No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on April 4, 2012

I awoke this morning in a weird brain fog. I apparently had a rather vivid dream which has now faded a bit. I do know that when I woke up I had to remind myself where I was and what was going on in my life. I have had a pain between my eyeballs all morning. I know why this is going on for the most part just annoying.

I do think that this is one of those days that I really shouldn’t read political news on the internet. I am just going to get angry about things I can do nothing about except vote in November. There is other idiocy going on as well in fandom but I am keeping out of it as much as I want to be able to slap some sense into some people. Especially those idiots who are coming up with rumors and unpleasantness about friends and loved ones of mine. But nothing I say is going to change what they say so I stay quiet.

I am taking this week to clean various parts of the house. I am back-burning most of my crafty ideas in hopes to be able to sort some stuff out before starting up again. Cleaning helps clear my mind which is right now rather crowded and painful.

Congratulations to the Baylor women for their win last night. That was an exciting basketball game but Baylor was just better.

Baseball has, technically, started. The Braves are playing the Mets on Thursday.

I had an idea of something else I wanted to write but it slipped away to fast and I don’t feel like running after it.

Figaro got her tail trapped in a door yesterday and couldn’t get free. She let me check her out later and the tail was not broken or damaged. By the evening she was swishing it around like she usually does. She is being more careful about her tail and doors right now.

The weather is really nice today. It is nice to be able to open windows and let some air through the house.

My tinnitus is acting up so the world has a hollow ring to it a little louder than usual so I can’t seem to blank it out the way I usually do. It will sort itself out eventually. Kids, hearing protection is important and keeping the volume low on the headphones is important too. Also ear buds can cause more damage over time than over the ear headphone especially if you are young. Save your hearing now or listen to the ringing your ears for the rest of your life.

Also be good to your joints. You need them as you get older.

Ah the sounds of spring! Industrial lawn mowers and leaf blowers are wafting through the air. I do hear some birds too.

Too many ideas swarming around in my head. Need to calm them down and sort them out. Good thoughts and bad thoughts are colliding. And I am finding myself catching my breath rather than just breathing.

I am thinking Shield Outfit this year. Just need to find the correct patches for the jacket or figure out how to create them. It looks a heck of a lot easier than the X-Men first Class uniforms. Including the fabrics used. See ideas just running around and giving me more ideas. *sigh*

The cats are loving the open windows. I can see their muzzles and whiskers twitching as they sniff.

I think that is enough rambling for today. Off to clean some more.

I am grateful that my brain is so full of ideas.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 3, 2012

There are times when, in the creative process, you just draw a blank. (Actually I’d love to see what some of my artist friends would do with the prompt draw a blank). The creative muse sometimes just wanders off for a pee and a smoke before the next act (obscure Monty Python reference kind of sort of). Or your motivation decided to get up and leave for a play date with another motivation that is a friend of theirs.

My suggestion is step away for a little while but only a little while. Don’t give up on what you are doing but take a breath and let it out. Go do some dishes or some other task that needs doing to give your brain a break.

Put down the thing that is frustrating you and pick up something else you are working on. Or start something else. I have a number of pieces that are in various stages of done and there are one or two that are my go to when I get frustrated or feel I have nothing left in the tank. These are my anything goes pieces that will probably never be shown but allow me to practice various techniques. Call them my Franken-pieces.

I find that if sculpting is driving me crazy then try pattern drafting or sewing something else or even knitting. Sometimes if pattern drafting is driving me daft, I sculpt whatever to shake my brain loose.

And then there are the times when there are deadlines and one don’t have the leisure of a blank. Those are the times where one just buckles down and keeps going until the project is done. Might not be perfect but it does what it needs to do. And some times just muscling through is the perfect way to get rid of the blank.

So what do you do to get rid of the blank?

I am grateful for the ability to just do when it needs to be done.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 2, 2012

Short version met Paul McGann, gave Frazer Hines a copy of my Doctor Who story which involves Jamie, got to talk to Sarah Douglass who, for the record, is nothing like the characters she plays on the screen, saw a lot of friends, had some great conversation, and got a few things.

And here is the slightly longer version of events from this weekend under the cut because this one is going to be long.

(more…)

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 31, 2012

And of course it is raining.

Caroline is looking forward to seeing her friends this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing some of my friends. Peter is looking forward to seeing his friends. (See a theme?)

I am going to be there today but not as sure about tomorrow which will depend on today.

I-Con was the first convention that Peter and I went to where he introduced me as his girlfriend to his various friends. I met Glenn and Brandy that weekend along with a lot of other people who have since become my friends too. I think that’s where I met Bob Greenberger as well but not as sure.

I have to go find the Doctor Who puppets because I need to pull out the 8th Doctor and take him with me because Paul McGann is going to be there. I’ll see how he reacts to the puppet before offering it to him. Some people don’t like puppets of themselves and others love them. So there might be an adventure to write about after the convention is over.

I am grateful for all the lovely people I have met and hung out with at I-Con.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 30, 2012

I hate cleaning but I love the results of cleaning. The catch-22 for me is that I don’t like other people cleaning for me because they put things in places that I don’t know and it can take me a long time to find something that I was going keep at hand. Also with all the craft stuff, it can be hard to tell what is junk and what is part of a project.

I read about people who clean their house pretty much every day and their homes are neat and organized to a pin. I look at magazines about Studios that are just lovely in their scope and cleanliness. I read the parent magazines about organizing with children in the house. I know most of the tricks in the book but I haven’t found that which will help my situation, which is a couple of collectors of stuff have careers that involve lots of stuff and they have kids who have stuff.

There is a lovely preschool TV show, which was one of Caroline’s favorites when she was a toddler, called Tiny Planets whose main characters, Bing and Bong, went from planet to planet exploring different concepts like colors and shapes. One of the planets they went to was the Planet of Stuff. Ariel commented upon seeing the episode, “That’s where we live, the planet of stuff.” And a lot of it is cool stuff we have collected over the years but it is still stuff.

Electronic books have helped us a lot. Having the books on an electronic platform is one less book that is physically going to come into the house. I am more reluctant about magazine subscriptions but am almost to the point where I am going to go there. But we still have the manuscripts and other materials that are needed for Peter to write the various projects. We still get comic books for various reasons. We still have paper coming in. We try to be good about getting out the paper we don’t need but we have a bunch of paper that we can’t get rid of by normal means (recycling it or tossing it out) because it has things that under the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) we promised to destroy rather than trash after we were done with it.

Then there is all my fabric, clay, tools, and other things that I use to make my art. I have cut way back on the fabric buying but there is a lot of stuff I have to be used. I now think carefully about what I am working with/on and if I have what I need already. If the answer is no, I try to buy just what I need for the project. Over the years I have gotten much better of estimating what I really need.

There are still things that need to be dusted and swept. Having cats doesn’t help since cat litter gets everywhere even after you think you have swept it all up. And then there is the flying fur problem.

So housework and I aren’t friends but we get along because we have to. I have learned over the years how to clean or create the illusion of clean so I feel better about the space around me.

So what clever tricks for cleaning and/or organizing would you like to share with me? I’m all ears.

I am grateful for things that are currently clean.

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