Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Save on Crafts? Yes, please!

Holy Mercy! Just discovered Save On Crafts and couldn't be more excited to go shopping!

Things I love so far:

 
12" footed vase, $39, buy here
Natural Ram Head Pods, 5 for $3, buy here
Chalk board on a pole, $6, buy here
 
10" Natural Grapevine Lighted Moravian Star, $19, buy here

Thursday, November 25, 2010

My new light fixture

Bought the most beautiful lamp for the dining room from Lamp Goods on etsy. It's been featured on the designer's blog. Here is the link to the Lamp Goods blog so you can see all their fabulous makes!

Three-cord pendant lamp in our dining room

Monday, November 8, 2010

Love right now: chalkboard on my food storage bins!

Since opening bite-sized I have a lot of white powder in my house: all-purpose flour, cake flour, white sugar, castor sugar, iodized salt, sea salt, baking soda, baking powder... the list goes on! I have them all in air-tight containers, but how to tell them apart? How do you write on plastic? Chalkboard paint!
my blank "canvas".
I found these buckts (that stack when not in use) at the Great Canadian Superstore for $18.

block off the section with paint tape and prime.
I used CIL ANYWHERE primer from Home Depot

once primer has dried, put on the first coat of chalkboard paint.
I used Rust-Oleum Chalkboard from Home Depot

a side view after the second coat.


the final product, alongside my new Harrod's apron
And there you have it! You'll notice the top two containers are missing labels; that's because I pulled them off when i was removing the paint tape. Be careful! I should have sanded the plastic for a better stick, so I'll do that this time around. Can't wait to use my chalkboard paint again! I'm thinking on the freezer so we can mark what went in there and when ;)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Saying "I do" to giant cupcakes

I have Wilton's giant cupcake pan but never imagined it as wedding appropriate. Until now.

Aren't these gorgeous? All images via San Diego Wedding Insider.



Monday, October 18, 2010

Up-cycling burlap coffee bags? Yes, please!

I keep seeing up-cycled burlap coffee bags and can't help but sigh. Oh, how I want to make my very own burlap coffee bag pillow!

Via
Via

Friday, October 15, 2010

Loving today

burlap bunting, via
paper straws, via
sparkly clothespins, via
new uses for weather balloons, via
cupcakes in a jar, via
snazzy office supplies, via

Listening to La Roux

Heard this on the radio this morning and can't stop replaying it on youtube! So I'm sharing the love:

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Memories of people stealing my food

I saw these fabulous anti-theft lunch bags and immediately replayed days I would go to the office fridge to retrieve my lunch only to find it had already been eaten.

Via
I replay that Friends episode when Ross's boss admits it was he who stole Ross's thanksgiving turkey sandwich and that he had --gasp!-- thrown out what was left. It's all too familiar, that pang in your stomach as you long for the lunch you spent 7 minutes preparing that morning and recall how you almost missed the bus because you too-lovingly packed your sandwich in a seperate container from your fruit and snack.

But no longer! At only $8 per 25 bags, gone are the days when you couldn't make your sandwich and eat it too!

Monday, October 4, 2010

The one-millionth English word

On June 25, 2009, the Global Language Monitor (GLM) announced Web 2.0 (said: Web two-point-oh) as the 1,000,000th English word. I’m not here to discuss why the announcement was controversial (apparently some people argue there is no possible objective definition of “word”) or to discuss the English language (though I would have loved to discuss parenthetical clauses at length). I’m here to talk to you about why Web 2.0 matters, what it is, and how it affects the world around us.

You may think Web 2.0 is an evolution– that there is a Web 1.0 that’s been kicked aside and forgotten. In some regards, you are right (and not just that 1.0 has become a notion of the past): Web 2.0 is an evolution, but it’s more of an evolution in the way people think of and utilize the web and less in the technical sense.

Boring old Web 1.0 is simply web-for-information: static pages with no interactivity. But snazzy new Web 2.0 features people-for-information: sites allowing users to interact with one another or with the site itself, to modify or improve information, or to upload their own content. Way more exciting, if you ask me!

