Do-it-Yourself


Mom knows my love of globes. My obsession’s exact beginning is a little hazy, but Gadora suspects it started around the time I scored that insanely entertaining Fisher Price illuminated globe in Houston years ago. Now, my love for this earth goes beyond bumps on a globe or lines on a map. On a recent trip to Paris, she sent me a snap of Poops at the Centre Pompidou at the Modern Museum of Art. The exhibition, which I’m not able to find anything else on, was a series of globes on the wall. “The brown blobs on the globes signify the things we do to harm the planet and the pics on the shelves depict all the bad things happening in the world, such as war, famine, etc….” I would have found it mesmerizing too.

Perplexed Poops at the Pompidou.

On a recent trip, I reclined my seat back and grabbed the flight mag from the seat pocket in front of me. I scanned the blah, blah new-steak-restaurant-ads for some place I’d never visit, flipped past the wealthy-people match-making ads, and then spied this… I quietly tore the sheet out of the mag, and folded it into my bag. Gadora would be making this. At some point. Soon.

The Inspiration.

Back in Austin, and not thirty minutes after telling a friend I “NEED” a globe, I scored a National Geographic—1979 model—at the local Goodwill. $4.99. Sweet deal. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t totally smooth, but it would do. I loved the base. And because it was slightly damaged, I thought it the perfect guinea pig for my project. Turns out my love of globes is shared almost equally with my desire to paint everything I can with chalkboard paint.

We are the world.

This would turn out to be a really quick project.

The stuff.

Score globe. Check. Procure chalkboard paint. Done (Valspar from Lowes). Use a new brush, taking care to remove any loose bristles. Done. And done. Prepare work space and get to work.

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My friend Craig asked if I’d like to take a basket weaving class. Underwater?, I quipped. I’m so funny. Sure! It was early (for a Saturday) and way down South, at the home of notable basket weaver and teacher Lisa Adkins. Our nominal fee would include all the supplies, instruction and lunch we could handle (she even made accommodations for my vegetarian palette). We would arrive in plenty of time to pick our seats. She’d previously exchanged some snaps with Craig, and we both chose a basket to suit our fancy. His would be a modified “picture” basket with a round spoke base, and mine? A wooden base Rainbow basket, which I also heard Lisa refer to as the “Happy Basket.” Gadora liked the organic nature of its shape. Unstructured structure. Let’s. Get. This. Started!

Colorful reeds (the vertical bits)

Lisa’s passion for basket weaving began in 2000. She has taught at conferences in North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. She has a garage full of reeds and canes she’d dyed herself and a plenitude of supplies: wooden bases, handles, scissors, buckets of water, etc. Our supplies were carefully arranged on a table with enough space to fit another 3 weavers (who were also fairly new to the craft).

Each station had their own supply kit.

Lisa came by to get me started: I’d start with my base. Each reed had a flat side (to face the inside of the basket) and a rounded side. She’d marked my base with 4 pencil marks, equally spaced, and I’d snug each reed into the base, about 1/16″ apart. There were 49 of them in all (an odd number so my pattern would emerge once I started filling in with the cane).

Let the basket begin...

This process probably took about 30 minutes. This part was mindless, really, so I used the time to get to know my neighbors. All were returning students and all seemed happy campers with their baskets. Harley and Sassy, the home’s ardent 4-legged protectors, came by to sniff my biz. I was cool, they concluded, and I got back to squeezing my reeds into the small slit cut into the base.

Working from bottoms-up

Once all the reeds were set and spacing was just right, Gadora pulled each one out, dipped its tip in glue, and secured it back into the same place—taking care to wipe away any excess glue. Because the reeds were stiff, they tended to bend downwards (towards the side that had been shaved flat), so I used my water bottle to flatten it out. This pic is of outside of basket.

Glue goo and rainbow reeds...

Now this is where some skill comes in… (more…)

Gadora has before mentioned the almost bah humbug-like attitude I possess when it comes to decorating for the holidays. It stems from the ruthless way stores shove glittery Christmas crap at us earlier and earlier every year. Hey, before you get started… I’m all for the Holidays. I like my family. And I’m down with the Chocolate Vegan Chili recipes, and consuming way too much dessert. I simply identify more closely with Charlie Brown’s philosophy: “I won’t let all this commercialism ruin my Christmas!”

My first Christmas in New York I lived not far from The Met on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It was a small studio, fit me just right, but there was no room for a tree. Armed with winter gloves and gall, I strolled over to Central Park and clandestinely plucked out a few fallen branches. Dragged them the few blocks home and up to my roof where I deleafed them, sprayed and adorned them. “I’ll take this little tree home and decorate it! And I’ll show ‘em.”

Charlie Brown Christmas…

By December 15th of this year we’d not done one thing to prepare for the holidays. No light strung, no sweets made, no nothing really. We’d planned our second annual Festivus for the Rest of Us party—where decorations (and tinsel) are abhorred—but I  knew the BFF was secretly hankering to bust out the Christmas boxes. “How about I make us a tree for the party,” I pose. She squealed. Gadora intended to repurpose the branches I’d witnessed her saw off a tree a few days earlier, saving them the fate of the trash can. It would be our Zero Dollar Christmas Tree… no tree felled, we’d craft the ornaments ourselves and enjoy an evening with the girls while pulling it all together.

Our tree.

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Gadora has happily been off-line lately. Out of the country, actually. Just returned from Istanbul, not Constantinople*, where I spent a splendid week with the family.

Beforehand I’d hurried through the packing, sure to include only the most essential wardrobe elements: slouchy Frye boots, sensible-but-saucy walking shoes,  2 leggings, lots of lightweight sweaters and tops for layering and a Harajuku Lovers cross-shoulder bag. I was certain to buy a mess of stuff at the famous Grand Bazaar. On the quickie layover in Chicago, where I caught up with a dear friend, I remembered I’d neglected to pack a journal. I wouldn’t survive the 10 1/2 hour journey across the Atlantic with Sudoku alone! After perusing a few shoppes in bustling Geneva, Gadora decided to make her own.

Notebook ~ Before

It would boast no lines. I’d be doodling in it, after all. We found it at the local Walgreens, but it was lacking any style. My friend had a recent style-guide with a suitable cover, and allowed me to commandeer it for the project. Tape, I’ll need tape. And scissors. Easy enough, though she’d just moved into her new digs.

The Supplies...

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They did it! They did it! Apartment Therapy posted the jewelry display Gadora finished a while ago (it’s been sitting in my e-queue for some time). Love Adrienne’s post (Thank you Lady)! Here’s how Gadora made it happen…

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Fashioning a wall-hanging jewelry display is an economical way to milk additional life out of nature’s fallen limbs, and it’s quite a fun little project! Ironically, not a few days after Gadora finished this twig display (and had shared it with a few friends), Apartment Therapy ran Branches…In the Bedroom. (remember to click on pics to see them larger!)

Branches display ~ DONE

How can YOU make one? Start by pilfering a few long, straight branches which will form the base of the display, then locate a few spindly ones. The more twists and turns your sprigs sport, the more options for hanging jewels later. Here, Gadora re-purposed a friend’s discarded sage bush branches. Once a few select pieces were pulled into the shop, it took a few minutes to visually “set” them in place. Keep in mind: twig “fingers” that face up give more secure spots to hang your jewels, and twigs that flow away from the wall allow easy-access to your new creation.

Twigs ~ Before

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