Librocubicularist- January 2017

This time of year is always slow for me, things at work aren't as busy and my hours end up being cut way back. Yet somehow I never seem to get anything done. I had three full days off last week and it seems like I accomplished nothing but doing laundry. Granted, it was a giant pile of laundry but that doesn't really make it feel any more productive. I think that the combination of needing time alone to recover from the bustle of the holidays and daydreaming about things that I hope to accomplish in the new year prevent any actual forward momentum.

However, I've noticed one area where I seem to excel during this season and that's reading. It's a combination of having time to finish everything I started reading at Christmas but was too busy to actually complete and, as mentioned before the need for quiet, introverted time.

Sticky Fingers: DIY Duct Tape Projects - Easy to Pick Up, Hard to Put Down by Sophie Maletsky

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I checked this out because I was curious about all the duct tape stuff and I've never made any. This book has a fairly extensive section about basic techniques such as make strips and fabric, also various types of closures you can add. Then there are a ton of different projects you can make. As someone in my late 30's I doubt that I'm going to start carrying a purse made of duct tape but some of them are kind of cute. I'd be most likely to use the instruction for smaller things like flowers for the end of a pen or a desk organizer. However, even though I'm not super interested in the projects I still think that this book is well done and the instructions seem good and easy to follow so if you're interested in making your own tape creations it's definitely worth a look.


Cat Castles: 20 Cardboard Habitats You Can Build Yourself by Carin Oliver

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a great little book about building cat houses from cardboard. It covers everything from regular cat towers and scratchers to rockets and pirate ships, and even an actual castle for your kitties. Everything looks fairly easy to build and really sturdy. The only thing I question is how well they'd hold up to my nearly 20-pound cat, particularly those with multiple levels. Overall I really feel like they would hold up well and last a reasonable amount of time compared to the time they take to build. That being said I probably won't be making on anytime soon, mostly because I feel like my dog would try to eat the box and wreck everything... He really is why the poor cats can't have nice things...but he seems to be at least starting to grow out that phase.


Artist's Journal Workshop: Creating Your Life in Words and Pictures by Cathy Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first couple of chapters deal with figuring out what you want out of a journal: what do hope to get out of keeping one?, how often will you write/draw in it?, what will you write about, etc. This section also contains ideas about what format or book style you might like and supplies to try out. There are examples of journal pages provided to show different results using each material.
The second section deals with different types of journals you can keep from nature or travel journals to integrated journals where everything mixes together. There are numerous examples and ideas of what kinds of thing to include for each type.
The final section is all about tying everything together. It provides tips for keeping yourself motivated and evaluating what's working for you and what's not.
The whole book is filled with examples of pages created by a variety of artists, which I think is really helpful in an introductory book like this because it showcases multiple styles. It can be easy to feel defeated by a new project sometimes if your results don't match up with what's pictured and I think seeing multiple people's take on a project can relieve some of the pressure leave you freer to experiment with your own ideas. There is also a fairly extensive resources section at the back that includes information about all the artist who contributed and where to see more of their work as well as listing other books about journaling. The final bit to mention is that this book has extra content available online where you can download PDFs of extended interviews with some of the contributing artists.


World of Warcraft: The Official Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Nearly everything in this book looks delicious (not a big fan of seafood in general). While I did play Warcraft for a little while it wasn't long enough for any of the foods to make a big impression on me. My husband, however, has played almost continually for a very long time and he vouches for the fact that they are accurate, at least as far a possible for 'imaginary' foods.

I guess that I haven't been completely ignoring my crafting goals. In the last few weeks, I've been looking for tips for sewing with knits since I have two separate projects I'd like to make with knit fabric but have never sewn with it before. I've also looked up what exactly a capsule wardrobe is even though I don't REALLY need to know. I have plans to make a mini vacation wardrobe so that I can feel like I'll look good in pictures without having to stress over what to wear each day. I just was curious to know the actual definition before I claim to have created one. So now I know and I'm working on figuring out what I have that works together and what I want to sew. I know that part of what I want is to sew the DC Bombshells version of the Wonder Woman costume. I doubt that I'd wear it as the whole thing together on vacation but the shorts could be cute with a tank top or one of my Wonder Woman tees. At least there are some things in the planning stage if no actual physical progress on anything yet.

