Creations

I love to make things.


I love to give my own creations as gifts, or have them around the house.
Dan is extremely creative and i love working with him to make something for someone, or for our home.
We love to create.
whether with pen and paper, paints, wood, metal... whatever we can.


This page is for our creations. For me to be proud of some of the things Dan has made, some that I have helped with as well as some of my own.
I have already blogged about how I love photography, now is the time to share some other things I have had one or two hands in helping create.


Sept 11 2013

so have i showed you this yet?
this is our bathroom door.
we found this beautiful 5 paned door at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and picked it up immediately.
dan removed the white paint, took out the glass, and sanded and stained the wood.
then he cut some more glass and adjusted it to be able to put some pictures within it.
the photograph was taken by myself or dan when were in Yosemite on our trip out west back before we had kids.  it's Yosemite falls if i'm correct in my memory.
so we had it printed out to the dimensions of the door, then cut it to fit within each pane and placed it behind the glass.
we love it.
the other side currently has photos from a National Geographic magazine that we like - we were going to do some of our photos on the other side, but hasn't happened yet.
we love our bathroom door.

Mar 4 2012

Sometime in the summer my mom told Dan what she would love for Christmas.

A new headboard.  

She didn't know how long it had been living with just a frame, and no headboard, butit had been quite a while.

Dan figured out what he would do for them. 

In October my parents moved from a house to an apartment. 

and the frame went with them. 

Dan found a tree in our back bush that was leaning the amout he wanted for the headboard. 

so he got it, cut it to size, peeled the bark off and proceeded to cut it in half.  after our table saw died during the procedure he had to use the skil saw, but it worked.  then he bought the wood he needed for the headboard. 

He stained it all and kept it apart until we got down to Toronto, for January. 

We celebrated Christmas with my family the first week of January, which worked well, since Dan did most of the work between Christmas nad New Years Eve. 

when we got to toronto we put it together in my dad's study.

Then it was time to attach it to the bed frame.

Then the reveal came. 

My parents loved it.  there's a shelf up top, and my parents have a couple framed photos sitting up there.

I love watching the reactions when people receive the gifts i know have been crafted with a lot of time and love.

Merry Christmas mom & dad.

May 2011

I have a niece. 

Her name is Jade. 

I wrote about her in a past entry.

when I had my kids she always loved the babies blankets and how soft they were.  She wanted a big blanket for herself made out of the same material. 

I kept that idea in my head and for Christmas(?) one year I made her this blanket. 

I bought blanket material at the WalMart fabric department (when it still existed here) and took some time cutting and sewing it together.  the back was actually taken from a velux(?) blanket dan and I had - i just cut it to fit.
Jade was quite surprised by this, and I am so glad I made it for her - it has gone many places with her, and kept her cozy & warm. 
Love you J@de!


Apr 19 2011

Dan and I took a road trip down the west coast from the CDN border to somewhere in California, where we cut inland over to Yosemite.  We stopped and checked out the Sequoias.  WOW, absolutely gorgeous trees so massive and truly unbelievable.

the photos we took could never capture the size so Dan took these three photos and we placed them together in this frame.  it is a favorite of many of our friends who see it.

We actually printed 3 more photos and boughta new frame and put it in an auction at our church.  i think it brought in about $45 for the mission trip. 

If you ever have a chance to see the Giant Sequoias out west, I highly recommend it.  These giants are spectacular.




Jan 9 2011

Every year we have what we call U.S Christmas.  It's with a few families who we started out celebrating American Thanksgiving and then a Christmas gathering was added and then a summer one - they have become our American Celebrations. 

Anyway, we draw names for our Christmas gift exchange.  I drew Jamie's name that year and had to get him something.  I decided that i wanted to make him something as well, so this is what I made him.. I forget what year it was and if their oldest kid was born yet or not, but I thought him and his awesome wife, Vanessa, would enjoy this.   

I don't know if it's up at their home.  But I enjoyed making it for them.  I love working with wood, and have made a few of these types of things, which will be shared in future posts.

Nov 24 2010
Since it's a month before Christmas Eve I'll show a Christmas gift that Dan and I made one year.

Alright so it's 5 gifts we made one year.  Dan used to work as an arborist and had access to some nice trees.  He brought some home and I think we even took some downed from the back bush.

Anyway, i forget what the wood was, but Dan spent many hours out in the garage shaping and forming these beautiful paddles.  we were living at his parents' in the basement apartment, and had to try to make these without them noticing.

Dan's younger sister and his older sister and her husband were coming out that Christmas so 5 paddles it was.  A lot of work but so worth it.  When dan was done creating these beautiful paddles I had the job of wood burning the logo we wanted.  Each paddle is personalized with their first names.

once complete with names, the wrapping began.  Dan was a genius in the wrapping.  so much so that his mom had no idea - even as Jill, Kristen and Kevin unwrapped and revealed paddles.  She was honestly shocked to unwrap her own paddle.  Such creative wrapping.

We each have our own paddle too, and have loved using them.  I think we need to make one for our other brother in law now too.  maybe if Jill and Tyler would get out here for a Christmas we would make him one!     

Nov 16 2010

I made a quilt.

I had made a quilt one time before - that one I will talk about another time.

This one was for a good friend who had been the Camp Director at a camp that is very dear to my heart, Camp Widjiitiwin.  He had been the camp director for some special years - but had worked at camp for many many years before.  

His job was coming to an end one summer and I wanted to do something special for him to truly show him how much i appreciated his love for that camp.  we had worked together for a few of those years, and he had asked Dan and I to help him out with many aspects of the summers even when we couldn't give our complete summers.

He loves the camp, it was home to him, and I gathered all the camp t-shirts form his 'director years'.  and began creating this quilt. 

what a pain in the butt it was.  i was making it up as i went, but was so excited to see it come together.

I was quite pleased with the final product and was glad to surprise him and his wife with the gift.

Thank you Bill for your years as Widji Director.

--**---**--**---**--**---**--**---**--**---**--**---**--**---**-