Tuesday, May 28, 2013

everything is coming up pompoms!

While my body is busy trying to heal itself from the unfortunate chest pain terribleness of costochondritis, my hands have been busy making loads and loads of pom poms in preparation for my wedding this summer! Here's a hefty stack that was feeling particularly photo friendly the other day:


Aren't they just lovely? Like fuzzy little yarn children ready to be stabbed with twigs and arranged in wonderful bouquets for the big party! Hooray! I figure I will just keep on pom-ing until I run out of yarn and hopefully that will give us enough to make one heck of a pom-pom statement at the wedding! What do you think?

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Oh dear.

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My adventures in health disasters appear to be continuing as I battle severe chest pains! Not to worry - I'm not about to keel over, but I do have one heck of a case of costochondritis! Ack! Looks like lots of rest and anti-inflammatories are on the agenda for me so blogging may end up on the back burner while I heal up and hopefully get that precious lung capacity back to normal! Hurrah! Wish me luck (and happy costal cartilage)!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Yay!

I made it home safely and am pooped from a fun filled exciting long weekend! I'm sure I will have the energy to tell you about it at some point - but for now here's a cat in a shark costume chasing a duck while riding on a roomba. Yup. You heard me...



Happy Tuesday! How was your weekend? 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

happy long weekend!

Just like most other crafty vixens out there, I've fallen in love with the iphone photo editing app that the lovely ladies at A Beautiful Mess brought us! I've been playing around with it and thought it would be a great transition to share one of my creations with you while I'm away this happy long weekend visiting with family and friends and being spoiled in my bridal shower! How wonderful! Just look how excited little thumbs up yeti is for the mini vacation:



Hooray! Here's to hoping my little break is as wonderful as I hope it will be and that at very least I get a bit of rest in there... What are you up to this weekend? 

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Artful Thread

While I'm busy dreaming up how organized and fantastic my new craft room will be, I've been stumbling across fun storage ideas and this artful thread display (link) takes the cake! Isn't it lovely?
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What a colourful delight! Looks like I need to buy myself another spool rack and find some wall space for this baby! What do you think? Are you as in love as I am? 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

wooden washi

I'm always looking for fun inventive ways to use my new favourite crafty supply (washi tape!) and these washi wooden pendants fit that bill just perfectly! Check it out:
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Yep - all you need to do is get something to cover, rip and snip and design with your wonderful versatile tape, and *bam!* an amazing new one of a kind necklace to enjoy and wear! Not into the circle shape and ripped look? Not to worry - you can modify to meet your aesthetic needs! Heck - Ellie from  Love Ellie Belle (link) made her own neat chevron wooden washi pendant using scrabble tiles (link)! Sweet! This project is going straight on the "to craft" list for me - right after I work on healing and wedding prep (whew!)! What do you think? What kind of washi necklace would you go for? 

Monday, May 13, 2013

Supreme Cat

This picture certainly made my day - and hopefully you will find it similarly entertaining:

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Supreme cat indeed! What are your big plans for the week? Anything involving chinese food boxes on your head?

Thursday, May 9, 2013

peek!

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It seems that I'm fighting off some sort of awful illness so while I'm resting up you can enjoy this lovely image of a cat in a paper bag. I think the eyes make it. Wishing you a happy end of the week and weekend! 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

White it is

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I am super thrilled with all the thoughtful opinions some of you gave me on dying (or not dying) the wedding dress I found and after much debate - I've decided to do both! Ahha! I'm going to keep the dress white for the wedding (with some colourful accessories) and then after I'm done with the celebrating I can dye it for further use! Oh what a plan! There is no chance of me potentially messing up my miracle of a find dress and I still get to enjoy it as a fun colourful summer cotton dress in the future. Perfect!

Well not that we've sorted that out - I need to figure out the rest of my outfit! What kind of shoes are casual wedding celebration appropriate? Should I go for a ribbon or sash? What about accessories? Hair? Oh crud there are too many decisions...I don't know if I'm cut out for this. 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

to dye or not to dye - that is the question.

Well blog friends - as most of you know by now, I am getting married this summer. Fraser and I have decided to skip out on the traditional wedding type things (ceremony, fancy formal event, speeches and general sappiness) and instead are throwing a fun post-marriage party with close friends and family with good food and drinks! How perfect! We've got most of the details worked out (venue, invites, caterer, booze, lots of decorative pom pom bouquets) but with only a few months left until the big event I was feeling a little pressured to find something to wear. I wanted something I could wear over and over again, is flattering and tea length, and wouldn't break the bank. I found a few vintage dresses online (that of course were sold out/not even close to my size) and was aiming at something with a high waistline, flow-y bottom, cotton, and in a nice minty light blue or other light pale skin friendly tone. Then it was just a matter of finding the time and energy to  attempt to find something suitable! Oh my!

