Punishment by Glue and Glitter

I thought that over the past few years I’d learned the fine art of saying ‘no.’ And while I don’t employ that word as often as I should, I was doing well with not taking on too much. The Relay for Life was about as much as I could handle and even that was overwhelming me.

However, I have now volunteered to decorate the Relay for Life luminaria that our team sells. Not only did I volunteer, I did so without consulting my team, which means I obviously can’t hold them to something they didn’t agree to. I’m having visions of being covered in glitter and hot glue in a sea of paper bags.

Luckily, one of my team members has already offered to help, so that’s a big plus. Another one hasn’t volunteered, but he gets to do it by default since he’s going to marry me. I’m trying to look on the bright side. It could definitely be fun, and I have a bunch of crafting stuff I’ve picked up recently at garage sales and freebie Craigslist offerings. It could also just be a pain in the butt, especially because we’ll be doing it the two or three days before the actual walk.

Let me tell you, though…if I’m decorating them, I’ll make sure they’re pretty snazzy to honor who they’re for. That’s a guarantee.

Crafting for Charity

My big plans to try to sell things on etsy have been postponed in favor of trying to sell things to raise money for the Relay for Life this year. I’m not sure if anything is going to sell to tell the truth. My stuff isn’t all that exciting…it’s actually pretty basic…and because I’m still a beginner, there’s a lot I have to learn. But you have to start somewhere, right?

These are the three scarves I have finished so far. I can kick one of these out in about two days if I work at it. I love extra long scarves that can wrap around a couple of times and I like working with different yarns and colors.
I also tried my hand at a couple pairs of earrings last night, and while the finished product isn’t perfect by any means, I’m kind of proud of myself for just doing it.



Hopefully I’ll be getting some tutelage from a friend of mine on how to enhance my knitting skills very soon. I also have an idea for a knitted purse which I think I could do with the right material, small needles, and my need to try different things. I wonder if my friend could teach me how to read a pattern too…I know it can’t be that hard, right?

If you see anything you like, let me know. While I’m officially selling things at our in-town fundraisers, I’m always happy to take a Paypal payment with shipping and handling and mail it for anyone out there.

Waiting on the Move

I’ve always been one of those “I’ll do it when…” type people. I managed to overcome this tendency over the past year by actually baking and cooking in a house with a crummy kitchen and roommates. However, now that we’re in transition phase and getting ready to move, I’ve become a lump again and am currently in my mindset of planning to do a million things once we’re in our new apartment.

Okay, so I haven’t been a total lump. I’ve been knitting and crocheting. Current projects include scarves for my nephews and a set of washrags for the new place. So far they’re coming out pretty well. Once I get the chance, I’ll take some pics and upload them.

Other things I want to do, besides thrift shopping for the new place and decorating, include trying my hand at jewelry making. After my earrings a few weeks ago, I’d like to try some other things, and I’m sure there’s no shortage of blogs to look at for help in getting started. The internet is a wonderful thing.

I’m also going to try Bento, the art of making cute little serving size portions of food porn. The serving size thing will be nice for portion control, and I just want to try something new and different. It’s not something I have to stick with if I don’t like it. I managed to find a few relatively cheap Bento boxes online, but I think I’m going to invest in some cheap Tupperware first to see how that goes. Being a picky, non exotic type of eater, I doubt if I’ll be doing anything really traditional. In fact, I have visions of meatloaf and salad Bento in my head, or anything else Americanized and suited to my tastes. I do think it will help me expand my snack horizons a little bit.

We’re also trying our hand at going green in our quest to be frugal. While we’re not big on recycling for various reasons, we are trying to reduce and re-use/repurpose as much as possible. I’d love to start a small garden at the new place, though it’ll probably just be an herb garden in the kitchen. We have some furniture projects and several other things to try once we’re roommate free.

I’m hoping to get more use out of this blog, so bear with me. We’re almost there!