Librocubicularist- May 2015

The weather around here has been mostly rain with a few random days of sun here and there. So I've alternated between reading during the cloudy days and trying to get our lawn under control when things dry out. I've also been trying to be healthier by going for at least a short walk everyday. Here's a bit of what I've been reading.


Art Journal Art Journey: Collage and Storytelling for Honoring Your Creative Process by Nichole Rae

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book inspired me to start looking for old books to use in college projects.

It follows the whole path of creating an art journal. From choosing and preparing a book all the way through generating text and creating layouts. There is information about where to find college materials and papers and suggestions for other supplies. The main focus of the book is finding inspiration for your text and various ways to journal and highlight your text.

The journal pages shown as examples all follow a very specific style but in my opinion that's helpful. Sometimes trying to focus on the techniques being shown can be difficult if it's shown in several different styles. This allows you to see exactly how each idea shown changes the look of the finished layout.

One of my favorite things from this book is a list of suggested themes for journals and also inspirational words and phrases. There are also a few mini projects included so you can try the techniques on a smaller scale.

Age Recommendations:
Although this book is directed to adults I think that most of the ideas in this book could be adapted for use with children.




The Secret Language of Color: Science, Nature, History, Culture, Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, & Violet by Arielle Eckstut

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book alternates between chapters discussing the science related to color and chapters about each individual color. The science chapters cover a wide variety of topics such as how plants and animals evolved to use colors to why various minerals are the color they are. There is also a chapter detailing how humans see color and the way it's processed by our brains.
Each color chapter also has mix of information. It discusses emotions associated with colors and their origins, the history and background of certain dyes or paint colors and various other stories related to specific colors.
It contains a whole bunch of information, most of which I will probably not remember for an extended time, but I found it a very interesting read.

Age Recommendation:
I think it would be interesting for all ages but some of the science could be difficult for younger kids to follow.





168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book wasn't as helpful as I would have liked. This book is divided into 4 sections the first is kind of an introduction. It talks about the fact that most people are not as pressed for time as they think and references several studies that show people overestimate the amount of hours they spend working. The main point is that you likely have more free time than you realize and just need to find an way to optimize it. She also discusses the importance of identifying core competencies to help determine how you should spend your time.

The second section focuses on making the most of your time at work. While some of the advice, including ways to avoid distraction could be helpful, the emphasis seems to be on creating a better work schedule which isn't possible for a large portion of people. It makes suggestions such as leaving work early so you can spend a couple of hours with your family and then putting in another few hours work after the kids are in bed. Jobs where you are required to be available to customers. clients during certain hours just don't work like this. Any retail job, bank teller, librarian or host of other jobs have to have people in the 'office' during certain hours. You might be able to negotiate some sort of split shift but that's not going to be the norm and it certainly won't be as easy to make happen as this book implies.

The next section covers time at home which includes time with children, housework, and general free time. The main suggestion seems to be that if you are spending to much time on housework you should either lower your housekeeping standards or outsource the work to someone else. For people who may be working multiple jobs to make enough money to get by but want more family time it may not be possible to pay someone else to do the housework. Also suggestions about things like laundry service just aren't as widely available everywhere as they are in large cities such as New York. Some of the ideas involving free time do have merit. It points out that many people end up watching TV in their spare time because its easy and that planning out how to spend spare time in advance helps avoid wasting it all on TV or random internet surfing. Also suggested are picking just 2-3 hobbies or causes to volunteer for and focusing your time on those rather than spreading your time to thin with too many activities.

The final section acts as a conclusion and show time studies for various people with examples of where they found extra time and rearranged their schedules to make things work for them.

Overall I'm not saying that the suggestions presented are impossible. I believe that they would work well for some one in the right kind of job, I just know that realistically not everyone's employer is going to be that flexible and the author presents it as an easy thing to make these kinds of changes where in reality it could be quite a challenge to come to that sort of arrangement.

