National No TV Week Challenge

Did you know that this week is national try and get your butt of the couch, and play week? (April 21 - April 27, 2008) Not so well advertised hu? So do you think you can do it? Turn off the TV for a WHOLE week? (yup, that's 7 days)

Well, consider this an official "I Dare you to!"

• Not Turn on your TV for 7 days.
• Not play your Wii, playstation, whatever, that plugs in to your TV.
• Watching Southpark, etc... on your computer counts as watching TV.
• Watching your DVD movies on your computer counts as watching TV.
• Watching Movies, TV shows etc... on your ipod counts as watching TV.
  (getting the idea?)

If you're up for the challenge, post a comment... tell me what you've come up with as an alternative to TV's this week, tell me what you've noticed outside, send me photo's of what you've done with your time instead, links to your blog updates, complaints about how hard it was, whatever. At the end of the week, I'll send one randomly chosen person a deck of cards:

by Lynn Gordon, of 52 alternatives to TV.

Good luck & have fun!

Lightning Bugs

Haven't you always wanted to catch a ton of fireflies put them in a jar & get them to light your way? Seems like this has been in my mind since I was a kid... so when my main squeeze's mom showed up with this busted Coleman lamp seemed like bugs would be the only thing appropriate to fill it with. I look a small strand of LED's & put a bug around each of the lights. Made the bugs out of old nylons, wire & paint. At night it looks fun.. especially hanging on the back porch. Next time... I'll be going for the blinky kind of LED's!

Little glass TV's

I was trying to make little glass TV's. Melting stringers over a flame to make the out line, and then fusing the glass. The one on the right has a bubble, that I was trying to make the TV screen. But it ended up making to many bubbles. So I think I'll have to rethink that approach, and try again. I like how the little red TV turned out though, could make a fun pendant.

Glass experiments

I've been playing a bit with fused glass lately. It's really fun to manipulate the glass. I like it, but because of the quality of the glass needed, it means I don't get to play with recycled glass, which I would like more. Not to mention it's quite clear, my tastes run expensive.
Above is an example I was learning to work with a glass pattern bar. You create a bar of glass, and then slice it and reassemble it... It reminds me of building & then using fimo/sculpy canes. I added a little bit of random to the piece above, which I like. I then sandblasted the back to make it frosted looking... That is cool!! Add a sandblaster to my dream tool list. along with a Kiln, and a tile cutter.