Shine on, Cheapass Christmas, shine on.

Craftster is like a sick obsession. Wallowing through all the crap people make out of other crap to find those rare few awesome ideas can lead to hours upon hours of feeling alternately elated, exasperated, inadaquate, and nauseous. Often at the same time. I spent an evening staring at craftster a couple weeks ago and was left with two revelations: #1 I needed a Dremel, #2 most of the people on cratster need to lay off the crack. In fact, so deep was this need for a Dremel that the next morning when I woke up the first thing I said to Red Todd Kidd was, "I need a Dremel." Now you may not know this (Sarcasm! sarcasm!) but RTK puts up with a lot. A LOT. I start all kinds of crazy projects and most never make it out of the planning stages letalone get finished. So of course he just laughed and we went on about our day. I never did shut up about the Dremel. I talked about it non-stop for two days. Finally RTK gave in and bought it for me as an early Christmas present. He's the best, ain't he? I have so many projects lined up for that thing that I'm busting at the seams trying to contain myself until I've finished all my Christmas projects. Now, aside from the desperate need for power tools I did spy something that turned out to be important. Some girl or other had made a tote bag out of a velvet painting. Not two days later as Darth and I are walking home from school there was a 2 1/2' x 5' velvet painting with a hole in the corner in someone's yard that had a sign stating: "Free". As you can see, Darth and I ripped that sucker right off its frame and took it home. For those who don't know about this yet, my cousins and I do a gift exchange where you may only spend $10 and you must make your gift yourself. Behold the velvet purse (lined with a bedsheet) I made from the neighbors' discarded painting. Isn't it horrifying? I purchased a zipper, metal loops and ribbon. Thus far I have invested all of $4. PLease note the snakeprint on the ribbon. I assure you this was only because this was the only ribbon Wal-Mart had in the correct width. I'm thinking I may make a matching coin purse. Does cheapass Christmas get any better than this? I think not. I've nearly finished a glove for the SIL, I'll show it to you once it's done. 11.5 discloths done, 4.5 to go. I volunteered a scarf for FIL but luckily I actually have one that's nearly done I can give him and no it's not the Harry Potter one. A cup warmer for SIL's boyfriend is in the works. A beaded badge holder necklace thing for mom too. I'm headed to the crazy house people! At least this year it seems like I may actually get everything done. Shouldn't there be some kind of prize for this? Wait, I think creating that purse made me inelligible for any kind of kudos. Oh well.