FAFO and other fragments

in which our plucky heroine manages temperatures in several aspects...

Keep on moving fans around at different times today, as enameling was on the schedule so I tried to get the house as cool as possible beforehand. I also rode my bike to the hardware store in the cool of the early morning, cool enough that I wanted my chore jacket, and got some duct tape to build my first Corsi-Rosenthal box.

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Seen while out and about on my bicycle...

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figured out why I like the mango coleslaw so much, it reminds me of Frisco chicken - note to self, try making some teriyaki chicken to go with, the next time I make some...

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~ fun for FAFO ~

Concomitant with Pride Month, the FAFO Garb Challenge sort of exploded this last week in the online SCA community starting here in An Tir and gathering speed all around the Known World. "The FAFO Garb challenge: Make a period(ish) outfit inspired by a pride flag (or multiple) or a cultural reference that means something to you. Wear it to your group’s Yule/12th night celebrations and post pictures - that gives us 6-7 months to do this! ... Let’s take up space. Let’s be visible. We are here, and our SCA is Inclusive, and there is no place for hate in the SCA."

This, and the discussions and comments over on FB as this idea took root and spread, gave me a lot of food for thought, about how I wanted to participate, given that I am not attending in-person indoor events, and about things I rarely ever think about regarding my identity, and about what would be appropriate, (and fun) to add to my SCA wardrobe. I decided that I could start with a new tablet-woven Laurel headband, with the laurel leaves in rainbow stripes. These, and some other ideas (new panova in rainbow plaid wool? new headwrap/veil in rainbow striped linen) I have are very much in the "C is for Creative" end of the SCA, rather than in the historical end, but we actually do live in both worlds. And someday I hope to be able to go to SCA events again, at least some of the outdoor ones, maybe even later this summer??

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Well that was super annoying! One of the three enamels I have been working on all this week failed - the background turned an strange murky brownish color instead of transparent golden yellow. Bah! Now I need to create a new backing disk, complete with engraving and stamping, and a new set of cloisonne wires, and I am darn good and sure to make a new bunch of samples to see if I can suss out what went wrong before starting over on that one. Fortunately the other two seem to be behaving...

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	temperature/tea rose	-
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. our first attempt to zoom with Mom on Wednesday went well, it will be repeated each week from now going forward...
2. My beloved Mud Bay pals passed their final inspection and received their official "Certificate of Occupancy". They can, finally after all these years, move back into their house!
3. I might be behindhand, but after a day of experimentation, I think I figured out what the variable was that caused the issues with the enamel, and what to do about it. Temperature. If I keep the kiln around a hundred degrees or so lower than my usual 1500F, the transparent golden color seems more stable. I did a few additional tests with transparent flux, as I will need to use that to avoid the yellow turning orange/pink. I also prepared a new base plate with engraving and stamping. Tomorrow I will work on bending the cloisonne wires. It also occurred to me that the enamel with the color shift in the background could have a solid opaque background instead, rather than being scrapped. Hmmmm...

a bird list for Kestrel: House Finch, Scrub Jay, Crow, Dark Eyed Junco, Starlings, Peacocks.

Time of Isolation - Day 1077


(for my Mud Bay Pals)

sedate Sunday

in which our plucky heroine makes slow progress...

The renaming of chores as "care tasks" does begin to shift how I think about them, and how ready I am to spend time on them... Managed to get the rest of the laundry done and put away, and even tackled a bit of mending long put off. The pile of things on the futon have all been dealt with, the bed mode returned to couch mode, and the small bedroom is has a bit more space to turn around in. It is now easier to reach the window to deploy the box fan as well.The rest of the day seemed to be gone in the blink of an eye, but many days feel like that.

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The do one quilt square per day is now just over ⅛ of the way towards completion. Yesterday instead of sewing a square, I counted all the cut out pieces of fabric, and yes, there are enough. I will have to do a small amount of laying out of the square ahead of sewing them together, so as to avoid having multiples of the same fabric in one place. I prefer the prints to be more evenly distributed, but that will not be too dreadfully difficult. If it ends up needing some few extra squares of indigo/blue fabric, that won't be a problem either!

