2013 Advent Calendar DIY Ideas

WAAAY late getting this year's advent calendar together. And as far as keeping up with posting, well I'm not even going there. But what with the epic Gatsby party that has taken up so much of November, I am down to one week to get at least three calendars together to post. I spent last night going over the pinterest board that I compiled last year, adding some new bits and then throwing it all on a brand spanking NEW board, aptly titled THINGS TO PUT IN THE ADVENT CALENDARS. You know, so I don't get lost. So behold.... the pinterest board that will be the beginning of this week's making of things. If you have a craft that you think is AWESOME and should be included, just comment and I'll add it.

I have to apologize as per usual for my computer being (again) at the cleaners, with all the photos from last year's crafts and such... I really DID take photos. Really GOOD ones actually. The nice man says it will be fixed soon, so if the calendar isn't your thing but December crafting IS, then I'll post those when I get it back with tutorials. In the meantime, we begin with ideas for this year's calendar.

Crafty Ideas... Craftgawker

Do you know about the site "Craftgawker"? I peruse the Weddingawker site fairly often for the other blog's benefit...  but my real favourite is to check out the goings on over at Craftgawker. It's my true eye candy. I adore seeing what people make. Not just the things I can do myself, but to aspire to greatness in other areas... such as, say... crochet! I also love it when somebody takes something we've all seen and reinvents it. It's just brilliant.

I have a friend who was chatting the other day about the doily pendant lightshade... which, to me was an obvious evolution of the string pendant made famous by Moooi. I was surprised that she hadn't seen it, and realized that maybe not everyone spends ridiculous amounts of time perusing websites just to look at pretty pictures. Huh. Who woulda thunk? (Although I have created a Pinterest addiction in her... mwahahahahaaaa). A sight like the Gawker series (food and dwellings are also part of the Gawkerverse,) puts the pretty teaser photos all on the same page and clicking on the links takes you to the sight mentioned where you will find tutorials, latest works or even just a glimpse inside someone's sketchbook. The next time you are looking to kill some free time, check them out!

Paper Quilling Snowflakes

Spent the day making gorgeous quilled paper snowflakes at our Crafternoon Extraveganza. I found this photo on pinterest and made it big so I could figure out how it was made, drew out a diagram and guessed at the lengths of paper. Turns out, if I had just clicked ON the photo (I should know that by now) it takes you rather haphazardly to three or four tutorials for even more gorgeous designs! It's time consuming, but one of those projects that you get much faster at as you go, and actually really fun. The post I did awhile ago involving paper quilling has consistently be one of the most popular, so there must be people out there trying this! I thought you might be interested in a tutorial (or in this case five!)

If you are looking for a pretty detail for your Christmas decorating, may I suggest a few of these delicate and intricate beauties hanging about? You can make them any size and use them in any application that you can use a medallion or paper flower, they are crazy inexpensive... and they would look gorgeous dusted in opal glitter! Don't get frustrated with your first one, I was teaching people today and by the time they were finished their first they had just finally "got it"... so consider your first to be a practice and carry on :) Send me photos!

Gatherings Joins Lonny and Rue In The New World Of E

Quite some time ago there was a big commotion over the launch of the online mag, Rue as being the "new" competition for Lonny (which launched in October of '09). I love the idea of web based e-zines because I am an eco girl at heart (no trees hurt in the making of), and also they are so much more accessible... although shelter glossies are my major vice. And movie popcorn. Those two things top my weakness charts. Thoroughly evil, I know. Good thing there are not many good movies these days. But I digress... I tend to think of it as culling, as there were so many magazines on the shelves it was a little much at one point. In the period of one year, nearly every magazine I read just disappeared, leaving a huge gaping hole for those of us who eagerly anticipate a monthly dose of rugs, wallpaper samples and pretty vignettes of mirrors and seashells. (One of my male friends, while enduring my whining over coffee one day pointed out my "house porn" addiction. Since I can't have ten houses and unlimited funds to decorate said houses, I covet them through magazines, and it is an unhealthy addiction that literally covers bookshelves and piles around the sofa. Point taken.)

Rue Mag

 The news of last September's launch of Rue Magazine was good news for those of us who simply can't get enough of the eye candy provided by such compilations, and the endeavor, started by blogosphere diva Crystal Gentilello of Plush Palate and Anne Sage from one of my favourites, the City Sage has proven to be worth the wait. I think it would be fairly easy to garner attention during this period of mourning. It could be said that a team could make a half-hearted attempt at this and it would still fly... but these talented folk have seriously outdone themselves.

