Monday, July 14, 2008

moving...

My computer, sewing machine, and all other general crafting supplies are packed up in boxes awaiting my move. I hope to be able to blog again soon. Although it looks as though this process might take a bit longer than expected, I am lucky to be able to stay with my parents as long as I need. Oh, and my grandmother is also visiting this month. I'm so lucky to be able to spend so much quality time with her.

Anybody feel like margaritas???

Monday, July 7, 2008

a comfy workspace...



I enjoy my workspace a whole lot.  My brandy new desk (thank you for helping me shop for it) has a drawer to hold my keyboard with a drop-down front.  I need to be comfy whilst writing an infinite number of 25 page research papers.  Mission accomplished with this baby!  However, the "drop-down" part was a little too much down for my hands' heels.  I don't know why I thought I could make my own wrist support for my computer keyboard... but I thought it, and I did it.

I save cardboard boxes that the recycle-man does not pick up at my house.  By cutting one up into rectangles of various sizes, and stacking them pyramid style, I was able to create a base.  I again went to my old jewelry gift boxes containing cotton cushions to create the padding for the top of the hand rest.  


I was not fancy with the construction on the inside as I was certainly in a hurry to get this hand rest finished so I could comfortably write my master pieces... 

get it?

You are probably getting sick of the fabric used for the outer slip cover, me too; however, it matched all my Mac gear + sewing machine.  It's really soft too, despite the fact that it melts sometimes.  So there ya go.

 


Old cardboard box + toilet paper storage coverlet + gift box cotton cushions + stringing wire = comfy-ness

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

jewelry pegboard for the imagination-impaired...

I like to see my jewelry out in the open all at once. Preferably right next to my mirror too. When I moved into sister's childhood bedroom, I admired her pegboard displaying pictures, bumper-stickers, police tape (??? I don't ask), etc... I also noticed some mardi gras beads hanging from the thumbtacks.

Of course!

You might recognize this fabric from the iPod nano cozy... previously used as a toilet-paper shelf cover. I have quite a bit of it left. (We liked to buy in bulk).

All I did was fold the fabric around the edges of a pegboard and staple it to the back a la staple gun from dab (aka dave). I left some fabric hanging off the bottom for hanging my stud earrings.

This genius extra-fabric-at-the-bottom-for-earrings idea was working perfectly until one of my hook earrings got bent. What to do? Let me take you back to elementary school...

EVERY year, teachers made us kids buy new notebooks for our new classes. I got used to the idea of getting more and more notebooks every year and continued this wastefulness all throughout high-school and college.... until graduate school when I became obsessed with reusing. I ripped out unused sheets of paper in old notebooks to use in binders, threw the used sheets in the recycle bin, and... what to do with the metal spirals?

Ta da!

Featured item: custom, one-of-a-kind earrings made by christine.

It took some wire cutters courtesy of dab, and some careful/purposeful bending. I attached the ends of the spiral by wrapping them around thumbtacks at the ends of the board. Now I have a nice way to hang my earrings so that:

a. their hooks don't get bent
2. they face forward
d. I don't have (as many) metal spirals from old notebooks lying around :)