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Link Roundup!

I've started sharing some free printables, but these are some of the great sites are where I get my inspiration.

                 | 1 designeditor.typepad.com  | 2 melissaesplin.com | 3 www.creaturecomfortsblog.com | 4 makingitlovely.com |
         | 5 www.eatdrinkchic.com | 6 ohthelovelythings.blogspot.ca | 7 justsomethingimade.com | 8 www.ishareprintables.com |

Hope you get creative with some of these printables, all free! I love free fun!

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Artists who inspire

Yumiyumi aka Aline Yamada, is a wonderful illustrator and photographer (check out her beautiful blog!). Her art is eclectic ranging from floral watercolours to cute animal illustrations. Her world is beautiful, and I love looking at all the details, they would brighten any wall! Her prints can be purchased on her Etsy site, and as a plus are very affordable.

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Crafty Tuesdays

Today's craft was another fun item I made for my friends daughter, a rainbow piñata!
I would have never attempted this if it wasn't for the wonderful blot Oh Happy Day.
If you need simple party ideas, great printables, or dream of living in Paris like me, you will love this blog!

Her amazing tutorial on how to make a piñata can be found here:
http://ohhappyday.com/2011/08/how-to-make-a-number-pinata/

The only thing I can add to this tutorial is that, if you don't have easy access to crepe paper sheets I was able to use regular crepe streamers folded in half lengthwise, which worked fine. There is crepe paper sheets at my local Dollarama, but not in all the colours I needed. Also I highly recommend doing this in front of the tv, all the steps are easy, it just takes awhile.

Here are my results, a bit "shabby chic"...lol...but it did the job:

I love...

Elephants

I don't what it is about elephants, but I have always loved them. It could be the many wooden and marble figures, my parents had from India. Or it could be their kind eyes. They are considered good luck in many countries. This is an obsession for life!

Luckily I am not the only person who loves elephants!

1. Fred Flare enamel elephant necklace - love the golden details.

2. Red Ruby Rose - love these handmade clutches from the UK, what a quirky print!

3. Target - I am so excited this store is coming to Canada, love this modern pillow.

4. This simple Thomas Paul wooden box would be great in my office.

5. Love Johnathan Adler, and especially love this lamp with a bit of trunk peeking out.

To see more of my elephant obsession check out my Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/chobhi/elephants/

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Freebie Fridays!

A recent surprise note that came in the mail reminded me how nice it is to get snail mail.
I designed this so you can easily send a thank you note by mail. I like the idea of the outside being plain white, while the inside is colourful and cheerful! Use glue or double-sided tape to seal the edges. Make someone smile, and tell them how much you appreciate them!

Download Here

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Link Roundup!

Where to buy handmade gifts?

Check these links out for the next time you want to buy something unique and handmade:

As their tagline says, "your place to buy and sell all things handmade, vintage, and supplies". You can get handmade items from all over the world, most stores ship to Canada.

 Canadian blog Poppytalk curates this market monthly, making available art and crafts that aren't usually easily available to Canadians.

Similar to Etsy, also offers deals and coupons.

For all things Indian! This is a great site to purchase crafts and clothing from India.

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Artists who inspire

I don't know how Diem Chau does it. These miniature carvings are so detailed. It's just magical what she does with such little material.

Crafty Tuesdays

Every week, I am going to feature some fun easy, crafts, either that I have made, or found online.

Today I am going to feature a rainbow headband that I made for my friends daughters rainbow themed 5th birthday party. I made quite a few different items for this birthday which I will feature in the coming weeks.

Supplies:

• dollar store satin headbands (comes in pack of two)
• dollar store rainbow silk flower lei, like the image below

• hot glue/thread and needle

I didn't take pictures of the entire process, as I kind of winged it, but it was quite easy.

1. Cut leia and take out one flower of each colour, tie leia back up (I wanted to keep the leia for a   photobooth)
2. Take one layer of each flower and fold in half twice
3. Sew all the quarters together, matching the bottom corner, which creates a rainbow pompom
4. Glue or hand sew the pompom to the headband (I already had a needle threaded so opted to sew)

This was the result:

I mixed up my rainbow order, but no one seemed to notice. This idea can be done in many different ways. You can take any silk flower, feathers or gems, glue it to a headband to make it your own. If you decide to make one, please send me a picture, I'd love to see it!

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I love...

Peacock Feathers!

Every week on Monday I will be posting items that I am currently obsessing over, coveting, general prettyness!

I decided my first post should be on Peacock feathers as it was Janmashthami last week, and peacock feathers are often associated with Krishna. I have always loved peacock feathers, and remember clearly the traditional indian peacock feather fans my parents had displayed in their bedroom. Now I love the modern uses of peacock feathers in both home and accessory designs. I was so thrilled when it became a trend, and was popping up everywhere. I hope this trend lasts awhile!

1. Thomas Paul peacock rug - I wish he would bring this rug back

2. Rachana Reddy clutch - hand made beautifulness

3. Don't know who designed these shoes, but I love them

4. Modcloth dress, the perfect empire cut

5. D.L Rhein embroidered pillow- the feather looks so real

To see more of my peacock obsession check out my Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/chobhi/peacock/

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Freebie Fridays!

I love blogs that are always sharing great printables and downloads. So every Friday I will be sharing printables that I have designed. I am not talented enough to draw on illustrator and create my own designs, so I often use free brush sets, available on great sites like Brusheezy. The brush set used today is by Seishido. It's one of my favourites as it has vintage looking paisley ornaments.

It's a simple to-do list in my favourite colour purple. It's much nicer to make a list on pretty paper, and its very satisfying to have something to check off immediately. Hope you enjoy it!

Download Here

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Link Roundup!

So I have a knack for finding great websites. I often e-mail friends with long lists of links pertaining to whatever they need help with at the time. Whether it be examples for a living room design, or how to decorate for a birthday party, I can find what they had difficulty finding. So I thought it would be great to share all these lovely links here, so I can send them here from now on. So every week I will pick a topic and list my favourites links.
I wanted to start with awesome craft blogs. These are the places I go when I want some inspiration. They always have great instructions, and modern looking crafts. Hope you find some inspiration as well!

I go to this blog everyday. She shares paper crafts, origami, cute sewing projects, and free printables, all with a modern slightly retro aesthetic.

She does it all, whether it is items for your home or crafts for teenage girls at summer camp, this is the first blog I found with crafts explained in such a way that they seemed easy.

This is the craft blog for the fashionista, or in my case the wannabe fashionista. Every craft is based on a current trend, and broken down into materials needed, and the steps needed to make a project based on the trend, all in a cute graphic! This blogger is currently a judge on the new show Craft Wars, on TLC.

This site is a great collection of craft tutorials from around the web all made with material bought from dollar stores! I am cheap, and I love Dollarama, so I am always checking this site for ideas.

This is another collection of craft tutorials from around the web. They cover everything from knitting, painting, papercrafts, sewing, you name it they have an example. They find the best every day.

This is like a large Pinterest board of crafts. It is quite similar to Craft Gossip, except that it is more visual, and using their handy navigation tools you can specify what category of crafts you are interested in seeing. I find that most of the crafts are more modern as well.

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Artists Who Inspire

So my many years of reading blogs have introduced me to some amazing artists. I plan on featuring one here every week. Art can bring up different emotions, happy, sad, nostalgic. The first artist I am featuring I feel a certain connection to, because like me, she is Bengali, and like me she lives outside of India. She lives in one of my favourite countries, Switzerland. We also seem to have some of the same favourite things like the lotus flower, peacocks, elephants, paisleys and of course India.

I'd like to introduce you to the amazing Dithi:

Her most recent painting made me gasp, the beauty of the sun setting, reflecting on the river, and the wind blowing in the woman's hair, it just made me feel instantly like I was back in Kolkata. 

She truly is an inspiration, as she followed her passion and created a career out of doing what she loves.

Please check out her beautiful blog, where she showcases her art as well as her photography.

http://www.dithitara.com/

And to buy her original art, or prints, please go to her Etsy shop.

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The Beauty of Recycling

About 2 years ago I went to a jewellery making class at the local bead store in Ottawa, Sassy Beads. It was a great class where I learned basic wire work techniques, and beading techniques. It turned out to be the perfect hobby for me, because projects could often be completed in one night. As a teenager I had tried to learn embroidery and knitting, but ended up with many half finished items.

Soon I realized that my new hobby was a bit expensive. So I started asking friends if they had any broken jewellery, or items they didn't use so I could transform them. I got so many items, that I still haven't been through them all. If a piece had sentimental value, I would return it to them transformed.

Below are a few examples of what I have made by recycling jewellery.

These are two earrings, which were both missing their matching pair.

So I turned them into this necklace:

I highly recommend trying jewellery making, it's great to be able to fix jewellery as well as make it, and it can easily be done while watching t.v.