citizens of make believe

So far there are seven citizens of Make Believe but I'm sure over time their population will grow. Today I would like to introduce you to five of the happy friends.

Meet Turnip. He's Make Believe's founding member. He looks young but don't let that baby face fool you! His wisdom makes him a perfect friend for whispering your dreams and secrets to at night. He gives good hugs and loves having his belly button tickled. X marks the spot!


This is Bruce. He's contemplating a nose ring and tattoos to spunk up his style but I'm trying to convince him he's perfect just the way he is. He loves The Ramones and listens to Rocket to Russia incessantly. He sometimes gets into scraps on the playground but underneath his prickly exterior lies a heart of gold.


Oh Marjorie... what can one say about Marjorie? How about mammas lock up your sons! This one loves to dance and leave lipstick on collars. And those eyes... yes those eyes can soften the hardest of hearts and wrap the sternest of men around her coy monkey fingers. Marjorie loves martinis and her new iPhone.


Don't let Richard's bandanna and country bumpkin guise fool you - this frog has hopped all over the world from Australia to Zaire. He loves trying new food from different cultures and is particularly a fan of Indian and Thai. The spicier the better! His most terrifying moment was falling into a giant crevasse on the peak of Mount Kilamanjaro but this one has more tricks up his sleeve than Go-Go Gadget and used his extra-sticky tongue to pull himself to safety. His stories will keep bonfire gatherers entertained for hours.


Lastly, meet Gnash. It's a silent 'G' and he hates it when it's pronounced. It's Nash not G-Nash! This horse has a propensity towards meloncholy and can often be found off by himself writing poetry or contemplating the meaning of life. He's got little arms so he's not a great hugger, but nothing makes him glow more brightly than getting one. He will nuzzle his muzzle into your heart and you'll never want to let go.

greetings from a make believe world

My friend Elaine was visiting a few weeks ago and when we're together, sparks fly. For two full days my living room "looked like Christmas" with buttons and thread and fiber-fill spread over every available surface. And to what reward! Check out the amazing group of friends we created from socks and gloves!

At first you think you're going to make a little dude with a certain personality but soon you realize you have no control over how your creature will turn out - their personality bursts through with very limited coaxing from you. It's amazing to see them evolve before your very eyes!

Here are a few group shots from their photo shoot one sunny and cool afternoon. Soon I will be posting their individual portrait shots as well... and even a few romantic images of Clementine and Dill Pickle who have quickly proven to be inseparable. :)


It's a little hard to tell, but here they are waiting for the bus. The #7 actually. They were going on an adventure.

From left to right: Richard, Bruce, Dill Pickle, Clementine, Marjorie, Turnip and Gnash.

a simple bag

I love the book Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. Today I made a bag from her "A Simple Tote" pattern. What a pleasant way to while away the hours of a rainy afternoon.

more front door love

Why hello friends. I know, lately my posts have been few and far between, but I have had a rollercoaster couple of weeks. I miss my sweet little dog dearly and have had some trouble adjusting to life on my own. Consequently, I've been spending as little time as possible at home and that means no creating, no blogging.

But I am feeling sturdier than ever as the days roll by and have once again turned my eye towards the front door. I agree, I do have an inexplicable fascination with my front door and hallway.

A few weeks ago I picked up three Martha Stewart hole punches because I simply couldn't walk away without them. I immediately saw white, delicate garlands criss-crossing my front door just in time for Spring. My snowflakes were so vibrant and colourful that I felt it was time to take the door in another direction.

So I set about punching out bunnies, birds and butterflies and ended up with this:

Individually the garlands are darling but with nothing else on the door, they looked stark and uninviting. A piece of fabric I've been saving for a long time jumped to mind and I thought, "Ah Ha! A curtain!" So I ran down to the sewing room and started making a panel for the front door.

Ta-Da! I quite like the results. It's soft, flowy and feminine - suitable for Spring and my new found independence I suppose. The curtains also provide a nice backdrop to my lovely garlands.

I smile every time I walk up the front steps. I'm pleased with the results!

