Thursday Art Walk - Thanksgiving

 

Happy US Thanksgiving!

Today is a day of giving thanks, and I have a few things I'm quite grateful for, even in this year of the Dumpster Fire, 2020.

I am grateful for:

• My partner, who has given me love even when I felt none for myself and who has been the best part of this year! Thank you, love <3
• My family, who have put up with me for another year, despite not being legally required to (thanks fam!)
• My awesome friends who kept me from being totally isolated and lonely this year
• The internet for keeping me in touch with people I care about
• You readers for your continued presence. I can't see where you're all from anymore (because Google got really weird about their analytics for some stupid reason), but I can see that the blog gets a little more than a dozen views every time I post, and they're certainly not all from me lol! I hope that what I've done here has entertained you and maybe even made you smile on occasion.

I was going to make another picture of Dedbert as a turkey this year, but... I woke up with a half finished piece of pixel art and I just had to finish it for you guys!

Without further ado, here's today's art:

"Grumpmuffin" digital; 2020

I do need to figure out how to make pixel art that doesn't require "embiggening" and thus becomes blurry, but as far as early work goes, I'm pretty pleased! I'll remake this piece soon with more symmetry and less blur - maybe I'll work in cm and do 10 pixels per cm? That might work!

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Business Breeds Lateness

November being National Novel Writing Month, I am (predictably) working on my first novel. It's long, hard work, and I don't get my word counts down more often than not, but I am plugging away! The first part of the novel is 11.7k words long (and unedited), and the second part, which I'm currently working on, is currently 14.7k words long and... only about half done I'd estimate. I've been working on this novel for about a year now, all told, and it's the longest I've ever focused on one project. Which is why it is currently 3x longer than anything I've ever written, makes more sense, and doesn't suck (according to my First Reader).

You'd think I was fueling this mad dash for literary completion with a flood of my morning instant mocha blend, but instead... I've switched half of my hot beverage intake to tea. I've mentioned my testing of various Chamomiles (and the new Bigelow chamomile I've been drinking lately isn't quite the same as the... aged variety I found in the back of the cupboard, but it's still incredibly good), but I have needed to branch out into other kinds of non-herbal teas, so my mother was kind enough to deliver me a box of Morning Thunder from Celestial Seasonings.

Morning Thunder is a black tea with roasted maté. When my mother was in college, she swears she would drink it because she hadn't yet converted to coffee and she believes that, forty years ago, it contained roasted carob instead of maté. It did still have a buffalo on the box, though! I have to wonder if she perhaps is conflating Morning Thunder with Roastaroma, which is sold as a caffeine-free coffee alternative? It's over thirty years old, so perhaps that's what happened.

Morning Thunder brewed in my nice teapot!

The teapot has a bit of a story to it, too. My mother has had this teapot and its four little matching cups for as long as I can remember, but during one of her Object Purges, she decided she didn't want it anymore. I rescued it from the Goodwill bin, always hoping that one day I'd find a tea I liked and use it. One day, I set it down and the lid flew off, breaking into pieces on the floor. I was devastated. I was also very careful with the mending epoxy and unless you look inside the lid, you have to almost have your nose on it to see the hairline crack! I have the chips I rescued saved on a piece of tape in a plastic bag just in case I get one of those repair kits where you fix something with silver or gold.

I brewed the Morning Thunder in my pretty pot the other day and tried it, hoping it wouldn't leave me pulling faces and dumping it out like the Red Rose with Lemon experiment (yuck - that had to have been a bad lemon!).

I know my first mistake was in only using one bag for the teapot. My second was being impatient, but...

It was still quite nice!

It definitely had that... soggy flavor that most teas impart on me - a dark, rounded tone that reminds me of hiking in the woods of Camden Hills State Park as a kid right after a downpour - but it was balanced out by the stronger, drier flavor of the maté, which you could certainly tell was roasted! Overall, it's not a mocha alternative, but I'll drink it again and gladly! I tried this tea naked, but my partner had milk and reports that it was a bit weak but still quite good.

I'll brew it stronger next time, and we'll see how that goes.

I've since used the teapot to make two separate pots of Chamomile from Bigelow. The first attempt was with two Chamomile bags and another bout of impatience which left me with a fairly weak flowery tea that was still enjoyable but nowhere near my usual four-to-seven-minute steep (I may or may not take the steeping time to go take care of whatever the quickest chore is). My second attempt was a single teabag but I left it in the pot and poured myself several smaller cups of tea until the pot went cold.

