testing testing 1 2 3

Not the best pictures of it, but its something cute that I thought I'd try. I saw someone selling something similar and figured why not. I don't know about the hemp though, I think ribbon would be better if Katie wants to use them in her wedding. I shall look around for white ribbon or blue. I don't have a lot ribbon kicking around since my wedding.

This is fine with me however cause that means a trip to the craft store :D

Let me know what you think of this as being some sort of wedding decoration.

(a closer image of them on my desk chillin)

it goes down the wall in my living room and down the hallway :)

Front page of Etsy

OH MY GOODNESS I AM SO EXCITED! I was kinda weirded out as to why one of my items sold today, normally they sell when I post something new, but I checked out my stats and found that my robots in love mug was featured on the home page in a treasury. SO EXCITING! I am so thankful to the nice person who choose my item to be in there.

So now to post more things I think, I do have a few white mugs to do.

organizing kinda

This post is for Aria. Limited storage space is just what happens with a small apartment. I only have 3 closets for things and they are tiny. Today I cleaned the "big" closet and organized the towels, sheets, shoes and coats. I am sure Aria could do a better job and would enjoy it more. I had no intentions of cleaning the whole thing, but with the new shoe holder from ikea, it didnt look as good until the whole closet was cleaned.

If I hadnt cleaned it, I would have never discovered the container of black goo in a bag at the bottom in the darkest part of the closet. Gross. Maybe I will show a picture of that, but I think for now I will leave that out.

home made card challenge

I challenged Tony to a home made card challenge. I told him not to buy me a card but to make me one. I sent him off to work with one of my blank cards and an envelope. I was busy most of the day making things like cake and almost forgot to make my own card.

He was coming home in an hour, so out came the paints. Man, made me miss painting things. My card looks like valentine, but anniversaries are kinda like valentines. Here are our cards:


Tony's has a guide as to whats on his card and helpful information:

The Great Cake Adventure part 3

C'est Fini! Tony loved it and it wasnt bad. Next time though, I want to make lemon cake or chocolate.

The Great Cake Adventure Part deux

We waited and waited (bird and I) for those cakes to pop out. I was very afraid that the blue cake would turn green or teal instead of vivid blue like I wanted. Silly bird kept flying into the kitchen to see what was going on and to sit on my shoulder and watch. Nothing like trying to ice a cake when a bird shrilly shrieks in your ear. That was the end of that, and he was sent off to his cage. He promptly flew back in and hung onto the cupboard doors to stay out of the way, but still be involved.


Vivid Blue! No green, no teal, nice and deep blue, I was so relieved.

(kinda reminds me of clown vomit)

After the cakes sat over night, I carved off the tops to make them flatter. I really suck at this part and my cakes still look funny afterward.


The icing I used was vanilla butter-cream icing. Its my favorite so far.


My lovely lump of cake and icing mess. I had fewer crumbs in my icing this time though, so happy.

TA DA! Coconut cake made from scratch. Right now it looks like a big coconut ball of mush. Let us see what happens when Tony comes home tonight to cut into it. ( I figured I'd post this now and post the last few pics of the eating later).

The Great Cake Adventure

Being that its our 2nd anniversary, I decided to celebrate by making a cake. Coley was disappointed that I used a cake mix from scratch when I made cupcakes for my dads birthday, so I showed her! I found a coconut cake recipe, cause I love coconut and had at it.



I didnt want a big cake, just a small one, so I found a little 6 inch pan and divided my cake recipe in half.


Mixed up egg whites, vanilla and milk until they were frothy


Worked the dry ingredients, so far, this cake recipe wasnt that bad. Egg whites are gross though, feels like snot and thats not cool.


Ugh coconut milk. This stuff is also gross cause is separates. I thought I had shaken it up enough, but I was so wrong. I was trying to get only half a can out and the chunks were everywhere!


Had to mix up the eggs with the coconut milk and dry stuff, it was pretty solid at first but gradually it got more like the store bought stuff that I was used to.


I got all creative and wanted 4 layers of cake, but only had one pan and normally that pan would do me about 2 cakes. I broke out the nifty postal scale that I use for my mugs and divided them all up evenly. I wasn't about to have 3 thin cakes and a big fatty.


