To me, from me with love

This morning Fed Ex delivered my goodies from the Make and Craft websites. My package is a combination geek fest, and craft nerd. I can't help it... I love seeing what people make and getting the instructions on how to make those things if I want- and that is exactly what these two magazines/websites are all about.

I often have ideas for projects I want to make. Lately the projects are out of the realm of my expertise but I continue to explore anyway. Right now I'm looking at programming microprocessors for the purpose of illuminating LEDs. I am interested in LEDs for an art project, but also for other applications.

From left to right in the photo are: 1) 2 sheets of stickers that came with #2. 2)Maker's Notebook with graph paper and several pages containing references such as weights and measures, conversions, sewing machine needle sizes, common bonds, suppliers and surplus website addresses, a basic guide to electronics and Ohms law, etc.
3)Cabaret Mechanical movement- a book on understanding movement and making automata. 4,5) Craft magazine Volumes 5 & 6.


6)Pocket Reference book by Thomas J. Glover (I'm going to be a know it all!). 7)Leatherman tool "Squirt E4" for electronics MacGyvering :P. 8)Red rubber band with "Make: Technology on your time" written on it. It was on my maker's notebook. 9)BlinkM a smart, programmable LED that I need to learn to program.


I had to have this.

Nom, nom, yum, yum means good!

Vegetarians hide your eyes.. or better yet, scroll downward and read something else on my blog because I have a salami story to tell. I found a new salami at Whole Foods market this evening. Fra'Mani is the brand, and oh, is it tasty! It comes from the exotic hinterlands of Berkeley, California. They have a website and an online store so that salami lovers worldwide can satisfy their salami cravings. Feast your eyes HERE

Picture courtesy of http://store.framani.com/

The taste? Let me first start with the smell.. I slowly unwrapped the paper wrapper, enjoying the moment like opening a present. It smelled mild and buttery, yes buttery! Not a heavy, meaty smell at all. Very pleasant. It has a white mold exterior and has a short string on both ends where the casings are wrapped, just as the photo above illustrates. Here is a blurb from their site:

Fra’ Mani dry salami are made from the finest-quality fresh pork and natural hog
casings. Hand tied with natural twine, mold ripened, and slowly aged. Seasoned
simply with sea salt, spices, garlic and wine. No added nitrites.



Somehow I was able to put down the knife and get my camera for this shot. Ah yes.. you are patiently waiting for a description of the flavor. Hmm..I'm thinking.. (I went to get a slice to eat while I type this) A medium meaty flavor, mixed with an aged moldiness. Don't let the word mold put you off! It is salty, but not overly so. Not super spicy with garlic or other flavors,and not gamy either. Chewy, nicely marbled texture, but not greasy or heavy feeling on the palate. Really if you like salami and want to give yourself a once in awhile treat, then buy one! Mine was $11.00 but then this isn't something I buy on a weekly basis either. Like I said, a once in awhile treat. Enjoy!
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Now for a brilliant change of subject. Here is a 2007 BMW F800S in Sunset yellow


Delicious... er, I mean beautiful!

Of natural and synthetic




Getting inspiration from other people's work

I came across this blog the other day, and have been looking at her tutorials which range from dying yarn, to adapting her digital camera to pinhole photography. She also has a store page where she sells her knit kits, and photographs. Go pay her blog a visit!






pictures taken from http://leethal.coloredlights.net

Body gets head, strange visitors appear

Once upon a long, long time ago there lived a head without a body. How the head was able to survive so long without a body is not known, but this head managed to survive many years in this condition. If you think a body-less head sounds like a bad start to a story... it gets worse. The head had eyes without pupils. I know! I couldn't believe it until I saw it for myself, with my own two eyes..

How did I get the blue head, you wonder... Well that is an interesting story too: The head was found at a roadside fruit stand by a nomadic group of hippy-gypsies heading east from Bisbee. They put it on the dashboard of their 1979 VW bus and didn't think much more about it until they stopped at the local laundromat to wash all their tie-dye. I was walking by the laundromat when one of the tie-dye clad gypsy hippies stepped out of the Burgerz & Things, and preoccupied by sorting the change from the lint, beads, and hemp seeds in his pocket walked right into me, knocking me into the bushes.

I was stunned! I hadn't taken a hit like that since my ice hockey days, and he was really stunned because just at the moment of our impact he had found a 1938 Indian Head nickle which fell and rolled into a storm drain, landing just out of reach of his long grimy fingers. He scarcely noticed me as I pried myself out of the bush and brushed myself off. Momentarily giving up on the nickle, he got up off his knees and asked if I was okay and if there was anything he could do to make this up to me. I told him I was fine, but he insisted on giving me something to, as he put it "put a smile on my day."
He handed me the deep blue, body-less head and told me where he and his friends had found him.

It took me awhile to figure out what to do with this blank eyed, head with an unknown past, but one day I decided I could no longer look at him in his incomplete state.
I found a beautiful royal purple shade of Mohair and sheep's wool yarn and crocheted a body for it. It also got the long overdue pupils it needed to see the world... instantly it was a happier looking head!


See?

Not long after the head got its body all sorts of magical and strange things started happening around the house. For instance, one day the doorbell rang but when I answered it no one was there except for this orange cloud hovering in mid air right at my eye level. I stepped aside and it floated in as though it knew where to go. It found a comfortable place on the couch and settled in to wait. I still don't know what it was waiting for, but it had such a whimsical smile and alluring eyes, I knew there could be nothing wrong with having an orange cloud on my couch.

Up until the day the cloud came into the house there wasn't much movement from the head, which I had named Moo'bar, but a few hours after the cloud came in Moo'bar floated downstairs to see who had come in.

They didn't talk too much, but when I offered to take their picture one could tell that these were two old friends who had finally been reunited after a long time apart.