A Day (and a half) In The Making

Phew! As I type this up I'm struggling since my fingers are so sore and probably slightly swollen. I made myself a new purse the other day and it had a little bit of hand sewing to finish it off and my fingers dislike me now for it. I started working on the pattern the other night after supper, and started the purse right from when I got up in the morning, with only breaks for food. I wasn't stopping until it was done.

Totally worth it.

BAM! Check it.

My old record purse was falling apart and I wanted something new. Record purses don't fare well in the winter anyway (the records crack much easier) and I used this one far past the point of it looking good or being responsible. One of the straps was worn away to just threads and it was going to let go any day.

I kept seeing people around with these really good looking bags, with two huge side pockets and a zipped pocket in the middle. After searching 'purses' on pinterest and scrolling for ages, I finally found a reference picture to go by.

Not the most helpful of pictures without zoom..

From there I sketched out the pattern (which took a while, I kept getting stuck on one piece until my fella miraculously solved the mystery!) and made a pattern to size.

One of the pieces.

From there it was pretty basic putting together-ness..

And after ages I finally got my finished product!!

From the side. My zipper pull will always be a key. 

I love the detail on the strap. It's simple but came out looking great. 

The outer pockets are lined with snap closures.

Top down. 3 huge pockets!! This purse holds everything, it's fantastic.

Since we were taking pictures of the purse anyway, I wanted to get one of my shirt.. I seriously love this pattern, it's so comfy and fits like a dream!

But because I'm a nut case, one thing led to another and we ended up taking blurry pictures of me being a moron.

If you actually sat through this ridiculously long post, thank you! 

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. 

Abandoned Everything

I went down and applied for another craft show yesterday, the same one that I did last year around this time. I had forgotten about it for a while so I assumed it filled up but when I emailed she said there still might be a chance so hopefully I hear back some positive news in a couple of weeks. I would love to be able to get another show in so soon after the other, and then keep it going at that speed.. :P

While we were out we did some exploring of some more abandoned places. I didn't get any good pictures of the first one but this old train bridge was really cool. All covered in graffiti, this one being my favourite. 

 I don't know who was writing this, but they will just have to accept that their clever drawing of a dinosaur within the word RAWR will be used by me from now on and there's nothing they can do about it. It's too good not to spread around.

Absolutely gorgeous colors are out now. I think now is the time to try drying out leaves for experiments.
Ever notice how making jewelry can make one sound like a mad scientist? Experiments! Buahahaha.

We also found these interesting photographs pasted around a bike trail, though most were defaced stupidly, they were also beautiful. 

This was the closest thing I've gotten to a hike in a long time, and it was wonderful.

Grand Theft Bus

I don't go out to bars very often. Once when my brother was in town for a drink (literally just one), I got the 'Cape Breton Punch' and it was just as awesome as I had hoped it was. I don't remember all the ingredients or which bar it was as they are lining the streets in the market but.. Anyway. We (the Mr and I) went to Mavericks last year to see the creepshow, and went again the other day to see Grand Theft Bus, a wonderful band from the maritimes. It was a nice bit of that east coast feel that I don't get enough here in Ottawa, and I have a feeling at least half the people there were from somewhere out that way. Flicker State opened for them, a band from Montreal I do believe..

Grand Theft Bus

Rum and cokes, dancing, loud bass, more dancing, and me saying 'by' and 'buddy' a lot, just cause I could.

Flicker State

Now if only some more east coast bands would come out this way, instead of going from Toronto to Montreal and skipping us altogether. (I'm looking at you, Slowcoaster).

The photos courtesy of the Mr, I took a whole 2 pictures myself during the last song on my phone.. I need a good camera that works at night! 

I actually am planning on getting an SLR of some form or another (one that I would be able to share lenses with) but it's not going to be a typical camera with typical uses. There's a company online that will alter your camera for you and peel of the IR filter on the lens. It would allow me to do infra red photography that I've always been a fan of, but it would never take a normal picture after having this done. Probably not the best for product shots and point and shoot styled pictures. 

