Then my husband tried it on, and you wouldn’t believe it – the sleeves were too short.

I ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> So I did it. I finally finished it. I actually managed to finish it in the 17 days I was allowed to work on it. I felt kind of guilty though, because I stitched up the last of the seams on the night of the closing ceremonies – I was allowed up until 11:59pm to have it done, and I finished at 11:30pm – so it was really close.

Then my husband tried it on, and you wouldn’t believe it – the sleeves were too short.

I had forgotten that the reason my husband buys his sweaters/shirts/sweatshirts 2 or 3 sizes too big is because of the sleeves. He’s always floating around in what he wears, but he does it because he has long arms – if he gets his own size, it fits him everywhere but the sleeves. I wasn’t payig attention, and was so engrossed in getting it finished before deadline that I forgot to add in the 3″ extra I had planned to make them the right length.

So on Monday, I took the sleeves off. Had to undo the mattress stitch up the sides and around the armholes – which I must say isn’t that easy. It’s hard to find that end to undo it! Then I had to “unbind” the sleeve ends, join in more yarn, and continue knitting the 3 extra inches on each arm. once that was done, I popped them back on, redid the seaming, and I finished it up Wednesday night. Hubby tried it on (and let me take some pictures) and it was perfect. He loves it. He’s all excited to finally have a sweater that fits him all over. (He’s actually wearing it to work today – so he wasn’t just saying he liked it to be nice!)

Anyway, so why do I feel guilty? Because I had to undo it, and it wasn’t fit to wear until Wednesday night – and the Ravelympics were finished last Sunday. However, the lovely people over there said that – because it *was* actually completed on time, it counted. Taking it apart to “Edit” afterwards was okay with them.

So I did finish my first sweater in 17 days, and it came out beautifully. See for yourself!

Why? I dunno. I know there’s some kind of prizes handed out when the Olympics are over (if you’ve finished your project) but I haven’t really paid attention to that. I think the reason is because I’ve been wanting to do something really challenging, and a sweater would be just that. I also work very well under pressure – when I have a deadline, it’s some part of my system that not only do I have to have it done by ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> Yep, I’ve gone and joined it.

Why? I dunno. I know there’s some kind of prizes handed out when the Olympics are over (if you’ve finished your project) but I haven’t really paid attention to that. I think the reason is because I’ve been wanting to do something really challenging, and a sweater would be just that. I also work very well under pressure – when I have a deadline, it’s some part of my system that not only do I have to have it done by that deadline, but I have to have it done before that deadline.

I’ve never knit a sweater before. The Olympics last 17 days. 1 sweater in 17 days.

I’m nuts.

But I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna try!

My husband is way excited about me doing this.

My husband is actually a little excited by this. even thought his friends said to him that they didn’t know he was married to an eighty-year-old woman. (haha – because I knit and sew, and I even knit while I’m in a rocking chair, etc. etc.) Probably because of the choice of sweater. When I first saw a picture of this pattern, I immediately thought of him – it’s just his style. Even the color screams “Mike! You want me!” So I bought the pattern and tried to knit it, and couldn’t. It just wasn’t doing it for me. Maybe it was the yarn I’d originally chosen for the project. But when I saw the Ravelympics were coming, I figured what better chance would I have to force myself into this? So I ordered the yarn, I’ve been getting it ready to go, and on Friday at 9pm EST, I’ll be casting on and knitting it for 17 days.

At the end of the 17 days, he’ll put in the kick-ass sweater and wear it to work, so he can rub what his 80-year-old wife made for him by hand (I need names too – so when we have parties where I cook, I’ll make sure to create something nasty for them!)

Anyway, I’m a little excited about it, and I hope it works out well. First attempt at a sweater – will I go insnae? Or will I actually do it?

We shall see!

I’ve joined the Ravelympics with one project – a sweater I’ve been dying to knit up for my husband. I’ve never knit a sweater before, so I figured this was a good challenge to test myself with. I’ve already got everything for it, and I actually started ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> I’ve been knitting a lot lately. There’s some projects on my Ravelry page that I’ve updated and enjoyed (except one!) doing – but over the last week or so, I’ve started about 10 different projects and ripped them all out.

I’ve joined the Ravelympics with one project – a sweater I’ve been dying to knit up for my husband. I’ve never knit a sweater before, so I figured this was a good challenge to test myself with. I’ve already got everything for it, and I actually started it twice – but again, I’ve ripped it out every time.

I think part of my issue is yarn. The other part is something else that I’m not sure what I can do about.

