Crappy Customer Service: Craft

Mush! Mush!

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

Homework has forced me to give up a few things I enjoy doing, like Rock Band drumming. My knitting output has also suffered.

I bought a couple of balls of Socks that Rock heavyweight yarn in a colourway I have been eyeing for, oh, years. It's expensive stuff but looks so incredible in a skein that you could just hang it on a nail and present it as art. I am knitting myself a simple scarf from 60 Quick Knits so I don't have to memorize a pattern all over again after an abscence. Now all I need to make is a few more hours in the day.

Dec 18, 2010 1:35:55 PM | Craft

Shopping Professional Takes to the 'Tubes

I'm enjoying Christmas shopping so far. I only have one really tough buy, for a married couple who have absolutely everything on the planet that they need. I want to give them something tangible - I don't do gift cards. And it's two guys which makes things just a little tougher. If you still have time to buy online you can look at some of the nice things I found.

• Have you seen that amazon.ca is now selling non-book items? Plenty of squee-worthy stuff in there. And plenty to ways to drop some serious cash. I put this lamp on my wishlist. Every year I find twice as much stuff for myself as I do for my loved ones. I am my own best personal shopper!

• I try to buy a good portion of handmade things every year. It's never difficult because everything's so frigging cute. I just keep track of the things I want and buy a batch of them. Like Lavendar Lizard's crochet lip balm holders, complete with handmade lip balm from another seller, for my cow-orkers.

• And just now I bought a few coupon organizers from Austin Artisan. She had some nice non-girly ones. I always have random coupons floating around the place and expiring, so I figure everyone else does too.

• FragranceNet.com ships to Canada and you may find a pretty good deal. They sent me lots of coupon codes, too.

Nov 23, 2009 7:15:16 PM | Craft, Family

Men! Voluntarily Cleaning Things!

I've been seeing a lot of talk about reverse graffiti, or proper graffiti as it's sometimes called. I was looking for examples on the Internet and couldn't find a damn thing. Somehow Coldplay read my mind and used reverse graffiti in Montrèal to advertise their new album. Then PingMag did an article about ZEVS, who does such things in Europe. Now the Green Life blog is catching up by providing this helpful clip about Paul "Moose" Curtis. His stuff is beautiful and not intended to be offensive but what would you think about someone who did this with less than healthy intentions? Should we be cheesed off about the fact that, like regular graffiti, it also costs a lot of money to remove it, even if it isn't supposed to be permanent?