Just Being Crafty

So I ran across a great project a few weeks ago and decided to make it this week.

It's an earring holder made out of an old frame. Aaah! So cute. Bonus: it's surprisingly easy and cheap. Particularly good for the craft-impaired (like me).

• Frame from DI, $2
• Ribbon, $1.80
• Screen material from Home Depot, $4.81 for LOTS
• Staple gun, borrowed

I used a larger frame, but you can use any sized frame would want or have on hand. Keep in mind, the earrings take up more space than you would think, so you may need something a bit larger than you think.

Here is a great instructional video from YouTube. You only need to watch the first two minutes or so (the rest is kind of pointless).

Also, I have enough screening material to make roughly 1,397 more earring holders, so if anyone in the Vegas area wants some, let me know. Seriously. Short of putting screen doors on every door in the house and recovering all the windows in the neighborhood, I'm not really sure what to do with it.

Sundry Thoughts

Happy Friday! I don't have much to say, but here are a few thoughts for Friday.

• I've finished with 2 1/2 Newberry books so far. I'll post about them soon!
• I've developed a fondness for wandering through hardware stores. I'm not much of a handy type so I'm not really sure where this came from, but I love the smell of the wood and the paint and new appliances all mixed together. It smells like possibility, like a thousand projects waiting to be started.
• I'm kind of in love with Paul Bettany. There's something about him that makes me want to pinch his cheeks, date him, or take him out to lunch for a nice chat. I'm not quite sure which one. Regardless, I like him. (I just finished watching The Secret Life of Bees; decent movie, fabulous book. Although his character is a total creep, Mr. Paul manages to make him so real, so vulnerable. So scary. And he was really great in The Young Victoria. Didn't totally love the movie, but Paul the Charming made it worth it. Well, that and Rupert Friend's amusing attempt at facial hair.)
• Lately I've been trying improve my eating habits. I've tried cutting out packaged food, focusing on eating mostly veggies and fruits and such, and being careful with portion sizes. It seems to help if I eat smaller snacks in between meals. I've also tried to really increase my water consumption. It's amazing how much better I feel!
• For an unexplainable reason, I'm developing an urge to sew. Joann's had patterns on sale for $1.99 and I stocked up on some great skirt and dress patterns. What will happen with said patterns, well. . . that remains to be seen. I haven't actually successfully stitched sewn anything since the fabulous fluorescent culotte number sometime in the late 80s, so this might be interesting. Wish me luck. And a sewing machine.
• I'm pretty sure I have the cutest nephews ever.

Material Girl

So I made the mistake of introducing my 15-year-old sister to The Smiths. A few days later I went upstairs and Layne informed me, while blaring her 1980s Pandora station, that she "discovered" the 1980s. And I tried so hard to pretend it was a lost decade.

Sigh.

Project Newberry

I have a new goal, born of my great love of Young Adult Literature. Truthfully, I'd rather sit down with Young Adult fiction than almost anything else. I don't know that that says about me, but we won't dwell on that.

So, I decided that this year I will read every book awarded the Newbery Medal. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the Newbery Medal is awarded to a children's book every year. Some of my favorite books won the Newbery Medal: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Jacob Have I Loved. And, dear readers, after reading said books I am going to share my thoughts with you on this blog.

So before I go much further, let me say that I'm the first to admit that embarking on some project and then blogging about said project is nothing new and has been done SO many times before. (Like this foul-mouthed aspiring French chef or this seriously amazing woman.) As a public policy professor used to tell us, there are very few new ideas, just old ones dusted off and dressed up a bit. In Micah-speak: Deal with it.

In case any of you are actually interested at all, here is a list of all the Newbery Award winning books. Originally I was going to start with the first book awarded the Newbery Medal in 1922 (The Story of Mankind by Hendrick van Loon). I've decided to take another, non-chronological approach for reasons that will be clear if you decide to read the book yourself. I'm going to read the books in no particular order, starting with whatever I already own and then use the library. Bless the West Sahara Library for their ENTIRE SHELF dedicated to Newbery Award winning books. It's great! I can literally stand in one place and grab entire stacks of Newbery Award winning books with almost no effort. Once I found this little slice of literary heaven, I started myself prancing and frolicking up and down the aisle, flailing my arms about in utter glee. Okay, only on the inside. But if it weren't for the mores deeply entrenched in me by our inhibited and emotionally restrained society, I totally would have. Anyway, I'll work my way through whatever they have on their shelves and move forward from there.

Keep your eyes peeled for future posts, and wish me luck!

Excellent Wisdom

"Strange things are afoot at this Circle K." - Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

I Share Because I Care

I saw this video several weeks ago and fell in love. It's really quite stunning; I've never seen anything quite like it. I've watched it over and over again and I can't seem to get enough. I love the clever composition, the music, the beauty of the stop-motion. Just watch. You'll love it, too.

I promise.

And because I'm in a sharing mood, here is a really fun video from a quirky/funny/has-a-cult-following-type-of-show/weird show called Flight of the Conchords. It's about two singers from New Zeland who live in NYC and (from the few episodes I've muted my way through) they have one or two strange/funny music videos assisting the plot. Although I don't actually watch the show (it's a bit too raunchy for my tastes - but if you love it, I'm not judging), but sometimes I like to watch the terribly amusing music videos.

Like this one.

(It has the first few minutes of the episode to give it context, but if you want to just watch the video, skip to 1:30 and end at 4:03. Also - it's in French. If you want the English subtitles, which make it much funnier, watch this video after you watch the one below.)

You can thank me later.