Tu Tu for Two Year Photos

A little over a week ago I made a tutu for Wednesday's upcoming second birthday. I spent about four hours tying the tulle to the elastic. While doing this I watched a couple four episodes of Supernatural (for the plot i swear!) and ate half of a bag of Reeses Pieces. But it went by like a breeze and had I not knotted half the tutu backwards (I had to take it off of my leg to pee.) it would have only taken me between two and three hours. A couple of days later I added some skinny chocolate brown ribbon and self adhesive 'rhinestones'. I sewed fat chocolate brown ribbon to the elastic instead of sewing the elastic into a loop so that I could adjust the tightness/size on Wednesday and remove it easier.

Below is a slideshow of the pictures we took at the park a couple of days ago for her second year mailer cards plus some tutu progress photos. It turned out wonderful, if not a little bit long but this means it will fit her for years and years (and should last as long).

I did not use a single tutorial but I will leave the links fo the most useful ones and why.

This one from Plum Tickled has a great idea about buying the tulle in rolls and cutting your strips two at a time. But I didn't like how she knotted hers so I kept looking.

This one from Grosgrain had the knots I wanted and I liked her idea for staggering the lengths.

I used two lengths (30" & 24") and did it like this....

white 30
pink 30
white 30
pink 24
white 24
pink 24
white 30
pink 30
white 30

"etc. etc. etc. and so forth."

And then I tied the skinny ribbon between every six pieces of tulle and added the shiny bits willy nilly.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, but for serious it does not get any easier than this. that is the beauty of it all. :)

Bundt it's so fun!

A couple of weeks ago my mother in law told me I was baking the cake for her 57th birthday. But she didn't want chocolate (so much for the Ovarian Chocolate cake; more on that in another post) and she is lactose intolerant of which I am constantly lecturing her about her food choices. So I began looking for a mostly dairy free recipe with little to no frosting (Mostly because I don't like icing sugar type frostings.) I found this recipe though and it turned out awesome, the bundt shape added some wow factor so that I did not have to rely on a fancy frosting job. T'was my first bundt cake ever and the candied orange peel went over really well. I found it moist enough and the glaze was just right. Definitely more orange than carrot though.

I found this recipe at Canadianliving.com whose magazine I adore for top notch recipes. It is an Orange Carrot Bundt Cake with an orange sugar glaze and candied orange peel.




And just one more picture of awesome. And yes, in case you are wondering, that is my bed in the photo, this time of day my bedroom has the best light in the house so I took advantage of it. :)

Ello. Did you say Hello?

Well, I better get to posting the intro post before the other posts I have in mind start to pile up and never get posted as I have a habit of doing.

Let me begin by thanking you for stopping by. This blog is intended to show of my mommy skills. My homemaking skills etc. I have a more personal journal that also includes more intimate details of my family's life and if you have a livejournal account you can find me there @ http://caramia.livejournal.com/the juicy bits are friends locked but there are some good posts the public can view.

Let me continue by introducing myself and my family. My name is Melissa and I am 31. My daughter is two and my husband is well that's his business. We are a happy family in love with each other and life. Wednesday's favourite things to do are explore and play with a ball and blocks. While other children are running like mad she is examining everything. It is a wonderful thing to watch her walking, looking, touching and listening. She makes me so proud. Myself, I love to be outdoors as much as I love to be indoors. I am just as comfortable hiking and camping as I am inside crafting or surfing. And you will find that out over time. Ris my life partner and soul mate. He is much like me in how he is comfortable in and outdoors. But, he is a carpenter and so his enjoyment leans more to the fresh air experience.

In this blog you will *hopefully* find posts about my hobbies, my daughter, how I combine them. Also I am a greenie and love to share my views about things like cloth diapers, mama cloth and pre-cycling. I am very passionate about the replacement of disposable products in our lives. (Not just my family's but yours too.) But I like doing this in a fun and frugal way and hope you enjoy reading about it. Ron will sneak in here now and again as sunject matter too, but he mostly humours and encourages me without actually getting involved in my eco warrior-ness. I also love to bake and sew so this blog won't always be green, but pretty and yummy too!

So until my next post I bid you adieu and leave you with a few photos of my family.