Talk About Tuesday

 

What A Day!

Today, I went on an adventure with some friends. It wasn't like we went skydiving (though we drove by a place that offers classes), or hiking, or wakeboarding or anything like that, but I'm a homebody, so for me, an adventure can mean a short road trip with people I like where we go hang out in a town that isn't ours.

We drove to Waterville, today. You may be thinking, if you're from Maine, "why Waterville?" and the answer is: "We wanted Thai Food we haven't had before". Our Destination was Pad Thai Too. Since we headed out around noon, we needed to kill some time before we got to order, so we took a snack break at one of the two Taco Bells and then crawled along the mean streets of Waterville (they're not mean, that's just poetic license). There were a lot of fun stores and restaurants, and honestly, I had to rethink my stance on the town. See, I'd always seen it as a place like Union or Waldoboro - quiet, basically economically dead areas that would be nice to live in but weren't really busy.

Waterville is apparently a small, more river-based Portland.

There were sculptures, monuments, and parks, and honestly, it was very pretty.

I wish I'd taken pictures, but I put my phone away while we were touring the Two Penny Bridge because I didn't want to drop it in the Kennebec. Instead, I just took it in. A pair of ladies jogged past us on their exercise circuit, sending the suspension bridge jumping just slightly. It was just enough movement that you could tell the bridge was held up by wires, but not enough that you'd be truly jostled. I really loved seeing most of the locks, too - much like the Pont des Arts, couples will put a lock on the bridge to symbolize the permanence of their love, and unlike the Pond des Arts, there are nowhere near enough to warrant removal yet.

The fall pollen was collected on the surface of the Kennebec like an oil slick made from powdered ivory. The river itself was so steeped with tannins that it was almost a black brown. The overall effect was suitably spooky for someone wearing a plaid flannel shirt and a neckerchief of lace skulls, and I was enchanted.

Overall, a positive experience. Even the homeless guy who came over and bothered us was in a good mood. We left before that mood could sour. (I hope the dude finds somewhere warmer to stay as the winter rolls in. No one deserves to freeze, and a public park is not gonna cut it come November).

We went from the park to Pad Thai Too and put in our orders. I had the regular Pad Thai with chicken, my boyfriend had the Pik Pow Pad Thai with chicken, and they were both really good. I'd have to say that the Pad Thai is more sweet-and-sour than rich-and-sweet, and mine wasn't at all spicy. The Pik Pow wasn't spicy either, but it was spiced. That was a tangier, stronger sauce, and it went really well with the pineapple. Overall, I'd absolutely eat there again. I am interested in what their Drunken Noodle tastes like!

Now, normally, when there are spicy dishes on offer, I'm all in on that. I love me some spice. Unfortunately for me, though, I've been suffering some of the worst heartburn of my life for the last week or so. It's been bad enough that I've had to listen to my own heartbeat to make sure it sounds normal (a little elevated, but that's fine when I'm anxious and uncomfortable). It's just heartburn, but it sucks. I don't just get the "warm chest/hiccups" anymore, either. I get the "feels like some giant has lodged one set of  knuckles under my sternum and the other set of knuckles just under my shoulder blades and is trying to press those knuckles together through me".

Needless to say, spicy food was not an option today.

And I've started a course of Omeprazole for the first time in about a decade. I don't get consistent heartburn often, so I don't take stuff like that often, either. I've also been crunching Tums.

And hydrating.

And apparently that thing about laying on your left side? Not an old wives' tale. It works. Lay on your left side.

Anywho, you're probably wondering about the rest of the week, right? Here ya go:

• On Thursday I'll post what I've got for art this week. It's Spooky season, which means I have Art Prompts to fill, and... uh... I may have terrified myself with one of my drawings. Just a bit. Eugh.
• On Monday, I hope I have some finished projects to share. We'll see lol.
• Next Tuesday I'll be back here for a chatty like today's.

I'm shockingly tired from our little jaunt today (that and staying up until 3AM due to heartburn), so I'm going to go watch Madagascar Giant Hognoses hatch in Minnesota and go to bed.

Go Enjoy Something, folks!

FC

EDIT: My awesome boyfriend sent me a bunch of pics he took on our roadtrip!

A view from the bridge

A roofed area attached to the bridge

DUCKS!

the locks on the bridge

one of the locks

the sign before the bridge!

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Am Distracted Again

I am incredibly easy to distract. Hilariously so. Like... I should be finishing those gloves, that bag, the Lady Sibyl shrug...

But here I am, trying to make a hex cardigan...

It's going pretty well!

But when it's unfolded, it looks pretty bad...

So it turns out that hex cardigans are really quite easy, but uh, boy are they ugly as you work on them.

