Last week I decided I wanted to try my hand at making some Confetti System-style tassel garlands. I really like the way they look but I DON’T like the $130 price tag, so I figured I’d DIY it. I found a couple tutorials, combined them, used what I liked, ignored the rest and eventually came up with my own technique. I haven’t perfected it yet, but I think I’m close!

The first thing I need was some tissue paper and mylar. I couldn’t decide what colours I wanted to use, so I bought all of them. No, really.

Since this picture was taken I’ve actually bought two more colours- a bright orange and a dark purple. I know, I have a problem.

Then, I spent a lot of time turning that into this:

Can I just say, this paper cutter is INDISPENABLE. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago for $25 at Homesense (a discount housewares store) and I’ve used it so much already! It’s so much faster and easier for this than using scissors, an exacto knife or a rotary cutting tool.

The first garland I made was for Sym’s room, using three colours of tissue paper (white, grey and mint green) and one shade of mylar (silver). I made all the tassles the same size and strung them in a repeating pattern.

It’s pretty, but not really the look I wanted. Next I wanted to make one for my bedroom, but I don’t have the right colours of paper. Yes, you read that correctly, none of the 23 colours of tissue and mylar are right. Okay, SOME of them are, but I need a turquoise blue and a taupe or greige. YES I AM AWARE THAT I HAVE A PROBLEM.

Instead I decided to make one for the office. Taylor’s side of the office is grey and black (black-brown really, but black is close enough) with a little bit of yellow. My side of the office is grey, yellow and white. I decided to use more yellow and white on my side of the garland and more black on Taylor’s side. I made tassels in five colours of tissue (white, grey, silver grey, yellow and black) and one shade of mylar (silver), and three different sizes (regular, long and mini), and strung them randomly on 3 meters silver cord.

I like the effect of this a lot better, but like I said, my technique still isn’t perfect, so I guess I’ll have to keep making more until I get it right!

I hate bananas. I don’t hate banana bread though, and since we had more bananas than we knew what to do with I figured I’d give it a try (I’ve never made it myself).

After some googling I found this simple recipe that looked pretty good (ie I already had all the ingredients, no walnuts were involved, and the picture was nice looking) and I did what I do best: I MADE IT MINI.

I bought this 8-cavity loaf pan on my birthday especially for banana bread baking, although I may have to use it for regular bread baking because Sym is desperate for some tiny sandwiches..

She likes the banana bread though, she sai dit was “pretty good” and had some last night, for breakfast this morning and she took some to school for lunch. Taylor ate a couple whole like rectangular muffins (Sym and I prefer them sliced), and I sent some home with a couple of my daycare clients and got rave reviews. I definitely recommend the recipe AND making it mini!

Note: If you do make mini loaves, bake at 350°F for 30 minutes, not 60.

Originally I was going to make something St Patrick’s Day-ish for February, but then I decided that’s a bunk holiday for drunken bros so instead I did something else. My two banners for February turned out to both be semi-musically inspired, so I’ve included the pertinent youtubes.

For this banner I used the same two-tone ombre technique I used for last month’s “True Love” banner, but instead of using two shades of the same colour I used two completely different colours. I really like the way it turned out. I haven’t made a listing yet but custom two-tone ombre banners are available for $2.75 per letter, with a minimum order of $13.75 for five of fewer letters.

I didn’t do anything super special for this fancy banner. I’ve only made a few of these- okay, I made a TON that said “Merry Christmas,” but they were all the same and making the same thing over and over is kind of a snooze. This is actually the first fancy letter banner I’ve made this isn’t silver or red, so it was a nice, albeit small, change.

Essie Shine of the Times + Master Plan

I’ve been meaning to use these colours for a couple of weeks now- ever since my birthday (they were my gift from Symphony).

Shine of the Times seems to be huge this spring (is it spring? In Vancouver people start wearing shorts and putting the tops down on their convertibles in February so I get confused), it’s already sold out at my drugstore and I’ve seen people posting about how they “finally found it.” I guess I’m lucky I got it when I did! Anyway, it’s obviously very similar to Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, but I find the iridescent flecks in SotT are smaller and more plentiful.

