30 Days of Creativity - Day 30!

Made it! Not only 30 days of creations but 30 days of posts!

Today I created: I love Garretts....

J then modified & improved it, Cupid style.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 29

Almost done! Although I hope to keep creating in July.

Today I created: a cucumber portrait

30 Days of Creativity - Day 28

I'm focused elsewhere. And work was insane.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Today I created: a relative clear upper portion of my closet (the floor is another story).

Last minute, but not horrible - 30 Days of Creativity - Day 27

After running a bunch of errands and trying to make a decent dinner with a few monkey wrenches thrown in, I just kinda felt like vegging in front of the TV. But I couldn't miss a day, so here it is.

Today I created: a shipwreck (origami).

OMG, getting v excited for our trip! and 30 Days of Creativity - Day 26

Bought suitcases, thinking of packing, house getting in order. Writing out itineraries, thinking about travel day activities...

Today WE created: Part 1 assembled of shelves made from old dresser drawers.

I'll do a fuller post - with pre and post pics so long as I can find the pre ones - once it's complete. But I'm very excited to have this up so I can decorate it when I get back. Plus, it frees up floor space so I can set the rowing machine again.

I like building things w J.

Busy and 30 Days of Creativity - Day 25

Today we spent a lot of time cleaning the living room thoroughly, plus other housework. Tired.

Today I almost didn't create anything - I was tired. Progress is slow on big projects, especially those that require help from other people.

Today I created: 2 balls of plastic yarn from 3 colorful bags.

This will be used in a crochet project after the current one is finally successfully finished.

Book #9: Absolute Sandman - Volume 2 by Neil Gaiman. More goodness. I especially liked the long dream world sequence, although not when the friends died, especially the big furry one in NYC.

Focus shift and 30 Days of Creativity - Day 24

I got a bunch done in the garden tonight, including gathering columbine seeds for people *cough*ljc*cough* who may be interested in them.

I did a bunch of puttering cleaning - I see results in all rooms, even though J may not.

Both of these are surprising given how absolutely beat I was most of today. Wow.
But now I need to get ready for our vacation (more on that another time).

Today I created: 10 more rows. I'm at 26, and *fingers and toes crossed* and no signs of sloping yet. 26 out of 54.

Funeral thoughts and 30 Days of Creativity - Day 23

Funerals are supposed to be a celebration of life, a remembrance. But I think you can't experience the death of someone without it also making you think of your own life - what it means, what's important, what you might be missing when caught up in the day to day. There are connections that have lapsed for no good reason. I hope we can keep up the good intentions. It really shouldn't be just with a loss that we catch up.

Today I created: better bonds with some cousins, I think.

Today I created: another 4 rows of my crochet project.

Calling hours & 30 Days of Creativity - Day 22

Today we had calling hours for Uncle Ralph. What an emotional ride.
We'll miss you Uncle Ralph. I still owe you pie.

Today I created: 4 medium origami waterbombs

Yesterday's are in the background, for scale.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 21

Today I created: 4 origami waterbombs with tiny paper.

Oh, I have plans for these! Could be cool!

30 Days of Creativity - Day 20

Today I created: jalapeno mango bulgar.

I wanted a grain for supper and was tired of the usual combos and it was too late to try to find a recipe.

And then I saw the almost too ripe mango in the fridge and decided to give it a shot.

I toast the bulgar in butter before adding water - and the creaminess of the butter & bulgar went perfect with the mango.

I liked.

Sad news & 30 Days of Creativity - Day 19

While we were gathered to spend time with Dad today, we got word that his brother, our Uncle Ralph, had passed away - suddenly, unexpectedly. Our gathering quickly shifted to supporting Dad as he made some calls and dealt with the news.

My Dad is the best and one of the strongest men I know, and I ache to see him upset. I hate that he had to have this news.

My cousin Jason, Uncle Ralph's only child, is a great guy and a father himself and my heart goes out to him and his family.

I was all knotted up thinking about it on the ride home. I told a close friend. I talked to J. But I needed to post it, let my twitter and facebook circles know that something had happened. And I wondered why. And as well wishes started to come in, I thought about it more. Was I sensationalizing? Posting simply to get people to feel obliged to send well wishes?

I thought it out and my thoughts came out as a poem.

