Hot Hot

We've had a pretty decent summer so far. Cool mornings and nights even though we had a lot of rain and bugs.

Now? Yikes, I was not ready for a 79* dew point, with 79% humidity and 80* temps yesterday morning. Yuck. Yuck and double Yuck.

I did outdoor work and my errands early. I made cold Italian pasta  salad for supper and retreated to the indoors for most of the day.

I continued to mess around with my Lego bricks and lights to make that Space Challenge Scene that was on for last month. Even though I didn't come close to 'winning' I enjoyed the fun in making interesting scenes to celebrate Lego's Space Theme for the past month.

This really didn't work out as I imagined but I had a lot of fun building the Labratory. I created a space environment with an AI generator for the background.

I placed the works on top of a wooden block on my keboard...

and ended up with this....          👇

I am learning now to build and then set up a camera and see what view the camera can see and use that area for details. It is different building for fun and building a little 'set'.

Setting up the 'set', lighting, and characters is hard! It is so much easier to do a Lego shoot outdoors in my opinion.

Here I just took my Little Tourist Alien and set him on the porch with some rocks and one of my garden Gargoyles.

It was rather easy to deal with the lighting and scene.

Since I was avoiding the heat and humidity, I thought I'd build something fun and unique to use a new character with. It was to be Spacey and have Cool Lighting.

I began with a plan. I wanted a blue eerie lit background. That meant making a part of a wall with see through blue bricks. I put it on a white baseplate and used irregular Lego 'rock' bricks to make the back wall for a cave or alien planet texture.

[The brick texture didn't show up because of the lighting!]

So the idea was to have a space creature walking down the path of blue crystals with cool lights. I noted that the back wall didn't really show up and how was I going to include that in the photo?

As always, I never take the easiest route when trying this out. 

I first tried it with two little blue balloon lights and a white light. I laid the face mister on its side and turned it on to add some glow to the light.

It was sort of cool but it was hard to tell what was going on.

So I went with more color. Of course. When in doubt, make it harder.

I like this version just because of how the red lit up the bricks around the Glaciator Power Miner Minifig and set a menacing tone. Apparently this Power Miner was the supposed to have the power to turn things into ice and explode them. There was a game based on these characters and sets that saw popularity from 2009-2010.
I just saw this guy at a garage sale and picked him up for $1. 

He is also partially made out of transparent plastic.

After all of that what did I learn? I learned that I made something fun and cool. However, the picture doesn't tell any story at all. Nothing. It is just a cool lit up minifigure. I learned that indoor photography with added lights takes a lot of experimentation and adjustments.

I kept this build so I can try again to re-shoot it to tell some sort of visual story. I realize that I should have had a little bit of light coming from directly above the 'set'. That might make a difference.

I was frustrated and pleased with the experiment.

So early this morning I went out with my pal Glenda and created an easy story on the porch.

Glenda rarely needs any explanation for what she does. 

She just does her thing and I follow her around....

It promises to be another extremely hot and humid day.

PS~
Welcome August.

Rudolph is missing!

I love a good short story. When I wrote for my Grandkids, I used Morris and his toys, I kept the theme rather simple. Someone or something got lost. 

There always big search of some sort. I seemed to  always gravitate towards a theme about friendship and trust. 

When Morris passed on, I couldn't bring his toys to life again. His stories came to an end and I didn't have the heart to even finish his last chapter.

So maybe in some ways, having Legos and endless ways to tell stories will be energizing.

Here we go!

Owner: Welcome to the Alpine Lodge! Name?
Batman: Batman.

Owner: Okay we have a reservation for Bat Man.
Batman: No, it is Batman.

Owner: Okay. Mr. Man.

Batman: Grrrr. It's...Batman.

Owner: Sure Mr. Bat. Man. The room with the balcony is all yours.

Santa: Psst Mr. Batman!

Batman: I am Batman. The Dark Knight. This is my balcony!
Santa: I have a problem I need your help!

Batman: Ok, but I warn you ... I am a night stalking, crime fighting vigilante, and a heavy metal rapping machine!!!

Santa: Um. Okay. I still need your help.

Batman: Of course! I hate criminals. I fight criminals!

Santa: Well it's a reindeer. I'm missing a reindeer.

Batman: Huh?

Santa: I'm missing a reindeer. Rudolph.

Batman: A reindeer. A Rudolph. Heh, is he a criminal that needs to be brought to justice??

