Librocubicularist- May 2015

This past week seems like it has gone on forever. It has been raining almost non-stop and there have been thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, and flash floods in the area. We have been really stressed out due to water pooling in our yard, near our foundation, making us afraid of flooding, as well as the fact that Gil doesn't like the weather. He doesn't like to go outside when it's raining but at the same time, he doesn't want to be cooped up inside either. On top of all that my husband was working extra long hours due to some issues at work and involved in making arrangments to try and fix some of our financial issues. The past two days have mostly sunny and I've never been so relieved by the weather in my life.

In an effort to distract me from the weather, my Mom and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby and I found out they have some cool DC comics charms and lockets. I'm really broke right now so I can't buy them but I'm trying to think of something really cool I could make. I definitely need a Wonder Woman locket.

Wanderlust Quilts: 10 Modern Projects Inspired by Classic Art & Architecture by Amanda Leins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The quilts in this book were not quite what I expected. . . although to be honest I don't really know what I did expect. I checked this out from the library because the idea of quilts inspired by architecture intrigued me. The designs are based on a variety of features from egg and dart molding to patterns in ancient floor mosaics. My favorite quilt is the on inspired by the look of draped fabric on Greek sculptures. It manages to capture that flowy look on a flat quilt which is pretty cool and the resulting quilt has an irregular shape which looks like it would curve just right to tuck over your lap on a chilly afternoon. Because so many of these projects use either irregular shapes or fancy stitching I felt they were above my skill level and I admit I didn't really read much of the instructions so I can't speak to how well-written they may be. Overall, while I won't be making any of these anytime at all soon I still found this book to be interesting and inspiring.



Amy Butler's Style Stitches: 12 Easy Ways to 26 Wonderful Bags by Amy Butler

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


While this book has great instructions, most of the bags are just way to big for my taste. Like a 21 by 17-inch handbag big. I actually think a lot of the bags featured in this book are cute I just don't know when I'd use them. The purse I currently use is 5 by 7 and it holds everything I need for every day. I do occasionally use larger tote bags for things like grocery shopping and hauling library books so maybe I could make on to use for that.

Celebritrees: Historic & Famous Trees of the World by Margi Preus

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This a fun little book about famous trees around the world including General Sherman in Sequoia National Park and the Tree That Owns Itself. There's a short story about each tree and it's age, then a section at the back with more general information about the types of trees. There's also additional material about conservation and how to learn more about the trees presented in the book. Even though it's intended for kids I really liked this book. I like nature and the outdoors, especially trees and clouds, and the idea of a tree that owns itself is really cool.



The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful by Myquillyn Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is all about how to love the house you have. It focuses on working with the house you have and a budget you can afford instead of putting things off, waiting for the perfect house, or being frozen with indecision because you are afraid of making the wrong choice. The author covers a variety of topics such as deciding the purpose of your home, learning to take risks, and how to stop your fear of imperfection.
There is a lot of information about changes that are renter friendly as well as money saving. The overall emphasis is on just doing something. If you don't like it you can always try again, it's easy to repaint and redo a lot of projects. It has actually inspired me to get back to work on our house. We have several projects that we've been putting off for a variety of reasons, including simple indecision, which this book addresses very well.
On a final note, I should mention that I found this book in the religion section of my library, not the decorating section. Throughout the book, there is a message of learning to be content with what you have and making the most of what God has given you. Only the final chapter of the book actually focuses on the religious aspects and I felt that it added to the overall effect of the book instead of detracting. However, if you are extremely anti-religion then it's not going to be a good book for you.

On of the things this book has inspired me to is to fix our living room curtains. They actually were perfectly acceptable the way they were except for one thing, they were difficult to open. Due to being located behind our giant sectional sofa they are difficult to pull so we rarely opened them making our dark living room even darker. We thought that adding curtain rings would make things easier but I could never decide what type or color of rings would be best. Last week we had a mark down at work and a bunch of curtain rings were clearanced. So I bought a few pack and put them up and I'm very glad I did. It has made the living room much brighter. Not only do we open the curtains more but they also pull farther to the side so they let in more light than ever. We are also thinking of painting our hallway, something we haven't done in the 6 years we've lived here because I could never decide on a color.

I'm super happy with our changes so far and can't wait to get started making our house more awesome.

