bird wreath box

I really like the thin wooden boxes that soft cheeses come in here in Europe. I've been saving a few Camembert cheese boxes without really knowing what I was going to do with them. I also had a flat aluminum wreath with a bird on it that I had bought in Japan but couldn't find any good way of displaying.

Suddenly, I realized that the bird wreath would fit perfectly in the cheese box. Thus, the solution to my problem! Two birds with one... box?

It was super easy-- just poked some holes in the base of the box and fed a tiny amount of green gardening wire through to secure the wreath, and finished! It goes along with the bird theme in the rest of the room and is perfect for spring!

I think it would also look good with some green moss (either the stringy kind or the velvety kind) around the inner and outer rims, but I also like the wood grain and the writing on the outer rim as it is.

pins and needles

Since making the bird and the dinosaur to distract myself from my deadlines the other day, I've made several more birds and am getting into the groove of sewing again. It's been years since I've sewn by hand, and I'm a little rusty. I hope to learn to tie end knots properly for once this time around!

But first, I need to have a proper setup... and no sewing setup is complete without a pincushion. It was my first time making something 3-D, so I went with the simplest possible shape-- a cylinder.

The pincushion was made of some jeans harvested from the waste bin in the common laundry room in our apartment building. The two pairs of jeans were perfectly good except for some holes, but they yielded tons of usable fabric. Yay!

parov stelar

pretty awesome!
a night in torino (live)


coco - feat. lilja bloom


hurt


spy game

triad

princess torte

Marzipan is one of my favourite things in the world.

Thus, marzipan + cake = yum!

dinosnuggle

these guys appeared in my life yesterday. sometimes, when you have a huge deadline and important things to be doing, you somehow just find yourself making plush animals, you know?

dino is made of reclaimed fabric (curtain cast-offs) and stuffed with mesh onion bags :)

the mesh stuffing works very well, actually, and it takes a surprising number to fill a dinosaur this size-- about seven or eight altogether. it's a good way to re-use those things because they'd be garbage otherwise.

birdie is made of felt and stuffed with shredded old clothing (of the type that cannot be donated-- ie. socks, undies, et cetera. i definitely made sure they were clean clean clean before shredding)-- and also scraps from cutting the felt itself.

they were quite calming to make.

diy centrepiece

the centrepiece/candelabra pictured above is made from thrifted chinaware, found here. it's lovely and simple, and i'm tempted to make one myself.

i've become completely obsessed with various eco-friendly diy blogs recently. i've always loved making things and trying to save the environment, but i had no idea that there were so many great blogs out there that meld those two. i think something good did come out of the recession... it's forcing people to be creative and resourceful, not to mention non-wasteful.

here's a few of the blogs:
http://www.diylife.com/
http://portovert.com/
http://www.shoestringmag.com/

our new pet

yes, the leaves are a little chewed up due to some time spent at a neglectful plant nursery, but this fragrant little italian darling has now been pruned and will be healthy in no time.

the oranges smell absolutely divine... I'm waiting to try one :)

dictionary

(these photos are a little washed out and noisy due to some mysterious affliction that is troubling the camera)

i made a skin for another one of these last year with the same adhesive fabric when i was in japan. i liked it so much that i did this one this week.

and dang, this little thing is amazing. it crams every possible function and feature (dictionary, pronunciation training, phrasebooks, recording, mp3, video, etc., etc.) into a completely nondescript shell, is rechargeable (!!), expandable, compatible with everything, comes with case and accessories... *and* cost only pocket change. hurrah for asian back-alley electronics!

the invention of the world

"people are never so horrified as when they see others doing what they'd like to do themselves."

--j. hodgins

the invention of the world

the ting tings

bopping along on my commute to these guys

the wonders of wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_hypnotism

best subheading ever: "notable people who have discussed chicken hypnotism"

not nearly as funny, but related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trout_tickling

bunny peril

Bunny ears-- it's the best part!

james t.

James T. bravely posing for this photo despite his dislocated shoulder