Last week Heather and I were having our usual Thursday get together and decided to take a trip to Oak Bay to check out some little shops.  She had told me about a cute vintage/consignment place there she read about and we thought it might be a good place to start looking for dresses.  When we first entered the shop we were pretty confident we weren't going to find a single thing.  We went to the back racks of endless fluffy wedding dresses and prom-like shiny formal gowns and looked at the hundred or so dresses that were pretty much polar opposites of what I was looking for. On the way out the door we searched through one of the more casual racks at the front (for a second time) and both came across a nice cotton summer dress that we had apparently missed during our first look over. It looked darling and even though it was far from my size (it was an 8 when I wear more like a 12-14 these days) but I tried it on anyways. The verdict? It magically fit! This wondrous mystery dress zipped up, was flattering and a nice modest "just past the knee" length! Oh dear! What are the chances? The time I rustle up the nerve to go dress shopping and the very first dress we find/try on works? Oh! To top it all off - it was a budget friendly $65. Score! Behold (in all its poorly lit wonder):


Oh I love it! It's so simple, feminine, comfortable, and fantastically cotton for that potentially scorching hot desert day in July! Heck - it even has pockets and is a lovely doily-esque eyelet material:


The downfall? It's white. Ok, so I know the majority of the western world is all about the white wedding gowns, but I'm really not.  I imagine a coloured dress would look better on my super pale ginger skin and would certainly be more wearable in the future.  I bought it with the intention of dying it, but now I'm waffling. I'm not totally set on how it would turn out from dying it (the fun mystery of dying pretty much anything) and haven't found any fabric dyes in suitable colours. I even researched places to get dresses dyed but nothing was local and no one could guarantee anything. Ack! I couldn't imagine trying to dye it and destroying it and then having to painstakingly find a replacement to fill its void! Oh decisions! So I thought I would plea to you, my wonderful blog readers, to help me with the dilemma! I also thought I'd share this ultra flattering picture of me and my dress for further  dress related reference:


Ahaha! Always with my eyes closed. I'm so photogenic. So - what do you think? Should I take the plunge and dye it? Keep it white? Perhaps add a nice coloured belt or sash for a pop of interest? I'd love your input! 

Monday, May 6, 2013

Sneaky Storage

As a kid I was always intrigued by those secret hiding place books. You know the ones with all the pages glued together with the hole cut out so you can hide your precious items inside and it just looks like a book from the outside? Well - those are great and all but I am still not impressed with the idea of painstakingly glueing all those pages together for a teeny tiny little secret compartment. I am however, extra excited about this larger (and substantially easier) book hiding spot tutorial from Sewing Barefoot (link):

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Oh how pleasant! I may be extra drawn to this one based on the neutral colours and photography...but it seems like a much better take on the project! Now I just need to find myself some old books to masacre and we're set! Any thoughts? Do you have secret hiding spots in your home? 

Saturday, May 4, 2013

a very wookie saturday

Geeks unite! I thought I needed to write a little something for international star wars day and since I just finished a chewy-tastic road trip last weekend I thought I'd share this picture with you:


Fraser gave me this adorable little fuzz wookie for xmas this year (he even does a chewy groan when you squeeze his belly!) and I thought he would be just perfect hanging in our new (to us) car! Hooray! How will you be spending your Saturday? Did you know it is also national gardening day today too? Perhaps I will go plant a few ewoks on my patio...

Friday, May 3, 2013

dandy dandelions

With only a few months left before the big day, my mind is getting consumed with wedding planning. All the details seem to be coming together, and in case I haven't spilled the crafty details - we're skipping flowers for the celebration and doing pom poms instead! I'm particularly fond of these yarn and twig dandelions from Apartment Therapy (link):

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Oh my! I really love how simple and fluffy they are and figure if I start now I may have enough pom poms ready for July...looks like I'm going to be busy! What do you think? Pom poms for the win? 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

It's Wednesday

Life has been so ultra busy these days that despite it being the middle of the week I feel like I still need a rest to get over all the energy I exerted last weekend! Oh my! I think this sums up how I'm feeling quite nicely:

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Yup, I'm just a big white fluff ball pooled into a pile today! I had a nice impromptu visit with Fraser this past weekend and now that he's back to the grind in Kamloops I will hopefully be able to pull myself back together into less of a mess. Or at the very least I'm hoping to make it through the rest of the week so I can get some quality rest this weekend! How wild! How is your week going?