Lots This Last Week
Jan. 17th, 2010 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenI've been... trying to get my act back together again with the new year. Trying to write, trying to clear my plate of all the things on it so that I can write, and trying to get my brain back on track.
Silly things like the very last of my Christmas cards. Odd things like playing with Puppy Linux as a possible way to writing machine with no Internets (I'm realizing it's not a technology fix, it's an attitude fix on my part, word wars will have to do). Writing Winter War bits. Getting a Zippo lighter (something suddenly grabbed me and I had to get a lighter I would never have to throw away). Dealing with the paintings which I'd left for months. Fixing an intricately done crochet bedspread that someone had entrusted to me just before Thanksgiving (thing took me hours to just figure out the pattern and get ALL the thread ends worked in). Finding that I love my new coffee roaster (yes, I roast my own coffee) so much that we're actually only drinking coffee that I roast.
Plus just dealing with getting Jet back into school, finishing off two video games with him (we actually finished the very last percent of Indian Jones Lego and all of the levels of Crash Bandicoot 2), planning his birthday party, and dealing with the aftermath of thank you notes for Christmas. Not to mention getting the tree, decorations, and the last of the Holiday food dealt with. I'm also only two needle sizes from finishing the Shipwreck shawl, and I've been working on it steadily.
It seems a small thing, but my wallet is now over ten years old, and was made from duct tape by Ductbill wallets back in the day. It's wearing out and threadbare along the joints. And finally, on the same day I wrestled that bedspread into submission, I finally made myself a new one. I couldn't see dropping money for one when John had two rolls of ducktape in the garage.
It's a tri-fold wallet. Yes, it's closed by a rubber band for the moment, until the joints hold their shape. *laughs* But it's small and neat and I really like the size, as my old one was a bi-fold and it just seemed so much bigger. I'm still carrying far too many cards; but most of these are just ones I don't want to do without, so it's just in as neat a stack as I could make it.
I think one of my gifts is just making things work, no matter what they are and with no care as to whether or not I've done it before. I've never made a duct tape wallet, but the online instructions are fairly sparse but for making some "fabric" for the main pocket; and then there are as many ways to add pockets as there are people who have written instructions. I managed it with a ruler, a roll of tape, a pair of scissors for cutting the strips (easier than tearing it and made for much cleaner edges), and a window of plastic from some packaging.
I did the joints on the two edges as a piece of tape folded on the inside, and then another piece on the outside folded on top. It covered all the uneven edges, and made a solid join.
Here's a picture of me having already done the ID window and putting pockets exactly the size of the stack of cards I was going to put in them on the wallet. I made the window from a piece of plastic from some clear packaging that had come around a light bulb John had thrown away. Yay reuse! I just used the flat back panel of the packaging and cut out a window a bit bigger than my license.
The pockets were a strip of tape with the sticky stuff on the outside for the bottom, and then another strip with the sticky side out around the sides. This was placed on the outside of the main money pocket, and another, shorter pocket was put on top of that, and then the whole thing was stuck down with a strip across the front, both to cover the sticky and to hold it all on better.
The cool thing about making the pockets exactly as big as what I wanted held is that none of the cards fall out when I hold the whole thing upsidedown, now. I was impressed by that. There are some things I'll change in the next iteration, but on the most part, I'm very happy with what I came up with. Pretty good for darn near being free.
Now I want to use a Sharpie and doodle a chrysanthemum on it. *laughs* Then you'll know it's mine!!
Silly things like the very last of my Christmas cards. Odd things like playing with Puppy Linux as a possible way to writing machine with no Internets (I'm realizing it's not a technology fix, it's an attitude fix on my part, word wars will have to do). Writing Winter War bits. Getting a Zippo lighter (something suddenly grabbed me and I had to get a lighter I would never have to throw away). Dealing with the paintings which I'd left for months. Fixing an intricately done crochet bedspread that someone had entrusted to me just before Thanksgiving (thing took me hours to just figure out the pattern and get ALL the thread ends worked in). Finding that I love my new coffee roaster (yes, I roast my own coffee) so much that we're actually only drinking coffee that I roast.
Plus just dealing with getting Jet back into school, finishing off two video games with him (we actually finished the very last percent of Indian Jones Lego and all of the levels of Crash Bandicoot 2), planning his birthday party, and dealing with the aftermath of thank you notes for Christmas. Not to mention getting the tree, decorations, and the last of the Holiday food dealt with. I'm also only two needle sizes from finishing the Shipwreck shawl, and I've been working on it steadily.
It seems a small thing, but my wallet is now over ten years old, and was made from duct tape by Ductbill wallets back in the day. It's wearing out and threadbare along the joints. And finally, on the same day I wrestled that bedspread into submission, I finally made myself a new one. I couldn't see dropping money for one when John had two rolls of ducktape in the garage.
I think one of my gifts is just making things work, no matter what they are and with no care as to whether or not I've done it before. I've never made a duct tape wallet, but the online instructions are fairly sparse but for making some "fabric" for the main pocket; and then there are as many ways to add pockets as there are people who have written instructions. I managed it with a ruler, a roll of tape, a pair of scissors for cutting the strips (easier than tearing it and made for much cleaner edges), and a window of plastic from some packaging.
I did the joints on the two edges as a piece of tape folded on the inside, and then another piece on the outside folded on top. It covered all the uneven edges, and made a solid join.
The pockets were a strip of tape with the sticky stuff on the outside for the bottom, and then another strip with the sticky side out around the sides. This was placed on the outside of the main money pocket, and another, shorter pocket was put on top of that, and then the whole thing was stuck down with a strip across the front, both to cover the sticky and to hold it all on better.
The cool thing about making the pockets exactly as big as what I wanted held is that none of the cards fall out when I hold the whole thing upsidedown, now. I was impressed by that. There are some things I'll change in the next iteration, but on the most part, I'm very happy with what I came up with. Pretty good for darn near being free.
Now I want to use a Sharpie and doodle a chrysanthemum on it. *laughs* Then you'll know it's mine!!
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 05:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 05:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 05:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 05:47 am (UTC)I like the idea of being able to customize something that one carries around as much as a wallet. The only duct tape that I have right now is bright blue, though. Maybe not.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 06:02 pm (UTC)I do think that that would be the ideal situation for Puppy, in very old machines or laptops, and carry it around to use on whatever machine one comes across.
*laughs* I guess Puppy is a bit like a wallet, which one can customize and carry about in ones pocket, too.
Oooo!! Bright Blue! I just had the traditional silver... and, yes!! I think that's what I liked most about it was making it fit exactly what I needed, and change the things that I hadn't been so happy with in my old wallet.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 06:03 pm (UTC)It was really fun, and I've now had a request or two for custom wallets, which is pretty cool too.