Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Very Sleepy, but Content.

Last week I was just returned from a trip out of town where I had a lot of fun but didn't get much done. I haven't done a whole lot this week either, unless you count playing Tears of the Kingdom for hours and serving as furniture for my cat. I did go for a nice walk today, added patches to a pair of jeans a couple days ago, painted a tiny piece of art, wrote all of about 1200 words since the 14th in two separate stories (I've gotten some more work done on that wrestling story I've been working on, plus I added more to the other one I've been keeping track of on here!)

Only about 330 of those words are from the piece I've been keeping track of, but that has brought the whole wordcount of that manuscript to a whopping 17650 words!!!

In other news, I got some Crocs as a belated birthday gift from one of my sisters! They're celery green and comfy as heck. Yeah, I'm one of those dorks who wears the Idiocracy shoes. They're comfy.

I'm still trying to figure out how to work on the skirt that I'm trying to make for the Ren Faire in September. Should I make panels and then shrink them down to fit on the waistband? If yes, then I'm thinking I'd make a few different panels, each separated by a braid detail. Maybe animal motifs? I still don't know. We'll have to wait and see how wide the waistband gets. I'm thinking the transition from waistband to panel would be v-stich double crochet, but I'm not sure.

The plan for the rest of the week is to keep making art for Thursday, especially if anyone makes a request via Ko-Fi or commissions me. I will also keep working on the crochet waistband and show any progress I make next Monday. Next Tuesday, I'll be back to blather!

For now, though, I'm probably going to go to sleep, because boy am I tired lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Fried

I spent the last week or so out-of-office, as it were, cat-sitting for my sister & her husband as they honeymooned abroad. The apartment was delightful, the cat was a precious hauspanther with the cutest white spot on his chest, and the town was marvelous. Z & I had a blast! But...

Tiny, the cat, prefers to get fed at 3am.

And neither Z nor I are morning people, naturally. So today was a recharge day.

Not that I slept in - I got up at 8 and was out the door by 9:15 to run some errands.

You would think, that, having not slept for 7 or 8 nights, I'd have gone to bed early last night.

Lol no, I was playing Tears of the Kingdom. It took until this afternoon for me to reach the surface and I just got my paraglider.

I did get to keep Chonkers the Giant Horse, though, so that has been fun!

Also I do keep falling to my death. Shocker.

Also I suck at Recall.

While Away, I did actually figure out how to write part 2 of my wrestling story! I will keep writing the other story, too, but it felt so good to figure out where I was going!

I'll get back to doing wordcounts next week, but for this week, I'll just get on with writing and resting and arting.

I do have at least one finished piece that I'll be showing next week, and I'm making progress on a hilariously oversized piece. I may also try to do some fanart this week, but we'll see.

For now, I'm going to change into pajamas because it's basically bedtime, and hopefully wake up early enough tomorrow to actually do things.

The plan for this week is to write a bunch, read a bunch, have art done for Thursday, and take some pictures of the small progress I made crocheting for Monday. It's a weird project and I don't know if I can actually make it work, but I'll try.

If you'd like to have a say in what I draw/paint/pixel this week, feel free to go over to my Ko-Fi and send me a coffee with a message Recommending one of the following categories: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Dedbert, Geometric, or Word. I also take commissions as seen in the sidebar!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have Been Busy lol

I say that I'm busy a lot. This week was a little busier than some, and next week will be even busier - in fact you might not see anything up here next week, because I'll be out of town. As it is, this week, I was busy figuring out ways to get some exposure here in town. I took my art down town and gave some paintings to some cool shop owners and also to the library. I also painted on Main Street, sitting in front of a local tavern and dabbing away with my watercolors.

I even printed off some silly little business cards in case anyone had questions about where I had art.

I have started putting my finished pieces in a binder so they're all together, in case someone wants to ask me about a piece's availability. I've gotten a little more active on Instagram. I've written out my Commission pricing & basic guidelines.

I also finished that pouch yesterday and started on something else. Not sure what it'll be yet.

As for writing, I'm afraid I haven't gotten anywhere near what I'd like. Only 440 this week. That's a full 260 words below what I'd prefer.

On the other hand, I did start a new art shop over on Threadless! I've been thinking about switching from Redbubble ever since they announced their new fee structures, and now I've got a shop live. It only has 6 images so far, and I'm not putting any fan art or Dedbert-related art up there (though I'll take commissions for either!), but it's a fairly decent start. Threadless has a few different requirements for file sizes than RB did, but I can and will make it work. It just means me having to make art... bigger.

