Valentine Fun: secret message tissue holders

I got a little overenthusiastic last week about making purse-sized tissue holders with my new Bernina, but can you blame me?

This project is from a tutorial for Sew, Mama, Sew! by Jennifer Casa, who offers three different variations on the theme.  Erika (who is responsible for my buying the Bernina in the first place - thank you Erika!) added a twist in the form of a carry strap when she made hers. I added a different one to make them perfect Valentine's gifts:  secret messages.

You want to know how I did it?

First up, I used the alphabet function I couldn't wait to get my hands on to make long strips of cheery words or symbols.

(It's dark in the living room.  I totally need to get this machine some full-time space on my desk!)

You can say anything you like, but I found that 15 characters are the most that's practical for the space you've got.  Both "Have A Good Day" and "Happy Heart Day" work well.  "Best Wishes for Chocolate", not so much, even though I personally would rather read that every time I put new tissues into the case.  I programmed in three underscores for cutting room before and after each message, then let the machine go on and on with it until I ran out of fabric.... and then turned the piece and let it run some more.

* Upcycling Tip *

For both the lining and the secret messages, I used castoff men's dress shirts.  I have a friend who, go figure, won't wear his crisp cotton dress shirts to work after the cuffs have frayed, so I have rather a good supply.  I got 31 lining pieces out of one shirt (see overenthusiasm above), and a ton of messages out of another.

* End of Upcycling Tip *

I cut the messages to leave half to three-quarters of an inch at the top and bottom, and halfway through the six underscores on the sides, so there would be something to fold under and press before stitching the message onto the centre of the lining piece. I gotta say, the ruler on the side of the sewing machine is something I really appreciated for this.

A short message like three hearts can run parallel to the long side of the lining piece:

But the long ones should run parallel to the short.

Trust me on this.

Then assemble the tissue holder according to the tutorial's directions.

Cute, yes?

And... even cuter?

I love these so much.  But I think I forgot to make one for me.

The fine art of mailing it in

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Canadians!

and aren't we lucky to have summery weather (at least in Southern Ontario) for it? of which I have been very much taking advantage, though mostly in my 'big organizational overhaul' way.

I have had time for that because back when people first started to let me cook the Big Holiday meals, I worked very hard to make them great, and now I cheat everywhere.

For example, a lot of people choose between turkey and ham for the main course.  Both are simple and require minimal intervention during the cooking stage.  But I've learned the hard way you can go crazy with brining a turkey before, and making turkey stock after.  So I go with spiral ham.  It's even pre-sliced!

Vegetables for this fall feast often include a delicious squash mashed up with maple syrup and butter, or potatoes mashed up with sour cream and butter, or better still scalloped potatoes and oh how I love those. Here is an amazing revelation though: if you slice up carrots and wrap them in tin foil with pats of butter and and some brown sugar, you get no-brainer candied carrots that pair nicely with cut potatoes roasted in olive oil on the otherwise unused bottom rack of the oven.  And nobody cares that nothing got mashed or sauced.  Unless they really hate mashed veg and cheese sauce, in which case they love you even more for not making them eat that.

Think about this one too: given the choice between fresh beans steamed on the stove (three pot pieces to wash plus cutting board and knife), or peas thawed and cooked in butter in a (solitary) saucepan, guess which gives you more green on your plate?

Oh, and let's not forget pumpkin pie.  Ever since the year I did everything but remember to put sugar into the filling, I send somebody out to buy one.

Hope your day is simple enough to do fun things with too!

Mother

My aunt made a copy for me of an old photograph of my mum, their mum, and my aunt, found in the depths of mum's albums when we were helping to organize for her recent move:

That's mum on the left, laughing.

My grandmother died when I was just three, but I have a slight, persistent memory of being tucked in safe and happy at her side while she read from a book she'd brought me. She had such a tough life really. Lost her mother when she was just a little girl too young even for school, lost one of her children in the days before kids could be vaccinated for the scariest of diseases, lost her husband when the oldest of the surviving ones was just 16 and the Depression was still an obstacle to survival.  But she's remembered for her gentleness and great sense of humour, traits she passed on in spades to the next generation.

I've been thinking today that that sums up motherhood: the need to carry on - with a good outlook where possible - no matter what else you have to carry, because other little lives have to come first.  I'm glad that mum and I have both lived long enough for me to put her life first, if only in the form of packing and shifting her things.

I finished that job on Friday after about three months of work, and guess what bloomed on Saturday?

I hope you have a very happy Mother's Day today, whether you spend it with children, or mothers, or both.

Raccoons ate my pumpkin

I knew a smooth Halloween was not in the cards for me when I stepped out on the front porch three days before the big event to discover what had been making that curious thumping and crashing sound the night before.

Raccoons ate my pumpkin!

