Monday, May 29, 2006

the artful podger*

i have turned over a new leaf. this new leaf is one of frugality. see, despite previous expectations, i am not working as much as i had hoped. this should change when i have completed my training, but for now, its been a few weeks since i've had a pay check, so jarrod and i have done several things we've never really done before. such as: we went grocery shopping. we walk places that we normally would have taken a subway to. and i decided to do a few crafts, to add some colour and flair to the place, and because, with no money but lots of time, i needed something to keep my busy.

when he moved in, jarrod brought with him a rather old bookcase. i believe his grandpa picked it up by the side of the road. i decided to re-vamp it. because i have this philosophy: things that hold books are my friends. so i decided to podge it, my finish fix-it for all types of furniture. once upon a time, way back in second year, a friend of mine brought with her to ottawa an interesting book case. it was very attractive with a very unique finish. turns out, this finish was called "podging." podging is basically taking paper and covering it with podge (which itsef is half glue, half paper mache, and the end result is a tough finish that i would venture is even waterproof). shortly after seeing amanda's dresser, i decided i needed something podged. see, i am not extremely crafty (other than cross stitching back in the day), but i knew i could handle podging. so, i went out to The Papery, a very fancy paper store in the glebe. and i bought fifty bucks worth of paper. fancy green paper. and i podged a book case. i decided that i would podge jarrod's old book shelf. so we headed to china town where i bought this very pretty paper, six sheets of it, for eight dollars. i love china town. this is the work in progress:


since i knew i was going to be feeing crafty, i stopped by the inforum in order to coerce another girl who i knew could be coerced. we decided to make these cute little lanterns from Bust magazine. basically, paper mache over balloons. the original instuctions were for string lanterns, but tasha and lorien innovated and added tissue paper. this is the evidence that i have that yes, we spent saturday night crafting (and it was fun!):



however, i unfortunately have a terrible update to add to this crafting night. by the following evening, many of the balloons had popped, leaving caved in, irregularily shaped, ugly ugly ugly lanterns. i am sorry, tasha and lorien, that you had to find out this way. it seems like all of our hard work was a wash. i thought about posting pictures, but decided it would be too painful.


* title suggested by jarrod, rather spitefully, but to which i immediatly was fond. in fact, if i could go back in time, this whole blog would be about podging. bookshelves, crates, chairs, everything...










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