Eclipse Watching, Books, and Crazy Things

It's been almost 3 weeks since the big solar eclipse and I am finally getting around to posting the few pictures and things I have. We had stormy weather here so the actual event was a bit disappointing but we had a good time going out anyway. We packed an umbrella and some dry clothes in case of rain plus a small picnic lunch and headed out to Weston Bend State Park. We live directly in the path of the eclipse but driving slightly north but us in the path of totality. There were all kind of articles out beforehand with tips involving avoiding traffic and such so we planned to leave super early in the morning.

This was the weather when we left the house around 7:30. Not great but not completely overcast either. We had absolutely no trouble with traffic getting there.  My initial plan was to park near one of the hiking trails and head down near the shore of the river so we'd been in a more open area but when we got there the parking was full. We would have had to walk way too far, carrying way too much stuff especially given the high potential of rain. We eventually set up at the scenic overlook. Tiny Wonder Woman joined us on the adventure and helped to record data for NASA research using the Globe Observer App. You can read more about it here.

We did get some rain but sheltered by the trees it wasn't too bad. At the very beginning of the eclipse, it was still only partly cloudy and we could see little glimpses of the sun through the clouds. Unfortunately, as it got closer to the totality it got cloudier so we weren't able to see the sun at all at that point. We did get to see it get darker as the shadow came across the river and that was neat. Here's some video of the event. It is actually two videos that I stitched together and speed up to double speed. The first part shows how dark it got and the second shows it getting lighter out.

This is what the sky looked like as we were leaving, very pretty and misty but it does not bode well for us.

It started raining before we got even 10 minutes down the road on the way home. It took us about twice as long to get home as it did to get there. It was mostly due to weather although we did hit a small bit traffic, that was only maybe 10 minutes of slow down. The bigger problem was the issues with our foundation that I mentioned a few posts back. Because there has been so much rain and flooding in the area we aren't able to get anyone out to look at it until the end of September. There were several waves of storms that hit the area that Monday and we had a mess on our hands. We ended up needing to clean everything out of two closets in our house and have pulled the carpet in our guest room to stop mold from growing. Luckily most of our things actually came out alright. I did have some fabrics that bleed but they seem to have come clean with the help of some oxygen bleach.

We have been busy trying to get everything cleaned up and ready for repairs. We are also in the process of decluttering the house for a variety of reason, not the least of which is that we currently have no place to store the things we moved from our guest room since they can't go back in until we manage to get repairs completed. We never intended to stay in this house forever and the recent problems with the flooding we are considering moving up that timeline. Even so, repairs still have to be made regardless. In addition to all of this, we had previously decided to move forward with infertility plans and that has resulted in my having doctors appointments about every day off that I get. Overall it's a bit overwhelming and I don't think that I'll be able to keep up a regular posting schedule going forward. I don't intend to quit the blog because it has been great motivation and I love sharing my creations when I've finally completed a big project, just don't expect it to be very regular for a while.

Since I've missed them the last few months, and I'm not sure when I might be able to post again I thought I'd end this post with a few book reviews.

Star Wars Millennium Falcon Owner's Workshop Manual by Ryder Windham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Written as a repair manual for the YT-1300 with specific information about the Falcon, in particular, I had a lot of fun reading this book. There are lots of specifics and diagrams to the point where you could probably build a very accurate cockpit replica for like a computer gaming room or kids bunk bed sort of thing using this for reference. It also includes excerpts from original marketing materials for the YT-1300, and information about the history of the Falcon and its previous owners.




Food Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of Our Edible World by Julia Rothman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a cute little book of illustrations about food and eating. It kind of makes me think of Richard Scary books for adults. There is an entire two-page spread showing different shapes of pasta. There is information about kinds of sushi, place settings around the world, and sandwiches for various regions. Overall, it is a very interesting book to browse through. If I had one complaint, it would be that sometimes the cursive captions can be difficult to read but I really had few problems with it.




A Year of Picnics: Recipes for Dining Well in the Great Outdoors by Ashley English

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really, REALLY want to be the kind of person who takes lots of picnics. I like to be outside and I like to eat so it seems great. But somehow that never seems to happen. Maybe this book will help with that. Not only does it have recipes for picnic foods but each picnic follows a theme. They include tips for choosing the right site and suggestions for activities with each picnic. There is also information about the best ways to carry your picnic and tips for planning a menu that fits your site. For example, they plan a mountain top picnic and mention that if you are hiking to your location, that you want to pack things that are lighter and maybe don't require lots of extra like silverware or cups.

I am currently working on making the shirt and belt from the Bombshell Wonder Woman pattern to go with my shorts. I hope to have them done by the end of the month because we have a superhero day at work I could wear it for. Currently researching and price checking things for another costume, making space mice to sit with our Voltron lions and a coffee table makeover. My husband has started playing Witcher and it made me curious about the books so I've started reading those as well. It may take me a bit to get through them all since I tend to read things mostly through the library but I may review them later. Follow me on Facebook if you're interested in being notified about future posts, I promise I will get around to my projects in time.

