The Life of Miss Kneesh

Free dot-letter generating website

2014-10-05T15:10:00.000-04:00

Hello friends!

The snow has started here in the North! Yesterday was my birthday, and I can’t think of a better birthday present than a white, fluffy, snowy scene out my window.

Today I want to give a quick shout out to a website I was introduced to last week. But first, the story of why this website is so valuable:

I have noticed a trend with my kindergarten kids that those who can write their name, write it backwards. Every single one of them who can write their name, do so backwards. It was an interesting revelation. So, straight away I started brainstorming ways to A) teach the kids who couldn’t write their name how to, and B) fix the backwards habits of my name-writing kids.

I started a few strategies, such as name pyramids, sand writing, sticker writing, and gel bag writing (I’ll touch on these techniques at some other time), but I just wasn’t getting the message through. Then the grade 1/2 teacher told me about handwritingworksheets.com.

This website allows you to create dot-letter words in three different styles: print, cursive, or d’nealian. It allows you to set the font size, the line and font colour, and the degree of difficulty (dot letters, starting dot only, or a combination of the two). It also lets you select different templates for single word, sentence, or paragraph length passages.

Using this website, I created a dot letter template card for each of my kids. I included a dot letter line, and a blank line for them to try their name on their own. I laminated these cards so they can be reused over and over.

Now, every day before our first circle, the kids find their dot name card, and use a overhead marker to trace the dots and try their name on their own. Some kids are faster than others, some are neater, and some just do it to get it over with.

Whatever the motivation or level of success, I have seen a marked improvement in every student in the class. Those who couldn’t write their name at all are now attempting to make their mark on their papers. Those who were making their mark are now forming more accurate letters. Those who could write their name, but did so backwards, are now writing their name properly and legible. It’s the biggest success I’ve seen so far this year.

As the year progresses, I will be using this website to make sight word cards and other words of interest. The great thing about this site is its versatility. If you notice a word or phrase the kids are particularly interested in, it takes a quick hop onto the internet and a printer to instantly make writing practice sheets in order to capitalize on that interest. Inquiry based learning, dot-letter style.

Now for my Northern picture of the week:

Cheap, easy home remedy for fleas

2014-09-28T20:25:00.000-04:00

This week I got an unexpected new member of the family:

We’ve named him Fred Lewis. I wanted to call him Lewis and my roommate wanted Fred, so he has two names. It’s an odd combination, but it works.

Here in the North, there are so many stray dogs, with new stray puppies being born all the time. The unfortunate truth is that come winter time most of them die from exposure or get eaten by bigger wildlife. To combat this slow, painful way of dying, many Northern communities participate in “Dog Day,” a day on which it is legal (and encouraged) to shoot as many dogs as possible that are not tied up in someone’s yard or inside someone’s house.

It sounds terrible, but having lived here for a month and seeing how many dogs there really are, I’ve come to accept Dog Day as a necessity of the North.

This face, however, is not the face of a Dog Day victim.

One unfortunate part of taking in a stray puppy is the health concerns involved. Fred Lewis was absolutely coated, head to toe, in fleas. There were thousands of them. Their tiny disgusting bodies were numerous enough to create a second skin on poor Fred Lewis.

This had to be addressed immediately. But up North, our one store does not stock any flea medication, so I hit Google for home remedies.

This was what I found:

Did you know that one of Dawn Dish Soap’s key ingredients is formaldehyde? As in the chemical used for embalming. Sounds delicious.

Well, turns out formaldehyde works wonders for killing fleas really fast.

So off I went to the bathtub, armed with Dawn, Fred Lewis, and a head lice comb. Starting with his head and working towards his tail, I lathered up Fred Lewis, rinsed him off, and repeated about 3 times. Within minutes the fleas were turning dark brown and falling from Fred Lewis’ body by the handful.

The only thing to be extra cautious about is Fred Lewis’ poor eyes. Doggy eyes are very sensitive to water, and even more sensitive to soaps, so please, please, please be careful not to get the eyes. I scrubbed the top of his head, his ears, his chin, and his cheeks. For his face and snout, I simply picked off any fleas I could see with my fingers.

After soaping him up about four times, I ran a lice comb through his fur, paying extra attention to his underarms and neck. This simply removed all of the flea carcasses. For a mild case of fleas, this step could easily be left out.

He was not impressed with the whole process:

I repeated this whole process the following day, and more flea bodies washed down the drain. Today was the third day, and when I washed him, I did not see any flea bodies floating by, so I think he’s clear for now. I will wash him once a day for the next four or five days to make sure any eggs have hatched and been killed.

As of today, the only scratching I’ve seen him do is directed at his scabs (of which there are a lot due to the intensity of his infestation). With time those will heal. I’ve ordered a worm medication online since fleas carry worms and often infect our doggy friends.

He seems much happier now, all for the cost of a bottle of Dawn. Hey, now maybe I should wash up those dishes in the sink…

DIY Tufted Serving Tray

2014-09-14T14:20:00.000-04:00

Let’s get crafty!

Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote about a craft. Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve completed a craft. Busy days with the new home and job. And craft supplies up North are painfully scarce. I can’t even buy E6000! Though I have been talking to some of the locals about teaching me some Native crafts, so that would be super awesome.

This is an archived craft I completed in Southern Ontario, which is now sitting in storage with all of my other worldly possessions. This is my tufted serving tray:

This project started out with a $2 garage sale find

The frame really caught my eye because of the faux wood texture

I took out the painting (which I kept because it’s actually pretty nice) and marked where the tufts would be located on the backing of the frame.

There are multiple marks because I mapped out where I thought the tufts should be, then changed my mind and re-mapped them. I used the “x” marks, not the tick marks. I then used my power drill to drill holes in the backing where the x’s were located.

The stuffing for the fabric was a 1.5” foam slab purchased form Walmart for about $5. I cut it to size, then used a meat thermometer to poke the tufted holes through it as well.

With some spray adhesive, I affixed the foam to the backing. Then it was a matter of adding the fabric and tufting.

The fabric was some spare fabric I had lying around. I cut it about 12” wider and longer than the backing which was more than enough to wrap and secure it to the backing. Using a button kit from Walmart that was about $3, I made the buttons out of the same fabric as the rest of the fabric.

Lay the loose fabric over the foam and use a long needle to affix the buttons to the front of the tray. I used the butt end of a hammer to push the buttons tight through the foam to the backing, and secured them on the back with a piece of wooden skewer.

Starting from the center, work your way to the outside of the fabric in order to ensure a smooth finish

Once all the buttons are attached, flip over the whole thing and staple the fabric to the back of the backing and trim the excess fabric.

I had given my frame a healthy coat of silver metallic spray paint, so at this point I added an aging look to the paint. I combined a few drops of black acrylic craft paint with a mat clear liquid gloss. I brushed the black gloss onto the frame with a foam brush, and immediately wiped it off with a lint-free cloth, leaving black colouring in the frame’s grooves.

After assembling the tray, I finished the back by simply gluing black poster board to the backing (with a hot glue gun), and adding cute little silver feet that I found at Canadian Tire for about $4. I also attached handles to the sides of the frame. These handles were found in the fencing hardware section of Rona and cost $1 each.

And that is how I made my lovely tufted serving tray for the low, low price of about $16!

If only I had a place to serve my friends and family. Oh, life in the North. Here’s a Northern picture for your enjoyment:

See you next week!

A New Adventure in the North

2014-09-08T19:38:00.000-04:00

Welcome back lovely readers! I’ve been away from writing for the summer because of all the crazy life changes I’ve been making. I’ve made the move to Northern Ontario and started my teaching career. So far it has gone very well. The locals are very welcoming, the apartment they gave me is comfortably livable, my kindergarten kids are so much fun, and my fellow teachers are amazingly supportive.

The first leg of my journey started in Toronto where I hopped on a Bombadier Q400 to Thunder Bay.

I also met my new roommate in Pearson while we waited for our plane. She’s a cool kid. She’s teaching the grade 8 class and has a whopping 9 students in her class.

At Thunder Bay we were directed to our next, even smaller plane that took us to Sioux Lookout.

There were an impressive 9 passengers on this plane, and we were able to choose our own seats. There was so much beautiful scenery on rout to Sioux Lookout.

