Enchanted Chameleon

~ for my mama ~

Thankfully my obsession with Martha Stewart pays off every once in a while.  Mostly it makes me want to do more than I have time for.  However, in the case of Mother's Day it had me prepared with presents in advance to send out to my mom in Ontario.  

Have I never spoken of my obsession with Martha?  Let's just say I know the day and time every week when 'she' updates her website and I'm up late waiting for it.  You know, just a minor obsession.

So about a month ago, when Martha first mentioned Mother's Day present inspirations I was right there plotting what to do and when.  I've been really wanting to make a yarn wreath for my mom, to share my love of making these with someone else, and so I made this Mother's Day my opportunity to do so.

I love it.  And so did my mom!  I think it turned out great.  I was just sad not to have a bolder ribbon on hand but then the simple pastel green doesn't take away from the pretty flowers.  Settling on the felt flower tutorials for this was the most challenging.  There are a lot of tutorials out there but I managed to find the ultimate one at Paper'n'Stitch, that had them 5 different ways.  Click here for the tutorials.

I fiddled and played and made them my own...

And then of course, little C made a present for grandma as well!  We went to Michael's and I let him pick what he wanted to make for her.  Deciding what he wanted to make for grandma was the easy part.  Getting out of the store with only the supplies needed for that and nothing else for us was the hard part.

We had made Ink Blob T-shirts in the past and that is where C got his idea for grandma.  For us they are never just black, they are always coloured.  We have an arsenal of clothing paint to choose from.  Since we last had done them a couple of years ago, C's blobs have now become little pictures.  C's inspiration:  hot dogs.  He made a little hot dog man and then we folded it in half and made two.  Not sure why, but that's the beauty of it!

We also managed to squeeze in some Skype time with my mom as well on Sunday.  My mom is a lovely lady.  She is wonderfully youthful for her age (ya me!) and she is really good at keeping house and thinking of others.  I often ask myself, 'what would my mom do' in situations and notice that I tend to choose her way and it makes me feel proud and little more grown up each time!  She's a great lady and she deserved some great gifts!  I'm glad we were able to deliver! XO.  S   

~ happy mama's day ~

::  winning portrait for the Picture Mom Mother's Day contest for the Edmonton Journal  ::

Thank you to my beautiful kula friend Jacqueline for letting me post her first place portrait of her mother here in honour of mother's everywhere, including all the mama's to be like Jacquleline with her big, growing bundle on it's way.

Will share the handmade goodies we sent my mom later this week when we know they have arrived.  In the meantime, look what ended up on my fridge the other day:

Happy Mother's Day!!!

"No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother's love.  It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star."
~  Edwin Hubbell Chapin

~ mother's day wish list ~

I don't think that I'll speak for all mama's with this list but I think I'm ecclectic enough with my wishes that there is something for everyone!  

1.  A tattoo - I wonder how many times I will post this on my blog before it eventually ends up on my arm.  Will settle for my child's name as well.

2.  Red Velvet Double Velvet Bow in Flamingo - You can actually get me one in every colour but I assure you this is my favourite colour.  And Lemonade.  And Whipped Cream.  And Licorice.

3.  Washi Tape -  In this case I really don't have a favourite.  They are all just so cute and pretty and far more interesting than regular tape.  If I received this I would also require a lock box. This is for MAMA ONLY!

4.  Dexter Season 4 or The Office Season 7.  I'm a Netflix girl not a cable girl so I'm always seasons behind.  And yes, I acknowledge my listing this comes during my no TV week and no, it is not because I'm in withdrawal.  This list is simply a reflection of things to spoil me with and they say that TV does spoil the mind.

5.  Lauren Hobo Wallet -  If you saw the current state of affairs with the wallet I'm using now, you would buy me a wallet.  If you love me, you'll buy me this wallet.  If you worship me, you'll find it in silver.

6.  Spa - Ever heard the quote "Always bet on black".  Ya well, when it comes to Mother's Day a spa treatment is a sure thing.  I can never have enough.  I will never get enough.  In fact, I'm sure when I signed up for this whole mothering thing, I assumed that giving spa treatments were a no brainer and would therefore easily receive them at least once a year.  Hint hint.

7.  For the Practical Gift Giver - A nice new pair of fabric scissors that never leave the studio or sewing basket or are even used by anyone else safe a sewer would be nice.  I remember my mom had a pair (that I used on stuff besides fabric, oh mom now I know!).  Lockbox required for this gift too.  See #3 - Washi Tape.

8.  Nikon SB-900 Speedlight -  On the off chance that my family wins the lottery in the next week (which would mean we would have to start playing the lottery this week) I would love Love LOVE a proper flash for my camera.  Reflectors not included but accepted.

9.  Weekend Getaway - I'm so in love with The Saguaro, a groovy and colourful hotel in Palm Springs that I recently discovered in the blogesphere.  When asked to go to my happy place in the future, I might start going here.  It is a little far from Vancouver and pretty much out of our price range these days. Luckily, I'm accepting weekend getaways at par and will happily have the house all to myself for a minimum of 8 hours, preferably overnight.  That means the dog too.

