A Globe: Holds Everything

I have loved maps and globes for a long time. I always loved pulling out the family atlas book and learning about countries I had never heard of. I also, for reasons unknow, have enjoyed many times looking at country and capital city names and  deciding if I could name my children those name. Is Juba (capital of South Sudan) a girls name or a boys name?

Though I do love to look at all the globes in Chapters and Homesense, I think I prefer the older style. I have one in my house right now (below) that looks like someone finger painted the water. Its all streaky. I love it! Thrift stores is my favorite place to get vintage globes. Plus they are much cheaper for the quality. 

I saw a bowl made from a globe on sale online and I knew I had to re-create it!

Materials:

Globe

Wooden Candle stand (or similar item)

Old Book

Rope/twine/cloth (or similar item)

Scissors/exacto knife

Hot glue + white glue

Varnish

Screw/screw driver (optional)

What I did:

Cut the globe in half. This is by far the most challenging part of the project. Work at it slowly with a sharp exacto knife of scissors. Have patience.

Once you open it the inside will look like this (below):

I had no idea what I was getting into. Notice the extra thick cardboard that was used to hold the seam together. Don't cut through it if you don't have it. I was able to pull the top off once I worked at it for a while.

You might want to note that I used the bottom half of the globe so that the words are not upside down ;)

Next add your base. Mine was wooden so I chose to screw the globe onto the base. If you don't have wood (or just don't like screws) feel free to glue it. Luckily there is a hole in the bottom of the globe to let you know the exact middle. No complicated measuring required.

Next cover the inside of the globe with pages from a book in collage style. I used the white glue to first hold the pages in place. Once all the glue from the pages is dry add two layers of varnish. You dont want to feel the book pages. Also this will help to make it safe for food (not waterproof though).

Finally wrap rope, twine, or a piece of cloth around the top to cover the raw edge. I felt three rows was enough. You might need to cover less if you had a cleaner opening than I did.

Finished!

Centre Pieces: Paper Flowers

One of my favorite things about paper flowers is that they never die! You can have them in any color you like, they don't need any water, and you never have to think about refreshing your table when guests come over. So handy!

For my wedding I was not particularly worried about the flowers wilting before the reception started. I decided to have paper flowers for two reasons. First off, when I learned how expensive flowers are I was not willing to spend that much! Also, and more importantly I love making everything by hand, and love the look of paper flowers, how cool is it to know that the Bride made EVERYTHING on the table!

Materials:

Paper. Heavier than copy paper, but not as heavy as card stock (I used 67lb paper)

Chopsticks (the cheap wooden ones from take-out)

Green Paint

Liquid Glue

Scissors

Paintbrush

What I did:

First, please note, that I based my flowers off This tutorial, but made some changes.

Cut out petals in approximately the same shape as the picture to the right. Cut some smaller, some more oblong, some larger, ect. Each flower will need approximately 10-14 petals. Feel free to fold the paper in half to cut out two at a time.

Next crumple up, and un-crumple all of the petals, so that when they are open again they are wrinkled.

The wrinkles of the petals allows them to look a bit more realistic, less like paper and a bit more like silk. It gives them some texture.

Paint the chopsticks green. Be sure to paint the whole chopstick because the top will likely be showing like in the picture below.

Place a small line of glue at the base (flat side) of one petal. You will be working from the centre of the flower to the outside, so the first petal you choose should be one that you want in the centre. 

Wrap the bottom of the petal(with the glue) around the chopstick(the fat end). depending on what type of flower you are going for will determine what angle you wrap the flower. I wrapped the petal around at about 40 degrees so that it was not too tight looking. 

Glue and wrap two more petals around the chopstick so that the three petals are evenly dispersed around the top of the chopstick forming the centre of the flower. 

Continue adding petals in the "windows" of the previous petals until you are satisfied with the size of your flower. With every subsequent layer increase the angle that you attach petal.

Once you have used up all your petals, or are satisfied with the number of petals stop adding more. Bend the petals out from the centre or at their tops so that they offer a more realistic look.

Finished!

The most intense Diet Ever: Why I quit

Just after March 2014 I started to feel sick and I was sure it was from what I was eating. I had heartburn, upset stomachs, and headaches. I started by doing the Wild Rose Cleanse because I had done it before and it helped alot. It did help alot, but did not solve the problem completely this time. I was still having some strange digestion and headaches. Thankfully my husband's work covered Naturopath appointments so I booked an appointment.

Huge snack lifesaver because they taste good cold! Sub parmesan for dairy free cheese

First I would like to say that the Naturopath is very expensive and it took 3 appointments before I actually had a diet plan. The third was completely useless. Thank goodness for good benefits!

I also think its important to point out that I have a very high metabolism. If I don't eat every two hours, I will probably have troubles walking because I will be so weak. I don't necessarily have to eat a lot, but simple sugars that come from a granola bar kick in much faster than the sugars in a carrot.

My favorite weekend breakfast is hashbrowns. Katchup makes a huge difference

To shorten a long story a bit, I was on this diet for 2 months. I could not eat gluten, dairy, eggs, sugar, chocolate, coffee, most teas, corn, most meat, nuts, vinegar, any yeast, and a few other random things. Essentially my diet was rice, veggies, potatoes, and fruit (thankfully it was summer so the fruit options were a life saver). It seems like more when you just hear it, but its harder than you think. Rice everyday gets very repetitive.

Mayo is in a lot of recipes I like. 

A hard part for me was baking. I grew up in a mennonite home and my mom baked a lot of very unhealthy desserts. As a result I developed a sweet tooth, and learned to love to bake as well. I have a sister that is very severely celiac, so we learned to substitute for gluten quite well. Dairy is not too hard, as long as you like the taste of either almond or coconut milk. But sugar? Its really quite challenging to bake without sugar. I did learn to substitute for stevia or agave, but not too many recipes worked very well.

My favorite snack when I needed sweets! Just no ice cream.

Another huge challenge was convenience. First of all there was almost nothing I could eat if I was out. At most restaurants I could eat only fries, which would be great if you love salty food, but I really only like my fries with a big juicy burger. If I was out and just wanted a snack to pull me over until I got home, I had to stop at a grocery store; which is not always the easiest to find (I once walked an hour to find one). I also could not eat at anyones house. Most people don't know how to cook with such limited ingredients. Once I did go to a friends for dinner, but I brought all the food.

I used this mostly for the Zoodles. No wine, adjust sauce to taste

I found myself spending 3/4 of my free time cooking. Now as I mentioned above I do love to bake, but I really only like to bake when either I have tons of free time, or I am having company over. I would often leave a friends house early because I had to cook a meal for my lunch the next day. If I wanted to go out for the afternoon I would have to cook a meal ahead of time and bring it with me. I couldn't go out after work because I couldn't buy dinner, I had to always go home and make food.

Super easy. I just added some agave to sweeten them up a bit

Always preparing food from scratch might seem like it has benefits such as cost savings, but really gluten free dairy free food is very expensive. I did not find any sauce or dressings that I could eat so everything was prepared from scratch, with tons of alterations.

Gnocchi is easier to make that you think. Just sub for gluten-free flour

I did learn a lot through the process. after a month I finally learned that most foods on the candida diet I can eat (why did the naturopath not tell me that?). I also learned some simple ways to eat healthier such as subbing rice noodles for wheat noodles (no extra effort). I am fairly good at baking gluten free and I don't mind buying margarine over butter, or using coconut milk in my recipes. I can sub honey, agave, or stevia for sugar in pretty much anything except baking; which makes a huge difference in the huge amounts of sauces that my husband loves.

A bit more challenging, but worth it. I used Pillsbury gf pie crust, sparkling water, and honey.

I got re-tested after two months and though a lot of foods cleared, I still could not have gluten, dairy, chocolate, and minimal sugar. So I went home and told my husband I quit. He was happy.

My husband made these for me on my birthday. I used my home made mayo (below) subbed stevia for sugar, and used fetta for the cheese

We decided that a stomach ache once a week was well worth spending an extra hour with friends; not to mention the joy I receive from enjoying chocolate! I am much happier now and have learned to balance my health and quality of life. I am not a slave to the kitchen, but can still cook healthier than I was before. If I start to feel horrible again in 6 months, its not a big deal for me to do a 2 week cleanse. But I will not be a slave to my kitchen.

This is the best Salmon recipe I'v ever had! It was a 1-2 times a week easy life savor. Sub vinegar for lemon juice

My husband said: "If you die 1 year earlier, at least you enjoyed all the years leading up to it."

Joss: Curtains, remove the eye sore

The next item on the list of boat fixes was for me, what it needed most. The most hideous curtains I have ever seen in my life! This curtain is not only falling apart, but it is weird to start with. I had vinyl "wood" strips aligned vertically. And the best part is, the darker colored horizontal strips are completely plastic, they feel like a plastic tablecloth or shower curtain. So weird!

I just had to go. Being that it was one of the first things that you see when you walk in, there was no avoiding it. There was another curtain only 3 feet away from where the horrible curtain hang that was not as bad, it had green vertical stripes, but the green was much different from the green in the rest of the boat. I thought it would be best if they both matched, so I decided to make two new ones.

So I pulled it off and headed to the fabric store. I didn't buy fabric at the fabric store, because the only fabrics I liked were $16/metre! There was no way Im paying that much for boat curtains. I went home sad until I remembered a post I saw on Pinterest about crafts with drop cloths. Now, I'm not the type of person to re-purpose a drop cloth for the fun of it, but since it was the color I was looking for, and $13 total, there was no better choice. I drove to Home Depot and bought a drop cloth.

Making curtains the way I was doing it was nearly the easiest sewing project I have ever done!.

Materials:

Hooks to hand your curtain

Drop Cloth (or any other heavy fabric)

Sewing Machine

Fabric Scissors 

Pencil

Measuring Tape

Iron/ironing board

What I did:

I started by measuring the original curtains I added 1 inch to the vertical measurement to account for seams, and 3 inches to the horizontal measurement to account for seams because I was screwing it to the wall on one side I needed extra thick seams(normally just add 1 inch per side for 1/2 inch seams). 

Lay the fabric out on the floor. Measure and mark points with a pencil the size of the new curtain, connect the points with a straight line if you are not a super straight cutter (like me). Cut out the new curtain with fabric scissors. One huge benefit if you are using a drop cloth is that the sides already have seams, so in my case I only needed to make seams on two sides!

Next Iron your fabric how you plan to sew it. I needed 1/2 inch seams on the top for the hooks I was using so I folded 1/2 inch over ironed, and folded another 1/2 inch over and ironed. Since the bottom was already heamed I only needed to add 1 inch to my length. Pin the ironed fabric in place. Ironing is VERY important. You might not believe me, but ironing before sewing makes an item look much more professional. If you iron you are more likely to be asked "where did you buy that," then if you don't iron. Don't skip this step!

Next Sew the seams. In this picture I am sewing a piece that I took from one of the curtains that was used to attach the hooks. It is very unlikely that you will have this same piece, bit it was fairly easy if you are interested (I have no idea what its called or where to buy it). 

Once it is sewn that is basically it. I had to attach the hooks onto the top of the other one (not shown in the sewing picture above). Finally hang the curtain and  admire your handy work. 

Ahhh so much better! I am really happy with how the turned out, but next time I have free time (never) I might paint some stripes on the bottom to add a bit more pizazz!

If you need a tutorial on how to make other types of curtains try one of these:

Top Tab Curtains-Stitched by Crystal

Easy Sew Curtains-Visual Eye Candy

Joss: Boat tiles and Nautical Rope Mirror

I have always loved all things nautical. It worked out that the first person I ever sailed with is now my husband. His parents own a Catalina 27. Its great, we mostly do just two hour afternoon trips in the bay, but we did our first overnight trip not too long ago. Since we have never taken an overnight trip before, we spent very little time inside the boat. Spending time inside motivated us to make some major updates to the boat.

This is a picture from our boat (of another boat)

There is a lot of work to do, among the regular maintenance that is required, but I started with the bathroom tiles because my husbands mom could not stand them.

Materials:

Ugly tiles

Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Paint

Painters tape

Paint foam roller and brush

Mirror

Hot Glue (or stronger glue if your mirror does not have a frame)

Nautical style rope

Sand paper (optional)

Rag and cleaning products

What I did:

Nautical Rope Mirror:

Not much required here. Hot glue rope around the mirror adding small sections of glue at a time and quickly placing the rope overtop (because it dries so quickly). I was only able to wrap three times because of the screws holding the mirror on the wall, but feel free to wrap as much as you want. Finish with the rope at the same place you started. 

Tiles:

Let me first note that this was for a small area with not too much traffic. I would use a different method for larger areas or more traffic. 

I forgot to take a before picture. Here is after one coat
you can see a bit of the dated flower design on the tiles. 

I started with a light sanding the tiles, nothing serious, just to be on the safe side. The product does not require it, but I wanted to be extra safe. I then cleaned the tiles with bathroom cleaner to remove any sanding dust, and other previous gunk that had built up over the past 20 years. Next tape the edges of the tiles to prevent painting the walls. 

Paint the tiles. I did my first coat with a brush to allow for a bit more coverage, and because the roller uses more paint and I only had a small bottle. Let the paint dry for 1-2 hours between coats as per instructions. Paint 1-3 more coats with a foam roller as required. I used white over cream tiles so 3 coats was enough, but I would suspect darker colors might only require 2 coats.  

Remove painter's tape. The paint can take up to a month to completely cure before you want to do any abrasive cleaning.

I tried to hide from the picture, but the bathroom is so tiny!