Christmas Planning

It is that time of year to start planning Christmas gifts. Assuming, that is, we can afford to!

In September, usually right after Labor Day, I like to plan out my Christmas gift making and/or buying. I do this for a few reasons, but mainly so I have a list to check off. The last three to four years have been, well, lackluster in the gift department. Perhaps this is simply the new normal. However, I really want to make an effort this year despite monetary deficiencies. I’m not really certain what I will do, be it ornaments or cards, but I do know that I’m not going to let our lack of finances dictate our gift giving. We will simply have to be creative with what we’ve got supply-wise. And honestly, we’ve got a lot.

The Crafter's Dilemma

With so many projects
And so much to dos
It’s hard to decide
And difficult to choose.

Should I work on This?

Should I work on That?
Should I make catnip pillows
For a catnip-addict cat?

My brains are all Jell-O

My mind is all mush
My thoughts are a big
Jumbled up slush!

Unfinished Objects!

Works in Progress!
Start something new
And add to the mess!

Or simply do nothing

And nothing will be
I will simply do nothing
Nothing! You will see!

A day filled with nothingness

No accomplishments or goals
A day of needed rest
For our overworked souls.

Alas, today can’t be

That day of rest required
For today I must work
Until I’m good and tired.

Monster Puppet

Do you ever start a project with a clear picture of how you want the end results to be and it turns out completely different? That would be the monster puppet I just finished.

For Ridgefield High School’s spring musical performance of Return to the Forbidden Planet, I was asked to make three puppets by the drama teacher; two for a back story and one of the monster. I knew it would have four tentacles, I knew it needed to be big, and beyond that I was told to go crazy. Me left to my own devices is not such a great thing. Alas, I wish I would have simply drawn another picture to give me an idea of how I wanted it to look instead of constantly trying different looks out. I’m sure it took twice as long as it would have.

Note to self: Take five minutes to make a rough visual aid next time.

Anyway, when it was done, it was hard to believe just how big the thing was! It will definitely need to be operated by at least two people. Another thing I noticed was just how He-Man and the Masters of the Universe-like the creature was, which was what the teacher had asked for. Overall I am pleased with the results… or just glad to be done with it!

If you have a chance, please go see the show at Ridgefield High School. It is playing this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first and the same days next week, the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth. The show starts at seven in the evening each night. 

Of Foam and Fleece

The puppets for the play this week are really coming together. I just wish they were finished.

With the play starting this Thursday, I really should have had these puppets ready to go for yesterday’s all day rehearsal. Alas, they were not. The two “human” puppets will be fully costumed and ready for tomorrow’s rehearsal and I’m hoping to get the monster done to send with my husband so they can use that too. There isn’t much worry from the director as the puppet scenes are rather short, so I suppose my freaking out over not having them ready yet was for nothing. Still, after seeing the last run through of the play, I now have a better idea of how large I really need to make the Id monster puppet and am hoping my plan works. It just needs to be so big! And with that size it means so much foam and so much fleece. Good thing I have so much leftover. Now, if only I knew where those feather boas were…

The Case of the Missing Feather Boas

Does anyone else ever obsess over looking for something they know they have but can’t locate? I find myself doing it more and more the older I get.

When something goes missing, especially after a move in which you left quite a bit of stuff at the old house for the bank to deal with thanks to a robo-signed foreclosure process, you may be left wondering if you accidentally left it behind. I can’t imagine taking all my puppet making materials except for the feather boas, but alas, it appears that may be the case. After thoroughly searching through the boxes in which they could possibly be, I’ve come up empty. Now this isn’t to say they aren’t here, just not in any place they should be, and therein lies the point: Label your boxes. Of course, we did. I just can’t find one that says Feather Boas anywhere on it.

[sigh]

Cory versus Hot Glue

Whenever I find myself in a match-up with hot glue, the odds are always in favor of hot glue. It kicks my ass every time.

I both love and despise hot glue. I love it for the incredible binding strength it imparts when applying one thing to another. I hate the strings that inevitably form even though I have properly twirled and pulled. I love how fast it cools and hardens, making it perfect for projects you need to and/or want to work fast on. I hate the burning sensation as I accidentally press my thumb into a hot pile of goo.

