Thing-a-day.com

today i attempted to complete the origami stag model that i tried/failed to make the other day:

it’s kind of a sad stag, i know… i got further this time, but there are still some very wrong portions, and by the end, i was just mushing things all together which you can see if you look closely… i’m pretty sure it is all wrong. but it’s late, so i decided that’s going to have to be my attempted thing for today. maybe i’ll try to see if i can get an origami expert to help me correct my mistakes later…

In response to a conversation I had with “lady ada” in which she asked me “what is an arduino?” I have been pushing the question “What isnt?”. I have a bunch of stuff that I have built around the simstick platform which I wanted to reclaim so I put a 168 on a dt107 (dontronics) board and adjusted the IDE to see it. (this is in preparation for bigger and better mods)

I used our “best picture” ticket stubs to make an Oscar party invite. Of course, I’ll be away for work, so instead I’ll leave it as a note for E. I might have to call him on Oscar night, and beg him to shriek about milkshakes in Daniel Day Lewis’s accent.

Moon!

Originally uploaded by napoleah

The lunar eclipse from Greenpoint (Brooklyn).

not my best work sorry! had to be away in Dallas and trying to focus on a hard letter

Today I made a birthday card for my good friend Kiki
(we even share the same nickname — she’s 1 and I’m 2). Tonight I had the great
pleasure of meeting up with some very fabulous friends from my former
place of employment (some of whom check my thing-a-day so thank you so very much for
the lovely evening!). We celebrated her birthday and my new adventures — it was
a very wonderful night out!!!

I take the bus to work, and it’s generally one of the more enjoyable parts of my day. The morning ride in is when I mentally plan my day, and the evening trip home is when I decompress and plan the evening. I often also get a good story out of it, and tonight was no exception.

I usually ride the same buses, and have gotten to know many of the drivers to a certain extent – at least well enough to know their driving habits, predict how likely they are to be on time, etc. For example, there is the woman who drives the 8:30am local. She is an older woman with salt and pepper spiky hair and these fantastic red-rimmed glasses. She is the only driver I know who can say “good morning” when I get on and “have a great day!” as I get off, and sound like she means it.  Then, there is the man who drives the 4:47pm bus home – he used to be my morning driver, and you could set your watch to him! Even though he can be a bit gruff, I appreciate that he fights like hell to keep on schedule, so he ranks quite highly on my list of drivers.  Lastly, I cannot forget the singing driver – he places a large “SMILE” sign in the front window of the bus, and one day regaled us as we were leaving downtown with a original ditty to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb – he even used the air brakes on the bus as punctuation in the song!

Tonight was someone new. I was riding home later than usual, and as we head out of downtown our driver announces in a voice that is better suited to a late-night jazz station than a bus, “and now we are turning east, leaving beautiful downtown Seattle behind us.” Accustomed to driver announcements more along the lines of, “Pike Place Market, Westlake Center, monorail”, we found this amusing. Later, as we left Fremont (“Center of the Universe” – really, we have a sign to prove it) and turned up in to the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, we heard, “Turning in to the Independent Republic of Ballard.”  Living in Ballard, I got of the bus minutes later and was finally able to see the person that went with the disembodied voice. He was an extremely pleasant 40-something Italian man, probably just looking for a way to make his evening route more enjoyable.

Mmmmm… German blonde.

Well, still writing haikus for the moment…

[  haiku  ]

The days, full enough?

Once my time has come and gone;

Vow now, use them well.

[  haiku  ] 

She has gone, but where;

My older, younger sister;

Into dark or light? 

[  haiku  ]

A new place, perhaps;

We’ll find, after this day’s done;  

Mystery, death solves.  

a few logo sketches for jj’s friend’s radio show.

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/?saved=1

Agua Hedionda Lagoon, north of Carlsbad

More work on the shamrock towels today!