I stayed in Sioux Lookout for 3 days for orientation, where I was able to meet all of the teachers and principals from all four communities involved with our school agency. While there, I had some time to walk around and get some photography in.

After some panic and headache, the grade 7 teacher and I were secured seats on a cargo plane to take us up to our new community. We called it our private jet. It was the nicest flight of the week!

Once we got into the community, we had to go on a hunt for school keys. Last year’s teachers caused quite the stir in the community and the entire teaching staff left at the end of the school year, so we are being faced with much suspicion and mistrust this year. It’s a delicate process to get pretty much anything done.

We got into the school on Sunday afternoon, and for the first time, saw our classrooms that had to be ready for students in a short one and a half days. This is the kindergarten room I walked in to.

It’s a beautiful, large, well-stocked room with a lot of potential, and after some grunt work, this was my preliminary room set up.

The problem with my setup, however, was that I ended up having about twice the amount of students I expected. Part of the drama caused by last year’s teachers was the destruction of most student files. Because of this, the 12-18 students I was told I would have actually ended up being 29 little kindergarten people running around.

Since my first setup I have changed the room entirely, and continue to change something around every day. I will go into more detail about the setup, stations, and resources I’ve used when I figure out how everything needs to be set up. I think I’m getting closer. Second week of school starts tomorrow!

Starting a new adventure, and a new hobby

2014-07-27T17:55:00.000-04:00

Wow, lots of exciting things are happening in the life of Miss. Kneesh!

It turns out I missed the application deadline for the local school board that I want to work for. I could have remained in the area, supplying at daycares all year, but realistically, I would have become homeless with that sort of job prospects. Desperate measures had to be taken.

I found a website where a lot of First Nations schools advertise for jobs. I applied for everything in the grade K-4 range, all across Canada, including the Territories. All told, I applied for 19 positions, and received interview offers from 17 of them. I only agreed to two interviews, both in Northern Ontario, one via telephone and one via Skype.

Within the week I had a job offer from one of the schools, complete with a detailed 12 month contract.

Guess what…

I accepted!

So, four and a half short weeks from today, I will be shipping out to a small, isolated First Nations community in the remote North of Ontario (we’ll call this place Remote Town) to be their brand new Kindergarten teacher!!

Remote Town sounds interesting. It is a secluded community, geographically cut off from civilization, and only accessible by airplane (with the exception of very exciting-sounding ice roads in the winter). The community has a population of about 700, and the school serves grades K-8 with enrolment rates of about 100. There is one grocery store, one pub, one community center, etc. There’s a nurses station, but no doctor, and a police outpost, but no full-time service.

As I said: interesting.

There are a million things about this upcoming experience that terrify me. But those same terrifying things are also extremely exciting, and I’m looking forward to this adventure with cautious optimism.

One way or another, it will be quite the story to tell.

In preparation of my move to this natural environment, I finally put out the money to buy a real camera. And by that, I mean a D-SLR. May I introduce to you, Mr. Rebel:

Does anyone else find it entirely unnatural to take a picture of a camera?

If I’m perfectly honest, I was looking for a Nikon, but this Canon was a steal. I bought it off a very well known classifieds website, so the price was very favourable.

For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with my new camera. I’ve learned a lot about using manual settings for a variety of situations. I am now looking into getting a couple additional lenses. A macro / wide angle lens and a telephoto zoom lens in particular.

Two weeks ago I attended a beach party that ended with a spectacular fireworks display. I was very excited at the prospect of photographing fireworks, so Mr. Rebel was also in attendance. These are my favourite photos from that day:

Last week a local community had their annual fireworks festival, so, naturally, I wanted to practice some more photography. This time I brought along a tripod, which not only made the pictures come out more crisp, but also made it easier for me to actually enjoy the show without focusing on my camera the entire time. Here are my favourite photos from that day:

I know I’ll have so many more opportunities to practice photography in the upcoming year. I anticipate lots of wildlife, nature, and landscape shots. We’ll have to wait to see how it goes!

DIY Apartment Number Plaque

2014-07-06T10:00:00.000-04:00

Well, summer has struck, which makes me cranky. I don’t like heat, I’m far happier in the winter. But, summer (for me at least) means lots of indoor time, hiding from the sun, which means lots of crafts!

As part of my ongoing endeavours to make my apartment more pretty, I managed to DIY a new door number that looks much nicer than the one that the landlord stuck to the door who knows how many years ago.

Here’s the ugly landlord number:

And here’s what my little plaque looks like:

To do this project, I used some thin pieces of wood that I stained using tea, vinegar, and steel wool:

Other materials used include water, E6000 glue, finishing wax, an old sock, a hand saw (to cut the wood to length), two tongue depressors, and a foam brush.

For the wood pieces, I used two paint sticks that I had laying around the house, so the total cost for this project was simply the cost of the house number, which I got from my local hardware store for about $3.

First thing first, I needed to make my stain out of steel wool and vinegar. The chemistry behind this staining method involves the vinegar oxidizing the steel wool, and producing a rust, so really I rusted my wood rather than stain it. But it looks like beautiful stain, and doesn’t have terrible fumes, and it’s free, so I’m all for it.

To make this stain, soak a little wad of steel wool (about the size of a pingpong ball when it’s balled up) in some white vinegar for at least 12 hours. This is what mine looked like after 24 hours:

After this project was finished, I decided to keep the stain for future projects. After about 3 days the steel wool had been reduced to crumbs at the bottom of the jar and the vinegar had turned the colour of very strong tea. I tried out the stain on some different wood and it worked just the same.

Anyways, the day after I began soaking my steel wool, I cut up my paint sticks into as close to the same size as my unskilled hands could manage:

Then some more chemistry comes into play. Before staining I prepped my wood pieces by brushing them with tea. The tannins in tea help to open the pours of the wood so that it soaks up the stain more uniformly. Apparently tea is a pro-tip for all staining projects, not just steel wool/vinegar stain.

The tea did not change the colour of the wood at all, it just soaked into the grain. Once the wood was dry I started applying the steel wool stain. When using a fresh mixture the liquid is clear, so you will not see the wood change colour immediately. As the stain dries, you will see the wood darken. I did five coats total, but after three coats I didn’t notice any further change in colour. I guess three coats is what it takes. This is how it looked after staining:

I let the wood dry overnight, then I polished it with finishing wax. To do this, I put a ball of wax in the toe of an old sock and rubbed it onto the wood. Below you can see the original paint stick underneath, the stained wood at the top, and the waxed wood on the bottom.

I used tongue depressors as a backing to glue the wood pieces to. Because of the wax, regular glues, hot glue, or wood glue will not stick. E6000 that puppy.

Since the wood was too thin for the screws that came with my house number, I used E6000 to glue that on as well:

Then, to finish it off, I filled the screw holes with E6000, placed little plastic caps over them, and painted them black to match the number.

I used 3M command hook stickies to hang the plaque (you can buy those stickies without the hooks you know). I just love the way it turned out. And my neighbours are very impressed with my handy-work.

Homemade 3 ingredient deodorant

2014-06-30T18:40:00.000-04:00

Hello, friends!

So as I mentioned last week, I’ve been working diligently to test out more natural (homemade) cleaning and health & beauty products. I started off this inquiry by switching almost all of my household cleaners for baking soda and vinegar. You can read about that here.

Today I would like to share my recipe for very easy homemade natural deodorant.

I need to share a little TMI, just to really make a point. I sweat sooooo much. It’s something that I’ve been extremely self-conscious and sensitive about for years.

There was a short time when I used a prescription strength antiperspirant (a real one, not those ones seen on tv), but it worried me. It really, really worked. I had zero sweat wherever I applied it. As much as we hate it though, sweating is a natural bodily function, and stopping it completely with the use of chemicals can’t be healthy. So I went back to regular antiperspirant.

Then I stumbled across the idea of homemade deodorant and thought “why not?”

There are two notable differences between the results seen between this recipe and store-bought antiperspirant. 1) This is deodorant, not antiperspirant. You will sweat, it just won’t stink. 2) Those gross yellow pit stains you have on all your favourite shirts? Those stains are actually a chemical reaction between your sweat and the ingredients in your antiperspirant. With these natural ingredients, those stains don’t happen.

