Day #4 and #5

Day 4 i just focused on sewing and went to the mall and to a movie with a bunch of girls :)

day 5 desire is getting less and less and gonna focus on sewing again and going to work out or go for a hike in a few hours than lunch with gramma.

day #3

So this is the beginning of day #3 of No Facebook. Yesterday went pretty good. The desire to constantly be on facebook is starting to dwindle. I use my business page but it doesnt work the way personal facebook does. I have found myself to be less irritated and more involved with my family. since I have alot of free time on my hands i have been doing arts and crafts with the kids and even worked on the family budget this month.

Day #2 - No personal facebook

Day #2 with no facebook

I wasnt shocked at my level of withdrawal. I was pacing back and fouth for the first 30 mins of my day before I figured out that instead of pacing i could do something useful with my time. I have a hobby sewing business so I started to sew again for the first time in about a month. I was also shocked at the amount of room i had in my head to problem solve and figure things out since I didnt have a bunch of useless status updates or random information running through my head. Its also made me more patient with my kids as Im not trying to look at my phone every 5 seconds and getting upset at them for competing for attention.

Quitting FACEBOOK for 1 whole month - Day #1

You would think that quitting something as useless as facebook would be easy right? Just turn around and walk away. I thought so too, I am quitting facebook for 1 entire month to see if I am strong enough to do it. I started my challenge July 1st at 12am officially. It is now 7:24am and the first thing I wanted to do when I woke up this morning was complain about how early my 2 year old woke up. But Since I had made a vow, I did not go onto facebook ( although I'm keeping my business page open )

Than I started thinking.... who cares how early I woke up, yeah maybe I would of caught the attention of another early bird mommy friend and we could of complained a little bit with about 2 sentences than that would be it, and to someone I don't even talk to everyday. I have noticed that some of the first thoughts that go through my head are status updates... like I will be walking down the street and think " I should update my status and say were I am going " Than I get back to that all mighty question. Who fucking cares?

Its not that the people on my contact list aren't my real friends, I have a lot of real friends that I see regularly, but alot of the times now when i see them, i start talking about something and they say " oh yeah I already know, your facebook. " and I'm like oh yeah crap. ANYWAYS. Than everything gets awkward and you run out of shit to say.

Facebook is most definitely a safety zone, a security blanket. Be who you want to be.

I am taking a step back to find out who I really am these days. Not that I have ever pretended to be anyone else but myself, but I would like to know if I can still make friends the good ole fashion way.

I'm not bashing facebook at all either, its not the creators fault that we are all weak human beings with a huge desire now to say every thought we have

Peace Out Personal Facebook.

How much to spend on groceries a month

Equation on how to figure out how much you should be spending a month on groceries.

I read a financial report were it gave some info on how much you should spend a month on groceries according to your annual income.

Take your average paycheck after taxes times it by an average of 28 paydays in a year times that by 11%-14% |( I chose to do 11% ) , you will than have your percentage of your annual.

take the annual percent and divide it by 12 and you should get your monthly total, you than take that monthly total and divide it by 4 and you than get your weekly amount.

Example: single minimum wage individual who makes $10/hr ( bc canada )

$704 x 28 paydays = $19712
$19712 x .11 =  $2168.32
$2168.32 / 12m = $180.69 a month in groceries / 4 weeks in a month = $45.17 a week to  live ( not including toiletries and hygiene )

This was just a fun equation to help out with cutting down on the cost of groceries.

How to help save money on your grocery bill

A little bit of history that leads up to my tips

I am going to start off by talking about being a consumer and how we and our parents have been brainwashed into thinking that buying packaged and pre-frozen goods is the only way to go and how the Microwave oven has changed our eating habits.

The World War II ended in 1945, which is when our grandparents and parents were born. I don't blame them for buying the stuff because the companies did such a great job marketing their goods. According to my research on wikipedia.org, the modern convenience goods of today such as canned and dried goods began after the World War II ended. The surplus companies had over stock so sold it to homes for commercial use, than began stuffing whatever they could into cans such as ham sticks and cheeseburgers which were not a big success. 72 years later we are unhealthy, over weight and busier than ever. It's time to slow down and take a look around and realize your life and children's lives are worth living. We as the consumer have been designed to cook faster and easier forgetting how to bake bread and cut our vegetables. We as the consumer have the power to change our habits and live a healthier life style. It actually costs more to live off of packaged and junk food than it does on fresh fruits and veggies. Then there was the invention of the microwave oven, the first microwave entered the home in 1967 as a counter top appliance. This has also handicapped us in the way of fresh homemade cooking. The microwave alters the way food tastes and its texture.

