After posting about the perler bead earrings several days ago, I immediately made a pair :D They look so sweet! And so quick to make. Kind of have a lacy look to them.
It was a very small craft project but it made me really happy. There are so many things that I want to make and I post them on this blog, but I rarely make any of them.
The next day Mike and I went to Greg’s Ice Cream :D mmm crunchy malt.
Wishing everyone an awesome start to the week!
Poppies in my friend’s backyard.
Purple stars.
Daisies growing out of concrete.
In the front yard of a house I walked by. So vibrant.
It had rained for a day. Raindrops on the petals.
Happy Tuesday! :D
I love blooming trees. They make the city look happy and new.
The African violet on my desk is doing really well this spring – look at this bouquet! It’s really too generous, I rarely fertilize it (I do talk to it though), but every time I trim the leaves it produces more flowers.
And tulips are out in the nearby park!
And a very cool floating flower table decor at a cafe Mike and I went to.
And they had starry ceiling lights.
Wishing you a great start to the week! :D
Inspired by an idea I saw on Pinterest a while ago – using white ink on dark rocks – I painted these a few days ago. I found the stones by Lake Huron in the summer.
This one is inspired by the barnacles I saw in Hong Kong on the rocks by the seashore. The stone has some fossilized corals in it.
This one has a tiny shell embedded in it :D
I painted the outline with white acrylic and a tiny Chinese calligraphy brush, and then coloured inside the shapes with fine tip markers.
On a separate note, today Toronto saw the first official snowfall of the season! It was the feathery kind of snow too and it stayed on the branches for a while. The red berry bush I showed you the other day looked gorgeous covered in snow, but I left my camera at home! Oh well… maybe it will snow again tomorrow…
Happy Thursday, everyone!
Can’t believe it’s almost the end of November!
Mike’s been fundraising for Movember, and last night while video-chatting with my sister and my parents on Google+ I noticed a new mustache feature! XD (It’s kind of a face recognition thing where the mustache follows the person’s face on the screen.)
So the screen shot above is me with a fake ‘stache and Mike with a real ‘stache. There are even different kinds of mustache…
FUN! :D Do give it a try if you use Google+!
Speaking of November, I celebrated my birthday last week. Mike made me a cake :D
… and he got me a plush llama! (the chicken noodle soup was just randomly thrown in there for the photo…)
I’ve been wanting a plush llama for a long time! Mike’s the best :D
A couple more weeks and we’re into December! I usually start Christmas crafting around October, but have been too busy with school this year. I can’t wait till the semester ends in the second week of December – I’ll be doing nothing but crafting, drinking tea and eating Toffifee. Mmm.
Have you started Christmas crafting yet?
Wishing you a happy Wednesday!
I was inspired by the long chain necklaces that a friend always wears. So while down on Queen Street West for a school project last week, I quickly stopped by my favourite bead store to look at their stone pendants.
I bought this one because it reminded me of Niagara Falls – the emerald green algae underneath, the rocks on the cliff, the gush of waters roaring down.
It’s drilled through the middle lengthwise so I put a piece of wire through, made a double-loop at the top for the chain and a coil at the bottom to secure it. Not sure if that makes sense… my brain’s kind of fried after a day of writing… here’s the back of it so you can see what I mean…
I also didn’t have one long chain so I linked two together, like so…
Ta-da!
Makes me happy to look at it because it reminds me of water, and the wonders of creation. It’s the small things that help me get through crunch time >_<
Hope you’re having a good weekend!
Following the post about my leaf drawing of squirrels and acorns earlier today, Mike found an interesting article about red squirrels decorating their nests! :D
Red squirrels decorate their pile of food supply (spruce cones, in this case) with paper…
… leaves and grass…
… and moss.
An overview of a large pile of cones decorated with paper and other found objects…
A bounty of butternut and cones! :D
And our friend, the red squirrel, stopping for lunch.
Cheers!
Buttons!