This is a major issue, because I cannot finish an entire pot within one hour while crocheting and writing - it's physically impossible.

Solution? I'm making a tea cozy for it. Now, that yielded its own problems because, again, I'm impatient. I don't like having to hunt for the perfect pattern, and Ravelry failed me. It would seem that no one has made a free pattern that I like for a vertically handled teapot. They're all side-handled. Boo.

So I'm making my own pattern using the ugliest yarn I have because there's not enough of it for much else, and I love it in spite of the fact that it's a grungy taupe, navy blue, denim blue, and bright orange. I'm using an F hook, and you can expect pattern notes next Monday if you, too, have a light DK weight yarn you'd like to convert into a teapot sweater.

I think that'll do it from me tonight - it's past midnight and is now officially Wednesdaymania, but I'm both impatient and lazy, so I won't change the title or the content :P

I'll get back to bobbling and weaving my way to cozy perfection and then go to bed.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Blizzard Watch 2020

 

The Leaves Have Fallen, Time To Think Chilly!

Somebody is typing this sleepily from their bed.

It me.

I meant to write this blog earlier today, but I've been busy with book stuff, brewing two separate pots of tea (more on that tomorrow lol), making Yakisoba, and crocheting up a storm. Almost literally.

See, as soon as the last leaf falls, I start to ease out of Autumn Mode and tumble slowly towards the Winter. Since it's the last week of November, that's fine.

Basically, what happens is this: I start crocheting my Christmas gifts for everyone right before Thanksgiving, they're finished (hopefully) by Christmas itself, and then I keep going past New Years with winter-themed items which usually find a home in one of my mom's decoration totes in the cellar until the next year.

This year, I've resolved to make snowflakes. A lot of snowflakes. As many as I have white thread for.

Since I realized last week that I'd utterly botched at least three early rows of that spiderweb doily, I'm going to frog it and cannibalize that thread for more snow. Here's what I've got so far (sans two, which had fallen out of the pile as I transferred it onto my coziest blanket for the photo op!):

This year's blizzard is coming along nicely!

Snowflakes are especially fun to work on when it's pouring rain outside (I'm being a tad sarcastic there), but it's a fairly mindless process once you have the first section of each round done. They tend to be the same pattern six to twelve times in a round. Thankfully, they're also one of the most common types of pattern on the internet and you can find dozens of varieties for free!

Next year, probably starting January 1, I plan to make at least 100 snowflakes throughout the year, and I hope to sell them come next November, so... keep your eyes peeled!

For now, though, this batch needs to be woven in, pressed, blocked, and starched. Then I can worry about the next batch :)

Wow, my eyes are really heavy right now - it's nearly midnight lol.

Go Enjoy Something, folks!

FC

Thursday Art Walk: Pixels & Bubbles

 

In Which I Made An Art!

I know my abstract stuff has been... somewhat scattered as of late. I have been experimenting on Paint.net with different ways to do things, and I finally bit the bullet, turned of anti-aliasing, dragged the hardness to 100%, and made the line quality "pixellated".

Hence today's title.

I didn't know right away if the paintbrushes would retain the sharp edges I was looking for, but eventually, I realized I was good to go! I will say this, though - I was maybe too conservative in my circle-drawing.

"Signis"; digital art; 2020

I really like this palette, which I got from Coolers, which is fun as heck to use. I took the 5 basic colors and then carefully blended them together, one by one, by moving the alpha back to about 227 and layering the two, then using the eyedropper to add that color onto my new palette. I ended up with 15 colors total, and I used every one!

I did make one error, though - I put a 2 pixel block in the wrong spot, but by the time I noticed, I had already made several new layers so I just... put another lil block in the right spot lol.

I am very thrilled with the saturation! I think I'll go for full Alpha on future projects instead of my usual attempts at layering... unless.... hmmmmm.... Stay tuned for future experiments!

Alright, I have a novel to write, so y'all stay chill and

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Wednesdaymania: Talkin Shop A Mania 2: Rise of the Torturer (ADULT)

 

In Which Much Silliness Was Watched

So... the Good Brothers themselves, those Gimmicky Madmen, Gallows & Anderson made another Pay Per View. It's fifteen dollars, and you can get it on FiteTV, and if you were interested, let me just say... Watch the thing. Seriously, it's worth every penny!

You just shouldn't watch it with children.

Or probably your parents.

Because it's... very NSFW.

