AUBREY'S CLOSET

I started a facebook page called Aubrey's closet to sell my shoes and accessories, you can see it here.
I've sold a couple pairs of shoes already. Check it out and Like my page!

 

I made this headband to go with Aubrey's newest dress, although I'm not sure if it will actually stay on her head!

 These one's match the 2nd dress I made her.

 And this one matches the first dress I made her.

BUTTERFLY DRESS

This is the dress I made today from this pattern. 

I bought this fabric at Daiso Japan (Japanese dollar store). It came in about 1/2 yard pieces for $1.50 each. I thought it was a great deal for a cute pattern so I grabbed 2 pieces of it. This is what started my search for dress patterns, yet it's the last one I actually made. I found this pattern today and thought it would work for the fabric. I added the green button and the tie belt and think it updates the classic butterfly dress a little.

SUMMER DRESS

I saw this dress on Pinterest and decided it would be a cute summer dress for Aubrey. I found some striped fabric at Value Village (and have enough left over for maybe a shirt for me). I also had some scraps of leather for the pockets.

My version:

 I just used a jumper dress of hers for the shape, then had to remember back to Grade 12 sewing for the pockets.

 Don't look too close at the stitching, I made a mistake and added to it to fix instead of unstitching.

 I also had to remember how to do a placket, I should have kept my duotang full of sample hems, zippers and finishes - it would have come in handy!

Aubrey isn't modeling this dress because she refuses to try things on for me (or wear clothes in general), so I decided to make a little Aubrey mannequin! I took her measurements (which was a hard enough task on it's own!) and just used some felt I had then stuffed it with batting and some grocery bags. Now I can try things on this as I go without a battle!

NEWEST SHOES

I attempted to felt some wool herringbone fabric, but it must have been treated as it didn't felt, so I used it anyways as is in my newest shoes:

 my attempt at some boy shoes - not my favourite, but something different.

Ruffle girls ballet shoes.

APPLE DRESS

I've been wanting to make Aubrey a dress and all the patterns I found seemed too complicated for me, so I took a tank top (salmon) and t-shirt (apples) of mine that were too big and I never wore (I got them at a thrift shop), and turned them into this dress. I used the neckline of the existing tank top and the sleeve hem as well, so that made it easy, then I gathered the whole width of the apple shirt for the skirt part. I even reused the little brown button from the shirt and put it on the flower I made. I also reused the bottom brown trim as the waistband.

Sorry, these are bad photos. The top is actually salmon in color.

 

The brown waistband continues as ties in the back.

AUBREY'S ROOM + REDO

I was getting sick of the bright pink and orange in her room and was wanting to go in a more vintage theme so I rearranged a few things and swapped some furniture.

 I kept the tissue pom poms but added the white paper lanterns I had left from her birthday and put them all over her bed. I took out her night table as the style no longer fit and brought in this coffee table we were using as a dining table bench (but didn't really work). I made the crochet blanket and pillow.

 I found this goose neck vintage lamp on craigslist for $20. I love it.

 I rehung the wire baskets adding the 3rd one in this new spot. I managed to cut her stuffed animals in half and put them all in the crate. I try to use all my photo props around the house in a useful way so I don't have to store them all somewhere and this one works well. I found the little green vintage suite case at Value Village for $0.99!

 Collage wall: The alphabet cards spell her initials and were a free printable, the quote and the graphic chair were also free printables. I embroidered the birds on a wire and the little drawing is a plate drawing from a vintage book I bought when I still lived at home and have kept to use in a kids room.

I still have fill the smaller hoop with something - not sure what: another embroidered image, patterned fabric or maybe a button monogram? I found about 20 of these wooden hangers at Goodwill for $0.99/5 and I was so happy because I badly needed a bunch for all my skirts (I was using 2 for about1-15 skirts - didn't work!). They also double nicely as picture hangers.

 The little red wagon (another prop) also works as Dr. Seuss storage. We are a little addicting to collecting these books!

 I still have a couple things to do: 1. Paint her dresser and 2. Change the curtains.

The curtain rod has holders for 2 rods, so I might just put these black out blinds closest to the window and then make or get new ones that sit over the pink ones that aren't so bright. I'm thinking either thick stripe or chevron grey and white and floor length as they would just stay at the sides for appearance and I don't have to worry about them being pulled over the heater (behind the dresser). Oh, and I also want to try and crochet an oval rag rug - we'll see if I get to that!!

Curtains??

 

 I want to paint the dresser either blue or green and get new hardware

Here are some samples of the colors - which one??

I really like this green one.

I've also asked Jared for this rocking chair for her room instead of the Ikea one that takes up too much room in the current spot:

IT'S A GO!

I took my little felt shoes into the toy store today and she loved them and bought the 4 pairs I brought. We'll see how they do - if they sell then I'm sure I'll be making more!

 I found the perfect boxes for packaging them after driving ALL over the city! I got them from this packaging store and they had so many great things. I would have looked longer if Aubrey wasn't with me! I found these great labels that Martha Stewart and Avery now make (check them out at Staples). They were so quick and easy to use. She even makes chalkboard labels.

 While we were at the toy store this morning ( I finally brought Jared along with me) I found another book by Allison Jay. I love these books - they have great artwork and are really clever.

This one is the first one we bought and is well used. Everything on each page starts with the letter indicated and then has a small hint of what the next letter is. Even though it's a picture book for young kids, it grows with you and becomes a game as they are learning their ABC's and 123's. 

I highly recommend these books!

BEST MASSAGE EVER!

