Christmas Weekend Fun

It's almost Christmas and our gifts are finally wrapped and under the tree. Maude has been sick so we've been trying to stay close to home so she's comfortable.

Rudy had a blast this morning sliding down the hill in our yard and playing in the snow. There's something so sweet seeing kids all bundled up and toasty warm!

Earlier this month, we bought some plastic ornaments for Rudy to decorate. We use glitter and glue and tissue paper and it makes for the easiest craft. It might be craft time this afternoon!

While we were playing in the snow, we collected some fresh snow and made snow ice cream using this recipe.

Other activities we have planned for the next couple of days include baking shortbread cookies, tobogganing and watching this movie. Can you believe I've never seen it? We also may take this girls to see this festive street!

It has been non-stop action this month at our house between Rudy's Birthday, Hanukkah and now Christmas. I've also been really busy and work and Rudy started a new school this month. Our heads are spinning but we're excited to relax a bit over the next week.

What are you doing over the break? Do you have plans for NYE? Friends of ours are having a bunch of families with kids over and we're going to have an early countdown at 8 so the kids can crash after in the basement and the adults can stay up for the real countdown. Fun, right?

Season's greetings and have a wonderful and safe holiday! Happy Tibb's Eve, if you like to drink! ;)

Felted Rattle

The real estate market tends to be a little less chaotic around the holidays and I have learned to embrace the break and rest while I can, because work always gets crazy again in the new year.  As you know, I love crafts, and I've been wanting to try needle felting for a long time.

I finally bought some felting needles, some foam to use as a felting mat, and some soft alpaca roving and decided to give it a try.  I was going to start by making these dryer balls, but I decided to work on something fun for Rudy

For my first projects, I felted polka dots onto an Ikea blanket for our family room and I felted a fawn silhouette onto a baby blanket for a friend.  I'll post photos of both later, but in this post I'll share how to make the felted rattles that I've been making over the holidays.

To start, I needed an actual rattle.  I had thought of using an egg rattle like these but since I started this project on Christmas Eve, I had to get creative with the supplies that I had on hand.

Instead, I used plastic hollow Easter eggs (the kind you hide toys in) as a base.  I suppose a prescription pill container would also work.  I experimented by filling them with different things.  Small bells produced a chime effect when I padded the inside of the egg with tissue.  Bottle caps (ironically, from beer) worked well without any padding, as did uncooked pasta noodles.

Here's what I used for the project:

Plastic Eggs (any small plastic container will do)

Dry Pasta (or something that will rattle)

Tape

Thread

Felt Scraps

Felting Needle

Roving

I taped the eggs shut with electrical tape.

I covered them with scraps of felt, which I secured with thread to make the basic shape more round.

I then covered it in roving, which is basically wool fibre which has not been spun.  You can buy it at a craft store or online.  I chose alpaca roving because it is so soft.

Once the ball was covered, I began "felting" the wool.  I basically gently poked it over and over with the needle.  I was careful to begin slowly and at an angle so as not to break my needle or stab myself.  Felting needles are designed to pull fibres and sort of connect them.  If you look at them closely there are tiny notches in the needle shaft which catch the fibres.

I continued felting the balls and rolling them between my hands to round the shape out.  Eventually, there were no soft spots left and I had solid rattles.  Each rattle probably takes a couple of hours and it's the perfect craft to make while you're zoned out and binge watching The Good Wife.  ... Just don't completely zone out because felting needles are sharp and unforgiving.

I experimented with roving in different colours and even added some small amounts of grey to a cream coloured ball for a marbled effect.  What do you think?

I Haven't Disappeared

Hi guys!  This has been a crazy week at work... You know, that job that pays for our house and DIY projects so I can blog about them on Sundays...  I am sorry for being such a lame-o the past couple of weeks and there may still be one week left of very sparse posts before I get my regular routine back.

How do you unwind from work?  I like to blog and work on crafty projects.  In fact, a few weeks filled with long work hours have left me wanting nothing more than to make jewelry or paint or reupholster a chair...

Here's what I have in mind for some upcoming projects (top photo:)

1.  Some friends and clients of mine recently gave me a cool retro chair that I can't wait to reupholster in a modern fabric.

2.  I have a stash of funky stone beads in quartz, malachite, lapis and many other semi-precious stones that I'm dying to play with on a lazy afternoon.  I'll look for some good tutorials to share.

3.  I bought some vintage plates at Value Village to make some fun cake stands for our wedding cupcakes... It's cheaper than renting serving ware and people can take them home!

4.  We really need to get cracking on our wedding invitations!  I've played around with photoshop a little since my last post but I haven't had time for much more.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend!  It's supposed to be sunny and warm in Toronto tomorrow!

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Our Wedding Centerpieces

So, do you guys remember that amazing Terrarium Workshop I attended a couple of weeks ago?  Well, I wasn't joking when I said that it had left me with an unhealthy obsession with open terrariums and I couldn't wait to make more.  Add to this, the fact that we've been hoarding collecting vintage glass vessels from thrift shops and the temptation became too much.  I was like a terrarium making zombie.  Must.  Eat. Brains.  And.  Make.  Terrariums.  Okay, not quite, but I did pick up a couple of succulents on the way home from work one day so I could make a couple with vases we had at home.

