DIY Puzzles


Last year, instead of buying a card for Nash’s birthday I made him this puzzle message for him to build. I drew cartoon US and some characters from Adventure Time.

The puzzles themselves came inexpensively from an Asian boutique. I was browsing through Etsy today and found these unique ones.


This Puzzle Guestbook from Heartstruck designs is an interesting way to keep track of your guests at a wedding. It also comes in a variety of colours!


This 8 Piece Heart shaped puzzle is made from chipboard. Perfect for heavier art mediums like paint!


And if you want to keep it simple this Blank DIY Puzzle is perfect for you.

Happy Puzzling!
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Crochet Shawl for Mother’s Day

shawlAs a Mother’s Day gift, I made Mom a Sidewalk Shawl with a free pattern from Stitch Nation. I used a 5mm yarn but 8mm crochet hook so that the pattern would be more visible. I skipped the third and fourth repetition of the pattern but it still resulted in a large shawl!

Sodastream Kraft Launch Party

IMG_1176I was invited to the Soda Stream Kraft launch party last night by the fine folks at The Mint Agency. To be honest, I had not previously known about the company and went out of curiosity and of course as a freelancer, couldn’t resist free food and drinks!IMG_1167The event took place at 2nd Floor Events on King Street West.The space was decorated with bottle decor to fit Sodastream’s campaign of saving the earth from bottles. The idea of Sodastream is for customers to have a system at home where they can carbonate their own water and make DIY sodas, therefore cutting down on the need to buy pop bottles.

IMG_1111Since it was the Kraft launch, we had the opportunity to sample the Kool-aid, Crystal Light and Country Time lemonade flavours. They were pretty good and tasted exactly like you’d expect the carbonated versions to taste like. With the exception of some added vodka, since it was a party.

IMG_1161The evening was catered by Brassaii who served various finger foods.
IMG_1132Oh, and I can’t forget about the glorious candy bar. I definitely smuggled some home.

IMG_1195At the end of the night, the invited guests got to take home gift bags with a Sodastream Source machine!

IMG_1202Here’s everything unboxed. They even threw in full bottle of the lemonade flavouring.

IMG_1204The normal kit comes with only 9 trial flavours. 1 of the packages makes a bottle.

IMG_1217To use the machine, the included bottle needs to be filled with cold water (because who likes warm soda?). Then you stick it in the machine and press down until your optimum fizziness as indicated by the LED lights. The machine doesn’t need to be plugged into anything and there was no included instructions on batteries. The first time we tried it I don’t think we pressed down hard enough because we didn’t see bubbles, but we definitely did eventually!

IMG_1223I had a cherry coke-lover in the house so we gave this a test.

IMG_1225The verdict: tastes like regular cherry coke with a lot less sugar. There’s only 7 grams compared to the 25g of sugar in coke. I think the health (and taste) aspect is a bigger seller than the environmental concerns.

DIY type people would enjoy this product. I think it would also be fun to host and play bartender at a party full of Sodastream mixed drinks with this machine!

Crochet Dog Bone

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My practise ball of white yarn never seems to disappear so I made Teddy this crochet bone with a pattern I found on Pinterest. I didn’t make it quite as long because of my dog’s small size.
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I added a ribbon made out of an old T-shirt to hide the seams.


I think he approves.

Crochet Short Sweater

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For my first major crochet project, I made this short crop sweater sweater. The pattern came from The Happy Hooker book I mentioned earlier.
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Understanding how to read the pattern was a confusing at first, so the sweater is a tiny bit disfigured, but still wearable.
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It pairs well with a bright coloured tank top underneath.
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It was a little thicker than I wanted. I used black wool I had but I threw out the label was unsure about the needle gauge. However, I’m proud that it actually looks like a sweater (and not a blob of yarn).

Learning to Crochet

IMG_8994I decided to teach myself how to crochet (again). I had started last year but then I became busy and forgot all about it.

I purchased a set of crochet needles from Ebay, where you the entire collection cost $5 with shipping included! It’s ridiculous how cheap you can get supplies like yarn as well.

IMG_8996I inherited Debbie Stoller’s The Happy Hooker from my best friend when she moved out of Toronto. It’s been sitting on my shelf for quite some time. IMG_8998This is a test ball of white yarn I bought at the dollar store ages ago. Half of it I used to learn how to knit.

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I made these square coasters with the yarn as I learnt how to do some of the basic stitches; double crochet, half double crochet, and single crochet. I’m hoping to eventually learn how to make some adorable Amigurumi animals!

Mac and Cheese With Bacon

mac and cheese is really awkward to take a picture of

Having the house to myself again means more cooking adventures. Today I decided to make good ol’ Mac n Cheese from scratch. I read a bunch of recipes and basically did a spin of my own with whatever ingredients I had on hand. I used a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar as well as some thyme that was leftover from a random turkey I roasted last week (my parents liked the one I made at Christmas that much). I also added onion and bacon on top as garnish and it turned out delicious and worth making from scratch. I’m sure we all have KD in the cupboard right?

Here is my take on classic.

DIY Valentines: Pinterest Inspired

Me and my boyfriend didn’t really want to make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, especially since we’re still both in job hunt mode. I decided to look to Pinterest for some DIY card designs. Here is the front of the card I made:

Text says: "I hope you'll always be there to eat my green Skittles"

The paper heart was inspired by this love note pin. The skittles represent a chapter in the beginning of our relationship. Before we dated, when we had just started talking, I was eating a pack of Skittles and told him I hated the green ones. I also blurted out that I would love the boy who would eat my green Skittles. He told me he liked green Skittles. It’s funny because we had not even thought of each other as date-able material at that point but it’s one of our first memories as friends.

Wreck This Journal #9

I avoided the journal for a while because I failed at finishing it all in December. I came to the realization that it’s not something I should necessarily set a deadline for because that isn’t the point in the journal. It’s an escape, a release and at the same time it’s supposed to be fun. It’s not a project that can have a deadline.

So I picked it up again with something easy first:

scribble scribble scribble