Straight from the laundry, dry and clean, but stained :(

That being said, here are your ingredients:

Baking soda
Corn starch
Coconut oil

That’s it, that’s all! When I make a batch, I use about 2 Tbs of each ingredient. That makes enough deodorant to last about two months when applied once daily (which is how often I apply it).

Let’s break down how these ingredients work together to make a fantastic homemade deodorant. The baking soda works to absorb your sweat’s odor, the corn starch absorbs the moisture of your sweat, and the coconut oil is the base that holds everything together. Coconut oil is an ideal base because it is a great moisturizer and it has antibacterial properties.

I told a few close friends and family members about my deodorant switch in the interest of thoroughness, because people are less sensitive to their own body odors. I asked them to tell me if I smelled at any time, no matter how embarrassed they thought I might become. No one said a thing. I even specifically asked on occasion if I smell, just in case they forgot to pay attention. They would get up close, take a whiff, and shrug with an unoffended “no”.

A note about the drawbacks of this deodorant: Coconut oil is very unstable in its consistency at room temperature. At about 17°C it is rock hard, but at about 24°C it is a liquid. Because of this instability, your deodorant will likely be liquefied at some point. It is still entirely usable in a liquid state, but it can get just a little messy.

I’ve heard of people putting this sort of recipe in an old cleaned out antiperspirant tube, but I just don’t see how that’s possible when the coconut oil melting is such a real possibility. I keep mine in a well sealed glass container, and apply it with my fingertips.

One more note about this deodorant. I’ve read reviews saying that the baking soda creates a burning sensation on the skin. I have not experienced this at all, and I would assume those people used too much baking soda in their mixture. To be totally honest, there was one day I ran out of my homemade deodorant and used the same store-bought antiperspirant I used to, and that antiperspirant stung like a bee! I had to wash it off before the day was over and switch back to my homemade goodness.

Some people also like to add essential oils to this mix. Lavender is a popular one for its scent. Also popular is Tea tree oil for its antibacterial properties. These oils are purely optional, and a good addition if you don’t favour the delicious coconut scent (if you don’t like the smell of coconut, there’s something wrong with you).

All in all, my experience with this homemade deodorant has been 100% pleasant. All natural and very cheap ingredients, easy to mix, very effective, and less abrasive on my skin and favourite shirts. I’m never going back to the store-bought stuff!

Natural Cleaning for Beginners

2014-06-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

I’m becoming more and more intrigued by the concept of natural living as I progress into a more adult-like life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to go paleo or anything… I love grain and dairy (as you can tell from my posts of various recipes), but I am interested in taking simple steps to remove obvious chemicals from other areas of my life.

Most of this change in my life is curiosity driven. I usually read a handful of articles and say to myself “Can you really clean your entire house without chemical-filled products? Those products surely exist for a reason; natural cleaning must be less effective. It must be! That’s it; I’m testing this B.S. and proving that it doesn’t work.”

But you know what? So far, the things I’ve tested have worked shockingly well.

The first thing I changed was the use of commercial cleaners for my home. I made this change for this little man:

He loves bleach. LOVES. It’s weird. Whenever I used a cleaner that had bleach in its ingredients (including just a bleach/water mixture), Martin would roll around in the residue much like a normal cat would do with catnip. I figured that couldn’t be good for his health... probably. So:

Vinegar became my close friend. Did you know that vinegar is an amazing household cleaner? I put a simple 1:1 mixture of vinegar and water in a spray bottle, and use it to clean pretty much everything!

I even used a baking soda and vinegar approach to unclog an exceptionally stinky, slow draining kitchen drain. Take that Draino. To do that, I dumped about half a cup of baking soda down the drain, poured an undetermined amount (I would guess about 2 cups) of vinegar down the drain, then put the drain’s plug in place.

We all know that the baking soda and vinegar chemical reaction produces a gas that creates enough pressure to inflate a balloon. Imagine that same pressure pushing down your kitchen drain, demolishing any clog in its way. It was remarkably effective. And baking soda and vinegar are both deodorizers, so the drain’s stink was gone, and stayed gone.

Speaking of baking soda, when it comes to greasy messes (like on the stove top), that is my go-to cleaning agent. Vinegar does not cut through grease or oil very well, so when I have bacon fat or butter splatter on my stove top, I sprinkle some baking soda on the mess. Let it absorb the grease for a couple minutes, wipe it away, then use vinegar to clean like normal. Did you know that baking soda is also very effective at putting out SMALL grease fires? True story!

Now, with all that wonderful stuff I just said about vinegar and baking soda, it’s time for some truth. There are three instances when I use chemicals while cleaning the house:

1) The toilet bowl. There’s just something about fecal matter that makes me feel very comfortable with killing everything with bleach. I use a commercial cleaner for inside the bowl, and a water/bleach mix for the outside of the bowl, the seat, and the lid.

2) Wiping down my kitchen counters and sink after I work with raw meat. Much like fecal matter, the potential for the spread of bacteria and virus is just too great for me. I use a water/bleach mixture to clean up after any raw meats.

3) Windows. While I have read of ways to clean windows with natural products, I just haven’t tried these methods yet. I tried using vinegar on the windows, but it left a foggy film. So for now, I stick with Windex. I’ll get ambitious enough to try something else soon, I’m sure.

Now, today was just a glimpse at the changes I’ve made. I have also had success with homemade dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, deodorant, and toothpaste. Some of those things are still in testing phases, so not ready to be blogged about yet, but next week I will share my Kneesh approved homemade chemical-free deodorant!

***Some notes on safety***

If you are putting cleaners in a general spray bottle, please, please, please label the bottle! Even if you live alone, you’re the only one that cleans, you keep your cleaners in a locked cupboard, and there is absolutely no way anyone else in the world could ever get hold of your cleaners, still label them. Please. I even labeled my spray bottle of plain ol’ tap water that I use to sprits my hair while I’m styling it.

If you are using a chemical that is hazardous in any way (like bleach), please include the concentration of the chemical on the label. My bleach solution is made of 3mL of bleach diluted in 500mL of water.

Finally, bleach is ineffective if it is too diluted, and damaging if it is too concentrated. About a year ago I took a food handling certification course, and I was given a tube of test strips for chlorine concentration.

Concentration is measured in parts per million (ppm), and, according to Health Canada, chlorine bleach should have a concentration of 100-200ppm – that is a very small amount of bleach! You can see that my bleach solution is about exactly 100ppm, so it could be a little bit stronger, but it is still effective.

I’ll note that when I made this bleach solution a year ago, the concentration was much closer to 200ppm, so obviously chlorine bleach breaks down in water over time. Something to keep in mind if you have your cleaner around for an extended period of time.

That's an Expensive Piece of Paper!

2014-06-15T21:38:00.001-04:00

Look at what I did this week!

That’s right, I have officially graduated with my Bachelor of Education, and can now become an Ontario Certified Teacher.

It was a good ceremony. The Faculty of Education had a convocation just for Education students, so there were only about 300 graduates there. It was also nice to have a convocation of our own because all of the speeches were very relevant, and I actually knew most of the professors up on the stage.

Lining up to cross the stage

Being conferred by the Chancellor

It’s been a long journey to get this far. Let’s have a quick flash back, shall we?

In 2007 I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology:

Look at that young, hopeful girl. All of her dreams ahead of her. What an adorably naive way to look at the world. Compare that to 2011 when I graduated with my Diploma in Early Childhood Education:

So much confidence and certainty. This time, things were going to work out. And you know what? Things did work out pretty well, so that was a smart girl in that picture. And that brings us to 2014:

There’s a girl who has won the fight and is claiming her prize, yelling out to the world “It’s mine, Bitches!” Ya, did I mention that teacher’s college is really freaking draining, and very marathon-like? The process of earning that piece of paper was exhausting and has changed my life forever.

Some of those changes were very worthwhile, including meeting this lovely lady:

That pretty lady got me though teacher’s college, and is now a life-long friend. We’re running a 5K run together in August. That should be fun!

And that new piece of paper has a shiny new frame:

Which, of course, completes the wall trifecta:

Now to find a job in teaching…. Yet another adventure awaits!

