good morning

Baby is still sleeping (Thank jeebus!!) so i havent even gotten out of bed yet :)

Last night was a pretty good night. Hubs and I did a favor for my aunt, then came home and he made a delicious vegan spaghetti, with enough left over for lunch today and another meal into the freezer. While he was working away on that, I made a batch of laundry detergent!

and guess what!?

I even took enough pics to make a tutorial..finally! I know there are tons of tutorials on making this out there, but I'm hoping to write up a pdf download on green/frugal cleaning full of tutorials on making cleaners and other great stuff...plus benefits--on cost, for you and the environment. It's been on the back burner of my to do list for a while now.

So the plans for today are as followed:
-Make coffee; I need my coffee, it's pretty much the only thing that I couldn't give up this (and my last) pregnancy. I cut back... A LOT.. down to 1-2 cups/day and i always keep track of other caffeinated things I indulge in. Hallie came out fine, and I'm able to drink coffee while breastfeeding her so I see it as a benefit for both of us! :) coffee makes for a happy mama...
-make breakfast; this will probably involve peanut butter and banana toast and some cheerios for the wee one. She loves PB :)
-start catching up on laundry; you know since I have 5 months worth of detergent now (i just realized i'm probably going to have my baby before this batch is through!)
-work on my dress refashion
-start editing photos and writing my tutorial
-make a super cute something for miss H. and refashion a super cute something for moi
-When M. is home I have an order to finish.. I can't quite finish it with baby in tow as it involves a lot of hot ironing and she is intrigued by EVERYTHING i do. (Will write a post about her soon to be little sewing area)
-and play with my babes! :)
-probably go for a walk to my gramma's to hang out a bit and call and try to book my 3d ultrasound again.. they didn't answer yesterday and never called me back.. but they told me to call and book my appointment instead of email...at least they responded to my email! >.<

woah... busy day! Sounds good to me.. at least I'm getting a post in before any of this starts! it usually takes me all day!

now to surf the web till my sleeping beauty wakes up so I can be less inclined to waste time during the day...and hopefully my neighbors disgusting smokers cough doesn't wake her!

cheers,
-e.

this is what happened to my beach day...

M. came home as I was in the middle of putting H. down for her nap. So he took over and passed out with her :) It was worth it cause I got a good pic out of it! hehe

Anyways, to throw in a lil hubsy upcycle for ya... this was M.'s favorite t-shirt...mine too :)! But it was getting rather old and torn and a little too small so I told him it was time to do something about it. So he got out the craft glue and my sewing scissors and covered two canvases we had lying around with them and hung it on the wall. I love them! Such a great idea to do with concert/vintage tees you just can't part with.

New/old couch and a new bathing suit top for mama

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So yesturday, i did not get anything I had on my list done..well except for the couch.. kind of.
We picked up the couch from a guy from freecycle yesterday (I LOVE freecycle.org!), it is a nice little ikea couch but the cushions were super faded with a bit of water stain. I washed the covers, hoping to dye them after (nice guy who gave it to us bought some RIT dye to give to us with the couch too!) However, to dye the covers I'm going to need to get another box, just to make sure its dark enough, and after washing them, three of the zippers broke and i had a hell of a time getting the cushions back in.. so they have now been added to my scrap fabric pile and will be bleached white and made into canvases for Hubs.

So little ol' preggo me, took the feet off our old couch (a studio sleeper I've had since i was 15...) and made that into a bigger better Montessori floor bed for Miss H. and rearranged our living room to fit the new couch in.It looks and feels so much better in our tiny living room now! One of our biggest issues with this apartment was the fast that the living room can pretty much only be set up one way, and there was no flow to it. M & I need flow. We are much happier people if our house has some sort of feng shui. All i did to the couch was throw a black sheet over it with a baby quilt that matches the rug on the floor and now we have somewhere to use our throw pillows! Our other couch didnt have and armrests so using pillows on it was difficult.

