Holiday Advent Calendar

I pinned this advent calendar on Pinterest a few months ago:

but couldn’t afford the $85 + shipping + duty (= arm & a leg) price tag.  So I decided to attempt to try to sew it myself. What you should probably know about me is that I bought my $60 costco special sewing machine solely for cardmaking and haven’t actually sewn fabric since my grade 7 home-ec class.  Thankfully, there’s a youtube video for everything these days, and once an 11 year old taught me to thread a bobbin, I decided to wing it without a pattern. 

If you’re looking for directions for the pockets, I highly recommend Aunt Louisa’s Pleated Pocket Advent Calendar tutorial.

If you’re starting without a pattern, like I did, the easiest way to do it is to use cardboard to figure out how big you want everything to be.  I wanted my pockets to be 4x5” and 1.5” deep, so I started measuring strips of white canvas that were 29” long and 6” high (7” of fabric per pocket, 4 pockets in a row, with excess on the edge to attach it).   I then sewed the edge detail onto the tops of each strip.  Then, using the cardboard pieces as a guide, I followed the pleated pocket tutorial above and ironed and pinned each pocket into place, sewing the pockets onto the canvas backing and securing the pleats all at once.

Once all the pockets are sewn on, fold the top and bottom edges of the backing over and sew, leaving enough space for a wooden dowel inside (we had some left over from other projects that we used).  Attach a ribbon to the top dowel, and you’re done (we used thumb tacks, but finishing nails would work too).

 

For the numbers, I designed them using random fonts I thought went well together.  Originally I laid the design out in Illustrator (you can use MSWord), and then printed and taped the numbers in place to make sure that’s what I wanted before finally printing them on to Avery iron on transfer paper and affixing them permanently (follow the instructions on the package).  You can download the printable numbers I used below.

The final product ended up being 18x50 inches.

A few things I learned:

• Sewing in a straight line is a lot harder than I thought.  I had to rip out more than a few stitches, and the top seam for the dowel still looks like it was sewn by a drunk.
• You don’t need to use super industrial outdoor fabric. While I thought it would make it more durable, my El Cheapo sewing machine couldn’t handle it and I went through 7 sewing machine needles trying to get through the multi-layered pleats.  (I also don’t recommend trying to replace said needles at Michaels during a sale weekend while caring for 2 tantrum-prone children…send wine).
• The hotter the iron the better, for all tasks.  It gets the pleats crisp before you sew them, and helps the iron on transfers stick faster.

The packages were provided by Grandma.  I have no idea what they contain.  My only rule was that they were task-based or educational; I didn’t want it to be a month of presents.  Grandma even learned how to use Pinterest for this.  I hope it went much better than when she learned to use “the Twitter”.

Download the Advent Numbers

And we’re back

So I took a looong break  from the blog.  I went back to work, which doesn’t leave a lot of time when you factor in raising a toddler and sleeping (I suppose you could cut out the sleeping).  But I’m back on maternity leave and am promising a ton more printables in the upcoming days.  I’m also doing a lot of toddler crafts these days, so stay tuned for some crafting ideas for the holidays. 

I will try to get to some of the requests in the comments section soon!

Vintage Wedding Kits

Things have been busy here with the little one.  We took a bit of a hiatus on everything while TC finished up his Masters.  In the meantime though, I’ve been busy working on a variety of projects that I’ll try to post in the coming weeks.

One of my newest projects are wedding stationary kits that I’ll be selling through my etsy shop at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/questionabledomestik

Each kit will be personalized and delivered as a pdf, though I will offer a printing option.  It’s been so much fun working on these.  Stay tuned for more to come!

Coat Rack Bookends

I’m sure you’ve seen the IKEA spice rack book holders on pinterest that are so popular that it’s becoming impossible to find them in stock at an IKEA store:

Original Source

Originally, I was hoping to do something similar, but we couldn’t find them in stock at our local IKEA.  While I love the bookends I made a while back for the nursery, they aren’t durable enough to withstand the wear a soon to be walking kid will impart.  Instead, I came up with the idea of putting pegs in the shelf at intervals to hold up the books, but keep the spines visible.  Since I didn’t want to drill directly into the shelves (the particleboard and melamine combo can be a pain to drill cleanly), we decided to go with the coat rack look.

The wood was scrap from home depot (less than $1), and the pegs were $0.69 for 2.  If you’re super resourceful, you could probably pick one up at a garage sale for less.

Book of Faces

We live far from our families, but wanted to make sure that our daughter had a sense of who her family is.  Since babies are really attracted to faces, I thought putting together a book of headshots is a simple way for her to get to know her extended family.  We go through the book whenever we’re sitting down to read, and you do get a sense that she’s gradually getting more familiar with the faces.

artscow.com prints on board book style cardboard, which is great for babies and ships quickly.  I waited for a sale and this book cost me 7.99 to print, and you can’t beat that.

We’re on ETSY!

Check out the new etsy.com store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/questionabledomestik

Month Old Signs

We’ve been taking monthly pictures of our kidlet to track her growth since everything changes so fast in these first months (that and we’re proud parents, so we really don’t need an excuse to crack out the camera and taunt the kid with stuffed animals). 