10.  And finally, the gift that no one ever buys me off my Amazon.com Wish List because no one understands what it is for.  Specifically, I have had the Wooden Birthday Ring from Maplerose (Canadian Waldorf Toys and Supplies) on my wish list for a long time.  All I want is the wooden ring.  I've been really wanting to create a months of the year ring like the one pictured above, created by Mama Roots and if I could just get my paws on the ring, oh! there might actually be new months of the year every year for every year I get a new idea to celebrate the year. 

And that's that!  My 2012 Mother's Day roundup!  XO.  S

~ easter-nanigans ~

It was a great long weekend.  Hope yours was too!  XO.  S

~ flower time ~

~ crush on the caboose ~

::  photo source  ::

I'm in love with this montage pic one of the Caboose's Twitter followers tweeted after the Winter Market St Paddy Day celebration on Saturday.  It was such a great market.  Super festive with lots of love and happiness floating around.  We had a great response to my Shamrock Shake, lots of Twitter love and new followers.  We were honoured to be considered one of the great choices at the market among such great Street Food Vendors.  Looking forward to more happy shiny days like this!  XO.  S

~ heart felt ~

A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.

Latin Proverb

Turns out I did have some time for a Valentines Day project, not that much time is really required for this little bunting.  The free tutorial is by Betz White found here.  It really is a tiny tutorial, this bunting fits on my fridge and combines two favourites:  hearts and felt.  It's just missing some cute little heart washi paper tape to hold it on over the plain jane scotch tape.  Next time I'd love to make it super long long long and traipse it all over my house!

Happy Valentines Day.  XO.  S     

~ giveaway winner ~

Anissa!

"doily me up! i only read a few blogs consistently and yours is one. I love your honesty, we seem to share some similarities in our lives including little dudes the same'ish age and well, i'd just miss you if you weren't blogging anymore. Plus, i get a canada hit - i used to live in east van once upon a time. keep on being you, i love it. love from NZ"

Thank you Anissa and thank you everyone for commenting!  It really inspired me to hear from all of you. I'll be emailing Anissa shortly to arrange for delivery of the doily bunting!  Much love and gratitude to you all.  XO.  S

~ 1000th post :: a giveaway ~

Back in September 2008 I set out to eat raw foods for 3 months and I tracked it on Facebook for all my friends and family to see and to keep me accountable.  During that time I was at a local bookstore and I came across a book called The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule.  I noticed she had a website and I decided to check it out.  I spent the night going through all of her old blog posts until that present day. I had discovered the world of blogging.  I had discovered that there were women, real women, women like me that wanted to be at home, to sew, to bake, to be with their children.  This had been my dream when I was 18 years old.  Everyone else was going to University and I wanted to get married, have a farm house and raise a herd of children.  I felt out of place, but no longer.  My people were out there and now with the incredible invention of Internet I was closer to them than could be imagined.

I began the Enchanted Chameleon a few months later and just started experimenting.  I started that year off with a blast.  I would try everything that I wanted to do and start narrowing down what I really loved from there.  Knitting was a surefire keeper.  By the end of that year I was a knitter.  By the end of the next year I was dabbling more into photography and the next sewing and now Juice Caboosing.  I made a lot of dreams come true through the inspiration of other bloggers.  I love writing.  I love posting here.  I am probably my biggest blog fan.  I am probably the one that goes back and reads the most.  I love seeing changes.  I love seeing my growth.  I love this place.  

And I love you.  Sure this ain't no SouleMama blog, I'm okay with that.  I'm still figuring out my place in this world and your support and following helps me along.  I once read from cover to cover The Artist's Way.  I did every single exercise and followed through on Morning Pages for nearly a year.  Just finishing it was a milestone.  I learned a lot.  Carved out space for myself, my artist.  I started to appreciate me more.  When I stopped doing Morning Pages it was because this space took over.  These are my morning pages now.  As well as my photo album, my recipe book and my life's work.  I love coming here and I just want to say thank you for coming here too!

Today Enchanted Chameleon is 1000 Posts Older!  To celebrate I wanted to Giveaway 1 of the buntings posted in the photos above.  There are 3 to pick from:  Retro Kitchen, Japanese Doily and Courduroy Butterflies.  Just leave a comment on this blog post on the blog (not Facebook) about what you love or what you don't.  Help the Enchanted Chameleon make it to another 1000 posts but sooner!  Comments are open until Midnight PST on Monday January 16th.  XO.  S

~ new year's eve ~

I think this video of Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing What Are You Doing New Year's Eve might be the cutest thing on the planet.  Cuter than every baby and puppy combined.  Just had to share... my love of both, together and separately.   

Whether you a partying it up hard or staying close and cozy, may the New Year bring you all that you hope for and more.  Happy New Year.  See you next year.  XO.  S