Shop Laughter: Pandora Comedy

             In the past month, Nash has left Techshop to get a new job up the street working with one of his best friends, Ian. He's loving the change and Ian is a virtual force of mayhem. Lately, I get to come home to a whole series of new quirky jokes as they have discovered the new comedy section on Pandora. For those of you like me who are new to the upgrade, roughly a year and a half ago Pandora added roughly 10,000 comedian voice clips with jokes and stand-up routines. As someone who is always searching for more music and shop noise to add to my work day, this has been a lot of fun. So I'm passing my joy along. Click one or more of these 12 stations to add a little laughter to your day:

Today's Comedy
Raw Comedy
Comedy Icons
Urban Comedy
PG Comedy
2000s Comedy
Latino Comedy
Musical Comedy
Women-in-Comedy
Golden Oldies Comedy
LGBT Comedy
Jewish Comedy

2 Free Tickets to the Importance of Being Earnest

           Interested in laughing your pants off for an evening with your date? We're back again with another 2 free tickets to give-a-way for The Importance of Being Earnest at Raleigh Little Theater. This is Oscar Wilde's most famous and last play. It deals with social conventions such as marriage and society in general. Please feel to enter our give-a-way by posting one fun dating misadventures of yours over the years in the comments section. As some of you know, our own dating history has been full of adventures and misadventures. When I first met Nash, I let to believe he was a 34 yr. old gay theater technician instead of a 22 yr. old senior college student. An entire comedy of errors ensued when I realized he was 7 years younger instead of 5 years older and straight. But that's a whole other story. If you've ever done something funny or stupid for love, tell us about it. Because love is a fallacy, and we all make dumb mistakes in the name of it.

Your tickets are for April 11th from 8-10:30 pm.

The Give-A-Way is between February 18th-22nd at midnight. We will announce a winner on Monday February 25th.

Textile Friday: Air or Line Drying

          Last time we talked about using a dryer, this week we're going to talk about line drying. While many people in the US consider air drying passe, over 70% of the world does air drying either because it saves a couple hundred dollars a year or protects your clothing. Sometimes both. Air drying itself is a pretty simple concept, simply hang up the clothing and expose it to air until it naturally dries from evaporation. Both advanced countries like Japan and 3rd world countries like Mexico embrace the practice.
           In the US, many home owners associations actively or passively forbid line drying in their covenants seeing them as lowering the property value, frugality be damned. If you live in a more lenient portion of the country, simply purchase a $5-10 tractable laundry line and hang it up. When you need to dry your laundry, zip it out and follow this handy Instructable to simply hang your clothes up with plastic hangers. Some people prefer clothesline umbrellas as they can be put up or down at will.
          However, if you've actually traveled, you know that simple clotheslines are not generally used overseas because of overall space requirements and smaller folding models provide a handy alternative to a prolonged legal battle or neighborhood wrath in the US. It doesn't make sense to save a couple hundred dollars a year on your household expenses if you end up spending it in legal battles. More complicated indoors or porch models are a great solution for walking in two worlds. They also have the distinct advantage of not being weather dependent or taking up a large amount of space. There's many different models available on the market.
A simple search through ebay, target, or any other retail space will present a variety of options. Here's a few pictures I pulled of current models under $100 on ebay. You can normally pick one up for under $50. Hopefully this will give you some ideas to start from, you can find your own model just for you.
              Happy searching, and may you pick up a new skill this spring or dust off an old one.
       

Roman Concrete Building Gets An Upgrade

                So sometimes you see something so awesome, you just have to share it. This video of a new group working on printing 3D houses in roughly 20 hours (1 day). You want to blow your mind, watch this 12 minute video, especially the pictures at the end as it's being used currently in building structures on the MOON. Yes, I know it has NOTHING to do with textiles, but WOW. I feel like my very own Star Trek: Next Generation replicator is getting closer and closer. This looks like it's based off RIVET technology. Thank you NASA.

Putting Etsy Shop In Vacation Mode

            Hey guys, we're putting the Etsy shop in vacation mode to catch-up on orders. :-)

Snow White Winner: Paul Wentworth

      Happy Monday and congratulations to Paul Wentworth. You are the proud owner of 2 tickets to the upcoming Snow White at Raleigh Little Theater. Have a great week everyone!

Free Dress Rehearsal Tickets to Snow White

     Hey Everyone, hope you haven't been missing me on the blog. I've been busy piecing together a few projects. I didn't want to mention anything before in case they didn't come off as it can be a roller-coaster weeding opportunities that fly across one's desk from the actual working reality of projects that come off. I am so pleased to announce that I will be starting to work one evening at week in the costume shop at Raleigh Little Theater. The current show is Snow White and is a re-telling of the classic fairytale from the Wicked Queen's perspective (Oh the costumes!). I will hopefully be having some fun taking photos (a wonderful backstage pass) and sewing mayhem. If you are new to the area and not yet familar with Raleigh Little Theater, it is one of the oldest operating theaters in the country located in the Rose Garden a couple of blocks from NC State Campus. I've dreamed of working in their costume shop for years and creating magic, now it looks like I have my chance. One of the big things I like about Raleigh Little Theater is how almost all of their costumes are still made from SCRATCH including the wigs and hats. Hopefully a good chance to work on my tailoring skills and improve my knowledge of different time periods and costumes.
           There's a certain hesitation in ready-to-wear to try to be inspired by history instead of slavishly copying it. While I love this practicality that clothes must first and foremost always be wearable, I've often longed to have an excuse to create objects of wonder just because they make one smile. Now, I get a chance to. I hope that you too enjoy the ride. Speaking of ride, the reason for today's post: Nash and I get free comp tickets for every shop apparently and I have 2 extra for the full dress rehearsal of Snow White at the end of the month February 27th and 28th which I am giving away on the blog this week. To enter for a chance to win, simply post a comment on the blog about why you love drama or theater. I will pick one lucky winner to announce next week on Monday, February 11th. Have a great week everyone!