Chalkboard: People Who Love To Eat

Happy New Year!

I've successfully completed the first 6 months of intern year in my pediatric residency in Colorado. It's been quite a journey, but I've learned a ton and am truly enjoying life as a doctor!

That being said, I haven't had as much time to craft or do photography as I would like... and even less time to blog about these creative outlets. I figure I can still share a bit, even if it's not as timely as I would like.

Back in Albany, I painted a piece of poster board with chalkboard paint. It basically sat untouched in our apartment on the East Coast, but here in Denver we have space above our kitchen cabinets perfect for a chalkboard display.

  

I found this great quote by none other than Julia Child. Using Handy George font, I created a Word document, printed it. cut out the words, and covered the backs of the paper with chalk. I placed the words on the chalkboard background, and used a chopstick to rub over the letters as a means of transferring the chalk to the background. Then I removed the paper and touched up the chalk writing.

It's a pretty simple project, but I do love seeing the sign in the kitchen as we prepare meals!

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Think Pink Sundays

Embroidery Hoop Art

Happy almost March! I don't know about you, but I'm very much looking forward to some warmer weather and less snow. It's absolutely gorgeous in Albany today... we hit 54 degrees! Andrew and I went for a walk through the snow and it seemed like everyone was out enjoying the unseasonably high temps. Unfortunately, it's not going to last long as we'll be dipping back into the 20's this week. In other news, I apologize for the long hiatus. Over the past month, I've been putting in close to 80 hours a week at the hospital on the pediatrics floor. It's been incredibly rewarding and affirming that pediatrics is absolutely the career for me!

Anyway, on to the project!

Over the summer, my grandma gave me some embroidery hoops that she isn't planning on using. I don't do cross stitch, but I figured I could come up with something creative.

I decided to browse the internet for a retro camera image and settled on this one. 

I converted it to black and white, added "smile," printed it out, and taped it to the back of some cross stitch fabric that I had placed in my hoop.

Holding the hoop up to the window, I traced the camera image onto the fabric.

Next, I used double thick black sewing thread to stitch over the pattern. As you can tell, it's definitely not perfect.



(As I said, I don't really do embroidery... and I was in a bit of a hurry since this project was really me procrastinating on some major med school work that needed to get done.)

Even with the imperfections, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I hung it on the wall with the other embroidery hoops Grandma had given me. I placed a photo from a family snow adventure in the larger of the three hoops, and left the tiny one blank. I'm still thinking about what to do with that one, but seeing a blank canvas on the wall reminds me to keep the creative juices flowing regardless of how busy life can get sometimes.

Also, I know that spring doesn't officially start for about a month, but I'm really longing for it now, hence the Mark Twain spring quote. If you're looking for another easy project, this is how I made the tiny burlap print.

Hope you find this simple project inspiring!

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Digital Chalkboard Art

While browsing Pinterest, I found some great chalkboard backgrounds and tutorials for making your own digital chalkboard art in Photoshop.

It was a quiet Saturday evening in our apartment as we watched the playoff games and enjoyed pizza + wings, so I opened up Photoshop and played around with the chalkboard background from here and the tutorial from here. These are great free resources, so check them out!

Using one of my favorite Winnie-the-Pooh quotes, I made this simple little sign. There are three different versions - feel free to save them for your own use. Here's a brief summary of what I did:

1.     I opened the chalkboard background in Photoshop, selected the Type tool, chose a fun font (or a few), and typed out my quote. Then I selected "crumpled paper" as a pattern overlay in blending mode under layer style.

2.     Then I rasterized the text layer and added some noise at less than 30% to make the "chalk" not so smooth. 

3.     Next, I used an eraser on 20% opacity to make some parts of the letters lighter than others. Finally, I made a new blank layer on top and used a white round brush set to 20% opacity to make some smudges on a few of the letters. All these steps are explained really well in Courtney's tutorial :)

This last version incorporates a bird graphic from The Graphics Fairy :)

I'm looking forward to creating more Photoshop chalkboard art soon!

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2012 Favorite Posts

Happy End of 2012, Everyone!

