Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope you are having a great sunshiny St. Patrick's Day.

Here is a picture of my littlest little one in his St. Patrick's Day flair:

I have recently been working on a little revamp of the blog and I will hopefully be unveiling the new look on Monday. 

Until then sit back and relax and enjoy a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's (mmmmmmmm YUM!).   Or if you are feeling ambitious try out this homemade version from Hungry Girl - it is a tad more healthy and looks delish!

Food For Thought

        

Today is the beginning of Lent.  I saw the following quote on a friend's facebook page and I thought I would share it:

Do not give up something that you are going to purge on Easter morning. Your Lenten sacrifice of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups does not make you a better Christian if you eat a bag full of them before sundown on Easter day and forget all about Lent.

God doesn’t want your chocolate, He wants you.

When contemplating your sacrifice, make sure you are growing closer to Him. Maybe you don’t need to give up anything. Maybe you need to give something… namely, yourself.

If you must give up something, give up sin.

The remainder of the devotional of which this quote is a part can be found here.

-Melissa

Happy Birthday to Me!

No its not my birthday just yet, but I am excited to say that I have decided on what I want for my birthday this year!

I want the ladies in my family to run a 5km race - doesn't that sound like fun? 

You may think this is a bizarre request but let me give you some history on it.  After Christmas in 2010 I proposed to my immediate family that maybe we could, going forward, tone down the money spending at Christmas in hopes of focusing more on the true meaning of Christmas (celebrating Christ not celebrating each other), however on the flip side they could (if they so choose) go hog wild for birthdays.

I decided that for my birthdays going forward I would like to do something special every year, something new that I had never done before and that I would drag the other ladies with me.  So last year we went to the Marilyn Denis Show in Toronto. 


Here we are at the Marilyn Denis Show last May in celebration of my birthday.  My sister-in-law was unable to attend so my cousin Rebekah gladly stepped in to take her place.

Left to Right:  Mom, Me, Cousin Rebekah, Marilyn Denis, Sister Heather

Last week I phoned my mom to tell her my great idea of training and running a 5km together in celebration of my birthday and she responded with something akin to "are you crazy - I'm not doing that!".  When I talked to my sister I was met with a small amount of resistance but by the end of the chat she was 95% convinced.  By time I spoke to my sister-in-law she had already heard the rumors and didn't require any convincing at all!  I am happy to say that everyone has come around and as long as we can find a race we can all run in then my birthday wish will come true!

We have decided to train for the race using the "Couch to 5km" method which can be found here.  It consists of three workouts a week for 9 weeks - starting off very slow with a gradual build. 

My hopes is that we all get a little healthier from this endevour!

Anyway I am off to buy some new shoes - can't start off on the wrong foot with my old ratty runners!

An Animated Photo

So once again it has been an immensely long time since I have made a post.  This time I will not promise that I will post soon so that I will not have to break my promise. 

My sister is a wedding photographer (and all other things photographer as well) and the other day she sent me a link to a 'stop motion' video that a different photographer had done.  It was really neat and she was interested in doing something of the like.  Click HERE to see the video that she sent me. 

This got me thinking that I had seen something quite similar before but on a much smaller scale.  I checked the blogs that I follow and low and behold I found a tutorial on how to create an animated picture.  The tutorial for this technique can be found HERE at Make It, Love It - an amazing blog with tons of DIY ideas. 

I thought I would try it out so Jude and I went outside for a photo shoot today and this is what we came up with: 



Hope you enjoyed the picture!  The task for next time is to figure out how to add music!

Yes I am still alive!!!!

It has been 3 months since my last post, I am failing horribly on my pledge to post consistently!  What have I been doing in that time?  Tons of stuff!  It has been a great summer so far full of traveling, wading pools, splash pads, finger painting, park visits and many more exciting things!  Here is a picture of my munchkin and I chilling in the back yard.  My is he growing!

I haven't had much time in the last 3 months for sewing but just recently I picked up a new technique known as shirring.  A good tutorial for this technique can be found at 'Ruffles And Stuff'.  There are many shirring tutorials out there and if this one doesn't help you just google the technique and try a different site.

Every sewing machine is a little different in how it responds to the elastic bobbin thread.  I found with my machine (Omega) I had to loosen off the tension screw on the bobbin case just a wee bit as originally it was pulling the elastic too tight and the backstitching was not able to hold the elastic thread.  Good luck!

Bobbin Case

I was quite excited to try out shirring on an actual project.  See below for a picture of a couple of children's dress I made.  I think that they turned out so well that I might try to make one in my size, it will be able to grow along with my growing belly!

The inspiration for these dresses was found at Sew Mama Sew!  Because of the shirring technique used in these dresses they will fit a child for years!  For wee ones the straps can be crossed in the back before they are tied and as the child grows it can eventually be worn as a top with pants or tights. 

If you are interested in ordering one of these dresses please contact me here or check out my limited stock at Little Bird Consignment Shop on Ottawa Street in Hamilton, Ontario.

Hopefully I will post again soon!  I am currently working on some new aprons for Little Bird so I will get some pictures up as soon as they are finished!

New Business Cards!!!!

My sister was over this weekend for my little munchkin's birthday (pictures to come in a couple of days) and while she was over she took some pictures for my new business card (see below).  I think it turned out fabulous, what do you think?

and

My sister is a professional photographer and she does wonderful work (and I am not just saying that because I am biased).  Check out her website at http://www.heatherwiebe.com/

My very first post...

So as the title indicates, this is my very first blog post.  I am new to the blogging world so I guess maybe what would be appropriate is that I tell everyone a little bit about myself.

For starters here is a picture of me:


Melissa & Jude - Summer 2010



This is a picture from this summer.  I looked for a recent picture of just me but it seems that in this last year, since Jude hit the scene, there have been no pictures of me solo.  I suppose c'est la vie.

I grew up in a small town in Haldimand Norfolk on a tobacco farm in the boonies.  After high school I moved to the city of Hamilton to attend McMaster University where I obtained a Bachelor of Commerce, along the way I married my high school sweetheart. 



After university I got a job as an Underwriter for a bonding company in Toronto where I worked for two years. 

On March 7th, 2010 our little bundle of joy was born. 

Jude Samuel - 6 days old

and I have been home with him loving the housewife life every since.  

Another new development in my life is as of today I am officially unemployed from the "workforce".  My maternity leave ended today and I am left with what now?  Shortly after Jude was born I dusted off my sewing machine and since then I have been dabbling in some children's dress-up projects.  I think they are pretty nifty and I hope to use this blog to showcase these items in hopes that you may want to purchase something off of me!  (: 

why the title 'the red bowtie'?  Much to the embarrassment of Jude, most of the items that I sew are for little girls.  But since I only have a little boy at home Jude often has to try on the girly items so that I can size them correctly (as per my husband there are no pictures, but you get the picture).  The first item that I made for Jude was a little red bowtie, so I thought it would be fitting to entitle my blog as such. 

Jude showing off in his red bowtie

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!