Age Recommendation:
Obviously for adults




The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This review is going to have spoilers because I'm not sure how to talk about some of my issues without giving away parts of the plot. I enjoyed this book and thought that it was an interesting read but there were a few things that kept me from giving it a higher rating.
The basic plot is that Alice is sent to live with an Uncle after her father is shipwrecked and assumed dead. She ends up sneaking into her Uncle's library and finds out that she is some kind of wizard called a Reader. It means that she can read herself into book and then after fighting the creatures inside gains the ability to summon them or draw on their powers.
The problems I have relate mostly the Readers and their powers. Her uncle suspects she has powers but doesn't tell her. He forbids her to visit the library as a sort of test where he expects her to disobey and reveal her powers. The book also mentions that the older Readers change allegiances frequently and pit their apprentices against each other so a fellow apprentice may be a friend one day and an enemy the next. I feel like the whole thing needs more explanation and I admit that since this is one of a series there may be more details in future books.
The other major problem is that the book implies that her father is not really dead and she wants to find him but there is almost no progress made in regards to this story line. But again she does get a lead at the end of the books so who knows.
All of that being said the concept of it is pretty interesting. The first creatures that Alice is able to gain control over are small but she can summon a swarm of them. She's able to come up with a variety of creative ways to use them and learns how to harness their powers for herself. I was entertained by her discovering and learning to use her powers I'm just not sure how it fits into the bigger story.

Age Recommendations:
I think this would be a good book for most kids. Its pretty interesting but nothing to scary happens that might frighten little kids.




The Cloud Collector's Handbook. by Gavin Pretor-Pinney by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thought this book was really cute and have already started my own personal collection. The handbook has information about various types of clouds and how to identify them. It starts with 10 basic cloud types and then expands to include variations and other atmospheric effects.

Each entry has a description of the cloud and related types, pictures, names and references to similar cloud species and a block to record information about your collection. The collection space has blanks for date, location, and weather condition as well as the file name for your photo of the cloud. It also has a scoring system for tallying up the value of your collection, including bonuses for each type. It sort of reminds me of the scores in the game Pokemon Snap.

I had a copy from the library but am seriously considering a trip to the bookstore to get my own copy.

Age Recommendation:
I feel like the book is intended to help adults recapture the fun and relaxation of cloud gazing. However it includes quite a bit of scientific information about how various types of clouds are formed and what kind of weather conditions they are likely to be found in. I think it would be a great book to use for teaching kids weather science. Not only could they collect and identify clouds but also work on trying to predict conditions for finding clouds missing from their collections.

With all of changing weather my walks have given me a chance to start a good cloud collection. I don't have all of them labeled (that'll have to wait until I buy my own copy) but you can check it out on The Eclectic Otter's facebook page.

Memorial Day

I apologize for posting so late today but the truth is because my husband had the day off from work I kind of lost track of what day it was. Because I almost alway work Saturdays and he works a regular Monday-Friday job we very rarely have two whole days in row together. To a certain extent I'd like to say that we've been busy finishing errands and working on projects but really the only 'productive' thing we've done is our regular grocery shopping and I'm okay with that.

We took a pretty long walk together on Sunday and a shorter one today. We had carry-out for dinner and had plenty of time to just relax together. We talked about how his Pathfinder game is going and various things he wants to make and plan for it. We discussed books we're reading and projects I have planned. It's been really nice to have a break with no demands on our time except from each other.

It's been cloudy and/or actively raining most of the weekend and it sprinkled on us most of walking time. However because not that many people were out and about we saw quite a bit of wildlife.

I have been working on a project but since it involves spray painting a bunch of stuff its been severely delayed. I might be able to make some progress later this week if the forecast is right but it looks like it will be raining next weekend as well. Here's a picture of the work in progress on Friday night before all the storms...

Rain Delay

Due to an unexpected power outage yesterday I didn't get finish all the projects I set out to this week.
I'm fairly sure that I can finish everything up in time for lunch today and will update this post with pictures of the finished product.

I just seem to have done everything in the wrong order. I spent all day Monday working on the laundry I mentioned and reading in between loads. In the afternoon I washed some dishes and did some work in our back yard. Then on Tuesday I finished up the Roman Shade for our office. I used a tutorial that I found on Domestically Speaking. The instructions there are very easy to follow so I won't waste a lot of time rehashing them here. Basically you take the blinds apart and then glue several slats to the fabric you want to use for the shade.

For this one I spaced the slats about 9 inches apart. We hope that this will keep our cats from tearing things up. The office window has a shelf right under it that our cats like to sit on and look out, while doing this they have bent and broken several slats from the mini-blinds. This should let them look out more easily. The plan for the office has always been to paint in some black branches and add cherry blossoms but we've never gotten around to it. The fabric for the shade will tie into that theme.

