January 23 - filler #2 January 23, 2015 20:00

T'was quite a day. Went to visit coworkers at the office and despite hiding in quiet corners throughout the day, it was way more than I could handle. With a raging headache and no energy, there has been no project of the day. So as previously promised, here's a past project:

This is the cardbox I created for our wedding. This is probably my favorite of all the decor pieces we had at the wedding - unfortunately I made it too small and with all the cards overflowing (I know, woe-is-us) the box eventually got destroyed. I properly should've aimed for 4, if not 5 boxes. A note to consider for next time (lol). 

I'm not going to lie, I can't stand to cut out any more flowers at this point; this was the last item I created for the wedding, so by now I had cut hundreds of flowers (each flower has 3 cut layers). The bedazzling of the box was therapeutic and although I may have gotten carried away with all the shiny, I think it really added to the personality of the wedding.

This was also relaxing in the week coming up to the wedding as I did it all while sitting on the couch with a Disney movie on in the background. It definitely kept me from focusing on the wedding or any details that could have stressed me up as the big day came up. If there was one tip I was to give to future brides - other than relax and be yourself on the day of and know if anything goes wrong it'll just make for an awesome story in the future - is find a project to do to keep yourself relaxed in order to avoid getting hyped over the small things. 

January 22 - pickled carrots January 22, 2015 17:14

I was going to quill more today to finish my mom's gift, but the day ran away from me. After my recent Cordon Bleu sushi class, I seemed to have mastered it. By that, I really just mean I've figured out a system to make sushi really quickly. During the class, one of the greatest tips they gave us was to pickle the veggies - kind off. They had us cut up the cucumbers, peppers, and carrots ahead of time and marinate them in rice vinegar and mirin. Made all the difference and provided so much flavour - authentic or not. 

So I decided, if I'm going to be cutting up veggies and marinating them, why not pick the carrots ahead of tjme? First off all, they're not as crunchy which won't give sushi that weird texture. And second, it will give off a great taste. Here's the brine I used, but I'll only be able to tell you if it's good in a week or so - it has to set. 

For a 375ml jar:

• slice up enough carrots to fill 3/4 of the jar. 
• Place them in a bowl and sprinkle a tbsp of salt. This will soften them up
• boil 2/3 cup water, 1/3 cup rice vinegar, 1/3 cup regular vinegar, 2.5-3 tbsp brown sugar, and a spoonful of Sriracha sauce. Mix, bring to a boil, and simmer for a few minutes. 
• Rinse the carrots to get the salt off. 
• Place them in a jar. Top with the brine. 
• Let cool, then refrigerate. 
• Let stand at least 4 days before eating. 

i love pickles stuff with steak, on salads, with cheese for appetizers, and in my case, I made these specifically for sushi making! 

January 21 - more quilling! January 21, 2015 22:40

I showed my mom the flower from the other day and she insisted I make her one for her office. This is a work in progress since she likes more bright colours, but here's what we accomplished while wailing at the top of our (my, actually) lungs. 

January 20 - Reese's peanut butter cups January 20, 2015 15:02

I was planning on working more on quilling today but I think another quiet simple day is called for. So I made Reese's Peanut Butter cups from scratch. 

For those who may seem confused for a split second, these:

Justin, so caringly, knows what *I* want, and got me a peanut butter cup mold for Christmas. Just to clarify, these are his favourite - subtle, right? So I decided to give it a try and it turned out simple enough and delicious to no end. Just a bit time consuming for each layer to harden. 

Step 1: melt chocolate. I did half and half of dark chocolate chips and milk chocolate. Melt it in the microwave for 2 minutes at half power. 

Step 2: line your mold or muffin pan with a very thin layer of chocolate and shove in the fridge to harden. 

Step 3: combine peanut butter, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and salt until a smooth consistency. I don't like it overly sweet so I didn't add as much sugar as one would think. Stick your finger in every so often as you beat it to try it, you can always add more as you see fit.

Step 4: once the chocolate is hardened, spoon in the peanut butter mixture but make sure to leave enough room for the chocolate topping. Shove in the fridge to harden.

Step 5: remake the chocolate for 30 seconds at half power. Spoon a smooth topping. Let harden and EAT! Om nom nom. 

January 19 - quilling flowers January 19, 2015 23:30

So I haven't been able to shake off the headache and it's even gotten to losing balance every few minutes. I'm not proud to say that I didn't get out of bed today until 6:30...PM.

