Mind-2-Matter

You may remember Gnorman from earlier this year.

This was my free sculpture for my figure modeling class during the Spring 2013 semester at AAU.

This may be the piece of work that I am the most proud of ever. EVER. (and I've made a lot of art in the last 30 years). Needless to say I was most saddened when I was too busy to properly finish Gnorman and have him fired (I went straight from work/school to wedding prep/work and he dried out!).

I had been crossing my fingers that we could get him scanned before he was a total loss since June/July. Our method of scanning wasn't the easiest but Justin and I worked through a variety of methods using Kinect cameras for another project and I figured that we would, at some point, rig that set up again.

Well, we didn't have to.


The Gnomes (thanks to the Elder Gnome) have acquired the Sense 3D Scanner.

A few minutes time and we had a model to print. I was so excited I could barely contain myself last night! The original Gnorman is 8" W x 13" D x 24" H. New Gnorman is about 1" W x 1.5" D x 4" H!

So exciting!  

And it was just in time. Gnorman's ear fell off after we finished scan!

So Many Ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And a bit of time to do them.

I started working on my to do list for projects tonight when I got home. It's long. But I'm totally stoked.

I took a drive to the coast today while Justin was working. Pi and I drove through Sebastapol. I had hoped to get apples so I could test my pie crust as an apple pie. While they grow apples in Sebastapol, it's not quite Apple Hill. There aren't a ton of farm stands. There isn't a lot of variety. I stopped at one place and they only had one variety of apples. ONE!

We continued on and went to Duncan Mills to get coffee and over to Blind Beach. I was happy to see that the "pews" from our wedding were still sort of there!

The last row of our "pews" was still in place. One "pew" has been partially buried. 

I wasn't going to to today, but Justin really encouraged me to do it. And it was awesome. The weather was great. Pi and I walked on the beach and just sat for a while. It gave me some time to disconnect (no phones/internet/etc) out there and to actually talk with people as Pi played with their dogs.

I have a billiondy ideas going through my head right now and started a new to do list. (each component of my to do list has to do lists, but hey, I don't want to lose the good ideas!)

I'm pretty stoked about Thanksgiving. We're getting together with Justin's family the weekend before and my family on thanksgiving. I'm in charge of pie and biscuits. I'm making my super delicious pumpkin pie and sweet potato biscuits. It's kind of cool that my family is trying new things for Thanksgiving this year (it's a gluten free Thanksgiving for the most part). 

One thing I'm going to test this week for sure is trying a real food version of my mom's cranberry salad. The version we've been making forever uses Jell-O but in an attempt to ditch the artificial colors and flavors, I'm going to rework it with raspberry juice and gelatin. I'm really excited because it is one of the best parts of the holidays that we started making the year we had an "Amish" Thanksgiving with the Gauthier family when I was a kid. 

try to do it silently and sans heels

I've still got some tweaking to do but this is promising :)

Instead of a tangle or working with M0rt, I decided to do some organizing. I went through stacks of paper and have organized them by color and print. Previously, I'd peruse a stack and have to pull pages out to see how I was going to combine them. Well, not any more (well, not entirely. There are still a few more that need to be organized but my wrist was starting to hurt).

Speaking of, I had a wicked case of the dropsies today and it freaked me out somewhat. Hopefully it's just a one off kind of day.

I finally remembered what I wanted to talk about yesterday:Shoes. And screaming. We watched Olympus Has Fallen (which was really not as bad as I had expected) and there were so many ladies screaming. And having to run barefoot through shards of glass and smoldering debris because they had to ditch their high heels because they couldn't run/escape in them.

My first thought was (not that I can say how I would act in some sort of shooting/bombing situation - though I can handle my shit in other emergency type situations) "why are you screaming? You are totally going to draw attention to your self." The logical part of me thinks "be quiet. they will aim indiscriminately in your direction if you are making noise."

