Sonnetarium Polish

I don't care that it's after Christmas. I finally got my hands on this polish, so I'm gonna put this polish on my hands!

Sonnetarium's Peppermint Kiss. You might remember it from this post about my favourite holiday polishes. Well after it being sold out for a while, me checking their website repeatedly paid off! It didn't take long to arrive despite it being the holidays, and it got here bubble wrapped, in packing peanuts, in a little box, with a hand signed business card.

It's everything I hoped it would be, looks like you could eat it, and I got a compliment at work today about my nails when I just painted them this morning ;) awe yeah!

(Please forgive my crappy pictures...)

Sonnetarium polishes are big 3 free (no formaldehyde or the other icky harmful things). You can check out their polishes on their website, and their facebook to see when things are getting restocked.

New Years Casual Shirt

So after much time spent trying to shove random fabric into any nook and cranny it would fit in my apartment, I decided to go through it all and get rid of some. Now it all fits nicely in one drawer (well, two, but it fits nicely and that's the important part).

It's very cleansing going through and making the decision that 'no, you won't ever make that sweater so stop holding onto that fabric you don't even really like it' which gives your brain a whole new open slot for ideas. One of which ended up being this shirt.

I took all the measurements, sketched it out onto wrapping paper (now I know why I'll hold onto all my extra paper this year, it's big enough for patterns!), and it ended up working perfectly!

Now I have a fall back tshirt pattern that is simple, looks good, and can be changed up easily with a different curve of the neckline. Sweet!

It was also my first time trying a double needle, and let me tell you: total game changer. No more zig zag stitch finishing for me!

Another first? Sequins. Also a last. This shirt was a labour of love! Having to remove all the sequins from the seam allowance not only took so much time, but my apt was covered in little silver slivers of glitter afterwards. I vacuumed. Still there. There's one stuck to the wall. Never again.

It's really the perfect shirt for the holidays, casual enough being essentially a tshirt, but the flattering fit and the pattern of sequins really makes it do-able for an evening out.

Another one, with cuffs on the sleeves and bottom this time.

The pattern. 

Secret Santa Part 2

So I've shown you what I received, now to share what I sent!

A holiday mug rug, about the size of a sheet of paper. I thought this was really cute and I want to make one for myself, although I have no use for it whatsoever.

Three little ornaments, pictured here before I put the loops on them. The tree is made from wool (and paint, buttons and glitter), and the other two are made from glittery resin (with swarovski crystal accents on the snowman!) He's so adorable. I need to make myself some of these. Haha!

Next is a pendant made of hammered metal, and colored resin. I tried to make it look like stained glass since my partner pinned a lot of stained glass things on pinterest.

And up against the light.

I also sent a package of tea and some little Christmas tree light ornaments.

Holiday Nail Polishes

Thanks to the wonderful creative minds of people, you can get 'big 3 free' nail polishes that suit any theme your heart desires through etsy, facebook and the like. Handmade with care! With the holidays coming up I wanted to share some of the best festive polishes that I've seen out there.

(To note, I've pulled the pictures off of etsy, but the majority of them come from Chalkboard Nails, a great nail art blog that does a lot of indie polish reviews. She's great, and you should check her out.)

Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight A cute white and red shard and bar glitter topcoat.

I'll Wait Up For You Dear A super fine red and green glitter. Cute!

Peppermint Kiss Ugh! How amazing is this?! I've never seen a nail polish that I've called 'delicious' before, but seriously, it looks good enough to eat. If this was available on their website right now I would already have bought it.

Candy Cane Crush I love hex glitters, this topcoat is definitely great!

Think of All the Fellas That I Haven't Kissed blues, purples, glitter.. A great combination.

Something About Merry I think my favourite part of this one is the light green semi transparent pieces.

Christmas In Bordeaux Square glitter and gold thrown in the mix to keep things interesting. I think it looks best on the right, over gold.

 Very Merry Holly Berry Just red! Looks similar to a polish I ordered in the mail (still waiting on.. It's a brand thats only avail online in the US so I had to go to ebay for it) but this one is a clear base. I really like it.

Up To Snow Good Beautiful! I'm such a fan of teal though, why are we even surprised this makes the list ;P.

