New Year's Eve 2022

 

It's the Last Day of 2022.
So here are the plans for next year.
Tentatively.

I don't tend to do New Year's Resolutions. The world and my body are both unpredictable, so I'm quite hesitant to make promises of any kind.

This year, as I watch the fog roll in on an unseasonably warm evening and listen to the dogs bark, I feel even less inclined than usual to make major commitments.

But I really should write something down, shouldn't I? I should have goals and dreams and things I want to do!

So here they are - my plans for 2023:

• Write every day!
• Maybe I should post a wordcount for my daily totals on Twitter (or somewhere else, if the bird dies)
• Draw every day!
• I'd post the best on Thursdays, but ideally I'd post everything on Instagram?
• Also I should upload more designs to RedBubble.
• Take at least one picture every day!
• Probably gonna be a lot of cat pics, probably will upload most to my Insta.
• Make more videos
• Ideally, I'd make a slide show every so often to show what my total progress, arts/crafts wise, is with a MegaCompliation at the end of December? I have no clue.
• Cook at least once
• I'd love to cook once a week, but that's a rough commitment in a shared space.
• finish everyone's Christmas gifts before December 12th
• Unlikely, but an idea. I have... thoughts on what to make for everyone.
• Crochet every day!
• I'd love to finish a snowflake and work on a larger project every day.
• Figure out a way to sell original artworks and/or pictures.

If I even hit half these goals, I think I'd be doing amazingly. The most important goals are the Daily ones - Art, Writing, Crochet. Everything else is gravy.

I'll be honest - the idea of selling commissions terrifies me. I've seen the horror stories. I've heard of the chargebacks, the fraud, the people with unrealistic expectations. It's why I do my Categories (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Dedbert, Geometric, Word). You can't be disappointed if you don't have final say over the end product, right?

An idea I have had in the past was to offer Blind Boxes/Bags of art or crochet. You don't know what you'll get for a specific price that never changes. The problem with that, of course, would be shipping.

In order to turn even a tiny profit (if there is such a thing as profit in art...) I'd have to charge way more than I'd be comfortable with. And I just don't really feel comfortable doing a digital-only sales. Not only do I not trust PayPal to not be a turd about things (they're notorious for screwing over artists), but I don't know enough about digital art sales to be comfortable selling an image to someone else when all I'd know how to do is send them a jpg or png via email...

I'd love some suggestions and ideas.

In fact, if anyone has anything they'd like to see from this blog, please oh please comment on here and let me know! Since I have to moderate comments, you'll 100% know I saw your comment lol.

What kinds of hopes do you all have for 2023? And how weird is it that 2023 is upon us? It feels like yesterday that I was whining about August heat or March snows...

So that's my thoughts on the last day of 2022. I hope the new year brings good things and wanted change.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Tested Out An Artistro Palette!

Christmas brought me some great gifts, as I hope it did for anyone reading this who celebrates. One of these gifts was given by some awesome friends of mine, and it was a great little Artistro palette, which I'll be reviewing today!

The Artistro Premium Quality Watercolor Paint Set came with some fun goodies!

The palette itself came in a lovely pastel mint turquoise cardboard box, which also contained a small sheaf of Watercolor paper, a little card about Artistro itself, and what I think is a sticker, though I can't figure out if it really is or not. 

The Palette itself!

The palette itself is a nice tin box in the same pastel turquoise color as the cardboard box, and while the metal isn't nearly as thick as my black palette, it's still quite convenient to have everything in a lockable case! The latch gives it a leg up on most of my palettes, to be honest, and it has a few other things going for it, too - it has a flat bottom so I can actually set it down places, it only has 2 parts when opened, so it can just sit open, it's fairly tall so I don't have to move brushes as far, and it's a nice soothing color.

Inside is quite nice, too!

Opening this palette reveals that it comes with a few goodies besides the paints! Firstly, it has a big, hefty water brush that feels like I could sit on it accidentally and not break it, plus a fineliner brush! The black pen is actually an acrylic paint pen - the first one I've ever used! And it has three mixing wells and a very large sponge, which are great for when you're changing or mixing colors. As for the lower half, there's a sturdy plastic sheet with a little cutout for your finger so you can pull it away from the paints and... guys...

It's one of the first palettes I've ever had that NAMES ALL THE COLORS outside of the swatch card!

