Archives for posts with tag: gifts

Herbal Creativity Spa Weekend: Valentine

January 19, 2011 //

truffle magic!

The pinnacle of the dark, dreary days of winter is a purgatory that rests between Christmastime and Spring… February. Installed into February is a day that is supposed to be a celebration of “Love”. Many lament the commercialisation of Valentine‘s Day, and resent the high expectations and sadness that come with so many of our holidays.

Traditional Valentine’s expectations dictate that one should enjoy chocolates, give expensive gifts, and be in love. Well, let’s take some of the good from those traditions and embrace them! Even if you are single, you deserve some chocolate. Actually, you deserve more chocolate. Feeling a bit bloated after a winter’s eating? This is an opportunity to sharpen your skills in making HEALTHY treats. Herbal-infused organic chocolate truffles, anyone? Or perhaps a cup of Healthy Hot Chocolate? True love. Love is in a good cup of tea, a soothing bath that invigorates the spirit, or a beautiful hand-made gift box to hold treasures.

The brains behind the Fleurbain concept, Tammy Schmidt, Clinical Herbal Therapist and Natasha Henderson, visual artist and arts instructor, are offering an Herbal Creativity Spa Weekend workshop in February. There is an option to take one or both days during the Herbal Creativity Spa Weekend, on Friday the 11^th from 7 to 10pm and Saturday the 12^th from 1 to 4pm.

Friday night, we will enjoy a relaxing glass of wine (or herbal tea) with some dessert treats and fine cheese. Participants will learn how to make an herbal Love Potion. The Love Potion is a special euphoric herb that is distilled in a vodka base. Everyone will get to take home a sample of this to try themselves! Tub Teas are all the rage, and for good reason. What could be better than infusing your entire body in an organic, herbal bath that is designed to soothe the body, mind, and spirit? Participants will learn some of the properties of the herbs used in this special Valentine’s Tea Bath, and take home a sample. Finally, we will make a Boudoir Gift Box, a gift box made from scratch that will be decorated with fine fabrics, papers, lace, and beads. It will be suitable as a gift box for chocolates, jewellery, fine treasures… and can be re-used to hold your favourite special things.

Saturday afternoon starts off with a healthy, delicious beginning. Participants will learn how to make Healthy Hot Chocolate (yes, this version is truly healthy), and enjoy a cup. While sipping our treat, we will make organic chocolate truffles, which will be flavoured with high quality, organic herbs for unique flavours. These are perfect to tuck into the Boudoir Boxes made the previous evening. Then we will think about the physical and mental well-being that a good bath brings, and make a felted soap loofah for our next bath. These soaps combine sheep’s wool with a high-quality Ginseng or Evening Primrose soap to be an exfoliating and moisturising addition to your bath. Finally, we will create a batch of Love Tea to take home and enjoy.

All courses use the finest quality, pure and organic ingredients. Take one afternoon or evening for $75, or treat yourself (or a friend!) to both sessions for $135. Location of workshops will be in a Montreal artist’s studio, converted to a Valentine’s Factory for our workshops. Please email fleurbain(at)gmail.com for information and registration.

Tags bath, care, caring, Chocolate, class, classes, Craft, dark chocolate, felted soap, food, gifts, health, healthy, Herb, herbal, Herbal tea, herbalism, infusion, love, love potion, luxurious, luxury, mental health, Montreal, organic, quality, Shopping, single day workshop, soap, special, tea, teas, tisane, treats, truffles, valentine day, Vodka, workshops

Categories Art, de toute beauté, herbalism, workshops

Last last last last last last minute DIY gift idea…

By natashahenderson

December 24, 2010 //

Basic, basic, basic supplies are all that's needed for this gift. That, and an idea.

When I was a kid and Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day or Easter or a birthday or… any holiday rolled around, I would break out the felt pens and paper and glue and scissors. I would make my family and friends little imitations of “real world” honours, things like badges, crowns, and certificates. When I grew a little older I transferred this urge to cut, draw and paste my gifts into the idea of specialized coupons.

Coupons are great to offer services that cannot be wrapped up in a box: “One Free Car Wash”, “One Free Babysitting”, “One Dozen Cookies (need 24 hours notice)”, “A Vacuum of The Entire House”… you get the idea.

You could use some of the simple book-binding skills we covered the other day, as I did in the example below. Simple-simple! I just cut may paper to size, stapled once. I took care that the pointy-bits of the staple went to the inside. I also cut a little into each page just inside from the “binding”, so my coupon-recipient would find it easy to rip them out of the little book.

Easy gift: Proving that it's the thought that counts.

All of the papers in the Coupon Book were destined for Recycling… they’ll still be recycled, just are being diverted along the way.

