Happy 4th of July!

Wishing a Happy Independence Day to my American neighbours!  Today only, special rates on my USA Pride print at Imagekind.com. Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday!

Calvin's Christmas Portraits

Calvin is my fiancé's, cat.  While we were decorating the tree this year, he was looking on with such curiosity.  We put a mini Santa hat on him, and a star was born.  He sat very patiently as I clicked away with my camera, and we ended up with lots of super cute shots - it was tough to narrow them down!  He needs to be put into Kitty Modelling, if there is such a thing!

Last Long Weekend... Andy Kim

One month ago, on the previous Canadian long weekend (Canada Day, July 1st... for the record, today is also a holiday - Civic Holiday, aka we need one more summer long weekend holiday), I headed out to Woodbine Park for the Red White and Vinyl Canada Day Celebration.  I actually just wanted to see Andy Kim, so that's exactly what I did.

And, of course, Canada Day wouldn't be complete without some fireworks!

More pics are right this way.

First Christmas!

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed prepping my new home for my very first Christmas in it.  I love being in charge of the decorations, and coming up with different little arrangements.  You already saw my wreath in my last entry... now here's how the rest of my apartment is looking these days.

I adore my ornaments.  I've been collecting them for several years.  I could always picture my "future" tree, even when I was living at home.  I would love to buy a white (fake) tree, during some after Christmas sales.  That would truly perfect my vision.  This year, I had to settle for borrowing my parents' old tree.  But I still think it looks lovely.  I love just sitting on my couch and looking at my tree, lit up all pretty. 

My absolute favourite would have to be this: my coffee table centrepiece.  The best part of this is that the entire arrangement (including the coffee table itself) probably cost me less than $20.  Haha.  The table is a temporary one - a LACK sidetable from Ikea (on sale for $7.99 right now! Can't go wrong).  The garland and "floral" arrangement (for lack of a better word) both hail from the dollar store.  The vase is from several seasons ago at Ikea (not sure if they still sell this.  But it was definitely less than $5 when I bought it).  And the spikey ornament, I made myself, using this tutorial from How About Orange. I love the way it looks so much, I think I'll probably keep it up through the entire winter.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Crafty V-Day Party Part 4: The CRAFTS!

The Crafts were what the entire party centred around, so the pressure was on to think of ways to make this party fun and unique, and make everyone want to participate. I think it was pretty successful! It was billed as a "throwback to our elementary school days," where we all went about the day delivering our Valentine's into our classmates little bins, so I had to do something to recreate this feeling.

To begin with - there were loot bags. The loot bags were filled with various party favours, but they served a dual purpose. When guests arrived at the party, their first task was to grab a loot bag (pink for girls, red for boys), and decorate it any way they wished - but it must have their name on it somewhere. The bag itself then became the place where the handcrafted card would be delivered to.

Amy and I had already decorated our own bags the night before (so that everyone could see an example), so while the guests were hard at work decorating, I began working on these mini-cards. I didn't really have any particular idea in mind, I just kept creating. Eventually I made enough for everyone, and they ended up being thank you's, that I dropped in everyone's bag - so they got two Valentine's from the party :)

As soon as everyone was done their loot bags, we put all the guests' names on a slip of paper in a bowl, and everyone drew a slip. They were instructed to give it back if they drew their own name, otherwise the paper said "Create a card for: GUEST NAME." I thought this was a pretty cute idea, because a lot of the guests hadn't even met each other before tonight, so it was a good way to meet new people, and do something nice at the same time! I drew my friend Mat's name, and this is the card that I created for him.

I thought it was really great that everyone, even the boys, were really enjoying just taking the time to be creative (I actually have a hilarious picture of a moment when everyone disappeared from the table to get food, except for two of the guys, who were busily crafting away!) Crafting & Card-Making is something that I do often, but I think it was a bit out of many peoples' realms, so it was neat to be able to share the evening and have everyone get into it.

Plenty more pics, including what was inside the loot bags (I know you're all curious!) up here! Still a lot more to come (there were 200 pics on my camera! So many to sort through!)

Crafty V-Day Party Part 3: The Food!

Well, you can't have a party without offering food to your guests (or maybe that's just what's been instilled in me, due to my Italian upbringing). Aside from The Sweet Table, we offered up a table of apps, plus main courses for everyone to enjoy throughout the course of the evening.

I actually can't take too much credit for this portion. My wonderfully talented mother was responsible for two trays of lasagne (meat and veggie) and three pizzas (meat, veggie and potato). She also put Amy to work, rolling up the mini meatballs for the lasagne, as well as arranging various app trays. (Secretly, I think this may actually be the reason why my friends show up to my parties - because they love the food so much!)

Here's a little taste of what was offered (warning: you may not want to look at the following pictures on an empty stomach... mmmm....)

The Appetizer Table:



The main course - Oddly, for me who loves taking photos of food, I didn't take nearly enough of the main courses. Here are the couple of pics that were taken:


Stay tuned for more party posts! As always, the entire set of pics are up here.

Crafty V-Day Party Part 2: The Decor

Probably the biggest preparation for the party was working on the decor. I wanted it to be a red and pink wonderland, but without resorting to super tacky decorations that look like they should be found in a classroom. I did buy a few of the elements, but the majority of things were lovingly handmade.

Here's what the main area of the party space looked like:

Amy and I had a sleepover the night before the party, and our goal was to have a splash of pink, red, white or hearts in every place that someone's eyes may have landed. I think we were pretty successful!

