I'm not spending much time online - as little as possible for the next week and a half - so rather than post sporadically and worry about it, I'm just going to declare a slight pause and resume with the new year. Hope everyone who celebrates has wonderful holidays. See you again in 2012.
See yesterday's entry. A quiet rhythm to the day.
Groceries. Knitting. Reading. Talking. Minimal time online.
Yes, we have internet access.
Supposedly we have internet access where we're staying...
Winter break began at noon - hooray! And now comes the difficult part - beyond rest, reflection, and family time, what projects will I focus on during these two weeks?
That question partly answered by the arrival in yesterday's mail of a small jar of conductive paint. I think I may play with paper and circuits. What happens when pop-up constructions use conductive paint? Can I make something that is interesting beyond the gee-whiz factor? What are the fewest materials I can use and still have fun? Can I make switches? Probably. Can I make a variable resistor with this stuff? Dunno. I'll play and see where it takes me.
Half a school day left before winter break.
Mostly offline this evening, reading a book, and then helping the youngest make the family recipe for Old English Toffee - household treat and teacher presents.
Lackadaisy writes about the construction drawing process, and about ways to create characters you can draw consistently.
Our winter holiday break approaches, and my mind turns to all the projects I'd like to start or complete, books I'd like to read, time I'd like to spend looking at the horizon - both literally and figuratively. The challenge - as always - is to find one or two things to concentrate on, not fourteen, so that I return rested and renewed.
By the time the audience arrived, the mist had dispersed, but it lent a surreal air to the space before our concert began...
Making Paper Houses from Bare Conductive on Vimeo.
More information here, at Bare Conductive, where you can buy conductive paint for electronic crafting.
Yesterday's collage feels like an illustration for a story - I just haven't figured out the story yet.
Played with images taken with my iPhone, and combined and modified them using apps on the phone as well.
I made bread to go with dinner, and youngest made cookies for the school bake sale.
My Tiny Penguins project was chosen by the editors as featured step-by-step tutorial on the Instructable website. It's entered in a contest for Teachers, too - so if you like, you can go vote for it... thanks!
I just finished writing an Instructable for how to make Tiny Penguins and now it's been featured by one of the editors on the Instructables website. (You may remember that I made these tiny stuffed penguins with young students for the Penguin Parade stop motion animation early last summer at day camp, and when I wrote about it then, I said I'd post instructions "soon.")
The tiny penguins are very easy to make, requiring a minimum amount of sewing, and the materials are inexpensive - less than 75ยข per bird, and that includes the two nickels that are added to the stuffing so that the penguins stand upright.
Singing. And then later, dancing at a friend's birthday party.
Happy quiet Friday night!
The Economist publishes an article about DIY and the makers' movement: "More than just digital quilting."
So happy to see that a story about the Exploratorium's Tinkering Studio was on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. The full text of the story is online, here.
No knitting time today - though I did take the scarf-in-progress with me.
Ah... I went through so much struggle last year when I worked to create an ePub book for my iPhone. Today I made one from a Pages file in a matter of moments. Step one, begin with a file where you've used styles to format chapter titles, headings, subheadings, body text, and so on. Step two, if you created a table of contents for your paper version using the Pages TOC generator, delete that. Step three, put a cover image on your first page. Step four, export as ePub file, choosing the use-first-page-as-cover option. And there you are. And then I put the new book on my iPhone without needing to sync it, by using Dropbox. Very satisfying when these things that ought to work actually do work in practice.
I had a little time late this morning, so I knit more on my scarf.
Began knitting a scarf today - will post a snapshot when it's more than just a ruffle along the knitting needle. The yarn came from Habu Textiles, and it's pale green wool and 25 % stainless steel.
Tried to observe "Buy Nothing Day" today, but we were out of milk.
So much to be thankful for.
How augmented reality software Layar works with the most recent issue of Make magazine, and some instructions for how to create your own...
What to get your maker friend who has everything? The Googly Eye Arduino Shield kit, that's what. See, it's a shield, and it has googly eyes.
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