Curious Crafter

Friday, March 21, 2008

Using your mouse with your non-dominant hand

I was looking on the web for a way to solve a mouse button problem I am having with my optical mouse and I stumbled upon this interesting article and idea.
The author recommends using your other hand when using your mouse. The author explains how it helps brain function.
Another article shares this added benefit, less wear, pain and fatigue on your dominant hand.
So I tried it for about 10 seconds and was frustrated. I am EXTREMELY right dominant and very uncoordinated. I can not even do simple aerobic steps without tripping over myself. But I have decided to take some time and implement this new habit. I'll just pretend I have a cast or something on my right hand.
Let me know what you think about this?
Are you going to try it?
Would it be easier on left-handed people because they are quite adroit in using various products in a "right-handed" world?

WARNING!

Watch out for this scam!

I hate for people to forward those pesky "warnings" as much as anyone, but this one is important! I hope I'm not too late. Send this warning to everyone on your e-mail list.

If someone comes to your front door saying they are conducting a survey on deer ticks that carry Lyme Disease, and asks you to take your clothes off and dance around to shake off the ticks, do not do it!

IT IS A SCAM; they only want to see you naked.

I wish I'd gotten this yesterday. I feel so stupid now...

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Tea set

I REALLY want to make a set like this for Norah and my nieces. If anyone has a pattern or knows of one, please let me know where I can get it?

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Our Lovies

Thursday, June 14, 2007

My Felting Creations

These are my fun, mindless creations!
I just sit and knit until I think the dimensions are okay. Then I stitch up the sides, leave a flap and felt it in my washing machine. I have a front loader washing machine and they do not felt well at all. However, it works find for these smaller pieces because I can let them spin. NOTHING spins like a top loader!!! I can also further SHOCK my felt by dumping boiling water on it, with a wee bit of laundry soap, agitating it and hitting it with a potato masher and then rinse it in COLD, COLD water. After I shape it and let it dry for a few days I make a design on the front with dry needle felting.
Confession time: The top one was SO ugly after I felted. I thought, "How can I send this to someone??" I added the green because that was her favorite color. I didn't have the green when I started the pouch. So my mind went crazy thinking how I could make it more appealing. I added more green with overhand stitching on the sides and then tried different needle felting designs. Nothing was looking good so I ripped them out. I turned to beads for some sparkle on the sides, Rissy picked out the orange button and that is what inspired me to add the sun. Then came the sparkled spirals. The bead work took a bit of time, but it was relaxing to sit and hand sew during American Idol. :-0
It is the pouch I get the MOST compliments on. Isn't that funny! Just like an ugly duckling story.

These were my first coin purses:

I love the two tone blue one and how nice the flap curved. The ribbing in the taupe one is cool, but I don't recall if I did that on purpose or not.

Purse Swap

This is the purse I sent for the Swapbot Purse Swap. She likes Asian things and for some reason this purse looked Asian to me, maybe it is the tiger paw. It is a high quality purse and well-made; I think it is classy looking in a hip sort of way. The recipient is a doula and when I saw this bag it also reminded me a wee bit of the black medical bags of old, so it seemed doubly fitting.

These are the goodies I put in her purse.

This is the purse and goodies I received for the purse swap. I think this purse is SO cute! Rissy tried to take it from me!
Purse swaps are hard for me to resist. Probably because it is so laborious to shop for purses. Additionally I get to try style I might not pick out for myself.