EKO's Crafty Life

After my sister saw the hat I made for Winterama she instantly requested I make a pink one for her little angel. After a difficult search for soft chunky pale pink yarn... seriously it was so hard to find one in a nice pink! Here are the results.  I think if I make this hat again with out the stripes I will avoid the seam formed by slip-stiching each row together and just crochet in the round.  also since this hat was for a slightly older child I decided to not add the ear flaps this time. My daughter modelling the hat before sending it off to my sister.

My old university room mate recently made and posted a link on one of her blogs  to some raspberry Lemon Marmajam ( half raspberry jam half lemon marmalade) and ever since then I have been wanting to try it.  so last night I finally got around to making some. I decided to add oranges to the mix since I have always loved the combination of orange and lemon I was also was hoping to make this a little less bitter since I want my nearly 4 year old to like it aswell. I took a few shots during the process however I did forget partway through.  Also I made a few changes to the recipe, I will share the recipe after the photos.  Lemons and Oranges ready to peel.  Zest of the citrus ready to boil. Lemon an Orange segments.  All ingredients in the pot simmering away- including the jelly bag and thermometer. Mmmmmm the final product. Raspberry Lemon-Orange Jamalade This Recipe will make ...

Day Seven Today we managed to do some plumbing, put the three pieces of the tub together, pre-drill some holes and glue on supports for the shower rod and bars. Day Eight All the plumbing is finally attached... Finally able to have a bath again!

On day five my parents arrived in order to be able to help install the new tub. I did clean of one of the old painted tiles to reveal that it was not as hideous as I once thought it must have been. On day Six  The old tub was removed, the opening for the new tub and enclosure was built including raising the celing to make room for the enclosure... and the opening of the air return vent was closed in

Day four the tub arrives!

Last post of valentine crafts... at least for this year!  I saw a tutorial over at craftster quite a while ago and was reminded of it recently and decided it would be fun to do with my 3 year old while the baby slept.  this craft is perfect for all kinds of paper crafts including scrap booking. The craft involves spraying some foam shaving cream in cookie sheet and then adding some food colouring and running a stick or tooth pick through the foam to mix up the colours. the next step is to lay your paper in the foam and pull up, let it sit for a few min and them off with a paper towel in one direction then finally let it dry for a few more min, and voila marbled paper. An envelope for dads valentine card here are our results.  there was minimal mess but i do suggest you clean it up quickly or you could have a bit of a stain on your work surface.  also I used gel food dies as that was all I had on hand next time I will be sure to  thin them out a bit with wat...

So day three arrived and I was feeling awful... huge sinus headach,  so I took a nap in the morning and unforunately did not wake up until about 30 min after the baby went down for her nap, 3 and a half hours later she was still napping... finaly I was able to get started again... it went incredibly quickly. Day Three Step One remove the rest of the drywall the remaining wall and ceiling to me a little more than an hour including time to clean up the  bits of drywall and and nails form the room.  the things you find when you removes walls... this return vent does not appear to be attached to a vent.  However it looks like the dry wall may have been acting as the vent will have to look closer once the tub is removed. And the best part of day 3... one last bubble bath to relax before the new tub is installed!

Here is a quick pic of my little one enjoying her gummy rose on a stick I showed you yesterday . Yes she still has bed head... try and convince a little girl with curly hair that you need to comb it out even if she is not going any where today!

To make the valentines day card last for the little ones I decided to make some fabric envelopes  to put a little note and some chocolates in and then the envelopes can be reused to play house and mail-man (one of my girls favourite games.  to make a pattern for the envelope I just ripped an existing envelope open and traced it on to the felt and then sewed the seams up. I added a little stamp and free hand stitched their names on it with my sewing machine ( unfortunately it is a little crocked... oops) My girls have been play with these all morning!

Valentine Chocolat Pops; the tutorial I Love to arrange treats on a stick for my guests to eat or take home as a snack. I have been making these since I was a little girl with my mom, and now that she does not make them any more I have been given all her old molds.  Yes I have an entire cupboard full of molds! The Tutorial The first step is to melt the coloured chocolate that you will be using to paint the front of the pops, I uses little ceramic bowls made my Wilton  for just this purpose to microwave the chocolate on half power (I use the defrost setting) and keep it warm while working Using these bowls allow you to use small amounts of chocolate and not worry about getting water into the chocolate from the steam of your double boiler. one tip is to be sure you do not put a bowl in the middle of your microwave this is a sure fire way to burn that chocolate that is why I put them on the outside of a plate also this gives you something...

 My little one had a great time making butter flies for her friends using the template found at S kip To My Lou .  It is hard to tell in this picture however My daughter coloured pictures and wrote the name of her friends on the card then we added some antennae to the butterflies instead of eyes since there was no need for glue this way.

This is not entirely crafty but it is definitely a project and there will be decorating involved so I figured I would share my Renos with you. Well it is finally time to update our main bathroom and get rid of the painted tile! this has been annoying me since we moved in nearly 5 years ago. Now I want to apologise I forgot to take a proper before picture so this on is actually before we moved in so the accessories are not mine however the tile and wallpaper were still there ( half peeling off paper and paint) 4 plus year later. again I forgot to take pictures as I first started Day one Over a series of 15 min bursts of work I removed the drywall on the left of this picture, no more than an hour total time. Day 2 Next was the tile   it took me about 30 min to remove all the tile form this wall. it came of fairly easily. On the morning of day 2 The new tub arrived and as you can see there was a lovely gouge/ scratch in it! ...

Making our Own paper for Valentine Cards  Earlier this week we decided to embark on a paper making mission to make our own special valentine cards here is the adventure. First the little ones ripped up an old egg carton and some old colouring sheets and place the pieces in a food processor ( the food processor was not plugged in at this point) We added some water and they got to make the machine go... that is when they were not running away hiding from the noise. There next step was to add some food colouring and sparkles  to the mix, the colour deepens as the paper dries Next the little ones spread a thin layer of the pulp into the decal ( i got this one in a craft kit at a thrift shop however they can be made from some fine screen and wood) and pressed some of the excess water out ( I know this is not the normal way but it produces a thinker paper that will still dry fairly quickly.) I then placed the paper on some parchment paper and pl...