Aside from crochet, art, and shopbuilding, I also watched the cat this weekend, so that was a handful, especially when she gave me a heart attack when she vomited and there was blood in the vomit. Yeah, that wasn't fun.

Then I realized that the little dingaling just cut her mouth with some of the sharp sawgrass we have in the yard. At least, we call it sawgrass. It sure sliced us up enough to earn the name. Evie was playing at being a sheep for a bit outside, and I guess during a moment of distraction she'd wandered up to a patch of the sharp stuff and gave it a good chomp. The combo of bleeding gum and rough grass was probably what led to her throwing up. She barfed a couple of other times after the pinkish puddles, and those were all clear. Her appetite is back, too, so that's a good sign.

Sorry for the graphic cat tale, but I had to get it off my chest. Again, she's absolutely fine. She even kicked me off of my own bed today because I couldn't hold my position where she was sleeping on me and in her ire, she kept pushing at me until I got up and gave her my seat lol!

What else happened this week?

Oh! I got an early birthday gift from my mom! She got me a Torvi top from Holy Clothing and it's absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe it's mine!

My goals this week are:

make some more art for Thursday

pack everything I need

do as much as I can to have some blog updates while I'm away

I'd also like to read, though I've been very distracted lately. I want to finish Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper and write a review. It's been amazing so far.

I'm pretty tired tonight, though, so I think I'll let y'all go!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have Gotten Some Work Done This Week!

Make no mistake, I've missed several writing, crochet, and art days this week. I have good excuses, I think - insomnia, feline interruptus, and just plain getting distracted (please note I started writing this blog at 7PM, if that gives you an idea) - but boy have I done a lot.

I have been working on a 3k by 3k pixel piece in Paint.net, and I'm maybe 1% finished with that.

I finished the shawl yesterday and started looking into my next pieces to crochet.

I experimented with polishing some of my rocks again (the weather was forgiving until yesterday/today)

And I wrote nearly 2100 words this week, bringing the total up to just over 15.7k words!

Yeah.

Heck of a chunk of writing. One of those writing chunks was a whole chapter!!!

All of this while only managing between 2-7hr of sleep a night.

And I've cut my caffeine consumption by 2/3.

I know. Crazy.

Regardless, this has been a super productive week, and I'm really hoping to keep up the hard work - possibly with some more art thrown in.

My plans for this week are, of course, to work on my art until Thursday, crochet until Monday, and then blab again on Tuesday.

If I write another 2100 words next week, that would also be incredible. I also hope to get one of the rocks I'm polishing smoothed out enough to showcase. Currently I'm still figuring out the various grinding wheels/sanding disks/etc that I have access to these days for my toolless Dremel.

I still struggle to understand what each element in my new kit does.

Regardless, I've got work to do this coming week, and I'm proud of what I accomplished in the last seven days, but for now, I'm very tired.

It's nearly midnight.

If you want to direct my art, you can recommend a category to draw from by sending me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Deadbert, Location, Geometric, Word), and I'll draw it up and add it to the blog!

That'll do it from me tonight!

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

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which It's So Warm I Don't Know What To Do With Myself.

If you live in the US, you probably know that in the northeasternmost states, it gets... really cold during the winter. And that spring tends to dally and not show up in a timely manner.

We had snow not too long ago.

Today it nearly reached 60℉ (15,6℃), even with the wind chill. The breeze felt balmy. The sky stayed cloudy and gray all day but it was glorious after so long without being able to have windows open due to bitter cold and worse wind! I am wearing capris and a t-shirt! My window is open!!!

And it's going to be just as nice tomorrow!!!

I am gonna go for a walk. Art be damned, tomorrow morning I'm going for a walk!

Or not, we'll see.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I do have a history of Not Walking When I Say I Will.

THERE ARE PEEPERS OUT TONIGHT

IN THE SECOND WEEK OF APRIL

I am very happy about this. Fall is my favorite season, but the first notes of spring are to be savored, too!

I only did 865 words this week, since I skipped one night and only wrote a sentence on another night, but 206 of those were tonight, so I'm pretty proud of myself.

I did zero crochet or art today, despite my errands not even taking my time all the way to noon. Most of today has been spent being sleepy and warm and finishing off leftovers from a delicious Easter Dinner.

Art will be worked on probably tomorrow afternoon into evening, maybe Thursday morning. If you have a last minute addition you'd like to throw on, feel free to send me a category request over on Ko-Fi. I'll make it after this week's Mineral piece. Request categories are: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, and Word.

