Situation:  My Nana is staying in a rehabilitation facility until she recovers well enough to return home, and that day can’t come soon enough for her

Challenge:  Send a little bit of sunshine her way every day to make it easier for her to deal with the situation

I ruled out flowers because they are expensive to send one time, much less every day.  New plan!  Picked up a bunch of random greeting cards from SCRAP.  Cards are 10 cents each, and envelopes are a nickel each.  However, finding envelopes that are the right size to match the cards is time consuming and frustrating, so I picked up a stack of collage paper at a penny a sheet.  I luckily stumbled on pages from a desconstructed book on Sunflowers, which would really help me send a bit of sunshine her way.  Making envelopes is a cinch.  It took maybe an hour to make enough envelopes to go with all of the cards I bought.

I started signing cards and writing crazy things in them.  One of them I signed from her dog.  One I signed from all of her grandkids and their families.  Another one wished her Happy Administrative Assistant’s Day just for the heck of it.  Lots of them contained cute animals, silly jokes, or pretty flowers. I made address labels on my printer, slapped ‘em on, and added postage.

Four went in the mail the first day.  Anywhere from one to three cards went into the mail each day for a week.  Some were sent from home, and others dropped into the mailbox near work.  Then I waited.

She thanked me for the first day of cards with, “Do you believe I got 4 cards from you in one day?”

Every day I spoke with her after that she seemed tickled to be getting mail, and apparently her nurses are teasing her about being so popular.  When I spoke with her this morning, she said, “I have gotten nine cards from you so far!  I have run out of room for them on the windowsill, and I think they will need to go on the bulletin board next. They make me smile.”

Achievement unlocked!!!!

I didn’t tell her that I picked up another batch of cards, envelopes, and collage paper after my shift at SCRAP yesterday, so more are coming!  My objective is to have a ready stash of sealed cards that I can trickle into the mail every day.  As she starts to get better and is ready to go home, I will just change the address on the cards so she will continue to get them.  With a couple hours prep work and minimal out of pocket cost, her mailbox will be overwhelmed but she’ll know I am thinking about her.

Picked this up in August and only now got around to altering it.

Nifty trick for the gathered sides — used the discarded hems from another t-shirt project as the casing.  Used my serger for all of the main work.  Did a number of basting tries with the sewing machine before I finally said f*** it and took the plunge.

• Large enough to accommodate the storage containers we use in our kitchen, which are wide, shallow, and stackable.
• Does not need to maintain temperature.
• Needs to have sturdy handles
• Whimsical design

Issue: After checking local shops and online, I did not find a bag meeting these specifications
Solution: Make the bag myself using materials on hand

Materials
Bubble wrap (a ton of it came with Christmas packages!)
Scrap yarn (odds and ends from the bottom of my yarn basket)
Ribbon (formerly tied around a box of cookies)
Transparent nylon thread

Tools
Iron
Ironing board
Parchment paper
Sewing machine
Scissors

Guidance from: Etsy’s Fusing Plastic Bag tutorial

I fused 4 layers of bubble wrap total and sandwiched it with scrap yarn to make the fabric for my new lunch bag. I used three shades of scrap yarn to give it a “hip” look.  The iron was on the highest setting possible, but because I did not pop the bubble wrap ahead of time it took a lot of time to iron it flat.  Parchment paper kept it from sticking to the iron or the ironing board. I love the cellular look the bubble wrap gave the bag.

The main body of the bag is one large rectangle, and the sides are two smaller rectangles.  I used transparent thread to attach the handles (reinforcing as much as I could) before sewing the sides together. The transparent thread allows the focus to stay on the bag  than the edges.

I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and it has worked out brilliantly.  Just the right size!

Lessons learned

• Pop the bubble wrap ahead of time
• This was really fun and took less time than expected
• I might fuse additional plastic to the base of the bag next time to give it additional stability

Did I make mistakes?  Sure.  Just not those ones.  The first picture shows the fancy latex candle mold suspended in a dishwasher detergent container.  Great idea, yes. The problem is that wax is heavy and the plastic lid was not sturdy enough hold that much weight.  What is not pictured is the lid failing when it couldn’t support the weight of the wax, and me trying desperately to reinforce the lid while preventing the mold from falling and oozing wax to every inch of my kitchen.

Eventually I gave up and poured the wax back into the double boiler so I could reinforce the collar on the mold.  What I should have also done was clean the mold out completely as well.  I learned this later after the candle had set.

The first candle (purple jasmine!) turned out pretty well, all things considered.  The mold was a PAIN to wrestle off, but the end result looks like I know a lot more about candlemaking than I really do. Definitely needed to hang the wick higher, though, because the rod was too close to the candle base and malformed it.

I decided I needed a smaller double boiler because putting a saucepan in my canning pot is not a terribly efficient way to melt wax.  Aaron picked up some cheap pots from the thrift store for me to use, I picked up more old candle bits from SCRAP, and I was ready to try it again. BTW, melting down old candles is totally the way to go when you are learning how to do this and don’t want to break the bank paying for materials.

Instead of using the dishwasher detergent to suspend the mold, I worked *with* gravity instead of *against* it, and placed the mold in a container of dried beans.  This gave it support and made it much easier to get out.  I also tried making candles in Mason jars, too. This is really handy when you have leftover wax that is already colored and scented.

As with anything I try, patience is a virtue I lack.  You are supposed to poke the candle wax periodically after it is poured to break the surface tension.  Key word periodically.  Every five minutes is not periodically, but I did it anyway because it is fun to watch the wax.

The candles burn well, smell yummy, and have not exploded.  My kitchen floor is wax free and no swiss army knives were harmed during these DIY experiments.  I’m chalking this one up as a success.