But then I wonder how I would react to someone shooting at me. I know how I reacted when someone was shooting at someone outside in my neighborhood. I stayed down and didn't move. I didn't scream or start flailing about (or run out into the street from the house to see what was going on like some silly people). Hell, I didn't want to move or make a sound. And I don't think I did until a few hours later. (The one shooting I went to as an emergency responder doesn't count. As much as the "victim" wanted us to believe the shooter was on the loose, it was pretty obviously his lady who was the shooter - nearly taking off his junk.)

As far as the shoe things goes, I think I will be able to flee should I need to. I dropped flip flops (terrible shoes for trying to flee) a while ago (and wouldn't you know, my shins and calves are not all tight any more). I ditched high heels years ago (I still keep a pair for special occasions but in a city where you walk everywhere, I usually end up in flats). I've even ditched rigid soled flats for the most part (you need to get some Merrill Barefoot's. Need them - after the initial break in period which was hell).

My shoes these days are minimal, functional and I could escape almost silently (I've sneaked up on more than a few people while wearing moccasins). That's not to say that some how my overall clumsiness wouldn't give my position away. I'm just covered in the shoe department.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is always be prepared. If real life is anything like the movies, you may need to flee at any time. But try to do it silently and sans heels.

The Mini Figs Have Landed

I did not get around to making my videos this weekend illustrating the issues with M0rt1m3r.

I spent some time in my garden. I made real cupcakes for my husband. I made a spice cake for myself (with eggs and that was NOT the best idea).

I broke down and bought LED light bulbs for the kitchen ceiling fan (and of course, the hardware store had 2 standard and 2 candelabra bulbs on the same rack - Get home and only 2 will work for our fixture.   BLAH). I have to say even having just the 2 is great (though we have only had 1 of 4 bulbs working for lord knows how long).

Put up some shelves yesterday:

And organized our Lego Minifigs today:

I also organized the bookcase. We finally have books on most of our bookcase instead of stuffs. 

I totally had something I wanted to write about earlier but for the life of me can't remember what it was. 

For now, enjoy the assortment of mini figs. Items to note:Gnome, Spongebob (x2), Sandy Cheeks, The Flying Dutchman, some robots, skeletons, and a hippie. 

Golden........

I threw in some silver AND gold tonight.

I can't say I'm thrilled with the time change though. I don't like walking home in the dark. Or walking the dog in the dark when I get home. Point being, I like it when it's light out. The early darkness makes me feel like I should be in bed.

Made the awesome Puerto Rican Pulled Pork recipe that I found in a Costco Magazine of all places (I totally put it in my llama recipe journal). Speaking of Costco, I picked up meat there last week and have been good to go all week!  Yay me. I made a pork roast last Saturday and another today. Did some meals with ground beef (burgers and sauteed veggies with an avocado are my quick go to meal on school nights).

I accidentally over cooked my cauliflower yesterday (it was pretty brown, not quite blackened though) and it was delicious!

I'm settling into a better routine when it comes to cooking and working and making art. While I didn't keep doing a tangle EVERY day after the initial 36 days, I come home and work on SOMETHING just about every day. And I don't beat myself up if I want to go to bed early or read a book.

So I finally heard back from Craftwell yesterday and the conclusion they came up with is "you have your pressure settings too high" so it's your fault your paper is snagging. My pressure was set at 4. My paper was a very heavyweight card stock. I've tried going lower than 4 and it barely even presses in to the paper and does not cut. So it looks like I will be preparing more videos outlining the outcome of EVERY pressure setting, starting at 1.

It's pretty weak when a company makes excuses for their product. The eCraft should be able to cut 40 circles on a single page. It should also have some sort of speed control, be it on the machine itself or a speed control in the software. Everything shouldn't be blamed on the user. I have photos of paper snagging back when I first got it and it was doing it even when I was attempting to cut 5*7 rounded rectangles (I definitely would NOT call that a complex cut!).

Insert something witty here......