Last week I was cruising along on a cold but sunny day, singing along to some song on the radio that I have since forgotten. I was thinking about how things in my life seemed to be taking a turn for the better. The sting of a recent breakup had faded, I was feeling healthy and fit, I was contemplating a crush that I have on a friend. As I was nearing my office, going to a job that I love, I turned a corner in the road, reached for my lovely hot cafe latte that I rarely stop to purchase on the way…when “Shit!”…a UPS truck was stopped in the road in front of me. I hit the brakes, started to slide, said “Shit!” again, closed my eyes…BAM!! I smelled the smoke and dust from the airbags before I even opened my eyes. My hand hurt, and I was confused…was the car on fire? I jumped out and went to the other driver. She was fine and laughed about how her UPS crew had just celebrated 100 accident-free days with a cake. I was near work…I called my boss…he sent in the cavalry…my friends and coworkers arrived to help me out…the police were called…my insurance man..the tow truck…it was all over almost as quickly as it began. My hand was not broken, but my back and neck took a good jolt despite the seatbelt. I can’t run or do yoga for a while, which keeps me sane, but I am getting good chiropractic and massage therapy…my car is being repaired…the incident popped the little bubble of joy that I was experiencing that morning…and hadn’t felt for a while. Yet, my problems seem small…woe is me. Yesterday four children were killed when a school bus was struck by a van…in a town not far from where I grew up. Four little people will no longer walk this beautiful earth, will never feel the sting of a breakup, will never sing while driving a car, will never have a crush on one of their friends, will never savor a good cup of coffee, will never go to a job they love or view a lunar eclipse. Everything changes in an instant.

I spent about 45 minutes or so tonight putting the shell edging on the scarf to finish it off. That and the pug will be on their way to Florida pretty soon!

Here’s the finished scarf :

I made more fabric covered tack pins.  These are really fun to make and I love trying to figure out how I want the fabric to look on the pin, and today I made myself a template to help me.  Basically, I took the larger size circle for the size of the fabric and traced it unto another cardboard piece of paper.  Then I positioned one of the buttons inside the circle as centered as possible and traced around it.  After that was done, I cut out that center circle so I could see where I wanted position it on my fabric instead of just blindly figuring things out.

These ones are made from a fabric with nesting doll designs on them.  I plan to use these in my home office when it’s ready. 

These ones are for Adam’s new office.  I picked geometric designs for him that have an 80’s kinda feel since he’s an 80’s kinda guy.  If only I had fabric with dice on it …   

Argh. My latest modern pysanky egg was going really well until I made the mistake of trying to apply one last color (red). Red wasn’t in the dying sequence that I was using (lime-green to turquoise to blue to black), so it was necessary to wash and gently scrub the areas where I wanted to put the red dye. Unfortunately, some of the dyed areas that appeared to be safely protected under a layer of wax, started coming off. They literally flaked off when I was scrubbing the egg with the plastic brush. This has never happened to me before. I think the cuticle of the egg was coming loose in those areas because the egg had been dyed several times. The egg probably would have been fine if I hadn’t scrubbed it. At least the basic design of the egg came out okay, even though it looks yucky in the flaked-off areas. I plan to make a similar version of this design on a larger goose egg.

I started painting the little lentils from yesterday. The ‘paint’ is actually coloured liquid clay and these are the 3 larger lentils as try outs. The smaller ones are for a project and I will use a paintbrush instead of a toothpick so they look less like scrambled eggs.

And because I was productive today, I made two more canes, a blue flower and a blue rose.

I got a little mini tripod for my digital camera today. I could kick myself for not doing that years ago. Made the low light / bumped up white / macro pics much simpler!

I finally finished the pillowcase to match our other couch pillow.  I just made a brown pillowcase and stitched a vintage tea towel on the front of it.  I have four more of the same tea towel, so I need to think of something to do with them.

Finished up some coasters for a swap.

Just simple granny squares, but I like the colors. And the yarn is all cotton, so the coasters should be quite absorbent and washable.

one more thought for today

this (and all of the other images posted this week) was created by combining 2 images.