I have a huge list of projects I really want to tackle. My library has almost 30 PDF files of stuff I want to do (and it’s growing), and I can’t stop browsing the patterns… well anywhere I go to find patterns. I have a stash that I built quickly, when I first began knitting in October. I didn’t know a damn thing about squat, so I just went to Michael’s and loaded up on stuff I could practice with. In the few short months I’ve been knitting, I’ve learned quite a bit: about how I progress, what I do, what holds my interest, and what to knit with. And what I think is really holding me up is my stash – I have a TON of acrylics (in colors I don’t particularly like) and I have a huge wad of cotton. I have a little bit of nice yarn that I’m not quite sure what to do with, and I have a small stash of Fisherman’s Wool that I really like to knit with, but I can’t figure out what to knit with it.

My other issue is designs. I have a TON of knitting pattern designs in my head, but I’m not familiar enough with the process to know what to do with them. If it were a perfect knitting world for me, I could find someone who loves to make patterns but has a lack of design ideas, and hook up with them. I see all sorts of patterns that I almost love – if it just weren’t for this or that thing – but I don’t know how to change it, nor do I know how to come up with something that works on my own (yet).

I need to somehow bust my stash. I need to get rid of all of this crap I started, and get some goodies. I need to start projects that I really want to work on, but haven’t because I’m surrounded by crap that I don’t know what to do with. I’m not a “hoarder”, so I feel like I have to get rid of what I’ve already got before I can go out and buy more stuff.

So that’s where I am right now. I love knitting, but I’m just not feelin’ it right now. I feel like I need to figure something out before I burn out on being stuck.

Yesterday, I was cleaning out my drawers. I’ve been trying to finally lose this weight I packed on while having my children, and over the ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> I am continuing on with my obsession of bags. For some unknown reason, I cannot get them out of my head. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like bags, and typically don’t carry them, so why I’m obsessing over them right now, I cannot figure out. I’e been drawing designs like crazy, and my poor sewing machine is getting a workout.

Yesterday, I was cleaning out my drawers. I’ve been trying to finally lose this weight I packed on while having my children, and over the last couple of months, I’ve been dropping it like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve lost 20 pounds (okay, well almost anyway – 17 to be exact) – as anyone who’s dropped weight will know, losing 5 pounds is roughly equal to one dress size, so I’ve lost basically 4 dress sizes. All of my jeans literally fall off of me when I walk around the house. (Right now I feel like some kind of gangsta because the crotch of my jeans is currently between my knees – but it’s the only clean pair of pants I have in the house at the moment!)

So deep in the bowels of my jeans drawer, not only did I find a few pair of jeans that are amazingly huge (and there’s absolutely no way I will ever wear them again), but I also found a pair of old favorites. They were the jeans I loved to wear while I was preggers with my last child. They were pretty much worn through, but they were a pair of faded jeans with this really pretty design of embroidered flowers on the thigh. I don’t know why I never tossed them, but there they were – and suddenly bing! I had an idea for yet another bag.

I started making this bag yesterday, around lunchtime, and I finished it around 10 hours later. (Hey, I had little ones to take care of and dinner to make!) As with the first bag that sprang from my head, I don’t consider this to be a great work – but I learned a lot in making it. This was the first time I actually properly added a gusset to a bag (the previous attempt was very sad and I made things really hard on myself) – and I realized what I’m doing wrong with the gusset. This bag – as well as the first one – has a gusset that’s too narrow. It keeps tipping over. If this were just a regular run-of-the-mill purse, I think it would be fine. But I need ot keep in mind what I’ll be using these bags for – because in loading them up with yarn and books like I have been… well the gusset just needs to be wider. I run at about a 4″ width, and I’m thinking I need to go up at least double that.

I also added elastic to the inside pockets this time – but I made a mistake: I stretched out the elastic (just a little bit) because I wanted the pockets to always lay flat against the sides. I should NOT have done that. Now the strength of the elastic pulls the sides in, and I think this contributes to the bag tipping over because the strength to hold it up is compromised. (I have noticed, though, when I stuff the pockets full of junk, it seems to regain it’s balance a little better.) What I should have done was make the elastic exactly the same width as the bag, and made the pocket wide, so it could expand if it needed to.

And finally, I’ve learned that – at least in this case – when I want to do “gathers”, I don’t need to cut the pieces at an angle. The cut pieces for the front and back were all triangle-shaped, because I wanted the light-colored sections to “poof and gather”, and it would result in a triangular shape. However, by cutting the pieces in triangles, i ended up making it quite a bit flatter than intended, and there’s definitely no “poof”. What I should have done is cut the dark pieces as triangles (like I did) and left the light-colored fabric as regular rectangles, and allow the “gathering” to straighten out the sides and create “poof”.