I... may also be a bit distracted by the book I've been reading - "Everybody Knows" by Jordan Harper. It's freaking. Great,

Great writing, great story. If you love Hollywood, intrigue, noir, and amazing writing, it's the book for you.

I will be crushed when I run out of book lol.

Anywho, the plan for the week is:

Art for Thursday (Mineral guaranteed)

Crochet for next Monday

Blather for next Tuesday.

I'm gonna post this blog so that it's not accidentally a Wednesday entry lol.

Also gonna take off this overshirt I put on when I turned on my ceiling fan.

It's toasty in here.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

In Which Today Was Lazy

 You may ask yourself "FC, how is today being lazy different from usual?" and to that I have... okay no real answer. I was indeed lazy today. Sat in my room for the most part. Played Pokeclicker. Ate cold chicken tenders. Drank coffee. Today was mostly rest.

Does that mean that I did nothing? Not really. I did do some work on my manuscript, started planning tomorrow's art (I owe myself a Mineral and one of my Coffee Donors a Location. I'm thinking of combining both into one piece, possibly), and cuddled the cat. She has been very demanding lately. She just wants love!

Most of what I've been doing lately is listening to music - Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Beastie Boys, Gershwin, Liszt, Miles Davis, Poppy, Nightwish, Toby Fox, and funnily enough, the Gamecube opening screen.

I have varied and bizarre tastes.

I've also been listening to Un Owen Was Her a lot. If you don't know it by that name, you may know it as The Death Waltz (even though it's in 4/4 time, I'm pretty sure).

Today was pleasantly restful!

And we had seven deer in the back yard on Friday, which was really cool to see. A whole herd of does in their nearly-grown daughters. They swarmed my mom's bird feeders, slurped up all the seeds, and frolicked up and down the back yard. Later, when we were heading back from dropping Z off, the babies were all bounding down the street!

Also our ducks are back - two healthy pairs of ducks!

Today's wordcount was 104, leading to a 1 week total of 911. Not as high as some weeks, but still more than the 700 I aimed for.

As for the rest of the week?

Tomorrow I'll be painting/drawing/sketching

Thursday I'll post at least 1, possibly 2 or 3 pieces of art

Next Monday I'll post more crochet

Next Tuesday I'll blather at ya some more :)

For now, I'm going to finish my water, brush my teeth, and listen to some Stone Temple Pilots.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have A Very Silly Confession

I... am a klutz. A clod. A total stumblebum.

That last one especially, considering I managed to fall flat on my butt while air guitaring to - of all things - Knights of Cydonia by MUSE.

Yeah.

I'm super hardcore, you guys...

I was wailing away on the ol air guitar, but I'd made a critical error - you cannot air guitar in slide-on slippers, comfy as they are. My foot slipped out at an inopportune moment and I landed hard on my butt. On top of a paperback Diablo novelization I've never finished reading. I immediately got back to my feet and kicked off the slippers, finishing the song and a few more, but uh...

Yeah, it bruised my backside.

And strained my neck and upper back muscles. In fact, it strained those muscles so much that I made myself a little dizzy. The dizziness and stiffness are gone now, but the bruise and some residual soreness remain even now (the tumble was on Saturday night). Today, I am pleased to say that I'm quite comfy and after popping my back (very carefully and during a very gentle stretch) while sorting recycling, my neck soreness is almost entirely gone.

So that's why I needed the heated neck pillow the last couple of nights - my neck muscles were sore and stiff and needed relaxing. Now I'm feeling great.

As for the rest of the news of the week, I'll confess I haven't drawn since Thursday, but the 2-in-1 battery showed up yesterday, so I'll be playing around with digital art tomorrow. If you've got any requests for art, drop me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category you'd like (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word).

I wrote 186 words tonight, which brings me up to 1219 words this week and nearly 8600 words total! I'm pretty pleased with that progress. I'll be working on the shawl some more tonight before I sleep.

Honestly, I'm pretty sleepy, though, so maybe not.

The plan for the rest of the week is:

Art on Thursday

Crochet on Monday

Blather on Tuesday.

I hope you guys have a good night tonight, and that your creative juices are flowing!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

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

Thursday Art Walk

In which I Discover I must change my schedule...

 Don't be alarmed - when I say "change my schedule", I'm not talking about how often/what I blog about. No, I am talking about the order of operations I have throughout the day.

Currently, I wake up, have my coffee, get washed & dressed, and then set about the hard work of... trying to figure out what to do next. I always mean to do more than just crochet a bit and doomscroll, but somehow I always end up just doing that. And then I write in the evenings. I have been intending to also do art at night, which is when I usually feel at my most productive.

But I've never been a spectacular multitasker.

