Fun of a Stitch

I invented stitchbombing! Well, I don’t know if I invented it. I was pinspired by this pin from Miss Crosstitch, who calls it “urban cross stitch,” to use the chain-link fence across the street as, well, Aida Negative 900 Kabillion. I plotted it out on graph paper ahead of time, but because of the major difference btw squares and diamonds, I had to re-adjust on the fly and redo a few spots. Just like with smaller-scale cross stitch, it came to life under my hands and took on a life of its own as I got further along.

Everyone who passed on the street was tickled. One guy said “That looks really cool!” A little girl yelled, “Giants!” And yeah, I realize a major-league baseball logo might seem like a lame public-art project, but in my culturally-diverse neighborhood, this crazy team’s logo really is common ground, guaranteed to make everybody happy.

Best part? I got upstairs and peered out my front window, and voila, two hipsters coming up the street took a picture in front of it. I’m still grinning!

Pin It and Do It Challenge - Knitting Needle Bangles

I have quite a collection of my grandma’s old knitting needles. A guilty part of me worries that I should be using them to knit. A much bigger, more practical part of me knows that even if I do take up knitting again, I’ll want the cool round needles I learned on, and these are literally just gathering dust. I boiled 2 needles in a pasta pot for about 20 minutes. The plastic one became pliable and bent easily. The metal one, not so much. I still wrestled with it, using two different pliers, and got nothing more bendy than a U shape. I’ll have to revisit this; apparently there’s a thingy that’ll do it in a flash. But I love this one. It retains its shape, slips over my wrist easily, and is soft enough that I don’t worry about poking myself in the eye. Next I’d like to try making some of the teeny-tiny ones into rings!

Pinspiration: http://pinterest.com/pin/40250990390026049/

Pin It and Do It Challenge — Switchplate Covers — really so easy, though I did this one so fast it has rough edges. for future ones I’ll take more care with the corners; modge podge isn’t strong enough to hold everything in place. Or, well, it is, but keeping the corners down while they dry will require some well-placed pieces of packing tape. Pinspiration:

http://pinterest.com/pin/40250990389987892/

Toilet paper tube Wild Things. Rumpus!!

Pin it and do it challenge - strawberry pie! This got gobbled up before I could take a proper photo - it was bizarre, using thickened jello mixed w fresh berries, and insanely delicious. You could probably make something fiendishly delicious with lemon jello and, say, blueberries .

Pinterest challenge #3 - jello cookies! I used less sugar, divided the dough into 3 batches, added 2T of jello powder to each third. Did not roll cookies in sugar or use food coloring. Flavor was light, subtle. Would use less shortening next time too. Fun!! Kids loved them!

Pinterest Pin it and Do It Challenge #2: Corn Bread Taco Casserole. Made this more complicated than it had to be — corn bread mix? Get outta here! — and it was still maybe 45 mins from start to table. And really tasty! Needed more sour cream tho. But a hit!

Pinterest Challenge #1: Seal a Plastic Bag Using The Top of a Plastic Bottle. Didn’t work w bags that were too full, and at least one was weirdly too thin. But neato!!