Top Ten Things About Fall

I am really excited about the beginning of the fall season. Fall is my all around favorite time of year and here are some reasons why.

Top Ten Favorite Things About Fall

10. School Supplies

I know that school supply shopping seems to come earlier and earlier so that it almost doesn't count as a Fall event anymore but I'm counting it. For reasons that I really can't explain I love school/ office supplies. I enjoy wandering through stores like Office Depot and looking at all the different pens and such. I also like new notebooks and seem to always buy a new one before the old notebook is even half full.

9. No More Lawn Mowing

Our yard is reasonably flat and not all that big but it's still a hassle to mow. I don't know if it was extra rainy this summer or what but it seems like our yard always needed mowing. I know that for some people fall brings never ending leaf raking but we've never really worried about that. Sometime after most of the leaves are off our tree we will rake up most of them and then not worry about it again.

8. Fall Festivals

There are a lot of great festivals that happen in the fall. Somehow even though we grew up in the same area my husband and I went to totally different apple festivals as kids. His family usually went out to Weston for Applefest and my family headed down to Louisburg for Ciderfest. Last year I took him to Ciderfest for the first time and he is in love with fresh, hot cider doughnuts. Fall is also when the Renaissance Festival runs which is always fun. Check out this link for information on other festivals happening around the Kansas City area this fall.

Photo by Tim Hunt

7. Crisp Cool Air

I'm listing this separately from fall weather in general because for me it is slightly different. Cooler weather is one this but for some reason autumn air is easier for me to breathe. I was on the Cross Country team in high school and had problems with exercise induced asthma but those days when the air had that crisp autumn edge to them I could breathe better. For some reason this doesn't happen in similar temperatures of spring air or in much colder winter air. Its hard to explain.

6. Cooler Weather

As you can see later in the list this actually is a part of some of my other reasons to love fall, but it's important enough to stand as its own reason. Both my husband and I sleep better the cooler it is so lower temperatures mean we don't have to use as much electricity just to get a good nights sleep. Its not too hot or cold so we can keep our windows open to enjoy the fresh air and save some money at the same time. I can sit with a fluffy blanket in my lap and let the cats cuddle me without getting overheated.

5. Beautiful Fall Leaves

Normally if you ask, orange is my least favorite color ever, but for fall leaves it's really nice. Its nature's way of using complementary colors to make everything seem brighter and more exciting. Because our wedding was in October we actually used fall leaves for a lot of stuff including the basis of our color scheme (although we used red and gold not orange with the blue). For our guest book we had everyone sign fake leaves and made them into a wreath that we get to enjoy every fall.

4. Fall Foods

I have heard people try to argue that fall vs summer foods don't exist anymore. The main reasoning was that we can control our environment enough that our homes don't become too hot from cooking and that many fruits and vegetables are now available year round. However as someone who grew up without air conditioning let me tell you, you don't bake much in the summer, and you don't cook turkey or pot roast for several hours either. So I'm super excited for cooler weather because its the right time for some of my favorite foods. Home baked bread, beef stew,baked potatoes, turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables... all sorts of stuff.

3. Halloween

Halloween is my husband's second favorite holiday (after July 4th) and my third. I like to dress up and be goofy. I like to hand out candy and see all the different costumes. My husband likes decorations and costumes. We are still working on making some tombstone decorations for our yard but we do have a skeleton for our front tree. We also like old Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus and any excuse to play Betrayal at the House on the Hill.

2. Thanksgiving

Great food, time with family, and reflection about all the great things in your life and the world. Thanksgiving is a great holiday.

1. Personal Holidays

October contains both my birthday and our wedding anniversary so that makes it pretty awesome. I try to take my birthday off from work and eat favorite foods for dinner. I get to stay in and read or whatever else I'd like to do. For our anniversary we usually try to get a three or four day weekend together. We usually relive some favorite moments from when we were dating. We go to our favorite places for dinner, watch the movie we saw on our first date that kind of thing. We also try to find fun events that might be going on for example this year there is a cool  Da Vinci exhibit opening at Union Station the weekend of our anniversary that we are planning to see.