Today I created: a freestyle poem about dealing with tragedy in the social media age.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 18

Today was full of summer fun, food, and a nap or two, so big projects were once again put on hold, but

Today I created: sock yarn.

I pulled a selection of socks from the rag pile a while ago, as well as part of a hoodie and some pajama pants, enough to fill a clementine box.

These I'm cutting into long strips, so that each becomes a small ball of yarn. Some leave fuzzies behind, some do not.

When I finish the clementine box full, I'll start work on crocheting a rag rug from them. Projects nested within projects....:-)

30 Days of Creativity - Day 17

Today I created: a Discrete Choice Model utility and what-if analysis that came out pretty darn cool, imho. But not really something I can share here.

This evening, I created: the layout for another project that I intend to finish this month.

Made from favorite t-shirts from my childhood. Excited for the project overall - stay tuned!

Murphy helped in his own way, lying down on, rolling over, and clawing at the layout. Thanks, Murph.

Jazz in the street on TV and 30 Days of Creativity - Day 16

First off, check out this vid!


Mega cool. V psyched for Danny, whose band The Meta Accord played tonight at the Rochester jazz fest.

So, today I created: a bracelet sized lucet cord.

The lucet is a small wooden tool from Victorian times (J got me one at Genesee Country Museum), used to make braided cords - for drawstrings, surface embroidery, button loops, etc.

The instructions seem to be backwards - they say to turn the lucet counterclockwise (it only works for me clockwise)- to initially string through the hole in the lucet from back to front (forgetting to mention that the short end should be what's left on the "starting" side of the whole. So my first cord was a bit sketchy. I'm figuring out the tricks and was doing pretty well tonight until I got distracted and pulled both loops off and just couldn't get the right slack again.

Here's tonight's cord.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 15

Halfway through!

Oh, I almost bailed today. Worked til quite late and rather in a mood to create a hole in the wall more than anything else after.

But I did get something.

Today I created: Murphy likes outside.

Happy tomorrow is a new day!

30 Days of Creativity - Day 14

Today I created: a silly little quick sketch of all the things distracting my brain from sitting down and getting 1 thing done.

There's always tomorrow.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 13

Today I created: an origami nodding dog.

We were both feeling a bit gicky, for different reasons, so no working in the basement tonight on what I WANTED to finish. Hopefully tomorrow.

I didn't want to mess up the challenge, though, so here's a very tropical looking nodding dog for you.

Note to self, tiny origami papers aren't so hot when trying folds for the first time - a bunny and a barking dog did not quite make it this evening.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 12

Today I created.

I got a lot done today! I cleared space in the basement so that we can finish a long-idle project down there. I made progress on the project I hinted at yesterday. I made apple & horseradish glazed salmon for dinner.

I doubled the size of the new (so far rectangular) crochet piece - now at row 12.

And I organized a corner of my study, creating a clean spot on the floor!

30 Days of Creativity - Day 11

Today I created: round rolled paper beads!

Today was largely a lost day. I had a hangover headache - a leftover from a sinus headache turned migraine twangles yesterday. So time I could have spent crafting was spent staring rather vacantly trying to kick brain into gear.

But I got going later. Progress made on works in progress that I'll share when finished.

And round beads.

Here's the deal. Readers of The Roelle Kids know that I've been making magazine beads.

But I saw round newspaper beads at One World Goods - a local charity that sells crafts from artisans worldwide, and wanted to make them.

I tried to guess at the trick. Longer strips. Wider. Angled on both ends. Not angled at all.

Finally, I did a search. There are a bunch of sites now with instructions for papier-mache style beads, but finally I found rolled ones.

Here's what came out. Not perfect, but round enough to provide a nice point of contrast when I use the magazine beads.

More practice will hone them further.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 10

Today I created: a photo in a bottle.

Inspired by a pin on Pinterest. I can't wait to see what it looks like with the sun coming through it.

Excited for plans for projects on the weekend!

30 Days of Creativity - Day 9

Today I created: a stir fry.

I do not often come up with my own stuff in the kitchen. I like to follow recipes - at least when I try new things - so that I can figure out what works or doesn't in the formula and change things from there. J has an entirely different approach - thinking it's always better to just make stuff up than follow a guide.