Wildlife picture to window frame mirror, a DIY transformation

2014-06-08T12:15:00.000-04:00

Well I undertook quite the project this weekend. I made my first tutorial video and uploaded it to YouTube. It has to do with cutting the glass for this week’s craftiness:

See, it all started with this super ugly electrical box in the middle of my kitchen wall. I mean, it doesn’t even have a cover:

So when I moved in, I hastily covered it with one of my DIY Sharpe-on-canvas pieces:

For weeks I have been appalled at the dark, dungeon-like state of my little galley kitchen. Very little natural light to speak of. Only that which trickles in from the window in the dining room. I decided the best way to increase the natural lighting in this little cave was to add a mirror. And not just any mirror; no, in true Kneesh style, I wanted a DIY fancy window-like mirror. Something I could be proud of. Something like this:

To do this project, I started out with a garage sale find ($2):

I also bought an 8’ piece of trim from my local lumber store ($1.50). I measured the trim to the desired lengths, and cut it with my little hand saw. Trust me, free-hand cutting on an angle with a little hand saw is not very accurate. But I did my best. It wasn’t a very precise job, and gobs of wood filler is what made it look good in the end.

I laid parchment paper between the glass and the frame and used my trusty E6000 (man, I love that stuff) to glue the trim in place.

I waited for the glue to dry and gobbed on the wood filler to fill in the cracks between the pieces. I used my fingers for that part, and worked it into the cracks much like a very thinned playdough. Using my fingers meant I didn’t need to sand the wood filler when it dried, because I had smoothed it out while it was still pliable.

So then it was just a matter of spray painting the frame. Which I forgot to take a picture of, but I think that’s kind of self explanatory. The only note I could add is that since I was putting a mirror in the frame, it was crucial to paint both sides of the trim work. Otherwise you would see little bits of unpainted wood reflected in the mirror when inspected closely.

Now, the mirror ended up being a bit of a disappointment, followed by a wonderful learning experience. My plan was to turn the glass that came with the frame into a mirrored pane using a mirror spray paint. This spray paint, however, is only available in the U.S., and not regulated for Canada. I’m sure there’s some sort of chemical, cancer-causing reason that Canada won’t regulate it, but I was very, very bummed.

Luckily, I had an old mirror lying around from when I renovated my dresser. Unluckily, and predictably, it was not the right size for my frame. It was much too large. So I did a little research into glass cutting, found that it is actually extremely simple to do, and set off with my new plan.

This is where my first ever video tutorial comes in:

Using the exact same method I show in the video, I cut my large mirror. I found no difference between cutting a small pane of glass and a large mirror.

I did have one set back though. I ran off my Sharpie line in one spot, causing the mirror to be slightly too big for the frame in that area. I used the chipping notches on the glass cutter to chip away the excess. It does not look pretty at all, but that part is hidden by the lip of the frame.

Then it was just a matter of fitting the mirror, adding a backing (I used a piece of corrugated cardboard), anchoring the pieces into the frame with nails (sideways into the frame, not into the mirror, obviously), affixing a new hanger, and hanging it on the wall.

There are no photos of those steps, but I assure you, those steps were the easiest of this whole project.

Anyways, it doesn’t add copious amounts of light to the kitchen, but it does help to bounce around the limited light there is. I’m deeming it effective.

And that’s it, kids!

Oh, I’d like to make a quick, unsponsored shout-out to Stanley workwear. They make very nice safety glasses that are designed for women that are half practical, and half sexist. They are actually a smaller size to fit a woman’s face better (practical), and they have shiny rhinestone accents (sexist). I love my new safety glasses, and yes, I love the rhinestones. I am a girl after all.

Mini Banana Cream Pies

2014-06-02T21:23:00.000-04:00

Get ready to say yummm…

Ready??

Bam!

Ya, I did it. Mini banana cream pies.

This recipe was actually crazy simple, and can be switched up to make any kind of cream pie.

I used a sugar cookie mix for the crust. The package that I got had enough dough to make 2 dozen cookie crusts.

The banana cream part is simply banana instant pudding, which is what makes this recipe great. You could use any kind of pudding to make different pies: chocolate cream pie, butterscotch pie, rice pudding pie (eww), lemon pie, etc.

So, with those notes, let’s get to it!

Ingredients:

1 package sugar cookie mix (and whatever the package says you need to prepare the mix, usually an egg and a stick of butter)
1 package of instant pudding in banana -or your choice of- flavour
3 bananas, just ripe, maybe slightly speckled
Whipped cream topping

Directions:

Prepare your pudding as outlined by the packaging, and put it in the fridge to cool.

Prepare your sugar cookie dough as outlined by the packaging. Now, according to some Pinterest pins, you can make cookie cups by flipping a cupcake tin upside-down and putting the cookie dough on top of the cups, like this:

And here’s how that turned out:

Not useful.

So, with the remainder of the cookie dough, I flipped the cupcake tin right-side-up and put dough balls in the cups. I baked them according to the packaging directions, then pulled them out and, while they were still hot, I used the butt of my screw driver to make a well in each cookie.

I then put the cookies back in the oven. I ended up baking them for about twice the length of time as the package called for. Pop them out and put them on a cooling rack.

Look at how cute these little cups are! You could even put raspberries or blueberries in there and call it a day!

Anyways, I used a piping bag to fill each cup with pudding, but if you do not have a piping bag, you could just fill up a ziplock bag with your pudding and snip the corner off.

Top the pudding with a slice of banana.

And, of course, finish it off with a swirl of whipped cream!

Then eat them all. They are so, so, so yummy! They would be perfect little finger food deserts for a party. Make a couple different types of pudding for some variety. Oh, you could make vanilla pies and chocolate pies and set them up like a checker board! Or, you could have a whole plate full of these bad boys!

Have fun!

The Wall: Layered Frame Collage

2014-05-25T14:34:00.001-04:00

Let’s get crafty! (sit back, this is a long one)

My last few posts have kind of been downers. That’s because I’m starting a new chapter of my life, and I don’t handle transitions well. But this week has been better. I feel more stable. A lot of that has to do with loving family, but a lot of it also has to do with coming home to a place that feels like home, rather than a place that feels like it might have the potential to become home eventually.

One home project that I completed this week has me so pleased, I have been inviting just about everyone I’m close to over to see it. I’ve dubbed it The Wall.

The downside of The Wall is that it does not photograph well because it takes up a large space in a relatively confined area (a hallway). I promise, it looks 200-times better in person. I tried taking a panoramic picture, but it just makes it look like the wall is curved.

Anyways, it’s amazing, and I love it. It looks way better than nothing at all, that’s for sure:

So, how was it done, you ask?

Well, I started out with what I thought was a decently sized collection of differently sized and styled frames:

Which gave me a nice little collage… emphasis on the little:

The upside of this stage in my frame art journey is that I decided to keep the original colours of the frames. I had initially planned to spray paint the frames in three complimentary colours to give the whole piece a uniform, modern look, but the charm of these natural colours captured my heart and they had to stay.

So, the next step in this adventure was to spend an entire Saturday morning hopping from garage sale to garage sale, expanding my frame collection with lightning speed. It proved successful. 7 garage sales and $15 later:

All told, I ended up with 24 frames (including the 11 I had started out with)

Now, if I had been a little smarter about this project, I would have measured the wall in my hallway and started with those dimensions in mind. But alas, I did not. I also did not plan in advance how I was going to transfer this layout from my living room floor to my hallway wall. This added an unnecessary additional intermediary step later on.

What I actually did was lay out the frames in a way that looked nice to me with very little regard to these restraints.

Then I put a number label on each of the frames, took a picture of the layout, and numbered the corresponding frames in the picture.

That’s when I measured it and realized my layout was 2” too long. Not a huge problem. Just requires some squishing. 2” isn’t that much when you’re working within a 90” space.

So, with my new measurement, and my numbered photo on hand, I cleared the frames from my floor and rolled out a piece of wrapping paper, cut to 90”. With a little bit of forethought, I would have rolled out the wrapping paper before starting my layout. This missed step had to be remedied at this point.

I used the labeled photo to lay the first layer of frames on the paper, squishing them a little closer than in the photo to adjust for the 2” size difference. Then I used a Sharpie to mark where the nails would go in the wall to support these frames. Each frame hangs on two nails to ensure stability.

I taped that paper on the wall, and put nails in each of the “X”s.

