Friday Find: lacasadecoto

Today's find combines some of my favourite things - crochet, muted rainbow tones, and homemade decor! Yay! Check out the amazing crochet pouffes of Etsy's Lacasadecoto:

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Aren't they neat? I've been swooning over knitted pouffes for a long while now, but it's nice to see such great crochet alternatives! Whip out a weekend of triple crochet, a whole whack of crochet cotton and you're set! Oh, and don't forget a lot of stuffing. Yup - probably easier to just order one online. What do you think?

Thursday Pom

Happy Thursday! What better way to celebrate my favourite day of the week than with a cute cat with a pom pom hat? 

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Haha. I love it! Double win! I wonder if all cat enjoy pom pom hats as much as I'd like them to? Only one way to find out...hats available on etsy! What do you think?

Wooden Studs

A few months ago, Lindsay pinned a really cute DIY project where you buy little wooden split balls and paint them to make earrings. I searched and searched for this link but apparently came up blank, so you'll have to take my word for it. It looked simple enough, and although I wasn't feeling the "half painted and half unpainted" look the DIY showed, I thought it would be fun to try out. Much like my wooden mushrooms, the wooden split ball was nearly impossible to find (maybe it's a Canada thing and it's illegal to carry them here - for reasons unknown?)! Being a persistent crafter I thought I'd get creative and bought a package of wooden button caps. They sort of look like mini little mushrooms on their own, but with the help of our hobby room (which has handy vices in it) I made my own split balls! Hurrah!

This also conveniently left me with lots of wooden disk shapes that I could also turn into earrings! All I had to do now was sand the heck out of them (my poor finger tips didn't enjoy this stage) and then paint up a storm! Yay! Time to industrial strength glue some earring posts on, whip up some packaging, and voila! A new line of wooden earrings:

 I had tons of fun mixing up the muted tones and applied some matte varnish to them for a more finished (and durable) look. Let's take another look at the domed studs:

 

and the flat ones (which sort of look like faux plugs if you ask me):

As usual I went a little craft overboard and made an entire rainbow of different earrings! I just couldn't stop and can you blame me? I love colours:

The final step was to come up with packaging and since I wanted to do something different from my doily cards I use for my cabochon studs (link) I went in a slightly different direction (okay, not really) and used a doily stamp instead! It worked perfectly with the fancy tag punch I bought a while back and with my custom url rubber stamp I got made I was set! Here's a front and back view:

Yay! I am beyond thrilled with how these turned out! I like how they have a sort of vintage feel (although that could be my plethora of soft pastels) but are simple enough to go with anything! They were a bit more work than I had anticipated (silly lack of wooden split balls!), but were well worth it once I finished them! I've got one more earring project up my sleeve that I've been dying to try out and after that it will be full fledged craft restocking mode to get ready for the summer! So what are your thoughts? Do you like the new studs?

no more chub rub!

With summer heat right around the corner there will be many tight-less days in my near future!  Since I'm not about to sacrifice my wardrobe of jersey skirts and dresses comes one unfortunate problem - chub rub. For all of you twigs out there that are fortunate enough to not suffer from this, it's the awful chaffing and uncomfortable rubbing you get between your inner thighs! Ack! The heat only makes it worse (and leads to rashes) and although this was a topic I dare never speak of in my younger days, I've realized that it is actually a common (and seldom discussed) issue! Oh, and getting older also apparently means being extra open about potentially embarrassing life problems. Well luckily a good pal of mine has found the perfect summer solution - Luvees:

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Don't they look like an anti-chub-rub dream? Pretty, simple, and (best of all) have a breathable cotton inner panel to deal with that summer heat! Although I'm sure it will be a few weeks before I'm really praying for a pair of these in my undie drawer, they are certainly on my "to buy" list for the summer! In the mean time I'll stick to the 100% spandex (and 0% breathable) suction cup undies for my thighs. So the question is - have I just completely grossed you out with the idea of chub rub? Are you a silent sufferer (like the former me) dying for a solution? OoOo! Even better - do you have any other remedies I should try? Inquire minds want to know!

As an additional note - someone repinned these undies onto a "funny stuff" board and thought I was joking about how awesome I think they are. Nope, chub rub just isn't a laughing matter, and these undies look great! Hooray for solutions!

Hanging Mushrooms

With spring in the air and greenery popping up all over the place, I've had mushrooms on the brain! I painted up some little wooden ones a few weeks ago (link) and just couldn't get enough of them so I made some more! I had a few wooden split balls and candle cups left over so figured what the heck! Time for more! Check them out:

Yay! Painted mushroom pendants! Yup, I took Lisa and Kelly's suggestion and thought it would be fun to make them into necklaces. It was particularly simple since I had all the supplies on hand and am even mastering the sliding knot closure:

 

 Yipee! I really love how the hang and think the red, teal, and golden yellow look pretty snazzy:

Now it's just a matter of figuring out pricing and deciding if it's worth while to list them on etsy (they're wider than 2cm in thickness so shipping would be quite costly). What are your thoughts? Would you wear a spotty mushroom around your neck?

If only I grew strawberries!

I saw this project the other day during my daily internet rounds and just had to share it! I may not have a garden full of strawberries, but one day I will and this will be the greatest craft ever! Behold - strawberry painted rocks: 

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So why the rocks you may wonder? To trick the birds into staying away from your precious (and extra delicious) home grown berries! Hooray! All you need to do is paint them up, scatter them around your strawberry plants in the spring,  and then watch the birds' disappointment when they try to eat your rocks! Apparently the birds quickly learn that there is no reward in swooping into your strawberry bushes and will leave you with an ample (not pecked at) strawberry crop!  Yay!

Although I'm sure you could figure out how to make these on your own, there are instructions here to make it that much easier for you! I think it would be hilarious to sneak them in my mom's garden when Leslie is visiting and watch her try to eat a rock, but then again, both of them read this so I may have let the cat out of the bag on that one...oh well. What do you think? Do you have bird eating berry problems in your garden?

Yarn-y June!

I've been thinking about making a printable calendar for the blog for a while now and no time like the present to jump on that one! So behold - a very yarn-y june:

you can download me here!

Hooray! I had so much fun creating this month's calendar using some sweet design software called My Memories. It ended up being the perfect program to use because it is super user friendly, has loads of fun options (and templates if you aren't feeling creative), and is ridiculously more inexpensive than photoshop (triple win)! 

I'm a huge fan of having a calendar around and find them super handy for planning my week. I particularly like having one on my desk where I do most of my blogging and organizing and came up with a handy way to have my printable one stand up - all you need is a CD jewel-case! Sounds great! Take a look at how it's done:

 

As easy as that! Print out the calendar, grab an unused CD case, then open, invert, and slip in the paper! Voila! Check out the finished piece:

Yeah! The perfect angle for ideal calendar viewing purposes and a new purpose for my pile of completely useless cd cases! Next you just have to decide optimal placement. Here's a few options I've tried out:

I certainly hope you're as excited about this calendar as I am and have even started a scientific culture flickr group so you can upload any projects (or in this case calendar making) to share (link)! Yay!  Where will you put your yarn-y June printable?