AHHHH GREEN! Of course this was my creative stuff. Actually I saw a cake similar to this one and really wanted to try it out. Oh how I love food colouring.


AHHH RAINBOW!!! Dont worry, I also made a blue one too, but it was in a bigger bowl that was too big. I am thinking Tony will be surprised when he cuts into this cake. I cant wait to see what it looks like in slices of rainbow awesomeness.

So now we wait and wait for the little cakes to be done. They took about 17 min to cook so it wasn't long. Using one pan wasn't that bad either.

So the final product and rest of the story will appear later when Tony comes home and cuts into this bad boy.

2 year anniversary

I decided it would be fun for us to make each other anniversary cards. This is obviously not a decision that Tony was a part of cause he would rather go out a buy me a card. I like homemade cards from people and I like to make them, so this was it. Tony took a blank card to work on at work and I am making mine at home. I know that a budgie will be on the card because thats the one animal he can draw fairly well. :) I cant wait to see it!

So today my plans are to finish my crazy anniversary cake and make food. Love you Tony, looking forward to many many more anniversaries to come :)


I leave you now with a crazy picture of the 2 of us. :)

food: Jamie Oliver’s Mothership Tomato Salad

What can I say? I was in a tomatoey type mood. I saw Jamie Olivers show on tomatoes and this recipe looked so good. I've never had tomato salad before and mine isn't nearly as fancy as his was, but it tastes awesome and I thought I would share it. This is the original recipe but I didnt follow it exactly.

Ingredients:

-Tomatoes (he used varying sizes colours and all that, but mine were just plain old tomotoes and one cherry tomato).
-Sea Salt
-Black Pepper
-A good pinch dried oregano (I used the flowers from my plant outside)
-Red wine or balsamic vinegar (we used balsamic vinegar)
-Extra-virgin olive oil
-1 clove garlic, peeled and grated
-1 chili seeded and chopped (I didn't use a whole one cause I didn't have a lot of tomatoes, I used more like a third of one with 4 tomatoes).

I chopped up all the tomatoes and then plopped them in a colandar with a fair amount of sea salt and then let it sit in the sink to drain for 15 minutes. (Now when the recipe said to do lots of sea salt, I was afraid, but it draws out moisture and isn't that salty in the salad.)

After that its a matter of mixing the pepper, oregano, garlic and chili with the tomatoes. The dressing is 1 part red wine or balsamic vinegar to 3 parts olive oil. I didn't use a whole lot of the dressing just a light amount cause the tomatoes tasted great without it already.

I also chopped up some fresh basil cause I love that stuff. And there you have it, tomato salad!

Garden Update

My oregano is flowering constantly, I think its done. Its pretty though and should come back for next year again! Yay! The thyme is taking over the big planter though, hes creeping. I should cut him back and dry some for winter like my oregano.


So many green and almost ripe tomatoes. Its been gloomy out for so long, so hopefully they all pop like this little guy. I want to make salad with them and all I get is one at a time. I enjoy them seperate, but I know they want to be eaten all together.

home made wrapping paper or art

I recently aquired more printing inks, in red and white. What better way to test them out than to mix them up a bit and print pretty pink robots!


This craft paper on a roll is so awesome. I really want to use it for wrapping paper to make presents. I think I will also use it to wrap my mugs when I send them in the mail.


Here is a close up of the robots in their pinkness!


I also did some bunnies the other night. I forgot to get rid of all the black that was on the stamp, so it started making a variation of the pinks and purples on the bunnies.


They all hang to dry on the kitchen cupboards and then I need a place to store them. Stupid small apartments.

just some things I've been working on lately

Well actually, these guys were done a long time ago back when I first started painting dishes. I figured it was best to sell them and make a little money as I am not working.


The penguins will be done for a friend later when I find a bigger set of 4 mugs.




This guy was new, I liked this mug and kinda wanted to keep it, but its smaller and I want to find me a pink one. I loved the pink ones.


They will appear this weekend in my little etsy shop. I found its good to do one or two items a day to drive the traffic to my store.

lazy day

Todays been pretty lazy for me. Beth came over and the three of us saw District 9. While the movie was disturbing to me, it was very well done and the affects were awesome. I felt disturbed cause even though it was all fake, it was very realistic and Tony really liked it.

I have stew sitting in the crock pot, so there's no cooking really involved today. "It stinks up the apartment and hallway of the building" said Tony. Its an improvement to the pork smell that I have to live with that lingers in the hallway.

The bird has been very happy to have both of us home and paying attention to him. Hes been sitting on one of us most of the day and playing with the quarters on my desk.

I think its time to taste this stew and see how I did. Most of my measuring cups and such are stuck in my cutlery drawer. Its been stuck for a few days and we've both tried to get it out. No luck, so I think its time to ask the landlord for some help.

I am off to eat some stew and play a game with Tony.

Eeyore

I woke up this morning, it was so cheery and sunny out. Tony persuaded me to walk him to the bus stop, since I had nothing to do I decided to drop off some parcels at the post office and take the bus to shoppers.

As soon as I stepped outside, something was wrong. It was sunny and pretty and I yet I was being rained on. The clouds off to the side weren't rain clouds, only the big grey one above me was. Sigh. Tony said I must be like Eeyore having the rain clouds following me wherever I go.

Thankfully I am not bringing gloom everywhere.

pointillism on a coffee mug

A pointillism mug of flowers and vines. One of my more elegant mugs compared the the vicious bunnies and robots.

The first of many days alone

I came back yesterday from Chilliwack. Visited the family for a few days, it was nice. We went blackberry picking and that was lots of fun. Mikaela and I also hit up the mall and I bought some running shoes that were desperately needed. We had a great time looking around and talking about twilight. I stayed in her room and we read the books and chatted till I fell asleep. Man that kid can stay awake so long.

It was so pretty and sunny today, not too hot, just right. I decided to hop on the bus to Richmond today. Visited Michael's and didn't get lost once on the bus ride home. I could stay there for hours, but I was on the hunt for rubber latex mold making stuff and candle wick. I really wanted to find some cute stamps for cards, but those were just too expensive, so I refrained.

Today was also the first of many cleaning days. I made many trecks to the garbage bin / recycling with cardboard and kitchen garbage. It feels better in here. Must lug the heavy dead printer to the garbage can next.

Tony came home and we bbq'ed and he helped me set up a WOW trial account. Its not bad, I am bored with the game so far because its taking lots of time to get where its fun. Its slow going and my character is not astetically pleasing. If I do get more into it, I will be creating something prettier.

Tomorrows to do list involves candle making and painting of a set of mugs. Also, I am going to go running around the neighbourhood. This will make me feel self concious, but oh well.

on a blog!

I am also on someones blog! My creations are gaining popularity I think!

book reading and such

Recently I have been re reading the twilight series books. I really like them, and after seeing the movie I was intrigued to find out what the story was about. I hopped on the twilight train and borrowed Aria's set of books and devoured them. I tend to do that with all my books. So now, I had to get my own cause I needed to read them again (the new moon movie comes out in November)!

I never thought I would get into books about vampires. There are so many out there, but these ones hooked me.

Tony also recommended I read 1984. I never read that book in high school, instead I read Animal Farm, which was meh. Russian revolution was interesting, but this one is better.

I have a system that works well, I read a little of 1984 usually during the day, and then at night I read one of the twilight books. Books that are new to me keep me awake and I never get to sleep unless I read something I've read before. I did this as well with "the road", only my comfort books through that were the Harry Potter books.

I saw the new Harry Potter movie recently, and wasn't too happy with it. It was good, as good as expected, but the book was another favorite of mine and there were added scenes and things I didn't see that I wanted to in the books.

So that is all for now, I am off to find more classic books that should be read. I might re read the Chrysalids or find Lord of the Flies at a second hand book store.

etsy treasury and more

I am featured in a etsy treasury, or my bunny mug is! So exciting this is. So, you all may be wondering what a treasury is. On etsy, people are allowed to pick about 12 items that they like and post them on a treasury page. This is a page that can be searched by others or be featured on the etsy home page! So I am excited about this as someone picked me :)

This is me on the Treasury page

In other news, I finished work today for good. I am officially off until September 27th when school starts. It feels so weird to come home and realize that I don't have the routine of getting up every day and taking the bus to work. I am sure it will kick in soon though.

Going to visit the fam in Chilliwack this weekend, maybe take a dip in Cultus lake if its warm enough. Very excited about this as I get the chance to pick raspberries or black berries. I always see overpriced berries at safeway and sigh cause they are in chilliwack :(

forgotten fireworks pictures from the Celebration of Light

So this year I went to see the fireworks with Tony, my parents and siblings. We saw the UK put on their show. It was pretty good, the music was just ok though.


This is the first time I've taken pictures of the fireworks, my dad brought an extra tripod and taught me some awesome fireworks skills.


Mikaela bought us popsicles cause she had money burning in her pockets and my tongue turned orange. She has yet to post those pictures though, I really want to see them.


That was one of the hottest days of the year. We came home and even with all the doors and windows open, the apartment didn't cool down and just felt like hot air was blowing through the fans. Air conditioning is not something we use often, but man I wish I had some.


Baking the orange fat cat mug in the oven. I have been tracking my shops traffic through Google Analytics and its been interesting to find out where people are finding my store. Apparently a chunk comes from the google search, and the rest come from etsy. People are using some pretty strange search words and are finding my store, I have no idea how though. Oh well.

shampoo

Came out of the shower and just wanted to say that my hair smells so good. I love the peppermint eucalyptus shampoo.



Saying good night and leaving you all with a cute guy who also eats eucalyptus.

inalather solid shampoo

I am so hooked on this stuff. I saw her shampoo on etsy and it looked so cool. Its like soap for your hair. Its less shampoo bottles to throw away and takes up less space in my shower, and it smells amazing! I have thai coconut and have tried lemon curd.

This time I stuck with coconut and got a new one, spearmint and eucalyptus. I even got a little bonus lip balm as well, which is peppermint. I love my peppermint lip balm it feels so good.

In other news, I sold another mug today. The cute bunny mug is sold. Found a scale on eBay to weigh my packages, which will help with my shipping prices. Will also help with measuring ingredients for soap, which I am going to attempt to make this summer.

Work is almost done, thank goodness. Its busy and I am ready to be done. 2 days left to work and after that, Tony said he will be taking me out for dinner :) Looking forward to that very much.

I am feeling way less stressed out now that I have school mostly sorted out. Still need to get info on bursaries and finish with the student loan.

Thinking about ideas for crafts, so many things I want to try this summer. Off to Michaels for some mold builder liquid latex to make molds for a soap idea and then off to deserres for soap ingredients.

Fish Balls!

So last night, Tony and I went out for all you can eat sushi with Ian and Andrea. It was lots of fun, I stuck with the normal ish stuff like California roll and beef terriyaki, so good. Ian made me try something new, which was fish balls.

They sounded like they might be fish meat in deep fried balls, but I never realized that they were so very processed. Texture kinda like a hot dog, and probably china's equivalent to one. So gross, just imagine a fish hot dog, but with no condiments and on a stick.

So wrong. What was grossest was Tony eating meat off a fish head. There were eyes looking at us on that fish head.

Havent done the curtains yet, they are coming soon. Tony is sunburned and has been living on icecream all day. I think it is my turn for some icecream.

I love ikea

Tony, Beth and I went for a ikea run today. This is the only store that Tony doesn't mind spending a fair amount of money in as hes the one adding miscellaneous gadget to the cart. He loves finding kitchen things, like his milk frother.

He came home and the first thing he did was froth a cup of cold milk. It tasted kinda gross, but he liked it.

We also found curtains and curtain rods for our bedroom. I will show you the really ugly ones we currently have tomorrow as a before picture. They were here when we came. They block out the light, which is good, but are brown and gross. Hopefully we can get these guys installed tomorrow or monday. That will be fun.

I also got 2 rolls of paper and a paper roll dispenser. I was fine with just the rolls, but Tony insisted I get the dispenser cause it was cool.


I love my paper stuff. I will be stamping paper and making things with it. Its very cute and came from the kids section of ikea, but I don't care.


I put my painting in the living room cause I like it and it makes me think of fall and how eventually it will cool down.


Hes still ALIVE! This plant is thriving. I haven't watered him in a long time, that may help, and the fact that its like 35 degrees out side. I did kill the tiny cactus at work, I suspect he didnt get enough sun. He shrivelled up into just spikes, no green plant stuff.