Late night updates

I'm noticing that it's taking me a long time to actually get to posting these last few days. I'm usually busy doing around the house and Ayla stuff in the mornings and during the day so I never seem to have a down moment to actually blog. Well I do have time to quickly read the blogs that I frequent daily but never to update this one.

Anyway, I've going back through the CraftSanity and CraftyPod podcasts and listening to some really inspiring people while I work. It's really nice because I don't have time to just walk around listening to my Ipod all day so when I do get some time to myself to craft or sew it's like I have some company. While listening today I discovered a site that I'm extremely excited about called Burda Style (I added a neat little button on the right sidebar that also leads to the site). Basically it's an open source sewing site where patterns for clothing are posted for free online and you can go through and sew up whatever your heart desires. Another really great thing about it is that you can alter the patterns to suit your own needs and if you feel so inclined you can also sell your garments when you're done.

It's no secret that I got a dress form from Freecycle not that long ago and have been wanting to sew clothing for quite sometime. It's really been a passion of mine since Home Economics class back in highschool when I actually learned to sew. I remember everyone sewing the standard boxer briefs and me and one other girl saying that we'd rather sew a dress. It was a great learning experience and since then I've been completely hooked. I love to sew and although my garment sewing is very limited it was always in the back of my mind as something that I wanted to learn how to do properly. I remember one Christmas when we were living back in Drummondville I decided to make everyone's Christmas gifts by hand and that year I made a fleece hooded sweater for Alex. He still has it and even I like to wear it from time to time because it's so big and warm. It's great too because it's heading into summer and everytime I see those cute summer dresses in the store I can never buy them because they fit me all wrong and then I just think to myself 'I bet I could make this'. So maybe I will this year!

I also finished my softy that I'll be sending off for Softies for Mirabel. I came up with the design and just kind of went from there. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but but I'm not sure what to call it. His arms were much longer but I had to cut them in half because I just thought it was too much.

I also got my package from Vegan Essentials today and boy was I ever happy. I ordered a bunch of vegan jerkies that we really love and a vegan version of Nutella. Alex was dismayed when he found out that Nutella sadly has dairy products in it. Luckily the vegan version, Chocoreale, is amazing and he'll have nothing to worry about now. I had a taste of it on my Italian crusty bread that I made today from Nonna's Italian Kitchen. We went out while it was rising and didn't come back till it should have already been in the second rising so I'm not sure if it turned out the way it should have but it sure was delicious!

Cooking woes and Softies for Mirabel

I'm trying to find a balance between cooking and crafting. Lately I only have time for one around these parts. So basically we haven't been eating any elaborate meals. Take tonight for instance, I had these grand plans to make an amazing Italian dinner and dessert but here I am at close to 11pm and well let's just say that won't be happening. Hence the new 'What's cooking' panel. Hopefully, with that staring me in the face everyday it will give me some incentive to get busy in the kitchen.

Since I'm not yet ready to reveal my gift set which is almost done I'll direct you over to a flickr group I just joined and am really excited about making softies for. It's called Softies for Mirabel, an initiative to help the Mirabel Foundation in Melbourne Australia. The foundation was established to help the children of families who have been affected by substance abuse. On July 27th an auction will be held on Ebay for all the softies made.

How cute are those!? If you click on the picture it will take you directly to the flickr pool. There are over 200 contributions already.

Happy Holidays

Well it's come down to the last few hours. I finally finished all my handmade gifts and I pretty much stuck to what I wanted to do and I'm very proud of myself for that. Below are the last 4 dolls that I decided to go ahead with at the last minute. I'm just glad they turned out well and I hope that they're also well received.

It's been a pretty hectic last few days with the sewing, the packing and marginally cooking plus we can't forget that I have my little angel Ayla to keep me on my toes all day long. But I did manage to take a picture of my last supper it's the Broccoli Cashew Teriyaki Tofu from my new cookbook Eat, Drink and Be Vegan.

I love this cookbook and let me just tell you that this recipe is AMAZING! Actually my reasoning for choosing this particular recipe was that I wanted to find something that would use up the rest of the veggies I had in the fridge. Basically just some bell peppers and scallions. It turned out to be my last pack of tofu as well. In any case I didn't have the broccoli called for but I loved it all the same. I will definitely be making this again and again. I don't really like cashews but in this it was perfect. I even said incredulously to Alex 'Why don't we cook with cashews more often?!' The only thing I did differently in making the tofu was that I coated it in cornstarch before frying it. For those that don't already know coating food in cornstarch before frying will make it extra crispy with little effort and it doesn't splatter oil all over the place. It's perfect.

And that's it for me. I'll be off to Montreal for the next month! I won't be blogging in that time so I hope everyone has a marvelous Christmas and New Year (or whatever holiday you normally celebrate)! Hopefully I'll be back with great pictures of the things we did and the food we ate (vegan of course). I'm actually bringing along a couple of my staples foodwise as well as my 'never leave my side' cookbooks, mostly the ones I've featured here on the blog. I just hope I can win someone over to vegan cooking while I'm at it. See you all in the New Year!