Natasha Henderson in Montreal, wishing everyone a Happy Holiday and a Merry Christmas!

Tags Christmas, coupon, coupons, crafts, DIY, Do it yourself, Easter, easy, fast, gift, gifts, Holidays, Home, ideas, Mother's Day, paper, presents, services, simple, valentine day, Xmas

Categories recipes

DIY presents for the felines

By natashahenderson

December 22, 2010 //

A simple sewn oval-shape, complete with bell and catnip inside...

Simple toys for your and your friends’ cats are an easy gift to DIY at this close-to-the-end juncture. Little mouse-shapes, balls with catnip and crumply things inside (such as plastic packaging) are simple to make. Just cut a circle or oval shape, sew it together “inside out”, then turn “outside out”, and sew on a little patch for ears/face.

Mice are nice! If... you are a cat.

I used felt for the body, and then sewed a little ball of wool on top as a nose. When I stitched the two oval pieces together, I took a piece of raffia and set it to be the tail. It’s a double-tail, for a super- fun mouse that is beyond the usual. Also, by doubling the raffia (or wool) there is less chance of the tail being ripped off during exuberant play.

Another idea you could make for a kitty (and their human pals) is a little set of Cat-Grass. My cat-grass is a staple in Iggy’s diet (my cat’s name is Iggy) as he is a completely-housebound cat. He needs some greens in his diet to aid in digestion, and to keep the barfsies at bay. We are all happy when Iggy has a supply of cat-grass. You can give your friends a little cute pot of dirt, and a little packet of either cat-grass (available at many pet stores) or oat seeds, if you can find them.

Kitties appreciate cat-grass. If your cat "throws it up" the first day, don't hide the grass from your cat. They've just binged due to excitement. Once cat-grass is a regular part of your pet's life, that won't happen any more.

Natasha Henderson, purring in Montreal

Tags Cat, cat gifts, cat presents, cat toys, cat-toy mice, catnip, cats, Cats and Dogs, Christmas, crafts, DIY, DoItYourself, Felt, felt mice, gifts, grass, mice, Nepeta cataria, oats, pet health, pets, raffia, sewing, Toy, toy mouse

Categories cats

DIY: Simple Book-Making

By natashahenderson

December 20, 2010 //

The book Random, Absurd Poetry is an externally bound book. You can see excerpts from this book on this website.

We’re getting into the crunch-time for gifts, be they DIY or store-bought. We all love DIY gifts… but who wants to shop for supplies right now? It’s mayhem out there! One thing you can make out of simple materials that you might have on hand, is a book.

A book’s construction has three basic elements: the covers, the pages inside, and some sort of binding-method. I won’t go into the intricacies of book-binding here, but I will suggest some simple ideas for book-making.

A long strip of paper glued together, and a couple of covers form a simple book.

When I took a book-making course back in college, the very first book we made was a zig-zag accordion format book. Basically, we took pieces of paper and glued them together to form a long strip, then folded that strip into a zig-zag. We then cut some hard board to a little larger than the folded pages, and glued the accordion of paper inside the two covers. Simple.

You could leave the book blank, or fill it with art, poetry, a story... etc.

Another idea for simple book-making is to just staple. Make your cover, make some pages for inside, and add a couple of staples to “bind” them all together. A lot of poets and underground zine publishers use this method to make their books.

A little more fancy idea, but very beautiful, is to create an external binding. I have three examples of this: in one, my friend used an elastic and a stick to bind his book. In the two others I used materials to “sew” the covers and pages together.

This poetry Chapbook is small, just a few pages held together with two staples.

Now, as for the covers, I do recommend a board that is not soft and mushy like corrugated cardboard. However, if that’s all you have, then perhaps gluing a couple of pieces together would be sturdy enough to use. You can cover the covers of your book with decorative paper or fabric, just wrap it like a present. On the insides of the covers glue another piece of paper on top to cover the ugly-bits nicely. Really take a good look at some of your older, bound books. You’ll see a real artistry to it. One of these days, maybe in February, I’ll go over some more intricate book-binding options.

My friend's book on the left, my book on the right. Just punch holes through the covers and insides of the book, and you can bind.

The insides of the book? That’s up to you! You could share a favorite family story, a children’s story, draw a cartoon, paste some photographs… share some favorite poems, or leave it blank. Everyone needs notebooks!

