Latest Update: Added links to two lists of reasons to use paper, from Web Worker Daily.

Why, with PDAs, laptops, and Tablet PCs available cheaper than ever, and organizer features being included in more and more mobile phones, would people use paper for organising themselves? Well, there’s a few good reasons…

• Faster: No matter how nice your laptop is, by time you’ve got it unfolded, powered on, started the software you want to use, made a note, and closed everything down and put it away again, you could have made the same note on a bit of paper in your pocket, and been on your way for several minutes. Paper is a great way to keep quick notes – just ask Doug.
• Feeling: Paper just feels different to using a computer, especially with a nice pen. Some find it worse, but most find it better for quick notes and thinking.
• Less Breakable and less expensive if it does break: If I drop my Tablet PC on the concrete floor whilst making a note, I’ll be very upset. I’ve dropped my Moleskine notebook down the stairs at home, and couldn’t find a mark on it.
• Less Obtrusive: A bit of paper feels more sociable (as Sacha notes). Making notes on an index card or bit of paper doesn’t make people think you’re ignoring them in the same way as a laptop or even PDA can. Maybe because they aren’t wondering what you’re doing – they can see what you’re doing.
• More Creative: Anything short of a Tablet PC can’t come close to the expressiveness you can get with paper and pen or pencil, and even the Tablet falls a bit short. That’s why Mike Rohde uses paper when he wants to get real.
• It’s also probably better for the environment.

Web Worker Daily also listed five reasons to use paper for to-do lists, then got carried away and followed up with another six.

PigPog Articles

Productivity with Paper

• PigPogPDA: one of our most popular articles – a Moleskine notebook hacked into a complete system. Could be used as a sort of simplified GTD system, or it could be just the ‘capture’ end of GTD. Either that or it’s just a notebook with a couple of Post-IT tags.
• CheapsterPDA: the smallest, cheapest paper PDA out there. For those who find a HipsterPDA a bit over the top.
• nowMap: a simple form for planning your day or week. Could be a complete system if you’re not too busy, or just a way of getting a grip when things are getting a bit much.
• Templates: A selection of templates for various tasks – many of them are designed to be printed and used with pen or pencil.

Other Paper-Related Stuff

• Paper and Notebooks: OK, OK, we all love us some Moleskines, but there’s other types of paper out there too. Well, yes, it’s mostly about Moleskines, with a few nods to Filofaxes and the wonders of the D*I*Y Planner.
• Pens: We love pens. We’re a bit disturbingly geeky about it, but you can share the love here.
• Mechanical Pencils: We love pencils too. Here, we’re just talking about the various types of mechanical pencils, usually with replaceable leads.

Here!

Velvet Fuckin’ Revolver!

O, M, and furthermore, G. I’m going to see Velvet Revolver at the Manchester Apollo on 11th June, where I’ll be joined by my lovely friend Tania who’s coming over from New Zealand for a couple of weeks, along with the Sisters from Our Lady of the Blessed Caramac – a specialist nunnery based in Leeds.

I’m going to rock and squee so hard, I’m going to need training. And since this is my first proper rock concert (I’m not counting Blur at the NEC in ’95, or the countless Bootleg Beatles shows I’ve been to), I need some pointers. So… open question to the Guitar Pr0n viewers – how does one prepare for the ultimate mosh pit experience?

Latest Update: Added a guide on how to bind (or cast) off in knitting.

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Fabric

Interesting ways to make your own fabric.

• Cat Hair Felt – an old post from getcrafty shows how to make the perfect material for catnip toys.

Sewing

• DIY Spool Holder – a handy way to make sure all your threads are easily within reach.
• Roomba Costume – it’s difficult to work out what could be cooler than a robot vacuum cleaner, but maybe one wearing a cute outfit? Actually, that would scare the cats. Actually, that would scare me.
• Making Cross-Stitch Charts in Photoshop – including how to get yarn to match the colours. Via Make:
• Domokun iPod Case – protect your iPod with the legendary Domokun. If I had a sewing machine, I’d be running up one of these bad boys right now. Via Make:.
• Savvyseams – cool, original, free sewing patterns. Via Make:.

Non-Sewing

Sewing that doesn’t require any sewing – just simple projects with cloth and glue, but I don’t know if there’s a name for that

• Nintendo DS Lite Case made from an old pair of jeans. Includes extra pockets for games and headphones. (Via Make:.)

