Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Speak On The Week

Let's talk about what I've been up to since last Tuesday, shall we? I have done some crochet (as seen yesterday), and I have sketched a bit, and I've written so much! But I've also had a few fun little experiences.

Firstly, everyone survived the Polar Plunge as I'll call it. Yes, there are places that routinely get down to around -63℉/-52,8℃ with windchill, but this isn't one of those places. This place tends to stay around 10 to 25℉/-12,2 to -3,9℃ in February. Somehow no one in my county even suffered a cold-related injury! I'm very, very happy about that. Of course, that's not to say there won't be tragedies discovered later on in the quiet, tucked-away places that our unhoused population feel safest in, but for now, we don't seem to have lost anyone. I am unbelievably grateful for that.

No pipes burst, no windows broke, no cars failed to start. We were fortunate. Yes, the top step of our deck's stairs came off, but honestly? That deck's been rotting for years. I'm surprised it took that long.

Regardless, the weather was abysmal. And then yesterday got up to 41℉/5℃. And today was back down to about 25℉/-3,9℃. Yoyo weather.

Now that I've told you the weather, here's some storytime:

On Friday, which was the a bitter cold day hovering around -28℉/-33,3℃ with windchill, my boyfriend and I were hanging out in my parents' kitchen, enjoying some delicious brie and coffee when I saw something under the bird feeders. Something small was wriggling around and suddenly I realized it was a mouse!

Pretty much the second I pointed the mouse out to my mom and my boyfriend, a crow hopped down and...

Brutally killed the mouse.

Plucked it up into its beak and thrashed it around until it was limp.

And then ate it.

Nature! Nothing like it!

So guess what I'm drawing for Thursday...

I won't be graphic, don't worry.

Still, that was the most metal thing I've seen in a while. Our hawk hasn't been around to cull pigeons and doves, after all.

Death aside, I mentioned that I'm still writing!

I did miss a day or two of writing, including one day where I only got seven words down (ouch), but because I was on such a roll today, I still made my week's goal! This week, I wrote 1347 words! Guess how many I wrote today? No seriously, guess.

Okay did you guess over 100? Because you'd be right.

I wrote 948 words today.

Nine hundred forty eight!

That's over an entire week's expected wordcount!

More than that - I wrote an entire chapter in one sitting!!!

So that's the high I'm riding tonight!

And hopefully that will carry me through the sketching portion of my evening. I missed a sketch yesterday because I kept interrupting myself lol.

I may not be posting on time for the next couple of weeks, however, because I'll be helping some friends out on Mondays & Tuesdays. If I am overly distracted on those days, I'll try to write a Hybrid Crochet/Blather Blog on Wednesday, but I should still have my Art blogs regularly!

Speaking of art blogs - if you want a say in what I draw (besides my attempt to immortalize the intrepid huntscrow), feel free to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message attached letting me know your preferred category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word), and I'll make your dream come true!

It might come true in a confusing fashion, but it'll somewhat come true lol.

As for me, I'm going to groove to Stuart Copeland's Spyro soundtracks and draw things.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Was Busy

I don't talk a lot about my chores on here because everyone has chores, and chores are generally boring, but sometimes I have more chores than usual, so here we are, with me about to talk about chores.

How many times can I say "chores" in one blog entry?

Anyhow, I was asked to fill the bird feeders and water some plants today. Yeah. Water plants. On a day that started at 34℉/1,1℃ and never got above 56℉/13,3℃. The day after rain. But they're freshly planted, and I really do want them to grow! Holly, Witch Hazel, Oakleaf Hydrangea... they're such cool plants, and I want them to flourish. So I'll be lugging 4 full watering cans out back tomorrow, too.

It's gonna pour on Thursday night, though, so they don't get water on Thursday.

As I was drenching the newcomers, I noticed a couple piles of scat and I'm going to have to do some research because it both did and didn't look like deer poop. It was probably deer poop, let's be real, but I have a history of weird critters in my yard (coyotes, a bobcat, random birds of prey, a moose once, turkeys, etc), so it could be something else! I don't yet know what skunk, raccoon, or porcupine poops look like, so I'll look those up.

I really want it to be a porcupine.

They're super cute, and since I don't have a dog anymore, I don't have to worry about my dog pestering a porcupine.

But it's probably deer.

I also took a walk for my mental health (and a glass bottle of Coke), so I nabbed some more rocks.

