Author: pocketalchemy

February 14, 2013

Paint Sample Valentine Bunting

Happy Valentine’s Day! Yes, the big V day is here and I do so love to embrace the day of love, not so much in the couple-y sense, but in the wider, appreciating the people and things around me sort of a way.

And it inspires all sorts of craftiness in people far and wide, which is so excellent!

I, along with the rest of the crafty world, have fallen for buntings in the past couple of years and envisioned this one just last week while standing in front of the paint samples at Rona. Didn’t know if I’d have time to make it happen but I squeezed it in, threading hearts in the driveway while my sons pretended to drive in my stationary car (side note/free parenting tip: this is an excellent way to buy some time, just let them sit in the driver’s seat and go go go til they’re spent. If the horn honks, it just spices up the neighbourhood). My husband brought in a couple of snowy, errant hearts that I’d dropped when he came home later, hazards of crafting on the go.

I adore paint samples. The the graduation in colour, the heavy texture of the paper, the free-ness, the often-ridiculous commercial names of the colours. Here are some good ones from this bunting: Irish Rose, Grape Vineyard (is there any other kind?!), Satin Serenade, Ballerina Slipper (waaaay off, much darker than an actual ballerina), Very Pink (in case of confusion), Grape Jamboree, Vintage Violet (exactly as you’d imagine), Strawberry Crush, Frankly Scarlet (could you settle for any other red after reading that?), Valhalla (Norse gods always make me think violent fuchsia, of course they do!), Canterbury Lane, Peppermint Pink (nice contrast in terms), Redfeather, Purple Polka (I’d take that dance), Vibrato, Regal Robe (just to end on operatic notes). Names aside, I simply find paint samples satisfying to look at. Plus they are a great, free art/crafting resource. One that I take liberal advantage of.

Here’s a little how–to:

1: get yourself a big stack of purple and pink paint samples

2: cut out a heart template that fits on your paint sample. Since my samples were rectangle, I made a heart that fit twice on each page

3: cut out a lot of hearts!

4: hole punch 2 holes in each heart (that sounds so harsh!), one in each hump (that word alway sounds dirty to me …)

5: thread a ribbon or a piece of bias tape — I found some excess burgundy bias tape lying around that did the trick — and cut to desired length

6: thread ribbon through holes in hearts starting from back-to-front so that the heart looks “stitched” across the two humps

7: et voilà! Valentine bunting! And you can store it away for next year, leaving time for new love crafts …

February 12, 2013

Love Bugs Abound!

With Rudi in his first year of school, sharing Valentine cards en mass is suddenly an important issue in our household! I took to the internet searching for a non-commercial, non-saccharine option and I found this wonderful Love Bug Jar idea from Danyelle at Dandee Designs, who generously shared her template with the world (I highly recommend checking it out immediately).

Rudi is very excited about writing, he can make most letters, uppercase and lower, from memory when I recite them out loud to him in the order of a name, which totally, utterly astounds me. Such fast learning. Oh to be four!

He was very taken with the bug idea but didn’t want any “creepy” bugs, so we went with butterflies and ladybugs. He toiled away, writing his name on the back of each jar (after a love from by me because he declared that to be “too many words for a boy to write.”) and wrote the recipient names on every single jar card in just two sittings. So proud I have a major crafty-boy with super-craft-stamina on my hands!

He loved the glueing. I accidentally used wood glue that I thought was craft glue so it looks yellow — I guess that can be the creepy bit on these cards, and Rudi doesn’t care! I’d put a dot of glue down and he’d carefully place the bug, deciding out-loud which way it should face. He also decided we should use the same ink as colour of bug. I’d suggested opposite colours but he said, “same would be better for sure.” Fair enough! Ta-da — heaps of wonderful valentines for the class, now we’re working on more for cousins and friends.

—-

And a little added love bonus from my friend Lindsay and her project The Love Lettering Project: she’ll send you a package of letters so you can spread your own anonymous love letters to the people, places, things that you love! You should totally do it! Click on the photo for more info:

January 25, 2013

Turns Out I Need a Calendar

Calendars. Perhaps they should be obsolete with all the devices surrounding us that can tell us the date. But I’m a spatially sensitive person who likes everything in its place when it comes to referencing things, like the date, regularly. Turns out I just really love calendars. Actual on-the-wall calendars.