In fact, I'm rather terrible at performing multiple trained skills in the same time blocks.

So I will have to add something to my mornings.

I'm going to try, starting tomorrow, to sketch while I drink my coffee.

Usually, I've been playing armchair for the cat, parsing out random story ideas, or grumbling at wildlife during my morning joe, but that clearly needs to change if I want to ever get a consistent art schedule down.

Besides, the light is so much better during the day, and for the next couple days, I won't be going outside at ALL.

No, sir, I'm not interested in experiencing what a Real Feel of -63℉/-52.8℃ day feels like. Not in the least.

The frigid temperatures are, of course, being caused by the same weather that's icing over the southern US right now. My heart breaks for everyone trapped in that mess. Mainers like me will remember the Ice Storm of 1998 - this disaster to our south is that, but in states that have no infrastructure or citizen preparations for such weather! It's nuts!

Up here, we're just getting wind and bitter cold.

I cringe at 14℉/-10℃.

Anywho, I only managed one measly sketch this week. At least it's a fun one!

"Assemblage"; mechanical pencil on sketch book; 2023
[VEGETABLE, MINERAL, ANIMAL]

This little sketch is of some random, gravity-defying twigs, a cherry, a bottle, a beetle, and a small rock. I started sketching it as kind of a mindless image, just letting shapes form. I kind of like it!

I hope to do more art next week (sound familiar? lol) but we'll see if me changing up what time of day I draw works!

As for tonight, I'm sleeeeeepy as heck. Keep staying up way too late reading dumb stuff, doomscrolling, YouTube bingeing. It's silly. I'm silly.

So what I'll do is get cozy, and actually try to sleep tonight.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Was Weird.

Last night I stayed up til almost 5AM because I was rereading my manuscript and planning next week's moves. Then I slept til almost 11AM and that was a mistake.

Why? Because it meant that I haven't been properly awake-awake all day. I've been floating on a cozy cloud of coziness.

I did a little crochet today, a little writing, and thought about drawing (which I still might do tonight).

This week's wordcount was 918! I wrote over 200 words yesterday alone!

And that brings the manuscript's total to over 4100 words over 9 pages! And I got to write a paragraph with the phrase "barf soup" in it.

This has been an all around good week.

It's just today that's felt off-kilter and weird. I don't know what's up with it, to be honest.

Maybe I'll draw something that looks confused tonight.

As for the next week, my plans are:

• Random art for Thursday
• More crochet for Monday
• Blather for Tuesday.

I ah.... I may have forgotten I was writing this blog. For several hours lol.

Sorry!

Anyway, I've been a bit off kilter all day.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the oomph to paint or something!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which This Week Has Been... Weird

My insomnia has been misbehaving again this week, which means a lot of late nights spent too braindead to work on anything but also I wake up at noon so there's no point in starting anything (according to my brain).

That being said, today I finished a very big crocheted square, started a stitch swatch using some scrap yarn. I will have to remember to put my J hook back with the shawl before tomorrow otherwise I'll forget my place.

I also managed to write 131 words today! That means that, since last week, I've written 831 words! I'm really proud of myself for that. I only expected 100 words per day, so finding out that I beat my goal of 700 by as much as I have, I feel pretty great about it! Also, no one has been trapped in one place or one conversation for more than 24 hours of writing time. The action is moving right along. Pleased with that.

Artistically, however, I haven't been drawing or painting as much as I'd hoped. I just haven't felt artistic and frankly, I'm getting frustrated. This was supposed to be my year of art. I'll take a year of writing, but I'd hoped for more consistency with the art.

I'll just have to buckle down tonight, tomorrow, for the rest of the week.

Hopefully I'll manage to rein myself in and get to work.

As for the rest of the week, I hope to have some art to show you on Thursday, and then by next Monday, I'll have that shawl and probably some scrapwork (like that square and the swatch).

I'm going to focus on my art tonight, maybe finish this swatch, maybe add even more onto tonight's wordcount. I feel (for now) a spark of motivation, and I'm going to have to bully that little spark into a flame if I'm going to get anything done.

And I should probably ignore that urge to go play Pokemon SNAP...

Probably.

It's just that the weather has been so bad and my joints are all achey. It's very distracting. The last couple days have been constant ice storms and the whole town is a skating rink, so it's hard to go outside (also the air hurts my face).

Okay. That's the last whining I'll do tonight.

I'm going to go draw.

I promise.

Any minute now...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

(PS: if you want a say in what I draw this week, go ahead and drop me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a note telling me what category you want to see - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Geometric, Dedbert, Word)

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Has Been Off Kilter.

