Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which The Horse is 20 Hands High
And I am 5'3"

They tell you when you fall off of the horse to get back on. I am usually very good at this.  This month, however, as mentioned on Tuesday, I'm just kind of... not feeling it.

That being said, I did manage to finish one digital piece based off of one of the first week of Cozytober's drawings that never made it onto the blog. You'll get all 31 pieces by Halloween, I promise. I want to see these images come to life!!!

Anyway, here's Prompt #5 - Cabin

"5 - Cabin"; Digital; 2023

I went for something of a storybook/illustrative look for this one, and I'm actually... quite pleased with the result! The original sketch was awful, I'll admit. Barely more than some scribbled lines that vaguely looked like a lop-sided a-frame cabin with a beagle puppy that looked more like a tamandua posed woodenly in the doorway. This at least looks like it's supposed to be a bit more sketchy!

I have... so much more art to do this week. I'm catching up, but it's only 5 days to Halloween, and I want to be finished completely. There's some great prompts to play with.

As for tonight, I'm going to work on at least one more sketch before turning in. The last few days of cat-pilling have taken their toll and I am pooped.

That's it for tonight's blog, sorry!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Don't Even Know, Man...

I have not felt like doing much of anything lately. It's not laziness - laziness is a delicious and hedonistic desire to stay still, and what I've been feeling is absolutely not delicious or hedonistic.

I've been stuck.

I'm back to chugging too much coffee, back to losing time, back to being tired all the time, back to losing interest, back to anxiety at weird times when nothing's wrong.

In short, I think I'm having a very annoying depressive episode.

I'm not in any danger, though. No Bad Thoughts or anything, just... meh. Not feelin it, lately.

I'm pretty sure it started when I realized at the end of September that my wrists ache. There's a feeling of stiffness and soreness just above the knob of my wrists, and it's worse on the left than the right. I started feeling a little melancholy - mid-30s is a bit early for arthritis, and there's no inflammation or swelling. They're just a little stiff and sore. They've always sounded like they've got gravel in them when I rotated them. Same with my ankles, though they're not sore yet.

The discomfort isn't too much, but it does interfere with my art and crochet, so I'm very behind on Cozytober and haven't done too much crochet lately.

Aching wrists aside, we're fixing the deck this month, and I absorb other people's stress like a sponge. The deck repairs have not been going well, and there's been a lot of upset on my parents' part as they work to make sure it's both sturdy and good-looking. It does look very nice, so at least all that hard work has been worthwhile! Still, that's been stressful for me by transference.

It's been raining a lot since I got back from the Ren-Faire, which makes it very frustrating to get around and do things, so I've been stuck inside.

And then Evie got sick again. It's a chronic infection, so we were given the same antibiotic as last time and we're pilling her at both 8 AM and 8 PM, so that's been fun.

The most recent demotivator has been the fact that pretty much every time I venture outside something goes poorly for me. My local fiber circle canceled this month's meetup and I didn't find out until I'd already crossed town. On some attempts I made at being social, I was chased by hornets. When I try to go outside and get some sun on the few days it's here, I'm buzzed by my neighbor's honeybees. Heck, I've even been hearing more people yelling rude stuff while I'm out walking! It's a residential neighborhood, you weirdos, don't yell at the preteen girls who are jogging past me that they'd better keep going or you'll kill them!

Seriously, don't do that. If you try that again, I'll unhinge my jaw and eat you. I'm getting grumpier in my middle age.

The weather has been nice and chilly, at least, which I prefer to hot and sticky. I just wish there had been more nice days that I could go down to Main Street and paint.

It's going to be too cold for that, soon, and I'll have to switch to sketchbooks. I really should get a soft-cover drawing pad with detachable sheets - it'd be fun to be able to sell sketches as I work.

But hey, enough morose nonsense - I do have good things to talk about!

I made iced tea this week! I've never made iced tea from teabags before! I dumped 7 Meyer Lemon teabags in a pitcher full of cold water and left it overnight in the fridge. The resulting tea was just a touch sweet, a touch bitter, a touch sour, and incredibly pinkish-orange. The Meyer Lemon tea I have is made with rosehips and hibiscus, so the pink was expected. What was unexpected was how freaking delicious it was with a splash of Cranberry & Elderberry juice to sweeten it. The color deepened to a regal purple-red and all of the sweet/bitter/sour notes soared. Just lovely!

I also got to have my first taste of cider for the season, which was also delightful. Early apple cider is better than winter apple cider and I will fight you on this. It has none of the mealy undertones of a winter cider.

And when I say cider, I mean the pressed apple kind, not the alcoholic variety.

I'm being needlessly pedantic sorry lol.

Oh! And today, after years of trying to fan-cast a new Kolchak series, my guy & I came up with the perfect new Kolchak - Bob Odenkirk. I dare you to disagree. You'll be wrong lol.

Anywho, I am still planning on catching up on my missing Cozytober pieces, despite having missed... a lot, so I'm going to need to get back to the drawing pad.