Enough about microwave ovens, World War II and the affects it has had on our generation. It’s time to be honest with yourself and how your addicted to Kraft Dinner and forget how delicious home baked macaroni and cheese is with a bread crumb topping is. Today people go to restaurants now to try and get their old home cooked meals re-created. Why not do it at home?

In order to start cutting back on your groceries, you need to understand that a grocery store is scientifically laid out to feed off of human weaknesses. A grocery store is laid out so that when you enter, you WILL go to the right and follow your natural path. Meanwhile going up and down the aisles until you have a cart full when all you came in for was milk.

Now that you know these few tad bits of information, I hope you will have your eyes a little wider now and not be taken advantage of the big companies. Don’t get me wrong, if you enjoy your treats; by all means buy what you want. This is just my personal opinion and how I now live my life for my family. I don’t judge and I won’t come into your home and lecture you on health etc. etc. I hope you enjoy my post and Take the following 15 tips into consideration.

Tips on how to cut down on your grocery costs

Tips #1 – When you enter a grocery store only shop the perimeter for dairy, meat, vegetables, fruit, and Bread. These should be your basic staples. Only go up and down the aisles unless you need rice or pasta noodles (you can even make your own pasta noodles if you so desire)

Tip #2 – Use coupons if you so desire. You don’t often find coupons on things on the perimeter of the store because they want you to go up and down the aisles to buy all those random things you don’t need.

Tip#3 – Don’t impulse buy, that’s what they want you to do at the checkout, I know those gummies and razors weren’t on your list of things to buy…

Tip #4 – If your within walking distance of the store or a bus, take those routes there and I dare you to try and pack home $200 worth of stuff…. You will start to put yourself in a different mindset… of what you need vs. what you and your family want.

Tip #5 – Pull out your dusty cook books or search the internet for more creative ideas to feed your family for meals and snacks and treats instead of boxed cookies, packaged donuts and boxed pastas with artificial sauces. (I don’t judge as KD is like crack)

Tip #6 – DON’T BE ASHAMED to check out the clearance rack or bin as they sometimes have some amazing deals and things you might have been too scared to try before. EX, corn pasta…. 50% off, who would have thought it was the best pasta noodles we had ever bought. You can also find shampoos, soaps, pads, kid’s things list goes on and on.

Tip #7 – Try having 1 or 2 meatless nights were you incorporate a complete protein in a different way, such as tofu, beans and there are other options. Grow out of your old habits and try something different. If you are too worried about trying something new… hide it in what you’re eating... Tofu can be broken down and takes on whatever flavor you have put it in.

Tip #8 – Research your meals or try to plan ahead and you don’t have to buy your meat in bulk. Try your local butcher (it may cost more than buying Costco, but you will get to have your meat portioned for you and wrapped neatly and it won’t have hormone injections or be water logged)

Tip #9 – Do a eat your cupboards food challenge were every meal you use 1 item at least from your freezer or cupboard until it’s all just about gone. The point is to eat up all your old cans of spaghetti sauce and beans and tuna that have been hiding at the back for a good year.

What this accomplishes

1)     No more unnecessary buying things that don’t have a near future plan ( so stop buying cause it’s on sale )

2)     No more packaged products or frozen dinners.

What you have left

1)     Stocks for making soups and sauces and flavoring your cous cous, rice, barley, quinoa and flour and sugars for baking

2)     Frozen portioned and marinated meats if you did happen to buy more than needed, baked goods such as cookies, muffins and or scones.

Tip #10 – Always make sure you eat something before you go grocery shopping, not only for the energy, but it helps you from buying unnecessary things. When you’re hungry it over powers your thought process and you start to buy what you want at that moment instead of what you need. Cause you seek instant gratification, that bag of chips looks appetizing instead of a granola bar or apple.

