How to be Intersting?

Today I googled ‘how to be an interesting person’. Does this make me a little odd and exceptionally sad? I’d say so. However I feel encouraged because it all sounds very simple.
The first link up there was a fellow named Russ, and what does Russ suggest, you ask? Well it’s 10 simple steps:
1. Take at least one picture everyday.
2. Start a blog. Write at least one sentence every week.
3. Keep a scrapbook
4. Every week, read a magazine you’ve never read before
5. Once a month interview someone for 20 minutes, work out how to make them interesting.
6. Collect something
7. Once a week sit in a coffee-shop or cafe for an hour and listen to other people’s conversations.
8. Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music and one piece of film or TV. Do other art forms if you can. Blog about it
9. Make something
10. Read.

Hmmm I said to myself, that doesn’t sound too hard, but will someone back up his claims? I clicked the next link and met Ernest, Ernest Goodman and he had a list of 7 things…
get a hobby, start a campaign, go camping, teach yourself something new, read a book, go geek (In this he suggests starting sentences with basically…,actually…or technically…) and volunteer.

By the third link I was getting bored and didn’t read the whole thing but Essential life skills.net said that one can become an interesting person by cultivating a variety of interests, taking a genuine interest in others, reading more, staying on top of current events, and expressing your informed opinions. They also have a list of how to improve your personality, but I didn’t feel the need to click the link.

Moral of the Story

Should you run into me in the near future and I keep going on and on about how actually I was just camping, and basically I’ve started a new collection and how technically it’s not eavesdropping if they’re shouting their conversation in a coffee shop, make sure to tell me how interesting it all sound.

I Drink Tea: How I Made a Tea Cozy

1. The way to begin any project is to gather your materials. To make my tea cozy I chose linen(of course), grey tweed, a red patterned left over and olive green ribbon. You will also need cotton batting, matching thread and fabric paint if you're going to print on it.

2. As I have two different sized tea pots I made two different patterns based on the same shape. To decide how big to make your tea cozy measure around it (roughly) and add 2 or 3 inches it width and 1 or 2 in height. My pattern for my largest tea pot was 15" across and 13" high. Just to make sure that it's the right size cut out your batting first, pin it together and fit it on your tea pot.

3. Cut out your fabrics. You will need 2 pieces for lining, and 2 for the outer shell. This is when you can do any embellishments you'd like to your shell fabrics. I wanted my shell to have multiple fabrics so before I could cut out my shell fabrics I had to sew my patchwork together. After I cut out my fabric I stamped my tree image onto the outside and set it aside to dry.

4. As batting needs to be attached to something, quilt the lining with the right side out to the batting. I chose to do this one in a spiral, while my other cosy I did in a grid pattern.

5. Once both pieces of batting have been attached to the lining, sew these pieces together to create a pocket making sure to leave a small hole in the top to flip right side out further down the road.

6. Cut your ribbon to approx. 3" and iron in half to create a tag and pin it between the tops of the shell fabrics good sides together and sew pieces together making another pocket.

7. Now is where it all comes together, flip your shell piece right side out and press the seams flat, make sure everything looks good and fit it inside the lining, good sides together. Match up the side seams and sew them together.

8. Trim your excess and flip it all right side out using that hole you left in the lining. Press everything nice and flat and either hand sew or use your machine and stitch that hole up.

9. As a finishing I used a matching olive thread and made a seam 1 inch up from the bottom to hold everything in place and highlight my green ribbon and green tree prints.

10. Make a pot of tea, put your new cozy on it and keep it warm twice as long. It's magic!