Natasha Henderson, Montreal

Tags art, book, book-arts, Bookbinding, books, cartoons, Chapbook, chapbooks, Christmas, crafts, DIY, Do it yourself, family, gift idea, gifts, Montreal, paper, poetry, Publishing and Printing, self-publishing, stories

Categories Art

Tips for a Green Christmas – part two

By tammyschmidt

December 17, 2010 //

Green Christmas tip of the day: Take something boring and add BUTTONS! I love buttons. I remember spending hours playing with mason jars full of buttons at my Gramma’s (She was a seamstress) They are fun for making jewelry, adding cute details to clothes, mitts, backpacks, and for making easy tree decorations… to name a few. All of these would make a lovely Christmas gift. (And if you have someone on your list like me, just wrap up a bundle of buttons!)

Thanks to Brooke McCartney-Langdon for a brilliant variety of photos illustrating her Green Christmas Tip!

button snowman

too cute!

button wreaths

fashion bracelet

Tags backpack, Button, Christmas, craft ideas, DIY, environmentally friendly, gifts, gifts for children, green Christmas tip, green tip, Holidays, jewelry, Recycling, Santa Claus, Shopping, wreath

Categories de toute beauté, Uncategorized

DIY Gift Idea: Bottlecap Magnets

By natashahenderson

December 16, 2010 //

Last Christmas one of my favorite gifts to receive was a set of handmade fridge-magnets. My pal made these with old bottlecaps (never throw them away again!), glue, magnets, images, and glitter. Remarkably simple, and completely fantastic. This link provides clear instructions on how to make them, but basically, you just need to apply those objects together in a way that makes sense. One good note is that “you want to glue the non-magnetic side so to the bottle cap and leave the magnetic side exposed so it adheres to metal.” Yup!!!

My friend gave me a Catholic picture to remind me of her, and two Simpsons images chosen especially for me.

Natasha Henderson in Montreal

Tags Bottle cap, bottlecap magnets, Christmas, Craft, crafts, creative ideas, decoupage, DIY, fast, fun, gifts, glitter, glue, ideas, inexpensive, Magnet, magnet crafts, magnets, Montreal, presents, Shopping, Xmas

Categories Art, de toute beauté

Wet-Felting Book + a tip for a fast, easy craft to do in the meantime!

By natashahenderson

December 14, 2010 //

A few months ago I taught felt-making and other craft techniques to a large group of students. The project was massive, and very rewarding for me to see what the kids could do. While working there I received a pretty neat book as a gift. If you are really motivated to learn a new craft right now in time to make “stuff” for Christmas gifts, you could try some of the projects in this book: “Felt (Handmade Style)“, by India Flint. A worst-case scenario would be to buy this book, and then give it as a gift (or a promise of gifts… “I’ll make you what’s on page 36!”) if you just don’t have time.

Kids really love felt-making.

The idea of a promise is a good one… I have a few people on my gift-list who I have promised specific things to this year, and they will receive a rain-check on them. If I don’t have time to devote a whole morning to someone’s gift right now, then they will receive it later! That holds especially true for experimental gifts… trying to make a fitted hat for a friend who lives across the country, or trying to design a massive piece of felt that would be light enough to wear as a head-wrap. These things take time and creativity.

CRAFT TIP FOR NOW: If you want to do one craft that is mentioned in the book that you can do right NOW without referencing the book… well, you can make some wool beads! It’s easy. If you have a small amount of wool roving (or batting) then you can do it. Take a pinch of wool, use a drop of dish-soap and some warm water, and start to roll it around in your palms. Over time this will form a ball, and you can keep rolling it in your hands or on a bamboo mat or piece of bubble wrap. Experiment adding different colours to it, experiment with different sizes. A little wool bead normally takes about 5-10 minutes to do. It’s a good craft for kids, because it takes up time, keeps their hands busy, only involves soap and water as the “messy” stuff, and for some magical reason all kids like to do this! In the end you can use your wool beads for jewelry, as decoration on other things like tuques or mittens, for Christmas decorations… the sky is really the limit what you can do with them.

Tags baby-sitting, Bead, book, Bubble Wrap, Christmas, Christmas decoration, Craft, crafty, Felt, felt bags, felt book, felt jewelry, felt rugs, felted hats, felted toys, gifts, hats, Holidays, how to felt, India Flint, presents, purses, teaching, Wool, workshops, Xmas Gifts

Categories Art, de toute beauté

DIY Gift Idea: wrist warmers

By natashahenderson

December 4, 2010 //

I have just started knitting my own first-ever tube-shape. Last winter my forearms and wrists would get much too cold, so I’m making myself some wrist warmers. My gloves are warm and wonderful, my coat is a beaut… but the airflow up the arms of my coat lets in a chill. I find this to be an easy project, as well as practical.

Knitting with four needles. It just keeps going around... and around... and around...

