Sandcastle in Truro

The sandcastle/moat that I made in Truro back in September.

All pics from the weekend in Truro and Provincetown are here.

Tool Box Redesign

I spray painted and decorated an old dingy toolbox, filled it with some basic tools and gave it to my brother as a birthday gift.

The Paper House

The Paper House in Rockport, MA has walls that are made of paper as well as many of the furnishings.  This quick and bizarre side trip on our way to the beach was worth a stop. For more pics click here.

Plush

The Smittens got a mention on the needle for the crafty dolls on the cover of their new album made by my brother. Check it out. Wishing them good luck on their tour in the UK this week. I hope England is ready for a little revolution!

Update: The new Smittens album The Coolest thing about Love is now available on iTunes and eMusic.

Rick Roll Cake

I just had to give a Rick Roll Cake a try for Jay’s birthday. It is well worth the effort as we are still laughing about it almost a week later. Make sure that you have a laptop nearby so that you can play the Rick Roll while the unsuspecting victim attempts to cut the cardboard cake. See unsuspecting victim below:

Smittens Charm Bracelet

The Smittens were at the Lizard Lounge last night for a fun show. Since they were coming to town for a visit I made a Smittens Charm Bracelet for the Littlest Smitten. I used a permanent marker on some Shrinky Dink paper and attached each charm with 2 stars to the bracelet. To make the shrinky dinks I preheated a toaster oven to 325 and put the charms on wax paper on the toaster oven tray. I left them in for about 1 minute until they were flat.  I did a similar project a long time ago when I made Smittens wine charms for my brother.

Cork Organizers

I finally got around to converting some old tin cans into a cork covered pencil holders. I used an extra cork square that I had from another project and went to work with my hot glue gun. I did find that it is difficult to make a perfect seam, so I added a simple line to cover the mess (See pic 2).

The excess cork was from a project in my closet. I decided to line the inside of my closet door with cork for pictures and other items. It is pretty handy and makes me happy when I open my closet. In addition, it keeps all the clutter out of sight.

5 Green Christmas Tips

1. Skip wrapping presents. I am going to wrap all my pressies with these Trader Joe’s reusable shopping bags this year.
   

   *The bags are only $.99/each at TJs, but when I bought 10 today I was asked by the manager if I was one of those losers who was buying out all the bags and selling them on eBay for $8/each. I told them of my green x-mas plan and they seemed skeptical. I just searched eBay and sure enough there are folks out there doing this.

   If you must wrap presents consider using old newspaper and recycled ribbons or reuse gift bags.

2. Buy a live tree to decorate and plant it later. I did this last year, but the poor tree did not survive. Here are some tips to keep a tree alive. (If you live in Portland, OR you can actually rent a tree that is planted in the community soon after Christmas.)  For those who do buy a cut tree, make sure that you have it composted or mulched when the season is over.
3. Use the more efficient and less dangerous LED Christmas lights.
4. Consider making some crafty gifts or some homemade food items. Another option is to purchase tickets to an event.
5. Instead of buying somebody something that they might already have or don’t need consider giving a gift that gives back to the community through Gift It Up!, which has many donation items from 14 great non-profits. The Alternative Gift Fair is organized by a Boston non-profit group called Conscious Consuming. If you can’t make it to the fair you can give online.

More Cork Tips

Country Home Magazine had a Put a cork in it section with instructions on how to convert an old tin can into a stylish organizer using cork. Two other suggestions for recycling old wine corks that I hadn’t thought of were:
Start a fire – Soak a bunch of old corks in rubbing alcohol and arrange them on charcoal, then fire up the grill.
Door Stopper – Slice a cork in half lengthwise and glue it to the back of a door to protect your walls.

Related Links:
Homemade Cork Board
Week 5

The Most Amazing Quilt

We went to an exhibit called The Art of the Needle and I was really taken with a quilt by a woman named Ida W. Beck from Easton, PA. From afar it didn’t seem that unique, but the detail work was amazing. It is clear that it took many year to plan and make this quilt that includes many different alphabets, flowers, months and seasons. Ida W. Beck lived from 1880 – 1967 and was described as a shut-in who specialized in needlework and monogramming. She donated this work to the Shelburne Museum collection in 1955. The center of the quilt is a monogram that contains all letters of the alphabet except for the letter I. The Posy Collection sells a needlework design of the center portion of the quilt.