lenyberry | Entries tagged with kat makes things

- sort of maybe drifting back into being active about blogging a bit more?

- have determined that indeed I am *extremely* affected by the serotonin-suppressing effects of living at elevation. Thus am planning to move as soon as I can work out the logistics and pick a lower-elevation place to go (currently approximately everywhere below 2000ft is in the running). Meanwhile trying out some supplements that preliminary research looks promising on, for mitigating the altitude effect so I can function better.

- no longer working as a bartender, now I do quality control in a machine shop. It pays much better, but I’m not so keen about the hours.

- am single after a breakup, and thoroughly hate the dating scene where I am, which is further motivation to move

- but in good things, have been playing keys in a local band with some real cool people. We’ve had a few shows, and even gotten paid (not much, but it’s still neat to actually make some money at music for the first time in ever) a few times.

Finished this pistachio wood pendulum today.

A very nice heavy boi! Entirely hand-shaped and finished (well, with a dremel, but still).

Current Mood: calm

- picked dandelion greens & baby arugula, along with some early-starting pre-established garden herbs, for to make a lunch with. Scrambled egg & veggie wrap + a salad entirely consisting of Stuff From Garden (+balsamic vinegar & a drizzle of oil for dressing, but besides that). Very yummy.

- recorded a vocal audition track, one of two I need to do -- the other is coming soon but not yet done.

- went out and bought another aux cable to improve my jerry-rigged recording setup wherein I use my keyboard amp as a makeshift mixing board, so that I can have more options about how to do things

- refrained from being overly self-deprecating in regards to said audition track when I sent it off (a difficult instinct to overcome, I always wanna get a jump on any possible criticism by putting myself down first... but that's the opposite of helpful in audition or other job-interview-like situations where the goal is to convince people that you're Reasonably Good At Stuff)

- ran some general-life-maintenance errands such as bank and groceries

- did a badly-overdue vacuuming

- bought some books & shirts at the thrift shop, seriously considered a wall shelf thing but opted not even though that's the sort of thing I was looking for in the first place. Told myself I can afford to be picky and get one I really like, don't have to grab the first generally decent thing I spot.

Current Mood: accomplished

Went out and did some maintenance work on an old and very neglected pistachio tree. I'm working on clearing out the dead and crossed branches... lots to be done! Didn't make much of a dent today but I still went home with a good bag full o' sticks to work with. Pistachio wood is so delightful -- nice color and grain, polishes beautifully, and smells amazing. Like a cross between pine and mango. And it's a really nice wand wood too... I made one pistachio wand a while back and it quickly became a favorite.

I'm not entirely sure yet what all I'm gonna make, but I have a few ideas.

Found some deer bones on the way out, too -- it paid off to stop and veer off to pick up trash along the way, I never would have spotted them if I'd stayed on the path.

Also stopped by to pick up some craft supplies out of storage, I've had the Make Stuff bug biting me lately. Got my embroidery thread and some other bits & bobs.

Current Mood: satisfied

my hand holding a container of PINK pigment, fingernails painted using it

I've wanted to do this thing since the whole Art Feud kicked off in the first place. But international shipping and currency conversion sucks, so I didn't order PINK (and the others) til I discovered there's now US distribution. But yeah, first thing I did with the stuff was mix it into a clear nail polish to get this fab mani.

And seriously, I don't think I can adequately express how happy I am to have a hot pink nail polish that has no cool undertones whatsoever. My very warm-undertoned (despite being pale AF, yes this combo makes matching foundation tricky) skin can now not clash with hot pink!

Current Mood: IT IS SO PINK

Added some hidden pockets to my denim jacket today. I'm not totally done but when I am I'll have two inner pockets on each side -- one large, harder to get into sneaky-like to retrieve stuff but easier to get into sneaky-like to deposit something, and one small, some sacrifice of sneakiness factor for putting stuff in (and not hugely better sneakiness of retrieval), but far easier to retrieve stuff out of without actually having to take off the jacket. The larger pocket also serves a structural purpose and keeps the lapel piece in place better so I won't have to spend so much time re-ironing it every time I wash this dang thing.

