Projects

May luck come knocking…

February 19, 2015 CaitlynLeave a comment

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! The year of the sheep is supposed to be a peaceful one–is it feeling that way so far for you? Things have been settling down a bit for us now that we’re getting used to our new place and to our neighborhood. We’re getting pretty excited for our first pay check so that we can start venturing further out, but in the meantime, I seem to always find something to do!

For example, today I decided to try some more hand-lettering with a phrase often used for the Lunar New Year: “May luck coming knocking at your door.” I read an article recently that listed the phrase as one of many auspicious phrases some Chinese families hang around their houses for the Lunar New Year. I thought it might be perfect to hang in our entryway!
I am still working on this little project (I want to make everything look more intentional and solid), but I thought I’d share what I’ve got with you so far. I used a photo editing program to make my sketch look like an old fortune-telling card–isn’t that cool?

By the way, you can see what we did last year for the Lunar New Year here, and read about why mandarin oranges relate to wealth and fortune here. (Side note: I LOVE fresh mandarin oranges! They are sweet and juicy and almost like candy!)

Hope 2015 is going lovely!
xx Caitlyn

Little hand-lettering project (and printable!)

February 17, 2015 Caitlyn3 Comments

I have had a quote by Roald Dahl pinned to my inspiration board for some time, and I finally decided I should try and do something with it. I started sketching out the quote, channeling a bit of my zentangle practice to fill in empty space, and before I knew it I had lost track of time and was really liking what I was coming up with.
After I finished the sketch, I traced over it with a fine-tipped Sharpie.Then, when I finished with my Sharpie, I thought my artwork might look even nicer with color. Just in case, I retraced my design on a separate sheet of paper before I got started. Here are the two different versions I completed below. I am not sure which one I like better, but I was thinking of seeing how they look printed and then choosing one to put up with washi tape in another room in our apartment. If you like, feel free to click on the pictures to download your own copy!

Click here to download the color version
Click here to download the black and white version

Which version do you like better? Have you ever tried working with a favorite quote this way?

xxCaitlyn

Projects

Decorating a Rental Apartment

February 9, 2015 Caitlyn3 Comments

My, my, my, am I ever feeling pleased with my little Monday night project. You see, before leaving for Japan, I had printed some photos and random prints to use for art journaling, but I never got around to using them. After arriving in Japan, I thought some of them would be fun to hang on the wall, but how could I do it in an apartment? After all, no holes are allowed in the wall, meaning we have to be careful about even using tacks. Plus tacks can be, well, tacky.

As I thought about my predicament, I suddenly remembered something I’d once stumbled upon on pinterest–a solution to my problem!So how did I hang my pictures, you ask? Washi tape.

And what about the frames for the pictures? Washi tape.

And what was the entire solution to my predicament? Washi tape. Look how fun the wall in our living room turned out! I absolutely love it, and plan to do a few more pictures throughout the apartment as well. (Don’t mind all the blankets–at the moment we’re sleeping in the living room, but as we acquire more furniture we will get things more and more situated!)
Things I loved about this project:
1. It was super inexpensive! I think I probably paid about 500 yen or less for all the washi tape? (So around $5.00 USD?)
2. It isn’t permanent, meaning I could test hang my pictures and easily move them around when I was working on the project, but also that in the future I can easily switch things up!
3. I got to decorate my apartment and see pictures of people I love while I did it. (Though we have more pictures of loved ones around the house as well!)

In the past when I lived in Japan, I had trouble with decorating our rental apartments, but I am happy to say that this time around I’m getting ideas to make our little place more homey every day. I’ve started a new pinterest board about living in smaller and/or more temporary places that is sure to start growing. Looking forward to sharing future posts about sprucing up our apartment, too!

Have you ever used washi tape for decorating? What are some fun ways you’ve decorated a temporary space?

