Fun with Facebook Timeline

Because you can let your inner G0s-geekness shine:

❤

Craft Crazy Sunday

Phew, what a productive Sunday I had today. I finally finished Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot (good, but nowhere near as memorable as Middlesex), baked a loaf of English muffin bread (it is gooooood), cleaned the flat, made cover for my new Kindle:

Handmade Kindle cover

Kindle all snug inside

I followed the instructions on Instructables and then added a few more bits and pieces to make it a bit prettier. I was admiring these  upcycled book covers on Etsy and thought I could save myself a bit of money by making one myself. So, instead of EUR 40+ for a cover, I spent EUR 15 and spent an hour making it.

Then I made a colourful display my vintage sunglasses:

A canvas, a ruler, paint, clothes pegs and a hot glue gun, voila!

We have a few canvases in the back of the closet collecting dust, so I took one out, measured off some rectangles, painted them and then hot-glued some clothes pegs to it. Voila, now I can take my vintage/oddball sunglasses collected over the years out of the shoebox.

And finally…I did something with all of those passport photos we’ve collected off our friends over the years:

The Wall of Fame

I used another canvas, painted it, covered it with a textured medium, stuck the photos on, and then nailed the canvas to the back of a frame that we bought on Queen’s Day four years ago (yes, it’s been sitting in the closet that long).

Voila, a great way to spend a freezing cold Sunday in Amsterdam.

Getting Ready for Queen’s Day!

Queen’s Day is the biggest holiday in the Netherlands. It happens on 30 April every year and Amsterdam gets an influx of more than a million visitors in just that one day. The city centre shuts down, and residents across the city chalk out turf on the sidewalk to reserve the space for their mini yard-sale, bar, cookery stand, or whatever else their heart fancies.

Grant and I are doing our stand for the third year in a row. Last year it was cocktails, the year before it was cupcakes and cocktails, and this year, it’ll be the same.

Because I’ve got my cupcake company to promote now, we’re going all pro. I’ve been making signage:

Nomzilla's getting ready for her big day

And we’ve got our booze purchased for our delicious “Queen B” cocktails:

Tonight, I’m baking 24 royal wedding themed cupcakes for an order, then on Friday after work, I’m baking 160 chocolate, vanilla, and lemon cupcakes.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP – that’s a lot of work to do.

Meet Octomom

Halloween. I love it because I have an excuse to put together the most ridiculous costume I can imagine and wear it out in public. This year was no exception.

We were dressing up for a party hosted by a fellow Canadian-expat Halloween enthusiast, and the theme was Mad Science.

I like my costumes to be current, so after some brainstorming I thought that dressing up as Octomom was apt.  And I wanted to be Octomom pre-Cesarian, so some crafty thinking was in order.

Ingredients:

– 4 pairs tan pantyhose
– 8 doll heads
– various doll parts
– cotton batting

A colleague donated two plastic babies which I deconstructed. I bought two, one of which had a face that lit up if you pushed the hand. I cut the head from the body and carefully pulled the wire out of the hand. The other four heads I made from the toes of the pantyhose and simply attached some plastic doll eyes that I had in my craft stash.

I beheaded a baby

I then cut out the gusset of one pair of pantyhose and sewed up the bottom, stuffed it into a preggers belly shape, and sewed up the other end. Then I stuck it in another cut-off gusset and jammed all the baby parts in between. I sewed up the bottom, and sewed up the top – but I made sure that I pulled out the wire from the one baby head so that I could push it throughout the night.

recently stuffed belly

And here was the finished product:

Who are the daddies?

 

I don't know who has sired this one.

they were kicking really hard.

My entourage: Dr. Block and Dr. Stanislov Spermowitz, my fertility doctor:

The next cover of Time Magazine.

Sock Pig

Since I have to break from the gym, I have a lot more time do to make things:

fun with socks

I’m taking a break from the crochet for a little while, so I’m focusing my efforts on sock things. It’s easier on the RSI. This is a sock pig.

Who knew socks could be so fun?

Hi, I’m a Blue Lion.

I like making stuff. I go through obsessive phases, usually accompanied by copious amounts of spending to equip myself to make such obsessions. My gramma taught me how to knit and sew when I was 7-years-old and I’ve kinda loved it ever since. I bought myself a sewing machine and a bust form a couple years ago and taught myself how to read patterns. I made some stuff, and mostly modified some clothes for friends. I made a sweet yoga mat bag for a friend, which actually didn’t fit because the accompanying mat I bought for her was the ‘extra thick’ kind. Anyways, I digress.

My latest obessession has been crocheting. I taught myself last summer and have been hookin’ ever since. Mostly amurigurmi stuff, but some blankets too. I had to take a break because I gave myself mega-RSI, and I make sure I take lots of breaks when I’m making stuff now. My last project is this guy, a blue lion for baby Damian, Erica & Aris’s beautiful son.

Here’s the lion:

rawr?