New favorite site!

Yet another way for me to screw around and waste time! TiltShiftMaker, it makes regular photos like the one below into...

something that looks a part model train scenery. See image below. Once I get home I will begin the process of converting all my photos.

Party for a cause

This was concept I was unfamiliar with until college.  Various people, sometimes for community event, sometimes for more personal reasons, would throw fund raiser parties.  Not in the house party sense, because everyone feels that their doing something to better humanity, but the set up is similar, either a fee at the door or cash bar, or sometimes both.  Anyway, my friends and I have come with various reasons to throw a fund raising party, like for Botox.  I even designed a flyer, but nothing ever came from that because we couldn't agree on a location.
I want to have iPhone party for M, I just need like 25 people who can pay $10 each ( I make very good drinks, so this is really bargain)  et voila!  We just need a space for this.
I think a party for a frivolous cause set the right kind of ambience, the feeling of excess and decadence that exudes(or should I use "oozes") from the very idea...

Savings binge

I can feel it coming on, because the harbingers are already here; insomnia, the need for more booze and pills, junk food cravings, the strange feeling in my stomach, and the lists.  Oh, the list... There are lists of various things to cut back on, food, clothes, going out(cover+drinks), books, gas, character goods from that place by my job.  The companion to this list is a list of benefits; reading more, exercise, quality time at home, etc.  eewww...  Not that those things are bad, but when it reminds you of financial insecurity, the pleasure kinda lessens and stress goes up.  And everything that's wrong with your wardrobe, home, you is so much more in your face, because now you can't throw money at your problems.  

BTW, this always, always, cuts into my arts 'n crafts budget, so I can't say that any of the benefits will be creative ones.  If I can't buy rubber to make molds, then I can't have fun.

All I really want for Xmas...

is for M to help me reupholster the sofa and always mix resin and molding compound for me.  The other things she's given me so far are very nice, but the gift of service is always the most meaningful.  Willingness to dismantle a couch, hold fabric tight while I use a staple gun dangerously close to her tiny hands, and struggling to put the whole thing back together again just says "I love you more than my personal safety and emotional well-being."  The most beautiful eleven and a half words in the English language.

How not to reupholster furniture

We did once, successfully.  We covered an Ikea storage bench with really cute, retro, mint green fabric.  It looks great.  The Ikea sofa I've tried to reupholster, not so great.  The fabric's cute, tan with a retro print(to hide stains), but there are two very different, very big, factors in this job, M didn't help and the shape is much for complicated than a rectangular bench.  I know what I have to do, I have to take the sofa apart ( which is actually easy, it's also from Ikea), staple on the fabric with M's help, make sure that it can still be put back together, and ta-da!  I vow t fix this couch before my X-mas party this weekend.  And I will photograph/film the process, so I can make others feel the tediousness.

Working with rubber and rabbits or DIY jewelry

I have rubber mold  making. It looks like it worked, but for some reason angered our rabbit. As we were carefully removing the item from the molding compound( which was so rubbery... like a dolphin) the wee beast started to stamp her feet, which means she's pissed. I think it's because M didn't say "good morning" to her when she entered the kitchen. M even gave her oatmeal to get back on her good side, but the rabbit refused to eat it, which is very unlike her. Anyway, the rabbit wasn't the point.

Here's the backing I use for most of my pendants....

and here's the rubber mold I cast from it...

I once I get a decent pic of the finish product, I'll post that too.  Hmmm.... maybe I should include the rubber making process (dull) and the pouring of the resin(which is as dull as watching resin dry).  But once I get a good image of the final product I will list the materials used.  Yay!

My wall of darkness

I've finally done it. I've gone and covered one of the walls in fabric. With wallpaper being so expensive, and being unable to summon the energy to paint, I've tacked black fabric to the walls. It's really the only obvious compromise when you think about.
It does not look goth. It kind of has an interesting haunted Victorian bordello look to it...well maybe it is a bit goth, but the Ikea furniture makes for a dynamic balance between morbid and functional sensibilities.