If you know how to make a granny hexagon, you know how to make this cardigan. Basically, you just start making a hexagon and keep going until it's about half your body width when you fold it in half. Folding it (like the first photo) naturally turns it into that right angle, so use that for your measurements, since it makes up the arm and body like that. After you finish one hex, you make a matching one, seam it up the back and sleeve, and voila, you have a cardigan!

Hopefully I can finish that one. I really love the color. If I can't, I've got some old Bucilla yarn from probably the 80s I can try :)

Also, I don't seem to have an L hook. I have 3 K hooks and 4 or 5 N hooks, but no L hook. Weird.

I know I make a lot of excuses, but the reality is this: I love making new things and I don't like waiting, so inevitably, I end up with a lot of newly-started projects that eventually get frogged into other projects.

That being said, I should probably finish a few more things lol.

That'll do it for me tonight. I've got a heartburn pill to take, water to sip, and a cardigan to crochet!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

Today I Made Something GEOMETRIC

This week's abstract geometric creation was brought to you by too much coffee and hyperfixation!

I plonked myself down in front of my computer at around 11AM with every intention of just... doing some lineart over a pre-scanned sketch or something. I wasn't feeling too creative.

And then I started making lines, and...

"CHAOS"; digital art; 2022

Now, at first blush, this doesn't look too odd. It's some colors, fractured around each other like broken glass. If you zoom in, however.... it's a madhouse in there!

Yes, it has taken me until now to experiment with the different fill settings on Paint.net, why do you ask?

The only other thing that really happened today was that a squirrel took a breather on my kitchen steps today. She scurried up the railing and leaned against the top post, keeping an eye on things. I think me standing in the kitchen in my fuzzy Darth Vader pants and Power Rangers tee, sipping coffee, made her nervous, because she never once looked away from me. Unfortunately, I have a screen door and my phone only wanted to take pics of the screen, so no squirrel for you :(

I really enjoyed falling down the creative rabbit hole playing with this one, and I think I could do some more with a similar concept (not identical, though). I'll keep playing tonight, I think.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Le Tired

Yesterday was Quite A Day, let me tell you. It started normally enough - took a shower, drank some coffee, chatted with my guy, and started to get ready to finish the shrug I was working on...

And my mother told me to get ready for an adventure with the cat!

I'm always down for a kitty trip, so I threw on some Tromping Around Clothes (I'd changed back into pajamas after my shower, not anticipating the surprise adventure), and came down to find a paper bag on the counter.

The plan was thus:

• Grab the cat and the paper bag, get in the car.
• Head to the Wal-Mart for some forgotten bread and a box of tissues
• Head to the next town over to drop off some Vicks, cold medicine, and tissues for my guy, who has a chest cold (Feel Better, Love!)
• Find a beach that was open and not too crowded.

Now you may be thinking that's a lot of car time for a cat. Would she be okay? Especially with a trip to Wal-Mart?

Sure, she was fine. Annoyed at being stuck in her carrier while I tried to find the tissues (I was lied to by an endcap and looked in the wrong aisle for like 5 minutes before I could find them), but fine.

The first beach we tried was Birch Point State Park, but apparently the state decided that, despite our Septembers being anywhere from 55-75℉/12,8-23,9℃, and Mainers swimming in the ocean up until about January, the beach had to be closed. What a pain.

Well, we weren't going to let a little State Park Closure prevent our girl from having her first ever beach adventure, so we headed over to another beach - Crescent Beach. Poor Evie the Cat was chirping crankily from her carrier and reaching out with her cute little paws by now, so we made our way down and parked. By the time we got her out on her leash (which she was very curious and very nervous about), I realized we'd made a fatal error that my fellow Mainers will probably tease me for.

We forgot to check the tides.

We arrived just as the tide was at its highest, just starting to ebb.

On a beach where the beach head is 100% loose stones.

Yeah, there was no sand for her to walk on for the first half of our visit.

She enjoyed sniffing the dried seaweed and climbing the rocks (which, yeah, was against the rules, but she's a cat, so she can't read signs), and we figured that would be it.

And then another family pulled up and came hiking across the stones.

If you've never met my cat, you need to know this about her:

Evie LOVES people. She is obsessed. She desperately loves new people and wants to hang out with everyone on Earth.

So of course, she immediately had to go visit these people, dragging my mother and I with her. Thankfully the family thought our 3-Braincell Tabby was the bees' knees, and they put up with her crawling under their feet and begging for snacks (they had a banana). Eventually, the water receded enough for us to put her down on wet sand and...

She hated it.

So, Evie did not enjoy her beach trip as much as we'd hoped lol.

And she was also so squirmy and exploratory that it was very hard to take pictures between trying to dislodge her from crevices where she got herself stuck. I did manage two pictures, though!

Here's Evie sitting on a rock, about to go wrap her leash around a rugosa rose bush.
She's just noticed the family and wants to go say hi!

