(no subject)

Jul. 2nd, 2025 08:55 pm
dustbunny105: (Default)
[personal profile] dustbunny105
I expected this would be a slow week at work, what with the Fourth, but it's been pretty normal so far and it looks like tomorrow will be too. Not complaining, just confused.

Got slowed up on the crochet plant progress because my focus shifted to finishing reading my last book of June and then I just kinda forgot about it yesterday. Still, I'm pretty sure I can get everything finished up this weekend. Might do a few for myself after this, tbh, I'm finding these super charming. If not a full plant, maybe just some vines I can hang from my window or something. Although having a little prop plant for my Transformers could be fun...

Making myself decorations takes a backseat to finishing the organizing, of course, which I'm still also aiming to do this weekend. I won't quite be able to get everything I wanted done, unfortunately. Looking at what I've got to work with financially, I just don't think the furniture pieces I had in mind are high enough of a priority to be spending on right now. I let myself forget sometimes but I'm still recovering from that fiasco last year. I also let a credit card balance go off the rails because I forgot which accounts I was using. I really need to close a few of these now that my credit score is so solid... Anyway, yeah, I'm gonna have to make space on the closet shelves that I wasn't planning for but that'll be fine. I'll still have things at ground level pretty well dealt with and I can just look at this as having more time to find the perfect pieces.

I've got plans after work with my sister tomorrow but I don't expect to be out too terribly late. I can get some work on the plants, get some work done on my room and make up a to-do list for the long weekend. I know I've said this before and had mixed results but I really feel good about wrapping things up! Well, as much as is possible right now, anyway.

Word: Halyard

Jul. 2nd, 2025 12:23 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: letters (letters)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
Wednesday's word is...

...halyard [hal-yerd]

noun

1. any of various lines or tackles for hoisting a spar, sail, flag, etc., into position for use.

---

I found this in Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

First Mr. Fridley fastened the U.S. flag on the halyard (that's a new word in my vocabulary) and then fastened the California flag below it.

halyard
smallhobbit: (sunshine revival 2025)
[personal profile] smallhobbit
Sunshine Revival Challenge #1 - Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month.
Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

I'm working my way through 25 things in 2025, and have completed the first 14, as well as chosen 2 for April to September.  Which means it's time to choose the next 5, leaving 3 for the final quarter, plus Thing #1 which is simply to complete and write about the other 24 Things.

They are:

Quarter 3 - July to September

18 - Take part in the Big Butterfly Count
This runs from 18 July to 10 August and further details can be found here.  Part of my plan to support wildlife.

19 - Sort out my current papers/documents
They're all filed in an expanding file, so I can find everything, but it's time to move the oldest papers elsewhere, so they can be stored but I don't need them to hand.  Another of the 'I really should do this sometime' tasks, which should now get done.

20 - Sort Anchor threads
A few weeks ago I bought a box for storing my Anchor threads, so I can find the colours I want easily.  All I have to do now is get round to sorting them.  That is definitely a challenge, which is why I've added it here.

Half 2 - July to December

21 - Take part in the weekly Garden Bird Watch
I started this as part of 30 Days of Wildlife, and the intention is to keep going for six months, after which I will automatically continue or realise it's simply not working.

22 - Revise some German
I only have very basic German, which every so often I go back over.  As we shall be on holiday in Germany next April, it wouldn't hurt to go over it again.  We're on a tour, so it mostly won't be needed, but there's always buying cakes etc!

23 - Autumn Holiday
We haven't decided where we're going this year, but we'll be going somewhere, probably in early October, which is when we usually go, so I'm including this as one of my things I'm doing this year.

My full list can be found here

(no subject)

Jul. 1st, 2025 08:50 pm
dustbunny105: (Default)
[personal profile] dustbunny105
I've got a comment alert in my Dreamwidth inbox that just says,

(You are not authorized to view this comment)

Okay, but why is it in my inbox then??

Views & News

Jul. 1st, 2025 06:45 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: ChopSuey (chopsuey)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
1. The big news...Orientation is Thursday...I have a job! Orientation is PAID. I haven't been paid for work since 2015. This is a big deal! I know I will cycle through anxiety and fear but it's incredible that it's even happening!