All told, today hasn't been my favorite day. I woke up too late, I've been at opposing schedules with my guy, and I haven't gotten nearly 1/3 of the things done today that I wanted to because my distraction level is far higher than my motivation.

But what have I done this week?

Well, since last Thursday... not a whole lot, to be honest.

I mean, I've tried to make good on my art and writing promises, but sadly, I've fallen short in both areas.  I have written almost 650 words since last Tuesday, but I haven't drawn since Thursday. Well, sort of. I scribbled out a fox last night, but I just haven't had the oomph to draw. Bummer.

I will be drawing eventually tonight, though. I hope. At the very least, I should write. As for the rest of the week...

Thursday will have a collection of the art I've made from last Thursday to this one.

Next Monday should have more shawl stuff

Next Tuesday I'll be chatty again.

I have to admit, though, that I'm not having a fantastic January - all I want to do is sleep, but when I try, I just can't fall asleep. And yes, I've tried the military method.

Hopefully by the end of the month I have a handle on both my writing and my art, because I really want to improve both this year!

I also want to improve my sleep schedule.

If you have any requests for my art, feel free to buy me a coffee over on Ko-Fi and leave me a message with what category you want (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Dedbert, Geometric, Word), and I'll do my best to draw, paint, or otherwise make it!

For now, though, I'll get to work on my manuscript and my sketchbook and we'll see what I come out with.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Got Stuff!

Today's blog is by absolutely NO means a comprehensive "stuff I got for Christmas" list. It is, instead, more of a "Ooh, I will be using these gifts directly for the blog" blog, if that makes any sense.

I loved all of my gifts this year, but the paintbrushes, palette, and paper I showed last week weren't the only things that I got that'll be very useful as I continue my creative endeavors.

My folks were super kind to me and bought a huge kit of rotary tool attachments, which means I'll be able to polish more rocks, put holes in little twigs, and do all kinds of ridiculous things with found objects!

And one of my awesome friends gave me an ENORMOUS jar of buttons that I'm slowly sorting through. I currently have a 10oz mug full of white/pearly buttons and a bowl filled with Huge buttons.

The Goods (Along with an old case that is slowly being filled with the buttons from the jar)

Now, why would I be taking those buttons out of the jar, you may ask?

That's because I wanted to see if I could organize them by color and/or material. See the Micron pen in front of the stuff? That's for scale. Bare that scale in mind for when I tell you that the 10oz of white/pearly buttons is not even all of the pearly/white buttons. And that I have an almost equal number of bone or mother-of-pearl buttons. And that the front of the case will absolutely end up full of black, mother of pearl, and brown buttons (and Things What Aren't Buttons But Ended Up In The Jar).

Some of the buttons had tiny seed beads stuck in the eyes. Some still have metal loops from the cards they were mounted on at the time of purchase. Some are rusted. Some of the "buttons" have turned out to be hook-and-eye sets or snaps or glass baubles or any number of Non-Button Items. Some of the actual buttons have writing on them!

I look forward to properly categorizing my new button collection. Once that's done, I'll be able to put weird and awesome buttons on my finished crochet projects!!!

Unfortunately for me, today is a weird day to be doing all this sorting. I leaned too heavily on my right shoulder on Friday and have been sleeping on it nightly since. It is very angry with me today, stiff and sore and slightly swollen, but with ice and ibuprofen, and RESTING IT, I've gotten it to have a truce with me. Not a fun thing to wake up to, I must admit.

So I might have to experiment with my left hand for today's art.

And I may take a bit longer to write my 100+ words tonight.

And I'll have to sleep on my left side.

My stomach and esophagus will be so happy with me lol! They are constantly reminding me that sleeping on my right side is a bad idea.

I just don't like not facing the door.

And I don't like having my head in front of the window.

In order to keep my face towards the door and my feet under the window, I have to sleep in my right side.

You see my conundrum.

It's a very silly conundrum.

I will sleep on my left side tonight so that I can work on art and writing tomorrow with my dominant hand at 100% (hopefully). If it's still being cranky, I'll roll my eyes and continue trying to work offhanded.

On Thursday, one way or another, I'll post art. If you'd like a say in what that art is, feel free to send me a coffee on Ko-Fi with a message letting me know what category you'd like to see (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word).

Next Monday, I will have some progress to show you regarding the shawl I proposed yesterday.

Next Tuesday I'll be back to blather at you, hopefully 100% and full of beans.

For now, though, I am going to sip cocoa, try to draw something left-handed, and type slowly.

