I've been seeing chalkboards all over the design blogosphere and am totally in love with them. So I decided to make one of my own! I got a picture with a frame I liked from the thrift shop where I volunteer. Then, I took it apart, removing the picture and the glass. The picture I set aside to give to a fellow volunteer who wanted it, and I painted the glass with a coat of primer (used Painter's Touch grey primer spray paint). Then I sprayed a few coats of black chalkboard spray paint. And voila! A beautiful chalkboard on which to write inspiring quotes or silly messages. Love, love, love it!

I was looking to do an instant gratification DIY project and so I made a paper flag garland. Now one of our bare walls is finally decorated. The great thing about these garlands is that you can change them up with the seasons. During the holidays I had a snowflake paper doily garland up.

This garland is super easy to make. Cut out a triangle template. Trace it on scrap paper you may have lying around. Cut out a bunch of triangles. Punch two tiny holes at the top two corners of each triangle. Run a string through them and voila, a cute paper garland!

It's hard to resist to make more of these garlands and put them up everywhere: hanging from doorways, across a mirror, the wall in front of my desk, across a window or shelf, etc.

And I also recently finished another DIY project to occupy another bare wall. Can't wait to show it off!

After seeing a minimalist 250 sq. foot apartment on the Tiny-Ass Apartment blog, I got the itch to do another purge. I really, really want to live with as little as possible. But it's so hard when you like to do crafty things. So I keep accumulating supplies. Argh.

Speaking of being crafty, I also have the itch to make something. Now that the weather is warming up and days are getting longer, I'm hoping to do some furniture refinishing projects again. There's so many beautiful things I want to make but so little time. Anyway, I really need to pick up a paintbrush and paint something or I'll go batty. Gonna pick up some spray paint today. Can't afford to buy art for our bare walls so I'm gonna have to make it myself. I'm going to attempt my own rendition of the project above, courtesy of Krylon.

During the weekend the Dude and I checked out the Paralympic games. We saw wheelchair curling and ice sledge hockey. Wheelchair curling surprisingly was way more fun than I anticipated. I never really understood curling and watching a live game was a good opportunity to learn the game. However, I must say that I can't help but regard curling a game more than a sport. In any case, I think I'm a fan now. This is another indication that I'm becoming more and more Canadianized.

I love that I can walk to the yoga studio.
I love that I can walk to my favourite hardware store.
I love that I can walk to my favourite cafe.
I love that I can walk to my church.
I love that I can walk to my favourite grocery store.
I love that I can walk to the thrift shop where I volunteer.
I love that I can walk to the public library.
I love that I can walk to the pub.
I love that I can walk to McDonald's whenever I crave their apple pie.
I love that I can walk to a bakery to get a fresh loaf of bread.

All that's missing in our neighbourhood is a knitting shop! But maybe that's a good thing...

The other night in my knitting group, people started sharing birth stories. Now whenever this particular topic arises, it usually involves horrific tales of woe and pain. Hearing these stories only exacerbates my fear of giving birth. And when I heard one that involved 63 stitches my gut reaction was to exclaim, "I'm never having children!" Sheesh. Really, I don't know how I'm going to have the courage to go through being in labour. One thing's for sure, I don't want to experience it any time soon.

One of the items in my shop appeared in The Storque, Etsy's official blog! I didn't realize it until way after the fact. I was too busy during the Olympics to check the google analytics stats, and when I finally did yesterday I saw that my store had over 500 hits a week and a half ago. I've been hoping very badly that my shop would be recognized by an Etsy administrator and it finally has. Yay!

Anyway, sales have picked up in the past month, which is really encouraging. I probably just jinxed myself by writing that and will have no sales for the rest of the month. Whatevers.

There's a Harvard Business Review blog post about becoming an entrepreneur that totally spoke to me, and I took it as a sign that I'm heading in the right direction.

What a hectic three weeks it's been! From working at the ever chaotic la superboutique olympique to going on a 4-day road trip to Yakima, WA and meanwhile trying to run my online shop left me utterly exhausted. And I might add, we did a lot of standing in line to get into the different pavilions around town and catching the games in various pubs. Working in downtown allowed me to see the city come alive, and let me tell you, it was a party every night. And the Canada-USA hockey game yesterday was not only exhilirating, but the celebration that broke out everywhere after Canada's victory was even more fun to experience.

The Dude and I unexpectedly caught Olympic fever and we enjoyed the whole experience. Now we're hoping to actually go and catch some of the upcoming paralympic games live (tickets are quite affordable - yay). And we've thoroughly fallen head over heels for the Olympic mascots (particularly Quatchi and Mukmuk) to some chagrin because initially we deemed them really lame.

In all seriousness though, I must add that I was disappointed and a bit miffed that Celine Dion was not included in neither of the opening and closing ceremonies. I'm being serious. Did the producers decide to pass on her or did she decline to participate?