The date kind of jumped out at me more than it normally would, because today is Dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad ... not that he is at all likely to be reading this ... I think he is probably just finishing setting up camp somewhere in a camp ground in Kalgoorlie (they are being "grey nomads" and travelling all around Western Australia at the moment ... wish I was having fun travelling instead of stuck here going to work every day ... sigh). - I just spoke to Mum and Dad on the phone almost an hour ago and they were just starting to set up camp
... I am not sure how long it takes to set up a camper trailer ... probably not that long actually - Dad has it all organised with clever little drawers and stuff and places for everything ... and that neatly leads me to one of the things I came in here to write about - there is a website URL that I wanted to post here, and I was also thinking of sending it to Mum and Dad when they got home ... but maybe I shouldn't - Mum might have to start fighting with Dad for computer time ... LOL
What URL would my Dad possibly find so interesting? - this one ...
http://www.makezine.com/
... I found the link to it in a science newsletter I am subscribed to ... one aimed at School students (and teachers) ... which is why I found it highly amusing that the page the link actually pointed to - http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/
it has instructions for how to make a copper pipe potato gun! ... there is a LOT of other interesting stuff on that page too ... including a link to another interesting book on the Project Gutenberg website - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12655 ("The Boy Mechanic Vol 1" which has some fun things to make, some things that nobody would bother making but are funny to read, and some things that nobody would want to make/do now that we know how dangerous some of the chemicals/etc are!)
... I have also found a couple of interesting old sewing/etc books, on the Project Guenberg site, too - quite interesting and probably also quite useful!
another thing I found on that "make" webiste was this page about projects that use Altoid tins (or any other small tins that mints/etc come in) - http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/altoids_and_tin_cases/
I noticed someone has made a survival kit in one - http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/08/make_a_survival_kit_out_of_an.html
... I have a few tins that same shape/size (I hate Altoids, but luckily my husband and kids like them ;-)
so ... here is a picture of the "survival kit" that I have been carrying around for the last year or 3 ...
... well ... it might not save my life if I get stranded on a desert island, but it might save my sanity for a while ;-)
So ... what is all that weird looking stuff in there?
(and yes - it was all IN there, and - even more surprising - it all fitted back in there again after I took the photo!)
In the tin, there are a pile of fabric hexagons, and the paper hexagons I am sewing them over (so that eventually, one century, I can sew them all together into a quilt or something) and there is a tatting shuttle, with some thread on it (ready to start tatting the 4 butterfies I need to finish decorating a fabric box I made a year or 2 ago), and a crochet hook (needed for the tatting - to join the rings of knots to each other I have to pull the thread through the loops with something and this tatting shuttle isn't one that has the hook built in like some of them do), and there is also a tangle of left over sewing thread that I have been using for the hexagons, and a tangle of embroidery thread that I was using for something else that has been finished and removed from the tin (probably should sort out the tin and take that thread out ... then again ... I think I left it in there because I was going to use it to do some embroidery on that little green scrap of fabric ... not sure what it will end up being used for though), there is also a safety pin, a sewing machine bobbin full of thread, and hopefully there is a needle or 3 hiding down the bottom. One other item ... that also makes the tin qualify as a survival kit? - that little round ish brown thingy beside the bobbin - is a coffee bean! (I ended up with a handful of them somewhere ... ate a few and decided that eating any more would be just a bit too much caffiene in one go ... so I threw them into the sewing tin, which I happened to have in my pocket at the time ;-) ... I ate one a few days ago when I went to get a needle out of the tin and found the coffee beans ... so there is probably another one hiding down the bottom ... with the needles?! ... ).
Sometimes a coin or 2 live in there too ... but not at the moment - I have not put any back after the last time I was short of money one day and needed a couple dollars change ... calling it a survival kit and mentioning that it sometimes has money in there kind of reminds me of when I was a Brownie and a Girl Guide, as a kid - and we used to carry 5c (the price of a phone call), a notebook and pencil, a safety pin, and a bit of string, (and probably a hankie too, but I don't remember that) around in our pocket - in case we ever needed them ... of course my pockets also used to contain an assortment of other odd stuff at various times too ... like rocks and nuts and bolts i had found, and gum nuts and insect cocoons and feathers and leaves and whatever else i found and collected ... and it used to drive my Mum nuts ...
er ... I should have gone to bed 2 or 3 hours ago ... so methinks it is time I posted this, and the other one (which I have just been writing in between writing the last 2 bits of this one ;-) ... and then I should go get some sleep, before it is time to get up again and go to work ... sigh ...
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