I photographed them with swatches of fabric from each bridesmaid's dress to ensure that they'll work well with our wedding theme of "Emerald and Jade."

These ones also contain sea glass and rocks that we collected while on holiday, so they feel extra special.

I think they look especially nice in the milk glass vases.  The backdrop of our wedding venue is a solarium filled with cacti.  We think these will make pretty table decorations for our wedding, as well as the perfect compliment to the venue!

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DIY Geometric Bookends

Lately, many home accessories are taking inspiration from geometry.  Currently, anything honeycomb shaped is on trend but we're seeing all sorts of shapes in everything from textiles to dinnerware.  Last year, Apartment Therapy published a Round-Up of this trend.

I thought it would be fun to try on my own and I had some supplies left over from other crafts so i compiled the following list:

• Polymer Clay (it's great because it doesn't crack easily in the oven)
• Aluminium Foil (to keep my bookends from becoming too heavy and to help me stretch my clay a little further)
• A cookie sheet (as a work surface)
• A knife
• Sandpaper
• Gold Spray Paint
• Acrylic Topcoat Spray Paint

I began by kneading the clay according to the directions.  For my larger piece, I rolled up a little aluminium foil and worked the clay around it.  This kept the weight reasonable and reduced baking time. 

I molded the clay into a rough cube.  I used the flat edges of extra cookie sheets to smooth the sides.  Once I had a decent looking cube, I began slicing off pieces with my knife.  I tried to keep my cuts as clean as possible and was careful to slice straight through as opposed to using a sawing motion.

Once I was finished, I baked my pieces according to the directions on the box.  I then allowed it to cool before sanding some of the rough edges.  I could have continued sanding to make perfectly straight edges, but I didn't mind a few imperfections and I knew most of them would be covered by paint. 

I used tape to keep the paint off the bottom of each piece.  Once the second coat of gold paint had dried completely, I sprayed it with a clear acrylic topcoat for added durability.

 





While I think they look neat on my mantle, I am looking forward to redecorating once we move and perhaps using these bookends for their intended purpose.  I think our new space will see less chrome and more warm metallic tones.

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Pinterest Challenge: Pantone Rubik's Cube Inspiration

 

Last weekend, we were unexpectedly forced to stay home one night.  Waiting to hear back from someone, I found myself looking for something fun to do to keep my mind off things.  (On a related note, I may post slightly less frequently over the next couple of weeks since I'm writing my Broker's exam but I hope to make up for it with some exciting news regarding our condo. I'll share our news soon.  Woo hoo!)

 

Anyway, we were home and I was bored and looking for a non-television related distraction when I remembered that I had wanted to make something for the Pinterest Challenge which is being hosted this week by some talented bloggers: Katie from Bower Power, Megan from The Remodeled Life, Sherry from Young House Love and Michelle from Decor and the Dog.  It's a neat idea: Basically, you're supposed to find something from one of your Pinterest boards and either make it or draw inspiration from it and add your own spin. 

 

Pinterest Challenge Accepted!  I had already purchased supplies, so offer night (okay, the cat's out of the bag... we have sold conditionally!) became a little less stressful and a LOT more colourful!

 

I've been eyeing this funky Pantone Rubik's Cube, which I pinned to my Good Ideas board ages ago.  You know the thought of moving has me feeling a little paint-colour-crazy so I thought I'd add a fun spin to the idea with Behr paint (which we used to paint the condo) colours. 

 

 

I thought that making blocks would be a fun way to keep several paint chips and still have a cool coffee table sculpture/ fun thing to play with when I'm on the phone. 

 

I started with 8 wooden blocks from the craft store.  I wanted to be able to make a cube (2 X 2 X 2) and I wasn't ambitious enough to try a full 27!  I then went to Home Depot and found paint chips in a rainbow of colours (48 in total) and made sure the paint chips were large enough to each cover a side of the cube.  I felt a little guilty for taking so many paint chips so we bought a couple of other supplies while we were there.

 

 

I decided that I wanted the name of the colour to be visible and I also wanted each cube to be made up of different hues of the same colour family rather than a rainbow of different colours.  This made it easy to organize my paint chips.  Had I thought of this at Home Depot, I would have made sure to have collected 6 variations of each colour but the chips I had collected ended up working out fairly well.

 

 

I then traced the block onto the back of each paint chip and cut them out.  I was not a perfectionist but I tried to be reasonably neat.

 

I then used simple white glue to adhere the chips to the blocks.  Looking back, I may have had more luck with a hot glue gun or a faster drying glue.  I did need to go back and smooth the sides again because the white glue took so long to dry.

After they were dry, I sprayed them with a clear acrylic spray glaze for some extra gloss and water resistance.  We don't have children and Barkley doesn't try to eat things so I didn't care if it was non-toxic spray.  I think it was but I'm not positive... I did feel a little giddy spraying it in the bathroom, despite the fact that the fan was on.
 
The final result was a set of fun, unique blocks which I can stack in different patterns to show different colour combinations. 

Wouldn't these look fun in our bright living room on the mantle beside our white piggy bank?

It's not to late to try your own Pinterest Challenge.  In fact, I had so many ideas left over that you may see more in the weeks to come.  What do you think?











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