Here Evie has failed to retrieve banana from the other family
And has grumpily decided she'll go climb more rocks in protest.
Also seaweed smells fun to her I guess lol

After that, we scooped her up and took her home, where she sulked outside with my mom. I ran upstairs and worked on yesterday's blog.

I do have to admit, though...

It was incredibly hard, being surrounded by all those delightfully smooth beach rocks in so many interesting colors and shapes and knowing I couldn't keep any of them. It's illegal to take the beach rocks, and at Crescent Beach, they're absolutely necessary for preventing erosion, so it's just bad all around to take beach rocks from there. If I'd gone wading and grabbed one from the water, I'd have been pretty ok with it, but I wasn't going to get in the surf while the tide was receding as fast as it was (we went from no sand to 5 feet of sand in 10 minutes, it seemed).

So that was my adventure this week!

The rest of the week's plans are thus:

• If you want to send me a coffee donation through that light green button, you can leave a message telling me what theme I'm drawing from this week! Those themes are:
• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Geometric
  
• Location
• Dedbert
• Word
• Art Blog on Thursday
• I forgot to post the tea last week so maybe I'll do it this weekend? We'll see
• More crochet for Monday!
• Blather next Tuesday!

I hope my feline misadventures have brought a smile to your face today!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

At Last! Progress!
Just not on the Mushroom Bag...

A month or two ago, I started work on another iteration of the Downton Abbey Lady Sibyl Shrug, this time in a beige cotton thread, and I am excited to announce that....

The body is complete!

Now, before you ask, no this doesn't mean I'm anywhere close to being done with the orange/coral version. I... honestly am not sure where that project bag is. I do, however, now know that, without a doubt, it needs to be a bit wider for a linebacker-shouldered bird like me.

After trying this shrug on, even with the added width (I made my rectangle 17" long instead of the recommended 15"), it was a bit of a struggle to get on and off. Perhaps a 22"x17" (56cm x 43cm) would be better suited to me? Or perhaps it is merely the fact that I was trying it on with an unfinished border and a thick t-shirt, rather than a slipperier dress? I'm not changing into a tank or a dress to test that theory, and the border is... unique.

Why do a ch3, sc around into each chain space when the chain spaces are 4-5 chains each? Why was the foundation essentially 4 chains between sc? I don't understand so many choices with this piece, and I'm sure any errata I looked up could explain things, but...

I'm not in the mood to go looking things up, and honestly, I'm feeling too sludge-brained tonight to go hunting down explanations.

I may have had a fairly hectic day.

It may have involved my cat going on an ill-timed nautical adventure.

I may have pictures to share of this tomorrow.

Anyway, here's the first & second rounds of the border, which I've only got about... 30% finished around the body and have not even begun on the sleeves. How is this even going to work on the sleeves. I'll find out. Regardless, I have some work to finish, still, but this is real, visible progress!

I kind of like the 7dc shells, but...
Not sure how I feel about the rest.
We'll see.

Now, obviously, if I hate the edging, I can just frog it and start over. If you have any suggestions, feel free to @ me on Twitter or leave a comment on here.

Unrelated, but there's still time to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi and convince me to do art in a category of your choice (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Dedbert, Geometric, Word)!

I will be taking the rest of tonight to stare at a cursor blinking on a manuscript.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Attempt More Digital Art!

I am still 100% a novice at digital art, and I really don't know what I'm doing. I tried to use Krita today and all I can say is that either that program hates my XP Pen Star G430S, or I just cannot effectively use it. I just wanted to draw an outline! When I would start my line, the program would either hesitate and then hurry to catch up with me (which sucked, because I was tracing a pencil sketch), or it would pop up a menu.

I don't particularly like radial menus to begin with, so imagine my dismay when one kept popping up when I just wanted to trace an owl...

So I switched programs back to Paint.net.

I know, I know, Paint.net is more like photoshop than an actual art app (despite the name...), but it's what I've been practicing with for the past 5 years.

Yeah...

Progress is slow.

Anyway, I started with a sketch of Dedbert and his Pink Owl Ladyfriend (whose name he will not tell me) brewing coffee together!

As You Can See, It Was A Very Rough Sketch

I loved the composition, but I thought it was perhaps a bit too close to the bottom and off-center, so when I scanned it, I tried to move it around. Didn't 100% work, but it was cute.

From there, I started trying to outline the piece. Like I said, Krita was not cooperating with my tablet for that, so I went with Paint.net and scribbled the outline in with a gray tone. I actually liked the scribbly, scratchy outline I got from there, so I stuck with that and intentionally overran some of the colors when I laid them down!

I tried just doing flat colors, but that was less interesting than just the outline, somehow, so I did some experimenting with dark tones and transparency and managed to put down a shading layer!

