Remember that unfinished dress I found in a bag of fabric? The shimmery green thing I packed up and sent off to the ever so creative Marisa at New Dress a Day? Well she got around to revamping it.
Head on over to see what she did.
Category Archives: fun finds
Cheapish sensory fun for kids.
It’s snowy outside. I’ve had this idea for a while but finally got around to it. I grabbed an under bed storage box, 4 bags of elbow pasta, food colouring and rubbing alcohol. I was going to use rice but was told by someone that it can get quite slippy when it spills on the floor. Plus elbows make a noise you can hear and they’re easy to spot and pick up with your bare hands.
My boys loved it and have played in it every day. Wesley insists on calling it ‘macaroni and cheese’, it’s cute. Look, Nate can’t even stop for a drink it’s so much fun!! I tossed in some metal kitchen utensils too since they make fun noises with pouring macaroni.
I had picked up some discount sand toys at the end of the summer with this plan in mind. The entire thing cost me under $20 but you could use any tub (I just wanted hide away storage) and you might have rubbing alcohol and food colouring already on hand. I Googled how to colour pasta, it’s ridiculously simple. Grab a zip lock type bag, pour in about 1/4 cup rubbing alchohol, about 12 drops of colouring and some pasta. I wasn’t exact. It’s pretty easy, more colour, darker pasta . . I’m sure you get it. Leave it sit in the bag sort of flattened and spread out for one hour then turn it over for another hour. Pour it all out onto a cookie sheet with some paper towel or rag on it and let it dry over night. In the morning it’s all good to go!
Note don’t bother trying to colour it yellow it does nothing. I assumed so but had to try just to be sure.
Posted in fun finds, kid fun, repurposing, tutorial-ish
Tagged colouring, dying, fun, indoor, kids, pasta, sensory play
Thrifting fun!
Last night the plan was to go fabric shopping with my bff. We did a bit of that but weren’t equiped to really search out what she needed so instead we decided to pop into some thrift stores. We were amazingly rewarded! She found a vintage typewriter that she loved, but it was missing the J. While pondering if she shoudl just take it J-less or not she realised there was another one buried under some stuff right beside it. I wandered over and checked it out and while I did she lifted up the round keyed one and found the J lying there. It just needed to be snapped back on.
So we left, each with a typewriter. Price tags $17.99 each. Score.
I found this cute little mixing bowl, no idea if it’s actually ‘vintage’ or not but I love the colour and designs. The little set of plates feature cute little building and are from Germany. My husband and I have vowed to only have knick knacks if they are from our travels. These plates aren’t, but they’re really cute and we’ve been to Germany so same thing really.
I also got a Samsonite train case but it’s still in my van and needs some surface cleaning before a photo shoot.
Anyone else addicted to this stuff?
I think I’m a little late starting a collection of washi tape but better late than never!
It’s pretty stuff. Now I’m just ironing out a use for it. I’m afraid it will grow to the size of my fabric collection. I vow to use my crafty supplies, otherwise what are they for!
Today we had a family swim morning at the community center down the street. Then we came home and went into hibernation mode. I had a nap, it was glorious. This is the view out to my street.
All about me!
Check out my interview over at Craftee. Just in case there’s something you might not know already.
Posted in fun finds
Wheee new fabrics and some Japanese ribbon!
Spent some time just before the holidays shopping for myself, as I’m sure many of you did. I’ve become addicted to checking Etsy’s front page a few times a day, sometimes even before it’s had a chance to change. I’ve also been in many treasuries lately which has led me clicking around the handmade heaven that is Etsy. Here are some things that arrived last week.
These lovely fabric ribbons from boqinana. The fabric was just bonus!
Fun fabric and ribbon from DoodooShop. I have plans for that air mail ribbon, I’ve been busting with excitement waiting for it to arrive so I can start the project.
These arrived a while ago and I just didn’t get to posting about them yet. Fabric scraps from starlitnest. She apologized for a delay in shipping, which I hadn’t really noticed, and said she added some extra fabric to the mix to make it up to me. Isn’t it bad enough I have my own stash of scraps but I have to keep buying other people’s!?
I also have some pretty masking tapes coming from kimamaya. Should be here shortly. It was probably evil of me to be ordering ‘just because’ things during the holiday shipping rush. Ooops.
The fabric love continues.
Isn’t this the cutest little print ever?!
Available at DreamingOfSewing. I’m trying really hard to resist buying it.
Organizing galore!
Last weekend I procrastinated from completing some last minute orders by organizing my craft area. Time well spent I must say.
When Nate was born I gave up my sunny upstairs craft room to move down into the basement, known as The Man Space at that time. First I had 1 table and my IKEA computer desk/wardrobe thingie. Then I had to buy another table . . . Then piles of things started to form. Then because my husband wasn’t using his desk down here I sort of started to rely on that space, ironing and such. He wasn’t happy. So I’ve been hard at work purging and tidying and cleaning up so we can both have a much more workable space that isn’t an eye sore.
These are the pretty parts. I can’t show the rest of the inside of the wardrobe, it’s a bit of an avalanche of disaster. I took this advice and folded and wrapped my pretty and larger pieces of fabric onto comic book backings to make these little mini fabric bolts. It was $10 for 100 so they went pretty far. For some I used 2 pieces of cardboard just to give it a bit of added stability. Definitely one of the best little pieces of advice I stumbled upon this year. Beats stashing them in a fabric crush drawer!
Now when you look through the little windows in the top of the doors to the wardrobe you can see my lovely fabric, books and the basket looking all ready to go. Luckily the windows end before the messy madness can be seen.
Sorry for the less than stellar photos, I really need to crack the code about taking pics in my gloomy basement.
Posted in fun finds, repurposing, sewing
Tagged fabric, mini bolts, organizing, storage
Crafty British imports part 2
Behold the other fun little book I ordered from waaaaaaay over there!
Now for the ridiculous part (aside from ordering it overseas and then having my Mother In Law carry it all the way here) is that I can’t knit. But I totally plan to learn now. I mean how cute are these?!
Good thing I work in a profession that is mostly women. I’m sure I can bribe someone at work to teach me the ropes!
Posted in crafty books, fun finds, gifts, knitting
Tagged cozy, craft books, knitting, mug hugs, tea
Stop! Barter time!
Bartering is one of the super cool things about spending your day sitting at a craft show. It’s usually pretty easy to work out some sort of deal with someone and walk away having given and recieved something handmade. Recently I’ve been contacted by some fellow Etsy sellers asking if I would be ineterested in doing a swap. Enter Alison of alisonostertag.etsy.com. She lives in Philledelphia, blog here, and asked if I would be interetsed in some ofher photography in exchange for a cup cozy. Apparently she challenged herself to gift shopping through swapping. How cool is that!?
Rather than count pennies and figure out what item in her shop was equal to my cozy I just told her I was in and gave her permission to surprise me with whatever she wanted to send. That said, I am now the proud owner of a lovely print turned card and this great shot of a statue. Lovely pictures follow to disguise my lack of knowledge about the subject matter!
Wow, ignore my tattered old university sweater sleeve!! Yipes, how’d I miss that while cropping!?
Also, her photos are impeccable I didn’t do so well taking my own photos of her photos.
I love her shots of bikes and the doors of Fairmount! She also has a ceramics shop on Etsy.
Posted in fun finds, gifts, other crafts
Tagged barter, ceramics, Etsy, photography, swap
