#2. Flip Dawg

Aaron is my oldest brother. He's been my best friend since forever. At 3 and 5 we played endless games of our own invention. Our two imaginations worked magic together. He was an excellent little brother, almost always willing to go along with whatever his bossy big sister decided :) We're still bff's. We're in the same choir this year and it has been super fun to see him loving the things I love best too.

He's insanely talented. His art is incredible. He spends hours upstairs creating stuff out of lego, which he has adored since he was old enough to hold it.

The only pictures I can find of him are wearing his perma-toque...hmmm....but underneath it, he has fantastic hair.

I can't wait until we're grown up and get to be the cool adult siblings to our younger kiddies' friends :)

This dude rocks my socks.

1000 gifts - I'm in

Ann Voskamp of 'A Holy Experience' has written this book '1000 gifts', with a challenge to find 1000 gifts and record them. Pen them down publicly and in your memory. So, I begin.

1. My sweet Jesus. The lover of my soul, and the giver of life. I am ever so grateful for him.

I will take the next 6 days so post #2-7 :) I'll give you a hint. They all live in my house.

Scrap happy tree pillow

I got the idea for this super cute pillow from Cluck Cluck Sew. I am not great at following directions (hehe) and am more one to see the picture and then go make one on my own. If that's you, feel free to ignore the rest of this completely. If you like directions, read on :)


The infamous scrap happy box. I think I might move them out of this little storage unit thing and put them in a basket.

You will need:
- Your scrap happy box, whatever it may be :)
- A pillow form
- Fabric for the background


1. Start by picking out the fabrics you want to use and cutting the petal shapes. I cut 16, I think...mine were about 2 inches long and one inch wide, and in a petalish shape. I'm really not good at this...

2. Find a suitable brown fabric to be your trunk, and cut...er...a trunk shape out of it. My brother bought this lovely camo to sew himself a case for his flyrod. No joke. I never dreamed I would be using it for a project of mine...


3. Cut two squares of whatever you want your background to be about 1 inch around bigger than your pillow-form. If it has been sitting in a box for awhile like mine, you may want to iron it.

4. Arrange your petals on your fabric however you want them and pin them down on one of your squares.

5. This step is optional but I highly recommend it :)

6. Set the gauge wrong on your sewing machine and make a mess of your pillow front. A few times. Wait, that's just me.

7. Using the zig-zag stitch if you have one, sew the petals down.

8. And...the step where I forgot to take pictures. There's always at least one. Ah well. Sew your two squares together right sides in on three sides, turn it right-side-out, put your pillow form into it and sew it nicely shut.

9. Tada! Put your pillow in its new decorative spot and take a picture. 

10. Well, there really is no 10th step, but 10 steps is a good number. I know! Eat some ice cream.

Treats from the fabric box

fyi - sorting out your fabric boxes is hard...especially if you have five million scraps of this and that that you just can't get rid of. But it was decided that we had just too much and needed to release some of it. We ended up with one large box and one basket of small scraps to keep, and got rid of almost everything else.

However, the whole process was kinda fun, because I found all these lovely little bits and bites that I had forgotten about. Here is a small selection - I plan to do great things with these :)


You can't see how much fabric there really is in this one...it's the remains of a huge multi-tiered full-length skirt. The colour is beautiful and the fabric is super nice, but I was a little...ahem...rough on it. It was meant to be a nice, going-to-a-neighbours-garden party skirt, not really a cooking-stew-in-the-bush, hiding-from-the-russians kind of skirt. It kind of fell apart on me. But there's probably enough fabric to make about a dozen little girl skirts out of the bottom three tiers of fabric...that would be fun, as long as they just wear them to the garden parties.



I'm pretty sure this was a dollar rack find at some point. I loved the vibrant colour and it just whispered 'embellishments' in my ear. I see a pink silky some decoraton or another in my near future...hmmm...