Night Time- All Open

Day Time- Partially Open

Night- Fully Closed

My plans for Wednesday were to finish my Ironman sundress but we lost power around 10am and didn't get it back until after 3pm. I took a nice walk in the misty rain and got some good pictures of our rosebush covered in raindrops. I took myself out to lunch because I couldn't cook. I sat by our most sun filled window and read a book. It wasn't necessarily a bad way to spend a day (aside from a bit of stress over waiting to hear from the power company) just not what I had planed.  

I had previously cut fabric for dress straps and once the power came back on I could see well enough to pin them in place. Because I want to be able to wear the dress without needing a strapless bra I needed to be sure the straps be covered those of the dress. To make the straps I started with a piece that was 4x18 inches. I ironed in an inch on both sides and then folded that in half and ironed everything again.

For the ruffled 'sleeve' part I used a piece about 5x10 and cut a curve onto one side. The plan is to put a little bit of gather into the straight side and then insert it into the fold of the strap and sew all along the open side.

                                              

                     Sleeve Cut Outs                                                              Sleeves with Hem

Update: May 21 11:45am

To add ruffle to the sleeves set your sewing machine to a longer stitch and sew right along the straight edge of the ruffle. Then pull the thread to create gathers.

I tried to hold it in place and use pins to mark where I wanted the sleeve positioned on the strap. After that tuck it into the open side of the strap and sew everything closed.

Then sew the straps onto the dress. I had previously pinned the straps in place to make sure they covered my bra straps and fit the way I wanted them too. The gathers from the elastic thread hide  the stitches where the strap is sewn on the bodice of the dress.

I think the position of the straps is great but I may want to reposition the ruffles so they are a bit more to the front. I wasn't able to get a good full length picture of me in the finished dress but here are some shots of the sleeves.

An Unproductive Weekend

This weekend has been absolutely the least productive weekend ever. I was hoping to have a quiet, relaxing, if short weekend with my husband. Finish some projects on Friday, get some inspiration from reading and maybe some time outside.

What I actually got was this:

Friday was almost completely unproductive. I felt entirely unmotivated. I've been trying to walk for at least 10 minutes a day and I barely made myself do that. The only other thing I accomplished was to wash a few dishes. I really couldn't understand why I was feeling so unenergetic...

Until I woke up Saturday morning feeling super achy and able to feel the gunk in my sinuses shifting around. I guess since it seems like it's been raining constantly for the past week, and part of what I'm allergic to is mold I shouldn't have been surprised. I ended up calling in to work and spent more than half the day sleeping. I suppose I did get a little reading done in between but it wasn't very relaxing.

Yesterday was better. After all the allergy medication and sleep on Saturday I still slept until after 10am. We had very few errands to run and took a short walk together before lunch. After lunch we had time to relax and I was medicated enough to be fairly comfortable. I took a couple of nice cloud pictures for my collection started after reading The Cloud Collector's Handbook a few weeks ago. (I'll post a review at the end of the month.)

Sunday Clouds

I'm feeling enough better to have renewed hopes for productivity moving forward. Here's a list of what I'd like to get done this week.

1. Laundry- right now we have two baskets of unfolded clean laundry that need taking care of. Luckily not to much dirty laundry.

2. Dishes- It feels like we always need to do dishes and clean up our kitchen. At the moment things are actually close to being clean and it would be a great feeling to knock out the last bit.

3. Finish the mini-blind to roman shade makeover I started in April.

4. Add straps to my Ironman Sundress

5. Work on/ complete a project to display some of our lego mini-figures

Friday 15th

Thursday 14th

Work In Progress- Gm's Notebook

I've been a little off this week so forgive me if this post gets a bit rambly and confusing.  Also I don't have good pictures related to this post but I've been trying to get more exercise by stopping for a walk on the way home so I'm just going to share some picture I've taken on my walks these past few weeks.

                   

My husband had some unexpected time to prep for his game because the last session was canceled while some players were out of town. Since they only meet every other week this gave him a month between sessions. We have been attempting to take advantage of this time by making him a GMing notebook.

Actually what we ended up with was a notebook for keeping information about his world and a separate calendar/planner for tracking events in game.

 Right now the notebook has 7 tabs all with folders for holding extra papers or pictures he might find inspiring. 

1. History- a place to write about historical events like great battles and the origins of the world

2. Religion- list of the worlds gods, creation myth, and information about how people worship

3. Organization- includes some info about organized religion but also knightly orders, guilds, criminal organizations and so on

4. Nations- different countries and their customs, import/ export information, type of government, etc

5. Maps

6. Magic-  place to keep track of unique magic items created just for his world, maybe some custom spells eventually

7. Campaign- where he'll keep notes about adventures, notes on players and npc's

The planner part if more what he'll use to take notes during game. The plan is to set it up like a regular day planner where it has both a monthly and weekly calendars. The monthly calendar will be for marking uneventful days of travels, keeping track of phases of the moon, and also in game holidays. I've found a nice blank calendar so we can fill in the dates and month names as we go since I don't know if he wants to create new names for the months or not. Each month also has a small space for notes.

