DIY Crafts and The Help

So...it's been a while. But my new roommate and I were just talking about how my classes start back in two weeks and I should really take advantage of my down time and do all the things I wish I had time to do during the semester...and I have to say, sometimes one of those things is blogging.

So one, I saw The Help and I thought it was excellent. I wept. Not a few tears..but actual weeping. There was a scene where "the help" has to say goodbye to the little girl she has essentially been raising and she asks the little girl to remember everything she's taught her and the little girl recites back "You is kind. You is smart. You is Important" while they both cry. The little girl asks if she's leaving to raise another little girl and the woman responds of course not, it's just time for me to go and the little girl doesn't understand. I was SHOCKED by how sad it made me.

It brought back all kinds of things about Turkey even though they were so different. I mean, Sirin and Cavit were every bit as taken advantage of and just about as emotionally abused. They also had their own toilet and were not allowed to eat the same table. I watched Sirin uncounscious, sweating and drooling on the kitchen floor from being overworked and I watched her being worked just as hard the next day. I mean, we watch movies like this and say we're so relieved it's passed but it hasn't. It just looks different. But people are still degraded and children are still neglected by their mothers etc. I don't know. It just made me think a lot. But anyway, I'd recommend it.

Second, I recently finished a project I'm kind of proud of. It's a necklace holder!

My old roommate Debrah, ever the artist, picks up things she thinks has potential whenever she comes across it. She's had this piece of wood she found on Vilano sitting on the Red Door's porch for months and she let me use it for the necklace holder I wanted to make it. So we took it, bought some green and cream paint and three different kinds of sandpaper.

First we painted it all cream, blew it dry with my hair dyer, then painted the green over it. Then we used the strongest sandpaper to sand it down to the bare wood then variations of the other two to sand it in different places until it looked a little antiquey and aged like this:

Then I took seven knobs I bought at world market and drilled them in, but not all the way so they wouldn't stick out the back. I staggered them so none of the necklaces would get tangled up with each other. Like this:

Then I got these brackets, super easy to install, and put two in the back then nailed it up. So easy and I love it!

I actually had more interesting things to say than this...about the coolest thing that happened today! But now I have to go!

So first of all...