And Web 2.0 encompasses more than just social-networking sites like Facebook or mySpace. It takes content authoring to a new extreme:
  • Blogs allow people to share content with anyone interested in reading it. Apparently locked diaries are a thing of the past ;)
  • News that once would have had a CNN correspondent breaking the story are now being found on twitter before CNN knows they even need a camera crew on location – like the shooting at Discovery Channel in September 2010.
  • A study released earlier this year found that Wikipedia, a collaborative, online encyclopedia, was basically as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica.
  • In 2008, You Tube surpassed Yahoo! as the number two search engine in America.

We used to go to the web to get information. Now we can go to the information and share information. Web 2.0 is popping up everywhere!
  • Comment feeds after every CBC article
  • “like” and “share” buttons on more and more websites
  • Twitter feeds featured within a blog
  • Tagging photos in Facebook to link user accounts
  • Designing your own Converse sneakers or Sharpie pens online
  • Group consumer savings through sites like Groupon

Consumer review sites are changing the way companies handle their public relations and return policies; twitter is changing the way we think of breaking news; interactive web conferencing is changing the way organizations can perform focus testing; social media is changing the way world politicians campaign! The list of changes is endless!

Here are some Web 2.0 numbers for 2009, and remember, these numbers increase daily.
  • 30 billion – Number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year (at the current rate)
  • 126 million – Number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
  • 27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
  • 81.9 – Percentage of embedded videos on blogs that are YouTube videos.
If you didn’t already know, our world has become Web 2.0-centric and the internet is only going to become more open – more open with regards to content, users, ideas, and sharing. Web 2.0 may or may not be the one-millionth word, but it’s the first big technological concept of the 21st century.


How do you use Web 2.0?

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Sharpies included!

OMG -- just discovered that Sharpie custom orders their pens. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!?!

The facts:
  1. I love Sharpies
  2. I love anything that can be personalized
  3. This is way cooler than putting stickies on my Sharpies that read "Hands off! These are not your Sharpie pens!"
You wish these were your Sharpies! Via

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Apple Snapple

First, a totally random blip: Doesn't Apple Snapple sound like "Go faster!"? I think so. "Get this done! Apple Snapple!" or "It was over Apple Snapple!" Well, I think so, anyways.

On to the point of this entry: Oh, Snapple Iced Tea, how I love thee! I have one every day with breakfast and the bottles add up. I keep looking at them wondering how I can reuse them somehow. And it hit me, just reuse them as bottles! The embossed S is perfect for my one-day-would-be last name. I could print off my own labels for a special occassion. And I could pair it with a sweet paper straw. Maybe use as escort cards? Maybe just serve as is? Here is the before. I'll post an after once I make it happen!

The lot date scratches off with a little elbow grease, and the label just peels off.

Paper straws, via

Love right now: I like you (a poem by Sandol Stoddard Warburg)

[I did not write this poem, but I love it nonetheless]


I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it's special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, "Remember when you told me something special?"
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it's important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I'm funny and you think I'm funny too
Hah-hah!

I like you because you know where I'm ticklish
And you don't tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too

You know how to be silly
That's why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it's time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it's a quarter past silly!

Sometimes we don't say a word
We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places
If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too
If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY!

That's because you really like me
You really like me, don't you?
And I really like you back
And you like me back and I like you back
And that's the way we keep on going every day

If you go away, then I go away too
or if I stay home, you send me a postcard
You don't just say "Well see you around sometime, bye"
I like you a lot because of that
If I go away, I send you a postcard too
And I like you because if we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me

And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don't always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time
I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It's awful when the other person isn't
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up
then you are really sorry
You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say, maybe it was something you ate
You say, the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one
If I find four, I give you two
If we only find three, we keep on looking
Sometimes we have good luck, and sometimes we don't
If I break my arm, and if you break your arm too
Then it's fun to have a broken arm
I tell you about mine, you tell me about yours
We are both sorry
We write our names and draw pictures
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too

I like you because I don't know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do

So many reasons
On the 4th of July I like you because it's the 4th of July
On the fifth of July, I like you too
If you and I had some drums and some horns and some horses
If we had some hats and some flags and some fire engines
We could be a HOLIDAY
We could be a CELEBRATION
We could be a WHOLE PARADE

See what I mean?
Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again

That's how it would happen every time
I don't know why
I guess I don't know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you.