The weekly calendar is a two page spread I made using Photoshop with check boxes for marking weather, space to make notes about game events, and a spot to reference other campaign notes.

The idea behind the thing one the left is to make a quick check mark wherever the desired row and column meet. So for example severe rain or no clouds. It needs some kind of grid or maybe actual check boxes because right now it could be hard to tell which column a check was in, especially if you got in a hurry. We also plan to add some lists for naming things on the fly. Male and Female npc names, tavern names, guild names, town names, etc.

Here are some other sites you can check out for additional inspiration in creating a notebook of your own.

Newbie DM

Roleplaying Tips.com

Avengers Inspired Sundress

Product Review: Elastic Thread

Part of the reason I started the Eclectic Otter was to give myself motivation to do more crafting and to finish some old projects. This is one of those old projects. After seeing the first Avenger's movie I decided to make a sundress inspired by the Iron Man armor. The fabric I bought was still in the bag with the receipt, dated 5-25-12!

One of the reason that I've put off working on this is that I planned to use elastic thread to sew the bodice of the dress and I didn't really know how that would work. Since I was trying something new I invited my Mom down to sew with me. She's never used elastic thread herself but she has many more years of sewing experience than me and it's always nice to have someone to talk things through with. I also looked at a bunch of tutorials online before hand.

Here's some of the links I checked out:
http://www.sewcakemake.com/2012/01/toolbox-tuesday-elastic-thread.html
http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2010/02/shirring-tutorial.html
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/11/sewing-tip-shirringsmocking-with-elastic-thread.html

To start with you need a piece of fabric big enough to wrap around yourself plus extra to accommodate the gathering. I started with 2.25 yards and ended up trimming a bit off. That leftover bit is 7 inches but stretches out to 13 so I would say you need about twice as long as your bust measurement. The first step it to sew a small hem in one side of your fabric. After it gets gathered it would be way more difficult.

The elastic thread goes in the bobbin and needs be wound by hand, just be sure not to stretch it as you go. Based on the information I found online things vary a little bit based on what type of sewing machine you have. I use a Husqvarna Iris. Getting the bobbin threaded with the elastic is a little tricky because you need to stretch it while you go. We had some trial and error on this. The first few rows we made didn't seem to gather but I'd read that it would bunch more as you added lines. Eventually we ran out of bobbin thread and after we retreaded there was an immediate difference so we had to figure out what we had done differently. In the photos below you can see what the stitches look like on both the front and back sides of the dress. The top two rows are with the incorrect tension and the center ones are after we figured out the trick.

We found that if we but the bobbin in place and then threaded the machine when we let go of the thread the bobbin would spin a little as the elastic relaxed and unthread. So we left the bobbin out of the case, threaded it, and the dropped the bobbin in. Some machines suggest adjusting the tension but we didn't change ours. The only adjustments we made to the machine was to change the stitch length, longer stitches are better for gathering. Usually I sew with a 2.5 stitch length for this project I increased it to 4.5.

 Make sure you sew with the right side of fabric facing up. If you want you can mark lines on the fabric to follow but we just lined the pressure foot up with the previous row of stitching. Also because of the gathers it really won't show much if the lines aren't perfectly even. You may need to stretch the fabric a bit to make sure it is flat going under the pressure foot. Just keep making rows until you get a shirred section large enough to cover your bust.

Then wrap the fabric around yourself and pin it in place. Adjust it so that it's as tight as you want the finished dress to be.

                                         

After that I laid the dress out and trimmed off the excess length. Just make sure the bottom edge is even and mark a straight line across. I wanted this dress to be right at knee length after I added a ruffle so I cut it just above my knees, but you could make it any length. Then trim any excess you have off of the width and sew the side seam together.

To make the ruffle for the bottom you need a length of fabric at least 1.5 times the circumference of the skirt. I wanted to make a really full ruffle so I calculated for twice the length.

 70 inches around base x 2 = 140 Inches

The fabric is 60 inches wide so 140/ 60= 2.333 so I would need a little more than 2 strips of fabric.

