Pretty cool eh? I’ve added (and am going to add) more since this picture was taken this afternoon, but I was losing the light. I’ll post another update tomorrow. Now, I’m not saying nobody else has ever done the pom-bomb but I haven’t seen any to my recollection. This is a fun and very easy way to do a yarn bomb on something and you don’t even need to know how to knit or crochet at all. Pom-pom makers are cheap and can be found at any craft store that sells yarn & accessories.

Here’s how the original wrap was made and put on:

I just crocheted a long scarf-like thing alternating colors every hand width or so until it was about five feet long. Crochet material is very stretchy so I didn’t have to pay all that much attention to the width except for the very bottom. Then I just wrapped it around the tree and zipped up the back with the loose ends. Sprinkle with pom-poms for extra whimsy and there ya go.

Unrelated but I like this too: Octopus Chair. It probably won’t eat your soul.

Yes, I have trees in desperate need of being more interesting, so I’m yarn-bombing them.

The tree sweater wasn’t quite ready when I took this picture but I finished it off last night. Tonight I’ll put it on for good. The next tree is going to get a more formal look in black and white stripes. Or, I guess it will look like it’s dressed up in those old timey prison uniforms. An escaped convict tree. lol.

**Edit**

I suppose I should add a few technicals: I used cheap (on sale! half off!), double-thick acrylic yarn in (mostly) double crochet (treble crochet to those of you Across the Pond) using my biggest crochet hook. It came together pretty quickly and was a good way to practice the basics after not doing any yarn craft in such a long time.

I put it on the tree last night but it was too dark to stitch up the seam. I suppose it doenn’t matter much since the yarn sticks like velcro to the bark of the tree. It looks cute! And I’m not quite done with it yet, but that will have to wait for the weekend.

There’s no sugar coating it, this place is fading fast and won’t continue much longer. I’ve simply lost interest in doing the blogging thing anymore. But, I do have some few things to put up before turning out the lights. Let’s get to it.

Peter Lik

Last weekend The Parental Units & I went to our favorite Japanese restaurant (Hamada of Japan) but first we dropped by one* of the Peter Lik galleries at the Forum Shops.  The Parental Units loved the small Elements set I bought them for Christmas and wanted to see more of this guy’s work. As always his stuff never fails to impress and they were interested in perhaps buying something. Oddly the sales staff were not very engaging though and I actually had to initiate things. Long story short they went back the next day and sealed the deal on a larger piece. Click to embiggen and impressivify:

***EDIT***

Apparently there’s an issue for some people with the Lik pic above though it looks fine to me. Try this link out instead: Peter Lik -Endless Flow

The size they bought is one meter on the long size and whatever’s the appropriate ratio is on the other. So, it’s big. And also unframed. The image is adhered like it’s under glass to a clear 1/8 inch thick plastic  top. The piece will actually float about an inch or so away from the wall sitting just above the Elements. It’s going to be stunning. And also surprisingly affordable (relatively speaking). They were given a lot of credits to their first purchase so that dropped the price down a fair chunk too. I guess they figure that once you start buying his stuff it will be hard to stop. I suspect they’re right.

*Yes, he has TWO galleries dedicated only to his photography in this VERY expensive mall. As someone who used to work in a gorgeous, yet failed gallery at the Forum Shops, and who used to buy from another gorgeous, and also failed gallery at the Forum Shops this is quite simply amazing. Not only that, he has at least TWO OTHER galleries at other casino shopping districts on The Strip. This guy is moving some serious product.

Magnets

I’ve always been fascinated with magnets. These Buckyball things have consumed all my time and imagination lately. As I indicated previously I was frustrated with the small set I got for Christmas. I now have another three full sets of 216 and one additional 125 set in different colors (gold, black, nickel and blue respectively). All told that’s nearly 900 balls and I’ve enjoyed the expanded capacity to make stuff only hinted with the very small set. Here’s a few builds:

Neat but painfully small. I’m already chafing even with the greatly expanded capabilities. Browse through youtube to see what people do with thousands of these balls. Amazing. One of the things I noticed about these big builds is the fact that almost nobody is using the Buckyballs brand balls. I looked into it and ordered a set from Zen Magnets who claim that they have the better product. I have to agree. Ball size consistency is a problem for BBs. With the basic set I have if you lay it out in a hexagonal sheet it will not lay flat like it’s supposed to. Zen Magnets lay flat. They’re somewhat more expensive since I have to pay shipping (as opposed to ordering from Amazon Prime) but they are a better quality, better packaged (with useful extras) product. I’m hoping to score one of their big Mandala sets when they next come available. It seems they sell out very fast though. Now I have a problem, I don’t want to mix my Zen Magnets with the inferior corresponding uncolored Buckyballs. I’ll probably just give that set away so it isn’t an issue. But…now I’m down a set of balls! Obviously I’ll have to order some more.

The Big Chair

Many years ago when I was still poor I bought a low-end yet very comfortable La-Z-boy recliner chair. I loved that chair and probably slept in in more often than the Murphy bed I had to pull out of the wall in my tiny studio apartment. Time and the cat took their toll on the chair & it’s looking a bit ratty. A couple weeks ago I dropped by a La-Z-boy showroom nearby. I thought perhaps they might be having a year-end or new year sale. Sure enough they were so I picked out a new, bigger and better chair in a nice burgundy fabric. The Crandell model in fact. It just got delivered this morning and is sitting in my library area, waiting for me go over there and start crocheting again.

That’s it for now. I’ll have a few more parting words before I close up shop though.

Found via the Twitters. Yeah, I got nothing.

Cool huh? I LOVE these buckyballs! I’ve been playing with them ever since I got home yesterday. In fact I went online and ordered three full sets in silver, gold and black. If you buy two sets from Thinkgeek they’ll throw in the blue sidekick set for free.

Then there’s the Big Gift. They weren’t supposed to do a Big Gift this year since they gave me the Kimber 1911 last year for this year’s Big Gift, but they did it anyway with the really cool leather knitting basket from Renaissance Art. Yeah, I know Mr. Art ticked me off earlier this year, but I shall forgive him; this thing is beyond awesome. Finely crafted leather goods covers a lot of sins.

So how did y’all do?

I hope everyone got what they wanted, or at least what they deserved. I had to pull back a bit on the presents this year due to the increased expenses of the new housing arrangement. Appypollylogies for not getting at least Christmas cards out to you droogs who would rightly come to expect one. I flaked out and sucked donkey dingles this year*.

All-in-all everything went very well. My sister loved the book I sent, Mom loved the Swarovski crystal flower (after insisting that I paid too much and must return it and oooh I have the perfect place for it!), and Dad greatly appreciated the 18 year old bottle of Dewar’s scotch. There are much more expensive single malts that I could have bought but he’s really not a fan of single malts. Dad loves him some Dewar’s. Dunno how my brother likes his Pro Bass Shop gift cards as he hasn’t bothered to check his PO box this week, but I’m sure he can make good use of it. Oh, and the two big gifts of the Dom champagne and Peter Lik photographs went over GREAT! I wasn’t worried about the champagne of course, but I wasn’t exactly sure about photographs. I thought they had enough of the Cotterill frogs and were ready to move onto something else. And sure enough they are! This was the first frogless Christmas in..12 – 13 years maybe? We’re gonna hit one of the galleries in a couple weeks so they can get eyeful of what this guy is REALLY capable of.

Christmas yorling is nearly done. I guess. I’m having a real tough time finding something for the Paternal & Fraternal Units. I got two presents for the Parental Units collectively: a bottle of Dom Perignon and Peter Lik’s “Elements”.  Lik is selling a new “foot in the door” package of four Element pictures in a box at a fairly reasonable price starting this Christmas season. Peter Lik is an phenomenal photographer from Australia and his stuff is simply stunning. And he manages to keep TWO galleries up and running at the Forum shops!

The Maternal Unit is getting some Shang Tea and a Swarovski crystal flower.

The Sister Unit is getting a book of this guy’s artwork: Vladimir Kush. She saw his stuff in a gallery the last time she was out here and really liked it, so hopefully she will like the book.  I’ll probably wind up sending the Brother Unit a gift card to Pro Bass Shops.

I would really like some help for ideas to get something for Dear Old Dad though. I’m running out of time. $250 price range.

The Eurozone is going to collapse. I honestly don’t think there’s anything anybody can do to stop it. While I knew things were bad, I had no idea they were this bad.

Oh my God
We are going to have to learn how to live in a much more difficult, dangerous, and poorer world. Many of us will not be able to do so.

*Update* I got all my money out of Bank of America (which is straight up involved in all this through their Banc of America foreign subsidiary) a couple years ago because of my growing alarm with what they were doing and into a much smaller, local bank. Still, I have grave concerns because it’s impossible to tell who is exposed and who isn’t due to the interconnectedness of all these institutions. <-Check that link out. Be sure to scroll down!  I’m going to start drawing down my savings account and leaving less in the checking account. It’s not like I’m earning any real interest on it and when the balloon goes up a lot of people are going to suddenly find themselves locked out of their accounts entirely or only able to withdraw little amounts per day. Protect yourselves. And buy real physical gold if you can, or silver if you can’t. I buy from the American Precious Metal Exchange.

I’ve never had a fried turkey, but I’ve heard they’re awfully good.

Oh, and thanks for everyone who still drops by this place. I know it’s not been very good lately but I am going to try to be better.