I’m going to Ethiopia!

…and I need a lot of money! In effort to get a few steps closer to my $3,700 goal, I’m making and selling bracelets with the Ethiopian flag colors.

Even before I started this project I was sure that it would be more tedious and time consuming than it was worth, but I decided to go for it anyway. Despite having never been in girl scouts, I have been well trained in the art of friendship bracelet making in my college years. My lovely and helpful roommates made some bracelets with me, and I get a whole lot done when I’m listening to class lectures. So since the supplies are so cheap and I’ve been able to multitask while making the bracelets, the cost/benefit analysis has proven to come out in my favor!

I’ve been carrying around THIS (<---) ziplock bag to class and work and everywhere else. I'm asking people to just give whatever they are able/want to give and I made a profit after selling 2 bracelets by just having the bag hang out on my desk. I should probably be more forward about it but I don’t want to be obnoxious. BUY MY BRACELETS! (tell me if I’m obnoxious, guys. srsly)

Apparently the kids we’ll be working with in Ethiopia love making these bracelets, so I’m probably going to be ridiculously sick of it by the time I get back. That means that what I make now will soon be a collectors item, so you should get ‘em while you can if you want to be cool.

Let me attempt to address all of your possible excuses for not buying a bracelet.

“I’m a boy.” ...Do not be deterred based on gender - boys can totally rock this bracelet. Have you seen Zach? (--->)Look at that beard! Look at that savage roar! Look at those bracelets! Conclusion: handmade Ethiopian bracelets make you a man.

“I live X miles away from you.” (X=distance farther than walking across a classroom) ...I’ll totally mail/hand deliver you a bracelet.

“I don’t have any cash.” ...You can still support me by going here and selecting “Support a Missions Trip”, then team “Ethiopia”, and type my name in the “Missions Trip Team Member Name” field. I’ll give you a bracelet.

What else could be stopping you? I’ll try to think of an excuse for that too.

Ok but seriously, if you actually want more info about what we’ll be doing in Ethiopia, who “we” is, or anything else, let me know and we’ll talk. Spread the word!

baby blanket bloopers

IT IS TIME to reveal to you my summer accomplishment…now that it’s almost summer again…

SO when I found out that my friend was pregnant, I immediately started thinking about what I could make for her kid…I’ve never knitted much more than scarves and the like, but I decided to make it (yet ungendered) a blanket. I used some graph paper to make a pattern for the blanket, scaling it down to 2” for every square.

Here is where I had a problem: I was just using spare skeins of yarn that I had been given over the years and I didn’t anticipate such a dramatic disparity between the gauges of the skeins. A 4”x4” square was not going to be 20 stitches across for every type of yarn. This is obvious in retrospect. Because I’m still a noob and also didn’t want to backtrack and make gauge swatches for every skein I was using, I decided to pretend that they were all the same and measure by stitch instead of actual size.

Clearly, this didn’t work. When I had all the pieces done (months and months later), they didn’t fit together like puzzle pieces as the graph paper would suggest. I had to fix this.

I sewed the pieces together the way they SHOULD look, which made it look normal from the front and terrible from the back – the extra tops and sides of too-big squares flopped over with nowhere to go. To fix this new problem, I bought the softest fabric (well, the cheapest soft stuff) that I could find and sewed that onto the back. Now it’s super warm! That was totally intentional!

So anyway…IT’S a girl! Which is good because the blanket features a pink heart. I think it was a successful first attempt, but there are a lot of things I would change if (when) I do this again.

Moral of the story: don’t be dumb. There’s a reason you’re supposed to measure these things.

2^nd moral of the story: if you’re clever enough you don’t have to measure! (just kidding, it’s not worth the hassle)

In the future I’m gonna take progress pictures instead of just a final product, that might be fun. But in the meantime, here’s the final product, also featuring baby Victoria!

Front:

Back:

V for Victoria:

SQUEEEE!

Never grow up.

Now that I’m all moved in and settled down a bit, it is time that I post pictures of my first crafting adventure! I’ve had this idea for a loooong time…An empty animal cracker box has been sitting on my window seat in my room for over a year, I’m sure. I knew I wanted to do something with it, but I just didn’t know what…I decided to make a small purse out of it…and bling it out so people don’t think I have a snacking obsession. Sorry for the poorly-focused pictures, I just snapped a few and then left the purse at home. I’ll get better pictures eventually but I wanted to get this up for ya'll



























So I started with a regular animal cracker box and painted it with a few coats of Mod Podge. I added some glittery nail polish to accent the animals and glued circusy fabric with spray adhesive (we have a love/hate relationship). I looooved adding snaps, I think they’re so fun. The rest are buttons (you can’t see em all because of the limited angles in my crappy pictures) and I thought the yellow flower button was a good way to keep it shut. I didn’t think anyone else would like this quirky thing but I thought it was cool so I went ahead with it. The first time I used it I got comments from boys who noticed it and were impressed (I didn’t know boys could even see accessories) and every time since then I have heard some compliment about it…so I’m quite proud of my first project. It’s the perfect size for my coin purse, keys, and phone…learn to live minimally =)

Arts & Crafts time

I’ve been asked quite a number of times if I have a blog; it looks like it really is becoming the thing to do. I enjoy reading the blogs of my interesting friends, but I’ve resisted making something of my own because I’m sure you all don’t care about my boring life. Well I remembered that I had to create a blog for a class freshman year, so I cheated and decided to make this into something new. I didn’t want to start a blog with the intention to treat it as my personal journal, so I needed a purpose.

Well, I found one!

A few friends have started blogs for food and fashion and I thought I would blindly head the same direction. I don’t know much about food except that I like to eat it, and I am wholeheartedly ignorant about fashion (which is why I listen to what my wise friends have to say) but lately I find myself interested in crafty projects. Notice that I used the word interested and not ‘knowledgeable’ or ‘experienced’…I’m winging it. I’m knee deep in a conglomeration of crafts and I have so many ideas of what I should do next. This is going to be a crafty summer. So this is a way for me to share and hear ideas of what I should do next. I have the time this summer and I want to make the most of it – this will keep me motivated!

So since this is a first post, I’ll just leave it at that. I’ll get back to you with a look at what I’m actually doing.

oh boy I’m excited =)