Physically Writing the Written Word

Okay, I am making a declaration in front of the tens of people that read this blog: In the coming year I plan to try to make an effort to get back to actually writing written correspondence. It's becoming a lost art, don't you think? I think about writing letters and sticking them in the mail in a nostalgic sort of way, sort of like how you feel when you remember the time that you had an answering machine at home, and when you were not home that's where your calls went. To see who called, you had to go home and listen to the message on the tiny little cassette tape. Remember that?

Anyway, I think letters and cards are better, and they are a gesture that has been forgone, and I feel like that's a shame. Cards and stationary can be a thing of beauty (unlike the example above) and the sentiment and the time taken to put pen to paper, as well as the personal touch that you can't get elsewhere, no matter how many bells and whistles get added to your Hotmail or whatever. So, I plan to rekindle to lost loves soon, and I will share them with you. The love of playing with paper and glue, and the love of sending cards and what not through the mail.

So watch out, glue and paper coming to a mailbox near you. You know, a mailbox. Those boxes on sticks in your front yard that holds all the junk mail and coupons you get. Yeah, that thing.

Why Haven't I Been Doing This All Along?

Have you ever started doing something and then just felt like it was the answer to all your problems? And you couldn't believe it took you so damn long to get to the oh so very simple solution to all your woes?

Well, I didn't do that.

But I did get this super cool landscape format sketchbook from Rice-with-two-dots-over-the-e-but-I-can't-figure-out-how-to-make-
that-happen-so-I-didn't-which-is-pretty-lame at the Voodoo Cafe. She was nice enough to give it away on her blog, and even nicer because she gave it to me. Anyway, I have already had so much stinking fun with it, and it is a huge help in me trying to abandon the Scrap Paper Method, which is how I manage finances, keep track of shopping to be done, important dates and phone numbers, and all the keys to life's secrets.

Well, I am not keeping all that stuff in here, per se, but I do have all the details for projects I am working on and it's saving me so much trouble.

First and foremost I had to get out the fun paper and fancy it up.

Front:
Back:

Inside Front Cover:

That dark maroon stuff is velvet paper. I keep on fondling it, and I like it lots. I still have a ton more to add to it (I am feeling sequins in the front for sure), but it is at least functional now. I have gotten out the stamps, the markers, and the watercolor pencils. It's good for tracking down supplies for a project, keeping notes on knitting and where I am in patterns, and also doodling when I can't make myself do anything else.

the idea came from here, but I couldn't bear to glaze over the handmade papers. I covered up the cool texture before, and well, that was really just a stupid idea. Not this time. Is it wrong that between the handmade paper and the velvety paper, I am sort of copping a feel on my fun new book?

A Snowstorm!

I simulated one in my kitchen windows. I got the idea here, and it took a while, but it was fun to do while watching crappy reality shows. I love it, and I think that I am gonna leave it up through January.

In unrelated news, this weekend I go for my orientation for volunteering at the shelter where I adopted my dog. I'm really excited. I plan to tell them to pat me down and look in my purse every time I leave so that I don't sneak away with any kittens. Wish me luck!

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a...Bowl.

I made a bowl the other day. When my paper stash and I rekindled our romance, we had hot make-up crafting and we did some paper mache' (I like to pronounce it pa-pee-ay mah-shay to feel fancy).

And here's the bowl.



I like how relatively plain it is, and how I can dump tiny little ornaments (that double as cat toys when hung on the tree) and now it says, "Hey look at me, I don't totally hate this time of year, but I don't love it enough to put out wacky stuff that isn't my normal style either." Looks kind of cute on the old pub table. And I figure I can put seasonally appropriate things in it, or things that I pick up when the dog and I go walking (but not poop! I pick that up but would never put it in a bowl. That's just gross.).


I made it using this tutorial's influence and a term paper about Guatemala, an article about Newton and Einstein, a page from a book that's in Spanish, and some wacky keyboard song book thing. Fun times.

More Weekend Baking.

Hello, I hope you had a nice weekend and your Monday is not shaping up to be total crap.

I was very very very busy this weekend. Very busy indeed. I spent a good bit of it making some gifts, and my goal was to have everything that was to be mailed out by today so that I can relax and enjoy the rest of the month. It was not to be, but that's okay. Anytime this week would be a SERIOUS improvement over past years.

So anyway, I got this recipe off of the Sew Mama Sew! blog, and I gotta tell ya- if you love chai tea, this is the recipe for you. It's seriously delicious, and I could well be ruined on any other for the rest of my life.

And I made more dog cookies. This time I made peanut butter and banana, and they were delicious. I am only slightly embarrassed to say that I know this first hand. Maya and I each had a few, and she agrees too. They are yummy. They were fun to make and I hope that all the doggies on our list enjoy them. I know they will because dogs have impossibly low standards when it comes to food.

Also, I gotta say that I am pretty proud of the labels. I made them all by myself. I was too cheap to buy printer labels (those suckers are expensive!) and feeling to holiday cheerful to steal them from work. So, i bought a $1.50 pack of those ones that you write your name on, and sat down with my stamps. I am pleased to report that other than the nametags, I didn't buy another thing for the labels. You can't really tell, but the whitish mod-snowflakey-star-thingies are embossed with sparkly glittery stuff. Festive.

Now to throw all this stuff in the mail and see if I can't squeeze a little fun out of the holidays.

You Thought It Wouldn't Happen

but it has!

The etsy shop has been updated!

And I took stuff out of it and kept it for myself! Yaaaaa- what? What do you mean that isn't the point of getting rid of your stuff? Sure it is! See, here's why: the point is not to have things for the sake of having them, or counting them, or measuring yourself against them. Unless it is a tape measure, and then yes the point would be to measure yourself. Anyway. The point is to have them and enjoy them, use them, not let them take over your life, and to let you feel smug when you decide on a whim to do something and realize you have all the materials on hand.

It's like that old saying: If you love something, sell it on Etsy. If it comes back to you, either you did a shitty job making it and now it's broken, or it was meant to be. Either one.

I missed you, paper collection. I will go through it more carefully, and maybe get rid of some of the stuff I won't ever use, but it will be a giveaway here and that will be that. Till then, my paper and i need to be alone right now. We have things to do.