Too Many Talents

Update June 10, 2011

Just a quick update letting you know I haven’t fallen off the planet… yet.

I have several projects going on right now (no surprise there). I have a freelancing job right now working to add a WordPress section to a client’s website. They’ll be using the blogging features to list classes, plus I’ll be adding a shopping cart. It’s turning out far more complicated than I thought, and problems with the server aren’t helping.

Next, I have about a billion different crafting projects in the works. Right now I’m working on creating a drawing for a friend’s birthday. She likes ducks, so I thought I’d draw her sitting next to a pond and feeding ducks (either that or I bought some reusable buttons – the pin-on kind – and I’m doing a duck twist on the Frog Prince).

Finally, I’m trying to get into the swing of things working on a couple of my books. I started going to a writer’s group (finally found one in my area), so I’m working on getting one manuscript ready to submit to them. Plus I’m trying to push another book forward with the illustrations. I’m trying to get it done before my oldest nephew can read. I have a few years before then, but I still need to push it.

Anyway, gotta go. Still busy as all get out.

What I Did This Weekend February 14, 2011

It’s been pretty chaotic around her the past couple of weeks. Besides my Internet Provider being a pain (when it was working) my Grandma died. Yeah, it’s been a rough week.

I did get some DIY in though (mostly as therapy):

Over the weekend I surfed one of my favorite DIY shows (Threadbanger) and found a video on making a fun little heart out of curling ribbon (I know, it was another “little bits of paper” project (aka made out of junk and not worth the effort) but I have to do one every once in a while). It was pretty cool, took forever, was a bit tricky, and when it was done I had no idea what to do with the thing (even if I had a boyfriend, I don’t think he’d really care for it). So it was fun, but that’s the only time I’ll make one of those.

I also bought some really cute baby shoes at a discount store. Then I brought them home – and dissected them! @_o Bwahaha! They will be used for patterns to make my own. BTW, if you want to do this kind of thing yourself, here are some tips:

1. Either keep one of the shoes whole or take a grundle of photos so you know how it goes together (of course keeping one whole is preferred).
2. Mark key spots where the different parts go together. For example you’ll want one mark where the front of the soul meets the front of the shoe (mark both pieces of fabric), another mark where the back of the soul meets the back the shoe, another mark where the decorative piece goes, etc.
3. Keep the whole shoe (or photos) together with the pieces. I put all of them in a ziploc bag.

I’ve also been saving some money by shopping for magazines on my own bookshelves. i.e. instead of buying a new magazine, I just pull out one of the hundreds I already have and most likely haven’t even read yet (a few years ago I went bonkers at my local thrift store). So I’ve been browsing my FamilyFun collection. There are some fun things in there that I’ll have to try out.

What I Did This Weekend January 18, 2011

*Yawn* Long weekends are nice, but it’s always unpleasant to go back to regular life. Not only is your sleep cycle interrupted, but for me I almost always regret what didn’t get done on my to-do list. All that fabulous time that I could have gotten a ton done wasted on lounging about.

What I did do was pretty good though. I hosted a sushi party at a friends house on Saturday. We tried brown rice this time. It was pretty good, but I think I prefer the flavor of the white (which is strange – I usually prefer the whole grains). We also tried the traditional speck of wasabi mixed in a little dish of soy sauce. I was amazed that it wasn’t spicy. Instead it just gave it a speck of flavor, plus it tasted like it toned down the saltiness of the soy sauce (at least to me it seemed like it). Rather interesting. Everyone had fun and one of the guys who apparently doesn’t like cooking enjoyed making it too (since it wasn’t technically cooking according to his book).

I also finally dug my car out of the snow with the help of a friend. We even broke down the ice wall made by the snow plow behind my car. I’m sure my friend is glad to have her car back too (since I was borrowing it), but boy am I loving Ibuprofen right now.

Plus I got caught up with my bookkeeping and found I had two extra bucks in my wallet. Nice. I put it in my saving can. One step closer to getting a Wacom.

Yes, even with all this I really could have and should have done more this weekend. I should have at least rescued my poor dying plants which I haven’t watered in three weeks. I promise I’m not purposely trying to kill my Mom’s vintage Elephant Ear plant.

What I Did This Weekend January 3, 2011

I MADE LED THROWIES!!!!! (In case you can’t tell, I’m excited about that.) Last year I had snagged a bunch of LEDs in the Christmas Closeout sales, and this year I bought some button batteries at my local dollar store and since I already had a few magnets lying around I pulled out my pliers and invisible tape and made four little throwies. It isn’t much, but it’s a beginning. They were sooooooo fun!!! I showed them to my Mom by throwing them onto her dishwasher. She thought that was fun (but caution me about chipping the paint). Now I just need to get my hands on a bunch more supplies (and super cheap).

