hello

Apparently I've been neglecting my poor blog much more than I should be and have decided to pop back in and share a few of the crafts I've been working on in the last while.  I've been buying up vintage sheets from thrift shops for a few years now (why yes - I do tend to hoard) and decided to bite the bullet and start hacking them up and using them! Turns out it wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be because now I get to enjoy a snippet of vintage goodness every time I walk through my front door! How lovely! I also decided to go with "hello" as my greeting instead of the traditional "welcome" because it seemed to suit me better (for some unknown reason). Now I just need to get around to putting the rest of that vintage sheet stash to good use. What have you been up to lately? 

quite the culture

Looks like my goal of blogging more hasn't been the most successful but sometimes life just gets in the way it seems. I've been having one heck of an unproductive time since moving back to Kamloops as our home renovations are still in progress (but ALMOST done), we haven't actually finished unpacking (eep), and my chronic illness has progressed to the point where I can't work and trying to rest and feel better has completely taken over my life. Oh dear! 

On the bright side of things - I have had lots of time to read loads of scientific studies and novels on dealing with chronic illness (seriously - it's great. I love research) and I got the opportunity to make a whole whack load of little pseudomonas microbe plushies to send to some lovely ladies (and their lab cohorts) for xmas! My pinched nerve pain has left my left arm/side very limited so these cuties took quite a bit longer than my usual pace but I did it! And boy am I ever happy with how they turned out:

I hope these darlings are enjoying their new homes in the warm hands of those San Francisco pseudomonas lab geeks! I even made a nice little stop motion video showing these little opportunistic pathogens reproducing! Check it out!

Quite the pseudomonas culture growth on my couch today. Now to ship these babies off to their new home in California!

A video posted by Kate McCurrach (@scientific_culture) on Nov 11, 2014 at 11:46am PST

Hehe! We can send our thanks to Fraser for that one since it was his idea to do the video in the first place. Thanks hubs!

That little spout of creative progress left me hankering for more so I've been working on crafting up all sorts of lovely creations for xmas presents this year. Not working has tightened by budget quite a bit so I decided I may as well use some of the craft supplies I have on hand and make things! Unfortunately that also means I can't share my creations with you until after santa arrives - but I can tell you I've really been stretching the old creativity muscles and making all sorts of different and unique things. Oh and not to worry - I am still rolling along my slow road to recovery and hopefully be all healed up sooner rather than later! Hooray!

Father's Day Embroidery

As I'm sure most of you are well aware - Father's Day is this Sunday! I always have a hard time finding something for my dad so instead of my usual "here's a gift card buy something specific I would have no idea you would ever want" deal, I thought I'd make something for him instead! Since my wonderful Pops is an avid fly fisherman and mayfly enthusiast I thought I'd mix the two with some free hand fly embroidery:

Hooray! It turned out pretty well I think and should look nice hanging with his other fishing themed pieces above his fly tying desk. Here's a close up shot so you can soak up all the fake mayfly fish tricking wonders:

Yay! Here's to hoping he likes it! What are you doing for Father's Day this year? Ever successfully make something nice for your dear old dad? 

card crafting

After one heck of an amazing bridal shower a few weeks ago (it had tea, pompoms, kittens, and dinosaurs), I decided to do some mild crafting and make some custom thank you cards to send the wonderful ladies who attended the shower! I whipped out some freshly purchased card making supplies I picked up at Target and went to it! 

Yup, I'm pretty in love with the stationary section at Target and am stoked that I can purchase such reasonably priced and lovely designed goodies in a shop with such wonderful lighting (seriously - Target has some great lighting). Throw in a bit of creativity and a good sharpie or two and I managed to come up with a whole whack of different cards:

Woo! It actually ended up taking me much longer than I expected to craft and write out a dozen heart-felt thank yous, but it was totally worth it and I got to send each one out in a wonderfully matchy (well, miss-matchy sort of) envelope:

Nothing like some washi tape, paper post its, and graphic cards to make my thank you dreams come true! I do think I will be skipping the card making for our actual wedding thanks cards and just see if I can manage to write nice notes in each of them - but thought they were perfect for the shower! Hooray! How are your card making skills? 

my new favourite earrings!

I've recently fallen in love with the world of brass stampings and have decided to plunge right into making these darling metal pieces into earrings! What a concept! Here's my personal favourite new pair that I seem to be wearing with everything this spring in hopes that they will encourage more flowers to bloom: 

Okay, so little flying bees on my ears aren't the best pollinators, but they are charmingly simple and I just adore how they hang:

Brassy bees not your thing? How about these?

