Crafting Parade

The heat wave has passed, the cooling rain has come and gone, we're back to a more normal Vancouver summer. I'm taking this week off work to relax and get ready for the new school year. It's nice to putter around the house... Remember my post about the flood? - well, I'm finally having that day where I can do things here, no floods, no other catastrophes...

So far anyways, it's only Tuesday after all, still many days in the week for things to happen...

I submitted my chapter this morning, so I am having a well-deserved "home day" before I tackle the next chapters. It's always nice to send everything off, a sense of accomplishment and excitement - will the reviewers like it? How will it all come together?

I've finally taken some pictures of the sewing and knitting I've been doing. So, here is my crafting parade:

drum roll, fanfare

My first quilt:

A small doll-size quilt. It was really fun to make and a prelude to a bigger quilt that I will make this fall - well, actually two quilts: one for Anouk and one for Liam. I guess making a quilt is the natural progression of my love affair with my sewing machine. It is so much fun to think about colour combinations and geometrical designs for the quilt cover. And after making those nesting blocks, I have lost my fear of piecing things together and blind-stitching.

This is the best and easiest sun dress in the world. It literally took me about 20 minutes to make. Elastic thread in the bobbin, sew a few rows, iron to shrink the elastic, sew together edges, add straps and voila:

This summer / fall dress was made using an Oliver & S pattern. I love these patterns, they are really easy to use and I have learned to trust them and follow them even if I don't really understand what I'm doing (being a beginner at this and all...). It all comes together.

The fabric for the bodice is from a pair of pants my sister bought when she was here. Unfortunately they pretty much fell apart before her stay here was over. We were ready to stage a sit-in at the fancy boutique to protest their unwillingness to exchange the pants. They actually had the nerve to say that my sister's bum was to big for their pants!!! Geehz, I'm definitely not parading my bum into that store anymore... In the end we were all angry, the pants didn't get exchanged, and after a period of exile in a corner, the pants landed in my sewing stash.

I think this was the best way to deal with the contentious pants. An adorable little dress for Anouk.

Heat wave

Today was the hottest day on record in Vancouver - over 34 C at the airport, by the water!!!

I'm sitting here with sweat running down every part of my body, so I'll keep it short and escape back to my favourite place in the immediate vicinity of our new fan. We were one of the lucky ones - fans, air conditioners and even ceiling fans are sold out throughout Greater Vancouver.

This is how Liam and Anouk are trying to beat the heat:

Anouk sitting in front of the open fridge:

Liam eating ice cream in a tub full of cold water:

OK, now back to my spot in front of the fan.

So, how was your day?

It's been HOT in Vancouver - too hot! Sweltering hot. I was really looking forward to my day in the office with air conditioning... I got to my building and it was shut down due to a complete power failure. After I sorted things out there I headed home, grateful for a day off.

We've all been cranky these days - did I mention it's really

hot? The kids aren't sleeping well, which means we're not sleeping well, we're pretty busy with work and well, it's hot. So I thought: this is great, a whole day to myself. I'll catch up on some housework (bathroom!), throw some laundry in the machine and put together a nice dinner for everyone. So then, when everyone comes home after a hot (!) day, we can all sit down and relax, munch on some yummy bread, eat some delicious salad out of a recipe book, laugh, have lemonade... I had the whole 1950s happy family in the summer thing happening in my head, right down to me wearing a skirt and maybe I'd even sew myself one of those hostess aprons on my glorious day off. Just to make the picture perfect. And I'd have lots of time to read a magazine, sip some iced tea (that I would make from scratch with fresh and organic ingredients), contemplate the hot summer and ....

queue the scary music, scratchy string instruments, dissonances...

I came home to a bit of flooding in the hallway. This did not discourage me in the least. That was quickly mopped up. As was the water in Mark's tool closet. No problem. I still had that vision of me as the perfect Martha Steward housewife who would for once today, get this household together, fix dinner (fix - not make, merely fix something that is already pretty perfect, prepared and organized) - today there would be no cranky, we would beat the heat.

I was doing my cleaning and got to the kitchen, started unpacking the dishwasher and as I was going to put away a knife, it happened: I opened the drawer.

more scary music here

And it was full of water. Yes, water. Our neighbours' water. Our neighbours' gray water coming from their laundry machine. All drawers in our kitchen. Not the floor, not the cabinets, just the drawers. Weird. And pretty disgusting.

So, I've been mopping ever since. In this heat.

So, am I relaxed and sipping iced tea in the shade wondering whether to add a dash of oregano to my wonderful salad creation that I will serve my family in my freshly sewn apron tonight with a big smile on my face?

No.

I am sweaty, dirty, cranky and wishing it was already 7 am, which is when the plumber will come tomorrow morning to fix our plumbing.

Until then, nobody can use the kitchen sink. No cooking, no dishes...

Thanks for listening - any and all comments with encouraging words, plumbing disasters and recipes for lemonade are greatly appreciated.

And for all of you wondering what laundry water looks like in the kitchen drawers I took some pictures:

Nesting blocks

I thought I'd share some of the crafting creations I have made lately. My big project was a set of nesting blocks that I made for Anouk's birthday. I started well in advance, not sure how long this would take me... But it was so much fun, that I was actually very motivated to work through all the blocks very quickly to see the final product together.

The pattern was posted from Oh Fransson, posted on Sew Mama Sew. I used up some scraps I had from clothes I made for Anouk, so the blocks will always remind me of this summer when I discovered the beauty of fabrics and the joy of sewing clothes.

It's a whole new world out there for me and I am having so much fun with it!! It's so relaxing to be sewing in the evening. I can think about my day, my daytime projects, my worries etc. and at the same time I am creating something beautiful.

I have learned to read patterns and to follow patterns. I have learned to trust whoever made the pattern and follow their instructions - it somehow comes together at the end. :)

So, to start off my crafting parade, here are the blocks. I'll post some more projects over the next few weeks as I have time to photograph them.

91 candles

This is not a birthday blog, but there are a lot of summer birthdays to write about - and in the middle of July it's time to celebrate Hazel's birthday. Hazel is Liam and Anouk's great-grandmother and yesterday she turned 91 years old!

...and boy, does she know how to celebrate 91 years in style:

with a motocycle ride around town

and 91 candles on her cake:

Luckily she had a bunch of eager great-grandchildren around her to help her blow out the candles.

I couldn't help but think that it's a wonderful 91 years when you can celebrate with your family around you: children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Happy birthday, Hazel!! To a wonderful woman!

I can't wait to see what 100 candles will look like on your cake!

Liam is 4!

Happy birthday Liam! It's hard to believe that Liam turned 4 on Friday! Time flies by so quickly. I know it's such a cliche' - but it does seem like yesterday that he was born...

When we came to daycare on Friday morning Dorota summed it up so nicely (and brought tears to my eyes...)

"Happy birthday, Liam! Four years ago you were born and the world became a better place!"

Here are some pictures from his birthday:

Breakfast with cake and presents in the morning:

Anouk enjoying Liam's cake:

Liam in his Raven King costume for his birthday party. He had drawn a picture for me with the exact directions about this costume. The cloak was to be yellow with a purple rim and the crown was to be in this specific shape with 60,000 feathers (OK, I cheated, I didn't use 60,000) and of course there were to be jewels on his crown!

... and here he is only 4 years ago, just an hour or so old:

Salmonberries

Today we started off the berry season. The salmonberries are ripe! We were in Pacific Spirit Park and went for a long walk and collected lots of salmonberries. These were then used to coax Liam into walking some more. They are true energy berries. He would run ahead and then sit on a log and wait for another berry. It was great. Anouk really liked the berries, too. She didn't need to run for them though, she was just fed sitting in her stroller, a big smile on her face the reward for putting a berry into her mouth.

When we cam home Liam took our container of collected berries into the yard and shared them with his friend Maddy. Now we'll have to go again soon to pick some more :)