No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on December 12, 2012

This is the last time during my lifetime I will see a date like this. The next one will be in 2101 and I would be almost 140. Caroline stands a shot at seeing it since she was born in 2002 and she would be under 100.

There are a lot of wedding planned for today especially in Vegas. I guess it is an auspicious day.

Treat is home. He seems to be glad to be home. He is behaving himself. He has to go back to the stitches out. We don’t know about the tumor yet. That information is going to take a little but longer. Fig still burbles rather than meows. I think I can count on the fingers of two hands the number of time I have heard her mew the entire time we have had her. She makes this weird sound in her throat which sounds like brrrrrup.

I figured out what I am getting/making for Ariel for this Holiday Season. I think she is going to like it but I have to get it done in the next two days before she gets home. There is one part that I am still figuring out.

Caroline has her winter concert tonight. She was worried that we weren’t going to come watch her since she doesn’t have a solo this time. We assured her that we would be there and happy to see her in the concert. Her flute playing has improved by leaps and bounds. Now that she has the sound down (as in able to make a sound with a flute), she is working on getting notes clean. I found her cross legged on the floor playing her flute the other day and it was really pretty.

I have decided that one of my New Year Resolutions for next year is to get a web site together to show off my puppets and other art pieces. I may go with the iWeb since I have it but does anyone else have any suggestions of where I might do this? I also plan to put a few things up on Etsy to see if I can sell them. I will announce as will Peter when that goes live. Part of next year is going to be seeing if I can sell my work in places besides Science Fiction Art Shows. I am still going to show at Art Shows since it gives me some serious feedback.

I also have an idea for my mother that I might or might not do. Not going to say much more than that since she reads my blog.

We are less than two weeks to Christmas and on day 5 of Hanukkah. Where does the year go?

I am grateful for good ideas no matter when they come into my head.

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on December 11, 2012

First a Treat Williams the Cat update: He got through surgery just fine. They kept him overnight to make sure there were no complications. He will be home later today sporting the cone to keep him from licking the stitches. The biopsy is going to take a little longer to process.

One thing I have learned very well in making puppets, dolls, and costumes is to make do with what I can find. It would be nice to have an unlimited budget and access to every crafty material on the planet, but it is not very practical.

For example I love Antron Fleece aka Muppet Fleece. It is a beautiful fabric that takes dye well and is perfect for hiding seams. But it averages about $18 US a yard. I can get fleece fabric from the local store for about $4 US a yard and much less when I find large remnants since I need less than a yard to make many of my puppets. So I make it work so that I can price my puppets in the range for most fans. Not the perfect fabric after using Antron Fleece but it works for what I need it to do.

I love Wonderflex which is a material that you heat up and then form into the shape you want. Let it cool and it holds that shape. Sort of like the old friendly plastic as a sheet of material. Even more that Wonderflex, I love Fosshape which is another fabric that you can sewing like felt and then apply heat which then fuses it into the hard shape. Both are not cheap materials at all. I have used paper mache, felt and glue, and buckram as my substitutes depending on what I need the material to do. Each has their problems, short comings, and extra steps that one must take to get the finished product to look accurate so it is labor vs. cost.

I always look at packing material and cardboard with an eye towards what I can I make out of it. Little plastic doo-dads can become eyes or parts of a puppet. Spoons can be converted to eye blanks. Plastic Easter eggs of different sizes are great to kit bash into part of puppets and dolls. There are places I can buy the blanks but they are not cheap.

I have created my own wigs with yarn hair, which is time consuming but cheaper than buying a wig. Feather boas on sale are great for me because I can get a couple of puppets out of one boa. Proper doll wigs are great but expensive. I do use them when I can because it saves me so much time but it adds to the cost of the final product.

There are times that one can’t find the right fabric. Trying to get browns once the spring fabrics are in is close to impossible. And if I am trying to recreate a costume on a human or a puppet, I have to be very clever to make it look right. I have gotten very good at this. If I wanted to, I do have access to the fashion district fabric stores in NYC but that can get very expensive very quickly so I have learned various tricks to make it look right. I think my proudest moment in this are the 6 Snape coats I made with 50 cent a yard fabric. The trick was that I used the “wrong side” of the fabric for the coats and lined them so you couldn’t see the sequins that were all through the fabric on the correct side.

I take pride in making do with the materials I have and creating something that looks like what I am trying to create. It can be extra time but in the end it is all worth it.

I am grateful for found materials.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: Art, crafty tuesday, Creativity

Posted By Kathleen David on December 9, 2012

Update on Treat: It’s a tumor. It will be removed Monday and then biopsied to see what we are dealing with. It isn’t causing him pain but neither is it a good thing. Treat is in the Cone of Shame until the surgery and then until the healing process is well along. So far he hasn’t gotten it off.

It is pretty amazing what one misses when one keeps off the Internet. I apparently missed the most recent “real geeks” vs. “fake geeks” debacle.

There was an episode of Big Bang Theory in which Penny brought this guy she was dating into the circle of the science nerds who promptly mocked the guy for his rather simple point of view about the world and his lack of general knowledge of the universe. Eventually the guy realizes he is being mocked and leaves. Penny chides the boys for doing exactly what had been done to them when they were in school. This was done in a comical manner but there was an undertone that made me uncomfortable to watch that episode because I had seen this behavior before in fandom and found it sad.

