You can fix (or make) anything out of Duct Tape

The crafty shenanigans were in full force tonight at Casa de Chittum. Last week on "Today" a crafty author, Jodi Kahn, demonstrated making tote bags out of T-shirts and duct tape, using staples to hold it all together. She's shilling a new book, "Simply Sublime No Sew Bags."

I DVRed it, thinking this was definitely a project right up our alley.

Each of the girls picked out a shirt to use, I picked up a new rotary cutter and mat from JoAnn's, Mitzi picked up the duct tape and brought the stapler. We watched the video a couple more times, and Amy LM came over to give us some moral support and tell funny stories.

You have to cut the sleeves off of the shirts, then turn them inside out and line them with the duct tape. It's easier than it sounds, but it does take a little time.

I guess if you got fed up with the project at this point, you'd have a nice, easily cleanable paint smock - just wipe and go!

I chose a red River Run T-shirt, and luckily Mitz had picked up some red tape, and it was exactly the right shade. Then, we worked on a pink shirt for Bets and a cool environmentally messaged T for Mitzi.



Amy shot that photo of Betsy and Mitzi demonstrating how this purse project is something twins joined at the head might be able to participate in.

Once you get the inside lined with tape, you have to "seam" the bottom of it with a line of staples, then reinforce the seam with a line of tape.

Shape the armholes and neckhole the way you want it (makes the straps for the bag) and then turn it inside out. Your cool T-shirt will be on the outside.

Obviously, I've taken out a few steps along the way, but you mostly get the idea. If you're interested in making your own bags, let me know and I'll dig up the link with the how-to video.


Mitzi models her finished product.

Betsy models hers. Realized after they'd gone home that I didn't have a photo of mine all finished. I'll add it tomorrow.

Joshua decided he wanted to get in on the act, so we whipped him up a duct tape wallet. Of course, found the instructions for that on the internet.

This was before we decided that the measurements online were a little GIANT for a normal wallet. We did a little trimming and creative crafting to come up with a finished product.

That's his retired wallet on the right, and our product on the left.

My biggest piece of advice if you're interested in undertaking a project like this: figure out when the tape will be on sale, then buy a bunch of it. The rolls of tape were about $7 apiece, and it took just about an entire roll of the colored tape to do one shirt. They make the tape in just about any color nowadays, but the colored rolls seemed to be smaller than the traditional silver duct tape.

I've got a great tie-dye shirt I'd like to make a yellow-tape bag with. Let me know if you hear the colored rolls go on sale!

These bags would make really cool knitting project bags. I plan to load mine up tomorrow and shoot some photos of it so you can check it out.

Battery Buzzkill

As we were breaking in the new Rock Band for Wii game the other night, I discovered something about new(er) toys.

In the good old days, batteries could be easily changed by manipulating the little clip that held the battery cover. (See the remote, below, for example).

Two different games I got for Christmas this year, however, require a screwdriver to remove the battery cover.

A screwdriver!

You're already annoyed because you've got to root around for batteries (I think I removed batteries from everything in the house), and THEN, you've got to find a freakin' tiny screwdriver as well.

Is the toymaker's best friend the tiny screwdriver maker? Up there is the Catchphrase timer. You can see the battery cover at the top.

And that's the guitar for Rock Band. What happens when the little screw gets stripped? I know this will happen eventually - it happens to all screws. Then, are we faced with duct tape on all of our toys?

Parents and Santa - remember this next year. When you pick up those "Batteries Not Included" toys, and you're good enough to remember the batteries, you might want to wrap up a tiny screwdriver as well.

P.S. Anybody out there who has Rock Band - gentle reminder to turn off the guitar when you're done playing, so you don't run the batteries down.

Windy wack

I had planned to write a blog post about how I have pretty much done absolutely nothing the last few days except hang out with the family, eat Christmas goodness, and do a little shopping. So much nothing that I slept over at my parents' house the last two nights. We stay up late, and then I don't feel like going home to a cold, empty house. Adam is still visiting his family in Salt Lake.

Last night, though, Mitzi and I decided we needed to get out and about, so we went to see "Doubt" with my aunt. Great movie. I love both Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and they were incredibly intense in the movie.

After we dropped off Alice, Mitzi stayed over for a bit. We knitted, watched "What Not To Wear" and "The Dog Whisperer." She went home around midnight, and I went to bed.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke to the sound of the wind outside. WIND. What the hell? I'm a very heavy sleeper. It takes giant thunder claps and lightning to wake me up. Last night, though, the wind did it.

I got up, peeked out the window, went to the bathroom, and crawled back in bed. In my half-asleep/half-awake state, I reasoned that it must not be a tornado, because I didn't hear sirens. I think I did contemplate for a split second going into the bathtub just in case...but only for a second. (I was half asleep and groggy!)

When we got home from the movie last night at 10, the car thermometer read 65 degrees. It was warm out - we weren't wearing coats, and I had the vent going driving home.

When I went out to pick up limbs this morning, most of them were covered in a layer of ice, and it was 32 out.

Of course I didn't pull the car into the garage last night, so there was a little ice on it this morning. I moved it in the garage since the weather is supposed to get worse later today.

I call this photo: "When's summer?" Through the ice, you can see my bike hanging in the window, and those Christmasy colored blobs in the bottom right are our coolers/camping gear.


I'm pretty sure there are still some lose limbs that will come crashing out of the trees if we get ice today, or if the wind kicks up again. Luckily, nothing fell on the cars or the roof.

