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building festifools every april the sunday nearest april fool's day features the silliest and most fun parade down main street in ann arbor. festifools! this year marks the 9th year for it, and a lot of work goes into making the giant papier mache puppets that are the focus. it takes a lot of glue and hard work! wonderfool productions holds many workshops leading up to the event where folks can go in and help out. this year i did so and here's the scene from the day. here are some dangling finished puppets and folks working on unfinished ones. the "skeleton" you find underneath. lots of paper mache and sticky hands!

it was a great day working as a team with such a wonderful end. i am really looking forward the parade on april 12!

Posted by dang argyle at 9:42 PM No comments: Labels: ann arbor, DIY, festifools, puppets


the life-changing magic of reading the right book once the new year hit i started de-junking my house. i always have a bit of freak-out cleaning up christmas decorations, christmas gifts AND the remnants of holiday craft fairs still sitting all over my house. i live in a small (and wonderful) duplex, and at this point i just can't pack more things into my closets.

i am a pretty organized person, i keep things tidy and like to line things up. BUT i do have a lot of things, and they are packed and stacked into closets. i also have a lot of knick-knacks and little collections that i want to keep in some way.

then a few craft pals started talking about this book online. the life-changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organizing by marie kondo. i couldn't resist their enthusiasm for this book and its greatness. i immediately purchased it.

i have since read the book and started putting it into practice. now, first off, i am not following this book to a  T. as i said, i am a pretty organized person, and i don't find my self tidying daily - which is something the book aims to put an end to - tidying daily. i hoped to use this book to help decide what to get rid of when it comes to books, knick-knacks, and things with sentimental value -- i need advice on this! her book talks a lot about surrounding yourself with things that spark joy. how nice does that sound?! if it doesn't spark joy, it's out! so i've been applying that as i sort through rooms and things. it's been a wonderful help, and i can't stop talking about it to people! i've gotten rid of a lot of things and am working more on creating less "visual noise" around my small house.

if you're looking to do any sort of self cleansing and home cleaning in a one-stop combo, find this book. see if it speaks to you. i feel like anyone can grab some tips from it even if they don't follow the method as instructed.

happy orgranizing!
Posted by dang argyle at 8:30 AM No comments: Labels: books, cleaning, home, house, organizing, spring, spring cleaning


happy friday! happy spring! this is my brain! not only because it's friday, but because it's march and going to be 58 degrees today in michigan... because SPRING HAS SPRUNG! the giant heaps of snow are melting and i'm pretty much doing this dance daily. woohoo! last weekend i welcomed the warm air by sitting on chairs on a frozen lake with drinks and snacks. it was the PERFECT way to celebrate pure michigan spring times.

lately i've been doing a lot of spring cleaning, house sprucing up, and spring clothes purchasing. good times!
Posted by dang argyle at 8:49 AM No comments: Labels: dancing, friday, pattern, simplicity, spring, tgif