Other than that, though, I really like how this turned out. (You’ll see the “needle roll” I made out of leftover fabric in the second picture – I also saved the pockets to sew together to make a notions bag – that’s not in the picture though.) I’m definitely learning a lot from all of this “trial and error.”

But I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with all of these bags I’m making! Maybe I should start having giveaways or something…

The answer? Popcorn Balls.

Now, I know when I was a kid, I loved them. I remember trick-or-treating and some of my friends were upset because one of the neighbors was handing out homemade popcorn balls instead of “real” candy. I, however, was happy to take them off their hands – ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> So, my son is supposed to bring a handmade gift as a “Secret Santa” for a classmate. The thing is, the silly bot told the recipient that he was his “Santa,” and specifically asked him what he wanted.

The answer? Popcorn Balls.

Now, I know when I was a kid, I loved them. I remember trick-or-treating and some of my friends were upset because one of the neighbors was handing out homemade popcorn balls instead of “real” candy. I, however, was happy to take them off their hands – I loved them. My mother never made them, and any time I got a chance to have one, I took it.

I, myself, have never made them either – until last night, when my son helped me make the balls. I’m going to share the recipe with you, because they really did turn out delicious – and they were so easy to make.

Popcorn Balls

adapted from AllRecipes.com
makes about 5-10 balls, depending on size

Ingredients

• Just under 1/2c light corn syrup
• 2 Tbsp margarine or butter
• 1 tsp cold water
• 1 1/3c powdered sugar
• 4 large marshmallows (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 large bag (about 3.5-4 cups popped) microwave popcorn, plain

Preparation

1. Pop the popcorn as instructed, place in a large bowl. Pull out a cookie sheet and line with wax paper or Saran Wrap.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine everything but the popcorn. Bring to boil and mix well.
3. Pour the syrup over the popcorn and mix well, coating the popcorn evenly.
4. Spray your hands with PAM® and rub together to coat them well; or use some other kind of flavorless shortening or oil to get nice and greased up. Start forming balls of popcorn and dropping them on the cookie sheet.

That’s pretty much it. A side note, though: my son helped a lot with this. We measured and stirred (of course, i was right there supervising him) and he was all excited to make the balls – BUT I wouldn’t let him because it was really hot. I used to do pulled sugar work in school, and although it wasn’t that hot, it was still pretty dang hot. So a tip would be to wait a couple of minutes to let it cool off slightly, and then sort of scrape the popcorn off the top and around the edges. The popcorn seems to hold the heat in, so if you just grab a handful down the middle, it’s gonna hurt.

Also, a lot of people wonder how you get that sticky stuff cleaned off. I’m going to provide you with a useful tip: when you’re finished with everything, run very hot water in your sink, and rinse out the bow and spoon with the hot water. (This trick works well when you’ve over-caramelized sugar or just let it get hardened so it doesn’t come off without chipping, too – add boiling water and it softens and comes right off.)

We wrapped these balls in a square of saran wrap and tied them off with some pretty silver ribbon. He made a card for his classmate, and soon, they’ll be off!

]]> http://candybill.com/bites/desserts/best-popcorn-balls-evah/feed 0 http://candybill.com/diversions/sewing/grocery-tote-tutorial-part-ii-sew http://candybill.com/diversions/sewing/grocery-tote-tutorial-part-ii-sew#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:27:34 +0000 Shelly http://candybill.com/?p=502 If you missed the first part of this tutorial, please look at it now. It tells you how to cut all the pieces!

Now that you have all of your pieces cut, it’s time to sew it all together. First thing you want to do is choose what pieces will be the lining, and what will be the outer shell. Once you’ve decided that, then take the two pieces for the outside of the tote, put the right sides together, and sew them at the two sides ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> If you missed the first part of this tutorial, please look at it now. It tells you how to cut all the pieces!



Be sure when you sew the sides and bottom together that you leave the cut-out corers untouched. We're not ready for that yet!

Now that you have all of your pieces cut, it’s time to sew it all together. First thing you want to do is choose what pieces will be the lining, and what will be the outer shell. Once you’ve decided that, then take the two pieces for the outside of the tote, put the right sides together, and sew them at the two sides and the bottom, leaving the corners open. Use whatever stitch you like – I used a simple straight stitch, and it’s held up pretty well. But be absolutely sure you leave those corners open – it’s important.



