Inkodye to die for

Have you heard of Inkodye? It's light sensitive dye that you can use on fabric, natural wood and so much more. My awesome MIL got me 3 colors and I've been having a blast experimenting with them.

For our first try, my friend Alisa and I decided to dye canvas and go with an art/sewing/crafting theme. I covered large pieces of cardboard with garbage bags and wrapped the fabric around, securing it with tape. Mix the Inkodye with water and brush it on.

Now comes the fun part! Place cutouts or found objects (the flatter the better) in a pleasing pattern on the fabric and take it outside to sit in the sun. I used buttons and Alisa used art supplies.

While the dye goes on clear, it starts to change color immediately in the sun. In full sun, the dye takes less than 10 minutes. On a cloudy day, a bit longer. We did ours in late afternoon (see how the items are casting shadows?) This is not ideal. Next time I'll do it when the sun is straight overhead. But our first try fabric still turned out really cute and we had a blast!

I'm calling mine "ghosty buttons." Because of the shadows the low sun cast, the buttons aren't as sharp as they could be but overall I still really like the effect.

Alisa's art supply inspired fabric turned out really cool too! Some of the smaller objects didn't work as well, but I love that you can see the markings and text from the clear ruler and triangle she used.

We haven't made anything out of our fabric yet, but we are thinking of making crafting utility aprons. I am also considering making a cushion for my sewing chair out of the button fabric, but the blue really doesn't go in my studio space. I'd love to hear any other ideas of what we should make - leave suggestions in the comments!

30 Random Acts of Kindness

Kindness Cards

In honor of our 30th birthdays, my friend Michelle and I decided to do a day filled with random (for the recipients) acts of kindness. We had a blast and I would highly recommend doing something like this. It was fun, emotional, hilarious, rewarding and scary (in a good way!)

Care packages for the animal shelter volunteers, librarians, fire department and police department. (After the police wouldn't accept it - we repurposed theirs for nurses!)

Here's what we did (all in about 6 hours!):
1. Took a care package to the local librarians.
2. Left money and a Kindness Card with the librarian to pay someone's fine.
3. Took a snacks care package to the local fire station.
4. Took a snacks care package to the nurse's station at pediatric hospital.
5. Paid for a random person's coffee.
6. Left money and a Kindness Card with a pharmacist to help pay for someone's prescription.
7. Fed quarters to expired parking meters.
8. Paid for someone's shake at the local ice cream parlor.
9. Gave a Starbucks gift card to a family in the park.

I did a pet food drive for a week at work and ended up with a whole trunk full of food, treats and toys with no cost to us, which left more $ to spend on other items!

10. Took about 150 lbs. of stuff to the animal shelter including food, treats and toys.
10a. Took a snacks care package to the volunteers and workers at the animal shelter.
11. Left money and a Kindness Card in the pay phones at the hospital.
12. Gave three bouquets of flowers to nurses in the hospital to give to patients.
13. Left money and a Kindness Card in the beverages vending machines at the hospital.

14. Took crayons, cards and coloring books to the pediatric unit at the hospital. 

Special thank you to Lindsay, Alisa and Gloria for helping make the rosettes and headbands!

15. Made and gave a dozen baby rosette headbands to the maternity ward. 

16. Donated a couple dozen adult and children's books to the patient library. 

17. Gave money and a Kindness Card to the parking attendant in one of the hospital parking garages to pay for the next patient's parking. 

18. Put quarters in all the gum ball and candy dispensers at the mall. 

19. Gave a big bag of suckers to the children's museum to pass out to visiting kids. 

20. Bought movie tickets for a senior couple. 

21. Paid for a girls lunch at a fast food restaurant. 

22. Gave a Target gift card to a family in Target. 

23. Gave a Target gift card to a young pregnant girl in Target. 

24. Gave a Starbucks gift card to a guy in the Starbucks parking lot. 

25. Bought helium balloons and gave them to kids in the grocery store. 

26. Gave a woman in the grocery store parking lot a gift card to the store.

27. Gave a gas gif card to a woman in the gas station. 

28. Put a baggy of quarters with a Kindness Card in someone's laundry at the laundromat. 

29. Gave an elderly woman a grocery gift card in the grocery store. 

30. Paid for someone's snow cone. 

So now you're wondering, "Which ones were fun, emotional, hilarious, rewarding and scary?" Here are the stories and memories:


#7. Fed quarters to expired parking meters. Did you know that feeding other people's meters is illegal some places? We saw a meter maid writing tickets so we snuck down the block ahead of him, plugging expired meters. If you know either of us, stealth is not a strong point! I felt like we were doing something very naughty, which is always fun!

