 October 18th, 11, 15 a.m. Anyway, it's just a quiet Sunday. Oh, I have laundry to do. I need to work on some new designs for new sticker flakes today. I kinda wanna work on Frida if I have time today. I'll be doing that, but just a quiet day at home. Nothing spectacular, but that's okay. Calm is a good thing. All right, that's it for the minute. I'm gonna do some banking. I gotta pay a couple of bills and then I'm gonna go work on the laundry and those designs for the sticker flakes. So, and have some water because otherwise the asthma thing gets like crazy. Anyway, I'll be back. Okay guys, I spent the afternoon, definitely finishing Frida. I think she's finished. I'll insert a picture here of her. I have some sort of video, but it's not a talking video. It's just sort of, it's not a speed through. Well, I guess it is kind of, but I'm not speeding through it a whole bunch to music, but it's over for the people over on Patreon. So it's only a couple of dollars a month. And if you wanna join Patreon, I put videos like that over there, free digital downloads, once or twice a year, actual snail mail for me. And we're gonna start doing live chats, live art chats over there too. So anyway, that's a thing. So it's actually Monday. It feels like Monday. It's October 19th. It's 5.05 or so, PM, PM here. I got the sticker flakes, photographed, packaged and ready to list on Etsy, put them here. The rest of the day was spent fiddling with my phone and iPad and the iMac since the operating system is all updated, yet iMovie didn't. They just don't wanna play nice together. Getting the video clips off of my phone and onto the Macs and what I can edit them is just a trial every single time. I'm thinking that iMovie needs to be updated. I was chatting with Mike Deacon. That's kind of what we both think. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but we'll see. In the meantime, my husband's ballot still is not here yet. The mail wasn't here when I checked at 4.30. It's still not here. I don't know where our mail is at. We're supposed to get a crap ton of mail today, including his ballot. So I don't know. It's Monday. Feels like Monday, yeah. Okay, so it only took most of the day, but the second of the two videos, the one for Patreon is finally saving, and we're out for a walk. See, there's Fred. Say hi. Hey, Fred. So yeah, I'm very happy about that, and as soon as it's done saving, I can delete all the clips off of my computer and off of the phone and all that stuff. And it looks like it might rain on us. Yeah, it's pretty. I don't know if you guys can tell on camera. Oh yeah, there you go. Yeah, it's pretty dark. So we're gonna go get some steps in. If we get rained on, we're turning around and heading home. I didn't bring a coat, so I'm not the wicked witch. I won't melt, at least last time I checked. And the mail's finally being delivered. Yes, very late. Almost six o'clock, I think. Quarter six. But at least we're getting it. Hopefully Fred's ballot's in there. So we can get the voting shenanigans over and done with. Anyway, all right, I'll be back. This is really cute. This is our neighbor's yard. But why do I feel like this tombstone here should say rest in peace 2020, instead of 1856? I'm just thinking. All right, I'll be back. Hey guys, it is Tuesday, October. 20, I think. It's just after lunch. I don't think it's one o'clock yet, but it's pretty close. Anyway, I spent the day, the day, the morning live on YouTube and getting the video I edited yesterday uploaded, and that's all working. And then cleaning up after I was done with the live because we jelly printed on fabric and that made a big mess. So I have some more stuff to do upstairs, but I'm gonna go check the mail first. And yeah, I'll be right back. It's almost four o'clock. The computer's been off for a couple of hours. Not gonna turn it back on again. Sorry, my niece messaged me. She's pregnant again, maybe number two. I'm gonna be a gradient again. I can't wait. Do an April. Anyway, I think April. Anyway, let's see, what else did I do? I also went out walking the neighborhood collecting acorn caps and it's kind of the wrong. I should have done this like a month ago, but you know, I didn't, but I did find some. I've washed them and they're drying. I saw this thing on the Slow Stitch Facebook group where one of the women took acorn caps and she made the acorn nut part out of fabric and then glued them together and made them into Christmas ornaments. That was so cute. So I'm thinking, I'd like to do something similarly. So I came upstairs because I have some corduroy scraps. I think they're from Aunt Beck. Aunt Beck's creations, if I'm not mistaken. And she sent them to me in Happy Mail. And I'm thinking, how cute would these be in some nuts? And I'm kind of wondering, is that another one? Yes, I'm kind of wondering, I missed a few colors. If I have any gold machine sewing thread because what if I did some just random lines, gold machine, I know, right? Should brain just go off on a tangent like that with art stuff? Or is it just me? If it's just me, it's okay. All right, I'm gonna see what I have around and see what I can do and I'll be back. Okay, I can get it to work. The machine doesn't like it, but it will work. And the back sides got one little boo-boo, but I think it'll work. So I used regular thread on the bottom and the metallic cranic thread on the top. I have another spool of it, where is it? This stuff, which is supposed to be like for hand stitching. You can use it on the machine according to a few blog posts, but you're not really supposed to. What I had to do on my machine is I