At last! The exciting conclusion to my heartwarming tale of road-trippery and family. I totally lied about how long it would take to post this, but by now you should know better than to trust my time estimates anyways. To be fair, I didn’t expect it to take quite this long. I had this idea that I could somehow finish and post it over the holidays as some sort of holiday gift to the masses…while also road-tripping across the country, battling the elements, visiting family, and boogeying down with my friends New Year’s Eve.
So picking up where I left off:
It’s December now, it’s freezing literally freezing outside, and the Powers That Be decided this was a good time to turn off the heat and let the repairmen have a party in the basement. Have I told you about how much I hate the cold? It’s kind of hard to work a needle and thread when your fingertips feel like ice cubes. The only time it is acceptable to be cold outside is when it’s snowing. Very grumpily I retreated to the warmth of the local bookstore and made myself ill on sugary overpriced coffee drinks. I also decided to take this opportunity to try and get my next post done. I guess it’s not all bad.
I was originally going to write something about the stuff I’m making my friends for Christmas, but then I realized those are really the only people who read my blog and that would ruin all the fun. Besides, I haven’t actually had time to make them yet. Instead I shall regale you with one of my recent adventures.
This one is a heartwarming holiday story. Okay, I promise it’s not really. I took a road trip with my husband to visit his grandmother before Thanksgiving and it was a lot of fun. My last little journey book went over pretty well so I made another for this trip. I don’t care if this isn’t supposed to be a travel blog. You can’t confine a Jefita with your preconceived notions of bloggery. This is actually only part one because I want to draw out the suspense, not because I haven’t finished it yet…
I’m back from the northern land of Canada! This past weekend I embarked on a road trip to the great city of Toronto. One of my jobs as a full-time professional Maker of Things is producing lots of squishy cuteness for a very nice Canadian man named Jack (also known as Rich) who runs Jack and Pookie Publishing. I have never actually met this man in person, so he invited me to be a guest of honor at his booth at FanExpo. I love a good road trip and the prospect of adventure so I readily accepted. Seeing as how it is a nine hour drive from my home in Maryland to Toronto, I decided to break out one of my fancy little booklets from my last post and make a small journal of my journey. It turns out, it’s much more satisfying and entertaining than just taking photos.
Now I present to you:
Every now and then I find it important to have what I consider an “instant gratification” project. Usually it’s the end of the week and my brain is through being creative, but I still want to make something. Other times I use it as a pick-me-up when I get frustrated because a prototype has just epically failed or I’ve had another string of losing battles with my sewing machine. It’s something that I know I can’t screw up and that is going to turn out fine even if everything else I’ve been working on has made me want to cry. Ideally these projects are quick and entertaining, cheap as free (or nearly so), and don’t require any special tools or skills. I’ve come up with many of these projects over the years, so this is the first of many in this theme. Continue Reading…