You also want to be sure - in the lining pieces - that you leave a hole in the bottom.

You want to do the same for the lining of the bag as well: place the wrong sides together and sew along the sides and bottom. However, for this part, you want to be sure you leave a hole in the middle of the bottom – this is important too! You want the hole to be roughly big enough to put your balled-up fist into very easily. I usually tie off these threads, simply to add in a little extra strength, but it’s not completely necessary.



Line up the seam at the bag bottom with the seam at the side of the bag, and sew across.

Now you want to box the bottom corners of both “bags”. Basically, you find the side seam of each bag, and line it up with the bottom seam so they meet. You can hold them together or pin them – I avoid pins like the plague, but you don’t have to – and just sew across, closing up the holes and boxing the bottom. (You’ll definitely want to tie off the threads here.) When you hold them up, you should now have two basic bags with boxed bottoms.



Now let’s move to the straps. The iron comes in handy at this point. What you want to do is start by ¹ironing your strip in half, lengthwise; ²opening the fold and then folding the bottom up halfway to the center crease and ³ ironing (do the same for the top); and finally ⁴ fold at the center crease, and iron again to “train” it to go where it’s supposed to. You may choose to pin this shut, but I find ironing it makes it pretty easy, and you don’t have to pin anything.



Sew the straps on both sides.

Now you want to take these nice, ironed pieces and sew them up. I find it makes for a cleaner finish if it sew the center crease side first, and then sew the “open” side (where the edges are folded in) – that way you don’t end up with any weird warping. You want to make the seam as close to the edge as you can get it, just to make it look nice.



Place the lining into the outer shell, right sides together.

Now you need to turn the lining right side out, and slide the lining bag into the outer shell portion – make sure the right sides are together! – and line up the side seams. You can pin them together at this point if you like, but be sure you only pin it at the side seams, since we’re now going to place our straps in the proper position. So you need to decide which side of your strap is the prettiest, and place that side face up in your hand. Now reach between the outer shell and lining and slide the strap down in between the two bags (right side down). Then you want to position the ends, lined up with the tops of the two bags, into place, and pin them (this is the only part I actually use pins for!) Now you want to sew around the entire top of the bag, sewing the handles, lining and outer shell all together.



Place the straps between the lining and the outer shell, and line up the strap ends with the top of the bags. Pin all together and sew around the entire bag top.

At this point, the bag is mostly finished. I like to go and iron my seams flat, and tie up and loose threads. Even though you sew over the loose threads, to me it always seems to give it some “good measure” to just tie them up. Once you’ve got the seams pressed and the threads tied, you’ll want to do the fun part – turning it right-side out. Remember that hole we left in the lining? You want to find it, reach into it and grab your bag, and work it right-side out through this hole. Don’t pull too hard, though! But it should come through just fine and dandy.



After pulling th ebag through the hole in the bottom of your lining, you'll want to close the hole off.

Once you have it all pulled through, you want to return to that hole, push the threads (at the sides) through back to the inside, and hold it closed. Topstitch over the hole to close it up, keeping the thread as close to the edge as you can.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. You can press the seams again if you’d like, and some people like to do topstitching on them for a cleaner look (and maybe a little more strength), but it’s not absolutely necessary. Your finished bag will be beautiful and functional, and it can really carry some heavy items without busting open!


]]> http://candybill.com/diversions/sewing/grocery-tote-tutorial-part-ii-sew/feed 0 http://candybill.com/diversions/sewing/grocery-tote-tutorial-part-i-prep http://candybill.com/diversions/sewing/grocery-tote-tutorial-part-i-prep#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:21:53 +0000 Shelly http://candybill.com/?p=466 As promised, I’m here to deliver my first sewing tutorial, to show you how I made my reversible grocery tote bag. This entry is just the first in a (small) series of posts on the matter. I’m doing it in steps for two reasons: 1) I think it breaks things up a little more to make it easier to follow and 2) I have little ones at home, and they only let me do a little bit at a time.

So if you didn’t read on, Fisherboy »]]> As promised, I’m here to deliver my first sewing tutorial, to show you how I made my reversible grocery tote bag. This entry is just the first in a (small) series of posts on the matter. I’m doing it in steps for two reasons: 1) I think it breaks things up a little more to make it easier to follow and 2) I have little ones at home, and they only let me do a little bit at a time.

