girlie knits

Cute little knitty things for baby M.



Pink booties, is there anything that screams "girl" more then pink booties? The pattern comes from an old Patons book called Early Arrivals bk #702 - kind of ironic because baby M was not an early arrival.



My girlfriend recently had her first baby girl, it was joy for her I tell ya. Not because boys aren't special enough for her; she has 4 - yes, you read that right, 4 sons already and she has made sure her sons lives are filled with all kinds of specialness. But for this family having a baby girl/little sister is da bomb - and for me it gave me oodles of opportunity to do the girly knitting I could never manage to get done when I was expecting my twin girlies.



The sweater is a free download: the Abigail Sweater on ravelry.





The pants are my go-to baby knit pattern: Picky Pants, also available on ravelry for $10.00. I knit these a few years back for baby M's brother P, you can see them here.





The booties are from another old Patons Astra booklet that I had in my collection Patons Astra baby bk # 669.  I'll have more specific details on all the pieces once I get things uploaded to my ravelry account.

vintage pink!

A little something heading off in the mail soon. All saturdays should be filled with vintage pink-ness!

My Vintage Sheets

Visit the duckyhouse etsy shop to make a purchase.
Visit my duckyhouse blog.

I have many delicious, vintage fabrics in the shop waiting to be made into some fantastic quilt or handmade treasure. Here are a few samples:

pinks, oranges, yellows: 

blues, greens, purples: 

yellow, oranges, pinks: 

Go here

lovely

I'm just packing up an order for an etsy customer right now. The sheets she chose are a lovely combination of blues and yellows; a reminder that warmer days are on the horizon. Happy Friday, xox

smoke detector batteries

January is a hard month in these parts with the brutal cold arriving. I find myself spending increasing times indoors staying warm, drinking hot tea, reading books & earlier bed times. Why fight it right? I've also dubbed January "organization month". I'm inside for endless hours so it is a good time to catch up on unfinished things, declutter & tackle those monotonous projects that need to be done but always seem to be forgotten. 

One project that pops into my head throughout the year is changing the smoke detector batteries. It's one of those panic thoughts where I often find myself thinking "when did I last change my batteries" and then when I finally check, I can never actually remember the date change. Well I wisened up this time, pulled out the masking tape and voila: battery dates are labelled. Next time my brain goes into smoke detector battery panic mode, I will simply flip them open and note the last change date.

As for frequency, I've read two opinions that batteries should be replaced every 6 months or once a year. Please read though your manufacturers recommended date to determine your time frame for battery replacement. Oh and don't forget to test your batteries once a month to make sure the detectors are functioning properly (replace if necessary). Happy home and health to you. xox

volume vintage

I did a shop update last night and it was a biggy. 35 new-to-my-shop vintage prints are now joining the existing prints that are in my shop. That's a lot of sheets and whole lot of laundry, ironing, cutting, photographing, editing & uploading. It's been a long time coming and folks I finally have pink in the shop and of course gorgeous blues, greens, yellows & oranges. It's all good. 



pinks, oranges, yellows: 



blues, greens, purples: 



yellow, oranges, pinks: 



Go here

twirl & dance

Last week I had a chance to spend time with my sewing machine, just the two of us. Being out of the sewing loop for so long, I found it difficult to pick a task to work on. My need-to-sew-pile is pretty big and there are of course quilts in various stages, but working on quilts requires a certain degree of inspiration. Instead I opted for the sew pile with a quick start & stop project, perhaps the best place to begin on days of uncertainty.





It's been awhile since I cut this fabric out, it is a repurposed print that I found in the thrift shop in excellent condition, a standard of mine for thrift purchasing; plus sewing with repurposed fabric gives me opportunity to work out the bugs in a design without wasting costly designer fabric. My initial intention was to make hostess aprons but that idea has since entered the nothing box of my brain (a catchy phrase my MIL used over the holidays) and is now unretrievable. I am keeping with the apron theme though and have cut a bit more fabric, a top portion to be exact, as well as muslin to make this bad girl fully lined. Finished product is a full body apron with enough fabric for the two little bakers in my life. The girls have been shadowing me in the kitchen over the fall and are really taking an interest in baking. But with only two aprons in the kitchen & three of us baking, a solution was needed.





Enter the apron, it's basic with rounded lower edges, I added a couple pleats on the bib portion to provide shape and deal with fabric excess which help to make the bib proportional to little girls. The fussiest part was pattern matching, as this is a busy fabric (good for spilage when baking), the three pieces had to be lined up for this. Surprisingly it wasn't too difficult and I think it went pretty successfully. All in all this was an excellent project to work on having been MIA with sewing; I spent one evening making the design/sewing the first apron, the next evening I whipped off a second. The only thing left was girlie approval which is based solely on the aprons twirl and dance factor.

FCSP

sneak peek of my FCSP (first completed sewing project) for 2012. I am happy to be back in the studio and actually SEWING!! yes I am shouting it out loud :)



I have quite a few photos to upload from my camera so bare with me as I get organized, it's our first day back at homeschooling and I am distracted. I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of the sneak peek.

ps, the shop is open once again!

** happy new year 2012 **

I trust my new year greeting finds you well? Maybe even a pound of two heavier, it's all good right? We had a wonderful Christmas with family guests in our home during the holidays. The hubby's parents came to stay with us and our boys graciously gave up their space for the grandparents. It was no trouble I was assured by both boys intent on seeing Nana & Papa. I love my flexible family (did I mention that the girls are sleeping our room again as we are working on a project in theirs...more on that later).

While I dearly love Christmas time, decorating & all that, I also equally love packing it up. There is something wonderful about heading into the new year with things decluttered & re-ordered. The slate feels clean & my heart is ever so optimistic. Do you feel the same? I'm not sure what you do in your home but in ours I like to enter the new year with family theme or phrase. It's nothing life shattering, just trying to get a little family unity going in the same direction if you know what I mean. The past couple of years our theme was something like "work hard", with the following year being "work harder".  Boy I'm glad those years are behind us because this year is totally different: "be positive" is the theme for us and boy am I ready for it. I think most of us could use more positive feelings & thoughts in our lives on a daily basis don't you agree? Whether you found your theme or are still trying to figure it out, why not join me in this space for some inspiration, reading & plain ol' catching up.

ps: don't forget the warm drink, see you soon, xoo.