The Best Gift I've Ever Made...

If you like Superman, you'll definitely enjoy this post...

I wanted to do something really special for my b-f's birthday but it wasn't until two days prior to our arranged celebration that I got the most perfect idea.  Anyone who knows my best-friend is well aware of their obsession with anything and everything Superman, and it was through this epic comic symbol that I found my inspiration.  I'll admit this gift wasn't the most inventive or "out-of-the-box" as I might have done, but it definitely did the trick and I received the best response ever.. in fact it was a rather wide-eyed child-like (**note here I said child-like, not childish... just to clarify**) reaction- I got an uncountable amount of hugs and squeals and of-course the shock and awe looks I was hoping for.  I believe bringing a 28 year old to tears says it all...

Is your curiosity beginning to peak??

Well, allow me to put you out of your misery and divulge the object of such an amazing response..

*Drum Roll Please!*

Vintage Superman Logo Blanket!!

This was one of the most difficult things I have ever attempted to sew, but it came out really really well and I am proud of it. I would like to show you the step-by-steps of this project.. IF you are interested in knowing more about this creation please feel free to comment or e-mail and I'll be more than happy to give whatever info I can that isn't on here already :) 

It all began with this symbol which I printed off from the internet.

Then I traced it freehand with chalk onto yellow fabric. 

Then I turned the yellow square over onto the red fabric
and patted it to transfer the chalk onto the red for the outline.

I placed the cut out symbol onto another piece of yellow fabric
and cut the yellow roughly to fit the red.

Action shot of me cutting with my rotary blade,
cutting mat and transparent grid ruler :)

I then sewed the red symbol to the yellow backing,
stitching around and along all the edges and curves.

I brought the symbol to my stretched out blue fabric
and removed the pins which I had put previously
to plot the middle of the blanket.

I took the fabric all back to my machine and carefully sewed the symbol onto the blue.
Not sure if you can tell, but this is the outline of the symbol
on the reverse side of the fabric- I'm sorry it isn't terribly apparent. 

I had bought 3 meters of fabric and doubled it over
leaving me with only three ends to sew closed.
 I turned the fabric inside out and sewed the two side ends completely closed.

While attempting to turn the fabric back out again,
I had gathered it up like you would a pillowcase or a paper bag,
and ended up inside of it. *hehe*

I then closed the bottom end and sewed an edge around the entire blanket in red thread.

Action shot of my presser foot :D

And there you have it... the best blanket in the world made for the bestest best friend in the world :) 

I hope you enjoyed reading my step-by-step and seeing my amazing feat of sewing... It even earned me a shout-out on the social media network everyone takes at "face" value ;) 

Next up on the blogging list; my first attempt at a denim rag quilt! 

<3

Doesn't matter if your black or white... or does it??

Michael Jackson (RIP) absolutely had it right with that smash hit, because when it comes to skin colour and race, I'd definitely have to agree that it doesn't matter.  But what about when we are talking about objects  that happen to be within our sights every now and then?? 

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately, and many of them I've decided look better in black and white, and thanks to the different settings on my cell phone's camera I have been able to take shots of the same views in both colour and well.. not colour.. *hehe*

The former being clarified I now present for your own viewing pleasure, the subjects of my frenzied photo-taking... you might like to decide for yourself which images looks better in their "natural colour" state or in 

their altered B&W state. 

The following pictures were taken when I was in Toronto walking from the GO station to the Molson Amphitheater when we went to see GBS  this past month.  Please excuse my biased opinion in the captions, but feel free to think for yourselves. 

A highway bridge in Toronto

The same highway bridge just closer up

The CN Tower from far..

Attempts at a close-up

Not exactly the same shot but the same CN Tower

The entrance gate to Exposition Place

Same shot of the Expo gates, but I like it in B&W better

The CN Tower from inside the Molson Amphitheater

Same shot, but the CN Tower didn't come up well

The sun setting from under the Molson Amphitheater canopy

The exact same shot, but I like the contrast better in B&W

 I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at what I was looking st through my camera lens... why do I feel like Roland Barthes and Sarah Mulvey might take issue with this?? *hehe* As always- feel free to comment or e-mail :)

XOXO

C

The wonders of Mother Earth..

Every day my mother checks on her two favourite children... her birds! *hehe* Well, one of the everyday tasks includes changing the food and water containers and each day or so the canary's food container is only shells- the canary eats the little seeds out and leaves the shells.  Now that it is the summer, my mom takes the empty shells outside and dumps them on the railing for the outside birds and other little animals to devour- which they do willingly! The other day, after a week or so of having continuously dumped the food container onto the deck railing,  my mother realized that the seed shells had begun to sprout in the cracks and grooves of the wooden railing. Little tiny green shoots have come up and are growing strong. We couldn't believe the sight!

