Thing-a-day.com

I like paper crafts so much, I keep going back to the same projects. A few months ago I saw this and decided to glue nice strips of paper [with cool patterns I found in an IKEA catalogue… ] to sized toilet rolls. Made a few bracelets. Huge sucess!

This time I thought that I could cut skinnier and shorter rings and make a necklace:

Haven’t had a chance to do anything ‘creative’ today - been working too hard on writing-up my thesis (which is, I suppose, creative, but dull!).  However, I have come up with a vague idea about making a wide fabric belt fastened with an old buckle.  More about that another day…maybe.

I’ve set New Year’s resulotion or un-resolution but I haven’t been carrying those plans out religiously.  Maybe it’s just a human weakness that I don’t really want to face.  Whenever we make a plan, we’re doomed to encounter some unexpected changes.  We can’t foresee the future, so how can we plan everything out till the very last minute detail?  I guess I’m only looking for futile excuses to justify why I haven’t stuck with my own resolution.  The truth is that I wasn’t ready and I pushed myself.  Obviously I wasn’t going too far.  But I feel ready now.  At least for now I know that I can do this and I’ll try my best.  So here come my February resolutions.

1. I will lose 10 pounds.  (I’m not going to set a time frame or deadline.  I just know I’ll lose these 10 extra pounds that don’t belong to me.)

2. I will take a vigorous walk every day, whether it snows or rains outside.

3. I will finish reading the last 3 volumes of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time in 2008.

4. I will make some serious and casual creative endeavors in the next 10 months.

5. I will write more.

6. I will talk less and listen more.

7. I will finish reading all the books on our shelves before buying any new book.

I decided to write a meme of my own. I’ve never done anything like that so I don’t know if there’s any rule that I should follow. Anyhow, my meme is below, which requires a little bit of imagination and suspense of your usual belief if you happen to have a strong view towards life and afterlife.

1. Are you an animal lover or are you afraid of anything furry?

2. If you are not afraid of animals, which animal do you think you would choose to be if you had to be an animal for the rest of your life?

3. Which animal resembles your spouse/partner/loved one?

4. What would you feed the animal that most resembles your spouse/partner/loved one?

5. If you had to choose what you would be in your next lifetime (please just assume this is possible for a second), among vegetables, plants, flowers, and animals, what would you rather be?

6. Which vegetable (or plant, flower, animal) would you want your spouse/partner/loved one be?

7. How long would you choose your life span is?

8. What would you want to do as a vegetable (or plant, flower, animal) for a living?

9. List three vegetable (or plant, flower, animal) that you absolutely don’t want to be. You can list all three of the same category, for example, three vegetables.

10. If you have to write a book about a vegetable (or plant, flower, animal) kingdom, what would it be like living in this kingdom? Would you be the king of this kingdom?

What I enjoy from this project;

Having as side project that paid with no money and lots of amusement.
Letting myself lost in blogspheres and rss feed to grab stuff that hold my eyes more than 2 seconds.
Having the words dancing in my mind with the ideas of how putting them into visuals, rejecting the most common thing other people have done but then sometimes it gets too complicated and I surrender to simplicity, just like other people have done.
Putting the ideas into a piece of paper although it turned up into crap so I have to start all over again.
Seeing what other have done, and turning into green with the thought, “Damn, I wish I were the one who did it!”

For this project, I am influenced by:
The Small Stakes, Mike Perry, Jessica Williams, Studio 8, Vesolt, Vitaly Friedman’s Notebook; 25 Best Free Quality Fonts, Computer Love, Caei’s Flickr, Cathzilla’s Flickr, Gea Philes’ Flickr

So for my thing-a-day today, I’m making a list of things I can be making during February.

1. write a drabble
2. write an outline for a new story
3. write a chapter of a wip story
4. twop pixel challenge
5. make panna cotta
6. make apple crumble
7. make chocolate mousse
8. make fried rice
9. make something from the old recipes page
10. make new dishes from recipe books
11. make a cocktail
12. calculate total asset
13. make a charitable donation
14. update rkt completion ratio spreadsheet
15. make ereader books
16. read oldboy
17. draw some doodles
18. take random pictures
19. part of 101.1001 — photos of people
20. part of 101.1001 — photos of subway trains
21. part of 101.1001 — untitled photos
22. part of 101.1001 — b&w photos
23. part of 101.1001 — colour in an unusual place
24. do the A Day in the Life photo challenge on the 29th

Kind of like unfinished business. I started thinking about what I could make, what I ’should’ make, and not a lot of things occurred to me right away. But then, I started thinking about things that I wanted to make when I was kid that I never did or never could. I can remember a lot of them, so why not start there? I don’t know that I’ll make anything verbatim off the list, but I’m sure I’ll make related things!

• Movie (I actually wanted to make a camcorder when I was a kid, sadly, my design was inadequate).
• Computer role-playing game.
• Choose-your-own adventure style book, only with fighting (like, lone wolf books, you know?)
• Any meal from Yan Can Cook
• Captain Power Armor (Seriously. I can’t make this though)
• Landscape painting from my imagination (like Bob Ross)
• Realistic looking drawing of some kind of GI Joe like character (Jonathon O*** could draw them so well….)
• Model spaceship (I made them out of legos, never really satisfied me)
• Bracelet or necklace (all the cool kids had them…)
• Pound puppy (I have no idea, but I really wanted to make one….)
• Platform scroller (video game)
• Drawing of a good looking monster of some kind (any kind, really!)
• Herb Garden.
• Flower press + pressed flowers

Sooo…. just wanted to give this a go before February 1.

And list a few ideas for the upcoming month:

business card
portfolio site (just the mock-up, not the entire thing)
small paintings
decorated frame
headbands
tote bags
hanging birds (this will make sense later)
small computer illustrations
gift tags/product tags
dog photos
fused glass pieces
photo montage
finish my blanket! (knitting)
scarves
small drawings (possibly colored in Photoshop?)

I will probably be posting things here and on my new craft blog - les plus beauxx. We’ll see if I can maintain the one post/day…

Good luck to everyone! And enjoy!

I wasn’t sure whether I was up for the challenge since I’m not really creative, certainly not on a daily basis.  But what the heck, why not?  So here I am.  Hopefully I can make my February a productive and meaningful one, for myself, and for those around me.  I’m glad that I joined.

As a serious yarn-addict, I tend to knit, crochet, or spin at least a little everyday. My goal for thing-a-day is to broaden my horizons. Taking more digital photos, cooking new things (something I’ve been trying to do anyway), or sketching. Also this will get me blogging more often…despite my creative activities, I tend to be pretty bad at documenting it. I’m really excited to see what everyone else makes!

Often, the hardest part of making a thing is deciding what thing to make.  So I’ll be using this place as an idea dump, especially for those days when I don’t feel like making anything at all!

Making might mean:

• cooking a recipe I’ve never tried before
• writing fairy tale poetry
• experimenting with photography
• messing around in Flash
• writing Storytelling for Lovers
• playing a game (and writing it up)
• doing a game design sketch
• writing my yearly Valentine’s Porn
• electronics work (maybe I’ll finally make that lamp)
• crafting something from ReadyMade
• knitting or cross-stitch

But there are probably things I can (and like to!) do that I’m not thinking of.

I’m totally not even ready to think about themes yet, but I’m accepting suggestions!

It would be a good idea to get a few ideas down on paper, wouldn’t it?

• Scrap patchwork for card-making.  I can imagine sewing up a massive piece of crazy patchwork and then hacking it up again to insert in ready-made card ‘blanks’.  That would be satisfying!
• And similarly, making place-mats and coasters out of crazy patchwork.
• I recently saw a pattern for making fabric beads out of scrap fabric and cotton wool which I’d like to try out.
• I’d love to have (another) go at knitting and crocheting - not my strong points.
• And perhaps try my hand at writing some short (very short!) stories or poems.

Hmmm…lots of nice things to think about.  And looking forward to being inspired by what everyone else produces.  Roll on February!

C’est moi

I’m a long-time maker and tinkerer who primarily uses recycled/reclaimed materials to make art and other objects of fancy. I work with paper, glue, old boxes, ephemera, and old pieces of hardware (computer and construction) and usually have a paint stain or two somewhere on my person.

I’m almost thirty and live in Florida with my husband, brother, a terrier and three cats. I have two degrees and work with nonprofits as a day job; it’s really a privilege for my career to be as much of a passion as my creating.

The plan, such as it is

1. To do a 1×1-inch sketch every day. I’m not much of a drawer, but I started these one-inch things once before and was impressed with the way your skills increase if you keep at it enough. I’ll never be able to sell my drawings, but it is something I’d like to get better at just for my own pleasure.

2.  To make one other thing every day:  an ATC, a book mark, a well-thought out post to my new creativity blog. I also have a few of those devilish to-do projects hanging around that just  need to be completed and to stop hanging over my head. I plan to use Thing-a-day as a motivation to accomplish those, too.

Found this site via a friend who pointed me here. Looks like a great idea!

Earlier today, before hearing about this project, I was brainstorming goals for the next six months and I realized that a number of the items on the list were about getting the creative juices flowing and many others were about establishing good habits. This project seems to fit well with those goals.

First project: make a go-to list of things to do for days I just don’t feel inspired. Second: try to borrow a video camera for the month¹.

Any other participants in Canada? In Toronto? If so, post in comments and show your maple leaf-y pride! I’m an ex-pat American in Toronto, myself. (Heck, if you’re a US ex-pat living elsewhere–Canada or not–post in comments, too!) Still in mid-process with the immigration thing, which is why I have plenty of time to do this project. (No work permit yet.)

A-a-a-a-a-and, jumping on that list thing, now! First item: make thing² for my husband, J–and do it in time for Valentine’s Day. (Did I mention I’m a terrible procrastinator, btw? No? Well, I was gonna, but I got busy….)

¹Ya know, just in case. Maybe one of my things’ll be a sex tape? Just kidding. Really..

² Not saying exactly what yet; it’s a surprise for him, see….

I am a lapsed crafter (mostly decoupage) seeking inspiration. I have an amazingly awesome 8 month old and very little time. I have been trying to think of some projects. I can’t wait to fingerpaint with the wee one… but what else? 29 fingerpaintings?