Since I knew I wanted it really ruffly I just used 3 whole lengths. I decided that I wanted the ruffle to be about 2 inches long so I cut 3 pieces about 5 inches wide by the whole width of the fabric and sewed them together to make one continuous strip. Iron the seams open to help keep everything relatively flat. Then fold the whole piece in half with the wrong sides of the fabric together.

Divide the loop into quarter and use a pin to mark the edge of each section. Sew around the entire loop on the open side using a extra long stitch setting. When you get to each of the pins lift the presser foot and pull out a bit of extra thread then lower the foot and keep sewing. This will give you an easy place to pull the gathers. With those thread loops it will be easier to work on ruffling the border in sections. The picture below shows one of these loops.

Once you've sewn all the way around pin those same four spots to the sides, center front, and center back of the dress. 

Make sure you are pinning it to the outside of the dress. After I finished sewing my ruffle on I realized it was sewn inside out and had to tear out all the stitches and re-do the whole thing. It was super complicated because I had to watch carefully to be sure I removed the stitches holding it to the dress but not the gathering stitches.

After that pick a thread loop and start pulling. As you pull the thread the fabric will gather. You should be able to sort of push the ruffle along the thread. Keep working from either end until the ruffled section will fit in between the two pins. Add a few extra pins to hold it in place and move on the next section.

Making the Ruffle

One section pinned in place

When you finish you should have an evenly spaced ruffle that lays (relatively) flat against the hem of the dress. Reset the machine to a regular stitch length and sew the ruffle on. Because my ruffle was extra full it was a bit thick at place and needed a little extra help to feed it through the machine but it wasn't too difficult. Then just flip the ruffle down so the seam is on the inside of the dress and its done. 

My plan for this dress actually includes adding straps with a little bit of ruffle, almost like ruffled cap sleeves but because I had to completely redo the ruffle I ran out of time. Hopefully it will let me wear a regular bra and hide the straps as well as support the occasional addition of a small battery powered arc reactor I have that's made to attach to a t-shirt.  I should be able to finish it soon and will post an update when I do.

Overall I found using the elastic thread to be easier than I expected. Once we got the hang of threading the machine it was just like regular sewing. I will add that it took much more than I expected it too. I started out with two spools of Gutermann elastic thread and after we used all of that we switched to Sew-ology brand from Hobby Lobby . Dritz also makes elastic thread very similar to the Sew-ology. I didn't really notice a difference between the brands as far as use goes but the Gutermann is a little thicker. 

A Mother's Day Journal

With Mother's Day coming up I wanted to take a minute to talk about my Mom. She's amazing and has highly influenced both the person I am now and the creation of this blog. Mom has a degree in Children's Literature and read to us constantly as kids. She was always willing to take us to the library to find the right book and continues to pass on reading suggestions to this day. She did all sorts of crafts and science experiments with us and only kind of got mad when I splatter paint all over my bedroom curtains. When I was in elementary school she would let me grab paint or wallpaper sample to play with...never as many as I wanted but a few. She made the dresses for all the school dances I went to and my wedding dress. She taught me basic sewing when I was younger and has been really helpful answering questions and giving advice as I've started getting into more complicated projects more recently. Earlier this week she spent several hours helping me with a sewing project for Monday's post.

Monday Sneak Peek

Last year for Mother's Day I decided to make a shared journal for my Mom and I. The idea was for me to get to know her a little better, have a place to ask questions about our family history, and also advice about various situations. My original intent was to try to trade at least once a month but sometimes one or the other of us is too busy to write. But in the past year we have each written in it six times so I think that's still good. Our topics jumped around a bit covering things like how my parents met, ideas we have for home remodels, and favorite childhood books. Check the bottom of this post for other ideas about shared family journals and writing prompts and ideas.

 I used composition book I found at Walmart with a brown leather look cover. I had wanted to find a photo of the two of us but had trouble finding one. (Most of our pictures have the whole family, not just us.) I finally settled on using photos with us each as kids with birthday cake. The cover is decorated with scrapbook papers and elements related to sewing and books, hobbies we have in common. The whole thing is covered with clear contact paper to protect it and keep the papers from peeling off.


Family Journal Idea Links:
Lil Journal Project
Dear Daughter Diary- Howdoesshe.com
Family Circle Diary- Shyloh Belnap

Suggestions for Questions and Prompts:
30 Things my Kids Should Know About Me
37 Questions to Ask Your Grandparents
In Depth Personal History- This is me challenge