#8. Paid for someone's shake at the local ice cream parlor. It was a weird time of day, and no one was at the ice cream parlor so we had to wait around for a customer. The first person was a super nerdy, mildly creepy looking dude, so of course, I made Michelle pay! He was exceptionally confused and flustered. I am pretty sure this is what he was thinking, "Dear God! A GIRL! And she's talking to me! What do I do?!? What do I do?!?" It was hilarious.


#10a. Took a snacks care package to the volunteers and workers at the animal shelter. They were very excited and thankful that we also brought treats for the people. It seems people generously donate to the animals, never considering all the volunteer hours it takes to run a shelter! I'm glad we thought of this!

#14. Took crayons, cards and coloring books to the pediatric unit at the hospital. This girl was the only person who really, really wanted to know who we were. We told her simply "Tonya and Michelle" but wouldn't give her more. We weren't doing this for thanks or recognition, just for the joy of it.


#15. Made and gave a dozen baby rosette headbands to the maternity ward. The woman at the reception desk seemed very confused. We left the bag and a stack of Kindness Cards with her. After we walked away, she opened it up and got very excited. She caught us as we got in the elevator for a very enthusiastic thank you and told us how cute she thought they were. Again, super special thank you to my QA (Quilters Anonymous) girls, Lindsay, Alisa and Gloria for helping get these all done in one afternoon. You did a wonderful job and they were all beautiful!


#18. Put quarters in all the gum ball and candy dispensers at the mall. After we'd done this, we wandered the mall doing other acts of kindness. A while later we saw a little boy with two giant handfuls of candy, grinning ear to ear. At first I was a bit annoyed he used as many quarters as his hands could hold the candy. But then I decided, to a kid, that was like hitting it big on a slot machine and his elation was contagious!


#20. Bought movie tickets for a senior couple. Unexpectedly, this became a favorite act for both of us. After we paid, the woman pulled us aside and asked a bunch of questions about what we were doing and why. Then she told us that she and a friend started the "Pay It Forward" curriculum for the state of New Jersey schools. She took two Kindness Cards so she could pay it forward for each movie ticket. Our conversation ended with hugs and the knowledge that at least one of our acts of kindness would definitely be paid forward. It was awesome!


#24. Gave a Starbucks gift card to a guy in the Starbucks parking lot. After waiting for a while in the parking lot (everyone goes through the drive thru and not into the store!) we were beginning to look suspicious and act silly. The poor guy we gave this too ran a gauntlet of emotions as we approached and gave him the gift card - every single emotion clearly displayed on his face. It was funny.

#25. Bought helium balloons and gave them to kids in the grocery store. Besides the police who could not accept our care package (as it constituted bribery - OOPS!) one little boy was the only person to turn down an act of kindness. He was very serious about not wanting a balloon. It worked out because we only had 2 left and gave them both to sisters, who would have had to share otherwise.

#27. Gave a gas gif card to a woman in the gas station. This woman had let us go in front of her in line, then watched us purchase the gift card. When I turned around and gave it to her with a kindness card, she was SHOCKED! It was pretty funny and an over the top reaction for a $10 gas card. We could see her animatedly telling others about what we did as we drove away.

#28. Put a baggy of quarters with a Kindness Card in someone's laundry at the laundromat. Let's face it, laundromats are scary, even in Iowa, even in the middle of the day. It was full of some unusual looking men, so after a tiny bit of hesitation, we threw the Kindness Card and quarters into someone's basket as they had their back turned and ran out the door! Were we being over dramatic? Yes. Was it hilarious, fun and exhilarating at the same time? Definitely!


#29. Gave an elderly woman a grocery gift card in the grocery store. This woman was super sweet and thankful. We got another hug from her!

The final, mildly unrelated story of the day: Before we even got started, I found a roofing nail... in my foot. It wasn't terrible but resulted in me limping all day and a trip to urgent care the next morning for a tetanus shot and to get a small piece of shoe dug out of my heal. Thanks, Karma, for your kindness to me while I do 30 selfless acts.

