Belovedest's Latest Hobby: Iaido

Here is my mom, admiring one of his swords.

Never a dull moment around here....

Metal Detecting Adventures

The Magician found this little heart when metal detecting in a local park here in Nebraska about a month ago. It is a trade goods token from "Matt's Place" in Grangeville, ID. Here is the front and the back:

As you can see, it is worth two and a half cents. These tokens were popular starting in the 1840s when a shortage of the metals needed for making coins meant that the government minted less of them. This meant it was hard to make change, so stores minted their own tokens which were good for store credit. We are thinking that this is the oldest thing he has found to date, possibly from the late 1800s or early 1900s, as stores continued to make them into the 20th century.

The story-teller in me wants to know how it got to Nebraska.  Was someone just passing through in the 1800s?  Was it a good luck charm that was dropped in modern times?  Did someone from Grangeville go to school at UNL?  I don't think I'm ever going to find out!

Snow Day Fun - Game design

My husband had a cool idea for a game a few years ago.

He didn't do anything with it.

I started playing with the idea.  I made some cards with index cards (bad idea -- too big) and I've been happily playtesting.  (It helps that the game is designed for solo play, although it can also be multi-player.)

Today I went to www.thegamecrafter.com to do what my husband advised me to do weeks ago: check out prices and file formats for graphics.

The file formats for graphics isn't a problem.  I have a little sticker shock, though -- my initial design would be a $30 game, possibly more.

I'm trying to decide what I think about that.  (My initial thought is: make an initial deck of 108 cards instead of 300 and then do an expansion pack if the game is popular).  If it is just for me and just for fun, that's not a big deal.  But sharing the game with all of my nearest and dearest could get expensive, fast.

I'm also trying to decide about graphics. One of my husband's suggestions was to use The Game Crafter site to prototype the game, then see if I could get a manufacturer interested.  In that case, I just need placeholder graphics.  Nice ones would help, but really, let's face it, they would use their own graphic designers so stick figures would probably be quite adequate.  On the flip side, being able to draw would be good for my other art, and if this is a three-year project anyway.....

Metal Detecting: Starting Them Young

Spending time with some dear friends of our and their children.

Lately....

I'm taking Improv 102.... We are on track to pay off the house this spring...... Arwen is coming over to paint tomorrow.    Robert bought one of these and is planning all kinds of adventures.....

My dear friend Stacy taught me to crochet....

I've been using my handy, dandy dremel on what I've decided to term My Mysterious Project.....

       

I've been playing in my art studio...

I'm hemming a dress to wear to my brother's wedding.

Lots of fun stuff!  Hope all is well with you, my dear readers!

A very busy weekend...

Friday = Escape Room - 6th fastest time.... out of 860 teams....

Saturday = Craft Fair and Book Club (not pictured)

Sunday = Anime Convention

Lately.....

Game Night with Arwen..

Improv 101 Finale...

Glad my husband can fix stuff....

The strawberry harvest is over, but I loved every last bit!  And I frozen enough to add to lots of more bowls of oatmeal.  (Frozen strawberries are too mushy to eat straight but they are fine in something: smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, etc.)

And, no, I didn't photoshop the heart.  I just noticed it when I cut the berry in half.  :)

Triumph!

A 24-point Cribbage hand--my biggest ever!

Improv 101

I went to my first improv class yesterday and it was a lot of fun!

It's harder than it looks, though.

There's a chance our class might perform at the SCC Talent Night May 24.  Stay tuned....

Book Bag: Clothes, Crafts, and CRAZY cool!

The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering Your Personal Style and Building Your Dream Wardrobe
by Anuschka Rees
265 pages

Normally, this kind of book isn't my thing.  I'm just not that into clothes.  But I liked this book because:
A) it was about breaking away from the endless consumerism of buying cheap, disposable clothes and following fads and
B) it took into account the fact that there are many, many different styles and personality types when it comes to clothing and
C) it had exercises to help put the theories in to practice.  (For example, take a photo of what you are wearing every day for two weeks and then analyze what you are wearing a lot and what you look good in.  How does how you want to look match up with how you actually look?)

I thought the book was very sensible, and I am going to recommend it to Arwen when she gets a little older.

Materially Crafted: A DIY Primer for the Design-Obsessed
by Victoria Hudgins (Creator of the blog A Subtle Revelry)
175 pages

I will let the author telling you what the book is about in her own words.

It always begins the same: We see a pretty photo, we click the link.  We read a post that starts with "melt the wax" and we freeze because we don't really know how to melt wax, what kind of wax to use, or where to buy the wax.

We then search "working with wax" online and, upon article after article of technical jargon that often contradicts itself, and is full of unrelated keywords and obnoxious ads.  We get discouraged, downhearted, and quickly put aside the original idea we has to be creative, to make something new and unique with their hands.  And we returned to scrolling through the pin boards, seeing great ideas and dreaming about accomplishing them someday.

Victoria covers the basics of these categories:

• spray paint
• plaster of Paris
• concrete
• paper
• thread
• wax
• would
• Clay
• glue
• fabric
• metal

She also has very simple projects included for each category.  There's some stuff I want to try, like the baskets woven from T-shirts and the concrete planters and the plaster of Paris/lace doily bowls.

