My December reading recovered a bit thanks to taking some time off work for the holidays. I started the month with a reread of Nora Roberts's Come Sundown and ended the year with T. J. Klune's Ravensong. I am very impatiently waiting for the rest of the Green Creek series to be re-released so I can pick them up from the library. While I *could* get them on Kindle right now, I am trying to resist in anticipation of picking up hardcover copies of the whole series. We'll see how long I manage to hold out.
I also borrowed Check & Mate from the library. I don't read a ton of YA, but I found this to be really satisfying and delightful. The characters felt true to age without feeling overly juvenile and the emotions were rich and layered. Another great Ali Hazelwood novel 💖
Large and heavy, ultra-complicated gold double-dialled perpetual calendar keyless lever minute repeating grande and petite sonnette clock watch with equation of time, signs of the zodiac, times of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, moon phases with apparition of the Big Dipper/Plough at alternate black moons, circa 1904, Unknown craftsman.
A simple easel calendar ft. tiny colorful & fluffy NHS & JC. Also doubles as a notepad holder!
Download at:
☕️ https://ko-fi.com/s/4c6b67a8a7
(the notepad is also included in the template, but u can use ur own mini sticky notes!)
(also the easiest to make among all the calendars!!)
(hnnngggh they are so bebe huhuhu)
This is pay-what-you-want. It's FREE but donations are always welcome!
Don’t ask me why I did this, because my answer involves the long and meandering evolution of a series of familial in-jokes and comedy bits that I don’t quite understand myself. But please understand that when my wife and I had this idea a year ago it made perfect sense to us, even though right now, I’m not entirely sure how we we got here.
And where is “here?”
Well, for the last month I have spent large sections of my free time making my brother in law a Chadvent Colander.
A Chadvent Colander is like an advent calendar in that every day you open a little envelope but instead of a little chocolate or Lego toy or whatnot, inside there is a different Chad. Also, they are all affixed to a colander. Because puns.
I made 24 different cards in the style of a Top Trumps card, each for a different Chad. Chad Kroeger, Chad Smith, Chadwick Boseman, lake Chad, the country Chad…all are represented here with facts, stats, and (mostly) nonsense.
Above: Chads the country and Kroeger
Above: various Chads
Above: The finished Chadvent Colander, in all its glory.
Now that the project is complete, I can say that it is very difficult to find 24 different Chads and riff on them in bitesize humorous ways. The Wikipedia listing of pages beginning with “Chad” was very helpful, but when the majority of Chads are American sportspeople you’ve never heard of, it can be quite daunting.
We gave my brother in law the Chadvent Colander on Saturday, and he was overjoyed. I can’t wait to see what his reaction is to all the chads.
Left is Regenbogenwolle „Magic Crystals“, turning pinker after yesterday‘s lavender hues. The colourful firestar is just sooo delicious <3
Right is @swords-n-spindles‘ Mystery Calendar and ooooh I cannot wait to see what I will make with this! So pretty?? But I can definitely see something art yarn-y in my future…. corespun? coils? weird experimental tufts..? We will see. Stay tuned for the 13th of December when I will have all presents open and can start properly brainstorming :3
Yeah, yeah, it's February. See my last post re: me being sick for months. Right now I'm dealing with what is either my second or fourth ear infection in that timeframe, so chillax.
The three paranormal rereads were Lori Handeland's Sisters of the Craft trilogy, which are pretty fun and a bit of a departure even from her usual paranormal style. Plus, there's some fun Nightcreatures universe connections 😛
Making these was so much fun!!! I collected the empty seed coats on a walk in a local park and pretty soon knew I wanted to make some kind of ornament with them.
Because they were empty I took a wooden bead and wrapped it in wire, with little beads threaded onto each wire string. It was a simple process of stringing the beads and wrapping them through the wooden beads opening, but still time consuming. For me it was relaxing and fun to see the berry form with all the beads attached to the wooden bead! I hot glued the beaded berries into the seed coats and also hot glued red satin ribbon onto them (for hanging them up) and added some red velvet ribbon shapes into bows (for further decoration and festive cheer)!
I really adore how they came out.
[image description]
Picture 1: Picture 1 and Picture 6 are basically identical, they are just slightly different in zoom and are there to show of the pretty seed berry ornaments twice. Because, why not! They both show the finished seed berry ornaments, made with empty seed coats I found on a walk in nature, they kinda look like flower hats in my opinion. A berry made from different red-and-black beads has been glued inside the empty seed coat as a new berry and the ornament is decorated with a red satin ribbon loop and a red velvet bow.
Picture 2: Two empty seed coats, one laying on it's side and showing it's cap/hat like shape and one standing on top of the table. Two wooden beads wrapped with wire and beads are laying next to the seed coats, looking very much like red-and-black sparkly berries.
Picture 3: A close-up of a finished bead "berry" placed into an emtpy seed coat, showing how cute this ornament will look once I glue everything together!
Picture 4: A wooden bead wrapped in wire and covered with little beads is laying on top of a table. It looks very much like a sparkly berry in different shades of red and some black beads. Next to the wire-wrapped berry lay the used tools: two kinds of miniature-sized pliers and one miniature-sized wire cutter, the collected empty sead coat and a little transparent tin with a red-and-black bead mix.
Picture 5: A close-up of one wooden bead that has been completely wrapped in strings of wire with various shades of red (and some black) beads threaded onto the wire. The final look resembles a sparkly berry.
Picture 6: See picture 1. The picture almost look identical. I just wanted to include both! [/image description]