Dog Bandana

It has been a great weekend for Gil. I had the day off Friday and we went for a walk at the park with my parents. After his excitement on Wednesday, he was pleased to meet some well-behaved dogs out walking with their own people as well. Made him feel better about life in general, restored his faith in dogmanity or something like that. Then I spent the afternoon making him a bandana.

DIY Dog Bandana

Materials:

1/2 yard cotton fabric
Matching thread
Paper for template

Step One: Make a template

I actually used a template that I found on this blog. The instructions said to enlarge it 200% but when I did it looked much too big, so I made another at 150%. All you need to do is make a triangle as long as you want the bandana from top to point plus a few inches on top to make a pocket. The length needs to be big enough to fit around your dog's neck.

The red line shows the pattern I made at 200% the blue 150%

Step Two: Cut fabric

I actually made my bandana slightly different than the previous tutorial suggested. The template is made to be placed on a fold, both along the side and one top so that it makes it's own lining. I cut it with a fold only on the side.

Step Three: Sew Edges

Fold each edge over a quarter inch and iron, then fold over again. Stitch all the way around the edges.

Step Four: Fold Over and Sew Pocket

Fold the top section in down and sew it in place.

Even with the template being made smaller it still turned out a little big on Gil. I'm not sure what happened. I think maybe it got enlarged some already when I first printed it. But since I didn't have it made for Easter this year and Gil is still growing, I didn't want it to look to small and silly next year.

I really think this fabric is cute. The dog in bunny ears is my favorite and I like the fact that you can find the dog that stepped in the dye and made all the footprints.

I also worked a daytime shift on Saturday (usually I work the evening/closing shift) so Gil didn't have to be kenneled while my husband went to his game night. We had a very nice evening hanging out in the backyard, enjoying the nice weather.

Then yesterday, we grilled for the first time since we adopted Gil. He had a lot of fun hanging out with us both outside and smelling meat. We didn't share this time because we were having steaks but maybe next time. He did get to have a special treat of Dogsters ice-cream. He LOVED it!

We also had some nice clouds to enjoy while we cooked.

Crazy Week

I had a bit of a crazy week. On one hand nothing really that terrible happened. On the other hand a bunch of small things all piled up to make it kind of stressful overall. Thursday should have been an easy day at work but I ended up working with a single customer for over an hour and had to call my manager over for questions three separate times. Meanwhile there was only one other employee at the cutting counter trying to keep up with all the other customers. Plus,even though it was super warm last week, it snowed on my way to work.

Also we've been trying to save up to take my car in because I need to get my alignment fixed and this weekend my husband's service engine light and brake fluid lights came on. We've added brake fluid and that fixed one problem but the engine light is still on so now we have to get that checked out too.

We've also got all sorts of errands and cleaning that we need to get done for our Pi Day party so we were busy over the weekend as well. That being said we did get our invitations sent out and the wax seal worked wonderfully.

 

Hopefully we can get enough done so that we can relax and enjoy ourselves by next weekend... At least we had some nice sunsets this week.

Sick and Tired

So.... I'm sorry to say that I'm still sick. Not in a really sick need to stay home from work and focus on getting better way, but in a just have a cold and my nose hurts from blowing it too much and I'm too tired to do much besides read after I get off work kind of way.

Needless to say I accomplished nothing this weekend. I have several projects that I wanted to work on including more stitching and organizing our laundry room but, you know, stuff happens. Also since I spent a lot of time reading I found a character I'd like to cosplay (If I could ever find the time and money to go to a convention to cosplay at that is.) Atlanna, the mother of Arthur Curry/ Aquaman from the New 52 looks really badass. I also like that she's mostly covered up so I wouldn't feel too awkward about the fact that I'm getting pudgy around the middle.

Let's see, what else is going on with us? My husband is super unhappy because he has to report for jury duty today. We are starting to make plans for our 2nd annual Pi day party. At this point mostly work on the guest list so we know how many invites and favors we need to make.... and thinking about what kind of favors we want to make.

Not much else to talk about other than I took a bunch of cool cloud pictures yesterday while my husband aired his tires at the gas station.

Rain + Snow = Craft Day

I'm a bit disappointed in myself because I haven't accomplished much lately. I've had plenty of spare time but not much motivation. That is partly due to the weather, it's been grey and cloudy here for quite a while. We had snow two days last week but not enough to do anything besides makes the roads bad for a few hours. 

Taken to remind me even grey skies have some beauty

The weather today was fantastic. Sunny and 45 degrees. We had a lovely day, lunch at Lidia's for the end of KC restaurant week, some shopping, and a trip to the newly reopened Central Library to check out the Maker Space. I snapped this cardinal while we waited to be seated.

I hope to be more productive tomorrow. Since the forecast calls for a mix of rain and snow my big plans are to stay home and craft. I finally found all the fabric squares I was going to embroider for my quilt and am going to get started on that. We are also starting to plan for our Pi Day party so I'm trying to come up with ideas for invitations and favors to craft.

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

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