Tear the paper off the wall and mount the frames:

It was at this point that I hit a little bit of a road block. How would I hang the second layer of frames on top of the first layer? I read a couple of blog entries about doing this. One suggested simply getting longer nails, and nailing them into the wall so that they stuck out enough for the second layer of frames to rest on. While this seemed easy enough, it also seemed like it would be a little ugly because you would see the nails. I tried it out and was less than satisfied with the results.

Another blog gave very detailed instructions on how to nail the frames to each other. This was closer to what I was looking for, but I did not have all the tools necessary to do it, and I wanted to be able to take the frames back apart if needed. My apartment is a rental after all; I won’t be living here forever.

In the end, I took inspiration from the second blog (I would link, but that post seems to have been taken down from her blog), and crafted my own way to non-permanently attach the second layered frames to the first layered frames.

I began with nailing tiny finishing nails (1/2”) to the nice side of the first layer frames in places where they intersected with second layer frames. Again, I put nails in two intersection points for each second layer frame to ensure stability.

I slathered a little bit of putty on each finishing nail, and then hovered the second layer frame in front of the first layer frame in the position in which I wanted it to be. I lightly pressed the back side of the second layer frame against the nails in the first layer frame so that the putty would mark where the nails made contact. (I had putty out to fill in the holes from my long-nail trial for second layer hanging, but any substance of that consistency would work: peanut butter, tooth paste, etc.).

Then I simply drilled small holes in the back side of the second layer frame where the putty marks indicated. Don’t drill all the way through, just far enough to accommodate the finishing nail in the first layer frame.

Then it’s a simple game of lining up the hole with the nail (sometimes not so simple, and once in a while requiring new holes to be drilled). Repeat this process for each second layer frame and viola:

One thing I like about the non-permanent attachment of these frames is that you can move them around at any time. For instance, after walking by this piece for 3 days, I decided to move one frame to a different location to fill in a relatively empty spot. I also like that this piece can be added to pretty much indefinitely. I already have plans to add two more frames once I find some that I like.

Now, the one question I’ve gotten from quite a few friends who have seen The Wall thus far is “are you going to put anything in the frames?”

To those people, I smack my forehead in exasperation and sigh “you’re missing the point.” The frames are the art. Look at the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is beautiful.

Adjusting, Jogging, and Crafts to Come

2014-05-18T19:56:00.000-04:00

So I know that my last post and this one are more journal-like than blog-like, but now that school is over and I’ve moved to my new home, I’m feeling a lull in my life and I have a lot of thoughts going on in my head. I wake up in the morning and I don’t have a clue what day of the week it is because I have no set schedule with which to anchor my sense of time. I don't like it at all.

It might be a good thing.

I am a rampant workaholic, and am notoriously on edge when I don’t have a solid plan/schedule/calendar to make and follow. Every controlling bone in my body is sitting in wait for the next unsuspecting thing to come along and be dominated.

It’s a problem. Down time is probably a good thing for me right now.

But with any hope, work will pick up soon. I’ve successfully secured a spot on the supply list for three daycares, and I have a very-part-time position at a pharmacy in the area.

And with all this free time on my hands, I have had good opportunities to catch up with the friends I hadn’t been able to see while I was away at school.

I’ve also decided to take up jogging again. It’s been years since I last went jogging, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve gone out once so far, and I was pretty successful. The cows grazing in one of the fields I jogged past looked at me like I was some sort of alien, and then decided to jog along with me as far as the field’s fence permitted. I thought that was pretty fun.

Since it has been so long since I last went jogging, I am quite rusty. Entirely too out of shape. I knew endurance was going to be a big issue, so I decided the best route to becoming a jogger again was to use intervals.

I started out today with walking for two minutes, then jogging for one minute. It was manageable but still challenging. I went 3 kilometers, and cycled through 6 intervals. Basic math tells me that I jogged for one kilometer. Not too bad for the first day out.

Now to keep at it, and very slowly increase the jogging time and decrease the walking time. And eventually add some distance.

Anyways, I have been working a lot at unpacking my new apartment. While I was in The City, I downsized to a one bedroom and put half of my belongings in storage. Now that I have a spacious two bedroom once again, I am having a lot of fun going through all the items I haven’t seen in 8 months.

And, of course, I have been working away at decorating the walls of this new apartment. You will see my newest projects soon, I promise. I am very, very, VERY pleased with my new picture frame collage wall. And I’m working on making a mirror (like, taking regular old glass and making it reflective). Oh, and I have plans for a fancy serving tray made out of an extra frame that didn’t make it onto my collage wall. And I finally learned how to successfully cut vinyl with my Cricut (finicky medium vinyl is), so I have a new wall decal in my bedroom.

I can’t wait to share with you!

Stay tuned.

The end of an era

2014-05-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

Well, it's done. My program has finished, I qualify for graduation, and once my application with the Ontario College of Teachers goes through, I will be a certified teacher. I've left The City and settled in to my new apartment in Even Smaller, Small Town Ontario. I've gained part-time employment at one daycare and one pharmacy, and I have a few more job prospects on the horizon. I'm cautiously optimistic about how things are panning out.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you easily form emotional attachments with inanimate objects, like shoes. Maybe these shoes:

I’ve walked many a mile in these shoes. I bought these shoes in 2006, my first pair of name-brand Converse shoes. I had knock-offs from discount shoe stores before, but they never preformed like these guys. These Chucks have served their time faithfully, and it is time to retire these beauties.

But the Kneesh-Cons relationship is not over. Far from it in fact. On my last full day in The City, I was strolling through the mall and happened across a store that was having a Converse blow-out sale. Knowing that my Chucks had been hurting for some time, I could not resist trying on a new pair. And indeed, they came home with me.

So, so clean… These shoes have a lot of work ahead of them.

And as if signifying the start a new chapter of my life, I wore my new Chucks on my first full day in Even Smaller.

But not before a photo shoot:

So good bye old, faithful Chucks. You have been wonderful, and you will be remembered. I only hope your replacements are half as amazing as you were.

And in case you are wondering about these totally awesome pictures, I made myself a light box! With all the empty moving boxes I have kicking around now, I simply chose a medium sized box to make into a light box. I cut off the flaps, cut large holes into three of the sides, covered the holes with white tissue paper, and curved some white Bristol board paper along the bottom and fourth side of the box. Tip the box onto the side with the Bristol board, and place it in a well lit room. That’s it.

I’m still experimenting with the lighting aspect of the light box, but I like the clean look the backdrop gives. We’ll see how the use of this new tool develops.

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

2014-04-28T19:15:00.001-04:00

Hey all!

I sure have been a busy bee this week!

I successfully finished my last practicum, which makes me a Bachelor of Education Graduand (someone who is about to graduate but has not yet).

I also finished up my last shift at work, and successfully trained my replacement before my departure. Oh, wait, no… I’ve been suckered into one last shift this week because I am a workaholic.

And I have been frantically running around my apartment packing for my impending move to Even Smaller, Small Town Ontario. Today I removed all of my artwork from the walls, which makes my home a sad, dreary place indeed.

But I have been enjoying eating all of my frozen foods so that I have less perishables to transport. One such food is this:

My chicken parmesan meatloaf.

You may recall last week me sharing my Sweet BBQ Meatloaf recipe with you (found here). I must admit, beef meatloaf is good, but chicken parmesan meatloaf is where it’s at.

This recipe has been adapted from Joelen's blog

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken (or turkey if you’re so inclined)
1 egg
¼ cup Italian bread crumbs
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbs onion powder
½ tsp thyme
½ cup pasta sauce
½ cup grated cheese (I chose mozzarella)

Directions:

In a bowl, combine everything except for the pasta sauce and grated cheese. As I mentioned with my Sweet BBQ Meatloaf, only mix these ingredients until blended. Over-mixing causes dry, tough meatloaf, and no one wants that to happen.

Gently press the mix into a greased loaf pan. Top with pasta sauce:

Then with the grated cheese:

To bake right away, heat your oven to 350° and bake for about 45 minutes.

To freeze, leave off the pasta sauce and grated cheese, wrap well with aluminum foil and freeze. When you’re ready to cook, defrost the meatloaf fully, top with the pasta sauce and grated cheese, and bake as indicated above.

Enjoy this delicious parmesan goodness over pasta. Or, if you’re lazy like me, with whatever side you already have prepared and waiting for you, like seasoned potatoes. Either way, it’s awesomely good.

