Fortune Cookies & Hide and Seek

Remember when I said I had a surprise in store?

Mini fortune cookie charms that I whipped up the other day. They're going on an adventure! I intend to hide them in Ottawa for others to discover. As much as I love them, they were made with this plan in mind.. And I can always make another for myself..

Inside each one is a little fortune with the website on the other side.

I'm going to keep them safe by keeping them in plastic bags, and tying them to unsuspecting fence posts, statues, tree branches..

So if anyone out there comes across one of these, I would love to hear about it! Please leave a message in the comments about how you found it and where you're from. Thanks!

T-shirt tutorial

Inspiration:

Super cute shirt I saw here. I wanted something like it. A simple drawing with lots of lines.

My version:

Step one:
Get a plain shirt and a fabric marker. I have Sharpie's rub a dub marker.

Step two: Take a piece of paper and trace the shape of the shirt, roughly. This is so you can make a rough draft of your design. You could skip a couple steps and start right on the shirt if you wanted.


Step three: Draw your design on the paper.

Step four: Put the paper inside the shirt and trace (make sure to put something thick in between to separate the layers (like cardboard) so the ink doesn't bleed through.

Step five: Put on your newly designed shirt!

Mani-Monday

Beginning of the week, which means time to redo my nails. 

Sally Hanson's Mint Sorbet with dots of Finger Paints' Paper Mâché (which are on the thumb as well).

How to: 

• Cover nails with your base color. I used two coats.
• Put a glob of your dot color onto a surface you don't have to worry about damaging (paper plate, CD case.. I use a book cover)
• Use a dotting tool to dip in the paint, then dot it on your nails in whatever pattern you want. I use the end of a straight pin, but toothpicks, pens and bobby pins work as well.
• Wait for it to dry and add a top coat and you are done!

You can also do several colors of dots, like here, where I did them in rows! The possibilities are endless.

I would love to see your versions if you give this a try!

Al Capone, The Sin-Bin, and The Red Dress

Well yesterday proved to be very interesting. We left early in the morning to explore some old towns not too far from us and saw some interesting things. 

An old army base abandoned since the 70s, for one. It seemed normal until noticing there were religious pictures in, literally, every window. 

(Cue the ominous music)

Next place on our list was an old Hotel in the Opeongo area, known as the 'sin-bin' in its time. The name makes me giggle. (I got no pictures of this but check out Threeark for his stuff.)

Lastly was an old cabin said to once have been inhabited by Al Capone. Its been squatted in a lot since then, and has been torn through pretty fully, but still was pretty impressive.

Lots of people have carved their names all over this wall here. 

While looking for the cabin we ended up walking quite a ways down a trail in the woods leading to who knows where (ended up turning back upon seeing moose tracks) but had the chance to get a couple pictures for his series. So now I bring you.. the final red dress!

Threeark's photo

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, though I might do a couple stitches here and there for a better fit sometime in the future.

Note: This dress is currently for sale here. 

Kristina

Foggy days and the rebirth of a dress

Pembroke has proven to be an interesting city in the month I've been here (while looking for an apartment). There's a man who dances on roller blades in the middle of the street and drums on things; there are the river cats who like to eat the food of East Side Mario's customers when they choose the patio seating; and there at times is a crazy amount of fog.

We (Mark, my boyfriend, and I) got up early one day and went down to the waterfront, (which is nice to see, being from an island and all), to take some photos.

You can see his at Threeark.

We're going tomorrow to take some more photos in some abandoned cities an hour-ish from where we are, and he wanted a red dress to photograph. A trip to value village later I found this beauty.

Okay.. not really a beauty. It has gaudy shoulderpads, the waist sits in a horrible place and the whole thing is just oversized and dated. 

I accepted the challenge.

First time sewing in a month felt great and I remade the dress in a couple hours. Stay tuned to see what the finished result looks like!

Kristina

Introduction

Hey there,

I see you've found yourself in my little corner of the internet.

I'm an east coast girl living in Ottawa, and I like to make things.

(Like that necklace)

I learned to sew when I was a kid, then opened a shop to share my creations, and now I'm starting this blog.  Here I plan on sharing lots with you!. From my creations, to craft ideas, makeup and nailpolish designs, and all sorts else.

Thanks for taking a look, check back often, I'll be hopefully updating this a couple times a week. Hope to see you again.

Sincerely,

Kristina