I actually don't think this was from a thrift store...I'm pretty sure it was from Old Navy or something. I couldn't resist it. Now I guess I know why.

I mean, it's green...with ruffles ...wasn't that the description of perfect?

Anyways, I feel like I never really wore it because it didn't fit properly...maybe I'll give it another try.



There were a few other sweet treats I didn't get pictures of, but I thought these had to be shared. I'll be back with the scrap-happy basket :)

Searching for repurpose - giving clothing a second chance in life

Before

This dollar rack find was a loose, flowy shirt with beautiful colours. I was attracted to the blossomy pattern on the fabric, and the ribbon on the waist was super pretty. Really nice, just big.

After

Step one was to detach the front of the bodice from the bottom, then pull them over and cross them over farther in front. Then I took in about an inch at each of the side seams.








And voila! It fits quite nicely. Not the best thing I've ever done, but I'm pleased with it.


























*Bonus* After going through my many attempts at self-portrait taking, I came across this one where the focus went funny on me and demonstrated how very dirty the full-length mirror was :) I did not realize. Perhaps I will give it a wipe-down before the next photo session. Kind of artistic looking in a way, actually...if it wasn't so gross looking...ah well...

p.s. I apologize that all that pictures are sideways...I didn't realize you couldn't rotate them after uploading. I'll know better next time. :)

my Biber musings...

Our choir is performing in the Pacific Baroque Festival in Victoria this weekend. In the month leading up to the festival they have a blog where performers, administrators and conductors can write their thoughts about the music, the time period...whatever :) I wrote a short spiel for it last year and was asked to write one again this year. I thought someone might find it interesting :)

This is the fourth year the Victoria Childrens Choir has performed at the Pacific Baroque Festival, although only the second year I have been involved. This year for the festival, we are performing a piece quite unlike anything I have sung before. Heinrich Ignaz Biber's Requiem in F minor is fascinating, to say the least. When singing or listening to it, one gets the feeling that Biber enjoyed playing with his audience, as well as his singers. He writes complex and challenging rhythms. There are harmonies that are a pure delight to sing, as well as ones that almost leave a bitter taste in your mouth as a singer. In some sections he takes a one- or two-bar phrase and repeats it many times, bringing it in and out of other melodies and phrases, having this section sing it, then this section, until, as my choir director put it, "It's like you're watching a five-team tennis match." In the 'Kyrie' section of the piece, one two-bar phrase is repeated 17 times in total. I find one section particularly challenging, for a number of reasons. The parts are set in a fast and complicated canon, and the rhythm has become fondly known as 'hemiola heaven.'

I have had the great pleasure and privilege of being one of the soloists for this performance. It has been an incredibly joyful challenge to work together with the other solists to find out how our voices blend, how each one stands out and how we can best add ourselves to what Biber has already done.

The requiem is in a minor key, but occasionally Biber brings in a melody or harmony that is distinctly major. It adds a contrast that is very joyful and adds a great deal to the piece. What I find especially interesting is how Biber chooses to end the entire piece, making the final chord F major instead of F minor. Because, of course, the piece was written to be sung at a funeral, it speaks to me of a desire to leave us with something hopeful, as if to say, "All is not lost." Indeed, the requiem's last words are "for You are merciful."

It is a great privilege to be able to add our voices to the masterpiece Biber created. I have fully enjoyed working on the Requiem and I am so excited to see all of you at the concert!
- Emma Gillespie, Victoria Childrens Choir.

If it wasn't green with ruffles, it would be green with swirls and twirls...

The blog is so named because green with ruffles would be my description of the perfect...anything. Let's face it, would green with ruffles not be the best? However, if it couldn't be green with ruffles, green with swirls and twirls would be almost as good.

Therefore...feast your eyes on this beautious shirt/dress. I think it's supposed to be a dress dress but the over jeans look is working for me...this was a thrift store find...and a bit of a splurge for me at a whole 6 bucks, but it was too delicious to pass up.