I also made breakfast on Saturday. I made a nice spread with sausage, hash browns, apples, and bread with cherry preserves. It was delicious, but the best part was that I made it under an hour again. I guess I CAN cook in a decent amount of time, I just need the time to do it.

Let’s see, Mom’s been wondering about tatting up a bunch of ornaments to sell (we’re not very good at sticking to a project though, so I’m not holding my breath), so I helped her pick some possible patterns. I also helped by trying out wrapping a metal ring in tatted knots. It took me three hours to do a one hour job. Next time I’ll use a tatting shuttle instead of a ball of thread.

Come on, come on, think. I know there was something else I wanted to mention. Oh yes! The last gift this year – a calendar for my friend. I think I mentioned that she’s a huge fan of my comic strip that I haven’t even debuted. I thought I’d make a calender for her featuring my characters (plus the character she invented). Anyway, last week, I think it was Wednesday, I realized that there was no way I was going to finish it at my current rate. I wanted to just take my hand drawings and paste them into the calendar, but I had drawn them on lined paper (with writing on the back). NOT professional. So, I pulled out my Mom’s light box and copied them by hand onto regular paper (which took practically forever, but still faster than what I was doing before), then I scanned them in and colored them in GIMP. (I finally figured out how to use that program! Funny though, I thought you could do vectors in it too, but it’s just bitmaps.)

But then I woke up this morning (late) and realized it wasn’t done yet, and I have lunch with her today! Yeah, it was time to freak out. First off, apparently OpenOffice can’t open Word 2010 docs. Second, working with a non double negative printer (aka can’t flip the page and print on both sides) is a pain. Let’s just say that most of the pages I ended up printing on twice (luckily it was the same image) and one of them has a distinct line where I stopped the printing, plus if you hang the calendar on the wall, the pictures are upside down (and I was proud of myself for getting the right pictures with the right months!). Despite all that, I think she’ll be pleased with it.

What I Did This Weekend December 28, 2010

Well, part of what I did this weekend is obvious – I enjoyed Christmas – but the details are the fun part. For Christmas Eve dinner I went to my brother’s and enjoyed enchiladas. Oh, and the Sugru I got for my Dad finally came on Christmas Eve!

On Christmas day I made pancakes for breakfast, and It took less than an hour to make it! Yes, for me that’s a new world record. Mom is thuroughly enjoying her new stair lights (and I think they look lovely on the stairs), and Dad is at least curious about the Sugru (which is a pretty big reaction for him). I decided I didn’t have enough time to make the rolly balls for my nephews, so I got them PJs instead. My oldest nephew who loves cars walked around with them saying “cars” and “jammas.” It was cute.

For lunch I made sandwiches (yes, the idea was that I’d cook all the meals), and then helped my Mom with some last minute Christmas baking, then it was off to my grandparent’s. Grandpa liked his black licorice, and Grandma was thrilled with her new slippers. She even loved that they were the aboniable snowman from the old rudough movie. In return they gave me a snuggly blanket wrap (you can sort of compare it to a snuggie, but it was a totally different thing).

Finally we stopped by my sister’s in-laws, who are also friends of ours, to deliver presents for my sister’s family. I think she liked her new spring-form pan, and it was a good thing I included a cheesecake mix cause she wasn’t sure what to do with it. I was supposed to make pizza for dinner, but our friends (my sister’s in-laws) invited us to stay for dinner. I need to get her recipe for potato casserole (aka “funeral potatoes” or “sour cream potatoes”) and her enchilada adaptation. Oh, and besides the wonderful art stuff my sister gave me (including a real drawing manaquin and a “how to draw people” book XD ) she gave me a rice cooker! I can’t wait to try it out.

On Sunday I was talking to a friend of mine who told me about Ham Loaf (which is apparently like meat loaf but made with pork products, including ham), and she told me about a fun Christmas idea: She had entered her Dad into a drawing for a $1,000 gift card at a hardware store, which he won, and since he’s frugal that’s where everyone’s Christmas came from. I think that’s a fun idea! (Of course, I’m not your average girl – I’d rather get a soldering gun than jewelry.) You might not win a $1,000 dollar shopping spree at your local hardware store, but pick one store (it’d be more fun if it was non-tradition, so no Wal-Mart), and the entire family gets to shope for Christmas there, within a budget of course.