And then I found more rocks.

I also picked up some whitening toothpaste and a $1 toothbrush to use on my rocks. I've read that some people use the toothpaste as a polishing medium, and since I have some scraps of denim (a recommended buffing cloth material), I will be playing around with more buffing this week!

I really do have to start showering *after* I'm done sanding rocks, though. And I probably ought to be more careful about wearing a mask. It only took the lightest puff of dusty air to set me off today, so I'll be switching back to the respirator my dad gave me and using more water.

Also, he found one of the rocks I was missing! I was very happy to see that one.

This was the first rock I ever honed to a satin finish!
There's no sealant on it, it's just that smooth.

The first group of rocks I found on my walk

A couple of interesting pebbles from next to our garden hose lol!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how these all polish/hone up!

The plans for this week are:

• Keep making art! (This week's prompts are Facepaint, Candy, Cauldron, Witch, Mummy, Under The Bed, and In The Dark). I'll post it all on Thursday!
• If you want to add elements to my art, feel free to make a Ko-Fi donation with a message telling me which prompt you'd like to modify and which category you'd like to modify it with! (prompts above, categories are ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL, LOCATION, GEOMETRIC, DEDBERT, or WORD)
• I might be cooking something this week, we'll see.
• Next Monday I'll have more finished crochet, I hope!
• Next Tuesday I'll be back to blather more!

Now, it's getting late and I'm pretty sleepy, so I'll let you go!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Ow.

There was a free clinic yesterday in my hometown. Free boosters to anyone without insurance. Guess who has no insurance? Of course me. I was lucky enough to live nearby so I ended up strolling in as the first stabee and I've been nursing my sore arm ever since lol.

I'm incredibly grateful to not have had any of the major side effects others in my family had. One of my siblings experienced pancreatitis! My mom and dad got chills & exhaustion! Most of my family & friends had exhaustion, actually.

I just get a sore arm. Maybe some chills last night, though it was about -2℉ (-18,9℃) so... maybe that was just my room being freezing cold. Could I sleep with the door open? Yes. Will I sleep with the door open? You bet your ass I won't.

Regardless, I got up this morning feeling like I had tried to force a door open with my shoulder, so I wasn't in the greatest mood for painting. I mean, I did it anyway, let's be real. I managed to get a nifty little bubble art out of it, too!

"Ring Game"; watercolor on paper; MB 2022

This piece is not my favorite, but since I made it in bad light with a sore arm, I'm pretty okay with it. I practiced a few techniques, explored how the colors work together, and figured out how to use that water brush from the Peter Pauper Press field kit (I was supposed to pull the little black stopper thingy out of the barrel, which was... not easy since I lack fingernails!). I think next time I'll practice sunsets, limit my color choices, and get some water out so I can do better wet blending. It's hard to do with the water brushes, believe it or not!

As for the missing "Talk About Tuesday" blog from this week... honestly, I just wasn't feeling it. I got super duper lazy and just wanted to snooze lol. No story there. I mean, there is one story from Tuesday: A deer came into my yard in broad daylight and raided the birdfeeder for moments. It must've heard my mom and I trying to get the cat to turn her stupid butt around so she could see the deer (she never did lol), and it bounded off. I'm mostly shocked my neighbor's dogs didn't scare the poor thing off before it got any food.

I think that'll about do it for me tonight. I'm very tired, and it's very cozy in here!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

No One Asked For It, But Here It Is Anyway:

Hey, so it's uh... it's really hard to crochet 7644 tiny single crochet stitches when it's super cold (and it's been between 8℉ and 23℉ (-13,3℃ to -5℃) all week), so I haven't got the next part of the Secret Project done yet. 

It's going along, just... slowly. And with very cold knuckles.

Weirdly enough, I can still sew with cold hands, though I do risk stabbing myself with the needle more often that way lol. The difference is probably that when I'm making my draft dodgers, I'm using old towels, which have more loft and warmth to them than smooth, thin cotton thread in single crochet lol.

