3 posts tagged “diy”
Management okay'ed casual dress on Friday, so I wore the green guitar pick earrings
to work and got some rave reviews and a few requests. So now I'm
freaking out on pricing as I DIY for fun and not for profit. A quick
search on the boards at ETSY and I saw how most craftsters calculate
approximately 2x the price of material and factor in time & labor.
Sounds reasonable.
I trekked to the Guitar Center in Rancho Cucamonga with Y in tow,
and picked up the thin abalone Fender picks because Y & I liked how
"trashy" it looked. I've already made a tester set of earrings
as I was worried about the thin picks withstanding the weight of the
beads, but it's been good so far. There's less hand drilling involved
(bonus) and the reflective quality of abalone picks up all types of
colors (double bonus). But since the folks at work are all about color coordination, I'm gonna have to pick up more beads.
So my plan for next weekend is to hit the road in an homage to crafting. I'll start at the BeadSource in Arcadia and drive to Colorado Boulevard until Pasadena (if I ever make it out of the BeadSource, that is). Stop at Lush to pick up something olive colored and animal safe for a swap, then stop at Mimio to pick up some cutesy stationery for another swap (and possibly to sign up for one of their workshops). If H&M is open, I might stop in, if not, I'll start the journey back home. I may make a pit stop at the mom and pop deli 丁胖子
in Monterey Park and pick up a mustard greens and pork sandwich with a bottle of soy
milk (omg so good!). Then jump on the 10-FWY, towards IKEA
in Covina and see what other discounted goodies I can pick up in the
"as is" section. (I spent hours drooling over the new catalog that came
w/the paper this morning).
That's the plan for now at least; I'll have to wait and see what
happens during the week and see if I'm going to be up for the drive.
Oh, and on the back burner - a vision exam and tire replacement.
[edit: must use caution when entering lush. just need 1 or 2 items for swap, k?]
I've gone a bit overboard on my swaps.
Instead of paying for them ugly orange bubble wrap mailers, I've opted
to reuse a FedEx mailer pirated from the office. We get them in bulk
and I rationalized to myself that the three I took would hardly be
noticed as missing. Besides, it's recycling at its best as the
materials are going to good use.
I found some cute wrapping paper that I bought at the 99 cent store way back that I never got around to using. So I turned the FedEx mailer inside out and spray mounted the wrapping paper (which was rather thin; you get what you pay for I guess) onto the tan side of the mailer. Then I reassembled the mailer along the natural fold and used the glue strips attached to secure one side of the mailer; the other side I secured with Elmer's glue. Insert swap item and secure the top and sides with tape.
