Dress out of a shirt

My biceps are apparently getting huge, because one day I lifted a thing from the ground and as I was moving my arms up the other sleeve tore close from the bicep. Ups.

Since the shirt was now unusable I made a dress out of it for Likka. The button-front is now the back and I added a pocket to the front of the dress. And edged everything with bias tape. I tried to size it so that it would fit Likka when she is able to sit, because dresses on someone who cannot do anything else than lay do not look too good in my opinion.

I ♥ baby pants

Boohoo, the "I ♥ NY" pajama shirt I bought as a souvenir from New York got so worn I was embarrased to use it. It had giant holes under the arms. I liked the shirt and I used it quite a lot since the trip to New York in 2007... Christ! was it already 2007!? Gee, now I'm actually wondering how could it have hold up for six years. Wow.

Well ofcourse I couldn't just throw the shirt away, but I made another pair of baby pants from it for Likka. The pants wont fit her for long, I wonder what I will do from the "I ♥ NY" baby pants then...

The season of cleaning the fridge

This most likely does not apply to all latitudes, but now is the best season to clean the fridge. The temperature outside is about the same as it is in a fridge, which means it's so easy to empty the frigde and just take everything outside and then you are in no hurry with the cleaning. Like for instance you might run into delays like lets say you have a baby and in the middle of your cleaning project she desides it's not the time now to put all the things back to the frigde but in two hours it is. When a delay like that happens you are really glad you put all the food outside.

The season of cleaning the freezer comes bit later.

Few family pics

Photos by Antti Katajamäki

Over the weekend

We had a studio built in our home. A friend of ours is a pro photographer and we asked him to take some baby and family photos of us. We already got some photos from him, really good stuff. I will show some on Wednesday. Now we need to deside which of those to have print and framed.

Part of Finland has got the first snow last week. South Finland got just some hail, but it has been cold, really cold. I did a bit of crafts for the christening of Likka, those will be in two weeks. In the christening she will also get her real name. Need to plan the food served at the occasion and also the decorations. We got some table cloths and other items from A's mom and cousin for the christening which I need to check. Then have I done some fall cleaning on the front yard and some sewing.

IRS pants

The free T-shirt isn't always the most hip thing to wear, like the T-shirt from the Finnish IRS. Nothing wrong with the colour of the shirt though. So that T-shirt turned into footed pants for Likka.

We do have quite many footed pants, but they are most still too big, so I draw the pattern of ones from pants that are a good size. Just straightened the piece of fabric I wanted to copy and draw the edges. Then I cut up the shirt using the pattern. I really do like to make baby pants. The foot part made these a bit more complicated than the pants I've made before but still these were easy and quick. I made the pattern and sewed the pants while Likka was on a nap and I even had time to eat.

I used one of the newly found stitches of the sewing machine on the foot part. It does not look that pretty but it works perfectly. 

I like these sort of pants, those are easy to put on Likka and there is no need for separate socks.

Beautiful fall

It's been a nice few days. I've tried to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Some cleaning at the terrace, washing the windows from outside, raking and picture taking. And nothing really to blog about.

Doh! that's how to get the stiches working

Sometimes the elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor. I've had this sewing machine for ten years or so and I've wondered how come it shows stiches there that cannot be used. Those stitches marked with red. I've assumed that they've printed the stitch signs there because they use the same part for all their sewing machines. Yeah.

But one has to turn the wheel so the red line is chosen. Doh! The red stiches work when the red settings are on... I mean seriously, how dumb can one be.

RTFM ☺

Dustpan and a brush

For years I have been thinking of getting some sort of solution for the crum removal in the kitchen. I did want to get a hand held vacuum there but I've not heard good reviews on their batteries. Also their price is quite high, especially if their battery wont stay in shape more than a year. I did also consider swivel sweeper, but because that also works with a battery I guess it also has the same problem as the vacuum. So a more traditional dustpan and a brush was the only solution I could come up with. Why I did not want to get a dustpan and a brush in the first place is because I think it's difficult to pour the crums and dirt into the bin from the dustpan. Especially from a dustpan with a long handle. Also the dustpan is usually so wide that the crums do not pour in a contained manner. I find this most difficult when the trash bin is already quite full, which it often is. Does anyone else have similar issues? Or am I the only one?

