28: The Year of the Adult?
Birthdays are a time of change and newness, more so than the calendar New Year (I’ve basically never made New Year’s resolutions), […]
Hannedy’s Flowers
Two flash fiction stories from the life of Hannedy, an elderly environmental conservationist who was once a little girl playing in her mother’s garden.
Craft Room Reveal!
Rick and I moved into our new house in July of last year. It was kind of a weird time to move–pandemic shutdowns having semi-recently just begun and social upheaval sparking in the cities–but a fantastic opportunity to settle ourselves into a quiet suburban split-level on a generous lot. Being office drones meant we were suddenly able to work from home, and working from home meant we actually got to enjoy our new space!
It was baked into our decision to buy the house that the downstairs main room would make a pretty healthy craft studio…
Meik Wiking’s Little Book of Hygge
English-speaking Americans might be hard-pressed to find just one word that describes the sense of utter peace and contentment that certain things—objects, activities, scents—can bring into our lives. Things like toasting marshmallows over a campfire with close friends and family members, or curling up on the couch with a steaming beverage and a good book: these are the kinds of things the Danes might call “hyggelige”.
Vera and the Witch
Here’s another short story from back in my college days, when I was taking courses in creative writing.
I’ve taken some liberties with Baba Yaga in this tale and created my own lost girl to meet with her. This Baba is a lot more like a grumpy old Sophie Hatter than the devilish pestle-wielding crone in the Cinderella-adjacent story of Vasilisa, but there have been many Babas Yaga in Slavic folklore–sometimes multiple in the same tale–so I don’t think I’ve strayed too far beyond the realms of possibility here.
Craft Tables Coming Together
So far: We have some old bookcases, dismantled and cut down to a variety of heights. These, along with a few drawer units from IKEA, make up the bases of all of our workstations. We also have a couple of MDF panels, one of which has been ripped down the middle and pared down to various new lengths; these are our table tops.
Our next order of business: Paint the bookcases, assemble the table tops, and then paint those, too.
A Slatwall Side-Quest
I began my optimistic search for slatwall only to discover that it is a lot more expensive than I’d bargained for. (I’m not sure what I expected, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t $100+ per panel.)
So, after a poke at ye olde List of Craig, I found a place called Carlson Fixtures, a display supplier for retailers, located a mere five miles from my new abode–and they were moving, which meant they had some extraneous old stock to get rid of…
Tourney Knight Takes a Knee
On July 27th, 2019, a performer in the Medieval Tourney entertainment troupe at Ren in the Glen, a small Renaissance festival held annually in Glenwood City, WI, proposed to his partner of six years. Donned in approximately 60 lbs. of Ukrainian steel in the midsummer heat, Rick Blatz, 27 at the time, challenged Mariah Sletten, 25, to a duel following the troupe’s first performance of the weekend.
As a regular part of the attraction, the end of the Tourney includes a “Fight the Knight” component, in which audience members have a chance to line up and take a swing at their favorite contenders…
20 Questions for Costumers in Quarantine: A New Year Review
It’s that time of year again: those early days, when we reflect on what the past year has brought, how we’ve grown, and what we can still improve upon going forward. To kickstart that for myself, I thought I’d take a look at one of my earlier YouTube videos.
The decision to start making videos was spurred on by the COVID-19 shutdowns. I thought they presented a great opportunity to “put myself out there” from the comfort of total isolation. Backward as that sounds, it was probably the best way for a person with social anxiety to get off the ground. Videos, it turns out, are hard–especially for an amateur team of only one. I’ve learned a good bit through trial and error, though, and I aim to keep experimenting with it…
The Bookcase Saga Continues
With a budget of $500 or less, I will attempt to rework my messy craft/office space into a more motivation-inspiring and professional-looking maker’s workshop. (Because you shouldn’t have to be an acrobat to get to your sewing table.)
In my last post, I mentioned that I had four fairly old bookcases, of the sort that were as cheap as they came when I got them between three and seven years ago, all comprised of particle board and covered in a vaguely wood-look black veneer. Two of those bookcases were easily disassembled in the middle. Two of them… not so much.