A Tisket, A Tasket

I love making something out of nothing. Making bread from flour, yeast, and water, recycling old jars into funky storage containers: transforming something simple into something functional (and sometimes kinda pretty) makes me feel like a superhero.

Of course, this desire has the tendency to make me into a packrat. I can't get rid of those odd-shaped pieces of cardboard - they may be just the thing I need to make someone a journal cover. Fabric scraps are the worst! Small pieces can be perfect for sachets, or wrapping a small present, or patching a pair of jeans. But for every one of these small, incidental uses, I add five fabric scraps to my scrap-basket.

I tried to take on quilting in high school, but I lose interest very quickly. If a project takes more than 10ish hours, even if those hours are spread out over a few weeks (or months), it's just not worth it to me. I needed something faster and easier, so when my mom suggested braided rag rugs, I toyed with the idea. But I didn't need any rugs. What I did need was a nice foraging basket.

There really wasn't too much to it:
1. Cut the rags into strips.
2. Braided the strips in coordinating colors, sewing a new rag to the strip as it reached the end.
3. Sewed them together as I would a rug, just in a bowl shape instead of a flat one.
4. Added a simple cloth handle.
This was the perfect project for a week sitting on the couch watching the Winter Olympics with a cold. It gave my hands something to do besides shovel Wheat Thins into my mouth and shake my fist at a certain conceited Russian figure skater.

Game On!

Confession: my husband and I play D&D.

Every Wednesday.

At our house.

Ok, maybe none of that is shocking to any of you. But why D&D on a project blog?
I'll give you a hint. It's strongly associated with the color red, starts with a V, and comes around every year to the dismay of single people everywhere...and the exasperation of those attached. There's nothing my hubby likes more than gadgets for his hobbies, so I focused on an aspect of the game that, in my opinion, needed a fix.
Like many of our friends, we had the standard grid map that comes with the book laminated, so we could use dry erase markers to outline whatever environment we needed. But dry erase markers don't erase well from lamination, especially if the markered dungeon has to sit for a week or two while we finish playing it out. Plus, the map curls and twists - if there are any bumps the miniatures slide all over the place, and if someone accidentally rolls their dice on the mat, the pieces fly everywhere. Something had to be done.
I bought a humongous dry erase board at the W for $20.* Upon closer inspection at home, it revealed pale gray dots in a 2-inch grid pattern. Bonus! I used a yardstick to put a dot every inch with a metallic silver sharpie, using the existing dots as a guide (those definitely shaved an hour off the total project time).

A few concerns:

1. The metallic sharpie can be scratched off if rubbed too hard. I can always touch up the dots, but it may prove to be not-worth-it. It might also be the silvery marker that's a problem - perhaps a regular sharpie would work just fine. But worst-case scenario I'm left with a huge dry-erase board to use in some other fashion.

2. My original intent was to draw a grid, like the original battle map. Given my unsteady hand and inattention to detail, I decided dots may be better than trying to draw a huge grid with a yardstick.

All told, it only took me an hour, and I did it while watching Fraggle Rock. No complaints here. It's heavy and completely flat, so even if we have to play on the floor, we have a level surface to map on. I also bought some magnetic tape, so when the surprise is revealed, I can put a tiny magnet square on the bottom of each miniature. No stray die will knock over Fable the Drunken Master Monk now!

*The daughter of a small-town grocer and a green-freak, I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart and try to avoid shopping there. But I couldn't pass up the $20 price difference between Staples and Wal-Mart, so I bought it. As soon as I got it home I had to glue the corners back on (they had already popped off and broken) but I think $20 may be worth it.