New house lounging. No Internet.
A Year of Sunday Mornings: Week Twenty-one
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Tag Archives: projects
Bridesmaid Cards
Since we’ve been engaged, I’ve shocked Trevor with my love of organizing and spreadsheets. We have so many shared spreadsheets on Google Docs. My favorite and one of the most useful is our wedding checklist. It has a list of everything we need to do from now until the wedding date, who is in charge of it, and what date it needs to be completed by.
The biggest thing was finding a venue, which we did quite quickly. The only thing we needed to complete this month was to choose and notify our wedding party. My friend had sent the cutest card asking me to be her bridesmaid, so I decided to do a card as well. I saw this awesome Will You Be My Bridesmaid? DIY and decided to do something similar.
I only had photobooth pictures with three of my four bridesmaids, so I needed to go a different route. I thought I’d make signs that said “Will you be my bridesmaid?” and hold them up in a photobooth. This proved to be harder than anticipated for two reasons:
1. I couldn’t figure out if photos are mirror images or not. I made the signs in regular writing an backwards writing just in case. This truly boggled my mind.
2. The bright flash of a photobooth combined with the bright white of a sign will make any writing on the sign disappear, as well as make your photo super washed out from the glare.
These problems were easy enough to solve. No, photos are not mirror images. Yes, I do have photoshop and can add text that way. Despite all of the unexpected obstacles, I was really happy with the results!
Mary
A Year of Sunday Mornings: Week Fourteen
Mary
Welding
This weekend, I finally had time to go to TechShop and work on my first welding project; a pair of table legs for my soon-to-be-completed end table.
First, I cut a couple of longer square metal tubes into six separate pieces. I took one piece and laid it horizontally, and then welded two pieces vertically on each end of the horizontal piece. These three pieces, now welded together into one U-shaped piece, made the legs for one side of the end table.
I did the same thing again for the other side to make a U-shaped leg for each end of the end table. I also welded a thin piece of metal with pre-drilled holes on top of each of the four vertical pieces to make it easy to attach the wood to the top.
I’m sure any welder could tell me how terrible my beads look (where I joined the pieces), but they’re holding together well and so overall I consider it a successful first welding project. I’ll be sure to post a picture of the finished product once I find a piece of wood I like.
Trevor
A Year of Sunday Mornings: Week Five
Mary
Fall Projects
A few weeks ago, I started a list of goals for this fall. Eventually, the list got so long that I decided it was unmanageable and unrealistic. I decided to par it down to two goals:
1. Learn to play one song on guitar
I’m going with Moondance by Van Morrison, because it is only a few chords and it seems seasonable.
2. Learn to knit socks
I have wanted to know how to make socks ever since I began knitting and can’t seem to figure it out on my own. This year I’m biting the bullet and signing up for a class. I will have cozy feet this winter, no matter what.
Everything else on the list is still in the running, but instead of using the intimidating word “goal,” I am going to call them “projects.” I guess my reasoning is that projects left unfinished aren’t necessarily a sign of failure.
Here’s a roundup of some of my fall projects:
I think it would be a blast to get a group of friends together and pickle vegetables or make jam. Martha Stewart has a ton of recipes for both on her site.
Since I’m obsessed with Puritans, I want to make a few detachable collars to spruce up basic dresses. I love this DIY Detachable Collar Pattern from A Common Thread.
I love a good mug. There’s nothing cozier than curling up on the couch with a book, wooly (handmade!) socks, and a mug of coffee. I live in a tiny apartment and don’t have room for a lot of dishes. So, I can only get new mugs when I break an old one. Fortunately, I recently broke a mug so now I can design my own with this Sharpie Mug Tutorial from Wild Olive.
Lastly, Trevor and I are planning a brewery biking tour in Michigan this October. The plan is to bike from Bell’s in Kalamazoo to Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti over a weekend. I am so excited to finally be taking a longer bike trip. Plus, I love anything involving a microbrewery.
(photo from Bon Appetit)
Mary
A Year of Sunday Mornings
I love blogs where people post a photo or illustration every day. It’s an amazing way to encourage yourself to create. I wanted to add something along those lines to What good have I done today?, but when I sat down and thought about it I knew I couldn’t hold myself to posting every single day. So I made a compromise. I recently got promoted at work and have Sundays off for the first time in my adult life.
I’m going to do a year of Sunday morning photos.
Documenting these mornings will remind me how fulfilling and restful having time and space just for yourself is. Once, I’m adjusted to having weekends off I can look back and appreciate just how precious that time is.
Here are some photos that inspired this project.
from allison mcd
from Deirdre
See you Sunday,
Mary
Weekend Project: Stamped Garden Markers
This holiday weekend I picked up a few plants for our back porch. I didn’t want to leave the plastic garden markers in the pots because they are quite an eyesore. However, I wanted to be able to identify which plant was which for watering purposes. I decided to make hand stamped garden markers out of popsicle sticks and the stamp we used to make our business cards.
I’m quite pleased with the results.
Mary
Transformation Cards
One of my first projects in school this semester is to design a transformation card. A transformation card is one where the designer has incorporated the suit into an illustration. Traditionally, the suits had to stay in their normal position, but some artist have strayed from this guideline. I was browsing through some examples to inspire my own card and I thought I’d share my favorites here.
Jack of Hearts by Emmanuel
LA-TEE-Da Transformation Playing Cards via odessa
Seven of Diamonds Print by CMYKelsey
Cat Transformation Deck by John Littleboy via The World of Playing Cards
Mary
New Year, New Products
It’s New Year’s Eve and we’ve just added some new items to our Etsy shop! I made these dino t-shirts as Christmas gifts for my nephews and Trevor’s niece, but I made sure to print a few extra for our shop. I also finally got around to putting our Matryoshka Dolls on Etsy. Yay!
Baby Dino Science T-shirt in Brown
Kid’s Dino Science T-shirt in Heather Grey
Kid’s Dino Science T-shirt in Navy
I don’t really participate in new year’s resolutions, but I do see the new year as a chance to reflect on my goals and personal growth. It’s been wonderful sharing my creative pursuits with you in 2011, and I hope for a creatively inspired 2012.
Have a safe and happy holiday,
Mary