Yeah variety! I'm having a hard time deciding which pair comes in as my second favourite, and will be making that decision increasingly difficult as I work on making even more designs! Oh my! I even managed to make a stop into my favourite packaging and display store last week and bought some earring stands which showcase these babies beautifully:

Yay! I think they will look stunning as part of my craft show booth and really like how you can see how wonderfully they hang on my new hooks. Now I just need to do some more brainstorming to come up with card packaging for these babies and then work out pricing and a full display for my booth! Hooray! What do you think of them? Which pair do you like best? 

Felt Sandwich!

The crafty restocking continues this spring and I've got myself one massively colourful felt sandwich to show off today!

Isn't it just delightful? Nothing like a whole bunch of sewn together pinking sheared felt circles to perk up the day! Confused on why I spent so long making them? Why for happy illustrated pocket mirror cases of course! Just look how thrilled yeti is to be scratch free and cozy in his little hand-stitched case:

Yeah! Thumbs up for crafty productivity! My mirrors always seem to be a hit and since I've spent some time restocking the mirrors it was certainly necessary to perk up the colour choices for the cases as well! Check out those sweet, sweet piles of progress:

Hooray! Once again my best pal Lindsay was to thank for much of this work since she cut those bad boys up for me in no time while we chatted and I rested my weary wrists! Yay! Now if only ever day was filled with wonderful Lindsay...

knit specimen

If you're a regular reader here on the blog you may have noticed I have a quirky sense of decorating style. I love texture, I love homemade stuff, and I love this knit brain in a jar:

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Isn't it spectacular? Who doesn't need one of these? I think it would look just charming on a shelf in my new craft/sun room and think I need to find this perfect shade of brain tissue pink yarn so I can make my own version! I'm thinking I can just make a big long spool knit string and sew it into something brain shaped - what do you think? Can I rack your brain? 

Finally! A reason to buy magazines

Sometimes I feel like a magazine junkie. I usually only pick them up when I'm flying somewhere and need to kill time in an airport but whenever I got to the grocery store I usually look longingly at the giant magazine racks and convince myself they are an unneeded frivolity that just doesn't fit in the budget (well...except for Bust Magazine...since I'm subscribed to that one). Rats. Well - when I came across this lovely project I figured it would give me a perfect excuse to purchase a magazine or two - and then recycle it when I'm done! Check it out:

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What a fun idea! It is sort of reminiscent of some collage work my sister and I used to do for fun in high school but you end up with quite the stunning piece of art. Not totally sold on the bear as the image of choice, but I'm sure a more Kate friendly cat/squirrel/dinosaur would be just as lovely! Hooray! Now to  make sure I don't go overboard and spend this week's food budget on magazines...hmm...

washi thumbtacks

As my washi tape collection grows I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for different ways to use it! You can image how tickled I was when I saw these adorable washi tape covered thumbtacks over at How About Orange (link):

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What a fun and useful little project to brighten up a bulletin board! I wonder what over handy things you could cover with washi tape...

Everything is coming up roses!

While my list of things I'd love to be working on continues to grow - I've been side tracked with a massive order of spring themed rose earrings! Luckily Heather has been around to help my give my poor arthritic hands and wrists a break and stamp and punch packaging for them! I'm loving the selection of bright cheery colours Chantal has picked out and will be sending them out today to her shop:

Yay! Now if only these monsoonal rains we've been having will stop and the sunshine will come out long enough for some actual roses to bloom! Hooray! Happy Wednesday! What have you been up to? Any big plans for spring? 

The cat shoes saga - part 2

Ever since I saw the cute kitten shoe project I wrote about yesterday (link), I can't get it out of my mind!  Perhaps it's the longer hours of daylight and slightly warmer temperatures out there but I am ready for spring and think some cat toed shoes will start it off with a bang! I thought I may have an old pair of flats kicking around that would do well for the project but since I just went through my closets and donated four black garbage bags of goodies to a swap I've come up dry and decided I will need to invest in a new cheap pair for this project!

Turns out - the search for simple and paintable footwear is slightly more difficult than expected! I thought for sure I'd find some reasonably craft-able flats at walmart or forever 21 but no such luck. My search continued at the mall (ack!) where I checked out all the awkward cheap teeny bopper stores and found nothing that wasn't insanely embellished with medallions or bows or ruffles or something that covered the toe. Rats. I finally decided it wasn't very likely I'd find anything around the $10 mark I was hoping for, and turned to Payless as a hopefully still somewhat reasonably inexpensive option. The result? Success (sort of)! I landed myself a surprisingly comfortable pair of simple black shoes and only went $6 over my original budget:

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Yay! Now I just need to decide what colour cat I should paint on the toe! (Note: this is where you come in)! Sure it's easy to paint a cute darker cat toe on the brown shoes from the tutorial, but there isn't anything darker than black and going too light would mean that any eventual dirt would show and make those puss-kins less than adorable (or at least that's how I picture it turning out). I thought I might be able to come up with something in photoshop but after a little experimentation I'm still waffling. Check out a few rough ideas of colours I was leaning towards:

I figure there are two options here. Option 1 - go with somewhat naturally cat coloured like brown or grey cat (since white would be awful and orange would look too halloween-y) or Option 2 - something non-cat coloured but still cute enough to work most outfits (like the teal on the far left there)! Hmm....I'm stumped. I thought I'd pass it along to you lovely gals out there and hear what colour option you'd go with (if you're the cat shoe type) and see if you'd be kind enough to share some input. Any thoughts? 