We have decided that nothing is too big or too small to astonish us in this life, especially with regards to nature and creation.  What wonders the Lord puts on this earth for us; the plants and flowers, the grass and trees all play a role in the ever moving cycle of life. We can only life on this earth so long as the grass continues to grow, the flowers bloom and the trees give up their fruit. We must always be thankful, and grateful especially for the gift of the tiny shoots that sprout up out of the nothingness in our gardens of life...

Here's a visual..

XOXO
C

Jaunts around the city

Everyday I finish work at 12:30 and walk to the church office where I volunteer in the afternoon's and pass the same places along my way. I walk past a garage, a gas station and a bakery, a clothing store, a car parts etc store, a Vietnamese noodle soup restaurant and a Japanese rice ball one.  Then I turn the corner and walk another 4 city blocks on a busy street that makes up a large part of the inner core of the city- James street. Upon my way I pass a multitude of small artist galleries, artisan shops and jewellers, a convenience store or two, a european clothing store that has been in the same place for more than 50 years, an outdoor market, another bakery, two cafe's and a number of European men's "bar's" and sportsclubs. The street is always busy with cars and people causing all manner of traffic jam but you just never know who you'll meet or what you'll see. From car accidents to old Italian men, the possibilities for excitement are endless...

As I made my way past all of the new art crawl inspiring and participating galleries etc, I began to notice the sidewalk changing colour. Then I realised that the sidewalks and roadways had been coloured on.

Side note: During the months of April to probably November, the artisans of James street participate in an "ART CRAWL" wherein the street becomes flooded with all manner of artsy types selling and sporting and promoting their wares, and trades. Because of its popularity, the city has also approved a few days a year where part of the street will be closed to vehicles and open only to pedestrians; I.e the Super Crawl and Open streets Hamilton. James street which was beginning to look like an abandoned town after a lot of the former  european shop owners closed up, but luckily the art scene in our fair city has been able to rejuvenate and inspire this city space once again. Around here now the saying (which u can easily find amid buttons and t-shirts) is "keep calm and crawl on".

Well, i marvelled in the colours and images for a spell and then luckily, I was able to take a few pictures of what I was seeing amid the usual hustle and bustle of the street. I would like to share them with you as I think they are simply wonderful. I also took a picture of the free admission downtown shuttle made from an old style HER bus which goes to the big park on the lake and back all summer..

Enjoy and comment :)
♥

You've applied to how many jobs??!!??