Crafting Resolutions

With the start of the new year, it's time to reflect on the past and make plans for the future. I started the Eclectic Otter almost two years ago as part of a new year's resolution to ACTUALLY finish some of the many crafting projects I had purchased materials for and either never completed or in some cased even started. I hoped that the need to have something to write about would provide some much-needed motivation and accountability for me. This past year I've completed several craft projects for our pets that were new additions to the ever growing craft to do list and checked off a large project by finishing the Zelda string art that was previously only a vague idea in my head. I also had the opportunity to help my husband decorate his cube for Christmas and we turned it into a Hoth themed winter wonderland.

 It's hard to tell in this picture but there are snowflake ornaments hanging from the ceiling. One the shelf on the left we have Lego Minifigures around the Christmas tree, plus a wampa of Perler beads in the background. Snow blanket on the desk and icicle trim on the shelf along with the icicle lights, complete the theme.

There's also a Lego snow speeder, Perler AT-AT, and some festive signs. Oh, and the Vader mug that's always there.

I've spent the last few weeks trying to get my thoughts into some kind of order concerning my goals for which projects I want to tackle in the upcoming year. I admit that I'm still a bit at a loss. I have a stash of fabric that continues to grow because it's hard to pass up cute prints when you work at the fabric store and see them daily. I have several things that I bought without a plan for I wanted to make. I'd really like to make a dent in the stack since it's starting to take up more room than I have available for storage but I don't feel like sewing posts are particularly entertaining for people to read. Of course, the other side of the argument is that I'm keeping the blog for my own motivation not the entertainment of others. Although, I am thinking of making a mini wardrobe for an upcoming vacation that might become Wonder Woman themed so that could be interesting if it works out.

I also have plans to try and rebind one of my husband's old Eye of the World books and try out some new techniques such as marbling my own paper. I also want to finish redoing our little entryway nook but that's also a bit cost prohibitive because I feel like I need some new tools to really do it right. So right now those are my very general craft goals for the year. As part of the reflection process, I saw someone on one of my Facebook groups talk about reviewing the books they've read and choosing a top and bottom five for the year. I like that idea and think I might make a list for my book post this month.

In other news, our pup, Gilgamesh Wuffenbark, had his first Christmas and also turned one over the weekend. He got a peanut butter and jelly filled bone and brand new tennis ball for his birthday.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and wonderful new year.

Christmas Librocubicularist 2016

Since Christmas day was Sunday I am posting a day late. We had a great time. I worked on Christmas Eve and then we spent the whole day Sunday doing nothing. We exchanged presents in the morning, including a gift for Gilgamesh's first Christmas, had brunch, and watched movies all day (the final Harry Potter movies and Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer). I got a couple of ponies and a Lego mini figure pack, a Wonder Woman decal, the Jurassic World pack for Lego Dimensions, and angry panda socks to wear when I'm having a bad day all in my stocking. Then I got a cool coloring book and the best otter shirt ever as gifts from my wonderful husband. Plus a gift card to get a pretty book from Barnes and Noble, there is also a Zelda phone wallet still coming in the mail.

I'm upset because I have a few days off in a row and ended up with a sore throat. I'm trying to sleep and rest and feel better but it doesn't seem fair that I have to spend my holidays sick. It's extra frustrating because I can't keep a kleenex around without the dog trying to eat it. Then Monday we had Christmas dinner with my brother and sister in law and their roommate. We grilled the turkey and it turned out awesome. From them, I got a Wonder Woman coloring book and a LOTR Lego pack with Gimli.

Anne of Green Gables Cookbook by Kate Macdonald

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This cookbook is a collection of recipes that Anne made for various teas throughout the books. It starts out with some cooking tips and an overview of cooking terms. While I probably won't be making tea biscuits or raspberry cordial anytime soon the recipes seem easy to follow and good for kids to try. For me, this book is mostly about fond memories for the books. The cookbook is sprinkled with quotations from Anne and others in the series.


