DAY THIRTY!!!!!!!!!!! (pictures)

HEY YOU GUYS! It's finally day thirty! (I guess in reality it's day fifty-something, but who's counting?) Today is another picture edit day.

I started with this, and then I wished it had more colour, so I did the magical saturation thing again.

I really like it! I'm not sure how it looks on my computer versus how it looks on your computer, but to me it looks wonderful. (I learned that computer screens can drastically affect how a picture looks.)

Anyway. That's it. No big bang or anything.

Overall Highlights: being creative, making magnets, having a few inspired novel-writing days, whiteboard, and bookmarks.

Overall Lowlights: stupid japanese papercraft boxes, stupid menswear bunny, stupid laptop bag, losing inspiration for my novel, resorting to Ikea picture frames, and not actually completing this challenge within the desired timeframe.

Day Twenty-Nine: fairy land!

Hey guys! Look! Two days in a row!

This is what I did today. My bedroom initially looked like this.

A few years ago I went to my cousin's house nearby to Christmas, and she had taken silver tree balls and tied fishing wire to them and then stuck them in the ceiling, so the whole place looked like a fairy land! I loved that room. I would lie on the floor and gaze at the ceiling. When I got home, I bought some tiny purple tree balls and some fishing wire, but then I didn't do anything with them because I am lazy.

But then I did this!

Turns out I didn't get enough for my whole room.

When I lie in my bed at night this is what I gaze at:

I promise you it looks better than these pictures. I am so excited!

Day Twenty-Nine Highlights: now I live in a fairy land.

Day Twenty-Nine Lowlights: waiting so long to do this, not having enough to do my whole room.

Tomorrow: probably some other pictures of my new hometown!

Day Twenty-Eight: pictures

Hey guys! It's totally the next day after my last post. I am super good at completing the goals I set out for myself, and thirty days is a completely manageable time frame in which to complete something!

Ahem. Excuse #1: I moved and started a new job. Excuse #2: I only got a camera yesterday. And here's what I did with it!

This is outside my classroom. I have the best view in the entire world.

Then I used Picasa from Google to make it more blue and also increased the saturation. From what I can tell, increasing the saturation makes the colours stand out more. (Don't quote me on that. I don't know anything about photography or free programs you can download to edit your pictures. Mostly I'm just like, "Hm, I'll slide around this little knobby and see how it makes my picture different!")

Then I decided that I didn't really like the playground on the side, or the apartment buildings, so I cropped it.

And there it is. I don't know - I was all super keen to get a camera so I could take pictures of how beautiful it is here, but I quickly came to realize that if you don't have a lot of money to spend on a camera, what you see and what you capture on digital film is not the same. Oh well, at least I was creative! Yay, me!

Day Twenty-Eight Highlights: finally taking pictures of my spectacular view.

Day Twenty-Eight Lowlights: figuring out photo editing programs, trying to compress pictures, lacking follow-through.

Tomorrow: more pictures, probably! I might just take a bunch tomorrow and the pretend it was spread out over a few days, since I thought that this post would be day twenty-nine. WILL THIS NEVER END.

Day Twenty-Seven: pictures

I don't know if you've noticed, but I appear to be taking this "every day" thing pretty loosely right now. I keep forgetting to be creative, and then sometimes realizing I was indeed creative after all accidentally, and sometimes not. I remembered that when I was in Whistler I really wanted to make soap, so I am going to investigate how to do so and maybe churn out something genuinely creative in the next three days... we'll see.

Anyway. For today, I have some pictures that I took! I have all these friends who are super good at taking pictures and are making businesses out of it, but don't go expecting anything Polly Photographer about these ones. My parents and I were in Sechelt for the day, and my dad was gallivanting around the rocks with my dog and I was left with the camera for safekeeping. It's a lot more fun to take pictures with a giant camera that makes the old-fashioned click-click sound when you press the button, so I took a bunch of pictures because I liked the sound. These ones are the best.

This one is my favourite. There were arbutus trees everywhere, and I love arbutus trees. They are so smooth! Plus I learned from an informational sign that sometimes arbutus trees look just like regular trees with rough bark, and then they shed their winter skin and become smooth and awesome. Like ninja snake trees!

These are arbutus trees mid-shed. Camouflage bark is gone, next step: peel.

There were a million purple starfish everywhere!

The ocean was so sparkly.

Day Twenty-Seven Highlights: cameras that sound old, arbutus trees.

Day Twenty-Seven Lowlights: nothing, really. It was pretty awesome.

Tomorrow: soap? I don't know. I'll try, though - I promise.

Day Twenty-Six: Ikea picture frames (sigh) - updated

I thought today was day twenty-seven, and that I would only have two days left. But then I discovered that in fact, it is day twenty-six only. WILL THIS NEVER END. Discovery: I don't like doing things for thirty days. Especially when it's hot outside and I'm moving.

Anyway. I don't want to buy any more stuff, so I'm down to using what little I have left in my craft box. Today this meant painting Ikea picture frames. I have a bunch of pictures that I want to put up in my new apartment, with the picture frames painted to correspond - I'm sure it will look neat when it's all put together, but I forgot to order the pictures until just now so you can't see it put together until at least tomorrow. So for now it's pretty uninteresting.

Materials:
- frames
- paint
- paint brush

I learned that I really enjoy mixing primary colours together to make other colours. It's like an adventure! You have to be a colour detective. "Is teal more blue or more yellow than olive green? How many drops of red are allowed until it all turns brown?" It's very exciting. Except that I didn't end up making teal at all. I did it once before, when I painted that frame for my white board, but my directions for colour use weren't technical enough that I could re-create it.

This is what I started with:

And this is what I have now:

I'm fairly certain that I don't need to outline the process.

I have a vision for these frames and a mirror in my long front hallway. I'm sure it will look great. You can come visit, and decide for yourself!

Day Twenty-Six Highlights: being a paint detective.

Day Twenty-Six Lowlights: I'm pretty sure this barely constitutes a craft. That's a lowlight. Also, not being able to make teal.

Tomorrow: who knows. Who the heck knows.

UPDATED with the pictures inside them:

It does look better. Oh good.

Day Twenty-Five: shiny rocks

So... it was really hot yesterday. Basically all I did was sit on the couch in my air-conditioned living room with a fan fixed on me eating watermelon and reading. (I was eating the watermelon and reading, the fan was not.) Which sounds like a nice day, I think, except when you consider that I was being air-conditioned and fanned and still had gross sweat drops coming off my face.

Anyway. The moral of the story is that it was too hot to do anything yesterday. Except that I was accidentally creative! Mother and I went to the beach early in the morning, and collected rocks for the vases we both bought, and I like shiny rocks so I sprayed them with varnish. This morning I peeled them off the newspaper I varnish-glued them to, and realized that I think that counts as being creative. The varnish I used totally has a picture of crafts on it. I didn't take any pictures of the process, because I only realized my brilliance this morning. (This morning being Monday, but since the creativity happened on Sunday that is when the publish time of this post is. Ooooooh tricky internet.)

I still haven't remembered what the awesome thing I was going to do is, as I mentioned on day twenty-four, so I don't really know what I'm going to do today. Probably going to put it off for as long as possible and then work on my scarf. I'm fading, you guys. No more sewing machine stuff, even though I have some fabulous material and I still haven't built my reversible purse. In all honesty I think I will be decorating Ikea frames to put in my apartment. I KNOW. IKEA FRAMES. Welcome to Arts and Crafts for children.

Day Twenty-Four: fridge pen holder

I'm all about accessorizing my fridge right now. My project for today sprang from the mind of not martha, but she used a Starbucks gum container and I am not made of money, so I searched high and low for something similar. The funny thing about this craft stuff is much of what I find is how to recycle old or broken things, but I don't have any of those old or broken things so I have to break nice things or buy things that I can recycle. I wish I was more of a hoarder so I could just sift through my miscellaneous belongings to find the materials I need, instead of going on hunts and buying stuff.

Anyway.

Materials:
- Methos gum container
- magnets
- scrapbooking paper
- liquid glue
- scotch tape

I was about to use a tic tac container (they make giant ones all of a sudden!) and then found a good-sized Menthos gum container that was cheaper.

First I discarded all the gum in the container (I don't really care for gum), peeled off the stickers, and took the lid off. The stickers left nice residue that made it easy to stick the paper on - I used damask again, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The thing about the one at not martha is that the tin case is easier to paint and put tissue on - I thought I could just wrap paper around the case and be done with it, but the top was gape-y and the green plastic was visible. So I got liquid glue all over my fingers and smeared it over the paper like paper-mache for the top, and then glued the paper on regular for the rest.

top

rest

That was easy enough. Then I glued two magnets on the back, leaving room for a third in case pens were heavier than I anticipated, and waited for the glue to dry. WAITED. Luckily, it's vacuuming day so I was kept busy for a while.

 Then I stuck it to the fridge with two pens inside to test the weight, and voila:

My fridge is the luckiest fridge of all, you guys. It's so pretty right now.

I was going to make a corresponding paper-holder, but it suddenly got a million degrees hotter and I can't focus on anything new. That might be my project for tomorrow.

Day Twenty-Four Highlights: peeling dried glue off fingers, magnets, damask paper.

Day Twenty-Four Lowlights: waiting for glue to dry, gum.

Tomorrow: the corresponding paper-holder, or else there was something else that I wanted to do but it's so hot that I forget right now. Probably it was something awesome, so you should stay tuned.