I built a desk!

With a little help from Chris, I finally completed the desk tonight. Woohoo! It's a very nice sense of accomplishment, especially since I found several steps in the instructions to be stupid, and I decided to do them my way instead, and it worked. That's the DIY attitude! Also, I avoided further injury, which is good.

I'm working on filling the desk with assorted beading and craft supplies which are scattered around the house, and once that's done I'll take a pretty picture of it. It will be nice to have things put away. The cabinet on my computer desk that should be holding my laptop and gaming bag is rather full of packages of beads and things, and the guest room has a few craft store bags full of miscellaneous stuff.

I am still sick, but sometimes when I have a cold I have a sudden burst of energy which makes me want to do something, like build a desk. Actually, I do feel almost all better, so hopefully I'll wake up healthy. I have big plans for tomorrow (ok, it's 1:30am, technically today), which involve friends and sushi and Mom and crafting, and maybe Chris and drywall.

Things I forgot.

Sometimes I forget to blog about things. For instance, when I wrote about The Mist I forgot to mention the best part of it: Dead Can Dance on the soundtrack. I'm still not certain if it fit, but listening to that beautiful, mournful song at the end... Any movie is basically made better by Lisa Gerrard's voice. It was even better than hearing Collide in the trailer for that most recent Resident Evil movie.

Another thing is that yesterday, I forgot to mention that one of the books that we bought is on spooky crochet, and it has a little crochet Cthulhu. You realize what this means, of course. Now I have to learn to crochet. I was thinking about that this morning, and reflecting on how women used to be able to do all sorts of handicrafts. In addition to cooking and baking, they could sew their own clothes, tat their own lace, crochet blankets and knit socks and quilt bedspreads and embroider handkerchiefs and needlepoint up something pretty for the wall.

And it made me think that women probably had to do all those things, not just to supply things for their home, but to keep themselves from going mad. It was unusual for a woman to work outside the home, of course. After you'd cleaned the house, assuming you didn't have a maid, what were you to do? Especially if the kids were in school? And what if you didn't have kids? It's no wonder it was considered terrible to be barren. A woman essentially was just considered to be a wife and mother in those times.

I'm happy to live in a time where I'm free to not have children, and free to work outside the home (even if I currently don't), and where I don't have to be the master of a dozen crafts. But sometimes I feel like I should be able to do all these things. It's so much easier now, with high-quality tools and materials, and good lights (honestly, can you imagine doing embroidery by candlelight?), and books aplenty. The only issue, really, is stretching myself too thin. I do worry that if I try to do too many things, I'll never really master anything.

Anyway, I really should be working to finish this anklet. I did let myself get distracted, and I probably won't actually finish it until tomorrow.

Anticraft review.

So, the other night I curled up on the couch and read through that Goth-y crafting book that I mentioned on Sunday.

The book is called "Anticraft: Knitting, beading, and stitching for the slightly sinister." This title, on a black, white, and gangrene cover, was what caught my eye as I was leaving the craft section of Barnes and Noble. There's something I need to make clear about myself: I am very easily distracted, especially by visual things. A normal conversation in the car goes like this:

Chris: So, what do you want to eat tonight?

Me: Well, I was thinking we could have -- ooh, nice, a Mustang -- sandwiches, or maybe we could splurge and go to -- CORGI! Awww! So cute! Can I have a puppy? Hey! That guy didn't use his turn signal. Oh, there's a new book store, we should check that out. What was the question?

And it's also pretty normal for us to be in a store, talking, and I suddenly veer off to look at something shiny. Chris is used to this, and doesn't mind it, except when I randomly shout out "Puppy!" or "Kitty!" and he thinks that one is about to dart in front of the car.

Anyway, I picked up the book, flipped through it, and saw that it was mostly knitting and crochet, so I was going to put it back. But then he saw Cthulhu in it and insisted that I should buy it. Note to self: carry Cthulhu post-its and stick them on anything that I want to buy, thus ensuring no arguments from Chris.

While most of the projects ARE knitting, with a little crochet, sewing, and jewelry thrown in for good measure, the book is pretty entertaining. There's a lot of general craft info, including some helpful first-aid hints for those inevitable craft disasters. There's also recipes, a guide to throwing a party, and silly comic strips throughout. Because the book is geared towards Goths, Punks, and anyone else who likes to craft but doesn't like the frou-frou pink preppie look favored by many craft books, everything is served with a healthy dose of snarkiness. And because I love to snark, this really won me over.

There's really only one project in here that I'm likely to make, and that's the duct-tape corset. I don't even know when or where I'd wear it -- maybe to Comic Con, or to whatever haunted house we go to next Halloween. There's just something appealing in the idea of being able to say that I made a corset out of duct tape.

Since I haven't tried out any of the directions, I can't say how well-written they are. There are few how-to illustrations, except for the basic techniques section in the back, which has copious photos. Even if the insutrctions do prove to be not so great, I'd say the book is humorous enough to go on the bookshelf of any "slightly sinister" or otherwise darkly inclined crafter.

By the way, this book is the product of the website www.theAntiCraft.com which I have not yet checked out, but will soon. I'd imagine that a visit to it will help you decide whether or not you're interested in the book.