Coming down the stairs to the party, this is the first element of decor that guests saw. We had a pink tissue paper puff (made by my sister-in-law), and some vinyl hearts dangling from the ceiling, and pink, yellow and white (fake) flowers in a vase on the corner cabinet. Just a subtle taste of what was around the corner.

A little further into the basement is the billiards area. Amy sewed this fantastic bunting out of super cute pink fabric, and we hung it on the wall in front of the pool table. (Unexpectedly, the pool table didn't actually get used, because everyone was enjoying their crafts so much, so I'm afraid this wasn't as prominent as it should have been).

Towards the back of the basement, I had an area set up with the wii + Beatles Rock Band. Against the wall is a large chest, and this was the decor we set out on top of it. The Valentine's Shadow Box hangs on the wall. In front of it is a small Valentine's tree (which was created using the same method as the Easter Tree Centrepiece), with felt heart cookies, made by Amy. The Topiary is made out of Twilight-themed conversation hearts, and was made following this tutorial. Amy also found those super cute conversation heart candles, so we arranged them in front.

I thought some people may find themselves wandering into the kitchen, for ice or cold drinks, or whatever... so I found a cute "love" themed magnetic poetry set at the dollar store, and put them on the fridge. I definitely found some interesting poetry the next day!

So, there were some of the main elements of the decor at my Valentine's party. For more pictures, check out this album on my Flickr.

Valentine's Shadow Box Tutorial

Valentine's Day Shadow Box

So, I'm hosting a "Crafty Valentine's Day" party this weekend, where all the attendees are going to make handmade cards for someone else at the party, and I have a vision of my basement turning into a pink, red and white heart-filled paradise. I've been creating all sorts of little decorative touches, and this is one of them.

Materials:

• shadow box (I had mine stashed away somewhere, and the glass was actually broken, which is how I came up with this idea)
• paint
• paper
• tissue paper
• foam-core
• stamp & ink (and embossing powder/heat gun if you wish)
• gems
• glitter
• fuzzy yarn (you'll only need a small bit of this, so whatever you have around the house will work)
• tacky glue
• glue gun
• Mod Podge

Method:

1. Trace a heart template out of a scrap sheet of paper (I do this by folding a sheet of paper in half, and cutting half a heart, so that both sides are symmetrical. Take your template and trace onto the foam core, and cut out your heart. It doesn't matter if the edges are a little ragged, because they'll be covered by the fuzzy yarn, but try to get it fairly decent looking.


2. Trace the background of your box onto the scrapbook paper of your choice (mine was a dusty rose, subtle print). Once you've cut it to size, use your tacky glue to glue it down into position.

3. Go back to your foam core heart. Stamp your quote (or whatever you choose) in the centre. Mine is a cute little quote from one of my favourite songs ever. I also used a bit of red embossing powder, and fired it with my heat gun for a few seconds, to give it some texture.

Then, take your yarn and glue gun, and in small areas, begin to glue down the yarn to the outside of the heart until you make it all the way around. Cut off any trailing ends you may have.

4. Take your paint and paint the frame of the shadow box (I used a shade of pink that is darker than the scrapbook paper I chose for the background). After it dries, cut a heart out of red tissue paper. Use Mod Podge to glue it down... it doesn't matter if it's crinkly, it'll mostly be covered up... and it gives it a bit of texture, that I kind of like.

Add some glitter around the edge of the red heart.

5. After it's all dry, it's time for the finishing touches. Glue the foam core heart into place with your glue gun. Add some gems for some sparkle... and you're done!

Pretty piece of artwork, using mostly materials that you'll have on-hand (maybe? Is it just me that happens to have all these things kicking around in my basement craft room?)

Anyway... let me know if you try this! It could be used for all sorts of occasions, not just Valentine's Day... just change up the colours and the shape in the middle.

Project 365: Week 1 complete!

Happy New Year, everyone!
Woohoo - I made it through the first 7 days! Most of the shots were not really the best pictures I've ever taken, however, I'm very pleased that I not only managed to take several photos every day, but I also posted them the very same day I took them. I'm pretty sure that won't happen for the entire year (or even the entire month, because work is going to get very busy soon)

Here's a snapshot of how the first week of January looked for me.








You can view more photos from my Project 365 right here

The Fourth of July!

Since we were going to be in the States for the 4th of July, Amy and I decided to go all out with an old-fashioned Independence Day Cookout! Only... we had never celebrated Independence Day before. So we picked our "Americana" theme and just went with it.... Flags, Red-White-and-Blue Flowers, Cupcakes, Cookes... Napkins... you name it! Apparently, we did it right! Amber told us that most American's didn't even go as all out as we did. Welcome to the 4th of July, Canadian-style:






On the menu:

Appetizers:
Ketchup Chips (a gift for our American friends, from Canada!)
Nacho Dip (my personal specialty) & nachos

BBQ:
Corn on the Cob
Roasted Veggies
Burgers
Argentinian Sausage (Juan brought them, and they were awesome)

Dessert:
Watermelon
American Sprinkle Cupcakes
American Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
Juan's roasted Marshmallows

Drinks:
Lemonade
Strawberry Daiquiri's
Juan's Midori & Cranberry specialty


After everyone came out of their food-induced comas, we took a walk/trolley ride down to the main strip to see some fireworks. Thankfully, the 4th ended up being the one day of the trip that it didn't rain at all. It was perfect weather, and there were tonnes of people out to celebrate the holiday.

When we asked a police officer on the beach where we should go to see the fireworks, his reply was "Just look up!" Hah... nice. I guess he was right though... the fireworks were literally going off all around us. It was pretty amazing. The best ones were shot off from across the causeway, at Coachman Park. We watched from a few miles down, and it was still a stunning display.

Happy Fourth!