Bits and pieces.

In amongst my fabric stash I have some lovely, soft, organic cotton flannel.  I wish I had enough of it to wrap myself in, cocoon like, and then I would just lie on the couch and watch movies throughout the fall and winter.  However, I do not have enough of it to do that but I do have plenty with which to make wee slippers/booties for babies.  Having never made any such thing before, I decided to test how difficult it is and to do that, I used this pattern by Joanna at www.stardustshoes.blogspot.com.

Turns out, small booties are very easy to make (especially when you have a great pattern to follow).  I've only made one so far but will be making up a second to match soon.  I love, love, love this linen/cotton blend robot print that I found on a trip to Seattle.  I'm not sure who it's made by but it is from Japan, if that helps.

If you're looking to make little shoes like this, I'd recommend using the pattern mentioned if you've never done it before.  It is for personal use only but I see Joanna's blog that she does offer licensing for the pattern if you're wanting to make some to sell.

In other news, I went to the September Portobello West market with my cousin (Hi, Kim!) for a lovely time of wandering and chatting.  While there I came across a stall selling these:

How cute is this?

Can you guess what's inside?

The packaging alone drew me in but the contents sealed the deal.  I've been wanting to try my hand at some needle felting and this pack seemed like a good way to start.

Bought from Honey Canada

Six colours of roving and two needles to get me started.  I have no idea what I'm going to make yet but for now I'm just happy to look at it every now and then.  If anyone knows of any blogs or sites that have good tutorials in needle felting for beginners, please let me know in the comments!

P.S. There is another Portobello West market coming up on October 30th, if you live in or will be in the Vancouver area.

Today's post is brought to you by...

...the letter 'L'.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.   I had made small quilts/play mats for my two nieces in Australia back in July, each with their initial (A and E).  Sadly, I was in such a rush to get the quilts done and to pack that I completely forgot to take any photos.  I really have to ask my sibs to send me some.  

Anyway, I recently made another small quilt for my nephew (son of The Boy's little brother and his wife).  This time I got wise and took some photos as I went along.  That was partly to document the process and partly to work on my photography skills.  The mad photography skillz that I've seen on other crafting/quilting blogs blow mine completely out of the water but I know we all have to start somewhere. 

But back to the quilt.  What started as this:

Soon became this:

Which, in its entirety looks like this:

The front

And also like this:

The back

As you can see, I ran out of the pale blue Kona and had to add a strip of white Kona to make the backing.  I like the two tones and the strip of colour, myself.  The photo's don't really do the colours justice (which is why I need to practice!) and I really should become better friends with my iron.

The Boy picked up a few books for little L at the comic book store to send out with the quilt.  Hopefully the little guy (and his parents!) will like it and I really hope L gets good use out of it.  I like to think that the quilts I make for little people are being dragged around and loved, curled up under and worn as capes.  The more they're scrunched, the softer they get, and who doesn't love a nice, soft quilt?

This could be madness...

...but I'm going to try posting daily on both of my blogs during the month of October as part of Blogtoberfest.

This could get...interesting but I'm going to do my best.  Naturally, the posts here will be dedicated to all things crafty - what I'm working on, what I've finished, what I wish I was working on, what I wish I had finished.  I have a few things in progress and in the pipeline so I'm thinking I have enough to keep me posting throughout the month.

If I counted this post as post number one for the month, I think that might be cheating.  So - my official first post for Blogtoberfest will be coming later in the day.  Wish me luck and check back often!

P.S.  If you're feeling motivated, or if you have a lot to say/show, why not join in the fun?  Go visit TinnieGirl for the details and the awesome button :)

Craft central...

Living in a one bedroom apartment can be challenging in an organizational sense at the best of times - add to that a husband, two cats and the desire to have a dedicated crafting area and it gets a little out of hand.  Originally, my crafting space was in a corner of our bedroom (which is quite large, so it wasn't such a big deal) but I was constantly having to run out to the living/dining areas so that I could use the dining table to cut fabric, or set up the ironing board in a larger area.  Lucky for me, The Boy is quite an accommodating lad and so I moved my work desk/sewing machine/supplies out into the living room.  This has meant moving my computer and small desk into the bedroom, which isn't ideal, but it takes up less space and gives me a quieter area to work in when I'm writing or blogging.

In addition to taking over more square footage in the living room, I've also taken over the hutch in the dining room, as you can see above.  This had become kind of a catch-all, so I feel good about re-purposing it for something useful and it's helped me to organize my supplies more than I have ever done before.  Oh, and see that old Underwood typewriter?  Someone had left that in the Free Stuff pile at our old building.  Can you believe that?

Fabric all in one spot!

I've also gone so far as to organize the items within the hutch.  You can kind of see a peek of the labeled boxes in the photo below.  Originally, the hutch had awful wooden handles, so I replaced those with the white and black ceramic ones that you can see in the close up.  Easy to do and the knobs were a cheap find at Paboom (great store with locations in Vancouver and Victoria - all sorts of neat things for the home at (generally) very reasonable prices).  The 'Hope' heart was an ornament attached to something else I bought and the metal owl was a gift a fellow blogger sent during a swap I participated in.

My plan is to eventually paint the whole hutch.  I'm not sure what colour yet, but I'm thinking something light - maybe a pale blue or light lemon yellow.  I know some people frown on those who dare to paint wooden furniture but this hutch is neither an antique nor a particularly expensive piece, so I really have no qualms about it.  Plus, I think if it were a lighter colour it would seem less of a hulking beast.  Summer is pretty much over in this neck of the woods, so I may have missed my opportunity to do any outside sanding/painting for this year.  No matter - gives me plenty of time to pick a colour!