I mean, the last PPV had a match involving a dildo graveyard, so... maybe don't watch this if you're not in the mood for something rauncy, stupid, and incredibly silly.

This show has it all!

It has a murder mystery!

It has Little People!

It has a Softcore Match!

It has Marks Working Themselves Into A Shoot!

It has Zombies!

It has a sex swing!

It has bad CG!

It has surprisingly good CG!

It has music!

It has...

It's got a lot of weird shit going on, let's be real.

This Pay Per View, much like the last one, felt like a bunch of friends getting together and making a very stupid home movie, but with one with a script and editing. And a whole lot of beer. And vehicular manslaughter. And disMemberment (that's not accidental, that capital letter...).

Do you want to see a Lucha Death Match between Chavo Guerrero Jr and Chico El Luchador? TSAM2's gotcha covered.

Do you want to see 99% naked dudes with aggressively pasty dad-bods wrestling in g-strings? TSAM2's gotcha covered.

Do you want to see a very, very mean parody of the WWE tag team Retribution involving feces? TSAM2's gotcha covered.

Do you want to see Chris Jericho reprising his Southpaw role?

TSAM2's gotcha covered.

Do you want to see the token Good Match?

uh... you've bought the wrong PPV for excellent wrestling. This is pure chaos, folks.

Come for the ridiculousness of Karate Man Ethan Page vs an actual freaking zombie, stay for a couple of beefy nutcases getting their scrotums torn off while Big Poppa Pump calls them out on their stupid booking.

In all seriousness, though, this is a great show, and despite me not particularly thrilled that they keep giving Enzo and James Ellsworth a paycheck, I'm satisfied that the 15 bucks spent went to ensuring another one of these stupid shows get made.

It's 2020. The year is a dumpster fire, and sometimes, you just want a subversive, nonsensical Idiocracy-adjacent wrestling show to lighten the mood.

Well done, you delirious weirdos.

PS - yes, Virgil's in it. Yes, there are Olive Garden breadsticks involved. Yes it's as silly as it sounds. That's the point.

Go Enjoy Something!

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which It's Been A Day

It's late on Tuesday, and I'm pretty sleepy. I've had a long day of cat guarding, writing, and crocheting. My grandmother dropped by with her dog, and my cat is terrified of the dog, so she crept upstairs into my room and hung out with me, sitting in my window and looking to me for assurance. I had to carry her back downstairs so she could eat and drink and go to the litter box after they left because she would not believe my mother and I that the dog had finally gone lol.

After the catsitting was done, I came back up and wrote a little more of my novel, and played around with yarn for a while. It's been a fairly slow day, to be honest!

This week will probably include me talking about Talkin Shop a Mania 2 tomorrow, posting art on Thursday, and maybe talking about a video game idea I've had on Saturday. 

The weather today, by the way, was pretty good, if a bit cool (mid-40F/5-7C) and surprisingly sunny. Poor Evie kitty spent her morning on the back of a chair soaking in the sun's rays, so I'd imagine the dog showing up really startled her out of a solar stupor. Poor baby.

She's still looking for the dog, btw.

Anyway, that's basically all I did today and all I plan to do this week (besides writing a bunch more of my book lol), so...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which The Work Progresses

It's hard work being a Filthy Casual like me. Today was not taken up as much with crochet as it often is - it was instead taken up with writing. With nearly 1k words under my belt on my novel and another several hundred written out as a video game idea (more about that on Saturday, perhaps?!), I had very little time to hook up anything... kind of.

See, I actually did make an entire half-double crochet (or half-treble for UK folks!) headband in a very, very fluffy yarn on Saturday while watching Talkin-Shop-a-Mania 2, Rise of the Torturer (stay tuned for Wednesday lol), but I have no pics, and frankly, I don't feel like digging around in the Finished Box to take any right now. It's half past ten in the evening. I'm tired. I'm word-drunk. I love you darlings.

Anyway, I also did work on the spider web doily again! I'm up to round 22.

Here it is spread out on my poor battered laptop

Right now, I'm also relaxing with a small mug of Sleepytime Classic steeped a full 6 minutes. Very relaxing while I watch a baby otter frolic with his friends.