So if you didn’t read the original post on this tote, as Inigo Montoya said once: “Let me ’splain. No, wait – too much. Let me sum up.” A while back, I was looking for a nice reusable grocery bag pattern, and found this one, but when I sewed it up, it came out really small. (NOTE: I don’t blame the original author – I blame my Mad Skillz, and the fact that I hadn’t sewn anything in quite some time.) I liked the idea of taking an existing, working bag and turning it into a pattern to make reusable fabric bags from – and since we always use the large paper bags anyway, I decided to steal her idea and cut up a paper bag instead.

So with that in mind, you need the following items to make up your quickie tote:

• Fabric of your choice (I used about 1/2 yard each of 2 different fabric patterns, medium weight cotton; and some scrap canvas for the handle)
• Scissors
• A sewing machine
• Thread
• Iron and Ironing Board (okay, ironing board is optional – if you don’t have one, just fold a towel in half and lay it on the floor to iron on – an old college trick I used to do )
• Pins are helpful, but not required
• An old paper grocery bag
• An old sheet or pillowcase, or blank pattern paper.
• A sharpie (or other marker)
• A ruler (optional, but very helpful)
• Interfacing (optional – I didn’t use it, but I’ll ’splain why you might want it later)

I’ll start by saying this is actually mega-super-easy to sew up. However, as I said, I hadn’t sewn anything in a long time, and (as is typical of me) the first time I put this together I royally screwed the pooch. I had to rip it apart twice and start over. But once you do it the first time, believe me, it’s all downhill from there. So really, I think anyone who can drive and follow a straight line can do this – it really is that easy (and since I’m explaining what I did step-by-step, then you will learn from my mistakes, and hopefully you won’t make them.)

Cut the Bag and Create Your Pattern



Find the center seam on the wide side of the bag, and cut about 1/2 to 1 inch to the left of it.

So the first thing you want to do is grab your scissors and the paper bag. You want to lay it on its side, so the wide side with the seam is facing up. When you locate the seam, you want to cut about 1/2 – to 1 inch to the left of the seam (to make for the seam allowance when you sew), and cut all the way down and through the bottom. You don’t need to cut all the way around the bag, but you can if it makes you feel better. But you basically want to follow this line down one side, and through the middle of the bottom piece.



Find the center fold of the narrow side, and cut 1/2 to 1 inch to the right of the fold.

Now, turn the bag so the narrow side (to the right of the side you were cutting) is facing up. You want to find the center fold of this side (it folds inward), and place your scissors 1/2 to 1 inch to the right of the fold. Continue to cut along this path through to the bottom, until you meet the previous cut at a 90° angle.



The corner you just cut - you want to now cut along the bottom seam.

Now what you should have what looks like the tall corner of a box. You now want to find the spot where the sides meets the bottom piece to form the corner, and cut along that seam. (If you’re not positive where I mean, look at the little picture there and there’s a red arrow showing you the line to cut and in what direction). Now you’ll end up with a big rectangle that has the corner cut out.



This is what you should have after you've cut the bag up and laid it flat.

This is now your base pattern. You’ve already got your seam allowances included here – except where the bottom corner is cut out. Now, This is where your old piece of fabric comes in (I used an old crib sheet for this). Personally, I hate pattern paper. The stuff drives me nuts. But if you like it, by all means, use it. But trying to pin a paper bag to fabric is a nightmare, so transferring it to something more…. “pliable” will make your life easier, as well as make for better storage.

So whip out the old sheet (or whatever) and lay the piece of bag on it. You want to cut around the bag – but when you get to the corner piece, you want to expand your line there by about 1/2 to 1 inch to make for the seam allowance there. (I like to do 1 inch, because it gives me “mess up” room to play with. If you don’t need that much room, no big deal, because it gets trimmed back anyway – but as my mom always told me, “you can always take away, but you can’t put it back.”)



The end result of your pattern piece.

I like to use my sharpie to write notes on the pattern – so I marked where the fold should go (on the longest side of the piece), and I put notes on the whole project on this. (After I took this picture, I added more notes, but I’ll get to that in a minute.)

This is pretty much the only pattern piece you’re going to need. If you so desire, you can cut a rectangle to go with this that is 35 inches long by 4 inches wide, and save it along with this bit. I do not desire, so I did not. Instead, I just added a note to my existing pattern piece that I needed to cut 2 rectangles that were 35 inches long by 4 inches wide (for the handles – you can make them shorter if you like, but I wouldn’t want to go any less than 18 inches long, unless you don’t care that you can’t lug it over your shoulder). Now if I ever make this again, I’ll know what I need

Now we’re going to get to the good stuff.

