Archive | November, 2011

Coolest.kid.ever.

2 Nov

How incredibly cool is my daughter?  Instead of dressing up as Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus she picked Regine Chassagne from Arcade Fire to dress up as.  Regine is definitely the kind of role model I’d like my daughter to have.  She’s an artist, musician, singer and philanthropist.  While taking these photos she was humming the tune Sprawl II.

Zipper Fear

1 Nov

I’ve been sewing for years.  I absolutely love it but have never really learned the basics.  Slowly over the years I’ve managed to teach myself some of the most important techniques you need to know to be able to sew the absolute basics.  But there’s one thing I’ve had a mental block about for years.  An irrational fear of.  Something that has held me back in my sewing adventures.  The zipper.  So this morning I decided that I would have to try to sew a simple lined zipper pouch.  I dug out my zipper box.  Over the years I’ve accumulated all sorts of different size and colour of zippers.  Waiting for this moment. 

Here are all the pieces I’ll need to make my lined zipper pouch.  Doesn’t look too intimidating yet.

Wish me luck.

{update: the zippered pouch didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked.  There were a few minor hitches along the way (how did one of the interior linings end up on the exterior?).  I’m going to try again today.  I WILL succeed at sewing a zipper!}

Dolcetto o scherzetto

1 Nov


I live in a very small Italian town.  I think the latest population count was around 3000.  Usually Halloween isn’t celebrated or even known in Italy but in our little village it is the most awaited evening of the year for at least 150 of the 3000 inhabitants.  I guess the fact there are a few North Americans living here has helped the adoption of Halloween (fun fact…we are 3 North Americans with twins in this ever so small paese…something in the water?).

Halloween is my opportunity to make all sorts of delicious North American specialties for the locals to try.  So far they’ve been very fond of all the new desserts.  Cheesecake, cupcakes, pumpkin pies, Hello Dolly squares….it’s possible they all went to bed with a bad case if indigestione.

Black and orange aren’t my favourite colour palattes to work with so I’ve decided to use the colours that inspire me.  Plus, we’re in Italy…it’s not like they know Halloween is all about dark and dreary.It’s amazing what kids can do with a few used greasy pizza boxes.