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I was tagged by Allison at Polka Dots and Paisley a few weeks ago but hadn't gotten to responding, yet. Sorry about that. FYI, we disconnected our internet at home since March 1st (will not be getting into it, it just had to be done), so I've only had internet at school for the last few weeks, and no extra time to do this thing.
And this is great because I haven't shared many personal posts on my blog yet, though I do try to insert tidbits about me in every post.
RULES:
1. You must post the rules.
2. Answer the 11 question that the tagger posted for you, and then create 11 questions to ask the people you've tagged.
3. Tag 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Let them know you have tagged them
Here are Allison's questions with my answers:
1. Let’s start with an easy one… What’s your favorite colour?
ORANGE! But if you read my Drawer Tower Cart Slipcover, you already knew that ;)
2. What was the last book you read? Would you recommend it?
The last book(s) I read were the Hunger Games trilogy. Yes, I would recommend them, I've already lent them to 2 co-workers :) Spreading the love. I'm kinda still engrossed in it with the movie coming out, and have not been able to start a new book since, which was mid-January...
3. What’s the favorite craft or project you’ve ever made?
My handpainted chandelier in my kitchen. It was one of my first ones, and not perfect by a LONG shot, but I love it so much! Looking back, I kinda want to retake the pictures. I think my picture taking skills have vastly improved since and do not do it justice!
4. If you could only make one type of craft for the rest of your life, what would you make?
Can I say wood crafts? As in anything to do with wood. I still need fabric and scrapbook paper, ribbon too, to embelish, so it kinda encompasses everything. Most of my original ideas are wood crafts, you can make SO much with wood!! And it's probably because I get my crafty gene from my dad who's a really good carpenter (as in, he built our house, from scratch, and no I'm not kidding, will write about that and all the awesomness that my dad has built one day! Like maybe Father's day)
5. How has your blog changed since you first started? Is there anything about it you wish you had done differently?
Pictures are better as I mentioned. I made a custom made blog design. Ummm.... Apart from that it's growing slowly, because I can't put enough time into it. I'm still learning as I'm going, and am not expecting it to grow that much sicne I know I would have to put so much more time into it for it to grow more/ more quickly. But I'm still quite happy with it. Sometimes I wish I had waited a bit because I know I'm making so many mistakes and I started not really knowing a lot about crafting, this blog was to help me with that, but at the same time I'm ok with that, with my blog growing slowly as I improve.
6. What are your thoughts on things like this blog tag?
I think it's great for little blogs, to share the personal side (like me). I usually do not like chain letters or anything like that and don't participate, but again thought it would be a good opportunity to share a bit more about me :) I dunno, but for big blogs it might not fit in well, and some might consider it spam. That is my opinion...
7. Morning person or night owl?
More a morning person, not at all night owl (as in past 11pm I'm no longer functional, no matter the circumstances), but it's still not super early morning. I suppose I am most of the time the first one in the lab in the morning... And it's always when I feel the most productive.
8. Is there anything you hate? If so, what is it?
Hate is a big word. Hmmm... I dunno? Oh, wait, I often hate bad drivers. I learned how to drive from my dad, too, and he's not a very patient driver, so neither am I. Other than while driving, I'm actually a pretty patient person.
9. What’s your favorite food?
Chocolate. It's one of the few things that I do not think I could live without.
10. If you had one day left to live, what would you do?
Not go to work! lol ummm... spend it with my bf and my family. And hope that it's a beautiful warm sunny day, it would totally suck to have your last day on earth to be a rainy miserable one.
11. Why do you suppose there are 11 questions on this quiz? Why not 10… or 12?
Why not? Rhetorical questions don't count? Well, I have many hypothesis. 1) to make us talk. 2) because the original maker of this tag thingy thought of 11 questions and then had a writer's block. Ok that's all I got really lol
Alright so MY 11 questions are:
1. What is a typical day like for you?
2. What has been the hardest part of starting/having a blog for you?
3. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
4. How do you drink your coffee?
5. How is the weather today where you live, and where DO you live (if you don't mind saying)?
6. What is your favorite punctuation, the one you abuse too much but can't stop? (parenthesis, semi-colon, 3 dots, exclamation, uppercase, whatever!)
7. Which is your favorite holiday and why?
8. Which is your favorite type of flower?
9. What is the trait which you admire the most in other people?
10. If you could change 1 thing about yourself, what would it be and why?
11. Why do you blog?
I've decided to tag some people who are following me to get to know them/you a little better! So I'm tagging:
Stacie @ Create Your Decor
Michelle @ My Analog Life
Meg @ The Nutmeg Place
Lauren @ Be Sweetly Inspired
Jessica @ The Landladies Diaries
Leah @ L3 Designs
Susan @ SusanD1408 Crochet Addict
Bree @ Cheeky Mom Knits and Things
Tori @ Oh Craft!