Master Plan is a nice neutral. I looks taupe in the bottle but on my nails it’s more of a warm grey, or greige. For me it’s perfect with SotT as I prefer these kind of topcoats of lighter colours (although Kelly-Anne at Tiny Tangerines put it over rainbow leopard nails and it is AMAHZING).

I know some of you guys sometimes do Manicure Monday posts, if you do, leave me a comment with a link to your post!
Jinah’s Manicure Monday

I saw this adorable customizable monogram from The Wedding Chicks on Sometimes Sweet this morning and IMMEDIATELY knew I needed one. I want to put it up in my bedroom (is that cheesy? yes, but I don’t care) but the colours were wrong so I tweaked it a little, and then printed it out on some nice paper I tore out of a sketchbook and trimmed to size.

Yesterday I FINALLY set up my new computer. It’s a little different that my old one and it’s taking some getting used to, but so far I love it. The real question is how long can I keep my desk clean? (The answer: probably not long)

This purple-on-purple banner is getting ready for a wedding in Los Angeles next month. My motto these days is basically “Always Be Ombre-ing!”

Teeny-tiny stickers covered in teeny-tiny bunting.

Dougal and Georgie are still bffs. I love when they snuggle.

Sym had the day off school and spent most of it holed up in her room colouring. She was supposed to have her friend Ali over to play but she had an audition (you might have seen Ali in last Friday’s Fringe episode. Hint: she was the only kid).

Sym wanted me to post a picture of her Valentine’s Day manicure to show the colours she chose- normally I’d save this for Monday but I’m too happy about the fact that she stopped biting her nails! We actually had to trim and file them last weekend because they were too long! I’m really proud of her for breaking the habit.

She got this inflatable paper frog in a Kinder Egg, it’s so odd!

These paper palm trees were leftover from Sym’s Luau birthday in 2008, but I recently unearthed them and put them up in the nap room.

Last summer the housepainters stomped all my plants to death, but the remains of my hydrangea somehow survived and it’s putting out little leaves! There’s hope for my garden yet.

I’m not really that big on Valentine’s Day. Especially this year- Taylor bought me loads of wonderful presents for Christmas and my birthday, then he just bought the new mattress and I just bought my new computer…. we’re kind of strapped. HOWEVER I did want Sym to have a nice Valentine’s Day, so on the weekend we went out shopping and I bought her some gold sparkly shoes and a twirly blue dress for the dance, and while I was scrambling to finish my etsy orders on Monday I was ALSO scrambling to make white chocolate confetti popcorn for her class party.

I used white, pink and red heart-shaped confetti sprinkles to make mine more Valentine-y, and it turned out SO GOOD, cute and delicious.

But! Her Valentine’s Day sucked! Normally the grade fives and sixes have a dance and the grade sevens have their own dance, but there were too many after school activities going on this week so they just had one dance together. I guess having the older kids there made everyone shy/too busy trying to be cool, because Sym told me no one even danced except for her and her friends, and this group of girls they don’t like who were apparently doing inappropriate dance moves.

And the party? Everyone was supposed to bring food to share, but guess what? NO ONE DID. That’s right, Sym was the only person who brought anything! Plus, only three other kids brought Valentine’s cards to give out. WHAT IN THE WHAT??? Sym gave out these fortune tellers from Design Mom and spent Monday night at her dad’s folding thirty of them for everyone in her class, and one of her friends had the audacity to complain that there was no difference between them. OH REALLY? AND WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE AND NOT BRINGING ANYTHING AT ALL, HMMMM? Anyway I’m really annoyed and disappointed. Sym left the popcorn at school because they’re going to have a do-over and try to have the party today, but I told her to bring it home. NONE OF THESE UNGRATEFUL VALENTINE GRINCHES DESERVE MY CHOCOLATE POPCORN TBH. Plus I want to eat it myself (shhh).

HOWEVER Sym did make awesome cards for Taylor and me, because she is the best kid in the world.

I managed to successfully do some of the projects on my list! I cleaned off both my craft desk AND my computer desk, but I didn’t stop there: I moved my whole computer to the kitchen so I can finally repaint the top of my desk (something I’ve been putting off for literally months).