I hope you all Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Got A Late Start

I prefer to wake up around 9AM. Today I woke up after 10AM, which is fine, but my day just refused to start. I have actually been staring at this blank blog page for over an hour, listening to old commercials. I worked on some crochet today, but mostly I've just wanted to go back to sleep.

Seriously.

All I want is to sleep.

But I must finish my gifts. Same story every year.

As for the schedule this week, here we go:

• Art for Thursday - you can have a say in what I make if you send me a coffee on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category you'd like to see (animal, vegetable, mineral, dedbert, location, geometric, word)
• I'll be continuing to work on gifts & snowflakes so that's what you'll see me talking about on Monday.
• Next Tuesday I'll probably complain and whine about how much work I have left to do leading up to Christmas.

Let's see... what else should I update people on?

Well, I got a new phone back in May and just now activated it. Why did it take 7 months? A couple reasons. One is anxiety - I stress about dumb things (and yes, it was dumb to stress about it), but also because it came with a year of service and I wanted to wait til the last second to roll that service forward. It's done now, and I have to say, new phones are weird. I miss buttons.

Other updates for the week include:

We have lots of deer - saw half a dozen at the bird feeders the other day.

It's been bitterly cold for the last few days, so of course we're getting spring weather again in a couple days...

We had some snow, it's gone now.

I tried a snickerdoodle flavored Lindor Truffle - 8/10 stars. It tastes just like a snickerdoodle cookie dipped in white chocolate and has little crunchy bits in it. Quite good, very sweet.

My cat sees the sun shining during the day and demands to go out. It is too cold to be out for long, so then she whines to come in. It's very cute, especially since she actually wears the sweater I made her.

I think that about covers my week? I'll admit that I just can't sleep enough to feel awake, so my brain is mush (as usual).

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

Crunch Time Approacheth

Well, despite my best efforts this year, The Christmas Crunch is coming.

That's what I get for having 3 siblings, 3 niblings, and several family pets, I guess lol.

On the one hand, I have plenty of snowflakes, and if I make more tonight (which is my plan), then I'll have more than enough to give as backup gifts. On the other hand, I've given my family members snowflakes for the last two years, so it'd be nice to change things up.

I've finished at least three non-snowflake projects, one of which is in use already (cat sweater), one is going to its owner tomorrow (a tree), and something that will wait until Christmas to go to its owner (it's a secret to everyone!). I'm working on another couple tonight, and hopefully that will leave me free to dedicate tomorrow to art.

And yes, it's still more than two weeks to Christmas, and yes, that's a lot of time....

Except that it really isn't.

No, it's not enough time that I don't have to worry about running out. I have 7 groups of people to make things for with a total of 24 gifts to make. Of those 24 gifts, half are snowflakes, which I already have done, so that's 50% complete there. Of the remaining 12 gifts, I've finished... 1.

Hoo boy.

That being said, having a 54% completion rate on gifts in the first week of December is unheard of for me, so maybe I should calm down?

That being said, a couple of my projects are... bigger. So I really should be working on them.

And the yarn is allllll the way across my room because of course it is.

Le Sigh.

Anyway, that's going to be my week - coping with the yo-yo weather (it got to 50℉/10℃ again today for some ungodly reason), crocheting till my knuckles ache, practicing my art on the 2-in-1, and posting that art on Thursday. Next Monday, you'll probably see my neatly pressed & starched snowstorm, and next Tuesday, I'll be back on the internet to probably whine and cry about how much work I've given myself instead of going out and buying gifts like every other sane human being lol.

Such is the life of the slightly mad crafter.

I think I'll get back to sewing beads onto surprise crochet projects with some Supplemax Ultra I bought ages ago. Maybe I'll surprise myself and finish something big tonight?

And if you have any interest in pushing me in a particular direction for that art on Thursday, feel free to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like me to work from (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word).

And don't forget to Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have No Sleep Schedule...

So...

I don't sleep correctly. I try - believe me when I say I do my best to increase my sleep hygiene - but even the Military Method isn't reliable. Maybe it's the squirrelbrain thing I've got going on.

This means that I can't ever predict when I'm going to fall asleep or (more importantly) wake up.

Today I woke up at 10:57AM.

I have not felt awake at any point today, though I do otherwise feel pretty good.

This means that I have finished zero snowflakes today in my Snowmageddon 2022 endeavors. I haven't drawn, I haven't written, and I haven't even planned for anything. I just... flailed around doing self-maintenance (you know, eating and exercising and bathing, that kind of thing...)

It also means that my general cravings for caffeine have been off the charts.

