Howdy all, I'm moving this here blog to a new location. I'm tired of managing the extra identity and trying to keep it completely separate from the rest of my online goings ons, so come on over to ellie <3s crafts. I may or may not migrate some or all of the posts here over there depending oh how private I felt they were. So update your bookmarks and feed readers because this URL will be broken fairly soon. xoxo - Ellie
Coiled basket beginnings
So here's what I'm working on with my handspun. It's a little farther along than this now, so I'll have to take some more pictures. This is my first go at a coiled basket. I saw someone making one at the Contemporary Handweavers of Texas conference and was totally smitten. I hope I have enough of the cording to make a nice shape, but I'm mostly winging it. I'm going for the shape on the right in general (from here).
Squee!
So the Asus is announcing their 9" EeePC tomorrow! I've been holding out hoping it would come out before April when I want to have one by to use for conferences. I've been coveting an EeePC since before Christmas, but I had already put in for a digital camera. I've been debating back and forth on which model, which color, etc. etc. I'm hoping that the announcement of the 9" makes the price on the other models drop, in which case I'll probably go for the 2G Surf in lush green. I had also been debating about getting the 4G model with the camera, but then I realized I didn't really have anyone to video chat with, so what's the point in spending an extra $100? I don't really expect the 9" to be in the price range I'm willing to
pay for a glorified pad of paper with some internet capabilities. Plus I think it's going to come with Windows and one of the other things I thought would be fun about the EeePC was that it's Linux and I've been craving to do some playing around in that arena but hadn't gotten around to wiping my old decrepit laptop. Squee!
More stuff I want. And you should check out.
Some people are too damn talented!
I mean, seriously? A narwhal!? This person needs to be my best friend.
Science bliss...
So I think my need to be a librarian at Fermilab may be replaced with Cern now that they're getting closer to being up and running. Not to mention this Day in the Life... I at least need to go on the tour! I now have a new dream vacation! Goodbye Sanrioland, hello particle physics!
Belated holiday wrap up
So I was cleaning off my computer desktop and realized I didn't share any of my holiday photos. Time to remedy that. First up, mom's presents. She had decided she needed a traveling hobby for conferences and car rides. She tried cross stitch first, then decided she wanted to learn how to knit. So she got stitchmarkers and thimbles and some patterns and some little felted bowls. The blue one is from the yarn I spun at Maker Fair and the purple one is from Miss Hawklet (leftovers from the mittens). I tried to make one from the yellow I spun at Maker Fair too, but I guess it wasn't wool cause it didn't so much work. It's now a hat for one of my stuffed monkeys.
Next up, holiday meals! For Christmas my mom does a ham, so the veggies got fake Canadian bacon in the same brown sugar glaze. For New Years one must have pork (seitan) and sourkraut.
The big thing that I did over the trip was to tackle my bedroom. It had become a storage space and I needed to claim my belongings so it could transform into a guest bedroom. I have pretty bad dust and mold allergies and had been getting sick every time I went home so my parents have gotten some air purifiers and kept me down on the more used and cleaned ground floor. So a mission to the upstairs required special equipment:
The mission was a complete success however. I now have all of my books (filed in LC order thank you very much) and other knick nacks all settled in Austin and mom is well on her way to clearing out all the clutter that wasn't mine. Next up - convince my dad to put in wood floors instead of carpeting!