And since my weekend extended into Monday, I’ll tell you what I did then too – after Christmas sales. I made my way over to Wal-Mart in the quiet morning and made a bee-line to the Christmas lights. I found a battery-operated string of LED lights, but since it was green, I also got a string of regular white LED lights. I’m hoping I can combine the two. I also grabbed some heavy duty wrapping paper to try making my own gift bags (I had tried before, and they turned out beautiful but very flimsy). Oh yeah, loads of fun for me.

Now for this week, since it’s the week before New Year’s I thought I’d cover some New Year’s resolutions, both mine and some you might be doing.

What I Did This Weekend December 20, 2010

It was a pretty quiet weekend. I mostly did some cleaning. I did go to a family party Friday night, and my sister gave me an uber awesome gift – drawing supplies and books! She even gave me erasable colored pencils (my favorite), a really nice manikin, and a “drawing people” book. I’ve already learned so much from that book and I was just skimming! My sister is awesome!!! ^.^

I did do some soldering over the weekend as I was working on the stair lights for my parents. I was replacing the LEDs in the tea lights with ones that don’t flicker (apparently LED tea lights come that way to mimic a real flame). Plus, while I was at it, I started writing an Instructable on how to make these stair lights. Stay tuned for it (assuming I get it done).

Finally I sawed off the heads of the vibrating toothbrushes getting ready to start making the rolly bots for my nephews.

Oh yeah, one more thing, my friends liked their mugs (the ones I blogged about earlier). So far I’m striking gold as a gift-giver this year. (Did I mention that the office loved their scarves too? I now have a bunch of fans bragging me up.)

What I Did This Weekend December 13, 2010

Baking. Wrapping. Headaches. That basically wraps up my weekend. I was sick for essentially the whole weekend (mostly headaches of one type or another) with just enough time in there to do some baking, gift wrapping, oh, and a smidgen of cleaning.

So, on to the fun stuff. 1) The Baking: Today I have two Christmas parties (one for work, and one for a church group) and since I need brownies for both (and since I don’t like brownies – sorry, not a big chocolate fan – I know, I’m wierd) I decided to bake what are called blondies. Blondies are basically the same as brownies, but they use white chocolate instead of brown. I made two batches. One with pecans (since I’ve discovered that more people can eat pecans than other nuts), and one with cherry chips (they’re kind of like white chocolate chips with cherry flavor – and to my utter dismay red food coloring). For my two parties I combined the two batches so each party gets the same number of each flavor.

I also baked up some white chocolate macadamia cookies. (Do you get the idea I like white chocolate?) Last month a coworker’s daughter sold me some pre-formed cookie dough (i.e. the dough was already in the size and shape for cookies and all I had to do was put them on a sheet and bake – yeah, it was nice, but maybe not $14 nice) for a school fundraiser. Anyway, so the dough had been sitting in my freezer for a month and I finally got around to baking it. Of course, I didn’t know what to do with the cookies after I had baked them, so I’m taking them along to the parties.

Finally, The Wrapping: For my sister I had bought a spring form baking pan (a real nice one gauranteed not to leak), and since I didn’t want my brother-in-law to feel left out I got a box of cheesecake mix. I wrapped up the cheesecake mix for him, and I wrote a note saying it goes best with my sister’s gift. As for the spring form pan, I had some extra fun wrapping it as if it were a giant candy. I think everyone will get a kick out of it.

As an extra gift (and since it conveniently presented itself) for each of the families of my immediate family (my Mom & Dad, my brother’s family, my sister’s family, and of course myself) I bought each family a very nice pedigree chart. My Mom had majored in Geneology in college, so my family has always had an interest in our family history. Plus these charts have all sorts of great information including siblings, aunts and uncles, etc. There’s one side for the Mom’s family, and one side for the Dad’s. I also figure it will be very useful for married couples (let’s see, your my new husband’s aunt…. Martha!). Yeah, so since those came in a tube (you can’t see what it is beforehand) I just put a gift tag on each. I also plan to buy some pens to go with them. Yeah, I think this will be a pretty nice Christmas (at least from me).

A (Mostly) DIY Christmas December 7, 2010

*Subtle Organ Music & A Monotone Voice* Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen. It’s time once again for the annual CHRISTMAS LIST!

Since not many (if any) of my readers will actually be receiving any of these gifts (for those that will, I ask that you act surprised anyway – thanks), I feel pretty safe in broadcasting to the world what my big red bag will contain. So, let’s get down to business.

For various friends and associates I put together a nice and simple Christmas mug filled with hot chocolate, candy canes, and a lovely assortment of chocolate. Something fun, simple, enjoyed by nearly everyone, and nice and easy to make (not to mention cheap).