Cattastic Crafts: DIY Project for Cats and Cat People by Mariko Ishikawa

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book contains fairly simple crafts to make for your cats such as catnip mice or small shirts. My favorite cat project is a cat tower designed like nesting end tables, so you can spread it out to give your cats more room to play or stack it together to make room when you have company over for dinner. There is also a section of things to make for yourself that either look like cats (cat shaped tissue cozy) or use pictures of cats (cat t-shirts).

365 Things to Do with LEGO Bricks by Simon Hugo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book has all sorts of cool things to do with Lego bricks. There are games you can make for both single or multi-player, as well as building challenges you can try. There are all sorts of things you can build for yourself such as a weekly planner that uses mini figures for each member of the family and a working mini battleship game. There are accessories for your home, some more practical than others. There's a desk organizer that looks very useful but also a kitchen utensil holder that makes me cringe a bit when I think of trying to keep it clean. There are also various Lego contraptions to make which sound like they'd be super fun for kids. Heck, I'm 37 and I think a paper airplane launcher would be fun to play with so it should be even better for kids. Overall, I think if you are a fan of Lego that this book will provide you with plenty of inspiring ways to use for collection.

DIY String Art: 24 Designs to Create and Hang by Jesse Dresbach

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book starts out with a very nice overview of materials, tips to prepare your board and pattern, and even a few creative tips for planning out your design. After that, it runs through 24 projects, each with a pattern you can print. They are rated in difficulty from 1 at the beginner level to 3 for more complex projects at the end of the book. The basic designs tend to be either outlines or filled shapes, while the harder projects include spirograph style circles and spirals.

Christmas Crafting

Last year at this time, I took a blogging break due to busyness at work. Since I've reduced my posting schedule this year, I thought I would be able to keep up without the break. That being said, I don't actually have a whole lot of to show you.

I decided to try my hand at designing some geeky paper snowflakes. After thinking a bit about this year's happenings in geekdom, I decided to go for Wonder Woman and Pokemon as my subjects. I know there are already a few Wonder Woman templates out there but with the new movie coming out soon I wanted to try my own version. My husband and a bunch of his co-workers were super excited about the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon so that seemed like an obvious and relevant thing to try. I had meant to make even more with other themes after that but time got away from me.

This was my first Wonder Woman attempt. For the most part, I think it turned out well but I thought giving the lasso more loops would make it fancier.

This is the revision. I really like how it turned out. I cut it out of tissue paper to make it easier to cut the tiny bits but that made it very flimsy, so if I was going to use them to decorate I'd probably use an Exacto knife to cut it from regular craft paper.

                                       

Then I moved on to Pokemon Sun and Moon. I started by making a snowflake with the Moon symbol on the outside. I didn't ever cut the center out which would have made it better but I still feel like it needs a little something in the center.

                                     
The second Sun and Moon snowflake where I placed the symbols in the other order. I like this version better because I feel like the Sun points on the outside make it more flake like. This one got folded a little bit unevenly so some of the outside points ended up cut off.

In other new, I've been sewing pillowcases. First, made a couple of simple ones as a gift for a friend of ours, using Pokemon fabric.

When we were first married I put up a string of lights on our four-poster bed at Christmas time but our current house doesn't have high enough ceilings for us to have the posts on. So when I found this amazing Star Wars Christmas fabric I decided we should make a pillowcase set to dress our bedroom up for the season again. I used a Star Wars font to create the embroidery designs for the edges, but right now only one of them is done.

I just need to finish trimming the jump stitches.

The other should be finished soon, and I'm also planning to make a sign for above the headboard using this design from Urban Threads. It will be stitched on the same purple fabric from the pillow borders and I'm replacing the pink hearts with a lavender.

Our tree is up and it has lights. So far it seems like Gilgamesh is going to leave it alone. He does bump it with his tail accidentally as he walks by and occasionally tries to drink tree water. I am going to try and add a few ornaments later today but nothing too low where it might get knocked down by a frisky puppy tail. Also, our cats will have to deal without the tree skirt. They love sitting on it like a blanket and watching the lights but Gil keeps trying to chew up anything fabric/ blanket like so I don't think we're going to put it out.