Knitting and Crochet

• HOW TO – Bind Off – Although I learned to knit many years ago, I never figured out what you’re supposed to do at the end. Here’s the answer.
• Crochet Bracelet – looks good. I may never know, because I have no idea what the instructions mean, but if you know how to crochet, they probably make perfect sense. I need to go find a nice simple tutorial on this stuff, so I sound like less of an idiot here (Via Craftzine.)
• Kiki the Knitty Doll, with instructions as a PDF file. (Via… Oh, go on, guess? Yep. That’s right.)
• Knitted Converse All-Stars – How to knit new uppers on your battered converse boots. Because you know if you have them you’ll wear them until they fall apart. Via Boing Boing.
• Princess Leia Knitted Wig/Hat – Impress the Jedi fanboys in this you will. Hmmm. Via Boing Boing
• Knitted Wig – walking the fine line between cute and ridiculous. Handy for winter bad hair days though. Via Boing Boing.
• Nautiloids – not quite sure why you might want to knit prehistoric shellfish, but if you do, there’s patterns available. Actually, they look oddly cute in wool.
• Wool Tree Cosy – along similar lines to Knitta below, Redshirt includes a pattern in case you know of any chilly trees.
• Crochet Menagere – Louise Weaver makes sparkly costumes for taxitermist’s forms of Australian animals. Very odd.
• The iAntiCraft! – knitting and other crafting with a nicely macabre twist. Via ReadyMade Blog.
• Knitta – gangsta rap and urban tagging in wool.
• Moleskine Notebook Case – no instructions or pattern, but there’s pictures, so you might be able to figure it out.
• D I Y Sweater Arm Scarf – funky scarves made from sweater sleeves. Great idea! (Thanks again to Make:.)
• How to Recycle Yarn from a Sweater. (Thanks to Make:.)
• Tote Bag made from carrier bags – the instructions sound like complete gibberish to me, but maybe if you know how to crochet they make some kind of sense? (Thanks to Make:.)
• kpixie’s free patterns – including scarves, hats, a tablemat, a business card holder, and a mobile phone cosy. (Thanks to Make:.)

iPod Stuff

• iPod Socks, including Santa iSock. (Thanks to Make:.)
• iPod Jumper from cakeyvoice.

Geek Knitting

• Binary Hat from Redshirt – it just looks like a stripey hat, so only you will know that the stripes encode “hat” in binary.

From Casey at the excellent A Personal Tao:

I think it’s more fun to dance every moment as living, even if the partner is a flying cat.

Mew.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was interviewed for a permanent job on the same trading estate as Michael’s work. Well, I was delighted to receive an offer a couple of weeks ago, and I start there on Tuesday.

I really hope I can settle in at this place. It looks promising – I’ve visited the office a couple of times and it’s a quiet, friendly and very industrious little place. And it’s right across the road from Michael’s place. I might even be able to wave at him while he’s busy licking Pelikans, or whatever it is he does there now. I lose track. I’ve been really lucky to land a job so close to home. I was preparing for commutes to Exeter, Bristol or even London.

So, is it too soon to say “All’s well that ends well”? I’ve learned a few things over the last couple of months. The main one being that I can trust my instincts. And my instincts are telling me this job will suit me fine and should be the ideal day job for years to come. Unlike previous work adventures, I know I can do this. So no, it’s not too soon. This job is going to be the best yet… fingers crossed, touch wood, light candles, chant Paradise City backwards etc etc. Wish me luck.

• You can also view the most recent craft-related posts, like a blog.

Sections

• Papercraft and Origami

Tools and Toys

• Craft Stores: Pretty much UK-only at the moment, but we’ll try to sort that out at some point. It’s a bit difficult, though, because we’re in the UK. We can’t afford to fly to America just to see what Dick Blick looks like.
• Multitools

Tool Maintenance

• A good knife sharpening tutorial on Instructables. Just remember what he says: “Safety note: Don’t chop your fricking thumb off.”

Projects

• Bookbinding: Making your own notebooks.
• Clothing, Jewellery and Accessories: Haute couture from your own fair hands.
• Creative Sex: Creativity Anywhere includes the bedroom. Knit your kinks out.
• DIY iPod Accessories: Make little gifts for your little white (or black) friend.
• Duct Tape Messenger Bag: we love duct tape, but we call it Gaffer tape over here in the UK, and it’s black.
• Furniture and Household Items: Some great ideas – most of them simple and cheap.
• Gift Wrapping
• Glass Crafts: Something to do with all the empties.
• Knitting, Crochet and Sewing
• Party Projects: Having a party? Well, you’re more sociable than we are, but here’s a few ideas. Be warned: taking a lead from us may not be the best way to keep all those friends you have
• Scrapbooking: It’s having a bit of a comeback, with all sorts of new toys to play with.
• Screen Printing: Sounds messy to me. There’s some good guides out there, though, if you fancy having a go.
• Straight Outta The Box – A Guide To Craft Kits: A good place to start if you want to try something new.

