Tuesday, January 6, 2026

bang said Max! and other Tuesday tidbits

in which our plucky heroine feels determined...

My intention is to get the living room and guest space into a functional configuration in the next week and a half, which will entail putting in significant time Every Day between then and now. After all, if guests are incoming, there needs to be space.

I'm separating the removal of clutter from the re-sorting of clutter from the rehoming of clutter. Aside from items that turn up that have known immediate homes, everything else can get boxed up, papers can get put in paper sacks, and all that can be stacked up out of the way. That will clear the space the quickest. Then I can take one box or bag at a time and deal with it. I'm going to try out Leslie's suggested 15-15-15-15 method: Choose three areas, work in each for a fifteen minute go, and the fourth 15 minutes are for putting feet up and taking a break. Wash rinse repeat as needed
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~ day 6 ~
Over fifty years ago, when I worked in a leather shop in Harvard Square, learning leathercrafting and repair, my lunch breaks were spent wandering around and about what was then a much less corporate Cambridge landscape of tiny restaurants, boutiques, and galleries. My memory, whilst rather vague on the details, tells me these hand turned implements came from some (long gone) craft gallery on Arrow Street. Over the decades they've become a bit battered, their once dark purple has faded to brown, but then I too am a bit more faded than that vivid young woman and been a bit thumped upon by life, but we will both last as long as may be...
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Oops! while putting the bin of brown sugar away on the pantry shelves before sitting down to dinner, somehow a bottle of orangeflower water slipped down behind, and smashed on the concrete floor. While it could have been worse (at least the spill is pleasantly fragrant, and the broken glass was contained behind some boxes) it feels very wasteful and sad, and will be a challenge to clean up. This is more incentive to reorganise the pantry. I should know better than that. Fragile glass bottles should not be stored on the top shelves.
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Flannel shirt report: the 7 gores of the peplum, that makes the lower half of the shirt, are now stitched and pressed and set aside. The mirrored outer collar pieces have been interfaced and stitched to make a single piece, ready to be lined with some more of the special Liberty Tana lawn fabric. The upper front bodice will have the benefit of my doing the "correct" thing as far as matching the plaid. I'm wishing now I had done the same mirrored matching with the sleeves, but a. I didn't think of it until they were cut out, and b. there really wasn't enough fabric to have done so. Live and learn. I have never before worked with a large and uneven plaid, just tiny houndstooth plaid too small to need any matching.
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January SMART goals (x=extra)
# THINGS MADE THINGS FIXED THINGS GONE
1 final alphabeast drawing painted mini treerecycle bin
2 ---
3 -- -
4 - - -
5 -- -
6 x x
x
7 x x x
8 x x x
9 x x x

today's gratitudes -
- mutual encouragement between myself and my UK pal Leslie
- the lightweight woven interfacing I bought from Sewlarium is just right for the flannel shirt, adding substance without stiffness.
- Clever Me figured out a solution to the dreadful echo problem when zooming with K. If her laptop sound is muted and she uses her mobile phone for the audio channel, whatever is causing the feedback replay is circumvented.

Time of Isolation - Day 2018

Monday, January 5, 2026

go get your eyes examined

in which our plucky heroine is up and about before dawn...

