Swap Fail and Lindsay Win

About a month ago I signed up for Oh Strumpet's Valentine's Craft Swap. I was thrilled to meet a new crafty friend and exchange crafts in the mail! Unfortunately my partner totally crapped out on me. I emailed her twice and got one reply saying, "sorry I'm busy I'll email you later today." Yup, didn't happen...so no valentine craft swap for me. Alas.

I decided I would vicariously celebrate the Valentine swap with Lindsay since she was lucky enough to have a partner who was up for the swap (which makes me wonder why my partner signed up in the first place...)! Anyways, I heard all about the fun things Lindsay was going to make and to my surprise - I got a Valentine's parcel in the mail! Yay! Lindsay made an extra craft just for me and my failed swap! Take a peek:


Isn't that fabric beautiful? Are you wondering what it is? Take another look:


Yay! My very own machine washable reusable snack pouch! Isn't that brilliant? I love carrying almonds around with me in my purse and my little ziplocks always end up wearing out and spilling nuts everywhere. No more spilled nuts in my future! I've got a lovely cotton velcro pouch to hold them in. I think it is lined with diaper lining (or something with a little bit of stain and moisture resistance) to give it a bit more staying power. Ahha! How lovely! Lindsay also made some beyond wonderful rosemary and fig walnuts to snack on but I devoured those before giving them a chance to get at home in the pouch (and before I could take a picture). Isn't she the best? I certainly think so! So it turned into a wonderful Valentine's after all! Hooray! What are your plans for the day?

Granny Love

The other day I showed you the progress I was making on a new granny square craft I was working on and I am happy to say it is finally finished! Even though I really enjoyed hearing your guesses on what it was going to be, no one pegged it. How about taking a closer look at the squares now and see if you can guess:


What's this? Glowing light coming from them? Yup! I made a granny square lamp shade cover! Finished project reveal!:


Hooray! I actually blogged about wanting to make one of these back in January (link) and unlike many of my dreamed about but never executed projects, I actually made this one! It was, however, much more difficult than I had ever expected and hope this little lamp lasts my lifetime so I never have to try to recreate it.

So how did I manage to make this one? Well it started with a lamp. I searched many a thrift store in hopes of finding a simple and inexpensive lamp base but sadly was unsuccessful. I figured I might be able to find one at Wal-Mart and yet again there were no lamps to be found! Finally Fraser and I decided to try out Zellers and behold - one beat up bright red suede table lamp:


Yay! It was even 30% off making it a reasonable price for my experimental crafting. When I got it home I carefully ripped the red suede off the lamp shade and recovered it with some off white cotton I had left over from my craft show table cloth. I really wanted the finished product to have a nice neutral backdrop behind the squares and since the red certainly would not d0, the off white cotton was perfect! The stretched cotton turned out pretty well and I figure if I ever need a new career I should consider lamp shade recovering!

Then it was time to figure out my gauge so I could make a strip of squares that would match the size of the shade. Then it was just a matter of crocheting those squares, sewing them together, and getting them on the shade to get the finished product:


Tada! It would have been a much less frustrating project if I hadn't run out of the white cotton yarn halfway through, but that is just the way things go sometimes. My least favourite (and most time consuming) step was definitely trying to attach the granny square cozy to the shade. What a picky finicky mess that turned out to be! I single crocheted two rows on either side of the squares in hopes to have it slightly fold over the top and bottom of the shade. I then attempted to thread a draw string on either edge to cinch the cozy on, but the threaded draw strings kept snapping and after many attempted I figured it was hopeless. The granny square cozy really needed to be tight against the shade to look nice so I ended up running string inside the shade at the edge of each square like so:


Then it was just a matter of sewing the ends in and putting it on the lamp! Hurrah! Take a peek at the lamp when the light is off:


Yay! I love how it turned out, but I am particularly fond of how it looks with the light on:


Yipee! Although I do enjoy how nice it looked on the bookshelf in the living room, I did make the lamp for use in my craft room but with the rainy (and mild) weather we've been having I decided the bright daylight from the patio window doors would give me the best light to photograph with. So I'm dying to know - what do you think? Are you ready to attempt your own granny square lamp cozy?

February photo a day 5-11

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?