February photo a day 5-10

Looks like we made it to the end of the week, and with another week gone, we've got a whole week of Instagram challenge photos to share! Hooray! Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out the first week here (link), otherwise let's go:

Day 5 - "10am" - I woke up early last Sunday to get some squares finished for a project I was working on. I have since finished the craft and just need to take some pictures to share it with you! Loving the colour combinations!


Day 6 - "dinner" - Fraser made us a super yummy meal Monday! Gluten free pasta with pesto, roasted pine nuts, zucchini, and broccoli:


Day 7 - "button" - There were a lot of directions you could go with this one, but since I am a huge fan of pinback buttons (and make hundreds of them) I thought I'd share one of my favourites! I really need to get my new designs in my shop soon!


Day 8 - "sun" - Instagram confession: I actually took this on the weekend when the sun was out. Winter in Victoria means loads of rain so I thought I better snap an image of the sunrise while I could! Good thing too - the 8th was super rainy! I do really enjoy the view from the patio and love the shape the sun peeping over the mountain too!


Day 9 - "front door" - Thank goodness for Instagram filters to make the terrible hall lighting at 5am tolerable! I never really noticed all the molding around our door before...


Day 10 - "self portrait" - Here I am after a long day of work! My hair is at a stage where instead of a pony tail kink from being tied up all day it gets this super out flip at the bottom. My hair dresser in Kamloops says the subtle out flip is sure to make a hot comeback but I'm not sold on that yet...


Day 11 - "makes you happy" - Saturday was a solid happy day for me! Got a little bit of a sleep in, followed by a yummy breakfast, cute outfit, and trip to an awesome craft show! All the rad Victoria artisans I love were there and even though I didn't end up buying anything this time, it was certainly a great start to the day! (Plus the foxes on the poster are cute):


Whew! What a round up! I guess it is only to be expected that 7 days take longer the ramble on about than 4. Haha. I'm looking forward to the rest of the month too! Hooray for successful challenges! What do you think? What's your favourite picture from week two?

Go to Movies

Fraser and I don't have cable tv. Not only does it really not fit into out limited budget, but the idea of me spending huge amounts of time being brainwashed by advertisements and commercials is less than appealing. Don't get me wrong, there is a huge number of quality programming out there, I just prefer to watch it at my leisure on dvd!

Our dvd collection seems to be ever growing and nothing is more comforting than curling up with pjs, blankets, tea, and a favourite film. I certainly have a few "go to movies" I seem to watch endlessly and they always seem to make everything better! Last night Fraser and I decided to have a low key celebration for the arrival of the weekend and ended spending the evening with some old friends:


*Sigh* Fraser always teases me about how I can never stay awake through a whole movie (which, by the way, he may be accurate about), but sometimes that is just what you need! Feeling crummy? Snuggle up with some heartwarming Hogwarts adventures! Yay! Not in an HP mood? How about picking any of my favourites from my "I feel sort of cruddy and want to lay on the couch and get better" movies:

- Indiana Jones (preferably the 1st and 3rd)
- Bye Bye Birdie
- Back the the Future (also the 1st and 3rd...)
- Grease
- Pretty much any Elvis movie
or
- Gidget!

Okay, so apparently I like to watch family adventure films and 60s musicals. Oh well - it does the trick on my sick days! What about you? What movies do you watch when you're feeling ill or looking for a comforting evening?

Friday Find: Lova Revolutionary

With hearts polluting the love filled month of February it is no surprise that I fell for the darling hand stitched polka dot loveliness of this heart brooch from Lova Revolutionary:


Oh! How wonderful! Under further inspection - Jodie's etsy shop is a perfect match for me! Seriously - felt, cuteness, embroidery hoops, yetis, acorns, and owls! Oh my! Take a peek:


Yup - she's a crafter of my own heart. I guess it is possible that many people love these things and we're both just part of the handmade masses - but I like to think I have some limited uniqueness to my tastes. What about you? What do you think?

Squares in progress!