Deliciously Sweet Meatloaf

2014-04-18T11:11:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter everyone!

I am rounding the bend of my last practicum, and only four more working days away from successfully completing my program!!! (more exclamation!!!!!)

For this practicum, I was placed in a kindergarten (JK/SK) room. It has been the most fun I’ve had since moving to this big ol’ city. I LOVE KINDERGARTEN! I have been collecting a few fun things I did in the classroom with these tiny geniuses, and I will share them with you, but first:

Meatloaf

Yummy meatloaf. Moist (*cringe* I don’t like that word to describe food) meatloaf. Excellent meatloaf.

This recipe was found on Quick and Easy Dinner, and it goes a little something like this:

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef
1 Tbs onion powder
1 small can of tomato sauce (about 1 cup)
1 ½ cups of oatmeal
½ cup of water
2 eggs
Sweet BBQ sauce for topping

Directions:

Mix everything except for the BBQ sauce in a bowl. Get your hands nice and messy! Be careful not to over mix, because that’s one reason that meatloaf becomes dry. Lightly press the mix into loaf pans (I used two 4x8 pans). Again, if you press the mix in too hard, and lose all the air bubbles, that’s another thing that makes the meatloaf turn out dry.

Top the mix with your deliciously sweet BBQ sauce (I used my homemade BBQ sauce you can read about here).

Now, you have two options: bake or freeze. I used two smaller loaf pans so I could do the best of both worlds. To freeze, simply wrap the top of the loaf pan tightly with tin foil, label with a sharpie, and pop it in the freezer. To bake, preheat your oven to 350°, and bake for about an hour. Or, if you’re baking the whole batch in a 9x13 pan, bake for about an hour and a half.

Let the meatloaf sit for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven, to allow the juices to absorb to all the right places. Then slice, serve, and devour the awesomeness.

Giving new life to the classics

2014-03-24T10:51:00.000-04:00

Hey all!

What a frenzied week off assignments. This week is my last week of coursework (thank goodness!), so it’s crunch time. I have a total of seven assignments due and two exams to write in these next four days. I think I’m in good shape so far… I think.

Anyways, what better way to avoid schoolwork than to go shopping! Last week I visited a vintage clothing store at which I could have easily spent my entire pittance. But I didn’t. I spent more than I intended, but that’s kind of to be expected. Look at the beautiful pieces I found:

My favourite are those pearly flowery ones at that bottom. They tug at my vintage heart. And the polka-dot ones, because let’s face it, there’s nothing finer than a well placed polka-dot.

Of course the problem with vintage earrings is this:

the dreaded clip-on

Apparently Victorians thought that pierced ears were uncouth, so clip-ons were all the rage. Now, I didn’t get my ears pierced until I was a teenager, and I can remember pre-teen Kneesh dabbling in the world of clip-on earrings. They hurt! They squeeze your poor little ear lobes until they ache. Victorian ladies were tough, yo.

Anyways, I used to make jewellery, and I’ve kept all those supplies because you never know when they’ll come in handy (I can’t tell you how may necklaces friends have asked me to fix). So out came my collection of blank earring posts, a pair of pliers, and my trusty E6000.

By the way, did you know that Michael’s sells E6000 in tiny tubes like this:

Way better! I got a package of five tiny tubes for about the same price as a large tube. Doing the math, I was ripped off, but I like these tiny tubes. They’re easy to manipulate, easy to store, and they don’t dry out. I usually open a new tube every 6 months or so.

But this post is not intended to sell you on tiny tubes of E6000. I’m just sharing what works for me.

Anyways, with my pliers, I removed the clip-on backings, then I used a metal nail file to smooth the any edges left behind.

And the clip-on backing are being stored for some future craft. Because I’m a hoarder. Such is the life of a crafter.

Attaching the posts was super easy. Apply a little E6000 to the post, apply a little E6000 to the earring, wait 2 minutes, and join the two.

The hardest part of this whole project was waiting the required 48 hours for the E6000 to cure before I could wear these beauties. But when the time came, I loved trying out my new vintage earrings.

Wind Powered Cars

2014-03-17T11:21:00.001-04:00

Happy St. Patrick’s Day my lovely readers!

I took a small blogging hiatus while I was finishing up my most recent practicum. Then last week was March Break. I took a trip back home to Small Town Ontario to find a new apartment for May, when my program is finished here in The City. I was successful! I found an apartment in Even Smaller, Small Town Ontario which is not too far from the original Small Town Ontario.

Anyways, while on practicum with my adorable grade 1’s, I had the opportunity to teach the measurement unit in math and the energy unit in science. It was particularly awesome because I adore math and science, and this was my first chance getting to teach either of them.

As a culminating activity, I decided to join the best of both worlds, and infuse a little craftiness, to make these bad boys with the kids:

Wind powered cards!

First we talked about how cars normally get energy, then we brainstormed other types of energy cars can use. That was interesting. I brought up the idea of a coffee powered car (which I saw a couple years ago on the Discovery Channel), and the kids were off to the races with ideas of their own.

Finally, I presented my little wind powered car. We talked about how it worked, the parts it needed to work, and potential downfalls of a real-life wind powered car.

Then we built our cars! I got directions for this car from a book my associate teacher had. I think it’s a standard curricular resource here in Ontario. This is what the cover of the book looked like:

There were step-by-step instructions, but essentially you cut the base and wheels out of cardboard (I cut out all of these parts and pre-poked the appropriate holes into them because my grade 1’s wouldn’t have been great at this), attach four clothespins to the bottom of the base, thread wooden skewers through the clothespins so that you have axels, and slide the wheels onto the skewers.

So far so good. For the sail, thread the pointy side of the skewer through the paper, and slide the paper all the way to the other end of the skewer. Dip the pointy end of the skewer in glue, and poke it into the base like a mast. Make sure the glue on the mast skewer dries thoroughly before using the car, or you’re going to have some pretty disappointed kids. Building this car took a full 100 minute block of class time, plus drying time. It could have taken a lot longer, but I limited their decorating time quite a bit.

The next day we experimented with our cars. First we brainstormed different sources of wind we could use to propel the cars. I introduced the sources of wind we would be using: our mouths, paper fans, an electric fan, and a hair drier. The goal was to use each source of wind, measure the distance the car travelled, and compare the results. It was a huge success! Here’s the worksheet I made up for this activity:

The kids didn’t really understand the predictions section. My guess is that they have not had a lot of experience with predicting yet. If I were to do this experiment again, I would focus a lot more time and energy on making real, reasonable predictions. The experiment and worksheet took up another full 100 minute block of class time, then I gathered their worksheets for assessment, and they brought their cars home.

The next day, some of them told me about other wind sources they found at home, and how it affected the distance travelled by the car. To me, there is nothing more rewarding as a teacher than when a student continues class work at home on his or her own accord. That’s the true mark of a fun lesson.

Little Ceramic Chalkboard

2014-02-17T20:44:00.000-05:00

Hello all!

Happy Family Day for all my Ontario readers. This week I’m going to show you a quick little craft I cooked up one day, inspired by a thrift store find. Meet my newest little chalkboard:

But first, an update about school!

This week I start my third practicum for teaching! I would have started today, but Family Day is a holiday for Ontario schools, so I start tomorrow. For the next three weeks I’m going to be a grade 1 teacher!! I’m really excited about it. Grade 5 and 6 were great, and I had a lot of fun, but I love the younger kids and I’ve been waiting for a primary placement. Oh, and the teacher that I’ve been placed with is a fellow ECE! She too was a daycare teacher before becoming an elementary school teacher. I talked to her on the phone last week, and she sounds amazing.

I’m very grateful to be out of classes and back into the field. I had waaayyy too many assignments due last week, and I’ve been working my bum off writing essays and doing group work. Yes, practicum is always a crazy amount of work, but at least it’s work that I love. Not essays.

Well, not all my assignments are terrible. I made this little comic for my tech class:

And then after practicum is reading week, and I’m going to make a trip back home to see the family! Yay!

Then I only have 6 weeks left (3 ½ of which are my fourth practicum) before I finish my program and I can finalize my application to become a certified teacher!

I’m almost done!