My mom gave me a box of craft supplies that someone else gave to her, and in the large box of supplies there was a small box of buttons. I just tucked the box of buttons into my craft drawer for the longest time and only today did I look through it. There were these delicious-looking green and pink buttons just begging to be made into something, but I didn’t know what… and then I went browsing on Pinterest and guess what I found? This post on Homemaker’s Journal about making buttoned bobby pins! It’s such a simple idea but it’s absolutely perfect.
I’m in the process of trying to grow out my bangs so I use bobby pins to keep my hair out of my face, and having a nice buttoned bobby pin rather than a plain old bobby pin really brightened my day. It’s the small things, you know? :D
Also in the box of buttons was this antique Hong Kong $5 coin, from 1976!
It’s a decagon! (new word I learned today thanks to Google :D) Nowadays $5 are round, I’ve never seen a 10-sided $5 coin! And here’s the queen on the flip side, of course.
That was in the morning. So then I thought, I must wear one of these pretty button bobby pins out somewhere. I planned to visit the thrift store sometimes this week for some back-to-school clothing. I was debating whether I should just take it easy at home or venture out. The bobby pin gave me the motivation to go out (it’s the small things, really).
And guess what?
The thrift store was having a one-day 50% off clothing sale!
So with under $20 I got 4 dress shirts and a cardigan. I was really happy with the dress shirts, which aren’t all that exciting but something I need for work-related occasions (I’ve learned that adding a cardigan doesn’t really make a graphic tee look more professional). But the cardigan needed some work, because it was too big. (I wish I had taken a “before” photo with me wearing it).
I wanted a neutral colour cardigan for a couple of upcoming weddings, and I do like this one because of its lace pattern and the delicate-looking collar. It was a size-large.
So I took in the sides and the sleeves…
… and cut 5.5″ off the hem, and then re-hemmed it…
… and TA-DA! A cropped cardigan! :D
I’m quite happy with it, though I didn’t know how it was going to turn out because I’ve never sewn sweaters with the sewing machine before. I was a bit concerned that it would all stretch out. But over all it didn’t stretch much. The cardigan was just kind of shaped funny… it was kind of twisting (you might be able to see that a bit in the picture) and wouldn’t lie flat when I tried to line up the seams. But I think it looks alright! :D
Oooh, and check this out…
The tag on the cardigan was all bunched up so I had to stretch it out and pin it like a butterfly specimen to take a photo (because the tag says “no ironing”, I think). But can you see that it says it’s made of 20% polyester and 80% acetate?
I did not know that one could make clothing out of acetate. By acetate does it mean acrylic? Hmm. I wonder how old this sweater is…
Other awesome find today that’s not pictured: tikka masala chips! Mmm curry.
Have a wonderful day, friends!
This past weekend we visited my parents. My dear sister is heading to grad school in Hong Kong (!) for a year and she is leaving later this week, so it was good to spend the weekend with her.
But everyone was busy in the morning so Mike and I went off to have Hong Kong diner-style breakfast special, with really runny eggs and extra strong tea. (Next time I’ll have to request that the eggs be more cooked :S)
Later in the afternoon we picked heirloom yellow tomatoes from my parents’ tomato bush.
It took me a while to spot some in the bush, but they weren’t ripe.
My mom, on the other hand, had found quite a few in a minute or two.
It’s really not easy to spot the ripe tomatoes, given the size of the tomato bush. But I think Mike found one here.
Then we went to the Chinese mall to find Angry Birds capsule toy machine! :D
Capsule toy machines are definitely one of my favourite things!
Though I kind of cheated here… Mike got the yellow woodpecker from the machine and I got the white egg-shaped bird, but my very favourite was the blue ice birds. The shop that owns the capsule toy machines also sells the Angry Birds plushes out of the machine, but charges a bit more, of course, for the convenience of choosing specific ones to buy. *sigh* I’m such a sucker for plushes.
:D
Happy Monday, everyone!
On Friday, errands and a meeting brought me to Queen Street West, an area of the city that brings up fond memories of art college days.