Go Enjoy Something, folks!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Promise I Have Been Working On Stuff

So uh... it's been a hot minute, huh.

I have been a bit caught up in my Cozytober prompts, and I've neglected taking pics of anything like the two dragons I'm crocheting, the Autumnal cardigan I'm crocheting, the approximately 7k cups of coffee I've consumed, etc.

In fact the only reason I remembered to do anything relating to this blog today was that I... had a bit of an accident.

See, I have this table easel.

It's not the most robust thing - not like a proper pochade box or a full sized easel, but it's great for holding stuff up and letting me get a sketch down.

I don't have a dedicated place to put it. I don't have a whole lot of dedicated storage, to be quite honest. It generally gets put on top of my dresser or on the corner of my desk. Unfortunately, I stack a lot of things in these areas, including a tiny little squirrel-sized picnic table my dad made for me.

My dumb butt thought laying the easel down on top of the mini table was a good idea.

Gravity and me trying to fish some socks to sleep in out of the drawer directly under the table disagreed.

Somehow something got wrapped around something else and levered the easel in such a way that it launched itself at my face and came down on my glasses. Hard.

Which means that I just essentially punched myself in the nose with my glasses with a bunch of extra steps.

And since I can never ever resist telling the world about the increasingly bizarre ways I hurt myself, here we are.

Like I mentioned, I'm working on a bunch of Cozytober stuff, I've crocheted a few things since last we met, and I've been keeping busy by guzzling coffee and cuddling my cat (she wanted to be held like a baby today and wouldn't stop pestering my folks til I scooped her up and snuggled her in front of them lol). I will continue to do these things after tonight, probably with a stupid bruise on my stupid nose.

Just thought y'all deserved to know about this nonsense lol!

For now, though,

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which The Universe Is Trying To Tell Me Something...

It was a very wet, very hot, very crappy summer here. My whole goal this year was to paint outside once a week.

I've done it maybe three times because the weather has Not Cooperated.

Today it was gorgeous out.

Puffy white clouds, slightly hazy sky, not that humid, gentle breezes, approximately 75℉ (23,9℃)...

I had to try it. I had to go for my stupid little walk for my stupid mental health! It was now or never!

Well, the walk was pleasant enough - traffic cooperated, I managed to check the produce that gets left out for free at the library (just kale and a few random peppers, but that's on me, I should've headed out before noon), and I even felt comfy enough to shed my flannel shirt.

Main Street was the kind of bustling you get from off-season tourists who just want to see what a small New England town is like when there are no cruise ships or leaf peepers (spoilers, it's cozy but largely boring unless you're into art and relaxation). I hopped onto a bench outside one of the bigger galleries and set up my clipboard and watercolor palette, sketching out a very sloppy view. My goal was to try out some brushwork ideas I'd had, practice glazing, maybe figure out how to do impressionism with watercolor if I was very very ambitious.

A gentleman set up near me with a violin. He had an interesting song selection that he was playing with speakers. Dunno if he was legit or one of the scammers, but that was besides the point.

The point is that this is when I started to get a familiar feeling in my gut that something might go wrong today.

I ignored it, because I'm anxious, so I feel that way a lot.

I mean, sure, I'm anxious because when I feel like something is about to go wrong, it does, but that's besides the point. People aren't supposed to give in to anxiety, right? So I keep painting.

I'm adding a bunch of dabbed brushwork leaves to a tree when I realize there's an older fellow in a western-style shirt standing close to me, watching me work. Okay, that's cool, he seems to be just watching my paints, trying to see what I see. It's a first for me, but I've seen other plein aire artists have this happen.

No sooner does he start asking me questions about my art (which I was really excited about, because this is new! People don't often take an interest in what I do in the real world!), than a yellowjacket starts hovering around me. We both remark on it and laugh it off.

Then it's joined by a friend, who lands on my thigh and starts moving... oddly.

And then they're both joined by a third yellowjacket who zooms aggressively towards my eyes. I hastily packed up and headed for home. I wasn't about to run because I know that a fast-moving target with hornets, bees, or yellowjackets around it is a stung target. I apologized for my quick departure to the baffled art enthusiast and trudged home.

The weirdly persistent bugs followed me.

They followed me for almost a half a mile.

They continued to aim for my face.

I finally lost them by leading them past a bottle redemption place with a whole swarm of drunken hornets outside. My stalkers decided that the booze was far preferable to my face, so they stuck around the pallets of broken beer bottles and crushed Mtn dew cans.

I bought myself a couple of 69 cent cans of soda at a nearby shop and went home, defeated.

Some days the universe just tells you "No, you're not allowed to enjoy yourself outside." This was apparently one of those days.

It's a frigging bummer.

No one has ever talked to me about my art on Main Street without prompting from someone who knows me.

Never.

So of course the one time it does, my stupid stinging-insect-attracting powers have to activate.

Heck.

Anyway, here's the watercolor sketch I was working on:

"God Said Stop Painting"; watercolor on paper; 2023
[ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, LOCATION]

As you can see, I was trying to use a flat brush and fill in the foliage of the tree I was looking at...

