"Resolution" - Eleanor's Results

As a first year university student, I am faced with challenges every day. Whether to play drunken twister or to finish the essay that's due on Monday.  Wondering how many days in a row is acceptable to wear sweatpants. To go to my 8:30am class, or not to go? Besides these, most of my dilemmas have to do with my less than satisfactory financial situation: I am broke. It wasn't until this year that I learned not to take three-ply toilet paper for granted and it has showed me that sometimes compromises have to be made to save money.

Another thing about me is that I'm not exactly good at keeping money in my bank account. Though I may be thrifty in my purchases, I am notoriously known for my shopaholic-tendencies. So anyway, on top of my broke-university-student problem, I also moved to a small town for school. Sackville New-Brunswick has a population of about 4000 people during the school year and you guessed it, about zero opportunity for shopping, that is, unless you're into dollar-store granny panties...

Anyone who looks at my bursting closet would have doubts that I needed more clothes, and they're right- so I've come up with a solution: revamping my wardrobe with the help of Pinterest. With the help of some crafting tutorials, I plan on taking the clothes I don't wear and making them new again. Problem solved. Here is my attempt:

 An old pair of plain jeans made into cool, grungy cut-off shorts! I chose to use a pair of mom-jeans I acquired at Value Village some months ago that I was never brave enough to wear in public. When I shop second hand I am still particular about the quality of the items I’m buying and always like to feel like I’m paying substantially less than I would getting them new. When buying thrift store jeans I look for quality brands; you can almost always find a pair of Levi’s on the racks and these work quite well for cutting. For this project, I was inspired by the Calvin Klein jeans that have been lingering in my drawer:

 All photos were taken by my terrible quality phone and made slightly better with the help of Instagram

 

Next step was cutting them into a less mom-tastic shape. I quickly got rid of most of both pant legs and then used my friend as a model to see how much shorter they should be. Real crafters would likely measure with a ruler and use special sewing pencils or something, but I like to play it fast and loose and I think it gives them a bit more character:

Thought they might look uneven in this picture, rest assured, they look the same on both legs.

Next, I wanted to make them look a little more grungy and that involved a little DIY fraying. I wasn't sure of the best way to go about this so I did a quick google search and a came across a cool cut-off shorts tutorial. In it, the girl uses all sorts of tools you can find in your house so you don't have to go buy any special tools, which was great. She suggested using a nail file to rub along the cut edges of the shorts until they are of the ragged quality that you want them. I suppose this would also work for making shorts look worn in other places too; a good tip to keep in mind.

Just my hand moving a warp-speed, fraying like it's my job.

  

At this point, my jorts (jean-shorts) are looking pretty cool and the fun hasn't even begun! My inspiration for this next part was the 'ombre fad' that can be seen in hair, makeup, clothes, furniture, cakes- everywhere. For example: 

 and perhaps

Here is and actual example of what I was hoping to accomplish:

 To achieve this effect on jean, the best product to use is bleach. Now I don't use bleach on a regular basis mostly because it scares me. The only stories I hear about bleach are horror stories like: " one day I spilled bleach on my pants and it burned through to my skin and scared me" or "I know a girl who tried to bleach her hair and it all fell out". From what I knew about bleach, it was scary stuff, and dangerous! Nevertheless I put on my big girl pants and went out to go buy some. Turns out they only sell bleach in like 3L quantities so now I have enough bleach to last my entire adult life. Here's the sucker:

Cost of all this? $1.69

Now, I have a pretty big dorm room with high enough ceilings, but I have to tell you, I would not recommend using  bleach in a closed area with little ventilation. As I write this, I am definitely under the influence of some toxic fumes that have continued to linger and corrode my lung tissue. If I were to check my twitter right now, I'm sure there is a passive-aggressive tweet from my coughing roomie about the dangers of crafting. She'll forgive me eventually.

I first read some warnings about using bleach and was careful to keep it off my skin and clothes and diluted the bleach with water so as to not disintegrate my shorts. For a more gradated effect, I used an old toothbrush to spread the bleach-water solution evenly starting a the hem-line, working my way up:

(I do not advise using the toothbrush after this)

After applying a few coats, all I had to do was wait for them to start lightening. I let them simmer for about a day and was a little disappointed with the result. I assume I just diluted the bleach a little too much because they didn't turn as light as I wanted them to. Here's trial 1:

 They didn't look bad but still, I wasn't satisfied so I got out the bleach again and mixed a stronger concoction of bleach and water. I used my handy poison-brush and started the bleaching process all over. This time I used a 'healthy' amount of bleach and kept my fingers crossed for a more lightened effect. After another day of waiting, here's what came out:

 It may not be everyone's style, but I am pretty happy with the final result. They look a little dirty in this picture but that's just bad picture quality, they really do look sweet in real life. Making these shorts has made me miss summer very much and I am looking forward to flaunting my new, bleached, cut-off shorts! Perfect for beaches, hot days and music festivals. Pair with a slouchy tank or a cropped graphic tee and LOTS of bracelets. Hope you like them,

Verdict: Success!

-Eleanor

"Resolution": Shauna's Results

As you may or may not know, the past several months of teaching in Ontario have been shadowed by some really crappy changes to our contracts and encouragement from our union to make a point to the government by giving up on all voluntary activities, among other things. It's taken its toll on the teachers at my school, particularly the team I work closest with, the Junior teachers. They're all awesome teachers who make amazing magic happen each day for their kids. Unfortunately, we're all super stressed with all the pressures on us right now. 

