Good fences make good neighbors.

I love living in a smaller community. Except when I was a teenager, and couldn't wait to move to The Big City. But now, am grateful for having a community. Devonians are good people and it's a great community to live in. We've lived here for six years without a problem. Until now.

I like to believe that we're decent neighbors. Sure, our lawn isn't perfectly manicured. We don't plant pretty flowers, or have the most gorgeous house on the block, but we also don't host all night parties, blaring music until three in the morning, dropping beer cans on the lawns down the street. We don't have roaming cats and dogs, crapping everywhere, getting into fights and into your garbage. We don't have noxious weeds in our yard, spreading everywhere. We don't store a year's worth of garbage beside our house. There are no dead animals on our lawn. We're not dealing drugs out our back door. We're quiet, keep to ourselves, and are pleasant to everyone.

But I'm tired of dealing with stupid, inconsiderate people. If they're not doing the above mentioned atrocities, then they're trampling into our yards - destroying our property to re-side their garage, they're hacking down our trees causing permanent damage to the branches - splitting them right down to the trunk and leaving the branches in our yard to deal with. Or they're coming into our pet's enclosed run to do whatever they please. They complain to the Town about the "lack of maintenance" on our lawn or for not shoveling the walks fast enough in the winter. I had an incident on the weekend, where a neighbor of ours was willfully blocking the alley. I waited for 15 minutes before honking and attempting to drive away before he verbally assaulted me, and physically assaulted my truck.

What the HELL is it with people in my town lately? They have become (or have always been?) self-serving, self centered creeps! Why is it so hard to be courteous? Inform your neighbors of your intentions. Ask for their help, or their assistance. I would gratefully have helped move our stuff out of the way so it didn't get damaged during the siding project. I would have been pleased to help trim our tree with them - it probably wouldn't have gotten damaged that way. Whatever happened to neighbors talking to each other, informing each other, checking up on each other? My grass wasn't mowed promptly? My sidewalk not shovelled? Don't call the Town to issue a formal complaint - come on over and talk to me. And I'll do the same for you. You may find out the reason it took so long to shovel the walk was because of a death or an illness. But here I am assuming my neighbors are reasonable people, when they clearly are not.

Maybe I grew up in a time that will never come again - where neighbors knew each other. You had block parties, and had coffee with the people in your block. Even on farms, they helped thy neighbor - even one miles away. My grandmother (who died over 60 years ago, and whom I never met). Was SUCH a model of neighborly love, that those that remember her are STILL trying to pay back their debt to her through her children and grandchildren. If you go to visit one of her neighbors, they will treat you like royalty. They said she was the first one on hand when anyone ever needed anything, whether for a cup of sugar, first aid, or a mid-wife. She is the reason my neighbors rallied around my grandfather after she died to help raise his children. Isn't that was neighbors should be? Or at the very least offering a common courtesy and the bare minimum of politeness. I guess that time is long gone. And I'm sad because of it. Not that I want my neighbors to be my best friends, but because that common courtesy is what I want in my community.

But now, until these people move, I can't wait to build a giant fence and forget they exist. I'm not going to afford them the same respect they will not afford me. Maybe they've been turned off by the few assholes they've had the misfortune of living beside, but I'm now soured on them. Do good fences make good neighbors? No - but they make living beside these poor neighbors a bit more tolerable.

Gramma's little shop of horrors...

I'm a crafter, I'm a huge geek. I love it when those two worlds collide! I found these little crafts of awesome on the Art of Science website (http://discovermagazine.com/photos/03-the-bizarre-and-brilliant-world-of-knitted-science) and fell in love. I can only imagine some 90 year old gramma in the nursing home working on one of these. Oops, oh dear, I made the liver a bit too big and the intestines are clearly in the wrong place... To me, this craft is full of win.
Oh, and check out the other pieces on the website. Things like a knit sweater complete with the periodic table of elements, a knit dissection of the human brain, a mobius scarf, the great barrier reef in knit form and more.

The pictures here belong to Emily Stonekings. Thanks to her for allowing me to post pictures of her awesome creations. Please visit her Etsy page here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftyHedgehog and buy stuff.

Craft Must Have #2

Sure, so I can probably fill my entire blog with a wish list, but the Imprintor is really special. And so is the next thing on my wish list. Again, it will allow me to craft while making money. How awesome is that?! Follow your heart! Find a job that allows you to do what you love! And then incorporate MORE of what you love into what you do! Seems like a recipe for success for me.

Other than trying my hand at silk screening in my high school Visual Communications class, I had no interest. Why? The process was long, messy and complicated. And it just didn't hold my interest. When I first found out about Gocco, I didn't start off as being super enthused. Silk screening? I thought I crossed that one off my list! But after seeing the machine in action, seeing the projects and its versatility, I changed my mind in a hurry! Now that I'm firmly bitten by the silk screening bug, it doesn't take much to get me going.

My husband and I were walking through Micheals Craft Store in Edmonton. He was there to help me with my halloween tombstone decorations, or something similar. He's ALL into crafting with powertools. And he doesn't call it crafting. That's not manly! When I spotted this wonderful little machine: Yudu™ Personal Screen Printer. It is advertised as such:
"The Yudu™ screen-printing system is the easiest, cleanest way to let everyone know who you are—and how you see the world. Don’t settle for what everyone else is wearing or spend hours futilely trying to find a t-shirt that expresses the real you. With access to a computer and an ink-jet printer, you’ll be able to create and print your own designs not only for t-shirts or other apparel, but also for home décor, art prints, posters, cards, schoolwork, and much more! With this revolutionary personal screen printer, you can let your voice be heard today, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Unsilence yourself today with the Yudu™ Personal Screen Printer."
Unsilence myself?! Yes! Let me scream my identity from the mountaintop! Or, my t-shirt. And again, I can see myself making MONEY with this beauty! It's so shiny! And purple! And the accessories - oh my! Oh my is right. Like all other craft obsessions I am known to get into, this one comes with many many many accessories, which all cost money. Darn. But I'm saving up. I just don't know what I'll get first - the Imprintor or the Yudu.