PS. I wish I had a better camera. Sorry for the dark pics!

More gifts

As promised have two more of the Charming handbags finished. As usual I love them both and wish that I could keep them for myself.

I also made two more dolls of Olive and Archie fame for a friend's daughter who's birthday is on Monday. I've already given them to her because her party is today. She loved them and said 'You know what's missing?' .... 'The tongue!' She's too cute.
Also made a lovely dinner curteosy of Veganomicon. Smoky Grilled Tempeh, I paired this with some roasted peppers and a Chinese vegetable whose name escapes me. Well I say lovely in the sense that it could have been lovely if I realized that my veggie broth is salted and my soy sauce is heavily salted. So in the end the tempeh was a little too salty. But in my opinion (not Alex's) still edible. The peppers turned out great, I love when they get that little bit of char on the top. Actually, later on that night I made a sandwich out of the Low fat Cauliflower Hummus (also of Veganomicon fame) and sliced up the tempeh on rye bread. Now that tasted wonderfully! So I'll be doing that for lunch today.

I'll be taking a little break from sewing gifts to finish Ayla's diapers. Yes I know I should have been finished those ages ago. But you know how things are. I get an idea for a gift and the diapers are on the back burner.

Wordless Wednesday

Busy as a bee

You might be wondering when I have time to do all the things I seem to be doing lately. And if I haven't said it before I'll say it now 'when she sleeps!'. Honestly, I can't get anything accomplished when Ayla's awake so everything is either done sometime in the afternoon before Alex leaves for work or late at night while she sleeps. Some days I'm really tired so I'll just go to bed early with her and wake up really late. Other times I'm a night owl that just can't let things rest. This was taken the day before yesterday. She woke up all bright eyed and bushy tailed in the middle of the night. Hence Alex's lack of clothing, but then again he's always that way.
The other night I got it into my head to make an oven mitt because the one we currently have is on it's last legs and I always seem to be burning myself when I use it. So I just looked online for a pattern and whipped this baby up. I love it but it's really snug. I guess I should have used less of a seam allowance than what the pattern recommended. But it still fits and that's all that matters. The next one I make I'll put more batting in it because I can still feel the heat a bit when I use it.

My coworker and I discovered our mutual love for knitting. So this past Saturday she picked me up and we went yarn shopping all over town. We also made a stop at Fabricland where I picked up quite a nice stash of fabrics. I just went to pick up bias tape for my oven mitt but you know fabric is like a drug for me and I couldn't just buy that. It was a lot of fun and we'll definitely be doing it again. But as our real intention was yarn I picked up a few skeins of various things to make dish cloths and scarves for myself and also one for Ayla. I love the colors I chose and I've decided to make a hat and mittens to match but I'll have to go pick up some more yarn for all that. I'm not even sure if it will last for the whole scarf. One thing I noticed about this scarf though, is that the pink yarn was slightly thinner than the red even though it's the same brand and weight. Not sure what happened. So it looks like it's narrowing when it hits the pink, blah! I'll have to be more careful next time.

On Friday, Hillary over at Wee Wonderfuls was asking if anyone wanted to test out her new pattern for gnomes. I think I was the first person to actually read her update and immediately sent her an email to sign myself up for it. I love her work and was so excited to get started on helping her out. Unfortunately, my weekend wasn't very free for crafting or sewing so I only got to it tonight. I'm so glad that I finally did because it turned out wonderfully and I love him! There's also a Mrs. Gnome and I'll be making her shortly. Alex said these would be great gifts for his mom and step dad to add to their collection of houses and ornaments under the Christmas tree and since I was on the fence as to what to get them for Christmas I think I'll be making them one each in the form of Santa and Mrs. Claus of course.

Just thought I'd give a little before and after of my sewing room since I've been in it these past few weeks. The first picture is just after I had bought and set up the shelves to store my fabric. And the second is what it looks like right now. A mess. But I love hanging out in there. Actually, I'll probably be painting one focal wall and decorating it. I picked up some canvas frames and would like to paint something to hang on the walls of course I'll probably only get to that after Christmas.

In my last post I talked about making some manicotti for dinner. Well yesterday I put my hand to it and it turned out wonderfully! I'm not sure if the picture does it justice but it was delicious. I'm so happy I bought Veganomicon! I can't say enough good stuff about it. All the sauces are from that book. I used the Marinara Sauce, Pine Nut Cream, Almesan and Tofu Ricotta recipes to pull this off. Many steps but totally worth it in the end. Next time I'll try the recipes from my Italian cookbook and see how that compares.

I also made the Orange Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. I hate to sound like a broken record here but these are amazing. You just taste a hint of orange and there's also almond extract in it but you just taste a hint of it as well. I'm sure I'll be making these again one day.

Olive Dolls

As promised the Olive dolls I made for my nieces. Next up will be their lap quilts from Bed-the-Rules Sewing. Also, a dress for each doll.