Scattered Focus

I keep starting things and then not quite finishing them. Or not doing that great of job if I get close enough to pretend to be done. I can't tell if it's the result of this general anxiety I've been feeling recently or the cause of it. Let's start with the positive and work my way down. Made some not-horrible bread recently and shared it at work. I let it raise too long and it sort of deflated a bit. I also didn't make as much as I had wished. Alas. Anyway- I called it Vdio Bread because it shares the color scheme of our recent product at work. The black is from the ever wonderful squid ink and the yellow from turmeric which was an interesting and new (to me) flavor. I also threw in a handful of other things but in the end the overall flavor was very mild. I wished both the color and the zing of the flavors was a bit stronger.

My sister gifted me this rad raptor particle board "skeleton" thing. I've never assembled one of them before (Adam comments he did a number of them in his youth) and it was a lot of fun. Hard not to be somewhat downed by following a pre-fab thing though... if only I had my scroll saw here! I'm hoping to put it in the back yard and entice my pea sproutlings to grow up/around it. Sadly my sproutlings have sprouted and passed their peek. Am really not in my gardening grove this year, despite my wishes.

The dino bones reminded me of my sister and spurred me on to finally make use of the scraps from her Christmas quilt. I came up one square short and made the most of it. I'm saddened that it took me all of an afternoon to do this piece work and that several days later it still sits in my basement, with no backing. We have company coming in two weekends so hopefully it'll be done by then to spruce up the basement, where they are staying. My first basement guests! (sister Lindsey doesn't count)

One of the reasons I'm having difficulty focusing is probably in part due the fantastic weather. It has been super nice lately (though today, Tuesday, the streak has been broken). This weekend I finally figured out how to mesh my desire to craft and my desire to enjoy the outdoors. Here you can see my diversions in the sun- the hammock, my camera tripod, and my sewing machine. All happily inhabiting our fantastic private back porch.

The tripod is because I've got a nagging urge to do some animation. Why? I don't know. I'm doing sewing projects, gardening projects, cooking projects... clearly what I need now is something else shinny to distract me. I'm not even good/trained at animating so why I think I should even try is beyond me.

Aaaaaanyway, I picked up some velum paper from Office Max and found that my hole punch made perfectly sized holes for some bullet casings I possess. (finding that out was an odd adventure through the basement). With the paper cut down and the casings in place it makes for a perfect flip book that can be reshuffled as needed. My Eadweard Muybridge: The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs book also proved key to the process. And by key, I mean I basically copied one of the sets directly.