Sarah @ Sarah's World
Amber @ Amber Tackles
Now if you don't want to do this and you were tagged, no worries, this is just for fun, so if it's no fun for you then that goes against the whole point. If you want to do it but have not been tagged, then by all means go for it! Don't let that stop you. If you don't have a blog and want to answer, you can do so in the comments. I just really want to get to know my followers better!
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I party at these partiesIf you would like to invite me to your linky party, please do so on my linkies page, thank you!
Guess what greeted me last Friday as I came home? These:
Yup, my tulips are finally poking out of the ground!! I realize it’s probably late, my parents are saying their’s are 4 inches tall, but I think it’s because of the lack of sunlight we get in our backyard.
Anyway, I’m super thrilled, because I was really afraid they wouldn’t grow at all, that I had waited too long to plant them last fall. It was end of November that I did so. The ground was of course not frozen yet; we got a very short winter this year.
This is our little plot of soil in our backyard. I know it’s not super great, but better than what we had at our last place, and for a apartment it’s not bad.
So what I did last fall was just dig a trench about 4-6 inches deep.
I had LOTS of bulbs, as you can see. Some seemed rather rotten, though...
I just lined them up in the trench, pointy side up...
...and then I buried them. (that's half way buried btw) I don't know if I buried them a little too deep and that's why they took their time sprouting... But it might also have prevented them from being dug up by the pesky resident squirrels we got around. They seem to dig only an inch then get tired. And they never dig right where the tulips are either...
Here’s the story of how I got those bulbs for free. Every year in Ottawa (my home town), there’s the Tulip Festival in May. They plant thousands of tulips. It’s kinda sad I’ve never actually went to see them, I really should.
source: Ottawa Tulip Festival, photo by Frank Scheme
source: Ottawa Tulip Festival, photo by Frank Scheme
After every festival, they dig up the bulbs and dispose of them :( Somehow, our neighbor manages to get ahold of them, and gives them a second home. That is how I came to have these bulbs.
I’ve got 3 rows on my plot, I know you can’t really tell, but yeah, there are.
Only thing is I was scared they had gotten too humid and had rotten. I’m sure they won’t all bloom, but most of them should.
I have no idea what color they will be. Ready to be surprised with me later in the season?! I’ll post pictures when they bloom.
There's only 5 out right now, I'm hoping to see more soon, but with -5 degree C weather (24 degree F) here this morning I dunno when that will be really. Canadian weather is such a tease; 25 degree C last week (77F), and now -5C (24F). Only in Canada people, only in Canada... (or are there parts of US that are crazy like that?!)
One got crushed, as in stepped on, most likely by me or my bike. Must put up some sort of barrier or fence around.
Are you excited to see your tulips bloom?! How tall are they now if you have some?
Thanks for reading, have a great week everyone!
I party at these parties. If you would like to invite me to your linky party, please do so on my linkies page, thank you!
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If you have no idea what a noreply-blogger is, then this post is for you! If you do, then there is a chance that this is for you, just take a few moments to check, won't you?!
If you comment a lot on others' blogs but never get an answer, then there is a VERY good chance this applies to you.
What is a no-reply blogger?
A no-reply blogger is someone who comments on a blog post and who the blog owner cannot then reply to via email because their email address is not visible.
I like to reply to every single comment I get (or well I try to), just so you know that I heard you and that I appreciate the 30 seconds you took to leave me a comment. But when I encounter a no-reply blogger, that makes me sad. It looks like so:
Most of the time I will hunt down the person and let them know. That means clicking through their profile and seeing if they have a blog of their own, finding their contact information there or leaving a comment to a post. When they don't have a blog there is nothing I can do :(
Until now, I always referred them to someone else's post. But after 3 of such bloggers in a row today, I decided it might be time to make my own post to refer to.
How do I know if I am a no-reply blogger?
Well, it's easier to see if you are NOT a no-reply blogger. Let me show you.
If you go to your profile from your dashboard (I'm aware some of you might still have the old dashboard, I think it should be very similar...)
The little icon on the top-right of the dashboard is where you need to go.
Click it so you see the Blogger profile link...
and then click that, too.
The clickable email link under the Contact Me section confirms that you are NOT a no-reply blogger. If you DO NOT see this, then you ARE a no-reply blogger.
Now, apparently there is a new way of having a Google+ profile instead of a blogger profile. If this is the case for you and what I am showing you here is NOT what YOU are seeing, then check out this post, hopefully that will help you out ;) Alright, moving on.
How do I change my settings for other's to be able to contact me?
From your blogger profile, you click Edit profile...
and you simply need to check the show my email address.
Once that is done, scroll down so you can save your new setting!
And that's all there is to it! If you still want to confirm, then simply reply to this post, including your email address, and I will confirm it for you :)
I won't be the only one pleased to see I can now contact you :)
I'll keep this "advertisement" at the bottom of my blog if ever you need it.
Thanks for reading!
I party at these parties. If you would like to invite me to your linky party, please do so on my linkies page, thank you!
With St-Patrick's day in just 2 days, I think it's about time I show you the only St-Pattie's craft I got to make. Now, I've NEVER celebrated St-Pattie's Day or anything, so having done one decoration is big for me.
I can't wait to have kids, though! It seems all holidays are more exciting with kids around :) Then I'll decorate like crazy. I love what Love Sweet Love did for her kids last year, I mean, how fun is THAT?!
Anyway, until then...
I made some jute wrapped shamrocks for this year. I got the inspiration around Valentine's Day when I saw the mini-wreath that Kelsey at Tattered and Inked made. What caught my eye was not only the wreath but the super mini jute heart that she embellished it with.
That made me want to make some heart ones, which I did, but I felt silly sharing that 2 weeks after V-Day, so you will have to wait til next year to see them. They are also half finished... so yeah.
Since I was on a roll, I decided to make some shamrock shaped ones as well!
They are a little on the fancier/classy side of things, I find. I made them to hang on my bedroom lamps, as you can see. I like them, they bring a little bit of festivity without clashing too much with my bedroom decor.
Here's how I made them.
Supplies:
~ garden wire, from Dollarama, 1$ (I made 6 hearts and 2 shamrocks with it, and probably around half left; I'm sure it will come in handy for an other project)
~ jute/twine, Wal-Mart, 2$ (again, there's lots left, but I did get it especially for this project)
~ twist ties, or garden twist ties, Dollarama, 1$ for 2
~ green yarn, Dollarama, 1$
~ green shimmery ribbon, Dollarama, 1$
Total: 4$ for 6 hearts and 2 shamrocks and LOTS of leftover!
I printed the shamrock shape as reference since it's a little hard to freehand it. Just shape the garden wire by following the outline.
(If you're wondering: The first time I printed it I found it too small, and then reprinted on the same side instead of backside by accident. Didn't want to waste more so just highlighted the one I wanted and continued.)
I created 3 shapes of shamrocks so that the final shape would be a little thicker. One I did with the knick all at the same place in all 3 wire shaped, but that created a weakness at the point where they all met, so the second shamrock I made it so the knicks would be at different points. Dunno if it really made it that much better, see why later.
They didn't quite keep together that well, so I had to wrap the 3 shapes with twist ties. I was so happy when I found this stuff at Christmas at the Dollarama! It's so multipurpose, and you can cut your own length.
You'll want to arrange the 3 wires so they make a sort of triangle (as in not all in a line, but so that each touches the other 2), and then wrap with the twist ties. It gets a little tricky arranging the shapes, they get tangled up together, but rather do this step than have to wrestle later as you wrap the jute around.
Remember how I said I did the knicks at different points in the shape? Well that backfired a little. See it's really hard to get all 3 shapes exactly the same. So I was left with a bend that the wires didn't quite bend all at the same point, and I couldn't really fix it at this point. It's not the end of the world, but just something to keep in mind. Once it's wrapped in jute it doesn't really show, it's just wider at that point.
Next step: wrap in jute. This is very tedious work and nice to do while watching something so you don't get too bored.
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Also, since the bundle of jute will not fit through the hole in the shamrock, you will have to cut a certain length out. I think I did about 5 times my "wing span" (you know when you stretch your arms out and apart). And it's quite annoying pulling the whole length through every time, so I tied it like so:
The corners are especially tricky to wrap. They just wrap all wrong (see in picture below left side?). I found that if you wrapped it once, then let it unravel and wrap it up again you get the best results. It seems easier to wrap it right when you aren't passing it through the center every turn.
After you've wrapped for what seems like an eternity, you'll come to the end, hooray! Of course, the smaller the shape, the easier it is. Shamrocks have a lot of twist and turns which makes it quite long to make. The hearts were much quicker to make.
Of course, you could leave it like that, but I wanted to add a little green. So I wrapped it with multi-green colored yarn. I can easily remove it if I change my mind later since it's just tied with a knot at the back.
As I mentioned before, they hang from our bedroom lamps, just tied it up with some pretty shimmery green ribbon and I was done!
What do you think? Would you have left them with just the jute, or wrapped it with yarn like me, or done something different? I'm up to other suggestions! For my hearts, I'm really indecisive as to how to add some color to them. I don't have red yarn yet, but do have embroidery floss (from my bracelet making days as a kid!). I've tried a few different ways, but nothing seems...right, you know?
As always, thanks for stopping by!!
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I party at these parties. If you would like to invite me to your linky party, please do so on my linkies page, thank you!
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