Handsome Models and Heaps of Orders

Hunter and Cavan usually aren't the most willing of models. Yesterday I bribed them with letting them stand on the table to model this hoodie and they were both game. The hoodies seem to be a hot item! This one sold just a few minutes after I posted a picture of it on facebook and requests for two more just like it came in soon after. This week I need make five hoodies in a variety of sizes and colours.

Also this week I need to fill an order for a pair of baby booties all in rabbit fur. Then I will be waiting for a wolf to arrive in the mail to fill an order for wolf mitts! I am pretty excited about those. I have yet to sew with wolf and it should be interesting to see if they turn out as fluffy as the lynx mittens did.

This week I received a book I had ordered quite a few weeks ago titled, "How to Sew Leather, Suede and Fur" and after just a quick look through it I am already eager to try some new techniques. My ideas are always well past my abilities, but I am learning bit by bit mainly through trial and error. I have to say that the fur Trapper's Hats, after hat number four, are looking very finished. I had a number of suggestions from a friend on how to make it look better and they all worked (thanks Jilly!). The lynx hat has already sold and is on its way to Ontario and I am just waiting to hear back from someone else about a beaver hat.

So another busy week ahead for me and my sewing room!

Crazy grin:

I love how these look from the back:

Hunter was in love with it and was asking if he could keep it.
Don't worry- he has not been neglected- he has a lovely grey one already!

Fun with Friends

Winter Fun!
Lilou, Hunter, Cavan and Quillian.
Delphine and I were the sled dogs.

Hat Madness!

After the successful completion of the Wee-Trapper's Hat, I moved forward and attempted the adult hat. I am now a full blown hat sewing addict!

I have made three hats since Saturday and am working on the fourth. Each one is just a little bit better than the last. I am finding way to make them look more finished.

Matt modeling Trapper Hat number 1. Beaver fur and moose hide.

Side view of the a Trapper's Hat with lynx fur and moose hide.
This one is definitely my favorite!

Front view of the lynx fur hat. So much lovely fur!!

Side view of Trapper's Hat number 2.

And all hats are for sale!

Wee Hat

A dear friend in Whitehorse sent me a hat pattern and after much trial and error and nearly a bout of tears, I completed my first one!

Here is Lilou, a friend's daughter, modeling it for me:




Tonight I am working on an adult one in moose hide and beaver!

Playing Out

The temperatures are finally breaking out of our long deep-freeze! Today it went up to a lovely -20C, so the boys and I headed out for some driveway shoveling fun this afternoon. With the warm temperatures though has come the snow! By the time I was done shoveling, I probably could have just started doing it over again.

Furry, snowy and happy!

Cavan loves having me cover him in snow while I am shoveling:

Finally, after an hour outside, the boys were cold and insisted we all head inside for hot chocolate:

My rosy-red cheeks (and my first attempt at a fur/fleece headband- it was deemed a reject and now I wear it)

Any Dream Readers Out There?

I dream almost every night and have no problems remember what they were about. Last night's dream though was so odd that it makes me think I should be a writer for a show along the lines of the X-Files.

The dream was playing out like a clip from the tv show "CSI". They were showing people dead on toilets who had been drained completely of their blood. My co-workers and I were trying to figure out what was killing them. We came up with the obvious idea of vampires, but the mark on the persons neck didn't look like a vampire bite. After much discussion, we staked out a bathroom through surveillance cameras with a dummy on the toilet. We watched for a few minutes and slowly the lid to the water reservoir on the back of the toilet started to slide to one side. A black tentacle-like thing started to reach out to the dummy and attach to the neck. Somehow this dummy was extremely realistic and we had filled it with blood. We watched as the tentacle latched onto the dummy's neck and started sucking out its blood. Later we learned that it was a massive leech that lived in toilets and traveled through the sewer system feeding off of human blood.

HOW ODD IS THAT?? (Hey Stacie, I bet this dream makes you happy you still have an outhouse, eh?)

I also had a dream about a local teenage girl here in Faro stealing my car (I don't have a car in real life, just a big-ass truck). She ditched it in the bushes and I was going to tell her parents on her. She was upset that my telling her parents would lead to her not being allowed to attend a special school in Whitehorse and she would have to stay in Faro. Oh, and prior to finding my car I was learning how to play the cello (now that is really odd because I have NO musical talent; I can barely play my stereo). While playing the cello I was panicking because I though people might ask me to sing while I played and I sound like a dying cow when singing aloud.

And my final dream of the night was me watching my Grandmother wash her reading glasses in the washing machine and also run them through the dryer. They came out broken into a dozen piece, but they came out of the dryer in a box of Kleenex and those tissues came out untouched and perfect.

Anyone out there want to hazard a guess about my inner thoughts based on these dreams? I would love to hear them because I sure have no clue!

:)

Parenting Advice from Michael

Last week I was blogging about how the boys are in a constant state of war and I was nothing more than a referee.

One of the comments on the post came from the always entertaining and helpful Michael of Michael's Meanderings fame. All he wrote in the comment section was, "The trick is to leave the room." Now at first I just ignored his comment because he has two lovely little girls. How can a dad of two lovely little girls have any idea as to what I am going through? We all know girls sit and colour instead of stuffing markers up their nose and don't scream "attack" and leap teeth bared at their sibling. We all know little girls are perfect creatures that are never any trouble.

But then I remembered that Michael has a brother.... And him and his brother have both made it to adulthood.... so perhaps I should listen to his advice.

This weekend I started with operation "Ignore Fighting Boys". First I took all of the toys out of the living room and put them into their bedrooms. The boys have never had toys in their bedroom before and they always play in the living room. I was hoping they would spend a bit more time in their bedrooms playing together. Second, I really did ignore them. I walked away from fights. I told them to fix things or get things by themselves or ask their sibling for help. Now I did have to intervene a few times when the attacks came out of the rooms and there were serious tears, but overall the last couple of days have been better. And my living room has been so much cleaner although by the end of the day their bedrooms look like a bomb went off!

Thank you Michael for your parenting advice! And if you ever want to trade your lovely little girls for two destructive little boys for a week, I am game!