Actually there were four uncarved pumpkins marking the porch steps, and thankfully they only dug right inside of one. Another had some holes in it, and the remaining two had the sort of surface scratches that meant they were probably going to stay non-rotten until I actually had to cut in there and find out. Also, it was garbage day, and the trucks hadn't been by yet, so I was able to run the two wrecked ones to the curb for instant removal.

Spoiler:

The one I cut into was fine; I didn't risk it with the other. The cut-into one became a cat, with spaghetti whiskers - and may I recommend boring holes for the spaghetti rather than expecting it to push in there on its own? I broke a lot of spaghetti while trying not to have to look around for a tool that would do that. The non-cut-into one became a canvas for a second cat drawn on with marker. I forgot to take pictures of either, mostly because they weren't finished and in place until about 45 minute before the first trick-or-treater, a neighbouring zombie with impressively cut-up pants, arrived to terrorize my house.

End Spoiler.

The night before Halloween I was invited to an outdoor movie party, wherein the guests would be watching a movie projected on a sheet at the back of some friends' house. I missed last year's party but I knew that good use was made of blankets and several layers of long underwear, so I dressed accordingly (which you should read as 'unattractively') and filled a bag with blankets and walked over - only to find the back yard was empty.

I didn't have the wrong house.

The party had been moved to indoors.

Also, a bunch of other people decided to wear costumes. So while I was in the bathroom peeling off layers and trying to decide what I could leave on that would look remotely presentable in a party situation, everybody else was wearing cool wigs and/or hats and crazy-yet-flattering outfits and taking silly pictures of each other.

It was a fabulous party and I had a great time in spite of being way too hot but about three minutes into attempting conversation with people I either knew well and like a lot or had never met but wanted to know better I realized I was about as exhausted as I've ever been in my life. I mean, I could barely string a sentence together.

Thankfully about an hour in somebody handed me the resident baby and I was able to spend the rest of the evening curled up in a chair with her. Sleeping babies are only slightly less restful than briefly awake babies that stare and stare at you before snuggling back in and nodding off again.

As I was leaving I ran into a friend who was just arriving. I told her I had cool wig envy and she said she'd had hers on for 20 minutes and it was itching her like crazy and did I notice she had only one false eyelash on because they are super hard to glue in place? I had, but said that I thought it was part of the effect, which was true. I mean, how cool is that to show up in a weird dress with a crazy long-haired wig and one false eyelash? You're like creepy demented zombie lady, then. That is totally going to be my goal for next year, when probably it will turn out to be an outdoor party after all.

Of course the nice thing about having Halloween on a Sunday is that you really can spend the whole day just doing that. And since I have a thing about decorating the lawn, this is a super nice feature.

When I first moved here, there were no kids to take candy off my hands, which was problematic. So I started doing all these beacon things - several carved pumpkins all lit up and glowing in the driveway, an open door, lots of lights inside, and so on. Leaf bags became a fixture - I'd draw faces on a bunch of them and gradually I started adding branches for creepy reaching arms and putting floodlights on them to make them a focal point.

And more kids did start to come over the years, mostly because more kids moved onto the block. But now I've made a tradition of the Leaf Bag Ghouls and the Headless Man (coveralls stuffed with leaves, accessorized with an old pair of men's snowboots and a pair of filthy work gloves) I really have to keep up with it.

This year's big project was the Giant Leaf Bag Ghost, rendered by stacking up a bunch of leaf bags and throwing a length of white cotton purchased for bag linings over the lot of them. Why do I still have a huge length of white cotton when I could have sewed it into bags, do you think? Because it won't hold a press, which is just so unsatisfying. I will totally use it again outdoors though. It makes a great ghost.

The Leaf Bag Ghouls are usually in a row, starting with a happy oblivious one and leading up to a really terrified one who realizes he's standing next to a Ghoul of the demonic variety. This year, they were progressively more scared of Giant Leaf Bag Ghost.


Leaf Bag Ghost's arms are fallen branches, and his hands are white cotton manicure gloves.

His face is courtesy of hockey tape. I couldn't face drawing directly onto the fabric in case I find a better sewing use for it some day.

He looks too happy to be scaring the Ghouls, don't you think? But they are easily frightened, and they're probably too short to see the smile on his face way up where I slid a beach ball onto the highest bag. He had to be a smiley ghost, because there are some very little children on the block just now. And I needed them to come up the steps because it is Not Good when too much candy gets left over after Halloween.

Of course, once they got to the door, they had to park themselves near Headless Man.

Headless Man got a head this year because I found a broken broom handle in the garage that still had a partial broom on top. Somebody threw it on the lawn at some point in the summer and I never got around to throwing it out. Also, I decided not to be so attached to the white pillowcases I bought at a discount store 20+ years ago. I mean, you can wash these things after all.

