Tag: Craft

Letter from the Editor – February 2018

Dear Honey Readers,

After some googling and soul-searching, I decided to disable commenting on this blog. This decision has to do with a few thoughts I’ve had. One is I would rather focus on my craft of writing and learning small-time website design, than devote my limited time to sorting and approving comments. The next is most of the comments I received tended to be advertisements/bots/possibly shady snippets of software code, and not people wanting to have a real conversation or build some type of community. I was starting to worry a little too much about the shady category. I still am. Perhaps as I get better at this, I will start to add comments back in and talk about how to prevent code-insertion or identity issues in blogs. 

However, there have been some impressive commentators who have graced this site with a quick line. Notably, a Donald Trump, who I’m pretty sure wasn’t that one, and a website for something to do with boobsigns, whatever that is (please, for your computers safety, don’t google it, I won’t be liable for whatever horror or virus results). I’m sorry to say I removed the temptation of cluttering up the comments with perplexing snippets of dubious sincerity. Though there were some comments where people didn’t seem to have a suggestion, and were just commenting to comment without saying very much. Some of these also made me wonder if those people had read my article, because the comment often seemed to not correspond to any of my content. I did sort of enjoy deleting those comments, along with what I’ll call ad-comments or mal-comments (based on adware and malware). However, I immensely appreciated all of the positive feedback and questions I received. Some of you seemed inspiringly interested in blogging. To those people, I am sorry to have cut the conversation short. I value criticism and have been especially learning to embrace it this year. I hope that the time I invest into helps to create articles and creative writing that makes up for my decision.

My problem of time limitations is partially to do with changes I’m making to do this better in the future. I’m currently taking a CSS, HTML, and XHTML class. It has been in addition to learning Javascript at home and at work, the latter of which I’ve also been spending more time at. I think I might be crazy, as it’s shapin up to be a pretty tight schedule, but somehow I know I can do it. I’ve definitely been enjoying happiness in a sort of flow state of all I’m working on. 

Since you last heard from me, it’s been a pretty weird year. In May 2017, I had some health problems that took till November to resolve, and could have been cancer. Luckily, I do not have cancer, and all is back to normal in terms of body things. Yay! (Fuck cancer). Those months weren’t all bad, although other people close to me have also been sick with illnesses of their own. I went on some epic adventures and absorbed a bunch of art scenes. I’ve been getting back to performing on stage for bellydance and other styles. I’ve been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu since January 2017. It has been amazing! It’s a lot more mental than I thought, as well as having a great community and being a great work out. It has made me more energetic and helped my dance considerably. In August 2017, I performed at a community festival, and another performance is in the works for February.  In October, I left the North American continent for the first time to see Germany, Prague, and Italy. That was also my first real vacation since I started work at my current company. It was amazing! I’ve also been crafting somewhat regularly, but have mostly favored small projects. By August 2018, I hope to get to bigger, more involved projects like a French Court dress complete with panniers. Also, I’ve been pretty into film, catching up on a lot of American Film Institute favored movies, and cult pieces of the 1980s and 90s. I’ve seen a few friends quite a bit, and have enjoyed getting closer to them. 

I  hope to keep writing, and inspire you. If you would like to be a part of Honey It’s Thursday, feel free to comment your interest! I’ll be leaving the comments on here so you can contact me.

Thank you for reading,

Honey

DIY Easter egg centerpiece

By Sarah Hughes

Spring is here. Here is a way to get away from obnoxious pastel colors wrapped in plastic pink grass, but still have seasonal decorations.

Materials:

  • Fake paper or ceramic eggs (you could use real eggshells with the egg carefully blown out through small holes – don’t swallow. Or squeeze too hard for that matter).
  • Acrylic paint in desired colors (I prefer Americana brand and drew inspiration from 1960s knickknacks #hipster #didntsoundasannoyinginmyhead).
  • A variety of paintbrushes
  • Paint pens (which make details easier).
  • Water in a cup safe to clean brushes with.
  • Some drop cloths or old newspapers to protect your crafting surface.
  • Somewhere to allow eggs to dry that touches the freshly painted egg minimally. It could be an empty egg cartoon. A cut-up paper towel roll might work well too.
  • A cool vessel to put the eggs in when you’re done (Try a birdcage or a cool dish. Maybe fashion a nest – there’s a cool way to do it with papier-mâché materials and string).
  • A ruler or a stencil if you’d like it to be neat (#nope).
  • You can use masking or artist tape to tape out stripes (just don’t press it down to hard – the goal is for it to be removable later).
  • (Optional) a cute little clip-on creature – butterflies, birds, beetles.

How to:

  1. Decide on a pattern. You can cut it out from a simple picture to make a stencil, or try to free hand. Visualize your pattern on the egg. If you want to do this fast, consider a more abstract or simple design like paint splatters, stripes or dipping/ rolling the paint on.
  2. Apply base coat to the egg. Let it dry. If you are using the paper eggs this will go quickly (perhaps 20 minutes to dry). Check your egg carefully for wet spots.
  3. Apply a second coat of the same color if the first coat looks sheer or uneven. Allow this to dry. It should take approximately the same amount of time as the first coat to dry.
  4. Tape-off or measure out your design on the egg. Just make sure whatever you do is removable (pencil usually shows through paint and tape must be applied gently). In general, the more time you spend laying out or measuring for your pattern, the more professional the end result will look, but the more time it will take for the entire project.
  5. Paint details in a noticeably different color. Allow to dry the same time as before.
  6. Add details and outlines with a paint pen. Dry as before.
  7. Arrange in container of choice. Add optional flying friends.
Bird on birdcage
Add birds to your centerpiece to give more detail. Photo by Sarah Hughes

Now stand back and enjoy your grown-up seasonal centerpiece and stay tuned for more design ideas.