Have a lovely week!
xxCaitlyn

Projects

January Peek Cards

February 2, 2015 Caitlyn1 Comment

Happy February, everyone! Welcome to the month of love ❤ Today I thought I’d share my January Peek Cards with you. What are those, you might ask? Well, remember when I was telling you about the fun style of art journaling I started this year? Peek Cards are a weekly art journaling task in which you do a watercolor around the size of a playing card (I traced around a bank card for mine). I really enjoyed making my peek cards throughout January, especially because the entire time I focused on just having fun, not perfection.Upper Left: New Year’s Decorations in Japan
Upper Right: The Moon Bridge from Koishikawa Kourakuen Gardens
Lower Left: A sweet kitty cat made to look like kamon
Lower Right: A snowflake

Looking forward to the adventures February brings!
xx Caitlyn

Projects

Coconut Sea Salt Body Scrub

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014 arielmay851 Comment

Guest author: Ariel Knapp

Good morning, everyone! It’s December in Michigan which means cold, dry air! We haven’t gotten much snow this month but (with the exception of this past weekend) the air has been extremely cold most days. My skin feels like all the moisture has been sucked out of it and I’m left a dried out husk. It’s a gross feeling, let me tell you. So, in an effort to combat this horrible dryness, I decided to make my favorite body scrub and wanted to share it with all of you who may be in the same boat.

First, gather your supplies:

-1/2 cup coconut oil
-1 cup sea salt
-10 to 15 drops essential oil (optional)

Second, mix it all together:

Third, put the body scrub in a jar with a pretty lid:

Fourth, use the body scrub in the shower:
[photo deleted for explicit image]

Ha! Just kidding! I didn’t actually take shower pictures!

But seriously, this scrub is so easy to make and much less expensive than the store bought varieties. It does a great job getting rid of dry skin and an even better job keeping skin moisturized. A couple things to let you know before you try this out: use it after you shave because the oil can prevent a close shave and if you have any little cuts and scrapes the salt will sting.

I hope you try this body scrub!

Do you live in a cold climate? What tips and tricks do you have to help prevent dry skin?

Projects

Knitting Project: Fair Isle Socks

December 2, 2014January 2, 2015 arielmay852 Comments

Guest Author: Ariel Knapp

I’ve been a knitter for over a decade. Over the last few years, I’ve been expanding my skills as a knitter. I went from knitting scarves to knitting sweaters, blankets, baby clothes, etc. One thing I hadn’t tried, though, was fair isle knitting. It seemed too complicated and fussy. But last winter I decided to try my hand at fair isle. I found this sock pattern on Ravelry, which is a great resource for knitters and crocheters. I had knit socks before and thought it would be something familiar to knit while also being a smaller project in case I couldn’t stand knitting fair isle. Here’s what I ended up with:

There are so many mistakes! One sock is bigger than the other (the consequence of knitting the second sock a year after knitting the first sock), the color of the one contrast yarn doesn’t match from one sock to the other, there are pattern screw ups, and no ankle shaping. But, whatever, this was a practice pattern and I love my too big, mistake-ridden socks.

Are you a knitter? What have you knitted?

Autumn Bucket List · Learning · Projects

Zentangle Time!

November 17, 2014 Caitlyn7 Comments

So I’m about a third of the way through my “30 Days of Zentangle” goal for my Autumn Bucket List, and I thought I would share a few of my favorite tangles so far.
Day 4

In case you’ve never heard of Zentangle, it is a “fun, relaxing art form that employs structured and coordinated patterns as a means of creating beautiful and interesting pieces of art.” I got that definition from the workbook I’ve been using on my Zentangle journey: The Art of Zentangle: 50 inspiring drawings, designs and ideas for the meditative artist. I think this workbook is awesome because it starts you off with the basics and allows you to build confidence to progress into more complex tangles. Additionally, more complex does not mean more difficult; contrarily, Zentangling is all about the process of creating without worrying about the outcome or about making mistakes. The Art of Zentangle really provides great ideas and inspiration to make your own unique tangles.

