Time for a new cute project ^^ Felt flower headbands

I had been wanting to make a flower headband for my daughter since a while, but with her Christmas concert upcoming in 2 days, tonight was the perfect timing.

Since I had never made anything from felt before, or used a glue gun, this project for me was venturing into a completely unexplored territory, therefore I stayed pretty close to this tutorial from shadandlizzie, and am pretty damn happy with the results :D It turned out to be really simple and fun to make!

Here's the red one she will wear for the Christmas concert (unless, of course, she decides that dress code: "red, green or white" must, obviously, include pink too ...)

Turns out taking indoor pics with my phone was not such a great idea ... oh well, there will be more headbands and more pics since I'm planning to make one for every little girl Jasmine or myself would like to give a little gift to =)

This is what's left over ... I must admit I kinda fell in love with that Martha Stewart glue gun! What a convenient and FAST way to superglue stuff and make sure it sticks.


 


crafting urges now sated, and this nerdling is off to bed!

/Mel

Simple and pretty Advent / Christmas Wreath Latvian style

I felt like making something cute and Christmasy this past Sunday ^^

I've been told that advent wreaths are a catholic tradition in many countries, but in Latvia everyone pretty much just gets them, regardless of their religious beliefs. They look so cute, and besides, Latvians are obsessed with candles, especially during autumn and winter months =)

We did not have any materials at home, nor any possibility to visit a florist shop, so decided to just go for a stroll in the park and just around the neighbourhood, and this is the loot we came up with:
 

Picked up all kinds of beautiful natural materials: a few small Christmas tree branches, some dried flowers from the road side, as well as super cute red and white berries on tried out stems!

Got home all giddy and ready to make something cute out of it.






 I don't have any florist training whatsoever, and did not also have special cables or fastenings to hold the branches together, so did what I usually do: just use what I've got and Keep It Simple!


We took a large flat cookie tray to use as a base (because I realized it will not be sturdy enough to move around much). Than I selected 2 of the skinniest branches and folded them together, forming a makeshift circle. They are tied together with a simple brown knitting yarn ^^

I then proceeded to lay the remaining 5 branches around my circle along with the red berries and some of the dried flowers. I used simple black thread to tie them together loosely.

I also found some golden ribbons I made last year for our Christmas tree and attached them to the wreath using short metallic attachments from old tree decorations.





Since I did not want to go all fancy and try to make candle holders placeable on the wreath itself, I put a simple brown ceramic bowl inside it, with the bottom side up. Four simple tea candles went on top of it. Voila, our beautiful wreath was ready to look all pretty and festive on our dinner table ^^

We also used a simple vine and the white berries to make a cute little wreath to hang on the entrance door :) This one literally took 5 minutes to make (and half an hour to figure out how to hang it >.<) and looks soooo pretty on the door!

Have a beautiful and peaceful Christmas time,

/Mel

Welcome to Creative Nerdling

My ultimate goal in life is to be happy. So simple ... and sometimes, so hard, because I often waste too much time wishing for things that I think will make me happy, not realizing that happiness is right here, and living in tomorrow is futile.
Ultimately, happiness does not come from what happens in our lives. It comes from our attitude towards it. And the great thing about it? Attitude is something we can change ^^

Attitude can turn a situation that one person might find desperate and miserable into a blissful, amazing experience someone else is grateful for ...

One cold winter day about a year ago I was unemployed and totally broke. On top of being jobless, I was also divorced and learning to live as a single mom with no family network to rely on for support. Sounds like a mess? It kind of was.
I was walking around downtown after having visited some government agency for paperwork when I noticed ads from the blood donation agency: they were having a campaign right there, downtown, i a spot close to lots of offices. Without much thinking, because i had been wanting to become a blood donor since many years, I went in and told them I want to donate.

I ended up spending about an hour talking with an elderly nurse,
a totally amazing and inspirational woman who really liked me and had such a superbly positive attitude, donated blood, and basked in everyone's positive and glowing attitude. I left the blood drive inspired and uplifted, feeling so grateful that I was healthy and in the position to GIVE, and with a new bounce in my step.

Did I get any richer? Nope. Did it somehow solve my life complications? Of course not. But the overwhelmingly positive environment and the change of attitude totally turned the day around for me, and made me realize what a lucky little nerdling I am.

This blog is here to share things that inspire me, creative things I make, the little joys I find bliss in, and hopefully someone will find something of it helpful or inspirational~

/Mel