I also love fabric (just to state the obvious). And tea towel calendars are wonderful — kitschy in the best way. I really wanted one this year and was holding back, thinking maybe I didn’t need a calendar for 2013, maybe I didn’t even need a physical daytimer, maybe I should just use the iPhone as intended… I was wrong on both accounts. I’m pretty digitally savvy, or at least functional, but I do love to look at a calendar and to write appointments and notes in a book. My brain likes it, my fingers like it, I feel more grounded and sure with paper and fabric and tangible-ness around me.

So I got my usual Moleskin daytimer and felt a little bit more myself. Which isn’t to say I don’t also use my iCal for appointments, I do, but I don’t trust it totally yet in spite of years of use. And I waited too long on the calendar, my fave was sold out by the time I decided I should do it. So I thought perhaps it was a sign, perhaps I’d try without. Then I saw one of my favourite Canadian textile artists Averil Loreti at the Toronto One of a Kind show and her calendar was so beautiful, a burst of joy in a surprising and pleasing colour palette. But I still held back thinking iPhone and iCal could, possibly, fulfill me.

I didn’t even last a month into 2013. I got the calendar. All is well in the world — I am moored, no longer adrift. Whew.

January 16, 2013

Happy 1st Blog-Birthday!

Today I am 1! Or rather, this blog areI are 1. I find that my usually-verbose self is quiet, not much to say of late, lots of percolating. And having moved to a new city and a new house over the holidays, I seem to have a moving/displacement hangover that’s taking a while to lift — probably the time of year too, I just want to hibernate, sigh. But alas, I am not a Bear and so I solider on!

I am putting the finishing touches on my work space, the room-of-my-own that I am still silly with excitement over! Here’s Rudi helping me put paint to wall. I’ll share when it’s all done. And once it’s done, then the work really begins, creating stock, opening shop, joining craft fairs. It’s a big year ahead, I’m scared and excited and ready, especially since I put this plan on ice in September for the move. So I am ready to work … if I could only get over this hibernation hump : )

January 8, 2013

The (Somewhat Woeful) Tale of The Mini Hats

My first post of 2013! And almost a year of blogging for me. This is the story of a Christmas project I undertook in July during our road trip from Southern Ontario to Alberta and back again. Because sometimes I am awesome I had the presence of mind to take yarn and needles in the midst of getting our family on the road and planned to get most of my xmas gifts done whist whiling away the miles with my favourite pastime.

I must say I was inspired by the gifts of my dear friend Christa, who’s been making wee knitted ornaments for years now for her friends. Each piece, a mitten, heart, snowflake, stocking, etc, carries the memories of the christmas it arrived with us and is woven full of the creativity and friendship of the maker.

Flying along an Ontario highway, I fiddled with my pattern for a full-sized hat til I was happy with the scale of the hat. I had the whole trip ahead of me, about 10 days of six-eight hour drives in total.

By the time we hit Michigan I was humming along, the second hat shaping up. After that each one took about two hours. That’s way more than time I’d usually be able to afford, but it was perfect for the road, allowing me to ignore squabbling in the back seat til it was at intervention-pitch and also freeing my mind to sail about as it does while knitting (I’m sure the knitters among you know what I mean!). I finished five-and-a-half hats on the way to Alberta and figured I had about eight more hats in me on the way home. Tiny hats for everyone!

Somewhere between Southern Alberta and the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan I got back on the knitting-train and finished hat six. Hats seven and eight grew as we flew across the Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. I was (and I am not exaggerating) six stitches from being done the eighth hat. We were all cranky and we all had to pee. We stopped at a Wisconsin truck stop. We peed. We bought charming state magnets for the states we’d driven through. We got snacks. We watched a biker couple arrive on separate bikes and have a loving exchange that belied their tough-as-nails exteriors. We stretched. We got back in the car.

After a few miles I reached for my knitting. Not at my feet. Not. At. My. Feet. Got a zing of panic through my chest. Tore up my bags, swore a lot (always classy in front of the children, ahem-hem). But that lovely ball of delicate computer-dyed wool, my tiny bamboo needles, and my NEARLY-DONE hat, gone. I must have kicked them out of the car when I got out or in, but I never felt it didn’t see my little knitting lying lonely on the pavement. There was a moment when I could see Adam calculating whether he’d be a happier husband if he turned around … he suggested it was a bit funny and I told him I needed about 35 minutes before it was even remotely funny. There was a lot of deep breathing and muttering from me. Eventually I could laugh, if that was the worst thing that happened on the road, I could take it I decided. I like to think some biker dude with a secret knitting hobby scooped it up and finished it. That’s the story I’m sticking to.

