Thing-a-day.com

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Tonight, me & my mother played Scrabble. It’s the best I could come up with today… 

anywhere in nyc
would take anywhere versus starting the craigslist thing
through like-minded peps
2 bedroom apt or 2 rooms

Spent the boring hours of class on Monday decorating my school with “ONE WAY” street signs. They all point up, because that is really the only direction to go, haha.

I’m too tired. here’s what I’ve done so far of my headboard. I see a revamp in its future. time to rest up for my citizenly duty tomorrow morn.

Tomorrow is my dad’s birthday. My parents’ only request are handmade birthday cards. I thought I’d do something different this time. Who doesn’t like a pop-up? I found a great tutorial on Instructables.com that includes this template print out.

Well, I’m catching up on the last four days!

On Friday the First, I helped my three-year-old daughter, Piper, finish making (decorating, really) a calendar for herself.  When I kiss her goodnight, she always asks me what we’re going to do the next day, and I thought she might appreciate being able to anticipate certain events a bit more.  She coloured in all the birthdays of family and friends, and I drew a few little pictures of things coming up in the next couple of days (visiting friends, Gramma & Opa Snowbird coming home from Texas, etc.).

On Saturday the Second, I made two loaves of bread.  I have been making bread remarkably consistently since the beginning of the year, a bemusing pleasure - the pleasure at the thought that I can maintain the discipline, the pleasure of feeling the dough beneath my palms and the simple pleasure of creating something from nothing (nothing you can eat straight, anyway!).

On Sunday the Third, we hosted a Stuperbowl party (that’s what I was calling it, anyway!).  About half an hour before guests were going to show up, I decided to whip up a curtain for the kitchen window.  I’d been mulling over the idea for a little while, after my husband built the shelf for plants above the sink.  I love the colours of this fabric (City Park, by Alexander Henry) - I think I’ll buy another yard so I can have a bit hanging on each side, when it’s open, and so it’s more ruffly when it’s closed.  I love how it changes the feel of the sink area, and I love the idea of having plants there.  I’ll paint pots to match, and blog about that another day sometime soon.

And today, Monday the Fourth, I took the time to make myself a healthy, yummy lunch - kind of a stirfry - inspired by a book I’m reading on detoxing.  I’m not fantastic at lunches.  I don’t really do sandwiches, and usually hope there’s leftovers in the fridge that will work for me and the kids, but today, I put the effort in, and felt the emotional benefit of that for the rest of the day, I reckon.  I was planning on painting the pots to match the curtains - I bought some paint today - but by the time I had the space to do so, it was feeling like a chore, not creative at all, so I took myself off to bed for a kip before dinner - a better choice!

I had a party tonight (where I made two new friends!), so I did this at work today:

Original:

Yes, I have crayons at my desk at work.

I was hoping to start working on pysanky today, but it just didn’t happen. Instead I unearthed some of my Colinette Point 5 yarn stash and used it to make a couple of pieces of felt. The first piece was made with scarlet-red wool roving as the background with pieces of hot pink, red, and yellow yarn. The second piece was made with bluish-purple wool roving using pieces of blue, purple, and turquoise yarn. It took a lot of wet-felting (ie. rolling inside the bamboo mat with soapy water) to get these pesky pieces of yarn to adhere to the roving. I had to needle-felt one of the yarn pieces that wasn’t properly attached. I’d like to try sewing a pillow out of these pieces, after I make a few more yarn felts.

another photo with flash:

Why, god, why?

(more…)

My girlfriend is traveling through Southeast Asia for a few months, and commented today on the sheer abundance of skin whiteners that she was finding in pharmacies throughout Thailand, Laos, and Hong Kong. Whiter is considered better, more attractive. One explanation is that the obsession with lighter skin is rooted in a centuries old concept (common also to European cultures) that light skin is a sign of nobility or aristocracy — those with lighter skin weren’t working out in the fields all day getting tan. Light skin was a privilege. But of course, another interpretation would suggest that the powers of colonialism and the continued mass infiltration of US/EU cosumerist ideologies have a nefarious effect on cultural self-image. One look at any fashion spread, advertisement, movie, TV show, etc. would tell the story that “whiter is better”.

Needless to say, the skin whitening products on the market (usually over the counter) are nasty stuff. There has been a serious increase in cases of mercury poisoning in China due to skin whiteners over the past few years. It’s both very popular and a very contentious issue throughout Southeast and East Asia.

From CNN.com:
“In what may be the biggest toxic cream outbreak ever, 1,262 people flocked to a hotline set up by Hong Kong’s health department [in May 2002], after warnings that two whitener creams — Rosedew and La Rose Blanche — had mercury levels between 9,000 and 65,000 times the recommended dose.”

So for my “search a day”, I thought I’d check out some of these products. Here are a couple of selections from the advertisements that I found.

This is just a simple mock up I did to start considering how to redesign my portfolio site. The name I design under is a contraction of my first, middle and last names and also a pun on the Japanese phrase “ka mo” or “ka mo shirenai” which translates roughly to “maybe”. I’m (finally) working on a way to incorporate the two things into a meaningful design. This is the only mock-up I’ve done but there will probably be many more.

until now no access to a digital camera. . . but i HAVE been dutifully crafting everyday. sorry for the large post.

first day:

a bookmark!

Saturday night, got home at 4am. so i made something simple. . .

the cool thing is that both origami can move. . .the frog obviously jumps but the heart also has a little tab on the back which makes it beat.

Sunday:

a felt booklet to store needles - saw the idea in Craft magazine a few days ago while browsing the bookstore.

inside of booklet

And finally, today’s craft.

set of cards.
hope to post once a day from now on! i’ve so been enjoying everybody’s lovely work!

Sigh. Got behind after 3 days. Nothing to do but get back on the horse… 

I’ve been lazy about posting, sometimes I don’t feel like scanning or taking pictures. Whatever. Here they are, I’ve been trying real hard to do something, at least a little bit, everyday. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think one of my goals would be to organize my room. It is an absolute mess. Anyway….here you go.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

This is another pen and ink fashioned after Frank J. Lohan.  I don’t know why I invest in this medium right now but I have enJOYed the process.  This did take longer than the alloted time but I’m okay with that.  It has inspired my son and husband in the sense that they were at the table this evening with me, my son doing math, and my husband playing guitar (which he hasn’t done much of late).  I was a happy wife, mother, and self this day thanks to the inspiration of you all.  Keep it flow’n.

This is a crochet hook case that I made out of vintage fabric. It matches the needle case I made on Day 3. It has elastic holders for all of my hooks and scissors, and three pockets for patterns, secret stuff, and cool stuff. I really haven’t figured out what to put in them, but pockets are always useful. It closes with an old button I found in my grandma’s basement.

Little valentine earrings that aren’t a) hearts or b) cutesy. The beads are made from the scraps of my day 1 & 3 canes, swirled, a little silver leaf added.

Finally scraped my football date.

Today I wrote all of my friends Valentine’s Day letters. I’m going to mail them tomorrow. So nothing to show really for my effort, but I’m sure that my friends will appreciate finally getting some snail mail from me.

I can’t wait to send them off this week
Tomorrow… bunny rabbit !