I want coffee. It's 6:30PM. Coffee is a no-no. I will probably have coffee anyway and to hell with trying to sleep lol!

It was a lovely cold day today, too. Temperatures hovered between 30 to 40℉ (-1 to 4℃), the sun shone, the winds were still. It felt like a proper November day in the northeast!

So of course it's going to be anywhere from 40 to 50℉ (4 to 10℃) for the rest of the week with rains, heavy at times, and up to 65mph winds (105kph or so). Dandy.

At least Friday is supposed to be clear.

Speaking of the rest of the week, the plan is thus:

• Carry on with Snowmageddon by crocheting at least 1 snowflake/day until Monday!
• Art for Thursday. I have no plans but I have a new toy to play with so if you have suggestions for me to try out, feel free to buy me a coffee over on Ko-Fi (button in sidebar!) and leave a message with your donation telling me which category you'd like me to make art from. Categories are as follows:
• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Dedbert
• Location
• Geometric
• Word
• Get pictures of all the snowflakes for Monday, possibly with some shots of them being blocked!
• Back again to blather on Tuesday :)

Hopefully I can rectify this sleep nonsense (Update: it's after 7 and I never got that coffee. I'm being kind to myself here), but until then, I hope you all...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Time Management Is Hard

So.

I've been up since 9AM.

You'd think, with about 10 hours spent awake and active, I'd have written this up already, right?

I... totally forgot it was Tuesday.

Several times.

My bad.

I will say this, though, I had a fairly busy day! Went for a walk and bought some treats for myself, then worked on more crochet projects, stripped my stack of blankets and sent them to the laundromat, worked on digital art!

I also contended with some shockingly seasonal temps! It was all of 36℉/2,22℃, there was ice on the ground, and I had to break out my big red blanket last night. That thing can easily keep me warm even when it's 10℉/-12,2℃ and the heat is faltering. Honestly, I'm stoked. It means I can break out my Star Wars or Buffalo Plaid Fuzzy Pants or my fox pajamas, wear thick socks, dig out my sweaters...

And shop for another winter coat because my plaid wool peacoat is maybe a bit threadbare these days.

We found a fairly affordable parka at the Mart of Walls, and honestly, it's the warmest thing I've ever owned. I put it on for a moment today and had to take it off because I immediately overheated.

Gonna have to wait for a 20 degree, cloudy, windy day to wear that sucker.

I do have one thing to say about this past week, though...

I may be developing arthritis. I say this because the other day, my left leg was in agony. It wasn't the same stabby pain I get when my sciatic nerve acts up, either, it was deep and stiff and it built with every pulse of my heart. I would have worried more that it was a DVT or something like that if it had been in my artery/vein areas. Instead, it was right at the ligaments, cartilage and bone. It felt like I'd wrenched my entire leg.

It was so terrible I had to take ibuprofen and lay perfectly still for 8 hours. The next day, Friday, had my leg fine, but since then, my hands and wrists have ached a bit.

It's mostly been my right thumb, right where it meets the palm. I'm right-handed.

Joy, joy.

I'll be okay. I just wanted to whine lol. 

Anywho, my plans for this week are to finish this digital art, post it on Thursday, and show what else I'm making for Christmas next Monday.

I'll be back to complain about the weather next Tuesday :)

If you'd like me to do something else in addition to the digital art (or in place of, depending on how much time I've got), feel free to buy me a Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category you'd like to see - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word.

I'm going to go run my dinner dishes downstairs and gently stretch my hands and legs and spine before changing into my coziest jammies and cuddling into my flannel sheets.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Today Was Very Busy!

I finished yesterday's crochet project today! I'll post photos next Monday, but suffice to say I'm stoked to have finished it. My total time working on that project, including fixing mistakes, stitching the bottom on, stuffing it, and weaving in ends, was 6 hours, 14 minutes, 56 seconds. Yes I timed it to the second. How, you may ask? By only working on it when I had a video playing. When the video would end, I'd write down how long it was before starting another video and watching that while I worked. Many ghosts were hunted, at least 3 dresses were sewn, and almost 100 baby tarantulas were wrangled in the midwest.

I worked until about midnight last night on it and got the whole body of the tree, the bottom of the tree, and 3 tiers of flocking done, then I woke up around 9:30 this morning and...

Went to go vote because it's the second week of November, and in the US, that's a voting day.

I won't talk about how I voted, because that's not the point of this blog.

Instead, I'd like to take a moment to talk about how voting works where I live.

