paper + glue

a few weeks ago i attended the night of social crafting event and the art of craft exhibit at the vancouver museum with my friend kim. we dug in with diy gusto with the collage materials, and ever since i've been addicted to the paper + glue process. there's just something so perfectly imperfect about it. 'collage' may not be 100% accurate for what i've been doing - i have generally been just gluing favourite papers to favourite wooden things - but the air in here has certainly smelled a lot like mod podge lately.

one of the easiest and oddly satisfying things has been sprucing up a boring ikea desktop organizing drawer. i had a good plan for this thing apparently at some point, but once i got it home i never bothered with the whole lot of hammering required to transform it's flat-packed state into a set of drawers. after rediscovering it, unassembled and under the bed, i put it together with a craft hammer last year and it has sat on my desk in it's basic unfinished form since then. until last week, that is, when i went on a mission (one needs missions) to find the perfect piece of paper to make it more exciting.

or i should say, the perfect piece of pale pink paper to match the mental picture i have of my new and organized office space. we're moving in the spring, and our new home has a fab small/tiny/doorless OFFICE. capitals intended and well-deserved. it's the one area of the condo that i absolutely had to have the dimensions of, stat. it's new, so it will be freshly painted in neutrals. although i have some weird long-range plans that may or may not come to fruition, i know in the short-term i won't be doing anything to the neutral walls. but i'd like to use some knicknackery in pale pink and mustard tones, add some fun indie artwork, and a lot of space-enlarging white along with my white & blackish brown desk. this little gem will look perfect in my not-as-imaginary space:

it now sits proudly on my desk, complete with cleaned-out drawers containing logical desk and art-related items. i know it's just paper and glue, but it makes me happy.

and i should mention how much i love the little ari cat doll sitting on top of the shelf. it's by the talented mia hansen - i actually won it at the mov craft event. a miracle - i never win anything, let alone anything so cute. it has a permanent home there, along with my 50 cent owl mug (my only truly awesome value village find to date), a pinecone that cole picked up at the oxford botanical gardens last spring, a rotating number of oddly things that i love and library books that need returning.

weekend project: upholstered toddler bed

gabrielle blair aka the rad design mom came up with this inexpensive (about $40), easy, functional and - perhaps even above all - adorable toddler bed design. complete step-by-step instructions over at design*sponge.

cole is fifteen months old now, and the other day some stranger mom at the park asked me if he still slept in a crib. i have the feeling that i looked at them blankly, blinking for a few moments while wondering if they were crazy. um, yeah - the bed with the bars that prevent him from a) escaping b) rolling out in the night c) escaping and d) escaping? yeah, he still sleeps in a crib. but in a year or so this will be awesome. ;-)

weekend project: chalkboard wall

what is the weekly weekend project? quite simply, it's a great recycled idea for a crafty diy project that (in my slackerish estimation) could easily be completed with a lazy weekend's worth of effort and a minimum of fuss.

for the first installment i thought this rad chalkboard wall was just perfect. at only about $40 and using mostly items you have around the house (a wall!), it seems like it's definitely doable. the end result would be just as enjoyable for adults as it would be for kids, i think. head on over to ohdeeoh for the easy instructions.

i want to do this so much but, as we rent, i figured it's better kept on my mental wish list for now. not that it doesn't sound like fun to paint over chalkboard paint before we move along! we do have a blank masonite board taped over the fireplace to serve as a baby deterrent that i think would make an excellent mini chalkboard wall. off to buy chalkboard paint as soon as this heinous cold passes. fyi - locals, you can find chalkboard paint locally at opus.