Washi Tape Candles

Posted on by cycadia

We got these candle holders ages ago. They were a gift, not even sure who gave them to us. Probably MIL. We’ve never had them out before because we just didn’t have a good table for them. But I kept them cause they are awesome. We now have an actual dining room with a long table in it. I stumbled across this in a still-packed box in the basement and pulled them out triumphantly. Another partially unpacked box in the basement! Yes!

wahshi 005

 

I love Washi Tape. It is (they are?) awesome. I found this set at IKEA with their Christmas wrap. Which is always great and sells out too fast. I knew the red would look better. I’m sure I’ll find a use for the white one somewhere else!

wahshi 006

I realize this isn’t much of a craft. All I did was put tape on my candle holders. But it came out pretty well so I figured I would share. This may be something that happens with other holidays as well! I’m looking at you Valentine’s Day!washi 013Aren’t the trees awesome too! My husband should really not let me in IKEA anymore.

Take out the Everything

Posted on by cycadia

Due to reasons beyond our control, we had to switch garbage companies. Now, before moving to Northern Virginia, I had never lived anywhere where garbage collections weren’t run by the city or something. The fee for city service was just taken out of taxes or whatever. I don’t know (care) how these things work. But here in Northern Virginia, there are like four companies to choose from, and we have to pay for it out of our hard earned money. Except now there are only 3 companies. The closing one gave us, as customers, to a rival. So now we have a new garbage company. This new one didn’t bother to tell us when our collection days are.

Now for regular garbage, that is not a problem; the new company uses the same two days as the one that closed. Jealous of two days? That’s right, we have garbage come twice a week! Fancy. But recycling is on a new day – an entirely different day and we had no idea. So we put the recycling out on our old day, and it sat there. For two days. So it gets dragged back in. Unfortunately, it got dragged in the night before our actual pick up day. Woe is me. So this week we have TWO weeks worth of recycling to take out. And it’s a lot because reasons. So after dinner Jason was flustered looking at all the stuff. “Put your shoes on and help me.. um take out, take out the, take out the everything!” Sometimes I could kiss that man.

Ok, all the times 🙂

Take out the Everything is a DJ doing some awesome EDM covers. I know, redundant.

Game Jam Trophies – 2016 Trophies

Posted on by jminto

Last year we helped the LHMS Robotics Team put on their 1st Annual Text Adventure Game Jam. The students in attendance learned a lot about Java programming and what goes into making a video game. The competition follows FIRST’s format for the Lego League competitions. The winners received trophy’s I created. We’re doing this same thing this year, but mixing it up a little bit.

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A Grue Ate My Graphics

Posted on by jminto

The year was 1985, and the Commodore 64 lit up my dark bedroom – or was it a dungeon? My room was in the basement away from my troublesome brother and sister.  It was here that I spent many hours exploring labyrinths of peculiar logic for excitement and adventure. Technology changes and now we are in immersive VR environments that put us seemingly in real dungeons. Funny, years later I now find myself again trying to spelunk through archaic dungeons with my son’s robotics team. 

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Merry Christmas Banner

Posted on by cycadia

So we took some family pics for our Christmas card this year.  I knew they weren’t going to scream Christmas or anything, so I made a banner to Holiday them up.  We only used it in a few of the pictures, so most of them are truly just family photos.  That’s super nice since we hardly ever do that.  I think the banner works in a few of them.

I used my Cricut to make the letters.  I made some test sizes first.  I cut the “M” in 2″, 3″ and 4″.  We figured the 4″ would look best.  For the letters, I used some green paper I already had, but I didn’t have any good colors to go with them.  So sad for me, thus a trip to Michaels.

I wanted something a little shiny to compliment the letters.  It took some time, but I found some silver.  I got a pack of paper on sale that had several reds and pinks.  I also picked up some red and white baker’s twine.

After I had cut all the letter’s out, I glued them down to the silver paper.  I pretty much just eyeballed a quarter inch margin from there and cut the paper around the letters.  Then I put a second layer of red below that.

I’ve been sitting on a ton of eyelets and this sweet eyelet tool for quite some time, so I decided to add those in the corners for durability.  They metal rings should keep the twine from ripping out the corners. Of course, the eyelets made it super easy to thread the twine too.  It turned out pretty well.

I didn’t think about the letters sliding off the string, but they did slide quite easily.  It was kinda funny to letters missing after we posed for a photo! I remedied that after the shoot with some old school scotch tape on the back.  That’ll give the banner a long life so I can hang it up every year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Helvetica Girl

Posted on by cycadia

Logan is of the age now where he has to write papers for school. This fast is super irritating as no one has taught him how to do such things. It’s a real trial by fire. He had a couple of papers that he was working on over an extended snow break we had. I’m the de-facto editor in the house because of my excellent grammar skillz. We all happen to be in the car and talking about his progress on the papers when his font selection turns up. See, Logan likes to use Comic Sans of all things. And I make fun of him for it because it’s just silly looking. I would show it to you, but I just found out how annoying it is to try and change fonts in WordPress. I’m just really shocked that none of his teachers have called him on it so far. Surely high school will be different on that front? Maybe they just don’t care in middle school?

So Jason asks “What kind of font would you prefer?” It’s not like I know that many by name, but I throw out a couple. “Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica…” “Oh, so you’re a Helvetica Girl are you?”

Why yes, yes I am a Helvetica Girl.

Helvetica Girl does do some Lisa Loeb style covers, but also writes her songs dedicated to her literary heroines. I’m sure she’s a Jane Austen fan. She probably sleeps in her car with her homeless mother, plays mostly in coffee shops, and local bookstores.