Tip #11 -  Only take cash and don’t be embarrassed if you have to put something back, you’ll realize  that, that thing you have to put back you never really needed in the first place or it could wait until next week.

Tip #12 – If you have kids in tow, take advantage of the free cookie at the bakery to  keep your kids entertained long enough to think about shopping J

Tip #13 – Pretend someone is waiting for you to help you get in and out of the grocery store. You don’t really need to be in there any longer than you have to. Like really, it’s not that cool to hang out in or pick up a lover.

Tip #14 – Learn how to say NO to YOU.

Tip #15 – Try new things, this is the time to have fun. Grab seasonal fruits and vegetables at a farmers market to avoid a grocery store

Tip #16 - Set a reasonable amount per week and try to stick to it.

These are just my personal thoughts and opinions with some internet research.

Custom made Canvas Laundry Hampers

This was an order put in by my brother and his girl-friend. They needed laundry hampers made for some existing frames they had hanging around. Was I upto designing some hampers...? oh  of course. Im always up for a challenge, I like to do things i've never done before, just to see if I can do it. I think I did pretty good considering i've never made any hamper of any sort, so I thought i'd fancy them up a little by adding some slightly contrasted hanging tabs.

So this is one of the hampers. They were fun and easy to make and I serged all the edges so it has a professional clean look and the canvas wont unravel.

I forgot to turn the pictures before posting them, but you get the jyst of what they are saposed to look like.

Life since April 2011

So since my last post in April lots has happened and I promise to blog more at least once a week. I was pregnant with my second child who was due Jan 26, 2012 of this year, instead I went into premature labour and had a healthy baby boy born Dec 17, 2011 at 6.7 lbs 21 inches. We spent a couple days in hospital and were able to come home Dec 23, 2 days before christmas. Now thats a christmas present.

So needless to say with a 2.5 year old toddler and a 7w old baby, getting to my sewing has been a little tough.

Thats my Peanut

Greyson Winter Gruszecki

My next post will be sewing related :)



A Pink Octopus comes to life

So I had the fun task of making an stuffed pink octopus for a little girl. Here i will show you how it all came together.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics on how i made the head, so what i did was cut out 4 of the same size lemon wedge style pieces out...flat bottom and curved sides that come to a point. I attached 2 felt eyes on 2 of the pieces that would be side by side. I sewed those 4 together to the points. I used my how to make a fleece winter hat knowledge to make the head :)

Than after that I measured the circumference of the bottom of the head opening, drew it on a piece of paper, added about 2 inches than drew 8 legs protruding from the circles. I put down the underside of the octopus fabric down, than a piece of the pink fleece and than a layer of high loft batting ( I used high loft instead of stuffing it because i didn't want the stuffing to settle in each leg ) than i put the pattern i drew and cut out on top of all the fabrics and pinned it to all the fabric

After i had everything sandwiched together it was time to head to the sewing machine.

I figured the easiest way to get an accurate cut out without having everything shift on me was to just put it under the machine paper and all and start sewing. It worked well and after i finished sewing all the way around, I tore the paper off and than cut around each leg until i just had the bottom half of the body.

Me cutting around each leg.  After i finished cutting around, i pinched the middle of the body ( pink fleece ) and made sure i only had the fleece and not the batting and underside fabric and cut a hole out of the centre from the circumference of the head opening.

So what i did here was place the head upside down and stuffed it into the body part, pinned the opening of the 2 holes together and sewed around until i had a 2 inch opening. I than started by sticking a knitting needle in each leg and turning them the right side out and poking them through the opening i had left open to turn the octopus right side out.

Once i got the little guy turned all inside out i continued to stuff the head with stuffing through the opening until i could no longer stuff . Than i hand stitched the closing closed.

And this is the finished product, I did add a little tiny blue bow at the top side of the head.

This is the underside of the body.

Thanks for reading and looking at my awesome home taken pictures and handmade baby girl octopus.

How to make your own Crayons

Alrighty, so I saw this pic of homemade crayons and was like " I HAVE TO HAVE THOSE " upon contemplating purchasing like a thousand off this other WAHM mom from the States, I decided to give it a shot first, I just happen to have a pack of crayons lying around and wasn't gonna let my son use them till he was older, so my adventure began to let him use them sooner than later.

