She’s only 5, and likes to sleep with a nightlight on, still. My husband got some light switches that had a built-in nightlight, but it’s not bright enough for her liking. After seeing some tutorials this summer for a candle lantern made out of small photo frames, I thought it would be neat to do something similar for her using Christmas lights.

There’s an issue though – Christmas lights mean you have to plug them in to turn them on, and unplug them ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> So, still on my daughter’s room here…

She’s only 5, and likes to sleep with a nightlight on, still. My husband got some light switches that had a built-in nightlight, but it’s not bright enough for her liking. After seeing some tutorials this summer for a candle lantern made out of small photo frames, I thought it would be neat to do something similar for her using Christmas lights.

There’s an issue though – Christmas lights mean you have to plug them in to turn them on, and unplug them to turn them off. I wasn’t sure how to get around that.

Then I heard of an “ornament” for a Christmas tree – you hang it on the tree and plug the lights into it (instead of into the outlet) and when you want to turn the lights off and on, you touch the ornament. How awesome is that? They weren’t easy to find though – and in the end, I decided on a “dimmer switch” that ::ahem:: “older folks” like to use because it’s easier to reach and manage their table lamps.

When I was at Michael’s looking for some stuff (not for this project) I came upon some really cool frames that cost only $4.50 each. Quick math in my head told me that using these frames were 1) the perfect size and 2) cheaper than going to the dollar store (well, mostly anyway. I mean, I probably could have gotten them at the dollar store for $4 each. But it’s further away, so I’m including gas prices!), and 3) well, I can’t remember what 3 was. It came in and went out. “Must’ve been a lie!” is what my mom would say!

Now, these things were meant to hold little pictures on each side – they came with these cheapie plastic squares (badly cut, by the way) to cover the small photos, but they would suffice for my purpose. They also had this little sort of “lazy susan” thing going on on the bottom – I suppose so you could spin it around and look at all the pictures.

Well, I didn’t need that, so the first thing I did was take them off (I saved them in a baggie – they may come in handy later on!) it was just a single screw, so it was really easy.

Then I took them out and painted them white – mainly because my daughter’s room is pink, silver and white. While they dried, I set to work on the plastic squares that acted as the “glass” for the frames.

Now, I will note here that I probably should have sanded them or roughed them up. I didn’t, but I’m thinking if I had, this would have worked a little bit better. So learn from my mistake.

I took a brush and spread a dab of Mod Podge (first time I’ve ver used this stuff!) over the surface of the plastic, and set it down on a bit of parchment paper (baking paper – no wax). Then I Mod Podged the other side and folded the paper over so both sides were covered. (In all actuality, I did all of them on one side, on one sheet of parchment paper, then folded it over and did all of the other side. So all eight of them at one time, on a single sheet of parchment paper.) Then I set a ginormous cookbook on it to add some pressure. I let it dry for about an hour. The paper got all wrinkly and cool looking. After they were all dry, I took two of them and cut a 1″ square hole in one of the sides – this was so the cord could come through. (I think the paper helped it not to snap into a bunch of small piece all over the place – so that worked out well.)

Finally, I brought in my boxes, slid all the parchment-covered “glass” into the sections. I stuffed them with a string of 50 Christmas lights (I would not recommend more than this – they were pretty full with this short strand) and lifted the back panel (the one with the hole in it – hole at the bottom) and pulled the plug and a bit of cord through it. Then I plugged the dimmer switch into the wall, and the lights into the dimmer switch.

The cool thing was, you can connect the lights – so I got to use 1 dimmer switch for lights on 2 tables!

Light, shut off.

Now, when my little one gets into bed, she can use the dimmer switch next to her head to turn her new “lamps” on high, or take them down to really low to act as nightlights. (Yes, you can turn them off, too.)

So the entire cost of this project was about $20. (I had to spend a little on the Christmas lights because we don’t have white ones) it’s really cool. Fun project too – you can use any kind of light for this – colored ones would be neat. I’d imagine if you wanted to use them for some kind of tabletop thing, you could get battery-powered LEDs to pull that off. But it’s pretty sweet and she loves them!

The light, turned on, dimmer switch at half power.

Linked up at Thrifty Decor Chick

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…

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.