Aubrey comes with me to the Chiropractor twice a week and likes to warm up too. Every time I'm on the table some comes over and kisses my face or hand or pats me on the back. Maybe she thinks I'm in pain. Today was my first massage there and it was one of the best I've ever had! It also helped that I got a full hour massage for $10 - what a steal!

MORE SHOES

I thought I was done making felt shoes, but I was recently asked if I'd like to make more and sell them in a local children's store. That of course made me feel a bit torn as I'd love to do it, but I remember that they were sometimes frustrating to make. So I whipped up these four pairs yesterday to see how long they would take me and if it was doable. I already had some shoe pieces cut out and ready to be sewn. They were actually pretty easy and quick to make (except the embroidered ones, they took a bit longer).

It was a great lady at church that manages the children's shop that asked me about it when she saw the pair I gave a mutual friend at a baby shower on Wednesday night. I hadn't been in the store yet but had driven by and was on my to do list. So yesterday Aubrey and I visited the store and it's amazing! It has the cutest stuff - all high quality, some from around the world and it was two floors, with rooms full of toys, clothing, shoes and books. We were there for quite a while. I'm not sure if they will take my shoes or not, but it was fun to make them either way!

 I had some leftover flowers made up from when I made the hair clips so I added some to this pair.

 I had made this style before (the same as I gave as my baby shower gift) but I added a button to the blue circle instead of felt.

 This might be my favorite pair. I just covered a button with fabric.

This was a new one for me too. I hadn't embroidered anything on shoes before and I loved crocheting the strap out of embroidery floss!

A FULL (FREE) DAY!

For those of you who don't know, our "Saturday" is actually on Monday. Jared's days off are Sundays/Mondays which can be nice as Mondays aren't usually very busy at most attractions.

Yesterday we started by going out for brunch to use up a gift certificate then we went to the park and flew a kite (or tried).

 

 Then thanks to Grandma + Grandpa McCullough for our annual zoo pass - we went to the zoo for free. Winter is a great time to come here as long as it's not too cold. There are no lines for the best views and a lot of the animals are getting warm in the covered viewing areas, so you can actually see them.

 

 

 I don't think I've ever been this close to a big cat like this. Just a layer of glass between us.

 

 Did you know that gorillas regurgitate their food then eat it again - over and over? It's disgusting!

EATING ON A BUDGET

Well, we've been quite poor this past month -not too sure why it's any different from any other month, but it has been a struggle. (not having credit in the US is good and bad!).

So, I've had to come up with some very cheap meals to get us buy and it's been both challenging and fun. I've learned to stretch food and instead of having leftovers (which I don't love), I've learned to create new meals out of leftovers.  It's amazing how many meals you can plan on $30/week!

It's also helped me make more things from scratch as that's always the cheapest.

We even started eating ground turkey (much to Jared's dismay - I think he secretly likes it). If I had to eat ground beef because it's cheap - then we had to switch to turkey. I just don't love ground beef.

I bought 2 lbs of lean ground turkey, 1 bag of frozen chicken breast and some veggies and we had:

burritos, taco salad, salsa chicken, cabbage rolls, sweet potato burgers and chicken quesadillas.

From scratch I made tortillas, cabbage rolls, perogies and buns.

We cut corn tortillas into strips and baked them for our taco salad.

 

I had leftover turkey mixture from the cabbage rolls because I didn't buy a large enough cabbage, so I just added some Worcestershire sauce to the mix, made them into patties and froze them to use as turkey burgers next week. We'll see how that turns out! I also made so many perogies and froze them, now we have enough to last us for a long time. They were so easy to make and so much cheaper -  especially here in the states - I've only found one brand of them, a small box of 8 or so!

I had leftover dough so I filled some perogies with apples, sugar, butter and cinnamon to make some dessert perogies - some to eat now and some to freeze for later.

I baked the apple pie perogies and they were good but not very sweet. Could have used a little sugar in the dough or an egg wash on top before baking.

SAM + SNEAKY GIRL!

We have been stuck in the house so much this past week with colds and cold weather so yesterday we ventured out. The first Thursday of every month the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) is free for the general exhibits so we parked downtown, said hi to daddy quickly at work and then went to the museum. It was a lot smaller then I expected. I've been to so many huge art museums that made this one seem tiny I guess. There were some neat things to see but the African and Native Indian masks really scared Aubrey!

There was a kids play area which was a nice break for her - things she could actually touch!

We played in here for a long time.

 She really liked the cars hanging from the ceiling!

Here's where the sneaky girl comes in: Almost every night for the past week we put her to bed in her room, then within minutes she quietly and quickly runs across the hall to our room to sleep in our bed. Usually she makes quite a few trips back and forth bringing her favourite things with her: blanket, books, nightlight etc. Last night we finally caught it on video. I set up my phone on the chair at the desk in the hallway and after I noticed her first escape I quickly got up and hit record.

We can see her in the reflection of our sliding balcony doors, sitting on our couch in our living room, but she can't see us. So she thinks she's pretty sneaky! Our room is the door on the left and hers is on the right:

She managed to bring ALL of these books into our room - she must have made a few trips before I started recording!

Today was a baking/cooking day. I made some roasted cinnamon/honey chick peas, rice krispy squares, perogies and cabbage rolls. They are all done now but during the last thing on the list - cabbage rolls, Aubrey was over tired and cranky, she started crying and then laid down to pout but ended falling asleep on her bed in the living room floor she made. (We read some books there earlier, I wasn't completely ignoring her!).

 Here's my bag of frozen perogies for future use. I still have some filling left but ran out of flour to make more dough so I'll finish the rest tomorrow! I used this recipe.

We have had a box of chocolate rice krispy cereal for a while now as it's too sweet to eat as cereal, so I thought I'd use it up in some squares and maybe some granola bars too.