New Posting Schedule

When I started the Eclectic Otter around a year ago, I was super excited. I had a bunch of ideas for things that I could make and do, and for the first bit, I was really happy with how things were going. But over the last few months, I feel like things have gone downhill and that I've really been stretching to find something to write about. There are several things that play a factor in that, the first of which is a shift in the demands on my time.

The biggest change there is the dog. Getting a dog was not my idea, it was my husband who just didn't feel completely at home without one. However, due to our work schedules, I'm the one who spends the most time with Gil, which means that if I want him to be a calm, well-behaved dog I'm the one who has to work on training him. I knew going in that I'd have to play a role in his training, I just never realized how large a role it would be. While I know that it's okay to send him to his kennel for a while to get things done I feel bad about it, especially when he's being well behaved. But at the same time, I don't trust him to not get into everything if I'm distracted while trying to make something.

Look how big he's getting!

Besides the time spent with Gil himself, there are several other related time sinks. We have a large amount of brush that we want to clear out of our yard so he has more space to play unobstructed, and we need to vacuum about twice as often even though he's a short haired dog.

The other major factor that is affecting my ability to create awesome stuff is money issues. We don't have a ton of money problems but we are really trying to pay down some of our debts and save up for some major home repairs/ updates. That combination doesn't always leave a lot of spare cash for craft supplies in the budget.

Overall the experience of trying to find something to write about that is both quick and cheap has been stressful and I've been unhappy with the results. I want to try and make some changes that will allow me to keep posting but get back to having fun while I do. I have several projects that I want to do that are definitely going to be more long term. They are things where I don't feel like three days of progress is going to produce results that are worth sharing.

So I've been thinking about reducing the frequency of my posts. On one hand I only want to post when I feel I have something worth talking about, but on the other I think having some sort of schedule has been a motivation to get things done. As a sort of compromise between the two I've decided on a schedule of every other week with additional posts if I have something cool to write about. This should give me plenty of time for some of the more long-term projects I'd like to try. (Like attempting to rebind my husband's set of Wheel of Time paperbacks into super awesome leather hardcover books.) It means that if I continue to do book reviews, I only need to commit to one craft post a month. Surely I finish one thing a month right? I think so.

I know the timing is a bit off but the plan right now is to do this month's book reviews Monday the 30th and then start the new schedule posting every 2nd and 4th Monday starting June 13th.

Gilgamesh Goes to the Dog Park

Yesterday was a really big day for our puppy, Gilgamesh. 

We took him to the dog park for the first time. 

There are actually a quite a few dog parks in the area but none of them are super close, so the trip started with a long car ride. He's gotten much better about car trip but by the end he was barking, wondering, "Are we there yet?".

We headed out to Shawnee Mission Park because people whose opinions we trust have been there before and had no problems. I didn't know this, but they also have access to the lake so your dog and swim. We've never taken Gil in the water and weren't planning to do so this trip. However, later this summer, when it gets super hot out that will be a great thing to know.

Since he isn't really great at coming when he's called we were hesitant to let him off leash much, but wanted him to have the chance to be exposed to other dogs. He was a little freaked out by the sheer number of both dogs and people but stayed fairly calm. He stuck pretty close to both of us but still enjoyed meeting new dogs.

 The whole area was packed, especially near the water. We eventually found a quiet spot so he could investigate.

Eventually, he seemed relaxed enough that we decided to try a little off leash time. He quickly got into a game of chase with another pup, but unfortunately, ended up shoulder deep in the lake. It all ended well but we didn't come prepared for a wet dog. At the end of the day, my poor husband was covered in mud but Gil seemed to enjoy himself so it's a win.

He was almost completely dry before we got back home and almost immediately feel asleep.

Quiet Days Off

In spite of the fact that I somehow had both Monday and Tuesday off of work this week, I have accomplished next to nothing...

Okay, really that's not true. In my mind, I did a lot, just not a lot that was productive. Monday I had to go to the library. It was part regular library trip, part embarrassed that I have to pay for a damaged book trip. A while back, I checked out this book about hot dogs. It came up when I was searching for books about dogs and I thought huh, that might be kind of interesting. I mistakenly left it at the end of the couch while I tried to do a few dishes. I came around the corner to check on Gil and he was under the coffee table chewing the corner...

