A Shot Glass of Convenience

When I was a kid, I thought shot glasses were just small cute glasses (like those found in a make-believe tea party; I was too young to know that they were actually for adults taking shots of liquor.) If my parents went out of town for some reason, they would often bring me back a shot glass as a souvenir. Maybe that seems like a strange souvenir for a child, but really it was probably a souvenir of convenience (and certainly not any sort of promotion of underage drinking).

Shot glasses are super easy souvenirs since they can be found at many airport gift shops, they’re fairly inexpensive and there’s a variety to choose from. A good shot glass design should reflect the specialness of the place, whether it’s a particular monument or attraction, symbol, color, idea—just something that shows its personality and how it’s different from other places. It can be a challenge to find an attractive shot glass (since most fall into the bland or ugly category), but a few of my cuter shot glasses are in the photo above.

It’s been years since I got a new shot glass because I just don’t have the need (or the space) for more unnecessary stuff. I admit that if I’m waiting in an airport I might peruse a gift shop and see what they have to offer, but I practically never buy anything. After a while you have less of a desire to collect “evidence” that you went some place (because isn’t a good photo and the memory enough?). Souvenir knickknacks are inevitably items that you’ll probably never use (whether it be shot glasses, key chains, postcards, etc.) and will just inconveniently take up space…even the cute ones.

DIY: Paper Earrings

There are times where you might want or need “disposable” earrings, like a Halloween costume or holiday-related earrings. This is a simple way to create earrings that can be whatever shape you can cut out of paper.

Shear Boredom is a Good Thing…Sometimes

I recently had plans to meet my mom for coffee, and while I got there on time, she was running late. That left me waiting alone with some extra time on my hands, so I plucked a notebook and pen from my bag and started sketching ideas.

Every so often I find great motivation in boredom. When I’m waiting for someone or something I’m given the (often unwanted) gift of time, and this can force me to think about projects without extraneous distractions. There are two routes I’ll consider when thinking about a project, the concept (or the “what's the overall idea?”) and the method (as in “how do I put this all together and make it work?”).

Concepts usually come to me in a sudden burst of inspiration—I may see something or remember something that sparks my imagination (like wanting to use my memory of the Estate Game to create something). It’s often more subconscious; I may be doing something mundane and then an idea just pops into my head. On the flip side, I often have to actively think about the methods I’ll use in a project; this tends to be a slower more methodical process (especially if there’s special construction issues to take into consideration).

So I generally try to use my waiting time wisely. It’s not that I’m excited to be bored, because I’m not. But sometimes boredom can make you want to do something; it can nudge you to think and create and to be productive.

It’s a Pun—Japanese Style

I love wordplay. It amuses me to see words used in an interesting manner. While my understanding of Japanese in limited, when I “get” a pun it makes me smile. Here are a few cute (animal-related) products using Japanese puns:

Letterpress Cards Too Cute to Use

I love the look and feel of letterpress cards—the thick soft paper beautifully pressed with ink makes me smile in appreciation. So much so that I once took a one-day “Introduction to Letterpress” class (that lasted about six hours), and I quickly learned that doing letterpress was not for me. Why? Because you really have to carve out hours of time to do letterpress, and the impatient person in me just wants to be able to create letterpress pieces without the set up and clean up part (which of course isn’t going to happen). So if I’m not going to create my own letterpress pieces, then that leaves buying pieces instead.