Mini Tutorial: Gifts and Price Tags

You know those times when you can't just take the price tag off a gift because it's part of the label/care instructions/something really pretty?

Price blurred—recipient follows this blog!

The solution is just one click away.

Star-shaped craft punch!

Hold your craft punch upside-down over the price so you can see what you're doing.

CLICK!

And it's still cute!

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The Underdog Poets Academy

This Sunday I am (finally) going to my friend Sarah's poetry reading downtown. She has challenged everyone to arrive with a haiku about the "searing city heat" for a "hot haiku competition." Well, that heat has slackened off these past two days, and I'm not usually much of a haiku writer, but sure. I'll give it a go.

FML Twitter Haiku

FML it's hot

OMG broke the AC

#1stWorldProblem

It's lacking the element of juxtaposition you need for a proper Japanese haiku, but, well, if we're going to be picky... it's also written in English.

Want to join the Underdog Poets Academy? We're at The Central on 603 Markham St., Toronto and the official start time is 7:30. There will be three scheduled readers and an open mic session.

Does it bother anyone else that "mic" doesn't look like it should be pronounced the way it is? That always drove me crazy...

Skirting the Issue

Have you seen this?

"Skirting the Issue" is an initiative that is being run by Liz and Elizabeth of Simple Simon & Co. I heard about it through the blog Skirt as Top. It's a project to sew skirts for girls in foster care, both through their local foster care agency in Utah and around the world. Their goal is to see 100 skirts donated in the first week of August, and I'm sure they're going to surpass it. They've already asked 20 well-known sewing bloggers to create skirt tutorials for the occasion, and I don't know a single sewing blogger who can resist making a cute skirt. You can see the full details here at Project Run and Play

Is this not a wonderful idea? I need to find out if there are any agencies here in Toronto that would be interested in receiving skirts. And I will definitely be keeping an eye on the Skirting the Issue Flickr Pool, because I just know it's going to be filling up with some amazing pictures.

Do you do any sewing for charity? What do you sew? For whom? It's something I'm really interested in, so please — share your story!

Nanny the Crook

Oof! A whole week slipped by and I didn't find the time to post the perfectly good, useful, little tutorial I had half ready to go. Well, I'll have to post it next week. It's a good thing pictures don't expire.

And it's a good thing poem posts can be written on the subway, when I can't do much else anyway!

This one came out of a slip of the tongue when my boss meant to say "cranny and nook" and made it a spoonerism by mistake. I liked the sound.

Nanny the Crook

Nanny the Crook, Nanny the Crook,
The canniest, granny-est thief in the book,
Stealing from every cranny and nook
Is Nanny the Crook, Nanny the Crook.

Crocheting doilies for things that she took,
More than a petticoat thief with a hook,
Creaky and sneaky and running amook
That Nanny the Crook! Nanny the Crook!

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First Weeks in rhyme

Cross-eye
Hands fly
Hungry cry
Oh my

Daddy tease
Little sneeze
Dimple knees
More please

Mommy grin
No chin
Skin-on-skin
Done in

Squinchy eye
Lullaby
Little sigh
Bye bye

Instagram and Sewing Space Disasters

Lately I've been dividing my free time between working on a T-shirt blanket and getting acquainted with my new iPhone.

They say Instagram makes any image look better.

What do you think?

The last one is my very sophisticated taped-together graph paper pattern. Just in case you were wondering.