I want to start painting again. Actually, I want to start doing mixed media again, but I’ve decided to try to renew my painting skills first–haven’t had a painting course since the 70s–and I got the Fifty Paintings book that somebody on her recommended. I need something that’s a low bar and a 5×5 painting seems to be that.
So what did you start this week? Or finish? Or just work on?
It’s advising season and every semester I make magnets with a quote on them (get good advise from Dr. Campbell) for students when they come in to get advised. Just finishing those up today.
On a rainy Sunday, I worked on the September instructions for my Block of the month. I still need to do October, but things are coming together. It was nice to get some sewing done, with all of the organization and cleaning etc I’ve been doing.
Here’s the center block, starting to come together
https://www.instagram.com/p/B39gaIFhbgj/
Of my five entries in the State Fair, I got one Honorable Mention ribbon. That’s pretty cool too. This morning I woke up from a dream where I had forgotten to go pick up my entries. Luckily, I don’t do that til next Monday (and I’ve put a calendar reminder in place so I shouldn’t forget!)
That block is so pretty! It’s not at all suitable for potholders, which is what I _need_ to be making, but I want it.
That’s beautiful!
That is just gorgeous!
My dry spell has broken at last. Did a short proof-read over the weekend, and have just agreed to do a much longer one. It’s about Italy in the Second World War, so fairly grim I daresay, but at least I’ll be earning again.
I’m still clearing the allotment, bit by bit; also working on my garden plans. And yesterday I began altering the curtains for the dining room: it’s getting cold now, and I’ve got visitors this weekend and next week. So I’m off to do more digging; then back to hem the curtain sides by hand (they’re lined, so the lining needs attaching loosely). The proofs arrive tomorrow, and I’ve also got to clean and tidy the house.
Congratulations on the paying work.
Six blocks of eleven done on the baby blanket! Making good progress, grumpy at myself when I don’t work on it (like last night, I just read instead). I’ve got two weeks before the shower. The shopping is done, when the last few things arrive, I’ll wrap!
We’ve been binging supernatural so on some level we can participate in the last season. We just started season two, and I’m slow, so maybe after the holidays? But there are so many other, additional shows…. Rick and Morty soon, One Punch Man… Lotta goodness.
I remade my adulting list because I’d fallen off the productivity wagon. I got a couple small things done, so many more to do. Will just have to keep working on the things.
And that’s my Wednesday!
Daily breakfast pics, just because. https://www.instagram.com/p/B38lUkYAvkq/?igshid=aioe2zeqr4bl
I wrote out job applications for 6. I’m not yearning for these. It’s just practice for the ones that I want.
I wonder who came up with the name for Jungle Oats. Somehow I don’t see many tigers eating them. I guess marketing will never be my forte……………..
The parent company’s name is Tiger Brands. Quite an old SA co.
Started a new quilled horse. It’s slow going right now. I come to find that there isn’t enough leisure time and I can’t make more, no matter how often people tell me to do just that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B39s3L7JjZo/?igshid=1ob01rkuwkqa5
I also have been doing work to get the house maintenance done. That includes hiring experts for what I can’t do.
And working on mindfulness and letting anxiety go.
I’m getting ready to start a new 9 – 5 (or 40 hours, whatever the schedule) tech writing job. It starts on the 4th, and so I’m sorting seasonal clothing and sending those things I’ve meant to send to friends. I have a book to edit as well, a series of vignettes and photographs by a friend who visits elder care homes, and plays for people in hospice care. It’s beautiful, and my first book.
It will be nice to make some money, that feeling at the back of my neck is gone, for the first time in years.
Mazel Tov!
It’s the midst of Fall so now is the time to clean the curio cabinets. Two down one to go. I don’t know what I was thinking to collect so much. I just went on a roll and did not stop until well past the stopping point. Sunday I was showing my granddaughter a music box of a little girl and boy on a see/saw and then put it back in the cabinet when I should have given it to her. That’s another lesson learned.
Today I’m also baking cookies with refrigerated dough. I’ve never tried refrigerated dough before but I saw a recipe that adds dried cranberries and pecans to the mix so giving it a whirl.
Also checked the library for my copy of JoJo Moyes, The Giver of Stars, for some reason it has gone from being in transit to back to pending, Hmmm very suspicious! On the e-book side I’m 138 of 8 copies and that’s a long way to go.
Refrigerated dough is a no – go. I think vegetable oil is substituted for butter and gave a very oily taste. So it is back to the old fashioned way and make my own.
I forgot to mention that those little store cards that track what you buy can also let you know if something that was bought is also on the recall list. My husband found out when he went grocery shopping and the store clerk ran his card and on the receipt was a recall for flour. E-coli scare.
Still working on the Halloween costume. The front of the sweater and one arm are done. Still have to finish second arm, then decorate the pants and make the belt. A week to go. Sigh.
I am having Issues because I want to enter a 10 minute play competition and my idea of doing an infomercial based off the idea of Remington Steele/Cyrano de Bergerac/”nobody listens to you unless it’s going through the right messenger in the right package” just doesn’t seem to be working. There is no solution to this problem really (other than “scrap who you are to become someone acceptable,” which you probably can’t do anyway), and it’s just mopey and depressing. Sigh.