Those five dots in the sky are pigeons. Same with the dots on the background building.

And the buildings you can see are a secondhand store, a bakery, a movie theater, and a contemporary art museum.

I've probably just doxxed myself. It's been that kind of day.

Is this the universe's way of telling me not to freaking paint outside anymore? Telling me I'm not allowed to paint at all?

I feel pretty defeated, to be honest.

Weird crap happens every time I try to do anything like this.

Nature just likes to mess with me I guess.

Last time it was a freak rainshower. The time before that, a cruise ship arrived and I felt like I had to leave so that other people could sit down.

I want to sit somewhere with shade and paint.

Apparently the only place I can do that is at home.

That sucks.

Anywho, if you want me to make some art for ya, I'm happy to do that - you can commission me via Ko-Fi, DM me on Twitter (it's Twitter, not X, Elon's a doofus), if you're an IRL person I know, you can reach me via Facebook.

If you just want a say in what I post next week, feel free to drop me a small donation on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category you want to see (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Food, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) and I'll make it for next Thursday!

I'll just probably be painting or drawing it either at the local library or in my backyard.

Probably the library, to be honest, because last time my mom sat outside, she was swarmed by bees.

What the heck.

Anywho, Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

Buckle Up Kids, It's Been A Few Weeks

So.

A few weeks ago I stopped updating.

I can explain.

So much has happened! I mean it! A lot!

At first, I wasn't posting because I was busy busy busy prepping for King Richard's Faire and the road trip leading to it! So much crochet! Tea-staining! Planning! Packing!

Then I was on the road. That will be its own section, trust me.

Then I was at the Ren Faire! So much fun! So many exciting things!

And then I was on the way home!

And then I was home, but exhausted!

And then we had a tropical storm!

And now here we are!

So first things first - Ren Faire prep was hectic.

I had two pouches and an undershirt to crochet, tea-staining to attempt on one pouch and the undershirt, frantic packing and repacking and unpacking and repacking again (I really did try to travel light and still ended up with two bags plus a tote full of snacks), and yes, anxiety, because I cannot enjoy anything without nature's caffeine (adrenaline) making my heart squeeze and pound.

Turns out I was maybe a little right to be anxious, because it turns out RVs hate me just as much as any other electronic.

We were maybe 2/3 of the way to our campground when the skies opened up, pounding heavy and hard on the car with raindrops so frantic and oversized I was convinced they were hailstones for a hot minute. That would've been fine, honestly, if the RV didn't quickly stop working, causing us to coast to a stop along I-95, where we would not be able to move from for over 8 hours. Turns out that Good Sam's RV Insurance isn't worth the half second it took for me to type their name. They left us disabled and stranded for twenty four freaking hours. The Massachusetts State Troopers, on the other hand, got us moved in like an hour.

So yes, we missed our campsite. And my poor friends, who were in charge of all the logistics, had to spend nearly the whole 24 hours we were stranded desperately trying to get a hotel, a rental car, a tow truck, etc. And fate and crappy call centers fought them every single step of the way.

Shoutout to the exhausted, overworked AVIS/Budget guy who ended up having to rent us what we strongly suspect was the van he had been using for his own family, because that poor guy got just as shafted as we did, since the dorks at the call center rented us a vehicle that did not exist on his lot. In fact, no vehicles existed on his lot. Hence the probably-was-personal van.

That being said, while waiting for the tow truck to take the RV to get fixed, we went on a little road trip to a mall where we tried Mochinuts for the first time!

A Three-Pack of Oreo, Fruity Pebble, and Matcha mochinuts

A fried mozzarella stick with French fries

Mochinuts are, apparently, donuts made with mochi flour, which makes them delightfully crisp & chewy and just all-around tasty. The Oreo was my favorite - it was intensely chocolatey on the top, not overly sweet, and that chew was super satisfying. The Fruity Pebble mochinut was also fantastic, though the cereal was a bit dampened (big surprise, it was like 86% humidity that day and hot as hell). Unfortunately the matcha mochinut was... stale-tasting, which disappointed every one of us.

The fried mozzarella sticks were practically a religious experience, though.

See, they're called Cheesedogs, because they're the exact same size and shape as a corndog (which they also sell and are also delicious). Which means they're BIG. Yes, I was murmuring Big & Chunky in my head the whole time I was eating the one Z got for us to share. They can come with different toppings - the one shown above has French Fries and my buddy T got that one. Our friend S was the one who got the mochinuts! But Z & I had a cheesedog with crushed ramen noodles on it.

100000000/10 strongly recommend. I went from feeling exhausted, overheated, and ill to feeling deeply satisfied and happy in only 4 bites.

You know what's not satisfying?

Spending six bucks on this junk.

I like cotton candy as much as the next fatty, but these kiosks are a waste of your time (something like 7 minutes) and money. It was roughly the size of a tennis ball when it came out, screwed up several times, and tasted like chemical farts.

