ready to welcome her home...

When we found out we were expecting, there was little question for either of us as to whether we wanted to know if we would be welcoming a little miss or mister - we wanted to know! One of my major reasons for wanting to know was that I really wanted to create a gender specific nursery, a space that would be created just for her. I remember growing up how much my room meant to me... It was the one place that was mine, my haven and quiet place. Now I know that our little miss isn't going to notice the fabrics in her duvet cover or the fabulous shelf her Daddy built just for her when she comes home, but nonetheless it was important to us that right from the beginning, this space was created with heaps of love just for her... And I'm so happy with what we have created together. I love the fact that this room is not just my creation but the creative product of both Justin and myself. We have both spent hours looking at furniture and fabric and actually putting all the pieces together...and we couldnt be happier with the results!

We welcome you to our little miss's nursery...

We fell in love with this wall art the moment we put it up...I think it gets cuter every time I look at it :)
One of our goals was to create a space that she could grow into, I think with these fabrics we succeeded.
I love how the crib skirt and duvet cover turned out...exactly how I had them pictured!

The mobile actually came with a red cover but red didn't exactly fit with our color scheme,
so a quick switch to a bit of left over pink fabric and it was perfect!
The rocking horse actually belonged to Justin's mom when she was a child and fits in just nicely :)

Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my mom rocking me and so nursery would not have been complete without a rocking chair...I'm sure there will be many hours spent loving our little monkey in this chair...
We knew we wanted a shelf in her room and Justin created this perfect display shelf out of old barn wood
and it couldn't be more perfect...

We knew these monkey bookends would be a perfect accent on her shelf the moment we saw them!
And of course a few Curious George books and childhood classics were perfect to display with them :)
I loved the idea of curtains in her room, but wanted something custom...
so a pair of IKEA curtains with a bit of co-ordinating fabric added to them fit the bill perfectly

a little rider pride for the christmas season...

This summer when we were in New York, we wandered through the Mets store after watching the baseball game.  One item in particular caught our eye - a Mets themed Christmas wreath.  Justin and I looked at each other and right away had the same idea: We should make a Rider wreath!  So once the Christmas decorations started showing up in the stores, we kept our eyes open for the perfect additions to our wreath.

Justin had the mini football from his birthday last year - that would totally work....
Wandering through Canadian Tire we found the Riders ornament plate - that was a must...
And the S - a monogram is perfect for this creation...

And so this is the cheery creation that will greet you at the Scott residence this Christmas season :)

I Could Make That :: Braided Scarf

Several weeks ago I got a text from my sister early in the work day:
Mo: Have you seen Teaka's blog today?
Me: Ya I have, isn't that a great idea? They'd be so easy to make!
Mo: Great! Cause I'd like one for my birthday please :)

Well that makes shopping for her gift uber easy! lol...

Our friend Teaka had posted a tutorial on her blog Life Like Honey of how to make a Jersey Braided Scarf.  As I read through her instructions I thought, this looks easy enough that even I could make this... and so I did!  Two of them in fact and they turned out great, my sister loves them!  (I would like to steal them back...but I've been told to keep my paws off!...maybe I'll just make ones of my own lol!)

So this got me thinking... I've seen several scarf tutorials on Pinterest that look relatively easy... and well, I'm kinda cheap when it comes to buying scarves - I love them, but not often loving their price tag... so I thought, well lets give this another try...

I found a tutorial for a Braided Scarf that could be made from large tshirts, and apparently a "pattern" that would create a replica of a much more expensive scarf from Anthropology!  So Tuesday after work I stopped at Value Village, found a couple of very large men's tshirts and headed home to start creating.

And today, I'm wearing it :) (please forgive the poor iPhone photos... I was the only one awake in our house at 7:30 this morning!)

Happy Thursday! :)

A Slacker... and Another Quilt

Oi... it has been far too long since I've posted anything here... I've thought about it quite often, although unfortunately it was only in passing, and I just never got around to writing.

Well there is no time like the present :)

The time has come to catch up and get back on the blogging wagon.  We've had a pretty full summer, even though we tried to keep things pretty simple. We are home from the World Police and Fire Games and our holiday in NYC (which proved to be more adventure than we bargained for as we became acquainted with Irene lol! - I'll share that story soon!) and I am so ready to find some kind of routine!  Hockey season is in full swing in our household and that will definitely keep me well organized...

But today I'd like to share a very special quilt that I created this summer!

Back in April I decided that I wanted to make my dad a quilt for his birthday/Father's Day.  My sister and I picked out the material (as it was to be a gift from both of us) and I couldn't wait for it to arrive!  We had chosen several flannel prints that were much more "masculine" than many fabrics I've seen locally.  The one thing that really grabbed me was that many of these fabrics had a "tweed" look to them.  My dad can be a pretty snappy dresser ;) and there were a few of the brown pieces that looked just like a few of the tweed sport coats my dad has hanging in his closet!  I knew right away, this fabic was made just for him!

I did well - he got to see the fabric on Father's Day... however he had to wait till August to actually see it all put together :)  Better late than never right, lol!?

Here is the final product...we hope you enjoy your quilt Dad and that even though we don't live close enough to you to give you a hug as often as we'd like, we hope this reminds you of how much we love you...

The main part of the quilt all sewn together...

All finished and ready for the binding!

All done! :)

The All Star - a home run...

A post LONG overdue... but better late than never :)

This All Star quilt was my second commissioned creation.  It was so much fun seeing it come together and getting the feedback from it's owner to be.  N was so incredibly encouraging and awesome to work with on this project.

And I'm so pleased with the end result.  I have to admit I wasn't totally sold on the green backing (I'm not really a green girl), but once it was all together I was SO glad that was the color I had decided on. N had left the backing color up to me and I don't regret choosing the green for a second! I fell in love with these fabrics from the moment I saw them online and love them even more in the finished quilt.

So without any further adieu, here is the finished All Star...

Introducing...Mr. Cole...

Several weeks ago I got a phone call from Arianne asking if I'd be willing to do a newborn photo session for their new little man.  I'd never actually done a newborn session before, but I was excited to try something new :) and they were willing to be adventurous with me!

We had a great time together, and needless to say, Cole was such a sweetie.  He was very cooperative, gave me a few smiles, a few bright-eyed shots and slept through the rest of his shoot.  Drew and Arianne are totally in love with their little guy and it's easy to see why!

I posted a few sneak peaks earlier in the week, but here is some of my faves from our afternoon...

I love his smile here :)

Drew is a big Montreal Canadiens fan so we made sure to bring Cole's Canadiens quilt into his shoot!

A Sneak Peak at Mr Cole...

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do my very first newborn photo session :)  After a nasty computer virus and a visit to the laptop doctor, I'm finally finished with the editing!

Stay tuned for photos of the rest of our session....

The Perfect Excuse...

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my sister.  She doesn't normally call in the middle of the afternoon so I was a little curious what was up.  The reason for her call was nothing short of absolutely fabulous.  My sister is an uberly talented hair stylist.  She started down this path 7 years ago and with some twists and turns in the road she was finally able to write her journeyman's exam a few weeks ago.  So the reason for her call - she had just gotten her mark back and SHE PASSED!!!  I'm so incredibly proud of her :) She has worked long and hard to get to this point and I'm excited for her!  She is now waiting for a date for her practical exam, but at least the written exam is now behind her!

As soon as I hung up the phone I knew I wanted to do something special for her.  I also knew that I wanted it to be something I could take to the salon for her and her staff to share as one of her other stylists also wrote the same exam and passed.

Last week I came across an uber cool idea for packaging cookies (I'm OK with Unconventional...) and couldn't wait for a chance to create these myself... and this was the perfect occasion to get creative!

For me, the "punch" of this idea comes from the tag... and I love how this one turned out :)

It took me a few tries to get the cookies the right size for the CD envelope, but eventually it worked lol!

Because most of the envelopes didn't "close" flat, I used some adhesive on the front and back of of the tag to help it stay on.

And the finished product!  I LOVE these!  I will most definitely be making them again :)

She loved them when I dropped them off at lunch!  Her reaction made my day :)

The All Star - The Promised Update

Thankfully my computer decided to cooperate with me late last night and I was finally able to get at the photos of my weekend's quilting progress :)

I started out on Saturday with only three of the nine rows complete... by the end of the day, all nine were together and I was loving the way everything looked.

On Sunday morning I had some extra time before church so I once again laid it out on the floor to look a little closer... I wanted to add a little more length but 1-didn't want to add a whole row as I had planned & cut my fabric specific to this design and 2-I wanted something a little different but not too wild for a bit more length.  I experimented with a few different ideas.  First I laid out two long strips at the top and bottom to give it a little "something" but it just wasn't "it".  In the end, I used half sized squares that I was able to made from the left over scraps.  It was just what I was looking for.  It solved the problem of that little extra length but still didn't deviate too far from the overall look I was going for.

By late Sunday afternoon I was ready to work on the boarder.  I had saved one piece of fabric from this stack, had intentionally not incorporated it into the quilt just so that it would help the boarder to pop a little more... and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

The one thing that keeps coming back to me as I look at it altogether now, is how well all these fabrics play off each other.  It's a tad difficult to see in photos, but each fabric does a great job of showing off the other fabrics around it.

The next step is to clip just the boarder so that I can sew on the binding and then it will all be ready to clip and wash and send off to this coming All-Star!

Seeing An All Star Come to Life - 3

Sew, sew, some laundry, sew, some house cleaning, sew, sew... Ya that pretty much nails down my weekend lol!  I am very grateful that I had so much time at home this weekend after the busyness of the last several weeks.  {I'm wired in such a way that if I don't have good sized chunks of time in my house, I being to feel rather "frayed" inside, so this weekend went a long way to helping me feel much more refreshed :) }

I sewed/quilted until later evening last night and of course was snapping pictures as this All Star quilt continued to take shape.  I went home at lunch today planning to download and edit the photos and have them all ready to post here this afternoon... however, my computer didn't want to cooperate!  I did snap a quick picture with my phone Sunday morning before church so I could show my sister, so for now I'll post it and hopefully have the real photos ready for tomorrow! (or maybe even later tonight)

Stay tuned...  :)

This shows nearly all of the top as well as the fabric I planned to use as the quilt boarder.

He's An All Star - 2

Last night while my husband nervously awaited the outcome of the Penguins game, I was sitting next to him creating for another star :)

I am totally loving the way this quilt is coming together!  This is some of the funnest fabric I've worked with and I love how the prints and patterns play off each other.... the finished quilt will be three times this size, nine rows long plus the boarder around the squares.

The momma of the all star on his way particularly liked the paisley print... can you blame her?!  It's definitely one of my faves too from this fabric set... :)

Great choice of fabric N!  Your little man will be able to treasure this for a very long time :)

Creating for an All Star - part 1

I was very excited when I received a message from N asking if I would create a special crib quilt for the coming addition to their family :)  I was honored that they would entrust such a special creation to me and we quickly got to work deciding on fabric and a pattern.  And when she picked some of my most favorite fabric prints I was even more excited to get started on it!

I started cutting material last night and can't wait to see how it will all come together for a very special little one's arrival :)

Here's a sneak peak at the great fabrics she chose for their "all star"!

Riley Blake's "All Star 2" line... 

Las Vegas: The Project

A while back I saw a great project on Cottage Modern, a blog I follow written by a very talented interior designer.  She had taken some of the ticket stubs and tokens that they had collected on a trip to New York City and created a wonderful piece of art as a means of capturing some of the memories they'd made on their trip.

I stumbled on this post again a short while before we left for Vegas and knew right away that I wanted to create something similar with all the paper "memories" from our trip :)  So as we went along, I tucked away all these little bits with the hope of creating a very fun piece that would bring back many smiles after we were home...

I chose a simple black frame with a double mat for this project.  I wanted to make sure that there was enough room for everything but also that there was enough matting to help hold down the edges of all the clippings.

There were a few things that I didn't have bits & pieces from, so I quickly flipped through our pictures and re-sized a few shots of Justin and I which also helped to fill in a bit of the open space I had left.  It also ended up being a great way to incorporate our faces into the piece as well :)

 And here is the finished product - I love the way it turned out!  I love how "random" it is, very reminiscent of Vegas lol!

I have definitely been in {project mode} since coming home: I wanted to get this created asap and I've also started working on my next quilting creation!
So when I had the final piece in place last night, I didn't waste any time in finding a home for this creation!

Viva Las Vegas!

Playing Catch Up...

Last week was one of those kinda wonky weeks that I'm sure we all have once in a while.

I'm very grateful to have been pretty healthy this winter, but last week I kinda got sidelined... which meant I wasn't doing much of anything including blogging.  But after a wonderful long weekend I'm feeling back to normal and actually had a very productive weekend : )   So here begins my efforts to get back on track!

Early on the morning of January 3rd, my phone buzzed with the news that Miss Amara Joy had been born just a few hours earlier!  I was SO excited for my dear friends Dwight & Marcy and Amara's sister Gabby... their story is nothing short of miraculous... Amara made her entrance a little earlier than they had expected, but God's timing is so much better than ours and her entrance really was right on time!

I had made Miss Gabby a quilt (hers was actually my very first quilt!) this fall and knew that I wanted Amara to have one too.  I figured since I don't live close by to snuggle these amazing girls that perhaps this could be my way to snuggle them!  I found the "sweet pea" material and instantly I knew that that had to be Amara's.  I found a few other fabrics to go along with this and got to work...

I had seen this pattern online several times and I'm so glad I decided to go with it...

Happy snuggling Miss Sweet Pea!

Therapy... Part 2

Contrary to last Thursday, Thursday this week was a pretty good day on all fronts... thank goodness.  I never want to repeat last Thursday... ever!  And this week my "therapy" was more of a treat rather than a stress release :)

My wonderful husband is a minor hockey coach and they had an unusual Thursday night game out of town last night.  I travel with him and the team for almost every game, but yesterday they were leaving before I got off work, so we decided that I'd just stay home this time.  So that meant that I had a whole evening home on my own... so of course I happily ignored pretty much everything that should have been done around the house and pulled out my sewing machine for a glorious evening... just me, my machine, a few stacks of fabric and of course my Thursday evening companions: Grey's and The Big Bang Theory (feel free to roll your eyes here lol!)

In my post last week I had just begun to piece this quilt.  Last night my machine just hummed along and the end result was pretty sweet!  This pattern has three long pieces of squares with a solid fabric in-between these strips.  The top left photo shows the top half of two of the three strips, and I just laid the solid fabric in-between to get a better idea of what the finished product will look like.

For now, I sew sitting on the couch with my machine on the coffee table (we do have plans for a craft room in our developing basement!) and even our pooch thought this was cozy enough to curl up beside for a little snooze :)