the goose loves baby things

It's true. I love all things baby. Baby kitchen utensils, baby puppies, and baby babies. And I love sewing baby things. Partly because they go pretty quickly, and partly because they're usually very cute.

Our friends David and Brianne are having their very first baby (a boy!) in a few weeks, and so I made them a couple gifts. Here they are, as I was wrapping them up (forgive the bad lighting).

I made two bibs (identical, but reversible; this photo shows the two different sides) and four pee-pee-tee-pees. Those little tee-pee cones are supposed to be plopped onto the little boy's "cannon" when changing his diaper to prevent it from spewing all over the place, as it tends to do when exposed to air. Or so I'm told.

I also made my first little baby hat! I used the same jungle-patterned cotton knit for all of the presents, to keep things coordinated, and it worked pretty well. It's a stretchy fabric, very similar to the fabric used for baby clothing/onesies, so it was perfect for a hat. A little tricky to sew with, though, because of the stretch.

This part was most fun - it's a "taggie" toy - I've seen the toys and blankets all over the internets (blogland and pinterest) - supposedly babies love to play with the floppy ribbons, especially with the different colors and textures. Luckily, the ribbon I already had on hand coordinated well and was varied in size and shape.

I used the same knit for the top and a plain white minky for the back. I also wrapped up a little brown and white striped onesie, and I added a piece of the same jungle knit to the front so that it would match the hat. I also made a basic 45" square blanket with the knit on top and a brown flannel on bottom. Somehow, I forgot to photograph those. Maybe David and Brianne will allow me to take some photos of those when new baby P is actually using them! :) Congrats on the soon-to-be-new-little-one! Can't wait to meet him!!

the goose loves tuesday's ten (#2)

 Welcome to the second edition of Tuesday's Ten. My track record is pretty good so far, huh! You can catch the first episode here!

1. We went grocery shopping on Saturday, starting at the market on the way to St. John's. We checked most of our veggies off there... mmm. A bag of mushrooms for a dollar? Yes please. Red peppers for 50 cents each? You bet I'll take four.

 2. If Billy had full control of which dog we'd get next, this would be Pooch #2 (an English bulldgog, shown here in puppy form). Thankfully, I can provide input too.

 3. On Saturday morning, while Billy made an unexpected trip to work, I whipped up a batch of these baby cinnamon-sugar-donut-muffin-things, with a recipe from the Sunday Baker. They came out pretty tasty.

 4. On Sunday, we had a rare visit from the sun, and so everybody in Portland was either enjoying the day outside or buying sunglasses so they don't get blinded. Bentley spent the day imitating cats sleeping in the sun.

 5. For dinner Sunday night, Billy was inspired to make Chicken Marbella - originally the recipe was in The Silver Palate cookbook, but he used the revised version from Cooks Illustrated. I made the brussels sprouts to go on the side.

 6. Can you guess what my next project is?

 7. That furry dog sure knows how to find the coziest spots for naps. Billy does a good job too, I guess.

8. We went to the dogpark on Sunday to let the pooch run free, and found out that the Portland Trailblazers (our NBA team) are going to remodel one of the dog parks in Portland. Ours is one of the top three! You can help us out by voting here.

 9. This coming Saturday, this will be our view from behind... here I come, snowshoes!

 

 10. And for the finale - yes, we bought the giant moose from Costco. And the dog spent 20 minutes howling at it. And we laughed for all 20 minutes. More to come on that later.

Come back for 10 more next Tuesday, and hopefully some inbetween!

the goose loves muddy hikes

Last weekend, our good friend Brad was in town from Washington D.C. We spent the weekend eating good food, drinking good beer, and going to bed later than normal. While he was here, he really wanted to go on a hike, so on Saturday morning, we packed sandwiches and M&Ms, layered up with warm clothes and rain gear, and drove 45 minutes east down the Columbia Gorge.

For awhile, Billy has wanted to hike the "Punchbowl Falls" trail, a 5 mile loop that leads you to a gorgeous waterfall. Ideally, we would have done this in the summer, when the water was lower and the falls are more easy to reach. But we chose February, when you have to wade out into the stony creek about 50+ feet to get a glimpse of the falls.

I had on my sturdy Hunter rainboots, so I gave it a go. I could only get so far before water got into the boots, but I got a small peek at the falls.

Then we scaled the side of the mountain (dog in tow) and braced ourselves up against skinny trees to get this view of the falls:

But once we got to the top of that mountainside and met back up with the original trail, we realized there was a lookout from the top that didn't involve wet boots or muddy butts. Oh well.

Although the hike was wet (over the course of the hike we were hit by rain, snow, and hail), we finished it and had a good time. The dog, although a little chilly, had a great time and came back SUPER muddy.

Check out that little black belly, and those wet ears!

Once we got home (after making a side trip for good beer on the way), we all took turns in the shower, including the dog, until we were all toasty warm and ready for a bratwurst BBQ. Yeah, another thing that's generally better in the summer, but we did just fine!