Minus five stars.

After the trip to the mall, we picked up J, who had taken the task of making sure the tow truck came for the RV, and we all went to a motel. It was a nice little place just outside Carver, and while there was a little nonsense with the showers, it was very very good to not be stuck on the side of I-95.

We even drove to a place for some shaved ice!

The views in Marshfield, MA were spectacular

100 flavors!!! 

If Z & I hadn't been 100% stuffed with mochinuts, cheesedogs, and Sweet Frog frozen yogurt (and pineapple Dole Whip), we'd have tried a lemon-lime ice or possibly a plum-grape ice. As it was, T got a Pretty Princess and it looked fantastic (it was pink & purple!).

We finally retired for the night in fine spirits, ready for our adventure at King Richard's Faire the next day!

The Faire....

My God, that was the Faire to start with, in my opinion. None of us had ever been to one, and among the five of us we had T in a cloak, S in a lovely black dress & cloak, J as an absolutely precious gnome (we're talking full-on, unintentional Nana cosplay from David the Gnome, 100% homemade), me in my emerald green Torvi top from Holy Clothing (plus crocheted accessories), and Z in his shockingly comfy outfit of a cream-colored cotton top and a pair of white linen pants with very thin gray stripes (plus the crocheted bag I made him!).

Of the 5 of us, I think Z was the most comfortable the whole day - it was upper 70s and 86% humidity.

None of us got heat exhaustion, however, because 1) we all hydrated obsessively (don't use the tap near the Mud Show, it's rusty, use the ones near the Privies near the Queen's Stage!), 2) most of us were wearing at least one breathable garment, and 3) the whole of King Richard's Faire is in a forest (except for the jousting field).

The temperature difference between the sun-soaked parking field and the pine-shaded Faire was nearly like air conditioning.

If you've never been to a Ren-Faire, King Richard's is... a great introduction. You enter through a portcullis after being greeted by the Royal Court, and you're immediately in dappled shade with what feels like a true medieval village! There are permanent buildings for every shop, some done in that Tudor architectural style that everyone thinks of when they think Ren-Faire, and others in adorable fantasy shapes (a kiosk shaped and painted like a mushroom was selling tails, ears, and other costuming supplies; one hut was shaped like a witch's pointed hat with the tip curled slightly and had a stained glass window with the Hylian crest on it!). 

If you're into leather, there are at least 3 shops there to cater to your needs. If you want weapons and armor there are several places, including a working blacksmith! If you like pottery I saw a few spots for it, including one that let you do your own Raku pottery! You could hatch your own dragon egg to win a prize in a little house that had a dragon shop in it! You could have the Washing Well Wenches help you find missing party members! Do you want elf ears? There's a lady who has every kind of ear known to fantasy. Do you want an ocarina? There's a very sweet lady who sells ocarinas (you'll know her by her excellent playing and the Triforce branding on her signs).

And of course let's not forget the food.

My god, the food.

So I'd heard that the turkey legs were huge.

We were undersold.

Our turkey leg probably weighed at least 2lb
And was mostly meat.

I 100% recommend the food. We didn't have anything that wasn't delicious - the turkey legs are sublime (they truly do taste somewhat hammy, but there's still that turkey undertone and they're meaty as can be!), the bloomin onion was crispy and hot, the Cobbler's Corn is a Mexican Street Corn that Z & I each had an ear of and could have easily eaten six or seven more lol. S got a caramel apple with all the fixings and it was a whole, cored & sliced apple in a bowl with hot caramel in the bottom instead of being a sheet of sticky stale caramel wrapped around a stale apple on a stick like I'm used to. We also had some candied nuts (The King's Nuts), and those were delicious - we had cashews & almonds.

The food is pricy, but... not as bad as at the Maine Lobster Festival, to be honest. You get good value for your cash, and the water taps are free, so you don't even need to pay for water if you don't want to.

Pro Tip: Don't buy your food tickets at the gate if the line is long, there are plenty of kiosks in the first few hours where you can pay your cash to get your food tickets. Each ticket is worth $1, and turkey legs were 17 tickets, so be prepared.

Still, that's a 2lb in-character meal for 17 bucks, so uh... worth it in my estimation.

After you eat, you should definitely check out the many shows in the area - Jacques Ze Whipper was at the Faire when we were (in fact, that vid was taken while I was there!!!) and his shows are always worth the while!

Yes, He's cracking a flaming whip.
Yes it was incredible.

He's got a friend named Ses Carny who runs the Torture Show on the Queen's Stage, which involves knife-throwing and fire eating, and that was a great show, too.

I had a very sore throat on Monday because of screaming "TORTURE!!!" back at him lol.

I Am A Great Photographer LOL

Now, after Ses's Torture Show was...

A dog trainer.

J really loved the dog trainer's show, because he had very cute Jack Russell Terriers.

Z & I were in awe of the guy's show for... entirely different reasons.

I'm sure he's a great guy. He went to Clown College around the same time as Penn Jillette! He's been training dogs since the 1970s!