Don't pay any mind to the candy wrappers I forgot to clean up lol

I hope your Mondays haven't been too hellacious, and I hope you take some time tonight to

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - Experiment with Random Palette

 

Digital Art Is Hard, Guys

I'm still learning how to use the nice Star G430S XP PEN my partner bought me, but today, I made this:

"Random Palette Experiment 01 with Confetti"
Digital; 2020

Lol, if you want the palette I used, it's this:

• Cerise - F61067
• Amber - FFBF00
• Middle Blue Green - 7FD1B9
• Dark Purple - 37123C
• Black - 000000

It's pretty fun to experiment, but boy, does my PC not like trying to render a canvas more than 100cm x 100cm lol (I cut it down after the fact, but this actually got to 200cm x 200cm).

I'm pretty exhausted, though, so I'm going to post this insane nonsense and watch videos online with my partner :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Spider Web Doily

 

In Which I'm Working On Many Things

It's Gifting Season, which means I'm prepping my family's Christmas gifts and hoping what I make will fit them. As a way to relax, though, I decided to work on a doily. The Spider Web Doily, to be specific! This doily pattern is taken from Doily Bouquet, Star Book 71 from the American Thread Company in 1950, so I'm working a vintage crochet pattern. Luckily, a lot of modern language had already been hammered out by then, so the pattern is very legible. I do wish there was a diagram, though, because some of the pattern repeats can be a little tricky!

I'm on round 17 out of 33, and boy does it not feel like I'm halfway done...

I think it's looking alright, though!

Hopefully, I'll finish this off by next week, when I hope to have several other projects finished.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Survival Sunday - Chamomile Comparison

In Which I Am Trying New(ish) Things!

If you've ever met me in real life, you'll know that I have long disdained the "dirty leaf water" that so many use as a way of avoiding the black, bitter goodness of coffee or the sweet, sultry invitation of cocoa. That has been changing recently. My love of what my partner lovingly calls my "Morning Gruel" - my two-to-three parts cocoa to one part instant coffee - has not been kind to my waistline, and with COVID still in full swing and opportunities to move around outside dwindling due to a concern for lung health and the slow creep of chill into the air, occasional 70℉ (21.1℃) day notwithstanding, I haven't had anywhere near enough exercise to offset my caloric intake.

In short, I'm getting fatter, and I need to not, and my favorite comfort beverage is partly to blame.

So I have begun forcing myself to imbibe tea instead of mocha.

Except that I really, really didn't like the Red Rose my grandmother favors, so I've been starting small with herbal teas. The only herbal tea we have that isn't also a spice/dessert tea is... Chamomile. Specifically we have four varieties, but one is also slightly medicinal, so I'm leaving that for nights when my sinuses are inflamed (and those nights are coming soon, I'm sure).

So here I am, forcing myself to sip hot flower-water, and something remarkable starts to happen.

I start to lose my disgust.

The first cup of tea gave me a legitimate "bleh" reaction. I grimaced, furrowed my brows, and forced myself to power through - my heated hydration breaks count on this experiment, after all! And after a couple of cups of Sleepytime, I went from "bleh" to simply... "meh". I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. A neutral reaction. Progress!

And then it happened. I ran out of Stash and was beginning to run out of Sleepytime, so I hunted for anything else we had and came across some ancient Bigelow "Cozy Chamomile", the only ingredient of which was the flower itself. I brewed it up and....

Huh.

I liked it.

I tried the other teas (found a Stash chamomile in the back of the cupboard!) and... same reaction. I finally broke my tastebuds and bent them to my will! I enjoyed tea!!!

I should mention, though, that all of these teas were brewed in a cup without squeezing the teabag, so your mileage may vary on your flavor detection!

So without further ado, here are my subjective reviews of the three chamomile teas we currently have in our cupboard!

Celestial Seasonings "Sleepytime Herbal Tea"

This herbal tea has Chamomile as its main ingredient, but it also contains "Chamomile, spearmint, lemongrass, tilia flowers, blackberry leaves, orange blossoms, hawthorn and rosebuds." And I have to say... I didn't really taste any of it. Even at a full 5 minute steep, it mostly just kinda tastes like faintly minty grass, and that was exactly what I needed when I couldn't sleep a wink. It's probably my least favorite of the three, but I almost certainly won't turn down a cup if offered.

Stash "Chamomile Nights" Tea

This tea contains Chamomile with spearmint and natural lotus flavor, and yeah, I can absolutely taste the lotus and feel the minty coolness after the fact. The lotus gives an odd but not unpleasant sweetness and definitely "greener" (it's the only description I can give) flavor. It's not quite as soothing as the Sleepytime, but it's a decent late afternoon tea, and I'm pretty bummed we're out. If you've got it and you hand it to me, I'll smile and sip it for an hour.