Not much else to compete with that. We took the kids to Costco for the first time on Monday, and they were impressed. I am trying to get my cleaning done and my soap opera update written because at the end of orientation I will meet with a scheduler and I have no idea what that will be like.

Apparently the delay was my last employer (the nursing home) not having employment records going back that far so they couldn't verify my employment. So I had to dig up decade old tax forms and scan them and send them in to prove I did work at some point.

I bought 2 EXIT games to play with the fam. We'll see how that goes.

More Ryu and Ryua camping

Sunshine Revival #1

Jul. 1st, 2025 01:54 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: beach (beach)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-1.png

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.
Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.


Here is my monthly planner spread in my Hobonichi techo for July. July's theme color is GOLD.

(no subject)

Jun. 30th, 2025 08:54 pm
dustbunny105: (Default)
[personal profile] dustbunny105
I always mix up June and July as far as length goes and so I'm always taken by surprise when June ends a day earlier than I expected.

Can you believe this year is half over already? On the other hand, can you believe that there's still a whole half a year to go?

Definitely can't say honestly that I'm where I'd have liked to have been at this point of the year. But I can at least say with some confidence-- maybe more like some optimism-- that I feel like I'm getting close. Better late than never, right?
smallhobbit: (Gloucestershire Peregrine)
[personal profile] smallhobbit
Week 4 had a creative theme, so I wrote a tanka:

Counting garden birds
Filling up the water bowls
Walking through the woods
Small steps to gentle progress
Building a lifetime's habit

And I downloaded a knitting pattern from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, to knit a bittern - a 'knittern' for making later.

In addition, I downloaded 14 spotter sheets for use during different seasons (and therefore encouraging me to go out), plus masks and colouring sheets for our after school club.

Finally, I made a bumblebee felt craft brooch from a kit I'd myself a while ago.




Looking back on the 30 Days Wild challenge, it's been fun and hopefully will encourage me to do more - I always feel it would be a good idea, but finding the necessary motivation is important.  I've become a member of the British Trust for Ornithology (it's not very expensive) and have submitted two weeks' worth of garden bird sightings.  And I'm currently watching the house martins flying around catching flies.


25 in 2025: Mid-year to date

Jun. 30th, 2025 07:32 am
stonepicnicking_okapi: 2025 (2025)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
I have ordered some new board games for us to try as a family so that will help. And I'm going to try and overhaul (gradually, one meal at a time) our dinners so that they are healthier. And maybe I'll have a job (*dare I hope*). But I need to be on the lookout for things because I should be at 12 or 13 by now.

1. learn to hem pants
2. go to a new grocery store
3. attend a jhope concert in Brooklyn
4. make an essential oil spray
5. submit an application for a job
6. interview for a job
7. participate in a fic exchange
8. read a manga (Death Note 1)
9. go to Costco

(no subject)

Jun. 29th, 2025 08:32 pm
dustbunny105: (Default)
[personal profile] dustbunny105
I overestimated how much yarn I have of a specific color for the plants for my sister-in-law. Oops. Luckily enough, it's for what was already going to be one of the smaller plants. The finished product won't be quite what I originally envisioned but I don't think it should lose too much. It's a generic, viney plant with flowers and so at least it isn't supposed to look like anything in particular.

This does have me worried about how wrong I might be about the two larger pieces I have in mind, though, which are supposed to look like something in particular-- a fern and a spider plant. I guess I'll just go into them assuming they'll be smaller than what I'd originally planned and build them up accordingly. If I do have enough to fill them out, that'll just be a bonus. If push comes to shove, I can get more yarn but I don't want to do that.

At least I know the smallest piece, a set of coasters that looks like a succulent when all folded away, will go exactly as planned.

The State of the Ficcery: June 2025

Jun. 29th, 2025 10:10 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: okapi (Default)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi
Word Count: 33,424

Writing: Many things going on:
1. I completed by GYWO pledge for 2025. So year-to-date, word count: 150,040
2. GYWO Yahtzee is over, and I did all but 1 category, so I was #5 (everyone ahead of me did all the categories)
3. I uploaded my beta-ed case fic today. Whew!
4. Started a new BTS soap opera, a Yoonkook Rear Window AU
5. 4 poems
5. Fills for: [community profile] emotion100, [community profile] 100words, [community profile] drabble_zone, [community profile] vocab_drabbles

In July:
1. Keep the soap opera going
2. Still behind on the poems. Catch up on poems.