I am, however, proud to say I gave quilling another try since I enjoyed it so much recently during my other project. We made it a date and turned it into a bit of a quilling party with the more experienced Steph, and while listening to the Emperor's New Groove movie, and not speaking much, we placed our undivided attention into the hands of the strips of paper. I got a part of my project done:

The plan is to eventually spice up the rest of the frame with more quilled flowers but this is all I could muster tonight. 

Although the concentration increased the headache, I must say this was so soothing it was almost theraputic. Highly recommend giving this a try! Just google image "quilling". The things that come up are absolutely ridiculously incredible! Very inspiring. 

January 18 - extreme family photo January 18, 2015 20:00

as an idea for a creative project at some point this year, I offered myself to a couple of photographer friends. They all have had me before the camera and know I'm terrible as a model - can't keep a straight face and, let's be honest, I'm no model. I thought it'd be fun to work on that while giving them a chance to work and experiment with something they've had in mind and would need a test subject for. Before long, one Adam Mooz, a fantastic photographer whose photos are all over our house, offered a try at an extreme photo. 

Basically, it's a series of individual photos of each member doing what describes them best and then put together into one grand photo. He came up with a great idea for our little family of three and we got to work today. 

Step one was to get Pippin into a pot. After a puddle of pee and lots of coaxing, hugs, and kisses, we got the pup into the pot. Love how this turned out, and kudos to our wonderfully talented friend, Adam, for giving this a shot and giving us the time of day!

January 17 - filler #1 January 17, 2015 15:00

I'm taking a break today becauase headache. I don't understand where this is coming from but it's brutal enough to take today off. To avoid a blank post, here's a project from last year:

This was a project I did for multiple reasons:

A. I wanted to try out spray paint

B. I wanted to experiment with scratch off paint. 

C. Drawing a full map is cool and hardcore. 

D. The scratch off maps I saw in store were all sorts of ridiculous rainbow colours. 

This was a Christmas gift and it seemed to be quite the hit. I learned you an use half acrylic paint and half dish soap to create scratch off paint like on a lottery ticket. Neat trick! It was cool to sit down and see the recipient scratch off all the places they've been to, and of course, spray paint is awesome! This was my first time using some and my god, it's so easy and quick! 

January 16 - date book January 16, 2015 22:30

Having been together for 9 years, it's always a struggle to come up with things to do together. It's hard to find the time to spend together with (one or both) working leaves you tired and not wanting to do anything but curl up on the couch and watch Netflix. But it's important to maintain a level of communication and interaction to keep a relationship going. So I decided to go ahead and buy this collection of date ideas as a stocking stuffer. 

buy the cards

We were afraid we wouldn't remember to use the cards or what the dates were, so an album is called for. Luckily, we got a really cool old school leather journal from Shopify a few years ago as a Christmas present, so we decided to put the two together. 

Here's a peak (if somewhat inappropriate) at our first date night. It was SO amazing.

We couldn't decide which card to do - just knew we didn't want to leave the house and not really do anything fancy. So we combined two.

Made an amazing meal - an artichoke-spinach-cucumber salad followed by French onion soup, had a bubble bath and wailed for 2 hours to the point that we lost our voices. Lots of wine was consumed and was absolutely necessary. And ended the night by watching Justin's favorite childhood movie - Blue Streak. I can't believe I've never seen it before, SO funny.

I also couldn't think of what was my favorite childhood movie. Little Mermaid, Lion King, and Moulin Rouge are my favorite but that only became so around high school. Couldn't think of anything, maybe for next time!

Poor neighbours, if you're reading this, that is all. 

January 15 - finished scarf January 15, 2015 16:30

the amount of work that's been put into this scarf, I think it deserves a post all on its own. 

The progress can be found at a previous post.

And here's the final product. Pretty stoked at how it turned out! My first knitting project, a few errors were definitely made but it's a pretty forgiving scarf due to the loose yarn, and thanks to my mom who helped out from beginning to end and was always on standby just in case!

January 13/14 - photobook January 13, 2015 23:40

I know it's way past wedding excitement, but I'm a bad person and have yet to send a few thank yous to the elder relatives over seas that couldn't make it but sent gifts. Most of them don't have access to the photos we posted online, and we wanted to share our day with them. 

I've also realized it's already been so long that I don't have any more time to waste in ordering one of those online photo books. Thus, I've decided to try making one myself. 

