My Dearest Dragon:

I am pretty passionate about free stuff, I don't know about you, but this past year I had our first baby, bought a house, and got married. So free is great! My Best friends baby just turned 2 years old! So of course I had to sew her something special.

I have become very interested in sewing in the past couple month, probably because I don't actually have any time to focus on it with a newborn that never sleeps.

I created these for her toddler and her dolly.

I used two free patterns the toddler dress can be made into a tunic or a dress, and Made by Toya has a really wonderful tutorial. I obviously had to edit it a bit to get the fox face, the pattern was simple to follow.

found here

The doll dress I made the Little Geranium dress, as they really look so similar. I found even though it is such a small dress it needed to be taken in a lot to fit the doll. 

I found the pattern for this one here

I think they turned out pretty good for my first real projects....their Christmas presents are going to be something special! 

Creating the Tree Shelf

My Dearest Dragon:

Creating the tree shelf was a lot of fun! And really easy too. 

I am not sure how many of you have a old cedar mill around your place, we however are really lucky and have one only 15 minutes from our house. They often have heaps of scraps that aren't perfect for sale piled up by the side of the road that they periodically burn. 

This has been a picking ground for people looking for firewood, or scraps for artwork (I often snag some for my paintings). 

Well this is where I got the wood for the shelf 

My inspiration was

 Blog HERE

Mine obviously turned out a bit different as I don't have a wood planer to make it that thin...but I kinda like how tree like mine is. I kept the bark on the backside of the log and shelves. 

First I had to sand it down which helped get the details of the wood

Then I used linseed oil and just put two coats on, letting it dry in between coats.

This really brought out the beautiful cedar colours and details.

Then hubby dragged it upstairs and used some giant screws to screw it into the stud in the wall. It is a piece of a tree, so make sure it is in a stud!

I really wanted to keep the natural look as much as possible, so we put the shelving over top of the screw holes so they wouldn't be noticeable. 

next hubby installed the shelves....which are only held up on the log....so please do not stack your 1990's hard cover edition encyclopedia that your grandma gave to you that sad sad Christmas long ago or your nice shelf will crack in two. 

But small things like handmade teddies from Gran, and hand made art from mommy is perfect. 

Humbling Day

My Dearest Dragon:

Today I have to admit defeat to your father, this is not an easy task for me, as humble pie does not taste good.

You, my love, are impossible to put down for a nap, at this moment you only nap if taken for a 20 minute car ride or 45 minute walk, and then left in the laundry room with the dryer on (safely of course). I can tell you this has been hard on the pocket book.

I bought a swing for you when you were much younger, perhaps 2 months, and you had no interest in it. So eventually after many failed attempts I sold it.

Yesterday your dad came home with a new swing, and I rolled my eyes and said "sure lets try it" to mostly pacify him.

It was not simple and it took sitting on the cold tile floor, listening to your night time song 3 times (5 minutes long) and singing loudly to you before you eventually fell asleep in your swing...in the laundry room...with the dryer on...but hey! No driving. Whoo

I gave dad a kiss and said it worked, but had not yet admitted defeat. It was not until I tried again this morning that you fell asleep after only 2 night time songs that I admitted that perhaps dad was right and you liked the swing.

I served myself up a nice big slice of humble pie and admitted to your dad that he won. Even if it didn't work for your midday nap ;) .

My Dearest Dragon:

While you were just a little coconut in my tummy mommy was stressing about all the things I needed to plan for your arrival.

I wish I could tell you I was a laid back calm person who didn't need the nursery completely set up, have clothes for multiple age groups, all the cloth diapers prepped (which was such a fun/intimidating purchase).

But no no, I couldn't just buy the things to get ready for you, I needed it all to be done by mommy so you knew how much I loved you.

Let me walk you through the nursery for a moment, We did not know that you were going to be a boy, in fact mom was almost positive you were a girl. So we decided to go with a woodlands theme, and I LOVE IT.

Mom hand painted birch trees onto your wall

She dragged a reluctant daddy out to the old cedar mill to p/u scraps to make you the coolest shelf. She even sanded and oiled it herself....though thank goodness daddy and grandpa dragged it upstairs and set it up for me. 

She hand painted your fox photo, and cut out the tree art

And she even sat her giant preggo arse down on the concrete to hand sand and paint your basinette... (which you barely slept in)

If only that were it...but no mommy had to keep going. Sewing quilts and crocheting more blankets.