As the day progressed, an improvement suggested itself, and the pillowcase was filled with leaves and the hockey tape was pressed back into service for a face.

Talk about luxury for Headless Man. The pumpkin with the cat on it went into his lap, so he spent a very relaxing evening indeed.

The other pumpkin should by rights have been in the driveway on beacon duty but I quickly discovered it was very easy to knock the spaghetti whiskers off its face while dashing past. So I moved it over to the other side of the steps where the Ghouls were standing, leaving the driveway dangerously empty.

Solution: dragging out the two evergreen topiary things that normally stand alongside the porch steps, and putting bags on them, and taping pumpkin faces to the bags.

It would seem that these were the most popular decorations of all, so I think they may make a return appearance next year.

The beauty of all of this last minute do it yourselfness with stuff you already have is that it can be quickly disassembled and put back where it all belongs - no need to find storage crannies for a giant skull or inflatable lawn-sized light-up witch's cauldron.

And now that it is for all intents and purposes November I can sigh a deep sigh knowing that everything is already back to normal except for a giant bowl of un-treated candy it is now my job to consume.

Oh, and Christmas sewing. But I will wait a day or two more before panicking about that.

Happy Thanksgiving

I never have trouble thinking of things to be thankful for, no matter how dire the time, but when I stepped out into this morning's cold Canadian Thanksgiving Day and saw this

well, I just had to feel thankful that there are so many things in this world that can take the trouble to be beautiful while going about the business of being on this earth.

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are!

Happy Easter

... from Vic and the chicks!

How to make paper valentines

I've had some fun lately raiding my (home) office stationery cupboard for plain index cards and a few sheets each of red and white printer paper for my annual valentine-making fest.

First, of course, I cut some hearts.


This year I didn't mess up the heart shapes on the first cut, so I decided to incorporate some of the sheets I'd cut from, after matching them to the length of the index cards or to another strip of contrasting paper.


Having open heart-shaped gaps means you can put a word in each one to make a messsage.


I think I'm almost ready for Sunday, but I'd better brush up on the ol' calligraphy skills!

The holiday before the holiday

An unfortunate incident with a vehicle that was moving rather too quickly has me staying out with a dear friend this week.

It's not so much fun for my friend, of course, but I'm having a fabulous time. My duties are meal preparation and cleanup, small amounts of fetching, and much maneuvering of a wheelchair. The list of perks, however, are much longer. Lots and knitting and chatting and really good sleeps, and - thanks in part to my laziness/wisdom in bringing out meals that require heating only and no pans to wash - reading.

My friend likes an interesting book, and a diverse array of friends who are happy to indulge her, so her shelves offer a large and mixed selection.

Yesterday, for example, I was attracted by the title "The Full Cupboard of Life" which has proved to be a mystery from Alexander McCall Smith and quite enjoyable as an accompaniment for late-night milk-and-chocolate consumption.

Today, I noticed some anothologies: Penguin's Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, a collection of memoirs from 26 different writers called My Wedding Dress, and highlights from the archives of Maclean's magazine titled Canada in the Fifties.

I don't think I have ever spent the last few days before Christmas Eve sitting on a sofa and dreaming over books, but golly. I gotta make sure it doesn't take a car accident to get me doing it again next year.

Cutting corners

I'm trying something new and fun this year for Christmas:

not being ready.

Usually by December 1 I've finished everything but the wrapping, and the baking of cookies and delivery of same (it's tradition for me to drop by neighbours' with a lunch bag of samples from my mum's best family recipes). I don't even have to put up decorations, because I'll have reorganized the furniture in November to make room for them and then gotten them all finished.

This year, however, has been Very Difficult, putting Christmas 2009 on a tight time budget. Instead of getting all frolicky, I've been finding ways to cut corners. For example:

The house will be decorated for two weeks only.

The cookies will be baked and delivered in the last 4 days before Christmas Eve.

A lot of gifts will take the form of donations to homeless shelters and hot-meal suppliers; the rest will be bought online or home-made on a crafty assembly line.

I won't be cooking a turkey dinner on Boxing Day: I'm buying something ready made that reheats in one pan from the posh butcher shop and freezing it until then.

And thanks to all that - I think it will be the best Christmas ever! I'll have more time with friends and family, make decorating part of the experience instead of just an advance stage setting, and get enough sleep to enjoy the festivities.

(once I have all the mittens done, that is.)

Holiday lights on wheels

The trip to see the CP Holiday Train was great (as was my haircut). The music, furnished live by Odds, was fabulous and the lights breathtaking. Tons of people were walking (or rolling along in strollers) alongside this big long train and about 90% of them had either cameras or tripods in hand, and sometimes both.

I hope they had better cameras than I do, though, because the only other picture I took that worked out was this one:


But that's okay. The real thrill is seeing it in person, and I get to do that again next year. Think I'll have written any fiction at all between now and then?

