I bought bananas from Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market thinking they might quickly brown with the intention of baking something with them. They were about an hour away from black death this evening so I ran by a local chain grocery to grab some pecans, and found some peanut butter swirl chocolate chips at a major discount so I was like, “OH YEAH” and made some “Elvis” cookies! (I took pics with my iPhone, so apologies for the graininess.)

I based my cookies on this recipe from Simply Recipes: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_cookies/

Isn’t it wonderful how the days you plan to be fun, relaxing days turn into crazy clean the house days? It’s my fault, really, but dang, what happened to fully enjoying my free day? I’m the type of person who lets things build up and then freaks out and tries to clean the entire house and do all the laundry in a single day. Suprisingly I got a lot done and I did get the chance to reward myself with more dyeing chaos.

My first experiment left me with super dark colors as a result of a lot of dye and too little wool. The colors in my pictures aren’t exactly accurate (much darker in person), but I like the results and could use the yarn in some sort of felted baby hat for little Baby James.

The left side is the best image of the real colors. And see the little white stringies in that picture? Look closely at the yarn cake on the right and you can see little white spots from where I tied the skein to keep it together. So for the sock yarn from KnitPix I made a few changes to the water to dye powder ratio and it turned out much brighter.

The yarn soaked up the dye immediately when I put it in the pot so the inner parts are much lighter. I haven’t decided if I like it or not and it’s still drying so tomorrow I’ll go check on it and see what’s up. And the red section of the yarn is supposed to be a much deeper red and not orange at all. Weird camera issues with red today. I only used “vermillion” dye in the pot for this one and not a touch of yellow, so I dunno why it’s so orangey in this shot.

Overall, I find yarn dyeing a bit underwhelming. I’ve always been kind of terrible with color design and maybe if I bought more dye colors I could mix and match and get all scientific testing colors and what-not. But as for now, the method I used is kinda, um, boring. I saw a blog post about dyeing using plastic wrap and empty ketchup bottles in what appears to be more of tie-dye-type dealie. And I also wish I had a Bunser burner or a Coleman stove to dye in my craft room and not get the kitchen all stinky with vinegar. Jason cooked up some tomatoes after I dyed the sock yarn and the house still smells like ketchup at 11:30 PM.

And here’s sock one of Nutkin! I’m using superfine alpaca sock yarn from Blarney Yarn. I luuuurve how soft and delicate this yarn is and you can be sure I won’t be wearing these socks around the house, no sir- shoes on for these lovelies only. Either that or I wear them with slippers out to the porch, sit in a chair, prop up my feet and ADMIRE. I want to go there.

I love dabbling in other crafts. I have the evidence hiding in my craft closet: a Gocco printer, candle-making supplies, oodles of paper, drawers full of fabric scraps, and a box of acrylic paint. And while I have made some use of the Gocco and my sewing machine, my other supplies rarely see the light of day. When I took the Amy Butler bag holding the Mario Scarf down from a shelf the other day, I instigated an avalanche, and ended up disturbing and array of hidden goodies- cardboard document mailers. I planned on recycling these somehow and never got around to it and it brought to mind all the awesome recycled journals popping up around the Interwebz (see: Glue & Glitter). So I thought, I’m crafty! I could totally do this!

HA!

I present to you my How NOT Tutorial on making a small notebook from a cardboard mailer, complete with pictures and screw-ups. Actually, I really like the little guy, but let’s just say I could never make these for my Etsy shop. It reminds me of the crap I made at Girl Scout camp and called “art.” (Don’t get me wrong- I LOOOOVED Girl Scout camp!) The intentions were good, but the methods were… shoddy.

How NOT To Make a Recycled Notebook

First, you will need to gather your supplies. Put a few extra items that you don’t plan to use in the shot if you’re taking pictures for the tutorial. In fact, include items most people can’t even get, like a girly little glue stick from Korea. Seriously. But make sure most of the things in the shot are items you’ll put to use. And leave out the important items. Like a hammer and nails. You want to entice small children in at the beginning and then get pleasure from dashing all hopes in the middle of the tutorial when they realize they need grown-up assistance.

Isn’t the lighting great? And look how nicely I fanned out the paint cards. If you can’t tell from the photo, I used craft glue, paint cards, an Exacto knife, cardboard mailers, thread, and a needle. (I just love my pincushion, which is why so many needles are featured.) I didn’t use the thumbtacks. I ended up using a hammer and nails to make holes. But onto that later.

Next, take a joke picture about how the document mailers say in red letters, “Do Not Fold or Bend!” and laugh heartily about the irony. I so intend on folding and bending! Shoot, this thing is getting sliced and diced! Ha ha ha!

After that, be sure to drop everything you’re carrying over to your craft table when the cat decides to claw your foot on your trip across the room. Take a picture to show everyone how klutzy you are and remind yourself never to buy IKEA’s Samla boxes again- Public Service Announcement of the day: they DO NOT have a locking lid!

Gather the paper you want to use from the pile on the floor and get started folding and cutting the document mailers (tee hee!). I cut the mailers in half and the folded the biggest side in half. The other side had tabs glued to the edges where the other side was folded over. I’m sure this doesn’t make sense, but trust me.

Flip it over one of the halves to the cardboard side and fold that piece in half. I scored mine down the middle on the white side to make it fold easier. I’m not sure if that was the best thing to do because it has a scary gash down that edge, but it’s freakin’ cardboard and it’s hard to fold. Grab a paint card in the color of your choice (mine happens to be “Peacock Plume” by Kilz), fold the paint card in half- scoring, if you so desire- and apply glue. Oh, you don’t know how to put on glue? I’ll show you what it looks like.

Crap, you can’t really tell there’s glue on it. Well, I strategically placed the craft glue bottle next to everything to signify the use of glue in this photo. Trust me, there’s glue on the back of the paint card. Apply to the cardboard. Now here’s where I made a major mistake. I put scrapbook paper on the inside of the mailer to cover up all the maily-looking signage and measuring it correctly and getting it to stick to the inside of a folded piece of cardboard was a pain in the ass. My friends, do as I say and not as I do- glue the scrapbook paper or whatever you want to use to cover up the inside immediately after cutting out the notebook. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Don’t fold the damn thing or glue on the paint card before attaching the scrapbook paper. Having said that, take a look at what happens if you follow my path:

Yes, your cat will attack your yarn and stare at you in disgust. And you shall be forced to take a picture and bare your pitiful electrical cord mess and spare dinosaur computer. I have been shamed.

Actually, your notebook will look like this:

My Exacto knife is new and just so… stabby. I felt the need to cut EVERYTHING on this project with it (aside from myself and the kitties). In an attempt to make the scrapbook paper fit on the cardboard better, I sliced it down the middle, and made it look like poo. I figured stitching in some pages would make a difference and it did… sort of. It certainly took the focus off my poor cutting skills. I’m surprised they let me out of kindergarten.

Oh, remember that hammer I mentioned?

Bad idea. I have no previous experience hammering nails into paper on a cutting board on a plastic card table. I’ve built a dog house, hung pictures, and Lord knows I’ve constructed my fair share of IKEA furniture, but without a doubt I will not be hammering on my craft table again. Children, put down your hammers and run and find a grown-up.

Anyway, onto the sad looking stitched spine of my notebook.

Yes, I realize the stitches are uneven. And I totally get that they’re not even straight. The last geometry class I took was TEN YEARS AGO. I have a degree in English, not in making straight lines. Shoot, I can barely calculate the tip on meals above $20.

So here we are, at the end of the How Not Tutorial, with my adorable Frankenstein of a notebook. I plan on using it as a check ledger (another tip, print your page design before cutting and sewing) to keep me on the straight and narrow with my budget. Just want until I get hold of ruler and start drawing tables on the pages- gah, scary thought!

Please, use this tutorial to do exactly the opposite of what I did, and create a beautiful masterpiece of your own. By the way, the pictures link to Flickr so you can see more scary pictures.