There were less hats than I’d planned for xmas gifting. And I didn’t have the heart or time to make more once we were home. But the ones I did make are probably that much better for the adventure attached to them. So if you received a little hat from me, now you know: it’s part of a pretty exclusive run of seven pieces. Number eight is on a biker’s tree in Wisconsin, I’m sure of it.

December 19, 2012

Stamped and Sewn: This Year’s Card!

Every year I try to make my own cards. I have a weakness for letter pressed cards and could buy them til I’m clean broke! But barring total financial irresponsibility, my irrepressible need to create, and my genuine belief that homemade cards are awesome, I managed to do it this year amongst all the rest of the madness. It was a glorious solo late night pursuit, my favourite kind : )

For the tree bodies, I used these gorgeous scraps of Nigerian fabric from my dear friend (and fellow sewing/fabric nerd!) Jen’s travels in that country. I cut out little pine trees and sewed them down the middle, easy as can be and so pleasing!

I discovered about 2 years ago that one could carve stamps from erasers and have tried it a few times since. So for the trunks I carved a wee eraser-stamp and l-o-v-e how it came out. I find carving incredibly satisfying. I guess I’ll have to tuck that into the drawer of “things I really want to do,” along with pottery on a wheel, letter pressing, silk screening, stained glass, soap making etc … sigh 🙂

December 14, 2012

Rearview Fridays: Potato Stamp Wrapping Paper

Ahhhhhhhh (sigh of comfort and decompression) I am back in the saddle — ish. Actually I’m more clinging to the edge of the saddle on the galloping horse that is my life, but none the less, I am here again. Our computer is set up in this new home on a new street in a new city, the internet is connected and it’s time for a Rearview Friday!

This one I’ve been saving. Last year when I was home on mat leave with then 3-month-old Gene and 3-year-old Rudi we made potato stamp wrapping paper. We had time in the schedule, space on the table and walls (for drying, this is key!) and had a rip-roarin’ good time. I fully plan to do it next year when we are not moving in the middle of the holiday season, whew.

If you can believe it, Miss Crafty 5000 herself had never made potato stamps! So it was time. They were easy to carve and I bought lots of potatoes in case of mistakes. The snowflake was my runaway favourite design in print.

I ended up using the Mala drawing paper roll from Ikea. It’s cheap and maybe tears a bit too easily for wrapping paper, but I liked how soft the texture was, it held the paint well and dried quickly. And I used whatever tempera paint we had around, just spread it thinly on a plate and then stamped away! I ended up drying the paper by taping it to the walls. It looked beautiful, magical.

This was a great activity for a 3-year-old and also, ahem, for an adult! It felt extra special to clad our gifts in our original paper designs. And the stamps preserved pretty well for about a week. I kept them in a tupperware in the fridge with damp towels over the stamp cut-outs so they wouldn’t wither. Alas, this year it’s a mix of left-over wrapping paper from the drug store and brown paper, but I’ll dig out the fancy ribbon to jazz it up!

December 5, 2012

Embroidered Map Art – Von Esteban Styles!

I have been a pretty absent blogger of late as I’m in a perfect storm of selling and buying houses and readying to move in a few days, sick little boys who pee beds and vomit copiously, sewing and editing gigs galore, prepping for christmas, goodbye visits my amazing gaggle of Toronto friends and so on. The adventures are coming thick and fast, offering all sorts of fodder for brilliant blogginess, but alas, no time to sit and write. I’m keeping a list of good ideas for quieter days ahead … all that said, I should really not be blogging at this moment, but I simply must share this right now!

Today I picked up my first big-girl art. A real, alive, commissioned piece from the remarkable Casey Von Esteban. A friend of mine had a piece on her wall by Casey that I fell hard for. In mid gush to my lovely husband about Casey’s stitched art, he suggested that I commission a piece for my autumn birthday. And so I did. That was in September sometime. And now it’s done. And I picked it up (jamming it in front of my sick sleeping boys’ feet in our Toyota Matrix because I am obviously a highly responsible and priority-straight parent). A 4′ x 4′ stitched map of my childhood neighbourhood! Here it is perched on the radiator in my almost-packed house:

I am on a big map kick right now, or maybe for always. I simply enjoy them, never tire of looking at the grid, always seeing new bits and places. I like the architecture and design of a place I don’t know or revelling in the comfort of familiar streets or landscapes. To that end, I asked Casey to stitch a chunk of South Edmonton, specifically Parkallen, where I grew up.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=edmonton+map&hnear=Edmonton,+Division+No.+11,+Alberta&gl=ca&t=m&ie=UTF8&hq=&ll=53.502087,-113.519754&spn=0.021161,0.046349&z=14&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

She did such a great job! Perhaps because I am moving cities for only the second time in my life and am overtired, or whatever the reason, emotions are close to the surface these days I can barely look at this piece right now without a misty wave of memory and nostalgia for childhood days and a beloved prairie city.