Librocubicularist- August 2015

Once again this week has been a little rough. Just when one cat started to get better another of our cat started acting strange. Friday night we decided we needed to take him to the Vet to get checked out just in case. At the same time the pressure valve on our water heater started to leak. So Saturday morning my wonderful husband both arranged for an emergency cat appointment and replaced the valve.  They didn't find any obvious problems with Parker so they ended up doing blood tests and we had to wait for Monday to get the results. But on Monday I had jury duty. Jury duty where I needed to get up about an hour earlier than my usual earliest days. Jury duty where the usual parking area is closed for repairs and we had to be shuttle bused over from another place. Jury duty where it was 10:30 before I was even assigned to a panel then told to come back at 1pm. After I grabbed lunch I had to wait in the parking lot almost an hour before there was a shuttle to take me back. All of this to find out, at 2:30 in the afternoon that the trial was canceled and they didn't need us.

Parker snuggles his new kitten

After that I tried to relax for a while but realized I had library books to return so I ran out and did that. Then my husband messaged me that he hadn't heard from the Vet and was in a meeting so he couldn't call. So I called the Vet's office, found out Parker has some type of gallbladder trouble and I needed to bring him in for fluids and to pick up medication. I had an hour to get him there before they closed. After that I dropped him off at the house but needed to leave immediately to go to the pharmacy to get a prescription filled for the cat.

On top of all of this my husband is supposed to be leaving soon for a business trip. We were trying to save money up to cover his expenses but it's been eaten up by Vet bills. He'll be reimbursed for everything but it's still going to be pretty tight for a while. . . That is if the trip goes through. Right now everything is booked and ready to go for next week but they told him yesterday it may be pushed back again. For now we just have to be prepared for him to leave just in case but the constant shifting of the date is getting stressful.

So with all of that fitting books in has been difficult but also necessary. Books are how I relax after a hard day and what kept me from losing my mind due to boredom during all the jury duty wait times. The reviews below are just a few of the things I've read this month.


Doodle Stitching: Embroidery & Beyond: Crewel, Cross Stitch, Sashiko & More by Aimee Ray

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book has instructions and patterns for designs using cross stitch, decorative and couching stitches, applique, redwork, crewel, sashiko, shisha (persian w/ mirrors), cutwork, stumpwork, and wired stumpwork. Projects range from embroidered cards to aprons, dolls, and cuff bracelets.

A small section at the back contains an overview of embroidery basics and stitches. It includes an easy to follow diagram, written description, and photo of each finished stitch.

My favorite projects are a canvas embroidered cuckoo clock and a nature walk sampler that uses shisha stitches to hold acorn caps and pebbles and shells.

Age Recommendation: Most kids should be able to do basic stitches using safe plastic needles. Some of the more complex projects such as creating 3d embroidery using wired stumpwork are best left for older/ more experienced stitchers.

The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them by Laurie Aaron Hird

My rating: 4 of 5 stars






This book is full of quilt block patterns from the 1930's accompanied by letters written to The Farmer's Wife magazine by women of that era. I really like some of the blocks in this book. They seem pretty complex since I'm a beginning quilter but it gives me something to aspire to. I only had time to read a few of the letters before I had to return it to the library, I'd like to have a chance to read it more. Comes with a CD that has cutting templates for all the blocks.


The Quilt Block Bible: 200+ Traditionally Inspired Quilt Blocks from Rosemary Youngs by Rosemary Youngs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Very similar to the Farmer's Wife series of quilt book this book is mostly a collection of blocks. This book is organized by block type and has sections for stars, pinwheels, and curves in addition to four and nine patch blocks. I'm very new to quilting but it looks like it has a range of simpler and more complex blocks. Like the Farmer's Wife series there is a companion CD that has templates for all of the blocks.

The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a great book about cloud appreciation and how to identify various types of clouds. The descriptions of how the clouds form and their effect on the weather are both easy to follow and entertaining to read. There is a separate chapter for each of the 10 main cloud types with pictures of various species, scientific info, and tips for identification. Further chapters discuss supplementary cloud features, contrails, and cloud seeding. Filled with references to culture and history relating to clouds and diagrams illustrating the scientific side of clouds the book has a nice balance. My only disappointment with this book is the lack of color illustrations.

Age Recommendations: This book is written for adults but the science is easy enough to follow that I think it would be great book for teaching science. Its simple and entertaining enough to interest high school or middle school kids.

I previously read and reviewed the followup to this book, the Cloud Collector's Handbook in the May Librocularist post.

All Terrain Imperial Vehicle

A few years ago my husband had some serious problems getting around in the winter. He had a rear wheel drive pickup that had worked been working just fine but that year was extra snowy. After several bad day, including one where he go to work only to be stuck on the uphill driveway and have to walk the last hundred yards or so, we started looking for a new vehicle for him. The main thing that we wanted was something with four wheel drive to make winter travel easier. He did a lot of checking around online and eventually we found a Ford Escape at Carmax that was within our budget. The problem? It happened to be white and for some reason my husband really didn't want a white car. However he talked himself into it by calling it a Hoth transport.

Since then we've had several different ideas about ways to customize as an Imperial Hoth vehicle. This weekend we finally decided to give one of those ideas a try. I came across Plasti-dip somehow on Pinterest and watched a couple of videos where people used it to detail their cars. Its not something that I know a lot about but it looked fairly easy. We decided to get a can and try to paint the Imperial symbol on the hood. If it worked out well we could add silhouettes on the side of defeated enemies and if the whole thing failed miserably we could always just peel everything off again.

The first step was making a stencil. I just traced the symbol onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out. We actually made an inverse of the usual symbol because it was easier to cut the stencil that way.

Some tips for cutting:

Don't try to cut all the way though on the first pass. If you just cut the top layer on the first pass you can have better control and stay on the pattern. Then when you do a second cut the blade will follow that cut and you can concentrate on getting through all the layers without worrying about messing up the design.

Always cut toward the center of the piece you are removing. If you cut to far it will be in the discarded bit no the part you wanted to keep.

After everything is cut out you should go back and check all the corners and clean them up a little.

Before

Make sure the car is clean and dry before you start. The instructions also recommend choosing a day with low humidity and winds. We started by making sure the stencil was centered and taping it in place. (Be sure to use tape that won't damage the finish on your car.) We also taped on some extra newspaper to make sure we didn't have problems around the outside of the pattern.

Use short overlapping strokes and multiple coats to build up a nice solid color. Here it is after the third coat.

The wind picked up while we did the last coat and we ended up getting some paint on the areas of the hood without paper. Also after removing the stencil you can see that it sprayed under the edges a bit.

In the close up above you can see where we've started to rub off some of the excess spray. It comes off fairly easily so we hope to be able to get it cleaned up some. I had envisioned the whole thing with a much crisper edge but it turned out with a kind of graffiti look. All in all a think it turned out really well, especially for a project unlike anything I've ever done before. That being said if we ever try it again I think we'll try to find a big sheet of stick on vinyl to use for the stencil so it gets that crisp edge. For now I think we're going to leave it as is and see how we like it over time. The great thing is if we decide it really is too sloppy we can just peel the whole thing off and start again.

Gallery Wall

This past week I finally managed to finish our Lego minifigure display and get it hung on the wall. That means that the photo gallery wall that I started working on more than a year ago is technically done. I say technically because we still have space for one more item but everything that I planned originally is up there.

The whole thing has been sitting at this point since my husband's birthday barbeque last year.

First of all I finally moved the photo collage into its frame and put that up.  When I originally started the wall I ordered the collage along with some the prints I used from our wedding photos. But when I went to pick them up they couldn't find the collage print anywhere and gave us a refund. Then the next week I started getting phone calls asking when I was coming in to pick up my order. By that time the rest of wall was already done and the picture hanging tools put away so the picture got tucked away somewhere and we ended up with an out of sight out of mind scenario. Not exactly because we saw the empty wall space but you know what I mean. Then yesterday afternoon I glued a picture hanger on the final Lego display and added that. Here's a shot of the entire area now.

The top left is a collage of pictures of our cats. Well all of our cats at the time. Obviously this didn't include Curry because he literally didn't exist yet. It includes my favorite picture of Caramel ever.

The center top is a shadow box with our wedding cake topper in it. Our wedding was in the fall and we make a cake topper that mimicked our invitations by twisting a leaf garland into a wreath and adding small faux chickadees. I actually have a scrap of fabric from the bridesmaid dresses that I intended to use as the backing in the shadow box but it is missing in action at the moment. Whenever it turns up I'll replace the paper so it has a more finished permanent look.

Top right is a family portrait for my husband's side of the family. Below that is a signed poster we got at free comic book day last year.

The bottom center is a floating frame filled with pictures from our wedding as well as one of our invitations.

Then in the bottom left is the finished Lego display. You can check it out here where I updated the original posts. As for that leftover space in the top row, we have a few ideas. One is to frame the portrait of Emmet that came with our special edition of the Lego Movie. Another is to put up a small shelf to hold some kind of figure or maybe our Lego Lex Luthor in Power Armor. However we're open to suggestions... Any great ideas out there?

 

Art Journal- Soup of the Day

Do you know the feeling you get when everything in your life is going right? When you finally start to get ahead on your bills and are able to start saving? The problem is that the feeling never seems to last long. We seem to be constantly running into issues that  break down our savings. Most recently this was taking our cat to the Vet. While we are super happy that he's feeling better right now we are struggling to balance all of our bills with our remaining funds. This art journal page relates to this situation.

It's based on the Documented Life prompt from the week of April 18th, " A lot on my plate". The art challenge was gelli plates but I don't have one so I didn't do that part. I actually started it at that time and had inspiration strike when we ordered chinese food. I had a fortune cookie that said "A clean tie attracts the soup of the day". I started by sketching in a bowl and added watercolor to the background.

It sat like this until this weekend when our increased stress inspired me to finally finish it. I printed out a bunch of photos to represent things that are going on in our lives. I made each one about an inch square and glued them in like the noodles in the soup. Some of the things are positive and some are stressful, like the piggy bank with the needle on empty.

After that I added a brownish yellow wash inside the bowl to look like broth for egg drop or chicken noodle soup. I also added more paint to the blue green splotched but I actually don't like the way that part turned out, I wished I had left it the way it was.

Finally I added some extra shading and a border on the bowl. My plan was to put the fortune in the upper left hand corner with some kind of flourish but right now I can't find that fortune. My husband and I order chinese a lot and I started saving all the fortunes years ago. I know it's here somewhere and I'll add it whenever it turns up.

Sick Cat Worries

I'm not posting anything about crafts today because I've been distracted by worrying about our cat Balder.

He Loves belly rubs!

I had actually been meaning to post an update on how all of our cats are getting along with the new kitten and how's he's fitting in. We've been happy to have him even though he brought home a cold and apparently ringworm. For the last few weeks the sneezing has died down and most of the ringworm spots were healing up. Balder hadn't had any spots until about two weeks ago he suddenly had about a  2 inch spot on one of his shoulders. Still everything seemed fine, we were medicating it regularly and it seemed to be starting to heal.

Tuesday morning everything was fine. He came and had breakfast with everyone and seemed to be doing well, but when I came home from work he was laying under an end table and didn't show any interest in coming out. When we feed the cats dinner he came but he was slow about it and my husband said it looked like his leg was hurting him. We have had problems before with him having a urinary tract infection and that made it uncomfortable for him to walk and jump. However the problems with Samira (our cat who passed last year) started out with her refusing to eat anything on her own so we were both concerned. Then yesterday when he didn't come out for breakfast we immediately called the Vet's office to schedule an appointment.

Balder as a much lighter colored kitten

We dropped him off at the Vet's around 9 and got a call around 10:30 to authorize some blood tests. Other then that we haven't heard anything. As of 5:30 last night they didn't have the results back and because of that decided to keep him there overnight. We have no idea what might be wrong with him and are super worried. We are hopeful everything will be fine, that it will be something easily treatable but at the same time terrified that we will lose him. So we are trying to keep busy and not dwell on things that are out of hands at the moment.