Usually I would rummage through antique shops and read as many crochet and knitting books as I can at Romni Wools, but I wasn’t having a very good day, still recovering from a particularly tough day at work earlier in the week. Self-doubt came rushing in like a giant wall of waves. And the future suddenly seemed very bleak. Like nothing I do is ever good enough, or ever going to be good enough.
After running those errands I still had plenty of time before the meeting, so I decided that I would try to find the white squirrel at Trinity Bellwoods Park. But not only the white squirrel, all the squirrels must be hiding in cool places in the trees – I could hardly see any squirrel at all! I dragged my heavy bags and tired legs forward in an attempt to find a park bench in the shade – avoiding the sunny spots was what needed to be done here – but the only free ones were those baking in the sun, of course. So I walked toward a friendly-looking tree that offered a large area of shade. Once I was under its shade I looked up, and realized that it was a ginkgo tree – a living fossil, my favourite kind of tree! That made me happy, like spotting a friend in a party of strangers, or receiving kindness from a passerby.
I sat in the shade for a bit, and when I was less tired I got bored, so I walked around the park, and found a small flowerbed, with flowers of all different colours, like a celebration.
There were lots of these flowers that looked like they were made out of crepe paper. I don’t know much about plants and dont’ know what they’re called. Perhaps you can help me out?
After wandering in the park I still had more time, and I was feeling a bit better, so I thought I’d wander in the streets. After all, while being all gloomy earlier I skipped some of my favourite shops. So I wandered into Magic Pony, and was surprised that they carry the Yummy Dessert keychains by Heidi Kenny - I thought they were only sold in the US! Heidi Kenny’s blog was one of the first ones I followed and inspired this little blog of mine. So I thought I must get one of those keychains!
Problem was, they were sold in blind boxes, which meant that one couldn’t choose the particular toy one wanted. You know which one I wanted to get most? My favourite is the jello mold.
I read on the box that I had a 1/25 chance of getting the jello mold. I thought as long as I didn’t get the white and brown cookie I would be happy (not that it wasn’t cute, it just didn’t quite look like a cookie…). I picked up a box with my eyes closed. As the friendly Magic Pony staff cheered me on, I anxiously opened the packaging and out it tumbled…
A JELLO!!!
OMG I GOT A JELLO!!!
XD
The Magic Pony is indeed magical.
It’s even slightly squishy like real jello! XD
I made it just in time to my meeting with my supervisor. I realized how much I miss being in a community of people who do the same kind of work – the same kind of widely-misunderstood-and-unrecognized-by-the-mainstream work – and understand. I was once again reminded of the purpose of my work, and the skills that I do have. And the future seemed a bit more hopeful. (If you want to know what kind of work I do head over to the about page. I updated it recently :D)
When I got home it was late. I checked my emails and WordPress told me that a lovely visitor had commented that she liked my favourite things posts and may consider writing in her blog again. These words of kindness remind me of those moments when a client looks up from the art she’s making and smiles with her eyes, satisfied by a moment of joy or healing or insight or connectedness with a vibrantly creative part of self. It’s about offering what little I have and seeing others turn it into something amazing beyond my imagination. I mean, the ability to turn ordinary things into amazing things is already inside everyone, whether I put things out there or not. But I guess the difference is that I did put things, or sometimes myself, out there. Sometimes it does nothing, but I know that sometimes it can make a difference. And that, I remind myself, is what I will have to hold on to as I travel along.
Today we walked passed a food market and saw this blooming succulent plant (again, I have no idea what it’s called). I’ve seen the same kind of plant before, and when it blooms it has a long stem coming out of the middle of the plant with small pink flowers branching out at the top. I always thought it looks like it’s offering its flowers to the world.
It’s a bit of a long-winded post. A bit all over the place, too. But I guess at the end of the day it’s just about catching the bright things, and finding parts of myself and my place in the world in the midst of the bright things and not so bright things.
And seeing that it’s almost Sunday, I’ll end with a video that captures a small, but very bright moment :D
Have a good day, friends!
