DIY: Date Book

Well, this week I managed to cross 2 things off the list! I finally reached 100 followers (I was sitting on 98 for a while there, so that's exciting!! Thanks guys!) aaand Mr Peck bought me a pleated skirt for valentine's and it finally got here, and I love it!! YAY! Feels good to achieve something! Do you think I should have a 100 followers celebration? 

I also managed to finally get another thing off my to do list... I made a  little book where Mr Peck & I can stash our date ideas and write a little something or stick in a picture to remember it by.

This year we're hoping to be a little more into the whole dating thing and try and be more spontaneous and adventurous. To help along the process I thought it might be nice to have dates kind of pre-planned so on date night/day we can whip out the book and have an idea there. I think it will help get rid of boring movie/fast food dates. 

I've made a little tutorial for you guys so you can make it too! 

I have written a tutorial for a notebook before but this one has some extra features.

You will need: 

A ruler, craft knife, pencil, card (or a cereal box), small envelopes, split pins, a rubber band, paper for the pages, paper for the date ideas, paint, stamps, glue or sticky tape.

1. Measure and cut 16cm x 24cm in brown card (I use cereal boxes) as well as as many sheets of paper for the inside as you want. I used 12 sheets of office paper to make 24 spreads. Measure to the middle (12cm along the 24cm side) and score down the card only. 

2. Clamp all the sheets together, this makes the sewing a bit easier - I've used dog clips here. Don't worry if your pages stick out from the card a bit, you can trim this later.

3. Sew all the sheets together with a sewing machine along the fold line - I do this by hand (eg not with the pedal) so I have more control. I use a normal needle and cotton with a medium sized straight stitch. You could use thicker cotton for a stronger bind, but I've never had any trouble with mine. You might want to coat the stitching with some wood glue once you're done for extra strength.

4. Decorate! These are some hand carved stamps I made from erasers. Let me know if you want a tutorial on that... It's super easy. I use regular acrylic paint for the stamping because I don't have any ink.

5. For keeping the book closed, I cut 2 circles out of the card at 2.5cm diameter each and put a split pin through the middle of each. I measured 12cm from the top and about 2.5cm in from the edge and used a pin to create a small hole. This made it a lot easier to poke the split pins in. When you split the split pins, make sure you leave a little gap between the circle and the book for the tie or band to fit in. I used a rubber band to close it all up.

6. Stick in little envelopes to keep your date ideas in. 

7. I used my stamp again to decorate the paper that we write the ideas on.

Then you just have to think of a whole bunch of date ideas! I like the idea of pre-buying something thing like tickets or gift vouchers. Anything you can do to make date night fun and ready to go.

we fell in love.

I was looking forward to Valentines Day for a while! Mr Peck and I split it, I took brunch and he took dinner.

I had all these little touches planned for brunch, including a cute table setting and a few different dishes with creative touches... But life doesn't always go to plan! With a few minor hiccups in the morning (including a printer out of ink and other fun things) I managed to serve brunch by 12:30ish and with a little disappointment in my abilities to pull off a super cute party, we had a fun little morning.

alphabet

Mr Peck got this book on his Kindle that is all about helping with creativity... We did this task of finding an alphabet is the things around us. It was actually really fun! Here's mine.

I couldn't resist!

I'm on such a roll lately I just couldn't resist doing a little sprucing up around here.

Sorry if I confuse you with all my re-designing... One of the cons of being a designer (you're never satisfied!)

Hope you like it! 

Fill in the Blanks!

Fill 'er Up/Fill 'er In! I haven't participated for a while, so here it is :) 

{via}

1. I started my blog because I wanted a place to share all the things I was inspired by and made...

2. One thing I love seeing on other blogs tutorials and amazing photography and cool outfits

3. Something I love about blogging is all the inspiration I find! And the connections I'm starting to make :)

4. A favorite blog post of mine is probably my how to make washi tape post... my most popular post by far! Or my Package Pals post because I really like how the photos turned out :)

5. Something my friends in real life know about me that I've never before mentioned on my blog is hmmm. that's a tough one.. I'm not sure..

