Self Taught

Lately I have been finding myself wishing I was back at sewing class in Kugluktuk. I love sewing with fur and leather, but there is so much I need to learn and heaps of project ideas stuck in my head. What I need is an elder to look at what I am doing, tsk tsk my mistakes, make me pull it all apart and then show me how to do it right.

I did learn a lot from so many amazing women up north and I have been putting it all to good use over the last three years. But my bin of reject projects is always growing. Take last night for instance.... I was making a gorgeous pair of beaver and smoked elk hide mittens. A pattern I have made about a dozen times. I was at the point where the liners were about to be sewn in when I realized that I had cut the beaver fur for the top of one mitten backwards! So the fur on one mitten was facing the opposite directions of the other mitten. Ack! How did I manage to do that?? Such a silly mistake and of course that was the last of my beaver fur. And for the last week I have been working on making a nice mocassin and finally after some rejects, watching videos on the internet, and looking at heaps of patterns and pictures, I came out with a nice looking one. That was hours of frustration though!

I am proud of myself though when I come out with a nice looking end product all on my own. And even more proud when those items sell!

Horseplay

The boys love to horse around with their dad in the evenings. Lately, Hunter has taken to holding tightly to Matt's ankle to get drug around the house (I have seriously thought about just attaching swiffer cloths to his tummy). Cavan hasn't quite figured out how to hang on for the ride, but he has learned that jumping on top of his brother gets him around! Very entertaining to watch.

Halloween Bonus Pics

A budding young photographer here in Faro volunteered her time at the kid's Halloween party to take photos of each and every child. It was fantastic! This young photographer also happened to be my boy's favorite babysitter and was able to coax the grins out of them- something I had been unable to do!

Check out these two hilarious shots:

Both have evil grins in this shot... the kind of grin that says, "Don't worry brother, we will get even for this. We can always grab their toothbrushes and dip them in the toilet without them know it."

"Oh the humiliation! How will I ever show my face in public again!"

Newest Sewing Projects

With the temperatures dropped, I have been indoors and sewing my little heart out. Still doing all my leather stitching by hand, but that should change soon. My new walking foot sewing machine is here and I will be setting it up this weekend now that I have arranged my sewing lair to create space for it.

Here are some of my newest creations- all of which are up for sale on my Etsy site along with a number of other items. Order early for Christmas or you can always have me whip up a custom order anytime!

Leather gauntlet mittens:

Black Seal and White Rabbit Mittens:

Seal Fur Pill Box Hat (I look so dorky in this picture!):

Kids Beaver Mittens:

Childrens Trapper Hat:

Childrens Seal Mittens:

Winter Walking

We have had very little snow so far this winter and hopefully I didn't just jinx myself there! The trails are perfect for pushing the stroller down and it is easy for the kids to walk. For the last two weeks we have been walking on the trails around our house instead of the roads and even with the cold weather finally arriving, we haven't been deterred. So far the coldest day was -20C and a windchill of -27C and we did a 2.5km walk that day. The boys were happy in their stroller and Hunter even walked 700m of that. I love how much easier it is getting the boys outside this winter as compared to last.

Here are some pictures of our walk on Monday when it was only -18C.

One of the trails we walk almost everyday:

They weren't impressed I was stopped!

He looks so silly with his front teeth poking out!

Happy and warm in his "furry coat" as he calls it:

Bundled-up and snug as bugs in their stroller:

I am looking a little frosty! I get so hot pushing that stroller that I end up taking off my toque and beaver fur mittens.

Little Boy Blue... And Black... And Bloody

Just two days ago Cavan took a wicked fall/jump off of a little chair and landed face first on his wooden toy chest. It left his right eye brow and eye lid scratched up, swollen, bruised and there was little bit of bleeding.

Today he outdid himself. He was spinning himself to become dizzy in the living room and then he would fall over laughing. It was hilarious! But then he decided to spin and run. Bad combination. He ran head first into our kitchen table and gave himself quite the gash over his left eye. There was so much blood! He got over the tears pretty quickly and was just pissed off that I was holding him trying to stop the bleeding. He wanted to go back and play.

So now the kid is going to have two black eyes and he looks a mess. I love my rough and tumble boys, but they are going to give me gray hairs soon.

Check out that gash!

Yeah... it really bothered him, can't you tell?

He was just happy that he got to see his daddy!

All repaired and ready to go- thanks to Daddy!

Geek in the Making

For the last few weeks I have been using Matt's netbook while my MacBook is in being repaired-thank goodness for warranty! While I curse the small size of the netbook there are other members of our household who think it is just their size. If I happen to leave it out on the coffee table, this is what I usually return to:

Hey Mum. Just checking my emails!