I have a hard time with Christmas ending because I love all the family time, music, tasty food and beautiful decorations, and I hate to see it all end so abruptly! I do look forward to the New Year coming with a chance to start fresh. For some reason, I get into super cleaning mode, but before that kicks in, I thought I'd share the 12 most popular posts of 2012. It's been a wonderful blogging year for me, and I'm very much looking forward to 2013! Thanks for all of your support and encouragement as I make my way through medical school, doing fun projects on the side!

Here are the most popular posts in no particular order:

Autumn in New York - Crafts

Musical Pumpkin

Bow Clutch

Mod Podge Transfer Jewelry Box

Mini Flower Boxes

Turn Your Eyes

Mason Jar Wall Plant

DIY Tinted Glass Jar + Mod Podge Image Transfer

Chalkboard Paint Projects

Vintage Fancy Chair Coasters

Sheet Music Paper Flowers

Winter Paper Flower Wreath

We're in Seattle with family right now... enjoying company and some refreshing rain :)

Hope you all have a lovely end of the year!

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Alderberry Hill
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Fireflies and Jellybeans

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Delightfully Noted
Do Something Crafty

The Shabby Nest

It's Overflowing

Twigg Studios

Sunday Showcase

Thanksgiving Craft

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Just a couple more days until tons of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie... can't wait!

I wanted to share this simple Thanksgiving/fall craft with you before we head into the Christmas season. It's super easy and fun to do!

        

I started with three frames I purchased at the Christmas Tree Shops. They were painted with bright neon yellow stripes, but they were on clearance, so I couldn't pass them up. As you can see, I painted them white.

Next, I found a lovely little red leaf from outside and traced it onto a scrap piece of canvas.

Then I stitched around the pencil marking with red thread. First I used a sewing machine, and then went over it again by hand. Next, I cut around the stitched leaf, leaving a small margin of canvas.

I placed this on top of a piece of burlap, and set it inside one of the smaller frames.

Next, I took the actual leaf and placed it onto a piece of canvas along with a few strands of burlap and put it into the other small frame.

Finally, I printed out a simple phrase in red ink onto computer paper, and placed it into the larger frame.

That's it! I have the two leaf pictures on either side of the framed text. Let me know what you think! I'm thinking this could be fun to change out each season!

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family! I have so much to be thankful for, including all of you. Thanks for all your support and kind words!

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Autumn in New York - Ambience

Hello!

I don't know about you, but it is definitely starting to feel like fall is settling in for good around here. We've had frost on the ground the past couple of mornings, and I've broken out the gloves and scarves! (Not a fan of scraping the windshield at 5:30am, however.)

I did a little fall decorating a while back, and thought I'd share. Nothing too fancy, just simple and easy ways to make our apartment feel like fall... and help me embrace the reality that I will soon be in a state of partial frozenness until I can finally thaw out in May. Anyway, onto the ambience!

       

I used these pumpkins along with some paper flowers and artificial leaves to start. I used this mod podge transfer jar to hold the flowers and leaves. Then I added my DIY map art and a light blue frame because I liked the soft, faded colors contrasted with the bolder colors in the leaves. 

Since fall is the season with Thanksgiving and lots of family & friend gatherings, the map art reminds me of my family and friends back home in Washington, and our dear friends here in NY. So thankful for such lovely people on both sides of the country!

On our windowsill, I placed two little pumpkins on top of some small canisters, and a small vase with leaves and sheet music flowers in between. I love baby pumpkins!

On our table, I filled two mason jars with some water and orange food dye, and wrapped some twine around the top. Then I placed a floating candle in each. It's really easy and I love the glow of the candle in the orange water!

I also love the smell of spiced cider. It definitely reminds me of crisp autumn days, crunchy leaves, and getting nice and cozy on the couch with a good book (or a textbook these days....) I decided to make a simmer pot recipe to fill our tiny apartment with this amazing smell.

I used a stick of cinnamon, some whole cloves, nutmeg, water, and some orange juice since I didn't have any orange peel on hand. I turned the stove on low and let the steam fill the air with this glorious smell. I added water every so often to keep it all from evaporating off. I've got to say, it smells a-mazing!

Hope you're settling into fall as well!

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