Hawaii: Unemployment gift to myself

I know we are supposed to live in fear of the economy worsening. As a twenty-something with no job lined up for next month, I should be a coupon-cutting wreak living off of Ramen noodles... but instead I booked a trip to Hawaii.
That's right: November 13-21st I'll be on the sunny beaches of a beautiful island sipping piña coladas.
You may be shaking your head at my decision, but HEY, hear me out.
My college friend, Jordana, called me to tell me she's going to Hawaii to visit her older brother who is now living there. Jordana and I were roommates during study-abroad in Greece last summer, and we travel together/get along very well. She invited me to come with her, and even though the idea sounded way out of my financial league, I always feel-out exciting offers like this "just in case" a miracle occurs. She sent me her flight details, and I researched the cost of flights. $800. Like I assumed, out of my price-range.
But then.... I find out that I have almost enough Delta frequent flier miles. That's right 50,000 miles saved up because, well, I'm a saver.
If I bought 20,000 more miles (it's a 70,000 miles flight) with a $50 transaction fee, that's a week-long trip to Hawaii for $250 and free rent. Unemployment may suck big time, but if you look at the glass half-full, it's an opportunity to take long travel vacations since when I do find a job, I likely will have nil time-off.

The wonderful world of temping

So, I'm not really unemployed. I use the term "unemployed" because I have no job that lasts more than a few weeks.

I'm currently temping through an Atlanta staffing company. I've learned that as long as you have an undergraduate degree, a few skills, and are not above doing menial labor at the drop of a hat, you get the job.
The only gripe I have with my staffing agency is that they never offer a description of the work.
My first job with them, they asked me if I was a super-star in Excel (which, sadly, I am) and then if I wanted to do data entry for "a few" weeks down-town. The idea of data entry sounds terribly boring, but the pay was good, so I figured if it sucked, I only signed on for "a few" weeks, which I could maneuver, if need be, to being there only 2-3 weeks. The job ended up being awesome, with virtually no Excel work. I let them reassign me for over eight months. The funny thing was that no one seemed to notice that I was not salary, but hourly. They were amazed that I volunteered to stay late (hello, time-and-a-half overtime- cha-ching!) and didn't leave immediately when they came to my desk and said "it's a beautiful afternoon, take off early today" because as much as a appreciated the green light to head out, that would cost me 3 hours of pay... and I actually liked this job, so I'd usually stay.

The temp job I'm doing now was described as "Project Coordinating" for "5-8 weeks" which I learned my first day that it was really..... DATA ENTRY! noooooooooooooooo!
I have virtually no human contact. I read reports and update the numbers into Excel. The pay is decent, but I'm not exactly happy to get up in the morning to come into the office.
Of course, here I am in week 7, and they want me to work the full 8 weeks. (Damn it, I shouldn't be such a good worker!)
I'll keep you posted when I find out where they place me next.

I'm getting crafty

Since my time is not worth much to the world or employment, I've decided to make my Christmas gifts this year. I have nothing but time, baby, so don't judge that these crafts I'm making seem to take a hellva effort and time for what they are. All I care is that I can make 10 gifts for a total under $8. I also secretly enjoy being crafty.

First some background.... I am one of the oldest cousins in a family of over a dozen aunts and uncles. Since I'm in my 20's I suppose I'm too old to just sign my name on the card on the gifts my mum buys for people, so I'm slightly proving my new found independence to my extended family by giving gifts from just me. Of course, there is no way I could afford to give each of my aunts and uncles and each of their slew of children individual gifts, so the name of the game is to give "family gifts" i.e. one gift per family that makes them think, "Liz is so sweet."

I brainstormed what they all have in common, and realized that they each adore their family dog. And thus the decision to give a dog gift to each family was made. Brilliant!

So, I'll make each a chew toy, a bandanna or two, and wrap it all up with a few dog treats. Done.

From past experience with the fabric store, I've learned that fabric isn't as cheap as you think.
I decided to rummage my closets before heading to a store where things cost actually money.
I found three fleece sweaters/jackets that were too small. I also found a stripped bed sheet with no matching set, so I was free to destroy it with scissors.

First, I cut the fleece sweaters into long, 1" strips and pulled them length-wise to stretch them out. After the stretch, they each ended up being a few feet long.
then I took 3 strips (each a different color for the three different sweaters) and tied one end of each to the leg of my desk chair. I then proceeded to braid them into one long braid and tie the end with a knot. I then untied the other ends from the chair and tied that off too.
With this super-long, colorful braided rope, I then tied it into a big knot so that it resembled the knot chew-toys I commonly see sold at the pet store.
I repeated this 10 times, and ta-da: 10 chew toys.

For the bandannas, I just cut up the bed sheet into large triangles that would fit to tie around a dog's neck. Now, most people can just call it a day, but I have the time and a sewing machine, so I hemmed all the edges (which is just folding over the edge and sewing it so it won't fray). Yes, this took some time, but I was watching tv while doing it, and I find sewing simple things soothing.

Since I'm not Martha Stewart, I'm not going to give you a recipe for making your own dog-treats. I just going to buy a big bag of them at Walmart.

My degree in Advertising has taught me that presentation is everything, so I spent $1 on a pack of paper lunch bags and $1 for a spool of ribbon. Using markers I then decorated each bag with the dog's name and some paw prints. After putting in the chew toy, bandanna and treats inside, I'll fold over the top of the bag, hole-punch it, and tie off with a ribbon.

What really make these gifts work was that they looked like I bought the fabric to match. The sweaters I cut up were all solids: white, black and navy. The bedsheet was white and navy. All the dogs are boys: This worked out beautifully.

Happy Halloween!

I feel the need to share my wisdom of successfully utilizing my time sans-job.
Apparently the economy is bad (if can case your haven't heard) and there are many of us out there: College-educated, willing to work for virtually nothing, and yet we still can find decent jobs.
While searching fruitlessly for possible employment, I've decided to have weekly projects so as to keep myself busy. Most of them have turned out pretty well.

First, I post my availability to tutor on Craigslist. Each week I re-post because no one reads the old ones at the bottom. This takes five minutes, and it's one of those jobs where I decide which jobs I'm willing to take. Anything that remotely sounds sketchy, I don't reply. I did get one last week from a mom just a few blocks away, and when she mentioned that her kid went to the local highschool, I used my judgement to go over to their house for $30/hr. At first I was worried that I wouldn't know enough about Economics to be a good tutor since I haven't taken a course in years, but I soon realized that I knew a lot more than I thought because I could easily answer all her questions. Cha-Ching!
I'm tutoring another kid Mondays in Algebra. I actually enjoy it because it's a nice refresher. I was a super-star math kid back in high school, and sadly have not needed to use my graphing skills in years.
The only down-side to these gigs is that I've driving over there for just one hour. I would love it if the sessions were longer, so I'd get double the money, but for now it's fine because it's never more than a 5 min drive.