He's the reason Z & I were paralyzed with giggles for an hour and a half that night.

I do not recommend hysterical laughter.

Sure, we both felt some catharsis from the giggle fit, but uh...

It's scary when you cannot. stop. laughing.

Anywho...

We were all excited to see the Jacques Ze Whipper/Ses Carny Secret Show but...

The sky had other plans.

We received a deluge reminiscent of the one that disabled the RV, forming ankle-deep puddles in minutes. I'm pretty sure almost everyone fled the Faire at that point, and we were soaked 100% of the way through. That night I learned that, yes, Holy Clothing does indeed bleed. Fortunately it didn't bleed onto Z's white shirt and pants.

We voyaged back to the hotel in shockingly high spirits, Z & I were overcome by the giggles, we slept, and then we went back home.

The ride home was shockingly smooth for having to drive over 220 miles (365km or more) before 4pm.

It was close, but we made it (after quickly dropping Z & I off at my house so that the van could get to the AVIS/Budget center nearest us).

And thus I was home.

And I crashed.

Boy did I crash.

I crashed so hard that I basically did nothing until recently when Lee decided it wanted to try to visit.

And boy do I not like rain now.

We overprepared for Lee, I'll confess. We bought batteries, we battened down the hatches, Z & I planned to spend the day on the internet until the strong winds inevitably killed our power and internet.

And then Lee was a delightful little wet fart for us.

It was loud, it was damp, but it was not the 70mph gusting, 3 inches of rain spilling nightmare we feared.

Sure, there was storm damage around town (and yes, someone died, unfortunately). A tree landed on a house I walk past. Another tree landed on a car. But our power never did more than flicker briefly, our internet stayed strong, and we had a long day of watching YouTube videos together.

And now here I am, staring down at some soft yarn that I'm hoping I can find another skein or two of (I think it's Red Heart Soft in a dark brown color, I legit cannot remember?). I am trying to make an autumnal hex cardigan.

I'm also trying to get up the gumption to do art tomorrow.

We'll see how well I do!

For now, though, I'm still somehow sleepy, despite it having been 9 days since the Ren Faire. And despite having dozed all day.

It's just that kind of day.

The plan for the week is:

Art for Thursday.

Something crochet-related for Monday.

Blather for Tuesday.

I... think I have pics of when I was tea-staining everything? At the very least I'll talk about that next Monday.

For now though, it's time to relax.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

PS: Z, I know you're reading this.

Please, Peppah, just one more jump! Please! We gotta pay off the car loan! Just one more, Peppah, please, oh god....

Thursday Art Walk

In Which I Legit Forgot To Post This Earlier...

I finished today's sketch in the morning, and I've just... forgotten until now that I needed to post it lol.

Today's sketch is of a fairly famous beaver kit named Nibi, and it's based off of a picture that Z & I send back and forth to each other as something of an in-joke. it's not really a joke, it's just a fun thing we do.

I adore her little face in the original image, so I couldn't resist sketching her.

"Nibi" (aka "Hello!"); pencil sketch; 2023
[ANIMAL]

Nibi is such a cute little thing, but then, all baby beavers are precious chunky monkeys. They are the roundest, most adorable critters in North America and I love them about as much as I love opossums.

This picture almost didn't get sketched, by the way. We're having a lil silverfish problem right now, and one made its way onto the sketchbook. I did not notice this nearly inch-long creepy crawly until I had already carried it downstairs, set it on the kitchen table, and made myself coffee.

I sat down with the coffee, hoping to finish sketching (I had vague shapes lightly sketched, but no facial features), and the bug made itself known. I somehow avoided dumping my coffee and threw the sketchbook across the kitchen in surprise.

I'm not afraid of silverfish, I just wasn't prepared for such a robust specimen to appear next to my thumb so suddenly.

It was definitely not on the sketchbook anymore after its impromptu flying lesson, though, so I brought the book back, sat down, and drew.

I do want to do a few more takes on that cute pose, and I'd love to get a still from the video of her bunny hopping away from the dam and make a pic of her clicking her heels gleefully lol. Ironically, she has since made friends with an actual bunny, so I'll have to make a pic of that, too lol.

For now, though, I've got crochet to finish, pouches to make, and sleep to catch up on.

If you'd like to have a say in what I draw next week, feel free to send me a little donation on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Food, Location, Geometric, Word) you'd like to see, and I'll draw or paint something that fits the bill!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Another Art!

This week's piece is not what I hoped it would be. I wanted to have a fun bubble art piece with a lot of different points and a slow fade, but... I kept losing count of the pixels, kept slipping up and drawing over rounds, kept getting distracted, kept forgetting which direction the color-shifts were heading.

So instead I made a fun gradient out of squares:

"Square A"; digital; 2023
[GEOMETRIC]

I quite like the colors I chose for this, and while it's not the smoothest gradient I could have done, part of that is because I scaled it up about 500% from its original size (which was roughly 1" square). The other part of the reason is that I increased (or decreased) each RGB value by 5 (less on smoother rounds). I had a set of 6 colors that I wanted to hit and went from each to the next, adjusting with every round.

