Repurposing an Old Sweater

Here's what you do with a perfectly good angora sweater your sister no longer wears.  This is what I started out with. 

First and most importantly wash it in really hot water and put it in the dryer.  This way it will be washable in it's future life.  The next step was to take it apart.  I took off the sleeves and the belt on the bottom.

I shortened the sleeves took in the bodice of the sweater and attached a 5 inch piece of black velvet to the bottom of the sweater. (I think if I had it to do over I would cut the sleeves a little shorter.) I then cut inch long strips of velvet and made ruffles which I then sewed on to the bottom of the sweater. 

  I found that the v of the neck was too low on my daughter so I added a piece of the velvet to the neck line to bring it up to a more modest level for a 4 year old. 

The head band was my daughters idea. She figured out that the top part of the cut off sleeve fit her head perfectly and kept her ears warm.  So I finished the edge and attached a ruffle to the back.  She insisted that the belt needed to be a scarf and that it too, needed ruffles. 

The little model is very happy with her new Christmas dress.  Mommy suggested we buy her some nice new plain pink tights but, she has insisted that the stripey ones were perfect. 

Pretty cute if you ask me. 

When happy accidents colide, they can create beauty.

It's Christmas time and things this year are tighter than usual. So to save money I decided to make all my presents. One problem, I got stumped with the idea of what to do for my parents and in-laws. I'd already made all the presents for my Nephews and Niece and I was running low on time and inspiration. So I turned to a couple of the blogs I like to follow and there it is was Inspiration! (Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures the lighting is not great but trust me these look so much better in person.)


These are the two ladies that got me thinking, Living with Lindsay's post found here. As well as Homemade By Jill's post here.

Silhouettes!, perfect for my Mom's decor and it would match with previous presents I have given my in-laws. Now what kind of silhouette to do. I toyed with the idea of a pillow and then decided on a paper cut out framed. Out I went to look for the supplies.

1. Paper from Micheals no problem
2. Subjects to silhouette easy... I have children!
3. The frame... this is where i got stumped.

Why? Being the difficult person I am; I decided I wanted to use an oval frame. Do you know how hard it is to find an oval frame?? I sure didn't think it was going to be such a problem. Of course I didn't want just one, I wanted six!

Then by accident I found them. In their original state they were ugly really ugly! Gold and silver plastic frames with what I thought was a plastic mirror in them, but they had potential besides they were a $1. Once home I got straight to work dismantling them and found to my surprise that they were real mirrors.

When I had wanted to do a paper silhouette I thought that I could live without the glass front as they weren't really frames and I was having so many problems finding them. Now I had a better idea! Flashback to Living with Lindsay's etched silhouette on the mirror. Ping! that was it I knew what I was going to do.

Okay so I had no idea how pleased I would be with this or that I might want to post this so, I did not take step by step pictures.

Here's what I did: After taking apart the frames I painted them black with acrylic paint as a base coat. Took a picture of my children and followed the basic principles described in the above links. Then after cutting out the stencil I thoroughly cleaned the mirrors and applied spray on adhesive to the back of my stencil. I placed the stencil on the mirror making sure to firmly press on all the edges of the stencil to prevent bleeding. Here's where trial and error began, trying to stencil in the usual manner provided less than spectacular results and chipping. So do not bother trying to use an acrylic based paint or any other sponge or paint brush method. What you need is spray paint. Rust-oleum Universal advanced formula to be exact. I chose the satin finish. So holding the can directly above and parallel to the mirror I started spraying. One good solid coat is all you need. I very carefully and immediately removed the stencil and was delighted with the results. One quick coat of the same spray paint over top of the base coated frames and I was done. The hardest part was waiting till they dried to see it all together.

I must say, I am pleased with my results. It's amazing what you can do with some dollar store framed mirrors, a can of spray paint and time. Christmas Crafting almost done.

Christmas Craziness

Two weeks to Christmas.... Yikes!

Well I just put out the decorations and hung the wreath on the door as of Yesterday. Yes I know I'm quite behind but things as usual are crazy around here. My goal this year has been to not buy a single present and so far so good. If I can't make it I'm not giving it. It takes a bit more time but , I think I might be able to do it. I'm almost done and I only have about 5 presents left to go. Totally do able right??? There are a couple of things that "Santa" might have to buy but most of that is for the stockings and that's stuff like toothbrushes and toothpaste etc..

Okay so to the point. I don't know if anyone has ever read this blog but if there are any that do here is something super cute and free that you should try. Especially if you have little kids. My daughter and son were so excited when they saw this.

Sympatico.ca has set up this video email message from Santa to your kids that includes their names, age, pictures, what they would like where they live etc... It is really well done and when he says the things pertaining to your child it is without the computer generated choppiness. Best of all it's FREE. I had so much fun with this that I sent some to my sisters. You get a couple of different options as to what will be said. I recommend that if the child is two and up the more enjoyable option is the one geared for children aged 3 and up. So here's the link and have fun!

http://santa.sympatico.ca/watch/613241527333d6e138f429100304df50

Merry Christmas!

Blaahh

Today is a blah day, it's raining, so no chopping firewood right now. I know that's a strange thing to say but I enjoy it. There is something about seeing that pile of split wood growing in front of you and knowing that it will keep your family warm this winter and the next. It's relaxing, calming and fullfilling. Crazy you say?...yes probably, but for me it works.

To top it off the kids have cabin fever, it has been raining for days and we are all wearing on each others nerves. So not only is it a blah day but, I feel blah, I look blah,blah blah blah blah blah! I want to be out chopping wood. I am tempted to sit the kids in front of the Tv and watch them from the screen door while I go out and get rid of some this blah. Besides that's a lot of wood and right now it's kind of blocking the driveway....and it's only rain.

So long but not forgotten

Well spring and summer have come and gone a I have not written a thing on this blog. Partially not my fault some horrible little virus thing got on our computer and I couldn't get on to this website. Then accck couldn't get on to any website. Tried fixing it and couldn't finally I just gave up and started saving to get the machine fixed. Well I got used to not having the computer and all the things I managed to get done. Amazing. So then we forgot about fixing it. The other day I tried again to fix it an cross fingers knock on wood and all that stuff. It seems that I have kicked the bug to the curb. I waited a few days before attempting to get on the blog and so now here I am.

I'll post pics later but here are some of the things I can remember finishing this summer. I made the little princess two new summer dresses so cute. A skirt, a tutu and crochet new slippers for both my babies. Pink and purple felted ballet stlye slippers and blue shagged dogs with googly eyes for the little guy. Crochet a new door mat out of my husbands old T-shirts, looks quite nice I might add. Started and finished one lap blanket with cream and brown wool from my stash. I will have to keep an eye out for more of the same I still think the blanket is too short. Started on another really crazy blanket, I'll post a pic when it's down and also started on a blue themed granny square blanket. The goal this summer was to finish started projects and any new ones could only be made with things already in my stash. I am proud to say I have accomplished that goal not a single new craft thing was bought this summer. Can't forget the little man, he got a "man apron" made from Daddy's old jeans and some leftover camo fabric. He loves it. Pirate costumes for him and his sister and Daddy made wooden swords from some leftover bits. They turned out really well. I'm sure there was more but that's all I can remember right now.

Now that I've got this computer working again maybe I'll be able to keep a better handle on this Blog thing.

What a nice way to spend an evening.

Last night my husband came up with a wonderful idea.

He dragged out an old canoe he bought from an auction a few years ago. This poor thing was so beat up no wonder he only paid $20 for it. Along with it came the paddles and my question "Will it sink"? Really it was that bad.

So after dinner we all put on bug spray, strapped the kids into their life jackets, and walked through the back field to the bird sanctuary in behind our house. It's tucked away in amongst warehouses and a few other properties like ours. I'm sure that very few people even know it's there. So after the kids and cat trudged through grass as tall as them and hiked what my daughter called a small mountain; we put the canoe in the water and I held my breath as we all climbed in.

It was lovely! I haven't paddled in a canoe since I was a teenager and had forgotten how calming it can be. The kids sat beautifully one behind with my husband and one in front with me. We paddled around for a half hour or so and just enjoyed the scenary. We discovered two beaver dams, two lodges and we even heard and saw the beaver. Well we kind of saw the huge splash of water has he slapped his tail. The kids loved it. Further on we spotted some baby ducks but, I couldn't get close enough to get a picture. I did managed to get a picture of one of the red winged orioles that were flying around.

It was so relaxing and peaceful that my little man fell asleep in Daddy's lap. About the only hard thing was getting the sleeping boy out of the boat.

Definately something that we will do again.

Patience, it's worth it.

When we moved into this house it was with the knowledge that no one had cared for it in a Very long time. The family previous to us had done work in the garden but, they took all the plants with them when they moved. A little upsetting when come spring you are hoping for something other than slush and mud to appear in your front yard. I believe I had one lone tulip which had somehow been over looked. Along with a mess of over wintered kale in the so called "veggie garden".

That first year the garden was very bare as I waited hoping, that some of the other removed plants might make a come back. To my delight some columbines poked their heads out and grew vigorously. All spring and summer I waited, but no flowers appeared on them. The only bloom other than the tulip was a lone iris. Pretty, but one flower does not a garden make. Some other plants popped up that I really wasn't sure were plants but, thankfully I have left them in. Now I have some lovely perennial geranium, some additional irises, Shasta daisies and some pink cone flower. I raided my mother's garden for her cast offs and friends gardens for seeds and found a great deal on some out of season bulbs.

Thankfully the second spring was a little better. I had some lovely Daffodils, tons of Grape Hyacinth, my lone tulip and the start of more columbines. Spring faded and summer past with a few more blooms but still no columbine flowers. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. All the other plants were blooming. So this year at the advice of one of the garden centres I put fertilizer on the garden as soon as the snow melted. The daffodils, hyacinths and new tulips came up beautifully and with them came my columbines. They now created huge foot and a half mounds of foliage and I was preparing myself for another year without blooms. Much to my delight one day I noticed new shoots of growth coming up from the middle of the mounds and on the shoots were flower buds. I know this is how they normally grow but for me after two years of waiting this was a miracle. This weekend Finally they opened.

My other favorites so far are the English daisies, I got a great deal on them at the local flea market. They remind me of something from a Dr. Seuss book. So this year the garden is shaping up to be a colourful display.

Why write a blog?

As I sit here composing this first entry I am asking myself "Why am I doing this?"

It certainly isn't for lack of things to do, to which the mountain of laundry, unfinished projects and a very weedy veggie garden can attest. Maybe it's the need to communicate with people other than playdate parents , children and family. Something all to myself.


In my previous position I had a constant barrage of people to talk to, and equally as many that I didn't want to. I am now a Full Time Stay at Home Mom and while the title doesn't have the same ring as CMBC Customer Information Workleader, I can say it has many of the same challenges.


I am in love with, amazed, frequently surprised by and forever in debt to my children for the changes they have brought to my life. However, sometimes you need something more than the conversational skills of a 4 and 2 year old. So here goes... Maybe this will give me a reason to finish all my projects if not for anything else than to have something to write about.