late night rambling

-My kids have been having a hard time sleeping lately. I don't know if it's just a developmental thing, or a weird winter gloominess thing. Lil c has been hanging out with me while I sew late at night and although it's kind of cool that she's interested (and likes to copy what I'm doing) I have to say that it also kind of drives me nuts! At the end of the day I really crave my alone (with my sewing machine) time and I just can't relax when someone is watching me. Very closely. Anyways, I've been sewing up little things for a market that's coming up in just over a week. Zipper pouches and tissue cases have been in assembly-line style production. It's actually been great going through my stash and finding fun bits of fabric to make stuff with.

-lil c has always been a chatty girl and started talking pretty early on. She learns by copying sounds as opposed to big C who started speaking a bit later on and made up words and sounds that made sense to him (gacks = bike, mogacks = motorbike). So while lil c can properly pronounce all the names of the cars characters in the Cars 2 movie, something she says that totally makes me smile is "ewk-mew for bweh-fix". That's supposed to be "oatmeal for breakfast". I love it so much I actually don't want to correct her pronunciation, quite yet...

-for anyone wanting to learn more about sewing with Japanese pattern books, check out Katie's blog over here. She's been posting tips for sewing with Japanese patterns and really gets into some wonderful detail on how to read the patterns and work your way through a project.

-Karyn from Make Something just posted this today about the iPhone app for Project 365 and I think it just might be easy enough that I'll give it a go! I've seen other people post their photos on their blogs and although I'm not sure I'm going to actually post mine on the blog, I think it would be super cool to keep a daily photo journal.

-I just started my exercise routine (and I use the word 'routine' very loosely..) I've heard people say that you're not supposed to share your goals if you're serious about them because the act of sharing them gives some of the gratification of accomplishing the goals.. without actually having accomplished them.. And I've also read that you SHOULD share your goals so you can be held accountable to them.. Either way, I've been trying to exercise more and lose my 'sewing gut' (I only call it that because I mostly started gaining weight when I began sewing more regularly - sewing time somehow replaced exercise time) but I never really followed through. So since I've shared my sewing goals with you already, I'm going to share my exercise goals too. Without going into too much detail, my overall goal is to loose 10 lbs by my birthday in May (or the equivalent in belly-inches since I know muscle weighs more than fat - yadda yadda..) And to sweeten the challenge, if I achieve this goal, I'm going to splurge on some of that amazing liberty fabric that I've only dreamed about to make myself a sweet (hopefully sexy) little dress! Yup, now there's motivation for me :)

Aaaand, it's time for bed.

a japanese pattern book GIVEAWAY!

It's been a little damp and dreary over here on the West coast so I thought I would shake things up a bit with a 'chase-the-November-gloom-away', 'pre-holiday-celebration', 'thanks-for-reading-my-blog' GIVEAWAY!!

If you've been reading this blog for a little while, you may know that I have a bit of a thing for Japanese sewing pattern books. Aside from the lovely, creative photography and detailed, (relatively) easy to follow instructions, I find the actual clothing style to be the perfect balance between classic folksy and ultra modern. Oh, I love it so!

Back in June, I was super excited to find that Vancouver actually has a used Japanese book store that sells a small selection of these books (which I blogged about here). Although there are now quite a few places that sell these books online, it really is nice to be able to flip through the pages and kind of 'size-up' the patterns to see if they are actually doable. Some are definitely more detailed and easier to follow than others. So during my last trip there, I came across this awesome book (which is apparently now out of print).

I already own this book (picked it up the last time I was there), but loved it so much I thought it would be pretty cool to buy this one to offer as a giveaway. Now I admit, I haven't actually made anything from this particular book yet, but sereral patterns are on my to-sew list (which is getting pretty long..). The instructions (words are written in Japanese but there are a LOT of diagrams/pictures) look very clear and detailed and I think this would be a great book for an advanced beginner sewer who has had some experience sewing simple garments. The size range is from 90-130cm which would be approximately a size 3T to a 6 (if I'm wrong and someone knows the actual conversion, please let me know!), and there is a good mix of patterns for girls and boys (yay! more cool boy patterns!!) There are 26 patterns in total. And although this came from the used bookstore, it is in pretty perfect condition with the pattern sheet still intact and unopened (I'm thinking this was just purchased from somewhere as overstock..)



So, are you in? To enter, simply leave a comment below. Anything (nice) will do but make sure I have a way of contacting you if you win :) One entry per person (with the exception of the 'hoop-jumping' below..) I'm going to leave this contest open for a little while until end of day Sunday, November 27th (as I'll be a busy bee for the next week and a half doing last minute sewing for this market) and will have the good old Random Number Generator pick the winner on the following Monday. This is also open to anyone, anywhere in the world (with a legit mailing address of course).

And now for the 'hoop-jumping'..

For up to 3 more entries you can:

-follow my blog

-follow me on twitter (I'd love it if you tweeted about this post but not necessary for the extra entry)

-follow me on facebook (same as above, I'd be super happy if you shared this post but it's not necessary for the extra entry)

For each additional entry, please leave an extra comment below so it gets counted.

And there you go.

(and for all you local folk, another little reminder about this market coming up very soon on Nov 26-26!! Hope to see some of you there!)

market dresses and some distractions..

A couple new dresses for the Urban Artisans Craft Market coming up in just a few weeks at the Roundhouse Centre in Yaletown. I have to admit, it's been a little slow going with the 'market sewing' lately. Aside from just wanting to curl up with a cup of hot tea (and halloween chocolate) every night after the kids are in bed, I've been distracted by all the lovely things everyone else is making and showing off in blogland. Like this dress (I actually have and love this book but have yet to make anything from it), and this coat (I've seen so many gorgeous variations of this coat like this and just found out that the pattern is now out of print - gotta get my hands on it NOW), and this freak'n amazing quilt! (Ok, I'm not even going to attempt this one, but it's definitely making me want to dive into the *beginner* quilt I just started a few weeks ago.) Aaaand, back to my regularly scheduled sewing..