Swirly Jars - Pinterest Pin

I found this great pin a while back and had to try it

Centsational Girl does a great tutorial. Check out her site for the tutorial. 

My living room is accented with shades of lime green, so naturally I did greens. 

(pre tip: check your colours before starting, my one colour is too camouflage looking for my comfort)

But here are my tips. 

1. You're going to use more paint than you think. I used up three little bottles. 

(Mind you some were partially used, and I might have used too much paint).

you can't have too much of a good thing, can you?

2. Check the consistencies of your paint before you start. 

One was nice. perfect. 

One was too gunky/thick. 

I, personally, think it would be better to add a little water to the paint in the bottle and shake it all about till you get the right texture. "sprinkling" water into the vase like I did was a major fail, especially when some paints didn't need to be lightened up. 

3. Clean up the edges before it dries. 

4. Don't use too much paint because then you'll have to drain it and your swirls might get mixed up. 

5. If you can, I'd recommend rotating throughout the drying period. I have one side which you can tell was the side that I let it dry over night on. I don't really like that side. 

I tried to hide the messed up side in the shadow on purpose. I don't want people to know it's there!

Overall: LOVED THIS PROJECT

Will I do it again? 

As soon as I can find a home for another vase and a reason to do this craft again. 

(because seriously, I can't just have a collection of glass jars everywhere. 

*must have a purpose before crafting*

My Aboriginal Geography Project

Alrighty Peeps, So At the moment I am taking Geography 403, Indigenous First Nations Geography with Sarah De Leeuw at the university. She tasked us with a slightly unorthodox project (worth 20% of our grade) that involves us being creative in the/our representation of an indigenous geography.

So, here is my attempt at quilting for the very first time in less than 2 weeks. Don't look closely. It's poorly done, but it's done! (I think I might consider quilting as a new hobby, I will have to learn to sew better, be more patient, and invest in a quilting frame of sorts ---- also improve either my hand quilting or my machine quilting)

In this quilt tapestry, I have decided to represent three broad themes of indigenous geographies. 

1. On the bottom is the concept of the First Nations/Indian/Aboriginal as a "Noble Savage" and/or as a people uniquely connected to the land, the water, and the resources available. Within this landscape they create their own spaces and places.

2. In the middle is the representation of the the confusion of what are indigenous geographies.  Further, I look at these squares to represen the multiple facets of what First Nations geographies can look like. As a blank canvas this can be anything we want it to be. 

3. This represents the First Nation landscape related to art and modernity. One aspect I felt that I was coming across was the space we put them into - assuming that they were all one people, say one people who all did red and white art, or all loved eagles, etcetra...The second aspect that I wanted to express is that First Nations can be modern in their expression of their identities geographies both through art and through their lives. 

If you're reading this before Tuesday morning, feel free to offer some feedback/critique/opinions!

New Lights & A Few Tips

I finally pushed and complained enough that Eric and I finally made some commitments to changing out the lights in our house.

  (Need I remind that our house was ancient looking. It's a great little house, but it had ALL white walls, those yellow light switch covers, this ugly yellow wood, and it also has these ugly light fixtures to go with it's "I've never been updated" look.) 

Seriously? What is that? Ugly little light. I wanted to replace it with track lighting. you'll see what happened....

Honestly, there's just too much going on here, since the middle thing is the sky light! I just can't fix it the way I want to without ripping apart the whole kitchen

Things to Keep in Mind When Shopping for Lights

1. Bring along pictures of your rooms. 

Consider taking pictures at night when you actually use the light fixtures so you can understand how you want the space to look. 

2. Look at lots of lights, and check them out everywhere. 

Shop around. 

The boutique store downtown had $$$$ lights, but the lights we wanted ended up being bout the same price as the lights at Home Depot, and they ended up looking nicer.

3. When you decide on a light consider the lightbulb it needs, make sure it's something simple. 

the first light fixtures we picked for the kitchen had the weirdest lightbulbs. They didn't even sell them at Home Depot. Thus, we said, this isn't for us! We don't want to have to replace the fixture because we can no longer buy bulbs for it! 

4. Purchase lightbulbs  with the fixtures. 

I don't know how we counted wrong. but we are short one light. Whats the point of installing beautiful lights if you can't turn them on? 

We purchased led chandelier bulbs for the one set from Costco. Costco seems to have the best prices on led bulbs ATM. 