And they're fairly popular color names, too, allowing me to try mixes I've seen elsewhere!

The palette does, of course, come with a swatch card, and it's printed on the exact same watercolor paper that came with the kit, and it's good paper, too, which really surprised me. I'm used to swatch cards that are cardstock or cheap paper, and this was great.

It helps matters, too, that the paints, while small, are very smooth.

These are, no joke, butter-smooth watercolors. Swatching the palette out, I only noticed a few tones out of the 48 that were harder to get consistent - the lightest blue, the lightest green, the fluorescents, and the metallics. Even those would probably have been easier to swatch if I'd spritzed the palette first instead of just stroking a damp brush over the pans 10 times each.

And I'm really pleased with the granulations I see because I love granulations in my tones.

Now, the Artistro palette is not the only art supply I received for Christmas. My mother made sure to buy me a nice Strathmore pad and some new brushes, since the ones I've been using are... well... they're water hogs that don't lay color well, frankly. I've been entirely relying on my waterbrushes and one or two fineliners because the rest just don't paint well.

These Phoenix brushes, however, paint very nicely.

And I will eventually have to start working on bigger paintings
Because these large sheets are tempting.

But I'm still pretty braindead from the holidays, so instead of testing my supplies out on some massive art piece that relies on vast quantities of water, patience, and time, I instead tested things out with a fun little Geometric piece.

"Bubbletime"; watercolor and acrylic; 2022

I used a 7 Round for all of the bubbles and outlined them all with the paint pen. I was very nervous that I'd spill the paint all over my bed, but I activated the pen very slowly and gently (shakeshakeshakeshake, press, pause, press, pause, press, pause, see that the tip is black, draw a small doodle on a scrap page, then get to work).

It went far better than I'd hoped, and I think I'll be adding this paint pen to my passel of liners for future projects! It layers perfectly over watercolors. Speaking of the watercolors, they went on very smooth, though if you don't use wet-into-wet as your technique, it can be a bit hard to even tones out. The paints also dried fairly fast, though that could have been because I had my ceiling fan on and the air was fairly dry.

All in all, if you've been thinking about trying out the Artistro 48 color watercolor palette, I'd say go for it. It's perfect for someone who is trying to make art, especially on a budget. The paper is good quality, the paints are fun, and if you're not planning on preserving the original pieces (I can't speak to the colorfastness of the paints, since I haven't had them long enough to test), then this is a great kit for you. Especially if you've been meaning to see if an acrylic paint pen is right for you with your watercolor art.

If you'd like to have a say in what I paint or draw next week, feel free to hit me up on Ko-Fi with a donation and a message telling me what category you'd like to see (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Geometric, Dedbert, Location, Word), and I'll pop it up here with a little thank you note!

And thank you to all my readers who kept me posting throughout 2022!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I *should* do things...
But I probably won't.

I am both extremely bored and incredibly unmotivated today, and that isn't a bad thing.

I know, usually I complain about lack of motivation and I get concerned, but this doesn't feel like a Depressive Episode.

It feels like rest.

The most complicated thing I've done today was refill the kettle to make more coffee. I'm not getting anything creative done today, I don't think.

And why shouldn't I rest?

It was... not a great week leading up to Christmas. A lot of things went horribly awry, especially during that awful storm on Friday. People I love lost power, were injured by the storm, were incredibly stressed out, and/or were sick. Some were various combinations of the above. My father is one of the sick ones - he gets the Christmas Crud every year (possibly because he's the only one of us who plays in the pit band for the high school musical, now, and he gets exposed to all those teenager germs), and this year's is really quite nasty.

The difference between Friday and Sunday was indescribable. Not only did we get up to find a thin peppering of snow on the ground (not a white Christmas by any means, but better than we expected), but the winds, which had been howling between 35-75mph since Friday had finally calmed to a much more reasonable 10-20mph.

The day was made up of steady feasting, starting with a delightful set of cheese boards my mother set up - pepper jelly with cream cheese, cheddar jack, and white cheddar on some crackers. I made fancy Mexican hot chocolate that was thicker and richer than a millionaire mukbanger's arteries. Gifts were opened, joy was shared, and it was honestly just a fantastic day!

Yesterday was pretty great, too! I rested a lot, ate some snacks (I got so much chocolate), and just hung out on the internet.

Today, I've also been resting. I need it, apparently, since my elbows and hands are sore.