had to bypass a couple of things that made the tension too tight. So I lessened up the tension a little bit, lengthened the stitch length to almost the max. And then instead of going through this little thing right here, it goes from the spool to here to here to around here. Like this part makes it to the tension too tight. So instead I used this one back here to make it a little bit more taut, but not tight. And then I bypassed this which guides the thread into the needle. I also bypassed this one. Both of those make the thread way too tight. So we're gonna see if we can put some gold lines on some of the corduroy that Aunt Beck sent me. And then tomorrow we'll make some acorns or Wednesday or sometimes this week. But first let's see if we can put some gold thread on here. All right, I'll be back. No picture of myself. Okay, so this is the first one I did. It's not, it's a little crooked, but okay. Oh, pretty, green. So I pretty and shiny and sparkly and yeah, but I am remembering, you know what I've done is, why I don't like that thread, whether you're machine, trying to machine stitch with it or you're hand stitching with it. I don't like that thread. It breaks all the time. Maybe I'm just a gorilla with thread. I don't know, but it breaks all the time. Even when you're hand stitching with it, I always had trouble with it and drove me crazy. Over the years I've purged a lot of it because I had this like in every color and multiple spools of each color at one time. I have a lot of it. Yeah, I don't anymore. I have like, I use up this one and I have two of the thinner filament one that's all I have. And I'm happy to either use it up or purge it, but I will tell you, I do wanna point this at the machine. So on my machine, the thread is right there, right there, the spool and this holds the thread in place. So other than sort of purposefully misthreading my machine, I took my beeswax, which happens to, it came like this and I jammed it in here and then I ran the thread so that it ran across the beeswax blocks before it went into the machine. So that helped because one of the problems with the metallic thread is it's very brittle and it wants to break all the time. And I use this on some of the vintage threads that I sew with too and the other really thin threads. It helps it from knotting and tangling and breaking. And so I thought it might work for this and it did, it did help a lot. I mean, I was able to get some done. I may look into other vintage machine sewing threads. Vintage, metallic see, see, blah, blah, blah, metallic machine sewing threads. But this particular brand, although easily available in any hobby craft store, it's usually near the embroidery floss, lots of hand stitchers use it to add metallic to their embroidery. And it's been in business a long time. So it must be good for something but there must be a trick to using it because I just have the worst luck on the planet. That being said, I did manage to do it today. And while these as they are may not be super pretty. Once you have a little circle cut out of that and then have it gathered and stuck underneath an acorn cap, that's gonna be pretty. Now that being said, I'm probably gonna have to trace the circles on the backside and then do a really teeny tiny stitch around the circle on the machine with a regular thread to just lock everything in place because otherwise it's gonna just all unravel. But yeah, I don't think glue is gonna work. I think I need to do a little teeny tiny, teeny, teeny tiny stitch. So anyway, onto the next, right? All right, that's it for the minute. I'll be back. Good morning everybody. It is 942 AM Wednesday, October 21st. I am about to go live in about a little less than 20 minutes with the supporters over at Patreon and the supporters in YouTube membership. So if you want to have one-on-one conversations with me, get access to free digital downloads, lives like the one I'm gonna do today, then join one of those two things. There is links for both links for both of them in the video description. I forgot what I was gonna say. Oh, it's not, you know, super expensive. It's a very affordable. The YouTube membership has tier levels. The Patreon one is just a flat, very low price one. So anyway, my ring keeps going off but I guess it's the cats, I'm guessing. While I'm doing it, we're gonna discuss this art bag and probably clean it out. I need to go get the lint roll because I know it's disgusting inside the bag again. And discussing art bags in general. And although I'd like a bigger bag, why I won't go to one? Well, I'll be having that discussion. So anyway, I'm gonna turn some lights on, get things moved around and plugged in, go grab that lint roll and hopefully I'll see you in the broadcast. All right, I'll be back. Hey guys, so I'm turning off the computer for the day. Yet again, early, it's not four o'clock yet. It's been a routine of mine for quite a while now to shut the computer off, usually by four o'clock, which is great. I'm not upset about that at all. I got a journal page done. I've got to put some stuff away. I got a journal page done here. Even zombies stick together. So I used the zombies that I made out of my rubber stamp set, my art doll rubber stamp set that I have in my Etsy shop. So I'll link that down below if you're all interested and there's a better look. So I just stamped them and then I colored them. And then I also made some slow stitch fabric. Acorns that I hung up on my wall here above my desk. So I went out yesterday picking up acorn caps. It's not exactly the right time of year. But I found some. I just got a severe weather