Stitch and Bitch Baby Blanket

Even though I am currently complaining about crochet, I did manage to knit a baby blanket for my pen pal in Taiwan. This was my first knitted baby blanket (!) and the pattern was from the first Stitch and Bitch book by Debbie Stoller. You can also get the pattern here on Ravelry.

This was a fantastic easy project. Excellent if you are a beginner (which I am not - but sometimes I act like one.)

Attempting: Flowers in the Snow

The scissors come in handy once there is far too many knots.

Ugh! Why do I torture myself?

While I knit, I admit I am not really good at it. No, I do not check my gauge and when I do I don't really understand what I am doing. And even though I can finish a project, I feel like I was in art school - never completely satisfied - knowing I could have done better.

So why do I torture myself? I think I am addicted to it.

Now I am re-teaching myself crochet. I was rather good at it as a child and sadly, picking up the hook again is not anywhere similar to always remembering how to ride a bike.

Bad Point: I don't remember a thing about crochet.

Bad Point: I do remember that I always made my stitches too tight.

Good Point: Crochet is faster and more fulfilling is tempting for the making of Christmas presents.

Good Point: I came across this pattern and loved it sooo much.

Good Point: 'Tis perfect for using up your yarn stash.

Good Point: You only have to pay between $2 - $3 for a hook.

Flowers in the Snow by Solveig Grimstad

Very nordic isn't it? I love the variety of colour and it doesn't look old (which is the problem with many granny square patterns). Fresh! Colour! Hip! Yes, it is all good.

This awesome and free pattern can be found on Ravelry under Solveig, here or you can check out her amazing site here. Trust me you'll want to pick up a hook once you visit.

For now I will be trying to make my circles look like her's. Hmmmm...not happening.....(enter any swear word here).

And another tip: this is the best link I have found for learning how to crochet (so far (-:). Good luck!

Canvas Rug Project

I did a little (i.e. big project) over at my friend's blog, Hobby Junkies. It is a Canvas Floor Rug, which is a great craft for the painter and decorator in you.

Check it out, here.

Favourite Online Magazines

There are so many terrific online magazines now. Sadly, it makes you wonder how paper magazines exist.

Here are some fabulous craft, design, food and lifestyle mags and here are my top choices. All of these magazines have supporting blogs that are good to read too. Check them out and support them!

Covet Garden is a Canadian Magazine and blog that features a home of an artist/artisan/arts worker/designer every issue. It includes projects and recipes, really great finds and I especially like the pages about where the artist tells about their current reads, tunes and inspirations. Plus it is Canadian!

Sweet Paul is based out of New York. It is food based but has some crafty projects. It seemed for a while they had many activities based on children. The photography is terrific. Great party ideas. Very party centric actually. They also sell this magazine in paper at Anthropologie for $20 if you want to pay for it.

rue is a fashion/interior design/travel magazine. They have the biggest budget of all the magazines I read because they often travel to different locations to view homes. rue is not as hipster as my other reads but they do have neat finds. This mag also has d.i.y. projects and recipes, a necessity to all my online reading.

Leaf is a terrific gardening/design magazine from the States. While I haven't gone through all the back issues they have terrific outdoor projects. If you have a yard, or like to entertain, this is a must read. Or if you are like me and live in an apartment, it is nice to dream.

91 Magazine is based out of the U.K. and is full of retro, vintage. crafty, magazine with some food. It is a rather new publication and is pretty girlie. Actually that is the best word to describe this mag: pretty. Fun to browse through and has a good blog.

NEET is also a new find to me. Indie, hipster fashion and handmade crafts along with some music reviews and interviews. If you read Bust or Nylon and shop at etsy, you'll like NEET. Plus there are tons of back issues (all the way to 2009!) so you are bound to find something you'll like.

Royal Jubilee Love

I loved the Royal Jubilee celebrations of the past weekend. Perhaps it is because I am Canadian and we simply lack pride in ourselves. We lack knowledge of our history, don't fund our museums, sadly lack in the promotion of our culture. We suffer from low self esteem. Parts of me like the fact that we don't wave our flag in the faces of others. Plus I am really happy that we don't have those plastic eagles that are on many an American garage.

I am a monarchist with reservations. I am sentimental too. Remember the British street parties? I love the idea. Nowadays we have a lack of community. How sad Canadians consider a gathering to be around a BBQ and a bottle of beer.

I love how the Brits revived the tradition for the Jubilee! There is something classy about bunting too!

From the Telegraph - an attempt at the longest street party!

BUT THE BOATS! How awesome was that?!?! Did you see this with the Royals? Check out from 1.33 on. You will how they bop along with the music. How could you not LOVE THIS?

NOW ARE YOU READY TO EXPLODE IN DELIGHT? In searching for this video on Youtube, I found this absolutely charming video of a community in Little Aston, England. They decided to have a Boat Pageant despite how the village does not have a river. They also recreated the vintage flair, having teas, street parties and concerts.

Now get ready to squeal! My favourites are the little boats, the portholes with the royals faces and the undertakers!!! LOL!!!

Yup its official. I want to move to Little Aston!

Cleaning to Label, Labeling to Clean

As of late, I have had a little break in my employment. I haven't been in the doldrums about it (yet) and I am thoroughly enjoying my break! After working 7 days a week, missing family and friends, countless special events and not having a life outside of work, I have been mastering a very, very long to-do list. Yes, it has been a round of catch-up.