Yes, I have a love/hate relationship with hot glue. It goes way back. I’ve been using the stuff since I was a kid and somehow I still never really got the hang of it. Either that or this is just a reality of using hot glue… or maybe I’m just bad at it. While working on the puppets last night I encountered one of the things I hate most about hot glue, and that is the fine strands that form and seem to cling to EVERYTHING!!! I swear I looked like a tweaker, constantly pulling at my eyelashes and brushing my hands through my hair and scratching at my nose and cheeks to rid myself of all those clingy strings. Ugh. I can still feel their phantom essence.

Less Parties and More Crafting, Please!

With all the partying, how is one to work of Christmas gifts too? Perhaps some creative thinking is required.

This time of year is filled with Christmas Parties and get-togethers almost to the point that there isn’t much time for anything else, especially if you are working. However, a few strategically planned craft times can still be managed. For instance, if I really wanted to, I could’ve worked on making presents before our own Christmas Party on Saturday, but felt more like trying to figure out how the hell to use my new phone. Or Sunday after church I could’ve used the time to work on presents, but instead spent it trying to figure out how the hell to use my new phone. I hate getting a new cell phone, especially since my previous one was so perfect for me but was, well, showing signs it was on its way out after four years of continuous use. Let’s just say after following the instructions listed on the website for changing folder names and whatnots on my memory card, I decided to ignore them all and do it how I was originally going to do it. Sure enough, it worked. I suppose that is my fault for trying to follow directions for once in my life.

Anyway, part of the craziness of Christmas is the last-minute crafter’s ability to whip out presents like magic. Oh, sure, we could have been planning and making stuff all year long, but what fun would that be? Where is the challenge? For as long as I can remember I’ve sworn that I’ll start making stuff sooner for the following year, but it never happens. Alas, it looks like carving out niche times to sew will need to be during what I’d normally use as after dinner down time, also known as television zombie mode. Considering most broadcast shows are on hiatus until after the new year, however, is perfect for using that time for craft projects instead. With any luck, I’ll be halfway done with my Christmas presents by Christmas.

Countdown to Christmas

With Christmas only a mere forty days away, it is probably time for us crafters to think about gifts we’d like to make. Or have I procrastinated this yet again?

Actually, a majority of crafters start their Christmas gifts months in advance. I used to start in September back in the day, but lately I haven’t been inspired to bother or have been busy with other projects. I’ll allow myself to be told this is the case. However, I know it’s because I’ve yet again procrastinated. Surprising? Not at all. I’ve been a procrastinator all my life. But realizing just how close Thanksgiving is made me also realize that Christmas is not far behind it.

So, what to make this year? My brain is aflutter with ideas and at the same time empty of ones that have any possibility of coming to fruition. However, another thought occurred to me, which is that it has been a few years since I’ve made Christmas ornaments. That used to be my expected gift to family, but the last few years have been, well, crappy, so my Christmas Spirit had been replaced with Bah Humbug. Perhaps it is time to once again start up this tradition.

Forty days until Christmas. Where did this year go?

Cat Hair

Life with cats also means living with their hair. Why not do something creative with it?

One of the girls I work with at the animal hospital has an obsession with cats. I seriously think she must have the toxoplasma parasite firmly attached to her brain to make attracted to cats in this quite unhealthy way. Don’t worry, if you have cats you probably have it too. Actually a lot of people have it and don’t even know they do. Other people are schizophrenic. Blame cats for that, as it is probably their fault too.

Anyway, back to cat hair. We have a clinic cat who sheds a lot. I mean so much so that you’d find entire tribble populations some days in random places he has been lounging around. So at some point she decided to start saving his fur after brushing him, rolling it into balls, and letting him play with them as if they were toys. He loves knocking them off the counter and rolling them all over the floor. He loves his furry balls.

Then one day our doctor tells her about this new book coming out that had just been translated from Japanese called Crafting with Cat Hair by Kaori Tsutaya. Within a couple days she had the book in hand and was already concocting what projects she was going to tackle first. I must admit that after casually perusing the book there are some projects that definitely sound like they’d be fun to make if one were inclined to further perpetuate the fact that they indeed are the crazy cat lady everyone is already thinking. However, it also looks like it’d be fun to do just because crafters always seem to be looking for something new to craft. And hey, if life gives you cat hair, why not make a finger puppet?

Camp Crafts

I need to come up with a few camp crafts and I need to come up with them yesterday. Maybe procrastination isn’t the best strategy.