Why LED? No mercury is a big selling point for me. If you can afford it, it's a great option. Plus I think the bulbs like nicer than the curly-q

5. Consider Future Renovations and Current Fixtures

We already replaced one fixture in the kitchen. 

We talk about updating the flooring of the house so that was a consideration. how will these lights look with our future renovations?

I think that's all of my tips that I found useful. 

while it is beautiful and will match our future hardwood floors
it doesn't give off as much light as I want. Even Eric wishes it was more, but c'est le vie

we ended up matching the two other fixtures with the fixtures over the sink
It gives the kitchen WAY MORE light at night time.
As well as a much more modern and sleek look

Now we are looking for a fan! The fan we love has a crappy light kit and the fan in the kitchen is off-centre and I don't want to really make it a focal point because of it's weird position in the ceiling. 

We also need floor lamps. 

Wedding Mondays - DIY Bow Clutch

It's been a little puppy-overload here, and I haven't had a Wedding Monday in a long time, so here's an old post from my old wedding blog.

On Pinterest I found this great tutorial from Elm Street Life.
The clutch is super cute and super easy!

Anyways, I had this fabric that I bought with this in mind, because the fabric is the same colour (tone) as the boys ties. It's not identical, because I didn't have as many options as I wanted, but I had to buy like 2 metres for my sisters sash, so I made matching clutches! 

See, Moriah's sash, and the pocket square. Same shade pink, different type of fabric! 

It was so easy, only took me an afternoon and I made two of them! I used lots of interfacing because my fabric is a little flimsy, but it did the job! 

This is all the stuff I needed! I love my cutting board, one of the best things I've purchased for my sewing product. 

And this was the final product!!! 

Finished Product!

The process.... 

Love it? Check out the tutorial! 

DIY Dog Car Seat Cover

We might have small puppies, but these puppies have super dirty little paws. Especially when we go to the dog park (whats up with the dirt at the dog park, it's either WAY WAY dusty or WAY WAY muddy). Anyways, Eric hated putting them on the seats, and I hate when he puts them in the foot wells, so because Pinterest is my lover, I figured I could make my own.

This project didn't start off so well. 

We were in Fabricland humming and hawing over how much fabric to buy.

Eric said the car was 3 metres wide. We bought 6 metres of fabric. of both the flannel and the twill. 

Our car actually measures at 1.54 metres. 

Needless to say, there might be some Christmas gifts to this tune. 

The orginal Pin

The original pinner did a much better job than I did. 

But I wanted to keep it simple. 

This was one of those Measure a QUAZILLION TIMES.

Only cut once! 

I was worried I cut too small considering seam allowances.

Thank goodness this wasn't the case! 

I ended up cutting a square. Just the right width of the fabric for the length and width of my car. 

I top stitched the whole thing! 

My one feedback is that though I did put the snaps like the tutorial suggested, next time I'll just do tie straps. I think that would be just as easy. Plus, snaps cost like $5! Which isn't too bad :P 

Wedding Monday - Table "Numbers"

For our wedding, I stumbled across a few scrabble themed ideas on pinterest. 

One of the ideas was scrabble tiles for table numbers! 

We spelt out our name, so there was a "B-O-U-W-M-A-N" and the lead table was B & E (they got blank tiles) 

We used little scrabble tiles bought on ebay in bulk to add to the place cards to direct people to the correct table. 

The project itself was a bit hectic. 

Eric went out and bought a plank of maple. 

He was responsible of cutting it into little squares. He failed.

I got rectangles. I guess it worked.

I bought stencils from the hardware store, some tape and went ahead.

The first idea was to paint over the stencil.

Fail.

It smudged. 

This isn't the greatest look. 

So, with the assistance of some tape lines, we used our pencil to outline the stencil, and then to get the straight lines (that I failed to achieve with my hand painting) we used tape. 

The little numbers were the hardest since I don't have the steadiest hand.

I tried a permanent marker. 

It bled. 

We finished the project witha  coat of varnish.

There isn't any pictures of that.

But it really added to the letters. Made them look super good! 

DIY Puppy Pee Pads

I believe that it's inevitable that this winter will result in many "puppy accidents" inside.

Daisy has already made it clear she hates the cold winter, and that she cannot hold her bladder for the duration of the night. 

The hormones have helped. There have been significantly fewer accidents. 

A puppy pad has been placed out and she has taken to it. 

But, the downside is that I HATE PUPPY PADS. 

I bought the eco friendy ones. They SUCK.