If you like the snowflakes I made please check out this post from last winter where I collected patterns for various geek snowflakes from around the web.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Librocubicularist- November 2016

It's November, which for me means big sales and increased hours at work, in addition to all of the chores and stress that accompany Thanksgiving and preparations for Christmas. As a result. my reading always drops around this time. I was looking back over it and I seem to read about half as many books in November versus other months.

This year has gone pretty smoothly. Last year, our store extended our Black Friday sales event so it spanned four days (Wed, Fri, Sat, and Sun) instead of just Friday and Saturday. That seems to have helped to take some of the pressure off. You still end up working just as many long hours but the stress is lower because everyone isn't shopping all at once.

We kept Thanksgiving small because we both had only one day off and decided we didn't want to spend that entire time cooking. We ended up eating finger foods (cheese and crackers, dip, a veggie tray) and playing Apples to Apples. The rest of the weekend was mostly working and sleep. My wonderful husband purchased some bath bombs from da Bomb bath fizzers to help me recover from the Black Friday sale days so I got some fun little trinkets.

I had a Super Hero and a Ninja Bomb

Then yesterday, even though it was cold and rainy, we went out to choose our Christmas tree.

We looked for a slightly skinnier tree this year so we'd have a bit of buffer space to protect it from Gil's tail wagging. We've never had any trouble with the cats trying to get in the tree but I'm a little worried they might try to hide from dog there, so we're going to move really slow with our decorating. It still needs a bit of straightening but it smells wonderful and helped but me in more of a holiday spirit.

Here're a few of the books that I did manage to squeeze in this month.

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia

My Rating: Unfinished- 2 Stars

I ended up having to return this book to the library before I finished it, and I'm mostly okay with that. It sounds like it should be a really awesome book, like Hellboy if they were a for-profit company not part of the government. For whatever reason, I just didn't ever have a real connection to the story or any of the characters. Part of the reason is the amount of gun talk. I don't know much about guns and the characters in this book all have fancy, customized guns which they talk about and describe in detail. Since I can't really follow these conversations all they do is interrupt the flow of the story.


The Dangerous Book for Dogs: A Parody by Rex & Sparky

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Last month I read the Devious Book for Cats, so this month I decided my dog, Gilgamesh, should read the Dangerous Book for Dogs. It's a silly book, a parody of the Dangerous Book for Boys type books. It offers your dog all the information he needs to re-connect with his wild roots. The articles run from practical, such as How to Escape Humiliating Costumes or The Formal Rules of Fetch, to completely ridiculous, such as Epic Walks, a series of stories about great walks in history including a walk across the ancient land bridge to a new continent. Overall I enjoyed reading it and as someone who's new to dog ownership and wondered why I can't seem to get Gil to play fetch right, it's good to know that according to the official rules, I'm the one who's actually playing wrong. Sometimes it's comforting to know that you aren't the only one who's had this kind of problem with a pet and maybe laugh a bit about things along the way.

Bead It, Iron It, Love It! by Kaisa Holsting

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book has a good range of designs from seasonal and holiday design to food, animals, and even simple abstract patterns. All the patterns are shown full size if you are using mini (2.5 mm) beads, therefore half size when you use the regular size beads. There are some basic instructions for adding designs to brooches, magnets, and hair pins. There are even instructions and designs for using the peyote stitch to weave bracelets using the Perler beads. The final section of the book contains more detailed projects to use your creations such as necklaces, earrings, and drink coasters. Also included are a few pages of grid paper to try creating your own designs.

Since this book is pretty new I wish that it had included some kind of 3D things. In recent times I've seen some cool 3D stuff online and it would be nice to have some tips or patterns to try out.

Tiny LEGO Wonders by Mattia Zamboni

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I LOVE microscale LEGO creations and I don't really know why. This book is full of tiny things that you can build yourself. All of the models are vehicles of some sort, like trains and cars, which aren't normally something get excited about. They are all pretty cool but my favorites are the Spitfire and wooden boats. I could see using a bunch of the boats to set up a battle between fleets in an RPG. The only thing I would add would be specific ID numbers or something for the pieces used. It has the regular LEGO instruction style pictures of the pieces. IDs would make it easier to find what you needed if you had to order parts.