Seasonal

• Easter: Damn, this page was popular in Easter 2006. For some reason, though, it became much less popular shortly after Easter. Hmm.
• Wedding Crafts: We got married recently, so we had to craft it up by making our own favours, decorations, and bridal bouquet.

Inspiration

• See what other people have been crafting on Flickr, at the ‘craft’ tag page.
• How much more inspiring could anything get than the chance to have your own Ferrari? Well, ok, a knitted one.

Sharing

• Sharing Creativity Online: you can share pictures in various ways, but you might want to look especially at deviantART, as they’re the only one I know to specifically encourage handmade crafts.
• Craft Forums: a look at some online communities for every kind of craft.

Going Pro

• We’ve not used them ourselves, but craft sellers seem to love Etsy: a place to buy and sell hand made items.

Related

• CaseMods: Putting computers in prettier cases.

Here we list some of the more interesting craft forums we encounter on our meanderings around the web. There are tons of forums out there, covering every type of craft, so whatever you’re into, from rubber stamping to jewellery making, you’ll have no problem finding an online community to suit your needs.

Just a few links for now, but we’ll update as we find more.

Craftster

An absolutely huge forum covering every type of craft possible. I’ll be honest, I haven’t explored this forum in any of the detail it deserves, for fear that I will be stuck in there for weeks. Looks like an excellent place though.

Get Crafty

Another big crafting site – not only does it have a forum, but there is also a wiki, blogs from members and various stories and HowTos. I’ve linked to articles from Get Crafty in the past, its a great resource.

UK Craft Forum

A forum for the ever-expanding craft scene in the UK.

Rubbadubbadoo

A forum mainly for rubber stamping, but also has a section for ATCs.

ATCards

A forum purely for makers of Artist Trading Cards.

Punk Rock Domestics

DIY stuff with a punk rock attitude. Let Ms Minx and Ms Vanilla introduce you to a whole new DIY experience.

Know of any other forums that craft fans should know about? Let us know by leaving a note in the comments.

Latest Update: Added Star Wars Egg Baskets

Regardless of your religious inclinations, Easter is a good excuse to celebrate all that’s great about springtime – the days are getting longer, and everything generally is sunnier and prettier. Here are some Easter crafts to help celebrate the season in style:

New Links for Easter 2007:

• Star Wars Paper Craft Egg Baskets – put all your eggs in one basket with the aid of The Force.
• Nice Bunnies – papercraft models from Nice Bunny – a Samurai, a DJ and a Tagger.
• Felted Styrofoam Egg – cute.
• Cashmere Bunnies – celebrate Easter ’07 in style with these cashmere bunnies.
• Egg Carton Flowers – everything that’s great about this time of year – they’re bright and fun and made with eggs (sort of).
• Bunny Bob Pins – bob pins, or bobby pins, are what us Brits would call hairgrips. *sings* If you’re going to celebrate easter, be sure to wear some bunnies in your hair…

From Easter 2006:

• Easter Desktop Wallpaper – Easter Bunny goodness courtesy of our good friend Chris Brogan.
• Easter Eggs Dyed with Onion Skins and Ferns – and other plants, including iris petals, carrots, parsley, Japanese Kerria, Mahonia, and ice plants.
• Pysanky – Ukranian Easter Eggs. Beautifully decorated easter eggs, with a full HowTo for those feeling brave enough. I think I’ll just enjoy the pretty colours instead. Via Make:
• Easter Nests – achieves the impossible by making Shredded Wheat tasty. How? By smothering it in chocolate, of course!
• Bunny Puppet Theatre – spend the Easter holiday being a Master of Puppets. Har Har.
• Yoda Easter Egg on Boing Boing.
• Wee Wonderfuls Wee Bunny Pattern – if its Easter, you gotsa have the bunnies, and this one’s a cutie pie. Clicky linky for free pattern. Via ReadyMadeBlog.
• Hershey’s Easter – ditto for chocolate. Here’s Hershey’s Easter Crafts page.
• Various Easter Craft Activities – Egg Tree, Simnel Cake and Hot Cross Buns, they’re all here.
• Angel Hair – if you fancy something different this Easter and are up for a messy challenge, try this!
• Easter Eggs Dyed With Onion Skins – if you like to make coloured eggs at Easter, here’s an interesting new way of doing it. Via Make:
• Corpse Bunny Cake – an interesting break from tradition. Dead bunnies. Via Make:.