This piece of art encompasses a bunch of things I love — old, weathered wood, embroidery, maps — it is all of that. It’s tactile, I can run my hands over it, see and feel the care with which the artist worked. I love the back too, a rough, knotted mirror of the front. Casey actually drills every single one of those holes and then embroiders the work through them. It blows my mind. And. I. Love. It.

See the burgundy street in the centre of the image above above? That’s where I lived! Right on the inside corner. We had a great yard on three sides of the house because of that inside corner. I did a lot of dancing and daydreaming there, sigh!

I am a fairly large fan of the work of Casey Von Esteban. Ahem. You should check her work out, she’s a local Toronto gal. Her stuff is readily available (not just commission) and it’s not too late for holiday gifting (insert horn tooting here)! In addition to her maps, she does Toronto images (I really love the streetcars), animals (the squirrels and racoons make me giggle), miscellaneous (fingerprints, hearts and microphones, oh my), inappropriate words (nothing compares to a carefully embroidered f-bomb, nothing) and more. My map will have pride of place in our new home. Big girl art, sorted.

November 9, 2012

Headboard and the Angry Baby

Oh clever me. As the title suggests, this post is about a headboard. It’s not really about an angry baby, but an angry baby and a bolt of questionable inspiration at 3:17am during a 2 hour mystery screaming festival last night brought to me (unexpectedly) by my one-year-old and his sponsors did in fact lead to this brilliant title. I was lying beside my inconsolable son, vacillating between sympathy and rage, frustration and acceptance. During a period of apathy I was escape-thinking. My brain wandered to my blog and reminded me that I really should write about my headboard. I was composing brilliant, hilarious text in my head (if only I could remember it now) and I thought of this title. I felt very satisfied with myself. And yes it’s an homage to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which has nothing to do with headboards or babies. But is a truly awesome play and movie.

So on to the headboard. I made a headboard. An awesome headboard! I was not planning to make a headboard. But earlier this fall we decided to sell our house and move north to a smaller city full of family, more affordable housing with big yards and enough rooms for me to have a workroom that’s not our dining room (yay!), closer to the cottage, still a city full of art, still close to Toronto for when we need a dose of big city goodness and the awesome people that live here.

Thus my plan to open an Etsy store and hang out my virtual/literal virtual shingle got back-burnered til we move and I can spread out into the permanent work room. My autumn days have been been filled with 1-year-old Gene and prepping the house for sale. And we really needed a headboard. I don’t like ostentatious, padded ones, but I do like a significant headboard. So husband Adam and I got some plywood, made a tolerable standing apparatus on the back and covered it with this AWESOME fabric from Ikea, which looks like the end of a wood pile.

Looks great huh? And we topped it off with a long lusted-after pin-tucked duvet cover from West Elm. Oh sigh, a grown up room at last! Our house is now on the market (sweet relief) and it looks so good. I am ridiculously proud of it and we are enjoying living in the serene, non-reality of the staged version of our home. Which reminds me, I have a date with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (so gross, so effective, so ruining my hands) and the Swiffer, then I gotta empty some garbages, boil some cinnamon sticks and exit the building. More next week about staging with small children if I can get it together, it is total insanity! Happy Friday, boil some cinnamon, your nose will thank you.

October 26, 2012

Rearview Fridays: Felt Pentagon Ball

I am excited about this Rearview Fridays post — it’s a very old project, I made this felt pentagon ball when I was about 10! Earlier this year I wrote about some toys, balls and animals, that I’d made when I was in grade 4. And this is the ball I couldn’t find to include in that post, it’s the 5th toy I made that year.

This one is really precious to me, I was so proud of it. First I stitched the five-petaled flowers on each of the 12 pentagons and then sewed all 12 pieces together, by hand of course (it was Waldorf school after all)! It’s stuffed with fleece and has a bell in the middle. I’m sure there was a math lesson attached to this creation in addition to the sewing aspect! I do remember thinking I wanted to keep it for when I had kids (I was a planner!) and I managed that — both the having kids part and the keeping the ball bit! Gene and I tossed it around yesterday and he loves the bell.

I’m blowing kisses into the past towards my younger self, planning, stitching, filling a cold day with a delightful project, just as she would be 25 years later.