So, inspired by Fiona, I went ahead and posted a hand-made Pay it Forward offer and am now scouring magazines and websites for things that, if they were titled for my convenience, would read: "Idiot-Proof and Easy-to-Make yet Exquisite Thingies that Your Friends will Love and Not Just Throw Out Right Away."
It's too late to make jam, unless I make it out of winter tubers because that's all that's left here on the frozen stupid tundra I call home. Parsnip compote is maybe better than it sounds?
No one will tell me where they've hidden the sharp scissors.
I want to make Lego-block rings with little diamonds lasered into them but I have no diamonds, no lasers, and my friends are generally the sort who might be freaked out by such a thing. Not by the whimsy but by the idea that anyone would let me play with a laser.
I cannot ship live animals across international borders--and besides, who makes art out of live animals anymore anyhow.
Decoupage? No. Embarrassed by the word itself. It's too close to decollete for my comfort.
Origami. (See above, but you know what I'm getting at.) (Plus it's not ecologically responsible.) (Origami, I mean.)(Plus Jane has already done it.) (Plus origami (I really am feeling weird writing that down.) (Catholicism, eh?) is hard to do when one of your fingers looks like a cocktail weenie.)
Re: origami. I just clicked here and now I feel worse.
I tried to make popsicle stick puppets and a theatre but I liked them so much I kept them. The Anna Wintour popsicle stick has to be kept in a special silk-lined box away from the Lauren Weisberger popsicle stick, but I secretly sometimes just throw them in a drawer together and let the chips fall where they may. The Bai Ling doll was FUN TO DRESS, let me tell you.
Where does one even find honeycomb?
It's hard to know where to draw the line between caricature and cruelty when making home-made nose glasses.
It has been pointed out to me once or twice that just because something has 17 syllables doesn't make it a haiku. Plus, I need to write down things in multiples of 5, so haiku kind of drive me mad unless I can write "la ti da" in invisible ink after the last word.
The last time I knit something, it was a 17-sided scarf for my father. When he's feeling a little low, he takes it out of the closet and cracks up at the memory that my parents used to think I was the smart one.
Off now through the snow and the bitter chill to buy the latest "Tea Cosy Quarterly."
UPDATE: DEAR GOD, LOOK WHAT I FOUND
Through no coercive powers of my own, I got out of the deal by no one wanted anything made by me! But now I am feeling terribly guilty (Catholicism?) that I said yes to both you AND Fiona without paying a thing forward.
ReplyDeleteThe least I can do is offer my advice: people you can get to by bicycle or snowshoe you can go with the alien pickle colonies. For anything requiring the post, make something that fits flatly in an envelope. Or if you still want to go with Legos, you can drill through the sides and string them like beads.
I want something made by you! And Fiona wants something made by you!
ReplyDeleteYou will both receive something without committing to 5 more projects. Call it my "Pay it Backwards" contribution!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what crafty project Pay It Forward mission you are referring to, however, I have been thinking ever since I read this: Why don't you make your aunt's pickles?
ReplyDelete