Duct Tape Purse!

So, yesterday while procrastinating I decided to make a duct tape purse.
It worked out well, so I thought I'd post some pictures of how I did it. Just a note, you can probably find someone who's done a much neater and more crafty version, but I figure it's not going to look fancy anyway if you're making it out of duct tape.

I started with a Rice Krispies box.

I cut out the front and back of the purse (you'll probably want to measure so it's the size you want, I took the size from another purse that I really like) and then the bottom I just sort of "eyeballed".


Next I started covering it in duct tape! I found that using long strips and wrapping it around 1.5-2 times worked well.



All covered!


This bit was probably the hardest (though still very simple) part.

To put one of the sides together with the bottom, I put tape on the front and back at sort of right angles, making sure the tape went all the way into the space in between the two pieces.

All stuck together!


Now the other side is on as well.


Then for the sides I didn't use cardboard, just duct tape in strips on top of each other, like this.

For the ones below this the strip that's silver side up in this picture were lower so it stuck to the one above it...If that makes any sense. I forgot to take a photo. :/

Getting the sides on.


Then I made a handle by folding a long strip of duct tape up.

I attached that with, you guessed it, duct tape!

And that's about it! I also added some stick on velcro to keep the top closed, but that's not necessary.

Hopefully this post made some amount of sense, I'm certainly not the craftiest person around!

Dot

Album for the Young

A couple months ago I picked up a copy of Schumann's Album for the Young. I had played some of the pieces from it that the Suzuki method (the method I use for piano) had put in their books, and had always wanted to see it in it's entirety. When I looked through it I really liked it, and decided to play through the whole thing.

The album contains 43 short pieces and so far I think I'm on number 9. They're pretty simple (though they get harder as the book goes on) so at the moment I'm getting through one every week or two.

It really appeals to me because each piece is like a painting, as you walk through the gallery you see the soldiers, the orphans, the sort of, well as far as I can understand it, German "anti-claus" and so much more crammed in there.

There's also something really satisfying about playing through a whole collection like that. To do it in it's entirety (well, who knows, I may end up skipping a few, but still).

Alright, well I think that's my post for this evening (super early morning?), thanks for reading, and be sure to leave a comment if you enjoyed it!

Nerdiness!

Well, some time last year I started recognizing the fact that I was a complete and utter nerd. It was the 50K-novel-in-a-month thing that really made me realize. It also made me realize that I loved that title.

I love that I can do crazy things like take my pants off on an LRT (long story) or wear a bucket from Dollarama on my head or recite Shakespeare, or wear a kilt in public, or a sparkly silver hat, and not feel anxious that someone might see me and think I'm "uncool". I would hope that they would see me and think that maybe sure, I'm rather odd, but perhaps also rather interesting.

In the end, where does being what society defines as "cool" get you? Maybe you'll have a couple friends that like you for your expensive clothing, or maybe you'll get a good laugh out of those crazy kids over there wearing the silver tophats. But you'll never be those tophat-kids, so to speak. To see the "cool ones" mock you and laugh right back at their shallowness.

Personally, I'd much rather have a group of friends that embrace the "uncool" (you know who you awesome people are!) and like me for me, not for the act I put on. It doesn't bother me at all if someone calls me weird, or nerdy, or what have you. I like who I am, and I love being out of the ordinary.

Kick average to the curb. Come to the nerdy side, we have Shakespeare.

Happy New Year!

Well, since I haven't posted since last decade, I thought I'd send out a quick post just saying happy 2010, everyone! It's been a great year, and I hope it'll be a great one to come!

Did that make sense? Just like a lot of my crappier posts, this one was made at 12:16 at night, so yeah.

Happy New Year!

Sharpies!

I'm not sure if anyone is actually reading this, but oh well. I'll post it anyway.

If you are reading, this is my Sharpie collection! Okay, well that's not exactly all of them, I have a bunch of mini Sharpies, and a couple Sharpie pens as well. But close enough.

I don't know why, but I find them so awesome! I started collecting them probably a year or two ago, and I almost always have a mini one in my pocket. I use them to write reminders on my arms (as you saw in a post a while ago) and occasionally draw something.
I think I have over 50.

Okay, well I'm out of things to say now. This was a rather lame post. Sorry! Hopefully I'll have a better one up soon. Also, does anyone want to do that Week Long Blogging Challenge thing again?

Dot

Pointe- an update on this one!

First off, I just looked at my first post about pointe and wow, can't believe how new and shiny my shoes were! You may not recognize them, but these are, shockingly enough, the same shoes:

Sorry about the not-so-well-taken photos, the lighting wasn't the greatest when I took them.

So yeah, they're a lot more worn now! The tip actually is a bit blacker now, I think, these photos were taken a couple weeks ago. The tap/hard shoes leave scuff marks on the studio floor and the satin picks them up.
They're starting to die (go soft and provide less support) but they've still got some life in them. These have actually lasted quite well, but then I guess I'm only taking half an hour of pointe per week. Professional ballerinas go through a pair every performance, or if it's a particularly intense show, a pair an act! So 5 months and counting is quite good.

Anyhow, thanks for reading!

-Dot

NaNoWriMo- I won!

I've been celebrating madly for the past hour...Why? Because I hit 50K as you probably guessed from the title of this post!
I'm so thrilled that I made it, and so grateful for NaNoWriMo. It's a truly amazing program, and both last year and this year, I learned so much about writing, about what it means to be a novelist, and how if you can let that part of yourself that tells you that whatever you create is crap (and I know mine doesn't like to leave!), you can do anything. And you can write a novel in a month.
To all of the rest of you doing NaNo, I wish you the best of luck! You can make it!
Anyway, I'll leave it at that since it's nearly 1AM and tomorrow is an early start.
~Dorothy