I don't want to buy them, or throw them out.

Like femine hygiene bads and diapers, they probably don't decompose in the landfill very well. 

So! I've decided to make my own! 

There aren't many tutorials. So I kinda winged it.

I used what I know about making my feminine hygiene pads to make them. 

Because it uses PUL fabric it was slightly expensive. 

Materials:

Diaper Flannel (twice as much)

Flannel. (I found cute puppy dog fabrics)

PUL Fabric (waterproof stuff)

Thread. 

I bought 1.4 metres of flannel and pul and made 6 training pads! 

I choose dimensions that were half the width of the fabric, and then into thirds. Turned out to be 19inches by 22 inches. This was super rough. And I trimmed a lot more down. 

Then the pattern fabric was fused to two layers of diaper flannel. 

when I say fused. i mean I stitched lopsided squares into it. I didn't really make a lot of effort to be super precise. I figured it was just a pee pad. 

Then with right sides together, I matched the flannels with the pul fabric. 

After trimming up some edges they were stitched together

That's right, turn it inside out, and iron! 

I like to leave a gap in the middle of one side (instead of a corner. 

I iron it all together and then do a top stitch around the whole thing. 

Final Product.

Put it down in the puppy pee area (this area needs to be changed)

So far,  nobody has used them. 

Then again nobody has gone inside.

I hope to find some of that puppy urine spray, or wait for an accident to happen and rub it all over it so they know that this is where to go.

Hubby is worried that they'll want to take naps on it. 

Winter Wonderland

So, apparently, Saturday's 7.7 Earthquake is still experiencing aftershocks, including at 6.2 last night. Crazy. We are too far away to really feel them, but every now and then somebody on facebook land mentions they felt something. And you go 'holy crap, still!"

Moreover, the snow continues to fall! Seriously. 

It's now at about 11-12 inches. 

PROOF!

First day of snow. Made the puppies a trail.

Alright.... and I know that I have been on puppy overload recently, but bare with me! 

With it being -20C this morning, I'm extraordinarily grateful that I finished my puppies coats!

They are super cute. And the pattern is unbelievably easy! 

Takes like an hour, two tops to finish the coats.

Daisy rocking her new coat.

Caper's coat. 

I attempted to make them matching booties.

FAIL.

Eric and I just went out and bought them booties.

We struggled with sizes. And ended up with an xxs and itty bitty muttlucks. 

So far, puppies haven't really figured it them out. 

They look so funny wandering around in them, but once I kicked them outside they understood better. 

Trying to get the booties on! 

The look of uncertainty.
What am I supposed to do with these things on?

Anyways, I'm off to catch an airplane to Vancouver!

Time to escape this winterwonderland for the rainy west coast. 

Winter Dog Care????

I was going to wait till another day to post this.
But it snowed like a lot last night.
I feel so underprepared. My dogs coats aren't made.
They don't have booties. And they aren't loving the snow at all!

The snow has fallen.

Now, how do I take care of my puppies?

The First Thing I've done in prep is taken them to the groomers.

I had their paws trimmed.

From what I hear, I'm going to have to be careful of their paws getting frost bite and ice clumps, and of the deicing chemicals on the roads when I take them for walk. 

The Second thing I'm working on is dog jackets.

My boarder suggested coats for when it gets REALLY cold and windy. 

At what temperature should my dogs where there coats?

anyone have any advice on winterizing their dogs?

The Third thing I'm thinking about is dog booties.

I've been thinking of making matching ones to their jackets. 

Like this pattern here or this one

Or buying some from Etsy or the Pet Store.

What are your ideas on dog shoes? Do you let your dogs where the shoes?

I'm also seeing some information about balms... 

 Something like this or this one, Mushers Secret

or maybe homemade recipes like this one

The Fourth thing I'm thinking about is house training.

Daisy already has a disadvantage. 

But today, I came home to not one, not two, but 4 puddles on my linoleum. 

This is Capers first winter.

Daisy has already expressed disinterest in snow. 

Puppy Pads? How can I puppy pad train my puppies? 

Check out these Nine Must haves...

And I must remember this post too about small dog care in the winter.

Master Bedroom Update

At this very moment, my remote, the tv, and I are in a heated battle. Everytime I try to turn on the cable box, the tv turns off, and vice versa. I'll get it eventually. 

Something Cute in our simple bedroom! We might have moved in, but we still need decorations on the wall, and nightstands, and curtains! 

