Colour Scheme Spotting

Having a camera on my phone means I am constantly taking snaps of different things I come across... mostly unique colour schemes found in various places. This is a recent one I took on a trip to Fabricville. One of my favourites... blues and greens.

Small Talk Studio

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was filled with little house projects and spending time with good friends.  I just love these prints from Small Talk Studio's Etsy shop.

Inconceivable Cab

The fantastic creative minds of The Helms Workshop recently completed what I consider to be a dream design job. Wine labels... but not just any wine labels... wine labels inspired by The Princess Bride [not the first time I have mentioned my love for this movie]. Oh and great T-shirts too!

Happy Friday!

I am not a knitter... yet.

I mentioned in a previous post this I wanted to pick up knitting this year. What sparked this desire? This scarf. After many "how to" youtube videos, blog tips and books I am feeling quite confident in my knitting. So confident that I already picked up the same blue sky bulky alpaca yarn used in my "dream" scarf. The dream scarf is made using the seed stitch. This is done by purling then knitting  repeatedly for a row and then purling your knits and knitting your purls on the next row [then repeat]. I've been practising this using thinner yarn that I had around the house. This shot is of my seed stitch practise piece.. soon to be my first scarf! Dream scarf progress to come!

Chickadee dee dee dee

This chickadee print was one of my creations at the NSCAD extended studies letterpress workshop I took a few months ago. Well... the type portion was done at the workshop. Since the workshop I have been wanting to add another element to the print and so I decided to carve a chickadee using my speedball/linocutting tools. I had some gold block printing ink that I thought would look great and I really love the sheen that it gives off. Speaking of Chickadees, we had one visit our bird feeder this weekend! We were very excited as the bird traffic at our feeder has been extremely low.

Roald Dahl's Stamps

Oh I love love love these. Just seeing the book titles and the distinct illustration style of Quentin Blake on these wonderful stamps, released by The Royal Mail to celebrate Roald Dahl's classis children's books, took me back to reading them as a kid [or having them read to me]. My favourite's include The Twits, The witches and The BFG.

Airigami

Happy Monday everyone! How amazing are these? Larry Moss is the artist behind these fantastic balloon creations. I can't get enough of Mona Lisa.

Project In the Works

A lot of my holiday projects involved linocutting (or stamp making) and I loved the proces so much that I am back at it. This time for a kitchen print project. It isn't complete yet but here is a sneak at my process and the theme the print will have. I think it will also make a fantastic wrapping paper print!

Happy Valentine's Day

Roses are red!

Chalk Letterer

Whew.... I have been a very bad blogger for the past couple of weeks. There just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day to even think of posts let alone piece one together. I have a lot of projects on the go that I am excited to share with you but for now I will be sharing some of my favourite design finds. Dana Tanamachi seems to be everywhere lately. Well her chalk lettering is anyway. Isn't it incredible!?

What Katie Ate

A few images from the latest post over at What Katie Ate, one of my favourite photography, food, styling blogs.

Adjustable Apron Tutorial

I pinned this apron project a while ago and have been anxiously waiting for some spare time to make it. Well Sunday morning I found the time. The tutorial can be found here. I followed the instructions step by step and found it very straight forward and really enjoyable to make!

I had just enough fabric left over from my accent pillow case project so all i had to pick up was approximately 3 yards of natural cotton ribbon.

The sewing techniques used in the project were very straight forward. And the whole project took only a couple of hours [I think it will take less time when I tackle the project again].

I love the finished product! The apron is designed to be unisex (probably a little too flowery for Dave) so I simply folded the "skirt" portion up and tied the ribbon in the front. The pocket portion is so cute and you could really design it to your own needs. Skinnier  pockets for pencils or spoons, one big pocket or none at all!

There was something about putting on the apron that made me want to bake and bake and bake. A batch of blueberry muffins and biscotti later I can't say enough great things about this Apron project. Thanks Purlbee!

All Day I Dream About Coffee

Happy Friday! Today's Coffee Break photo is taken at one of my favourite coffee spots, my home. This mug is the latest addition to my mug collection. A christmas present from D that sums up my thoughts around coffee perfectly. Have a great weekend!

A Hike By The Ocean

Nothing beats a hike by the ocean. I snapped these on the Kedji Seaside Adjunct trail on the South Shore just after Christmas.

Whimsy Crayon Wrap

This was another Christmas project I did for a wonderful little girl who loves princesses and drawing. I used this felt crayon wrap tutorial as a guide. Because I wanted to use a whimsical floral fabric as opposed to felt I had to alter the process slightly. Once the crayon and sketch book piece was complete I pinned everything right side in and sewed around the edge [leaving just enough room to turn the wrap right side out]. To make the felt flower decorations I used this tutorial. 

This project was really fun to make and I think it would make a wonderful Valentines day gift [or any day of the year gift] for that special creative someone in your life [big or small]. It uses very straight forward sewing techniques and the type of fabric you chose and embellishments make the gift that much more special.

Coffee Break

Enjoying a cop of joe at one of our favourite spots, The Coastal.

Having named my blog after one of my favourite hot beverages I've been wanting to start a regular coffee/Latté themed post for quite some time.

May I present to you... Coffee Break. A regular segment where I will share photos of favourite coffee spots [our own home included].

Happy Friday!

Fuzzy Friends

There are some very special kiddo's in Newfoundland that I really miss being able to see on a regular basis. I thought finger puppets would be a fun present for two little boys in particular.

When I finally decided on a jungle animal theme (a lion, giraffe, elephant and a parrot] I got to work. I cut the body portion from felt sheets, trying to chose colours that matched the animals main body colour. I then needle felted the "fur" and other details onto each side. I had a blast doing this part. I found myself laughing out loud as I made the little faces and they came to life. When Both sides were complete I pinned them right side in and sewed around them. Then I popped them right side out and continued to add little details here and there using my needle felting tools.

I wanted to create some sort of carrying case for them and a quick search on pinterest led me to this great tutorial to make drawstring bags. I just happened to have been given a super cute jungle animal print fabric [thanks maw :)] that was perfect for the job.

This was such a fun project that I am already planning on doing a few more sets with various themes. If you wanted to make your own but didn't want to do the needle felting you could continue on using the felt sheets to cut out the features such as noses and ears etc.

Not a Knitter... yet.

Knitting is something that I have attempted to learn before but just couldn't quite get the hang of it. I have a lot of friends that knit and my grandmother could whip up a sweaters like it was nobody's business. I marvel at their creations and how they make it look so easy. Well, I haven't given up. Knitting is on my list of things to do in 2012. My knitting goal is low, I would really just love to make a chunky scarf and perhaps a hat or two.

As you may have noticed I am changing things up around here. Over the next couple of weeks I hope to continue to change the look and create a better blogging structure. More on that later though.

Any tips from the knitters out there on yarns, needles [I've heard knitting in the round is the way to go], tutorial sites [I have joined Ravelry]?