I was trying to find some inspiration for my wildcrafting project and somehow wound up reading this tutorial on preparing perches for pet birds: http://www.ehow.com/how_5852118_dry-branches-use-bird-perches.html
I'm a little concerned by the instructions in Step 4. 200 hours seems a bit much, no? I'm assuming it's a typo, but at the same time I'm giggling to myself as I envision someone sitting in front of the oven watching a stick dry for over four straight days, not daring to leave lest it catch fire - and then, according to Step 5 in the instructions, possibly repeating the ordeal several more times.
I love typos. They can be so entertaining.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Some stuff wot I have made
I've made a few crafty things in the past several months that I photographed and intended to post, but then my laptop died and I kind of forgot about them for a while. Now, since I'm lazy, I'm combining them all into one post.
Here's a bracelet I made as a birthday gift for one of my sisters-in-law:
This is a wooden tissue box cover I decoupaged using some wrapping paper from a Lush boxed gift:
This is a tote bag I painted as a prize for a dance competition:
Here are several silk scarves and handkerchiefs I dyed:
Here's an earring made from one of Newton's moulted feathers:
And here's a necklace of freshwater pearls on knotted silk cord:
Now that I've cleared up the backlog, I'll try to write some more detailed posts for any new stuff I make. I have a few ideas for upcoming projects floating around in my mind. I've been saving the nicer feathers that Newton's moulted over the past year and have built up quite a collection; now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. The central tail feathers are especially gorgeous, but they're so long that I'm at a loss for ideas.
I also have a few pieces of silk clothing I would like to try over-dyeing. Some are thrift store finds that are faded and need a bit of perking up; others are new items in colours I'm not really fond of, but that I found at ridiculously low clearance prices and figured I could over-dye to a nicer colour. Since none of these items were particularly expensive, my reasoning is that it won't be a big loss if the over-dyeing doesn't turn out well - I'll just wear them at home as comfy painting/cleaning/lounging clothes.
The thing I need to work on most right now is a wildcrafting project for my Ethnobotany class. I collected some fallen twigs and am considering the possibility of weaving a basket. Still undecided on that one. It would require me to learn how to weave a basket.
Here's a bracelet I made as a birthday gift for one of my sisters-in-law:
This is a wooden tissue box cover I decoupaged using some wrapping paper from a Lush boxed gift:
This is a tote bag I painted as a prize for a dance competition:
Here are several silk scarves and handkerchiefs I dyed:
Here's an earring made from one of Newton's moulted feathers:
And here's a necklace of freshwater pearls on knotted silk cord:
Now that I've cleared up the backlog, I'll try to write some more detailed posts for any new stuff I make. I have a few ideas for upcoming projects floating around in my mind. I've been saving the nicer feathers that Newton's moulted over the past year and have built up quite a collection; now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. The central tail feathers are especially gorgeous, but they're so long that I'm at a loss for ideas.
I also have a few pieces of silk clothing I would like to try over-dyeing. Some are thrift store finds that are faded and need a bit of perking up; others are new items in colours I'm not really fond of, but that I found at ridiculously low clearance prices and figured I could over-dye to a nicer colour. Since none of these items were particularly expensive, my reasoning is that it won't be a big loss if the over-dyeing doesn't turn out well - I'll just wear them at home as comfy painting/cleaning/lounging clothes.
The thing I need to work on most right now is a wildcrafting project for my Ethnobotany class. I collected some fallen twigs and am considering the possibility of weaving a basket. Still undecided on that one. It would require me to learn how to weave a basket.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Invisible Zombies and Evil Beach Centaurs
I had a very fitful sleep the other night, but with it came a couple crazy awesome dreams that kind of made the resulting exhaustion worthwhile.
The first was an elaboration of a recurring dream about a zombie apocalypse. Most of it was pretty ho-hum - zombies biting people, creating more zombies, world in chaos, survival horror, blah blah blah - but towards the end it got a little interesting. Somehow, in the several times I woke up and fell asleep again, the dream logic evolved to the point where the zombies were invisible, and people were only vulnerable to zombie attack when in the light - especially sunlight.
I went to visit my mother, who was living in a cave in the middle of a forest (like you do), and who was apparently unaware of the invisible zombie menace. She was knitting, which was odd not only because she was living in a cave after a zombie apocalypse, but also because in real life she has chronic tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome and hasn't knitted in years (I can't actually remember ever seeing her knitting, only crocheting, and that was quite a few years ago. She has recently taken up loom knitting after I told her about it, because she finds it doesn't aggravate her various hand/wrist/elbow issues, but that's beside the point...whatever my point was.). Anyway, I guess she was having a hard time seeing her knitting work in her dark cave, because she carried it to the cave mouth and held it up in the sunlight to get a better look at it, inadvertently putting herself at risk of invisible zombie attack. I warned her of the danger, and as evidence I pointed out that some of her stitches were being undone as she stood there, which was clearly the work of invisible zombies. The horror!
After waking up again, I fell back asleep and dreamt I was on a beach where people were being chased down and trampled to death by giant, angry centaurs. It was eventually revealed that the centaurs were somewhat reasonable (by dream logic standards) and only attacked people who had upset them in some way, but I never did learn what it was that merited death by centaur.
Involved, action-packed dreams like those are almost more tiring than staying awake.
The first was an elaboration of a recurring dream about a zombie apocalypse. Most of it was pretty ho-hum - zombies biting people, creating more zombies, world in chaos, survival horror, blah blah blah - but towards the end it got a little interesting. Somehow, in the several times I woke up and fell asleep again, the dream logic evolved to the point where the zombies were invisible, and people were only vulnerable to zombie attack when in the light - especially sunlight.
I went to visit my mother, who was living in a cave in the middle of a forest (like you do), and who was apparently unaware of the invisible zombie menace. She was knitting, which was odd not only because she was living in a cave after a zombie apocalypse, but also because in real life she has chronic tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome and hasn't knitted in years (I can't actually remember ever seeing her knitting, only crocheting, and that was quite a few years ago. She has recently taken up loom knitting after I told her about it, because she finds it doesn't aggravate her various hand/wrist/elbow issues, but that's beside the point...whatever my point was.). Anyway, I guess she was having a hard time seeing her knitting work in her dark cave, because she carried it to the cave mouth and held it up in the sunlight to get a better look at it, inadvertently putting herself at risk of invisible zombie attack. I warned her of the danger, and as evidence I pointed out that some of her stitches were being undone as she stood there, which was clearly the work of invisible zombies. The horror!
After waking up again, I fell back asleep and dreamt I was on a beach where people were being chased down and trampled to death by giant, angry centaurs. It was eventually revealed that the centaurs were somewhat reasonable (by dream logic standards) and only attacked people who had upset them in some way, but I never did learn what it was that merited death by centaur.
Involved, action-packed dreams like those are almost more tiring than staying awake.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Final exams
I had the most bizarre dream last night that I was taking an English course about Harry Potter, and I was stressed out about doing well on the final exam because I only got 26/100 on a paper I had written for the course.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Iss-SHOES!
See what I did there? Like a combination of "issues" and "shoes"?
...okay yeah, that was terrible.
Anywho, I was at Wal-Mart yesterday trying to find the shoes I needed for my costume for a group dance number (we all need to match for this one). I wear a size 6.5 so I was looking for a pair of 6.5s or 7s, but all they had were one pair of 6s and one pair of 7.5s. I decided to give the 6s a try, knowing the 7.5s would be too big.
I tried on the left shoe first and was surprised that it actually felt a little loose. I had a look trying to find the size on the shoe itself, and it turned out it was a 6.5. I checked the right shoe, and it was a 6. Now, mismatched shoes happen, and it's not usually a huge shock, but when I took this pair out of the box they were still stuffed with cardboard and paper, and were attached to each other! WTF, Wal-mart?
...okay yeah, that was terrible.
Anywho, I was at Wal-Mart yesterday trying to find the shoes I needed for my costume for a group dance number (we all need to match for this one). I wear a size 6.5 so I was looking for a pair of 6.5s or 7s, but all they had were one pair of 6s and one pair of 7.5s. I decided to give the 6s a try, knowing the 7.5s would be too big.
I tried on the left shoe first and was surprised that it actually felt a little loose. I had a look trying to find the size on the shoe itself, and it turned out it was a 6.5. I checked the right shoe, and it was a 6. Now, mismatched shoes happen, and it's not usually a huge shock, but when I took this pair out of the box they were still stuffed with cardboard and paper, and were attached to each other! WTF, Wal-mart?
"Friday" by Rebecca Black, as interpreted by a bad lip reader
Hahahahahahaha,brilliant! I hope these guys make more of these for other videos.
The downside is that I now have this stuck in my head...
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Bizarre playlists
I was listening to one of the playlists on my iPhone when I realized the combination of songs was really weird. The first 5 in order are F**k You, Russian Roulette, Dammit, Africa, and Take it Like a Man.
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