I decided to change things up a bit today and add some gold into the mix.

Had class tonight and missed out on company bowling night. Booo. And for what? So I could sit in a lecture about how to use the computer and do research at the library.

I guess sometimes I forget that people aren't necessarily willing to "figure it out" themselves (I forget this at work as well). Apparently curiosity is not natural and most people need step by step instruction for everything. Personally, I would rather just be let go with something and figure it out. The way someone tells me how to do something may not be the most efficient way.

I guess my desire to "figure it out" helps me in the workplace as well. I have to look at photos of products that I have never touched and answer some insane questions some of the time. I also have to figure out how to explain assembly instructions over the phone for products I've never seen. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it.

I've got to provide MMR vaccination records to SFSU. Really?! I can only assume I had the MMR vaccination in Placerville somewhere, so I will have to ask my mom.

I'm working on some ideas and will have some cool projects coming up. I'll share them as I get them together.

Making things for fun..... and profit?

I'm continuing my Day of the Dead project. I have some great ideas and I am going to try a few new materials added into the mix.

One of which is wire. I'm using a Thing-a-Ma-JIG to do a bit of wire design. I really like the effect, but it is not going to work completely with the current layout (I only have copper wire on hand and it wasn't really creating enough contrast to be visible.

But it allowed me to see how it would work and inspired me to try something different.

Up next PLA. We'll see how that works out!

The paper stack I'm using for this project is ridiculously cute:

It's 70% post consumer recycled material (which we here at LaserGnomes love) and features some cute animals (I'm not one for some of the super cutesy or way girly stuff that a lot of scrapbookers are using but I love a cute owl, bear or skunk). 

I'm also using cardboard scrap that I have laying about for these projects as well. I'm sure I have some great found objects I could add to the mix. 

My problem is finding a good source for shadowbox frames at the moment. I found some amazingly cute paper at Oriental Trading Post's site, but no wholesale frames. The search continues. 

I still haven't received a response from Craftwell regarding M0rt's problems after sending video. I should run another test and use their preselected shapes from the SD card that came with it. I'll try that this week and see if I have the same results. They're always super responsive with canned answers but now that I challenged them with video, I haven't heard a peep. 

We had dinner with Justin's mom and Mark tonight at Lulu, which is fantastic. I think I really love the place because of their open flame rotisserie and pizza oven. It makes it so homey. And the food is delicious. Seriously. Had the prime rib and brussels sprouts. SO GOOD. 

My MIL gave me a book, I Just Like to Make Things by Lilla Rogers. 

It's got some good advice about making things and making a profit as well as some good ideas for stimulating creativity and setting goals. 

When it comes down to it, is there anyone that doesn't like to make things?  It doesn't matter if it's art, craft, food, etc., I think most people have the desire to "make" something, even if they don't act on it. 

Tangle Time

I tangled today.

We had a costume contest at work. We were supposed to dress up based on our favorite collection. I was set to do retro kitchen (hence making cookies last night) but my dress no longer fits. So I changed things up to be inspired by the Designer's Domain collection. I busted out my art apron (totally different than my cooking apron, which is super cute), some pens, paintbrushes, charcoal, paint and the like. I stuck a bunch of paintbrushes in my hair and put on my glasses.

I showed up for work being comfy and ready to make art. Oh and I brought cookies. Because I'm rad like that. The whole office was able to enjoy them, which was nice. I know a few people have dietary restrictions and don't normally get to partake in treats. My cookies were grain free and vegan. Perhaps if you are lucky, I will eventually share the recipe.

I have to say we had some pretty good costumes for those of us who dressed up. Film Noir, Retro Reboot, Swiss Ski Chalet and even New England Clambake were represented.

One coworker dressed for Retro Reboot and pretty much clinched the title when she busted out her Nintendo Powerglove as her finishing accessory. There were a couple of people who had no clue what it was. Hopefully we can use it for company game night.

