Monthly Archives: December 2024

Crafting, Mostly me

I had an adventure

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I’ve had an adventure Monday. It was Craft night at the Maker space. No guests came but there were a few members in other areas working on projects. One other member was in the Craft area waiting for guests. He’s usual our door warden on nights when we do tours or orientations.

A third member, Linda, one of our resident artists, came in around 6:15.and we wound up watching A Muppet Christmas Carol. After the movie, I headed to Target to get an electronic pencil for one of the grandkids, Rowan. I wandered around a bit and got to the register – no wallet. I went out to the car, no wallet. Texted Linda to find out if she was at the shop. One of the members found my wallet in the parking lot. I was going to go get it. Ha! Ha! No keys. Locked them in the car when I looked for my wallet.

Called AAA, estimated time of arrival 11:35. Got a call from AAA. He’s on his way and will arrive in 15 minutes. Linda was on her way with my wallet. We got the door unlocked and the alarm turned off. Linda drove up with my wallet. I was able to pay for my stuff and finally got home. 

Tuesday, I spent the day wrapping presents and finishing the personalized tee shirts I started. I had to make a couple of name changes because for years I’ve thought one of the cousins was named Ben. He is not. And another is legally changing their name.

Tuesday evening, we had our annual family gathering at my youngest granddaughter’s Oma’s house. It’s been our tradition for the last 18 years. Other than my son and his daughter, I have no other family locally and my adopted family is no longer around. I received several hand-made pieces as well as another cat teapot to add to my collection.

It was a very nice evening. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate at this season. Peace and Long life.

My own damned opinion.

Oh, my.

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A group of Catholic fundies put a bulletin board next to the highway in response to the Freedom From Religion Foundation putting an exhibit in with the annual holiday decorations at our Capitol. The thing looks like it was designed by a high schooler who was barely passing graphic arts. Actually, it looks like something I might have designed in the days when AOL was the internet. It’s not that attention grabbing.

Picture stolen from The Friendly Atheist YouTube channel because I’m too lazy to drive across town to take my own photo.

Gosh darn! Religious people are so uptight. I have my own standards of morality – to do no harm, to donate generously to food banks, to be as honest as possible. I have no objection to finding something positive to say about someone I loathe so as not to be cruel.

There’s no point in hurting a person’s feeling because I don’t like them. I once worked with a person who was ugly as a carp, but I found something nice to say when asked about them. Probably the only person I can’t say anything nice about, is a crooked politician. Pick one. Any one. Or perhaps, my ex-husband since I don’t know any politicians personally.

I have never intentionally hurt anyone and have helped persons I genuinely loathed, when asked to do so. There’s no point in being rude and callous. I worked with a woman a university library who would not hire foreign or minority students. Her reasons were always that their schedules didn’t fit her vacancies.

She’d send them to me because I’ll hire anyone (not true) and I would hire them if their schedules fit. Most of them were great workers and got chances to improve their spoken English. I learned a lot about them by talking to them and their English improved. Well, most of them.

I had one who liked shelving books so they didn’t have to speak. They were very shy and not confident with spoken English. No problem, I just listened very hard. Their English improved a little because we talked together.

Anyway, back the subject – the holiday season is for everyone. Almost every religion and culture has a fall/winter festival. It’s a time to celebrate a successful harvest and petition the god/s for a prosperous coming year. The food is still fresh and plentiful because the harvest is done. The food animals have been sold so they don’t need to fed over the winter. The winter season can be spent preparing for spring.

Have a good holiday season, however you celebrate.

Crafting

Craft room planning

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Since I signed up for a studio at the maker space, I have projects to do as well as sorting out what I’m going to take to keep at the makerspace. I’m on the waiting list for the studio but it takes a while for one to open up. I think there are 6 people ahead of me on the list, so I probably won’t get one until late next year.

The studios are basically a 6 by 8 ft. space delineated by tape on the floor. Some people have actually installed walls and others just use furniture. I have a photo backdrop that I can use as a wall. I might have to buy a couple of longer PVC pipes for width, since it’s only four feet wide. But maybe not.

I’ll be moving the drafting table over and a bookcase to hold various drawing and painting supplies. I might move over some of the bookbinding supplies as well. I won’t have to move the paper cutter or the book press since there’s each of those in my area.

On the other hand, I could move my big loom and the hundred pounds of various warp and weft materials. That would take the looms out of my living room. In fact I could bring the 4-shaft table loom from the basement. There are a lot more tools and things at the maker space that I can use to restore it. I would be able to take it apart and use the assembly area to repair and stain the wooden parts, as well as tools to use to clean the reed which has some sort of deposit from being stored in a damp place – not my basement – but its former home. I keep a dehumidifier running to keep my basement dry. I might be able to find a newer reed. The old one almost looks galvanized, but I’m not certain what it’s made from.

My craft room is looking much better. The huge pile of unsorted projects and supplies has mostly been sorted. I bought some bins from Dollar Tree to sort various brushes and pens into some semblance of order in their drawers. The brushes and pens are properly sorted by type and things like erasers and daubers are separated.

My biggest mess is always papers and scraps of papers. I need to keep fewer of the smaller scraps and maybe sort them by color. And I need to stop buying paper pads and only buy a sheet when I need one.