I Heart Valentine's Day

I can't believe it's been five whole days since I've last posted - that deserves a slap on the hand. Especially since the little project I'm about to show you has been done for almost a week now.

Guess what's coming up? You know it - Valentine's Day! Some may say it's a completely manufactured holiday to boost sales during post-Christmas frugality. I say it's a great opportunity to practice sewing curves (remember my rabbit?!). And why not give ourselves something extra to celebrate? With all that's going on in the world, it's nice to have a reason to celebrate our love!

I have no shortage of love for the girl I made this little decoration for. We haven't seen each other in over two years but I think of her often and... with love! So I sewed together this mini-garland for her door, window, or wherever else she might like to put it during the 2009 season of loooooove.

Weally Wonky Wabbits

Well, I just gained a whole new appreciation for those talented sewers out there who can sew circles and curves. Whew. It ain't easy and boy am I humbled.

I was flipping through one of my new books, Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, the other night and came across the cutest pattern for Peanut, the Wee Elephant. The design was credited to Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls. So of course I had to run to my laptop to check out her site... lo and behold she was offering free patterns to download and I immediately decided I needed to make a wee bunny.

I was very enthusiastic at first! I printed out the pattern and picked out my fabric. (That was definitely the easiest part!).

I cut out all the pattern pieces and I made the ears about 1.5 cm bigger all around because I thought I would like them bigger and floppier. You can see in the picture above the original line on the inside of the ear. In the end I'm glad I did because they would have been itty bitty I think.

Next I made the ears and pinned them on to the solid front piece. Easy peasy!

Then I stitched the two patterned back pieces on... it was at about this point I realized that I can't sew curves. I think I read somewhere that having a walking foot really helps with the whole curve thing. Um... okay, I admit it, I'm looking for excuses. I know what helps with curves: PRACTICE! But you know what? I wasn't daunted. So my wee bunny would have a wonky seam, big deal. Adds character right? (Meanwhile I'm nervously eyeing that round bottom piece...)

I was so preoccupied with sewing curves and circles that I forgot to leave an opening in the back for stuffing! Oooooops! Where's my seam ripper again? (aka my very best friend). That was a pretty easy fix.

Now it was time to line up the bottom with the rest of the body. I was pretty excited and needed to start getting ready for work in 20 minutes. I tried pinning it together and the darn thing wouldn't fit. In fact, I had about an extra inch of circle and not enough body. So what do I do? Decide that I'll make it fit at the sewing machine. I sit down and sew away, casting pins aside.

The result?

Not so good. I've managed to create the wobbliest, ugliest, most puckered bunny bottom the world has ever laid eyes on...

So what do I do?

Throw some stuffing in there anyway!! I can't wait to see what my "completed" bunny looks like!!

If you look closely you can see a bottom gone horribly wrong.

I left it as is and headed off to work. I thought it would be kind of fun for Dennis to come home to a silly rabbit sitting on the kitchen counter. He said he thought it was really cute, God love him.

While at work I processed my bunny bottom predicament. I knew I wasn't going to learn how to sew curves and circles tonight so I needed to think up an alternate plan of attack... the bunny has three sides... what else can I do? AHA! A triangle!!

Yes, I made the bottom into a triangle. Hindsight is always 20-20 and this was not actually as brilliant an idea as I had thought. Obviously. Or the original pattern would have come with a triangle.

Oh, and I also deviated from the pattern (again - such a bad idea) by sewing on the eyes and embroidering the mouth and nose before adding the stuffing and sewing him up because I couldn't really imagine how to do that without having access to both sides (Please remember, I'm new at this!).

And then I realized that I didn't have a tail so I improvised and made my own. And when hand stitching the back closed, I sewed the tail on. And didn't really give much thought to placement because I already knew this wee bunny was beyond all hope. So I popped it on and now my ugly, deformed bunny looks like he has a hideous wart growing out of his back. Poor wee bunny. :(

Can you tell I'm delaying the unveiling?

...

Okay... prepare yourself!

