Liligo Sews

playful patchwork, delightful dresses

Woodland Fairy Birthday Party

Ironman turned 4 back in January, and we had a woodland fairy birthday party for her.  She is all about fairies, glitter and other sparkly things, but we had as many boys coming as girls, and I didn’t think they would all want to be dressed up in pink wings and flowery crowns, so the woodland theme allowed for bugs as well as fairies!

I scored some bug wings left over from halloween at our local dollar store, and made antennae from hairbands and styrofoam balls.  The girls wore flowery crowns and butterfly/fairy wings.

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We spent the week leading up to her party making decorations and party favours.  For party favours, Ironman and I made fairy playdough, thanks to this recipe. In fact, a lot of the inspiration for our party came from this wonderful blog, including the toadstools.
We also made coffee filter flowers and butterflies, which I used to decorate the table and the light fixture, these are really easy to make, although I ended up doing most of the flower assembly, as Ironman lost interest early and went off to do some colouring!

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More to come later, we still need party food and games!

Green Eggs and ….

(Turkey) bacon!  We had an impromptu party last night to celebrate the birthday of the great Dr Seuss.  We listened to the soundtrack to “Seussical the Musical”, colored pictures and did Seussical wordsearches, and read aloud from our collection of Dr Suess books.  And here’s what we had for dinner!

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Words to live by, courtesy of late, great Theodor Geisel:

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Work In Progress

I’m currently working on a new webstore, and updating my blog.  Things may look a bit higgledy-piggledy for a little while, but all will be revealed soon!

Craft Hope for Haiti

haiti dress
I have been shocked and moved by the devastation in Haiti, and feeling so powerless to help. I knew one of my favourite causes would figure out something soon, and they came up with a way that crafters and people who love handmade items can help together.

I have donated this dress and another one to the Craft Hope for Haiti sale. Please take a moment to look at all of the wonderful donations in the Craft Hope shop. There are many beautiful handmade items for sale. 100% of sales will be sent to Doctors Without Borders. If you are unable to make a purchase at this time, consider donating something handmade. Information on that can be found on the site here.

Seasonal Diversions

“There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter.
One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues.”
(Hal Borland). For me it’s the pile of books that I received at Christmas that I can finally start reading, safe in the knowledge that I don’t have any impending sewing projects (Spring starts late in Ontario, so I still have a few months before I need to be worrying about summer dresses).

I have a doorstop of a book to read for next month’s bookclub, it’s snowing (again) and Ironman has a stack of new toys to entertain her this afternoon, so I’m snuggling up for the day.
Next blog, I will be sharing details of my daughter’s woodland fairy party…I don’t know who enjoyed the preparations more, her or me!

Whew

Finally finished and shipped out all my custom orders. Not that this means I have finished sewing, because I still have the requisite PJs I make for the kids every year for Christmas, and a long list of other bits and bobs that I WANT to make, but probably won’t have time to.

In addition to all those, I discovered this tree yesterday via One Pretty Thing.

plastic bag tree

I’m reading the instructions, which call for plastic bag yarn, and I think, now how come I don’t know about plastic bag yarn? So a quick google search, and I found this tutorial. I try really hard to remember to bring my own bags when I go grocery shopping, but I’m not perfect (who knew?) so at least now I can appease my environmental conscience when I forget by knowing I can reuse the plastic bags for something other than putting out the garbage in!

I know it’s a bit early for new years resolutions, but I have decided on mine. It’s to start making Christmas crafts in January and February so that I actually have time to make all the ones I would like to.

Giveaway Winner

Thank you all so much for your comments, tho’ being a newbie to blog giveaways, I hadn’t realized that my settings meant I had to approve each comment before it was displayed, so for a few days I hadn’t seen many comments!

The winner is #32, Susan, I will be emailing you today for your mailing address, so I can get this figgy pudding in the mail before Christmas. Congratulations, and thanks for taking part. Look for more giveaways in the new year, as this was fun. (And by then I will have figured out how to copy screenshots from random.org into my blog entries…if anyone knows how to do this then please feel free to email me/send me a comment…with step by step instructions please!)

Now Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding!

Back in England, where I come from, they call these Christmas Puddings. My parents are coming over for Christmas and bringing one with them (you can get them in Canadian stores, but you know things from home always taste better!).
Inspired by Betz White’s online stitch and felt tutorial, I bring you my first felt Christmas pudding, as a giveway. The main pudding is made of felt, but the leaves are made from a wool sweater which I felted myself in the washing machine. I’m a little disappointed in the colour, as it was bright green when it went in, but I love the texture. Cashmere makes the softest felt when you wash it. I know, some people would be horrified that I washed cashmere, but seriously, I paid $1.50 for it at the thrift store. I’m not telling you which one tho’!

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To win this giveway, visit my store and leave me a comment telling me which is your favourite item.

Follow my blog for an extra entry.

You have until December 6th.The prize will be shipped by December 12th. Canadian and USA applicants welcome!
Ironman will draw someone’s name out of a hat,christmas stocking or something festive.

Be sure to leave an email or a blog address where I can contact you if you win

Click on the button on the right sidebar to see other blogs joining in this festive giveaway!

Coming soon, my first giveaway

I’m going to be joining in with the Giveaway Day hosted by Sew Mama Sew. Giveaway Day is when the people at Sew Mama Sew coordinate one day when everyone with a shop or blog can give something away, spreading the holiday spirit. They list all of the participants to create a master list, and leave the lists up for several days.

I have been reading this blog for a while now, and have been inspired and found so many ideas from it, so I thought it would be fun to give something away that I have made.

I’m not sure what I will be giving away yet, but I have also been participating in Betz White’s felt and stitch online tutorial, so that’s a clue!

Here’s another one!

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Yoda turns 7

When Boy was born, 7 years ago, his ears stuck out from the side of his head, and so we called him Yoda. He turned 7 on Saturday, so after seeing this last week I had to make him this shirt.
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We took 6 of his friends to see Planet 51 at the local movie theatre. We nearly lost one of his friends as we were leaving (10 minutes of heart stopping scariness). Favourite quote: “That’s a strange place for an antenna”.

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