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I started knitting the wool cardigan this weekend, even though it is summertime, since I need to have a fidget project for working on during online meetings. And I am glad I went to look at my initial sketch, since I started it differently!  But I had only done three rows, so easy to start over... The original pattern has the body and the front button band all in one piece. With my design idea, the button band will be added at the end, after an accent band in the "Lagoon Heather" aka teal Lettlopi.

Because this is mostly just garter stitch, and is knit sideways, there won't be a huge mass of knitting in my lap, despite that there is quite a bit of just plain knitting back and forth and back and forth. While I slowly make progress on this, I can mull over how I want the stripey sleeves to look, and how to construct them so as to join smoothly into the body. There will be math involved, but only just simple knitters arithmetic...

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	grey canvas hat	front yard mowed	apple tree prunings
2	tiny pomegranate	hooks on drying rack	more dead ferns
3	print drying hooks	scarf printed	recycle bin
4	layers 1-5 linoprint	re-done engraving	more dead ferns
5	OGGS enamel	bike refurbished	recycle bin
6	x	striped turtleneck neck	apple water sprouts
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I have LOTS of supplies for making things
2. It was pleasantly cool this morning
3. I had a bit of a porch visit earlier this week with Kat and Grendel, when she came to pick up the small enamel I finished for her.

Time of Isolation - Day 1073

a bird list for Kestrel: House Finch, Scrub Jay, Crow, Dark Eyed Junco... I keep looking around for birds, but haven't seen anything else clearly enough to identify. I think I saw some starlings.

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine is wistful...

In 2020, or 2021, or even in 2022, it didn't feel like I was the only one staying home over the long weekend. This year, almost everyone I know is away eventing or camping. I miss seeing my friends, and I miss going to SCA events. All that aside, I am currently focused on my enameling commission work, which does take priority over playtime; I am making good progress in completing a number of pieces of regalia.

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~ printmaking progress ~

Yesterday I spent my 15 minutes of printmaking time painting in the gold discs on all the dogs collars. The black final layer of ink is almost dry, but it will do it no harm to have them hanging on the drying rack further. I suspect I rolled the ink on too thickly.

My next project will be a tiny book from tinyprints all starting with the letter "f" : fan, feather, fire, fox, and fungus... There is a clever way to created "books" (either 8 page or 14 page) from single pages of paper, and I think that would be a way to add to my stash of "advent of a better year" treats. I learned in the first 100 day project that following inspiration is a good idea.

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Today when out on my early morning bike ride, I saw a tufted leather chaise lounge in the middle of the sidewalk on the main street near the veterinary office, with a houseless man fast asleep on it. When I rode by there again a bit later, both were gone. I am sure that there was a story, but I will never know what it was...

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While there are more and more "crosswalk closed" signs, and fewer and fewer bus stops (alas) I did notice that the new more distant bus stop now does have a shiny new covered bus shelter. I don't know if my comment to customer service made a difference, but I figured that they ought to hear from the bus users that moving the stop to underneath a power pole that is also a bird roost was less than ideal, without some kind of overhead barrier to protect from guano deposits!

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	grey canvas hat	front yard mowed	apple tree prunings
2	tiny pomegranate	hooks on drying rack	more dead ferns
3	print drying hooks	scarf printed	recycle bin
4	layers 1-5 linoprint	re-done engraving	more dead ferns
5	OGGS enamel	bike refurbished	recycle bin
6	x	x	apple water sprouts
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I have been gradually making progress with catching up on the various care tasks around here. The drawer in the kitchen is now refilled with dishcloths and washrags; most of my laundry has been put away, and all the mound of pots and pans are either back on the iron pot rack, or drying in the dishrack.
2. Thai mango coleslaw is my new favorite salad
3. I am so excited that my Mud Bay pals have the final inspection on their house scheduled for next week! Fingers crossed that all goes well, the house passes, and they finally get the permit and can move in. It has been a much longer and stranger trip over many years to get to this point.

Time of Isolation - Day 1073

a bird list for Kestrel: House Finch, Scrub Jay, Crow, Dark Eyed Junco... I keep looking around for birds, but haven't seen anything else clearly enough to identify. I think I saw some starlings.