Quilts for Quake Survivors

This is a wonderful project being organized by Daniela and Susan to make quilt donations for the people of Japan who suffered the terrible earthquake in March. The theme was Log Cabin quilt blocks, to help commemorate the launch of Susan's new book Modern Log Cabin Quilts.

I had so much fun planning and making this quilt top. I even managed to rally up a group of co-workers to get involved and together they stitched up more than 100 quilt blocks!

You can find more photos here on their flickr blog. There is still time to donate and more info can be found at their Quilts for Quake Survivors blog.

Felt Hair Clips

I've slowly been getting back into crafting.... I find stitching slowly and methodically by hand to be very therapeutic and meditative.

These clips are a birthday gift for my friend's daughter.

I used this tutorial from the "The Purl Bee" as a reference for how to assemble the clips without gluing. This is a super fast and easy craft project that makes a lovely handmade gift for someone!

Holiday traditions Gift Exchange

Happy New Year to everyone!

The Christmas season came and went so quickly this year that I didn't get much time to prepare for it other than to take part in Meg's Holiday Traditions Gift exchange. It was a lot of fun getting to know Gwen from Silver Lining blog and prepare a little package of gifts for her. What a fun way to connect with new people all over the world! She put together some sweet gifts for myself, my husband and little guy - all versions of hand warmers which we definitely need here in chilly and rainy Vancouver. As well, we shared some of our own family traditions with each other.

Her gift from me included this hand stitched felt mouse ornament. I went on a felt ornament making frenzy about one week before Christmas. I just couldn't stop making tree ornaments and became completely obsessed with all the different color combinations of sequins I could come up with to decorate the trees! The lack of all around crafty pursuits in my life this past year just came bubbling up and spilling over. I needed to make something with my hands or go nutty! Felt ornaments was a good solution because they don't take up much room on the dining room table while under construction and didn't require too much brain power to dream up. I'm already looking forward to next year when I can make a few more.

Hopefully by then I will have managed to set up my jewelry studio so I can get back to designing jewelry. This is what my hands and my brain really would like to be engaged in. Until the bedroom gets painted I've put setting up my studio on hold....

updates

My goodness does time ever disappear in the blink of an eye with a baby. I've found myself less than motivated to keep up with blogging these past few months. I haven't stopped blog surfing though, because I love to continue thinking about what I could be crafting up if I had the time and energy....I'm so impressed with how many moms manage to keep the blogging going with little ones.

So what have we been up to?

First off we moved again October 1st. (Yes this was our 3rd move in 2 years)! Although we are now thrilled to be living in a larger 3 bedroom townhouse, the place needs a ton of work to get it up to my standards. This is where all of my time/energy has been going outside of childcare. It will take me months to get this place painted; even the doors and door frames need fresh coats of paint! Luckily my mom helped me get started with the living room, dining room and front entrance. However, all of the upstairs rooms are waiting for me.

I've had fun scouring design blogs for inspiration, especially for kids rooms. I keep changing my mind about what to do with Alessio's room. One thing I know for certain is that I want to keep it looking simple and fresh. I know blue is such a typical colour for a boy's room, but I really think this would work best for all of the crafty projects I have in mind for accessorizing his space.

Secondly, we received news when Alessio was 1 month old that he has something called Metopic Craniosynostosis. Yikes, that is a very scary sounding word! A simple explanation would be the premature fusing of the skull plates at the front of his head, which will require another big surgery when he is 9 months old. Although it's really not that noticeable unless you point it out to someone, his forehead is very narrow and pointy with pinched temples. The good news is that it will not impede his brain development in any way, and it is fixable...we just have to get through another invasive surgery. He also has positional plagiocepahy or more commonly referred to as "flathead" syndrome. I hate that definition of it, but that's pretty much what it is! The right side of his head came out flat when he was born. We have been aggressively making sure he sleeps on the other side of his head, has lots of "tummy time" and doesn't spend long periods of time on his back, but nothing is working. He may have to wear a molding helmet to help reshape his little head. It doesn't detract from his cuteness in any way, but it has been a big preoccupation for both his parents!

This is a photo of us taken with my imac webcam last week. I'm enjoying some quiet time while he naps on this dark, rainy and blustery November day. This is the time of year when the weather closes in on you in Vancouver.

kitty loves you!

My poor neglected blog...I don't have the intentions of turning this into a baby blog, but there isn't much else going on in my world these days other than baby. I managed to get my sewing machine out last weekend to make a growth chart for my friend's daughters first birthday, but that's it.

My little guy is growing by leaps and bounds every week and seems to be fully recovered from his surgery. Weasel the cat is warming up to him, and is always near by.

My favorite baby gifts were these socks knit for Alessio by my mom's friend. She made him 3 pairs in total and each sock is different! The patterns don't match perfectly which I love.

Welcome Alessio!

This is a somewhat belated birth announcement, but wow - newborns really take up all your time!

Alessio was born May 25th at 3:42 in the afternoon after a very long and arduous 23 hour labour. He was rushed to the ICU ward minutes after his birth, as we knew ahead of time about his heart problem. He underwent closed heart surgery at only 46 hours old to correct a coarctation of his aorta. (a narrow portion that needed to be removed and reconnected so that the blood could flow properly). Even though we knew about his diagnosis ahead of time, it was still an overwhelming experience to have your brand new baby undergoing surgery so soon after birth!

His recovery has been remarkable. He is now 3 weeks old and a healthy and happy newborn. His insision is healing well, and he seems to have completely forgotten the trauma of spending 10 days in the hospital hooked up to more cables than my computer! I'm sure these experiences are far mor traumatizing for the parents. He received excellent care and attention from the doctors and nurses at BC Children's hospital. I have nothing but great things to say about his care there, and am so very grateful we live in a city with such an excellent Children's hospital.

The three of us are all still getting to know each other better, and the cat has finally accepted that she is no longer the baby, and just the family pet! We have had many sleepless nights, with many more to come, but I am looking forward to my new role as a mom.

Waiting - 37 weeks

I haven't been much up for crafting this past month, although I need to get started on my own baby quilt soon....

I have been making some jewelry for myself, which I thought I would share here instead of on my terribly neglected jewelry blog. I'm calling this my "Birthing necklace" because I plan to wear it during my baby's birth (sometime around May 24th).

The necklace has a lot of personal meaning for me - and although I don't consider myself to be an over superstitious person, I figure having some "good luck" charms can never hurt. It's very likely our baby will require heart surgery to correct his aorta right after birth. Since receiving this diagnosis back in my 23rd week, I've been wearing a Malachite ring to help protect him. Malachite is a green gemstone associated with the heart chakra and as well it is supposed to help aide in childbirth. The emerald green stones in the necklace are also Malachite. The silver charms are Mexican Milagros (miracles) that I cast myself while living in Mexico and studying silver smithing back in 2001. I've been saving them all this time for the right piece of jewelry - this is finally it. The center charm represents me, the birth mother, the angel is the babies guardian and the heart charm appropriately has 2 hearts carved into it - representing my heart and my baby's.