Craft Fail, and I need a metal punch...

I have been in Create! Create! Create! mode lately, which has lead to the inevitable glory that is the craft fail. Why am I sharing this? Because I want to remember my progress, good and bad, and I love it when people that I follow and respect show that they're human.  Plus, I believe my ideas were good, it's the execution that needs fine tuning.

It all started with my love of the awesomeness that is the large fast food cup.  Not styrofoam or paper, since those tend to break quickly (and drench me in the process), but the big plastic cups that can be washed and reused over and over.  I love them.  Really.  But the lids break and after a few days the small cracks become big cracks, and they no longer fit tightly on the cup.  And a tight fitting lid is why I like the cups so much.  I have a five-year-old and a big dog.  My cup gets knocked over daily, and having a barrier that keeps the tidal wave of iced tea from pouring out onto the carpet is essential.  Also, I prefer my tea with no dog hair or Playdoh in it.

The big problem with fast food cups, besides the lid cracking I've already addressed, is that I feel really guilty about using them, since they're not eco-friendly.  I would feel a lot better about using something that I didn't feel was destroying the environment.  Happy Earth Day, by the way...  I know that they sell plastic to-go type cups, and I have bought several of them for $15 each, but the "reusable straw" always gets gross after a couple of days, and they're just too small since I love ice.  I really love ice.  Obsessed might be the appropriate word to describe my relationship with ice, and ultimately, those 16 oz cups don't hold more than three or four sips of iced tea when you pack them full of ice first.

Two of Jake's favorite restaurants use quart sized mason jars for cups, which made me think that might be an excellent choice for our home drinking needs. A quart is pretty big, which would allow me to have all the ice I want in my tea, and not have to refill it twenty times a day. Plus, glass is eco-friendly.  It doesn't break down, but it can be recycled, and no matter how gross it gets I can run it through a dishwasher and it will be good as new.  I still needed to solve the lid issue, since, seriously, I need a lid.  I also wanted the portability that a fast food cup gives, and a slippery glass jar might not.  So this is what I came up with:

A grippy coaster bottom that was absorbent, would protect my hand from icy beverages, and would make my cup easily identifiable in a crowd?  Win, win, win! I was elated!  

 Here is my craft fail though.  The crocheted piece was just too thick to sit properly on the top of the jar, and the metal ring wouldn't hold it in place.  I tried again with a fine weight cotton thread instead and it bowed and fell into the jar as well.

So, I ended up cutting a circle out of a cereal box, putting my crocheted lid into the ring, and then putting the cardboard circle on top of it to back it and keep it sturdy and flat.  The ring screwed on perfectly and my cup has been protected.  I will probably have to replace the cardboard every couple of days, but at least it is more eco-friendly than the plastic lids were. 

Really, I think I'm just going to have to save up and buy a metal punch so that I can make straw holes in the metal canning lids.  Hmm... Those lids would be perfect for parties, since we could all just sharpie our names on them and they would wash off later so I could reuse them. Seriously, what could possibly be more eco-friendly than that?

xoxo