slow progress in the kitchen

 I am still working on the kitchen,

painting slowly and painfully.

At least now the top is finished

and we even started putting stuff on the open shelves!

It is my grandmother's old silverware,

that I received after her passing fall 2011.

It is good to mix old pieces from France

and modern accent.

It is motivating me to keep working on this project,

I also managed to paint one little section on the bottom:

I am very limited on work space:

I paint on the dinning room table, so I paint just a few doors

and drawers at a time!

But I am loving what I see so far,

it is really coming together!

Now I need some nice weather to do some sanding outside,

I guess it will not be this week end,

we are supposed to get more snow!

Happy day!

Building another crate with my new toys

For Christmas and my B.day, I received a table saw, a compressor and a nail gun!

I am a lucky girl, I guess mon Cheri (and in laws) knows me well,

why bother with jewelry when you can give power tool?

(for the record, I also received some jewelry... 

but that is not what we are talking about today!)

Now I needed something to build to be able to play with my new toys,

bust since we do not have a garage, it is hard to use the table saw outside

in freezing temperature or warm rain!

So I decided on a project that would only use the compressor 

and nail gun (which would have been super useful while 

working on the kitchen!)

I made this crate to hold the puppy's toys

following this tutorial from Ana White.

I am growing tired of the many toys always under foot,

I also hope it will cut down on the amount of thieving she does.

May be she can steal stuff from her own crate instead of random things through the house!

One can always dream!

Happy Day!

link to The Shabby Creek Cottage

bedding for Kaya, the Christmas doll

Miss C. received Kaya for Christmas,

so I am working on making her feel welcome in our abode.

She has already a pair of plain moccasins,

a pair of fancy ones, and gloves.

Now she needs a cozy place to sleep.

Since we are not planning on purchasing many accessories,

Brick master and I worked on making her 

some bedding ourselves.

We took our inspiration from the AG bedding and set out to copy it.

We started with a place mat from World Market, the Asian section,

it seems close to the mat you can see in the picture.

Then Brick Master drew a pattern for the "animal skin"

to keep warm for the night.
We cut one from some fake fur (remnants from previous projects)

leaving the edges raw, fake fur does not ravel.
Since it does not cover the doll all the way,
we cut another one more rectangular shape out of a different fur.

With another scrap of ivory fake fur, I sewed a soft pillow.

While our bedding does not totally match AG's,

the cost is minimal, just $4 for the place mat.

Hopefully Kaya and Miss C. will enjoy it.

Another great addition is a fire,
after all the nights are really cold,
I followed this tutorial from Doll It Up.

Miss C. tried to sew a little stuffed animal for Kaya,
she used the deer pattern from BHG (the holiday edition)
but it was too hard, so I finished for her.
She did all the cutting and some of the sewing,
and while not perfect she and Nevada (Kaya's new name) are pleased with the result!

Happy sewing, well today may be just crafting!

slowly working on the kitchen

During the winter break, I was able to work on my kitchen update,

it is very slow, but I can share some progress...

See, there is progress!

OK, so it is obvious that there is still a set of doors to be painted,

(I work on the dinning room table so I ran out of space with all the other doors!)

but it still give a good idea how everything will turn out.

Here are some pictures of the process and a reminder from where I started:

And here is the makeover of the island:

no more station wagon!

It is coming along well, we even had time for something extra: lights!

  We installed them under the cabinets.

so about that Easter dateline?
Yes I can do it!

Happy day!

Bonne Annee

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

My mom made this embroidery for me,
snowman/woman in traditional Breton outfits,
I am originally from this French region.

Bonne Annee 2013

a year in review, and hope and dreams

Looking back to this year favorite projects,

I realized we have similar tastes,

I mean your favorites are usually mine too,

isn't it great how it works out!

High on the list is my work for Miss C.'s dolls:

the Brownie troop and vest,

the ranch,

the cupcake display,

the swimsuits.

Then came the fun of crate making

or how to make your soda cans "sexy",

well maybe not, but definitively prettier!

making more crates,

the first crate,

the vintage French vine tray,

and how to transfer image onto wood with a laser printer.

Now, here are some work that is not as popular as the previous one,

but that has had a great impact in our life,

which matters greatly to us!

make-over of the patio,
back yard fence (they are actually the same color!)
updating upper cabinets,
and island.