Each section is not exhaustive – if you know a lot about what wood or fabric already, for example, you will find them pretty simple, but that is okay.  It's just enough to get someone started using each material.  And the projects are simple enough that you aren't going to get in over your head too much.

That's not the case at all for the next book, though.

Extraordinary Projects for Ordinary People: Do-It-Yourself Ideas from the People Who Actually Do Them
Edited by Noah Weinstein
465 Pages

This book represents the best (or the wackiest) of Intractablesl.com.

Most of these projects I couldn't do because they involved wires and programming something called an Arduino.

  But the cool factor is really high!

• flame-growing jack-o'-lantern
• Star Trek-style bedroom door
• solar-powered ray gun
• amphibious couch-bike
• tree climbing robot
• birdcage dress
• pocket laser engraver
• digital camera Halloween costume – that actually takes pictures
• bike jacket with turn signal
• bacon roses
• vacuum-cleaner bazooka
• solar-powered bicycle

Yes, the more I read the book the more nervous my husband got!  It has inspired me to want to turn our summer family reunion into a family events where we design and build a boat that can break down and fit in the back of a sedan.  I'd also like to make the next-and-bolts chocolate using a DIY silicone mold.

It really made me envy those people who have computers/electrical type of technical skills.  I need to get me some of those….

120 miles on a bike

Today is the last day of the national bike challenge.  I've logged 120 miles since September 1 when I started my new job.  The challenge ends today, and it looks like Lincoln, NE is going to win!

New Game Q. and A.

Q.  Is it a ton of fun to play Castle Ravenloft ?

A.

Obviously!

National Roller Skate Championships

I thought I should take off any photos remaining on The Camera That Died before it goes to its endless rest in the drawer with all the other dead cameras.  (Why do we have so many?  Why do cameras keep dying on us?  Why do we keep them?)

I found some more pics from the National Roller Skating Championships:

 Love those costumes!

And now you can watch my camera start to die.....

Weekly Round-Up

Lately...

... I started a Twitter account: @jpariodesigns.

.... Belovedest, Auntie M. and I went to a tiny house tour.  We were mostly disappointed, as there wasn't much effort at being self-sufficient or energy-efficient.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the 384 square foot house didn't feel cramped, even though there were 11 people in it.
Belovedest pointed out that that was because most of the couple's stuff was up at their other house, which was just up the road.  So they didn't need to store, for example, things like: a vacuum cleaner, snow shovel, books, paperwork, extra food, entertainment, etc. there.  It was more like a little getaway cabin than anything else.

I liked the outdoor shower, though.

And I did learn that building codes vary by county DRASTICALLY in our state.

Auntie M. shuddered at the thought of cooking a full meal in this kitchen, and I think she's right:

You Might Be A Gamer If...

Recent email from a friend:  That was the whole email.  If you are curious, check out a perennial favorite, Castle Panic: The Wizard's Tower.

So if a flaming Boulder hits a fortify token on a wall in front of a tower, which item is destroyed and which is on fire ?

That was the whole email.  If you are curious, check out a perennial favorite, Castle Panic: The Wizard's Tower.

One-of-a-Kind Fantasy Furniture

Talk about back to nature!

It's from the book By Hand: 25 Beautiful Objects to Make in the American Folk Art Tradition by Janice Eaton Kilby.  She has a chapter titled "Rustic Craft with Trees, Twigs, and Bark.  (The book has 'How To' projects, but these are just examples of the genre.)

This cupboard immediately made me think it belonged in a hobbit hole.

Word Yahtzee

This was so much fun!

I want one, and I don't know if this game is made any more.

Thanks, Marcia for introducing me to Word Yahtzee!

Now can anyone find a way to make a 7-letter word out of the following?  (The diamond is equivalent to a blank in Scrabble.)

Weekly Round-Up

Lots of fun things this week!

….. hanging out with the girls at Gianna’s Java & Gelato

…. spending time with our God-daughter and her parents

…. playing Star Trek Catan Board Game with Stacy and Terri.  (Terri won.)  It's not that different from regular Catan, which meant it was easy to learn, except that there are support cards, which enable you to temporarily be various characters.  Each of those characters has particular abilities which definitely add to the game.  I don't know that I'd spend $50 for it, but I liked it.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Pottery Class Results

This is what I made during my 10-week class:

Except for the pastel green and yellow pot with the black outlines on its petals--one of the instructors made that for me since the piece to its left (another pot-with-petals) kept getting broken and repaired.

Here is a close-up of some favorite pieces:

I like making pottery, but it is a whole lot harder than it looks.  Plus some things crack for no reason and glazing can be unpredictable.  (Of course, somethings also crack for very good reasons....)

I asked my instructor what she thought of my abilities and she said, "You have a good design sense, but you are too hasty."  So, I said, "Creative, but impatient."  She nodded.

I'm hoping do to pottery again because I like the practical aspect.  Among the other little experiments, I made two vases, three pots for plants, a pencil holder or two, and three matching containers for utensils that match our yellow-and-black kitchen.  Most the above turned out OK.  Also, making pottery is really soothing and meditative.