Thinking of all that, I was inspired to make several replicas of my Resolution project so that each one of my Junior colleagues could have one.

I was inspired by the gratitude jars that were popping up all over Pinterest right around the New Year (several of which I pinned), and by one of my favourite stories from the original Chicken Soup for the Soul. I know all this is ultra cheesy, but I figured it was time for some warm fuzzies. So, this is an apologetically cheesariffic craft.

One inspiring pin.

Another inspiring pin. You may have seen it on the Pinterest.

As a teacher and an overly sensitive person, I get some negative feedback that I take WAY too seriously. I let things completely overwhelm me. When a colleague, parent, administrator or student criticizes me or something I've done, I hang on to it, dwell on it, replay it in my mind and let it define me. That's really lame and I know it. I also get some really great feedback. I probably get WAY more of that, but I don't give it as much weight. In an effort to fight that, I wanted to create an "All the Good Things" jar for myself where I can put messages reminding myself of the good stuff. When someone says something nice, or I get a nice email, all I have to do is write it down and plunk it in my jar. Tah-dah, a jar of lovely, happy things to look at when I'm feeling down.

Who wouldn't want one of these?

At the end of every school year, I do an activity just like the teacher from the story I linked to earlier in this post. I have all the students pass around papers with their names on them and each student has to write something kind and juicy about each of their classmates. I then type it all up so it's totally anonymous and present it to them. That's their "All the Good Things". I usually make one for myself, because by then I need it, and I do a bunch for the other staff my kids know. These jars, I hope, will be more of an ongoing feedback kind of dealie. And more of a visual reminder that there are lots of good things going on.

 

Despite the fact that it looks like diapers are filling my cart, I am NOT pregnant. I visited the pet store before my Dollarama run and picked up some new bedding for my class pets (the adorable degus, Caine and Speedy). The packaging looks a lot like diaper packaging.

 

All my new jars getting packed up. Captain Handsome was a big help in finding these jars, as opposed to the teeny tiny mason jars that were available at this time.

 

The jars, ready to be decorated!

  

The lids had stickers covering them and I tried to soak off the stickiness. I even tried to use some kind of Goo-Gone type spray on them. It didn't work. Nor did scratching with newly manicured fingernails.

  

I was pretty perplexed at this point, and just about ready to stick the name stickers right on the lid over the horrible residue...

  

...when I discovered that peeling the letter stickers back OFF pulled off the horrible residue.

 

Nearly three hours later, I'd removed every smidge of sticker backing by using new stickers and a lot of smacky sounds disrupting everyone else's TV enjoyment.

The "All the Good Things" jars start to take shape!

Sparkly stickers...Lovely.

 

On each of the newly clean lids, I tried to neatly space the name of one of my colleagues, plus the year.

 

Thinking they were getting a bag of new treasures for the classroom, some of my students wanted to dig into the Dollarama bags I brought in. I told them I had a craft for some of the other teachers and they right away wanted to help.  

 

They added personalized messages for the teachers, (because they didn't want the jars to start out empty) and then introduced the ideas to the rest of their classmates, who added more messages and then delivered the jars for me, along with a note explaining them.

 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the finished product. In the note, I signed it "a secret friend" and most of my colleagues never said anything to me. Either they hated the jars or they really didn't realize they were from me! As a class, we did get one wonderful thank you note from a teacher and my kids right away said, "Put it in the jar!", which gave us an idea to start a version of the jar for our class!

First Pinterest Challenge - success.

January Challenge: Resolution

I love Pinterest. I spend great chunks of time there pinning away onto my 87 different boards. I don't, however, spend great chunks of time doing much of anything with all the wonderful inspiration that I have pinned. As of right now, Pinterest has been, for me, nothing but a time sucker that makes me feel like I'm not creating the magnificent things that I should be creating.

Then, a few things happened.

Thing #1: I have this one colleague and friend who uses Pinterest perfectly. She even searched my Pinterest for quotes to recreate for my Christmas gift. She decorated her house for Christmas using Pinterest ideas for inspiration. She created an awesome (sauce) family advent calendar and then pinned it. She, herself is a Pinspiration.

Thing #2: In the mail, my hubby and roommate got a wonderfully crafty project from my brother, Charlie's girlfriend, Ashton. I realized what it was like to have a sister. After 30 years of having four brothers, who are my dearest friends, I understood that sisters actually show you that they're thinking of you without any prompting. It made me tell Captain Handsome that if we ever have a daughter that we will must have at least one more so that she will have someone to craft with and craft for. Someone who will appreciate it, at least.

Thing #3: Then, on New Year's Eve, in the fantastically heated (and way over-cholinated pool) in St. Pete, Florida, Ashton and I were talking about Pinterest and an idea people had been posting about New Year's Resolutions. Like a NYE firework, it came to us. We have these fabulous, creative women in our lives who we don't get to spend nearly enough time with. I finally have "sisters" through the gals my brothers have fallen for. We came up with the idea for this blog. Each month, we will put a prompt word up and each of us has to undertake a pinspired project based on that word. When we proposed the idea to the other ladies, they were all on board.

Now, almost three weeks into the new year, the Pinspiration Challenge blog is finally going live!

Our January Challenge is RESOLUTION.

Each of the Pinning Bloggers is to interpret the word in her own way, pick some inspiration from Pinterest and attempt a project (or projects!) which will be detailed here. They might be huge successes, or huge Pinterest Fails. Either way, we can all support and/or mock each other in a supportive way!

Bonus marks for posting photos of your Pinspiration, your process AND the finished product.