I hope to have another piece out eventually which has more colors (though very similar ones) and using bubbles instead of concentric boxes, but for now, we have Square A, and Square A is very nice, in my opinion.

What do you guys think? Do you have any suggestions for me, for how to make the process easier (without buying/downloading any Adobe products)? I'm currently using Krita & Paint.net.

I find Paint.net much easier for making pixel pieces like this, but Krita is great for painterly pursuits.

Anyway, that'll be my short little art blog today. For a piece that took 30 hours to complete, (due to the 15 or so previous iterations that failed miserably), I don't have too much to say on it lol.

For now, I think I'll focus on getting cozy for the night and working on a very poorly-thought-out crochet project that may or may not work.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have Been Playing More Video Games

That's right I'm obsessed with Stardew Valley again. I've made it all the way to Ginger Island, now! Krobus is my roommate, which made for an interesting time while I was unlocking the Witch's Hut on the mainland and confirms, for me, that no, Krobus, Rasmodius has no friggin clue you're now his northern neighbor. In fact, my lil shadow-bro roommate has been super helpful! He makes me fried eel and strange buns, with the occasional lucky lunch, and he even brought in a couple of houseplants and an end table! What a cool dude!

I've found Professor Snail, helped Birdie (that's a fun quest!), and I've even done a few of the minigames on Ginger Island for golden walnuts - turns out I'm better at Simon than I ever thought I was.

And... yeah... I think I've maybe been spending more time in the game than I probably should - I haven't done art since Thursday, for instance. And I really wanted to do more today. Like... I wanted to actually work on the modesty fishnet top I'm planning to wear under my Torvi top from Holy Clothing. It's lovely, don't get me wrong, it's just... a very open neckline, shall we say.

And I don't like it when my chest gets sunburned.

This does mean that I'm going to have to get some black dye, though, because the choker I have is black, so the undershirt should probably also be black. Dye is less than $4, and the cotton crochet thread I prefer to use is anywhere from $5-8 on any given day, so the dye is the better option for me, sadly. The hard part will be finding an appropriate Dying Receptacle. Possibly a 5 gallon bucket no one's using, or a couple cheap dish pans (one for the pouch, one for the top). The things I'm planning to dye will be small and light-weight, but I'll probably use the whole dang bottle just to be safe.

Now I'll be honest, one of the other reasons to make a mesh top is that the embroidery on the Torvi top's neckline is horribly scratchy, and I want to have something between it and my skin to minimize irritation.

It's my only complaint about my dear Torvi.

It has pockets!

Anywho, I've got silk to spin, a mesh top to create, and a week to plan out.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll be doing for Thursday's blog, but it'll be art of some sort!

Next Monday I'll show you all the progress I've made.

Next Tuesday I'll be back to blather :)

If you'd like a say in what I draw or paint on Thursday, hit up my Ko-Fi and send me a donation with a message telling me what category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Food, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) you'd like to see, and I'll do something based on that prompt!

Other than that, it's back to work (or just as likely, more Stardew lol) for me!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Did More Work On My Pouch!

Well, I've got 1400 stitches in on both the back & gusset for that pouch now, and I cannot wait to be done. Single crochet is tedious if you have attention issues, like I do, and my silly buns decided to build a whole project of just single crochet. The same rows, over and over, stitch after stitch... it wears on me.

Which is why I'm only up to 1400 stitches per piece instead of a heftier 2100.

On the back, I have 28 rows, but on the gusset, 1400 stiches translates to 93 rows plus 5 stitches. This means I have officially finished one side of the gusset (81 rows) and started on the bottom (54 stitches wide).

My goal for rows on the back is... steep. The front is 80 rows, so I'll need to do that, plus however many rows it takes for the gusset, plus however many the closure flap needs in front (probably 15-25 rows). This means it could be anywhere from 110-120 rows. Of which I've done 28. So probably only about 23.3% finished.

The gusset, on the other hand, will probably take anywhere about... 216 rows? Total? Maybe? Which means that with 93 rows completed, we're at about 43.1%.

So the gusset is going almost twice as quickly as the back panel!

Yeah, this is taking a lot of math, and my English/Arts brain isn't very happy about it lol.

So here, I've photographed both the gusset (a tall, skinny rectangle), and the panel (a much shorter, wider rectangle) on my laptop keyboard. Both pieces are a measly 900 stitches at this point...

Unfortunately, this image got flipped, so the top piece is the gusset
 and the bottom is the panel...

The second picture I took today was the correct orientation, and I took

1400 stitches each, the gusset (left) is now almost as long as my keyboard
and the panel (right) is just taller than my track pad!

I'm still spinning, still stitching other things, still working on a pattern for sewing pocket linings for both this pouch and another (potentially a purple pouch!!!). I'm keeping plenty busy, fiberwise.