Love right now: Paper wreaths

I am kicking myself for having just painted my front door red. Totally clashes with this gorgeous wreath made of paper.

Via

Friday, September 10, 2010

A sneak peak at an upcoming wedding order!

I'm doing the cake and cupcakes for a wedding in a couple weeks and here's a sneak peak.Cupcakes are two flavours: my richest dark chocolate and lemon. And there is matching chocolate buttercream and lemon cream cheese icing! The wedding colours are purple and green, so I incorporated that too. (The cake is not featured today.)

Purple pansies
Lemon
Dark chocolate
Mmmmmm, which is your favourite?

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

To do by my 30th birthday

OK, I think this post in and of itself is indication at my Type A behaviour: a to-do list with a two-year deadline. Who plans that far in advance anyways? Oh, right. Me.

I'm almost 28 and I'm starting to feel old. Not really old, just old. Like, I feel like I should have accomplished more somehow. So I started to randomly write down things I wanted to get done in the near future. OK, I started to make a list.I can't help it: I love lists!

This is in no particular order. I'll cross them off and link them as each task is completed and I'll add more as I think of them. I'm glad to have them online; it'll help get me going on completing the list!

TO DO BY AGE 30: OCTOBER 2012
  1. Learn to felt wool
  2. Visit the Mall of America
  3. Take a far-away trip with Jones (one of my oldest and dearest friends)
  4. Go to Europe with my main man
  5. Have a girls' weekend with at least five of us (there are seven in our close-knit group)
  6. Sew my own dress, preferably with one of my 1950s McCall patterns
  7. Visit all the national museums in town
  8. Redo all three bathrooms OR the kitchen
  9. Learn to code CSS and redesign my blog myself
  10. See my college roommate at least twice a year
  11. Get promoted to the next pay scale (I got an acting assignment, but there's an option to keep me permanently at the higher level. New department Nov. 1/10)
  12. Clean out the basement storage (completed the first weekend in Jan/11)
  13. Make a clean, designated laundry area
  14. Learn to do my own make-up for daytime (My sister taught me how to do black liner with shadow. Then she told me to use a little tinted moisturizer, topped with a little bronzer on the cheeks and sweep on some near-sheer lip gloss, and voila! A daytime look in 3 minutes flat. Jan/11) 
  15. Pick any month and do yoga once a week
  16. Get back to 130 lbs or less (Goodlife membership kicked in mid-Dec/10. It's a start!)
  17. Redo the gardens in the front and back yards
  18. Make my own history album from my grandmother's copy
  19. Reset my clock to get up at 7am every day
  20. Learn origami
  21. Cook dinner four times per week for one month
  22. Host a thanksgiving dinner
  23. Make a pie from scratch
  24. Start my online shop, Sawyer & Sprout. I've been procrastinating out of fear of failure :( (Launched!)

Sunday, August 29, 2010

How I love thee, autumn!

Was perusing etsy and stumbled across these fantabulous felted wool acorns and I WANT! But instead of just purchasing them, I want to learn to make them :) I'm thinking of making a hundred and filling a candy jar -- totally unexpected, right?

Simply gorgeous:
Via

Found a great variety of wool roving for less than I could find on etsy here.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Because even the bathroom can have vintage chiq!

We just ordered this print for the upstairs bathroom. We'll frame it white so it really pops.

Via
Thanks to Maggie Rose for the inspiration!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Pendant lamps

The mister and I are looking at new lamps for the kitchen and dining room, and I may have just found a winner. Don't you just love it?

3 of the lights combined. Via

Runners-up include:

Via
Via
Via

Monday, August 9, 2010

Young blood sounds so A+

Loving this song. Their debut album is yet to be released, but I can't wait!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Chair rail? Check!

I have been on a crazy "we need to get our house projects done NOW" kick. I think it's because we're coming up to the one-year mark of living in our first home and we still haven't had a housewarming party (because I'm convinced the house isn't yet visitable by scrutanizing eyes).

After painting the antique chairs, every time we pushed back out of them, they'd transfer white paint on our milk chocolate walls. I thought chair rail was the answer. Chris wasn't sure. Wasn't the antique chair revamp project proof that he should listen to my design ideas?! Nevertheless, I proved right in the end -- and isn't that what matters most, ladies?