In today’s edition of ‘now you can too’, I’ve uploaded the monthly circles in 4 separate colours so you too can annoy your friends with monthly pictures…I mean, track your child’s growth.  I used a lollypop stick, but a popsicle stick, old chopstick or any other child-safe pokey bit will do.  I glued (good ole’ Elmer’s) it to a piece of cardstock that I cut to the same size as the rounds, like so:

Each month I peel off the previous month’s, and attach the new month with a glue stick, and voila!

Download Blue Circles

Download Pink Circles

Download Mod Orange

Download Mod Purple

Rocket Ship

A friend of mine is doing her son’s room in a rocket ship theme.  I haven’t broken out the paints since my art school days (mainly because I’m still reliving the obnoxious condescension from my art critiques), but I had some canvases hanging around and thought ‘what the heck’?  I think they turned out okay, no?

Baby Shadow Boxes

 

I wanted to give the parents some sort of footprint/handprint memento for Christmas, but I found that a lot of those kits you can buy at Michael’s are only for kids aged 6 months and up.   Someone recommended using Crayola’s Model Magic, which is what we ended up using. 

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I recommend it as a mould making product.  TC and I had to wrestle the kid (who at the time was squirming like a wet cat) and still couldn’t manage to get a nice handprint.  The footprint required a lot of force, and the process ended up warping the edges (I really wanted clean edges).  

In the end though, I think the shadow boxes turned out okay.

(photos were printed at London Drugs directly on to foam core for easy mounting)

Christmas Cards 2011

I wanted to do something simple and easy this year because I was running short on time.  Normally I start making christmas cards in January (not because I’m a keener, but because we’ve been selling them to raise funds for TC’s Ride to Conquer Cancer).

These cards look labour intensive, but they’re really not.

All you have to do is rip canvas to your desired size (I had a stack of 4.5x6 cardstock that I had kicking around, so that was the size I went with).  Stamp canvas with a holiday stamp of your choosing.  Layer on top of cardstock, run it through the sewing machine, and voila!  The hard part for me was running the darn thing through a sewing machine.  It turns out that not sewing since grade 8 home-ec makes me a terrible seamstress.  The card looks great from here.  Just don’t flip it over.

We included a family letter in ours (yes, we’re THOSE people), and a picture of the kid that I took in front of the tree once we had it up (I needed an excuse to buy a pair of ruffled diaper covers)

Here’s my invitation writing station all set up:

And, if you’d like to make these your cards next year, I’ve put up a pdf of the wrap around labels:

Download PDF

Worldlabel.com feature

It’s always exciting to see pictures of the stuff you do in action.  Recently, Worldlabel.com featured my spice labels on their website.  Check it out:

http://blog.worldlabel.com/2011/spice-jar-labels-and-template-to-print.html

Gingham Holiday Printables

Here’s a set of Christmas printables I did up that would be perfect for a low key holiday party.  Would look great with some canvas or raffia accents.

The North Pole tags can be used as cupcake or drink embellishments.  If using them for drinks, make sure you use plastic straws.  I used paper candy sticks, and they dissolved in my hot chocolate.  Somehow paper chunks don’t have the same effect as marshmallows. :P

Download pdf here.

Vegetarian Lasagne

A lot of veggie lasagne recipes call for zucchini and eggplant as the meat substitute, which is fine if you like zucchini…or eggplant, but neither of us are keen on either.  (This is a real annoyance when dining out, as most chefs will use both in what few vegetarian options they offer on a menu).  Perhaps I should have mentioned that the irony of writing a blog mostly about food is that we’re ridiculously picky eaters?

Anyway, this is an eggplant-free, zucchini-free, vegetarian version of the LoonySpoon’s recipe a friend sent me a while back when I was making lasagne for friends who were expecting their first child (recipe can be found here).  I’ve doubled the recipe here since they freeze well and make great gifts.  It’s always good to have lasagne on hand for those nights you just don’t feel like cooking. 

Ingredients:

Sauce:
10 sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed)
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups diced onions
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 pkg extra firm tofu, diced or chopped in a food processor
1 jar (700 mL) tomato sauce (we use the Classico Spinach and Cheese)
1 large can (19 oz/540 mL) diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup minced fresh basil leaves

Filling:
2 cups light ricotta cheese
2 300g pkgs soft tofu
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
2 package frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry and chopped
2 eggs
2 boxes of oven ready lasagna noodles (I like having extra on hand)
2-3 pkgs shredded 4-cheese blend (we like ours extra cheesy)

Directions:

Sauce:

1. Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over sun-dried tomatoes and let soak while you prepare the sauce.
2. To make sauce, heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add onions and garlic. Cook and stir until onions have softened, about 4 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms and heat until cooked.
4. Add all remaining sauce ingredients, except fresh basil. When sun-dried tomatoes are soft enough, drain and chop them (fine) and add to sauce. Bring sauce to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Stir in basil, remove from heat and let cool.