He's drunk!

Note the wart... :)

He looks best from behind!

I've since removed him from my computer desk and put him on my sewing table. Wanna know a secret? I love him!! I laugh out loud every time I look at him and that deserves a whole pile of love in my opinion. I think I will keep him on my sewing table for a long time... for now as a reminder of "there's only one way to go from here... up!" and hopefully in the future as a reminder of just how far I've come.

Domestic Bliss (and a little advice)

My new work schedule looks like Friday and Saturday will be my days off for the next little while. This is a slight shift back from having actual weekends off, which I knew was too good to last. But beggars can't be choosers and two days off in a row is an absolute blessing when you're a waitress.

I did, however, work yesterday - but just the day. I was tempted to pick up the night so I could buy a pair of lulu lemon yoga pants because once Dennis said, "I'm going to start wearing those just so I don't have to look at you in them" referring to my favourite pair of grey jogging pants. But time off seemed more valuable to me so Dennis will just have to grin and bear those jogging pants for now.

When I got home I retreated to the kitchen. Nothing relaxes me and brings me more peace than puttering around in the kitchen. We have a pretty hectic week coming up and I'm trying to keep Dennis well fed so it's one less thing he needs to worry about between working crazy hours (and I mean that literally - 9pm to 5am!) and being a full-time student. I'm also trying to eat out less for both health and financial reasons. So I embraced the mood and made a yummy pasta dish, a pot of soup and macaroni and cheese. I figure we're good 'til Monday at least!

Next I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. Well, in actuality it was front to back and you understand if you've ever been here. By the time I went to bed everything was spic and span and I was ready to wake up to a full day off with nothing to do except whatever I wanted to do... and that's always an awesome feeling.

I rolled out of bed around 11 and had some mac 'n cheese for brunch. Um, did I say I'm doing a lot of cooking for health reasons? Hah. Dennis and I watched the first half of Penelope (my new favourite movie! Go rent it if you like whimsical movies!). Then we had a youtube date and I got sucked into looking at Kayne West videos. I know, out of character for me, but I just recently discovered 'American Boy' (how long has it been out, anyway?) and I am in love with it. Youtube that shit, yo! Hahaha! :)

It was a beautiful, sunny day and I have a new photography assignment. This week we learned about aperture and depth of field in class. The aperture refers to how big the hole in your camera is, the hole responsible for letting light through. I know, how very technical of me. Anyway, a small aperture has a big f-stop. So f18 or f22 means it's a tiny hole. A big aperture has a small f-stop - f2.8 or f3.6. I don't know who the aperture genius is, but that's not very intuitive.

The point is though, that if you have a small aperture (f22) then you have more things in focus (think landscapes) and if you have a big aperture (f2.8) then you have less things in focus (think portraits with only the person in focus and everything else blurry).

This was a very exciting revelation for me!! It's one step closer to understanding manual. So today I hit the road with my camera on the A setting and tried to shoot as much as I could with a small aperture because that's my assignment - meaning I want lots of stuff in focus. This is opposite of how I usually shoot so it was definitely a challenge, on many levels. 2.5 hours of rambling and 250 pictures later... behold the results.

this is me outside the military base on gottigen

the marquee

if you ever need a torso...

i absolutely adore the fact that someone took the effort to create this piece of art

cool piece of art outside the north end library

an excellent piece of advice i found on agricola street

we should all be doing more of this!

and this!

a tree on the citadel

two trees on the citadel!

I'm not going to say any of those photos deserve an award, but I am proud of them because it's my first time ever taking my camera off P! Yay for me!

After my photo-walk, I made dinner: salmon, steamed baby potatoes and grilled asparagus. Yum! (Remember the casseroles and stuff are for when I don't have time to cook!). Then we finished Penelope. Then Dennis left for work. Sad. :(

But on the upside, I spent 2 full hours sewing!

After the 2 hour mark I knew my eyes were drooping but I was determined to finish one last square. And this is where the advice makes an appearance... Don't sew when you're tired!

yes, that would be sewed on backwards.