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 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 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 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 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 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!