Day 125: A friend of mine gave me this circluar box (thanks, Rachel!!!!)  I liked the bow on it, but I decided it would be more fun to take it off and decorate the lid too.  In my box of "things I save," I came accross a poem by Forough Farrokhzad, an Iranian poet who lived from 1935-1967.  It was a printout from a world literature class that I took a few years ago.  Well, this woman ended up being one of my favorite poets, and this poem that I pasted on this box, is one of my all time favorite poems.  It's called "Window."

Day 126: Near the shop where I work, there is a yummy noodle stand run by my friend Marshall (it's called "Great Noodles.")  I had some of his noodles in a cute little take out box, and I was curious if I would be able to wash it off and decorate it, turning it into a little gift box.  The washing it off part was a success.  I pulled it apart to wash it, and although the paper became a little saturated in a few spots despite the coating, it dried out well and didn't smell like food.  Covering it with paper was the unsucessful part.  The paper was too thick and I used torn scraps of it, which I coated with mod podge, making the whole thing just too thick and too pliable for a gift box.  I think it could work to just use one bigger scrap of thinner paper, maybe I'll try it again sometime.  Anyhow, this is one of the projects that I wish I wasn't posting a picture of (it really doesn't do justice to the fantastic-ness of Marshall's noodles either) , but oh well, here it is...

Day 127:  My mom and my niece are in town for a week.  My niece, Ayden, who is 16, helped me with this project.  It was really fun to spend time with her in this way.  We each drew pieces of this tree branch and taped it all together on my bedroom wall.  This is just the beginning of something awesome.  We still have to add leaves and flowers.  The brown paper is packing material from boxes that were shipped to the store.