For the Beautiful Use swap my partner said she loved Arts and Crafts style things and also kitchen stuff. Somehow I have always wanted to try woodburning but never gotten around to it. While browsing Michael's one day I decided to stop by the wood section and an idea was born!

Inspired by craftster I picked up a plain old recipe box and some acrylics (I already had the woodburning kit at home) and decided to try my hand at a new craft. All in all I think it turned out rather beautifully and I am quite proud of it.

Here is what I came up with:

Are you ladies ready for the package I got from Ambear?!
It is so beautiful and useful! And I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures and welcome Amber to put up better ones (especially of the test tubes). The manmeat is not home to take my photos which is usually what I resort to... me an technology aren't the closest..

First we have the group shot!


And now we have the individual items!

Ambear send me an awesomely comfortable pillow that is oh so soft on the knitted side and oh so matching my room/bedding on the non-knitted side!

Knitted-

It is so nice to touch and makes me want to learn to knit even worse than I already did.

Fabric-

The fabric is recycled (hurrah!) from an old shirt and Ambear embroidered a leaf on the pocket of the shirt

Close up-

The embroidery is dome with regular thread which really impresses me! And sorry about the blur in my photo, I wish I could figure this digital camera out!

Next we have a bar of delicious smelling locally made soap from Mile End Soap Company! The scent is Rosemary Lime and Mint and I took it into the shower this morning and HOLY COW! That is exactly what I need to start my mornings! Amber also sent a knitted pouch for the soap to live inside.

The soap and pouch Amber knitted for exfoliating and soap conserving goodness.


Pouch by its lonesome... It was last night so it was fairly dark but the puch is cable knit out of white yarn with threads of silver in it!


Next I have these awesome test tubes with magnets on the back so I can put spices in them and stick them on the fridge!


This is such a neat idea. I love storing spices right on the fridge via magnets and now I have such an awesome variety of containers to keep it interesting!

Thank you so much Amber! It was an awesome swap and I totally love everything!!!

Also- Ambear received but I wanted to post this teaser photo of my package. There should be photos of the contents soon!

Ladies! You have fabulous suggestions. I think my main problem is finding a frame that will fit me properly. Before buying my brand new bike I looked endlessly on the internet for used bikes but couldn't find anything in a frame size smaller than 51/52ish. I will keep up the hunt though, I am certain that somewhere some short woman wants to pass on her treasures!

As for learning my way around a bike, I have been aching to take some classes but Mr.!b is trying to convince me that he can teach it all to me, I just feel so foolish no knowing anything about my own bike so that is definitely my next move on the bike front.

As for my bikes I have two pictures and neither is very recent.

The "slow bikes"


Mine is the purple one. The Heckler is the boy's.
Since this photo my shifter has moved from the handle bars, my grips are now white and so is my seat... (crackly white... I unsuccessfully tried to spray paint it!)

The "fast bikes"


Mine is the white one. And again, the other one is the boy's.
Since this photo I was gifted some sweet new clips and some awesome gold bar tape!

I will try to get some better photos, specially of the paint job on the cruiser, it has SPARKLES!

I recieved an awe inspiring package from purpleone!
She sent me THREE different heavy weight fabrics for bag making, all of which are awesome! AND she even sent a pendent from my wists.


The leftest one is my personal favourite! It will make such an awesome bag.

I haven't taken it off since I got it. The pendent hails from missficklemedia of Etsy.

And it has also inspired me to try my hand at pendent making with sculpy.

Thanks again purpleone!

I am a total slacker and havent yet posted pictures of my awesome hat from Oneredboot. Waiting for the boyfriend to take my photo isn't going to fly anymore so here is one of the better shots I managed to get of the back of my head...



Flat hat


The photo doesnt do the hat justice at all, it is actually really cute and very soft. I am also far cuter than this photo lets on.
Thanks again Karen, the hat is getting quite a bit of use. We have -40 C here right now and I wear the hat even in the house to keep warm!

Alright! I am a really late picture poster and I feel awful about it!
I finally got around to sneaking my boyfriends camera away from him and took some photos of the awesome swap package that cortag04 sent me!


I got an awesome t-shirt with a bike on it! I picture frame in green with mirrors on it a bracelet and even a gift cert. for itunes.
On to the photos!

All together!

my swag inside the box, minus t-shirt which I was wearing by this point as it is super comfy!

I am no photographer, it was really hard to get a decent picture of this bracelet!


Thanks again Cortag04!
I love my t-shirt, it fits like a glove and is perfect for when it gets warmer and I can actually wear it while riding my bike! The package was awesome and this was a great swap!

Eeep, it snowed big time here in the past few days and all I can think about it getting my bike off the trainer! Riding inside is oh so boring.

I foresee having a bit more time next month so I think we will start sign ups around the first week of Feb and let them go for a week or two, maybe we should call it the "I miss riding outside! Swap" since we all seem to miss riding in the sunshine.

Even my boy has been brain-storming for these projects and its extra cute! I also think there should be posted pictures of all out bikes in the swap thread! I love showing off my babies.

From Portland's Bike Craft Fair! Which is so neat! The t-shirt on the table with the heart is my favourite!



If you search Etsy for bikes you also get some pretty cool ideas!

Bike chandelier how-to for the more ambitious folk.

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_candles/article/0,2025,DIY_13748_5282897,00.html

Rubber stamps out of tires so you can tread mark EVERYWHERE.

http://www.mydiyproject.com/diy/cr_rubber_stamping/article/0,2025,DIY_13775_5282896,00.html

Tread Belt!
http://www.instructables.com/id/TREAD-BELT/?comments=all

So as you can see, the brain storming never ends! I'm really excited

Hurrah! I received from Poerava today! She made me an awesome knit headband that looks ever so cute on my head! 


Me, being a huge dork with my new craft swag!



closeup of the knittedness


Thanks again Marie! Its wicked and even keeps my ears a little warm!

In all seriousness I highly suggest having a Teflon foot before beginning any sticky project as my experiences with Laminated cotton brought me close to tears several times! But I refuse to buy a Teflon foot as I am convinced that it will be in my stocking this Christmas!

I made this huge messenger bag for a swap to fit my partners Laptop! I made it out of laminated cotton I found at Micheal's because I felt that would make it a little sturdier and a tiny bit more water resistant. I lined it with cotton.

ON TO THE PHOTOS OF THE MONSTER!

This photo haunts me in my sleep, it looks like the bag is going to eat me with it's mouth open like that:


The bag looking wonky with its mouth closed (this is because it is empty):



The bags guts:


More bag guts:


On the inside the bag has a pocket for the laptop, a pocket for the battery, a pocket for the ipod and a random pocket. There is also a front pocket with another random pocket and a pocket on the side for the cell phone.
I LIKE POCKETS!

Tell me what you think. I have a ton of anxiety about if she'll really like it or not!

So I have convinced The Boy to do Christmas this year and he just didn't seem very enthused about the idea.
I figured, what better way to get him excited about it than an Advent Calendar! I mean, a gift for EVERY DAY leading to Christmas, THAT'S WICKED.

We decided to go with more unconventional colours to make it more unique and special to us rather than some mass holiday focused on BUY BUY BUY.
Thusly we've painted the tree safety green and I went ahead and made 24 little stars to hang on it in purple, yellow, blue and green.





and here you can see the opening well:


This was way more work than I'd expected it to be and every day that he opens yet another gift I am madly jealous of him... but it is well worth it since he appreciates it.