Update 8/16/15
So Thursday we didn't hear anything from the Vet's office until my husband called them in the afternoon. He found out that Balder had some type of gastrointestinal infection and a fever. They gave him a bunch of antibiotics and we got special food to help him out. He had a follow up appointment on Saturday to check on him. Balder loves to sleep by my husband at night so Jeremiah actually spent Thursday night on the floor next to him. Friday morning we woke up to find that he'd moved into the dining room to sit in the sun. It seemed like he'd been having trouble getting around but that meant that he was getting around better. He even came over to the food bowl but he only ate like two bites. So my husband fed him some of the special food and Balder laid back down on the blankets in the living room.

Later that day he wandered to the food bowl and ate some more on his own. He had some water and used the litter box, all of this were good signs. At dinner time he ate some of his food on his own but we had to force feed him the rest. Saturday morning we took him for his check up and his temperature was down. They said that we should bring him back on Monday for another check in unless he is eating on his own. If he is we just need to call them and let them know.

 When we got him home he totally ate all of his special breakfast food. We are excited that he seems to be feeling better. He has been eating whatever food we bring to him and snacking on the other food occasionally. He still doesn't come over to eat on his own, we have to take it to him but we are sure that he'll be feeling like himself again soon.

Honey Festival Game Handouts

Due to our trip out of town last weekend my husband is running his game two weekends in a row. (It usually alternates weekends with another campaign.) So I spent the weekend preparing for his next session. First of all I finished up the mansion map for the session on the 8th. I went back over all the lines with black marker so it would be easier for players to see from a distance. Then I started adding color. The ground floor and basement are entirely stone so I used a grey crayon to color in the large area. To add a bit of texture I actually colored on our cooler so it picked up a bit of the pebbly texture. The stairs and upper floors are brown to represent wood.

Next I used watercolor to create a pond in the courtyard and fill in the garden around it. I'm really happy with the way the ripples in the pool turned out but not so excited about the edge around it. I tried to add a bit of yellow to represent a bit of shore or more gradual change but it didn't work quite the way I envisioned. Still it turned out great overall. This particular location was destroyed in the course of the adventure but we plan to keep the map in case it might be useful for something later. Nothing says that another noble somewhere didn't use the same base plan.

Next week the party arrives in Port Leyer just in time for the annual honey festival. The adventure is connected both to the festival itself and to other people who are in town to celebrate. To help make locations more memorable we are trying to make up details for each town that are memorable. So for the upcoming game session I've made flyers for the Honey Festival and a menu for the inn where the party is staying.

I started out by making both in Photoshop and then added in some extra details after printing. And yes I do know that 'schedule' is spelled wrong. It was a typo that I didn't catch before I printed it and Bear said to just leave it. It just adds more character...maybe the poor town scribe can't spell, who knows.

I made the watercolor a bit too wet and it seeped under the stencil. I may try again before the weekend to see if I can get one with more clearly defined edges but if not its not a huge deal. I also have a version of the menu where I added splatters and drink rings using photoshop brushes I have. The plan is to cut them apart into separate menus and give everyone a copy as a fun in game handout.

Lazy Summer Days

Things have been pretty quiet around here this week. After being out of town for the weekend our Monday was packed full of errands. We needed groceries for the week and had an appointment with the Vet to get Curry the last of his kitten shots.

He's doing pretty well, getting along great with all the other cats now. A few weeks ago when we took him in we found out that he has ringworm and picked up some medication. So far the other cats have mostly avoided getting any spots but there have been a few. At Monday's visit we confirmed that everything is clearing up just fine. We still haven't unpacked everything from our trip or shelved the books we got at the Half-price Clearance sale in the morning before we left.

With the rain and the clouds its been difficult to get motivated for much of anything but I spent part of yesterday afternoon finishing up the map for my husband's game Saturday. The house has three stories and a basement which are all complete and ready to go.  I haven't added any of the color that I was hoping to do but I still have some time to work on it.

I've also been trying to finish putting together the Lego display that I posted about back at the start of June. When I tried to move it the hot glue fell apart so I needed to redo the entire thing. I keep meaning to post an update with information about what type of glue works best and a picture of the whole thing actually hanging on the wall but for one reason or another I've never gotten around to finishing it. The picture below shows the final layout but only a few pieces are currently glued down.

My plans for this upcoming week involve starting the embroidery for my quilt. I purchased the fabric the other day and it looks like embroidery floss is on sale this weekend so I can get all the colors I need. I just have to find a way to transfer the designs and get busy stitching.

Librocubicularist- July 2015

I didn't get much crafting done this past week because we were busy getting ready to go out of town for a wedding this weekend. The wedding took place in my old college town so I also had a chance to show my husband all the places I used to hang out. We had a really great, relaxing time. We had about a 4 hour drive each way and I spent a lot of that time taking pictures of clouds inspired by The Cloud Collector's Handbook (previously reviewed here) and its predecessor, The Cloud Spotter's Guide which I'm currently reading. Scroll down to check out July's book reviews and see more pictures from our drive.

Gelli Plate Printing: Mixed-Media Monoprinting Without a Press by Joan Bess

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


While I don't own a gelli plate I did do some monoprinting using plexiglass sheets years ago in college. After reading through this book I think that the two techniques are mostly interchangeable. The methods presented in this book include both additive and subtractive methods of making prints. There are instructions for creating layer, using masks, making your own texture plates and tools, and more. As I'm trying to get back into making more art and I think that printmaking could be really fun and easy way to do that. They can be created as stand-alone art or used as components for other types of art pieces.

Age Recommendations: Printmaking is simple enough for even very small kids to do but has enough variations to stay interesting for experienced adult artists. This book would be inspiring for all ages.



1,000 Any-Size Quilt Blocks by Linda Causee

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book provides exactly what its title advertises, tons of quilt blocks with templates that can be scaled and printed to make blocks in a variety of sizes. They are organized into sections for 4, 5, and 9 patch; plus stars, curved blocks, and foundation pieced blocks. The reason that I didn't give a higher rating is because this book doesn't provide many instructions. There is only a very brief bit at the start with information on printing the templates from the included CD and a short discussion of binding techniques. As a new quilter it's a little disappointing to see all the fun blocks but not have any indication of how much fabric to buy or exactly how to put them together.

Age/ Skill Recommendations: I think that quilting could be a great hobby for most age groups this book is obviously designed for people who have at a moderate to high level of quilting experience.



Quilt Lab: The Creative Side of Science: 12 Clever Projects by Alexandra Winston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This awesome book combines the arts and crafts with science. It starts out with an introductory section that talks about geometry and how it relates to quilting specifically. It includes formulas and charts to help calculate sizes and tips/ shortcuts for cutting various shapes without needing lots of extra templates and rulers. The main section is filled with project instructions for a variety of science themed quilts such as quilts based on fractals, binary, or a visual representation of sound waves. The book also contains inspiration and tips for creating your own science themed designs as well as an overview of quilt finishing techniques.

Age/Skill Recommendations:I think that having kids help come up with designs for science quilts could be really fun however I think most of the actual cutting and quilting would need to be done by an adult with some quilting experience.



The Legend of Luke by Brian Jacques

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If you've never read any of the Redwall series they are basically fantasy style novels for kids where all of the characters are mice or other woodland creatures. They have founded Redwall Abbey as a place where animals can live together in peace and safety. They band together against larger 'evil' animals. This particular book tells the story of Luke who is the father of Martin, the first warrior of Redwall.
I enjoy reading them because they are well written and entertaining but they also have fantastic descriptions for food and drink that we are currently using as inspiration for creating tavern menus for my husband's tabletop rpg campaign.

Age Recommendation: I think Redwall would be a good series to read aloud to kids at bedtime and it would also be suitable for older kids to read on their own.


Most of the pictures that I took have a lot of glare/ reflections because they were taken out the window or sunroof while we were driving but I did get a few that I really like.

Showing how NOT flat Kansas really is