That'll about do it for me today. Hopefully I'll have anywhere from 2100 to 3500 stitches done in each one next week. We'll see lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which It Is Raining

Today's weather has been absolutely fall-like (which I'm very okay with). I'm in terry capris and a flannel shirt over a tank top, and I have been holed up in my room most of the day.

I'm so okay with that!

Today was rainy and windy and gray, and it was the perfect day to cozy up in my blanket fort and untangle a skein of yarn that I am now splitting the strands of. It's a cake of It's A Wrap, so that's not exactly hard, since it's just four strands held together to begin with. I'm not looking forward to dealing with the damaged strands, but eh, that's life.

I did 100 more stitches on each of the parts to the pouch today, too.

I also played a lot of Stardew Valley.

My farmer has a roommate! Yeah, I chose the bachelor option with having Krobus the Shadowguy merchant move in with you! Which means I demolished that friggin crib posthaste. Krobus is a premium roommate - he makes breakfast (fried eel! strange buns!), he brings in a little house plant to share with you, and he gives great hugs.

10/10 would roommate again.

I kind of wish that you could get Linus to move into one of your little multiplayer cabins for the winter or something.

I've made this playthrough specifically to make friends with The Weird Ones - Linus, Krobus, Rasmodius, etc. I have accidentally also maxxed out Friendship with Sandy, but that works for me. I'm always a bit alarmed by how easy it is to get Emily to her first cutscene.

Anyway, all I need are 2 more apples and I'll be done with the Community Center by the end of Year 2! Sadly, no one is willing to sell me apples, and my bats are apparently obsessed with Salmonberry, Blackberry, and Spice Berry...

Also I have a chicken named Frozzy and a Duck named Junabell. I love them.

But enough about the game, here's the plan for the next couple days:

1) paint something for Thursday!

2) work on more crochet!

3) sew the pocket linings for both Z's pouch and mine.

4) cuddle the cat.

I have great plans :P

I think that'll about do it for tonight!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Continue The Pouch

I may only have 500 stitches done on each of the back and sides of the pouch, but! That means something very different for the separate pieces.

On the left is the back of the pouch, on the right is the side gusset

I'm trying to make both pieces at once, since I get so easily distracted. And of course, this is my last month to finish it! And also I still don't know what to do about dye. Yeesh.

Oh and I got distracted by learning how to use a drop spindle. My silk thread is... very lumpy, but for a first try, it's not so bad, if I say so myself. I need to get some wool and see how well I can spin that, since apparently silk is way harder. Wool, then cotton, then linen, then silk again.

Also I still need to figure out my niddy noddy situation.

But that is for After The Ren Faire, I think. Before the Ren Faire I need to figure out dye, a dyepot, a day to do the dying (it'd be preferable to have some non-deluge-related weather for that), and also...

I kinda promised Z I'd make him a pouch for his new notebook for the Ren Faire.

That at least shouldn't be too difficult. I'm going to measure out the space for that using my white Sakura Gelly Roll pen and a pair of black pants that died a noble death (read - wore out at the thighs so badly there's nothing left to patch but wispy threads). If I sew it up correctly, it could be used as-is and all I'd need to do is make a decent strap for it, but if I don't get the seams to perfect, it'll get covered in a quick single crochet outer pouch in ex-sweater lavender.

Speaking of the dearly departed lavender sweater, if anyone who knows me has any sweaters they've ruined or just don't want anymore, I'll happily take them and tear them down to turn into new outfits because I love the act of creative destruction way more than is probably healthy and YouTube is beginning to cotton on to that fact (seriously I've been recommended no less than 5 different Sweater Teardown videos in the last 24 hours)...

Anywho, yes, that picture way up there is of two pieces, each containing 500 single crochet stitches. The short but wide piece is 50 stitches wide, the tall but skinny piece is 15 stitches wide.

My goal is to finish at least the gusset by next week, which if I keep going with a pattern of "One row on the back/flap, then 50 stitches on the gusset", it shouldn't be too hard.

We'll see lol.

Especially if I keep on getting distracted with silk spinning, pocket construction, and the slow progress of a dragon I may give up on (I don't think I'll get it done in time).

I think that'll about cover things for me for today. My attention span is shot to heck and I am ready to go to bed :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did A Silly Little Art

One of the things Z & I like to do is watch old commercials. They're a great way to unwind, they're low-intellectual-expenditure, and they're endlessly fascinating. The other night we were watching this block from 1988 and the bumpers for a night time movie came up. This station called their late movies "Night Owl Movies" and the illustration was absolutely adorable. Z said that I should draw the owl, and I agreed.

So this is technically fanart of a 1988 tv movie bumper from WCIX.

"Getting To Know You"; watercolor pencil & ink on watercolor sketch pad; 2023
[DEDBERT, FOOD, ANIMAL]

Getting this done was an adventure - it's been so humid this week that all of my supplies were vaguely damp, which made erasing pencil lines very hard. I also struggled to focus, since my mind was occupied with the heat. I finished the pencils yesterday, but I waited til today to color and paint it. It almost didn't happen.

