The Bride and I at her bridal shower

Things are much more settled this week, phew. There’s more unpacking to be done and I’m looking forward to blogging again.

That’s right, shipping is absolutely and always free, no matter where you are or what and how many you buy or what the weather is outside! So go on ahead and put those heavy, bulky box sets and collectors’ editions (how about The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, or Little Miss Complete Collection, or The Complete Chronicles of Narnia- books and CDs, or Roald Dahl’s Scrumdidlyumptious Collection? I see that some of them area already quite significantly discounted by the way!) into your shopping basket, and don’t worry about having to pay anything extra.

Wait – it gets better: you can get a coupon code for 10% off your next purchase. There are two ways to do this:

1. The Wait-Around Option: Refer your friends by sending them coupon codes via this link and when they make a purchase, The Book Depository will send you a code to use for yourself.

2. The Almost-Immediate Option: Leave me a comment with your email address and I’ll refer you. Or you can get a friend to do it. Just do it via the online form.

And one other tip: you can select currencies at the top of every page at The Book Depository. Because of the currency exchange rates, you can sometimes shave a few cents (or maybe dollar) off your purchase by toggling between USD and GBP. Check xe.com for updated currency exchange rates.

So, these are at the top of my wish list: Suki Iron-On Craft Pad, Counting Caddie and Place Value Pocket Chart and Learn Phonics! Flat Fish Kit. What about you?

Our new place won’t be quite as big, so some reduction is in order. I’ve always found the question of what to keep and what not to keep is a terrifyingly baffling one. Case in point: you find yourself betwixt and between over that piece of wrapping paper with the lime-green flocked damask pattern saved from 3 Christmasses ago, much too pretty to throw but to use it again would require just the right occasion to come along and it hasn’t come yet and who knows when it will or if ever but let’s not waste it – we should keep it, just in case.

I will keep to one rule now; a simple rule that pretty much covers everything. There’s only ONE criteria: if I haven’t seen/thought about/used it in 5 years, then to the trash it will go. Oh how determined I am to be ruthless about this! So there’s already been quite a few things that have been offloaded to friends, the Salvation Army, the recycling bin and I even have a few things for sale. I’ll post a list here as soon as I’m done with it. Within the next few days, I promise!

Lord, you have my heart.

Praying that you’ll be blessed by the song and more so by the Truth it proclaims.

Back to the topic of freezer paper. The first time I read about it, I thought,  seriously what is this thing and why have I never seen/heard of it before? Apparently it’s original purpose is for wrapping foods to be stored in the freezer, duh, but nobody really uses it for that anymore. These days it’s the next best thing to sliced bread for crafsters everywhere. This paper has a special waxy coating on one side, and when you iron the paper to fabric, it adheres to it like nothing you’ve ever known.

I won’t post a tutorial about this, since better ones have already been written. When you’re done with that, check out the flickr pool, where you can ooh and ahh at all the wonders freezer paper can accomplish. Printing onto fabric is an idea that I’ve been in love with for ages and this technique makes it an absolute breeze. Not only can you use it for stencil transfers, you can also use it to print onto fabric using your inkjet printer (like here), how much coolness is that!

This project is brilliant! It costs little, is quick and easy and is altogether extremely satisfying to do. The mini canvas totes/pouch were from the Daiso $2 shop – just imagine what quaint gifts they would make: for teacher’s day or as party favours.

Freezer paper is my friend :)

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had this strange and deep love for fonts, typography and especially hand drawn letterforms. Over the next few days, I am going to absolutely devour the section on Lettering, and I can’t help but think that the chapter entitled “Bezier Curves for Cowards” was written with me in mind.

These are a few of my own past experiments:

And now please check out the work of these lettering artists who provide endless inspiration for me. Prepare to be amazed and be left swooning and slightly breathless.

Jessica Hische
Linzie Hunter
Love Jenna
Crystal Kluge
Cynthia Warren
b dunlap

I can’t write/draw like that yet, but one can dream, right? Does anyone know of any good modern calligraphy classes online or local?

Anyway, it was one of the easiest things to get going, taking all of 10mins and the bare minimum of materials to prepare. I’m too easily turned off by projects that require huge amounts of time and materials to complete and come attached with long instructions. To me, the less fuss, the better.

I’m sure most of you remember doing this sort of “weaving” activity during art class in your younger days. The idea is that you cut strips of paper and place them perpendicular to each other. Then you lay the strips on top and under each other in a weaving fashion, like you would if you were making a woven basket. I think you get what I mean.

What’s so great about doing this at home with kids – aside from the obvious: minimal prep, practice of fine motor skills, reducing waste, scoring high points for being “fun mom”; as opposed to the wave of mass protest I receive whenever I declare that it’s “Homework Time”… is that you get to introduce (or reinforce) specific vocabulary like over/under; above/below; alternate; perpendicular, etc. It’s a really good idea to keep a conversation going as you move through the activity, talking about what you do as you’re doing it.

As they progress through the activity, they’ll start to realize that as they put things together in a systematic fashion (the whole thing just won’t work if you do a step wrongly) and establish a pattern of regularity, a piece of art finally emerges at the end. I would extend this idea further by pointing out patterns and symmetry and balance that occur in our natural surroundings. This, if I remember correctly, lays the foundation for mathematical thinking in the early years.

Enough rambling, on to the pictures and instructions! Really, this is so easy, you probably don’t need me to explain any of it:

(continued after the jump)

Materials:
Paper cut into half inch strips (you can also use old magazines, letters, junk mail etc)
Stiff cardboard (this is used for the backing; cut out from cereal boxes, or use the backing part of notepads or drawing blocks)
Glue
Scissors

Directions:
1. Cut paper into strips
2. Glue one end of each of tthe strips along the top and one side of the cardboard, spaced evenly
3. Weave the first vertical strip through the horizontal strips, alternating over and under. Repeat with the rest of the vertical strips.
4. Glue down the loose ends to secure.

I told you it was easy :)

Photoshop is my friend :)