Alternately, someone at karaoke last night mentioned the idea of a play with karaoke in it, and now I’m toying with the idea of turning a piece I did at storytelling conferences about karaoke into the 10 minute play. Except it’s obviously based on the crush guy and all our friends/probably him are likely to see the damn thing if I write it and it gets in. Hell if I know here.
Any advice on 10 minute play writing, how to get the first idea to work, etc. would be so welcome, y’all!
Maybe think the right way to say something… an acceptable way for the listener
My friend’s husband, told her to be careful, don’t want to get hurt at our age…
She is a lot younger then him, so she got offended… you called me old etc, the real message of concern got lost.
If he’d said be careful, I can’t bear for you to get hurt (kiss hand… this would never happen, but she loves historical novels) She would be touched by his concern.
Oh! I’m working on the tech side of a 24 hour theater extravaganza – six writers write a play in 12 hours (7 pm to 7 am) and then six directors assemble their actors and get the scripts and rehearse and produce the plays. The plays are performed at 7 pm. I’m working on costuming for them, but I have also offered to make every single prop from cardboard, so the writers can let their imaginations run wild!
I think for a ten minute play you start writing and see if something interesting happens, and then start it where the interesting thing happens and go from there? Write 20 minutes, cut it to 10.
I finally finished piecing a bed-sized quilt (small bed, probably more twin to double, not queen or king) that I started in 2012! And it might not actually be finished — I need to see if I have more of the background blue fabric to put a small border on it. But all the blocks are joined, and I’ve even laid out the left-overs to make a smaller (30″ square) lap/table quilt.
Pictures here of part of the big quilt and the laid-out left-overs: https://www.instagram.com/p/B38ad3dg6qF/
It’s a simple block, cobblestones, and it’s great for using up scraps. I love the way having a recurring fabric (the light blue) sort of corrals all the other prints into working together.
I applaud the fact that you are finishing a stalled project. I still owe my sister and BIL a rug I started for them when they got married in 1972.
That’d make a great 50th anniversary present.
I started a tapestry portrait of the family for my parents’ silver wedding when I was a student. Finally finished it for their ruby wedding, when it was much appreciated.
I started Christmas Shopping. I’ve gotten nowhere beyond asking for hints and setting a flexible budget. Bah. Humbug.
Bought a secretary desk for $5 at a yard sale. Sanded it down over the weekend and made some repairs to the front and drawers. Will be using a charcoal colored chalk paint and then sealing it. Considering doing a fun contact paper inside- I think a b&w graphic would be excellent.
Have you seen the @simpleredesign account at Instagram? She does amazing work updating old credenzas, bureaus, hutches, and side tables. I don’t need more furniture, but I’m fascinated by her work. It’s amazing what paint and sometimes a change of hardware can do. She also sometimes changes the structure a bit too, and it’s fascinating how adding different feet or raising the height by just a few inches really changes the overall impression.
Finished all my blanket squares, just have to sew them together. Or I could keep knitting the elephant I started…
Have to stop looking at youtube, now I want to make my own Christmas cards sigh
I’d settle for mailing them before March.
One year I sent Happy February cards, which were a hit.
Last day of the San Francisco jewelry show, and I shouldn’t have time to be internetting, but we are having a lull. Packing far into the night tonight, travel tomorrow and losing 3 hours going east, but at least I will be home with my bed, shower, husband and kitties!
My great accomplishment: regaining entry to this blog world! Since forced out by (unknown), I discovered a way in, but it proved cumbersome and went unused. Now I have an elegant, easy solution, and here I am. More importantly, there you are. Life is good again.
In other news, we move tomorrow down the block to a rental while our house gets new, needed innards. In preparation, much was purged, bags and boxes given away, slung away, foisted away. My conclusion is we still possess too much. Some essentials will accompany us and we will have access to reclaim goodies (and work on garden upkeep). Two months, we’re told, or maybe more “if we find something.” Winds of a Santa Ana start tomorrow with hottest temps of the season.
(waves hello with fervor, hello, hello)
Hello, hello. I wondered where you had gone to (was it something we said, do we need to change our mouthwash? Am I being too boring????)
Welcome Back!
Enjoy the painting book, Jenny! I find they’re great jumping-off points.
My to-do list includes editing copy on mining equipment, revising a PowerPoint on HVAC services, and rewriting a LinkedIn ad for industrial software.
So I made a sweet-potato-crust quiche for tomorrow’s lunch-and-art group.
I spent a week away, first at a conference and then on holiday. My talk at the conference went pretty well and someone told me I’m a good speaker. That was very cool.
The holiday was scenic and relaxing and we went for a couple of decent walks. I’ve been doing quite a lot of walking this year and my husband hasn’t. For the first time in my life, I’m fitter than him. Hah!
I have become transfixed with staghorn sumac, and the ways I can depict it with fabric and thread – this is the most unexpected, and I love it the most: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3-IYmxhG9P/
Wow. I’ve never heard of it, although I’ve heard of sumac as a spice. That’s beautiful.