Remnants of Thanksgiving

Readjusting to working life is hard after 3 weeks off, especially when you have photos like these to sort through and edit. 

In related work news, I really should stop beating myself up over how few books I've been reading - or rather, completing - lately.  I look at the 3' thick stack of A4 paper I've read in the past two weeks and my head reels with all the names of the characters.   10 plays.  Gotta count for something, right? 

--Erin

Quebec City Pt.1: Afternoon Tea at the Chateau Frontenac

I totally caved, and went for afternoon tea with Ephraim while we were in Quebec City! I just had such a nice time having tea with my Mum in Ottawa, and the Chateau is beautiful, soooo we went.

And oh man, it did not disappoint!!

The food was incredible, for both meat eaters and vegetarians! I have had tea at a couple other Fairmont Hotels (the Chateau Laurier, and Royal York in Toronto) and have found them to be the most accommodating for vegetarian diets.  But even then, this exceeded expectations.  I mean, just look at it all.  The choice to do open face sandwiches was refreshing, and showed of the many beautiful colours.

The room was lovely and basically all wood.  It felt nice and warm in there, and Ephraim totally blended in in all his tweed.  

I love to take photos of him when he isn't looking... he gets me back for this, don't worry.  Seriously though he is perfectly styled for that room!

Needless to say we enjoyed a couple hours filled with tea and nibbles and conversation.  I tried the vanilla orchid black tea, it was incredible.  I was just about to order Earl Grey, but thought I ought to try something different! Not that there's much of a gamble in vanilla tea! 

I promise I don't go for tea NEARLY so often normally, but as I was traveling and had the chance to try some place new, I figured I really must!  I'm so glad, because both outings have been a pleasure! It's only a habit I can keep up for a short time though, I should probably save the cakes and pastries till the holidays (at which time I may as well do my best Vader impression, 'cause "there'll be no one to stop us this time"). In the mean time, I'm planning on making a giant batch of pumpkin seeds this weekend.  Yum!

--Erin

O.O.T.D: Wallpaper Pants

I've been wanting a pair of floral printed jeans since I saw Keiko Lynn rocking them some months ago.  I'd often see the Anthropologie floral jeans all the who's who of the blogosphere seemed to own, but failed to submit myself to the hefty price tag.  

Turns out Bluenotes makes something pretty similar for $20.  Sure, they're not as well made, but how likely are floral jeans to become a staple in my wardrobe for years to come? Yeah, $20 novelty pants for the win. 
I unabashedly love this cardigan I got on the same shopping trip.  Elbow patches have been a love of mine for some time, and I'm enjoying seeing them come into use not only in menswear but in women's too! Finally.  Love it.

The Deets:

Scarf: Hand-me-down

T-Shirt: Target

Cardigan: H&M

Floral Jeans: Bluenotes

Moccasins: Minnetonka

--Erin

DIY: Painted Canvas Photo Transfer

As promised, here's a little DIY showing the step by step process of how I made my photo transfer.  It was really fun to work on, though it was a touch time consuming.  Most of the work is pretty mindless though, so you can have yourself a little movie marathon while you work.  I know I did.  Aw yeah, The Two Towers and Newsies.  

Anyhow, I digress.

Here's what you need!

• Gel or gloss medium. I used liquitex liquid gloss medium, as I already had a (giant!) bottle.
• Canvas (your choice of size, I used a gallery depth 11x14")
• A computer with photoshop
• pencils
• scissors
• paper of appropriate size and laser printer
• paints and brushes
• washcloth or rag and hot water
• movies and/or patience.

 And now here's how it was done!

1. Edit the photo/s into the desired format, sized to fit your canvas.  For this project, I combined a photo the couple had taken at a convention, and the promotional photo for the new season of Dr.Who.  Why? Because the provided convention background was lame.  Moving on.
2. Using photoshop, convert the image to black and white.  Make sure that you have ti set to include as many white portions as possible, as the white areas will show the colour you lay down the best.
3. print out 2 versions of your image: one in the format you would like to see it in, and one that has been flipped across the horizontal axis.  The flipped image is the one you will use for your transfer, as the image will transfer reversed (and thus normal. Double negative style).
4. Using the print out that has not been reversed, cut out sections to create stencils based on the colours you want to paint.  I chose to use a limited colour palette, and let the shading of the black and white image spice things up for me.  Think of the finished product as being an Andy Warhol-esque screen print!
5. Paint in your colours block by block.  I started with the gold, so that I could keep checking with my stencil to make sure that the floating bits of red were lined up properly.
6. Continue on to your secondary colours, checking your allignment as you go.  It doesn't have to be perfect (a little shift looks super cool actually!), but you want it to be close so as not to look confusing to the eye).
7. Finish painting your colours and let completely dry.
8. brush on a thick coat of gloss medium, and press your reversed image printed face down onto the wet gloss.  Smooth it out and burnish it on with a blunt object.  Be gentle, you don't want to warp the canvas! Let dry over night.
9. Lay a hot, damp cloth over the paper, until the paper is soaked through.  Gently rub with the washcloth to remove the paper and reveal the image beneath.  Be patient, and repeat this step several times.  You can see in my image above that until all the paper is gone, the image will appear cloudy.  Don't despair, it's worth taking it slowly and making sure you've removed it all! Toward the end, I rubbed the paper off with my damp fingers, so as to avoid taking off too much of the transferred image along with the paper.
10. When the paper is all gone, brush on a coat of gloss and let dry.
11. Add some fun details on top of your transfered image! I added in the white panels on the Tardis, glowing eyes for the Daleks, a clean gold border and the Sonic Screwdrivers.  Have fun, and get creative!
12. Hang that sucker up!!

If you use this DIY, I'd love to see your project!! Feel free to leave a link in the comments letting me know how it turned out!!

--Erin

**This project and DIY were the first completed goal of my 4 simple goals before 2013.  Check out my list of goals HERE**

Four Simple Goals Update: A Craft Skills Remix

I finally finished my first simple goal before 2013!! I made a photo transfer onto painted canvas for my childhood best friend and her new husband.  I did some photo transfers over top of colours back in high school, which is where I get the remixing element of this craft skill in.  I had never attempted anything on this large a scale before (11"x14"), nor had I worked with pockets of colour isolated in a plane before, which meant that I had to plan very carefully so as to keep the image lined up properly.  I liked how a bit of the shift looks on this, I think it gives it a really strong pop art feel. To keep details popped, I painted in a few elements after I had transfered my image.  This kept details like the Sonic Screwdrivers looking clearly silver, and made the Daleks' eyes stand out.

As Elsie explained in the photo transfer post on A Beautiful Mess (which differed from my method slightly.  DIY to come!), the result is perfectly imperfect, with some parts rubbed away.  At least on mine it rubs away to reveal bright gold paint! 

So to recap, here are the Simple Goals Before 2013 I have yet to complete:

--Erin

This post is part of my Four Simple Goals before 2013, an exercise in list making and achieving proposed by Elsie of a Beautiful Mess.  See the original post HERE and check out my post about my own goals HERE.