One Inch World

Merry Christmas from Vermont, (vacationing with the in-laws, much more satisfying than California!)

I just got my copy of One Yard Wonders, which has my origami organizer pattern in it, and it is SO AWESOME! (The whole book!) I admit, I thought it was a little kitchy when I first heard the proposal, projects using 1 yard of fabric? My prediction was it was going to be half bags and half aprons. But they managed to keep it to 5 things I would call an apron/smock, and a similar number of bags. There is really a lot of diversity. And the really magic part is that now I know I can indulge in a yard of fabric whenever I want, and there will be some awesome pattern in this book that is just right! I hadn’t realized that the true power of this book would be to enable future fabric purchases, hahaha! I know how much fabric to buy now! One Yard!

Going in I also really wasn’t sure how they were going to make all these patterns and tutorials from different people fit together and look cohesive, but then, that’s their job, isn’t it? I should have had more faith. They did a great job! My pattern looks nothing like it did when I submitted it, it looks much better! They took my photo tutorial and turned it into an illustrated tutorial, that, except possibly for the tying step, is probably easier to understand. So now I’ll have the confidence to do this again, if I ever see another call for proposals. In the mean time I’m forging ahead with my next pattern for my Etsy store. LEDs, conductive velcro, and felt…

We had our sort-of annual gingerbread house making party yesterday, and it was a lot of fun. This year I skipped the nervous breakdown inducing making of 50 billion slabs of gingerbread, and we all used graham crackers. They work better than 3/8″ thick slabs of gingerbread anyway, they aren’t as heavy, although they don’t taste as good. I tried calling a local bakery, but they laughed at me. Someone mentioned they sold slabs at Nobb Hill, so maybe I’ll try that next year.

Anyway, there was plenty of candy and icing and graham crackers, and at least 10 houses constructed. My best friend and I collaborated on Donaldson Castle, complete with body hanging from the ramparts…

Today, through Kiva.org, I loaned $50 to a tailor in Ghana. Join me in my December drive to give a helping hand to people in poverty.

We needed something to do, so we made this clothes line out of a pipe cleaner and some cardboard triangles, and some paper clothes to hang up. I cut out the clothes and Rebecca drew on them, then hung them on the clothes line with mini clothes pins. To get the clothes line to stay up we had to put some rocks in the cardboard triangles, maybe someone has a better idea for how to make a clothes line? This one is pretty simple.

Today, through Kiva.org, I loaned $50 to a sweet maker in Mexico. Join me in my December drive to give a helping hand to people in poverty.

I was tired of the if-I-lose-I’m-not-going-to-play fight, so I needed a new game that you can’t loose. We have a bunch of cut up paintings for glueing, and I glued them in a random strongly connected network. You could draw circles or squares on a piece of paper and draw lines between them, or make them overlap. On our board there were lots of loops, thus lots of ways to get from here to there. (There are pictures inside the loops, but I would leave those out if I was drawing it again, they were just decoration, and distracting.) Get out two game people and another ‘goal’ marker, we used wooden beads and a triangle block. Place them randomly on the board. Each person gets to take turns rolling a die and moving that many spaces whichever direction they want. Whoever gets to the ‘goal’ marker first, the OTHER person gets to put it wherever they want on the board.

It took Rebecca a little while to get the hang of if she wanted to move the triangle, she had to let ME get there first. It’s sort of an anti-racing game. Good practice to break the I-must-get-there-first mentality.

We modified this idea from Kohl’s ‘Science Arts’. Take two pieces of paper, and in between them stick colorful flowers and leaves.

Tape them down to the kitchen floor, and rub with the side of a crayon. This is both fun, and it lets you know where to bang in the next step. (Now when we do rubbings Rebecca talks about ‘finding’ things hidden under the paper.

Bang bang bang with a rubber mallet.

Peel the papers apart and see how the plant pigments have transfered to the paper.

We used our geranium (Pelargonium) hedge (yes we live in California where geraniums grow and flower in the dirt year round) and the colors were really lovely. The rose petals we tried weren’t so colorful, but they were from a lightly pigmented flower. (Yes, we also have roses flowering in front of our house in December. It gets a little boring frankly. I miss snow.)

The girls loved whacking the heck out of the plants with the rubber mallet, that’s why I suggest you use the kitchen floor and not a table you don’t want dented.

Also, have you seen Filth Wizardry’s Lego and hole punching card post? Combine paper crafts with LEGO blocks. Brilliant brilliant brilliant!