Speaking of which, you'll need the following if you want to recreate a draft dodger, a fabric tube designed to keep drafts from coming underneath a doorway or windowsill and a necessity in older homes in colder climates:

• An old bath towel
• Two old wash cloths
• Thread
• A curved mattress needle (available in a pack of upholstery needles at places like the Family Dollar stores for the grand price of a single American dollar... aka they're cheap and I'm wordy)
• Scissors (We'll just be using these for the thread)
• Pins (optional, since I couldn't find my t-pins lol)
• Patience & something to sip on when you get frustrated or just to warm your fingers with - I recommend either coffee or tea, since the warmth is very good for cold days and also I overindulge in both lol

Also, you may want a camera to photograph the process, but not one on an older Samsung Galaxy because apparently those die horrible deaths... Yeah, I'm a bit bitter over about 3/4 of my process shots coming out with black lines all across them. And also annoyed that it randomly crashes when I'm at around 50% battery... grumpgrumpgrump...

Now that my crankiness has subsided here is how you do this thing:

Step 1: Fold your towel in half lengthways.

Step 2: Roll your folded towel from the open side so that the ends are hidden inside the roll. Roll as tightly or loosely as you want. Tighter will have a narrower circumference (not great for blocking drafts on doors with wide gaps at the bottom, but great for jamming up against thinner spaces for a more aggressive stoppage), looser will be much floppier and better for taller gaps or places where you need to bend it (say, a window or a particularly poorly insulated section of your room). 

My desperate attempt to show how you roll a folded towel, though it's hard to tell...

It should kind of end up looking like this:

There should be no bound edges showing!

Step 3: Sewing Time! If you have pins, pin your folded edge down along the body of the dodger, then thread your needle. You'll first want to secure your thread at the start however you like (by knotting the thread, making some kind of stitch that knots things, or however you feel most comfortable and/or works best for you), and then start making a... it's called a ladder stitch? I think? I don't actually know.

Make a stitch on one side of the seam you're making, pulling the thread all the way through

Then make a stitch on the other side of the seam, trying
to start it parallel to where you finished off your last stitch!
Tighten your stitches as you go and they should disappear!

Stitch all the way down the length of the seam. Yes, you're trying to connect two floppy rounded pieces together. No it doesn't matter if it's perfect your first time, but at least forcing the needle through one layer of actual towel and not thicker fabric like the bound edges  is really easy, so it's worth doing it this way. I recommend pinning, though I didn't have mine on hand, since if you pin the seam in place, it won't squish and flop all over the place like mine did and that will cut down massively on frustration! Once you reach the end of your long, long seam, secure that end as well.

Something I learned from hand-sewists on YouTube is that you shouldn't have too long a thread or it will get tangled. They're right. You probably don't want your initial thread to be longer than your armspan, and if you're being very cautious, maybe don't make your initial thread longer than a single arm. I went for armspan and it only took two threads to get from one end to the other. I am very short, though, so your mileage may vary. Literally.

Step 4: Let's cover the ends!

This step is optional, but I find it looks nicer if you do it,
since your stitches will stand out a lot on the thinner sections
and the end of the roll is pretty ugly, tbh

First, take one of your washcloths/face cloths, and lay your tube about halfway up it:

As seen here

Then wrap the tube in the cloth:

Like the ferrule on a pencil!

Here's where I got a bit... artsy. You can actually just fold the top over and sew it all together so it's a little bag, but I liked the idea of folding things all creative-like...

Sorta folded the top of the cloth down like a present?

And then crossed those corners over each other

Now unfortunately, all of the images I took of me sewing this section came out with black stripes and bars across them, rendering them useless, but basically I sewed the corners together, then sewed the folded-down hem to the rest of the cloth, then sewed the bottom of the wash cloth to the actual tube itself, making an origami-like cap to the end of the tube!

Repeat the process on the other end, and you have a draft dodger! Or draught sausage! Or whatever you want to call it (door snake? Should I add googly eyes?!)

A completed Draft Dodger!

I will admit, it's not the prettiest thing in the world, and I do worry that the ones I made might lose stitches here & there because I'm not the most confident hand-sewer (which looks like such a dreadful word in print...) but I am assured that they work! I made a smaller one by rolling half of a towel, sewing that into a tube, then cutting off a leg from a pair of torn-out leggings and sewing the cut end shut, putting the towel tube into the legging bag, and tying a knot to keep the towel-tube in place - that one's for a window specifically.

In the future, since I'm getting better at hand sewing, they'll look nicer, but what works works and I won't feel bad about helping someone keep warm! If you live in a cold place with a drafty house and you have some grungy towels you don't mind sewing up on-hand, I strongly recommend trying this out. If you're a strong handiworker you may even be able to machine-wash these without them coming all undone lol!

