Monthly Archives: August 2012

A Spring Garden.

Spring has always been my least favourite season of the year. Both H. and I have horrible hay fever and when the pollen count is high, we’re both often too afraid to go outside in fear of a sneezing, itching fit. The only time when we can breathe easy is during the morning so we spent some time this past Sunday in our garden basking in the warmth of the sun.

Unlike me, H. is quite the gardener – during the last two years since we’ve bought our small home, he’s grown several vegetable and herb patches to mounting success. After wondering all winter whether or not his latest garden endeavour of peas and beans will grow, this Sunday morning allowed him to reap the rewards of what he has sown.

Above: The rewards of what H. has sown – peas in a pod!

There is something very satisfying about growing and eating vegetables from your own garden. With dedication and patience, H. has taught me to appreciate the hardship of growing food but to also celebrate the joy in a harvest. More importantly, I started to realise that gardening and in fact, life itself becomes a story about the journey and not the destination – each little moment counts!

Though our first harvest was meagre, its early days yet and I’m already looking forward to what will grow next – hopefully it’s the carrots!

Project Zakka: DIY Paint Chip Cards

Taking a break from photo Zakka this week, I decided to create some basic paint chip call cards for my blog.

The idea stemmed from the past weekend whilst on shoot for the food competition I’d won – I was asked by the photographer what did I do. It wasn’t until that moment that I realised I had no further information to provide so I thought this week, I would create some basic call cards to avoid that type of awkward situation again!

As with all my Zakka, I wanted to create something that was simple, easy to make but still be presentable and practical. I’ve always wanted use paint chips in my crafting – they have a great texture and best yet, are free from your local hardware store!

Though I won’t be giving out my little cards all the time, knowing that I’ve created something colourful, fun and true to who I am is always exciting – at least now I’ll be prepared for anything!

What you need:

  • 20 x paint chip cards from your local hardware store – Tip: Solid colour chips will give you more space to work with
  • A4 sheet of paper, printed with your details and information – I used a gold flaked washi paper for some texture and sparkle then just printed my details using a basic Word document!
  • General craft tools – ruler, glue, scissors/knife, cutting mat, pencils, staples

Instructions:

  1. Measure your paint chips to the size that you desire for your card – I’ve used a more Japanese size of 8cm x 4.75cm (3 ¼” x 2 ¾”) for a cuter touch!
  2. Cut out your paint chips and glue two chips together back to back – this will give the cards a denser, quality feel. Tip: Use a corner cutter to create a curved corner for a more interesting card shape.
  3. Trim your details to desired size and glue to your card. Because the card will buckle under the glue, make sure you rest your cards under a heavy weight for at least an hour and leave to dry. Once dry, your cards will be ready to hand out!

A Week of Highs.

I thought I would start my blog week by looking at the week that has just past. They say that good things come to those that wait… but it’s not often that I get good things happening to me. So when I have a good week, I want to celebrate and share it with the world – quite literally!

My ‘Top 3’ for last week included being featured on Craftgawker for couple of my Zakka projects, winning a local community competition for a food photography challenge and best yet, becoming an aunty! As you know, I believe a picture paints a thousand words and I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t capture these moments on camera – check out these moments below:

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It might not sound like much but to have people share with me things I love and of course, to now have a new little person in my life to cherish and adore mean the world to me. I’ve been excited about the week that past because it felt like a turning point in the year for me – winter fading, things changing and that is what the celebration is really about.

Stay tuned this week for more Zakka and celebrations!