With our all church camp this weekend, and the fact that I’m already going to have to slack on some of my duties as co-director since I have to work until Friday evening, I also signed up to help with craft activities. I’ve got nothing. I mean, I have plenty of ideas swirling around my brain, but as far as actually making sure we have the supplies to create said ideas I’m at a zero. This is not at all unusual behavior for me either as I do tend to be a last minute kind of person, but it doesn’t make it any less stressful when my husband just had a garage sale and I had him sell off my huge allotment of beads and jewelry making materials and now have all these ideas on how to actually use those beads. Figures.

But the good news is that we have so much stuff at our church to make things too that I shouldn’t be at a loss when it comes to crafts. And really, let’s be honest, I only have to come up with a couple, maybe three, things to make. I’m sure I can figure that out in my sleep! Okay, so if I did, I lost it because I’ve got no memory of dreaming anything except for trying to get the theme song to ‘The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That’ out of my head. Funnily this is a recurring theme.

So it looks like either today after work and grocery shopping or more than likely tomorrow on my day off I’ll be working on finalizing my crafty plans for the weekend. Hopefully it will be fun. And if you have any ideas, please send them my way as I’ve never even been to a church camp or any camp whatsoever so really don’t know what to expect except for what I saw in the movies as a child watching ‘Earnest Goes to Camp’ and ‘The Addams Family Values’.

Kids Activity Binders

When going on a long car trip with children and without the aid of a portable video player, it’s a good idea to have other activities. I decided to make the kiddos activity binders.

The boys are addicted to the television as it is, which is why we limit their viewing. However, I must admit the temptation to simply put on a movie or two during a car trip has its appeal. We almost talked ourselves into packing it just in case, but decided against the matter. Instead we’ll rely on car games, activities and the binders I put together last night for the boys.

A couple nights ago I sewed together covers with pockets and a chalkboard fabric surface on one side and last night filled it with printed out coloring pages from the PBS Kids website (http://pbskids.org), plain paper for drawing and lined paper for writing. In the pockets I put a pack of crayons on one side and a pack of colored chalk on the other, along with the ear of a puppet I never actually put onto a puppet to be used as an eraser. It works perfectly.

While I’m not completely satisfied with how everything turned out, these are just prototypes and I will either add onto them or make new ones based off of what I learned making them. But I know one thing is for certain, and that is that I wish I had one of these growing up instead of lugging around reams of paper and coloring books and markers and crayons into a crammed car!

Household Chores

I can’t believe I’m actually going to admit this, but I miss doing the dishes and vacuuming on a regular basis. Sad, isn’t it?

This morning I was staring at a pile of dishes in the sink and counter, a full dishwasher that required unloading and a floor that, while I know was just vacuumed, needs to be done again and thought, “I miss this.” I don’t know if it was because while I was unemployed my life pretty much consisted of maintaining the house or if I truly enjoyed the tasks, but I can tell you without a doubt that I tried to focus my time at home on getting the chores done. It could be because once the chores were done and the applications filled out and all records put into a log I was finally able to craft or cake. Maybe that is the part I miss? I’m not so certain.

Now that I have a job and my free time is relegated to making dinner after I get home from work (I love to cook, so this isn’t a complaint!) before checking my email and heading off to bed, crafts and cakes seem like the chores I’d put off into the realm of toilet cleaning and mopping. You know, the dreaded stuff. So as it is I haven’t made a cake in quite some time and the idea of doing so is like a dagger in my side that yet another venture I tried failed. Okay, so technically it hasn’t failed. I still take cake orders, but with my work schedule and living situation it is much more difficult to do anywhere near as many as I used to. It has also made me realize just how much time I’ve spent making cakes and how little money I’d make from them, if any. Same thing is true with my Etsy Shop, with the exception of the patterns I sell. Somehow by not having the same amount of time to devote to these hobbies as I used to has made them unenjoyable, and that’s sad.

Old Fabrics and Crafts

Some people hoard stuff. I hoard crafts.

Yesterday while going through stuff at the old house after work and tagging it for tomorrow’s garage sale, I came across a bag of old fabric I’d never even touched. More than likely it was a gift from someone. At first I thought I’d use it, but years later as we were packing up stuff to move I left it behind to sell. Now I’m torn. Curiously, I’m wondering if I should go ahead and try to sell the bag or take it home and place them on the bookcase with the rest of my fabric.

Then I looked at a bolt of cotton suede I bought for ten bucks while I worked at Crap-Mart and wondered if selling it was the right thing to do. After all, it is quality twill-backed fabric in a cream and sage checkered pattern (large two inch squares) and could probably be used to make something, I just don’t know what. Should I keep it because I might use it?

