Make it Yourself {Ribbon Board}

I saw something like this at the markets the other day, and instead of paying the $20+ they were asking for it, I decided to have a go at making my own. I’m so glad I did, because it was super incredibly easy, and cost me next to nothing.

All you need is:

* A Canvas (mine is 30cm x 30cm, and cost me $3.99 at a discount store)
* A piece of cute cotton-print fabric to fit over the canvas (I used some I already I had)
* Thumbtacks ($2.20 for a box of 200 from a Newsagency, I used about 20 of them)
* Some ribbon and ric-rac (I used some I already had)
* Some hooks (I used these ones from Ikea, which I already had. These hooks have plain hooks, as well as hooks with clips attached- they are meant to be for hanging shower curtains)

Cut the fabric to the right size, so that there is enough to wrap around the edges of the fabric and pin to the back. I cut it with pinking shears, to keep it neat and stop it from fraying, without needing to do any sewing or overlocking. Then you simply pin it onto the canvas.

The frame of the one I had bought was reasonably soft wood, and quite easy to push the thumbtacks into. I pulled the fabric nice and taut as I pinned each side, so that there were no creases and the fabric was tight across the surface of the canvas.

I made sure the corners were all tucked in and folded neatly.

Next, I picked a variety of ribbons and lace and ric-rac from my collection, and arranged it in a way that I thought looked good. I ran two lengths of fabric vertically down the board, but you could do more if you wanted. Again, I cut these long enough to wrap around to the back of the canvas, and pinned them in place with thumbtacks.

I plaited together three colours of ric-rac, and pinned them horizontally along the top of the canvas, to hang the clip-hooks from.

I used the thumbtacks to secure five of the normal hooks along the bottom of the canvas.

And that was it! All that was left to do was to clip Mayana’s hair clips and bows to the lengths of ribbon, attach special hair-ties and headbands to the clip-hooks, and hang her hair-ties on the bottom hooks. I attached it to the wall Command Brand Picture Hanging Strips (which are completely fabulous for renters, I’m totally in love with them at the moment!)

Mayana loves it, and for once all of her ‘hair-candy’ is in the same spot, and easy to find. And – bonus – it also looks *really* cute hanging on her bedroom wall.

So have a go! This would have to be one of these easiest projects around.. no sewing.. not even any glue! I reckon these would make great presents for little girls, and all for about $5.00!

This week I...

