spackle is my friend

in which our plucky heroine makes an assortment of small steps forward...

The last three days saw various home improvements begun or completed. Assorted wall damage has been spackled. A long ago memory surfaced, and indeed, instead of sanding and sending dust everywhere, a damp nylon scrubber, or even a sponge can be used carefully instead to smooth rough edges.

Forged iron brackets are no longer in the hardware box, but on the wall in the bathroom and utility room and now hold a candle lantern and the "octopus" drying rack.

Between working on housey tasks, there was a bit of indoor gardening and handcraft. The green onion ends that have been sprouting in a jar of water next to the kitchen sink are now planted in a self watering pot with some actual potting soil. During some of the weekends zoom meetings I cut out and glued together two of the tiny fairyland books from the box that Arlys gave me; I will be passing those on to Julia, along with a few other miniature treats - she just sweetly sent me a string of miniature LED lights she found, they have 6 modes and an AA battery pack. After chatting with Kestrel on Saturday, I started on the requested three hats for her tinyfolk. I will be using the same witch hat pattern I used for Nandina and Almandine, but found a Latvian Braid tutorial I like better

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~ day 8 ~

some days are more inspired than others...
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This weekend I started to repair the back wall in the utility closet. There was formerly a wire closet shelf, which the heat pump installers removed, but the hooks for it were still there. I thought "oh, I will unscrew the fasteners, and even if there are still wall anchors, those might be useful" But... the hooks weren't attached to wall anchors, they were put in place with some dreadful expanding bolts that simply spun round and round without loosening. So I tried to lever them out.

Now there were two 1½" holes in the wall. Fortunately I had already figured out that if I glue some linen gauze over not too large holes the gypsum board, it is possible to then use regular patching compound, as it gives a kind of key for the compound to attach to. I did this to repair the hole left over from moving the thermostat, and it worked well. These holes in the closet wall are higher than anything needs attached, so just getting them closed in is all that is needed.

Once the patching is completed, at some point (when the weather is warmer!) I will probably re-paint the inside of the utility closet and sort through what had been stored there; I'm thinking that one of the Ikea shoe storage units hung on the open wall will be a tidier way to store the canning rings, and the vacuum bags and accessories, and whatever other cleaning and household tools make sense to store there.

One thing I already did was to re-install the octopus "drying rack" with a new forged bracket. Now things like socks and delicates can again hang dry while out of the way and out of sight.

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While it isn't yet time to actually sort and declutter the first aid, toiletries, and dental care items, I've made a start on improving the bathroom. As the smallest room in Acorn Cottage, with a limited set of what belongs there, it is the best place to begin.

A very small fix was to finally paint the wooden frame of the water tiger collage. All the other framed art has black frames, and now this one matches. I had to do a bit of spackling to smooth out some of the dings the frame picked up over the years decades, but that was easy. When I thought to also add another forged hanging bracket for the candle lantern, it meant moving the "frogsong" shadowbox over to the art wall, as it would be behind the lantern. In the spirit of washing the car to make it rain, I am setting up the candle lantern to ensure we don't lose power during the forecast snow, ice, and Very Cold temperature; the bathroom here has no window, and hence no natural light at all. I've been meaning to add a wall bracket for the lantern for absolutely ages!

And finally, the RÅSKOG storage cart and TRONES hinged wall storage have been ordered from Ikea, and will be delivered in about a tenday. This will allow time for sorting, the contents of the wooden cabinet, the breadbox, the medicine cabinet, and the linen closet shelf

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All the pieces for the new teal knit top have been cut out ready to sew, save for the criss-cross wrap turtleneck piece, since I still need to work out the pattern piece for that. It was a treat, though, to look in my drawer of thread cones, and find that there were four cones of dark turquoise, just right for all the teal sewing I have in mind - pinafore, shirt, knit top, and petticoat.

I do want to finish all of the Star Wars Jedi cosplay sewing commission first, before making garments for me. Saturday Tullia came over to try on the toile for the Jedi tunic, and a good thing that was; the person who took her measurements wasn't exactly accurate, and we needed to change the length by a whole hand width. The undertunic "dickey" and the obi/sash are both done save a few snap fasteners need sewn in place. The tunic and the tabard pieces are next up, now that I have confidence that the pattern I worked out will fit her.

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Jedi obi sash	reinstall octopus	-
2	Jedi underlayer	hang candle lantern	-
3	2 tiny books	paint tiger frame	-
4	-	patch closet holes	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. ordered hinged storage bins and utility cart from Ikea, and ordered undershelf desk light from Home Despot, as part of my improve the living spaces project. I've been wanting this upgrade for ages.
2. Past Me cleverly ordered a set of serger thread cones in "dark turquoise" so I am all set for sewing teal clothing for me. Yay for color!
3. Julia sent me a 6 mode battery powered strand of miniature LED lights - just the thing for Tansu Terrace!

