Kiriki Press

I love getting my new Mollie Makes magazines. I diligently travel to the magazine store every few weeks, the only place I can still find the UK imports, and pick up my copy. They set it aside for me. I have to buy the imports because I want the kits. I tried the US editions when they started printing them but I couldn’t bear to miss out on kits and also I found some of the content was recycled and I’d seen it before in the UK editions.

image1 I tend to toss the kits in a drawer and then hope to get to them. Recently I’ve been making it a point to get to them and this kit helped give me the push I needed to do so. It’s also launched me into a stitchy frenzy. I pulled out my previously (read ages ago) purchased Kiriki kit.

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It’s from Kingston, Ontario based Kiriki Press. It’s neat to see people grow their businesses. I remmebre meeting her years ago at some Etsy events in Toronto. Now she’s got her Etsy shop and a fancy website.

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You can find and follow Michelle on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook

Now I’ll have to get going on a few other projects I have lying around, and this lovely came with this month’s issue.

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And of course I’ve still got my lovely get well gift from Mollie.

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Hey don’t forget to sign up for the pincushion swap!!

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Swap time! Wanna play?

Let’s swap pincushions!

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Instead of trying to match up and email people myself I’m going to try Elfster and let the site do it for me. Please head here if you’d like to join in our pincushion swap.

You will create a pincushion with your own hands and ship it away to someone who is sending you a new to you pin cushion as well. How fun!

You can scour Pinterest or Google for some ideas and tutorials.

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Skinny pincushion

So made myself a scrappy quick little project the other day. I absolutely love things that use up scraps, the small the better. I remember the first time I made something with a ton of prints on it, one of my scrappy wallets, I was hesitant at first but once you just let go and put things together it all looks great once it’s finished.

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It’s from a free pattern by Green Bee Designs, they have a free patterns section and it’s in there.

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I added more sections to mine because I wanted it even more scrappy.  I rarely do things as dictated.

Delicious flour free chocolate muffins.

A few years ago I lost a bunch of weight eating very little carbs. I’ve since found some of that weight and sort of kinda try to keep the low carb habits going. It’s a challenge I find being busy, on the go, with the kids and eating at work. Once place I really try to keep it up is with treats and sweets. I have a load of low carb (or adaptable) recipes on my Food Pinterest board.

These are a fav. I’ve adapted the recipe from Averie Cooks post here. She also links to her original recipe, which she improved upon by making them double chocolate.

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I DO NOT make these in my blender. I tried that the first time and it was just waaaaay too difficult to clean that thing out afterwards! Her’s are dairy free but I tend to just use mini chocolate chips I have on hand at times. I also use whatever nut butter I happen to have. My cousin works at Nuts To You so I get to try a lot of different types.

Here’s my minty take on Averie’s recipe.

INGREDIENTS
1 medium banana
1 large egg
1/2 cup nut butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat to 400
Blend all ingredients (reserve a small amount of chocolate chips)
Put in lined mini cups
Sprinkle with chocolate chips
Bake 8-12 mins

VARIATION
I love, love, love to add 1/2 tsp mint extract to mine

Happy, happy mail.

Not only did some great books arrive for me the other day, medicine and my bff showed up with some fun stickers for me but I also got a surprise get well gift from my best yet to be met online friend Mollie.

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Look at how fun she is?! She even drew a signature Mollie smiley face on the ankle!

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I already have a plan for making something fun based on this project.

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Stuck on couch = play on Pinterest

Spent some time organizing and adding to my boards on Pinterest the other day.

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I’m going to attempt a petal quilt, using all my current fabric to cut the petals. I picked up some white fabric for the front and a perfect pattern for the backing.

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It’s perfect for the quilt I’m going to make, inspired by this one by Little Miss Shabby.

Hand-Quilting

So I broke my ankle.

You may remember I joined roller derby a while ago. And I love it. I’ve found a fun way to be active, push myself, make friends and play a sport. It’s been amazing! It was a great first date idea to go watch derby which turned into both of us signing up for Fresh Meat (me as a player, him as a ref) and then it grew from there (both our derby involvement and our relationship).

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It took me two tries through Fresh Meat, which is the boot camp to learn all the ins and outs of derby, to pass my minimum requirement testing but then I was set to play full contact. It’s so much fun, even with the bumps and bruises.

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That’s me in the sunglasses with the black and yellow striped panty on my helmet.

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That’s me with my purple helmet, complete with roller skating pony on the back, and my sparkly shirt with my derby name ‘Stitches’ on it.

Our league takes a break for December and then we were back at it in January. We started our Monday night practices, had a scrimmage a then the Tuesday night practice was also open to every one so I decided to go. Turns out I should have stayed home since ended up creating a random crazy thing and while turning and pivoting I twisted and went down, but my foot didn’t and next thing I know I was hearing noises from inside myself I know we shouldn’t hear. Then I was on the ground and not moving.

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There are my before and after xrays. The ER doctors reset my 2 fractures and sent me on my way saying they were pretty confident I wouldn’t need surgery. We left the hospital at 2:30 am and I was to go back for 8:30 am. Leaving so early after so little sleep, on pain meds, naseaus and using crtutches on my porch for the first time I slipped and banged my foot on the way out and undid all the lovely resetting the nice doctors had done. So a trip that was supposed to be for a nice new cast instead turned into more xrays and being put on a surgery list. I had to wait at home for 2 days before I was called for surgery.

Now I have a nice little plate in there, 3 screws (I was told 4 but looks like 3) and a giant Darth Vader like air cast boot that I can remove but I’m still unable to bear weight on my foot. It’s all crutches and borrowed wheelchair for me.

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This has been a really hard time. It’s been nice to have my kitty cuddle me, time with my kids, some pretty cool gifts (that’s DJ Glitter the My Little Pony my best friend and I built at Build A Bear) I’d trade it all for a good ankle. I can finally see and wash my leg now when I take it out of the air cast, that’s a picture of the *good* side (the other side is pretty gross).

There are more pics on my Instagram should you wish to follow me there.

Well now that I’ve filled everyone in on that little bit of evilness going on in my life I’ll move on to other fun things like all the creating, thinking, reading and other things I’m doing while stuck on my bum around my house!

Giveaway Day!

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Win a scrappy wallet, cure made by me!
Enter here, drugs be sure to leave your email and I will contact you and we can see which wallet speaks to you!

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Publishing and published!

Well here I am again. Decided to come back to writing on this blog thing I created, back in 2009. Spring is here, things are emerging again, new growth, it’s time for me to join in on all that fun. So let’s start with some fun news I was recently published in a book.

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First off I’m in this lovely little book with my friend Mollie. We created a neat little library tote project combining sewing and embroidery.

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Book’s with Mollie’s signature cute little faces!

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Secondly, I also contributed to this book that was published a little bit ago. My fun little travel car cozy and playmat was included.

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It’s so nice to contribute to things that get people creating and making stuff.
Also kind of neat to see your name in print!

Successful crochet project!

Finished *this* project!

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While taking a ‘it’s ok it’ll work out let’s get calm’ break from my rag rug I whipped up this cowl.
I just chain stitched 45 stitches and single crocheted in them all the way around and around and around until I ran out of the skein. Which, luckily, turned out to be a perfect size.

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