OK so first off you need to remove all the paper from the crayons { we don't want any oven fires }

*Than you need to line a muffin tin with tinfoil. I individually wrapped the muffin spots instead of trying to spread a piece across and going from there. 
*Once lined, you need to break up the crayons in thirds and place them in whatever color scheme suits your needs. I just matched up the colors the best I could and did it in its basic parts.  I did about 5 crayons per muffin spot of a 12 cup muffin tin. Have to be careful cause it can melt over.  PS make sure you line your pan well, you will see why.

*Once you have them in the pan , place them in the oven at 250 degrees for 12-15 or till you can tell they are fully melted.  This pic shows them half way through the process.

This pictures who's what they look like once they are all melted.
How I put my crayons in the fridge for a couple minutes to help the cooling process cause I'm impatient.

Once they are fully cooled you can start to lift the cups out and peeling the tinfoil off.

After peeling my tinfoil off, i took an old parring knife from the drawer and shaved off that little flaky way edge you see there from the wax settling and hardening.  Less of a mess to try and clean up after handing them over to the little one.

This picture shows how i was too excited and accidentally punctured holes into the tinfoil and it melted through onto my pan  :(  if this happens to you, don't throw the pan out, just put it back into the oven to melt again than use some paper towel to mop up the oily mess and make sure not to burn yourself..

                                                                        VOILA

Aren't these the coolest things you have ever seen :)  they aren't as cool as per say a car shape or dinosaur, but they work just as good.    This is a picture of them in action, he just love love loves them.

 Just LOVING every second he gets to play with his crayons.

I hope you enjoyed and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask :)  cheers

Wool Diaper Cover written Tutorial

So today was the day that I finally decided to cut into this ugly wool sweater i bought from the thrift store. It was a men's large for $4.99

So in my adventures i found some great little tutorials that i will share with you.

The first thing i made was Soaker pants

1. You take the sweater and cut off the arms, even the tops, measure the babies inseam and than put one slit on the side of both sides and than cut the slit up to the top of the sleeve were you cut it off the sweater.
2. You than turn one sleeve inside out so right sides are facing each other and sew the 2 pieces together were you cut the slits like you would sew together any pair of pants at the crotch area.
3. I cut off the collar of the sweater were the size tag was, and left about 1/2 an inch so there was room to sew it onto the top of the arms ( aka forming soakers )  pinned the pieces together right sides together and voila a waist band, mine measured about 20" and i needed it 18" so i put a slit in the collar and put an elastic band inside like you would any pair of pants.

Enjoy MSG me to ask questions.

Next I made the soakers x 2

 

1. Cut apart the remaining front and back of sweater, lay them on top of each other
2.measure the babies waist and legs - my son was 18" waist and 10.5 " thigh - cut out a 18 inch across and cut out the remaining length of the sweater so one big triangle. At the tip of my triangle i squared it off instead of a harsh point, so I'd have more room to sew the sides together.
3. Pull your point up to the centre of the long edge and fold in the sides of the soaker measure the hold I measured 5 inches from the bottom ( were it will be open for legs ) pinned and sewed from that pin up to the waist line. Do the same for both legs.
4. My soaker was a bit big in the waist so i just gathered it in the back and sewed a dart into it and cut off the access.
* This isn't an exact thing, i still need to make many adjustments, but its the jist of what to do. the tutorial  i took wasn't very thorough either.

Next  came the leg warmers.

These are the 2 pieces from the sides of the triangles we cut out, the top is the brim of the sweater so they go up near the thighs of the baby and i just tapered them down so a little foot could fit through the bottom :) and voila sewed up the sides and got 2 of the cutest little leg warmers in town :)

Hope you enjoyed these photo's and verbal directions, if you need further information as my instructions may totally suck just leave me a comment and i can get back to you as soon as possible.

Sew Much Ado: Tutorial: Felt Flash Cards / Memory Game

Sew Much Ado: Tutorial: Felt Flash Cards / Memory Game

WELCOME TO MY BLOG - FREE GIVEAWAY

So if you just happen to have come across this, why not become a follower, leave a comment below with your email address example blahblah ( at ) gmail (dot ) com.