Finally, we have a really atrocious photo of my new desk/sewing area set up.  I've still got a little tidying to do and still have my training wheels on when it comes to fully cleaning up after a sewing session.  Having this in the living area is forcing me to be more mindful of that.  My computer and small desk were in this spot and I just left the cork board and other pictures up.  I need to find a more aesthetically pleasing way to deal with the cords, too.  If you've got any suggestions, let me know!

For daydreaming purposes, I have a panorama shot of Melbourne as viewed from Williamstown to stare at and also a large patio window to stare out of.  I should put some plants or something decorative out on that balcony - it's not very inspiring in it's current empty state.  (We have a second balcony that has the bbq, bistro set and plants - how decadent are we with our two balconies!)

To keep me company, I also have a wee Evil Monkey and a tiny Edgar Allen Poe.  You can just seem them perched on the edge of the cork board.  Oh, and that bunting is from The Boy's birthday - which was two weeks ago.  We like to keep the party going around here.

So, that's my new space.  Not that you know what my old space looked like.  I'm hoping this new set up will make crafting a little more streamlined and hopefully that will translate into increased productivity.  I did manage to finish a new quilt last night so things are looking good!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Thanks to the magic of the internet and Mr. Random Number Generator, the winner of the My Memories Suite V. 2.0 is........*drum roll*......

J Baby!


Out of the many, many *ahem* comments received, Miss J is the winner and will now be able to fancy up her wedding photos.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you do!  Miss J, I will be contacting you soon with the details.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Pro-Craft-Inator and thanks again to MyMemories.com for providing the prize.

Coming up - a look at my new crafting set up and the start of a new baby quilt.  Stay tuned!

Giveaway time...

...finally.  After some technical difficulties, and without further ado, let's get on with the giveaway!

I recently received an email from a rep of mymemories.com asking if I would like to host a giveaway of their digital scrapbook software on my blog.  I'll admit, I've never done any scrapbooking in my life, unless you want to count photo collages made when I was much younger.  I've also never really talked about scrapbooks here on Pro-craft-inate so I was a little surprised that I got the offer (I know I'm not the only one to have been given the opportunity, but the others that I've found seemed like more likely blogs to host the giveaway).

At any rate, I decided to take them up on the offer because I have a boatload of digital photographs gathering virtual dust on my hard drive and because it might be nice to offer up something to my readers who have stuck by my sporadic postings.  I also thought it might be fun to try it out and see if it was something I could get into.

I downloaded my complimentary copy of My Memories Suite and was able to jump right in and create pages without much fuss.  There are a wide range of page templates included in the software, as well as embellishments, so you don't have to buy any 'extras' in order to start building albums.  If you've ever used any kind of photo editing, or painting software, you won't have any trouble navigating this program.  If you've never used that kind of software, you'll still be able to figure out what you're doing very easily.  Really, it's as easy as picking a template and choosing your photos.

Clicking buttons!  It's that easy.

This is the basic screen.  All I did here was pick my template page, add a few photos and that was it.   If there's an embellishment on the page that you don't particularly care for - take it out.  You can customize these as much as you want, or if you're on a creative roll you can start with a blank page and build it from scratch.  You can see the selections on the right - background paper, text, word art, embellishments, etc.

You don't have to stop there, though.  With the My Memories software you can add video and multimedia, hot links, music and narration to the albums you create.  How great is that?  If you build a wedding album, you could add the music from your wedding.  If you were making an album to send to the grandparents, you could add video of the kids, or recorded messages.  Sharing the albums is a snap, too.

There's a theme to my page.  Can you guess what it is?

If you don't find what you're looking for in the template choices that come with the software, there are many, many more at mymemories.com that you can choose from.  Prices range from around two dollars to ten dollars (9.99 was the most expensive I found but I admit I didn't go through all of the hundred + pages of options).  There is also a very good selection of free templates and a 'dollar store'.  Plus, they have a large number of tutorials and galleries to view if you get a little stuck for ideas.

Keep in mind that you don't have to stick with traditional scrapbook sized pages.  You can also re-size and make custom pages, calendars, cards, gift tags, invitations, announcements, etc.  Print them off at home or send them to your favourite photo printer.

All in all, I'd say the My Memories software is reasonably priced (39.97 USD) for what you get, what you can do with it and how easy it is to use.  Having said that, you could get your very own My Memories Suite (download) for free!  All you have to do is leave a comment below.  Tell me what you'd like to create, pop over to mymemories.com and tell me your favourite paper pack, or let me know that you've 'liked' the My Memories page on Facebook and you're in the draw.  Easy peasy, lemon squeasy!  The draw is open until midnight PST on September 22, 2011.  I'll be drawing the lucky winner's name out of a hat (or something like that) on Friday, September 23.

Edited to add:  If you are posting a comment as 'Anonymous', please provide an email address so that I can contact you if you win.

If you don't win, fear not!  mymemories.com are also offering a discount to any of my readers who purchase the My Memories Suite V2 software.  Use the coupon code when you buy the software and you'll get $10 off the software plus a $10 coupon for the store.  The coupon code is: STMMMS88799.  


Be sure to tell your friends about the giveaway and good luck!

A Small Delay...

...in my giveaway due to my overwhelming urge to re-arrange my crafting and blogging spaces.  The moving of furniture and organization of supplies has taken more time than I thought.  Now all I want to do is sit back and enjoy a big ol' glass of Pinot Grigio.

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about the giveaway.  Exciting!

The day after that is The Boy's birthday, so I'll most likely be busy.

The day after that, I'll tell you about my new workspaces and there may even be never-before-revealed photos of Chateau Pro-Craft-inate...well, parts of it anyway.

Completely unrelated.  It's sunny here - is it sunny where you are, too?