Lace Jar Lantern

Sticking with the lace theme, I saw these doily covered jars, at Pinterest I think, but can’t find the source anymore. Anyway, the idea is just to cover a glass jar in glue, stick a doily on it and light a votive inside, ta-dah, a lantern.

Easy enough. The jar used to hold jalapenos and the lace is a tablecloth or possibly a curtain from the thrift store. I only used a small corner of it for this. I’m thinking maybe I’ll use the rest for a cushion, or twenty more lanterns… I like how the lace isn’t overly romantic, but a bit more angular, while still being totally cosy.

This was such a one minute project. I didn’t even wait for the glue to dry before lighting it.  So easy and fast. And cute. Cute is important.

Doily Lamp (in progress)

Everyone has probably seen this doily lamp from Dos Family. It’s so lovely. I really want one. The trouble is, doilies are so hard to find around here. And when I do find them, they cost a lot, and I’d like a white lamp and the doilies I’ve run across at thrift stores are usually in colours. Mainly green for some reason.

But hey, I can crochet!

There are so many lovely doily patterns floating around in the internet. I just threw “doily” in Google and picked the ones I liked. Especially the Japanese patterns are so pretty! I bought some white yarn (from thrift store, of course) and crocheted away. This is my progress so far. Not enough for a lamp, yet, but getting there.

Beet Blusher

I got my allergy patch test results recently and turns out I’m strongly allergic to Kathon CG. And it’s in everything. Shampoos, soaps, creams, make-up… It seems a bit daunting to buy all new products, not to mention expensive! Also, it has about dozen names that are used in cosmetics, so spotting it requires loads of research. So, for now my make-up consists of one Ben Nye eye-liner pencil. Yay. If anyone is, or knows someone who’s, allergic to it and knows of any products without it, please let me know!

Luckily, I run across this tutorial on the Velvet Bird, via Pinterest, of course. She makes a very simple liquid blusher from beets and glycerol. That’s all. There’s certainly no Kathon CG in that, so I jumped to it. And it is super easy. Only mistake I made was thinking “Oh, there’s 3 tbsp. glycerol that must mean there’s going to be 3 tbsp. blusher”, but of course the beets also extract juice. And now I have a cute little 3 tbsp. jar with blusher and another randomly grabbed big jar where I poured the rest. Well. At least I’m not going to run out, but the next time I think I’ll halve the recipe.

The blusher it’s very nice sheer natural purplish pink. Like a beet, I suppose… It’s easy to use, although I live in horror of pouring it all over my shirt, since it’s very liquid-y. And I’m messy like that. But now I have two make-up products, yay! It’s a start.

Bonus: Here’s a nice YouTube tutorial by Lisa Eldridge on applying liquid blusher. I couldn’t use any make-up for months prior to my patch test and seem to have forgotten all about it.

Cloth Napkins- Third Take

I’ve written about cloth napkins here and here. I liked the colourful ones – in theory. However, I'm not a very colourful person. That’s just not me. I like things simple and practical and minimalistic. This is a bit of a problem because I also like to craft. That’s why all my lovely amigurumi is stored away in the closet. Any ideas on how to display them tastefully?

Anyway, onto the napkins. I like black and white and grey, as colours go, but white gets dirty so quickly and black can be a bit depressing. So, I bought a plain grey sheet. And made 34 cloth napkins. Thirty-four.

I’m not going to run out anytime soon.

There are a couple of white ones there and they are already a bit stained, lesson learned, and a few black ones for pizza nights.

This is not all of them, some are in the wash.They are pretty unceremoniously piled on the shelf, but it’s practical and easy. Just the way I like it.

Bonus: Are Paper Napkins More Environmentally Friendly?

Second-Hand Finds

Today I was supposed to be writing my thesis (I’m a grad student), so I went to the the flea market instead. Oh, logic.

Here’s what I found.

An awesome metal sewing-box. My old one was ugly and unpractical and didn’t close properly anymore.

Two glass bottles. For some reason, one was 1,50 and the other 3 euros, even though they are both the same brand and from the same table. Oh, well, I wanted both. I’m going to use them for my vanilla essence, which currently is in a very ugly plastic vodka bottle.

A china cup that looks like a crumpled plastic cup, I thought it was funny. And 30 cents.

A leather bag. I liked the corner decals.

I think this is a some sort of wall hanging, or maybe a table runner. But for me it’s going to be a bag! If my camera hadn’t killed it, you could see it’s actually green.

There. Now some thesis.

Pinwheel Pillow

I spend the Christmas at my parents. For some reason, I didn’t take any craft projects with me and had hard time coping with having nothing to do with my hands (except eating chocolate). So, my mother lend me with some yarn and I promised to make her a pillow with those.

Here it is, Mum!

The pattern is from here.

Triangle Cushion

This a work in process, but I thought I’d share it with you anyway. It’s going to be a cushion in case you can’t tell yet…

The pattern is by Lucy of Attic24 on Ravelry. It’s an easy, fast, nice little pattern, and there is something very satisfying about finishing each triangle. I’ve already started to asemble them, which has turned out to be a much trickier project. Ah well, little by little.

On other news, have you seen craftgawker? Oh. My. I think I have projects lined up for the rest of my life.