What can you make out of Sea Glass?

I came back from there with a huge quantity of sea treasuries.

I didn't really know what to do with sea glass but the inspiration came in the last days and here's what I created.

Some kind of gypsy-looking-wind-chime-window-ornament that looks good in my kitchen window.

A special ring that looks good on my middle finger

A mosaic mirror that'll look good in my bedroom.

Sea glass definitely looks good.

Tealicious

It was time for a treat. All my money is spent on my car and debts lately and I decided to cheat and indulge myself.

A friend who knows how much I love tea told me about this new place called David's Tea. I went crazy this morning when I saw the huge selection of tea they have! I finally picked Toasted Walnut (De-li-cious!), Orange Julep and Roiboos de Provence (with lavender and rosehip!).

If you're a fanatic like me and don't live around, you can even order online.

Now the only thing missing is a good friend to share a cup or two.

A Czech friend would be particularly nice.

I tried... making hijab pins!

I love to wear nice hijab pins. Problem is I find, most of the time, sparkling ones, with swarovsky stones and bling charms or golden ones with uninteresting dull beads. So what do we do when we don't find what we want?? Tell me? Yes, we create our owns!! 

I wanted to give it a try so I bought some closing stick pins (safety caps are essential for me as I usually loose the pin when it's not closing). I finally decided to keep one for me, for now, and to sell some of them on Etsy. I'm proudly wearing mine - it changes from the dollar shop sewing pins!

Gloomy?

Lighten up!

Yeah, I find something to help me... on Etsy! I bought a blend of essential oils from Crystalwood and received it a couple of days ago. I was a bit skeptical about it but because it is harmless and natural I gave it a try. And... yes, it works. Helps a lot. I'm sniffing the bottle every time I think about it, and I feel I strange relief. It's addictive!

I saw that Crystalwood has many other interesting blends that I might try, like the 'Get Creative' or Get going' blends. Money very well invested :) - costs a fraction of what AD (that I stubbornly refuse to take) would cost me.

Good for me. Good for you, maybe? If you have any other natural suggestion, tell me about it!

I tried.... making my own boxes

Making our own custom cards and boxes can be very easy when we have a template at hand. I just discovered, some time ago, a site where you can find all kinds of original boxes, envelopes and cards templates.

The author recommend to use a special tool (bone folder) to score fold lines. For thick paper and cardboard I simply use a pizza cutter, it’s very effective and avoid damaging cardboard and leaving marks.

If you want to increase or decrease the size of templates, you just need to use a photocopier and resize them as you wish.

I personally tried a couple of the available templates and the result was very satisfying. On the photo you can see a puffy box, made from a page of vintage children book.

A nice way to personalize our gifts and reduce our consumption!

I tried... button rings

Tried making these rings lately. Like the result. Just had a problem with my epoxy, for some reason it is not sticking! Well it does but the buttons (or stone or whatever I put on a ring!) are easily detaching soon after it is dry. I'm a bit upset as I asked for advices and I was told it is very strong... Should find something else to stick stuff together...

I tried... to understand

Today, I tried to stay away from the computer, even if I have loads of work to do.  I needed to reflect. I was told by someone whose opinion is very important to me that I was obsessed with my computer and my business. That hurts. 

For once in my life I try to follow through on a project. I give so much efforts. I start to see results, al-hamdolillah. And then... Then I'm told that it's wrong. That I'm wrong. Anyone else would have say that to me, it would have been different. I'm just trying to understand what is making her so upset about me.

That is the only thing I tried today. 

I tried... making terrariums

And terrariums is with a 's', because, as usual, I couldn't try only one. When I make, I make a batch. I make 10. 25. 100. Well those things you don't do 100. I have already so many plants, I don't even have place for terrariums. But I had to try. So I did. 4 of them.

Bought some glass jars in thrift shops and nice cheap little plants that I could divide. Small rocks, charcoal, soil - exactly the order you put them in the glass containers. Found some kitschy miniature terrace furniture and tiiiiiny white rocks in a dollar shop. Et voilà! Des heures de plaisir and now I have little gardens all over the place. Might give away some of them as I definitely have no more room for green friends (counted 21 plants) - even if I wish I could live in a jungle.

Photos are not very nice due to the condensation caused by humidity (took them too late!) but here are 2 of them...

I tried... making my own lightbox

This week, I tried to make something veeeeery useful and veeeery easy: a photo lightbox. I used a tutorial found on a blog called Strobist. The author says it costs $10 but I had almost all the materials already, just had to buy some satin-like fabric to cover three sides of the box - found one perfect piece in a thrift shop for $1.99. The result is really satisfying. I think I'm going to give a cleaner look to my shop and change my photos. I'm a bit fed up with the treasure map paper I use as background!

I had fun this morning trying to take photos of random things. That lightbox is definitely going to make things easier. I will just need to adjust them a bit but photos look so much better! Don't you think?

I tried... making earrings

I was looking for some silver earrings with little leaves charms, not too big, not too plain... Couldn't find what I had in mind. When I went shopping for beads last week-end, I saw these tiny leaves and bought them. I used old earrings, some silver copper wire and my cute charms to make my first earrings. I'm proudly wearing them since then, they are just what I wanted. Aaaah, the satisfaction of making stuff yourself! 

I tried... Peacox Creations scrubbies

Yes, auntie Audrey has tried something very interesting for you, a sophisticated and innovative gadget, a revolutionary way to wash dishes, the nylon net scrubbie! When I say I tried, I mean I washed dishes for almost 6 months with the same scrubbie every day and it's still like new. I washed it in the dishwasher a few times (yes, you can do that!), scrubbed dirty pans and sticky stuff and it's still alive! No stain, no smell, not a sign of wear yet. I have to say I'm very surprised, I was expecting this poor apple to disintegrate in no time... I also became greener since I have it, I was using disposable sponges before so no more waste. I'm a satisfied customer and I bought half a dozen of the same apple scrubbies this week from Peacoxcreations. I want to share the joy of washing dishes with friends and family, so I'm going to give them around.

Would you like to try it? Oh, let's do a quick giveaway! Let me know if you'd like one and I'll pick one name randomly let's say saturday night - that person will receive a superb apple scrubbie, a great gift worth $1.25!! Seriously, it's one of the best thing I bought from Etsy. I abhor dishes and this little red thing is like saying to me: "we're in this together. I'll not let you down".

I tried... Strengths Finder 2.0

I received this book from someone who got 2 from a seminar he attended. It seemed so exciting: "A new version of the program that helped millions uncover their talents", "available exclusively in Strengths Finder 2.0: a unique access code to the new and upgraded edition of the SF assessment", "50 ideas for action", and so on. The book is in fact an intro to the Finder's test and a description of all 34 types of strength developped by the Gallup Organization and rooted in more than 40 years of research.

So. I went online with my unique secret access code and took the test. 30 minutes later the results came. The top 5 themes.

IDEATION
STRATEGIC (uh?)
ACTIVATOR
CONNECTEDNESS
RELATOR

Went back to the book. Read the description for every theme and the ideas for action and... well didn't feel so excited anymore. It was kind of boring. I felt like I took a Chatelaine's test. "You are fascinated by ideas" (really?! must be kidding!!). I guess I was expecting something else. The ideas for action are mostly work-related ( I guess that's the point of the whole exercice) but because I'm a free-lancer working from home, in many cases it doesn't apply to me. I would recommend this book to people who don't know what kind of work to do and who don't know much about their talents.

Well, anyway, I had fun. I'm happy to know (to be reminded!) that my first strength is ideation - and that the first idea for action suggest that I should seek a career in which I will be given credit for and paid for my ideas such as design. Ouf! I made the right choice :).

What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

I tried... "Where is that 'Q' I've been saving?"

I'm subcontracting for a design company in Ontario since April and they agreed to pay for some books I wanted to order. I was able to get 4 new design books for free ! So I received them today : Maximum Page Design (a lot of photos and examples of great designs), Color: Messages and Meanings (a very useful Pantone book), The Word It Book (a gallery of interpreted words presented by Speak Up ) and Caffeine for the Creative Mind (my favorite!). That last book has 250 exercices to 'wake up your brain'. I flipped through it this morning and it looks very interesting.

The challenge proposed by the authors is to take one exercice a day - as a daily creative maintenance. So for my weekly 'I tried' article, I decided to do my first, titled "Where is that 'Q' I've been saving?". I had to take a picture of each letter of the alphabet using things ONLY in my current space. Each letter had to be from a different object. That was fuuuun!

I tried... real hard

My second article of the serie 'I tried' has giving me headaches. Everything I tried this week was uninteresting, to some level. I tried sleep deprivation (was good for my creativity). I tried to make an apple pie (was delicious!). I tried to stay away from computer more than 2 hours (was impossible). Because nothing was inspiring, I spent my morning trying to find something. Because, as you know or are just about to discover, I'm the queen of the last minute, the empress of procrastination. So I tried to find some good article to share and found something on procrastination (coincidence?) on one of my favorite blog.

Because of my sleep deprivation experience, I'm too tired to keep on writing, so I might just finish my apple pie and stay away from computer for the next minutes...

I tried... Kiddlebug's cookies recipe!

I like to try. Try on clothes, shoes, scarves. Try new recipes, new material, new craft. Try to impress. Try not to be so perfectionnist or hard to please. Try new colors, new brush. Try to do something that I'm afraid of. Try to be better... SO! I decided I'll share with you, every week (Thursday, that is) an new experience I made, about something I tried. And because I tried something yesterday, here's my very first 'I tried' article!

I tried some gooood cookies! Sweet (very sweet!) and spicy (ginger and cinnamon). I'm not the baking/cooking type of person but I wanted to try something I don't usually do. Found the recipe on kiddlebug's blog and... voilà! Régalons-nous!