Fabric covered boxes

Yesterday was the start of summer storms - yay! Not only did the heat finally break a little, I had every excuse to stay indoors and be productive. I had intended to start with cleaning but... cleaning?? Blerg. Instead I went with cooking and creating.

I had already planned on making some delicious Corn & Black Bean Quesadillas for dinner, so I made up a massive batch of black beans. Well worth the time to buy dried beans and re-hydrate them yourself - the 500g tub I got is going to end up making around 2kg. I also made this super tasty Roast Zucchini Salsa which I recommend everyone make - so incredibly delicious.


Then I painted my nails in this incredible neon green - China Glaze 'I'm With the Lifeguard'. Not the best coverage - two coats and slightly patchy - but still a pretty amazing colour.




Lately I've been obsessing over people's organised homes on Pinterest. I look around at my bomb site and shudder... why can't everything have a place (and be put in it)? I have so much scrap fabric around the place, and empty tissue/shoe boxes seemed like a perfect fit for under my bathroom shelf - so I put the two together, added some ribbon, and voila!

The fabric is glued to the boxed with modge podge, and the ribbon was my first opportunity to use my glue gun - so much fun! While they aren't the most incredible looking things in the world, for their purpose I think they turned out great. Here they are in their new home:

There goes October

All quiet on the blog front lately huh? Seems I've been busy, though looking at what I've done  craft-wise in the last 6 weeks it really doesn't seem like much!

I think my problem is my growing nail polish addiction - wet nails are not really conducive to getting things done. This morning 6 new Essie polishes arrived at my door, I scored them for $7 a pop! Bargain!

I did complete one new project in October - revamp of an old unloved corkboard with a splash of paint and bonus features.

It is now our 'life organisation board', with a menu, mini whiteboard shopping list, calendar, and regular old corkboard space for bills and other reminders.

The headers were done with paint on foam stamps and the menu/calendar sheets are ink stamps (I think I developed a thing for stamping after making this bag), the calendar weeks are mounted on magnetic strips and can move at my will.

I'm planning on making up for my October laziness though - Lincraft were having 30% off storewide this weekend so I stocked up on some DMC floss and picked up some flocking powder and a glue gun. All of that only cost me $40! I just need to find a reason to try out that glue gun...

I haven't used flocking powder before, but I hear it's used for scrapbooking and creating a velvety texture on surfaces. My interest purely stems from this post on xojane - textured nails! If I hadn't just done a new design this morning I would be getting straight into it, but I'll just have to be patient.






Aaaand finally, an update on my Community cross stitch - Jeff Winger complete! Finishing another character has totally renewed my enthusiasm for this piece (not to mention a recent rewatch of Season 3) so I'm hoping to show you all Annie Edison soon. Until then, here's the current progress:

Crafty Sunday

Jewelry hanger + Stamped tote

I love Spring! Sunshine, colour everywhere, cool (not cold) mornings and beautiful warm days. After taking my dog for a walk to make the most of the morning sun I hopped on the net for some quick inspiration and came up with these two colourful and handy items. I was so motivated to get stuck into making I was at the shops for supplies before they had even opened. 

This jewelry hanger I've had in my head for a while but have been waiting for the right time to put together. I seem to have lengths of balsa wood in every corner of my house - every time I think I've used the last, another turns up. Today my absolute last piece was turned into a bright necklace/jewelry hanger. The shapes are hand cut Fimo clay shapes glued to some flat head nails.

The inspiration for the tote came via JustB - so many great DIY fabric prints! I purchased a bunch of plain totes online forever ago and had this last one stashed away among my piles of handbags. I love triangles and chevron patterns so tried for something based around that idea in primary colours. I'm pretty happy with the outcome and am already thinking of the possibilities for more stamped fabric printing.

Welcome, Pierce Hawthorne!

Community Digital Estate Planning cross stitch returns! Finally, a character! 

My progress up to today:

• 12909 stitches done
• 44691 remain
• 22.41% complete
• 1 character done!

Jake the Dog

Adventure time! Come on grab your friends!

Mid week public holiday crafternoon+bonus Thursday off meant I got stuck into another amigurumi - Jake the Dog from the awesome TV show Adventure Time. (Click that link. You won't regret it)

This is my first attempt at amigurumi with no set pattern, so he's pretty basic but I'm really happy with how he turned out.

Triforce mani

I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before now, I've be trying to think of an easy(ish) geometric style mani all week. Once the idea of a triforce mani came to me there was no stopping me. Who doesn't want their nails to scream 'Attention! I am a massive dork!'?
I had considered doing a nude base to speed things up but I'm glad I changed my mind - the blue looks amazing as the base colour.

Embellished cushion

A quick update with a cushion I've embellished for my Nanna`s 80th birthday. A sample of ripple with some leftover yarn, some flowers and some quick cover buttons. Hope she likes it!