Gatherings eMagazine: interior by Annette Tatum

 Now, for the past few months I have been eagerly awaiting new issues of Gatherings. Strangely I haven't seen or heard much about it at all in media. I can't even remember how I happened upon it, always these voyages through cyberspace takes me on interesting paths and I can never seem to follow the breadcrumbs back. Either way, it is another feast for the aesthetically inclined eye that crosses the boundaries between interior design, gardens, food and pretty much anything... well, pretty. While the others sort of have that "mightier than the average home" feel of designers and stores trying to outdo each other on the "casually thrown together on an ample budget" scale, Gatherings is the type of read where you literally want to save it till you have a hot cuppa in hand and your scone perfectly prepared before you hit the browse button. It is warm and comforting and a bit more real... in kind of a dreamy sense. But real dreamy... you know what I mean?

Crochet Blossom Garland craft project

 Gatherings is only partly leaning toward my style. The creator, Heather Spriggs is an interior designer from Tennessee and we really obviously lead different lives and styles. Still, there is so much that appeals to the girl in me. It has that romantic vintage thing going on and  the photography is gorgeous. I am more inclined to drool over the recipes than to try making any of them. I really appreciate the look of most of the rooms, but it's not how I decorate my home. And yet, there is something very satisfying about how the publication is arranged and I adore the crafty look. I just think it is a really nice addition to the mix. I hope she expands a bit, as it is currently only a quarterly. I am excited though to see where the whole thing goes. Worth a look.

In Limbo

I found all my wool while cleaning and now must roll some of the balls to look like this, as I think it's just gorgeous! From Gatherings.

I am feeling in a bit of a state the last week or so. I was SO between a rock and a hard place (sometimes I wonder if that is my favourite place to be since I seem to find my way back so often) what with two photo shoots for the other blog and then Halloween, which this year was a bit overdone in the sense that the reason I committed to having the soiree was so that my disgusting-hit-by-a-3-male-tornado-disaster... sorry, house... could once again begin to resemble a home. I love the idea of having people visit, but I seriously thought that I could bribe these guys into helping put the house together if I promised a party at the end. And for D it was more like a threat. But neither worked. It ended up being me and my super amazing friend Becca (the sweetmaker from the pink glass shoot) who spent four straight days cleaning. I'm not kidding, it was that bad. We moved in and multiple places in the house were just never sorted properly, so when we needed something from those areas, stuff was moved around and never put away because there didn't seem to be an "away".  Add that to the kid's having bunk beds built into their room the day before and the day of the party... sigh. Yup.

Painted pine cones with the boys.

But it happened. We did it. Becca is my new hero and we pulled it off. The photo shoot photos came back better than I had hoped for, the models don't entirely hate me for being stuck in a graveyard in the pouring rain for over two hours... I have emptied my house of all the excess that was clogging up the living areas... we have our home back... life is lovely.

Luminaria by Kelly Wilkinson, author of Weekend Handmade: Place dried leaves and flowers between sheets of wax paper and iron to fuse the paper. Cut out 4 equal squares and fasten with washi tape (bamboo skewers will hold the edges straight)

And I have no deadlines. This confuses me. It's not that I don't have a TON of stuff that could be getting done, and lots of it is... but the fire isn't there. I miss the fire. But it's all about balance, right? Right? Right. So I think that the trick is that I shall take up some crafting. These ^^^ are the first on my list... especially the one that entails sending the rugrats off to collect the leaves before they are gone. They are still so pretty, but they are barely hanging on to those branches and next week they will be scattered to that frosty wind that has begun to hang about. I don't quite feel right about starting up the old Yule crafts yet, although they are already simmering in that area of my brain that doesn't turn off when I sleep... so some late autumn crafting it is. For this week. Next week it will probably snow. Then we are off again... Christmas crafting...

...also... I have a Wedding Show to organize.

Love and Affection: DIY Valentine's Day Ideas

Tom Banwell mask

OK! It's Valentine's month, and although for years and years I went around all self-righteously and pledged non-allegiance to the fact that North Americans had set aside only one day to spread the love, I am now a convert. Well, I still believe that we should spend much more time telling people how much we like each other, how much we appreciate the things others do for us, and do things for others as well... but MOST OF ALL... I am a huge fan of leaving little tokens of affection randomly for the people in our lives to find, if only so that it brightens their day.

the French Mouse

I also love a good excuse to pull out all the crafting supplies in the house and set to work. Having kids gave me call to raise the bar for valentines givers everywhere. I spend days waiting for inspiration to hit right about the beginning of February and usually by the time the big day rolls around we have an army of crazy creations to hand out to all our friends. This year's batch includes individualized patches off the embroidery machine...