Chair rail along the worst of the scuff marks
Chair rail in the corner. We're probably going to paint the hutch white, too, to match the chairs and chair rail

Friday, July 23, 2010

Sweden good for more than just IKEA: Polarn O. Pyret

Move over, Baby Gap, Polarn O. Pyret is my new fave for fab baby gear!

Clothes for Mama-to-be, newborns, babies, and kids. Everything's on sale right now, so check it out!

Gunila Axen Eco Bodysuit

POLKA DOT BLOUSE

MATERNITY ECO PAJAMA BOTTOMS

Gorgeous invite design

My Google Reader grows daily, and I just discovered Paper Crave. Loooooove!

Found these there. Aren't they simply TO DIE FOR gorgeous? Sigh.

The whole suite
The invite
Find more of this suite on Paper Crave here. Find more pics posted by the bride and groom on Flickr.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Julia's cake

Here is the cake I made for friend and coworker Julia's wedding. She wanted three flavours, three buttercream icings, quilted fondant, and sequined ribbon. I didn't think it would all come together in time, but I got it in under the gun!

Sure, there were mishaps: a broken 16" base, torn fondant, running out of icing sugar, misplacing my quilting tool 3 hours before the wedding starts; but it was all worth it!

Attaching the ribbon at the hall

Standing by the finished product!

A side view. That's a lot of shimmer dust...

All cut up. Chocolate, vanilla, almond.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Fake (but one-day-will-be-real) Wedding: father-daughter dance songs

Ok, so I am so loving some songs lately and they're all for the father-daughter dance.

Here they are in no particular order:

Daughter by Loudon Wainwright III (hear it) (lyrics)
My Girl by The Temptations (hear it) (lyrics)
There Goes My Life by Kenny Chesney (hear it) (lyrics)
Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder (hear it) (lyrics)
Gracie by Ben Folds (hear it) (lyrics)
Then They Do by Trace Adkins (hear it) (lyrics) ...this one is perfect for my dad!
I Loved Her First by Heartland (hear it) (lyrics)

Check them with a box of Kleenex in hand. I promise you'll need them!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The Fake (but one-day-will-be-real) Wedding: seating plan

Every bride I know has told me the seating chart is the hardest thing to do. I didn't believe them. So I tried.

My man has indulged me (bless his heart) and allowed me to make a guest list...you know, in case we come into some money and could get married this September!

I split the list into five categories:
  1. Bride's family
  2. Bride's friends
  3. Groom's family
  4. Groom's friends
  5. Bride and Groom
I seated people from the same category together in groups of 7-8, and those under the Bride and Groom category (which I now realize is nonsensical as it doesn't refer to me or my man but to truly mutual friends) could be seated anywhere as they know both sets of our friends.

It took me two hours. And it only took that long because I had to copy and paste my worksheet into a Word document and out of the fabulous Knot workbook because I couldn't load all the names properly on my Macbook and I had to keep switching between apps.

Things I learned or am now considering:
  1. This seating chart wasn't so hard BUT it will probably change 14 times as people RSVP no and I need to fill up different tables.
  2. The memory of why two of your friends don't like each other hits you like a kick in the head when you see their names next to one another on the seating plan. 
  3. Big families make for annoying seating plans. I feel obligated to seat my family nearest me, but between us, Chris and I have over 60 members of our families within two generations! I am imagining waving to my friends sitting in the corner, waiting for their chance to get a picture and a word with us...
  4. With divorced parents, where do I place my sister?!
  5. We're each having one attendant. Do I want :
    1. a head table with four of us (bride, groom, MoH, BM), 
    2. a head table with six of us (same, but with their dates), 
    3. or no head table and sit with our parents,
    4. or no head table and sit with our friends?
Have you had difficulty with your seating plan?

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Other clocks that make my heart tick, tick, tick

After the Mississippi clock, I decided to roam the net for some other clocks that make my heart tick!

Here are a few I am loving right now.

This Postmaster clock adheres in 13 pieces to the wall, so you can make it as big or small as you'd like! Available here


This clock looks like an old pocket watch, but it goes on the wall! Available here. Check eBay for more selection!


This clock looks simple, but that's what makes this coloured-block clock gorgeous! Available here.