The Handcar Regatta

Living in the North Bay means I get lots of exposure to cool steam-punky stuff, including the Handcar Regatta in Santa Rosa.  For train lovers and do-it-yourselfers, this is the coolest festival and race- all of hand built cars!

I worked the Make booth for most of the event, but got to take in a few trains zipping around the grounds.

And I also got inspired by this lady and her homemade hat made out of a paper cup.  Another project to add to the list!

How to Catch a Scorpion

Look what I found in my kitchen!  Seriously, scorpions are no joke and can be difficult to catch.  And unlike spiders, it's recommended that they are killed instantly and not released in the wild or they will just find their way back into your house.  (And even when they are flattened to the size of a credit card, they can still sting you.)

I learned all this on the internet once I had my little critter trapped in a mason jar and wanted to figure out what to do with him.  I had a choice- squish him or preserve his carcass for posterity.

I went the posterity route and used some rubbing alcohol to send him to a better place.  You never know when you may need a preserved scorpion.

Sorry, fella.  If you weren't so poisonous and agro with those claws, things would be different.

Kind of How I'm Feeling Today

I'm also still waking up.  Good thing I'm working at a coffee shop today.

Make Your Own Burger Tuesday

Life can throw you a few curveballs, but if you're lucky you can knock 'em out of the park.  When I ran out of food, the best was meeting up with friends at Stumptown Brewery.  The kitchen is closed on Tuesdays.  No!  You can grill your own burger instead.  Yes!

So that's what we did.  We also met some terrific people visiting from San Francisco.  Meeting energetic people at a bar is also nice because they usually have the most enthusiasm to do things.  We teamed up on the burgers and got our new friends to cook them all for us (actually, our new friend's boyfriend did most of the work).

Not bad for 2 bucks.

Has anyone come up with a restaurant concept to have customers do all the cooking?  Brilliant!  I think it could work.

Project: Dead Bug Shadowbox

Since I've submitted some blog posts for Craftzine, I've been feeling crafty these days.  My love for scraps has made me start to look at materials in a different way.  My grandmother taught me that what could be trash can easily be transformed into art or something with an upcycled function.

So when I found dead bumblebees in my windowsill, I knew they could be good for something.

A shadowbox!  I love geeky, old-fashioned crafts and this makes the perfect gift for my friend B, who not only loves bees, but is from Utah, where the beehive is the state symbol.  (Interesting factoid, it's the symbol of Mormonism because of the colony of workers that make up the community, and the beehive is on road signs throughout the state.)

Here's what you need:
-a shadowbox
-fabric or paper for backdrop
-dead bugs for centerpiece
-extra embellishments: trim, stickers, ribbon, paper for collage, etc.
-glue

Open shadowbox.

Tuck in fabric, line the back with paper or paint.  Make sure to leave room for your three dimensional object for display.  Decorate with trim.

If using bugs, glue to stiff paper or cardstock.  The bees had long legs, so I trimmed them with a scissors and placed using tweezers.

Add any extra accents, like glitter, pictures, or decoupage.  I added a beehive charm.

Place in the box.

I sprayed the whole thing lightly with glue spray.  It leaves a bit of a coating, but keeps everything reinforced so it doesn't start to droop in the box once it's hung up.

Place the glass and frame over the top and glue to the edges of the box.  Hang and enjoy!

The Thing About Oak Trees

The thing about oak trees is their fruit produces large husks that frankly, didn't make me think of a oak tree.

What an easy way for me to look at a tree as if I'm seeing it for the first time.  In a way, I am.

Flash of Red

It must be fall.  There is just something so comforting and cheerful about seeing a red tractor on an old ranch.  I would take this over a mustang convertible any day.