I time to time have some interesting things, I am going to start doing tutorials and just crafty things all around.

The free giveaway for this month is a beautiful set of pillowcases.

Like these ones but in a different color scheme.

I will make the pillowcases and post a picture later. Just gotta get a few orders done first : )

So the closing end date it March 30/2011  hope you come to join us.

Another day of Diaper Repairs

So I took on the daunting task of doing an order of repairing 24 bum genius for a couple ladies.  Let me tell you, its easy as heck to do, but time consuming.  I think next time I may charge a little more than I did this time. But in any case when you times 24 x 3 elastics x 6 ends each....that's a whole lot of pain stacking elastic attaching.  My poor needs have gone through the shredder as Velcro is very course :(  but all in all I'm having a great time, my machine not so much, shes been called a few bad names followed with whispers, mutters and i may have smacked it once ha ha.  But shes a great machine.

I've been doing some research on cloth diapers and the ins and outs of it, I myself have converged over to cloth diapering 2 months ago 100% and I'm very happy and proud.  I do it a little more the hard way, I only have 5 AOI's and the rest are reg cloth diapers that require a cover. I do make my own fleece covers though, and i must say, they work pretty freaking fantastically.  They don't " soak " through but they do get a little damp which in turn lets the mommy or daddy know its time to change the baby :)

Those 2 i made, the leopard ones were given away as free prizes and the blue one with the grayish brown heart on the bum bum was a special order for a wonderful customer. I love doing custom orders more than anything, which is why I probably haven't gotten too much into the selling end of things. But I think that somewhere in the world there should be a store you could walk into and have like a zillion different types of cloth diapers to choose from, its so hard to find a brand you like over the Internet.  So maybe that's in my future, to simply have a cloth diapering store. I think its a great idea, so don't steal my thunder ha ha.

And since nobody wants the produce bag free give-away, I'm gonna pull it off the shelf and think of replacing it with something " cooler " what would you like to see as a free giveaway?  maybe cloth diapers ?

Everything Pink and another FREE GIVEAWAY

So I finally have the pink quilt cut out, I just need to sew the strips together and start cutting out blocks. This is gonna be sooo neat, i cant wait until its finished.  I will add pictures of the progress.
So I'm thinking that the pink quilt is cursed, every time i start it I get sick sick sick.  :(

My project of the day yesterday was to make some reusable produce bags, they turned out really well and I'm super happy with them.

I made it masculine so that my husband wouldn't have a problem with using them.  I used jersey mesh instead of plastic mesh as I want these to last longer, as this will wash over and over again.
So my project to start today is sewing pink strips together and its currently 6 30 am

My Free giveaway of the week is......wait for it......A reusable produce bag :)  If you are female you will get a girly one, if you are male...I'll try to make it as masculine as I can.
So leave a comment and your e-mail or if you don't want to leave your e-mail on the blog cause of spammers, just e-mail it to me but still leave a comment.

Feb 01 Free Give Away WINNER

And since there was only 2 wonderful people who commented on my free give-away, they will each win something from the wonderful Diaper cover stash.  Amy and Marie you will both receive 1 each of a Animal Print diaper cover in a large size.  Since I have both your address, keep an eye out int he mail for your winnings :)

And on to my day, so we have this huge dollarstore were i found some things to get crafty with. I have purchased 1 red croc patent vinal placemat and 1 black croc patent vinal placemat and one vinal table cloth cover.  I think im gonna have a fun time with finding fun crafty things to do with these items.

But just incase

WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD DO WITH THESE 3 ITEMS?

Another Year Older

So my birthdays come and gone, I unfortunately was not able to correctly finish my dress, as I had made it a size too big and didn't realize until just before we left for lunch.  But here is a picture of the colors.

That's the overall design of the top bodice, the rest is just regular straps and skirt.  I do vow to alter and finish this dress though.

So good news on my pink quilt adventures, its all cut out all zillion strips :)  I just now have to sew them all together and than start cutting blocks, than adding a border or 2 and than the fun part, PINNING.  and than the other favorite part....QUILTING.  ohh and than it has to be binded :)  I love quilting, its been about a month or 2 since i have done my last one, and it was the cutest little car quilt for a little boy.  I will show a pic of it.

