Rikki's Blog

November

rikki101 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:28:40 +0000

Originally uploaded by blackopey

This is the November inspired watercolour. I gave the original of this painting to a friend of mine as a birthday gift. I hope she enjoys her as much as I did to paint her. I’m quite pleased with they way she turned out.

October Watercolour

rikki101 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:27:55 +0000

September

Originally uploaded by blackopey

In an effort to continue to push myself to draw and paint I’ve come up with a project to grease the wheels. I’m currently working on a project with a wonderful pal oh mine. The project is a kind of monthly calender where we each paint or draw an image inspired by the months of the year. I’m hoping at the end we’ll each have a calendar of work, so to speak. I like this because we have a self imposed deadline. I find it difficult to accomplish things unless I am held accountable. Knowing that someone is anticipating my work every month or every couple of weeks helps to motivate me to complete my work. At any rate, this is the first month completed; the October inspired watercolour. I think I’m going to continue to do these little Manga inspired girls for each month… They’re cuteness!!

The dog ate my wedding flowers

rikki101 — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:49:31 +0000

I really REALLY like anemone flowers. I REALLY would like to use them in my wedding bouquet – I have NEVER seen them in stores up until last week, at get this, Country Grocer of all places! I would like to get the creamy white ones with the delicious black center like so pictured below.

But they only had these purple ones which are lovely too, so I picked them up. While I was outside happily snapping away some photos my little DEVIL dog came running up a sniffed the flowers ever so cutely – in order to recreate the moment Dale and I coxed him to sniff again so I could capture the Kodak moment. Much to my HORROR instead of gingerly sniffing the flower he decided to take a BIG OLD CHOMP! Oh my poor poor anemone flowers.

Wedding Crafts

rikki101 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:06:22 +0000

Quite possibly the only reason I agreed to get married, that and my gorgeous engagement ring and oh ya that guy I’ve been with for 10 years… him too, is for the lovely wedding crafts! There are a lot of stuff to do; general decorations, center pieces, jewelery, head/hair pieces, invitations, RSVP cards and thank you cards. Getting married is one great big craft fest. I’m quite enjoying digging through blogs to find the prettiest ideas and squirrel them away for my own uses. I’m a big fan of tissue paper so when I found this pom-pom craft on Martha Stewart I knew I wanted do it out our wedding. Here are some pictures of my testers.

I don’t know how I can incorporate these pinwheels put I wanna make ‘em! They are so pretty. I’m in the process of designing our invitations and now I’m looking for pretty paper to print it on. You’d think it would be easier then it actually has been…

Geisha Cross Stitch

rikki101 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:09:34 +0000

Technically this is my first ever cross stitch – I started in back in July 2008 and got it finished… I think New Years Day – but I did take a break to work on the cross stitch I made for Lavender. I had a great time watching the geisha unfold. I really enjoy cross stitch because it is so simple and yet so complicated. Plus it takes such a long time. I guess I really enjoying chipping away at something that seems so monumental and impossible and see that it can get done – slowly but surely!

This lovely geisha is living at my parents home. I thought she’d be particularly treasured there. I am currently working on the most insane cross stitch ever! Its like 20″ x 28″ and it’s a sampler from 1817 I believe. It is so gorgeous! I started all gung-ho and then I lost steam – I think it will take me maybe 2 years to complete – well at this rate I’ll be an old lady by the time it is completed. I’ve been distracted with all things weddings, so crafts have been on the back burner. I plan on getting back to the monster cross stitch soon. It’s gonna be the epic cross stitch of the ages.

We made it! Christmas 08 is down for the count!

rikki101 — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:53:58 +0000

Christmas this year was white and frozen! It hasn’t been this cold here in like, well, ever. It snowed something like 41 cm and Victoria was tied with Ottawa for the Canadian urban city with the most snow cover. This information is gleaned from the Victoria Times Colonist. I searched around to get confirmation on this information and I couldn’t it so we may just have to believe what that news paper said!

I made handmade marshmellow snowflakes and organic hot chocolate mix in a mug this year for my co-workers and a couple friends. The marshmallows were surprisingly easy to make but I think it almost killed my electric mixer! The marshmallows where SO sticky, but super tasty!

I made this music and bird themed decoupage keepsake box for my Auntie Carolyne. She is a music teacher and I thought she would like the theme. I’m really enjoying the decoupage process. I got fancy in some spots with the silver embossed sheet music.

Christmas is in the air

rikki101 — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:33:17 +0000

I have never been a big fan of Christmas. Santa is, if you actually think about it, totally creepy. I mean, seriously, this strange fat man is keeping track of EVERYTHING you do and then judging you accordingly. Plus he wants to you sit on his lap and whisper in his ear. If that isn’t creeps-ville I don’t know what is! Anyway, I’ve found the spirit of the season in the craft possibilities; cards, cookies, sweets, crafty presents, and lots of sparkling glitter. It’s all very festive and satisfying. Here are a couple Christmas things I’ve been working on.

Baby’s first completed cross stitch

rikki101 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:27:21 +0000

This is Baby’s first cross stitch. In more ways than one.

I am giving it as a Christmas gift for my niece Lavender (her first cross stitch from me) and it is my first completed cross stitch. I like how it turned out. Hip Hop

Applause Box

rikki101 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:38:25 +0000

These are photographs of my latest mad creation. The applause box. When I was about 12 or 13, I saw a TV program in which the character received an applause box. It was a box that she could open at anytime and bask in the joy of cheering and applause. I wanted a box like that and dreamed that one day I would have one like it.

As always, because I have better success in completing projects when I know they are destined for someone else, I decided to make it for my good friend Anna. I know that she is the kind of gal who would appreciate the awesome power of having cheers and applause at ones fingertips, at anytime, for no good reason other then the fact that one really needs a good cheer on every once and a while.

I started with a plain wooden box that I painted and decoupaged. (My first real attempt at decoupage or as we ended up calling it: de-POO-page) Thankfully, I have the pleasure and fortune of being shacked up with a fella who LOVES to tinker with ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. I asked him to help me with the electronic bits. He’s a wizard at that stuff and he whipped up the electronic bits in no time. It was such a pleasure to create together. This was our first project together. How special that it was created for our very dear friend and also a triumphant realization of a very old dream of mine. I am so pleased with how it turned out.