Our trees are really old - I was just looking at photos of the house from back in the day, and the trees were about six feet tall. They really need to be trimmed, but with wind like this, they're getting thinned out.

No, we don't normally keep the trash can lying on it's side next to the fence.


Our giant pampas grass always falls over when it snows or ices. The weight pulls the grass down. It always looks so pitiful like that.

We're supposed to go over to Julie's for Sax Christmas this afternoon. I hope the weather holds out for that. I'd be quite perturbed if we haven't had a school snow day yet this year, but our Christmas celebration gets snowed out!

I read in the Star that the Wal-Mart at 159th and Metcalf will be closed for a while because of structural damage and a broken gas line. That's right next to my school - guess it was a lot worse out there. Hope my students are all okay.

This and that

We got up at O Dark Early today to get Adam to the airport. Left the house at 5:30, and got to KCI at 6:40. Normally, it doesn't take that long from here, but there was just enough snow over night to gum up the traffic works. Thank God most people don't work on Christmas Eve, so the roads were at least being lightly traveled.

Looks like it could be a white Christmas, but it's more like a whiskery white Christmas - it snowed, but not enough to cover up the grass.

Last night we did the friend-ily gift exchange with Betsy and Mitzi, and watched "Can't Buy Me Love." Mitz cooked up some awesome homemade pizza. I think she's inspired Adam to invent his own recipe for homemade pizza, too. Betsy gave Adam the Nestle Tollhouse (Tooul-hoouse, for you "Friends" fans) cookbook. We decided that we should make a recipe from there every week when we have our little get-togethers, but we'll also have to schedule an extra get-together for working out to burn off the sugar!

Picture me like the little old ladies in "The Three Amigos" today - SEW LIKE THE WIND! I've got to finish the blanket, and make a scrapbook page frame as well. Guess it's a good thing Adam took off for Salt Lake.

Off to get some work done.

Baby, it's f#@*ing cold outside!

That's what we do in the Chittum household when it's cold and we're off of school...If you are an avid reader of the ChittumFiles, you probably saw Sunday's post about the frosty windows. Well, we took a drastic step today.

You know it's cold when I'm forced to move the catbox (yes, I'm actually writing about my cat's litterbox on my blog. I'm officially a crazy cat lady) from the back laundry room to the craft room. Unfortunately, Gracie is a weakling, and she can't push the back door open on her own. So, we have to prop the door open just enough for her to come and go as she pleases. That way, she can get to her food and her bathroom whenever she needs it.

Well, that works fine in a normal climate, but since we now live in what feels like the Arctic Circle, we've had to make some changes. The back room isn't insulated very well, since it was added on at some point, and it's quite drafty. I think I saw some teeny-tiny little ice-skaters in the back bathroom's toilet bowl early this morning.

For now, the back door will stay closed, and we're getting ready to hang up a blanket over the door to keep the cold air in the back room.

Yesterday, we opened presents with Mom and Dad. Here's a photo of Dad modeling the hat and scarf I made for him. I got lucky, because I was already working on it for him, when around Thanksgiving, he said "Why don't you knit me another scarf? I need another warm one."


I can post this next photo because I know that Grandma Jarsulic is NOT going to be hopping on the Innernets any time soon to read the blog. We went to see her yesterday and she said they keep it cold at the home where she stays. I've been working on this for a couple of weeks now. I hope it can get it done before Christmas night when the family gets together.

My plan is to make it like a lap blanket, so she can cover up with it when she's rolling around in her wheelchair.

10 gallon head = 1 Kleenex box

Not even crocheting a blanket for my grandmother could keep me distracted enough during "The Pursuit of Happyness" to keep from bawling my eyes out. Jeez.

Everyone else out there has probably already seen the movie, and is all ready to go see "Seven Pounds." I mean, Oprah was all over it last year. I remember sitting on the couch in our little College Hill house watching Will talk about it with Oprah. We never saw "Happyness" in the theater, but we DVRed it a while back.

I'm really glad I did not see that movie at the theater. It would have been quite embarrassing to be so worked up over it in public.

I had to stop working on the blanket for a little while since I couldn't see through the tears in my eyes. I told Adam that I think part of the reason the movie is so emotional is that the boy who plays Chris Gardner's son is actually Will Smith's son, so it's really intense to watch the father and son dynamic.

If you haven't seen the movie, you really should. It was really incredible, and I love Will Smith anyway, so he really shined in the main role. Just a warning, though - you WILL be an emotional wreck by the end of it, so have the tissues handy.

Should have purchased the DEFROST option

When we woke up this morning, we were greeted by this frost on the window. It's on the outside of our front room, just behind the Christmas tree. I guess that's what happens when it feels like -12 outside.

Don't all of you who used to live here in KC but have moved to points South miss it? You, yes, you, could be freezing your arses off today like we are.

It's so cold, even our furry friends are wearing sweaters. But, we think Minnie might have just been trying to act like the high school wrestlers - she's got on her singlet and and headgear, ready for whatever pooch comes along and tries to take her down.


We braved the cold last night to hang out with Mitzi and Betsy for a bit. Lots of knitting, snacking, and "Elf" watching. Minnie was quite excited to see her bf, Adam, walk in the door.


We're heading over to Mom and Pop's for our Christmas present opening. Have to do it today since Adam is going to Salt Lake City on Christmas Eve to see his family.

The word of the day: LAYER.