Every year, thousands of women suffer from injuries brought on by the massive hotness of guitar babes. Take Sam. Look what happened to her when she posted a pic of Slash in her last post:

*“Flaargle mhinmno sahhh fliiiifff… flooof! Flaaa….Humenahhumenah… ahhhh…*

Would you know what to do if your friend was suffering in this way? Or if you found yourself alone in this state with no help to hand? Squee-mergencies can happen anytime, and you need to know what to do in the grip of a squee-mergency situation. Hyperventilating, with racing pulse and high blood pressure, babbling incoherently, many squee victims black out and collapse in a heap under the influence of guitar babe hotness. Don’t let this happen to you! With a few simple precautions you and your friends can enjoy your squee in relative safety.

I suffer from episodes of debilitating squee, so I developed some techniques to help lessen the impact of having to deal with the colossally sexy Mr. Page. Here are my top Le Sex survival tips, which also work for any other yummy guitar men too:

• Try to avoid caffeine or alcohol. They will only add to the dehydration problem I will suffer from all the drooling Jimmy induces.

• Avoid doing anything strenuous pre-Pagey. He’s A LOT to handle, so I need to be totally rested before attempting any Jimmy related activity.

• Eat energy boosting meals frequently. When dealing with The Jimmy, I really need energy to keep myself together and avoid fainting. I found chocolate or fruit helps! A little piece every now and then keeps me on an even keel. And a bonus with the chocolate, while it melts in my mouth, I can think of…well…Jimmy some more! Mmmmmmmm…. But be very careful here because sometimes this will actually make the squee worse. For example, plum yogurt is WAY OFF LIMITS as an energy boosting food for me while Jimmy viewing, so know yourself and be careful!

• Head to the cold shower. Simple but effective, unless I have been staring at Jimmy sexiness for too long already. If I have, as soon as the water hits me, it will just turn into steam. This problem can be avoided by having a spray bottle handy to keep my temperature down to safe levels, and then, when the inevitable Jimmy fire flashover hits, the shower will work.

• Drink plenty of water, even if you don’t feel thirsty. I usually DO feel thirsty looking at Jimmy…and hungry…ravenously hungry…but I constantly try and remind myself that dehydration is a big risk with Pagey Doll hotness, so if I am alone, I prepare beforehand by having lots of water bottles handy.

• Watch the weather. In summer, I plan ahead and try to look at my most dangerously hot Pagey pics between 4am and 7am. These are the coolest hours of the day, so it’s a smart move to reserve some of his seriously flammable pictures for viewing then. In winter I can simply go outside and sit in a rain shower, snowdrift or something.

• Inform family and friends. If I am going to be Jimmy squeeing, I try to let someone know beforehand so if they do not hear from me in a while, they can check and see if I am still conscious. I tell them where to find ice packs, the oxygen tank, smelling salts and other necessaries. This will save time when I am in the throws of total Jimmy Jimmy meltdown.

• Keep air circulating around you at all times. This is a must where Jimmy is concerned, and especially if I am watching a DVD. Oh my…this one of the most dangerous Jimmy activities to undertake! I cannot stress enough the dangers of the bow, his cute little dances, that smile, playing the theramin, or dripping hot in that dragon suit…he is extremely dangerous!!! The Jimmy is so hot he can fell you in a matter of seconds, so fast you have no time to even call for help! Certainly not a suitable activity for beginners, so know your limits. Build up to it watching him on a DVD and you’ll avoid a lot of problems.

• If you find yourself completely overwhelmed, don’t panic. A walk-in freezer is such a handy thing for combating overwhelming Pagey heat exhaustion, but if you place a large fan near you and sit under a wet towel that will work just as well. I also find a large cup of ice to suck on and drop inside my clothes really helpful too.

Learn to deal effectively with a squeemergency, and you could save someone’s life! These simple steps also work for viewing all other GuitarPr0n hotties…Robert Plant, Slash, Steven Tyler, James Hetfield, Brian May – whoever you find that pushes your squee button! Happy squee! And, let’s be careful out there…