Train and a haircut

Well, I don't know what's more exciting today - my much-anticipated haircut (if you are a longtime reader, you may recall last year's disasters on that front, from which my hair has finally, officially, Grown Out)

or the CP Holiday Train.

I first noticed the train a few years ago when I was getting a lift downtown for, appropriately enough, a holiday party. This train rumbled past on the tracks alongside the road I was on - and what a train! All lit up with bells and bows, cars and cars of it. I'd never seen anything like it, and believe me, I've seen my share of trains.

The train crosses North America just above and below the Canada/US border, stopping periodically to open up a boxcar that serves as a stage for a band. The band plays, and people who've come out to hear it donate money and canned food for local food banks.

Plus, it looks really really awesome. Or did I mention that part already?

You can find out more at the Holiday Train Blog, and if you decide you just have to check it out in person, you can find the train's schedule, for both the US and Canada, here.

Turkey days

I'm Canadjin, eh? So I've already had Thanksgiving - like, a month ago. It was great and I wish the same for all my neighbours to the south! Bit late now to mention it, but there is an awesome recipe for cranberry orange chutney over at Epicurious you might want to try some time.

All the US media turkeyisms have reminded me that I need to get on to ordering my turkey for Christmas. I don't cook on Christmas Day, but I've been entrusted with the task for another nice dinner afterward based on my good luck roasting chickens. I've done two very successful brined turkeys now with the advice and support from my local butcher, who also encouraged me in matters of chicken stock, and I think I'll be doing it again this year

but

if I don't get this one little problem fixed, it will probably be the last time I'll be allowed.

Somehow, something on the table has given one of my guests lobster hands. By which I mean; serious allergic reaction.

Last year I changed everything atypical but the chutney and the tablecloth, and it happened again.

So this year I'm not taking any chances. The tablecloth is going to be a curtain, and the table is going to be ornamented with a runner down the middle well away from this particular guest, and I might just leave the chutney out of it entirely.

Or, um, position it between me and the only other person who likes cranberry on the turkey.

It's really, really good chutney.

The other that one thing led to

I was really looking forward to yesterday - aka The Day After Halloween.

I like the idea of Halloween, sort of, but I find it exhausting too, and no matter how hard I try not to make a big fuss about it, I always seem to get caught up and keep thinking of clever things at the last minute, like this new head for my annual Headless Man:


Probably none of the neighbourhood kids noticed I glued eyes on the silver Christmas ornaments in the leaves there, what with the dark and all, but I knew, and why should they have all the fun?


In any case I was really looking forward to it being over. I was going to take the day off from everything.

Right after I dug out the humidifier for the one super dry room in the house (radiator heat, dontcha know.)

Because I can't leave well enough alone, and since I had to move a wardrobe anyway to get at the electrical outlet for said humidifier, I thought I'd do some vacuuming and move the bookshelves, too, to give them a proper cleaning before reclining with a good book or some knitting for the rest of the day.

But it was not to be: there was

unpleasantness

behind them, thankfully only on the walls.


This is a direct consequence of living in a small house older than the concept of insulation and choosing other than a minimalist style. You just can't put tall wide furniture up against exterior walls and leave it there for a couple of years, is the problem.

The rest of the day, apart from cleanup, was an elaborate game of Tetris, finding places for the air-blocking furniture and finding non-air-blocking furniture to fit into the gaps. And this is something I definitely do not count as vacation.

Wanh.

However, there is a bright side. Come Christmas, and come January when I finally catch whatever's going around and have to muster up the strength to shovel snow, I'm not going to have to wonder what's going on in the hidden corners of the house, and I'm not going to have to deal with anything yucky.

I'm just going to have to keep noticing how crowded the living room looks with that one extra bookcase in it. Double wanh - I really hate it, even if it does give me more space for books.

The mystery of the ultimate Halloween house

This is just one of several houses in the area that turn into something off a horror movie set at this time of the year (one of the others boasts a full maze, fog machine, and every member of the family donning scary costumes and taking up a secret position from which to freak out trick-or-treaters on the night).

This one perplexes me, though. There is a mystery I can't solve. See if you can guess what it is as I take you on a walk along the curb:





And now, the mystery:

Where on earth do these people store all this stuff the other eleven and a half months of the year?

ps: my favourite part? that little white pumpkin on the last shot... I just want to pick it up and hug it!

More Halloween houses

Getting creepier...

Halloween houses

Normally my neighbourhood is pretty warm and friendly, but it doesn't look that way just now.




You might have to click on these pictures to get a real sense of the way my neighbours are thinking. And the mood is spreading... I'll post more proof this week.

Seriously, that last pumpkin-on-garbage-can: scary! I am totally copying it when it's time to carve my pumpkins.