As some of you may remember from previous posting, I have been out of school and unemployed for an entire year (as of this past April). Thanks to the firm but gentle nudging from a bff of mine, I have since then applied to just over 39 different job positions. Ive faxed and emailed resumes like crazy but up until the end of May had gotten nary a response- save for an automatic "I'm away from my desk email for two weeks" from one company's hiring person. Well, on May 24th I was sitting in the church office- you know, where I've been volunteering 5 days a week since November- and checking my email as there wasn't much going on in that moment. Wouldn't you know, my bff sent me yet another round of job links..
A few of them had no company name nor address to be found so I chucked them, but one of them stuck out largely from the others. The add held a few short lines involving answering a telephone and no experience necessary along with "please bring your resume in to John".. my bff added in a little side email comment asking if this wasn't a person/company that puts an ad in one our church bulletins every now and then.. immediately I looked the company up online, located a phone number and called to get their business hours for the day. I was told what I needed and that if I brought in a resume, the employee to whom I was speaking would "get it up to john". Immediately I edited and printed a new coverletter and my resume and hitched a ride with the parish house cook down to the Job location- it's only a few blocks but I didn't want to walk in the rain *lol*. So there I was, 3:30pm, Friday May 24th walking into a place that I have passed by both ways every day for the past 12 years- A quaint but extremely active trophy shop that has been in business since 1926.  I was greeted by a tall young man with a brilliant smile as I stepped through the door and presented my intention to submit a resume. I was asked to wait as the young man went to the back to get the owner- John. A tall portly Italian man bearing a rather large moustache and kind bright blue eyes came to the front desk and shook my hand. We chatted for a bit and he told me that the ad for the position had been put in the paper only the day before and he had already been handed an overwhelming 30 resumes. He read over my cover letter as we spoke and was impressed. He told me that i would be in charge of the phone, greeting customers and taking payment, along with invoicing and some light attachment work on trophies, plaques andd medals etc.  He also said to expect his call the following Tuesday and gave me a business card. I walked out the door, greeted once again by the large bell that hangs on the door handle and the hustle add bustle of Canon street traffic.
At 12pm the following Tuesday I received a call from my possible future employer and we agreed to meet at 8:30 the following morning for a chat. I went in Wednesday a little nervous but absolutely enthusiastic and met the gentle blue-eyed man with all of the pleasant energy I could muster. He told me that by Saturday he had interviewed already a few "contenders" and patted the large pile of resumes next to him, but he held mine in his hand. He proceeded to explain more about the work they do and about how June would be very busy and that I would learn a lot very quickly. He reminded me that on Monday he had had over 25 more resumes come in but he had already told those eager job-searchers that "the positions already been filled". Then he looked at me intensely, large bright cerulean eyes shining and said "we'd love for you to come work with us". I nearly fell off my stool! I was so happy, I told him I would love to work for them and that I was honoured by having been chosen from among so many. We shook hands and he passed me off to the book-keeper lady so I could get the necessary papers filled out. So, at 9:30 sharp, on Wednesday May 29th I began my new job! I worked the two days after and loved it from the first moment. My boss is amazing and patient and funny and we get along great! His son works there too and is a skinnier 30 years younger version  of his father and equally as nice, the girl who works the engraving machinists awesome and my shifts so far have taught me so much. As of yesterday June 7th, I've completed a full week at the trophy store and have learned to oxidize brass, put together small trophies, assemble plaques, de-bag medallions and ribbonize them (attach them to neck ribbons). I've also learned how to process payment, how to receive daily invoices and how to file. I answer the phone and I take customers orders and I love every single minute of it :)
Pay day is next Wednesday which will be awesome because I should  get 38 hours of pay and I'm making twelve bucks an hour.. deductions will suck but I'm all for supporting our roads and healthcare etc. I work 4 hours a day monday to friday (we are closed on weekends) from 8:30am until 12:30pm and I'm in charge of opening the store.
I've thanked John, my bff and God every day for getting me this job and I'm looking forward to a fruitful summer.
So it's not a highpaying anything that will get me closer to my career but it's definitely a worth while experience and I am hoping to stay employed with them as long as possible. My boss assured me that if I find something full time, I will get a reference from him and his blessings to leave the trophy store. All he can offer me is part time and he knows it's not my career to be assembling trophies lol.. what a great person to be working for :D
So wish me luck as we enter into week two and pray with me that the taxman and OSAP don't kick me in the butt at the same time.
Xoxox

Looking At The World Negatively...

      The other day I spent over an hour taking pictures in my backyard with my cell phone and discovered how different the world can look through a lens. Then I remembered that my cell phone's camera has a option to change the effects on it to black&white and to negative. So then I spent another hour with my very interested and extremely intelligent four year old niece looking through my camera at the world around us in negative. 

On behalf of my niece and myself, I'd like to show you what our world looked like on that very fine spring day in this merry month of May: 

Cool right? If you've ever wondered what the world might look like in blue and purple, now you know :) 

The green leaves turned purple, the tree trunk browns turned grey; reds turned aqua and light browns and yellows and oranges turned blue as well.  Depending on the way that the light was hitting whatever I was taking photos of, and also how the light was entering into the lens, it changed into bright white-ish hues of light colour. Really neat right? 

Comment if u like, im working on some transition pictures right now and will post about them another day soon. 

Have a good weekend :) 

XoXo

Slightly behind on my posts..

The last three weeks of April have been positively crazy... i went to a concert, journeyed to Manitoba and dropped my brand new not even one month old cell phone and cracked the screen in the upper left corner...

The last of those listed above greatly contributed to my lack of posting as of late but now i intend on making up for it as best as possible.

To begin with, allow me to share with you the highlights of my concert experience.
       4 friends and i went to see the Canadian Folk/Pop group Great Big Sea in concert here in our home town. It was an amazing show! The band hails from Newfoundland and are currently celebrating 20 (or XX) years. I bought a t-shirt (FYI.. womens shirts at concerts are made much much smaller for many reasons- primarily poor fabric choice- therefore if you normally wear a large or x-large you will likely find yourself just barely fitting into the ladies 2x and might even opt to wear a mens medium or large..if u feel bad about sizes just remember that its not you- its the shirt) and we sat up in the first balcony which was perfect. We could see everything and the sound was amazing- Hamilton Place is made for that though and i suspect the experience and sound quality would have been less enjoyable standing on the grass in the Molson Ampatheatre a few towns over from here. Allan Doyle and his gang of sea-mates put on a ridiculously awesome show-provided youre interested in sea-faring songs, mermaids and love. The old-tyme folk songs that are given new twists blend right in with the more contemporary sounds of their pop songs and balance quite nicely to showcase the talents of these men who have been perfecting their art for twenty years and have remained rather popular for a Canadian group... perhaps anyone can enjoy being thrown out onto the sea of no cares or ranting and roaring like true newfoundlanders.

Check out the stage: