This & that...a couple projects on the go

I still have a ton of things that I should be doing for upcoming deadlines (and a few already passed), but I can't seem to focus on any one thing. Combination of too tired and too busy, I think.

Anyway, here's what I've been doing:



A little art apron, based on a tutorial at Obsessively Stitching. I whipped this up in a matter of minutes, added a pack of dollar store princess crayons and called it a birthday gift for a two-year-old girl. I think I may have started with a smaller dishtowel, because I found the neck strap was too short to fit over a toddler head, so I ended up adding an extra tab and some velcro to the neck strap. Problem solved, and a cute gift made for less than $2. With the number of toddler and pre-schooler birthday parties that my sons are invited to, it's great to have inexpensive but fun gift options. I'll definitely be making this one again...maybe even change it up a bit with a wrench applique and larger pockets to accommodate a few dinky cars for an instant mechanic play outfit.



My step-mom wants me to make a quilt top for to use as a baby gift. The baby's daddy is a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and she wants to incorporate that obsession into the quilt top. But let me tell you, finding hockey fabric themed to a rival city's team, in June, is pretty much impossible here. I managed to find some Canada Day material with a blue and white maple leaf pattern (which I don't understand since our flag is red and white), and then planned to make my own team logo using solid fabrics and a freezer paper stencil and fabric paint for the lettering. The lettering isn't perfect, but I think it will look okay once it's on the leaf background. Stay tuned!



These little guys were a good kid-friendly project. We collected rocks from a nearby stream, and then painted them. They were supposed to be different colours, but my three year old had other ideas. After the base coat was dry and the kids in bed, I painted some simple faces on them and added a sealing coat of Modge Podge. I hid them around the yard, and had my kids and a few of their little friends over for a monster hunt. Everyone got to take a few monsters home and it was a good time.



I've also been baking up a storm. Can't seem to get enough cookies, pies, cakes and other stuff right now. Thankfully, friends are always happy to get baked treats, so we haven't been ingesting all the extra calories ourselves. This pie was particularly yummy -- it was one of the things I kept for the family (=

The weather has been rainy (there was even a 5.0 earthquake two days ago that had us fleeing the house), so not much progress on my spray painting projects. I *think* I have the little chairs and plant stand adequately covered in primer, although I tried to put on a first coat of red paint on the chairs today and noticed some areas where the paint doesn't seem to be sticking. Maybe I didn't sand and/or prime enough? Only one way to find out.