You've got to be kitten me

I often look at shoe craft projects and wonder how successful I would be in pulling them off but I feel that these cat tipped lovelies (link) are subtle (and simple) enough to be just perfect:

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Aren't they sweet? I will now be keeping my eye out for some cheap flats to try this out with and I'll be sure to take my cat loving to the next level! Yeah!

On a related note - is it just me or is cat loving sort of trendy these days? I've seen all sorts of cat themed shirts, dresses, scarves, and sweaters lately and am wondering if all the cat lovers are coming out of the woodwork or if it's a fad the young ones are jumping on here in Victoria...

Homemade beauty

I've always been a sucker for new beauty products. I'm not sure what brainwashes me into splurging on new creams, washes, and do-dads but I have always enjoyed a beauty product shopping spree and lately I've come to realize that 1) it is a ridiculously unnecessary expense, 2) It doesn't matter what product I end up with it never really seems to do the trick in the long run and 3) they're usually full with all sorts of chemicals that I can barely pronounce! Oh dear!  Luckily I've been inspired by good old Pinterest (specifically Lindsay's hand made beauty page) to try my my hand at making my own beauty products from stuff I already have at home and it has been going pretty well! How lovely! I'm still in my 6 week trial period (where I try out concoctions and see which actually work in the long run for me) but I'll be sure to share my findings once the trials are complete! Ahha! 

So far my adventures in homemade cleansers and creams has been pretty enjoyable and although not all of the recipes have worked out (I once did a hair mask that resulted in my spilling apple cider vinegar in my eyes and smelling like salad dressing...) it has been fun nonetheless. I've also discovered that making my own products has cut down on waste substantially and has even helped out the budget! How nice! I figure I should just keep rolling with the waste reduction, home making, and budget savings and try my hand at making my own cotton facial scrubby pouf things like they did at "little Z handmade" (link):

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Don't they just look dreamy in that picture? And to think - I would never again need to buy another wasteful tube of cotton pad things for toner or makeup remover! It may also let me avoid ever having to walk past the dreaded cotton ball aisle which, in case you were wondering, gives me awful tingles up and down my spine! Ah! Does anyone else out there have an irrational fear of cotton balls? Want to make your own reusable, washable, adorable little cotton facial pads with me? 

My new mittens!

Now that the holidays are over and winter is in full swing (meaning it will be wet and slightly chilly here for another 2+ months) I thought I'd share one of my favourite items I got in the xmas parcel I received from my sister! I have been waiting patiently (well...sort of patiently...) for a good year now (see where I originally blogged about them here) and am so happy with how they turned out! Check out my snazzy new Totoro mittens:

Eeeek! Aren't they just the cutest things you've ever seen? I love the detail in the pattern like the little umbrella with rain drops and "totoro" knit by the cuffs! Here are a few more shots to show them off a bit more:

Hooray! These pictures don't do the best representation of the colours, but they are slate grey and cream and are neutral enough to go with all my winter coats! How wonderful! It's also lovely to see how skilled Leslie and Fraser's mom Susan are at knitting and gifting their handmade creations my way so I don't have to frustratingly try to knit for myself! Yay! Looks like I can stick with crochet on my end and vicariously enjoy knitting when I see (or in some lucky occasions - receive) their projects. Perfect! What do you think of my new mitts? 

Stockings for Advent

So I was a little late on posting this project - since the month is almost over - but I am so proud of my crafty productivity this December I figured better late than never! I've been drooling over all the cute advent calendar ideas out there and decided to make Fraser his very own using little felt stockings!  Take a peek:

Although I'm sure I could have make my own stockings, I picked these mini ones up from Michaels and wrote the days on them glitter paint pens! Then it was just a matter of hanging them with some stripy butcher twine and fill them up with goodies! I opted for little notes suggesting festive activities to do together, as well as some traditional chocolates, and a few scratch and wins! So far Fraser seems to be enjoying it and I love how they look hanging in our living room! Here's a detail shot so you can see some of the different stocking patterns:

Hooray! I can't wait to reuse this baby year after year - so here's to hoping it holds up! What do you think? 

