Friday, March 13, 2009

hunk-o-plastic to colourful shrine in just 2 years



I bought this gaudy mess a couple of years ago. I had big plans. I was going to make it gorgeous. I cleaned it up. Then it sat on a shelf for two years waiting to made into something.

A few weeks ago a challenge was put forward to make a shrine on the Misc. Topics board on craftster.org Aha! The perfect push to transform that plastic hunk. And so after a few late nights I'd like to show off my Stash Bustin' Family Shrine.



I really love it. It's got old and new bits. Photos from the 'death/funeral' cards of long dead relatives. Little bits of goodness and colour :)




Wednesday, March 11, 2009

One down... four luchadors to go.

I've finally finished (kind of) D's wrestling painting! Woo hoo Rey Mysterio! It's 12" square. I've also got 4 smaller luchadors on the go but they still need a little lovin'



I missed the birthday deadline but that's alright because I'm going to put together a 'swap' package for him. He's terribly jealous of the packages that arrive for his dad and I so I'll make a box of wrestling goodness for him. If I can finish it next week it'll be a great diversion for the long car ride up to Ottawa.

In other news, D had a great birthday. How 6 little children can make so much noise I'll never know. It was a long day and the kids were troopers. The clocks moved ahead, birthday party madness and then a hockey game... that's a lot to ask of a group of 5/6 year olds.



Oh, and BTW those pom poms WERE blue! It was just the crappy lighting in my house that made them look purple. Woo hoo!

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Stupidity and splendor

First I'll tell you the dumb thing I did.

I went to the $store to get some stuff for D's birthday party and saw some blue and silver pom poms. I thought to myself "That would be a fun thing to stick in the goodie bags! The boys can shake them around and cheer for the team... they're even a team colour." I bought them, I took them home, took them out of the bag. All is right with the world. Then I caught a glimpse of them the other day... a glimpse of purple. They aren't blue! They're purple! I yell at P "Do these look purple?" He says "Yeah. I was wondering why you were buying them." WHAT! Why didn't you say something? "I thought you knew what you were doing."

Bastard.

On a much nicer note I've made some lovely dishcloths. I'm terrible at knitting and crochet and completely envious of everyone who can make lovely yarn creations. One of my newest most favourite things are handmade dishcloths. I've gotten a couple in swaps and adore them. I figured that a square might be just the thing for me to attempt and apparently it is! They aren't fancy but I'm terribly proud of my little lovelies.



Here posing with my cottony dishcloth goodness is a small brooch I picked up at an antique shop last week. I asked how much and hoed and hummed and the lady halfed the price! I can never pass up a bargain so I swiped it up. I love the little stitchy thing.



Lastly, I got an email the other day from esty.com telling me that one of my shadow boxes was chosen for a little sort of competition they have for St. Patrick's Day. Sure enough, there's my King of Luck shadow box!

If you're interested in checking it out and casting a vote for your favourite item you can follow this link...
http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=34

How cool is that?

Monday, March 02, 2009

You can be better than you are...



I bought this clock a few months ago. It was dated, tired and only $2.99 from a local thrift store. I knew that it would make something wonderful but I was still tossing ideas around in my wee head.

One day I logged into craftster and saw that the crafty challenge for March was to craft a favourite song. Eureka! I knew exactly what I was going to do to my poor old clock.




And so, I've taken that poor old clock and turned it into an ode to one of my favourite songs, Swingin' on a Star.




"You can be better than you are,
You could be swingin' on a star"

I'll do my best to take some 'glamour shots' in the sunlight tomorrow and hopefully post it before the deadline :)

Friday, February 27, 2009

I'm feeling inspired so why am I sitting at my desk?

Last night I convinced the mister that I needed to go to the craft shop for some decent glue. He looked at me sideways then agreed to drive me over. Paul took D into the electronics shop and I was able to wander all by myself. I thought that it was a bit odd that Paul and D didn't come and drag me out but apparently that was because they couldn't find me! Ha! I was very likely hiding behind the glitter :)

One bit of kinda/sorta bad news ... D found my luchador paintings. They were placed well above his head because I wanted to surprise him with one for his birthday. I'm terrible at secrets so it really shouldn't have shocked me when he came into the room and said accusingly "Mummy, what are those luchador paintings doing in there?" *sigh* I suppose I should add a 51 to my things to do... find a better hiding place.

Anyway, here is the 'tiny thing' I made from my 50 things to do list.



I feel like I totally should not be sitting at my desk pretending to work. I should be at home, on this rainy, dreary day, making lovely little things and playing with my crafty purchases.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Birthday Bonanza

Our wee fella is turning 6 next Sunday. (6? Wasn't he just 2 three weeks ago?) We've known for quite a while that we were going with a hockey theme because I managed to swipe a bunch of tickets for the game on his birthday. Yesterday it dawned me that I hadn't done the invites! Wracking my brain it finally struck me... Hockey Card invites!



They are actual hockey card size and printed on a card stock. D loves them... I kinda do too :)

Now for the rest of the planning.

Monday, February 23, 2009

An update on "50 things to do"

So, I've actually managed to make a bit of a dent in my "50 things to do" list!

Here's an update...


# 3. Luchador Series
I've got a good start on 5 paintings. I have to finish at least one before March 8th because it's D's favourite masked wrestler and that's his Bday!:)


# 4. Fairy Godmother Book
Is done and was put in the post this morning! It took quite a while to finish but I think it was worth it.

#5. Clock
I bought an old clock a couple of months ago and had a round about idea what I wanted to do with it. The perfect push came when I read the craftster challenge for March... craft a favourite song. I'm probably 70% done!


#6. Knit something for D
This was my first crafted project of 2009... I did it on New Years Eve and finished in the wee hours of the morning, A skull beanie


#8. Knit a sweater
I knit a sweater. It's ugly and doesn't fit quite right but it's a sweater and I knit it. Job done.


#11. 'Gypsy' Quilt Block for charity
Done and sent!


#12. Finish Shrunken Heads
One head is still waiting for it's hair but the other is totally finished.

#30. Try to cook something new once a week (okay, maybe once a month)
We've been doing pretty well at this. Almost every Sunday a we (okay, the mister) have made a big batch of soup to heat up during the week.

#42. Make something teeny weeny
I made a wee fairy tin.

#46. Crochet something other than a grannie square
I'm about 80% through a shrug that weighs about 5 pounds.

I'm pretty pleased with the amount I've managed so far! Let's just hope that the momentum keeps up!