Once it’s all done I’ll be able to set up my new computer, hooray! Less exciting, but I also got completely caught up on the dishes, and since Taylor is starting to feel better he took out all the garbage and recycling, so that’s like, FIVE things off my list.

I finally made a decent smoothie! Last year I was really into making smoothies, or TRYING to make smoothies. Unfortunately I had a terrible blender that sucked and I hated it and everything it made was more lumpies than smoothies. Whatever.

Anyway a few months ago I had some sort of blender-induced rage blackout and threw it away, so since then we’ve been blenderless. In January I started ordering the smoothie fruit assortments from Spud* so Taylor bought us a new, better blender. This one still leaves some lumps but I solved that problem by buying GIANT JUMBO BOBA TEA STRAWS. I got like, 100 of them for $1.20.

The straw & angle make it look tiny but it was 16 ounces of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, a cherry popsicle (homemade, I added it for sweetness), chia seeds, coconut oil and orange juice. Everything but the juice was organic as well. The coconut oil made the giant straws especially great because I could chug the whole thing down before I got grossed out (it’s not bad, but it’s a solid when it’s cold and there’ve been lumps). I’d never tried putting chia seeds in a smoothie before but I did some research and gleaned these tips:

1. Use 1 tbsp of seeds per 8 oz of liquid. Apparently the seeds can absorb a ton of liquid and they’ll form a gel if you use too many O___o
2. Soak the seeds in the liquid for an hour before making the smoothie (easy, if like me you have a blender that can’t deal with frozen fruit and you need to defrost them first. Defrost and soak at the same time!).
3. Don’t leave it sitting around for too long or the seeds will cause it to gel, even if you’ve followed tip #1! Again, this is where the giant straws came in handy.

*idk about these smoothie fruit assortments. The first time I ordered it I got an INTENSE amount of fruit: a pound and a half of blueberries, four mangoes and twenty-one bananas. For $10! It was way too much for us (since only Taylor likes bananas and mangoes) so I made arrangements to go halvsies with Sym’s dad, but then the next time I ordered it I just got 6 ounces of raspberries, one mango and six bananas. WHAT GIVES???? I even checked my old invoice to see if it was a mistake that I got so much the first time but it wasn’t.

To be quite honest, what I really need right now is a mental health day, a catch-up day. A day that isn’t the weekend where I can finally finish cleaning the house and get my etsy stuff organized. My shop is actually doing really well- all the people posting their banners on tumblr, the ad I took out, the giveaways and discount codes I’ve done, they’ve all combined to form something that looks like it might well become a success! I’ve been selling quite a few banners each week and it’s great, but when I was promoting my etsy I overlooked one important detail: while I’m making banners and bunting I still have to do my regular job. You remember that one, the daycare thing that I do fifty hours a week.

I can actually do both- I work on banners when the kids are doing an activity, or napping, or in the evenings when they’ve all gone home. Unfortunately this doesn’t leave me with a lot of time for stuff like blogging (hence my weak posts recently) and cooking (hello, takeout menu!) and cleaning. Right now I’m maintaining the absolute minimum level of cleanliness in the daycare areas of the house, but everything else? SQUALOROUS. And Taylor being sick and unable to help doesn’t, well, help!

Yesterday I spent all my free time rushing to finish the last four orders I had so I could get them to the post office, and when I was all done and they were all shipped I heaved a huge relieved sigh and said “Now I can finally get my house clean and start working on all these other projects I’ve been putting off, like refinishing the bedside table I found in the alley and painting a backdrop to photograph my banners against!” but before I even sat down on the couch I got another order. Obviously I’m not complaining- I love making banners (and I love making money), but it’s a little overwhelming. A few weeks ago Taylor and I had a discussion about how much money I’d have to make off etsy sales each month before I could quit my job and become a full time crafter (I’m about 1/6 of the way there and not holding my breath) but like… even if I did have enough sales each month I would never have the time to finish them all!

Anyway, my latest order is fortunately a small one, so before I get started I’m going to take today to clean up around here; mostly my workspaces (since right now I don’t actually have anywhere to make anything!).