And here's another check off the 25 for 25 list - hike 25 miles. So far, I'm at 10 miles:

1) 3 miles at Washington Park on 10/16/11

2) 2 miles at Stella Olsen Park in Sherwood on 1/2/12

3) 5 miles at Punchbowl Falls Trail on 2/25/12

Only 15 more to go!

the goose loves tuesday's ten

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Tuesday's Ten! I know there is no shortage of clever daily alliteration style posts, but I also know that this blog isn't the most original in the world (are any blogs ever original?), so I'm happy to join the trend.

Besides trying to make it with the "in" crowd, starting a post of this style is an ambitious step toward getting more thoughts out of my head and onto the figurative paper. It will also encourage me to go with a more personal and conversational style, rather than just blogging projects and recipes. Those will come too, though, never you worry.

So here goes 10 thoughts for Tuesday night. In no particular order. With plenty of puppy.

1. On any given hour of most given nights, you'll find Bentley like this. Except maybe with a blanket sometimes. And every half hour or so, he gets up, walks over to the wall, and slumps down against it to cool off.

2. If I ever have energy after work again or can find enough time on the weekends, I'll actually make good progress with the project for which I'm using all these beautiful fabrics.

3. Our Valentine's weekend (two weeks ago) was spent on a much needed bedroom makeover. And our outside patio looked like this for much of Saturday and Sunday. If only I can get the finishing touches done, I can show you all the new beauty.

4. Right this instant, as we (at least until Billy fell asleep) watch a marathon of "Party Down" episodes before they are no longer on Netflix, Bentley is sleeping between Billy's legs, with his head resting on Billy's cushy rear end. A cozy spot? I wouldn't know.

5. In less than two weeks, I'll escape from work to enjoy a beautifully long weekend with Billy and the girls in Hood River, OR. Even though it won't be quite this sunny, it'll be wonderful to enjoy my first vacation days this year. And when your work weeks are 90+ hours, vacation sounds completely luxurious and cannot come soon enough.

6. After tomorrow, it'll be March. And 17 days after that, it'll be St. Patrick's day! Which means two things, really - I should get out my Irish/Scottish decor (and print off the free printable below) and I should start running, since I'm signed up for the 8K at the Shamrock Run on March 18. Ready, go.

7. My dog is obsessed with food. And maybe we aren't super good puppy-parents about disciplining him. But look at those eyes! This was yesterday night, when I was eating a bowl of cereal. He decided that sitting next to me on the couch was not quite close enough to the Cheerios, so he wrapped himself around my neck, scarf style. But that's okay - he's the cutest and warmest scarf I own.

8. Last December, I attempted making a dress like the one below. It was going great until I realized that the bodice should be more 3D instead of 2D, if you get what I mean. (My dad reads this, you know.) But I have the material for Round 2, and I'm ready to tackle this once and for all. After I get to those other things, like sleeping and eating and playing with Bentley.

 9. Once I make the lace dress above, I'll need some hot shoes like these to go with it. And then I just need somewhere fancy to go...

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10. Well Christmas and New Years quickly passed before I got a chance to send out some holiday cards. Luckily, I generally got them together in time for Valentine's Day, which was a perfect excuse to remind our friends and family that we love them. I'll get those up here eventually, but for now, I'll leave you with one of the "outtakes" from our little photo shoot, done with world-renowned photographer Carolyn.

Congrats for getting through my first Tuesday's Ten! Come back next Tuesday for even more fun, maybe with less words next time.

the goose loves l-o-v-e pillows

Boo! I'm back!

You thought I was gone for good, huh. But not so. I was just on an extended hiatus. Pesky things like work and cooking and cleaning and walking the dog have gotten in the way of posting fun projects and tasty recipes and poorly-taken photos.

But even if I've been slacking in the posting department, I certainly haven't been slacking in the making department. I've been sewing things, building things, baking things, cooking things, and beautify-ing things. And slowly checking items off my 25 for 25 list. Emphasis on slowly.

But here's one for the sewing and "make from pinterest" categories. A few weeks ago, I saw this adorable pillow on the crafty blog UCreate - full tutorial here.



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That weekend, I was in sewing mode but not ready to take on the full bedroom makeover project, so I decided to whip up a pillow that could live in my soon-to-be-beautiful bedroom.

The best part of this project (and what makes many projects just terrific) is that I had all the supplies on hand. Old ugly pillow that came from the couch and made with both leather and suede? Check. Cheerful green home dec fabric in enough yardage? Check. (It's Amsterdam in Chartreuse) Enough felt in a coordiating color? Check. About two dog-free hours? Well no, but it worked out anyway.

The project was super easy - just a basic envelope style pillow cover, cut out letters (I just drew letters on paper, cut them out, pinned them to felt, and cut.) I almost didn't have enough fabric, so my pillow sticks out a little in back. But who looks at the backs of pillows anyway?

In the tutorial, the letters were sewn on with embroidery thread in big stiches, which looked super cute. But I do my best to avoid threading needles and sewing in the old fashioned way, especially when it means that it'll take me another 30 minutes to finish. So I just ran the pinned-down letters through the machine, sewing along all sides in white. For the heart "O" I used a decorative stitch, which looks sweet.

It was an enjoyable afternoon and it felt good to just get a project done. Now if only I could finish the room makeover that quickly...

the goose loves the elm creek quilt books

Slowly but surely, I'm working on all those goals on my 25 for 25 list. I'm down to about 4.5 months, but have lots of things still to do!

One goal that I didn't start tackling until 2012 was reading 25 books. Yeah, I really gotta catch up there. I got a great head start when I travelled to Santa Monica, CA for a business trip, though - plenty of airport/plane/hotel time to get through a few books. I started with The Aloha Quilt, by Jennifer Chiaverini.

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I'm not going to go into great detail here, but maybe enough to get you to read it. Jennifer Chiaverini has a whole series about "Elm Creek Quilts," a group of ladies that formed a quilt camp together. The books take you through the various challenges and joys of their lives, and always describe the quilts that the ladies are working on that tie in with the story. Sounds cheesy, yeah. But they're awesome feel-good stories that keep you engaged and wanting more.

I read several books from the series when I was in high school, but the quilting terms never meant much to me. Now that I'm best friends with my sewing machine, I can appreciate the concepts and challenges of each quilt they work on.

In this story, a lady travels to Maui to start a quilt camp, and learns how to quilt in the Hawaiian style. I didn't even know they had a style! Below is a real-life version of the quilt that the lady worked on in the book. In the Hawaiian style, the quilters make their own patterns by folding cloth several times, drawing patterns, cutting it out, and then opening it up. It's like hardcore snowflake making.

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 So go read the book. Or not. But at least I'm checking off my list, one book at a time.

the goose loves puppy coats

Greetings, my dutiful readers! Welcome back to my blog! A lot has happenend since I was last here... the year changed to 2012, it snowed, and I did a lot of things without blogging them! I did even more without taking photos, so you'll never know about that stuff...

But I think I'm back for good, ready to get back on the blogger train and give you some interesting things to read about. Hopefully.

We'll start with one for the pooch, the cutest thing about my blog. Last winter, we bought Bentley a red checkered fleece sweater-coat thing. Here it is, to refresh your memory.

Well, believe it or not, the little terror has gotten bigger since that last snowshoeing trip. Now his nice hunting sweater looks a lot more like a tank top, and there's definitely some midriff showing. So why not make him a  new one, with material I already own?

I started with his rain jacket (yeah, the dog practically has a whole closet full of clothes... haha not).

I didn't want to use quick relase buckles, so I traced strap-like pieces in place of the webbing. I made a muslin pattern first so that:

a) I could make sure it fit him before using my fancy real material

b) I could use it again to make him a closet-ful of jackets

I tried the muslin on him while bribing him to stay still with dehydrated sweet potato sticks wrapped in chicken jerky (yum, right?) Once I was satisfied with the size, I traced the pattern onto my front and back pieces - I used a green checkered flannel that I'd gotten on sale at Joanns for like $1.99/yd last year and a brown minky that I used to back my parents' anniversary quilt (more on that later).

Before cutting out my back, I decided I wanted to quilt the pieces together, and I remembered that when I quilt things, the layers shift. So better to use bigger allowances so that the exact pieces don't shift away from each other. The cream-colored layer is Warm N Natural quilt batting, also on hand from some other project.

I pinned the layers together and quilted them together, just following the checkered lines on the top fabric - I spaced my lines out with four "boxes" inbetween.

After cutting off the excess around my main quilted piece, I made some basic binding with the brown and white polka dot material I used to bind my parents' quilt (again, I'll post that later).

I started by sewing the binding to the back (brown side) of the jacket, with the raw edge facing out, and the folded binding edge facing in. The curves around the shape were tricky, believe me.

For the strap corners, I mitered the edge using the normal technique for blanekt/quilt edges. I then took the folded side and wrapped it around to the green front, and topstiched it down. Not my best binding work ever, but not too shabby. Sorry for not having a photo of it.

The dog doesn't seem to mind my less-than-stellar binding job.

Yeah, that's right. He's wearing a quilted three-layer jacket and he still has to keep warm by the fire?!

Billy doesn't mind the jacket, but says that it looks like a horse blanket. Oh well.

It velcros in the front (under his collar) and on his underside (around his tummy).

And, once I finished it, I realized that it's reversible! So maybe a photo of the brown side another day.

Lovely dog/horse coat for my sweet pup. And he really doesn't mind it so much! Now the next one I make should have buttons. Or feathers. Or maybe sequins? Maybe I need a girl dog next...