ah spring… the line at the DQ drive-thru fucked up traffic and the smell of vinegar is everywhere

Tags

douchenozzles, Evie Cat, getting creative, goals, Lego, life, moods, random shit that falls out of my brain, school, stress, the world is full of fucking idiots, work

It was rather a rough day, at least the part preceding my arrival home. (the vinegar reference is because of all the fucking douchenozzles I ran into while trying to leave campus and get home this afternoon) But when I got here Miss Evie Cat was waiting for me and we snuggled and now all is right with my world again.

I finally managed to get the assignment that absolutely has to be turned in tomorrow done and I got my e-learning piece done. Time was getting tight on that because I’m using a trial version of the damn software and my 30 days were nearly up. But it’s done and I’m satisfied with how it turned out.

I am finding myself a wee bit obsessed with plants lately. It started with Fernidad, who is doing quite well in his swanky little Green Man pot. Then I spent some time on Pinterest (oh time suck of time sucks) looking at various gardening/growing fruit in containers/what will grow in a dim basement and/or bathroom kind of shit. I have a philodendron rooting right now up in the sunroom that I haven’t decided if he’ll live in the bathroom or on the window ledge with Fernidad. I have another philodendron rooting in a beautiful vase at my office. And I’m contemplating getting – GASP! – an African Violet.

Don’t ask, it’s probably a sickness.

Anywho, my new co-worker Miss J went to KC this weekend and brought me more Lego mini-figs. I got the archaeologist and then she made me 3 custom ones.

Yeah, apparently “homicide” was the name of the game that day.

And last but certainly not least, a look at my latest completed drawing…

I told you – obsessed.

one step forward, two steps sideways

Tags

Lego, minimalism, random shit that falls out of my brain, redecorating by just rearranging your shit, redecorating on a budget

Apparently Mom is the new “designated Lego mini-fig procurement agent.” She mentioned yesterday morning that she was going to Target to look for this special yogurt she’s found and really likes, so I asked her to try to pick me up a mini-fig. She was going to the store by my sister’s house so I was hoping they’d have a different (better) selection and that I wouldn’t end up with another duplicate. As you can see, Mom has the magic touch. I also did not at all anticipate THREE of them. She spoils me.

Yesterday at work there was some moving of offices to make room for a new person joining one of the other teams. It didn’t directly impact me, but it did get me in the mood to do a little sprucing up of things in my office. By sprucing up I really mean thinning things out a big. I brought a reasonable amount of crap home and rearranged what was left there and it looks really nice. If you’d never seen my office before you’d never know that it hadn’t always looked that way.

However, that meant I brought home all of that stuff. There was one painting that will for sure go to Goodwill. The framed photos have been incorporated with the ones already on the mantle and I think that looks much improved. A few bits, things that had been Dad’s, went into my treasure box. My concern is that I’d been working so hard to make it less cluttered looking in our living space and now I’m almost back to square one.

I don’t really relish the idea of spending another day going through all of my crap. I have housework and homework and errands to run. But I know me and I know that this will eat at me until it does get done.

The process of transitioning to a minimalist lifestyle is really just that, a process. I didn’t accumulate all of this stuff overnight so it isn’t fair to think I’ll be able to eliminate large chunks of it overnight. And yes, I keep bringing little bits in. But I’m trying to emphasize the “little” part of that.

For those of you who are also trying to pare things down, how’s it going?

share your world – week 5 PLUS bonus crap you don’t care about anyway

Tags

28 day challenge, anxiety, art, drawing, getting creative, I am a big kid, Lego, money, motivation, no job is worth dying for, projects, share your world, shopping, snow days, work

Here are Cee’s Share Your World questions for week 5:

Do you prefer shopping or going to a park?

It depends. Grocery shopping on a budget sucks, but shopping for craft/art supplies or gifts does not provided you don’t have to stick to a tight budget. Also, I enjoy parks when the weather is nice. The great outdoors isn’t so great here right now.

If you were a shoe, what kind would you be and why?

