However, I have some good news!  My friend Kim is going to start making more stuff, and I will be tagging along!  This means more pictures and stuff!

RIP, Stanley. I hope you are chasing rabbits in doggie heaven

Okay, so first things first, duct tape comes in some wicked cool styles and colors.  Observe:

I mean, seriously – LIME GREEN DUCT TAPE.  Am I the only person who appreciates this?  God, I hope not.

So now, down to business.  This is a bi-fold wallet design that I just sort of winged.  It was my oldest brother’s Christmas present and he thought it was the greatest thing ever.

So we have some lovely orange fabric (for our lining!), black duct tape sheets, and black with flames duct tape for accents.

You may not need these, but I found them extremely useful.  Gather some tools, kids!  I used a rotary cutter, a mat, a ruling edge to cut straight lines, and a pair of scissors.

Apologies for the blurry photo.  And also for missing like, three steps.  So what happened:  cut a piece of fabric that is about 1/4″ smaller on all sides than the duct tape sheets (this is where measuring, rotary cutters, and a steady hand come in handy).  You might need to iron the fabric to get it as flat as you can.

Line the fabric up as best you can, as evenly and straight as possible, and stick the fabric on the sticky side of the duct tape sheet.  Smooth out ALL of the wrinkles.  Whatever you do - DO NOT IRON THIS!!!

Now, fold over the extra duct tape to create smooth, pretty edges for your wallet (and cover any frayed ends on the fabric)!  You’ll have to do some finagling with the corners (cutting out small squares to get an even edge)  You can use the scissor handle to crease everything properly.

Fold the pretty sheet of duct tape and fabric almost in half – make one side half an inch longer.  Crease the bottom if you want, I found it doesn’t matter if you do it.

Take the accent tape (if you are using any), and cut a strip as long as the sheet.  Tear the strip in half LENGTHWISE so it is long but half the width.  Line it up and stick it on, fold it over and stick it down.

Take some duct tape, fold it in half so the sticky sides are out, and tape together the inside of the main pouch.  This prevents money from sticking to the tape.  Take some more tape, and tape the outside edges.  You now have most of a wallet!  Congratulations!  It should look vaguely like this:

Now for the fun part – pockets and the ID window.  To make the window, I took a trading card page and cut out one of the cardholders, then trimmed it to fit my needs.

I stuck tape on the inside edges that way so someone’s ID wouldn’t end up sticking in the window forever.  You can see the pockets behind the little window.

The pockets themselves were pretty easy to make.  Take a card (credit card, library card, whatever) and cut a piece of fabric that fits it.  Allow 3/8″ or so and cut a piece from a duct tape sheet.  Stick the two together, add accent tape to the top if you like, and attach the pockets.  Tape some more along the edges if you’re worried about them holding on.

The nicest thing about the small edges left over on the pockets is that, if they are not positioned correctly, you can peel them off (carefully) and re-attach them!  And, eventually you’ll get something like so:

Which can then fold into something like this:

And voila, the COOLEST wallet anyone will ever own.  And all thanks to the magic of duct tape!

They make Duct Tape SHEETS!  SHEETS OF DUCT TAPE!  No more sticking strips together!

I made wallets for my brothers and girlfriend for Christmas – I have pictures and a short how-to coming shortly.

First, I left Cleveland.  I moved back home and got a full-time job.  It’s the kind of place that makes me desperate for a college degree.

So then, I got back to school.  I took a semester off (not really by choice), then took a semester at a community college, and now I commute twice a week to a University of Wisconsin system school.  It’s more than worth it.  Currently I am in the middle of getting ready for finals, plus some academic grievance issues.  (When someone gives you a bad grade, then says, “I don’t have anything against you – I’m not prejudiced”, what is YOUR first reaction?)

Midway through this semester (October 26, to be truly precise), I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes AND Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.  What these mean:

• Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: my white blood cells have been mistakenly attacking my thyroid, causing it to almost cease production of the hormones that regulate my metabolism, menstrual cycle, and approximately a billion other things in the human body.
• Type 1 Diabetes: the beta cells in my pancreas, the things that produce insulin, have been killed by my body.  I can no longer produce insulin, which is what helps cells absorb glucose (blood sugar) that then get turned into energy.

The really unfortunate part is that I’ve received approximately NO real support.  Nobody can answer my questions, nobody LISTENS to my questions.  They just say what they have been trained to say and call it a day.  I have had plenty of appointments with doctors, but no conversations with them.  My first appointment with the diabetes specialist nurse was an in and out, “this is insulin, this is your meter, talk to one of our dietitians, okay good luck bye see you in a few months!”

Seriously???

I’m twenty-two years old!  And a college student!  I live on coffee and M&Ms and pizza!  What the HELL am I supposed to do?  Well, I saw the dietitian a couple of days ago, and honestly… I’m not in a much better situation.  I got an hour-long lecture on how to count carbohydrates, with no answers given to my questions on what I want to eat if I want to work out again, how to eat so I can feel somewhat sane – that sort of thing.  If it weren’t for the internet, I don’t know what I would do.

My girlfriend found this woman, actually a couple of women, both of whom are weight training experts.  One of them has type 1 diabetes and has set several powerlifting records.  I want to use them as resources, but I’m not sure how.  I don’t know what to do.

So, life has been a bit crazy.  I want to try to keep this blog up, as a record of what happens and what I choose to do.  It will be technical at times, it may even be really really boring to hear me talk about how many units of insulin I have to take each day.  But that is what I want to do.

Anyway, I have new ideas for this blog.  Be prepared.

Eventually I’ll get my spit together enough to post more excitingly cool pictures.  There are a bunch of things I want to see before I leave Cleveland (for good!)

This is what I have been doing with my life over the past (almost) two months. It’s been a weird mix of events.

I’m not sure if I should promise more pictures soon or not, seeing as I never EVER make good on those… But chances are if you’re reading this, that’s okay with you.

Since I mention buildings, here are two photos.  The first is of the University Center on my campus, which is, as you can see, being torn down.  This was the start of the demolition, and there is currently about half the building left standing.

The second photo was taken during the Clinton-Obama debate that happened on campus a few months back.  This is the Wolstein Center, where the debate was, and the crowds around it – all those nutjobs that stood in the blizzard to make themselves heard.

That’s all for now.