Handmade Pay-It-Forward!

This is a fabulous idea and I'm so happy to have randomly stumbled across in time to be one of the first 5 to comment on the blog post this morning (serendipity!). Read on...

I am entering into the following agreement with the first 5 people who comment on this post and then commit to doing the same on their blog. Just read below and if you feel up to the task, copy the following into your blog and leave me a comment.

I am willing to post overseas (I am in Canada), but remember you must commit on your blog to do the same for others.

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I send you. But you may be pleasantly surprised. It will definitely be craft related.
2. What I send will be made just for you, with love, by my own hands. See, I can go to your blog and read your posts and a really great idea will pop into my pretty little head.
3. I promise I will complete all 5 gifts this year - 2009.
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world, that you can touch and feel, and not something cyber. Perhaps you'll send it forward to someone who will absolutely love it.
5. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post. Send your mailing address - after I contact you to confirm. Everyone is welcome. I guarantee that you will receive something from me providing you do the same for 5 other people in your blog post. Are you game? Let's do this and I can't wait to send you what I hope you'll consider a nice surprise!!!!!!!!!

(If you have stumbled across this post, and you need a pick-me-up, and you are number 6, go stalk the blogs of the first 5 who respond until they post their pay-it-forward and get on their list. Seriously. That, to me, is exactly what this is about.)

From Men's shirt to Toddler Dress.

I found another fantastic and easy sewing tutorial online that I just had to try. It involves repurposing an old men's shirt (I bought a few at a thrift store on a 50% off day) and turning it into a super cute toddler dress. I've finished one so far and really love how it turned out - I can't wait to start on the second. I've got so many ideas of how I could modify these. You can find the tutorial here.

Toddler Backpack.

I recently bought this pattern from happygiraffe on ETSY. I had been looking for a backpack pattern for my little one for awhile now and I was so happy to stumble across this one. It turned out great and my daughter just loves it.

Birthday parties galore...

So birthday party season is among us. My youngest just had her first birthday at the end of April, with my oldest turning 3 at the end of May. We've also been to 3 other birthday parties in the past 2 weeks. The social lives of these two children is so beyond anything I could ever imagine mine to be these days *sigh* and so, I've been crafting lots. And it's actually been putting me in the mood to sew. For myself. Hopefully there will be more to come on that later...

For now, here's the little stuffie that I made for my daughter's first birthday. There's only one small problem - it would seem her older sister has fallen in love with him and he has since spent every night in bed with her and when I try to get the little one to play with him, she quickly throws him to the floor. Oh well, at least he's loved.

And, for another little one, I made this headband. Here it is being modelled by one of my little princesses (I couldn't help myself!). Precious.

A break from the studio.

A little friend of mine had her first birthday today and, not being one to buy much of anything, I made her a birthday present. Her mother mentioned once that she liked birds and I had this pattern that I found online awhile back that I've been wanting to try so, on a little break from the pottery wheel, I sat in behind my sewing machine and made this. It was a bit of a pain to put together, and a little rough as a first attempt, but the I think the outcome was worth it. I hope she liked it. I might make another one for my little's ones first birthday coming up at the end of next month.

I've been trying to post a link to the original pattern but am not able to get it to work for some reason (note to self to figure this out). If anyone is interested, just type in 'spool sewing bird pattern' in your search field and you should find it quite easily.