Anyways, as for today’s craft, I found a ceramic plaque while I was thrift-store-ing one day. It had nice shape, but was in desperate need of an update. I forgot to take a before picture (I do that all the time; I get so excited to do the craft that I forget to take a picture before I start), but I did remember half way through the first coat of paint.

The grey brushed colour of the left of the moulding was the original colour, and it had a few daisies painted on the front. It was actually pretty cute for cheep generic art.

I painted the whole thing white using regular acrylic craft paint, then sprayed it with a clear acrylic sealer.

Then I sanded the center oval, and painted it with 5 coats of chalkboard paint, sanding the surface smooth between each coat. Then I decorated it with a fancy “K” for “Kneesh”.

Remember whenever you paint a fresh chalkboard, or wash down an old chalkboard, you need to prime the surface with chalk before you write or draw on it. Otherwise whatever is written or drawn will not wipe off properly when you are finished. To prime the surface, rub the side of a piece of chalk lightly all over the surface, and wipe it off with a dry brush, then use the board as usual.

Hanging on the wall in this apartment looks a little silly, because it’s a white frame on a white wall. But imagine how great this little frame would look on a maroon wall, or a mint green wall, with other various white frames as a collage. That would make a statement.

DIY Pot Lid Clock

2014-02-03T17:46:00.002-05:00

My apologies for not writing last week, faithful readers. I’ve entered crunch-time for my school program, and I have been essay-ing more than I can handle. And I have so much more essay-ing to do!

Anyways, life is never too busy for crafting. Here’s something I whipped up a couple months ago:

I went to a thrift shop to get a cheap pot lid to make a craft. A pot lid chalk board clock, to be exact.

I found one I liked, but it came with a pot (logically), so I asked the girl at the checkout if I could pay half price for just the lid. She said no! I was a little surprised by that. It is a thrift store after all, and they had plenty of pots with no lids on the shelf. So I came home with this:

I brought the pot to a used-goods donation center a couple days later.

Anyways, I chose this lid for two reasons, neither of which related to its black paint job. In fact, I would hazard a guess that the lid being black prior to my crafting made it harder to paint it with chalkboard paint, because it was harder to tell what areas had or had not received sufficient paint coverage. No, the reasons I chose this lid were because of its size and how the handle was affixed to the top.

It was easy to take the handle off because it was screwed on, not riveted. And being a knob type handle, rather than one of those fancy handles that curve and attach at its two ends, means that I already had a hole for the clock mechanisms.

This hole, as it turned out, was smaller than the clock mechanisms, but larger than my biggest drill bit, so out came the needle-nose pliers. I went around the hole, bit by bit, stretching the metal back to make the hole bigger. It worked like a charm!

Only then, once I knew for sure the clock mechanisms would fit, did I paint the pot with chalkboard paint. Two coats to be exact.

As for the fancy lettering I put on the front, I got a template from Precious Sister's blog. She did this craft first, and was my inspiration, and I used her design, and this project was not at all a Kneesh original.

So, print out the template from her blog, or make your own design on a piece of paper, chalk the back of the paper, hold it in place on the pot lid as you trace the design with a pencil, and look at how great the chalk transferred onto the lid:

Too great!

What a mess. I just wrapped a tissue around the end of my pencil and carefully rubbed off the excess chalk.

Much better.

Then spray the whole thing with a clear acrylic top coat. Be careful though! Too much top coat will wash away the chalk! Multiple thin coats are always recommended over one heavy coat, but that is especially important in this particular case.

Once totally dry, add your clock mechanism (I got a kit from Michael’s with black hands that I painted white with acrylic paint then top coated with spray acrylic), and ta-da:

Beauty.

This has inspired me to make a clock out of pretty much anything and everything. So many clocks to be made, so little time (groan...).

Slowcooker Salisbury Steak

2014-01-20T11:37:00.001-05:00

Salisbury steak.

I really like the idea of Salisbury steak. In theory it sounds right up my alley: meat, potatoes, gravy. Here’s what I don’t like about Salisbury steak: mushrooms.

So, without further adieu, I present this Slowcooker Salisbury Steak recipe, sans mushrooms, that I found on Crafty Creative Kathy’s blog.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of ground beef
1 package of dry onion soup mix (I use Knorr with much satisfaction)
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
Cooking oil
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 package of dry au jus mix
3/4 cup water

Directions:

In a large bowl, getting your hands messy by mixing together the ground beef, onion soup mix, Italian bread crumbs, and milk.

Divide the mix into 8, and form each segment into the shape of a patty. Try to form them firmly, making them thinner and giving them a larger diameter than you would expect. They shrink in diameter and plump up while they are cooking.

Heat some cooking oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Dredge each patty in flour so that they are lightly coated, then add them to the frying pan and brown them on both sides.

Place the browned patties in your slowcooker, stacking them like a pyramid. In another bowl, combine the cream of chicken soup, au jus mix, and water. Poor this mixture over the patties in the slowcooker.

The cream of chicken soup I used was extremely watery, so I could have gone without adding more water. The end result still tasted amazing, but the gravy was runny. I won’t be using that brand of soup for this recipe again. Your mix should be thick and delicious looking.

Anyways, cook on low for 4-5 hours, until the meat is cooked through. Whip up some mashed potatoes, and you’re ready for a treat.

Enjoy!

Upcycled Mirror Frame to Earring Display

2014-01-13T19:03:00.000-05:00

Hello all!

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter ‘S’, as in ‘Silver Spray paint’.

This craft was not done during my super awesome craft/cooking extravaganza week last month. I know I still have a bunch of projects to post from that week, but the project I did this week has distracted me. Check it out:

“Ooo, nice earring holder, Kneesh.”

Right??

I know, I made a cork board jewelry holder not too long ago, as you can see here, but I think this one is more elegant and better fits with my forever changing bedroom décor.

Let’s look at what I started with:

I found this mirror at Value Village one day. I wasn’t sure what I would use it for, but at $1.50, it came home with me anyways. I liked the texture of the design, and thought it would look pretty awesome in a different, less 80’s-esque colour.

To start with, I had to remove that mirror. It was glued onto a solid backing. I used a piece of string, slipped it in behind the mirror, and used a side-to-side sawing motion with both hands to break the glue.

Setting the mirror aside, I debate about when and how it will creep its way into a future project. This is what I was left with:

That’s when the spray painting happened. I used Krylon silver metallic. It took about 3 coats. I say “about” because I am very impatient with spray paint, and pretty much start spraying the next coat within minutes of finishing the prior coat, making it hard to tell when one coat ends and the next coat begins. This is not proper spray paint technique, but it works for me!

I sprayed the front of the frame, paying less attention to proper coverage in the center.

I also sprayed the little metal stand, which was previously a brassy tone.

And I love the way the texture looks in its new silvery garb:

I used cork tiles from Dollarama, cut to shape (I traced the mirror! How handy!), and painted black with acrylic paint, to fill in the center.

I always use two layers of this particular cork tile because it is so thin. I also -very crudely- rounded the edge of the top tile. Paint, glue together with E6000, then glue to the frame with E6000 (have I ever mentioned how much I love E6000? It will glue anything).

I used tiny finishing nails as hooks for the earrings.

Then I adorned it with sparkling jewels and placed it on that empty space on my dresser top that I complained about in my dresser re-do post.

Of course, one big difference between this earring holder and my cork board jewelry holder is that this one only holds earrings. So I made this wall-mounted holder for my necklaces:

I don’t have pictures of the creative process because it was largely done with no plan or forethought. I used a frame from Dollarama and its backing, a piece of press board cut to size, a black piece of poster board cut to size, and a large drawer pull from Home Hardware. I really like how it turned out.

So here’s everything together so far:

Next on the docket, I need to do something about that cheepie full length mirror, and that little wood table beside the dresser needs some serious attention. Projects for another day!

DIY Stained "Glass" Snowflakes

2014-01-06T12:57:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

My Christmas break was pretty great. Lots of friends and family, and, of course, some food poisoning. After all, what’s the holiday season without a little bit of salmonella (it’s the most delicious bacteria).

Now that the holiday season is over, it’s back to the winter grind. Bundling up in 7 layers of clothing to trudge along poorly cleared sidewalks and drive on ice rinks that used to be known as roads.

I actually love winter (no, that’s not sarcasm). Snow is pretty, and the cold is just a minor nuisance. And on blustery days like today, when schools are closed and the radio is cautioning people to stay home, why not celebrate the beauty of winter with a little craft?