String Art-Part Four- Curves and Wings

After months of work, I have finished my gigantic string art project. 

The last stage of the Hylian Crest design was the wings and triforce.

The triforce is created by making parabola curves using the sides of the triangle. Follow the pattern below for each corner, on each of the three triangles.

For the wings, all you have to do is start at the top inside corner and make rays. Inside corner to top outer corner, down one nail, back to the inside corner. Then to the next outside nail, down one, and back. Just keep following that pattern until you get to the inside bottom of the wings.

The final piece is to finish the curved part of the wings. You can use a similar technique to make any curve or even a full circle. You start the string at one end of the curve, then move to the middle nail, over one, then to the second nail of the curve. It's easier to understand if see it then read it, so here is a diagram of the pattern. Basically, you start at one side of the curve and eventually end back at the center of the curve.

For this design, I actually continued a bit after the center to finish the straight side of the wing shape. If you wanted to make a complete circle you follow the same basic pattern. Pick a point to start, move the nail directly opposite and the continue from there.

So without further ado, here is shot of the full, completed design.

This ended up being a much larger project than I expected. Not in size, obviously because I chose that when I started, but in time and materials. I ended up using twice as many nails as I expected and making runs to the store for more thread, both the blue and gold. All together I used 5 skeins of the blue embroidery floss, between a third to a half spool of the silver, and around two and a half spools of the gold thread.

For the most part, everything went according to plan. I had a few issues with loose nails. I know I mentioned in a previous post that I had a much easier time with some nails than others. I don't know if using a different type of board for the backing would have been easier or if I just need more practice with hammering. When I was working on the wings, a couple of the corner nails came loose and caused me to have to redo that section.

To fix it, I put a small amount of glue on the nail, then hammered them back into place. After the glue dried they seemed much more stable.

For now, it is propped up on a bookshelf in our dining room but the plan has always been to hang it behind the couch in the living room. The question now it, what's the best way to hang it, to ensure it doesn't fall and hit our friends in the head. We are considering simply screwing it straight to the wall. I can't think of any type of hooks that seem strong enough to hold the weight of the board.

Halloween-iversary

This Saturday was our 9th wedding anniversary. Usually, we do something for our anniversary and Halloween separately but this year we decided to combine the two and have a haunted house dinner party. We love playing Betrayal at the House on the Hill and the expansion was released just a few weeks before our anniversary so it was a perfect excuse to buy it for ourselves.

We were limited in the number of people we invited by the number of players for the game. That allowed me to make the invitations more elaborate because I only had to make a few. I decide to make spell books that had been found in the house with the party information on one of the pages.

I downloaded a printable spell book cover and gray pattern for endpapers. I also did a google image search to find pictures to use as spell pages. The center of the book has all of the details about the party and the front cover has a post-it note connecting it to the imaginary house on the hill.

Our dog Gil grabbed one of them off of the table and chewed up a corner, right before we were going to give them out. I didn't have time to get another one made but luckily it kind of worked with the old book idea. (It also didn't hurt that everyone invited has dogs and would be understanding.)

For dinner, we made spooky tentacle pasta with meat sauce, a simple salad, and breadsticks. The spaghetti is dye by using a bit of gel food coloring in the cooking water.

 

Dessert was turtle brownies and sweet cream ice cream with a delicious blood orange and blackberry sauce that my husband made which turned out a wonderful blood red color.

Our round of Betrayal was great. I headed to the library beforehand to 3D print an organizer for the game pieces. I ended up only having time to print one-half of it but it made everything run a little smoother. It also satisfies that part of me that loves organizing and making rainbows, a nice little rainbow of betrayal.

                         

We ended up being shrunk and trapped in the house with cats trying to eat us. The survivors managed a narrow escape by toy airplane, barely winning the game before being eaten. Wr did lose some people but made it out with barely enough to meet our win conditions

The haunt that we played came from the original game but we enjoyed the new rooms and cards from the Widow's walk expansion. I also liked the addition of the explorer tokens which are used to mark which explorers have taken advantage of 'once per game' room bonuses.