instigator and enabler

to fully get the humor behind this post, you're going to need some of the back story.

you see, i look a little bit like a rebel. i am heavily tattooed- both of my arms are very full; my left arm is nearly completely sleeved. my feet are tattooed. my legs are tattooed. i have tattoos in places you can't see. now, they are all tasteful- pretty flowers, girly-ed up sailor inspired pieces, and my newest tattoo, a crafty tattoo. seriously. a ball of yarn and knitting needles, spools of thread, buttons, scissors, a tomato pin cushion, etc. my hair is always different colors (though because of nursing school, it has to be in the "realm of natural colors" and thus is staying a shade of red or black for the time being) and i have a few visible piercings. i'm loud and i've been told i have a big personality, for what's it's worth.

i have a friend who looks like my complete opposite. she is always well put together and polished, and though she has tattoos (including a very large one on her back), they are not as visible as mine. she is the vice president of the honor society at school, active on campus, was mentioned by name by the college's president during his speech at graduation. she's a wonderful person whom i adore, but for some reason, she has repeatedly been called a "bad influence." i think it started out as a joke by a professor and just grew from there, but everyone we've talked to about it says, "yeah, i can see that." maybe it's because she's so clean cut and you just KNOW that those girls have a wild side. even my four year old agrees, calling her a "party girl." what HE knows about party girls, i've yet to figure out, but when i do, you'll be the first to know. for whatever reason, it's been a running joke for us for a while now.

while on the phone with her this week, her husband chimed in on the topic. he said she's not a bad influence, she's just the "instigator." and if she's the instigator, he said, then i am the "enabler." this made perfect sense to me, though my friend immediately took offense to it. ;) which of course meant that i had to take the joke and run with it. my first thought was: wine glasses. because, well, i had a wine glass in my hand at the time. and the planning started right then and there.

the next day, i went to visit another friend who has a cricut machine. side note: if you don't have one, get one. they are super cool and make my big shot manual crank cutter look like a joke. if you can't afford one (ahem, like me), then make friends with someone with one and have craft parties at her house. seriously worth it. at any rate, we cut out the letters for "instigator" and "enabler" out of self adhesive vinyl and stuck them on the wine glasses:

the vinyl didn't stick very well to the glass, and i was concerned that one wash and they'd come off, so i decided to use glass etching to make it permanent. this stuff is caustic and not meant to cover large areas, i had a really hard time getting it even, but that's okay.

they are not beautiful by any means, but still pretty cool personalized wine glasses for my instigator and me. i think i'm going to keep at it, playing around with designs and cheapo wine glasses to see what other kinds of designs i can come up with. next time, i will follow the directions a little better and not cover the WHOLE glass with the etching cream and instead will just do small areas like it suggests.