Oh this is easy! I would be a Birkenstock sandal, purple suede Arizona style to be exact. I wear my Birks as much of the year as possible. Having large wide feet really makes you appreciate a well-made shoe.

What’s the story behind a time when you got locked out?

The one and only time I’ve ever locked myself out of a house was when I lived in my great-grandmother’s house with a roommate. There was a screened in front porch that had a locking storm door that I didn’t realize she had locked. Fortunately the basement had small windows and one of those wasn’t locked. Nothing like crawling in through your own window.

Do you prefer eating foods with nuts or no nuts?

I prefer that Josh keep his pants on while I’m eating. 😉 Again, kind of depends on the food but most of the time I enjoy nuts.

Now for the bonus bits…

While running the errands on Saturday, Josh and I ended up at Target. That place is totally my undoing. Most of what we picked up was stuff we needed, but I just had to check out the Legos in the toy section. And I came home with a mini-fig. Wanna see?

I came across the idea of using mini-figs to hold charging cables on Pinterest. When I opened my pouch and saw this little fellow I knew instantly that he was just the man for the job. I’ve attached him to my desk using poster putty and so far it’s working quite well.

I’ve also been working hard on my 28 day challenge. I was able to finish removing the backgrounds from the remaining designs this morning. I also started two new designs last night after I shut down the electronics. This is what they looked like when I resumed work this morning.

I had originally intended this to be a single design, but I really just don’t think they look like they belong together. So I finished the outlining and then did a scan with no color so that I could play with manipulating them digitally. I’m still going to finish the color by hand with my pencils, which means I’ll have to scan and separate them digitally again, but I want to see if I can get a satisfactory result if I do color through the software.

And lastly…

I am taking a self-proclaimed snow day. We got something like 8″ of snow on top of some freezing rain over the weekend and I just turn into a total bundle of nerves when I have to drive in this shit. I’ve got a fuck-ton of vacation time on the books and nothing scheduled for today, so I’m still sitting here in jammies. I plan to get ahead with my school reading and get a few bonus chores done today on top of coloring the drawings. Since I don’t ever have sick kids to use as an excuse to miss work this is how I make up for it.

busy days

Tags

kids, Lego, life, limits

The kid brought us these little Lego people from the trip she took. I got the wizard and Josh got the genie, of course. Totally nifty though.

There’s a lot going on that I want to tell you about but the current local time is 21:24 and I’m exhausted. I’ve still got a few things to wrap up before I can crash for the night but I wanted to let y’all know I’m still here and (mostly) doing just fine. Hopefully tomorrow I can get caught up on things around here and then have time to get y’all caught up on what’s happening in my neck of the woods.

dirty little secret

Tags

getting creative, Lego, nano poblano, Nanoblocks, product vs. process, team pepper

No, not inter-species sex you perverts! Mama likes Lego. And Nanoblocks.

For those who haven’t encountered them yet, those are Nanoblocks. Josh did the guitar and I did the hummingbird and dragonfly. The wings on both of those suckers actually move, on purpose. I also have an unopened pouch yet for a butterfly.

standard bottle of OPI nail polish included for scale –

over 130 pieces in that itty bitty pouch

I’m not that thrilled with the colors of the butterfly, (mostly brown in the wings) but the Target store where I’ve been getting these doesn’t have a super selection and I’m kind of afraid to go looking online. My guess is that I’ll get even more addicted. I also still have a big ass Lego kit from our trip to the Lego store at the Mall of America.

731 pieces – wowza! The nice old guy at the store told me he was sure I’d have no problems seeing as I looked like a smart kid.

The funny this is that Legos weren’t a big interest for me as a kid. We had them, the standard jumble of random blocks that everyone had back then, and I’d mess with them but I wasn’t as intrigued as I seem to be now. And now I’m only interested in the kits. If I were to compare this to knitting I would say that I am a product Lego’er, meaning that I’m way more interested in the end thing than I am in the physical process of making it myself. I’m mostly like that with any craft or project I do; it’s all about the thing that I end up with.

How about the rest of you creative folks – would you say you’re more into the process of doing the thing or more into the product and having something to use/look at/etc at the end?