I started with 26 cast on stitches, and am increasing every inch or so by two stitches, one on each side. For a default gift-size perhaps start with 28 to 32 stitches (I have surprisingly small wrists!)

My Achilles Wrists

They look cute and more importantly, will be a welcome warmth between sleeve and gloves. I am simply knit/purling so that they are ribbed and stretchy. I am using some olive-green wool that was leftover from another project, but for a gift you could choose something a little more flashy. You could decorate them with some contrasting wool stitching, or other stitched on cuteness, too!

warming...

It is nice to give yourself a gift, sometimes. The gift of warm wrists is a pretty nice one in my opinion. Comes right after a few choco-almond balls. Think about your taller friends… do their coats fit well? Might they not like to have warm wrists? An alternative to knitting would be to crochet something similar; that is faster and you can get quite fancy with eyelets and lace. The great thing about real wool is that it is an insulating fibre, so that even lace wool wrist-warmers add a lot of warmth! Those who love to sew could use a stretchy knit or fleece fabric to achieve a similar result.

This knit-wit loves her knit-wrists.

Natasha Henderson, Montreal

Tags art, Christmas, crafts, crochet, Fiber Arts, fibres, gifts, Glove, knitted gifts, knitted tube, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, presents, sewing, sewn gifts, Stitches, warm, Wool, wrist, wrist warmers, wrists, yarn

Categories de toute beauté

DIY Sewn Cards

By natashahenderson

December 2, 2010 //

Are you the crafty type? Do you knit, sew, make unique things, break out the glitter-glue, modelling clay or paintbrushes every time you think about presenting presents to your loved ones?

Maybe you would like to send something handmade to your friends and family who live afar. Perhaps this year you need or want to simplify gifts, but still want to make something beautiful, handmade, and very easy to mail. Well, you can take an afternoon, take some supplies, and take your sewing machine… and…

Sewing on Paper!

You can sew on paper! If you make or buy heavy weighted paper cards they will hold stitching. I used Strathmore cards for mine, they’re available throughout Canada in many craft-supply or stationery stores. There are lots of other fine-quality cards out there, or just cut your own cards out of heavy paper. You can make envelopes for them yourself out of “regular” paper, packaging, gift-wrap… or re-use old envelopes.

I painted with acrylic paints first, then added glitter-glue (hahaha), and did a touch or two more of the acrylic. I worked on several cards at once, so that if I had a colour on my palette, it could be used on all of the cards at one time. I finally ended with a line or two of stitching to tack down some sequins. Instead of sequins you could use fabrics, scraps of wool or other objects instead. Or… just use the stitching as a level of the decoration. You could really piece something fabulous together that would be more than just a card, it would be a keepsake work of art for the lucky person who receives it.

The finished card, a work of mailable art!

Natasha Henderson, Montreal

Tags acrylic, cards, Christmas, Christmas cards, crafts, crafty, DIY, Do it yourself, gifts, glitter glue, mail, mixed media, painting, paper, presents, sequins, Sew, sparkle, Xmas card

Categories Art

December 2010

By tammyschmidt

December 1, 2010 //

Let’s face it people, December is one cold, dark month. So, naturally, we have this urge to light candles, listen to music and decorate. We spice it up and bring aromatic herbs, spices, citrus and branches into our homes. Each step outside is an act in bravery as face the sharp chill of the air and trudge along on wintry walks, sometimes taking the time to look at lights, snow flakes and trees. We head out to parties wearing something sparkling or velvety or both. We fire up our kitchens with baking, creating, cooking and sharing with loved ones. Weekend afternoons stretch along nicely with a warm drink and a long book. Yeah, let’s face it, we love this time of the year!

This month Natasha and Tammy are busy working on all sorts of things!

Gear up for an outrageous number Do It Yourself gift ideas. One for every day until December 24!

Are you ready for photos on the theme of FIRE AND ICE? Facebook fans can upload their pics for a chance to be a part of this feature!

We have Natural décor ideas,

Ecological and Ethical gift-giving solutions,

and herbal remedies that people will be talking about this month.

Also up, experiments in Recipe Makeovers,

Natural Connections in our verdant city, and

Tips to De-Stress and De-Compress.

So, get in from the cold with a Hot Art Exhibit

and Enjoy a good chuckle with some festive Cartoons!

It’s December! It’s our second month of Fleurbain.com.

Tags art, Christmas, December, decor, decorating, DIY, Etsy, Facebook, fire and ice, food, fun, gifts, health, joy, presents, recipes, Shopping, snow, spice, tips, upcoming festivities, winter, Xmas

Categories Art, cartoons, cats, de toute beauté, Food, herbalism, move it, recipes, Uncategorized

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