I hope this gets you ready to festivfy.. Festivify.. Get those nails festive! I've been looking into making my own polishes (sadly I missed out on the last run of base that was available, and I'm kicking myself for not ordering it even though I was told not to because of the holidays) but I'm sure it'll be available again someday. Until then I'm mixing all my ideas up in topcoat bottles. Works okay, but I need to shake the bottle pretty hard after everything settles. Still! I've gotten quite a few compliments on my last few colors and a woman at work told me to sell her a bottle so eventually when I can make these the way I want to, who knows.. Maybe I'll see some fancy nail polish blogs doing reviews of my work ;P. I'll have to get some pictures to share with you. Sometime. Before the holidays are over...

Weekstagram & The Hintonburg Craft Fair

I realized that I haven't done a weekstagram post in quite a while. Whoops! More like monthstagram, amirite?? I also forgot to mention I hit my 200th post last post, how intense is that? I'm having a blast with this blog and I hope those of you who follow enjoy it too! Now on with the photos!!!

 I love palette knife paintings, especially this one I keep walking by in the mall lately.

This beautifully gnarled tree growing around a dead one while on a mini hike with the Mr last weekend. 

This weeks mani and my birthday gift from mom. Such a gorgeous ring!

An upside down shot of my table today at the Hintonburg Craft Fair, it was a pretty good day!  

I decided to change out the buttons on my coat. Just goth enough while still looking semi professional. 

Hat I made out of some scrap wool I got from work based off the pattern of my favourite hat. I think it came out pretty spot on, if I do say so myself!

The Hintonburg Craft Fair was today, and despite the first real snow of the year, it being freezing, and there being several other craft shows happening at the same time, there was an astounding turnout! There was a steady crowd the whole day, and a wonderful assortment of artists. Two delicious discoveries were these chocolate candied almonds (which I sampled but forgot to run back and buy!) from www.nut-candy-chocolate.com, delicious and gluten free (if that tickles your fancy), as well as some amazing mini cupcakes from Petite Treats. I bought a candy cane mint chocolate, chocolate with an orangey icing (I can't remember what kind it was technically but it was tasty) and a tiramisu one that the Mr claimed was also delish. Baked goods are my one weakness at a craft fair. If I don't buy anything else, I will always but a snack. 

Another fun first for this craft show worth mentioning was my use of the Square card reader, a credit card reader that plugs into the jack of your phone/tablet which allows you to accept Visa and Mastercard. The reader and app are free, and they only take a small percentage of each transaction (less than etsy/paypal do). It was a breeze and I must say not only did it make things more convenient for myself and customers, it made me feel that extra bit more professional.

If you're a vendor interested in expanding your payment options, it's definitely something to look into. The only thing I will note from my research is that the most they deposit in a month is $2002, if you go over that then they hold it for a certain amount of time. If you would be making more than that at shows with the card reader it might be a good idea to look into it further so you don't get hung up waiting for transfers. 

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
Since I couldn't be anything 'scary' for work, the decision was made to be a sugar skull. Queue me sewing hair flowers last night and getting up early this morning to do this before work. Not too scary I don't think, but got a lot of looks, and compliments.

I snapped a couple pictures this morning before heading out, and the Mr grabbed a couple quick shots just now, but after having this on my face for 12 hours, I'm looking a little less than perfect. Oh well!!!

Now to watch the most recent episode of The Walking Dead, and eat all this candy I bought today until I'm sick. Fun Dip, Pop Rocks, Popeye candy sticks, Nerds, and a bunch of bulk including chocolate covered gummi bears. Om nom nom!

I hope you all have happy, safe and delicious evenings.

Happy Birthday Canada!

Happy belated Canada Day to everyone from here, and happy Fourth of July for all of you in the States :).

I had a wonderful Canada Day filled with bike rides in the morning, then roaming around downtown for the afternoon right into the evening seeing everything there was to see. I was amazed (and shocked) by the sheer amount of stuff going on and the amount of people!! And apparently its okay to wear only flags and body paint, judging by all the mostly naked people I saw, haha!

I had a blast, and hope everyone else did with whatever they ended up doing.

You know, just doing a backflip on a pogo. Whatev'.

It was a long, tiring but fun day, and I ended up sleeping away most of the next day recovering.

I've got a few pendants to share with you from the swap I did, but I'm going to wait until they're received before posting pictures so I don't spoil the surprise in case any of them happen to look here.