pencil crayon wreath

used five boxes of pencil crayons from dollarama, buttons are from my own vintage collection, paper clips from dollarama, "learn" bingo card (? no brand name on it so i'm not sure), paper circles are october afternoon, calendar circles are jillibean soup, ruler is my mind's eye, numbers are maya road, alphas are basic grey, ribbon (? long been in my collection so i'm not sure again).

hot glued everything. pencil crayons are glued to the lid of a cool whip container which i cut out the center of. i hot glued them on there like CRAZY so that they wouldn't fall off (which they did at first). seems pretty secure now.

doilies? really?

awhile back i had gone into the mcc and discovered the most beautiful doily. that's right. i said it. i found a beautiful doily! who'd of thunk that they'd make beautiful teal doilies! and so the collection began. now, every time i go into the mcc, i must scavange through the stack of doilies for more awesomeness. i've got about 20. now, i just need to decide what i will do with them! i'm thinking...sew them together to make an open-faced blanket? or wall piece? or maybe mod podge them onto canvases? help!

another totally awesome find was this oneida cutlery box. i loved it. it sort of stinks, so i will rip out the fabric and stuff and sand and paint the interior but it is a fantastic piece to use for storage or as a display case. ack! i have soooo many pieces i need to work on. i need to take a week off to do this, seriously. i really do!

mmmmmmmm

it's no secret that i've been eating totally different for the last 12 weeks. one of my most favourite things to eat is my minestrone soup. it is ridiculous. zero additives and just oh so tasty. so, i thought i'd share the recipe for all! and, don't panic. i know you don't see salt or other seasonings in the ingredient list but it will be full of taste. trust me.

4qt pot
3 med carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves of minced garlic (use the instructions on the jar)
28oz of canned diced tomatoes (it's a little excessively tomato, so use your discretion)
1 cup of cooked brown rice
1 container of vegetable broth
1 large bay leaf
1/2 can of white kidney beans
1/2 can of cut green beans

instructions: sautee the carrots, celery, onion and garlic in the pot just until they get a little soft but not burnt (you need to keep your eye on this). then add the tomatoes, rice, broth and bay leaf and stir, stir, stir! bring to a boil and then reduce to a low heat (if it still lightly boils, that's fine). now just let it simmer for 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. then add in the kidney beans and the green beans and stir, stir, stir! let that cook on the low heat for another 15-20 minutes. scoop out that bay leaf and it is ready to serve! de-lish!

i, personally, like to cut up enough vegetables to make two batches and then as soon as i'm out of one batch of soup, i can easily make another. oh, another tip to extend the life of the soup? keep on adding more broth every time you take out for another bowl. because the soup starts out quite thick, i always keep adding that extra broth in between.

it is so delicious. i just made some. i can smell it. it is calling my na...

buttons, buttons

Wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to feature this week. So I decided that since I’d already done a post about re-doing my kitchen, I should stick with that theme this week. This is a piece I made and it hangs above my yellow breadbox in my kitchen. It was so simple to make!

For $2 I picked up this plain white canvas at the dollar store and for another $1 I bought a package of glue dots (in the craft area). I already had collected a fairly substantial amount of buttons (thank you again, MCC!) and have separated them by colour previously so it was just about finding the “cool” looking buttons for this project

First I chose the colours and gathered buttons in those corresponding colours and laid them out on the canvas. Once I felt like I had a good pattern, I stuck a little glue dot behind each button and stuck it on.

When I looked at the project, I figured something was missing so I went ahead and put white buttons along the entire board of the frame as well! That was such a great idea. I mean, I used all of the glue dots I had purchased but I got this totally wicked little art piece for less than $5 and I can say I made it.

What’s better than that?

pinterest piques my interest

oh em gee. i am in love with this website pinterest.com. You can just post pictures of things you've found online that you love. i keep an inspiration folder on my computer to help me out when i want to craft but don't know what to do but this site is just genius. my inspiration folder has quintupled in size just because of this site. i want to make so many things: family bingo cards, subway art, toys for the kids, t-shirt bags, etc. etc. etc. i love it! i keep thinking that i should take a week off of work to just craft but then on the other hand if i had all this extra time, i'd probably end up watching tv or sleeping or something. lol

and i do still have these secret dreams of getting a table at the next craft show and making stuff for it but on the other hand, i worry about a) finishing enough projects to make a table viable and b) that people may not like what i do and i won't sell anything! but, in the meantime i'm still going to keep making things and putting them up in my house or leaving them in my storage room/former office for a future date. no one says i have to get a table this year. maybe this is just the first step--to decide that this is something i want to do and start preparing projects for it.

the rare dish

just got back from the mcc. got a great haul today. i found a cute bolero suit jacket. and a vintage button down jacket that is flared which almost makes me think it is a maternity jacket but whatev, i love it as a regular jacket. also picked up 8 magazines (Elle, LouLou, Flare, etc.) that were released in the last year, two books for Emma, one book for Elijah and...two new Pyrex dishes!

The dish below is from an extremely rare collection--I can barely find any information on it online, that's how rare it is. It's got a little chip so I only paid 50 cents for it, but I just loved the Japanese cherry blossoms on it! The line is called "Pyrex England: Cherry Blossom" (ps. the picture is not of my bowl because I haven't snapped a pic of it yet, but this is one I found online of the same bowl I have).

The other dish I got is below. It's from the Pyrex: Woodland set. It's a mixing bowl which is great because I'm always in need of mixing bowls. Although...I'm not using any Pyrex stuff right now becuase it's all too darn pretty. :) (ps. the picture is not of my bowl because I haven't snapped a pic of it yet, but this is one I found online of the same bowl I have).

the new pyrex piece

isn't this piece super cute? i found it at the mcc for $4. it's not worth gobs of money or anything but pyrex dishes are HUGELY collectible. i needed in on this collection. so, i am constantly scouring the shelves at the mcc and turning over all the dishes that look like they could be pyrex to check for the authentic seal. what am i going to do with these? haha i have no clue! lol

like my green glass collection or every other thing i find at the mcc...i have no idea what i'm going to do with this all. i guess i dream of being able to display all of these things properly some day. in the mean time, my third bedroom/office has turned into a storage room for everything i find while thrifting! i'll be on a hoarders episode in about 50 years.