That'll about do it for me, guys. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them (I'll see them - I get an email when you try to post comments so that I don't get anymore spammers :|)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday - The Cold and the Foodiful

 

In Which It's NOT WARM and I Got A Box of Food!

Let me begin by saying that this is not a food review! I have not even cracked into the box of food I received courtesy of my partner splurging on stuff from YamiBuy. This is instead your friendly neighborhood Casual blathering on a hecking cold and windy day.

It's sunny, which is a relief after two days of freezing cold rain, but holy moly, March is 100% roaring in like a lion. The winds are gusting up to about 12-38mph (19.3-61.2kph), and it's a frigid 20℉ (-6.7℃) with a real feel of approximately... 3 to 8℉ (-16 to -13℃). If you are imagining me wrapped in every blanket and fleece I own, desperately stuffing my fingers under my armpits to keep them from freezing... you're not all that far off lol.

It is freaking freezing.

Somehow, it's going to warm up to springlike temps this week? Sure.

But last night, a highly anticipated box was dropped off on my doorstep, and it was almost as wide as my doorway so getting it inside was awkward but WHO CARES IT'S COOL ASIAN FOODS!

Here's what we got:

Four Different Kinds of Self-Heating Hotpots to try!

That Yakisoba we really loved with the mustard mayo!

Mi goreng - one of the most versatile noodz for adding stuff to!

Dried tofu skin?, Squid flavored Lay's, and chicken flavored Cheetos!

Delicious delicious Ramune in both Yuzu citrus and Original flavors!

What I saw when I opened the box and took the air balloons out

I have never had Tteok-bokki before, but I can't wait to try them!

Beef & Sauerkraut Noodz? Alright! Can't wait to try 'em! 

This is how the Ramune were packaged - double-layered bubble wrap scrolls!

In short: We have SO MUCH COOL STUFF TO TRY! I can't wait to get started!

I had one of the yakisobas today for lunch - they're just as good as ever, but with a few differences - the instructions are 100% Japanese on these ones, the cabbage is just hanging out with the noodles and not packaged separately, the mustard mayo packet was easier to open and had a narrower opening leading to really nice coverage, the spices in the spice packet were more tan (garlic?) than green (seaweed?) and had significantly more white pepper, but the overall meal was exactly like I remember :)

Delicious.

I'm doing bonkbubble work and picking away at the good ol stocking today while trying to stay warm. I might go down and grab some lemon tea or coffee to warm up with.

Which means that that's all from me today - it's cold! My plans this week are the same as always:

• Art Thursday
• Crochet on Monday
• Blather on Tuesday :P

Looking forward to exploring these new flavors.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

PS: This blog is not sponsored in any way - we just tried a new way to get snax since travelling out of town is not really feasible right now!!!

Thursday Art Walk 310: Damp Bird Day

In Which It's Really Gross Out

It's currently 38℉ (3.3℃) and pouring cats and dogs. It's blowing a gale out there and about as dark as can be. I just want to curl up with coffee and curry or something, but instead I am sitting in the dark waiting for the rain to calm down so that I can go and curl up with noodles and blather about writing with my favorite writer.

Dedbert wanted to go for a walk this morning, so I gave him an umbrella and let him go out.

"Damp Bird"; ink and pencil sketch; 2020

It was short-lived.

Now he's curled up in his nest with some popcorn and a good book, so that's good.

My day is looking to be damp and dreary but also cozy and productive. How about you guys? What are your days looking like?

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 308: The Sun Is A Liar

In Which The Sun Tells Lies

I got up with the sun this morning - a rare feat only occasionally accomplished either through insomnia or just poor quality sleep (which was the case last night). It was a beautiful sunrise - all pink and purple and bright - and then the sun itself appeared and took its place in the sky, shining brightly. The sun made a lot of promises when it got up this morning. It has kept none of them.

It's currently 23℉(-5℃), there's a breeze, and while the sun shines brightly... well... the ice is very slippery.

The Shadow would be alarmed.

So poor Dedbert, he took one tentative tap on the window to see if he'd be interested in going outside today, and... well...

"The Sun, She is a Liar"; washable marker and graphite on sketch paper; 2020

He's currently huddled in his nest, pretending it's not daylight.

I'm tempted to do the same, but I have dinner to make, a story to write, and a partner to team up with, so off I go, into the cold, cold day.

How's the weather out there, folks? Cold enough for ya?

Go Enjoy Something,
FC