Domestic Geek

So, I gave up looking through my stuff for my popcorn garland instructions and started searching my good old friend, the Internet. I came across this site and she had a picture of a garland she had made that looks darned close to the one I was making. The site said she modified a pattern on page 55 in the Dec 98/Jan 99 issue of Crafts magazine. Ah ha! That narrows down what to look for. I found my issue of that magazine and there on page 55 were indeed the instructions! Yay!!!!!

I scanned the instructions and will keep a copy on my hard drive so I don't lose them again!

While surfing some TT sites, I found a great link at a fellow Coloradoan's site for online Drawing lessons. I haven't taken the time I'd like to work on my drawing skills. I'm pretty darned good when I put my mind to it, but like any other skill, you lose it if you don't practice. I'll have to dig out my pencils/sketch pad and delve into this site.

So, I told you all that I painted the bulbs for my garland the other day. They're dry and I put them back in their sockets and back in the light strings only to realize I goofed. First, I had only bought one 20-light set thinking it would be long enough. It wasn't, so I picked up a second one. Well, they're not end-to-end strings—it's one of those male/female sockets all in one. Grrrrrrr. Of course, these strings have 6-volt bulbs that I can't put into a longer string. The 35-light string takes 3.5 volt bulbs and the 50 and 100 light sets I have take 2.5-volt bulbs. I learned my lesson before by trying to put the wrong voltage bulbs in a light string. *sigh* I'll just have to think of something to make this work. If only I knew where the green extension cords I bought a few years ago had disappeared.

There is a company in Loveland, CO called Judy's Stone House Designs. I used to see her products in Coomer's around town before they went out of business and at smoe JoAnn craft stores. There are some cute wooden houses that she sells that I would like to once day purchase. Once again, posting this link for future reference so I can throw the brochure I have for it away.

As you can probably tell by the last post, I'm going though stuff in my craft room.

I'm coming across all sorts of weird shit. What sane mind would've possibly kept instructions to make a popsicle stick lamp? Even if it wasn't butt-ugly, it takes like 1500 of them. Plus glue. Plus the lamp innards. You can just buy a way cooler lamp than that for what it would cost to make it. The instructions had to have come in the box when I bought them. I've got tons of sketches of stuff I had in my head, but I can't make sense of them now. I've got old Christmas cards that were too cute to throw away so I saved them to "do something with them someday". Well, after 20 years, I probably won't do anything with them. Lots of half-completed kits where parts are now missing. Instructions for kids crafts that I held onto in case I ever changed my mind about getting (or accidentally became) pregnant. It's all going in the trash.

Also, why did I ever think plastic canvas crafts were cool? Yeah, they were fun to make, but the resulting project? UGLY! I've got tons of instructions and tons of supplies. Magnets, door hangers, ornaments, even a Christmas village. Yeah, like I ever would've displayed that when I have really cool porcelain ones. There's a really lame haunted house that I made a long time ago that I've been carting around because of the sentimental value (Mom helped me make it). When I get the money to get the lock off my storage shed, that's one of the first things going in the trash. I've only ever made one cool thing for myself with plastic canvas&mdasha tissue box cover that I can no longer use because Kleenex decided to change the size of their tissue box.