I plan to, tomorrow, work on some art. My friends got me a really neat watercolor set that I'll be checking out and photographing. First, I'll swatch the colors (which are helpfully labeled - a first for watercolor sets I've gotten since I got back into painting), and then I'll paint something! Don't know what I'll paint yet, but I'll be working on it.

As for the rest of December (which is only a few more days, yikes!) I plan to have one more post besides the Thursday Art Walk, and that will be on Saturday, December 31.

In it, I'll tell you my ideas for the coming year!

After that, we'll see how things go :)

For now, though, I think it's time to watch videos and relax for a few more hours.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Am Pooped
And I'm Sure You Are Too.

Friends, Craftsfolk, Netizens...

The Christmas Crunch of 2022 is finally over.

I was hooking up a storm right up til 9AM on Christmas morning, finishing my dad's gift - a simple half-double-crochet hat - and it's finally, finally over.

Now begins the Christmas Crash.

The Christmas Crash is exactly what it sounds like - after you've finished the Crush, you're exhausted, so you basically take a week off. As 99% of my activities were Crochet-Related, I'll be taking the rest of this week away from yarn, I think.

If that changes, you'll know because I'll have something new next Monday and a frantic explanation of why I totally couldn't take time off because I had a great idea lol.

For now, though, I'll take a break. My knuckles are sore and it'd be nice to watch a video without subconsciously counting stitches.

It is so important to take breaks. Please remember to rest your hands after a long period of crafting! You can't make if you can't move!

I should be back tomorrow to talk about the final stretch to Christmas and my plans for the next few days, but for now...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

In Which I Drew A Little Guy

 

Sometimes, I sit down to do my art and I draw for hours and am unsatisfied entirely. I look at what I've wrought and grimace. I tear the page away or ctrl+a, delete. I try again.

And sometimes I plop myself down with a cup of coffee, scroll down my Twitter feed on my laptop, and inspiration smacks me like Hacksaw Jim Duggan with a 2x4.

Today was the latter.

I was sipping my morning brew, doomscrolling like a proper Millennial, and then I saw a post from @PossumEveryHour on Twitter. This post, specifically.

I don't know if you've known this about me, but I am a sucker for everything this picture is:

• small
• cute
• possum
• just a little guy

Love me some possums.

Would I probably be a bit freaked out if I saw one waddling towards me on its adorable-but-weird ratty hands & feet? Yep. Would I pet it? Absolutely not, if it was wild. But I would absolutely be obsessed with it. I'd back away and keep my distance while babbling quietly about how he's just a little man wandering around, and isn't it so wonderful? Isn't it such a cool little guy? Go have a good time lil dude!

So yes, I'm a bit mad for North American possums.

And I've seen the Australian ones. They're precious.

But North American Possums are very relatable. Obscenely short life spans, looks like it's gonna cut you but is actually scared witless of you, cooler-blooded than most mammals, beneficial without being noisy about it, eats whatever it bumps into that doesn't run away...

It me.

So of course I had to draw my own Little Guy:

"Awesome Possum" digital art; 2022

Yes, that's a lil possum. Yes, I'm still trying to figure out how to use Krita.

It's just a little guy, peeps. Look at that little guy!

I love him.

Anywho, that's gonna do it for me because the Christmas Crunch continues today. I have 3.25 items to make and 2 to finish.

I hope to draw some more, too, though maybe not today. It might take me a few days before I'm ready to start more art.

If you'd like a say in next week's category of art, feel free to shoot me a Ko-Fi with the category you'd like (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) and I'll fill that prompt!

For now, though, Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Working Hard!

Sweet Caroline (bum bum bum)!

I am a wee bit pooped. Why? Because the Christmas Crunch continues and I'm trying my best to figure out how to make one of my gifts lol. I'm also making up a second, and I have a few more left to make/finish. I am pretty pleased with my progress, but I'll be happy to give the frequent crochet a break soon lol.

As for the rest of this week, my plan is to start doing more art tomorrow (maybe after taking a quick hop down to the shops to see about a silvervine twig or some nip for my cat...).

I'll also be working on art for Thursday, but who knows what will come out.

Actually, I might be trying something for 2023. We'll see if I manage it. I miss making videos, but I don't often cook, so I was thinking I could maybe sum up my creative endeavors over a week over on YouTube? Like a slideshow of my art, anything I might find on walks, any food I make, crochet I've made, etc? Would there be any interest on that? I would have to teach myself how to add voiceover, and learn more editing skills, but it might be fun.

