Little Things: Score Keeper

One of the first things to be put on the wall at our new house was the dart board. Maybe even the first thing, actually. We kept score on note pads for awhile, but I knew there could be an easier way. So I dug into my pile of "Things That Don't Work Now But Will Have Purpose Someday" pile and came up with:

Ingredients:

Dry Erase Key Holder Board (missing certain elements but still had its marker!)

Canada Shoelace (I don't know where it came from - my siblings? thin air?)

Seed Bead Capsule (I have had it for 10 years, but always knew it would be excellent someday)

It turned out that the little areas in the Dry Erase Board work well for storing things.

Now we can keep track of games and store all the dart accoutrements right next to where we throw. Yay!

Little Things: Shower Crayons

Has this ever happened to you: In the middle of shampooing your hair, you have the greatest idea you've ever had, quickly you try to finish your shower, get soap in your eyes, scramble for the towel, finally get some paper and a writing utensil and are ready to write - but, what was that again? Suddenly you drop to your knees, screaming, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" to the heavens as your brilliant idea drifts lazily to the atmosphere and dissipates into nothing.

Me too.

Until the other day, in the shower I realized:

So that's what I did. They're in the baby bath section of Target, in case you're wondering. We spent 10 minutes trying to track them down. (I don't ask for directions when driving nor when shopping unless I'm at a home improvement store.)

Next, we needed a place to store them. The bathroom is still a thought in progress, so I didn't want to buy anything in case it became useless in a month or so. Instead, I grabbed a snack sized Pringles cup, a couple of shower hooks, my screwdriver, some twine, and -

VOILA!

Leave notes to your love, reminders of chores, inspired thoughts, whatever you want. A picture of a bear.

After I put this together, neither of us needed it. I feared I had ruined inspired showers forever - then last Sunday, Raulie was inspired... And today, I used it to write out a few quick thoughts.

Best shower idea ever.

A pillow for my cat.

Well, two pillows actually. While Clyde, our cat and roommate, may not like to have direct attention showered on him at all times, he does have a tendency to want to sleep in whatever room I'm occupying. While typing away on the not-so-portable laptop in the bedroom, he would curl up on my unmade bed and snooze happily. If I was reading a book on the couch, he would snuggle up on the recliner. Cutting fabric on the dining room table? Clyde had his pick of 6 different chairs, sometimes 7. Even in the kitchen, he will stretch out in the middle of the floor - often reveling in some sunbeams. He's always happy, as long as he can look up and check on what I'm doing without having to leave his roost.

But then there was my workroom. Full of bookshelves, desks, and a low lying table covered with whatever projects I was working on - he had nowhere to go. As I sat at my keyboard playing away, my poor cat would walk in, look for a snuggly spot to lay, and seem to plead with me on his way out of the room, "Why can't we work in a comfortable room today?" I have to admit, I also feel some comfort when I can reach down and give him a little ear itch while passing by.

Which is why I decided to make him a pillow to lay on. Actually, I had intended my low table to be a bench to sit on in front of the window. A place to inspire myself, write and read, but it quickly became laden with tubs of material, parts for craft projects I am always meaning to do and the like.

I made this decision around 5 months ago. And about two weeks ago, I finally finished the pillows. Ta-da!

Which is pretty good for me because the couch still looks like this:

And I started to make a couch cover for it 2 years ago in May to disguise the clawed area on the left with stuffing hanging out and mystery stains dotting the lower right end of the couch.

Back to the pillows though, the best part is that Clyde actually loves the new pillows! We have found him sleeping on them when no one else is even in the room. He even likes them if the corduroy side is up:

It's been a pretty craftastic time around here lately, I even finished up my business cards.

 

(Little clever musical thing with that logo there. Maybe a little cheesy, but I'm made of cheese and my name only uses the letters A-G, so why not?)

Hopefully I'll also be able to finish up that couch cover now too under the sleepy watchful eyes of my roommate on his pillow.