Again, this was a wonderful experience and I plan to do it again in the future. Now it's your turn. Grab a good friend and start your random acts of kindness day. I promise you will have a blast! I'd love to hear about it if you do it/have done it. 

Spice girl

I'm not sure I'm think it's a problem, but we might have a spice addiction in our household.

I think I have spring fever, or at least the itch for spring cleaning. Maybe it's the weather. It's fairly rare that central Iowa hits the 60s in the middle of February. It's extremely rare that we hit the 50s and 60s for almost 10 days in a row and I think it's made my body convinced that it is actually spring. Tomorrow's high of 32 degrees should remind me otherwise.

Whatever the reason, I felt compelled to clean and organize all weekend. Even more surprising - I actually followed through on that impulse. Besides the closet and refrigerator, the spice cupboard was in desperate need of cleaning out.

I pulled everything out and set them on the counter. There were over 70 containers and took up several feet of counter space. Plus I have a spice rack with 12 more jars. Why does one household need 4 different kinds of cinnamon, 3 different cajun blends, 5 kinds of garlic and about a dozen spice blends containing garlic. We are apparently taking Hollywood's fascination with vampires to heart.

Do normal people have this many spices and seasonings in their house?

So what do all these spices and seasonings say about me? I like cooking. Baking slightly less. Also, I like spicy and international cuisine. And, apparently, have an affinity for spices beginning with the letter C. Maybe it's just that there are so many more spices that begin with the letter C? Think about it. Cinnamon, cardamom, cilantro, curry, cumin, caraway, chili powers, cloves, coriander, cayenne, celery seed, chipotle and chives. I am sure there are more, but those are the ones we have on hand. Seems like a lot. (Before you ask, I WAS NOT alphabetizing them, just noticed a pattern.)

I am slowly going crazy

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, switch
Slowly going crazy, am I?
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Do you ever spread yourself so thin, you wonder how you haven't blown away like a leaf? I'm having one of those months, years, life times. I love being involved and having a lot going on, but things have been getting a bit out of hand. It's really no one's fault but my own.

Moral of the story? I don't have much time for this post, but I wanted to show a picture of my completed Ursula costume. I am pretty happy with how it all came out.

 

The dress is a summer one from Old Navy that's too long so I've only worn once. I thought the white vine design sort of resembled seaweed. The tentacles are made from triangles of sparkly purple fabric, black cotton and one layer of quilt batting. I sewed them right onto the bottom of the dress - I'll just cut off the inch or two that I sewed them to, then hem to the length it needed to be in the first place. I connected the tops of the two tentacles in front and two in back right to the dress. The left two and right two tentacles have ribbon loops to go over my fingers, so they move with my arms. As we were outside and it was windy, I put on a shrug too.

The eels are felt. I just made elongated ovals and sewed them together like a single piece of an Amish puzzle ball - 2" seams inside-out so I could make their fins. I curled them up and tied them with a rubber band for the week so they stayed that way when I attached them. Then I used a Sharpie to make eyes, nostrils and a mouth. They are attached from the inside with safety pins too.

Shell necklace, crazy makeup and half a can of Auqas Net later, I'm Ursula!

What do you think? 

We are having our Halloween party on Saturday and I think I am going to skip the hair thing this time. It is so gross to have that much hairspray and white coloring in my hair. I was impressed that I retained that volume the entire night!

I'm back!

Wow. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Three out-of-state trips in less than 20 days, many birthdays, out-of-state visitors to our house, a near car wreck resulting in a broken out back window and a multitude of other madness have kept me off the computer a lot lately.

I actually don't have time to go over all of it but I will have posts and pictures of Ghastly quilt progress, shopping sprees including new clothes and dishes and more coming soon. I did want to let you know that Staci over at Reyn on Fashion cleaned out my closet for me and wrote about it on her blog. If that doesn't sound like that exciting of a topic to you, you should check it out anyway because Staci did a great job of giving tips she used on my closet (including making a "to buy" list of key garments) that you can definitely use to bring an editorial eye to your own closet. Read the post here.

