Impish Impressions

Now I remember why I haven’t actually watched a DVD in years.  I don’t watch many things to start with, and all the movies I watch at home were ripped to the servers long ago.

via Boing Boing

Recently, my grandparents moved from their place in Knoxville to a place closer to my parents in Nashville. Mom, Dad, and I were out at their former home yesterday, packing up and sorting through another load of stuff. I was packing away the little tchotckes left on my grandfather’s desk, and Mom started going through the stuff in the closet. she found a chocolate rose, said “no idea how long THAT’S been there,” and threw it away. then, “Oh, look, dark chocolate mint things! These are great, I’ll check and see if they’re still good…”

Me, I prefer the Dove chocolate of the rose, so I retrieved it and was pulling the wrapping off to see if it was still good.

Dad came in, laughed at both of us, and said “I brought those… they were for your mom for Valentine’s day tomorrow. I didn’t expect you to start on this closet!”

“Hacking refers to the re-configuring or re-programming of a system to function in ways not facilitated by the owner, administrator, or designer.” -Wikipedia

“Hacking” is most commonly technology-related, I suppose, but around my people it has taken on a bit more than technology.  We use it to refer to “getting any thing to do something it was not originally intended to do.”  My favorite way of expressing this is “I’m going to use this in ways that neither God nor DeWalt/Volkswagen/etc ever intended!”  We are all perfectly comfortable voiding warranties of one sort or another.  I think it’s wonderful, even if it occasionally leads me to say “What did you DO to the media server?!”

Much of the fun comes from figuring out what you can use to get the desired results.  Jump rings without sized mandrels?  try your socket wrench set.  Want waxed linen thread in colors, but the store only has black and white?  run some embroidery floss over a taper candle.   Need to press tiny books?  couple of binder clips work fine, add in some chipboard pieces if the clips are leaving marks.

What’s your favorite non-standard use of an object?

I sat down at my desk tonight, put what is hopefully the last layer of sealer on something I’m making for my daughter’s teacher, and wondered what I wanted to play with next.  I realized that I wanted to tat, which is a shame.

I miss my tatting needles. I left them in Nashville two weeks ago, at my friend’s house. Not that I’m a ridiculously proficient tatter, if you want that wander over to TotusMel’s blog but I’ve made a couple of things that I’m proud of… I even have pictures of one of them!

That’s made from a pattern she kindly posted,  is the most complicated thing I’ve tatted to date, and it will probably be a while before I attempt something that large again.  I am *very* proud of it.

What I like about the craft is the intricacy.  hundreds of stitches forming dozens of loops and chains, curving and joining to create beauty.  It always looks so joyous.

It’s also pretty easily portable, hence why my needles are 100 miles away.  If timing works out, I might be able to retrieve them this weekend, and I’ll get to play with them soon.  Woo!