That one was really fun to do, as I've got a few under my sleeve now.....4 baby quilts and 3 adult i believe, its very fun and extremely rewarding.  I do hope to one day, just make up maybe 10 or 20 baby quilts and put them up for sale, or maybe just keep taking my custom orders.  But we will see. My husband has gone back to work finally so i currently have the house back to myself and with the baby.  I plan on some early morning 6 am wake ups to start sewing while the kidlet is sleeping, best time to sew assuming i have all my materials and they aren't in his room.

But good night you all.  I still am having the free diaper cover giveaway Feb 01 so make sure to post a comment and let me know your e-mail. 

Keep an eye out for other free give aways, I hope to do at least 2 a month so make sure you tell everyone to get a free goody :)

CHEERS

My Birthday Dress

Hello today

So today I'm gonna be working on my 28th birthday dress, its a Cynthia Rowley Simplicity patter 2250.  its got lots of pleats and darts in the bodice, so lets see how it turns out. I should come to about my knees by looking at the picture, I'm assuming the model is about 5' 10" and I'm only 5' 4" so in my case the longer the better don't wanna have and Britney moments getting out of a car :)

I'm doing my dress in a deep deep almost black purple with maroon and gold peaking out all around it, its pretty neat, so I'm very interested to see how this is gonna turn out eek.

Tonight I'm going to a hockey game just a local one to support the guys trying to make it into the big leagues.  I'm gonna wear my new jean skirt that i made, with a pair of black leggings and my new grey boots that i just bought from ALDO thanks to my husbands mom who gave me a gift certificate for Xmas i bought 2 pairs of boots and a skirt from Serena's. Anyways, I don't know what top I'm gonna wear, although I'm sure it wont matter since I'm gonna be wearing a jacket in the ice arena. 

But off i am to finish cutting out this pattern and putting it together, I'm gonna start with all the small pieces that i already know how to do before i tackle this bodice.....duh duh daaaaaa

I'll post pictures as soon as i get some progress

Sewer out

FREE GIVE AWAY

So I'm a little behind on the free give away, but please forgive me as I've been sick all week and needed some time to recover.  So I will extend the date of the free giveaway to Feb 01, 2011 I hope to get a few more followers by then.  So tell your friends, your friends friends and even your partner.  You never know everyone loves to get something for free.

OK so our free giveaway today is ........... Fleece Diaper Covers - To win this diaper cover or one of your choice, please leave a comment with your e-mail address.

Your choice of either the animal print, all Burgundy, Burgundy and black accents, baby blue or animal print with black accents.  Enjoy.

So on another note, yesterday and today I was working on a much anticipated jean skirt out of a pair of oldish jeans that didn't fit properly anymore.  I have to say, I'm pretty darn impressed with it, its everything I could of ever wanted and more and if I didn't know how to sew today, I probably would have bought it in the store and paid upwards to $60 bucks in of course Canadian dollars. Here's the finished product

Yes I'm in my Jammie's

I had alot of fun doing the skirt, of course a few mishaps along the way, but whenever aren't there...I'm a learn as you go kinda girl, what do you call that..TRIAL AND ERROR  ha ha..that's me.  So after I finished the skirt I had a few left over leg scraps, and I thought how great of an idea it would be to have a fantastic new bag to go with my fantastic new skirt....so lone behold the clutch was born. Here's the finished product.

Me peeking around the corner trying to see if I have it lined up in the camera.
So this little beauty has med weight interfacing with a snap closure and nail head embellishments ( which by the way I'm super in love with and hope I never ever drop one on the floor ) and a beautiful red lining.

I really do know how to smile :)

Anyways, so that's what I have been up to the last few days.  They were boredom projects.  But I always make something useful.  If you have any questions as to how or anything else about these fun things just let me know.

Tanya

Success

So everytime i try to add a blog, is says web error and i cannot.  Im assuming this blog will work.  If so...my success of the day was finishing my oven mitts and potholders.

Although im sad my big blog i wrote up dissapeared.  :(

Let me know what you think of them.

I will be posting a FREE GIVEAWAY  -  JANUARY 17 - KEEP AN EYE OUT