I'm coffee-making impaired

Have you seen the commercials encouraging employers to Think Beyond the Label? They give examples of people with silly disabilities to challenge negative ideas about employing workers with disabilities. One woman is "fashion deficient," and there are two men, one who is labeled "copy incapable" and one with "volume control syndrome." The punch line, delivered by a woman in a wheel chair, is that even she has a disability - not the wheelchair - she is "coffee-making impaired." I can relate.

People have always noted that I make a very strong pot of coffee. I don't think that is a bad thing. I like strong, bold flavors. If you don't, you shouldn't have any of my coffee. Recently, however, my coffee making skills seem to have been steadily declining.

Two weeks ago I could not get the grinder to work. I fiddled around with it for a while, finally coming to the point where I had to decide whether or not to keep messing with it and chance not getting it to work, or give up with time to buy a cup on the way to the office. As I was about to put the grinder away, I realized what the problem was. I hadn't plugged it in. Duh.

Then last week (after successfully plugging in the grinder) I dumped the grounds into the pot - without a filter. Whoops. Even after rinsing everything down, I had very gritty coffee that day.

The nail in the coffin of my morning coffee making was hammered home today. I have a mug with a drop down basket. To use it, you heat water in the teakettle, put course grounds in the screened basket and flip the handle to lower it into the water. When it is the strength you prefer, flip the handle again and it pops the basket up into lid so it stops steeping. All was going well this morning, until I flipped the lid to screw it on the mug. The basket popped open, dropping the grounds directly into the boiling water with a splash.

Three strikes and you're out, right? Today, as the scalding water splattered onto my hand, leg and foot, I was considerably more concerned that I didn't have time to make more - or to stop on my way to work - than I was about the burning of my skin. Sounds like I should probably to try to go coffee-free for a while and see how that goes. Based on my cravings all morning, it won't go well.

Lunatic lunch hour

I have an hour for lunch each day and only live 5 minutes from my office. My normal lunch hour consists of going home, having a leisurely lunch and possibly squeezing in a couple of chores (or a nap!) Not today. It went a little something like this:

Drive home like a crazy person. Run the recycling out to the curb, hoping they didn't already pickup on my street. Back in the house, frantically grab all the legal documentation of my existence plus two extremely unfortunate photos of myself and jump back in the car.

Mad dash to the post office. Wait in line for a couple of minutes. Explain to the friendly postal worker why my marriage license is not in English and, subsequently, why the legal translation was notarized in North Carolina when I live in Iowa. Finally finish that, turn around and see 20 angry people in line behind me and wonder what the deal is. Back in the car, realize that today is April 15th - tax day - and understand why there were so many hostiles glaring at me while I took 15 minutes of their valuable time. In the mean time, take a call from my boss, who is leaving the state but doesn't think he has the presentation I wase to have ready for him before I left for lunch.

Back at home, grab the mail, sign for a package, put all remaining vital records back in the file cabinet. Frantically make a PB&J and grab a fruit cup and run back out the door. Five blocks from home, I got paranoid that I left the garage door open, turn around and go back. While closing the garage door, I notice that my badge for work is laying in the driveway. Jump out, grab that. Then get stuck behind the recycling truck (glad I didn't miss it - but get out of my way!) Back to work, only 4 minutes late. Whew!

If I could get this much stuff done every hour of every day, imagine the things I could accomplish.

Completely random

I spent the first half of the month researching and writing the Ten Things series for this blog with only one random post in the midst of those. Now I have a lot of random things that have no relation to each other but I decided to put them all in this post anyway. Bear with me.

Lemon Yellow

 Fabric from Mood 
(This picture does NOT do it justice.)

I have a new obsession with all things lemon. In the past, lemon scents and flavors have never been on the top of my list. I've never particularly cared for the color yellow either. (Wearing yellow makes me look a little ill!) When we went to L.A. last month and were shopping at Mood, I found some beautiful metallic gray (not silver though) linen with big, bright yellow flowers on it. It is completely not my normal style, but I was very drawn to it and kept coming back over and over. I bought some, having no idea what I was going to do with it (I think it's going to become new kitchen curtains, requiring a complete kitchen makeover). Anyway, it started my new obsession with yellow and, subsequently, lemons.

Ounce for Ounce

I really like shopping on Alice.com. One of the newer features is showing you how much a product costs per ounce so you can compare how much you'd save if you bought the giant bottle of laundry detergent verses the smaller one. Today I was looking at eyeliner and it is $75.00 per ounce! Good thing it's only 0.08 ounces. I don't think it's unreasonably prices or anything; I just think it's funny to see it priced out per ounce.

Preening Peacock

Peacock ring from Schmutzerland

This infatuation started last winter when I bought a deep turquoise wool coat that, at least according to the receipt, was peacock colored. This shade has been infiltrating my wardrobe in everything from scarves and shoes to eyeliner. Similar to the yellow flowers on the Mood fabric leading to my new found love of lemons, this hue has resulted in me now adoring actual peacocks. How can you not love these beautiful birds? They get to wander around their entire lives in showy, black-tie-affair, luxurious formal wear. Did you notice peacocks infiltrated several of my Etsy picks for the Ten Things series?

São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos

 Photos from Wikipedia

I want to visit Salvador, Brazil, also know as the "Capital of Happiness." As far as I can tell, it has about everything I want in a vacation destination: beautiful beaches, 500 years of architecture, museums and a lively local culture with native, Portuguese, African and Spanish influences. Plane tickets are quite pricey and there doesn't seem to be any direct way to get there. The best I found was three flights to get there and four to get back. Some of the routes have five or more flights!

Wikipedia has an extensive page with lots of photos and Seth Kugel wrote a very good article called 36 Days in Salvador for the Times. I have a couple of books on the area in my shopping cart on Amazon. I don't know if it's feasible yet, but I do have a week off in June. I've never been to South America or anywhere south of the equator. Have you been to Brazil? I'd love any suggestions.

A Few More Random Thoughts & Happenings

Last night one of our cats (Alven) brought something into the bedroom and was making a lot of racket. Upon investigation, he had brought some mail to us. It was an envelope with a clear window that he apparently like crinkling for the noise. Some people's dogs bring them the newspaper. Our cat brings us the mail, while we're still in bed. Beat that. 

Today I opened the closet in my art room only to find a deck of tarot cards all over the floor. When I bent down to pick them up, a 20 pound tool box full of art supplies fell on my head. Ouch. Again, I believe I have Alven to thank for this. 

If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there for this very long, very random post.

All my loving - music loving that is

I listen to music at work constantly. I'd say of the 40 hours a week I spend in my office, 39.5 hours have iTunes blasting out of my speakers. I have a few play lists - Friday Gangsta Rap, Feel Better/Life is Good, a play list for my birthday and one play list of angry/I hate you music. More often than not though, my entire collection of music is on random, which leads to funny sequences of songs. Eminem followed by Elton John? Yep.

Anyway, a few random combos today made me wonder what songs I hear most often. Here's my top 25 played. (They aren't actually in order of most to least because I wanted to see how many artists are on the list more than once)

P.I.M.P. by 50 Cent
Not the Doctor by Alanis Morissette
Rehab by Amy Winehouse
Piece of Me by Britney Spears
Still Dirrty by Christina Aguilera
Cornbread by Dave Matthews Band
A Little Priest by Helena Bonham Carter (from the Sweeney Todd soundtrack)
Summertime by Hello Dave
It was a Good Day by Ice Cube
All My Loving by Jim Sturgress (from the Across the Universe soundtrack)
Anything's Possibly by Jonny Lang
Loose Lips by Kimya Dawson (from the Juno soundtrack)
Black Horse and a Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall
The Turn by M.I.A.
Tell Me Something Good by Maceo Parker
Heard the Word by O.A.R.
Farmhouse by Phish
Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd
America by Simon & Garfunkel
Lodi Dodi by Snoop Dogg
Gin & Juice by Snoop Dogg
Octopus's Garden by The Beatles
I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles
Your Lucky Day in Hell by The Eels
Regulate by Warren G

What does this list say about me? That I'm random and weird?

A very good day

Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful day. Had lunch at the Waterfront. I had the Halibut Royale. The halibut is marinated in chardonnay then topped with sour cream, mayonnaise, chopped green onions and seasoned bread crumb. So yummy.

We were going to go to the Des Moines Art Center after that, but we were in a food stupor, so we decided to go to a movie instead. We saw the Blind Side and it was really good. Then we got some coffee and wandered around the mall a while. Every anniversary we stop by the Cosmo Lounge downtown Des Moines for a martini. I had a Bloodytini (basically a bloody Mary martini) made with pepper vodka and it was, as always, delicious. Thanks, Sherry!