Fresh Start

Well we made it back safe and sound after a wonderful week home that went by far too quickly. Full of wedding events, good ol' Cape Breton kitchen parties, shopping (with mom), rides on the motorcycle (with dad), and visiting as many people as I could. I wish that it was a longer trip, but everyone has to come back from vacation at some point, right? 

I certainly got my fix of little (and not so little) fluffy things, getting to see Salem (the best cat ever), plus dad's and a bunch others. Hopefully that will keep me tide over for a little while.

They just floated the old boat that was sunken in the river for years, so I just had to snap a few pictures when we went to take a look. See all the dark grey on the lower half of the boat? It's all clams. And they're all over the ground. The ducks were having a field day but it reeked.

 Nanny has more magnets on her fridge than I have ever seen in my life. It's insane.

The Lick-A-Chick, a very popular fried chicken and fries kind of place back home, that many people from away find hilarious based on the name alone. It doesn't seem too strange to me, but then again I'm used to it. :P

Mom makes a mean strawberry shortcake. Mmm.

Lastly, a silly picture of the Mr.

I didn't have my camera with me a whole lot, and I also don't have any pictures from the wedding (of myself or the party or anything else) since I was helping him take pictures on another camera, but rest assured that it was beautiful.

I picked up a lot of supplies while I was back home (not everything I wanted to, but I got some things I didn't think I'd get either so I guess it balances out), and I'm itching to get everything redone in the shop, and get this page made over.. As well as make all those pendants for the swap I'm doing! My god I'm going to be busy. Hopefully everything looks good though when I'm done with it all.

It's been a sci-fi kinda week.

So, I think I may need to go out and buy a watermelon asap, after seeing this picture.

Watermelon strawberry lemonade, does that not sound delish or what? Recipe here. 

It's my day off today, and it was nice to get to sleep in a little bit for once (I say a little bit because I probably slept until 8..). The last few days off I've had, for one reason or another, I've had to get up super early. I ended up going to explore the Rideau Centre mall and see what's what. I ended up giddily roaming around Sephora and MAC for far too long looking at all the fun makeup. What do you expect?? 

Speaking of makeup, I have seriously been enjoying My Beauty Addiction's eyeshadows. I finally have a brown shadow that I like for natural looks! ("Natural looks" is something I don't hear myself say often). Actually, 3 colors. Swiss Chocolate, Moonstruck, and Sand Dollar for highlighting. What a gorgeous set of colors. And what a cool company. They just had a games night on their facebook with a bunch of giveaways and such, and if I hadn't completely forgotten about it, I would have been there for it all. 

Hello uneven hair bump, how are you doing?

I also picked up Mass Effect 3 today, not for myself but for Mark, so I'm sure after we get back from supper that's what I'll be seeing and hearing in the background from now until it's done. :P. That's alright though, since we've just started watching Battlestar (he's seen it, I haven't) from the beginning, and just finished the show Firefly. So many spaceships. I was never a big sci-fi person but it really was one of the best shows I've ever seen. 

Besides that, not much new in my little corner of the universe. I still feel like I'm slacking with my posts, despite the tutorial I put up the other day. What can you do though? When you're busy you're busy, and when I haven't touched my sewing machine in what seems like ages, I've nothing to show you. Though I did get a great new slew of stuff from the fabric store, and oodles of zippers, so hopefully soon inspiration will hit :).

Now I'll leave you with a few pictures from exploring Qc the other evening.

I don't know why I like photographing trees so much. I just do.

Mani-Monday & Exploring Ottawa

Here's my new nails and the How-to DIY.

I used an awesome acid green color and 2 glitter ;Stripe Rite' colors by So Easy, which you can buy from Sally Beauty.

Instructions:
Put down 2 layers of your base color.
Using Stripe Rite (Or any polish and a super thing brush) draw across lines at random. Once the first color is set, do the same thing with the second color.
Add a top coat.

~

We've been doing some exploring in the city still, taking backroads around and walking into town to see how far everything is away.

Yesterday we ended up walking down the Rideau Centre (and silly me forgot to take the last 2 fortune cookie charms I have left to hide, I will do this tomorrow!) and went downtown again at night for some night photography.

On the roof of the Rideau Centre

My point and shoot can hold its own in the day, but its nothing compared to Threeark's night pictures. You should check it out!

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