Deer Me (it's been a long time since I posted last)

Much to my dismay, grad school doesn't leave much time for crafting. If I'm being analytical, grad school doesn't leave much time for anything, including but not limited to, husbands, friends, cooking, family, cats, exploring your neat new neighborhood, going to museums, exercising, etc. It also doesn't leave me much time for shopping, which is a very good thing. But I struggle with the loss of the other activities, especially the husband/family ones.

Last weekend, the last thing I wanted to do was pick up my drafting materials and draw out floor plans. While procrastinating feels good in the moment, the accumulation of it = eventual anxiety. How do I deal with anxiety? Crafting, of course (this may be interpreted as more procrastination... but I think that would be inaccurate. But that's just my opinion of course.)



About two months ago, I bought a pack of trivets at Ikea. They were an impulse buy near the checkout counter (3 trivets for 2 bucks--- who could pass that up?!?!?), but I knew I could find some use for them. Earlier in the fall, I bought a Dremel VersaTip tool, which I intended to use for soldering, but never did. The tool can also be used for woodburning, which I thought was nifty, but it took me a week or so to put it together with my impulse trivet purchase. Then, thanks to Pratt, it took me several more weeks to actually open the packages get to work. And once I did, I had way too much fun. Take a peek:

 I made them for Mama for her birthday (a month late... see previous complaints about school.). What do you think? I've been calling them Belle-Epoque-meets-Redneck-Baroque, which I challenge you to say three times fast.

Unfortunately, the procrastination demons were not appeased yet, and you can't send a present like that with a store bought card, can you? No! So I pulled out my printmaking materials and started carving woodland creatures onto printing blocks. Carving is amazingly therapeutic, so expect a whole line of forest friends over the next few months... and a whole lot of cheesy animal puns to accompany them (the title of this post included!). You're a deer!