toolin' around tuesdays: mark it up

i almost flaked on my first toolin around tuesday giveaway!  mais non.  it is not possible.  i love y'all so much, as soon as i got home today, i cranked up the levels on my canon and poured a glass of wine.

if we're talking marking tools, i am a slut.  THERE.  i said tool and slut in the same post.  let's see my traffic NOW.

(seriously?  adult cream?  how disappointed do you think they were to find a post about sharpened shears?  hrm. maybe not that disappointed.  i am, however, liking "how to keep a southern boy happy."  i likes it very much.)

oh so many choices.  the sixth pen in isn't even meant for fabric; i think it is in fact a white-out pen.  je ne sais quoi, the label is japanese.  the stubby yellow chunk of chalk next to it is portugese.  it's the united nations up in here, baby.  

at the far end of the line, please spy the disgraced red barrel.  peeps, i know you loved the chalk pop up pen of many colors.  i don't blame you.  i loved it too.  it's bright and happy and screamed I WILL MAKE YOUR WORLD RIGHT.  but it lied.  it breaks into little pieces like the sham of a tool it is, leaving you with fragments of candy colored chalk everywhere, a curse upon your breath and technicolor swaths of dust on your cat's feet. 

but this little baby, introduced into my marking obsession by kenneth king, this chunky thing DELIVERS.  he whipped one out-- well, the cousin to this baby, his looked different-- at a class he recently taught at mood.  i whispered to classmate clio: i have to have that.

devra wanted it too.  it made the most delicious snickety clickety sound with each efficient swipe across fabric. can you see the teeny spikes on the tip?  the picture is a bit blurry, as stated, today was crazyface and nighttime is meant for cocktails, not pictures. 

but those teeny spikes make the sharpest sweetest mark, y'all.  although we were supposed to be focusing on the leather, i found it hard not to fixate on the swift, deft lines kenneth produced with that NEW TOOL MUST HAVE NEW TOOL

on a recent trip to SIL for serger thread, i combed the aisles and found my treasure.  just look at the precision compared to a regular chalk pencil!  IT IS ABSURD!  yes, yes, i know, you can get a nice thin line from a chalk pencil.  if you sharpen it every thirty friggin seconds, hoping during the ten seconds of sharpening the tip doesn't break off in the sharpener, causing you to resharpen ALL OVER AGAIN.  that's like eighty seven thousand seconds of sharpening per dart, yo. with this bad boy, roll away to your heart's content, then refill the chalk dust cartridge.  

i picked up a pretty pink one for you, too!  you want?  just leave a comment telling me about your favorite method of marking fabric (the one that will assuredly be usurped by this chunky clover) and you're in!  expect your prize package to come with a pattern picked out just for you.  and probably some candy.  maybe a mix tape. if you can't get your mind off the carnival colored deceiver of a chalk pen, i'll prolly throw that in too.

the winner will be announced next tuesday, and a whole new giveaway announced that day as well. 

my glass of cotes du rhone, she is empty!  i am off for refills!

update tuesday 02/19: giveaway is now closed, the winner will be announced later today, along with a brand new tool for you to win!