Day 2: one turned into four. I've made 4 books :) 

January 12 - old project January 12, 2015 22:30

Seeing as I spent today just working on the scarf again, I didn't like the blank slate in my articles going from January 11 to 13 (NOT OCD!). So I wanted to make one for today to fill in the gap. 

I'll keep the scarf update in the original scarf post:

January 8/9/12 - scarf

I'll use this opportunity to post an old project, since I had a few moments of creativity in 2014 (mostly towards December). 

Here's a painting I did a while ago. Still trying to figure out where to hang it - that could be a whole project all on it's own.

January 11 - list January 11, 2015 23:15

Soooo today was a bit of a loss from a productice perspective. I got a bit of knitting done but overall headache has been overwhelming and made me realize a daily project, or even working on something daily is not in my books. I will continue to try, but I have to be careful not push it.

Some ideas that come to mind: 

• 3d canvas project - with stones
• the standard melted crayon on canvas, but with a twist
• start jarring/canning
• diy date book
• a pallet couch
• a coffee table
• shelving unit
• get into quilling more
• Make pillow covers
• a wine bottle lamp
• make a rocking chair from scratch
• try my hand at clothes making
• my wedding scrapbook
• so many ideas!

January 10 - sushi January 10, 2015 22:20

Today, a 9 year old dream came to life. I was given a Cordon Bleu class as a Christmas gift from my wonderful parents-in-law. And even more so, it was The Art Of Sushi. 

It took majority of the day, but I learned quite a few new techniques and overall had an incredible time. From getting out of the house, to eating my favorite food to learning cool ways to make it... It really was a dream come true.  

His:

Mine. I may not have a crazy carved dragon of root vegetables, but I got a cute little asian sushi set :D

January 8/9/12 - scarf January 8, 2015 23:41

HALLELUJAH! I finally figured out knitting thanks to my handy dandy mommy who watched me like a hawk and fixed my first million mistakes. This was a $3 kit from the dollar store but all it came with was yarn and the sticks things, BUT NO INSTRUCTIONS. So this has been fun, and a long time coming!

Here's all I got done today, fingers sore and lots of concentration but so far, worth it :) now to sleep off the headache. Will eventually post a picture of the final product  

EDIT 1: day two of working on the scarf. Still not even a 3rd of the way, but making good progress. 

EDIT 2: day 3 brought us to just over half way :D

January 7 - m'lady January 7, 2015 23:36

I actually had this one done half way through the day. Pretty proud considering I lounged in bed until 1:30ish. Started the day with a headache but found this quite the soothing therapy!

I found this tutorial that gave me inspiration to try this out.

Unfortunately, the tutorial required a bunch of actual tools - who knew quilling is an actual artform all on its own? So I made due with using the back of a brush, a pencil, and my fingers. Fun times! Love the outcome :)

January 6 - fail #1 and cookies! January 6, 2015 23:14

Today is a sad, sad day. Between still being exhausted, actually taking the dog out, and having a doctor's appointment, I decided to try and learn how to knit. After 2 hours I ended up with a raging headache, a nap, and a collection of knotted yarn. Fail. 

I soon gave up and decided to make pom poms. Unfortunately I HAD to choose the shedding yarn and they ended up useless. Fail. I'll save the pom pom idea for a future project I have in mind. 

So I made up some cookies so this day doesn't go to waste. And they were KICK ASS. This is an approximate recipe since I made them up as I went.

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp instant coffee
• 3/4 tbsp Cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips 

mix them all together, spoon onto a cookie sheet, and bake 10 min at 350. These. Were. Amazing. 

Maybe the day wasn't a full waste afterall. 

Om nom nom nom. 

January 5 - organization January 5, 2015 21:02

So I'm still pretty pooped from the weekend and couldn't bring myself to do anything other than sleep most of the day. That said, I also realized spending my time thinking about my next project forces me to focus on something good and positive versus the obvious "woe is me".

The cuteness of my dog today made me feel guilty that I haven't taken him out for a walk in weeks; thus I got off my ass and took him out. The ridiculous amount of time it took me to find a matching glove for the walk though gave me a new train of thought for the stroll: how the hell do I fix our closet?!

Luckily, my wonderful husband cleaned out the basement on the weekend and found an old Ikea shoe organizer. I know I'm not original with this and it's quite the fad, but I'm so proud of my project today that I'm posting it anyway. 

