This post could also be titled "Another reason why Dollarama is awesome." Or, "feeding craft addictions since 1992."
Several weeks ago while trolling through my usual list of blogs, and came across this wonderful cardboard box decor tutorial from How Joyful.
Joy's boxes are custom jobs with some pretty fabulous wrapping paper she found. Love the labels too!
Last week I was wandering through Dollarama ad found some "duct tape" in a Zebra ish pattern. I use the quotes since I'm relatively certain it's not real duct tape from the brand. And I say Zebra ish since it's stripey but not quite like a Zebra. Whatever. I bought a roll of it and decided to spruce up my winter accessories box in the coat closet.
Our very utilitarian front hall coat closet. Yep. The jean machine bag is holding my roommate's two gerbil balls that try to escape frequently.
Step 1: Find some awesome tape at Dollarama and a box that needs a make over.
Step 2: Start taping. Depending on your design, you can line it up to continue the pattern. I did the front and both sides and left the back uncovered. I figured the other three sides were more likely to be seen in the long run.
Step 3: Run out of tape as you get to the last row that needs to be done. My previous self saw this coming since the roll was pretty thin, but for some reason, did not buy a second roll.
Step 4: After returning to Dollarama to discover that they have run out of the design you're using and won't be getting more for another two weeks, pick up one of the two neon rolls that are left. Using this as a complimentary colour (like you had planned all along), do the top roll of the box. The neon is a bit see-through, and even with two layers you can still see thick black lettering through it. No matter, since that will be on the sides. Also, use your previous gift wrapping job experience to make the corner fold nicely to look flat and neat.
SHABAM! Leopard and Neon winter accessories box.
If you look closely you can see where the tape meets, but I don't think it affects the overall pattern.
Looks nice eh? It's something a little fabulous in the closet.
I actually received this package in the mail last week, but it needed a post all its own.
One day, while trolling the web, I heard my mail arrive through the door. I wandered over to throw out the pile of ads and credit card offers, and was surprised by this.
Oooo, a blurrily addressed envelope, perhaps for me?
That's right. An awesome thank you from Aunt Peaches for a Valentines card I sent her.
It's amazing what you can do with hot glue and a lot of confetti. Her original tutorial is posted here on the Elizabeth Banks website, and her redux to create confetti cake toppers is posted here on her website.
And clearly I did not take any pictures of the cards I made for the swap. That would have been far too easy.
First of all, the floral crown! It's finished! And here are the crappy photos of the build and finished product!
Step 1:
Try to clean your room, and then get board and insist on going for a walk to Dollarama to get some fresh air and some exercise. While there, be inspired and gather your materials.
-6 pack of plastic head bands (multi-coloured no less, black, brown and "blond"),
-Green ribbon, and
-Pack of stick-on paper flowers.
-Have a glue gun and sticks already.
Step 2:
Using your glue gun (badly in my case), wrap your ribbon around the head band. You can either glue and secure as you go along the entire head band, or just mega glue the bottom ends like I do. I found that if you wrap the ribbon tightly, it didn't shift or move once finished.
Pro-tip--> Keep a lighter handy, and burn the edges of cut ribbon to seal them and stop fraying. Burn carefully, they will melt a bit.
Step 3:
Start hot gluing those puppies on! I recommend picking a "front" of the head band, and face the flowers towards that direction. Try to get them fairly close together, or not. Whichever you'd prefer for your crown. There were some instances when the flower became detached from the foam sticky base it was on, so I just added more hot glue. It got a little messy back there, but this will be fixed momentarily.
Step 4: Time to cover up that mess in the back. Hot glue ribbon over the foam sticky pads of the flowers. This will cover the mess and further strengthen the flowers on the head band. I used smaller pieces of ribbon with slits cut in the bottom half to fold over themselves. This, in theory, creates a curve in the ribbon and will allow it to sit a little flatter. I'm sure you can attempt to do this with one piece of ribbon instead of many.
Step 5:
Wear it. Try to fiddle around with strange backgrounds, like an art poster purchase from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts almost 4 years ago. Also, attempt to actually wear outside the apartment.
There are several floral crown tutorials out there, I know. Lana Del Ray bringing the trend back, along with the summer festival season last year has cemented the floral crown in the young'uns' wardrobe. To add to the repertoire of links to check out, may I recommend,
Threadbanger's DIY Frida inspired floral crown tutorial (They're back!!! Soooo excited) (one could argue that my crown's construction is very much based on this tutorial),
and of course, the lovely and wonderful, Aunt Peaches's tutorial for a coffee filter fascinator. Yep.
As some of you may remember, I mentioned that I was going to New York City soon. Well, that was last weekend, and it was awesome. It was great to see some of my old classmates, and we got some amazing tours of the New York Public Library's collection of photographs, and the Museum of Modern Art's preservation facility. I also only took two pictures the entire time I was there. Quite pathetic in comparison to the first time I went to New York really, but what can you do? Here they are, by the way.
I've been cleaning my room all week. I've been making room for some furniture I should be getting from my parents' place *soon, and attempting to purge a lot of stuff. I'm half way there.
I also got bored with this idea several times. So I hit Dollarama as an excuse to get outside and get some fresh air. I got further inspired to ignore my room by picking up a few things.
Here's a few hints as to the finished project!
I'll post the finished product once I can get some better photographs of it, not on my desk and maybe in natural light. I wonder how many of my old photography teachers would be appalled by my current habits.
In other news, NEW FREAKIN' YORK. Several lovely ladies from previous years of my Master's program have organized a reunion, and it happens to be around AIPAD. I booked my hostel and flights this past week, and I'm pretty stoked. I've been compiling a list of vintage places and cheap food as another way of ignoring the vacuuming needing doing. Another post, hopefully a picture heavy one.
Clearly I was paying attention to post count lately and 100 is just too common of a celebratory number for blogger. So, 102 it is!
That being said of course, this post will be remarkably similar to most of my previous ones. To pretend to celebrate though, I am going to start off by showing some work by Laurent Craste, a maker in many mediums whose works I have just discovered and now adore.
All of these pieces are part of his "Abuse" line, and according to a recent interview of him by Dirty Magazine he says that he had "always been fascinated by the phenomenon of vandalism, especially
the ransacking phases that accompany revolutionary insurrections, when
the works of art are destroyed because they incarnate an ideology, or
symbolize a specific social class... and at the same time I am also totally fascinated by the
destructive impulse, the violent nihilistic action." I'm looking forward to my next trip to Montreal where I can hopefully see his work in person.
Otherwise, I've been on a Dollarama kick lately, and I've slowly been collecting pieces to try and updo my hideous dining room chandelier. In a perfect world I 'd like to get it to look like the one from Urban Outfitters that I was coveting last year, and that don't have anymore. Just as well, couldn't afford it anyway. So far, I think I've got most of the dangley bits, mostly from the craft section of Dollarama, of all places. I need to work on the center and the dishes around the "candles." Apparently they are actually called "Bobeches," and I think if I find some glass ones, they can be painted in glass paint to retain that see through look. Ideas a plenty!
Sexy colour explosion.
More ice rink action! Since my friends and I could never afford to go to a Leafs game (and I'm a Habs fan anyways), we took advantage of a recent Leafs viewing party hosted by the ACC here in the Tdot. The leafs were actually playing in and against Ottawa, one of my other home towns, so we watched the game live on the jumbotron. My friend was super excited about watching a Leafs game at the ACC, despite the fact we weren't really, and tried to sit at ice level. We threatened him with our chiropractor bills for the busted neck we'd have from staring up at the screen all night, and we took pictures at ice level instead before moving further up to much better seats.
Yep, he's excited.
Sadly, about 20 seconds after I said "looks like we'll have some overtime tonight" to my friends, Ottawa scored in the last minute of play and won. Montreal won against the Islanders that night, so I'm happy regardless.
I've been staring at archival supply websites for days. There's been a lot of math going on for the past few days. Somewhere, there are several teachers laughing. The highlight to this torture is that I am getting paid for it. Not enough, but it's something.
January was an interesting month, and generally speaking, a good start to 2013. The job hunt continues, but I may have some freelance jobs and part-time projects on the horizon, so that's something. I've been volunteering a lot with two organizations (actually in my field no less!), so that's been keeping me busy. Parts of the apartment are cleaner from the January Cure as hosted by Apartment Therapy, but generally I ended up ignoring it. While an excellent idea, I think a lot of the challenges were meant to be done in a day, but in my apartment could not be. Cleaning my room would, and still is taking a long, long time. It doesn't help that I received another load of stuff from the homefront that needs to find a home. Thanks Mom. That being said, the principles were sound, and I'll probably take them forward. The outbox was used quite a bit though, and on a recent run to Goodwill we unloaded several bags of crap out of it.
Goodbye 11 bags/boxes of crap!
Otherwise, January, and bits of February have been a mix of food, skating and fashion (surprisingly). A bunch of us actually own our own skates and try to get out to the fry rinks fairly regularly in the winter. At one point in my life, two or three years ago, I was an okay skater. Then I fucked up my knee, while skating. In a desperate attempt to not plow into the poor guy who had crashed in front of me, I ended up going down pretty hard. I hadn't and haven't quite mastered the art of stopping on skates just yet. Usually, at least once a winter, I land on that same knee and it makes me psychologically skittish about skating on it for the rest of the winter. It's an asshole like that. We've tried out a few extra rinks from our usual Nathan Phillips Square (for all you Tdotters), specifically the Natrel Rink by the lake for a friend's birthday earlier in the month. It was unbelievably warm that night, so I ended up skating with the coat open and just a T-shirt underneath. Until I fell on my knee and called it a night. Bastard knee.
Hi Dan!
Also, since I'm a Ryerson Alumni, I get access to free skates at the Maple Leafs Gardens! It's the one awesome thing about Ryerson owning the Gardens! Yes, I'm fully aware it's actually called the Mattamy Centre; don't care. It will always be the Gardens. Somewhere out there there are some photos of myself and a friend having some fisticuffs at centre ice in Leafs and Habs jerseys at a recent free skate. It was pretty awesome.
Also, in the month of January, a fashion blogger I follow, Karen of CurvyCanadian, had her official opening for her brand new plus size store! Pretty freakin' excited pretty well covered my thoughts on this news. Your Big Sister's Closet is located on 3126 Dundas West in the Tdot, and she has a really good selection of established (to me) and unknown (to me) brands.
These were the best photos of the day.. little busy going from rack to rack, drooling to myself.
I did actually buy a few things! This lovely bag, and a great belt with a pair of giant gold clamshells for buckles. I also attempted to look fashionable when I went to the opening, and I think I did well. I can't prove it, because my attempt at change room photos failed miserably.
She keeps her facebook page up to date and is frequently posting pictures of new stock and some of her fabulously dressed clients. I shall be heading back soon, I gather she's planning on getting some swimsuits in, and it may be time to look at getting another one.
FOOD. I was going to get there eventually, not to worry! The past wee while has actually been filled with cooking, and some new recipes, most of which I didn't photograph! My enthusiasm for doing that lately has been low, not sure why. That being said, I recently discovered the amazing blog of Helga Von Trollop, and her recipe for Spinach Parmesan muffins. They were dinner that night due to the sheer luck of having all the ingrediants!
In retrospect, i should have added some garlic. Meh, next time.
With any luck, I can attempt to blog more often. Or at least on a vaguely regular schedule.
