Category Archives: Crafts

DIY: Revamped Wicker Bench Seat

By monnibo | Published: June 12, 2011

In February I visited a neat secondhand store called FilmGo, located in Vancouver on the edge of Burnaby. This undiscovered thrift store is full of props, furniture and knick-knacks from various film sets which means awesome vintage and era pieces. It also means that you can find some neat gems for a good price — if you’re willing to look. I left with a $10 fishbowl and a $60 wicker bench seat. The fishbowl became a terrarium (see my article at GardenWise Magazine online) and I have just finished reviving the wicker bench seat.

Also posted in Sewing | Tagged chest, DIY, fix, home decor, reupholster, sewing, trunk, wicker bench seat | 5 Comments

Insert Witty Title Here

By monnibo | Published: June 9, 2011

Day to day, as I browse the web, I find awesome things I like to share. Sometimes I share them via Facebook or Twitter, and other times, they deserve a round-up post. Here are a couple great things I’d like to draw your attention to, and also some general updates / housekeeping. Slave Lake Book Auction Recent wildfires in Alberta destroyed nearly half of the town of Slave Lake, including the newly completed, 18-month-old library. This Globe & Mail article sums up the library’s history, renovation, and devastation. It’s hard to imagine that loss to a community and it makes me teary-eyed just thinking about it. The library is accepting donations of books less than 2 years old, but they also need money for computers, furniture, construction, etc. So Colleen McKie, a Canadian living on the East Coast, has organized the Slave Lake Book Auction. Go bid (just not against me) for a good cause! Featured Reader at House of Anansi Press Check it out!! I’m the Featured Reader over at the House of Anansi Press for June 2011. Trish tweeted that they were looking for a blogger/reader to feature for June and I jumped at the chance. I am so honoured and excited. I love House of Anansi Press — they produce wonderful books, have gorgeous designs, and authors/illustrators/reviewers/employees all seem to have nothing but good things to say. While I may not love every book I read that has been published by Anansi, I love the diversity of [...]

Also posted in Books, Knitting, Out & About, Personal, Sewing, Sharing | Tagged art, diana gabaldon, fundraising, home decor, house of anansi press, outlander series, sewing, slave lake book auction, vancouver art, vancouver history | 3 Comments

FO: Fingerless Gloves

By monnibo | Published: March 25, 2011

Me yarnbombing with my fingerless gloves on. Photo by Jason Vanderhill

I finished my fingerless gloves a few weeks ago. I had a big issue with the sewn bind off because I thought it looked sloppy. I got really picky about the finishing techniques on the gloves since they’d be under such scrutiny. It wasn’t like a cowl or scarf where I’d only see it in the mirror. I am relatively happy with them, but still wish I had better finishing techniques. The photos are by Jason Vanderhill (who did the photographs for the yarn bombing article I wrote). I was wearing the gloves during yarn bombing and Jason took photos of us working, inadvertently getting nice photos of my fingerless gloves.

Also posted in Crochet, FO, Knitting, Out & About | Tagged finished object, FO, historic joy kogawa house, jason vanderhill, joy kogawa, Knitting, yarnbombing | 3 Comments

I’m in your tree, covering it in yarn

By monnibo | Published: March 6, 2011

Me in the cherry tree, yarnbombing at Historic Joy Kogawa House

Literally. Today was the day — the official yarnbombing of Joy Kogawa’s cherry tree. I contributed about 100 blossoms and arrived this afternoon to help install the yarn blossoms (and bark!) on the tree. The executive director of the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society managed to get a fire engine with ladder to help install the blossoms in the higher branches. My dad also dropped off a ladder and I made my way up into the tree (I probably should have signed some sort of liability waver first, eh?). It was a gorgeous sunny day; the first day of Spring in my mind. And the tree looked absolutely fantastic. There were well over 500 blossoms by my guess, and it was amazing to see the literary community collide with the yarn community. Fantastic day. Photo above of me in the tree taken by my friend, Jason Vanderhill of IllustratedVancouver. Photos below taken by me. Finishing touches on the cherry tree bark | My “tag” with one of the blossoms I made. Finished tree full of blossoms. Even started covering the apple tree beside it and the neighbour’s tree!

Also posted in Crochet, Knitting, Out & About, Photos / Videos, Sharing | Tagged charity, cherry blossoms, Crochet, historic joy kogawa house, joy kogawa, Knitting, leanne prain, mandy moore, ravelry, vancouver, yarnbombing | 7 Comments

Cherry Blossom Yarn Bombing Prep

By monnibo | Published: February 10, 2011

A couple months ago I saw a tweet from Leanne Prain, one of the authors of the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit and Crochet Graffiti. The tweet linked to the yarn bombing website and said they were organizing a yarn bombing of the Historic Joy Kogawa House’s cherry tree. This immediately sparked my interest as it merged two of my passions—yarn and books! And I immediately knew the perfect yarn to use (from my stash too) and started crocheting blossoms. I also had a thought— at my new internship I’ve got the chance to contribute to various magazine websites (I’m in the digital editorial department). So I mentioned the yarn bombing to Granville Magazine‘s editor, Hilary Henegar. She liked the idea and said to go ahead with the article.