The Squareheaded Monthly Pinterest Challenge

Although I didn't have an overwhelming response to my inquiry about who would be interested in a Pinterest challenge, I decided to go ahead with it anyway. For those of you that did respond in the positive, thanks! For those of you that are wondering what the heck I'm talking about...I guess my first question would be: Do you pin?

Pinterest is this wicked awesome site that allows you to store a photographic collection of things you like, love, or just want to remember from the internet. It's like an electronic cork board of sorts. Once you've become a member of Pinterest, you add a "pin it" button to your bookmark bar and when you're browsing the internet, if you see something you fancy, you "pin it" to one of your boards. You can then go back and find the image you "pinned" on your page. Nifty, right?

Warning: It is rather addicting. Ahem.

So, you can imagine that a lot of my pins come from the crafting world. There are so many gorgeous things to made out there. The problem is, I keep pinning pinning pinning...not much making to be had...yet.

In comes the Squareheaded Monthly Pinterest Challenge! Is there a recipe that you've pinned and been meaning to try? I quilt you've been eyeing on one of your boards? A card you've been meaning to case from one of the Pinheads you follow? Whatever it may be on Pinterest that you have seen, loved and wanted to do, this is the challenge for you.

I've decided to make it a monthly challenge because some of the things that I, myself, have pinned may take a little longer that a week to accomplish. I think a month gives us enough time to choose something, mull it over, and to actually get it made or at least started.

If you would like to play along, it's simple:

Step 1- find something cool that you've pinned.
Step 2- make said thing.
Step 3- blog about it or upload to your flicker/picasa/photobucket account.
Step 4- if you are so inclined, link back here to the monthly challenge post in the comments section so we can all oooh and aaahhh over your project.

I'll post the challenge the first Monday of every month (I'm aware that today is the last Monday of October but I really wanted to get this going...). The post, of course, will only be the project that *I* chose to make from one of my boards. There will be no specific requirements and no time limit. I just want to see what you guys are making!

Here's what I've made for this month:

These are reusable snack bags for Logan to take to school for his recess snack. I'm tired of sacrificing my cute Tupperware to his absentmindedness and I feel awful about the sheer quantity of Ziplocs we use as a family. I pinned this super easy tutorial on my Sewing Stuff board. The tutorial is from the i have to say blog. You can find the tutorial in the left hand column of her blog. The coolest thing about these is that you can just pitch 'em in the wash when the snack is finished. Awesome, eh? I suggest having a looky-loo around i have to say. Wonderful fabric goodies, I tells ya.

So? Who's with me? I'd love for this to work and, more importantly, I'd love for you to click away from here thinking, "I could make that!" Whatever "that" may be. Ske-doosh.

Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #93- Sew What?

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

And here's the inside of said card:

stamps: sew suite, naturally serif alpha? (maybe?...I can't remember the name of it...)

ink: turq, olive, mambo, pumpkin, espresso

paper: I can't think of the names of anything tonight DSP, espresso cs, whisper cs

accessories: jumbo eyelets, chocolate chip polytwill ribbon, brights, neutrals, and soft subtles designer buttons, espresso marker

Ugh. That was painful writing out the "recipe" for this card. My brain was farting. Anyway...so, these more complex sketches usually kick me in the bum but this one came together fairly easily! I really wish that there were some cute sayings including in the Sew Suite set. Just sayin'. 

Hey! Who loves Pinterest? I do. One thing I've been thinking about, though; I need to start MAKING the things I've been pinning on my crafty boards. I'm thinking of starting a monthly challenge to make something that I/we (meaning you and I, dear reader) have pinned. What do you guys think? Anyone interested in playing along? It doesn't have to be something big like a piece of furniture (unless you're keen to make one). It can be something small or even something non-papercraft. Anything DIY, really. Leave me a comment if you'd be interested, kay?

In the meantime, head over to the Inkspirations Challenge Blog and leave some love for my talented friends! Ske-doosh.

Stampin' Royalty #95- Hoo-loween Frame

For this week's Stampin' Royalty Challenge, we exploring all things spooky and Halloween-y. *sniggle*...weeny. I've had these cheap frames from the dollar store lying around for ages and ages. I'm not big time into Halloween crafting so I didn't have any dsp for the occasion so I just used fabric to cover the frame. I wouldn't say this is spooky but it is Halloween-y...*snart* ...weeny.  Head over the the Stampin' Royalty Blog to lay some blog love on the rest of the DT! I haven't taken a sneak peek at what they've made this week so I'm excited to see what they came up with! Ske-doosh.

Starry Rock Star

stamps: a little something
ink: indigo, kiwi, baja
paper: wwhite cs
accessories: black medium eyelets, olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon, small and large star punches, dimensionals

Simple and quick is what makes this card a winner, in my opinion. I just punched out a big star and a small star and then sponged on some colour for this cool star strip. Then I doodled (NO WAY! Seriously? How unusual...) around the stars and added some dazzling details. You could make a buttload of these in no time flat, if you were so inclined. 

Huh?

What's that?

How much is a buttload, you say?

Um...well it's...ah...a lot. 

Ske-doosh.

Inkspirations Colour Challenge #92- Cobbler Thank You

Here's the colour combination:

And here's my card:

stamps: aviary, woodgrain, delightful dozen

ink: navy, cobbler, black staz-on, vanilla craft

paper: cobbler cs, navy cs, vanilla cs

accessories: linen thread, eyelet, twill tape, extra-large oval punch

This was a tough combo for me. I don't know why because, individually, I really like all of these colours. Huh. Must have been an off day. Hey! It's FRIDAY! I haven't been so excited to have a weekend in a while now. I'm feeling much better and I have nothing planned for the weekend except supper with friends on Saturday evening. Stampy stampy STAMPY! Well, some sewing, too. In any case, I get to PLAY! : )

But right now? I gotta go back to work. Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

Head over to the Inkspirations Challenge Blog to see what the ladies have made! Leave 'em some love! Ske-doosh.

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #94- Heartfelt Home

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

stamps: house and home, fabulous phrases

ink: poppy, gray, daffodil, pool party

paper: domestic goddess dsp, white cs, gray cs

accessories: simply scored, gray marker, brights and neutrals buttons, daffodil pom pom trim, perfect pennants die

This was such a fun sketch to do! It's one of those base sketches that I find myself drawn to over and over. It has a nice central panel for images and it really shows off the fun patterned papers we have. The lighting is kind of bad on this photo because the paper came out looking purple-y or bluish. Huh. Photographer, I am not. 

Head over to the Stampin' Royalty blog to check out the rest of the DT's creations. Leave 'em some love, too, if the feeling hits you! : )

Guess what? I slept for 10 hours last night! Apparently, I snored like a old man and my husband moved down to the couch but...I SLEPT! He's so sweet. He didn't want to wake me up to tell me to roll over because I've been having so much trouble sleeping lately. He was scared I wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep. My husband's a keeper, I tells ya. 

I'm feeling much better and the coughing has almost stopped. It's been a rough couple of weeks but I'm back in the crafty mood so I should have some pretties up in the next week. Ske-doosh.

Red Lego B-day

stamps: grunge rock
ink: bblack
paper: pacific point, wwhite cs, dsp
accessories: itty bitty shapes punch pack, striped gg red ribbon, 1/8" red taffeta ribbon, jumbo eyelets, 1-3/4" circle punch, black journaling marker, letter stickers

Sometimes I'm really organized. Case in point: this card. Sky's birthday isn't until April and I already have a card made for him. Pretty impressive, right? Don't look in the drawer underneath the telephone and we can keep this organized illusion going for ever, m'kay?

I'm still sick and can't sleep well. Someone come knock me over the head with a baseball bat. You guys would do that for me, wouldn't you? Ske-doosh.

Relish Weekend 2011

Thanksgiving weekend, for our family, has turned into Relish Weekend. We head down to Québec City to spend time with family and to whip up a batch of yellow relish a.k.a. the best condiment on the planet. Theres no one in our family (aside from picky Logan) that doesn't like it. It takes a lot of chopping and cutting so its much more fun to make together as a group.

I asked my sweet, sweet mother-in-law if she wouldn't mind if I shared her relish recipe with you, dear readers. She gladly gave me the recipe and we tried to take photos for every step but I kinda failed. There are quite a few pics but not one for every step, so if you decide to try the recipe, please read the directions carefully.

Here 'tis:

Veggie Prep.

-6 large ears of corn

-6 large onions

-4 large cucumbers

-1 small cauliflower

-1 red pepper

-1 green pepper

-2 pounds of yellow beans

-1/4 cup of coarse salt

-2 1/2 cups of cold water

Liquid Prep.

-2 cups of white sugar

-1/2 cup of flour

-3 tbsp. powdered mustard

-1 1/2 tsp. turmeric

-1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed

-1 1/2 tsp. celery seed

-3 cups of white vinegar

-1 cup of water

This is my beautiful sister-in-law, Pascale. She likes chopping vegetables. 

Now, I had good intentions of taking pics of the general sizes of each vegetable when sliced or chopped but...I forgot because my family and I were laughing throughout the process...sooo, yeah. Martin, my brother-in-law was in charge of the electric mandolin. This thing worked like a charm for the cukes but it kind of fails for the onions. I'd say to slice them both at about 1/8" - 3/8". 

Cut up the cauliflower in small pieces (see one of the photos below to gauge the size) and cut the corn off the cob. The red and green peppers can be diced and the whole kit and kaboodle into the crisper drawer of your fridge. Now you're going to add the salt. Sprinkle it all over.