warning for this weekend. So I need to ask my husband where the little caps are for our hose bibs outside and we need to get them capped off because it looks like we're gonna get some frost maybe this weekend. I am not surprised. Seriously, I'm only half joking when I say I'm experiencing, I'm expecting like 12 inches of snow. I'm really only half kidding. It's 2020, so nothing would surprise me. And Portland is sort of overdue for a really cold winter. So there you have it. Anyway, hopefully that backup replacement, battery backup replacement for the fireplace comes soon. In case we lose power again, we can still heat the house. Oh, all right, I'll be back. I also wanted to say that I was matting some of the slow stitch work I've been doing and I have them here on the irony board. This is the first portrait that I did. Here we go. And based on a painting that I did, which is also in here, this is succulent based again on a painting that I did. Frida was the first one that wasn't based on my own work. It was just based on a number of different photographs and images that I found, including my coffee cup. And I have them matted here on the irony board. I also have this piece of artwork that I did a while ago. I am toying with the idea of her being the next slow stitch portrait that I do. How challenging would that be, but how fun? Anyway, he saw this lady on the irony board and he said, wow, that's really nice, which I appreciate, because he doesn't say that about all artwork. At the same time, if I was getting ready for a show and I was getting things ready for sale, him saying that's the kiss of death because every single time he said that, that item never sold. I'm glad I'm not doing a show. Anyway, so that's a current collection. I do wrap them in plastic once I map them, even if I'm not planning on selling them because the mat is backwards on this one. Oops, I better fix that, because it protects them and I don't always get things framed. Getting things framed is expensive. And so I don't always do that. And if it's gonna be sold, then shipping a frame is expensive and it's cheaper for the customer me to ship it unframed and a little safer too. So anyway, there you have it. I'm gonna grab my stuff. I'm gonna fix that mat because it's backwards and go downstairs. I'll be back. Hey guys, we're out for our evening walk before dinner. I found a new channel this afternoon whose name I don't remember and I don't think I know how to pronounce it anyway, but I'll, so I'll link it below. It's a Dutch channel and she's a journaler and I love what she does with her art journal and she uses things from nature in her journal. She presses her own flowers and things. I love that idea. I'm always dragging home leaves or acorn caps or something. And so I'm very inspired by our channel. So look forward to me doing some of that soon because yeah, anyway, I'll link her channel down below. Go check it out. All right, that's it. I'm gonna go walking. I'll be back. Good morning. It is Thursday, October 22nd. It is 10, 17 a.m. Obviously I'm in the car. You know, I made the mistake yesterday on a live, somebody is smoking in front of me, like in a major way and I, yeah, smoke's coming in the car. Anyway, in a major way, I made a point of, in a major way, I made a big mistake. I made a point of voicing some thoughts and ideas about my daily drawing bag on a live broadcast yesterday with my patrons and supporters over in Patreon and here on YouTube. And we discussed a little group broadcast and chat and I shared my daily drawing bag and all the different kinds of creative journaling that I do and some ideas of kinds of creative journaling you can do and encouragement, all of that stuff. Did a little drawing of a frog. Not super thrilled with it, but he's kind of cute. I'll put him here somewhere. Anyway, now that I've voiced my opinions or thoughts about my daily drawing bag, now it's nagging the crap out of me and I think now I need to make myself a new bag. So I'm headed to Hobby Lobby. Why do I do these things to myself? Like I, you know, voice an idea or God forbid, I also wrote it down and I wrote made notes, like, because I needed to do that. And now my muse is off on a tangent and dancing all around him like, let's make a bag, let's make a bag, let's make a bag. So guess what I'm probably doing next week. Anyway, we're headed to Hobby Lobby. I need a few colors of floss again. I'm gonna look at fabric. Hopefully they have some fusible fleece and we'll see what parts they have that I don't have to order because mostly the fabric, because although I have ordered fabric online through this whole thing, it's really difficult when you're not exactly sure what you want and it's, you know, fabric is one of those things that I feel like I have to be there to pick out. So I'm heading to Hobby Lobby. All right, I'll be back. I just had the thought that I should explain some things a little bit. So my current daily drawing bag that sits on the sofa next to me, I'll insert a picture here of it sitting on the sofa. It's usually always open and one end is attached with elastic and buttons in the back to stand up and not lay down flat so that it holds my journals and things I'm currently working on. And then the front lays down flat as a sort of landing cat for my glasses and things. Right now you just see a whole bunch of jelly roll pins. It's all well and good and it works really well, but I find that for what I use it for, I can never get it closed. Like I could just never get it closed. It just doesn't close. And when it does close, it closes like a roll, like a duffel