Assembling the lasagnes:

1. Combine all filling ingredients except the 4 cheese blend in a medium bowl and mix well.  Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375ºF (skip this step if making freezer lasagnes).
   Spoon some of sauce over bottom of dish.
3. Arrange noodles over sauce and layer as follows: sauce, noodles, cheese filling, 4 cheese blend, noodles, sauce, cheese filling, 4 cheese blend, noodles, sauce, 4 cheese blend.
4. If making a freezer batch, as I often do, cover with tinfoil and place in the freezer.
5. If you’re cooking it right away, cover lasagne loosely with tinfoil  and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes or until cheese is browned. Let lasagne stand for 10 minutes before serving.

I buy 2 of the 3 packs of 8x8” aluminum pans for this.  Store flat in the freezer until frozen, and then stack. 

Makes 6 8x8” lasagnes.

Hallowe’en Printables

For those still looking for a way to spruce up their hallowe’en party, I’ve designed a set of hallowe’en printables for you.  Included is a set of letters for a holiday banner, treat labels, place cards and cupcake wraps.

enjoy. :)

Download PDF Here.

Thanksgiving Printables

Things have been pretty busy since Hannah joined us 3 weeks ago.  I will admit, it’s been a bit of an adjustment: getting used to everything I wear smelling like curdled milk, and learning to appreciate a 2 hour stretch of sleep as ‘quality rest’.

So this year’s thanksgiving will be pretty low key, considering TC is a vegetarian and the kid will only make the screaming stop in small increments. Plus, it will be tough to top last year’s turducken (it is the super protein). 

So, if your Thanksgiving is a little more action packed, and you’re looking for a little something to spruce it up, here are some easy to print decorations that will add a special touch to any special event you may be planning. :)

Download PDF here.

Yarn Wrapped Initial

I’ll admit. That pinterest is like crack. I can sit for hours scouring through the pages of DIY inspiration longing for the day when I’ll have unlimited time and an unlimited budget to accomplish the things that get posted on there. (Anyone want to pay me to craft full time?).

I came across this on pinterest and thought: hey, that looks easy. Clearly I shouldn’t listen to my brain as often as I do.

Image and tutorial from evie –s.

It starts out with some leftover cardboard and some painters tape. Do yourself a favour, try to use a similar colour tape to the yarn you plan to use. Or better yet, paint the whole thing that colour so you can get away with missing a touch or two.

Then it’s just a matter of starting the yarn somewhere and wrapping. Sounds simple enough, but it takes a lot longer than you intend. It’s a good thing the Tour de France is a month long, because otherwise I would have had to find something else to watch while I wrapped.

The flowers went through a few iterations:

Until I finally settled on these:

Tutorial for making them can be found HERE. What I did do was attach the flowers to bobby pins for easy insertion (clean minds, folks), so that they can be moved frequently to change the look of the craft.

And the final product:

Baby Album – Gender Neutral

Here’s the latest instalment in our downloadable baby album series.

Download .pdf here

Our Nursery Tour

The orange was a bit of a battle. I wanted something less girly than pink. I’ve never been a pink person, and quite frankly, it’s a ridiculous colour to decorate with (it’s a very, very thin line between a nice pink and pepto bismol). TC wasn’t sold on the idea of orange and everyone else we spoke to seemed to scratch their heads.

The other battle was with the paint. I’m normally a loyal Benjamin Moore user, but since trying their Natura line, have been less than impressed with them. Everyone and their uncle was raving about Behr Ultra, and despite still not having lived down the Ralph Lauren paint experience (the paint that started chipping even before it was dry), decided to give Home Depot another chance. I think it was probably naive of me to assume that a paint that touts itself as ‘paint and primer in one’ would say, not require priming. Apparently I was wrong according to the overly perky teenager at the paint counter, and was required to pick up an additional bucket of the ugliest tinted peach primer you ever did see:

But it wasn’t the orange that killed us. I can justify 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of orange paint. Everyone says red’s the worst colour to paint and orange isn’t that far off, right? But it was the bloody white. You’d think that a primer-and-paint-in-one wouldn’t need 4 coats to get any sort of coverage, but you’d be wrong, and probably standing very close to a very irate and sore 7 months pregnant version of me.

To top all that insanity off, right after the painting experience, TC’s back decided it had had enough, and TC spent the next 3 weeks on the couch pretty much useless (well, unless you needed something googled). So yeah, thanks Behr.

It was worth it in the end though. I really do love how everything turned out and that everything did indeed come together. I had a bit of a panic attack when the seller for the wall decals I’d picked out on etsy went on prolonged leave, but she made special exception for me and did a fantastic job.

This is the final product:

The frames were originally black ikea cheapies that were painted with white oil paint. To save yourself the heartache of chipping, like I didn’t, sand thoroughly and prime first. The art is just fabric TC picked at the fabric store that we mounted using the existing mattes.

Baby Albums – Pink Birds

Since the other albums I’ve posted are more boy/gender neutral oriented, here’s a more girly version for those looking for something pink.

Download .pdf here