For coworkers, since I work at my local college, and since my local college bookstore seems to be missing some fashion basics, I thought I’d share the fruits of DIY and make some school-centric scarves. Again, so easy, so cheap (apparently other schools sell them for $15 a pop), and so not-found-in-stores.

Since my Dad’s one of those fix-it-himself kinds, he’s getting a package of Sugru (please see last week’s post). And my Mom keeps stumbling around on the stairs (even though they were remodeled a few years ago) so I’m making her some stair lights.

My brother & sister (and respective in-laws) are getting some store-bought stuff (namely an Apples to Apples game for my brother’s family, and a springform pan and cheesecake mix for my sister’s family).

And finally, what I hope to result in the most fun – my nephews are getting bumble bots! (See post: Robot Fun for a Curious Nephew)

Now for the fun part: for the rest of this week I’m going to go over each of these wonderful gifts and tell you all either how I did it or what I’ll be doing (yes, I’m already done with some of my Christmas list). This ought to be fun! XD

What I Did This Weekend – Zuchini, Sushi, and Drawing December 6, 2010

Let’s start with three words: Two Giant Zucchini. That’s right, these things were huge. Each was over two feet long and between six and eight inches in diameter, and they came from my sister’s garden. Yes, she grows them huge. I’ll have to tell you how another time.

Anyway, even after four months the monster things were still good (partly because we brought them into the house where they couldn’t get frozen), so I wrestled them, cut, peeled & shredded them up and dehydrated them. It’s a great way to preserve them so they can be used throughout the year. Can you say lemon zucchini bread in May?

Next, my family had a party this weekend and since I’ve recently become acquainted with the wonderful flavor known as sushi I wanted to try making some (instead of paying $7 for a small plate). Yes, it was much cheaper but wow, that process is long and takes some skill. I had to go to a specialty shop for the rice and then it took about an hour just to prep and cook it. After that we had fun rolling the sushi. I think my brother had the most fun with it – he made about three-fourths of it that night and then requested the recipe to make some for his in-laws. So, it was loads of fun and took a long time, but oh it was soooo good! It was just as good as the best I’ve had so far (okay, so I haven’t had much yet, but I’ve had enough to say some is so much better than others).

For those interested, here’s the recipe and a few videos to help you out:

- Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sushi-Roll/Detail.aspx
- Sushi Rice Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByXX17MpcF4
- Sushi Roll Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGF_5QR9LI8

For the rice, lean closer to the video but use the proportions in the recipe. For filling and rolling, use the ingredients in the recipe, but use the method on the video.

Finally, this weekend I grumbled at a drawing. I recently discovered the wonders of using what I’m calling wireframes for drawing people (I don’t know the real term for it). It’s great! I can control where things go much better, and I can control where the person is within the drawing. Makes a huge difference. Now I just need to find something to teach me the proper proportions of everything. I know a person is about seven heads tall, but how long & wide do I make everything else in proportion? That’s where the grumbling part came in.

Coming up this week: Time to start the Christmas list (okay, I’ve already finished some of it, but now it’s time for the big projects).

What I Did This Weekend July 12, 2010

Bwahahaha! Sorry, you couldn’t get rid of me that easily! I’m back, and once again, I have a “What I Did This Eeekend” update! That said, here goes:

Basically, all I did this weekend was go to a Scottish festival in town with a good friend of mine, and watch episodes of Winx (I know, I’m nuts). The Scottish festival was pretty fun. I bought myself an awesome cookbook and a Claudagh ring (a Claudaugh is their symbol of love). I wanted one with a red sparkly (can’t call it a gem or stone since it’s just glass), but they didn’t have one my size. Oh well. I guess that’s what I get for having size 5 fingers. Loved the bagpipes as usual (I think I was born with a love of bagpipes ), and I even tasted my first funnel cake (by the way, funnel cake is NOT Scottish, it just happened to be there).

I was disappointed though – there was very little in the way of clothing, swords, etc. (I was hoping for a new dress, and something for displaying my beautiful wood swords that I bought on the 5th.) Most of the stuff they had there was silver jewelry (nice, but can we have some other stuff too?). My sister came down, but left after only half an hour because the selection was so ho-hum. I sure hope they have a better selection next year.

Oh, one more thing I did this weekend (which has a lot more to do with this blog than the other things): I went through my mending/project pile and FINALLY marked each item with what I needed/wanted to do with it. I should have done that at the very beginning when I first added each item to the pile. Note to self: do that from now on.