Reading: A very good reading month. 7 books.

In July:
1. At least 3 squares in the bingo.
2. Finish The Mirror Crack'd [it's annoying me at the moment, which is sad because the plot itself is very clever, but it begins with ol' Aggie's old lady carping and that is giving me indigestion]

Crafting:

5 spreads. 1 card.

In July:
I might do some summer postcards.

I have started a jigsaw puzzle, and I am forcing the boys to get off screen and help me with it after lunch. It is called Around the World in 50 Plants. Finish it by the start of school 25 AUG]

Personal:
1. Surviving the leak
2. Interviewing for a job
3. End of school for the boys

In July:
1. Minor and the boys' father are going to Jacksonville, Florida for 5 days for a track meet. So Minisculus and I will be home alone. It should be interesting.

So many mental and physical health areas I am not doing well in, but I don't want to dwell on them here.

On y va to July!

Books - June 2025

Jun. 29th, 2025 04:41 pm
smallhobbit: (Book pile)
[personal profile] smallhobbit
7 books read this month, so 38 for the year and I'm on target!

A Frightfully Fatal Affair by Hannah Hendy
I normally listen to these on audiobook, but for a change I borrowed it from the library.  The next in the Dinner Lady Detectives series.  Entertaining, slightly implausible, but the two dinner ladies are appealing characters, so I enjoyed reading it.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A look at how Mr Rochester might have found his 'mad' wife in Jane Eyre.  Worth reading, but I didn't feel for Antoinette (Bertha) as I had expected to.

The Dead Witness edited by Michael Sims
A collection of short detection stories for the nineteenth century.  Very few of the stories appealed, and I was left grateful for Sherlock Holmes!

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
The next Murderbot story, which was fun and continued to prove that Murderbot was far better equipped to deal with most things than anyone else.

The Rose Apple Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
The next in the Su Lin series (which was the Crown Colony series, although the name is no longer accurate), this one is set not in Singapore but in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.  As always, it's an interesting look at the region in 1947 and I enjoyed the mystery.  I had guessed part of it, but I imagine the reader was supposed to have their suspicions.  

Cyanide in the Sun edited by Martin Edwards
Another of the British Library Crime Classics short story collections.  Not as good as previous books, it may be that the pool of such stories is being drained.

CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour edited by Martin Edwards
Another short story collection, but this time modern short stories.  I enjoyed the majority - in any collection there are going to be some which I don't like, for various reasons, but it was a good batch.


Also, I had a go at the Goodreads Seasonal Challenge for May and June and achieved 5 of the 7 categories:



And here is my book bingo card - I may even finish it next month!



(no subject)

Jun. 28th, 2025 08:59 pm
dustbunny105: (Default)
[personal profile] dustbunny105
I won a drawing on Twitter for some random Transformers merch. Which is cool and all but... most of the pool of merch that my prize will be randomly selected from is for Transformers One. I don't want to seem like I'm complaining about winning a drawing I willingly entered but I very much do not want Transformers One merch, lol.

Honestly, I thought when I entered that winners would be able to choose which piece they wanted or at least list preferences. That's my own fault for assuming, obvs. Ah, well. The prize, whatever it is, is on its way to me now. I am, in spite of my reservations, a little excited. Maybe I'll even get the one (1) item I actually wanted! Low odds, granted, but the odds of me winning weren't great either. You never know! I any case, I've been asked by the people behind the merch/drawing to post when I receive my package, so I should probably start thinking now of something tactful to say, lol.

Writing - June 2025

Jun. 28th, 2025 10:09 pm
smallhobbit: (writing)
[personal profile] smallhobbit
Word count for the month 11,500, bringing my total for the half year to just over 62K, so marginally ahead of my goal so far - always good to have a few words in hand!

I've written two squares for [community profile] whatif_au Bingo: for Air Travel You Don't Have To Be Nuts to Work Here which is Hamlet/The Hobbit and a follow up to the last time I wrote for the air travel theme, Thank You for Flying Elsinore Airways and the second for the High/Low fantasy square, which is written but needs another readthrough before posting.  

The major word production went for my [community profile] caseficexchange story, which won't be revealed until next month.

