Good morning, and happy fucking Saturday. It doesn’t feel like a true Saturday, not to me. For one thing, there’s no crime shows on TV. Real news was on when we got out of bed, surprisingly. Then a random anchor from the JV team broke in to tell us Iran had closed the straight again, but don’t pay attention to that, here’s a re-enactment of a Revolutionary War maritime chase.

Yesterday was nice. The weather wasn’t awful, just a little cloudy. Shawshank played “GTA: San Andreas” all afternoon while I stitched. Eventually, I crashed, and had a 45 minute couch nap. Late in the afternoon, we drove Shawshank‘s parents out to Slightly BiggerTown to pick up their truck from the mechanics. They treated us to dinner at a sit-down restaurant.

The rest of the night was pretty quiet. I put some dye in my hair and stitched while we watched wrestling and “Grey’s Anatomy“.

Project Updates:

• I finished the leaves around the bee, and I’ve moved on to the flowers. I take back what I said about the template the other day. Yes, it’s less complicated than the sunset, but the leaves were bullshit and the honeycombs are wack at the bottom of the canvas.
• For the last couple of days, I’ve been working on a template to put in the giant hoop I bought at the yard sale, and I think I’ve finally got it the way I want and ready to print. I can’t work on it yet– I have one kit and another template I’ve already traced onto fabric ahead of it in the project queue, and I don’t want to be that person with a bunch of half-finished projects and a shitload of “someday” things.

The sun is out, and we’re both back to work tonight. We’ll see how dry my hair is by lunch time, decide if it’s a wig day or not, and get back on the bean.

[Current Mood | okay ]

[Listening To | more news because the world is on fire ]

Good morning, y’all. Welcome to the morning show. We’re sitting under a gloom warning today, with dreary skies and wet ground. I woke up early, reset some sleep noise, and dozed between cuddle-visits from Podrick. When he started fucking with things on the TV stand, I got out of bed to deal with it.

We left the house yesterday. I put on real clothes and we drove out to BiggerTown to check out their secondhand shop. I’ve said it before, but I love that shop. It was probably a small business with a few offices at one point, and now every room is filled with treasures. I found a couple of nighties. Shawshank found a hoodie at the store across the street, then we picked up lunch and went home.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

It was Thursday, which meant TonyTown’s secondhand shop was open! TWO THRIFT SHOPS IN ONE DAY! After a break to eat lunch and let Shawshank start “GTA: San Andreas“, we went out again. I found another set of hot curlers, and a tiny robot that doubles as a bluetooth speaker and dances with music. According to what I’ve seen online, there used to be an app available to control and program dance routines for it. Whatever. For $1, I was happy enough making it dance to “Mr. Roboto” for three minutes.

We spent the rest of the day doing our own things: Shawshank playing video games, and me scrolling through Reddit and working on my needlework. I finished the bee and its honeycomb, then moved on to the leaves. Sorry, you don’t get an updated picture. The light sucks this morning.

Stuff is happening today. It’s Shawshank‘s last day off, and I think we’ll be doing some vehicle shuffling with his parents, then driving out to Slightly BiggerTown later to pick up a loaner truck.

[Current Mood | overstimulated ]

[Listening To | birds ]

The sun is up and we’re unwilling participants in its madness. I was up at around 4am and dozed for an hour between Podrick‘s visits to be cuddled. Around 5am, I woke the household up coughing, and so we’re up 1+ hour earlier than he’d have liked and drinking coffee on the couch.

We were lazy yesterday. I bleached my roots, and should have let it sit longer on my head because it’s not light enough to make my shit real bright. I never have a plan for what color(s) might be next, but would have liked to add some pink to the mix.

Deku Deals alerted me that the “Grand Theft Auto” collection was on sale again, so I snagged that for Shawshank. “Vice City” finished downloading first, so he started that one. By the time we finished lunch, “GTA 3” had installed, and he switched to that one. I haven’t played them yet, but I loved seeing what Saints Row: the Third came out of.

While Shawshank played, I spent all day working on my current project. The bee’s body is finished, and I’m almost done with the wings. I’m enjoying playing with the textures. I noticed the kit is missing a thread color, but I have other colors I can use.

The sunshine continues, at least for the time being. We’re going to put sloth-mode on the back burner for at least part of the day, and drive out to BiggerTown to look through their secondhand shop.

[Current Mood | accomplished ]

Hello, world. Happy Hump Day. Today, we’re continuing the trend of bullshit gray skies and general wetness. At least the birds are happy, they’re enjoying the refilled feeder this morning.

I stitched all day, and finished my first embroidery experiment yesterday afternoon. Needlework isn’t new to me. My grandmother, her sister, and several of my aunts were always working on some sort of needlework, and I had my first project by the time I was 7. This was a very boring day of stitching, at least in terms of this piece, since all I had left was the border (and my initials).

But until yesterday, I’d only finished one project, and that was a counted cross-stitch for a Christmas swap that I hated every second of making. I like this sort of thing better, because I can not and will not be contained by a grid. On the other hand, this is like painting, but with a different medium. In this case, the fabric had a template printed, but to be completely honest, it sucked. The color key was bad, and I think I decided to use things as a rough guide a day or so after I started it.

It didn’t take long for me to begin another kit. Compared to the first piece, where I used only one type of stitch, this one is slightly bigger, and will use a few different stitch techniques. Is it an intermediate piece? I guess. The third kit is still in the drawer, since I didn’t know how to deal with applying the fabric stabilizer with the template.

I can’t even consider starting my “I have an idea” projects yet. I want to finish the kits first, then I can determine what colors I have, and how much more I need to acquire. Shawshank‘s mom told me I can raid her stash. She has all of her stuff, plus Gran’s. When I said something about buying thread during the yard sale, she sternly admonished, “don’t you dare“.

We have no plans today. I’m going to bleach my hair, but that’s as exciting as my shit will be.

[Current Mood | drained ]

[Listening To | news programs ]

Good morning, world. It’s a sunny-ish morning here, and we’re enjoying our coffee. I’m not sure what the weather’s supposed to be, I can’t change it, and I don’t have plans, so the forecast doesn’t matter in the long run. I know it’s warming up a bit as the week marches on. There’s some big machines in town today, making a whole lotta noise. It almost sounds like civilization out there.

We relaxed last night. I drank ginger ale and ate my chicken noodle soup with a couple of slices of bread and butter. I’ll be pushing fluids today, and rehydrating myself. I’m trying to be better about drinking water. It’s easier when I’m working, because I’m talking constantly and I’ll easily empty my 40oz water bottle in a couple of hours. When I’m not streaming, I’ll just focus on whatever has caught my interest at that moment and forget I need water to survive.

Due to some scheduling fuckery, Shawshank is off for four days straight. There’s rumors we might go out for a drive sometime, which will be nice. We also have to pull some boxes out of the garage at Shady Acres and bring them up to the secondhand shop’s donation shed. Since I have a bunch of days off in a row, I plan to bleach and dye my hair. It’s only been at least a month since I said I would do it. My roots are looking awful. He’ll do the laundry today, and we’ll relax for the rest of the week.