make your own paper flowers

(image source)

Links to tutorials for these kusudama flowers on Elizabeth Anne's cute website

(image source)

Pretty paper rose tutorial by dozi

robot garland

(image from Made by Rae)

Me, I’m a huge fan of robots. When I saw  this tutorial on Made by Rae, I was delighted. It’s so cheerful and fun!

There’s probably lots that you can do with these... if you have a dark-coloured wall, I imagine that robots made of aluminum foil would look really cool! Or, you could chain them vertically, or stack them in geometric patterns on the wall.

Love them!

somewhere, a dog barked

Illustration from this amusing article on Slate.com.

bird cake

This lovely cake was made to match this apparently popular dinnerware set it's served on. Beautiful!

street art

nagi noda

I love artist Nagi Noda's work. See more of it here.

meanwhile

(from here)

Some great photos found on Steuso's photostream. His screenprints are awesome!

gabriel orozco

"Cats and Watermelons" by Gabriel Orozco

As I mentioned in a previous post, I saw the Gabriel Orozco exhibit in Basel, Switzerland, last week. This whimsical image is another one of my favourites-- it made me giggle when I saw it at the gallery, because I tried to imagine Orozco setting up the photo while other grocery shoppers milled around nearby, confused. 

It's really just begging for a lolcat-style caption...

travelling

Lucerne

Basel

Basel

Bern

I had seen advertisements for the Henri Rousseau show at the famous Fondation Beyeler art gallery in Basel, Switzerland, and I was so thrilled when I actually got to go see them. It was the last day of the show, and we were super lucky to catch the opening day of the Basquiat exhibition as well. I absolutely loved it.

I was so moved by both artists' pieces... but completely unexpectedly, I was blown away by the huge Monet painting (Les Nymphéas) in one of the beautifully-lit rooms in the gallery. I've never felt any particular attraction to Monet, but seeing a real piece in person is so different than seeing photos of paintings. The colours are so much more vibrant and there is so much more depth. I felt like my eyes were swimming in a sea of colour.

We had only 45 minutes left before we had to catch our train, so we blasted through the Gabriel Orozco exhibit at the Kunstmuseum Basel. Orozco does some really interesting, highly imaginative work.

discovery

I'm a little rusty, but I liked how this one turned out. 

paper peony

I saw this wonderful tutorial by the amazing Dana of Dana Made It and just had to try it with our green napkins.

I altered it a little bit from the original-- I used regular kleenex for the white centre, pulled each ply apart, and cut separate petals out of each layer so that it would resemble a peony.

Super quick (ten minutes or so) and cute!

blurry and gorgeous

found on flickr:

by S.HOPtalk

by whiplash_girlchild

by whiplash_girlchild

mucha♥

I'm in love with paintings by Alphonse Mucha.




I've printed a few out and mounted them on cardboard to hang on my wall... so pretty!

freedom

--via Postsecret

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.

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/

monterey

--from postsecret

sometimes, giving up is the right thing to do.

snow place like home

from nedroid by anthony clark

this comic captures how i felt from december-march this year.
snow can be ridiculous!
thanks goodness that it's finally melted now. wearing snowboots for 12 weeks gets tedious, real fast.

small but mighty

-- via postsecret