I know nobody cares what other people have for dinner, but I just want to have this post here as a reminder that on April 30th, 2012, I made a Mexican pizza. Or a very weird and not so tasty tlayuda. Well, it was very tasty, but now that I look at the picture of the tlayuda, the “pizza” doesn’t seem so appealing. But it was actually quite good even though I almost burned the crust.
So lately I’ve been ripping seams. It is so frustrating. It’s not like frogging a crochet project, where you just pull and pull. Sure, you occasionally get your yarn tangled up but it’s nothing compared to ripping those darn seams. Especially if you’ve made some backstitches.
Some time ago, during a crocheting frenzy, I made some purses. I wasn’t very good at sewing (I’m still not great at it), so they sat there unlined for a while. One day I decided any lining was better than none and I searched online for tutorials. Everything was going fine, I even learned how to box the corners.
Cute, right? But terribly lined.
The problem was trying to attach the lining to the purse. I sewed it on by hand; it was not pretty. Still, I finished and every crocheted purse was lined at last. I was triumphant, I thought.
Four years later and the purses haven’t seen the light of day; the lining is just so bad. So here I am, removing the poorly sewn linings. I had to buy a better seam ripper to do the job properly. Actually, any ripper would be better than the one I was using. You can see the horribleness below:
You call that a hem?
I promise to do a better job this time.
I had this romantic idea of recycling crayons for my daughter. I’d already done it before; once using a muffin tin in the oven and twice using the microwave. The easiest way was using the muffin tin, but my daughter didn’t really like the circle shaped crayons. The other times I used ice cube trays, except the cubes are sticks. Yes, that makes no sense. Moving on, I remember the crayons melting easily, but apparently the microwave at our new place isn’t powerful enough and the crayons took forever to melt. I was halfway through when I decided to quit. In fact, the last pieces are still trying to melt in the microwave as I type this. If you want to read how to recycle crayons with a sissy of a microwave, read on.
First, excitedly gather all the broken crayons you can find. Be sure to check the couch cushions, the car and your purse. I forgot to check in my purse, but that doesn’t matter now, does it? Next, peel the paper off the crayons. This will take a while. Don’t forget to clean under your nails when you’re done. After that, separate them into colors or any combination you want and put them into little paper cups. Put the cups in a shoe box so your little one won’t get to them.
After about three weeks, when you realize your kid is drawing with chalk because she can’t find her crayons and is making a pile of colorful dust on the floor, take out the paper cups. You won’t find them because you put them in a shoe box. When you finally find them, break them up as much as you can and put the cup in the microwave for two minutes. Take a plastic spoon and stir the melted crayons. You can’t, can you? You need to repeat that two-minute part many times. When it’s finally melted, carefully pour the liquid crayons into the mold. Realize the crayons weren’t really melted because chunks have fallen into the mold. Breathe.
Remember you read something somewhere about putting a cup of water in the microwave because uh… science. Then, make a sort of double boiler with some Tupperware. There is no picture of this because I don’t think it really helped. Keep going because by God, your child will have crayons today. Try to layer the colors for a fun effect.
Or not. Continue melting and pouring until you don’t have any crayons left or until you can’t take it anymore. Pop your new crayons out of the trays and they are ready to go. Here’s how mine turned out:
The Good
The Bad
The Turd
Finally, pat yourself on the back and vow to never do this again and just buy new crayons. Then again, it may be the crayon fumes talking and you’ll try this again soon.
Once upon a time, I learned to crochet.
Let me back up a little. First I tried to teach myself to knit. I bought a little kit but I got frustrated and quickly put the needles away. Time passed and I discovered another way to make yarny goodies. It was crochet. So I bought myself some hooks and a book and again became quite frustrated. See, I like to learn things on my own, without having to actually communicate with someone else. However, I knew that if I really wanted to be able to make yummy scarves and blankets I was going to have to ask for help.
So, as it turned out, I had a friend who knit and knew a little crochet. She insisted I learn to knit because it was easier, but I was having none of it; I wanted to crochet! So she sat me down and taught me what she knew, or what she remembered because, as I later learned, some of the terms weren’t right and I apparently hold the hook incorrectly. Still, I left that night with a very ugly granny square and a smile on my face, excited about the possibilities that lay ahead of me. The yarn was my oyster, or something like that.
There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.
It seems I’ve been writing this post for ages now. I write a sentence or two and then a little someone comes and takes me away. Let’s see if I can write this quickly before she comes again.
Christmas was nearing and we hadn’t gotten a Christmas tree, so I decided to make one instead. I had a bunch of moving boxes in the garage at my disposal so three boxes, one x-acto blade, obscene amounts of hot glue and masking tape later, I had three pyramids which I then decorated with green streamers and red ribbon. I stacked them and had myself a tree! It sounds easy, but it did take me several days to finish it and there was cardboard and glue strings everywhere, not to mention the cuts I got from the blade. Oh, let’s not forget the “That’s… interesting” comments I got.
Here you can see I added some glass ornaments. Half of these didn’t last through the night. I knew buying them was a mistake, I think I broke eight.
I also made a “Feliz Navidad” bunting with felt and ribbon. Here is a terrible picture of it:
I don’t have a picture of it, but I also made a wreath out of cardboard and covered it with lace and ribbon then glued two nutcracker butter knives on the center. Now that I think about it, it’s probably for the best that there’s no photo of this.
Posted in Uncategorized
|
