The original meaning of “hack” was a quick, elaborate and/or bodged solution (Wikipedia). At dresshack, our clothing and costuming solutions come in all shapes and forms - quick and clever, elegant facades hiding messy interiors, liberal use of safety pins and glue guns, and lot of experimentation.

Being part of a dresshack group with two base of operations that isn’t at my house (no space) means we have to keep our equipment mobile. Peggy has an electric sewing machine which she totes with her when needed, so she is our chief sewing machine ninja. (I have a 29-year old Butterfly Sewing Machine which required both mum and myself to move from her room to mine.)

Whether or not our sewing machines are mobile, we dresshackers sure accumulate a lot of bits and bobs. I have all my things neatly stored in a drawer somewhere, easily accessible when I need a spool or ribbon or some embroidery thread. Since I can’t lug the entire chest of drawers with me, I bought a plastic toolbox and moved my things over.

Dresshacking also means there are a lot of on-site alterations or fixes, as we learned from the ‘Trash It‘ project. It’s handy to be able to pack everything we might need into our toolbox and bring it along.

Since I’ve come to the point where I need a toolbox, I suspect I’ve achieved the status of apprentice needle pusher.

See the original entry at:

The Dresshack Toolbox

I was looking for a stationary tray that I can put into a desk drawer. The reason being two mugs full of stationary on my desk is ridiculous. Okay, moving clutter into a different position doesn’t solve the problem of it being there, but I don’t want to get rid of it. They still work, and there are times when I actually need them.

Naturally, a stationary tray cannot be found whenever I venture into a nearby book store or the stationary department. Dangerous territory. Being in a book shop or stationary corner means all sorts of other things are trying to tempt me into taking them home. Like I really need a fancy wire office desktop set that doesn’t include the tray that I want.

Things turn up when you’re not looking for it, so I was not surprised to find it in one of the many cheap stores around town when I was there looking for a teapot.

Technically it’s a cutlery tray from the kitchenware section, but cutlery and stationary have the same basic configuration. Plus it came in a bright lime green that matches some of the other stuff I own.

Yes, you do see frogs in there.

The store I went to also had a surprising amount of stuff to organise your cable clutter, and for ridiculously cheap. I got two packs of cable ties (different lengths) for about a buck each. The section merits another visit when I’m in the mood to prospect for decluttering tools.

And I never did get my teapot.

See the original entry at:

The Cheap Stuff Store

First of all, I re-potted two plants I bought at the Satok Market. Yes, I bought plants. No, the real Gette is not in at the moment. Please leave a message.

The one on the left is a spider plant. I call her Ms. Spider Plant. At some point, I’ll pick up a cactus and call him McPedro. Ms. Spider Plant will follow me to the office. I have no idea what kind of plant that is on the right. I bought it because the leaves were pretty.

Here’s another photo I snapped while out in the backyard today.

I have no idea what plant that is either. Our backyard is actually quite nice, especially in the late afternoon when the sun is on that side of the house. There were three Pied Fantails squabbling around as usual. I would have stuck around longer to get photos if it wasn’t for those savage mosquitoes.

Yesterday, I cleaned out one of my two the overhead closet spaces which I haven’t touched since they were given to me. Threw out three bags full of junk, saved a handful of things, including this watch.

An aunt gave it to me when I was a kid. It was too unusual for me to toss the first time, so I took it to the watch shop near my office today to see if it’s salvageable.The guy replaced the battery and it’s ticking again.

There is another closet space left to tackle, but I thought I’d leave it for this weekend, when I’m on leave and NOT going to RWMF.

See the original entry at:

Busy Weekend

I have over 250 books and counting, but I think the number is more like 300+ because I haven’t catalogued all of them. It’s kinda like bailing out a sinking boat. Most of the books are collected over the span of years. I inherited (”rescued” would be more appropriate) a handful from parents and grandparents. Nobody reads them but they were too cool to throw away.

All photographs here are viewable in a larger format. Just click. If the Lightbox doesn’t work, you’ll still get the actual file.

The book stack above resides in a corner of the living room. I convinced my parents that it’s a valid decorating element. Every now and then, I’ll add another book somewhere into the stack or take away something I want to read.