Aside from that, I don't have much to talk about besides that I'm very tired, I constantly crave beef jerky, and keep making weird grumbly sounds.

Think I'm turning into a bear.

Hibernating sounds very nice.

I do have other plans and ideas, too:

• I'd like to beat Winter 1 on Stardew in my latest farm
• I'd like to find a book to read
• I'd like to earn another Amazon Card or 6 through Mistplay or whatever so I can preorder Tears of the Kingdom (which, if y'all are very patient, I might even try to review, because this did used to be a gaming blog...)
• I'd like to bake more bread
• I'd like to get back to polishing rocks, because that was fun
• I'd like to drop a few pounds so it's easier to ride my bike.
• I'd like to hike a mountain, locally, with my camera
• I'd like to go to the beach more often next year. Maybe take 1 day per week to stroll the shore.
• I'd like to make some Goblin Jewelry (find random stuff and string it like beads - twigs, seeds, acorns, pebbles, shells, etc)
• I'd like to make sushi - proper sushi.

I have a lot of ideas.

I don't have a lot of energy.

Somehow I need to figure out how to match these two things up.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to comment below - I don't see anyone's email addresses or whatever, just a name and a comment!

And if you want a say in this week's art, feel free to shoot me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with an attached message telling me the category you're looking for - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Geometric, Dedbert, or Word!

For now, I think that'll do it from me today. I am having a bear of a time focusing ;)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Snowmageddon 2022 Week 4

 

In Which We Are Done Snowing!

It's been a long month, but the snowflakes are all completed!!!

The Entire Snowstorm pre-ironing

post ironing and starching

Some details

Some took their blocking really well!

In fact, I'd be tempted to say that these are some of my best work yet!

Some of them are very loopy

And I cannot get over the crisp lines on some of these!

Since today's pics are of flakes you've already heard me talk about in the last 3 weeks, I also wanted to show you guys something you can make in a day!

The Lilac Set - purse (top) and headband (bottom)

These were made with an H (5mm) hook and worsted weight yarn using an alternating granny block/v-stitch pattern.

Basically, the headband is a long rectangle of repeated rows of 3x blocks and v-stitches, sewn together at the ends. If you want it to be twisted, then you just twist it before sewing the ends.

It is wide so it can cover more surface earea. That's not a typo.

The purse, meanwhile, is a wider base of the same pattern repeats. Go until you've got the height of the front of the purse, then do your next row in the back loops only of the stitches to make a fold point. Finish the same amount of rows you just did, then do another row in either the back or front loops (whichever would make your piece flop over on itself) to form the top flap. When you've got a few rows done, switch to single crochet, but instead of turning at the end of the row, turn the work and start working in the side of the crochet - we're both edging the piece and stitching it shut! Fold your purse shut, then single crochet all the way down one side, slip stitch along the bottom, and single crochet back up the other side. When you get to the start of the first round of single crochet, slip stitch, then chain one. Single crochet almost halfway across the flap, chain two to form a button hole, then finish chaining the row. Slip stitch your way down the side until you reach the opening, then slip stitch around the opening and up the other side of the purse. When you reach the top, slip stitch, chain one, and then single crochet all the way across, including the button hole, and slip stitching once into the first slip stitch of the previous round. Tie off, weave in your ends.

After you've got the body of the purse, you can think about making a strap for it (and a button in my case). To make a strap, I just made a chain of 4ch, then hdc in the second ch from the hook and hdc across, turn, ch1, repeat rows of hdc until it's long enough, then sew to the top of the bag.

To make a button, find some sturdy yarn and use a much, much smaller hook than you think you need. I used a C/2.75mm hook for my button. From there it's just making a magic circle, sc6 into the circle, tighten the ring, sl st to the first st, ch1, 2sc around (12sc). Then you tie it off, sewing the long tail until it gets back to the center of the ring and use that to sew it into place!

Sometimes my new phone likes to switch between horizontal & vertical shots
and I haven't quite learned how to change its mind on those...

So that's this week's crochet work! I'm still trying to finish up my projects, but I think it'll go pretty well from here.

How are all your guys' craft projects going? Get anything fun done lately?

That'll do it from me - gotta finish making stuff lol!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC