Sunday 30 March 2008

I think Krystal should be a designer!!!

I have to admit that I'm REALLY impressed with Krystal's room! When I told Krystal she was allowed to make the final decision on everything she had and gave her a room budget I also made up my mind that it was going to be HER project. She could see what she wanted in her own mind and I knew it would look good but I didn't realise just how good... quite frankly it's FANTASTIC and I might just have to move into her room myself LOL

After I made the curtains last weekend we hung them up straight away. The next morning Krystal said that she was 'heaps warmer' during the night... that thermal drape is going to be really great during our cold Rotorua winters! The next shot is pretty dark but she wanted to try and get a photo of the new nets. She absolutely DID NOT want 'granny nets' so she went with sheer ones and they have a bit of a sparkle to them which looks lovely... but impossible to photograph well! This weekend it's been just me and Krystal at home... Dave is in Taranaki and Mikayla has been at a friends place so Krystal and I have had a great time finishing off her room on our own. We started with putting up the shelves for her books: And then she added her books... notice her paper bag album she made herself on the top shelf!!Then we got the bed done. We had to buy new bolts to attach her headboard but between us we figured out how to do it. I had a last minute sewing job too because Krystal found the 'perfect' valance but we could only get it in a King Single so we did a bit of pinning and tucking until we had it right and then I used the sewing machine again LOL Her cushions have so much texture... crushed silk, velvet and sequins and the doodled duvet was just so beautiful (actually that was the very first thing Krystal bought!) Here's another shot from the end of the bed:Next we put in the bedside cabinet (including the drawer handles she really loved!) Plus she worked out how to get a new stereo into the budget as well! Krystal is definitely a bargain hunter!!

She also found this lamp which went perfectly with everything else:

Next on the list was the renovated dressing table:When Krystal saw the jewellery stand she told me it would be 'perfect' and I have to admit that it really is gorgeous!!The mirror was a last minute purchase but as soon as she saw it Krystal knew it would be just right for her room:Next is her clock... this girl thinks of everything!Then we had to try and get a photo with the curtains closed and the clock above them... it didn't turn out too bad:And while the curtains were closed we got a 'night shot' of what her new lamp looks like:

By the time we'd done all that the budget had run out but she still needed a new desk. Her birthday is in a couple of months time so when we find the right desk we'll renovate it and add that to her room. For now she's still using Dave's old desk which didn't look too bad before but now it really stands out in her glamourous new room!!!We've still got a few bits and pieces to do... I'm going to re-cover the seat on the chair with some curtain fabric and we've got to do her pinboard (also with curtain fabric) but she wants to get the new desk in first so that the pinboard is the right size. She's also asked me to make her three canvas hangings (6 x 12) to go above her bed... I actually feel really good that she's asked me :) And the final addition (hopefully) will be a paper mache dress form that we've been designing so hopefully we'll get that done next weekend!

Right, I need to go and organise my bags because I'm off on an overnight camp with my class in the morning... luckily we're staying in dorms so at least we won't be too uncomfortable :) Hope you all have a great week!

Friday 28 March 2008

Shhh! Don't tell Krystal!

I'm still not really allowed to show you what's been happening with Krystal's D.I.Y. project but she's busy talking on the phone so I figured while she's busy I can blog LOL

Last Thursday I took Krystal down to the second hand shop and we managed to find her a new headboard (bargain at $10) and a new dressing table (another bargain at $65!) We were even clever enough to find a dressing table with the same sort of legs as her current (also second hand) bedside table :)

Before I show you the work we've been doing I should show you the 'before' photos of her room. There is nothing 'wrong' with her room... it's 'functional' but that's about it! Her room has no personality!!! This is her 'work area'... very important for someone doing NCEA!
And here's a wider photo showing her current curtains (sort of):
And here's her bedside table:
When we bought the house I told her that she could do her own room and gave her a budget and knowing my daughter as well as I do I knew that she would shop around until she found the 'perfect' items. She spent a good 9 months deciding what she really, really wanted.... colours, themes, styles etc... and in the end she choose black, silver and grey! She told me that she wanted her room to look 'expensive' without actually being expensive :)

Once she had her theme it was time to start organising what to buy. We started in December when we found the 'perfect' duvet set... since then she's added curtain and cushion fabric, a jewellery holder, a clock, sheer nets, and other miscellaneous items. After we got the the furniture on Thursday night we caught up with the Spotlight sale and got cushion inners, a new duvet inner and some fantastic new pillows!
On Friday Dave got busy with the sander and stripped all the furniture for Krystal.

All the drawers looked impressive stacked up!And here's the new headboard:There was a fair bit of work in sanding back the dressing table too!