I'm still working away on my craft project and I thought I'd take a moment to let you in on what I've been doing! Granny squares! Yay! And unlike the one colour granny square blanket I started a million years ago and lost interest in - these squares are multi-coloured! Take a peek:


OoOo! Is it ever fun mixing colours together and I love how the center of the square sort of looks like a flower. Plus it helps me burn through my yarn stash which is always a bonus right? Here's another peep at some of my favourite squares so far:


Yipee! Now to get some more of that off white yarn so I can finish up the project! Any guesses on what it will be?

Kittens!

So for the last few days I've been working away on a project that I really, really want to complete. Then I ran out of yarn. Poo. You know what I need when crafty frustration comes my way? Kittens! Yay! I hope you agree...


Ohhh! So much kitty fuzzy cuteness. I feel better. How about you? How's your Wednesday going?

Socktopus!

Once in a while I run across craft projects that are so awesome that they completely devour my conscience and stick in my mind for days. In fact, when I came across these adorable socktopuses (socktopi?) on flickr I fell in love:

Oh their stripes, felt eyes, and adorable jersey cotton legs! No wonder I dreamed about making these. I promptly woke up and wondered where I found such cook stray socks for the octopi to realize that I dream crafted them. Rats. Looks like I need to keep my eyes peeled for cute socks like the ones I created in my mind. What do you think? My niece totally needs a flock of socktopi right?

Hoop-tastic!

If you're a long time reader of the blog, you may remember me talking about making an embroidery hoop art wall. I first saw the idea on the purl bee back in September 2010 and after raving about the project to friends finally found some wooden hoops in October of that same year! Wendy found them for me at her neighbourhood thrift shop and we quickly made a trip there to pick some up in a variety of sizes:


All I had left to do was find some swoon worthy fabrics to stretch in my new frames and stick them on the wall! Sounds easy enough right? Apparently not. My extremely picky taste and frugality put fabric finding on the back burner and my lovely wooden hoops never made it up on the walls. *Sigh*

When I moved to Victoria this past September Lindsay and I spotted some craft packages of beautiful printed scraps from The Milkman's Daughter (the sister shop of Smoking Lily). I may have gone overboard (ok, definitely went over...) and bought five packs. It felt like christmas opening up each of the bags to see what bargain gems I had acquired and figured they would work perfectly for my embroidery hoop project. Unfortunately once again the project got put back in the closet as unpacking, organizing, and getting my health under control seemed to take priority. Well - good news! This weekend I finally decided to take the plunge and behold my embroidery hoop covered living room wall:


Oh my am I ever in love! I've spent countless hours humming and hawing over how to cover our mass amounts of bland walls in our condo and the long strip behind the couch was certainly the most difficult. Our extremely limited decorating budget certainly didn't make it any easier but since I already had all the craft supplies waiting in my craft room project, I figured there was no time like the present to get it finished! Hooray! Take another peek from side:


What fun! I didn't want the fabrics to be overly feminine since although I doubt Fraser would complain, I'm sure he'd appreciate a more gender neutral approach to our main living space. I also wanted to go with a slightly asymmetrical layout so it wouldn't feel like I was over thinking it, even though I did go through a few lay outs before I got a composition I was happy with. To top it all off I completed the whole thing while Fraser was out so I got to see his reaction to the embroidery hoop wall when he got home!

The majority of the hoops are the Smoking Lily pieces, although I did use a grey pussy willow print I bought from bookhou at home:


I really love how each hoop looks and the Smoking Lily prints have charming off center composition. This is balanced out with a few patterned and striped prints like the super fun blue mason jar fabric I bought from bespoke uprising!:


The grey maple seeds are probably my favourite of the bunch, but I do have a special place in my heart for horse printed on striped rose cotton. I wanted the largest hoop to have a large print on it to bring in some interest and I think it turned out quite well:


I still have a few large hoops left and loads of scraps so as soon as I find some more smaller wooden hoops I think I'll do a similar spread above our headboard! My weekend thrift shopping trip was pretty unsuccessful (since all the thrift shops here are pretty looked over and ridiculously over priced) so I may have to wait until I head back to Kamloops so I can buy out Cost Savers! Oh well, it took me over a year to complete this first project so I'm sure I can be patient. So what do you think? How do you decorate your walls? Ever tried embroidery hoop art? Any hoops you think I should switch out?