Days 8 & 9

Day 9

I started off my “lessons” by telling myself I needed to sit down for at least 25 minutes to try to get part of the book done each day. I soon realized that tangling makes you lose track of time rather quickly–on days where I had somewhere to go after my Zentangle time was up, I would be startled out of tangling by an alarm, and on days where I had more time, over an hour would pass sometimes before I knew it.

Day 11

I can’t wait to get farther into the book and try out more of the activities. I’m really looking forward to the sections that introduce using shading and colors. As I continue working through the book, I will be sure to update you again with some of my new favorites!

Take care and stay warm on this blustery day!
xx Caitlyn

Projects

DIY Felt Koozie

September 16, 2014 CaitlynLeave a comment

Last weekend at Wheatland I volunteered to help with making felt purses. Although I’ve had lots of fun working with needle felt, I never tried felting with water, so I was interested to learn how it worked. Turns out, felting with water is pretty easy, though I can’t see myself making loads of things in the style. One thing I did venture to make, however, was a beer koozie. Of course.

So above are the necessary materials you need to begin: a bottle or can for sizing reference, a pan at least an inch or two deep, needle and thread, dish soap, and wool in the color(s) of your choice for felting.Begin by separating the felt into two layers in your pan. The first layer should go across the width of the pan, and the second layer should go up and down, in the opposite direction. This ensures there won’t be any thin areas in your project, and helps prevent holes in the end result.

Once you’re satisfied with your layers, drizzle dish soap over the prepared felt.

Curry Chan was very interested in this step…

Next, add some water, just to cover the felt, and press it down like a pancake using the flat of your hand. The next step is pinching the felt together like a pie crust, all over. Once you’ve pinched for about five minutes, you’ll flip the felt over and repeat the pinching on the other side. It should take around 10 minutes, if you have the patience.

Once you (and your cat, if applicable) are satisfied, it’s time to rinse out your felt.

(Turns out Curry was just on a path of destruction, hoping to run off with the remaining felt and roll all over the carpet with it. I shouldn’t be surprised after the sad fate of cute Mr. Turnip…)

Here is my ball of felt after washing.

Roll out your felt and place a bottle or can on it to measure your Koozie. I measured the width first, and then measured out a circle for the bottom.

Next, sew the edges together. I did a bit of a hodge-podge job on part of it, but I didn’t worry too much as I knew I’d be turning the koozie inside out when finished. A big part of this project was not worrying about perfection.

Next up, you can sew on the bottom of your koozie and inspect your work!

Here is my completed koozie before turning it inside out.

And that’s it! You can now put your beverage of choice in your koozie and enjoy. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can also add strings of beads of other decorations onto your koozie, but I decided to run on the side of simplicity. (Or was it laziness? One can’t be sure.)

Do you like the wet-felt method? What kinds of felt projects have you made or would you like to make in the future?

Food & Cooking · Party · Projects

A Parisian-Themed Baby Shower

September 8, 2014 Caitlyn2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, my coworkers and I decided to throw a French-themed Baby Shower for our friend Caitlin. I am so excited to share pictures from the shower with you!

First off, here is a picture of the gift table. (Can you see that awesome I ❤ Paris bag one of my coworkers made? It turned out so great!)

I made a bunting for the gift table that said “Merci.”

I also made bunting that said, “Bonjour” to go above the food table. To eat, we had cream puffs, skewers with melon, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and pepper, chicken salad-stuffed croissants, mojito fruit salad, a big chicken, bacon and egg salad, and a red velvet cake.

There were three different fillings for the cream puffs: white chocolate, French vanilla and cheesecake. I tried to make the colors red, white and blue for the French flag, but they turned out to be a bit more pink, white and teal. We tried to pretend the colors were to represent our curiosity about whether Caitlin would have a boy or a girl instead (nice way to improvise right?).