I have watched the “I’m a better fan than you” fights in various fandoms over the years and they leave me with a rather bad taste in my mouth. I have also had to “prove” my geek cred more than once to be accepted by other fans in my youth. I read comics and science fiction and fantasy books, went to films with fantastical elements, debated character flaws with other fans, squeed about my favorite character or episode, and pointed fingers and laughed at the mundane folks who happened to be at the same hotel as a convention and were clueless and a little freaked out. I am not proud of the last thing.

On the Internet I have joined discussion groups about things I enjoy to talk about. I have read fanfic and admired other people’s crafty skills in fandom.

I am at a point in my life that I don’t have to pull out my “geek cred” and show it to others to prove that I am one of them. If you know me and know what I like, you know my fandom likes and dislikes. If not I really don’t feel a need to prove it. The only time I talk about my background is at conventions when I am being introduced or having to introduce myself to a room full of people who might not know who I am and why I am on this panel.

I have to admit that I do find it fun when a known person in fandom (be it author, actor, gamer, or fill in the blank) and I are talking at a convention and I can watch people out of the corner of my eye trying to figure out how I fit into the picture and who I am.

I am not saying that all fans be friends. That will never happen but they should at least be tolerant of other fans and even people they think mundane for whatever reason. Acceptance is something that fans say is what is better about their group than whatever group rejected them for whatever reason. I don’t think that one has to pass a test to declare themselves a fan of something.

There is another thing that has bothered me and I see it to this day in a couple of fandoms including Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, X-Men and Doctor Who. And it is the “you aren’t a true fan because you haven’t”. New fans are a good thing in fandom. I have watched certain parts of fandom fade into almost nothingness because of the closed thinking of its fans who wanted to keep it pure. Fandom is messy. Not everyone likes everything the same way. But there is common ground. Look at the Star Trek fans after the series was cancelled. They kept it alive until the series was revived. I know a couple of Beauty and the Beast (the CBS series) fan groups that are as strong as ever because they shared it with others. The Browncoats are another example of fans who are keeping their fandom alive by presenting it to other fans and creating new fans to a series that was cancelled 10 years ago.

Someone who is at a convention even if they are hired for a gig has some interest in something in fandom or they wouldn’t go there no matter what the pay. Conventions are overwhelming to those who have no interest in whatever the convention is about. It is loud and rather off putting.

I know a couple of people who are attending DragonCon because they discovered it when they were in town for a college football game. They liked the people they met and decided to try the full experience and enjoyed it.

Judging others to make one feel better about themselves and what they do is rather sad. It suggests a disconnect within the person that judging. They just can’t talk personal pride in what they do and who they are or, even sadder, in some way they are ashamed of their fandom and hide it from the outside world.

I am grateful that I am comfortable with my geek cred.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on December 8, 2012

We have, as any long time reader of my blog or Peter’s, a number of cats in the house. The older cats are about 18/19 years old.

Meet Treat Williams the Cat aka Big Boy aka Idjiot aka the Amazing Barf Bag

(For the VI this a top view of Treat Williams the cat. He is black and white. His back is black. His paws are white. His face is half black and half white. He is looking up at the camera with a rather bored expression. You can see his green eye on the white side of his face.)

Treat lives in Peter’s office because in his advanced age, he doesn’t play well with others. He occasionally has gastric distress and turbo barfs all over the floor but nothing that has really effect his health. We have found a food that is nice to his tummy and we pick up the dried food that falls from his bowl so it doesn’t mold and then he eats it and then he barfs. He is very people friendly and loves scritches. He has a bit of a weight problem that we have solved by limiting his food intake. On the whole doing pretty well for a cat of his size and age. We get him shaved twice a year to deal with his dandruff problem and he loves it because he doesn’t overheat. So he is usually much fluffier but this photo was taken after he got back from the groomers.

Yesterday I went down to Peter’s office to talk to him about the rest of the day. Treat got up from the couch and he was bleeding from his rear a lot. We checked the couch and there was a pool of cat blood on it. I got Treat up into the cat carrier and Peter took him off to the Emergency Vet because our regular vet was closed.

They cleaned him up and determined that he had licked a growth on his bum to the point of bleeding. They weren’t quite sure what the growth was but they figured he would be fine to go home and they put on one of those plastic cones so he couldn’t lick his butt. He was not happy with it.

Treat and the Cone of Shame

(For the VI: Treat is on the left and Caroline is on the right petting him. She is wearing a yellow shirt and her hair is down. Treat is wearing a plastic cone with a snazzy white bow at the bottom of the cone.)

Today Pete and Caroline have taken Treat to the vet he has been going to since he was a kitten to see what we need to do next. It could be nothing or it could be a big deal since he is so old.

So think good thoughts for Treat Williams the Cat today. I’ll update when we know more.

I am grateful that Treat was able to come home last night.

Category: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Kathleen David on December 7, 2012

No traveling this weekend or the next week. After that all bets are off right now.

There are projects around here I want to get done over the weekend. I know that Caroline and I have a couple of things that we want to work on together including the sewing project we have been talking about for a while. We are going to make a pillow bag and put what is left of her pink blankie in it.

We went to our parent/teacher conference yesterday. Overall Caroline is doing well in school. There are a couple of things that she needs to keep working on and we need to help her with. Her teacher is happy with her progress. She does have to practice the flute more.

It looks like snow but it is not that cold so I am going to assume that it is going to rain later today. Either way I have cat boxes to deal with.

I have been reading a couple of books that have given me a lot to think about the first is Rebel Buddha by Dzogchen Ponlop and the second is Get Some Headspace by Andy Puddicombe. The funny thing is that they dove tail so nicely into each other and both have given me a lot of think about. Including where my headspace is at.

I am grateful for mindful things.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: