SHOP UPDATE

I recently put up some new felt party garlands in the LAX TO YVR shop. They are so fun to make. I really love working with felt. They cheer me up just looking at them. Until Monday, September 5, all felt garlands are shipping for free to Canada and US.

Hopefully I'll have my Christmas product line ready for the shop soon. My goal originally was to have it all ready by the end of August. but I've barely even started working on it! August has been a crazy hectic month, and I'll be relieved when it's over.

Also I'll soon be announcing two giveaways I'll be participating in September. So you'll get an opportunity to score some of my products for free!

ROAD TRIP!

I'm back from my recent trip down to Washington and up the Sunshine Coast. The occasion was a family reunion on my in-laws' side.

First I drove down to Yakima, WA to pick up the Dude's step-grandmother. It was a real treat to do a long drive by myself. I haven't done one of those in ages! Driving for six hours was actually relaxing for me because I was forced to do nothing but drive. It was a welcome break from my usual multitasking hectic daily life. Driving down Highway 82 was my favourite part because of the breathtaking views of the sheer barren desert. Living in lush, green Vancouver, I really miss seeing stark desert landscapes. Yakima reminds me very much of Southern California.

Then we drove back to B.C. to connect with the rest of the clan, and we all drove up to Sechelt in the Sunshine Coast. The Dude's uncle hosted a two-day 60th birthday party extravaganza in his fabulous vacation home. It was a lot of fun to have the whole family together in one place. And the weather was perfect to say the least.

View from the ferry, on our way from Horseshoe Bay to Gibsons. Riding the ferry is always a visual feast.

Birthday party. At this point a piñata was getting smashed.

TAKING A BREAK

Meet our resident spider. He hangs out in the balcony where he feasts on the pests. His main source of food came from the impatiens. They were infested with little white bugs so I threw out the plant recently. I hope the spider is able to find other food.

I'll be away this week from Wednesday to Sunday, so both my shops are closing and I'll be taking a break from blogging. First, I'll be driving down to Yakima, WA, and then up to the Sunshine Coast. Those two places couldn't be any more different from each other. I hope to capture some good photos at both places.

Photos from our recent visit to Bowen Island:

PAINTING WITHOUT TAPE

The thing I hate the most about painting is the prep work. I absolutely hate taping the edges of a room. It's the painting I love to do. The Dude is the opposite. He doesn't mind taping, but he hates painting. How could you hate the most fun part?! So I make him do all the taping.

Anyway, I searched on youtube for painting without tape methods and found the "cutting a paint line" technique. I looked at several videos and turns out there are slight variations for this particular method. This was the one I liked the best:



I used this method to paint the bedroom, and it has revolutionized the way I paint. After a few tries, I got the hang of it. Vibrating the brush a bit while I cut a line seemed to work best for me. I also held my breath when I first began, but after a while I could cut a line while breathing normally.

Also, the secret to cutting a straight paint line is to use a damn good paintbrush that's angled. I splurged on a good one by Purdy that's 2 inches wide. And it's crucial to load the brush with the right amount of paint or you'll end up with a mess.

Using tape has it downsides: it's wasteful, it's a pain in the ass to put up and take down, and the paint usually bleeds through. Drawing a paint line by hand is a win-win...except for when you mess up. But paint is easy to clean up when it's wet. So just wipe off and start again.

PAINTING THE BEDROOM

Obviously, I didn't do the black accent wall behind the bed. The Dude pointed out that with the dark grey curtains, a black wall might feel overwhelming in our bedroom. I'm so glad he pointed that out. I'm in no hurry to change the curtains because it took forever to find them.

Our bedroom is tiny and hence difficult to photograph. There's hardly any space to stand in. These are the best photos I could wrangle.

Here's the "Before" picture:




























Overall, we're both pleased with the results. Now that the whole bedroom is painted in Behr Ultra Pure White, we like the paint choice a lot better. When I did half the room back in May, I was very disappointed with the paint. But I feel much better about it now (to great relief). It's a bright cheery white, which is exactly what's called for in gloomy Vancouver.



The one thing I want to change now is the bed linens. I got the one above in the spring when I was still planning to paint the black accent wall. Now with the white wall, it's too much white. I really want this set from IKEA. I've been coveting this duvet cover for a long, long time. I should have just gone with my gut instinct and gotten them. Oh well. I'm not ready to buy it after having just recently purchased the current one, which is also from IKEA. I may just get a colourful throw and toss it on the bed.



A made-up bed is a rare sighting in our household. I'm a neat freak about everything else except the bed. I just don't see the point. And it's also due to pure laziness. I can't be anal about everything.

We're not sure yet what to do about bedside lighting. The Dude hates our current lamps, but I'm not eager to go shopping for new ones because frankly I'd rather spend the time on more urgent matters. For example, I really need to paint the yellow nightstand, which we picked up for $2 last year at a church thrift sale.

The next place to paint is the living room. I was considering Ultra Pure White but it's too white. I'm seriously considering Benjamin Moore Simply White. And I haven't given up on the elusive black accent wall. It's going to happen somewhere in the living room. I hope.

LEARNING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

I recently completed an introductory course to Adobe Illustrator at Emily Carr. Taking this class was like drinking from a fire hydrant. Too much information coming at me at once. And we just learned the basics. I'm sure there's a million and one other things still to learn.

It was fun to learn Illustrator finally. But it also made me realize that it's a lot harder to learn new software as I grow older. I hope to practice by using it frequently so I don't forget everything I learned.

The images here are a couple of assignments I did for class.