does that surprise you?

I Elevated some Envelopes again (if I do say so myself.) The theme of this season was "Malicious Surprise" and so I decided to make an interactive envelope to extend the suspense.

Each envelope is a tiny bit different (I did them by hand, after all), but each has the same paint-by-number styled surprise.

I included a mailable brush (adapted to be as flat as possible), a palate of watercolors, instructions to "paint in the * spaces", and several extra pages for water color doodling or postcard sending. 

I am all about the multipurpose. You might be so clever that you can tell what the surprise is from these photos, but if you can't, and can't live without knowing, click the next photo for a deconstruction of Tara's envelope.

Also, stay tuned- I might have painted versions to share from my pen-pals.

Wanna see what I did last time? Or the time before?

of these stuffed things

I haven't found any evidence that I was as creative (with my drawings) as most kids (I think I worried myself into realism, and kept the really creative stuff in my head. Ask me sometime about my mental movies.) BUT if I was, or I had kiddos, I would totally want some of these.

book love is in the blood.

So look at these and buy me some.

of the sparklies!

You have to know me pretty well before you realize beneath my everthing-is-eggshell-and-aqua exterior lurks what I have termed my "inner magpie".

That is- I LOVE SPARKLES and SHINIES. I am drawn to anything irridescent. I like metallics. I am secretly overjoyed by glitter. Really. I promise.

This is all background to explain why I find this so amazing....

of the way cats nap.

Seriously, how can he sleep like this? How is it possible? I am jealous.

of these amazing cell phone cases.

Look at these cases! I love them!
I wish the A wasn't the worst one, though.
(Suddenly wishing my name was Ilison.)

I've been seeing a lot of great cases lately.
I especially like these by the lovely Rachel.

that you don't have maps on your walls.

I have a wall-hanging-phobia. I usually just leave stuff stacked on the ground, or leave walls empty. After spending a few (COLD) nights in the guest room during the winter blackout I realized that the blank wall in there needed addressing.

So months later, I added some maps (get it? Maps? Addressing? hahaha)

I got a bunch of vintage maps from family a while back, and I love the character and colors. I chose three (Texas and Michigan to represent our roots, and Washington for obvious reasons) and popped them into Ikea frames (assisted by the lovely Kat, shown here) and hung them up before I could think about it too much.

It doesn't show in these pictures, but I love the feel of the guest room now. It's got this minimalist, relaxing feel. (Which Cooper also enjoys.)

I also added a topographical survey to the nightstand.

Remember the decorative fix for the closet door? It's still hanging in there- and it makes me happy.

and I'm having technical issues

No need to adjust your screen, or call Comcast again. I'm switching my site over, so photos might be missing for a bit.

Imma gonna be warm this winter.

The hot-hot-hot temperatures make this post extremely untimely. As you may know, we have a weird house built in the 70s in a Chalet Style. It has been poorly heated the whole time we've lived here, and so after a nearly 5 day power outage this winter, we decided to bite the bullet and install a wood burning store.

We don't ever do anything the normal way, so we decided to make a cast concrete stove pad, and inset it into the carpet (so I would never trip on it.) Eventually we will replace the carpet with something less... carpety.... but I think we'll keep the concrete pad.

The process of casting the concrete wasn't terrible- and after we saw the results we pledged to do more projects.

P made a mold out of veneered particle board.

We rented a little concrete mixer....

Poured a nice thick layer into the frame, knocked the sides to remove some of the bubbles, covered it, and let it set for a few days.

The result looked something like this. The side that was down against the wood came out smooth, with just a few air bubbles. 

The cats tried to help. Cooper even brought reinforcements.

Then we started carving into the multiple layers of strange flooring.

After a couple of adjustments, we slowly slid the pad in place. We still need to seal it, but I love the way it looks.

Voila. I am super excited to be warm this winter, come what may.

flower child.

The flowers above are one part

Crafting for Kittens class (where the lovely Laurie taught us to make crepe paper flowers), and one part

crafty day with the terrific Tara (who found this neato tutorial, and did her own thing to make some awesome poofs and flowers) (Pictured here without permission, bwahahaha.)

I can't follow directions, so I did my own thing using bits of all of it, with a little inspiration from the tissue paper tie-dye day. So here's how you'd make them, if you were me.

You will need a bunch of cheap supplies-

• A package of white coffee filters

• Scissors

• A set of liquid watercolors (above from Artist and Craftsmen in Seattle)

• A few bowls to dip into (they won't get ruined, no worries.)

• Floral Wire

• Wire cutters

• Floral Tape

Take a few coffee filters (1-6) and fold them in half over and over again, till you have a triangle.

Then trim the outside part of the triangle in curves, points, or anything you'd like. (The fun is in the 'sperimenting.) 

Pour the liquid watercolors into small dishes. Add water if you would like (not too much though, if you want rich colors.)

Dip one end into one color and let it slowly wick up the dye, then flip the folded filter and repeat in another color. I would recommend doing the lighter color first. You can also squeeze extra moisture out gently. 

Leave the pieces folded up, and allow to dry overnight. Make sure to leave airspace between your petal sets- they will transfer color if you aren't careful.

After dried, and opened, it should look something like this. Play with the number of filters you use- this one has 6, but I have even done a tiny single filter flower.

Measure out a double length of floral wire, folded at the end.

I have done some of these with button centers, and some without. If you are using a button, feed the wire through two of the holes, and leave the button at the doubled end.

Piece by piece, feed the filters onto the wires and bunch them up at the end.

After all your pieces are wired and bunched, start wrapping floral tape at the top. I usually do a couple of runs of tape directly under the petals, pushing them up as I go, then continue to wrap the stem all the way down. (Remember to stretch the tape to activate the adhesive.)

Rinse and repeat! But be warned...

if you have cats, you will have "help".

and so am I.

No Noodles from Tyler Nicolson on Vimeo.

and things are growing...

Hey, remember this? Well, a bunch of the plants took root, and after a little fight with the SLUGS we saw flowers....

and then the beginning of strawberries.

and finally, today.....

It's gonna taste good.

that I learned something.

This is what I found when I started wondering about how foil stamping worked.

these are a few of my favorite things!

Paper, and birds!

Monday Night Doodler.

I'm gonna doodle more- and you ain't gonna stop me.

of crafty times

We had a craft/making day on Saturday here at the house. We all did our own thing.... gorgeous box elevation, knitting, watercolor painting, nail painting, doodles, and glass etching (Which I'll show you later.)

 It was tons o' fun.
and it looked like this...

If you make a face when I photograph you, it will show up on the blog. 

that now being organized is even more fun.

I've been using the FlipOver books for over a year now- and I knew it was time for a version that's a little less serious...

So here you go- I just added the blue/green FlipOver2 to the FlipOver Planning collection. Each booklet will hook to any of the other FlipOver books so that you can make your own planning awesomeness.

NEW THINGS - Each book has a unique color print on the inside. The monthly planning books now each contain two months of planning instead of one (so you don't have to change out as often.) Everything else is just prettier and more blue!

Now here's a mess of eye candy.