Tag Archives: Projects

On a Lighter Note – Miscellaneous Updates.

On a Lighter Note – Miscellaneous Updates.

Cats: Clarence was adopted. Edgar and Alfie are still looking for homes. The new kittens are getting bigger, and are playing with the dog and the other cats. Pics to follow soon. Nigel had roundworms. Ick. Ickickick. All better now after medicine, but the episode confirmed. . .

Bifocals: I need a different prescription. Distance is fine, but the bottom part of the lens is uncorrected. I can see up to about a foot away uncorrected, and from about four or five feet away with distance correction. This means that there is a very large, fairly essential distance that I see poorly through either lens. That area includes anything at arms’ length, like scooping litterboxes, which is why I didn’t see Nigel’s roundworms earlier. Not that I want correction specifically for sighting feline parasites in poop, but you know what I mean.

The Raiders Cane: Unfortunately, I made the silver clay with silver and translucent, and it baked up to a dark color. The contrast was lost, so I have to try a different mix. Not such a bad thing, though, because it gave me lots of “scraps” to try out my new bench grinder/buffer. Heh. I’ll also try out a different method for reducing the cane to see if it lessens some minor distortions.

Being a Band Mom: Part of the reason for the dearth of posts. I had many cookies to make, had a lot of driving to do. The kids put on an excellent show at Giants Stadium in the cold and the pouring rain, not that the judges appreciated it. Their scores went up, but they were among several bands that somehow scored lower than other bands with less impressive (IMO) shows. I’m not going to name names, but some schools were unfairly treated in the rankings. We’re heading down to Baltimore this weekend for the last competition of the season. Since the judges apparently base their scores, in part, on the bands’ previous scores, there’s no question that there will be any upset in the rankings, but I still know that these kids are doing a truly impressive job.

This Will be Quick.

This Will be Quick.

More to come later. Last week, the server burped, and a post was lost, and hubby knew that more problems were to come while servers were being switched. So. . .I didn’t bother posting here. By the time things were fixed, it was time for more Marching Band stuff. Bingo on Monday night (in costume). Parent meeting on Thursday. Making cookies for Saturday’s bus ride on Friday. Loading, unloading, moving, loading again, and unloading again for the competition on Saturday. The kids started the day at 10AM. I was over there about 1PM. We got home about 2AM. Ugh.

Yesterday was Polymer Clay Guild. I was really looking forward to it for a number of reasons. First, of course, because I really enjoy the company of all these creative people. Second, I had to miss the meeting last month. Third, I had decided I wanted to make a cane of the Raiders logo (the logo for the High School) and hadn’t had the time to set up, make it, and clean up at home yet. The guild meeting gave me 4 hours to play and get hints and advice from more experienced clayers, and a space to spread out and get messy. So here’s the picture of the logo I used:

raiderlogo.jpg

And a slice of the cane:

raidercane.jpg

I can see where it needs a bit of tweaking, but it’s clear enough that it is what it is. After I exercise and shower, I’ll be slicing this up, putting it on backings, and baking it into beads. It was quite fun to make!

Why No New Posts, Alison?

Why No New Posts, Alison?

Umm. . .umm. . .

I’ve been in a more receptive than productive mode, actually. I cruise around the web, see all kinds of things I would comment upon. . .if everyone else on earth hadn’t done it all ready. There’s not much point in simply adding another voice to the cacaphony, so I just leave brief comments and be done with it.

My internet time has been a bit more limited, too. The guys who are replacing our siding and fixing the soffits and installing the gutters and closing off the garage have been here every day, so I’ve been going out to chat, approve things, talk timelines, and all the stuff you do with contractors. Plus, I’ve been away from the garden so I don’t get in their way. Plus, they keep knocking the cable loose and I lose the internet. Heh. (This happens when the cable is loose on the ground waiting to be secured to the house, and right in the major traffic pattern between supplies and work. I’m not saying anything bad about these guys. They’re great.)

I’ve been playing around with clay, and have discovered that Fimo is way better for me than Sculpey. I’m still new at this, and don’t have enough precision to make consistent pieces, and the Sculpey becomes very soft and pliable, which makes it worse. The Fimo is stiffer, so my little adjustments don’t become big mushy things. I got some tools yesterday from Polymer Clay Express, only a couple of days after I placed the order, and they should help a lot with consistency. A couple of marking tools, forms for cabochons, bead rollers. . .In a few weeks, I’ll be able to put it all in an organized fashion in the new art studio and be able to sew again, too.

In between, I’ve been doing things around the house. Audrey now has a normal closet rod. She and Carolyn and I have all our clothes hanging from commercial hangers that are 14 inches wide instead of the normal 17 inches (10 inches for children’s hangers). No more little bumps at the tops of my sleeves. I also hung up a closet doubler rod (a rod suspended from two vertical rods that hook to the main one, so you have an upper and a lower rod) and went through my clothes, getting rid of stuff I don’t wear, stuff I don’t think I look good in, stuff I outgrew. . .more things will be on their way out when I have things to replace them with. You need to have pants, even if they make your butt look huge, because you can’t go out in underwear.

While the girls and I were out yesterday, we stopped in the Ocean Pet Center on Fischer Blvd., and met one of the volunteers for SAVE, which helps out the TR Animal Shelter because the town doesn’t support it well enough. I’m thinking of helping out – start small and see how I like it. They need people, and I love animals and like to do things that actually make a difference. We also checked out the Chinese restaurant in the same mall, Dynasty, and were pleasantly surprised. It’s a small place, only two tables, so it’s really a take-out more than anything, but it was really, really clean. That counts for a lot. The dumpling skins were a little thick, but they were homemade and tasty. We’ll just tell them next time to make things a wee bit more spicy.

We haven’t been to the beach yet. I’ve been letting the girls sleep in, we’ve had some afternoon things going on that would interrupt a trip. . .we’ll get out there soon, though. Friday we’re going to make a stop in Ong’s Hat on the way to Grandma’s house to see if it’s really weird. I hope we don’t get sucked into the vortex.