This morning at around 4am, I was awakened by a bunch of rattling and crashing, like someone had dropped a bunch of pots & pans in the kitchen. Worried that the cat had gotten into some shit, I stumbled downstairs in the predawn haze and saw absolutely nothing awry. Heck, the cat was even eating the last of the previous night's dinner.

Well, it turned out that something had fallen over, but it wasn't pots or pans, and it wasn't because of the cat.

Turns out that the top two shelves in our cup cabinet let go. They're old and made of crappy particle board from 1989, so let's be real, they were gonna go eventually. Still, that was probably about as unenjoyable to discover the hard way for my mom as it gets. We're all sub 5'6" here (that's under 168cm for you metric folks out there), and the cabinets are designed for much taller people. The top shelf was about two feet (61cm) above my head, so that means a bunch of cups, thermoses, glasses, etc tumbled out when my mom went to get her morning coffee...

How very frustrating.

Mom's been wanting new cabinets for the last decade or so, so maybe that'll happen now (lol).

Anywho, that's all from me for today.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today Was HOT.

I am a delicate alpine bloom at the best of times, despising any temperature above 75℉(23,9℃) and melting in high humidity like so much cotton candy.

Today was absolutely not the best of times.

Today never actually got above 80℉(26,7℃), but between the sun and the mugginess, it felt like around 92℉(33,3℃).

Needless to say today sucked.

But I wasn't about to melt into the living room rug and let the vortex of the ceiling fan whisk away my consciousness like a massive hypnotic aide, no.

I decided, soon after waking up to an oven of a bedroom, that it was time to collect the air conditioning unit from the basement and put it in the kitchen so it wouldn't be disgusting anymore.

Now, I'm not an overly burly individual. I used to be able to do a lot more than I can now, but now I'm woefully weakened.

This is not a small AC unit. This is not a gainly AC unit.

It's not a window AC unit.

No, folks, we have one of those cabinet ones that you stick the hose out the window. The ones that are almost counter-height and weigh as much as an obstinate middle schooler and have handles that are only an inch deep and are about 3/4 as wide as the stairs while being a good 4" deeper than the treads.

So it's not an easy task.

At all.

We're talking a decent logistical undertaking for someone who has been awake for 20 minutes and has only just remembered how coffee works.

Needless to say, it must've been hilarious to watch me heave that stupid thing up the stairs. I had to go up backwards, butt first. I was literally sitting 3-4 stairs above the AC, desperately trying to hold it in place while the wheels debated sliding it away from me, struggling to get my feet halfway between the AC and my butt, and once I reached the top of the stairs, I had to practically lay on my back and scoot it into the kitchen. It nearly crushed me at least once. I nearly dropped it several times.

But I succeeded in putting it where it belonged.

I hooked it up and re-duct-taped the hose (the clips broke because of course everything is plastic and everything plastic breaks in this house), and cranked it to 75℉(23,9℃) before finally collapsing in an exhausted heap in the living room.

So of course, I scrapped the random sketches I did yesterday and instead scribbled out an homage to the effort of moving the stupid AC lol:

"The Struggle Is Real"; watercolore pencil & ink on watercolor paper; 2023
[DEDBERT]

I was tiredly chuckling the entire time I drew that lol.

I hope you guys are all holding up well during this trying time.

For now, I'm gonna go listen to some music and rest. I advise all of y'all to do the same!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Work

I have been a busy beaver the last couple days - ground some rocks, wrote some paragraphs, did some crochet, sketched, embarked on an ill-conceived art project, and even went for a walk!

The weather has been super weird - going from nearly 70℉/21,1℃ to being closer to the mid-40s(6-8℃), dry to wet, sunny to foggy - and with that weirdness comes the dreaded Insomnia. See, I require a very cool, dry room in order to sleep, and that's... just not happening lately. Either it's damp or it's warm or it's both. Tonight, I'll do my best to zonk, but it could take a bit. I'm jangly and weird when the air pressure changes.

Now, as for the coming week, clearly I've got art to finish for Thursday - both the Guaranteed category (Geometric this week), and a Suggested piece (Animal), so watch out for those.

Next Monday I should be done with the shawl. We've heard that before, but I really do think it'll get done this time.

Next Tuesday, I'll be back to blather!

Now, as for the manuscript, as you might be able to guess, not being able to sleep does mean that writing gets harder. I've missed a few days, wrote only a spare sentence here and there. Tonight I wrote a little over 200 words and I'm on the next chapter! The total words this week was a paltry 554. I'm so far behind, wordcount-wise, but at least the story is progressing.

It's fun writing alternating points of view that keep missing one another. It's cat-and-mouse but one wants to hide and the other just wants him to be okay!

Anywho, if you want to have further say in what I make for art this week, there's still time to shoot me a coffee on Ko-Fi and indicate which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, or Word) you'd like to see!

I'm getting ready for beddy, so y'all stay cozy and

Go Enjoy Something!

FC