One year I bought a bunch of black heavy paper and a silver pen, expropriated a baggie of little rubber lizards from a previous birthday party, and glue-gunned a lizard to the top of each card with my son who put lizard tracks across the front and spelled IGUANA Be Your Valentine inside with a piece of candy taped to it. I don't know how many kids at his school even got it, but we had so much fun making them that I kept going and made one for all my friends as well. The very first black valentines I have come across :)

Does this not say LOVE to you?

Last year, the valentines we gave out were red felt hearts that Rowan sewed pockets into on the sewing machine (supervised) with a simple zig zag stitch, and we put a lollipop or chocolate in each. We used sparkle glue to write the person's name across the front. Not my favourite aesthetically, but he absolutely LOVED making them, and they were adorable when he was done. I have let go of a lot of my Martha tendencies for perfection having two young boys in my life :) It has been very good for my stress level. Sort of balances out the stress that comes from, say, stepping on LEGO pieces, or cleaning toothpaste off every bathroom surface possible.

This is very similar to the idea we used last year... the tutorial for this bag can be found on Momtastic here.

I have found a few really nifty ideas from around webville with Valentine's in mind and thought I'd share...

Of course my first visit for a project is always to How About Orange...

This is an awesome idea from Bloesem Kids, which I admittedly have not tried yet, but if perfected could become a household staple for invites etc. I LOVE this!

Design*Sponge has some pretty darn sweet ideas!




And of course there was a visit to Martha, but I was quite surprised that it was hard to find a new idea. I think Martha's crew must be the best recyclers (of ideas) in the craft world... and there is a place there for you to upload your own cards so they are probably fishing... :)
HOWEVER, I adore quilling, and this reminds me that it has been awhile... and the seed packets are always one of my favourites, as it is a nice reminder that spring is just around the corner AND the more flowers growing in this world, the better. Look for locally grown organic seeds for best results. And switch up the packaging, I don't know why seed packets have become so darn ugly, but it is worth making up some pretty little envelopes and transferring the seeds. Also, if you visit a nursery, you can get a sweet discount on buying the seeds in a bulk size package and dividing them up yourself!


Whichever you choose, be sure you love sending the love!

Gray Day

Wishing for Spring...

Nothing Scrooge About It

I am kind of odd about how I spend money. I haven't had any extra for quite some time now, but even when I did, I wrapped my gifts in kraft paper with gorgeous satin bows and greenery. This year, I am using newspaper. I can't seem to find newspaper that looks the way it should (when did big ugly ads come in and ruin all the wordy pages like the classifieds?) but it is still black and white. (If you can find the NY Times I hear that is a good one esthetically to use. Why do I know that? How odd the random things you pick up from reading blogs!) I am taking it a bit further though this year and making a lot of decorations out of that and bookpaper. I love the look of the text mixed up with the greens and golds... black, white and green have been a long time favourite colour combo.

I have to confess, I think the decision to go with the very intense green in the living room was based on how I thought it should look for Christmas. I could envision a beautiful tree in the corner with the lights reflected in the glossy paint. Not that "tame" is really an option. I love all white interiors, but I don't think I could realistically live in one. My last living room was chartreuse. To balance out the green though, there will have to be a good amount of otherness going on. For the moment, that means paper. So with the kids help, I am building an immense number of paper chains, "balls" and weaves to put on the tree and everywhere else. The newspaper is obviously the inexpensive way to go, but it also looks great. I always have remnants of ribbons around from the sewing I am supposed to be doing, and these particular green ones have been used as streamers at no fewer than three parties, hung from trees at a BBQ, used on other gifts and gathered up afterward and occasionally used in the world of dress up. I am sort of the Queen of Re-use.


I had so much fun making these little paper ball ornaments that I thought I should pass them on. I don't do tutorials often on here, and my pics came out all blurry because I was trying to hold the camera on my knee while holding scissors and push the button and couldn't get it to focus properly. They are not too bad though. You will get the idea. Anyone who can tell me how to push the button on the camera if you are the only one home, don't have a tripod with a clicker thingy (suppose I could use my teeth), or the patience to use the timer option, please feel free to enlighten me :)

You will need:

a book no one will ever read
scissors
embroidery floss or other string type material
hole punch

chop paper
I made strips that were about 3/4" x 6"
do a few pages at a time
I used eight strips per ball, so did
four at a time and cut the strip in half

hold the strips (four at a time if easier to punch)
punch hole in the center at the end

I used a pretty small hole so that the
knots in the floss could be smaller
but I also thought that putting a bead on each of the
top and bottom would work too
and would add some sparkle :)

gently spread the strips out until you have a ball

...and VOILA!