I thought this cream puff top looked like a heart, so we saved it especially for the momma-to-be.Is this cake not beautiful!? My friend Amanda hand-painted the cake after making it herself. Magnifique!

Amanda also made this smaller cake to go with the bigger one with the Eiffel tower. Caitlin and her husband Chris decided to save the little cake for after the baby was born.

After admiring the cake and the rest of the beautiful spread, we began to eat. It was at that time I was explaining the flavors of the cream puffs and decided to STICK MY ARM IN THE EIFFEL TOWER. Talk about embarrassing. I was laughing, but trust me, my heart hurt at the thought of even the slightest smudge in the cake Amanda painstakingly made for HOURS. I decided we should get the cake far away from me and have someone responsible cut a few slices out.

Amanda did the honors…

…and the inside of the cake was pretty, too (and delicious!).

As a sort of guest “book,” I drew a little baby wrapped up in a blanket hanging from a few patterned balloon cutouts I made. I wrote “bonjour bébé” on the side of the baby bundle. Then I put a Winnie the Pooh quote at the bottom: “A great adventure is about to begin.” I cut out a bunch of balloons in the same colors as the buntings I made, and then put them in a dish with a marker, glue and instructions nearby. The instructions asked each guest to sign their name with a little message before gluing on the balloon and “attaching” it by drawing on a string.

I think it turned out pretty cute, especially once everyone had added their balloons!

Since it was a coed baby shower, I tried to think of games to play that weren’t too cheesy or girly. On the gift table I set up two baskets, one filled with diapers and one empty. Guests wrote out jokes or other thoughts for Caitlin and her husband to keep them entertained during late-night diaper changes, and then put the diapers in the other basket. I also got M&M’s to do a guessing game (our friend Natalie was kind enough to count them as she arranged them by color to resemble the French flag–there were over 600!).

Lastly, we asked Caitlin for an ultrasound we could use to “Pin the Beret on the Bébé.” We had a lot of fun with this! Here’s Caitlin having a go–she got really close!

I just love this picture of Caitlin laughing while our friend and coworker Dona tried the game!

This one is nice, too!

We also got some really fun pictures of Caitlin opening some of the gifts. Above, you can see that she got a Madeline collection! Lastly, above you can see the pretty invitation Amanda made for the shower (click on it for a larger view). I edited out my address, but you can still get the idea of how fabulous it looked! We have a talented group of friends and coworkers, that’s for sure. The shower would not have been nearly as beautiful and fun without them.

Above is a picture of some of the ladies at the shower with Caitlin in the middle. We had tons of fun celebrating with Caitlin, and were super excited last Tuesday when she finally gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Félicitations!

xx Caitlyn

Projects

Vintage Coffee Clock DIY

September 1, 2014September 1, 2014 Caitlyn1 Comment

So by now I’m sure you know that I’m obsessed with coffee, and you may also remember I enjoy making clocks (remember that bicycle clock DIY?). It was only a matter of time before I decided to combine these two interests into one, creating a vintage coffee clock!

It all started when I stumbled across this royalty free vintage Zodiac Coffee advert online:

I immediately thought the image would be perfect for a clock, so I asked my dad to help rotate the circle so the twelve and six would be aligned properly. He kindly agreed, and we ended up with the image below (feel free to download it for your own clock-making delight!).

Once I had the image printed, I bought my frame and clock parts from a local craft store and cut the image to size.Next up, I used Modge Podge to attach the image and to add a nice glossy look to the image as well.While my image was drying, I stained my frame…

…and once everything was dry, I assembled the clock! (I did make one minor mistake: I tried to smooth out a little bump and ended up creating a small tear in the image. I will probably reprint the image and try again, but for now, I am pretty happy with my result.)

I love the way this easy DIY turned out, and it took less than twenty minutes if you subtract the drying time for the Modge Podge and stain! This is going to go perfectly in my craft room!