Amy Sedaris book giveaway
As I was milling around my favourite local bookstore the other day, a sea of yellow bookcovers alerted me that I was about to run into a book display. I picked up one of the little beacons and started flipping through it.
I knew immediately that you should have this book.
;)
It’s the most wonderful time of the year according to Frank Sinatra, but most of us could use a few belly laughs to keep the Santa-ball rolling. Even if you’re not planning on making your dad a dryer-lint-stuffed tie-snake, reading about it will have you giggling.
I appreciate this tongue-in-cheek approach to crafting for the humor she’s infusing into what’s usually a super-serious (or unduly cheerful), art supply store-, power tool-ridden genre. The quest to make holiday gifts can leave us grouchy, confused and uninspired; yet not having much money doesn’t always leave us with a ton of other options. Kudos to Amy for making us laugh about all of it.
My Christmas gift to you, dear readers, is this. Three lucky winners will receive a copy of Amy’s newest book, Simple Times: Crafts for poor people.
Enter by leaving a comment below describing a crafting scenario gone right, wrong or improvised into something unanticipated.
Don’t forget to include your email address in the little box or I can’t contact you to tell you that you’ve won.
Comments close at midnight on December 22, 2010. Random.org will select three winners based on the number associated with your comment. Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win, and one entry per household please.
Thank you for following my adventures all year long. Happy Holidays!
Kate
Congrats to Meg, Sarah and Vanessa! Happy crafting to us all!
Reader Comments (56)
You mean like when I ended up super gluing my fingers to the beads, instead of gluing the beads to the frame I was decorating? Or the time I caught the feather I was gluing to an empty glass jar on fire? (I was attempting to help my friend make candle holders for her wedding; I stopped helping after that.)
I've since stopped trying to glue anything.
Picture it: High school, 1998. Between a trip to Taco Bell for cheap eats and Goodwill for vintage threads, I'd obtained a handful of sporks and an actual Shiva statue. It was about a foot tall, and with a nice weight and tarnish to it. From these components I erected the Holy Shrine of the BatSpork (a spork made holy by the snapping off of the central plastic tine) in which each of Shiva's hands grasped the superutensils, held in place with the ticky-tack I used to hang prints in my room. With some brightly colored paint for kitsch, and a note (writ in, a silly blessing), I'd crafted a wonderful gift as a send off to my dear friend who was relocating to Colorado right before the start of her senior year. It was so well-received as the BatSpork was of course a symbol of so many tacos and burritos and the time we all had spend together. It was a little thing that took the edge off of a rather burdensome big thing.
many crafts have gone awry in the cross home -with four kids running around snowflakes, christmas ornaments, holiday baking there is always something amiss.
Thanks for the opportunity & love your blog!
Night before last I attempted to alter my usual banana nut muffin recipe to make it gluten-free for a friend. I could have sworn I had gluten-free all-purpose baking mix in my pantry but alas, all I could find was gluten-free pancake/waffle mix. I used it 1:1 for the traditional flour I usually use, not thinking about how I had already added baking soda per my usual recipe. After 5-10 minutes in the oven, I smelled a burning smell and investigated. The batter had kinda exploded out the muffin tops and was spread out in the in-between spaces, and had dripped onto the oven floor. After carefully scraping the burning stuff from the bottom of the oven, I just left the muffins alone and let them bake like that. They all came out with large "hats," which was actually rather cool. :-)
it's not that funny of a story, just anticlimactic and sad... I thought i would make bath bombs at home- those fizzy bath balls that are so lovely, and have essential oils and dried flowers and all kinds of stuff in them... and so i found instructions and over the course of a few weeks gathered together all the materials to make them. well, after all that, instead of nice fizzy balls of goodness, i had these weird soggy lumps that were more the shapes of cow poop and less the shapes of snowballs... it was sad. i had dreams of saving $$$ on bath products...
Oh, delightful. Sadly, even my crafting-gone-bad stories are boring. Fingers covered in searing hot glue gun is as exciting as I get. ha.
Hot glue gun + christmas ornaments + glitter + stray dog hairs = furry mess!!
Trying to sew stockings out of velvet. Looks like a child made them. Now am trying to cover the ugliness with felt poinsettias. And an embroidered monogram. By next week. Not good.
I am kicking myself for not having written this book. Please oh please may i have one??
My crafting adventures never go exactly as planned. This could be my aversion to proper measuring (especially for fabric crafts) but its mostly because my enthusiasm outweighs my skill by a ratio of 10:1. One project that I'm particularly proud of was the corset I made out of milk jugs and cardboard. I had forgotten to buy any boning when picking up the fabric I'd need for my Halloween costume. I sewed the corset together and realized it needed some support. There was no way I was going back to the dungeon of JoAnns, so I raided the recycling bin. The corset looked fine on the outside and a bit apocalyptic battle gear on the inside. I had a blast at that Halloween party :)
oh let's see i didn't leave a craft gone wrong... painting a koi fish pond on a small table-top, i mistook my mug of brush water for tea and took a big swig. luckily i'd been using acrylic and poison control said as long as i felt ok i probably didn't need my stomach pumped...
I think I've blocked out all of my really terrible craft memories so I'll go with a craft win. For the past two years a group of crafty women I know have been pooling our talents and resources to make DIY holiday gifts. We get together for a crafternoon (an excuse for day-drinking) and make bulk crafts to give to our loved ones. Last year we made lip balm, bath salts, linen spray, and desk calendars. This year we expanded and did felted soaps, a spice rub, reusable sandwich bags, stationary, and salt-dough ornaments. We all pitch in on the work and supplies and all get to take home a bunch of gift bags for less than ten bucks a bag.
I refuse to read directions and most of my crafting is done with a group of friends... so there are too many cocktails prior to craft without mishap. And neither the Ladyfriend or I can use the sewing machine alone (I thread the machine & assemble items and she does actual sewing.) Needless to say...nothing comes out very well!
I tried making homemade pop tarts last night and after many frustrating hours I remembered: I hate working with dough. But I powered through it and made some tasty little holiday treats!
Once, during my highschool days, I was preparing my art portfolio to apply to college. It was an overwhelming amount of work, that needed to be done in such a short period of time, so I spent almost 2 weeks to complete it, on VERY little sleep. While working on it one day, I was painting, and made a mistake. My mind piped in with "Edit" "Undo", - thinking that I could just undo it, as I would using the computer :) Needless to say, that didn't work and I had to re-paint it. Thanks for the great giveaway! withinkingston (at) gmail (dot) com
This year, I am putting together boxes of canned preserves for friends...with their likes and dislikes in mind. After stumbbling upon a great recipe for Beer Jelly and having success making it for the first time, I've tried to repeat it for a BEER loving friend (like myself) using an assortment of his favorite beers. Four days later and 8 more attempts...I am frustrated and left with no other option than to write..."sauce for your pancakes!?!" on the tag. I did not boil them long enough and most are just a runny gooey mess.
The most recent scenario involved my new kitten "teaching" me how to use the scotch tape as I was trying to wrap Christmas presents. :)
Im wanna those want to do everything, work 70 hours a week and get to try nothing new kind of person! but, sometimes just escaping a little while and reading up on what I might be able to try someday makes me happy enough ! I want to wish you a Merry Xmas Kathie Sewell
Me + Martha Stewart magazine + crafting supplies = magazine confetti while I sleep off my frustration medication (i.e. bourbon).
This year I am so pumped about a craft gone right! Normally I am a little bit accident- or disaster- prone. But this was a good year for crafts for me. I successful created delicious apples brandy for gifts, decorated some homemade gift wrap out of old shopping bags and made a cool gift for my sister. I essentially recreated an item from Modcloth.com. It was a very Alice-inspired half a tea cup to hold a few things, mounted on a square plaque with a hook to hang keys or something from. I made my own with my own craft supplies and a quick trip to the local goodwill. It seriously looks bought! It doesn't have that homemade feel.
Merry Christmas! And good luck crafting to everyone!
Hahaha.. I'm going through one of those misfire moments as we speak. I'm trying my hand at candy making for edible gifts and for the life of me I can't get my brittle or nougat to solidify. Its just expensive taffy. Why I decided to try candy making right now, at pressure-time central- the holidays, and also when I know NOTHING about crafting candies... AHHHHHHH... Martha and the Food Network and every blog makes candy crafting like a piece of cake- AHHHHHHH!
Thank you for the opportunity for the giveaway and as a mom to a food allergic and Celiac toddler, I'm LOVING your blog. Happy Holidays!
After I went to a Lush store, I decided that I had to make lotion/massage bars, so I went and bought a huge chunk of beeswax and all sorts of essential oils. I melted it all down and was pouring it into a tray when the bowl slipped right out of my oven-mittened hands, knocked over the tray, and sent molten hot wax all over me and my kitchen. I had to take a paint scraper to the floor to get it all up and my apron (which I was thankfully wearing) is still encrusted with wax.
Oh, like when I knew how to knit but didn't know how to follow patterns or understand yarn weights or gauge swatches? My 4'11" 130 pound mother asked me to knit her a sweater and the result was large on my 5'4" 200lb self. And I made it out of lionbrand homespun, one of the most icky acryllic yarns you will ever touch.
Years ago I'd bought a cheap denim dress for a party. The hem at the neckline had come loose and started peeking up over the neckline itself. My partner at the time and I were already late for the party, and I wasn't terribly concerned about the dress itself, so our solution (neither of us being any good with a needle and thread at the time) was to take the hot glue gun to it. While I was wearing it. My partner managed to tack down the fabric while getting only a minimum of glue on my chest. He (good-naturedly) accused me of being a whiner over how hot it was. To prove his point, he grabbed a quarter off the table and hot-glued it to the inside of his forearm. While yelping and jumping about, he managed to get the quarter off, but not before the whole mess had left an angry red burn that lasted him at least a week.
The partner is now history, but the memory lasts forever. :)
bldrnrpdx (at) aol (dot) com
Tie dyeing with natural dyes, somehow the gorgeous beet red color turned to puke brown.