If anyone wants to give me some direct pointers, maybe some links to some tutorials for absolute newbie beginners who've never used Photoshop or anything like that, please, please feel free to send me a message on here or Twitter. Links will work better on Twitter, tbh.

"Happy Owlloween!"; digital; 2022

On another note, this was a Ko-Fi mini-commission! I got a nice little donation with a message telling me my benefactor wanted to see a DEDBERT piece, so that's what my donor gets!

If you'd like to have a say in next week's piece, please feel free to hit that Ko-Fi donation button on the sidebar and include a message with your donation telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Word, Geometric) you'd like and I'll make something next Thursday!!!

I think that'll about do it for me today, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Sore For Silly Reasons

Today I had lofty goals. So very lofty. Such goals have never been seen before.

My goals were as follows:

• Get up before 10AM
• Polish the rocks from my goblin horde as seen on Instagram.
• Shower
• Hang out online with my boyfriend
• Eat 3 meals.

Yeah... Not really what I managed to do. Or at least, not entirely and not in that order.

I woke up a little after 10AM, sadly, and when I went downstairs to prep for my shower and morning coffee, I was asked to please shower first, which is maybe suboptimal for when you're planning on making a mess with wet rocks. After my shower, I dressed in clothes I was fine with getting mud & toothpaste on and headed downstairs to polish up the rocks.

I filled half of an empty Sargento Balanced Breaks container with water and popped the rocks in there to soak, hoping the water would offset the dust I'd be making. Then I put that down on my dad's work bench, put a handkerchief over my hair like a cottagecore lesbian with a secret 60s fetish, and strapped on a proper dust mask and safety goggles. Never ever use power tools without protective equipment. Unfortunately for me, I have very short hands and my stubby fingers do not fit into any of the safety gloves we have, so I ended up with a few abrasions from the grinders, sanders, and even the woolen polishing wheel.

First I used a cone-shaped grinder attachment to roughly bring down the peaks of the stones where necessary, and this was where I discovered that perhaps the orange and white pebbles were not going to be polished today. See, my fingers are chubby, the pebbles are tiny, and the grinder bit hurts when it hits you even on the first setting, so I gave up on them pretty quickly and tossed them into the empty half of the container. The rest of the rocks were also difficult to grind because despite my hands being tiny, they are also chubby, and it's hard to grip what amounts to Large Gravel with wet baby hands. Whenever the rock would start to throw dust, I'd dip it back in the water, hence the wet hands. Every time I finished grinding a rock, I tossed it back into the water, which made the water pretty silty and muddy.

The second step was sanding, and I used a larger drum and a smaller drum for each rock. This was when I lost two of my pebbles. One, a scallop-shaped stone with lots of mica in it, I found right before I headed back upstairs at the end. The other is still hiding somewhere around my father's workbench and no amount of bending and pointing a flashlight in random places could reveal it. Other than rocks being flung around the cellar, there wasn't much that happened here. More dipping-when-the-dust-began-to-fly. More standing around and hoping I wasn't getting too messy (spoilers - I was). I ended up popping the rocks back in the muddied water between the large drum and the small one.

The final step was the "polish" step, and here's where I am 100% sure I botched it. See... my polishing compound was completely solid, so I had to improvise. I was gonna use spackle (yes, feel free to yell at me for that in the comments) but the tub wouldn't open. I did, however, have a small tube of toothpaste that had fallen on the hotel floor near a toilet without the cap on while I was on an adventure once. I experimented with the toothpaste and found that, while it kind of worked, it just left everything sticky and unpleasant.

Fortunately, my efforts were not entirely in vain. Turns out that all that silt in the bottom of the water container could be added to the wool wheel and used to serve as a polishing medium.

By this point, however, I was exhausted. I'd been standing in the cellar for about 3 hours, and I was ready for food, a stretch, and a warm washcloth around my neck. 

I had hoped to have this all done by noon.

Clearly not all stones polish well, but I'm pretty happy with the top left one...

So here's the new plan: from now on, all polishing will be done

• outside when possible
• In proper safety gear
• As soon as I get new rocks
• in very small batches (1-4 rocks)
• BEFORE a shower.

So that's what I've been up to lately lol!

For the next few days, here's the plan:

• Tomorrow I'll draw & paint
• Thursday I'll upload art
• Sunday I might tell you about a few cups of tea? We'll see.
• Next Monday I really want to have some pictures of crochet progress
• Next Tuesday I'll blather some more.

That's my plan as the world stands now. We'll see how that goes in the next few days - especially since my neck is now so sore from holding position and grinding all morning!

If you want a say in what I'll be drawing, go ahead and send me a Ko-Fi donation with a message saying which category you'd like!

• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Dedbert
• Word
• Geometric
• Location

That'll do it for me today, I think.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC