tashabear

Do you want one to carry your cards around in, or one to display your cards on a table?

The first gen kindle fits nicely in a quart-sized Ziploc. Are you serious? The Kindle is just another way to deliver text. I really don't think "forgetting how to read" is an issue with e-books.

I've been experimenting with a bunch of papercraft techniques on leather, but this thread has inspired me! My husband has been working with black Artagain paper lately, and now I want to make some photocopies and see what they look like transferred onto leather that I've distressed and worked over. (I want to try it on a canvas that we've worked over, too.) And of course I desperately want to do this when I have less than a week to get three projects done and get packed for a two week vacation...

*waves* Hiya! I don't live in the city proper, but I can see the light pollution from my house, and my husband works there. (Also, Froghunter doesn't get on the site very often, so I'm sure he won't mind me playing welcome wagon.) You're right, there isn't much in Boston itself in terms of dedicated leather supply shops -- goodness knows I've looked. Tandy is 30 miles/35 minutes north of Boston (in favorable traffic, which is a crapshoot) in Chelmsford, MA, and Waterhouse Leather is just down 495, in Littleton. They don't really have a storefront, but if you call ahead, I'm sure you can work something out with Peter. Between Chelmsford and Littleton is Westford, home of the best ice cream on the planet at Kimball Farm. (They also have a grill for lunch, a gift shop, a nine hole golf course, a driving range, two mini golf courses, and bumper boats. It's worth the trip out from Boston all on it's own.) You mentioned craft stores. Do you mean regular craft stores or leathercraft? If you want regular craft stores, we have Michael's and A.C. Moore, and you can find locations on their websites. If you want proper art supply stores, there's Pearl Paint in Cambridge and Dick Blick in the Fenway. I haven't been to either (well, I went to a Pearl Paint in NYC like 15 years ago and nearly swooned, so I'm saving it for a special occasion), but I want to. When are you coming, and what else are you interested in? Maybe I can help. (My mom is Nova Scotian, so over and above my natural helpfulness, I'm sort of honor bound to try!)

Very pretty! One question: why did you set the snap so it faces out? Seems like it would go on quicker and easier if the snap faced the horse's cheek. (Also, every halter/head collar I've ever used in my life snaps towards the horse, so it sort of jumped out at me.)

I should think that if you wanted a strong core you could braid around parachute cord, otherwise known as 450 cord or 550 cord. It even comes in colors.

If you use Liquid Leaf to paint the stamped bits, you can paint right over the dye. Very cute wristband!

I love medieval heraldry. Nice work, Tom!

Nail polish remover is a place to start. IIRC, I can get acetone at the DIY store in the paint department, but I'd have to double-check.

Leather Sheen in a can for a satin finish, and Super Shene in a can for a high gloss. I haven't found that much difference in the way craft acrylics stick to leather, but I do like the flow of Cova Color (though the red I have is way thicker than it ought to be, but I think it's an old jar). That being said, a mask maker I was positioned near at a recent con recommended Golden Acrylics, which you can get in the fine arts section of craft stores like Michael's. I have more acrylic paint than I think I will ever use, but next time I want different colors, I'm going to try it.

Bob. (That's my answer for most naming quandaries, which is why my cat's name is Bob.)

Are you planning on using these for actual motorcycling? If so, I'd be concerned that the "greaves" (leg armor) would separate from the shoe and your ankle would get chewed up. I mean, this from someone who wears hiking boots for motorcycling, but that's because I can't find taller boots that fit both my feet and my calves. I lust over these (http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Aerostich-Combat-Touring-Boots-p-16558.html), but they don't come small enough. Poor me.

Here ya go: http://www.chichesterinc.com/MetallicLaces.htm

Google is my bitch! (I should just make that a sig line...)

Very cool! Now you won't lose your booze in the dark!

Yup: http://naturalpigments.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=480-40S You can get lamp black from the same source: http://naturalpigments.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=480-50S

Now that I've spent some time with it, it's not even the profile I want. It's less of a deerfoot modeler than it is a petal lifter, and I have a petal lifter already. Now I'm doubly disappointed, as I could have gotten the tool I wanted for half the price. This is one tool that will sit in my toolbox unused.

So.... not so much with the Craftaid, then? ;-D

That's awesome, and I thank you, but it doesn't answer my question.

There's this: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/home/de...ture=Product_23 Or you can download a font set from dafont.com and print out whatever you need.

My best day recently was riding as Moto Safety Crew for the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure in North Haven, CT (and neighboring towns). My job, along with my crew mates, was to sweep the course, making sure that the bicycle riders were safe and responding to any crashes that might occur. It was pouring rain when I left my friend's house that morning (she hosted me the night before, as it's a 3 hour trip to the college in North Haven where the Tour was starting, and I had to report at 0630). I was dressed and out of the house by 5:30, and walked out onto the porch to a relatively light but persistent rain. I'd checked the weather before I packed everything up, and we were on the leading edge of a decently large weather system. I figured it'd take about three hours to pass, and as it turns out, I was right. I took a few minutes on the porch to put on my rain gear (the pants are getting trashed soon; I burnt holes in both legs on my exhaust pipes) and once I'd mounted my bag on the sissy bar, to put the rain cover on. Finding Gateway Community College (the start point) wasn't that big a deal; the directions from Google Maps were good and there were signs. The highway was scary, though. My visor kept fogging up, so I had to leave it cracked open a bit, which was loud and wet, and at one point I got passed by a semi, which threw spray in my face and made it almost impossible to see. I faked it, more or less, and got to the school fairly early. I wasn't first, but I was there before the team chief, wringing out my gloves. :-D We ended up starting late. Shocker. The "century" riders, those riding 100 miles, were supposed to leave at 6:30, and didn't leave till 7:20. I was tasked, along with my teammate Joanna, to sweep the 100K route, which was mostly the same as the 100 miles till the end. The rain let up and the sky was blue by 8, so we shucked our rain gear and had a great time. This was WAY different than the Avon Walk for Breast cancer (I crew that, too). It was much smaller, more spread out, and much lower key. It seemed like less of a gestalt mentality and more of an individual one. We didn't get as much interaction with the participants as we do on the walk, but they were busy and working hard. Mostly what we did was sweep the route and respond to any emergencies that the riders might have as they go. There were a few issues that other folks caught, but I didn't really see much. The riding was spectacular. The route was gorgeous, the weather turned out amazing, and while I had a job to do, it was mostly just riding all day long. I only wish that my husband could have been there with me; he would have loved it. (My other motorcycling buddies would have loved it, too, but he's my favorite.) The grin inside my helmet was a big as it's ever been, and given that I've only been riding for not quite two years, I was pretty proud of myself for doing this ride by myself. We didn't get back to the college till about 4pm. We did the last 25 miles with a sweep car, and while I'd ridden those roads before, I swear they got bumpier. This assessment is entirely due to the fact that I needed to pee like a racehorse. The team leader wanted to wait for the last few riders to come in, but after I'd taken care of business, I just couldn't hang anymore. I took off, grabbed some gas and then some food at McDonald's (up till that point, my day's food intake consisted of a bagel, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a cider doughnut from Lyman Orchard that was delicious, and a Clif Bar), and headed for home. There was no Zen on the ride home. I'd already done maybe 150, 200 miles going around the course, and faced another 145 miles to get home. I pretty much did it in two legs. I stopped at a roadside rest stop near the CT/MA border to stretch my legs, because my knees were killing me. I just took off my helmet and sat it on the tank, and just rested on it, stretching out my knees and rotating my ankles to try to relieve the pain enough to continue on. I stopped at the Charlton rest stop once I got on the Mass Pike, and got some water, Motrin, and a slice of cake. The Motrin didn't really help, but the cake seemed to. Charlton is almost exactly 75 miles from North Haven, CT, so I gassed up and made the run for home. I stopped one last time at the rest stop in Westford to put on a sweatshirt, and then made the last dash for home. Rides like that are not necessarily transcendent moments. I have to be alert, watching for route markers, traffic, the riders I'm protecting. At the end of the day, everything hurts from the waist down, and sometimes my shoulder's not real happy, either. But I kept all those balls in the air, and I did it with grace. I did a job that other people might not want to do, and the best part is, they don't realize how much fun I had doing it, so they keep letting me come back.

I once spilled a bottle of mahogany spirit dye on my kitchen floor. It looked like I'd shanked someone until I got some denatured alcohol to clean it up. (Rubbing alcohol just does NOT do it.)

I just received this C.S. Osborne modeling tool that I just ordered from Zack White. (Wonderful experience dealing with them; my issue is not with the vendor.) Are all C.S. Osborne modeling tools poorly finished, or did I just get (un)lucky? The surfaces of both faces are very rough; I'm going to have to spend a bunch of time polishing them before I can use it. It probably isn't worth returning it in favor of the Midas deerfoot that they sell, what with the restocking fee and the shipping there and back; I almost think I'd be better off just ordering the Midas tool and chucking $10 worth of C.S. Osborne tool in the garbage. Thoughts?

Vivat and huzzah! (I don't know what the proper cheer is in Atenveldt...)

Just burn one of these for an hour or two: http://www.offprotects.com/mosquito-repeller/ Kept the bugs out of my yurt for the whole two weeks of Pennsic, and doesn't smell as bad as citronella.