You can see on the last picture that the island is white,
and that the upper cabinets have lost their doors temporary,
yes I have been working on priming, painting and more painting.
I am almost done with the upper part of the kitchen,
but there is a long way to go for the rest of the kitchen.
So this year, one of my goal is to finish the kitchen,
I hope to be done by Easter, but we shall see!

I know Miss C. will come up with more sewing
and doll projects for me to work on,
we are not planning anything yet,
well except some more accessories for Kaya.

Happy day!

a little late deer pillow

Are you tired of Holiday decorations?

Probably, but I saw this tutorial from Sewing under Rainbow

very late and I still wanted to make it,

so here it is:

Isn't it just perfect?

I used some gray from Kona, and some prints Blitzen from Basic Grey.

Yes, it will be ready for next year,

but there are still a few more days before we take done the tree,

so not totally too late!

Happy sewing!

yes, Santa came with the snow

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas,

ours was very successful,

with a nice pile of teared up papers and bows.

and of course, presents!

Yes Miss C. has received her doll,

and has enjoyed the little moccasins I made for her.

Brick Master has remained cool, new shades always help!

and we had our first snow on Christmas Eve,

it was quite a treat.

Now I am finishing all the sewing I did not get to do before Christmas...

Happy Day!

another pair of moccasins and some gloves

After the success of my first pair of moccasins for Miss C.'s future doll,

I set out to make another pair,

a little fancier: with some beads!

I used the same pattern, but this time I used lighter suede,

while still using the same fleece on the inside.

Kaya is supposed to be a Nez Perce (Pacific Northwest area),

but Miss C. was born in the land of enchantment and the Pueblo people,

which means I wanted to use some turquoise on the clothes.

I apologize if the mixture of style offends someone,

it is not the intent.

I also sewed some gloves,

first I tried using the pseudo-suede, but there is no stretch in that fabric,

and the hand would not fit through.

So I made another version using fleece,

and adding some fringe on the seams,

it seemed too plain otherwise!

(I know it might appear that I am using a lot of cliches

to make this wardrobe for the doll!)

Happy sewing!

doll outfit for a friend

A few days ago, Miss. C. was invited to an impromptu Bday party.

The parents did not wish us to buy presents,

so we did not, but of course I sewed something,

they did not say anything about that!

I guess not too many people make presents themselves!

This little girl always bring her doll when she comes over,

so I figured she would enjoy a new outfit for her doll.

I knew what to make: a pair of jeans and a top.

I had just purchased this pattern from Liberty Jane patterns

and I was looking for the opportunity to sew it,

it does not real fit the style of Kaya that I have been working on for Christmas.

I used a pair of old jeans (one leg is enough, well I guess it depends 

on the size of the previous owner....it worked fine here!)

It turned out really good, my doll is not an AG so

it does not fit as well as it should,

the Madame Alexander dolls do not have hips as wide as the AG,

it still looks a lot better than the jeans I made from a trousers pattern!
Miss C.'s friend has an AG doll, so it would be perfect for her.

And this one has real pockets, front and back.

Next I made a cute tank top, using another pattern from Liberty Jane patterns.

I sewed this pattern before, and it is a fast and easy project.

The original plan after that was to make an oversize, over the shoulder top,
 using some knit I had.

Well the knit was not good for this project.

So I scraped the idea, and decided to make a cape instead.

I followed this very easy pattern from Strictly Homemade,

I used a light weight faux fur fabric and some off-white fleece,

it started to look really good,

I just needed a final touch: gloves!

I sewed them with the same fleece,

from a Simplicity/McCall pattern.

I hope the Bday girl enjoys playing with her new doll outfit,

I had fun making it last night and this morning,

it was the perfect antidote to the ugliness of yesterday's events.

Happy sewing!

little moccasins

This Christmas, Miss C. is getting her first real American Girl Doll,

she is very excited.
Because it is such an investment, we decided that she would only get the doll
and that I would make the accessories.

She will receive Kaya, so I am working on Native American inspired things,
 I am not sure I will have time to do all that I envisioned but I will try!

So far, I made this cute pair of moccasins.

I used this pattern from Liberty Jane patterns,

it is a little intense, but not hard.

There are a lot of little parts, but the instructions are really clear, and
easy to follow, there is a little bite of hand stitching which turned out
to be hard on the fingers, the pseudo-suede is actually hard to sew!

The result is quite cute, a perfect beginning.

Happy sewing!