Even though we still weren't hungry, we went out to dinner anyway to Sam & Gabe's. We had scallops and duck and were basically gluttons. By the time we got home, we were both way too stuffed to eat the wonderful homemade raspberry cheesecake with chocolate crust. (I had some at lunch today though and it was amazing! Thanks, babe!)

I gave my amazing honey two Alice in Wonderland prints from Unique Art Pendants, which I bought on Etsy and framed myself.

I received the cheesecake (so yummy), a beautiful bouquet of stargazer lilies and this book of Manolo Blahnik shoe drawings. It is a collection of his sketches from the 1970s to the present. They are all so amazing and I can't wait to study them. They are inspiring.

Thank you, babe, for another amazing anniversary. I love you.

Happy Anniversary!

4 years ago today, on Friday the 13th with a full moon, we got married on a beach in Mexico. Sure wish we were there today with these same amazing people.

Seeing red

I'm a red head. Again. Over the years I've had about every color of hair there is to have. I really like red, especially in the fall and winter. What do you think?

Along the red hair topic, I went to see Annie at the Des Moines Playhouse last night. I took a friend for her birthday. We both have loved the movie version since we were little girls and can sing every song and say every line. I've been wanting to see it on stage for a long time, but I was very skeptical that I'd like it as much as the movie. I know no one could ever play Miss Hannigan as well as Carol Burnett or Daddy Warbucks better than Albert Finney so I was afraid I'd be disappointed in the stage production. I wasn't at all. It was very good. The girls that played Annie and the other orphans were fantastic.

Before going to the musical, we went to dinner at Le Jardin, a fairly new french restaurant near the Playhouse. It was delicious. I wasn't very impressed with my wine, but I had a mushroom omlet for dinner and it was amazing. Here's the menu description: A folded omlet made with Sheeder Farm organic eggs stuffed with a wild mushroom blend of procini, oyster, ivory portabella and crimini mushrooms, topped with white truffle oil and parmesan served with a petite salad mesclun. Yum. We had pound cake with a pear sauce for dessert, also very good. I would recomment Le Jardin for sure.

Random thoughts for the day

I bought the game Pig Pile last month and we can't stop playing it. It is so fun! It is not the game where you roll the pigs. The tiny plastic pigs only serve the purpose of score keeping in this game. Yes, that could easily be done with tallies on a sheet of paper, but then we wouldn't be able to build pig pyramids and name our points. The game plays sort of like a combination of Skip-Bo and that drinking game you played in college that's called a bad word. I bought it for $10 on Amazon. The games says its for 3-6 players, but we have played it with two and with more than 6 and it worked just fine. I think it says 6-years-old and up. We've also been playing a lot of Backgammon, which I love.

Today I bought some low-fat donuts from Holey Donuts, which I drooled over in this post. I'll let you know how they are once they arrive. They have a 40% off coupon code (HD50) that is good until Saturday night at midnight (December 5th).

I am going to a cookie exchange tomorrow. I love to cook, but I really hate baking. Cookies are the worst. I don't have the attention span or patience to wait for more than one pan to cook. Thankfully I managed to acquire the requested 7 dozen without baking a single one myself! Thanks, Karen & Terra.

We found out we have to do a week of furloughs at my day job before June 30, 2010. If we take it all at once, in theory, we can collect unemployment. I'm not sure if that would be enough to get us through the month or not. I am thinking that getting off at noon, every other Friday for the next 20 weeks sounds good. Then I'd only be missing 4 hours of pay in an 80 hour pay check, which shouldn't be missed that much. And short Fridays are always good. Has anyone else had to do furloughs? Did you collect unemployment?

Someone brought in puff popcorn covered in almond bark today. It was good but I think it made my stomach hurt. Or it could have been the extra spicy gyro with jalapeños for lunch. Now that I think about it, that seems more likely.

The Friday 56

I found this game on Snowball Jewelry's blog. It's fun! Here's the rules:
1. Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
2. Turn to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this post.
5. Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
6. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Here's my sentence:
In his collection of old tool manuals and vintage magazines, Burruso found a photo of a hand holding a hammer, which evoked the word "smash," and another man clad in suit, which suggested a business executive.
It's from a book called Graphic Design that Works. I really enjoy the randomness of this game. Happy Friday!