While Dave was busy sanding I was busy making curtains:

On Saturday Krystal and I went down to Bunnings to try and get her some new drawer handles but we ran into a problem... all the handles that fitted her drawers (one hole) were either ugly in Krystal's opinion or really expensive. It's amazing how working to a budget can make someone really think about what they can actually have!!! She found one type of handle that she really liked but at $10 per handle she soon figured out that $80 just for handles was a LOT of money out of her budget!!! In the end she talked Dave into filling the original holes with putty so that she could have two holes on each drawer because she saw some handles she really liked and they were only $2.30 each... much more budget friendly!!!We also bought some MDF to make her shelves because it worked out much better on her budget... although she now has some understanding of how much D.I.Y. costs! On Monday Krystal and Dave started priming the furniture... and Krystal was like a 'pig in mud' wearing her old painting clothes again LOLAnd it was back to the sewing machine for me... this time making cushion covers... complete with zippers in the back!On Tuesday (yip we teachers had an extra long holiday!!!) we started painting the furniture with dark grey (Dulux 'The Remarkables) and then after two coats of that we added the 'sparkly' paint. It's a glimmer paint from Dulux called 'Devils Marble' and it is suprisingly easy to use. Krystal liked the roller effect the best so we bought some rollers and got started:Like most things, Krystal takes painting pretty seriously!!!During the week we've done a few other bits and pieces like put up the brackets for the shelves, second coats of glimmer paint, attaching handles to drawers and generally making sure that everything was right. We've left all the furniture in the garage for now waiting for everything to dry properly and the paint smells (not that bad actually) to disappear so tomorrow we're going to get started on getting it all sorted!

Hopefully I'll be able to show you 'finished' photos on Sunday night because I'm off to school camp on Monday for a couple of days!!! Looking forward to going on the flying fox again LOL

Sunday 23 March 2008

Some creativity to share :)

I hope everyone is having a lovely Easter break :) Our household has been really busy... we've started another D.I.Y. project!! This time we're giving Miss Krystal's bedroom a makeover. She's in charge of everything but she's got Dave and me doing specific jobs... Dave is sanding and I'm sewing LOL I'm not allowed to show you any photos yet (Krystal's orders!!!) but so far it's looking pretty good although we've got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow!!!

I have managed to 'sneak' a bit of time in my scraproom though :) I finished a double LO (8x8 size) for Miss Kody's album. I had some awesome photos of her being 'creative' with her Mummy's clean windows and knew exactly what I wanted to do with them... try lots of techniques I haven't tried before... so here's the first side:
I just bought myself a Fiskars 'finger cutter' and I have to say... I LOVE it!!! It's has a seriously good design and makes cutting out shapes and designs super easy!!! I had some Basic Grey paper from the Lily Kate collection and I cut out some of the designs to make this page. I layers the cut-outs on the paper and put the one on the bottom right on foam squares to add a bit of dimension. Then for the photo I printed two exactly the same... one in colour and one in black and white. I left the black and white one full size and then cropped the colour one down so that it's just got Kody and Mum in it and then added foam squares between the two photos for some more dimension. I finished off the layout with some sparkly letter stickers (thanks Neen!) and some kindy glitz. It's my first time using kindy glitz but I'm already a big fan!!!
Here's the second side:
For this page I cut around the design on the patterned paper and layered it on the plainer one. Then I backed all the photos with the same background paper. Next it was time for the journaling and I knew I wanted to put in a bit of humour because Kody had such a great time when it was all happening so just in case you can't read it on the layout here it is:

Let's play Sticky Fingers!!!
How to play:
  • Grab your Grandma and get her to hold you up to Mummy's clean windows
  • Smear 'stuff' all over the windows!
  • Get Auntie to join in from the inside... you can blame her for 'encouraging' you!!!
  • Laugh and shriek as much as possible... grown ups (even Mummy's) fall for it every time!

I gave my sister the layouts today and she is super pleased with them. She really did LOL when she read the journaling :)

Our family had a really lovely gathering today because my other niece celebrated her second birthday today! We had so much fun hanging out together and just being together :) Of course I had to make her a birthday card... so here's the result:

She loves sparkly things so this went down well! The little crown is a piece of Grungeboard... I'm loving using it!!! And then I needed an envelope:The gorgeous felt flower on the front of the envelope was sent to me by Nie... thank you so much for sending it to me!!! Nie makes these lovely embellishments herself and I've been saving it for something special and this was it!!!

You've still got a little bit of time to enter the Fiskars competition... Monday is about YOU! Check out the previous post for all the details :) There's heaps happening on the Fiskars blog at the moment and it's well worth a look!!!

Finally a big thank you to everyone who left comments about Mum's 'Patio Party Cake'!! She really has had a wonderful time reading all your comments and it's made her so proud of her talents... which is a good thing!!! On the down side... she now 'floats' above the ground and has trouble getting her head through doorways - even large ones!!! LOL Sorry Mum (kind of) just couldn't resist that one!!! I know that I'm going to get an email out of THAT comment!!!

On that note... I had better go and find my passport before it's too late to escape!

Saturday 22 March 2008

Check out the Fiskars blog!!!

