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

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have A New Project:

So I have a Ren Faire to attend in September. This means I need an outfit. I have a lovely top from Holy Clothing (a Torvi top in Huntress Green), and I have some tan jeggings that, covered by the top, will look almost like deer suede. I will probably try to wear my boots, but if it's gonna be wet that day, I'll just wear some good hiking shoes and sacrifice fantasy aesthetic in favor of not losing my feet or damaging my good suede boots.

But just a tunic and leggings isn't very... fancy, is it?

No, I want a ridiculous, complicated, lacy skirt.

I admire the designs of a lot of the skirts I've seen, but I wanted to make my own 100% of the way. So far, I'm using white crochet thread and a 1.5mm hook. I've only just started the waistband.

As you can see, it's not that big

I'm hoping to have this skirt be double-fastened with ribbons and some sort of buttons or hooks as well.

I started by chaining 51 and then single-crocheting 25 rows of 50 stitches each, chaining one and turning at the end of each row.

The next row, I single-crocheted 10 stitches, chained 10, skipped 10 stitches, single crocheted into the next 10 stitches, chained 10, skipped 10 stitches, and then single crocheted the last 10 stitches before chaining one and turning.

The next 5 rows are all single crocheted, single crocheting into each chain and stitch across. Then I kept repeating the spaced-rows and the 5 rows of single crochet. I'll keep going like that until I'm satisfied with the way it wraps around my middle, and then I'll probably do another 50 rows of just plain single crochet, just to create a comfy overlap to prevent any gapping (not that anyone will see the waistband at the Ren Faire, but what if I want to wear it elsewhere?!)

My plan after the waistband is done is to create a row of half-double crochet along the bottom edge to which I'll eventually attach the skirt, which will start as wide as my waistband and then I'll keep adding stitches until it's wide enough to be swishy and fun and long enough to qualify as a skirt and not just a flirty little coverup. I already know this girl's gonna be heavy, and I'm debating whether I want to add beads to make it even heavier. 

I'm considering all of the laces and trims that I've found on Ravelry. There's a very old squirrel one I think would be absolutely darling as a feature of the skirt, but we'll see how that goes.

Alright, I think I've said all I can say so far on this project. I'm only maybe 20% done with the waistband. Maximum. We'll see where I'm at next week!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today's Art is Scanned!

Today I have a couple of paintings to share with y'all. One, I completed while still cat-sitting, the other, I finished this morning.

"At the Dam"; watercolor pencil on sketch; 2023
[Animal, Location, Vegetable]

This picture was based off of a view Z and I had when we went down to the dam near the apartment we were watching for my sister. We sat and watched a bald eagle and several turkey vultures soaring over a dammed river with lots of rocks in the water. There was a small rocky island that the birds kept flying over, and while what I've painted here doesn't really look like what we saw, it's close enough to give the feel. The small gray bird to the right of the tree is a mockingbird that was flashing its wing patches at us as it flitted around the area.

"Cocoa"; watercolor on paper; 2023
[Food]

Hmm... should I add Food as a Request Category like the others (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric)?

I had a lot of fun drawing this, though I really need to pay more attention to shading. I Am very pleased with how the first painting looks, though. I turned the brightness down to about -30 and scanned it at 600dpi instead of 1200dpi. Since I scanned "Cocoa" first, it didn't get the brightness lowered, and I should have paid more attention to the cropping.

Regardless, I should do more paintings, and I'm still working on a digital piece that has... a lot of colors. I'm planning on doing some weird stuff to it lol!

If you'd like a say in what I draw or paint, week to week, you can send me a coffee donation over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like to see (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Food) and I'll draw or paint something that fits that category for the next Thursday!

I've also started taking commissions, if you'd be interested in that route, and I also have a Threadless Store! You may also see an Amazon Wishlist on the sidebar, which contains a bunch of random stuff that I would use for the blog.

That does it for the shameless self-promotion for this week, so I'll just head on out and get a little snack before working on more art!

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

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Am Out But Still Working On Art!

I'm cat-sitting this week out of town which means that I'm not in my usual "studio" (my bedroom/the local Main Street), but I still managed to make some art, including a Ko-Fi recommendation for a Location!

"Morning" watercolor pencil on sketch; 2023 [ANIMAL]

"Gazebo" watercolor pencil on sketch; 2023 [LOCATION]

The "Morning" painting is a rendition of the cat I'm sitting for and the "Gazebo" is... not the gazebo in the town I'm in. It's a random generic gazebo lol. It's loosely based off of one I used to play in when I was in the community band.

I'm having a blast up north where I've ended up this week, but I'll be back in my own bedroom soon enough. For now, I'm just enjoying my time away and working on other projects. My only regret is forgetting my copy of "Everybody Knows" by Jordan Harper. I'd have finished it on Monday if I'd remembered it.

In a way, I'm actually pretty happy that I didn't bring my Switch or receive my copy of Tears of the Kingdom before I came here. It actually arrived on the 15th, while I was already here. I've gotten to see a lot of videos of mechanics, fun ideas, etc, but fortunately the internet has been very very gentle about story spoilers (at least, as far as I've seen).

Anywho, I'm going to go work on more art stuff!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which There is Some Art!

I've had a busy week, and most of my attempts to paint came to naught. I've wasted several sheets of paper, sadly.

That being said, I did have a couple of good GEOMETRIC pieces!

"BLOQZ" digital; 2023 [GEOMETRIC]

"Ellipse"; digital; 2023 [GEOMETRIC]

Now, clearly, "Ellipse" is a much more successful piece. I kind of lost control of the "Bloqz" pallette, but I stuck to 6 colors for "Ellipse". It's actually quite pleasant to look at!

I might throw that one up on the Threadless store...

Anywho, I'm happy with how this turned out. If you have any requests for next week's art (I'll be away from home, but I'll still be able to do a little art!), send me a coffee on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) and I'll get a picture done for next Thursday!

For now, I'm going to go watch some videos and go to bed lol.

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