Domestic Geek

I was surfing around this evening and found a site I had seen a long time ago that I had meant to blog about and had totally forgotten about: Money Origami. There's really cool little gift box you can make as well as step-by-step instructions to make this little money shirt. I'll have to find a dollar bill and try that. I haven't had a lot of paper money around since I quit delivering pizzas and no longer have that tip income coming in. I wonder if you can find any stock photography of money. I've heard you can't scan or manipulate money in photoshop, though I haven't actually tried. Once again, hard to do when there is no cash about!

I stopped in at Meiningers over at 5th and Broadway today to see if the carry a certain kind of pen that someone suggested I get. They don't, but I did see something I'd love to have: a Vincent Van Gogh action figure. It's the first produced by Fine Arts Action Figures™ and it was selling there for $24.99 + tax. I can get it on the site for $19.99 +$5 shipping. That would save me a bit. It's more of a realistic rendition. While surfing ebay to see if any one on there had one, I found another, more comical one. This Van Gogh figurine has two interchangeable heads (one has a bandage around his head depicting the ear whacking incident). What is wrong with me that I giggled at that one?

I've always loved the look of real stained glass. Not the fake stuff I've made in the past with tissue paper and glue or Gallery Glass paints, but real stained glass. It's really expensive if you buy it from someone already made.

When I used to work at AutoZone, the wife of one of my coworkers made and sold stained glass for a living. She did really gorgeous, amazing work and displayed it at many of the area craft malls. Apparently, it's not that difficult if you have to right supplies and tools. As long as I wore heavy gloves and eye protection while cutting the glass, even an accident prone person such as myself wouldn't get hurt doing it. Anyway, she kept saying she would teach me how to do it (for a small fee), but I never got around to it. She and her husband divorced and she moved away.

I lost my chance at cheap lessons and the use of her stained glass cutters, but it's still an art that I would to try. I've been noticing that it's one of the hobbies that is beginning to make a resurgence lately. The craft stores are beginning to carry more stained glass supplies than they used to. I'll have to look into finding if there are other relatively inexpensive classes offered that I can take. It would be a shame to invest a lot of money into getting the necessary supplies only to find that I didn't like doing it.

Everyone needs a light box. As a scrapbooker, I use mine all the time. They work great for those little embossing stencils or to hand-letter something. They're great for kids, too. When you were little, did you ever have to trace something and ended up taping it to a window? It's uncomfortable to do it that way and it only works while there is a light source outside. You can get a good one over at SuppliesNet.com. They have model called the Porta-Trace Light Box for only $32. Not a bad price for all the use it will get!

I actually did a little cross-stitching this afternoon. Man, it's been a long time since I let myself do that. I had an insight about that today. I think I've been subconsciously punishing myself for the mess I've made of my life by not allowing myself to do things that I enjoy. Instead of spurring me to do the things I need to be doing, it's making me resistant to doing those. Just like a pouty, little child or a beast of burden that digs in when whipped instead of moving forward. Definitely a big light bulb moment. So I decided I was going to cross-stitch while I watched X2: X-Men United and I enjoyed it.

I may start that arts and crafts blog I've been meaning to. I'm not sure if I want to put it on a subdomain of ladonnasworld yet. Still thinking on that. Anyway, I need a place separate from here to show works in progress and to put links I find. Like this link i found via Cass' Six Neat Things site today for an online crochet magazine called Crochet Me. I crochet really well and have several projects started. Anyway, I signed up for their newsletter.