also think girls would like 'em too. Because they have the little people, they're kinda doll-esque and I think girls will enjoy the people-mimicking side of them... but that's just my guess.

Anyway, I am just delighted to find a toy that encourages active and creative play, is eco-friendly and is made in Canada - bonus, bonus, bonus!! The grandparents were anxious to get the kids some form of chunky vehicles for Christmas and I am happy that these fit the bill. Sprig toys also has a line of eco-friendly diggers (I spotted them on the website but have yet to see them in "real-life" so I'm not sure what they're like).

So kudos to Sprig toys... hopefully more manufacturers will be following suite!

Where did the time go?

I can't believe that the summer has flown by already. It seems that I only posted twice in the entire summer! Oh well...there are better things to do in the summer than read (or, apparently, write) blogs anyway :)

I have been trying to decide how to proceed with my Master's degree... whether to start it now and do distance, or wait a while and try to do it in-class, or do half and half... it's so complicated! I think I have decided to wait and do it in class. I could do part of it distance and start in January, but it is expensive and we have lots of other things we're saving towards right now.

So instead, I have contented myself with ordering books on the subject and I am beginning to read as much as I can in preparation for starting my program.

So, the first set of books I ordered were "Public Power in an Age of Empire" by Arundhati Roy, "Ethnic Conflict" by Stefan Wolff and "Direct Action and Democracy Today" by April Carter. These are books that are either required reading for some peace-studies courses, or they are written by profs at some of the universities I'm considering for my Master's. I am also working through a whole pile of articles online at the University of Coventry - they have a whole section of articles written by department personnel that you can download for free - so that's a great resource.

Even though Peace Studies is a relatively small field (compared to something like Business Studies or English), there is still a wealth of reading material available and it is difficult to know where to focus my energies. I have been able to download curricula from some peace studies courses, so I have taken the books mentioned in the curricula as "required reading" and added them to my list of books to read. But these are not the actual classes that I will be taking so I'm not sure how relevant they'll be. I contacted some department heads at some of the universities I am interested in and explained that I will be starting my program in a year or two and would like to begin reading ahead. I asked them for recommendations and was pretty discouraged by the response. I understand that they are very busy, but I thought they could have passed the assignment onto an intern or staff assistant, or just forwarded me the curricula from a basic intro-course. It doesn't even make good business sense for them... if they snag me now, they're guaranteed potentially $20,000 of my money... surely that prospect is worth a few minutes of effort... but apparently not.

OK, so yet again, my blog turns into a rant... but the good news is that I have at least found some books to start me off and I am thoroughly enjoying them (although I'm not sure that "enjoy" is the right word when you're reading about genocide and ethnic cleansing). It has given me lots to think about already and the more I read, the more excited I get about the future and the practical implications of this course of study.