Bursting with flavour ... I mean ideas

strawberries
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Remember the wordplay challenge that I issued? Well, I haven't started anything yet, but tomorrow's the day for me. So far, I've done a bunch of brainstorming of words and phrases that come to mind with the word "burst":

• bursting with flavour, ideas
  
• burst my bubble- balloons, soap
  
• burst of laughter, burst into tears - begin suddenly
  
• burst into song
  
• burst open, burst forth- open, hatch, eggs
  
• bursting with news - full, excited
  
• starburst, sunburst
  
• burst of speed
  
• bursting her stays, bursting at the seams -exploding
  
• burst pipe - leak, opening, break

Also, apparently granting the wish of some commenters, next week is Green Week. I'll have to see what I can do....

A Milestone

half quilt top done!
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I'm glad everyone enjoyed Yellow week so much! It was fun, but not something I can keep up everyday... there are other projects afterall. For those not watching my flickr stream, you may have missed that I've completed HALF my quilt top! I must apologize for the rather terrible photo of this momentous half-way mark. But with my laundry line out of commission until her ladyship Spring graces Montreal with her presence, I have no very good place to photograph such a large piece. Wishing you a sunshine-y cheerful week!

Yellow Week - Day 5

All week I've been noticing yellow in a way I wouldn't usually. It's a good feeling to see the world a little differently from normal. A girl walked by in bright yellow rain boots. A man in a yellow winter jacket. My pale yellow post-it notes at work. The cheery yellow toys out at a friend's house. Yellow signs and labels in the metro. The amazing number of food products that come packaged in yellow. And my daisies are slowly growing more yellow. I took a quick snap this morning.


more yellow than monday
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

And as a close to this yellow week, I pull a picture out that I took several years ago, but is so perfect.


yellow door
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 4

Shortest little month
Wind whistles with rain and snow
Sing us into spring

-- 18 Feb 2009

It has been snowing and snowing here and it looks all pretty again! It's soft and fluffy and the good-for-snowmen type of snow. It's snow like in the movies, when it's all clean and blanket-y and quite warm out. And the world is again a lovely magical place. This impression was much helped by the sleight-of-hand of my multi-talented sweetie in making a chocolate heart wrapped in pink foil magically appear in my cardigan pocket this morning (while I was wearing it!). Such a delightful surprise.

We were out all evening having supper with some dear friends, so this is the only picture of yellow for today...


afloat on a sea of blanket
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 3

Having to take my photos at night has encouraged me to pull out my tripod and I've been getting some good practice and sorting out what all the twiddly knobs control. Today I went looking for yellow books.....


dreaming in yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


eating in yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


mystery solving in yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 2

teacup and daisy
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I sure wish I could be taking my photos during the daylight as we've been having some lovely sunny days, but evening is when I have time for this little exercise...


star in wooden bowl
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


lemon with your tea?
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 1

I'm joining in on Yellow Week and here are my first two pictures.


daisies with a touch of yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
Having an assignment with limitations is always a good sort of motivator. Yellow is not on my preferred end of the spectrum, so I thought I might have a hard time finding yellow things, but carrying my camera around the house this evening (boo, no natural light for me!), I saw quite a number and already have some ideas for upcoming days. Today I went for tiny bits of yellow.


yellow pins
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

A Fabric Scrap Drawstring Bag

My quilt generated quite a lot of little bits of fabric (not to mention the tiny leftover bits from my bunting) and I was storing them in a little box. But it was not very convenient to store, nor very pretty.

So, I turned this:

scraps
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


Into this:

fabric scrap bag
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Sitting in front are my remaining quilt squares. I used 3 long strips of fabric out of the scrap box to make the drawstring bag to hold the rest of the scraps. Much prettier!

Beautiful birthday bunting banner and a Dare

birthday bunting
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
With all the birthday celebrating this month, it's not very surprising that I got inspired to make a quick birthday-related project. As if I needed another project on the go ... but this one was done in a few hours over a single day, leading to immense satisfaction.

After much searching this morning (just for this blog post) I found the first tutorial that I was inspired by (which I didn't follow aside from using ribbon). I saw this picture at decor8 shortly after first coming across the tutorial and it just seemed all too cute and easy.

The idea percolated and on Saturday, I pulled out a bunch of bits and pieces to make up a "rainbow" (no new fabric purchased!). I cut out some pairs of triangles with pinking shears and sewed each pair together so that my garland would be double-sided (more fun when hung outside or across the middle of a room). Then I sewed them all to 3m worth of ribbon (though bias tape is another good option), made some loops in the ribbon ends, and hung it up to admire.

Fabric bunting or garlands have been all over the internet. I suspect it's because they're easy and fun to make and are fabulous for using up small bits in your fabric stash. I could see making pretty ones out of all florals or dots or stripes, or whatever pattern or colour you (or your kids) like and having them up all the time. Or making special Christmas ones, or adding letters to add a name or message. Or how about making a long string with buttons and a bunch of triangles with button holes so you can mix and match your garland depending on the occasion or your mood! Lots of fun possibilities! Go create, I dare you!

Update: I wrote up a fabric bunting tutorial with my favourite method.

Breath in, be inspired

crafty
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
February is a short little month and many of us feel down-trodden by the weather, so the remedy for me is to celebrate! With lots of February birthdays, I get a good start. This year I'm adding in a creative afternoon with some of my crafty girlfriends on the very last day, which conveniently happens to be a Saturday. (I used the pretty invitation above, available at pingg.com).

in.spi.ra.tion
[in-spuh-rey-shuhn]
.noun

1. an inspiring or animating action or influence
   
2. something inspired, as an idea.
   
3. a result of inspired activity.
   
4. a thing or person that inspires.
   
5. Theology.
   1. a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.
      
   2. the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.
      
6. the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation.
   
7. the act of inspiring; quality or state of being inspired.
   

Inspired by this wordplay project that I followed on some artsy blogs last year, I've created a similar challenge. It's neat to see how different creative minds interpret the same single word and how varied the final creations are.

If you'd like to play along, I've set up this wordplay copycat flickr group for everyone to share what they create. There are no rules about what media you use or what the final format of your creation is (you can even upload videos in case your creativity runs to dance, music, or other performance art). But whatever you make, it must be created during the specified time period (in this case February-March) and be inspired by the word assigned.

So without further ado, the word is "Burst".

New things for a new month

cityscape card
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
A friend asked me to make some cards for her. Inspiration struck and the result was eight new stamps! Partly inspired by that 1960's blocky sort of children's book illustration, I made a set of city and country stamps. Here's an example of the style of 1960's illustration I mean.


red house card
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
I made a few extra cards (the ones shown here) which are now in my etsy shop. If you want a set or some particular colours, I'm always happy to take custom requests. You can see the other cards in my Papery set.


purple houses card
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
Happy February! Keep your spirits bright in this shortest of months by getting out in the sunshine when you can. I know a little walk on a sunny day, even if it's cold, does wonders for my mood. I'm thinking of buying myself some spring in the form of cut flowers since actual spring is still two-and-a-half months away for me. And to those in climates where it's lovely in February ... thank your lucky little boots and get out and revel in it for the rest of us! (Yes, I'm looking at you, my beach-going friends in NZ!)