Cut the Actual Fabric Pieces

As with any preparation, you need to set out your fabric and fold it as you like to cut it properly. If you’re using a fabric that’s a solid color, or has a pattern that can go any which way, then by all means, lay it out any way it fits and cut. In my case, the fabric I chose has a vertical pattern, so I had to be more careful as to how I cut mine.



Because this repeating pattern on the fabric only goes one way, I had to be very careful as to where I cut my corners.

Now, my stripes weren’t any real big deal – they were vertical stripes, but as long as I didn’t hold them sideways, it didn’t matter which end as up or down (stripes only stripe one way!) However, the floral pattern was another matter – the way the pattern is set up on it, the fabric could only face one direction. If I just “went with it” then the floral pattern would be upside-down on one side of the tote. So the vertical stripes, I went ahead and cut out as usual – but for the floral pattern, I cut it square. Then I pulled apart the two pieces, rotated one of them 180° (so the pattern was running in the same direction), and then I cut out the corners. That way I could be sure my pieces were all running in the same direction, and would play nice.

This is the point where I cut out my handle pieces from the canvas. Now, I mentioned in the “list of things you’d need” up there that interfacing was optional. The reason I say this is because a lot of people like to place interfacing in their handles to make them strong and sturdy. So if the fabric you’re using is something like quilting cotton, then yes, please cut two pieces of interfacing to match your two cut handles. In my case, I used a strong canvas – so there’s really no need for interfacing. I could, but I don’t plan on carrying around any elephants in these things, so it’s really not necessary when you’re using something as strong (and heavy) as canvas.

So if you’ve decided to use interfacing, feel free to apply it as necessary. I like the “iron on” kind, but if you used sew-in… well just place the interfacing on the wrong side of the handles and pin.



Here's all of my cut pieces, laid out for you to see. I folded over the floral pattern piece so you could see how I did a 180 on one side to make sure the pattern was going the right way before I cut the corners.

So really, that’s all there is to it. These are the pieces that are cut to create the bag (of course, as mentioned, no interfacing. If you’re using it, just imagine it there ) That’s all the prep you need to do. Next, I’ll show you how to put the bag together. Of course, at this point, all I’ve done myself is cut the pieces to show you how to do it, and my son just got home from school – so it might be a little bit before I put in part 2!

Part II: Sew It Up!

]]> http://candybill.com/diversions/sewing/grocery-tote-tutorial-part-i-prep/feed 0 http://candybill.com/diversions/life-in-general/genius-procrastinator-at-work http://candybill.com/diversions/life-in-general/genius-procrastinator-at-work#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:59:57 +0000 Shelly http://candybill.com/?p=444 Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist and inventor, and it was said he was a great genius. The Boston Museum of Science (as well as many others, but I figured I’d give you a real reference!) said that “Leonardo’s interests were so broad, and he was so often compelled by new subjects, that he usually failed to finish what he started.” This little factoid about da Vinci is why my husband thinks I’m a genius, and why every boss I’ve ever had thinks I’m incompetent.

I will admit that ... read on, Fisherboy »]]>



Leonardo da Vinci - Study of Human Skull

Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist and inventor, and it was said he was a great genius. The Boston Museum of Science (as well as many others, but I figured I’d give you a real reference!) said that “Leonardo’s interests were so broad, and he was so often compelled by new subjects, that he usually failed to finish what he started.” This little factoid about da Vinci is why my husband thinks I’m a genius, and why every boss I’ve ever had thinks I’m incompetent.

I will admit that I do have some similarities to Leonardo da Vinci, as I’m sure a lot of other people have (I love my hubby, and he’s so sweet, but just because I have a few similarities doesn’t make me a genius): I start a lot of things and never finish them. I get swept up in learning something new, and if something else new comes along before I finish new #1, I’ll drop the ball on it. I’ve always done that.

I’ve always said that if I could choose my perfect “dream job” for myself, if I could do anything I wanted to do, without any limits or restrictions, my perfect “job” would be to become a permanent student. As the illustrious Trent Reznor once penned: “I wanna go everywhere, I wanna do everything… I wanna do something that matters.”

Yes, I left out a little bitty line, because that particular one doesn’t really apply.

There is so much to know and to learn, I just don’t know how anyone could ever want to stop. I love learning new things. I love trying things out. And honestly, I don’t mind failure. I learn the most from my failures. Although I’d love to “do it right the first time,” I never expect I will – I always expect I’ll fail the first time. That’s okay with me.

