Look what I made: Knitting needles

What you need to make knitting needles for about a quarter each!

Bean!
I whipped up some home-made knitting needles today for 35 cents each. You know they tend to cost $5-15, so this is a big deal! I saw a video with the idea, and we had all the supplies on our MakeScene so it took me 5 minutes! I got two needles out of one dowel. I had 1/4" dowels for size 10-10.5 needles. Now I'm off to buy dowels in other sizes!

Look what I made: Onion confit

Bean! 

Meijer clearanced a rack of onions so I bought 10 lb. for confit. $2.00! Aren't you sorry you left?

New goal: Puppet workshop in 2013

Photos: The Old Trout Puppet Workshop

 Bean!

Why the hell did we just spend two months together and not make a new puppet video? Not wanting to come up with a plot is not a good reason. Making things requires doing the hard work parts. Let that be a note to self.  

Photos: The Banff Center, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop

No hard work, no puppet dreams.

And of course, no fun. Just to remind us how much fun we have when we do the hard work, go watch our puppet videos again!

New goal: puppet workshop in 2013.            

I bring this up because I'd like to make a proposition.  After we reach our goal of becoming financially stable by 2013, let's take the Banff Puppet Theater Intensive in 2013. It's "a two-week exploration into the creative art of puppet theatre" presented by The Banff Centre, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and the Calgary Animated Objects Society.

Photos: The Banff Center, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop

The Old Trouts.

The Old Trout Puppet Workshop is where Jim Henson would be teaching today if he were still alive. "The Old Trouts are a company founded on the collaborative nature of devised, ensemble-based creation, they build their shows through a process of consensus, which shall be the thesis of this workshop." They did Feist's Honey Honey video and do local and touring shows. Here are some examples.

Until then, we can contribute to the Old Trouts:

In the meantime, we can be a part of Ignorance, their current collaborative project. It's right up my nature-loving alley: "a puppet documentary about the blissful prehistoric origins of humanity, and how our brains evolved into the hideous bliss-sucking parasites they are today." You join their wordpress blog and from there submit anything you can create or think of. They will draw from all the bits to create the show on the spot later this year. They're calling it a whole new way of doing theater.

New goal: Indie wealthy in 2013

Register at www.indiebusiness.com

Bean!
I'm taking a page from the neoconservative book to coin a new phrase for trust fund babies: indie wealthy. Let's face it, it's what we all want to be. Meanwhile, we come to regard wealth by our own definitions.

New goal: Indie wealthy by 2013.
I know, financial stability sounds so dull. But that's just on the outside; it also allows you to shape your own career, schedule and more. Since I'm hoping to start a family this millenium, with at least some fully diploid children, perhaps it's a good idea to secure some financial, psychological, and lifestyle stability. I mean, perhaps. What do you think? How shall we define this goal?

Step one: make a plan.
Are you ready for our Indie Business 3.0 online course to begin tomorrow? I have so many ideas I want to streamline into a cohesive group of products. Plus, reading through the student introductions, I suspect we'll have many more ideas during the course from all the inspiration they'll give us. Since the course's teachers are not financial experts, let's keep in mind what else we need in order to develop our plan for becoming indie wealthy.

Goal?
Check.
Plan?
Check.
What you do to yourself before your wreck yourself?

You Wore WHAT?: Presidents' Day 2011

Bean!
I knew you would just love to see the outfit I was just lounging around in on Presidents' Day. Can you believe I put this together with so little thought!?

Shirt
Target boyfriend tee, but you'll find it in the women's section.

Jeans
Just My Size available at Walmart.

Sweatshirt
Tim Gunn wants you to put a sweatsuit alternative in your wardrobe essentials? Go with an inside-out sweatshirt. It's really trending right now.

Baby Fat
It's imitation designer Baby Phat by cheese! Doesn't it look authentic? 
Face
Psst! Guess what! I wasn't wearing any makeup! Save on blush by getting the Asian alcohol gene and squeezing all the wine out of the bag in the box. I know, right!?

O, Happy Day, Lincoln!

Look what I made: Snow Angels. a.k. Winter's Over?

The snow had nearly all melted by yesterday morning. By 8 PM there was another 6 inches! We swept off the car and shoveled the driveway. Then I dared Lorna to make a snow angel. I made one too!

Current Knit: Big Herringbone Cowl

1, 2

Supplies: Alpacas are cozy as fresh, hot bread!

Bean!

To inaugurate this momentous occasion of my first post to you, I'm going to post the most recent thing to excite me on Etsy. Alpacas! Oh, you know you can't look a them and not want to cuddle up tout de suite! 

What isn't on Etsy?

Etsy's diversity never fails to amaze me. Last week I found heirloom morning glory seeds for flowers whose petals looked like silk sea anemones and seeds for paint-black radishes, and this week I found alpaca yarn hand spun by the alpacas' keepers. As the locavore joke goes, it even tells you the names of the animals sheared for that very skein. Best of all, you get a card from the animals. Jill, these are blue-ribbon alpacas! Their closet doors must be plastered in them, just like yours were from swim meets. Do you think I should switch all my items over to luxury yarn? On mother nature's other hand, there also upcycled yarns. At first these seem suspiciously like unraveled Goodwill sweaters. Ooh ooh! UNRavelry! But over 200 yards of WW 100% cashmere for a mere Alex Hamilton? NOW I understand! The best stuff from this window shopping spree is over in my future shop's faves.