Hi everyone :)

There is so much happening on the Fiskars blog this weekend! Heaps of games, giveaways and gossip... actually there isn't really any gossip I just wanted another word starting with 'g' LOL

But I did want to tell you about this: Monday is YOUR day.
We're really excited about this. We would love to see your work on the ANZ Fiskars blog! Love to!!!!!

So we want to challenge you to send us your version of one of the sketches we've featured on the ANZ Fiskars blog (it could be from the weekly Saturday sketches Trina does, the monthly ones from the Fiskarscraft site, or the ones we featured over Jan when it was a sketch a day). It doesn't matter. We would just like to see your work up here.

Ideally we'd love for you to use some Fiskars products and/or tools, but don't panic, it doesn't have to be fully Fiskars. Just so we can see some on your page.

Send them to us at this email address by 4am (Aussie time), 6am (NZ time) on Monday morning and we'll put them up over the day.

If you've got some information about your page, why you chose to do that sketch, what products you've used etc, please give us a little blurb so we can put that up to. Otherwise, all we 'need' to know is which sketch you used. Perhaps just give us the link to the blog post or what date the sketch featured.


So if you're feeling creative why not give it a go :)

Sunday 16 March 2008

Weekend update :)

Firstly.... FISKARS!!! I had so much FUN doing the demonstration at Spotlight yesterday! It's amazing how friendly people are and how much they want to know about something new. Everyone loved the new Heidi Grace papers and they were disappearing fast... I also had my Heidi Grace stamps there (they weren't actually part of the demo but I took them just in case) and oh my goodness!!!! When I left they only had 3 packets left on the shelf!! They are such a big hit so if you haven't seen or used them yet you really need to go and have a look at your local spotlight!!!

Mum came over after lunch (with her camera) so she got a shot of my 'name in lights' so to speak:

Then we managed to get a shot of me 'demonstrating' for Mum... Yes that's my Mum in the stripes!!! You're 'famous' now Mum LOL

Krystal took the photo just before the batteries died!!! We were trying to make sure we didn't get anyone else in the photo so it took a bit of patience. I even talked Mum into buying a Cutting Mat and Dual-Tip Stylus... they're brilliant for scoring paper!!!

Then it was back to my place so that Mum and Richard could check out the new patio :) Mum said that she was going to make her own cake after me mentioning that making concrete and making cakes was a similar process.. in fact this is how she so eloquently put it: Next time I come to your house I will make and bring my own cake. Sod eating yours!!!!!!!!! And what she brought over was much more than just a cake. Dave and I were completely blown away with this:

I requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing but check out all the 'embellishments'! She made a fence from popsicle sticks (and even had the cheek to paint some ivy on them!!!) Then she used some broken popsicle sticks to make our very own junk pile LOL She made the little recipe book out of icing and managed to find a photo of a concrete mixer... and the little hammer and saw are actually candles. Here's a close up of the top:But wait... there's more... LOL :) Around the sides she put lots of little icing 'tools':And here's one from the back:Wow! Dave and I really were IMPRESSED!!! We had a lovely 'patio party' outside... the weather was perfect and Mum and Richard really enjoyed seeing all our hard work finished. We had such a relaxing time and lots and lots of laughs :)

Luckily for me I had been visiting Trina's blog and seen a post about making tiny shoes and I decided to try one out and make it for Mum... After that amazing cake I was pleased I had! So here's the little shoe I made for Mum:

At only 8cm long it's incredibly cute!!! Mum loves anything vintage so these papers from my stash were perfect.Mum was really impressed with it too so that's always a good thing :) Mum has just received her invitation to one of my cousins weddings and she emailed me the other day with a request: would you, could you, please make me a wedding card to give them? The one you made for David to give to Hayden and Hannah was lovely. The same but different. That's if you have time. I know how busy you are with everything.

So on Friday night I got busy and made her a wedding card to give them. Luckily I had photos of the previous card to refer back to :) And here's the new creation... it definitely fitted the 'same but different' look:

Here's the inside:And of course she needed an envelope as well:There's been a few parties around here lately and Mikayla got invited to a sleep-over birthday this weekend. She asked me if I could 'make her something' to give to her friend... and it was good timing because I'd been thinking of this project for a while and just needed an excuse to go ahead with it... so here is my altered noodle box:She really loved that fact that I put Alana's name on the front :) Here's a detail shot:For the inside we decided to fill it with lip glosses so we needed some tissue paper for the inside and since we couldn't find what we wanted we stamped our own:Then while we were at the chemist we found these cute little lip glosses that reminded me so much of Ferrero Rocher's :)Following in here Grandma's footsteps she asked me for a card: The same but different to Kody's please :) It's so funny when you hear your Mum's words coming out of your kids mouths LOL And this is the card I made for Alanah:Mikayla was absolutely wrapped with it and she helped to to design the envelope:She was pretty pleased with herself over that one... actually both of the girls are developing a really good eye for design!And that's been the weekend so far! Hopefully today will be lovely and quiet because I have heaps of school stuff to do... planning, marking etc Have a great weekend everyone :)