bjdonabudget

I need to adjust my swapbot profile to reflect my new obsession- my needle felting kit came yesterday- minus one important piece thanks to a postal machine chewing my package- but I made do without the foam workpad- I used a towel and made some of the most fun to do little felt pieces- pieces to what I’m not sure yet- the little bear I did came out just so sweet and vintage looking, reminds me of the bears in the Sears Wishbooks from the 60’s, kinda cute but a little menacing too.

Green Mountain: Wee Woolies is an awesome seller- she’s even sending another work pad to replace the one the postal system ate! The fiber assortment in the needle felting kit was just amazing, great colors, and a good mix of them. I’m thrilled with my purchase, and will no doubt be hitting the shop up for more wool. I just want to poke the fluff into cute little things forever- forget shopping or cleaning, that can wait, I’ve got fibers aching to become things just sitting right there- I’m so deeply in love with needle felting.

If you’ve not seen, needle felting involves taking a puff of wool and stabbing it repeatedly with a barbed needle made just for this purpose and working the wool into a felted, matted snarl of cuteness. I even felting some yarn designs into a piece I’d felted into a coin shape- I think it’ll make a neat-o-keen pendant for someone, made two of the bases thus far, need to do more decorative work to make them really awesome. But, to my dismay, chores come first- there’s stuff to do that doesn’t involve repeated stabbing wool, and I have to do those things first- then I get my pokey treats.

In a couple of the swaps I’ve joined on swap-bot, I’ve received things that while well within the guidelines of the swap and quite nice in their own right, aren’t right for me. Sometimes it’s just a surprise that was already in my collection, but what to do with this stuff? Thus far, I’ve been saving it in hopes of someone else loving it. But I’m not going to be as swap-crazed as I was before, I’ve found etsy, I can trade things for paypal there, and paypal can become anything. Of course, paypal is real money, which makes it hard for me to spend. I’ve just got the cheapness right down to the marrow of my bones. There’s lots of excess stuff around my house that’s not right for etsy though, so I’ll keep swapping until I’m completely happy with every single thing I have. Yes, that means until I go senile and don’t know that the tee shirt I’m wearing isn’t a Dior evening gown. There’s just no end to it, I’ve been trying to tidy up in preparation for our remodel, and just keep wondering what I’m going to do with all this stuff. So, my obligatory Etsy pimp of the day:

Soo excited, just got a package all the way from the UK with a holiday gift inside, it rattled like there’s something fabulously fun inside, but I’ll find out on xmas, because for once in my life, I’m really not going to open anything beforehand.  It started under my mom’s supervision, peeking into the gifts from distant relatives before the big day so I could brace myself for opening some of the odd things I got.  One year, I opened everything that was tucked into my mom’s closet early, and didn’t re-tape things very well, all the toys were almost loaded up to go back to the store but I saved it by being cute.  The hubby already told me that I’ll have to wait on his gift, as there’s not a Wii to be found under five times the list price right now.  I’m getting a WII!  Yay, that rabid rabbit game looks cute, maybe it’s just the bunny I like, but I’m going to need it anyway.  And there’s The Other Man, Mario.  My hubby knows what he’s in for,  he’s seen me go without food or sleep because I was THIS close to the next level.  Whee!  what fun, we’re getting a Wii!  Oh the hours I’ll waste with my new love, the afternoons of pointless flailing and cussing the hard levels, I’m a geek, and I like it.

So I’ve been playing around over at swapbot, and in the one-on-one trades board I got into the tagging games, where one person posts and there’s an ongoing chain of sending to the person who posts before or after you.  Yesterday, I got the most wonderful homemade soaps from the crafty-tag, and wow, they smell fabulous!  I love mixed craft message boards, there’s soo many great handmade things that other people do, I like the idea of making soap but I’ve not trried it yet, so I can someone a crocheted case for their phone and someone wioll send me soap.  It’s a great system, as long as everyone is honest.

Which brings me to my problem, the person I was supposed to send to ended up being banned for being a selfish greedy swap-lifter before I sent to them, so I’m sending to someone they were supposed to send a couple things to.   And, until I send out that package, I will not use the wonderful soap; because if I didn’t send to someone, I’m just as bad as the nastynasty who stole dozens of peoples’ work.  Yeah, I know I’m being a bit harsh on myself, it’s almost a good thing that I was late sending out the crochet goodies to that no-goodnik, she’s under investigation for mail fraud!  It’s just awful when people find things like swap-bot and think it’s just a handout for them from the trusting, good people who send what they say they’ll send and expect everyone else will do the same.  It’d be harder on me if I still had that crazy idealism that made anarchy make sense, some people just don’t care about right and wrong, only what serves them, until those people are done and over, there will need to be rules to help the rest of us deal with them.

Not literally locking away a basket of yarn, but I’m putting away my hooks and needles in hopes of the pain subsiding.  Carpal Tunnel is a harsh mistress, she’s just decided to kick my butt this week.  In efforts to please the nerves in my wrists beyond just wearing the braces while I sleep and sit around the house, I’m putting away all the needlework temptations.

In light of the ban on yarn, I’ll still need ways to keep my hands occupied.  Chain smoking and eating to busy my restless fingers are not good ideas.  So I’ll draw, I can do that with the braces on.  The sewing machine may still work with braced hands.  It’ll speed along sewing projects to get the machine fired up.  Perhaps I can even do a bit of beading, my peyote stitch is finally free of rust, it’s time to try something beyond just practice.

On swap-bot there’s a fun little project that the other swappers are getting into called Dotees, little decorated figures with faces like dolls.  A dotee is like a mini art-doll.  The usually have hanging loops, though I’ve seen some which double as cases for nail care sets or other gadgets.  Hmm, both a case and a doll?  I can get into that.