I will be making reversible covers for the couch cushions and coordinating covers for the throw pillows...and then EVENTUALLY reupholstering the ugly blue chair seen in the bottom right corner of the picture. LOVE the chair.. hate the fabric; although, the cats absolutely love it and have shredded it to shit. Thanks for the hobo chair Picco!
Ok, so now onto what I did this morning. We're planning on going to the beach later, and I have ZERO bathing suits. I've been pretty self-conscious about my stretchmarks but now I'm over it, because I would rather show them off than be seen in a one-piece. I just can't do it. So I had this bathing suit that my little sister A. gave to me. She is 14 and must bustier than I and it didn't fit her well in that department. She doesn't have mama hips though--or a pregnant belly for that matter-- so the bottom was a bit comical when I put this thing on today.

So after digging out the white thread I hardly ever use, getting my machine set up, and winding a new bobbin, then almost re-threading my serger with white, I realized I didn't need any of it, because there was a flap already covering where I would cut off the bottom of the halter. You cant even tell (even when looking at the inside) that there was ever anything there. Yay for no-sew refashions!

Frugalty thy name is broke-ass-stay-at-home-mom

Tonight, my mission is to :

• Make a batch of laundry detergent
• make more toothpaste (and teach M. how to do it :P)
• Finish washing up the covers to a couch we picked up from a guy off freecycle today. (There will be posts soon on the revamp we're doing to this..like dyeing the cushion covers and screen printing them.. and staining the wood frame)
• Make up a bunch more cloth wipes for tp/baby wipes (M. is still reluctant to use cloth, but we're on our last roll and i told him i'm not buying the expensive unneeded quilted TP anymore and ill buy the cheap dollar store brand. If he gets an itchy bum, he'll give in to the soft and cozy cloth wipes :P )
• I also have an order to finish up, and presents for a couple friends kids
• And MAYBE (HOPEFULLY) end up watching a movie with J & A.. but we'll see what time M gets back from helping a buddy move.
  

happy first full day of summer!

The past couple days I have been working on a few new things. Since my main objective with the products I make is to upcycle or refashion them, I have been reading into tailoring and how to alter clothes.

I found a couple great refashioning blogs that I just can't get enough of! (Thanks Kelly!)

refashionista.net and refashionco-op.blogspot.com tons of great ideas of what to do with the ugliest thrift store finds!

Anyways, yesterday I turned a pair of my favorite pre-pregnancy skinny jeans (that some how still do up.. with the help of an elastic hair band by the end of the day though..) that had a huge hole in the crotch area into super cute lacy shorts. The lace covers what tearing there was left beautifully!

Another thing I have been working on the past couple days, other than orders of course, is a cute formal red dress that is completely refashioned from a flapper girl costume that I found a couple years ago at the thrift store. This will be my first refashioned dress that will be for sale. I'm quite excited about it.. and really wish I came up with this idea for my freaking wedding! I would have been much happier in this dress! >.<

The original dress was meant to be a costume, and was completely hand made to begin with. (Not very well, I might add) I've had to take this thing completely apart to redesign it. But that's okay, because im definitely getting the outcome I was hoping for!

So far the only trouble I've had is with the breast darts, but after some tedious stitch picking (oh how i loathe stich picking!) and a little help from my Dearest Judy I was able to fix the problems.

*Me and hubs at the murder mystery party. Little did we know Miss H was conceived only two-ish days before this! Can you tell i dont like parties?*

The dress was originally very wide. Flapper dresses traditionally weren't fitted to begin with, but when I first wore this dress to a Murder Mystery party in '09 i had to take it in a fair bit to fit me like it should.. and it was still pretty big. All four of the darts on this dress are very off when just trying to take it in, so that's been put on the list of things to redo on this dress. (The first thing was to take off the hideous gold, plastic sequins!!)

Etsy!

www.madeby3.etsy.com

the shop itself is still a work in progress, but i've already sold three items within 24 hours of the shop being up! yay!

For now.. at least till the end of summer, the shop will be primarily just a place for reserved orders. Either requests from Facebook, or from this blog; if someone wants something, email me (madeby-e@live.ca) and request your item, then I will post the item on etsy so you can pay, and get a receipt. If you live out of town, shipping will be worked out when you pay.