Right now, I’m finding myself on a creative streak. I think it’s because I’ve finally finished all of the at-work projects (that were supposed to be completed October 1) and I truly find myself finally enjoying my sabbatical. I have a lot of time on my hands – and as expected, at first I had no idea what I was going to do. So I started cleaning. That didn’t last long (I have 2 kids under the age of 6. They sort of followed along right behind me and messed up what I’d just cleaned.), so I started focusing on my knitting projects. Which led to sewing projects.

Last night, I was up until 1am, sketching out bag designs. I’ve become bag-obsessed over the last month. My sketchbook is becoming filled with ideas, and I want to make them all. I was going to fabric sites on the internet and picking out fabrics and notions I wanted to use in my designs. (I so wanted to hit that “add to cart” button on one of them…) My husband is becoming worried about the size of my “stash” – both fabric and yarn.

Now I’m a genius with an addictive personality. (To which I said, “At least it’s not alcohol or gambling.”)

What gets me is, I hate bags. If you ever met me on the street, you would see that I do not carry one. I haven’t since high school, when I had two purses stolen, right off me. (Oh, and a third that was taken from my car. And the one at the hotel bar – that a year later my driver’s license was returned to me, but all my credit cards and cash were not.) I carry the necessities in my pocket. I’ve yet to be pickpocketed though, which is probably why I feel safer with it in my jeans than I do in something hanging on a strap off my shoulder.

And yet, here I am, designing them in my little sketchbook – over and over. I can’t get them out of my mind, and I want to make every single one of them. But then what the hell would I do with them?

Then we move back to knitting. OMG – patterns are like sex to me. (okay, maybe not like sex…. more like chocolate, I guess.) I go through pattern after pattern and wonder, can I knit that up in a night? Then I start trying to do someone else’s pattern and find myself altering it. Not for resizing or anything, but seriously changing it into something brand-new. Then again, I find myself wanting to knit everything I see – but what would I do with it all?

So I stop, and wait, and sketch, and wonder.

And procrastinate.

Right now, I’m at the point in my creativity where the proverbial smoke comes pouring out of my ears. I have so many ideas right now, my hands are developing carpal tunnel from trying to keep up, and I’m burning paper by sketching so fast. And the procrastination comes in because I don’t know where to begin, nor do I know what I would do with all of it once I’ve finished a project.

You know. If I do.

]]> http://candybill.com/diversions/life-in-general/genius-procrastinator-at-work/feed 0 http://candybill.com/diversions/tarot/yes-i-dance-with-tarot http://candybill.com/diversions/tarot/yes-i-dance-with-tarot#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:55:56 +0000 Shelly http://candybill.com/?p=424 But not like you’d think.

I don’t see myself as “psychic.” I’ve never touted that I am, and for the most part, I don’t believe that people – well, most people – that say they are… really are.

Sure, there have been strange things that have happened to me throughout my life. I have lots of stories that have given people goosebumps (who doesn’t?). But personally, I believe that everyone has some part of their mind that taps into your subconscious – that’s all. Humans, as ... read on, Fisherboy »]]>

But not like you’d think.

I don’t see myself as “psychic.” I’ve never touted that I am, and for the most part, I don’t believe that people – well, most people – that say they are… really are.

Sure, there have been strange things that have happened to me throughout my life. I have lots of stories that have given people goosebumps (who doesn’t?). But personally, I believe that everyone has some part of their mind that taps into your subconscious – that’s all. Humans, as a rule, are rational beings. We like to reason and think our way out of (or into) things. However, at our root, we are animals, too – and sometimes, I think our heads get in the way of what our guts are telling us. It’s my belief that if we listened to ourselves at a deeper level, we would all be a lot happier. I’ve spent a lot of my life getting in my own way because I wanted to do something, but my rational mind told me I couldn’t or shouldn’t.

As the saying goes, “you are your own worst enemy,” and I think the human rationale has a lot to do with that. Sometimes you just gotta tell the brain to STFU.

I first picked up tarot cards just to mess with them. I write a bit of fiction on the side, and when I discovered that one of my favorite authors used tarot as a helpful tool to lay out general plot lines to stories, I got even more interested. I decided the best way to use this tool for my writing was to learn how to actually read them, so I started doing readings (for free, BTW – I would never take money for this). Turns out that a lot of people think I’m a natural at it. I take that as a compliment, although not really to heart (I’m too much of a perfectionist to take things like that to heart!)