As indeed, my visual fields test was the first task on the list this week. So, up before 6, got to eye office at 8 when they opened, along with rather a lot of other folks so there was a long line to check in. Unfortunately my mask doesn't cooperate with the machinery, so had to change to a KN95, which only added to my stress. Thankfully as far as test results can discern, my eyes are okay... I always worry, because family history, and more so after my dreadful corneal tear last year, but as long as I keep using eye drops, the doctor said there appears to be no significant changes.
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~ day 5 ~
My electric teakettle is terribly useful, and is filled multiple times a day. Not just for the obvious, but also when washing dishes, or cooking. For years I had either a saucepan, or the sort of teakettle one filled and put on the stovetop, but after the time I absentmindedly walked away from the kitchen and came back far too late to find the heat coil red hot and the enamel base of the kettle melted into the burner (which necessitated discarding both and replacing the burner) my pal Elfrida gave me this electric teakettle that cleverly turns itself off when the water has boiled.
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Valerie of the custom pillow shams came by today having found the specific edging trim for the next set of shams. I still need to get suitable 24" zippers, which will first of all entail phone calls to see if anyplace local has something suitable. Bolt is closed for the next few days, but maybe Modern Domestic? Otherwise will have to venture further afield. 
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Put in time cutting out more pieces for the plaid flannel shirt. The peplum sections, and I decided that mirroring the two ends of the collar would make enough of a difference that it was worth the trouble. There is a whole lotta math in sewing, as I calculated the various rectangles needed for collar and cuffs and front button bands. My next step on this project is to read the instructions for the tower placket, as adding that before sewing the sleeves to the body will be easier.
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January SMART goals (x=extra)
# THINGS MADE THINGS FIXED THINGS GONE
1 final alphabeast drawing painted mini treerecycle bin
2 ---
3 -- -
4 - - -
5 -- -
6 x x
x
7 x x x
8 x x x
9 x x x

today's gratitudes -
- holiday lights in the darkness
- the busdriver recognised me, and noticed I was "going the other way" from where he usually sees me on the bus. I guess my attire is pretty distinctive
- my eyes got a basically clean bill of health, in that they are not any worse than they were a year ago, and the optical technicians and doctor were willing to mask at my request.
- Gersvinda came by this evening with a grocery sack full of winter veg from Acantha; onions and potatoes and squash oh my!
- A belated birthday gift package of treats from Iceland, several skeins of blue Lettlopi, a delicate pierced metal tree of life ornament, and a bar of soap encased in felt with a pony design. 

Time of Isolation - Day 2017

Sunday, January 4, 2026

old-school makerie

in which our plucky heroine plans another early bedtime...

The upcoming week will be busy. Among several many assorted other things that need to happen in the coming week, I plan on finishing the layout for my 2026 calendar and getting over to the copy store to get them all printed so I can mail out the ones to faraway, and have ready the ones I will be handing out in person. Today I finished inking the last of the 12 drawings, and also found the non-repro blue "layout" graph paper, so should be able to move steadily forward on this. All the month names, dates and days will be handwritten, as a statement: actual artwork by an actual human, using their actual hands (analog paste-up and design).
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~ day 4 ~
a pair of leaf shaped handmade kitchen knives, made by our plucky heroine herself more than 40 years ago, when she was a student at Evergreen... just like when I was the only senior girl in a high school wood shop class of freshman boys, once again the only woman in a class full of men. In the Evergreen tradition, we went around the circle introducing ourselves and sharing what we hoped to do/learn in the class. Among the various deep voices hoping to make "a hunting knife", or "a skinning knife" there was mine, higher pitched, hoping to make "a knife to cut vegetables..." All these years later, both knives still grace my kitchen.
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currently reading - "Turning Point 1997 - 2008", a book of (translated) interviews with Hayao Miyazaki. It is very interesting to read more about what this master animator/storyteller has had to say about his life and the thoughts behind and about his works.
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Ongoing housey lost and founds. I'd misplaced Nandina's little felt boots, which turned up today wedged under the edge of the laptop shelf!? Still hoping to find Opal's little Birkenstock sandals somewhere, since they are not in the tinyfolk houses, or in the picnic tote that holds their wardrobes. 

Then during Crafternoon went looking for my Foxpaws scarf and couldn't find it in any of the places I normally keep knitwear. I hope it turns up, it took months to knit. As to why was I looking for it in the first place, to show my Crafternoon pals, since I had self-indulgently bought a knitting pattern yesterday by the same designer (Xandy Peters) who used the same sort of motifs as edge borders on the shawl. 
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January SMART goals (x=extra)
# THINGS MADE THINGS FIXED THINGS GONE
1 final alphabeast drawing painted mini treerecycle bin
2 ---
3 -- -
4 - - -
5 -- -
6 x x
x
7 x x x
8 x x x
9 x x x

today's gratitudes -
- I found Nandina's missing boots.
- forecast for tomorrow is cold and damp but not active rain
- handmade tools that last a lifetime

Time of Isolation - Day 2016