And sew it begins…

Ah the cheese. I know it’s odd that I got way out here in the land of sun and sand to hone my domestic skills, but alas, it’s where I’m at. The family I have been babysitting for, likes to refer to me as “very domestic.” I even recovered their dining room chairs the first month I worked for them. They also referred to my Thanksgiving casseroles as having “Midwest Flair”… but that’s a whole different story…

After some pretty deep evaluating, it seems that I have a problem with sitting still, or “relaxing” my husband says… I just don’t feel like it’s very productive to be sitting around when there’s a million things I could do to fill my time. (Is there something wrong with that?) When I graduated college, I felt a void similar to the one I felt when I got here in Cali. Back then, I enrolled in a t-shirt quilting class at a dear friend’s shop and now I’ve made a few special keepsakes using all the old t-shirts that sat collecting dust in the back of the drawer.

When I got here and the “blog stalking” began, I stumbled upon about a bazillion different crafty sewing projects that I wanted to tackle… and after realizing that I left my Mom’s hundred pound 1970 something sewing machine wayyy back in Missouri, I decided I wanted one of my own, preferably from this decade.

When that blessed time of year called tax season rolled around… my wonderful hubby granted my wish and bought me my very own Singer Simple… even going as far as driving me way out to Walmart and going in… YIKES! (We really dislike Walmart ) I’m pretty sure Bri’s motivation was the fact that he needed to give me something to do so that he could play hours of video games without feeling like a bad Husband, but anyway…

Here is my beloved new friend (well, sometimes beloved… we’re still getting to know each other)


Ain’t she purdy?!

Now, for my first trick…

One of my first discoveries in the crafty blogging world, was this lovely little Etsy shop… Bit of Whimsy. Sooo stinkin’ cute. I just had to have a pattern. Only having a general knowledge of sewing, this was definitely a challenging first project, but the little faces I was making these whimsical friends for were well worth the blood shed. (Did I mention I’m a bit clumsy?) The special little boys are Jack and Jett…Jack is taking his very first airplane ride out to visit Auntie Candace later this month, and Jett is the newest member of the Zimmermann family (their blog is to the right.) I picked the “Liberty Lion” pattern because it was just plain adorable. The instructions were super simple and I loved getting to use whatever fabric I wanted. Once I figured out the tension and my machine and I had a few good long talks, it was a pretty easy project. Here’s how the little guys turned out…



I’ve bought a few more patterns since then, and have “favorited” a few hundred crafting blogs… my list of what I want to make next is actually getting out of control… there is so much great stuff out there for little tykes… mine will be those poor kids who’s answer to every “Where did you get that” will be; “My mom made it.”

Love,
Candace