That being said, I do get a lot of flack for admitting to read tarot cards. (I also interpret dreams – and why that is thought to be a “psychic power” is way beyond me. There’s nothing at all psychic about that one. Anyone can do it, and there’s no “mumbo jumbo” or anything to it at all. But that’s another post for another day!) My ex’s girlfriend swears I’m going to go to Hell for it, which I find kind of funny – especially since I don’t believe in Hell.. which she swears I’m going to go to Hell for that too. LOL

Anyway…

To me, tarot is nothing more than listening to your gut and reacting to an image. You pay attention to your reaction at what you see – you reactions tell you more than anything. Ask any criminal profiler – they can ask you questions, and just based on the direction your eyes move when you answer they can tell if you’re lying. It’s all about instinct, gut reactions, and recognizing them. The hard part is recognizing them. We are so trained to ignore “weird stuff” that we immediately try to un-convince ourselves of anything that might be… well, weird. You kind of have to un-train that – and the more you do it, the better you get.

If a reader flips a card, many people will initially notice the overall image. There will be an initial positive or negative reaction – even without knowing what that card means at all. Then you’ll start picking things apart – noticing little details. It’s these details that tell you what the card means – and on any given day, one detail will mean something different than it did the day before. Yeah, each card has it’s own little individual “general” meaning. (In fact, the major Arcana tells a story all on it’s own.) But this is, I think, why people think it’s “bunk” or it has “Just enough to tantalize you, but general enough to not really mean anything.” Many people go to psychics or card readers and want to sit back, and say nothing more than “Go,” and because they can’t, they feel their skepticism is valid. You hear the psychic say “It doesn’t work that way,” and you scoff because… isn’t it? Really?

But it isn’t. It doesn’t work that way. Every person is an individual. Every person has had a different experience and view of something that they have seen (or even a hundred million people have seen.) So even though the cards have general meanings to them, it’s the individual that makes the reading specific to them, based on what those pictures mean to them.

Let me give you an example. I had a roommate in college who was deathly afraid of moths. I’m not kidding. She was terrified of them. I remember a moth getting into our common room once, and in the 5 minutes it took me to catch it, she was taken from a badass chica from the Boogie Down who didn’t take shit from anyone to a sobbing, screaming mess in the far corner of the room, begging me to get rid of it. I’d never seen anything like it.

Now, if I turned over a card that had a picture of a moth on it – what do you think her specific reaction would be to that image? She’d freak the fuck out. In fact, I do have a card with a moth on it, and the general meaning of that card is actually very positive. But to her, I bet you that it would not be.

All the cards do is allow to to notice details. Those details give you a reaction. It’s your instincts at work, forcing your subconscious to work with your conscious mind. The reader is there to help you sort it, and to stop you from convincing yourself that the weird things that pop into your head and the odd reactions you have are just weird things to be dismissed. Instead, they try to help you get meaning from them so you can solve (or work towards solving) your issues. Everyone has problems, and deep down, we all already know how to solve them – but being our own worst enemy, we tend to dismiss the solutions and bury them. But if you actually stopped trying to convince yourself that your reaction – your initial thought – was crazy, and instead, actually paid attention to it, you would see the reason people like tarot cards.

Remember when you took those standardized tests in school? The one with the multiple choice questions, and the teacher always gave you the same clue: whatever answer you think is correct on first thought – go with it. Because later on, you find out you convinced yourself that your initial answer was wrong, so you picked what seemed to be the more rational one – and when you got the score back, you found out you were right the first time.

Tarot is no more mystical than that.

As for the “fortune telling” aspect of it – no, it doesn’t tell you the future. It tells you the most likely outcome if you stay on the path you’re trodding. People already know what’s going to happen, deep-down. You have a question in your head, right now, and if I asked you that question, you’d already know the answer. You’d have an answer to it almost immediately – and then you follow up with either a head shake or a “but…” or both, and start to convince yourself that you don’t know the answer. There’s too many variables and unknowns for you to know the answer, right?

If you don’t change your path, then the tarot cards will tell you pretty much what you already know – and guess what? They end up being right. Or, you make a change in your life that changes your path, and now the cards are wrong – and you can continue to be skeptical.

I still don’t quite believe there’s anything really “otherworldy” about tarot cards, except that the people who are really great at reading them are great because they understand that a human’s instinct is just as important as their reasoning. That is impressive in and of itself – too many people ignore their gut reaction, and they end up regretting it. But I think if anyone goes into using tarot without thinking it’s some sort of “witchcraft” or “mystical” thing, and just saw it as a tool to trigger our gut reactions to figure out our problems, you might just have an entirely different perspective on the whole matter.

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