This bookcase is on the landing upstairs. The phone and modem is on top (you can just see the phone). The two bottom shelves hold children’s books and other large format editions.

Most of the books here are either orphan trade paperbacks, and books I don’t read any more. Some are books I can’t leave downstairs, least my parents’s church friends drop by and notice that their godless daughter reads about magic, occultism, Harry Potter and 100 Ways to Cook Children.

And here is where most of the goods are. Nearly all my paperbacks and series are here. I try to keep my series together regardless of the editions, so some creative arrangement is necessary.

As you can see from the photo, I mainly store my books lying down. I get to store a lot more books this way, and because my bookcases are deep, I can double stack them and still have a strip of space left. Anyway, I’m not going to peruse my own library looking like this:

:-|

Some of the spaces in the lower half are not used for books, but I got no other place for them at the moment. There are some old school magazines that I want to keep, a couple of boxes of comic books my brother and I used to collect, a box file of my old artwork, a bagful of unused notebooks, and some other junk.

In theory, there’s plenty of space for another 100 books or so, as long as I find a home for all the other non-books.

See the original entry at:

My Bookshelves

“WTF.” I thought. “These things really pile up when you’re not looking.”

The only reason I need plastic bags in my room is to line my wastepaper basket, and to bag the occasional item that is going out with me but isn’t going into my bag. Out of the huge bag, very few were actually big enough to fit my wastepaper basket. Most were small ones that were probably used to bag a bar of chocolate. Which is ridiculous.

I got a muffin at the bakery the other day and I was astounded as how many plastic bags the staff deems necessary to get your purchase packed! First, they bag your item in individual clear bags, and then they bag that into another plastic bag with handles. Again, if there are more than two items, I can understand the extra bag, but all I got was one muffin that I was planning to tear into as soon as I left the shop.

A simple Google search on plastic bags yield much information about how something we take forgranted is destroying the environment. Just stop for a moment and think about how many plastic bags you encountered today. Did you know that they’re virtually indestructible?

A Facebook Cause I support is called “Drop The Plastic Bag“. For those of you who are too lazy to click over and read, here are the facts:

1. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.

2. According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.

3. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)

4. According to the industry publication Modern Plastics, Taiwan consumes 20 billion bags a year—900 per person.

5. According to Australia’s Department of Environment, Australians consume 6.9 billion plastic bags each year—326 per person. An estimated .7% or 49,600,000 end up as litter each year.

6. Over 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish every year

7. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.

8. According to David Barnes, a marine scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, plastic bags have gone “from being rare in the late 80s and early 90s to being almost everywhere from Spitsbergen 78° North [latitude] to Falklands 51° South [latitude].

–Taken from Drop The Plastic Bag

The part that kills me the most is animals suffering because of dumb humans. Imagine this poor little baby green turtle having to worry about getting baggied in the water, in addition to everything else young animals have to face in the big cruel world.

Like the rest of the world, plastic bags are ingrained into the shopping culture. While Malaysia is still a long way from eliminating them from our consumer lifestyle altogether, there are several small steps we can take to reduce their usage.

Carrying a reusable bag isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Most of us already carry some kind of bag when we go out. I’ll be the first to admit that I do feel awkward shoving large items into my bag at the counter, so I’ll probably accept that plastic bag if my bag isn’t going to hold the purchase.

But do we really need a small plastic bag when we buy a bar of chocolate or one measly can of tuna? The counter staff will give you that bag anyway - because they are pre-programmed to do it and because the customer expects it. Just tell them you don’t need one, but don’t forget to get your receipt!

There are days when my mind is on something else at the check-out counter and I forget not to accept a plastic bag for something I could have easily slipped into my bag. So be aware. Small items, magazines, books, etc, can easily go into a bag you’re already carrying, be it your everyday bag or a necessary plastic bag already containing a previous purchase.

If you can’t completely eliminate the plastic bag from your shopping, aim to only pick up just one for that trip. If you’re prone to seeing stray plastic bags dance across your room like tumbleweed, accumulating less of them will soon make a difference. It worked for me. Now I can’t find a plastic bag when I actually need one!

See the original entry at:

Small steps to reducing plastic bag use