Much of my list consists of cleaning and organizing, you know, the little things you don't get around to? Yup, I am tackling my heap of chores. Sorry if you aren't excited by that.

One of the fun projects I did was labeling and organizing my Ikea storage boxes.

Using small stamps from Dollarama, a heavy white paper and a waterbased marker, I organized all my DVD's and boxes of stuff.

It's pretty addictive. Though you always have a box just with stuff you really don't know where to put anywhere else.

Then I tackled my art supplies...(f.y.i: this Ikeas cabinet is great for such items!)

Crafty Birds

This little story is rather apropos as my close friend is setting up a jewelry making business at the moment...

On the weekend, I went to a family BBQ. A common site at any family gathering of my boyfriend's are his parents who often bring their bird, a red feathered macaw named Luna. They raise all sorts of birds, but it is Luna, naturally, who gets the most attention. They will bring her and her stand along, have her crawl all over them, rip off their buttons, tear their shirts. It's quite the site. (Sorry I forgot the camera.)

This is what Luna looks like a la Wikipedia.

I discovered Luna has a neat trick. She takes the centers out of Toonies! She grabs the toonie, moves it around with her weird black tongue, where she sort of twirls it, almost as though her tongue is reading braille or the writing on coin. Honestly, its all over in less than 2 minutes. You hear a click, and the center falls to the ground!

Luna's Mom takes the broken coins to the bank, but as she says, "I don't tell them a bird did it." Can you imagine? I am sure the Canadian Mint would LOVE Luna!

I'm going to take these coins and turn them into earrings! I think my friend should employ this bird... (her cat wouldn't like that though.) Do you remember when toonies came out and they said the centers 'may' pop out and all us crafters tried and tried and tried. Try Luna!

Pink Tiles Be Gone!

Why, oh why were pink tiles laid in my kitchen? When I think of kitchen colours, I do not think "PINK." I think green, or blue, or white....but not pink.

To start off with my current project, I must be honest. My apartment is not high-style and seriously needs some TLC which I am not about to give it, as it is, my landlords job. And should I complain since I have relatively inexpensive rent? Perhaps not. But the pink tiles are horrible and I know I can fix that!

Yes, I know there is paint to cover tiles but that would mean I would need to re-grout. The colour white would also clash with my beige walls, which maybe I will one day paint. Odds are however, I won't.

In this project, as with many others, I am using removable book vinyl. I love the stuff. I use it in all sorts of ways. This project also uses a product that simulates steel and is just shelf paper. Combine the two together and voila: a removable steel backsplash!!!

Materials:
Removable Book Vinyl (from Dollarama), at least 4 tubes
Simulated Steel Shelf Paper (at Canadian Tire, about $14 a tube); you will likely need at least 3 tubes
A Ruler and an Exacto Knife
Plenty of Patience if you are not crafty

1. Clean your tiles with soap and water. Clean your work surface. Any small bit of dust will adhere to the sticky side of your vinyl and will make a hideous bump. I used my countertop which has seen better days and I used my Exacto Knife on it too. I don't recommend this.

2. Adhere your book vinyl to your work surface. Be careful not to have bubbles in the vinyl. I suggest adhering the clear vinyl to end of the roll and slowly peel back the paper beneath, pressing down as you unroll.

3. Add silver vinyl overtop of clear vinyl. Why are we doing this? To make the silver removable for when you or I move out. We could avoid this step had the company that makes the silver vinyl removable but of course they haven't (just to make our lives difficult! GEEZ!) Again, work from one edge and slowly peel back the paper. You can only correct your air bubbles a few times before you will lift the silver off your vinyl.

You will get bumps: it is inevitable but don't worry too much
about them, we will fix those later...

4. At this stage you will have a heavy duty silver vinyl for your tiles. Cut and paste as you like. I use my hands to smooth the surface though you may find using a credit card as a squeegie helps. You may have little bumps from bits on your "clean" work surface (mine were bread crumbs). Remove those with your nail.

Measuring twice and cut once, remember! The odd ripple is inevitable.

Curses! A breadcrumb!

There are two styles you can try: A geometric style that I first tried and failed at. While the patterns look neat, it is difficult to cover the pink tiles because of the poor grouting and does tend to draw even more attention to the missing grout. The benefit of this technique is the great way it uses up your scraps.

Okay it really isn't all that bad. Repeatedly measuring your squares
does get trying.

The second (and method I wished I had used first), is covering up all the edges of the tiles with the vinyl creating a very slick appearance. By overlapping your seams, you are creating nearly-seamless look and covers up that awful grout!

Corners are handled much the same way as wallpapering....

Adhere vinyl to area and begin to cut away your corner with an Exacto Knife to
have a shaped edge.

Bubbles? Just like wall paper, use your Exacto Knife to poke a hole in the bubble and smooth to let the air out.

Don't immediately puncture your vinyl bubbles until you have tried placing
the vinyl on the wall. The bubbles may just be from air beneath the clear vinyl/work surface
and will disappear once you lift the material off your work surface.

Enjoy your fancy backsplash! I started this project over a year ago and the first vinyl I laid is still adhered and removes just as easily from the tiles as day one. The corners of the geometric squares are still stuck to the tile, though some (not many) have begun to dog-ear. Frankly, it is better than pink. The surface is great to wipe down messes...I may not even remove mine when I move out because it is just so darn great.

Blueberry Crumble not included...now I just have to fix the caulking....)-: