Sheer Amazing Genius

...and somehow fitting during finals week. This dude is my hero currently. Read his books. NOW.

No Photos, So I'll Keep it Short

My parents came to visit for a few hours and we ventured downtown. Turns out I drive past the public library every Friday and have never seen it. Oops. Well, anyways, we went exploring downtown and happened upon a particularly fantastic antique shop. "Antique shop" sounds awfully pretentious if you ask me, but this shop was well organized, had a good price range, and was actually pretty family friendly. Mom is eternally searching for a specific type of cookware and a replacement for our faulty dinning room chair set. I love looking for old photos, quilts, jewelry, etc. I'm pretty easy to entertain at these places. Dad, however, likes old tools and toys that he remembers having because he gets to tell stories, which I really do enjoy. The thing that really gets his goat, however, is marbles. Not just any marbles, those abnormally large ones hidden in jars of smaller ones. 

We found several collections of marbles, mom found some furniture items and plate wares she looked at for awhile, and I found some supremely groovy canister sets. We just looked around, but we found some awesome things. My personal favorites: 

• An 8 mm camera that sounded like it might still work ($20)
• A super long framed photo from WWII soldiers in the south pacific ($65)
• A dated wedding photo, 1929, AND the wedding dress in the photo ($70)

I don't need any of these items, of course, but I really can't stop thinking about them. The men in the WWII photo all look so....human. They are happy, in the prime of their lives, and staring at me from over sixty years ago. The wedding photo is amazing because she's staring at me from even further back in time, and yet I can hold the clothing she had on in my hand. The camera is just amazingly retro and cool, but more than that, what if it could capture life again? I have no idea where you'd even begin, but its still an interesting idea. 

Required Viewing

Hey, you. Yes, you. You MUST watch this. Why? Because its Friday night and you are surfing the tubes instead of running a marathon or saving African children, so you must be bored or something. Here, watch this: 

In case you need distracted from finals...

...or are a little high. 

Yarn Dolls

No, they're not voodoo dolls. Well, that's not what I made them for. My mom is a school nurse and as part of her Christmas, I'm hoping to make some small toys for her office. I want them all to be the kind of things that if a kid took a liking to it, it would be okay for them to go on to a new home. I found instructions for these little guys here . I made both of these in just a few minutes and would recommend this project to anyone, especially if you had young kids to entertain.  

Jingle Bells

Despite the mountain of things I should have been doing, I crafted last night.There was success and there was failure. Since blogger's formatting is being less than loving right now, I guess I'll start with the failures.

There are little conveyor belt like thingys on a sewing machine known as feeder dogs (I have no idea why they're called that). Well, mine are from the early 1970s and they are quite unhappy to still be asked to help the fabric get through the machine. So instead, they try to eat some light weight fabrics and sometimes they just get lazy and cause the above havoc. 

A sewing machine works by feeding thread through both the top and bottom of a fabric. Basically, the needle with thread goes down through the fabric and catches the fabric being feed through the bottom making a stitch. Depending on the type and thickness of a fabric the tension must be adjusted to get even stitches so the bottom doesn't bunch up like the above photo.

To be fair and honest, not all of the problems with this little wallet is my sewing machines fault, of course. I can't particularly sew in a straight line when I'm hurrying (bad idea) and I didn't plan very well. I didn't make a pattern or template and cut rather haphazardly (also bad idea). However, all things considered, I kinda like this wallet. I was going for a single pocket, but ended up with two (long story). The fabric is ADORABLE and I kinda like the wonkiness.

I've almost got three feet of the Doctor Who scarf completed. Thankfully. I need...uh, 7 more feet, but at least I have that much. Also, it is super soft and super cute in person. I'm kind of in love. 

If you're feeling overwhelmed...