I'm not quite ready for the shop to be national yet. I have to sell a bit first and start buying some more materials so i can be ready for what ever people want.

I'm so excited about this! finally getting this thing going after talking about it, and working on different ideas for the past year.

I can't wait to open my next shop with all my dresses :D Once my dear Judy is here I'm starting to build all the dresses I have the fabric to make... I just keep putting them off.

Things to come this week:

• Kimono Slippers for mama and babe!
• hand painted, upcycled baby baseball tee
• I have three orders to complete :)
• Hopefully start some dresses as well

Keepin' busy!! :D

love, -e.

waiting patiently

for my adjustable dress form that my lovely husband bought me for my birthday. I was already supposed to have it but the damn thing got sent all the way to Edmonton instead of to the coast...how do you send it to a completely different province!?!

Anyways.. that's pretty much what is keeping me from making some killer dresses right now. I have so many designs in my head and on paper. I just need to make some. I also need some cash to spend on fabric so i can make some more. Even if its just some thrifted vintage gowns that i can upcycle.

We drove past a little bungalow last night with a big "For Rent" sign on it. Such a cute little house. It didn't say how much the rent was, but we took the number down and hubs is calling today to find out how much, and if we can go see it.

We could make the place that we are in work, but the landlord wants to sell (or move back..depending on circumstances for her) so we might as well keep our eyes open in the mean time till we know when. If we find something, it's not like we can't give our notice.

I'm really hoping though, that this other opportunity that was discussed today works out. I wont go into details as not to jinx it, but I'll let you know when I know.

So H. is currently napping, and I am blogging and surfing trying to figure out what to do for my friends baby shower that I'm going to tonight. I am such a procrastinator! It's my worst problem. I'm not sure what she needs or wants, and I can't think of anything to make her that is gender neutral that she would enjoy. I'm thinking I might just make her a necklace and earrings and tell her she can order anything she likes from my shop for her babes and ill make it for her and send it to her.

rainy day

Hi there! I am now comfortable enough with my blog to actually start writing again :D.

I would like to start off by saying I dont know how you work at home mamas with young kids run such amazing blogs! Where do you find the time??

So today my lovely friend (and doula) ML is coming by to pick up H. to bring her out for a while so I can give our apartment some serious rehab.

Our biggest issue: We are TOO BIG for this small space. Both M and I are trying to work from home (M mostly just needs an office..and somewhere he can widdle and do art work and make shpit in his own time..that currently is everywhere he can put something down and sit his but)...I have converted our already small dining area into my sewing/work area that happens to have a table we can eat dinner at..and maybe even have guests over once in a while with out having to rearrange.

Our laundry/utility room is FULLER THAN FULL! I mean the shelves are loaded with tools and fabric bits..not only that but its also the cats room with a cat tree and litter box as well as a massive pile of laundry that just never seems to stop growing. I think it might actually pick itself up and leave one of these days.

Our really tiny hall is currently loaded with stuff that should be down in storage or in the hall closet. The hall closet, however is out of commission till hubsy re-drywalls it at the request of our landlord. Its been sitting like this for two weeks.. >.<

todays mission: Laundry! I need to organize it all into categories then wash it so its easier to put away (another issue we have). Then I am going through every piece of clothing I own and figuring out what I still wear, what i still feel comfortable wearing, and what actually fits me. (which is an issue with a belly) then i will put away all the clothes I wish to wear when I am skinny again, and put the rest in a donate pile.

*I'm currently in the process of planning a clothing/recipe swap party so most of these clothes will go in a box for that :)*

Other items on today's mission plan: Dishes (ugh) and taking off H.'s closet doors (that SHOULD go down in storage..when the closet thing happens.. but will probably hide behind our couch with the crib that will be going down there too).

First things first though. I'm going to be a *bad mama* and drink my coffee and wake up a bit before a start my day. ML just left with H and now I'm off to the races!