Because we all know dogs LOVE hot dogs

Luckily, I got it away before he did much more than chew the corner, but it's still enough damage we had to pay the library for it. On the plus side, since none of the pages are damaged it's still a perfectly useable book.

After taking care of that unpleasant errand I had lunch with my parents. I played with Gil a bit and then ended up taking a short nap. Gil was mostly well behaved and I had time to read my new library books without him attacking them.

Then Tuesday I had planned to be productive. I had some vague idea about crafting things and I thought I might mow the lawn. But then in the morning, I had problems breathing and it had rained so the grass was wet anyways and I decided it would be too much trouble. The main factor that kept me from being more active however was Gil. He spent most of the morning sitting quietly next to me on the couch chewing one of his toys. At this point, him sitting calmly is still an anomaly and I was afraid if I started moving around the house he'd get all worked up and out of control. So I stayed put and read some more.

I finally had to leave to get some lunch but even after I came back he behaved very well. We took a nice walk and even made a short visit to Petsmart.

Wednesday was back to work, and it wasn't a good day. We were understaffed and I ended up having to stay late because we were busy. By the time I got home, I was exhausted and my muscles ached, so nothing got done then either. I'm hoping that it might stay sunny today so that I can at least mow our front yard before the rain forecast for Friday evening arrives.

Mother's Day Weekend

My husband and I enjoyed a nice quiet weekend. Even though we really didn't have much going on it was also a pretty eventful time as well.

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. Since we have visited multiple shops previous years, I decide to take the off from work this year so we wouldn't feel rushed. However, it turns out that this year we were in and out. We didn't have to wait in a big line and we managed to pick up all the comics we really cared about from a single location. (The only one we didn't find that I was kind of interested in was the Assasin's Creed comic.)

We also picked up Transformers #1 and #2 of the DC Bombshells series as well as a pair of Hellboy novels, titled Ice Wolves and Fire Wolves. I don't really know if the two books are connected in any way yet but either way, it'll be interesting.

Then we had a couple of hours to just hang out and have lunch before my husband left for his Pathfinder game. I knew when I took the day off that it would be a game weekend and we decided not to cancel it. Instead, I spent a nice afternoon hanging out with my Mom and the dog then did some housework in the evening.

Then on Sunday, we slept in which is always nice. Then my husband mowed the lawn. . . Well mostly mowed the lawn since rain was coming, while Gil and I took a short walk around the neighborhood. Then we had lunch and grocery shopping to take care of. It started to rain before we were even through with lunch. The weather made our animals sad. Here's Curry looking out the back window and watching the rain, wishing for the sunshine.

We made a lovely Mother's Day dinner for my family; salad with apple,pear, and strawberries, sun-dried tomato stuffed chicken, herbed noodles, and roasted squash. We had intended to grill the squash and chicken but because of the rain we just baked everything. Then we finished up with berry monkey-bread and ice cream.

Searching for a Missing Piece

This week I managed to find some time to get back to work on my embroidered quilt squares. While I didn't manage to get much done, I was just happy that I was able to actually sit and stitch for 10 minutes without the dog trying to eat my project. It was more exciting than it really should have been... Especially since he totally ruined it later that evening when he grabbed everything off the couch, knocked the hoop open, and ran off with the fabric. But he is getting better at staying calm and that is exciting. It gives me something to look forward too.

I finished the Zelda owl and his text bubble but need to add in a branch for him to sit on.

I've also almost finished my version of Sonic. I just have to finish up his face.

That means I have three of the four squares finished. I've decided that I want at least six embroidered squares for the quilt so I'll still need to find two more designs. I'm thinking of using this x-wing coloring page I found to make one but that still leaves a missing piece to fill in.

 I've been trying to come up with either a good book reference or maybe something related to tabletop role-playing games like DnD. So far my best ideas are a cute Hufflepuff badger or a d20, but I'm open to suggestions.

Rainy Day Blues

The rainy weather all week really messed me up. Between worries about our yard getting swampy and flooded and the dog not liking to go outside in the rain, it was kind of a stressful time. Then my husband accidentally got his phone wet so we spent a big part of Sunday at the phone store. Then finally I also am not feeling the best because all the weather is making my sinus/ allergy problems act up. So I didn't make anything or do anything exciting this weekend to post about.

All I have to offer is this picture of our puppy wishing it would quit raining so he could play outside.