A tisket, a tasket... fake pears in a basket!

The other night I sat down to crank out some wine charms but I just wasn't feeling it. I picked up my pliers and tried, but felt so uninspired. I sat for a minute and let my mind wander, and on semi-autopilot I grabbed my size P crochet hook and some jute and started crocheting.

Maybe an hour, hour and a half later I had this little basket! I really just let my mind wander with this one, and after I had finished the base I realized I was making a basket. Which I figure is great, what with Easter coming up! I didn't have any cute easter eggs (and eggs looked a bit small in the basket) so I grabbed some fake pears I had lying around and three fit perfectly.

Have you ever been in that semi-autopilot state? I've made some terrible crochet mistakes in different projects that way... but I've also made some pretty awesome things that way, too! Brains work in mysterious ways, no?

Linking up again this week with Meg at Happy Kids Inc! Her Bloglovin Blog Hop has really grown in the past couple weeks, especially with Google discontinuing Google Reader! You can follow poppyrocket here.

Happy THursday everybody!

Photos: 35mm film equipment

I may have mentioned I work in a small movie theater.

Tonight as I was waiting for the digital projector equipment to shut down I snapped a couple photos of the old 35mm film equipment. I just used my Samsung Flight- a texting phone with a very unfancy camera. They turned out surprisingly well!

The front of the projector with a flat lens

This one above is my absolute favorite. I used no filters and no flash, and did not edit them. They're a bit grainy, but they feel so nice and vintagy. Without a smartphone/Instagram, I have to make do :)

Meters on the side of the bulb house.

We went digital in December, so all of the old film equipment has been pushed against the walls in the projection booth

Film rings- about 12" diameter, these were at the center of a movie when the film was in use.

Going digital made my job a lot easier and a lot less stressful. With film projecting, there were a lot of little places where you could screw up. With every show, a manager had to go upstairs to carefully thread the film through the projector and start it right on time- not easy to do on a busy night! Now it's all automated (as long as everything is scheduled correctly).

This style of reel was before my time; not sure how old it is. It's huge- 3' diameter!

Still, I miss film even though I only projected for about seven months. Most movie companies are discontinuing film printings because it's too expensive- that was the impetus for our switch last year. Sadly, some theaters in the US will be put out of business because going digital carries a huge up-front price tag. I'm so glad The Vine will still be around!

Have a great week, everyone!

Caturday: Celebrity edition

Sooooo at one point I posted cats every Saturday. But during the unplanned break I took after October I somehow lost that. I think I'll bring it back!

Today was a four-cup-of-coffee sort of day. Between dropping my phone in a toilet last night to leaving my keys at my mom's house to needing those keys this morning by 8:45 so I could serve popcorn to forty ten-year-olds at the start of a long shift... let's just say I've had better days.

But these have made today infinitely better.

Paul McCartney

Steve Martin

Ernest Hemingway 

John Travolta

Elizabeth Taylor 

Marlon Brando

Fred Astaire 

Bette Davis

Carole King

Sigourney Weaver

Audrey Hepburn

Hayley Mills

Mary Tyler Moore

Brigitte Bardot

Meryl Streep

Ingrid Bergman

Eartha Kitt

Betty White

The Kennedys

Peter Lorre

Is twenty enough? I think twenty is enough.

That was so much fun. If you ever need a little pick-me-up I definitely recommend searching for celebrities and cats on Pinterest. Or you could just check out this pinboard- I discovered it toward the end of my search and it is AMAZING. Over six hundred pins!

Have a great weekend, everyone. Hopefully this made it just a pinch better.

<3 EEK

Quick & easy craft: Bottle cap magnets!

The other day I felt the need to finish something. I have so many interrupted projects and my stash of stuff is getting out of control. Who am kidding? It's been out of control for a while now.

I had saved several colorful bottle caps from beer and soda bottles with the idea of making magnets. I don't know why I didn't do this ages ago... it was so easy, and the accomplishment of actually finishing a project (albeit a small one) was really rewarding.

Nice and colorful! They look great on the fridge. The magnets I had on hand weren't quite thick enough to overcome the depth of the bottle caps, so I glued a couple layers of felt in under each magnet. You can see this best below with the red felt on the right. 

A hot glue gun would probably work but I don't have one (le gasp! a crafter without a glue gun?!). E-6000 did the trick! If you decide to make some and you're using a glue that requires a little time to set, like I did, MAKE SURE you don't put your bottlecaps too close together because the magnets will attract, as magnets do, and this can screw up your glue job if it's still wet.

Linking up again with Happy Kid's Inc's Bloglovin' Blog Hop again! Meg's blog hop has really grown- last week she broke fifty link-ups and this week it looks like she'll break a hundred!

You can follow me on Bloglovin' here.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Tonight is my Sunday night- I had a rare two days off in a row, but I have to go in extra early to run a birthday rental tomorrow. What fun. Maybe I'll splurge on some Starbucks... :)

Something I needed: 29 ways to stay creative

I found this kick-ass infographic via Whipup and it was just what I needed. I don't feel like I'm in a slump right now... but I do kind of feel like I'm slogging around from day to day. Like I'm not quite where I want to be and I'm wading through all this muck trying to get there. Some days I get a little closer, some days I don't. This infographic was both inspiring and reassuring.

Yesterday I organized my cupboards, cleaned out the freezer, did a ton of laundry, saw Lincoln with my mom, and cooked dinner. It was only spaghetti, but it was still more than I usually do. (I hate to say it, but cooking is kind of a special occasion for us.) I also finished a small project that I'll share soon. It was a wonderfully productive day! I have to work tonight, but let's see what I can get done before five o'clock!!