• Found the perfect bridemaid's shoes for my sister's wedding. She was in Dubbo at the time, so we had this frenzied session of mobile phone photos and phone calls before getting the bridal stamp of approval. It was pretty awesome because there were only 1 pair of size 6 left (me) and two pairs of size 7 (the other bridesmaids). AND they were on sale. 
• Perfected a design for crocheted fingerless mittens/wristwarmers. They're pretty darn cute. (Even if I do say so myself).
• Watched a fair bit of TV on DVD. It's the best way to do it. No ads. I have the complete series of both Gilmore Girls and McLeod's Daughters, and I bought my husband the first two seasons of Big Bang Theory for his birthday. It's our favourite comedy, and it's safe to say that Sheldon would just about have to be my favourite TV character at the moment. It makes me laugh out loud. My father nearly dies of an asthma attack every time he watches it. And he doesn't even have asthma so that's saying something!
• Watched the season return of Packed to the Rafters. Which is pretty much the best show ever. I think every family can relate to them in some way. Everyone seems to love it (at least judging by the amount of Rafters-related facebook status updates on Tuesday!). I love that it's a show about family, where the Dad is not a total tool (that is a pet-hate of mine - how all dads are portrayed as idiots in the majority of TV shows), and where the mum and dad still love each other, and kiss and hold hands (and obviously other things too, judging by the recent addition of little Ruby Rafter.... wah wah wah), and the brothers and sisters have arguments and mock each other but love each other to bits and would fight to the death if an outside attacked one of them. Aahh I just LOVE it!
• Visited My Favourite Hairdresser, and got an awesome new haircut and colour. Yes again. It's dark brown, but a warm-beige based brown, so it still had lots of shades of red and other vibrant colours when I'm in the sun. I've not been this dark before and I have to say I'm loving it. I didn't really get a haircut so much as a fringe cut. The rest of my hair stayed the same. I have now have a quite thick blunt straight-cut fringe. I. Love. It. A lot. It's a lot more high-maintenance than I usually go for - I mean I have to actually straighten it to make it fulfil it's potential as an awesome hairdo, but it's so worth it. I look hot (at least according to my husband, mum, sisters and even brother!!!).
• Went to the toy sale at Big W, and bought Mayana her very first babies. Yes there are two, and I'm now apparently a grandmother to a plastic set of twins, affectionately referred to as, "Mah-Buh-beees" (my babies). Mayana is in love, and carries them around patting and singing to them, and checks their 'nappies' and proclaims, "phooooooooo-ey!!!". She also loves to kiss them a lot. 
• Spent a day doing bridesmaid's duties with my sisters, the other bridesmaid and my mum. We visited the reception venue for a meeting, and then went on a hunt for the perfect veil and shoes.  The veil practically found us, but no such luck with the shoes. Apparently we have to wait for the next season for white shoes to come out. Which I think is pretty dumb, because don't brides need white shoes all year 'round? Seriously.
• Went to Starbucks TWICE! This is pretty much a lil taste of heaven for me. I adore Starbucks, and we don't have one in my town, and the Noosa one went ka-put in the great Starbucks-Shutdown (a very sad day in my family). So it was quite a treat. In case you're wondering, I had a Grande Caramel Mocha, and a Grande Caramel Java Chip Frappucino. And I savoured every last drop. Mmmm.
• Went to a lovely wedding of a friend (actually the guy who was the MC at my wedding). It was in Maleny, at the bride's parents GORGEOUS property. It was outside, with a most picturesque gully as the backdrop, topped off by a brilliant blue sky with perfect whispy white clouds. It was freezing. 11 degrees when the wind wasn't blowing -- and that didn't happen too often, believe you me. The bride and bridesmaid (the bridesmaid was actually the maid-of-honour in my wedding) both had strappy-type dresses, and very large goosebumps. They also wore awesome sneaker-type shoes. The bride had custom-made sunflower ones (sunflowers are the favourite flower of both the bride and groom, and were the theme of the wedding), with their names and wedding date on the backs, and the bridesmaid had funky high-tops. It was cool, you couldn't really see them, but when you're getting married in what is essentially a cow-paddock, it's definitely the practical option. And I bet it made for super-cool photos. The wedding was lovely, and the reception was great. The groom's speech was so darn romantic it bought tears to my eyes. I can't imagine how the lovely bride felt, having it written about her!!! I'm so happy for the both of them, and so very jealous of the MONTH LONG EUROPEAN HONEYMOON they left for today.
• Had a fabulous day at church. My family did the music, and can I just say we sound pretty darn good when we all sing together in perfect harmony (even if my dad is a harmony-stealer). My dad also preached, and did it very well. I'm so proud to be in my family! 
• Enjoyed watching Mayana play with her little cousin Hannah. When I say little I mean that she is four months younger than Mayana, but she is actually bigger in size. They were very cute together, and shared many hugs and kisses. I just hope Mayana didn't share her cold (sorry if she did Lisa!!).

So yes, it's been a busy, eventful, fun week, and so awesome to be spending it with my family!! I love being up here, and can't wait to be a full-time coastie again (fingers crossed!! We're praying for jobs around here somewhere when we graduate, and at the very least we'll have 3 months here).

I hope you enjoyed my update, and I'll have to pop back with illustrative photos (especially of my hairdo and the gorgeous wedding) sometime soon!

I hope you've had a lovely week also, I'd love to hear about it!!