Next, add the cold water.

Toss everything up in the crisper.

Put a tea towel over top of the mix and place it in the fridge overnight. You can see the sizes that we cut the veggies pretty well in this photo. 

The next day, use a salad spinner to "dry off" the mix. Take out a large pot (make sure its a pot with a thick bottom. If its a cheap pot, the relish will stick when its cooking) and whisk the liquid preparation until it's well mixed. Add the veggie mix and mix it up well. 

Bring the whole mix to a boil and then let it cook over a low heat for about an hour, stirring frequently. It depends how crunchy you like your relish if you want to cook it for longer. We like it a wee bit crunchy. We over cooked it a couple of years back and it was kind of like a mush. Bleh. Get your brother-in-law to make crêpes for the whole gang while you stir.

Disinfect 12 or so mason jars and fill them up about an inch and a half from the top. 

Place all of the sealing lids into a shallow bowl and pour boiling hot water over them to soften up the rubber seal.

Turn your pots over and let the heat of the relish do it's magic!

This recipe gives approximately 12 medium mason jars. We made a double recipe so we were able to bring home 12 gorgeous jars of yellow deliciousness. Mmmmm...hot dogs.

I really thought I was feeling better. In fact, I was, until today. I think this darned cold has moved down to my chest and I'm feeling quite turd-ish (waves at Sweet Tandra). I'm hoping to get some stamping done tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me, wouldja? Ske-doosh.

Feeling much better...

...but because I was sick for over a week, I'm a bit behind in the crafting department. I'll be back on Saturday with a relish recipe and maybe a project...we'll see if I can get things in order. : ) Ske-doosh.

Inkspirations Colour Challenge #90- Flowering Friendship

Here's the colour combination:

And here's my card:

stamps: season of friendship, perfect grid

ink: razzle, pipink, cchip, bashful blue

paper: playdate dsp, razzle cs, pipink cs, wwhite cs

accessories: 3 flower punch, blushing bride ribbon, rhinestones, cupcake punch, black marker, vintage trinkets, embroidery thread

Tired. SO tired. And sick. 

Design team's display of awesomeness. Leave them some love.

Bed.

Ske-doosh.

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #92- Diggin' the Dinos

Here's the colour combination:

And here's my card:

stamps: dinoroar

ink: basic black, old olive, more mustard, elegant eggplant, so saffron, white craft ink

paper: brights dsp stack, crumb cake cs, whisper white cs

accessories: scallop oval and large oval punch, cupcake punch, old olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, sponge

This colour combo automatically made me think of Dinoroar. Which is a good thing considering I bought it and still hadn't used it. Why do we do that? Why, as stampers, do we go apesh*t when we see a stamp set that we just *have* to own...and then leave it on the shelf? Crazy nutters, we are. 

I didn't notice the weird glare on the images until I uploaded the card and now I'm too lazy to go back and retake the pic. This card looks way better in real life. I think I'll get a lot of use from this set because it's so fun to colour. Maybe one day I'll embark on the Copic wagon, but not yet. I'd like to be able to send my children to college. I have the feeling if I start buying alcohol markers, I'll love it and then I'll have to buy every single colour. So, I'll wait. : )

Skyler saw this card and asked me if he could put it in his room so I gave it to him. I'm such a sucker when my kids like my cards. I'll find it all beat up in his bed in a few days but just knowing that he liked it enough to ask for it makes that ok. 

I'm still sick and I'm really looking forward to having a long weekend. We'll be making my mother-in-law's amazing homemade relish. It's become a tradition that we make it on the long weekend in October. Instead of calling it Thanksgiving Weekend, we've started calling it Relish Weekend. It entails lots of chopping, lots of slicing and a tonne of laughing. Awesome.

Make sure you head over to the Stampin' Royalty Challenge Blog so you can check out what the rest of the DT made. Leave them some blog love if you have a few spare minutes. I know they'd love to hear from you! Ske-doosh.

Chevron Congratulations...

stamps: well scripted
ink: bblack
paper: shimmery white
accessories: peach, pear, concord, bride poly twill ribbon, black journaling marker

The chevron pattern is all the rage these days. I'm kind of impressed with myself that I stuck these on straight. : ) So, I don't know if you guys have noticed all of the minor tweaks and such that I've been doing on the ol' bloggerino but I'm pretty stoked with how it's coming along. I've been adding to my "I'm a blog stalker" list up top. It's not finished yet but I ran out of gas last night. (Actually, I went to bed relatively early for me but couldn't fall asleep until 4:30 a.m...so I feel just GREAT today...not.) 

Is there anything else you would like to see on my blog? If you have any suggestions for me, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

I'm sick as a dog today and I was kinda looking forward to stamping. Ain't gonna happen. I'm off to make some gin and honey, then I have a date with the couch. Ske-doosh.