6. My new favorite blogs to read are :  1/ Amanda Jane Jones  2/ Fellow Fellow  3/ The Veggie Mama

7. Some things I tend to avoid doing on my blog are sharing things that are too personal...

home sweet home.

Yes, that's right... I'm finally home! Yay! Oh the joy. It feels kind of weird. Like I'm on holidays now... although that's starting to wear off now with the realisation that I have to cook tea each night, and the house needs cleaning, and all the suitcases need unpacking, and there's lots of washing to be done, and I have to find a job, and ... the list goes on ..

The jet lag hasn't been too bad and I only woke up at 4am the first morning. I've been keeping pretty busy with trips to the doctor for Mr Peck's knee (he injured it while snowboarding) and trying to add more to my portfolio. It's slowly getting there... 

Here's a little something I designed for Valentine's Day.... 

I've got a few projects planned for Valentine's Day, but because Mr Peck reads this blog, and I want to surprise him, you guys will have to wait! hehe. I'm pretty excited about it though.. 

Well, back to work I go.. just wanted to stop in and say hi :)

Projections

It's almost home time and boy am I excited! I have been practically counting down these last few days. We have been keeping fairly busy with trips to Yosemite and mini outings around LA. 

When I get home and sort through all the bazillion photos, I'll post about the highlights from the trip and then we can get back to normal! In case you can't tell, I can't wait for normal again!!

Travelling is super fun... but after almost 3 months away, I can't wait to get back to reality... and to making things! I've been so inspired by the blogs I follow and have compiled a little list of projects I can't wait to start on when I get home (which will be Saturday - we leave on Thursday.. thanks to the time different, we lose a whole day!)

Attempt to make my own stencil pillow like this one.

I have always loved the typography look and have been wanting to add it to our house décor for a long time... Now I might just be able to do it in an inexpensive DIY! Yay.

Knit Socks!

Before I left you might remember I was furiously knitting for my exhibition installation. I never posted any pictures, because I never took any on the night!! But it's still up (I'm hoping) and so I'll make sure I take some before I take it all apart.... Annnyway, moral of the story is that I bought some wool which had a sock pattern on the underside of the paper band that holds it together (what's that thing called?!) and I wanted to try it then but felt like I was cheating by doing any sort of other knitting than for my exhibition haha.... sooo when I get home I really want to try knitting some socks.. I'm a little scared... they seem hard.

Jar for new dates/experiences

One of the things that Mr Peck & I really want to get into this year is trying new things together. We feel like we used to do that stuff when we were dating, but now we kinda got boring. So, this year we are going to try and have a jar full of ideas for dates and things we want to try together. That way when we can't think of an idea for date night, we just pull out one from the jar. So I want to make a nice jar and put a whole list of ideas in it. I'll share the list once I'm done!

Design/Buy an awesome calendar

Along similar lines to No.3, this year I want to start putting exciting things on the calender! I think that seeing events coming up and being able to put things up on the wall is a great way of keeping positive and excited... So if I don't find a really cool calender, my plans are to design one.... 

Try a project with fused plastic bags

I saw this idea a while ago and wanted to try it out but never got around to it... now is my chance! I'm thinking wallets & totes... Can't wait to see how it goes!

But wait, there's more!

I have a whole list of other things to do too... mostly job related. This year is the year I start work... kind of anxious, hopeful and excited all in one... 

So first off I need to get my portfolio looking amazing..

Then I need to apply for a whole heap of jobs..

And then I probably need to buy some work appropriate clothes...

And if all the fails, I need to look into what it will take to start selling my ceramics!

I haven't seen the final product from last years ceramics class. (I glazed them before I left but they didn't get fired yet.) I'm hoping they all came out amazing and that I can somehow do a deal with college to use the ceramics shed... We'll see.

So that's my list! Keep a look out, coz regular posting is about to begin! Yay! So excited :)