Moving into the Master Bedroom 

We’ve been living in our master bedroom for two months now. 

For a wedding gift my mom and step dad offered to purchase us a new bed set. And with that we moved into our mast bedroom.

Some context is needed. We moved into our new house knowing we’d need/or get a new bed. So we moved our bed at the time into one of the spare bedrooms. With the though that we wouldn’t have to move beds.

Mid August, we finally broke down and committed to buying a matteress and bed. We bought our matteress at the Brick, and we bought our bed frame from Costco. With a new bed coming into place the rest of the master had to be put into place! (We rented a truck to bring it all home! xp )

PAINT! 

Shades of grey for the walls. Three walls are a lighter shade of “Helium” with an accent wall in “Zeplin”.We went with gray because, a while back Eric and I had bought red curtains for the master. Grey goes nicely with red. The curtains aren’t even being used for the windows anymore, but for the closets (because I hate the mirrors that came with). 

Bad Blurry Picture of the entire grey 

Painting was a surprising hassle, as I choose the light shade of grey, painted the ENTIRE bedroom and then decided that I HATED it. Husband's answer was an accent wall. It works. I still can't get over that each wall looks like a different shade of grey, which is slightly odd...

Two Tone now. 

In the end, I'm happy.

I just need to do my laundry more often.

Vacumn the Floors. 

Order Wedding Pictures

And encourage ourselves to make the bed

What's Ahead

Two things.

1.  NEW SEWING PROJECTS

A. Dog jackets for the winter! We picked up the fabric today, I cant wait! 

B. Seat Covers. 

Darn things have been leaving foot prints all over the cushions. So, I'm going to tackle this pinterest project. 

2. weight gain. deserves no capitals.

For my wedding, I attempted to loose weight to look my best and feel best on my special day.

Partly because my mom pointed out how I had gained a lot of weight during college, and then I felt all self conscious and aware. Last summer 2011, I weighed in at 230 pounds. My heaviest yet. 

Today, I finally broke down. I knew it had to happened. While I might have lost 20 pounds for my wedding, my favorite jeans didn't button up yesterday, and at that moment I knew there was a second reason why I had retreated to dresses and leggings.... 222 pounds tonight. 

So game plan. 

a) I need to find something to motivate myself. 

b) I need to cut the crap. 

c) I need to document my intake of food (time to buy a food journal! --- yay shopping) 

d) I need to exercise.

This will include several steps ----- i.i start walking the dogs more often, i.ii. set up the xbox so I can use it to exercise via the kinnect, i.iii seriously consider a gym membership at the university. 

Autumn Garden Prep

We moved in during the Spring.

Sometime during the summer, I decided to start working on my garden. 

The 'garden' is overgrown and, as expected, would need LOTS of elbow grease. 

Before Before

This is the garden as we moved in. It's an area of the yard that is divided by 'railway ties'. 

Before

The Garden after a little elbow grease. 

I removed some of the 'trees' (my mil wanted one of them, but I had let it sit too long) 

I tried to dig the garden over, but the land was too rocky. 

Then.... 

the garden sat all summer and I did nothing. 

Today

I took some action. After some internet searching, the final concluding idea was to rebuild my garden.

The land in PG is too rocky. There is no point in me digging it up. It's too much effort that I don't have. 

First

Cardboard. 

We bought a bed a month ago. The cardboard is too big for our little car. So it's still hanging out in the garage. Perfect for my garden. I covered up the old weeds with the cardboard. They suggest that this will prevent sunshine which will kill everything underneath! Whoot. 

I also watered the cardboard. Because then I thought it'd stay in place better. 

Second

Eric and I took advantage of the trees in our front yard. 

We bought some rakes and raked the front yard. I took some containers and moved all of the leaves to the back yard. And piled them high. Over the winter. This will sit. 

Come next Spring, we will buy some pretty rocks to build an edge to the garden and then bring in some dirt to build up the garden! 

A Few more  pictures of our adventures

I can't wait to get my sony nex 5r!!! IF only it would come into stores! Jeez louise. I might just have to wait till my trip to Vancouver next week. 

A Few Blogs/websites on this idea!

Birds & Blooms

Chowhound Forum

Building Raised Garden

Treehugger

Stay Posted

Once the snow falls. And then melts.

I (and hopefully my hubbie) will start building our raised garden bed. 

Maybe for next Thanksgiving we will have some fresh veggies to serve straight from the garden! yummm!