Rae Roy

Arts & Crafts I spent some time on a patch this weekend, but it was a fail. I first tried to do punch needle, but it just sucked. Then I tried to cross-stitch on the punch needle fabric, but the scale was off and the fabric was so flimsy that I couldn't get it to work out. I couldn't add the band name because the fabric falls apart, so it ended up being pointless. Back to the drawing board. Perhaps I'll use an entirely different design with cross-stitch instead. Why change the design? The lettering just doesn't work with the angles afforded by the squares. It may need to be done entirely in embroidery to work. Decluttering & Minimalism I didn't make a lot of progress here due to exhaustion, but I did figure some last things out and have finally decided on a coffee table that matches my living room TV shelving unit and my other furniture. It features storage, is compact, and the table top can be raised up to use it as a workspace as needed. Storage is a const

Arts & Crafts  With Drag & Balls done, a crafting break was needed to focus on reclaiming my home. That didn't last long. I did try a little crochet, but I found I was missing stitches on both sides of my table runner and I wanted to rip it way back to where I hadn't screwed it all up. This is a common and annoying thing with crochet that I don't have in knitting. I can easily find the spot I screwed up in knitting and it's often fixable unless I did a totally wrong stitch rather than have a missing one. If I accidentally add, I can just combine two to get it back to the correct thing. I decided to restart the project in knitting and I plan to do the border in crochet. It gets more cool the more I think about it. I felt absolutely insane while I was taking the whole thing apart , but in just a couple of days, I already had a third of what I had before. I would be doing the main portion in garter stitch because it lays flat. Then I planned to block it before doin

Arts & Crafts  Well, the shorts were being a pain in the butt. My sewing machine did not like the two fabrics I was trying to join together. Fabric glue wasn't sticky at all. I had to hand sew the four wide stripes on. I decided to just tack them every inch or so like this: It held them while letting them move with the shorts easily. I was scared to drill a hole in the green clay stone I made, but it thankfully turned out just fine. After an appointment in Kanata/Stittsville on Tuesday, I dropped by deSerres to get more soft clay to make the other 4 Stones of Power. There are many more, but I'll add those to my necklace sometime after the event. Having the 5 was the important part. Then I finished the shorts and nearly finished the shirt. I added lettering to the front of the jersey shirt. It needed ironing to set the lettering and more glitter glue to be done. I did the glitter glue while I had downtime and during the window where I couldn't iron it for about 13 hours.

Arts & Crafts On Monday, I was able to get a large chunk of my cape done. I worked on it again on Wednesday as Tuesday was a driving day. On Friday, I accepted that the liner fabric just wasn't working. I pulled it out. I had other costume work to do and only a week to do it in plus getting my makeup together and a prop. There just wasn't time to fudge around with it anymore.  A trip to Michaels was in order on Saturday for modeling clay, wide white ribbon, and felt, glitter glue, stencils and fabric markers. Then I finished a large chunk of my costume prep including a number for my back that is meaningful for the character that I am crossplaying: Of course, it absolutely needed glitter glue. There will be more added after I sew it onto the shirt. I made pieces for the ring, but I didn't like the "nut" or the "glue" portion, so I decided I would make a necklace with the five power stones and eventually add the others to it. They could be separated wi

Arts & Crafts I've started working on the cape during TV time instead of playing Minecraft . It's the best idea I had for finishing it on time. But I hit a roadblock. The clips I often use for holding two pieces of fabric together instead of pins couldn't handle a silkier textile. I tried a wooden clothes pin, but it frayed the silky fabric slightly. The plastic clothes pin didn't damage the fabric, but it was so big, it was impracticle. Despite having come across my pins recently; I couldn't remember where I had put them. Frustrated, I put it down for a moment. Then, I realized that I did have something I could try: An unusual use for bobby pins, but they seemed to do the trick. Reasons why I put resourceful on my resume... But then I was having trouble with the thread knotting up and getting stuck. A break was needed to calm down. I brought it with me to North Bay, but I felt too sleepy to work on it most days. Decluttering & Minimalism My goal for this we

Arts & Crafts OK, it's really time to get moving on my cape. I'm away for one weekend and have events most weekends. It and the shorts shouldn't take long. I just need to sit down and do them. And I'm struggling to do that. Fours days in a row of stuff to attend distracted me from the cape. Right now, I feel like I just need to finish something to get that motivation to finish other things. Decluttering & Minimalism  I'm starting a digital declutter because Google keeps complaining about the space I don't have. I'm going through old notes and trimming them. I'm also changing their file types to further reduce the space they consume. I don't want to pay for storage. Gaming & Streaming  On Thursday, I decided to replace my keyboard with a more expensive 60% keyboard that was on sale at Canada Computers. It's also really quiet. The cheap one I got from Amazon constantly added extra letters and it got very annoying. The new one is also ra

Arts & Crafts  I did not work on my cape at all. I did visit Michaels for some items I've been wanting for awhile like a woodburning kit. I also found this kit for $5 on clearance: I know Hama beads didn't work well for me, but I love Wonder Woman. I have no plans to make this anytime soon. Perhaps in the winter as it's very large and I'll likely want to frame it. Decluttering & Minimalism  My hats have been gathered into one clear bin. My music stand has been moved to another location for now, so I can practice more often. Gaming & Streaming  In Minecraft  this week, I finished my garage, I started several cars, I built an arboretum, I built the bulk of a museum, and I mined a ton of gold. Goal Setting & Tracking  Arts & Crafts: Get cape 50% complete. Decluttering & Minimalism: Place all headwear into one container. Get set up better to practice recorder. Gaming & Streaming: Build an underground garage to house my cars in Minecraft. Make sev

Arts & Crafts  This week's crafting plan was the cape for my Drag & Balls costume. A friend offered to make a part for me and my shoes came in the same day I was meeting him. I love it when a plan comes together! That's a common Dad Roy saying. Decluttering & Minimalism  I think I decluttered myself out of the wig I was going to alter for my costume. I'd be upset, but I'll have a better wig that is stylable instead. I don't regret getting rid of things I wasn't going to be using. The old one was from a steampunk Buffy cosplay I did very long ago and it was just plastic crap. Gaming & Streaming  I've started the currently last tier of rich soil for my vertical farm setup. This final level is for flax, which gives me an animal-free way to obtain wool for things. I'm not much for the effort that animal husbandry takes, so this is nice. Chickens would be nice to have for eggs. I'd rather help someone else get cows going for meat and leath

Arts & Crafts  I started and stopped my costume due to how busy the weekend was. I visited a monthly craft group and I found it a better time than others I've been to. The vibe was chill and people were doing a wider variety of crafts. They had had a materials swap earlier in the day and I was able to get some goodies out of what was left. I got some yarn that is quite nice and I'm looking forward to making a sweater vest from it eventually. Decluttering & Minimalism  I've not made any progress here. In my defense, it was my birthday on Friday and all I wanted to do was nothing when I wasn't spending time with my friends. Gaming & Streaming  I've been making a lot of rich soil and changed my farm to a tower setup that takes up less ground space. I'm working on the flax level. I'm going to have so much wool from that without dealing with sheep. Goal Setting & Tracking  Arts & Crafts: Begin costume for Drag & Balls. Decluttering & M

Arts & Crafts  I've been too tired to clean this room up, so I didn't get to it this week. But I will be starting my costume for Drag and Balls very soon, so it will have to get done. Decluttering & Minimalism  This video was one of the best I've seen on how to help a person with ADHD clean their home. The use of see through bins is more helpful than a lot of people may realize. Also, just by grouping like things together, it helps take away some of the hard parts of decision-making, it lets them see just how many of an item they may have, and it makes it easier for them to decide on downsizing items on their own schedule. Gaming & Streaming  My Minecraft  house and car. Also, the pub I've been working on. Goal Setting & Tracking  Arts & Crafts: Clean craft area. Decluttering & Minimalism: Finish door repair and reinstall. Gaming & Streaming: Just have fun. Lifestyle & Sports: Continue with physio exercises and play softball. Music &

We have reached the end of the first half of 2024. Please give yourself a high five for making it this far. Arts & Crafts  I really haven't crafted much all month. I've been letting myself heal. And I've needed a break. But I will be attending a different group soon and hopefully that will be good for me. Decluttering & Minimalism  After watching tiktok videos where people put their beds in their closets, I felt inspired. My bed is too big for that, but my rowing machine folds up and fits nicely, so I was able to reclaim some floor space and move my bike stand. That led to me figuring out some other pieces and I've been making changes that I'm excited about.  Changes like dealing with the bathroom door that has never worked well. I'm switching to a bifold door that I have already. The only trouble is that it needs a little repair because the hole for the part that sits in the floor broke. Attempt 1 to repair this was just to fashion small plugs for it: W

Arts & Crafts  Craft night didn't happen this week. I was the only one who showed up. As nice as the woman at the library is, I'm re-evaluating my own attendance since this happens far too often. There's another group that meets monthly and is easier to fit into my schedule, so I'm looking into that. Decluttering & Minimalism  On the digital end of things, I replaced the Goals tag with Goal Setting & Tracking. I also made a template for the blog. It's not great. It just lets me skip typing out the headers I use in nearly every post, but I still have to format them into the header format. Still, it's helpful because Blogger has this feature I find annoying. What is it? It doesn't show the outline of the box where posts are typed. I want lines, but there is nowhere to turn that on in the settings. Anyway, I'd make the template better, but it only accepts basic text. I have some things I want to do, but they require my drill and I don't know

Arts & Crafts The problem with my Perler bead crafting may be that I have been using Hama beads. They melt differently than the Perler ones do. Due to an event at the location, there was no craft group this week. I decided a good alternative was to clean up the beads and put them away for now because I'm not having enough fun with them for the amount of mess they cause. Concerts & Plays Saturday held an adventure as I needed to pick up a special pin at Arts Court before seeing a play that a friend was performing in at La Nouvelle Scène. It wouldn't be all that far from where I parked at City Hall if not for the absolutely wrong shoes to wear. My feet were quite sore by the time I got there. I debated taking a bus to my car after. I walked and stopped in at Steve's Music . More on that below. The play was Murder She Read  and it was quite a silly spin on a murder mystery. An avid reader of mystery novels attempts to solve the crime with a "spirited" butler