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.

Leafy Puppy rice yarn and the Celebrity Sun Hat pattern

I am averse to direct sunlight, so I am a big fan of large floppy sun hats.  When I discovered two skeins of Japanese Leafy Puppy Knitting yarn at SCRAP, I decided it is high time that I try making one of my own.  It can’t be that tricky, right? I am a knitter first and a crocheter third or fourth, but given a bit of time I can work my way through a crochet pattern.

Finding the right pattern was the trickiest part. After searching the pattern libraries at Ravelry, I narrowed it down and took one for a test drive. Continue reading 'A sun hat for me!'»

Tattooed bracelets

Originally uploaded by illusionary_one

Outside of the varnish, these are 100% recycled materials. I started with paper grocery bags. These were cut into long strips, folded, then looped to the size of a bracelet. The one on the left used cereal box cardboard as a base.

They each got about three layers of paper mache, then had to dry for about a week. In the meantime I cut up a tattoo magazine for decoupage.

Once they were dry, I decorated them with the magazine clippings. Several layers of varnish (and even more drying time!) they are ready to go.

These will be for sale at SCRAP’s holiday bazaar this Saturday December 19th.