This week we have a wide assort­ment of favourite things from bokeh to unnec­es­sary quo­ta­tion marks — great fun! :D

 

I’ve seen cup­cake gift box­es being sold in the book­stores, but here’s how to make your own! It even comes in three love­ly flavours: ruf­fled, twist­ed, and shaved choco­late. Very pret­ty tuto­r­i­al at Lit­tle Birdie Secret.

 

This is so cool! A thumb-con­trolled water­ing device (water stops stream­ing out when one places thumb over the hole on the lid) made with a recy­cled jug. Accord­ing to the mak­er, ‘the orig­i­nal earth­en­ware “thumb pot­s” were used in 17th and 18th cen­tu­ry Eng­lish gardens’. I would so make one if I have a yard. How-to on Fun in the Mak­ing.

 

Fil­ing is no longer a chore with this vin­tage-book-turn-expand­ing-file! Can it spark moti­va­tion to final­ly sort those recipes / receipts / ren­der­ings of a time trav­el­ing machine? Very detailed instruc­tion on Just Some­thing I Made.

 

For those back-of-the-nap­kin sketch­es and scrib­bles that are too bril­liant to sim­ply file away (it’s true, the most bril­liant com­po­si­tions are almost always done on scrap papers), or those pre­cious draw­ings from the kid who thinks you’re the coolest aunt/uncle/teacher on earth, here’s a sim­ple yet styl­ish way to make them part of your decor and every­day inspi­ra­tion. From Cre­ative Jew­ish Mom.

 

Craft meets office! Great for when one needs a break from the 2056-page doc­u­ment, or when one wants to leave a thank-you note on some­one’s desk, or when one’s cubi­cle is in need of some dec­o­ra­tion. Sim­ple origa­mi flow­ers made of post-it notes, how-to on Sen­si­ble Liv­ing.

 

I was nev­er real­ly a Lego fan, but I like to wear neck­laces and I love the bright colour and sim­plic­i­ty of this Lego neck­lace. I won­der if my par­ents still have the buck­et of Legos in the base­ment… how-to on The Long Thread. (Speak­ing of jew­el­ry made out of game pieces, I also like the idea of a Scrab­ble tile neck­lace — also very sim­ple to make, and personalized!)

 

It’s like my Hong Kong pen­dant, but on canvas! Make wall art with fun fab­ric and places we love — tuto­r­i­al on Crafter­hour.

 

We don’t have an SLR, but maybe it will work on Mike’s super cam­era… Tuto­r­i­al to make your own bokeh shapes (to fit on a cam­era lens and turn out-of-focus points of light into shapes, like the flow­ers above) on How About Orange.

 

 

I nev­er knew that plas­tic but­tons can be dyed! Appar­ent­ly with this par­tic­u­lar kind of dye it works won­der­ful­ly. How to on Rit Dyes.

 

Sew a ter­rar­i­um! I love the quaint mason jar, but the sculp­tur­al qual­i­ty of this clear vinyl ver­sion is also inter­est­ing. Tuto­r­i­al on Design­Sponge.

 

This is genius — a wal­let, that can also turn into a tote! (the zip­per on the top is the wal­let part, and the tote is fold­ed and closed into the side zip­per) Per­fect for gro­cery shop­ping, trips to the park (to col­lect leaves and wild flow­ers for press­ing!), or trips to the beach (to col­lect beach glass and fos­sil-embed­ded rocks!) A very clear and detailed tuto­r­i­al on Sew Mama Sew.

 

More sewing trans­for­ma­tion — turn a sweater into an infin­i­ty scarf! (also called a cir­cle scarf, which is essen­tial­ly a long cowl) I pre­fer cir­cle scarf to reg­u­lar scarf because the ends of reg­u­lar scarf tend to get caught in my coat zip­per. Would­n’t it be cool to make this with t‑shirts for the sum­mer, with patch­es of dif­fer­ent colours and graph­ics? Hmmm… How-to on Adven­tures in Dress­mak­ing.

 

Kathreen of Whip Up shares a recipe for mak­ing tea ice cream, which can be sub­sti­tut­ed with one’s favourite kind of tea, plus a great list of oth­er tea ice cream recipes. It looks so love­ly in the dain­ty tea cup, per­fect for a sum­mer tea party.

 

And final­ly, Mike sug­gest­ed one of his favourites — the blog of “unnec­es­sary” quo­ta­tion marks! It is one of “those” blogs that I vis­it “peri­od­i­cal­ly” for some “good” laughs. (Here is anoth­er “exam­ple” of one of “those” blogs) He also bor­rowed the book from the library, which we read togeth­er over din­ner and I tell you, it was def­i­nite­ly a chok­ing haz­ard. So please, if you do check out this blog or book, put away the food and drinks first. (Anoth­er exam­ple of this kind of books is Ching­lish — my sis­ter, Mike and I read it togeth­er in a book­store in Hong Kong and we fell over each oth­er LOL-ing. But I think it’s espe­cial­ly fun­ny if one were Chi­nese or if one knew Chi­nese peo­ple real­ly well.)

 

On this note, I will end with a favourite quote of the week:

The cre­ative adult is the child who survived.
— U. LeGuin

 

Hap­py Fri­day, friends! :D