I'll actually be able to use the different mittens and hats as opposed to the first pair I find! I love the look, love the simplicity, and love that it's all laid out in front of me :) a super easy project for a blah kind of day! 

January 4 - chalkboard January 4, 2015 22:36

Today is kind of a cheat day since I'm completely pooped from yesterday. I spent the majority of the day sleeping on the couch and trying to get up only to end up falling asleep again. 

For today's project I'm kind of using one I made in the last week of December 2014 when this whole creative streak hit me to begin with. I had turned a hideous brightly coloured painting I had hanging in my living room into a chalkboard. Super easy and super popular, I bought chalkboard spray paint and began spraying anything I could get my hands on. I actually initially bought it to paint my wine glasses for people to write their names but got carried away with the leftovers and spray painted our kitchen cork board, and the main painting in the living room. I'm including this as today's project since I went ahead and drew a new picture so as to change it up a bit and give some character to our house. Here's the main project:

It's been a great conversation starter and the wine glasses are a whole different story for chit chatter. Super easy! Just tape off what you want and you can transform any cheap or free item into a cool item ;) a bottle of spray paint is about $6 so it's well worth what you get out of it!

January 3 - chameleon January 3, 2015 16:39

What an opportunity! A friend of mine, Danielle Allard, is releasing a new album, Chameleon, and has asked me to body paint her for the album cover!

Check her out - she's fantastic! http://www.danielleallard.com

I've had the pleasure of painting Danielle before In her favorite theme, music:

I can't really post pictures so as not to give anything away, but I'll be back with pictures once I can. I haven't face or body painted in over a year due to the concussion so I was weary to take on this task but I couldn't bring myself to say no. That said, it was within 10 min of getting there that I remembered why my business is on a hiatus during this whole ordeal - I arrived at the studio without a single paint brush and a fraction of the sponges I needed. It then took me a good half an hour before I could even bring myself to begin drawing and after doing so I continued to question every step - which is not a good business model not comforting for the breathing canvas. We got past all that but after a nearly 6-hour session, I am completely pooped and drained both physically and mentally from the concentration. Oh, MetamorFaces, how I miss thee.   

EDIT: the wonderful Danielle and Justin Van Leeuwan (who also shot my wedding! www.jvlphoto.com) allowed a sneak peak :D

January 2 - superheroes January 2, 2015 22:22

Day two of 2015 has proven to be a success. I have spent majority of the day painting and repainting the canvas to bring life to our recently renovated basement. I can't say this is my best work - far from it - but even the idea of Thor in the same room brings out a girly giggle out of me.

Happy to say this is slowly tying the room together! Just need to get a large rug for under the Crockinole table, finish our arcade machine, and maybe a few extra decor accents and we're done. Only took 3 years :) 

Total time: 8-10 hour (including the original painting I painted over)

Total cost: $30

On that note, this took way more out of me than I expected concentration-wise. I'm beat and bed is a-calling!

January 1 - CAKE January 1, 2015 23:13

I've been racking my injured brain for ideas on how to make this year better. Last year I started by posting a photo everyday of something that made me happy in order to try and stay positive. But the posts quickly started getting annoying for everyone seeing as they were mostly all of my dog. 

So this year, I decided to be more pro-active and try to use my creativity to the max by doing a project a day. Anything from a cool recipe, sketch, painting, woodworking, scrapbooking, or miscellaneous. If you have anything you want me to try or any ideas you'd like to challenge me with, hit me up in the comments! 

I cheated a little with the first post of the year since it was 11pm by the time I thought of this project and I actually spent the entire day eating YESTERDAY's project. It's a chocolate-Nutella-banana cake. 

The cake dough is a favorited recipe from my grandma-in-law but I tweaked the insides! 

Such a super and easy cake!

• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 2-1/4 cup flour 
• 2 cups sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp each: baking powder, baking soda, instant coffee
• 3/4 tsp salt

mix it all up and add:

• 1-1/2 cup orange juice or water
• 3 eggs
• Then add 1-1/4 cup of oil over the span of 45 seconds as you mix it. 

Bake at 350 for 40 min and voila. Cut it up into however many layers you want, spread with a thin layer of Nutella, cover in a layer of banana slices, and whip up 2 cups of whipped cream with 2 tablespoons sugar or to taste.

DELISH. 

Total time: 55 min + cooling in between 

Total cost: <$10