I'm from Maine, so we have Same Day Registration. If you show up to the polls with a piece of mail with your address on it, and that address is in the town you're voting in, guess what? You can register then and there, then hop into the line corresponding to the first letter of your last name. In fact, I watched a newly minted adult do just that, today, and she was so happy to get back into her line so she could vote for the first time.

When you get to the volunteers at the head of the line, they'll ask you your surname, your first name, and then your address. If you're in the rolls (which you will be, if you've already registered once), they'll give you the go-ahead, and then you'll move to someone else who hands you your ballot(s), tells you how many sides each sheet has, and you go off to your booth, where you fill it out with a plain old ballpoint pen.

After that point, you scoop up your ballots and get into line to drop them off in the ballot boxes, which are equipped with scanners that only count how many ballots are placed in each. And just to head off any paranoia anyone may have, they are scanners and not shredders (first, shredders have a very different sound). I know this because last time I voted, one of the scanner tops got jostled and nearly fell off, and you could see the neatly stacked ballots below. It's just a fancy ballot box with a counter app on it.

There is one tiny drawback to these fancy tally boxes, though, and today I got to witness it. 

Occasionally, and this has only happened once in the 14 years I've been voting, your ballot will get stuck. And if you've already started to walk away from the box, one of the nice retirees who keep an eye on the boxes have to chase you down with a very polite "excuse me, sir! Sir!" before they have you come back the five steps you've walked to watch them very carefully take your ballot out of the tray and then put it back on there.

I dig that they make sure you see everything done to your ballot.

My own ballots went through no problem and I scooted out the door before any of the folks who have petitions could beg me for a signature. After all, my mom was waiting for me so we could go shopping afterwards.

We may have bought the cat a sweater.

Did the cat need a sweater? No. Will she wear the sweater? Maybe. Were we very, VERY excited when we bought the sweater? Oh, absolutely.

It's red and has antlers. I'm pretty sure it has white Nordic sweater designs, too...

Anywho, the rest of today was spent enjoying the heck out of the delightfully dry, breezy, bright weather. It was a brisk 44℉/6,67℃, which was a vast change from the disgustingly humid yet windy 72℉/22,22℃ weather yesterday.

It was gross. But today was fantastic and now I'm in my fluffy pajamas and a long sleeved shirt, which is a sight different from the yoga capris and tank tops I've been wearing this week.

Now, what are the plans for this week?

• Art for Thursday (if you wanna shoot me a Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like to see, that's still a thing - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word)
• By Next Monday I'll have more crochet for you, including pics of the finished tree!
• Next Tuesday I'll be back to blather some more!

As for me, I'm ready for a snuggle into my flannel sheets with Dedbert by my side, dreaming of adorable beavers like Nibi and maybe working on more manuscript stuff when I get up.

I feel much better now that it's below 60℉/15,56℃.

And now that the voting is over, I'll be able to watch tv without all those stupid, pointless, uninformative political ads.

Ugh.

Instead, I'll just go back to rolling my eyes at emus and snarking about the side effects permitted in medications.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which My Brains are Mush

My youngest sister got married last week! It was a lovely ceremony, the weather was perfect, and we hung out in a ski lodge for the reception. There were amazing cookies and the food was spectacular. Also the weather was perfect. I mention this twice because it was the Last Perfect Day so far. Saturday was 60℉ (15,6℃), clear and breezy, and after that magnificent day and parts of the next...

It has not really stopped raining. It's still misty out and it's almost 1PM!

I know last week I talked a big game about putting up art on Sunday and getting myself together so I could post properly this week, but... you've probably noticed that none of that happened.

I could make excuses or whine about my mental state, but I'm honestly just tired and distractible. My brain is flying in a thousand directions at once, and I'd really like it to just settle down for a nap.

I'm still plugging away at creative things, they're just way harder to focus on than they should be. I especially have been struggling to write. I put down a sentence and it's basically gibberish. I've rewritten every line of this blog at least twice. At this rate, my poor backspace key is going to break!

Maybe if I can convince my noggin to calm down, the strawberry jello of my brainmeats will resolidify and I'll be able to focus again.

Maybe I just need some tea.

Whatever the case, today has been another very sleepy day, and I think I'll be using it to catch up on missed art prompts and stare at cursors on my various writing projects.

The plan for this week is:

• Finish up the art! Post last week's ASAP.
• Work on some writing
• Figure out where I'm going with Crochet
• Nap.
• Post my crochet progress on Monday, possibly something Halloweenie.
• Blather next Tuesday

As for whether or not I'll actually get any of this done? Well, that's up to the brainmush gods. They are not known for being merciful.

Still, I hope you guys have a good week and make good progress on your own projects!

And Go Enjoy Something!

FC