NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 25

I think we’re all seeing the finish line in sight. Can’t you imagine the ears pricking a little as the head and eyes come up? Go go go April poets! You can do this!

Today NaPoWriMo.net challenged us to take the Proust Questionnaire (see also here). It had been awhile, so I printed it out (how analogue) so I could look it over in between listening to the SCOTUS oral arguments today. I didn’t get to it until afterwards, but maybe it had been simmering overnight. I jotted down a couple quick answers but didn’t see too much coming of it but then the very last question:

What is your motto?

That had a clear answer! From the quilt annals of 2002…

Always be learning.
Practice. Persistence. Beauty.
Always do the work.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 25

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 18

The landline rang tonight and I wasn’t sure what the voice said on the other end and I asked, who is this? And that, friend, is how I got Quinnipiac’d!

Getting Quinnipiac’d

was finally asked:
what is the biggest problem
facing our nation?
or facing the world?
Or facing your female friends?
how will you vote?
seemed so serious
very, strongly, illegal
send more money there
all the big issues
all decked out in black and white
so easy to choose
Somewhere and elsewhere
someone answered completely the
opposite to me.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 18

One Good Thing EveryWhere EveryDay

In a classroom, long ago and far away, a junior high science teacher, Mrs Sheehy taught us a bunch of interesting things that didn’t always seem like a science class. She taught us how to identify birds by their appearance and calls. She taught us all about the upcoming Apollo moon mission.

Each year she had us keep a list of signs of spring. She gave us hints on what to look for – different birds appearing, plants changing, ground changing, weather changes.

In other words – pay attention to the small stuff and be prepared to be amazed. A leaf here, a bird there, and before you know it spring has sprung. If you hadn’t looked you might have missed the whole wonderful thing!

One Good Thing EveryWhere EveryDay

The Wine of Blessedness

“And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien

The Wine of Blessedness

Thursday – Time for Something Different

Got a good sleep-in this morning after getting up around seven to take meds. I was awakened by the itch! Went to my local diner after filling the car with gas and my wallet with money. There I had a fun time doing a little free-advice phone support. It was a nice reminder that I haven’t forgotten everything I know or how to figure out where I need to be to fix the problem without the “customer” knowing I am looking for it!

Was content just to rest awhile inside when I got home. Am finishing another series on YouTube – had some slow spots but one of the better ones. Then I thought – why break the painting streak? Maybe something fun, quick and different. So here you go: two fun, quick and different paintings.

Anything that works gives [others and yourself] a reason to push you in the direction of the thing that works. You can spend your life imitating yourself. …how am I going to be that person that wrote this thing four or five years ago who I just don’t associate myself with anymore … it takes some pretty big acts of courage to be like “I’m not going to do anything like what I did last time” — Damian Kulash, lead singer OK Go

Thursday – Time for Something Different

Painting while Poem-ing

Yesterday was Day 19 of 19 of doing at least one watercolor each day during National Poetry Writing Month and I’m sticking with it. When doing a month-long writing thing, I have found it nearly impossible to paint so that was my resolution for April, even if it made both things rocky.

Last night I really didn’t have an idea about what to paint so I impulsively chose a photo I’d just taken of the one spot of bluebells that blooms so briefly in the garden. It had been too cold to paint outside in the afternoon. The garden is full of daffodil leaves and daffodil flowers which are starting to go past. The day lilies and hostas are turning into clumps of leaves.

The result isn’t the best work of the month but while painting I was thinking of one of my earliest teachers who taught me about “juicy” watercolor and negative painting. So yes it was messy – just like the scene – but I am having a real moment of gratitude for my teacher Fred Lisaius and my other teachers Tony Conner and Robert H. LaFond and will endeavor on.

One piece of paper at a time!

Painting while Poem-ing

Sewing Follow-up aka The Serger

Since I whined a bit yesterday about the serger, I thought I better show what I was doing with it. I used both my serger and my newly fixed Bernina to make chair cushions for a chair that has been waiting for cushions! I did the first of two cushions while having no problem with the serger. The moment I started the second one I had to stop and rethread it. Because, you know, it’s FINE to have all four thread tracks exposed to anything that comes along to unthread it. Fine.

But having rethreaded and made sure everything was still passing through the tension disks, it worked well. This fabric is intended for inside or outside use so I expected without serging the edges there would be quite a bit of raveling and this way that’s not a concern. Could have done it on the Bernina but not as fast and as a bonus it trimmed down the seam allowances a bit. I think I’ll invest in some new thread since this stuff is **mumble-mumble** years old, like I don’t remember. But it’s fine.

Oh and measure at least twice, do the math and then remeasure and cut once. Whenever possible sew once because ripping out is… I didn’t rip out today.

Sewing Follow-up aka The Serger

Clouds and Machines

I saw an interesting edge of clouds on the way home from Mom’s and finally found a place with a clear view of it. When I first saw it, it seemed to be heading to something a little more turbulent but it was cool looking no matter what.

When I got home I worked on getting my serger back up and running. I’d been searching for the power cable/foot pedal and found it last night hiding with the other room TV wires… don’t ask. I don’t use this very often and it’s a wonder that anyone at all does. The threading is such that it requires a tweezers, there are two needles to thread and a couple arms that get threaded and well… a lot can go wrong. After a couple tries I unthreaded the whole thing and tried to figure out why even the thread wouldn’t come off the cones nicely. Turns out it must have the lift arm all the way up. And it helped to thread it one cone at a time starting at the right. Then of course the tension was atrocious.

The images of bad tension weren’t too helpful in the manual and then I realized that they were telling me to turn knob 1,2,3 or 4 one way or another when in fact those knobs had no numbers. Did they number in the same order as the order of the cones in threading? Of course not! So I stuck a bit of masking tape on each, and the number, being careful not to obscure the color dot that goes with the cone threading path. Still terrible. Finally I put up the pressure foot and carefully tugged each thread until it was clearly inside the tension disks.

Yes, that did the trick and the thing worked great at last. That was a lot of work to prepare for making two chair cushions so I went off to do my haiku and painting for the day and have some dinner.

Clouds and Machines

NaPoWriMo is Coming! NaPoWriMo is Coming!

Hey folks – April is upon us so here comes National Poetry Writing Month. Yup – that yearly challenge of writing 30 poems in 30 days. You know you want to. You can write them all on your own and tell no one. There are lots of places that you can find daily prompts. One of them is the founder of the feast, NaPoWriMo where you can also find other poets, reporting in with their responses, as well as a list of their websites and a jolly month-long party!

If you really want to get into the right festive mood, you can take up the challenge of spreading googly-eyes everywhere you can! Use up all your googly eyes, especially the self-stick ones!

And then obligatory cat photos. Or maybe you want to consider a month of cat sonnets or haiku. I find it useful to go in with some ideas and maybe a plan as to form.

NaPoWriMo is Coming! NaPoWriMo is Coming!

Take Home Quote of the Day

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place…I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
? Elliott Erwitt

Take Home Quote of the Day