Category Archives: fun finds

Ballieboro day trip.

I lugged the boys out last weekend to the Bailieboro Pottery & Glass Festival. There were some lovely things there to behold.

I must have been in a blue mood or something because anything blue was grabbing my attention.

I left with this lovely rectangular piece.

The design inside is so pretty. This piece is from Terra Dolus Pottery.

I decided to use it to keep all my little pins and brooches in.

I also got these nice coasters from Blue Cheese Pottery. They’re a really light blue/green colour.

The show was all around this church that houses an antiques store, very lovely stuff in there. The boys were so good on the car ride and even tolerated me stopping at a place called Barn Finds to look at neat stuff and do some thrifting.

Creativity in all it’s forms.

I’ve come to a realization, part of it isn’t exactly rocket science – I need to create everyday. If I don’t I start to feel crabby, especially if a day or two passes.

The other part is that creativity can take many forms for me now. Before I seemed to only count sewing things, or crafting specifically. Now I realise that I’ve got other creative outlets too, how I dress, my crazy hair colours, writing, learning and most recently cooking. Since the chef of the house moved out and I’m up to bat on cooking for me and the boys I’ve had to learn some tricks.

I’m becoming friends with my slow cooker. I enrolled the boys in a summer reading program at the public library so we’ve been going there every week for their little stickers and book reports. While there I’ve been checking out books about food and cooking. I found this book and absolutely love it. The author has a blog, Eating From The Ground Up. This book is packed with crazy useful information, I’m going to have to pick up my own copy.

It’s going to be a challenge balancing things once school starts up again, the kids, work, the blog, creating, single parenting . . . I’ve got lots of things to navigate. Good thing I’m up for a challenge!

Creative Bug

Ok now that summer is upon me I have to embrace these 2 months of free time and go crazy creating and catching up! I’ve had a Creativebug Inc membership for a while but have only watched a small percentage of my flagged ‘want to watch’ classes.

I watched Anna Maria Horner’s Modern Doily class and then of course wandered off to buy her book. Because, you know, I need more projects.

They have a free content section, that I recommend checking out. You can also subscribe and get access to all the content, which is a great deal.

I’ll be that evil person hoping for some rainy days here and there that stick me inside the house so I can get all this stuff done!

Wilbur

This is Wilbur.

I picked him up on the weekend from the booth beside me, Pidpenky. He’s super cute. He sits on my dresser and makes me smile as I walk into my room. Yeah I’m 37 and bought a stuffed bunny. But how could I not!?

Yep, cute little button.

Here are some of his friends I had a hard time leaving behind.

Patches

Pickles.

Unfinished projects.

We all have those unfinished projects. Why do we do that?!
So as if I don’t have enought of them lying around already my BFF did some cleaning up in her craft room and tossed a few unfinished projects at me. But how I could I resist this raincoat!?

It fits perfectly, is over half done and is absolutely adorable!!

Creating and my voice.

While at the Handmade show on Saturday selling with some fellow T.E.S.T members I traded the lovely Christine for one of her inspirational printed tea towels.

It’s similar to this one in her shop, same saying, just different towel.

Then Sunday I was feeling really down and a good friend from work, who’s very wise and has overcome things in her life to become this beautiful person who I adore, texted to see how I was doing. When I mentioned I was still a bit down she suggested I “go create something out of the pain and turn it into something beautiful for all to gain”.

I told her I couldn’t. While I Tweet or Facebook statuses about heading to the sewing machine, or sitting down to craft often, the truth is I very rarely do these days. I go to the basement to put a load of laundry on and I’ll turn on the lights at my craft space, pull the machine forward, even layout some fabrics, and then I proceed to just walk on by it all for the rest of the day until I admit defeat and shut the lights off at the end of the day.

She texted back “You’ve muted your voice. Give it sound again. Ask the angels to help you find your voice again”. I texted back with a picture of the towel and how I had gotten it the day before.

The funny thing was Christine said I had inquired about this towel in our Etsy convos about working out a trade but then at the show she pointed out I was changing my mind but maybe that was because the “sing your song” one was speaking to me and I should go with it.

I’ve met some amazing people lately. I’m so glad I have.

Pretty Inspiration

I found this Etsy shop recently and I love the sketchy designs.

I also started following Pam’s blog and other stalkable social media things, she’s a rather creative lady and I love her work.


I picked up a pile of colours that I thought were pretty and while I love the open endedness of the project it’s also a bit daunting to just have to ‘wing it’. Getting it all organized since it’s a good portable craft and then I’ll start madly stitching.

Another thanks to Janee.

Not only is my cyber space friend Janee hosting this super cool giveaway right now but she’s also dangerous to follow on Etsy. She favourites beautiful stuff, and also makes pretty awesome treasuries. Beware.

Because of her I found this great shop recently.

Not only am I a sucker for fabric, I’m super interested in printing my own someday so any shop where fabric printing is involved I like!

Mitten Bay

I have no clue where it is but I want to live there.

Found these at a thrift store in Kensington Market in Toronto. Also, why didn’t I have a Hoedown in Grade 1?!

Next mission is an authentic looking shirt to stitch on this collection. Oh and expand the collection too.

Blurb Instagram book.

When I went to Blissdom Canada I was given a coupon from Blurb and used it literally, in the last few hours before the coupon expired. Since I had only the time I was willing to stay awake that night I made a quick Instagram Photo Book.

It was super easy. You just connect with your Instagram stream and pick and choose the photos you want in your book. You can mess around with the order, choose the cover, it’s all pretty awesome.

Then at check out you can easily choose to duplicate the book, for a gift or such.

Right now, until February 14th there’s a coupon code to save 20% off your photo book, use code MYBOOKLOVE. After making my book and loving it so much I applied to the affiliate program, so fyi these links are affiliate links.