Bigelow "Cozy Chamomile" tea

This is a single-ingredient tea. You like chamomile? This is for you. That's literally all it is. No mint, no fillers or additives... but apparently if you leave it in a mason jar for years and forget about it until you have a dietary freak out, it takes on... a unique scent.

It straight-up smells like honey. It's not stored next to our honey - it's not even on the same shelf! And they're individually wrapped and stowed in a glass jar! But they smell like honey and grass, and it's a smell that really stimulates my tastebuds, so here we are, with me gulping down mugs and mugs of chamomile tea and enjoying it more and more with every cup.

Now, if you are looking for a tannin-free tea, this is not that tea. While chamomile contains far fewer tannins than your average tea-leaf tea, it still contains some, so don't drink too much of this if you're anemic. Ask a doctor if that's something you should be careful of, since tannins can mess with iron absorption.

In conclusion, I really like the Cozy Chamomile I've been drinking, and all of the other chamomile teas I've tried, and I'm going to start branching out to other teas soon! I'll prepare them all straight like the chamomiles (because again, I'm trying to lower my sugar and dairy intakes,) and try them in a pre-warmed mug at their longest steep time (so they are at peak strength). If you are a regular tea drinker, please do tell me whether or not I should be squeezing the tea bag - I've heard that makes the tea bitter, but I'm not a tea aficionado yet, so I need guidance!

Also, if you have suggestions on what kinds of tea to try next, please do tell me!

And uh... if you wanna send me some tea, hit me up ;)

(You do not have to send me tea!)

I think that'll do it for me, folks :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - Final Witches and Faux Marketing

 

In Which There Are Witches
And Dedbert Has Ideas

It's been an exciting week, artistically, since last we blathered! I finished the last of my witches for Witchtober 2020, and they look pretty rad, if I do say so myself lol!

"Elizabeth"; Wildcard Witch; 2020

I may have taken Elizabeth's prompt a bit too seriously. I know that when you have a prompt list, like that of A_Ginger_Witch's, the term "Wildcard" tends to mean "Draw Whatever You Want," but I hate having that kind of freedom during a challenge (weird, I know). I just decided, you know what? 1910s witch lady playing cards. Her pose was awkward without something for her to rest her hand on, and I didn't want to draw a boring old table, so I gave her a weird looking dog. I look forward to redrawing her some day, because she's awesome and I love her outfit.

"Capy"; Pumpkin Witch; 2020

I couldn't not draw a capybara as a witch, guys. It was a requirement. After all, I was a capybara for Halloween this year, complete with a crocheted tangerine on a headband lol.

There they are! The final witches of 2020! But I finished those on Halloween, so what did I do for today?!

Dedbert was chatting with his dad, my partner, the other day, and they were talking about the Ovaltine I'd made earlier. Dedbert was a bit upset that owls cannot drink Ovaltine, so he has decided to make a malted beverage for owls! Being a very proud parent, I, of course, want to support my boy in all of his endeavors, so this is what we came up with:

"Owlvaltine! This New Malted Beverage is Really For The Birds!"; digital; 2020

Isn't he a clever young fellow?

That's my boy :)

Alright, that'll about do it for me this week!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Fall Gifting

In Which My Knuckles Are Sore

Wouldn't ya know it, trying to make birthday presents over the course of a few days is inadvisable.

I had been crocheting nonstop the whole week leading up to Halloween because my older siblings' birthday was being celebrated that day. I knew what I wanted to make for them, and thankfully I was able to acquire the supplies (a new skein of black worsted weight yarn!) and crank out a pair of adorable sweater gourds!

Uh... now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't call them that...

Anywho, I worked very hard! I used one strand each of a worsted weight yarn and a very interesting novelty yarn that gave this brilliant nubbly texture to the pumpkins!

Yes, I used the same exact pattern for both.
Yes, they came out different.

For the stems, I used a kind of rough almost homespun-looking yarn I found in a Goodwill bag years ago, and I filled them with standard polyfill. They are, if I may say so, freakin adorable.

I hope my siblings like them!

I also made a smaller pumpkin, but I failed to snap a pic of that, and I'll probably make at least one more (remember that wool pumpkin I made last year with the bean stitch? Yeah, it's missing, so I need to replace it lol).

All in all, it was a very successful weekend. I even managed to make a small cat doll that might find a home this Christmas...

That'll probably do it from me - got a lot of writing to do this month, since it's NaNoWriMo :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC