All posts by Sylvia

About me

The family is broken.

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Way back in the “olden days,” I was an unwed mother. Big shame to the family and impossible to stay there in town because of the shame. With the help of my college’s chaplain, I was able to recover my scholarship, resume my education, get my daughter into a good foster home, and graduate.

The funny thing is that the family that took my daughter in never actually gave her back. The lease on my apartment ended, and they took me in for the last month of my final semester. They helped me out financially by having me babysit their son and my daughter. They kept her while I moved to the big city to find a place to live and hopefully, a job.

Even after I picked her up for the “last” time, they took care of both of us. We always had their home to go to for holidays and vacations even after I got married. Even when we moved because my husband was in the military, they would fly my daughter to their town for most of the Summer. They had adopted two other girls, but always had room for their “other” daughter.

When I got divorced, my life was a mess, and I couldn’t handle an angry teenager, so they took her back. She lived with them and their three kids while in high school. They treated her as their daughter and their kids called her their sister. Never did they ask me for money toward her support.

They supported both of us emotionally and occasionally, financially. Her foster father walked her down the aisle when she got married in 2008. I made her foster mother stand in the photos with us as mother of the bride. Their home was where I went on vacation and for holidays,

A few years ago, my daughter lost the only father she had ever known due to age. And a few days ago, she lost her other mother to pneumonia-related breathing problems. The funeral is in a few weeks. I wasn’t certain I could go. My daughter wasn’t certain she could go since she changed jobs.

But her big brother and her sisters want her there. Her brother bought plane tickets for both of us as they consider us a part of the family still. So in a couple of weeks, I’m going help lay to rest the last of the couple who taught me about family and love in a way my “real” family never did.

Hug your parents and grandparents.

About me, Stuff

Clearing Clutter

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I decided to clear out my file cabinet. The first thing I did was get rid of 25 years of receipts for oil changes, tires, and repairs for my former wheels. That was quite a thick folder.

Next went 10 years of gas/electric bills. Another fat folder but not as fat as the one for the car since I stopped getting paper bills when I started paying electronically. Ditto for the water bills.

I then moved on to instruction booklets and receipts. I reduced three folders to two much thinner ones. There were a lot of instructions for small appliances and tools that I no longer own. There was a fat folder of veterinarian receipts, some with rabies tags still attached.

I figured that out when I had to spend 20 minutes attempting to pluck aluminum shards from among the cutting blades of the paper shredder. I succeeded until I put too thick a sheaf of paper in and jammed the blades again.

The shredder still works. It was guaranteed to shred credit cards. It’s my third shredder — I’ve had this one maybe 10 or 12 years. I filled a clear recycling bag with two shredder bins-worth of paper shreds to go into the recycling bin. I think I can shred tax returns up until 2016 or so. At any rate, I’ll start shredding from around 2008 and fill another bag.

I’m getting better. The funky fog that trapped my brain is lifting. Eventually, I will be able to get back to weaving, bookbinding, and printmaking. But for now, accomplishing one or two small things is progress.

Crafting

Where Have I Been?

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In a black hole of depression, that’s where. After “The Road Trip From (To) Hell”, I just kept getting more and more stressed. When that happens, I shut down. To add frosting to the crap cake my life became, my son moved in with me because he quit his job – the tavern he worked at closed its doors a month later – and lost his apartment (included with his job) and wound up, after a bitter battle with his daughter’s mother with whom he had been staying, homeless.

He did find a new job, but his start date kept getting pushed back and of course with no income, he needed to borrow (read – be gifted) money just until he started. He did eventually start his job. He was driving my old car to and from work. He offered $200 for it and then promptly traded it in for a car he can’t afford. His justification was he quit smoking and that the $300 a month he was spending on cigarettes would fund the car payments. Lies.

At least he likes this job. No more cooking. He has benefits! He’s never before had health insurance, and dental insurance, and sick leave, and vacation! Wow! Other than having a Covid scare, he hasn’t missed work or called in hungover. Even better, he’s not living with me.

I thought I was holding it together fairly well, until I totally lost my cool while giving a tour to strangers and potential members of the maker space I belong to. I then decided to take some alone time and not interact with too many people. So far it’s been working. I’m better. I got my sleep re-regulated so I now get longer unbroken hours of sleep. I’m not spending my days dozing on the couch.

Hopefully, I will post more regularly. I’m sorry for having gotten your hopes up last summer when I said I would post more regularly. Thank you for your patience.

About me, Crafting

When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes…

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…and lungs, and hair, and the air filter in the furnace because your using the fan to help circulate air from the window AC. I left the fan on when I went away for three weeks. When I came back the filter was seriously clogged from the wildfire smoke. I changed the filer and three weeks later changed it again. It was not as bad as the first but still worse than when I run the furnace for a month.

It was funny because the filter is rated to up to 90 days. It’s only been 18 days since I changed the filter and its about due to be changed. But you know, climate change isn’t really a thing. Yeah, and my sarcasm knob is turned up as high as it goes and that’s not high enough. I’m just as at fault as everyone else.

I have two ceiling fans going on the main floor and a window fan in the half-story blowing hot air out. The furnace fan pulls cool air from the window AC when it’s on and circulates it from the air returns along with air it pulls in from outside through the ground floor.

I drive too much. I would drive less but not every bus will get me where I need to go even with walking some distance. I do try to consolidate trips and confine them to one area at a time. The city revised the bus system so there are now fewer routes that just circle the city and some of the places I could go by bus within an hours time take almost twice as long because there’s no longer a direct bus.

Well, back to business. There will be more crafting news coming. The problems I’ve been having are just about resolved. I should have more time now. There is still a lot of smoke in the air. Breathing is rough. Eventually, the fires will burn out and the air will clear, until next time.

Crafting, Paper Crafts

Faux Leather for journal covers

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Only two members showed up for my faux leather session. We were turning paper grocery bags into a leather textured material for journal covers.

There are a number of videos on YouTube and several blog posts about the process. The technique we used consisted of opening a bag’s seam, smoothing it somewhat flat, and trimming it into a rectangle. Then it was sprayed either with plain water or a mixture of water and a softening agent such as glycerin, hair conditioner, or hand lotion. We used hair conditioner mixed one part conditioner to two parts water in a spray bottle.

After spraying the paper, we crumpled it and squeezed it in several different directions to form wrinkles of varying sizes. We smoothed our papers, sprayed the paper with more of the conditioner mixture, and crumpled the paper again. We smoothed and sprayed and crumpled until we were satisfied with the texture.

Our next step was to smooth the paper, and dab diluted acrylic paint in various shades of brown onto the surface with cosmetic sponges and brushes. We used a heat gun to damp dry the paper and apply more paint. Once we were satisfied with how our sheets looked, we used a heat gun to dry the base.

Once the surface was dry, a couple of coats of Mod Podge were applied to give a shine like finished leather to the paper, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next coat.

The faux leather is somewhat fragile and should be lined with something like muslin or even paper. The lining should be glued on with a glue such as Beacon 3-in-1 or Aleene’s Fabric Fusion if using fabric or Aleene’s Tacky Glue if using paper as a lining. I also advise sewing the faux leather and lining together around the edges after trimming the piece to the size you want.

The faux leather can be used as a binding for a journal. It can be cut into shapes for embellishments. And with care, can be used for earrings if a stronger sealant is used on both sides. It won’t be something to be used for items that get a lot of handling or wear, but you can experiment and find out what works.

A sheet of Faux Leather from a grocery bag.
A journal covered in Faux Leather.
Stuff

Smoke gets in your eyes…

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…lungs, furnace filters, air conditioner filters, car engines, and other things. The Canadian wildfires are wreaking havoc everywhere. In my case, the smoke is triggering asthma attacks. I’m a coughing asthmatic, not a wheezer. I don’t have regular attacks because I’m generally as active as a slug. But all the smoke in the air caused me breathing problems.

So I cough. And then my chest hurts, but not bad enough to go to the doctor. Right now all the windows except one are shut. That one has a fan to send the hot air upstairs out. I’ve been running the furnace fan to help circulate air. It does pull air from outside so I’ve had to change the filter sooner than normal. I was gone for a couple of weeks and when I checked the filter, it was a serious mess, almost completely clogged.

The filter is changed now and we’ve had a little rain. The air quality alerts have been cancelled. However, with the fires still raging, air quality may go down again. Eventually, the fires will die down, but the cycle will repeat.

Mostly me

Not So Cheap Movie Remake

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I was on a road trip with two of my sisters. We’ve been across the top of the country and have visited several National Parks. We visited friends of mine in Oregon and our brother and his family in Southern California. The car was fine all the way across the country from Florida to Ohio to Wisconsin to Oregon.

Nobody seemed to be able to fix the problem the damned 2017 Hyundai Sonata was having that my sister was driving us in. The problem started with either bad gas or a vapor lock and stranded us on a highway just outside of Medford OR. Since the car is under warranty, we went to the closest Hyundai dealer. We used up two of my AAA tows for that one because the car had to be stored at the tow yard overnight and then towed to the dealership in the morning. The tow driver dropped up off at a La Quinta after determining that they had a room available. The dealership got us on the road that day, but they failed to replace the dipstick they removed to check the oil.

The car had worked fine while we were in California and we headed out for Las Vegas. We spent five days at our brother’s but since two of us are allergic to dogs and he has four big ones, we had to leave earlier than we planned. California was a lot cloudier and colder than we expected with temperatures in the mid-60’s. We had packed for warm, sunny California.

Once in Las Vegas, the car seemed to work fine. We saw sights, took in a show and decided to head for home via Salt Lake City where our sister wanted to show us around. The second time the car failed happened right after we stopped for gas before leaving Las Vegas.

The car started sputtering and shaking. We barely made it onto the shoulder before the car died. We had to call the state cops who blocked the right hand lane because otherwise we might’ve gotten side-swiped by a semi, we were that close to the road. It cost me another tow. All this time my sister was claiming her roadside assistance as accidentally canceled.

The car was towed to a Hyundai dealership. The second dealership had to keep the car overnight. We got towed there late in the day and they couldn’t get to it until the next day. They called a Lyft to take us to Enterprise car rental so we’d have transportation. We made arrangements for a room at a casino in Downtown Las Vegas. We got a cheap rate for a Monday night.

The next day, we vacated the hotel room and drove to the dealership. They had not figured out what the problem was. The diagnostic computer couldn’t find the problem. One of their techs took the car out and drove it, but no problems showed up. They told us it was probably just a vapor lock and not to overfill the gas.

So we transferred our luggage and stuff from the rental to the care and went to turn in the rental. After that, we stopped to get some water and prepared to get on the road.

And the car died 100 yards away, while we were crossing the parking lot. We waited in the nice hot Vegas heat for two hours for the new tow. Mostly listening to my sister rant on the phone to Hyundai Customer Care and the second dealer did not replace the dipstick either because they were out. While my sister was talking to Hyundai Customer Service – big guts, not the locals, she found out she did have towing. Thanks a lot, because I’m out and if I need a tow before my next renewal in March, I’ll have to pay. She said she would reimburse me, but I honestly have no hope of that happening.

So there I was with my sisters in the third hotel we’ve been in, in Las Vegas, living in a bizarre remake of “Groundhog Day” minus Bill Murray, with the hotels changing every second time I wake up. Luckily we extended our stay another day because the car still is not ready. Maybe tomorrow. I kept hoping that I’ll wake up in my own bed having dreamed this entire road trip.

Home now. Finally. I decided to drive the car after the GPS took my sister off the highway and routed her 30 miles off-course because of construction on a section of the highway to my house. I hadn’t been paying attention and looked up from my book to find her driving around some small town.

Mostly me, Stuff

Wyrd Sisters Road Trip.

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My sisters have been planning a road trip for months to go to visit relatives out west. I’ve been fighting the idea for months. There are my health issues to contend with. (Did I just end a sentence with a preposition? Shades of fifth grade English! Or whenever. I have the stone tablet somewhere.)

Back to the subject at hand (such highfalutin language. I had to look that up.) Must be 4am or so. Asides aside, I’m not fond of the idea of leaving my safe zone. Sitting in a car for days at a time with people I barely like is not my idea of fun. The offspring thinks it’s a good idea. He’ll be around to watch things and get the mail.

At any rate, the sisters are here since I’m a logical stop on the way.

Craft Fairs, Paper Crafts

The sale went great.

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I did well with sales. Some of the vendors had large objects so they undoubtably made more money from a single sale than I did with my many little ones, but I was pleased with the results. I finally found the right venue for selling one of a kind books.

I feel I had enough products to give people choices of styles and sizes and a good variety of book types from sketchbooks, to journals, to zines with different types of binding methods and pages. No one bought the faux leather journal, but that’s okay. There were questions about it and several people expressed an interest in my book making classes.

All in all, I feel I had a successful and profitable sale.

Crafting, Mostly me

I wanted to take it easy today.

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However, I was looking for my cash box which I wrongly remembered as being in the basement. When I didn’t find it there, I went up to the closet in the main room of the half-story. Big mistake. It was like finding a pirate’s hoard, except it was just stuff. I have three air mattresses up there. I found boxes and bins of forgotten yarn.

I already have too many bins of yarn under my bed, and in small bins stashed on shelves of one of three bookcases in the living room. Plus there was a big box of yarn upstairs that was not hidden away. Fortunately, I only have to hold on to the yarn upstairs until the next prison yarn drive. There’s a program that teaches inmates to knit and crochet. I’ve donated lots of yarn for three years. I swear it multiplies in the bins.

I found many treasures up there. Handmade dolls and toys including a couple of dolls I made for my son when he was a toddler. There were dolls I made my youngest granddaughter. And all kinds of art projects from both of them that are carefully put away. I found an entire bin of my granddaughter’s art work that she made on our Saturday afternoons together. I plan to bind them into several books – there are a lot of drawings and paintings.

I did not find my cash box which was the entire reason for the treasure hunt. I did get everything put away and a bit better organized. The yarn got moved to the front so I don’t forget it. I searched a different part of the basement, but didn’t find the cash box there either.

So off to the garage again. I had moved the bins that I previously thought were missing. If I had labelled them, they would not have been missing since they were clearly visible as storage containers, but not as craft show containers. I found the cash box.

I’m making a list for what I need for set-up on Friday, double-checking that everything is priced and in the app for the card reader so I don’t have to use a calculator. It took a couple of hours to verify everything and get additional labels made. There are still a few things to do tomorrow like getting the display items gathered, but for the most part, I am done.

I used the weed whacker to clean out cracks in the concrete part of the driveway and started edging the asphalt and prepping for crack filler. I also used critter repellant in my flower pots because the chipmunks and squirrels were digging in them. Then I mowed the backyard and arranged the furniture.

Now I need to set things up to get an idea of how my displays will look and to swap out containers and supports as needed. I have two days.