Ember Costumes and Crafts

Finished! With a week to spare, I got new baby's dinosaur quilt done. The main fabric is a pack of fat eighths called "Hear me Roar" by Studio E Fabrics which I ordered off of etsy...I meant to buy a fat quarters pack and accidentally got fat eighths...the first of many mistakes! The border fabric is just some quilting cotton from Joann's. I try not to use quilting cotton from Joann's because I have found that they fades A LOT after years of use and hundreds of washings compared to more expensive brands. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Once I have some fabric in hand, it's hard to find good color matches online rather than in person, plus I didn't really have time to wait for shipping. Technically this baby can decide to come whenever he feels like it at this point! 



I had many problems while I was making this quilt, and even though I'm overall happy with how it turned out, I'm still not ecstatic about it. It's not my favorite q…

What I'm Playing Sadly, I haven't had the time or energy to play any fun new games this month, what with baby coming in a week (!) and several bouts of horrible stomach viruses making their rounds it the family, but I have been playing some games with my boys. Jack is 7 and James is 5, and thankfully we have moved beyond Candy Land and into some actually fun games! 
Hiss This is a simple tile-laying and color matching game but surprisingly fun and satisfying. Each player takes turns laying down colored segments of snakes, trying to make the longest snake that has a head, tail, and as many matching colored middle pieces as you can draw in a row. 
It's great for younger players because you don't have to be able to read, and it goes very quick. A patient 3 year old who can match colors could easily play, but my 7 year old Jack still loves it too.


What I'm Reading Wheel of Time Book 9: Winter's Heart I didn't have high hopes for this book after how book 8 drag…

I can admit that I'm not above abandoning projects.  I have plenty of "I'll go back and finish it someday" projects stacked up in my office closet right now, in fact! And occasionally when I get sick of looking at the huge stack, I go through and throw some away, repurpose the materials, or even, occasionally, finish them!

This baby quilt that I'm working on has almost been abandoned SO MANY TIMES in the past month it it is driving me crazy. I have two weeks until this new baby gets here though, and I am determined to finish it even if it turns out HIDEOUS--which I honestly can't decide if it is hideous or acceptable, and I change my mind about it pretty much five times a day. Can I blame that on hormones?

It doesn't help that I've been horribly sick with two different stomach viruses over the past two weeks which, which nine months pregnant, really really sucks. Luckily everything is okay with baby so far, but it doesn't make for much sewing or …

Every year I think, "This time I'm going to hire a professional photographer to take our family photos," and then every year I look up the prices of professional photographers in my area and very quickly change my mind!

I have nothing against professional photographers--we hired one for our wedding and I am very happy that we did! And I'm crazy jealous of people who are friends with professional photographers who give them discounts on things like family photos, don't get me wrong. The quality of those pictures is definitely miles above what I can do on my own.
In fact, we started doing our own family photos out of pure necessity--we couldn't afford it when Gunnar was in school--and then we got pretty good at it and I couldn't justify the money even when we could technically afford it, and even besides the money aspect, the cons are pretty much dealbreakers for me. Most of the photographers I've priced out have strict copyright policies, only give yo…

I originally bought this "Howdy" charm pack (by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda) to make a baby quilt for my cousin's little girl, but the pack was half girl charms and half boy charms...and not enough to make a baby quilt for either one. It sat on my desk for a long while until I needed a few pick-me-up quick projects, and then they became two separate doll quilts--one for a cowgirl and one for a cowboy!  I actually made them back in October or so, but just finally got around to taking pictures! Now I can sell them or give them away guilt free!

Both are just simple charm squares laid out how I liked them, backed with a fat quarter of the same line of fabric and bound in some leftover cream satin blanket binding. Two extra charm squares became two small decorative pillows.




Front above, back below. 



Front above, back below. 


I can't decide which one I like better! How cute would these be for baby girl and boy twins??

Even if you don't have a koi pond like John, or if you're not geeky about Japanese culture like me, this short documentary about a man with a pond business who travels to Japan to select koi to ship to his store in Sacramento is AMAZING. It features so many beautiful fish, landscapes, and hard working people. I was riveted!