Well anyway I desided to get a dustpan and a brush. Then I had to find a set that would not cost a fortune and that would still be nice looking. Most are just made of plastic and are truly ugly and I want to have the dustpan and the brush on sight all the time, because if I hide it in a cabinet I will forget to use it.

Finally I found a set from Granit that wasn't too expensive and it looks good. The brushes are the only thing that are from plastic, but I can live with that. And no this is not a paid add. Just needed a dustpan and a brush and bought one.

And yes our kitchen floor is that patchy. And has dirt spots, mopping once a year clearly isn't enough.

Blog lights

These or similar lights I have seen in many Finnish blogs, almost too many and I've understood that they have got the lights through their blog somehow. I'm bit annoyed that I've seen the lights in so many places but I fell for them anyhow. Because those are lovely.

Not sure where those bloggers have got their lamps but I bought them from Granit. Only two years ago I bought new lanterns for the terrace, I still like the lanterns, but I do not like to go outside and light them, it's such a cold and annoying thing to do. So even though real candle light is nice, electric light works way better for me.

I added a few hooks to the terrace and hung the lights on those. But what I did not realize when I bought the lights is that ten 25W lamps are together really super bright. 250 W to a conservatory is just too much, we don't have that much light even indoors anywhere. Here is how bright they were.

That was just over the top. Not really what I had been envisioning, so I had to get a dimmer and the lights are also on a timer, that is handy.

Do you get a feeling that you are in a circus or in a funfair when you see the lights? I do, I love it.

On friday I will show yet another thing I've bought.

Sheep skin sleeping bag

In a book Sikksakk I saw long time ago a sleeping bag made for a baby from an old sheep skin coat. I thought that was a marvellous idea and even found and old sheep skin coat from A's parents' storage room. The coat did not fit to anyone anymore and it's not really in anyones' style so I got that coat from them.

On monday I met a woman with two young children and we got talking about clothing a baby. I have found it difficult to dress Likka. She does not like to be dressed or undressed, so I have not dressed her much when we go out, I just place her in a sleeping bag. It works really well now, but the sleeping bag is not very warm and when it gets colder the sleeping bag we have now is not going to be enough. So the woman I met suggested that we could buy a down sleeping bag for the winter. She said she uses one for her younger kid.

I believe her but since I had that sheep skin coat I desided to now make the sleeping bag from that. I had returned that book to the library where the pattern for the sleeping bag was I just made up my own pattern. Besides the pattern needed to be adjusted to the coat anyway.

I can't say that sheep skin is very easy to sew, it's really thick and it hardly fit under the sewing machine's foot but after one broken needle and tens of bent pins later I got the sheep skin sleeping bag done. I'm sure the sleeping bag is not as warm as a down sleeping bag would be and it might be that we will get a down one too later, but the sheep skin sleeping bag at least together with the regular sleeping bag works until it gets really cold.

Pureed apple for the baby

Yeah, I know Likka will not eat anything else than breast milk for about next six months, but I made pureed baby food from apples for her. We got lot of apples from our neighbour, which she brought from her cabin, and those were just getting bad sitting on our kitchen table. I have nothing against shop bought baby food and am not planning to make all the baby food myself but I cannot eat apples raw and since it's the apple season now and not in six months, I thought it was somewhat wise to make the pureed baby food from the apples now.

I boiled apple slices with some water and then pureed them with a hand blender. The puree I froze in ice cube trays and in ice cube bags. (Do NOT use ice cube bags, it was the dumbest idea ever. It took for ever for the puree to pour into the bag.) Once the puree was frozen I removed it from the ice cube trays and placed the cubes in a bag. Now and by now I mean next March or so it's easy to get a portion of the puree from the freezer for Likka.

Our own apple trees seem to have a resting year, neither of them have made more than couple of apples and even those have been eaten by the squirrels. So no wine or cider producing this year.