Tonight I got creative for the first time in a while. I had soba noodles and stir fry veggies and wanted to come up with a tasty, healthy stir fry.

First, I toasted pumpkin seeds, garlic, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, and celery seed. The celery seed may have been a bit much.

Then, I added the frozen stir fry veggies, baby corn, and bamboo shoots. Once the frost was off of the veggies, I added sauce elements - strained tomatoes, sesame oil, Thai sweet chili sauce, and a hint of fish sauce.

Later, I felt it needed "green",so I added a little chervil. It did the trick,though.

Not a spectacular meal, but I'm happy with what I came up with.

Oh, and crochet is now 6 rows done (of 54 on this half of the project). Looks quite nice - although it's usually not until about row 25 that I realize I've messed up.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 8

I started out the evening thinking I'd spend most of it quietly crocheting in the air conditioning as a break from coming up with a new thing each day.

I spent most of the evening "creating" reservations for our trip to France. Not a bad thing, but where did the time go?

So, when I finally sat down to crochet, I decided it was time to give up on Sisyphus - my nickname for the first crochet project I'd started and that I was perpetually taking out rows in and restarting.

I cut the yarn and created a pot holder or something else, I'm not quite sure yet, from the perpetually not rectangular piece.

And I started the project anew. So the creation that I'll pin today is the initial chain and row of single crochet for this project. A new start. It looks good this far. I will focus on using the right stitch, not skipping stitches, and not stitching too tightly (the issues I think emerged last round). (Though quite a pain to photograph in the attic where the only flat surface is the teal rug.)

30 Days of Creativity - Day 7

Today I created:
A pen/tool holder from a phone book

I still need to put a coat of sealer on it, and a bottom, but good progress for the night.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 6

I had another plan for today and started it, but after a long dinner with friends and the start of a headache, I set that aside to finish tomorrow and went instead to a stand-by.

Today I created: a paper tube robot from a kit Sonny & Pam gave me. Isn't he cool?

The package comes with three tubes for 2 robots - you cut the pieces where marked, fold, assemble. V cool.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 5

Lots of good work done in the sun today. While I STILL have some plants left to get into the ground, I got the main veggies done.

Today I created: our veggie bed and the new cucumber and tomato support schemes - plus some really good homemade raspberry/mint/lemon balm iced tea!

Plus, I may have sprained my ankle stepping out the door of our house. I'm such a clutz!

And another book, still catching up:

Book #8:Animal Farm by George Orwell. Disturbing, as it was intended. You hate to think that people could be so easily manipulated, but then you go home and watch the news or read the headlines online. *sigh*

30 Days of Creativity - Day 4

Today I created: an origami vampire bat.

It's not quite perfect and looks a bit more griffin or gargoyle-like to me, but I still like it.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 3

Today I created: a Tagxedo tag cloud analysis of a survey I did at the last Roc City Roller Derby bout.

I had an outline in the tool that made it clearer - the cloud is in the shape of a skate, but for some reason that didn't save. Still pretty cool....

What does it mean? Derby is about: fun awesome girls, fast tough excitement.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 2

Today I created: a mailing tube filing system.

To cap off the section by color organization of my bookshelf, I added in a rack to help free my desk and floor from the piles that accumulate. I don't have enough space in my study for piles by category. This helps condense & organize.

Here's the full bookshelf. To me, it's a huge difference - not seeing it before, it may be harder to tell.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 1

I'm trying to create something each day for the month of June. Here we go!

Today I created: a path in the garden

In our garden, we tend to be quite of fond of things that spread - including lemon balm, spearmint, sage, raspberries, and strawberries.

It can, and often does, especially during v wet late springs, go a little nuts. Trying to keep things better to their place, and provide a way to get to the inner part of the garden to get that under control, I've laid a stepping path. I think it's quite cute, actually.

I am way behind on blogging everything else, so I have to throw at least 1 book in here:
Book #7 - House of Mystery: Room and boredom by Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham, and Luca Rossi. I accidentally bought vol 3 first, and have been waiting to read it until I got 1 & 2. Vol 1 is a great intro. I love Fig and how her brain works. The creepy floating couple. The chic in the bar who was married to a fly and is constantly eating, since all food just falls out her missing back.