These gorgeous snowflakes have been hanging on my window for a few weeks, and they serve as a gentle reminder to enjoy the season.

For this pretty (but messy) craft, you will need:

Parchment paper (or wax paper, but parchment works better in my experience)
Tape
Print outs of the snowflake template, which I got from Holiday Crafts and Creations. Or, if you feel inspired, you can design your own snowflakes.
White string
White Elmer’s glue (school glue)
Water
Food colouring
A tooth pick
A cup or bowl to put the glue in
Scissors
Thread or fishing line for hanging

Instructions:

Begin by cutting your string to the proper lengths. If you are using the template I mentioned above, each snowflake will use

1 piece at 1 1/4 inches

6 pieces at 1 1/2 inches

6 pieces at 4 1/2 inches.

Arrange your templates on a flat surface and securing them in place with tape. Cover the templates with a long sheet of parchment paper, and secure that with tape as well.

Combine about 2 parts glue to 1 part water in a bowl or cup.

Dip the 1 1/4" piece of string in the glue, and wipe off the excess. Place that piece on the parchment paper, tracing the center circle of the snowflake template. Try as much as possible to have the string come together and touch at the ends.

Do the same with the 4 1/2" pieces to trace the branches of the snowflake, and finally the 1 1/2" pieces to trace the little triangle pitches between the branches (at the top of the parts I coloured in).

Once all of the string is in place for one snowflake, dab a little bit of glue on each string joint in order to add some structural integrity. I don't know if this is really necessary, since the whole thing is going to be filled in with glue anyways, but I'm not a risk taker, so I did it.

This is the end of the labour intensive part. Time to let the string dry. I left mine to dry overnight. It should look a little something like this:

Now, you may notice in the first picture of this post there are 3 snowflakes, whereas in the next picture I had 6 templates laid out. That's because I underestimates the amount of time it would take to lay out the string like I just described. It takes time guys.

Anyways, the next morning I had 3 dried snowflake string skeletons. Use plain white glue (not watered down) to fill in the sections that you will be colouring. Then add just one dot of food colouring to the center of the glue in the bigger sections.

Use your toothpick to swirl around the blue colouring within the glue puddle, being careful not to touch the string with the food colouring - it will colour the string as well if it does touch. I also used my pre-blue-ed toothpick to add a touch of blue to the smaller sections of glue, since an entire drip of blue in each would be way too much.

Again, let your snowflakes dry. You will know when they are dry completely, because they will peel off the parchment paper easily. If you face resistance, they are not fully dry.

Finally, add some thread for hanging. I used fishing line so it would be less visible against my window, but thread would look nice for a tree ornament.

I like that the colour is not uniform throughout the glue. swirling the blue gives each snowflake it's own unique look. After all, no two snowflakes are alike.

Pizza Cupcakes

2013-12-16T17:36:00.000-05:00

Did somebody say pizza cupcakes??

Yea I did!

I’m into my third and final week of this practicum. My placement was actually switched during the first week, so I ended up being in a grade 5 class instead of a grade 2 class. Everything is lovely, and I am truly enjoying this placement!

While on practicum, I don’t have a lot of time for… umm… anything. So I spent a few days prior to the start of this practicum filling my freezer with pre-made meals that I just need to pop in the toaster oven. I can handle that much meal prep… most days.

These pizza cupcakes were one of the meals I made during that cooking marathon. I like them for lunches while I’m at the school. This recipe was modified from the recipe I found here.

Ingredients:

1 roll of Pillsbury pizza dough
Pizza sauce
Shredded cheese (I used about 250g of Mozzarella)
Pepperonis (or whatever toppings you would like)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to whatever the Pillsbury package calls for… It might be 450°, but I don’t remember.

I used a regular cupcake tin, so I was able to get 8 pizza cupcakes out of one package of dough. If you use muffin tins you will get a lesser quantity of larger pizza cupcakes. If you use a mini cupcake tin, kudos to you on your patience and fine motor skills.

Anyways, you’re going to want to roll out the pizza crust and cut it into the appropriate amount of pieces for how many cupcakes you are making (again, a regular cupcake tin made 8 cupcake pizzas). Roll a piece of dough into a ball, then press it into the cupcake tin, like this:

Apply sauce.

Apply cheese, then toppings (like pepperoni), then more cheese. How good would these things be with crispy bacon?!

Bake your pizza cupcakes for 10-15 minutes. If you use muffin tins, you’ll probably need to bake them longer for them to cook fully. If you use mini cupcake tins, again, kudos, but you will not need to cook them for as long because they’ll cook up quick.

Anyways, they are seriously good. Eat them while they’re warm. I let the cupcakes cool in the tins, then puts the tins in the freezer. Once the cupcakes were mostly frozen, I popped them out of the tins and into a gallon sized freezer bag. To reheat, I let them thaw and put 2 pizza cupcakes in the microwave for about 2 minutes.

Now that’s a lunch you’re coworkers will notice!

DIY Dresser Re-Do Part 2: Drawers

2013-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I posted about my shiny new dresser! It ended up being a beautiful reno, and well worth the amount of time I put into it.

A large portion of this work revolved around the drawers. This was more than simply removing the hardware, slapping some paint on there, and affixing new hardware. It was a process indeed.

The first step, of course, was to remove the hardware and fill in those holes with wood filler. Pretty straight forward, if you ask me.

This is where it gets tricky. If you look closely at the top three drawers in the before picture, you’ll notice that they each have a decorative divide down the center, giving the illusion of six drawers, rather than three.

This, I feel, contributed to the dated feel of the dresser as a whole. I wanted a clean, smooth look, and these divides were not doing it for me. So they got filled in! A Google search of “how to fix large holes in wood” turned up this product:

This is an epoxy putty, found in the pluming section of hardware stores. It is comprised of two compounds that, when mixed, create a sticky, clay-like substance that you can mould into pretty much any shape.

When you mix those two compounds, the chemical reaction produces heat, which I thought was pretty interesting (I did physics in high school… chemistry is a magical mystery to me). Apparently it’s water-proof (hence the pluming section location, I suppose), and when it dries, it looks and feels a lot like cement, and is easily sandable and paintable.

So I mixed away, about a golf ball sized piece of putty at a time. It too one and a half Fix It Sticks to fill in my three divides. Which means I still have half a stick for all my future epoxy putty needs… yay?

I was not concerned with smoothing it out and making it pretty, because I was going to be sanding it anyways. But if you use this stuff for something else, you can use water to smooth it, the same way you did for your clay sculptures in grade 9 art class.

I did, however, come across a problem after sanding the epoxy:

Those dark spots are areas that I did not put enough putty to be level with the wood. They’re dark because they’re too low for the sander to get to. I tried filling these gaps in with wood filler, because they were small and shallow. It looked like it worked, until I painted. Unfortunately, if you look closely at the finished dresser, you can see the inconsistencies.

Moral of the story: Less is not always more.

Anyways, finally it was time to paint! I painted the entire interior of the drawer with a foam brush, and the exterior with a foam roller. I used the same lovely Annie Sloan chalk paint that I mentioned in last week’s post.

And, of course, I had a few spots that needed to be touched up where the old hardware used to be attached.

I then decided that the exterior sides of the drawers should also be blue, rather than the graphite I had used first time around, so I changed that. You can see the blue in the final pictures.

Then I applied polyurethane. This was my least favourite step of the whole process. I do not like polyurethane. It smells, and it’s runny, and I just don’t know how to properly work with it. But I did it anyways.

Measuring out where the new holes for the hardware were to go made my mathematical mind giddy (or maybe it was the residual polyurethane fumes killing off one too many brain cells). Either way, this last step of measuring, drilling, and affixing felt SOOO awesome.

I put the finished drawers back into the finished dresser,

Cleaned this mess off the floor (finally!),

And began my photo shoot with the greatest sense of accomplishment.

It was when I started editing my photos that I remembered this:

The labels that got me so pumped to start this project (read about it here) lost their way in the hype of newness. I factored the labels in to the equation when I was measuring for the placement for the drawer pulls, but somewhere between drilling and affixing, the plan devolved. They can be added quite easily, but that’s for another time. Right now, I’m just loving how this big project turned out.