I didn't spend anytime with M0rt tonight. Taking a step back and allowing my frustration to subside. When I sent my inital email to Craftwell, I got a prompt response the next day telling it it was likely user error causing my issues. Well, I sent off all three videos (ecraft issues, mtc test and mtc results) and haven't heard anything back from Craftwell yet.

We'll see what happens. That file should not be beyond the capabilities of M0rt. I had a similar issue when cutting our wedding invitations as well and those were 5x7 rounded rectangles. 2 to a sheet of paper. Are you going to tell me that project is too much for it to handle as well? I hope not.

It's well beyond Amazon's return window. Perhaps I should have gone with the Cameo, which was my original plan.

That being said. I still need a laser.

Zentangle.......

But I'm really not sure what day to call it. I think it would be #38 based upon the sequence from when I was doing it daily. While I haven't been doing a tangle daily, I have been "making" daily. "Time Goes By" took quite a few days of work and layout to get it all assembled and framed.

We also went to the Elder Gnome's home to do some metal casting. That was pretty rad and a few more crucibles have been obtained. Which means more metal types. Which means brass. I need to figure out some modeling software and make something for my gramps. Every time I see brass, I think of him. Before his hands (and head) started bothering him a lot, he spent a lot of time buffing brass. Every time we include antique brass items in a collection at work, I think of my gramps! He should have been buying up used brass and selling it on Etsy! We sell so much brass (and throw pillows, which I still don't get the point of).

I did tangle today. I went in to work late so I could help Justin with some additional rack installation and got home around 8. I did some yoga (I highly recommend myyogaworks.com for home practice - there's a lot of variety and it costs less than drop in at a single class!).

I had a thought recently about homeless people. Perhaps they are so fried in part due to dehydration (it can make you pretty weird). They are often wearing 5-6 layers of clothes, they drink mostly alcohol (I've never seen a bum drink a bottle of water) and they are exposed to the elements all the time. Something to think about.

Time for bed.

Passing Time

I'm watching you

I distressed the frame

I couldn't find my pop up photo booth for this, so still not the greatest photos. I'm sad to say that the only thing my V3 seems to be good for anymore is Macro photography. It takes amazing macros but the second you try to photograph anything else with it, it's super grainy. 

Justin got me this rad journal today. He saw my sad little notebook from Goodwill that I have been working on recipes in and thought he'd give me some place nice to put the final versions!  

The first recipe to go in there will be avocado zucchini hummus. 

I swear I haven't been slacking off!

I haven't been the best about the blog for the last few days  but we've been busy!

Saturday we did some experimental metal casting. I haven't had a ton of time to model anything (my modeling skillz are lacking anyhow) and the stuff I have modeled is too large for the current casting set up.

Tiny Lazard heads were printed and cast in silver! Behold!

I then stayed home and diligently worked all day yesterday. I drowned more ants in my plot (though all this talk about casting sort of makes me want to cast an aluminium ant hill.

I tested out Ebay Now for myself yesterday. In less time than it would take for me to walk to target, get stuff (and get distracted by other stuff) and walk home, my paper goods were delivered to the house. Seriously like 37 minutes from order to delivery. I made lunch and ate it and watched part of Parenthood.

But then I got down to business.

I plan to photograph the final product with my actual camera, not my phone. I swear. Frames are on the way.

I have to say that M0rt was giving me some troubles though. Not sure if it was the paper type (heavy cardstock with glitter and slick surfaces) or what, but he was stabbing the paper instead of gently cutting it. Then there were software issues. As in love as I was with Makes the Cut 3 on Saturday, Sunday was a whole different experience. It kept losing communication with M0rt about 1/3 of the way into a cut. I wasn't having  that issue with eCraftshop Pro but there are some things I am not a huge fan of with that software as well.

I took to doing some of the cutting by hands (for the rolled rosettes in #2) but it's nice when M0rt is working smoothly to work while he does the cutting.