Later gaze...

another new ‘do

I had my hair done yesterday. I can’t actually remember for sure the last time that I went, but I think it was before Perth.

It’s the first time in about six years that I haven’t gone to my wonderful Mel at Salon Unique. I felt a bit like a traitor, but I just really couldn’t get back to the Coast this time.

So instead, I went to a lovely lady named Shannon who has a little salon in the town where my grandparents live… where we start prac tomorrow (eeeek!! More on that later).

I went a little darker than I usually would, but with these really awesome briiiiiiight red (like the same colour as my glasses) foils in through the bottom. I love them! I also got a fringe cut back in, because I was looking through some old photos of when I used to have one and decided I like it and wanted it back.

I am quite happy with it all really – and she was the same price as my wonderful Mel, so it’s all good.

Anyway… here’s the new me:

 

You likey??

Haircut! Take two…

You may remember, a few months (wow that long!!???) ago I gave Pete my very first haircut, after a you-tube-hairdressing apprenticeship-in-45-minutes-or-less… teehee. It took two hours, but it was worth it!

Well, last night I took my second attempt. This time we were way more prepared and set up a huge old double bed sheet over the whole lounge room floor. Plus, between haircuts I had invested in a really nifty little set of clippers (to replace my crappy Silly Solly’s ones), from Harvey Norman’s grand opening sale – down to like $12.00 or something, from about $40!!!! So I had them, my awesome $9.00 Coles hairdressing scissors, a water spray and a hairdresser’s cape. And off I went.

This time it only took me just over half an hour! That impressed Pete immensely, and I am really happy with the cut. He is too, which is also a good thing.

So here he is, my spunky husband with his spunky new Zoey-cut :0)

So what do you think, should I go into business??

Adding a new skill to my repertoire: Hairdressing

My Petey was getting a wee bit shaggy looking, and I decided he needed a hair chop before our family portrait sitting. Trouble is, he’s been slugging away at his last uni assignment and we ran out of time to go to an actual hairdresser. So yesterday, I bought some “hairdressing scissors” from Coles for $10.00 (inverted commas because I’m sure my hairdresser Mel would quit before using them on a client’s hair) and a hairdressing cape for $6.00, also from Coles. The scissors could definitely been sharper, but they did their job okay.

After dinner, I watched some youtube videos about cutting men’s hair. Hehe. I have cut Pete’s hair once before. It didn’t go particularly well. The scissors I was using were bluntish, and we ended up going and buying some el cheapo clippers to fix things. I hacked off the rest of Pete’s long bits with the kitchen scissors (*blush*) and then went to work with a ‘number 4’ blade. Trouble was, the stoopid el-cheapo clippers number four was more like a normal clippers number 1. Or less. It was bad. Please God let not my husband become bald, because it is not a good look for him. Anyway. We wanted to avoid a reoccurrence of this type of debacle. Hence my youtube hairdressing apprenticeship.

I asked Pete if he was sure he trusted me about a kazillion times. He cruelly made jokes about “there’s always the clippers in the bathroom cupboard”. Meanie. We spread out the plastic mat that goes under her highchair; set Pete up with a terry towel and the hairdressing cape; I armed myself with a fine-tooth comb, a water spray bottle and my Coles scissors; took a deep breath and started to cut. Pete sat patiently and calmly watching Beauty and the Geek and the Amazing Race while he experienced The Longest Haircut in History.

And I’m pleased to say, hit patience paid off. I did a pretty decent job, if I don’t say so myself: (please excuse the hairy man-ness, he can’t help it)

  

Spunky huh?

Do you love my 'do?? ... I do!

I went to visit the wonderful Mel at Salon Unique today. Best hairdresser on the Sunshine Coast and I'm not ever joking.

Style cut and full colour for $65! You've gotta love that.

Plus, she always makes me look and feel GREAT!

Here's me and my new 'do...