Tell me about YOUR favorite craft or craft machine or hobby! I want to hear all about it!

Alana's Next Craft Must Have

Okay, I know I've said that about a million times. "I would be the happiest crafter in all the world, if I just got (insert item du jour). I said that every time I walked into a craft shop as a kid, and especially when they had sales. Fimo! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fimo Oh, how I loved that stuff! I would make beads until I didn't know what to do with them anymore, I made intricate designs in a jelly roll of the stuff, and cut it into slices and smoosh it onto glass jars that would light the room when you put a candle in them. I would spend hours with my sister making seed bead necklaces (mine never were as beautiful as hers). Melting chocolate sculptures and cake decorating kits and learning to sew. Every new craft I fell in love with would come with an entire barage of tools of the trade. Yes, the craft world is my oyster and I just need to get inspired, and then a bank loan.
I said that with the Gocco Printer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJzkhfWwrXM after a friend of mine introduced me to this ingenious Japanese silk screen machine. She made cards, and wedding invitations, and I fell in LOVE. It didn't hurt that I worked at a print shop where I could order any of the marvelous papers we had access to!
It was after I graduated from college that I realized the most awesome thing ever would be to combine my love of these things into a money making venture (okay, I figured that out in grade six also when a friend and I started a "company" selling bracelets made out of that plastic lace that was marketed as "Gimp". But that didn't work out, and our working relationship ended when the afternoon recess did).
I was doing freelancing graphics for friends and family. I used my Gocco Printer (a birthday present from my craft-savvy mom) to make wedding invitations, napkins for parties and other things for profit. I started selling Stampin' Up (I ate up all my profits in personal sales). If I worked at a craft store, I would have to explain to my husband why I never brought home a paycheque. So being able to combine my wedding invitation side business with the print shop I own is great. Sure, I might swear when I'm madly silk screening wedding invitations at midnight to meet a deadline, but it allows me to craft at my job, and I love it.
So while at an industry related trade show in Las Vegas, I discovered this wonderful machine. It can print on pens! It can print on mugs! It can print on GOLF BALLS! Stress balls, shot glasses...Anything your heart desires, this machine claimed to be able to do. And it wasn't enough that they had all this information on it - they actually had a demo model of the machine - they were showing people how easy it was to do and ... step right up and TRY the thing! In the exact same way I fell in love with other craft projects, I fell in love with this. The Imprintor. Sure, I was impressed, but with the purchase of the shop fresh in my mind and on my pocketbook, it was a look but don't touch prospect. Sigh. But while cleaning up my office, I discovered the brochure, and checked out the website and fell in love again.
Meet my new love interest the Imprintor: http://www.imprintor.com/
I figure I can turn heavy duty crafting into even more money, and have a blast doing it. Who wouldn't want a machine to make their very own golf balls? Shot glasses for that special ladies night out? Stress balls that can tell you where to go and how to get there. Nevermind all the clients I can sell promotional products to. I can see spending the first batch of supplies on me and my own personal projects. Now if I can just convince someone else that it's fun so that when my arm gets sore (and it WILL get sore) they can take over for me...
Anyway, that will remain on my wish list for the time being, but you'll never know when things may change and you get a pen from me saying "You stole this pen from Alana's office". Ahhh.
Have fun crafting out there!

Ultimate Craft Project

I haven't yet blogged about my "Ultimate Craft Project EVAR" and I'm thinking it's high time to do so!
I love crafting, and more specifically D.I.Y. projects. Why buy anything prefab when you can do it yourself? From DIY dinners and desserts, home projects, gardening, crafts... It's so much more interesting to do it yourself and make it your own. I've DIY my own wedding invitations and napkins (twice!), clothing, furniture, sushi, bathrooms... the list could go on.
I admit, I'm often fantasizing about projects I want to do, things I don't have the time or the energy for (and yes, I admit I would have the time if I was more organized or more motivated to do so). But it's still fun thinking about.
My ultimate DIY project - my ultimate craft is my shop. It's been over a year and a half since ink was put to paper officially and made my husband and I proud (and tired) owners of the print shop I'd been running for years. The scars have healed, emotional wounds are no longer throbbing with pain and anger and I feel compelled to write about it. Now the war wounds we received from the purchase of the shop isn't what I want to discuss, but it's just enough for you to know that when I say there's our blood, sweat and tears in our shop - I mean it literally as well as figuratively.
For a gung ho, DIY craft chick such as myself, owning my own print shop is the most ultimate in DIY. I get to make everything! From boring forms and books to really fun and funky business cards, stickers, wedding invitations, napkins...oh my! And we do it all ourselves. From the graphic design to the preparation for printing, to the printing (digital or offset) to the bindery (cutting, gluing, stapling, coiling, booking etc). It's my proudest testament to my love of DIY. We do have a few things that don't get done "in-house". And that's okay. We can't do EVERYTHING, but what we do, we do really really well! Why, just today, we finished DIY labelling a few cases of BBQ sauce. DIY BBQ sauce?! Yes! That's how awesome my "biggest craft project ever" is. And the best part about it? I get PAID to do this! And I get to spend my days getting paid to DIY with my family and my friends. How awesome is that!