My other major achievement this month was to complete my 11 year streak for [community profile] fan_flashworks with Support Your Local Baby Bank , a Spooks (MI5) ficlet.

FanFlashworks badge: The Outstanding.


(no subject)

Jun. 27th, 2025 09:16 pm
dustbunny105: (Default)
[personal profile] dustbunny105
Haven't sorted out a ride yet on account of I forgot BUT I do know my mom is off tomorrow. The recycling center I want to go to isn't as far away as I thought either; I've just only been there on the way to work and that affected my perception. I should have all my donation items ready to go, too, so that'll be taken care of in one trip.

Not gonna put a lot of effort into my actual rearranging tomorrow. Instead, I'll focus on getting more to-sell stuff listed and prepping my space for the storage pieces I'm looking to find. I need some kind of rack or tower for my physical media and I want something along the lines of a Rubbermaid set of drawers for paints. The smaller storage I want to replace my canvas cube drawers can wait for now. My current setup doesn't especially lend itself to easy access but I don't need to easily access much just now, so it isn't a priority. I want to do something new with my crochet and sewing supplies but I'm still deciding on what. I can't remember if I mentioned last time but I'm planning to go back to a higher-placed, horizontal setup for Travis and that'll have to wait, too, since of course I want to get the new tank and whatever it'll be sitting on at the same time. I do need to be thinking about what I want him sitting on, though, and how I'll want to utilize that space. Maybe I'll actually just set my physical media to the side for now and get an entertainment cabinet to set Travis up on.

Not having all the furniture quite in place means I still won't be putting my wall art back up yet but I do think I'll play around with my displays a little. At the very least, I need to make some final decisions about what toys are staying and what toys are going. There are several that I still like as individual items but they don't really go with anything and I only have so much space.

All that said, my main goal for tomorrow will be to work on the fake plants for my sister-in-law. I've chosen the patterns and the yarn, just need to buckle down. I also need to make a decision about the pots I'll need to make. I've seen people crochet with old grocery bags and I think that's what I want to do, to give the pots and plants a different look. I'm worried it'll look tacky for decorative pieces, though. I suppose I can make at least one and if I don't like it, I'll still have a functional little basket I can use; just gotta add handles. I'm not especially looking forward to the handfeel of crocheting with plastic bags but I am excited to try something new to me.

Crafts - June 2025

Jun. 27th, 2025 03:44 pm
smallhobbit: (Tenby bandstand)
[personal profile] smallhobbit
I've been spending quite a lot of time on crafting this month.

IExpandJune crafts )

(no subject)

Jun. 26th, 2025 09:08 pm
dustbunny105: (Default)
[personal profile] dustbunny105
Something is wrong with my sister's car yet again. One of those "could be fine for a month, could stop working tomorrow" sorts of things. So, it'll be a few days at least that she can't risk driving me. Boo. Worse, though, we had plans this weekend. Not much in the way of plans, since I've got things to do, but it involved taking some stuff to Goodwill and some stuff to recycling. More specifically, it involved taking some foodstuff to recycling. Aaand I've already been keeping said foodstuff longer than I meant to, on account of forgetting it when I took my cardboard earlier this week. Here's hoping I can get another ride...

Yes, I know, I should really go about getting a license already. But between the DMV hours being more or less my work hours and the fact that I still wouldn't reliably have a car anyway, it's hard to keep it at the top of my mind as a priority, y'know?

Anyhow, one more work day to go before I really have to worry about it. My brother might be able to take me, not that I think he'll be keen on it since he hates driving anywhere more than ten minutes away for an errand and I need to go closer to twenty minutes away. Dunno when my mom works on Saturday but she might be my last resort. We'll see.

SPEAKING OF WEEKENDS. KINDA. CLOSE ENOUGH. I just realized that the Fourth is on a Friday this year-- three-day weekend coming up fast!! :D I had to pause my rearranging due to lacking the storage solutions I need to get some stuff put away properly but if I can get all that figured out next week-- which I should be able to, since I get paid-- I can use that extra time to wrap everything up. Guys, I'm asking you-- please pick on me about getting stuff done. Stopping in the middle of a project decimates my motivation no matter the reason and despite my best intentions. Don't let me get away with slacking!

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Sherlock Holmes: 60 for 60

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