Clearing the Crud
Yep, it's been awhile since I've shared anything. With preparations for my International Tabletop Day party one week, recovering from con crud from my own con the next week, I had to put the blog on hold.
But! I am back! And here with an update on my activities. Since I've been up to lots of things I will have a summarized photodump towards the end of this post. It might be messy, though. If I don't I will lose interest in going into detail about anything and then there would be no point in this blog post.
So, my current big project is tackling the giant crud pile in the driveway. Early last year we had a big sweet gum tree that decided it would be fun to try to murder people. Luckily, it failed at hurting anyone and we had it violently chopped into pieces and tossed in a wood-chipper. Silly me wanted some mulch for a few garden beds. The tree people proceeded to dump the tree guts and those of a twiggier strange tree all over one side of the driveway. I've since used several loads of it for flower beds but hardly made a dent in the carnage. Remember how I (probably) said I wanted to do a craft studio sale but there was a mulch pile holding me up? Well, after sitting around and eating junk for a while I have grown more blubberous than I'd like so to combat this, I have devised a plan to finally clear that crud away. By working on it a little at a time, everyday, there would have to come a time that there would be no pile left. Exercise and working towards a creative goal all in one go! But broken down into manageable loads. I decided to haul two to three wheelbarrow loads to the backyard and side yard, spreading them where the ground sunk in from the sewer-line work we had done a couple years ago. Our yard is big enough that even if these ares get filled and there's still lots left, there are plenty of other areas I can dump it. So my goal of a couple loads each day has pushed me to do more. Four loads Monday, five Tuesday--
four Wednesday, and eight today.
I hoped to finish it by the end of this week, but I don't think that will happen. But by sometime next week, if I keep the momentum going, I will emerge victorious. I'm feeling really good with what I've done and it's making me want to keep going with other garden maintenances and fixing up. You know my bistro craft garden? Yeah, it looks pretty bad right now. So, we'll see where this leads, if anywhere. Hooray for progress!
For lack of another episode of Critical Role to watch, caught up to the latest exploits of Vox Machina, I realized I was a couple episodes behind on Felicia Day's book club discussions called Vaginal Fantasy. Sounds porny--some of the books they read are--but some have been really good. While I've read a couple of their discussed books later, I don't follow along with the group reading, but I enjoy the discussions and tangents that Felicia and her friends have together, always accompanied by various adult beverages to enhance the discussion. While I sat, watched, and participated in imbibing wine, the urge to read hit me hard. So, for Mother's Day, I went to a local bookstore, Grass Roots, and bought a good-sized stack of new books and magazines. Before reading any of them, though, I wanted to finish the book I was reading--because I'm that kind of person--which I had bought in my last bookstore run a couple months ago. I just finished it yesterday and glad I pushed through to the end. A couple hundred pages in and I wasn't enjoying it very much. But it eventually picked up and now I'd like to read the sequels someday. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson who I think is a very popular fantasy author these days.
Because I was in the mood to read, my brain thought it would like to also do some writing. More specifically, try out some novel editing. And I came up with something to try that might make the job a little less daunting. I should go through and write out an outline. Since I just wrote and let the story go wherever it wanted, I never did have an outline or any other organizational plan. If I can lay out what happens when, It might make it easier to see what needs to be added and what is unnecessary, focus on the bigger parts, and to see what the plot actually is. Maybe some sense will be made and I can work on writing new scenes or rewriting scenes that don't quite work but are necessary to the story. I haven't started on this yet, but maybe one of these days. Or whenever I get to it, even if it's months later. I at least have a place to start and that is good.
In my video a few weeks ago I talked about wanting to set up a RedBubble account and that my sister-in-law had one and how awesome it was to see her arts on her cellphone cover. She does a lot of anthropomorphic, My Little Pony, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, and other fantasy arts with native Oregon flowers thrown in. She will be a vendor at Furlandia selling prints and stickers and such. You should check out her RedBubble shop: Lorien Inksong. I especially like this recent piece she added. You can also follow her on Tumblr. She does good stuff and it's awesome to see how much she's grown into making lots of pretty things.
And now: the photodump.
Look at the snoozy Mew!
Started the written work of The Desire Map, my latest thing in my quest to make myself better. Working with a buddy so it's not just me all alone in my head. A bit touchy feely, a bit woowoo, but that's okay. I kind of like a little of that stuff.
My friend convinced me to go to knit night at Stash the other week. My first time in many, many months. It was okay. I needed a new project so brought along my recently purchased Pebble Beach Shawl pattern by Helen Stewart, my set of interchangeable circular needles, and some cash. Bought Sweet Georgia's merino silk lace in cherry and casted on that sucker. I've worked on it off and on since then.
And, finally, I finished this Magic Industrial mixed media piece. All the words are my own.
Close up of these words:
And these words:
And these words:
This is something that I would put in a RedBubble shop. Someday I will have a new venture to share with everyone.
So, yep, busy. Always doing things. Thank you for reading.
Enjoyed reading my post and seeing the pretty pictures? Perhaps consider becoming a patron of my arts over at Patreon.