This Weekend That Tim Gets Married

My boy is off in Canada this weekend being a groomsman for an old friend and the cost of travel necessitated I stay home. That, and the fact that there will probably be babies this weekend. I don't want to miss that.

This house without Zeb is so strange, I hope I never get used to it even if there are prolonged times apart to come. I keep thinking he's just quiet in the other room and then remember he is not and I'm alone. I still sleep on only my side of the bed and wake up throughout the night wondering where he is. I'm eating pre-packaged meals instead of cooking. But this is not going to be another post about how I can't live without Zeb, we all know all about that. It's about the projects I rounded up to keep me from just wandering circles around my house this weekend.

I really love giving gifts, and my notebooks and tumblr and Etsy favorites page are just full of gift ideas for birthdays, Christmas, weddings and babies. Of course, I usually adore the $70 angora baby blanket and I know exactly where to get the $70 dress Axon is craving and at that rate it just takes a few special events before we've spent the whole year's gift budget. So I've been on the lookout for things I can make for gifts. I do have more time than money at this point.

I've always loved papercuts, or scherenschnitte, and even more so since I found the breathtaking creations on Elsa Mora's blog The Heart Of Papercutting a while ago. I had no idea how easy they are to do yourself until I found the Free Template Tuesday series on Cindy Ferguson's blog this week and thought why not try it? Between the two blogs I borrowed (I hope that's OK since I won't be selling them and I'll more than give credit for the sources) all these patterns I've cut in the last few days.

I seem to do very well with tedious tasks. In junior high I was very into making Ukrainian Eggs - an utterly useless and very very time consuming craft. I kind of like stuffing envelopes for mailings. I didn't mind folding hundreds of napkins as a server. I had a feeling that scherenschnitte would be right up my rote alley. These papercut patterns are not hard, they're just time consuming.

I'm behind on boy baby gifts, so I picked mostly boy themed patterns to start with.

The materials required are a self healing cutting mat and an x-acto knife with #11 blades, and of course the paper with the design printed onto it. All in all the cost for supplies came in at around $16.

The cost to my back, however, is another story. The accumulated hours spent hunched over each one of these in the last two days leave me feeling, well, in a lot of pain. Yet the addictive fun of it leaves me contemplating ibuprofen so that I can do just one or two more. That is only impressive if you realize that I hate taking ibuprofen and hardly ever do.

Another thing I'm doing this weekend, when my back absolutely needs a break, is reading the wonderful book Ina May's Guide to Childbirth in preparation for aforementioned birth that will hopefully take place this weekend.

I'm also watching movies Zeb has no interest in such as The Triplets of Belleville which is very delightful and quirky.

I'm also practicing low light/night photography, for aforementioned birth, and many of these photos are the result of my practice. I'm very pleased with what that camera can do in low light without a flash. If it's even possible, I'm even more in love with that camera than before.

I should probably also scrub that moldy grout in the shower this weekend. But I probably won't.