You Built What?

I've had a couple of people ask me why I chose the name I Built that for this blog.  It comes from an old joke that Amanda told me when we first met.  It goes like this.

A man is backpacking through Ireland.  He walks into a small town and decides to have a drink and rest his feet for a bit.  He goes into a bar and orders a whiskey.  As he is sipping his drink the bartender leans over and asks him "Hey did you walk into town on the that little brick road?".  The backpacker replies "Yes, I did".  The bartender says "I built that road. But do they call me Shannon the road builder? No."  Then the bartender asks the backpacker "did you walk across the stone bridge on your way into town?" "Yes I did" the backpacker says. The bartender then says "I built that bridge.  But do they call me Shannon the bridge builder? No."  Then the bartender asks the backpacker "did you see the big stone house next to the bar? I built that house but do they call me shannon the housebuilder? No. But you fuck one sheep..."

Ever since then it has been a running joke between us. "I built that" can apply to a variety of things.  Such as a particularly stinky fart, getting an A on a paper or making dinner.  But more often then not it applies to a handmade item that we are particularly proud of.  I wanted that to be the theme of this blog, something that I was proud of.  So far so good.

One thing that I am particularly proud of is this cowl.  It's the first thing I've ever sold.  It's made especially for a very special friend who lives in the very cold place of DC.

It has two of the first buttons I made.

Here are the other 4 in the set that I will be putting up on Etsy sometime this week.

These buttons are made from pieces of broken china that have had the Dremel taken to them to soften the edges a bit.  I'm hoping because these are"upcycled" and thats all the rage these days people will want to pay exorbitant amounts of money for these things.  But really, I think these buttons are awesome and would look great on some convertible mittens.