Boxes of beads, pipe cleaners, yarn and the likes are all still awaiting prices too. Hundreds of dollars worth of stuff, most of which unused. I think growing up poor has messed with my psyche in matters of getting rid of crap, probably because I know how much this stuff cost and I know how guilty I feel for not using it. But then again, it was money I spent when I had money, mainly in high school and college while I was still living at home. That means I should just get over it, break out of this funk, and sell it since it’s been fifteen years or longer. Easier said than done.

So here is the plan; put it all out for sale and whatever doesn’t sell donate to our church. That way if it sells, I’ll get some money back from my “investment” and if it doesn’t, I’ll still feel okay about donating it. Except for the cotton suede checkered fabric bolt… I’m keeping that.

Rubber Stamps

Yesterday after work I started packing up my rubber stamps and scrapbooking supplies. Please note I only started this process.

Holy crap! I realize that when I was a Stampin’ Up! representative that I bought a lot of rubber stamps, but until I took them all out of their extremely organized and efficiently stored cabinet to pack them for the move I had no idea just how much I actually had. Not only a lot, but about half have never been used or even put together. I smell either a project or a prospect on the horizon. Either I can put them all together and use them or leave them as is and sell them. As much as the money sounds appealing right now, I’m leaning towards the former.

More than likely they will all stay in this particular cabinet after we move. I mean, there really would be no reason to not keep them in there even though we’ll be using the desk as a computer desk, the monitor and keyboard will only take up space on one side. However, even if that doesn’t end up the case, I can always find space somewhere to store them until needed.

Funnily, I got into scrapbooking because friends and family were really getting into it and when their interest in the craft waned, well, so did mine. This isn’t to say that I don’t want to still create scrapbooks or memory albums, because I have a multitude of magazine boxes filled with memorabilia from various events waiting to be placed in a more permanent home, just that right now at this time in my life I’m just not in the mood to create something that harkens back to better times. Then again, that might just be the distraction I need after we move.

Etsy Shop

I haven’t talked much about my Etsy Shop lately. Must be because I haven’t been adding anything new to my shop.

In a perfect world you’d create something people will want to buy. In the case of my shop, I’ve found that people really want to buy patterns to make stuff themselves. I get that. While I like to scour the internet for as many free patterns as I can find to create stuff, sometimes it is better to have the pattern and a clear, concise, step-by-step explanation of the process complete with pictures to help guide you along the way. Hence, the reason I made my Puppet Oddity PDF Instruction eBook and Patterns. Twenty-four pages and over one-hundred-twenty color pictures with tips and hints to either Challenge you or make it Simple.

When I set out to make the patterns and instructions, I didn’t intend for it to become so involved, I just decided to make it in a way that was accessible to the beginner and the novice alike. Beginning crafters or people new to making puppets may appreciate the Simple Tips, sometimes shortcuts and sometimes just easier ways to create, while people who’ve been crafting for quite some time would like the Challenge Tips added along the way for ways to add more character and depth to their puppets. Otherwise, the eBook was written for the inbetween crafter with some sewing, cutting and gluing experience.

Why am I writing about this particular pattern? Because it has been a year since I put the pattern up for sale in my shop and has proven to be the most popular item by far. Actually, of the physical items in my shop I’ve only sold a few old thread spools I was getting rid of while the rest of my sales have been this pattern. So for the next week I am offering a special to the readers of this blog… 25% off your purchase in my Etsy Shop! Just enter the Coupon Code PATTERNS during Checkout to take advantage of this sale.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ModernMaleHomemaker

Packing

Today I am planning on starting to pack up the craft room. I’m certain it will be an exciting adventure.

The craft room shares its space with our guest room because, well, although it has enough stuff to make two rooms (or three, perhaps), we do not have two rooms to devote. However, when we move, the guest room portion will be specifically for the boys’s room and we will combine the craft room and the office. This should be interesting, but nothing we haven’t thought of doing in the past. We’d tinkered with the idea a little over a year ago, but I had just created the craft room space the way I liked it and really didn’t want to move stuff around. We also tinkered with the idea of taking the futon and dresser out of the craft room and putting that in the office instead, but neither of us liked the thought of having the computer in the guest bedroom. Alas, the move will force us to rethink our reasons.

What concerns me most is that I have a lot of craft stuffs. I mean a-lot-alotalotalotalotta craft stuff. I’ve got supplies and plentiful amounts for puppets, quilts, embroidery, beads and jewelry, scrapbooking, painting, illustrating, and so many more I don’t know if I could name them all even if I had them all laid out in front of me. What can I say, I craft. It is true that I tend to craft in phases and develop obsessions that come and go, but honestly I couldn’t tell you the last time I scrapbooked or did anything with my beads other than place them all in a box in the bottom of the closet in the craft room and covered them up with bags upon bags of quilting fabric and polar fleece and batting I picked up on sale because I’m a sale-whore. Something tells me I’m going to have to sort through what I really want to keep and what I have no business still having in the house. Some of this stuff I’ve had since I was a kid, I know it’ll mean some tough decisions to make, but also some necessary ones too.

So with that, it is time to open the room, open the closet and lift up the bed and see what wonders and horrors await. If I don’t blog tomorrow can someone please come search for me in my craft room? I may have gotten buried alive.

Vacation Bible School

In a couple days our church’s Vacation Bible School will begin. Which means in a couple days I’ll be quite busy with craft projects.

When I was a kid, Vacation Bible School meant that we would go to the church across the street from us (which we never attended, by the way) and partook in a variety of activities over the course of a week in August. I don’t ever remember getting anything religious out of it, but I do remember making placemats… and playing Red Rover. Kids being kids, and none of us really knowing each other’s names nor were wearing name tags, while playing Red Rover we would simply shout out the most obvious difference between us as the next person to try to break our line. Yes, I’m guilty of yelling four eyes to the only kid with glasses, but in my defense he called me dog ears thanks to my hearing aids I wore as a kid. It wasn’t malicious, it just popped out.

For the first time in a while our own church is stretching out V.B.S. over three half days, which has its ups and downs, but I think will be better for the kids involved. The past couple years anyway we’ve had one long day, which towards the end kids were a little rambitious (please note that I will use any random non-word in place of real words if it so suits me, which if you’ve read my blog over the last 225+ posts I’ve written since the beginning of the year, you’d know isn’t an uncommon occurrence.) Having half days will hopefully mean the lessons being taught towards the end of the day won’t be fraught with crankiness.

My part in all of this is that I’m making crafts, in particular rain sticks and bracelets depicting the life cycle of a salmon. Honestly I should have gotten all materials needed for this by now, but alas, I have an uncanny ability to procrastinate everything until the very last possible minute. I should probably read up on rain sticks or figure out a list of items to get at the craft store, hardware store and office supply store, but instead I’m drinking coffee and writing about my intentions. Good thing I’m not a real teacher!

Rethinking a Quilt

Last week I began work on another quilt. This week, after looking at the simple design I originally planned on, I’m thinking it best to scrap those plans and start over.

While technically I started this particular quilt nearly four years ago when I purchased the fabric, the idea then was to just have a random patchwork of eight inch squares for the top and so I had cut out quite a few squares. Simple. Boring. Years later, as I approach the project again, I thought it would look better as triangles, so I stacked alternating solids and patterns and cut them all in half diagonally. Again, keeping it simple. And again, boring.

So now I’ve got 36 blocks of two triangles each, 12 solid patterned blocks, a quarter to half yard of fabric left uncut from the various ones used, three yards of coordinating fabric for the back and a solid for the border. Currently, with only the triangle blocks sewn together by chain stitching (my new favorite thing about quilting ever) I’ve still got plenty of options out there. Part of me wishes I had more fabric choices to create buckeyes, but at the same time I think that limiting my choices is going to be the real challenge on this particular quilt.

I keep thinking I could halve the current blocks and sew those into smaller triangle blocks, but I’m not sure if that will make me happy with this project. I could turn the solid blocks into four-patches instead, but then I’m afraid the pattern will look off. Too many damn choices and too many quilt designs to think about! And so then I think my rethinking was a bad idea and try to make my original plan (well, original as in the last post I wrote about), something that to me looks like open envelopes, will work for the center of the quilt if I make an interesting border, do simple straight line quilting through the center of every other block and hand quilt a design of some sort in the remaining areas. Then again, we’ll see how involved I want to be on a project I plan on parting ways with. Of course, if I’m uninspired, I’ll probably throw it all back into a plastic bag and ignore it for another four years.

Fabric Stashes

If you are a crafter, and especially one who works with fabric, you probably have multiple stashes of fabric lying around from various projects you’ve completed. If you are like me, you have even more fabric from projects you haven’t even started yet.

