The Big Sunday Post!!!

Hello lovelies! What a beautiful Sunday, finally true to its name. So many exciting things to tell you all about!

First of all, this last Wednesday was a Very Inky Wednesday. Why? So, those who know me personally may know about my longstanding affection for pens. Pens are glorious! They are wondrous instruments for writing and drawing and each one has its very own personality. As such, I have a rather extensive collection of these fantastic implements at home, which has garnered me no small share of mockery. Well! Everyone else is missing out. I reorganized said collection recently, and brought back to college all of my out-of-use fountain pens. As I am now a poor college student, it has become incumbent upon me to provide the tools of creative fun more from my stashes of supplies than from art stores. Thus, a grand cleaning out and revitalizing took place! It was fascinating, to watch dried carcasses of pens revive under the faucet, rainbows of ink spewing from their nibs. Perhaps the funniest thing was when the pen would produce one hue, and the cap another upon rinsing. Some of them are still on the road to recovery, having developed some issues of neglect obviously, but overall the operation was quite successful and happy-fying.

Perhaps the most thrilling aspect of this particular adventure was created by the dilemma of lots of clean pens and not enough ink. Being a notorious hoarder as I am I have a box full of old ink cartridges, mostly Sheaffer, that I have been using to fuel my pen addiction as well as one bottle of India Black. The problem with these cartridges, however, is that first of all, almost none of them fit directly into my favorite pens. This means that I have to go through them all and poke a hole in the top, syringe the ink out, and syringe it back into an appropriately sized cartridge. Messy, wasteful, and time consuming. The other, more pressing concern is that they are all very old cartridges. Sheaffer cartridges are made out of porous plastic, letting the water evaporate over time. While some online sources advocate rehydrating the solution to fill the cartridge, this has not, in my experience, gotten rid of the troublesome clogging bits of ink, and it generally produces very watery writing.

SO! Being very satisfied with my bottle of black ink, I decided that the best solution would be to try to find some cool ink store that sold other colors of bottle ink. I just googled 'ink store' in my area, and LO AND BEHOLD! A very cool ink store showed up, quite close to campus. I was intrigued, having assumed that any cool ink store would require at least a 15 minute walk to the downtown area. So, the very next day after class, I noted down the address and made my way to the cool looking and mysterious ink store. Zounds! It was nestled behind a clothing store, and next to a parking garage, with nothing but a very narrow stairway marking its presence. The store itself is quite fantastic, mostly focused on printing large things for presentations and supplies for architecture students, but they had INK! And moleskines, and a large selection of other artsy type stuff of a most pleasing nature. I bought a bottle of Pelikan Royal Blue, and I love it.

On to even more adventures in the world of craftiness? Indeed. A bunch of my pals were going out to frats, as per the usual, but this time something was different. There was an Anything But Clothes party, which is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than allow my darling room mate to go out clothed in garbage bags (paugh!) we set to work on making something a little more awesome: a skirt made of cereal and waffle boxes! (Emphasis on the waffles!!) The construction of this recycled garment is simple.
1. Cut cereal boxes into 1.5-2 inch strips
2. Overlap two strips slightly and staple, giving a pleated effect
3. Repeat until skirt is approximately waist circumference
4. Duct tape over the staples on the inside, the square tops, and staples on the outside for a more comfortable wearer experience.
5. Tres A La Mode!

Fantastic fun! Could there be more? Yes, indeed, but it must wait for another day. The next post will be a fascinating exposé on my most recently completed secret project.

...Sweet Dreams

Monday, Again.

Oh Monday, why are you so horrid!?

Well today was not quite quite so bad. I have been spending my time doing work, lots of it, for the past week. I had a midterm and a Japanese test. Unfortunately, my Japanese test did not go as well as it, perhaps, could have. Fortunately, it is the last one until the final, my lowest grade, and I can drop one test. I am redeemed! We will soon see if it paid off insofar as my other midterm goes...

So this Monday is not bad at all considering the view of the week from here. I can see finals looming in the distance, but there is time yet to sit and play. Well, not quite so much time, perhaps. My super secret project is still underway, and LATE seeing as its recipient's birthday was just the other day. I am sorry lovely! You know who you are. Soon, I promise, all will be revealed.

As far as other projects, I have too many ideas and not enough time. In my spare moments I steal glances at craft blogs of housewives who some how have time to make beautiful and adorable things. How I envy them! I feel so frustrated. I don't know how I have time to hang out with friends, errr make that Boyfriend, for hours doing nothing really, or mucking about on facebook, but not enough time to fulfill my creative urges!? I think the answer has a lot to do with the guilt factor, that if I have time to work on projects of my own then I ought to be doing something more Useful and Productive with my time. This guilt rule does not apply to occasions upon which I am frittering away my time doing useless things on the internet becos as everybody knows when you are on the internet you are rarely being CONSCIOUS about what you are doing. So, rule for living from today on is: be conscious about how one is spending one's time and make time for crafty things. Or Else.

Ta!