Holly Jolly Crochet Holly

At the beginning of the month I did a post showing a fun crochet holly gift topper pattern (link) and was extra excited to try it out for myself! I modified it a bit (as I seem to do with all my crafts) and decided to go with three little holly berry poms instead of one! The result? One awesome crochet holly:

I wanted a little more versatility than just wrapping for gifts so I sewed a bar pin on the back and voila! Instant awesome handmade festive brooch:

Yay! I experimented a bit with the pattern and holly designs and ended up making two of the three leaf hollys and two with two leaves crossing over a bit:

I think the two leaf holly pieces would look extra cute pinned to a xmas stocking and love how the three leaf pin looks on a cardigan! What a festive look! I even sewed a hair clip to one of them and am wearing it to work today! Hooray! I'm so happy with how they turned out and love actually completing craft projects once in a while! What do you think? Are you going to attempt your own crochet jolly holly? 

At long last - an update!

Yesterday morning I was one determined lady. After the past few weeks of a complete and utter of productivity I was sure that I would get at least one thing crossed off my to do list! The verdict? Success! I finally got around to listing my embroidery hoops in my etsy shop! I even had some nice filtered natural light to photograph in too. Check out my babies that are up for grabs:

Hooray! I forgot how time consuming making etsy listing is, which totally explains why I've been focusing on craft shows and consignment these days. It does feel good to refresh the shop up a bit though, I even redid the shop sections for easier searching too! Yay! Just in time for the holiday buying season! You can take a peek at the listings in my embroidery hoop art section (link)! Yipee! Happy buying! 

Some new tags

This summer I made some wooden acorn and mushroom necklaces to add to my table at craft shows.  They were super fun to whip up and I loved mixing up muted paint colours to make them all a little different. Take a peek:

Unfortunately their large size means they would cost an arm and a leg to ship and makes them less than ideal for my Etsy shop (darn that 2cm rule at Canada Post)! I figured since I had quite a few left over from the markets (and don't have any craft sales set up for the fall/winter), I could send some off as part of a consignment package at the Art Gallery!  Looks like it's time to make some packaging for these babies since they'd need a spot to put their barcode and price tag in the shop! Hooray for a new challenge! I decided to raid my packaging supplies and came up with this washi tape/bakers twine/recycled cardstock/url stamp concoction:

Well it certainly seems to do the trick and is quite similar to these tags (link) I made for some polymer clay pendants back in the spring.  I really like how the polka dots play up on the mushroom spots and how the floral on top ties it all in the nature theme of the necklaces! So perhaps I am over-thinking things a smidge, but after all packaging is all about the details.  Here's to hoping the necklaces do well this winter! What do you think of my new tags? Do you dabble in packaging? 

More Felt Feather Earrings

As you probably know by now (unless you're new that is), I am a huge fan of working with wool felt! I pretty much try to work felt into all sorts of different craft projects and a few years ago started making jewelry out of that most wonderful medium in the form of felt feather earrings (oh look! here's the link to the nov 2010 post)! I was certain that their $12 price point, hand stitched loveliness, and fun feathery jewel tones would be a huge hit at craft shows but like many of the items I whip up, customers didn't love them quite as much as I do and they sold mediocrely. I did, however, land one heck of a sweet consignment deal with one of my most favourite shops in Kelowna and these babies sold like hot cakes there! Woo hoo! Well, it's been two full years since I started making them and while I was putting together a package of goodies to ship to the Kamloops Art Gallery (to put in their expanded holiday shop), I thought I'd refresh the stocks with a few new hand crafted wonders! Check out these felty colour combinations:

I had a great time picking which tones would work best together and tried to stick to colour schemes that have been most popular in my crafty history. It could be fall calling to me, but this rust and oxblood pair is particularly pleasing in my books. Here's a close up:

Aren't they fun? I do fear those might blend in a little too well with my red hair, but sometimes some subtle monochromatic tones are just what the doctor ordered! Even though these pairs on on their way to new homes in the interior (or at least to the shelves of the KAG), I am considering making a few more new pairs to put up in my etsy shop! With all the craft shows, daily blog posts, and general stresses/health issues of life I haven't had a ton of spare time to allot to etsy updates but since I couldn't get into any of the winter sales here (darn their year wait lists) I figure I should be able to get a few new items on there.  These earrings are even quite practical to list since shipping won't cost an arm and a leg for them (much unlike pretty much any of my crafts that are thicker than 2cms)!  What do you think? What colour of felt earrings tickle your fancy? 

Quilts! Oh My!

Quilts are like a hug from grandma on an autumn evening. 

In the fall I always have the urge to make a quilt of my very own. (oops, lost the link for this one.)

Then I think a cover like this would be lovely (it is a tutorial).

Then I come back to reality and find a quilt that is just the right size!

Hooray for one day crafts!  Hooray for Kate getting back to work tomorrow! Right Kate?