I got to know the fabric department at the store I used to work at very well because my department was right next to it, and thus, I worked there practically every day cutting fabric while they were on break or backed up at the cutting table. During this time I got to familiarize myself with various types of fabric, what they’re used for, the difference between quilting weight and crap that might just dissipate if you ever washed it, and heavy weighted upholstery fabric. Needless to say all this was too much temptation and I would purchase a few yards of fabric each week with the intention of making something from it.

My favorite projects were making the bed spread for the futon in the guest room and the comforter in our bedroom because I love the fabrics used. They are a quality heavy upholstery weight with bold prints and 100% cotton. But the problem is I have so much leftover material I didn’t use that I bought for coordinating pillows and throws and other projects. While I am not so keen on how the comforter for our bedroom turned out, I love the quick fix I did for the box spring. You see, we have a sleigh bed and the box spring is partially seen, so I used an old white sheet and sewed on a coordinating fabric on either edge of it and tucked it into place. This way, because the comforter isn’t large enough to cover the box spring, another design element was added, and helped lower the amount of fabric I have stashed. Of course, I failed to mention that this particular fabric is a Waverly print with bees and dragonflies called Flea Market and I bought the entire bolt of 10 yards. Don’t judge! At $3.97 a yard, it was a bargain, especially since this fabric goes for over $10 a yard online.

Most of my stashes are organized into projects, or as I like to call them, coordinating fabrics I bought to do something with but I don’t know what yet. One of these projects was for a quilt, which I really like the color combinations, but don’t know if I necessarily want it for me. This may turn into an Etsy project just to use up the fabric, or maybe make it for a holiday bazaar if our church is indeed going to have one this year. When we had a birdhouse competition at church for a fundraiser, I did the example and used one of the fabrics as inspiration for the house. A lot of people don’t think about using fabric as design inspirations, but really it is the perfect choice to start with and make a cohesive statement.

While there are fabrics I haven’t seen in years because they are at the bottom of my guest room closet in plastic totes and are quite difficult to get to without taking everything else out of said closet, I also have a lot of scraps from multiple baby blankets. Looking at them all peeking out of plastic bags (my ghetto “organizing” system) I get the sense that they would much rather be organized better, like say either by color or pattern, and folded nicely in an easy to reach area, rather than under a folding table or shoved into the closet that has been terribly difficult to close for some time now due to the contents trying to free themselves. Something tells me it is time to pull everything out again, go through it all and try to organize it as best as I can, come up with a better system to find a particular line or individual fabric and get rid of anything I no longer want. Yes, it is time to finally do something about all this fabric… next week.

Recycled Art

While at the Vancouver Farmer’s Market this last Saturday they were also having the Recycled Arts Festival in the adjoining Esther Short Park. This of course meant we all had to go check that out too.

The idea of reusing trash and turning it into treasure is by no means a new concept, but it seems that people get cleverer at how they transform those found objects into works of art: Old wine bottles melted to form spoon rests; marbles turned into rings and pendants; chip bags and candy wrappers turned into clutches, handbags and purses. My partner, his mother, sister and I all enjoyed walking from booth to booth and checking out either the merchandise being sold or the idea booths for how-to projects you can do yourself.

Being of crafty peasant stock myself, there were a good number of items showcased I could easily replicate with stuff I currently have on hand. Then again, I could easily improve on some of them too, or at the very least personalize those items to better suit my particular wants and needs. The first thing that comes to mind is repurposing some of my old screen tees I no longer wear because they are unraveling in certain areas or don’t fit well into market bags. And anyone who knows me knows I have a lot of screen tees so that would be a lot of market bags!

But the Recycled Arts Festival also got me thinking about something else. We as a society, at least here in the United States, seem to live disposable lives. Practically everything we use or buy has an expiration date whether it says so or not because instead of manufacturers making products built to last a lifetime, they make products built to last until the newer model comes out so that you’ll have to replace it. I’m sure this last sixty or so years we’ve been consuming disposable products will simply disappear from the history books because there won’t be any lasting impression of how we lived except for the giant heaps of garbage created from this disposable society, most of which will still be there for many, many generations to come.

Perhaps the days of manufacturing goods back to quality status will return when the landfills can no longer contain our bounty we bestow upon them. Perhaps more of our everyday disposable items will become biodegradable or compostable. Then again, perhaps the day we simply outgrow this planet and kill ourselves off due to overpopulation, overconsumption and overall abuse of our resources will happen before we come to our senses. Hopefully we come to our senses before it is too late. Until then, I’m going to rummage through the garage for some trash I can turn into treasure.