bag. It's like a roll. And for what I use it for, I really just need to be able to zip it up. It doesn't need to seal all the way, maybe with a couple of handles so I can lift it up and put it next to the sofa on the floor or in a basket or in a closet when company comes over. Because otherwise it's taking up a whole seat on the sofa, the love seat next to me. And that when company comes over, that's a problem. Now is it an all the time thing? No, but it does happen at least once a week when the kids come over for dinner. And then it's just kind of a pain to like pick it up and move it anywhere because it doesn't close. So that's kind of my thinking behind making a new bag. Other than closing it and moving it, I love the bag. It's the original pattern is a sew together bag. I enlarged it to accommodate drawing materials and supplies. I do have some stitching things in there too. It was originally a sewing tools bag. I do have a document in Google Docs I think that includes the original pattern link, which is an Etsy and my notes on enlarging it their first time. So I will link that down below when and if I can and I get it done, I will add to that document with the notes on making it into a tote with handles. So there you go. Now we're at Hobby Lobby. I'm gonna put my mask, I'm gonna mask up and I'm gonna go in and see what we can find. All right, I'll be back. Okay, guys, I've been working on this for a few hours. Didn't really expect to be doing that, but okay. And this is what we have. It's about the same size as the old drawing bag. It has the three pockets inside. If I take these, which are part of the original design these little sidewalls and I pull them in tight enough then I won't need buttons to hold the backup. That's the back where the journals will stand and the front when it's unzipped. It's hard to do with one hand. Okay, won't lay completely flat, but that's okay because I usually have journals and eyeglasses in here. So there'll be a little bit of an angle here. You'll have to just trust me. I think that's gonna work and it'll sit like that on the couch next to me. And then when people come over, which is the thing, we have company come over and then I have to in a hurry put my drawing stuff away. I just pulled the zipper pull off again. I'm gonna have to fix that and put a stop there. Anyway, it zips right up and I'll put handles on it so it'll be a tote bag. So I'll show you when it's finished and we'll go over some notes and what I did and how I changed the pattern and manana tomorrow. I need to stop now and probably go for a walk. Have I said yet today that it feels like a year of Mondays? I forgot my headphones. I don't have any music to listen to. And Fred's not with me, so that's all right. The peace and quiet is not a bad thing. Lean decorations. Hands is over that way. Grandpa, kids are back there. We're also working off some pizza. So, you know, that way I can have cookies. I'll be back. Hey guys, it's almost 3.30 on Saturday afternoon, October 24th. So I didn't vlog yet this morning because I was busy trying to finish my new art bag tote bag. I'll search some pictures here. Yes, there's a video coming, but it's not a full and complete tutorial because the original pattern's not mine. So you really need to go get the original pattern and read that. I'm giving you some notes to make both my version I was using which was the same kind of bag, but larger and also notes about what I did to make the tote bag. And then you guys can play with it and see what you want to do. Anyway, I spent the morning doing that. Got a little blurry eye in front of the sewing machine but I got it done. Got my mess cleaned up and I need to do the dishes and laundry, I don't really want to right now. So I think I'm gonna go upstairs and do today's art poplips 2020 drawing and a couple of other things upstairs before I tackle chores, because you know, why would I do chores? All right, I'll be back. I'm watching the Hoof GP. Yes, he trims cow hooves. He's in Scotland. I have no explanation. I'll link his channel below. Anyway, I almost forgot to close the vlog again because you know, it's another Monday on Saturday because it's a year of Mondays. Anyway, sorry, I'm getting some notifications from Instagram. Anyway, it's been a good day. I'm so glad I got my drawing bag done. It's sitting here next to me on the sofa and it works really well. I did a fabulous job and I'm really looking forward to using it. So yeah, it's a good thing. Anyway, we are just sitting here looking at our iPads. He's got a football game on college football, I think. Anyway, it's been a fun week, I guess, for the apocalypse. I don't know, it's been a weird week again but I got a lot of good projects done. I have a few more things to do before the month ends but we'll get it done. Anyway, I hope you all had a good week. If you have questions, comments or concerns, leave them down below. I'll link what I can if I forget something, somebody let me know. If you can support the free content here on YouTube, I sure would appreciate it. As would your other favorite creators. They probably have a way to do that whether it's Patreon or an Etsy shop or Amazon affiliate link or something. I have a link tree list of links in the video description. You'll find all of my social media, my Facebook art groups and the ways to support the channel, including my Etsy shop, so check it out. I would appreciate it as would they, I think. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay creative and don't forget to go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. I'll see you later, bye guys.