…but I really need to do the dishes and some laundry and Oh My God clean the bathroom. And who knows, maybe I’ll also find time to paint that backdrop, start refinishing that table, repaint the top of my desk, clean out my old, dying computer and transfer all my files to my new computer (I bought a new computer and I haven’t even taken it out of the box yet because everything is such a mess!),

… take out all the recycling,

… sort through/organize/put away all my boxes of non-Christmas holiday decorations,

… sort through/organize/put away all my boxes of random arts & craft supplies,

… paint my bedroom/bathroom/kitchen, work on some designs for new etsy items I’m planning, and while we’re at it, organize all my receipts & papers so I can find go see my accountant and file my taxes.

Yeah. That’ll happen.

It was delivered yesterday afternoon but we weren’t able to set it up until almost 8 o’clock and let me tell you, the wait was A G O N Y. But do you know what ISN’T agony? My back. Yes, one night of sleeping on the new bed and my back already feels 75% better. AMAZING.

The new mattress is about fifty times thicker than the old one so one thing we need to do is buy some new sheets, since we only have one that really fits. Luckily, it’s my favorite one from my favorite bedding store, Bed. I’m bored with my current bedroom colour scheme so I already ordered a new duvet cover so I’ve been looking for colours that will go with it. Right now I’m looking at rhino, taupe and aqua.

The dogs have also been enjoying the new bed, but I think Georgie’s favorite was when we pulled the old mattress out and leaned it on the couch. She climbed up and slid down over and over, it was adorable.

So intrepid!

1. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Oreo Brownie Bars I made for my birthday.

That looks good right? Well in all honesty they were just okay. First of all, even though I baked them for less time than the recipe specified, they came out not quite burnt, but definitely overcooked and therefore really hard. Secondly, the recipe said to line the baking pan with wax paper. WHAT. This seemed insane to me, and I almost went with parchment paper instead but at the last minute decided to follow the directions since ironically, I didn’t want to mess them up. Once the bars were completely cooled they were okay, but we first tried them when they were still slightly warm and there was a total wax odor to them! GROSS. I think if I made these again they would be better since I’ve learned from my mistakes.

2. Moroccanoil Luminous Hairspray

I used this hairspray when I was curling my hair on New Year’s Eve and it works great as a hairspray, but it has an unfortunate fragrance. It’s a kind of weird, sickly-sweet baby powder and also antiseptic smell, and it’s the exact same smell as a Diaper Genie. Luckily I got this as a free sample and don’t feel like I wasted money on it, since I won’t be using it again. The last thing I want to be reminded of when styling my hair is anything to do with diapers!

3. Lancome Hypnose Doll Lashes Mascara

Lancome Hypnose is my FAVOURITE mascara, but the last time I needed a new tube I thought I’d try something new and I bought the Doll Lashes version. It was a huge mistake. Now, if you can get this mascara on properly it DOES give you really nice looking lashes, but the problem is that there is some kind of design disconnect between the formula and the wand. When you pull it out there is SO MUCH mascara glooped into the brush that if you don’t spend a million years carefully wiping it off you end up with the heartbreak of flylashes. It sucks because I did buy this so I DO feel like I wasted money, and I can’t justify spending another $28 on a tube of mascara when I have a sort-of perfectly good one already.

4. Real Steel

I know right? Like WHY would I even watch this movie? The answer is a certain husband (who has lost movie-picking privileges for a month) heard that the robot effects were really well done. And that’s true; the robots are very well done. The problem is with the people: every single human character in this movie is a terrible, unpleasant, nasty waste of oxygen. The dad is a horrible person, the kid is an insufferable brat, the semi-love interest, the aunt and uncle, the owners and promoters and spectators of robot boxing are all disgusting, awful people and watching the robots forced to destroy each other for the pleasure of these cretins was…. literally the worst movie watching experience I’ve had in a long time. I kept hoping the robots would become sentient and self-aware, then rise up and crush their human oppressors. I wanted Skynet to rain down nuclear destruction on them all! I read online that they’re already planning a sequel to Real Steel and in my mind the only way it would work would be if it was also a prequel to The Matrix.

Take that, Hugh Jackman!