So now I can go to rock shows/nightclubs/whatever and have a little spot to stash some cash, my ID, and a chapstick where I don't have to worry about carrying a bag OR getting pickpocketed. And I can sneak a snack or two in to a movie even if I decide I don't wanna carry a purse (seriously, fuck concession-stand prices).

Also got a good amount of practice at hand-sewing rolled hems and doing hidden stitches for this project -- from the outside, it's impossible to tell that anything's been sewn in, and all the edges on the pocket fabric are finished with rolled hems to avoid fraying issues.

Fabric is pieces from a Crown Royal bag, I have a truly stupid amount of those since at work they just get thrown away if I don't take them and I hate the idea of letting perfectly good fabric go to waste like that.

Current Mood: accomplished

Made my first infused honey today. Been thinking about it for a while, finally got supplies and did the thing. Birch and lavender, and oh goodness it's tasty! I think it needs one more ingredient to really round the flavor out, but I'm not sure what just yet. I'm leaning towards something earthy and dark, but I'll have to think about it while enjoying this batch. Maybe just manuka honey for a base instead of the cheap clover honey. No way I was gonna risk wasting my good manuka on a test batch that might not have turned out well, shit's expensive! But now that I know I can make a good infused honey, it might be worth doing. On the other hand though, the manuka's already just super delicious, and if I can get the final kind of flavor I'm after by just adding a third ingredient instead that would definitely be a less expensive thing.

Even so, this is already just so yum. Been enjoying it on fresh baking powder biscuits this evening that my boyfriend made while I did the honey.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: I really am just a true potioner at heart

Put that oil together last night. It was very well-received, and I even came real close to re-creating the scent of his favorite cologne that's discontinued. I think to really catch the last of it I'd need at least one scent I don't have and am not familiar enough with to know what it is... though from my understanding of things that are common in perfumery (and what tends to be in scent blends for men vs. for women) I can make a sort of... educated guess at narrowing down the options, and conveniently a few of the things I'm considering are on my list of oils I'd like to obtain at some point anyway. Maybe next time he needs a refill I'll be able to get an even closer mimic.

He had a recipe he'd put together himself that sort of vaguely approximated something in the same general ballpark, which I used as a base guideline, but i was able to sniff at his almost-out bottle of the actual cologne and improve upon the recipe, and it's much closer now. Still imperfect, but closer. Needed myrrh and geranium, and a little more of a few of the middle notes.

Got my gift for the secret-santa exchange I'm participating in mailed out. A bit later than I'd hoped to, but it's done now!

And I got paid today, went to the bank to make my deposit, and have hit the Savings Account Milestone that I'd aimed to hit by the end of the year! Woohoo, goal achieved! No more paychecks til next year, so I kinda just barely pulled it off, but I still DID THE THING.

And tomorrow I get to spend some good time with friends and pizza and hot buttered rum and Cards Against Humanity, which I'm quite looking forward to.

Oh, AND I found a source for some benzoin resin at a reasonable price, that had a few other odds and ends I wanted and could combine shipping on. It's been a good day.

Current Mood: satisfied

Work kinda sucked, but I got some good stuff done afterwards! Picked up both my DVD's and the fiber-optic tree I salvaged from a dumpster a few years ago out of storage, got the next bit of my bookshelf reorganized, also did my headboard and put the tree up.

A small fake holiday tree with fiber optic lights on a wood shelf which also contains various small knickknacks. There's a large exploding-TARDIS poster on the wall behind it.

Gosh this looks so much better than the previous mess I had up there! No idea why someone threw that tree away, it's in perfect shape and was even in its box and everything. But I'm not gonna complain about finding a free holiday tree that's just the right size for my space.

I also finalized the two incense blends I was working on and made up a larger batch of the Yule blend, and gathered more juniper to use for the cleansing blend as well.

Wishing the rest of my room looked as good as the bits of it I've gotten around to, but I'll get there if I don't run out of steam halfway through... and heck, even if I DO run out of steam before finishing, at least the overall total organization level will be better than it was before.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: for some reason I have "I saw mommy kissing santa claus" stuck in my head.