Ember Costumes and Crafts

What I'm Playing  Edge of Darkness This kickstarter game combines elements of deck building and card-crafting with worker placement and monster fighting. It's complicated, has a ton of pieces, and a strong city-factions theme. The box is massive, the rulebook long, and gameplay is medium complex. I'll say it's not exactly my cup of tea, but if I took the time to learn it and get really good at it, it could be really fun. John and Diana really liked it, Gunnar liked it okay, and I was just meh about it. But then, I really hate learning new games and the factions theme isn't my think and I pretty much hate deck building haha.




What I'm ReadingAncillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
This one wasn't as exciting as the first book in this series, which I reviewed last month for a lot of reasons. First, there was a lot of explanation of things that happened in the first book which while interesting didn't move things along very much There also wasn't very much at st…

I love Anne of Green Gables and have been wanting to make a doll outfit like this for a while! I used the "Carrots" pattern by Luminaria Designs from Pixie Faire which was very easy and straightforward. I used some quilting cotton from Joann's for for the dress, a fat quarter for the pinafore, and I bought the hat off of Amazon and decorated it with some spare ribbon from my stash.



The only thing I did that  I hadn't done before was the Peter Pan collar, which turned out really cute! I must have done something wrong because it doesn't lay totally flat, even after vigorous ironing. I know about understitching but I don't really understand it very well, so I think I must have done it wrong. Oops.

The back has some false buttons sewed over the velcro closure.  (I seriously hate making button holes!) I also cheated a little bit and used the bloomers that I made previously for the prairie girl dresses, since you can't see them. I don't need 5 pairs of bloo…

What I'm Reading Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey This is the first book in the Expanse Series, on which the T.V. show is based. I really liked the show, and John had read all the books and said that they were good, so I picked this one up from Half-Price Books and gave it a try! Overall it was good....BUT....I think the show was better. I KNOW! But hear me out. The show apparently combined the first two books, adding in the geopolitical point of view from Earth through the Senator's scenes, and those really added depth to the series that the book alone was lacking.

The book itself was a good quick read, not too technical for sci-fi, and most of the dialogue and scenes were word-for word the same in the book and the show. Unfortunately, since I just watched the show so recently, that also made it a bit boring of a read. I didn't get any new info out of the book that wasn't already in the show. The few changes that the show did make were positive and minor--the goo …

This baby quilt is from my unfinished projects pile! I started it over two years ago and abandoned it after finishing the quilt top. I bought everything I needed to finish it but just...didn't. I guess I had more pressing projects to do! This wasn't for any specific baby either, so I also wasn't super motivated to do it when I had live babies who had been waiting for quilts to sew for! 


The fabric is the "Good Natured" Jelly Roll by Riley Blake. I loved the gender-neutral mint and orange and the cute little foxes and fawns! Probably not still available since I bought it so long ago.



The quilting was tricky on this one since I made it so long ago. I wasn't very good at squaring things up so if you look you can see the wrinkles and puffs, particularly along the edge of the quilt. I did my best to smooth things out, but it's far from perfect. I still think it turned out really cute though, and I can't believe what a weight off it is to have something fi…

I reviewed the game Diongenics back in February when the first round of kickstarter games finally shipped... and I'm excited to say it's getting a 2nd printing! We've played several more times and I REALLY love it. It combines my love of worker-placement Agricola with Gunnar's love of Jurassic Park and all things Dinosaur. And this printing has an expansion with SEA CREATURES...which Jack will love when he's old enough to play. (He is obsessed with ancient marine reptiles like the Mosasaur.) It's only available for order for about 23 or so more days so check it out!

As I started cleaning out and organizing my crafting closet, I of course came across a pile of unfinished projects languishing at the back. They were abandoned for a variety of reasons over the past years from frustration to mistakes to lack of materials to just plain being unable to decide what to do next!

Over the next few months I would like to try and finish one of these unfinished projects each month...or get rid of them.

Magenta Baby Quilt - Started while I had morning sickness and can't look at it without feeling sick

Umbrella Quilt - It was ugly and I had no idea how to make it not ugly

Halloween Quilt - top finished, needs to be quilted

Foxes Baby Quilt - top finished, needs to be quilted

College T-Shirt quilt - Ran out of interfacing, got frustrated with ironing all the old t-shirts

Gunnar's Renfair Doublet - Got overwhelmed by several mistakes and shoved it aside

Red and Bluebirds Garden Quilt - I messed up and couldn't figure out how to save it!