Time of Isolation - Day 1285

fragments and figments

in which our plucky heroine takes a walk in the sunshine...

On my daily walk it seemed a bit as if I had stumbled into a British Christmas card, as the big holly tree on the corner had an assortment of robins disporting themselves and (I guess) eating the holly berries. I know that our American robins are not the same thing, being larger and rather differently marked, but it charmed me nonetheless...

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~ day 5 ~

vintage beaded mistletoe decoration made from sparkly seed beads and artificial pearls, strung on wire... this hangs in the doorway between the kitchen and the entry. I found it at a rummage sale years ago, and it has lived here ever since.

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The English Homemaker is a new to me podcast that IG tossed in my direction, which (unlike most of the "suggested for you") turned out to be rather a treat. I have only listened to two of the episodes so far, but the host Alissa Evelyn has a pleasant voice, and the content seems gentle, realistic, and calm, which are qualities I value in my listening material.

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~ uh oh, maybe snow? ~

I'm going to spend some this week getting ready, should this forecast (which changed between yesterday and today) be accurate... Time to add some goodies to my emergency food shelf, make sure the candle lanterns are within reach and the solar lanterns charged up, and put together some project packets of handwork that does not require any online content. Of course, this far out, the forecast is uncertain, but ll of my preparations are things I normally do this time of year, just in case...

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This month the SCA Miniaturists January Challenge is "New Year, New Skill!" and I am really struggling to come up with an idea...
This month’s challenge is to try something new with miniatures! A new scale? A new skill? A new material? A new era? ...  The field is wide open! Success for this one is measured in vulnerability rather than mastery; so something far enough out of your wheelhouse that you are skeptical it will meet your personal standards is the goal!

So far the ideas have been to either make something in an even tinier scale than 1/12, to make one of my tinyfolk new clothing from a different era or culture, or maybe to make something for Coriander, who has not had any new things for years...

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Jedi obi sash	-	-
2	Jedi underlayer	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I've got a fair amount of emergency kit already in place, just need to go round and do a bit of refurbish and add in...
2. just found out that I can order and have delivered the Ikea pieces I have been hoping for to refurbish the bathroom. The delivery charge is quite reasonable, and will save me all sorts of annoyance and risk.
3. bike ride in the sunshine is good, and the naalbound mittens Jen made me years ago are worth their weight in gold

Time of Isolation - Day 1282

throwback Thursday

in which our plucky heroine thinks about hats...

It is wintertime, and as my hair is thinner every year, my head gets cold, even indoors. I've been wearing headscarves pretty much year round, and tend to wide brimmed hats for outdoors. Lately I've been thinking about making some "house hats", maybe using Alabama Chanin reverse applique, or other decorative textile techniques. More of a pillbox style, since there is no need indoors for protection from the sun or rain. I found my copy of Vogue 9082, which has a very nice pattern for pillbox/cloche style with a brim that folds upward.

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~ day 4 ~

the "pompom" on my handknit pillbox hat is three oak leaves and two acorns, all knit from the same yarn as the hat, back in 2009... there is more granular information about that hat in the linked Ravelry page. It was a challenging knit, since rather than follow a pattern, I followed my concept and combined different motifs from various places, in a construction that gave me the results and shape I wanted.

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started watching the Japanese stage play of "Spirited Away" today (streaming on Max), and it is really enjoyable. I very much like that it is not overdubbed in English, but simply has subtitles; when I watch Miyazaki animated films I switch the settings to "Japanese/English subtitles" since I am not fond of the Disney overdub.  I've been pinning in the decorative tucks on the Jedi "obi sash" (part of the commissioned set of clothing) for hours, and it is a treat having something to watch while I do so.

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I am tempted to schedule in some scribal time each day. Maybe a half hour? It would be enough to get some progress happening on other long stalled projects. It is unfair that I keep having ideas for new projects when I have quite a few that are incomplete. I will not take on any new backlog scrolls, once I get the five still promised or partially done sent out. Which will happen this year!! I want to do the Ursula LeGuin quote master scroll that has been rattling around in my brain for years, and recently I also started getting ideas about a scroll based on Benedictus, the 1971 song by The Strawbs, which would really lend itself to a medieval treatment...

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Jedi obi sash	-	-
2	Jedi underlayer	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I got to hear a lot of good music back in the day...
2. freshly washed and dried flannel comforter cover
3. two unexpected packages in my mailbox

Time of Isolation - Day 1281