While Tangerine Dreams

Vote for a Clean Nest

I've been on such a cleaning/setting up frenzy my picture taking has somewhat been lacking these days. Today, though, we're taking the time to go out and vote. Here's a handy, nifty site to plunk in your postal code and find the most strategic way to deter the Harper government to seize a majority stance: www.voteforenviroment.ca

Nothing like leaving important links for the last minute, eh?  Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. We were blessed to have the loveliest orphan type dinner at some friends' house. We sat at a table of 16 beautiful, interesting souls and ate really comforting. Like mom made it our something. But instead we all did. But the couple hosting are cooks at the restaurant here in booming downtown Winlove so, they make mean, yet loving, stuffing, venison, gravy, squash, pie and on and on. Why, oh why did I not bring my camera? The food and company were beautiful and one friend was decked out in a five dollar suit.

There's alot of changes going on around here. I'll get some shots one of these moments for all the projects are pretty beautiful, but some of these aren't quite possible to capture on film (megabytes?). Edie's room is now all pinked up and that was a glorious experience in itself (seriously, almost spiritual for me) really setting the nesting tone to an almost holy vibe. Now I'm trying to manifest some curtains to go perfectly with the lazured walls. That's the deal with the dyed chiffon up top. I dyed some silk chiffon in shades of pinks, orange and yellow then nuno felted a panel. Safe to say, did not work out. Bummer. Time's a ticking. Another nesting project that didn't quite pan out is the mission I'm on to find a dresser for Drippy's clothing to place in the bathroom. I found a budget one a SHARE (like Salvation Army) but it's so huge and ominous I just want to go away and pretend it never happened. I have to get on damage control today now that the holidays are over.

We've also been folding baby clothes. So cute. Edie holds an outfit up and says "awwwww! So cute!!". Like every. single. one. Munchkin. Her excitement about meeting Drippy Head is really inspiring and adding a different dimension to this pregnancy experience. Love it.

And Craig. Oh, Craig. This is one busy, busy man. His top secret project is a cabin that he will work out of freeing up his office in the house to nest our new family bed. Nice and close to the bathroom. With a door. And walls. But the time crunch is getting to him for we can't really shuffle rooms around until he gets his space up and running and there's still a stuff to do. For now he refuses to put on clothes until Drippy puts on his/her first outfit and he pitched a tent out back he claims he will now use as his office space and does nothing all day but walk around with his pail, he calls his laptop, and collects "information". We're keeping an eye on him.

Project Nesting

No, I didn't bring my dreads from the dead back. This is an amazing babysitter that everyone seems to be arm wrestling over around here. She got to meet Edie this week and I think I some sparks fly between the two. I want her to come back lots. Hopefully she still will after I coerced her to model my stuff. She was really cool and understanding; she's done it before for friends. You can see why she's so frickin' cute! This does in fact have something to do with my nest fluffing. I made a whole tonne of nuno scarflettes a while back and, after a night of fitful sleep upon the realization that if this baby was Edie I'd be NAK'ing (nursing at the Keyboard) in four weeks!

So, I have this huge basket of yarns and felted items I need to get up on my etsy shop, like, yesterday, and I'm going to take some over to my friend Jane's brand new little real life studio/shop. I just want to put my business stuff aside so I can focus on hunkering down with little Cherry Tomato (the fetus formerly known as Drippy Head) when she/he makes his/her special guest star appearance in a few weeks or so.

Nesting is in full force too throughout the day. I'm sticking with computer work after Edie goes to bed and before she wakes up. When she's alert Sat Kaur's back painting her room (the room formerly known as my creative space) in Lazure because we love her and her work so incredibly much. Edie and I spent the day yesterday going through all her baby clothes my mom shipped out to me; sorting and washing. That was a trip. Went to Canadian Tire and tried to get the exact same kiddie pool we had with Edie, not sure if we've succeeded yet. The one I bought has a white rim and as you can see below, Edie's had a blue trim. Picky nesting Mama! (Have I mentioned in the past this is my favourite picture ever?)

And I'm trying to get Craig's sweater done but I'm having serious numb hands waking me up at 4:00 am these days. Which is a bummer because I'm totally into knitting these days! Any suggestions on how to eleviate this would be appreciated.

Craig too is on a serious top secret project that must be completed sooner than later. So he's pretty swollen belly too these days in his own special way. Pics of that coming soon.

Oi! This picture of Edie practically triggers contractions. I guess it's a nesting thing posting this. Never mind.

Okay, okay one more then I'll stop! I posted and had to throw this one in too for aaawwwww factor.

Oh boy, so still on the to do list: I have some diaper flanelette to make a few more newborn diapers, I'm starting to cook a little extra for freezer stock meals and just general decluttering, space clearing. Looking forward to diving into full time Momminess again and keeping things as simple and as chill as possible. So, yeah, this will be the last of project While Tangerine Dreams dot Etsy though I'll still be blogging because I love it so, just will have to change the blog name I guess to While Blankity Blank Blank Dreams.

Ka-Bluey Yellow

Edie taking it easel. Her daycare teacher loves her so much so she lent her her painting easel when she heard the poor thing didn't have one yet. Call child services! I had big plans this weekend to have a sewing FO to show off here  (I received my Sew U Home Sweat recently - yay!) but those plans all went ka-bleuy when I broke my serger. There's probably not a sicker sound around than two hard yet delicate looking mechanical pieces crunching together (that sounds kind of dirty now that I'm proof reading). What's the opposite sound of "ca-ching!"?

Thankfully, I miraculously found a serger repairman in the general vicinity who happens to work in our teeny tiny town who's going to pick up my machine this afternoon. I was almost ready to ship it out to Calgary again. Craig's like "maybe you should learn to use the machine before you use it". Ouch.

So I took this trauma as a sign from the Universe to giddy up on the spinning front especially seeing as how I've signed up for a festival here in September I hope to sell some at. This is an experiment. I have all these vintage silk chiffon scarves on hand so I nuno felted some that I will cut up and spin into yarn. Hmmm... we'll see how that turns out.

And here are the finished scarves. I cut them up last night and hopefully will have a chance today to see if this will work.

Project: Cute

I don't know if it's the early phases of nesting or what but I have this burst of energy and it's reflected in my craft room. Edie pokes her little nose in there and sees my roving bin opened and says "let's make a project together!".

Can I just say I dropped whatever was in my hands with a loud thunk and then a smash and said "sure, baby!!! What does mama's little princess wanna make?". She said a doll and she was really excited about using the pipe cleaners spilling out of my knick knack box. So we made a fuzzy wired skeleton and garnished it with warm woolies and her little dolly was born, along with Edie's art direction (loved the green pig tail call!), in no time at all. She bonded with this baby faster than a crazy glued construction worker to a beam.

It's at this point Craig came barging out of his office and put an end to our own little Hallmark made for tv moment. He heard our photoshoot in session through the window right behind us with me saying "okay, now squish your cheeks against your dolly's and keep your face toward me but your eyes rove to the right... no, your other right, and have a look of serious love going on..".

Kercheevious

It's been slow at the good ol' Etsy store so I've been using this time on research and development. One item I'm trying out are some felted kerchiefs and started off with a Mommy and Me batch to try out. Hmmm...

Edie says she like how it keeps her hair out of her eyes. Love her feedback on my handmade items. Wait until you here what she thinks of the hemp hoody I made this weekend. I'll need photos to go along with that story. Let's just say it still stings a little but I grew up with a brutally honest mom so I find strange comfort in it.

Look at my little ham! Little bit of a vast improvement from these days, hey? You have to scroll because the pictures are at the bottom of the post but it's pretty darn worth it it's so funny (imho).

Petticoat Munchkin

So I'm on this petticoat kick. The first one I put for sale on my etsy shop sold and needs to be replaced (was really popular looking at the views and heart counts). But first I had to make Edie one because the one I sold I originally made for her when she was an even munchier munchkin but turned out too small. So I made her this one but, alas, again, too petite of a petticoat.

Doesn't she love the camera? I wonder if it's because I use to coo to her as an infant as we watched America's Next Top Model that Tyra Banks was her Auntie Ty Ty? Not very Waldorf-y, I know. So because this was a little too snug, I went gangsta-busta and made her this giant not-so-petticoat:

Awfully cute, but she finds it too big. What a shame. Now she wants to keep the purple one which is probably only going to fit her for two more days. So today's the day she goes to her once a week daycare (she loves it !) and Mama gets to work non-stop until three o'clock. What a luxury, though I get almost paralyzed by the options though. So I'll be working on the finishing touches on one of those, not sure yet, and throwing it up on my shop later. Maybe. Or perhaps Craig and I will go for a cross country ski. (OH. MY. GAWD. Have you seen Away From Her yet? Canadiana in contention for Oscar! I loved it. Craig refused to watch it. About an older couple dealing with the onset of Alzheimer's. So romantic though.)

One more shot of the cute because I took a million and just can't decide which one to share. Off to work now!

They Grow Up So Fast

Shots are blurry because it's been that kind of a week. Big disclosure moment: Craig's been away all week again. So what's a new Etsy Mama to do when Dada's away and she needs a picture taken of her smelling her new clutch with two hands and is too lazy to read the camera's owner manual to figure out the doodad to take a picture of yourself with no hands? Get your three year old daughter to take the shot:

Not bad! Who's mommy little photographer? So, with Craig out of the house, and a plethora of wholesome children's dvd's at the corner store, I've been able to craft down and crank out some inventory for the shop. More to be cranked this weekend now that's the manny's home.

Speaking of my soulmate, thank God he's home safe and sound. I begged him to fly instead of drive out like he normally does. Strangely, when he called me from the airport on the way home he's was talking incessantly like he normally does (that's a super tongue in cheek inside joke for everyone who knows him in real life) and then he says "I think (insert cute girl name here) is sleeping right beside me". I said "rub her feet awake". He didn't but the reason she was there is because she crashed her car on the way home. The roads are terrible right now. I'm so glad he flew. <Cute Girl Name>'s okay by the way.

So Craig was gone then the cat went away. I lost the cat. He lasted ten hours in my care without incident. It was very scary. Long story but the cat came back. But the neighbours think I'm the crazy cat lady now though hearing me yell his name, sobbing for hours then having me call them on the phone a few times. Yikes. I lost my cool. Poor kitten. He was stuck on top of pole during the snow blizzard. Luckily Edie's babysitter found him 9:30 at night while she was walking home. She's getting a raise.

So, it's now Saturday morning and I can post my pretend it's Friday post and feature some of the finds from my Etsy Favourites list:

Camel toe  anyone?
I'm not much of a jewellry person but I can easily see myself smothering myself allover with wool.
A sign of better road conditions to come.

We Have a Winner to Announce!

That's the prize. I call it "That Seventies Skateboard Scarflette" cuz it reminds me of the skateboard I use to shred around in when I was little. Same colours, different ride. This one has rhinestoned vintage buttons from my button suitcase and a reverse side featuring pretty swirls of grenadine and orange - kind of like a Shirley Temple.

Speaking of Shirley Temples, my lovely little assistant, Miss Edie T, will draw from the felted bucket...

and the winner is...

Creativeredhead! Oh my goodness, this is going to look so striking with that gorgeous head of hair of yours (I can only imagine). Please email me your address (kathy(at)dobeclean(dot)com). Enjoy, that was too much fun. Thanks for the sweet birthday wishes and kindness regarding my first sale. This scarf's twin sibling will be posted in my etsy shop in case you're just totally bawling your eyes out right now.

Gut Feeling

That's so awesome that there so many of you with a button fetish! Does that make us a button for punishment? Remember a long, long time ago (since having Edie, two, even one year ago is long, long time) I was super freaked out about the debut of Curious Bird's Obi? Inspired by those, I made a more deep freeze version because, again I'm not the only one after talking to others around, my kidneys freeze this time of year. While my obi is a work of art, it doesn't cover the family jewels (kidney shaped jewels) at the back. So I made a nuno felted scarf that simple wraps around the hip and waist, made of wool and silk for thermal nuclear effect. Like a hot shot. And it's reversible so that's kind of cool. Yet warm. This will be hanging out in my new shop.

Booty Full Kitty

Felt like felting up some baby booties for a little rascal named Roscoe. Isn't that an awesome name? This bootie design was found in Complete Feltmaking by Gillian Harris. Ran out of manly coloured ribbon so had to use rick rack instead. Not sure how I feel about that. Luckily, by the time Little Roscoe's Big Roscoe I'm certain he'll be over it.

Check out Little Barney. I've been a busy, busy beaver these last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the sun's been missing in action enough to get some decent pics. Until then, Barney and Edie have become the best of friends. They follow each other everywhere and he's so terribly gentle with her (he's a lot tougher than he looks!). I. Love. Him.