Santa: Um. No. He is a reindeer I need for my sleigh.

Batman: He isn't a criminal?

Santa: Well, no, not really.

Batman: Oh. That could be problematic.

Santa: Um. Well, rumor has it that his nose has gone dark!

Batman: A reindeer that has gone to the DARK Side? Tell me more!

Santa turns away and mumbles something about going back to having coffee in the outhouse.

Meanwhile ~~~~~

Santa's elves take to the woods to ask anyone they can to help find Rudolph. Of course they run into ... who else? But the Brother's Odd. 

Elves: The carrots are to lure the missing Reindeer back to us.
Yeti: Well. I am starving. Can I have one?
Elves: Oh. Okay.

Big Foot: Me too?

Elves: I guess we won't argue with Forest Creatures. Sure, they're yours!

Elves: Hi, we are looking for a reindeer named Rudolph.

Chewie: Is that so?

Elves: Yes. Have you seen a reindeer?

Chewie: No, but Stinky and I can keep a look out! I have seen deer though.

Elves: Really? 
Chewie:  A few days ago we saw deer being hunted by a hunter.

Elves: OH no!

Chewie: Don't worry, the hunter didn't have a clue.

Elves: Whew....
Chewie: You know, if you had something the reindeer would like perhaps he'd be easier to find.

Elves: Um. Well. We gave our carrots to a Big Foot, a Yeti, and a Squatch.

Chewie: Oh. Them.

Crazy minds and creative thoughts...

I am not always at play.

I do have a complicated life. I run our place and am a full time Caregiver. There is always something I need to address and work on for our place.

 Thankfully, I can have great daydreams. Some would think that a person my ahem, age, shouldn't be like this. My father was a very creative and imaginative person. 
He had no talent for mundane things. His brain was always on the go. My mom was the opposite. She could plan things to the smallest of details. She is regimented in thoughts and actions.

I may be a bit of both. 

Funny how things come to you when you are mucking out a stall [Lil' Richard is the one equine won't try to tear apart our large stall.]

Sunday was MY day of stall cleaning. I filled the skid steer bucket with manure and drove the skid steer to dump the pile of old hay, straw, and shavings. Rich said he was too unsteady to climb in and out of the skid steer.

So it is my job to keep that machinery running and useful. I would much rather use the little 4 wheeler and cart to clean up stuff and dump it, but he sure loves his skid steer. 

I abide by his wishes as my 'job' as his caregiver and wife is to make his days as pleasant as I can.

Here I was dumping and spreading manure when I thought about the recent Lego build we did together. 

The Alpine Lodge build has a cute skating rink, an outhouse, and rooms to rent. It is like having a doll house to play with.

During my shoveling I thought .... wouldn't it be funny to have the Lego Batman sign in as a guest? I mean what on earth would the Dark Knight be doing at a winter lodge???

Wouldn't it be funny to take a photo of Santa Clause being interrupted in the outhouse by one of his elves?

And why would all of this occur?

Oh...And what of The Brothers Odd?

How would this fit in with the much anticipated delivery of the 9th deer for Santa's Sleigh on the MOC build??

As I refilled the bucket with manure and hay chafe, my mind skipped from one thing to another with a story line of images jumping about like quick movie clips.

Did Batman sign into the Lodge because he knew Rudolph went missing for nefarious reasons? 

What did the Elf give Santa as a reason to be interrupted while doing his morning constitution?

How would The Brothers Odd even fit in?

I drove the skid steer to the pile and dumped it, then spent time backing it into the shed to the spot where it can be plugged in on cold mornings for using. That effort took all of my brain power.

I dusted myself off and started towards the house.

What IF a Hunter chased Rudolph into the woods? What IF the Brothers Odd decided to help search for him and found Chewie?

And to think that I kept letting these thoughts engage in the back of my mind while I prepared supper and set up appointments on my calendar for the week.

All because of a Lego Outhouse and an Etsy order for a 9th reindeer.

Santa: What the $#@#$%???
Close the door and let me...
finish!
Elf: But I have important information! 
It seems we've lost Rudolph again!

Santa: Oh NO! Not again!
That foolish reindeer!

Maya is right. The more I think about something fun and creative, the more fun I have. 

Haha. My husband just came over and patted me gently on the head. He says I will be committed to the nuthouse before he goes.

December and Surprise!

Welcome December!

It sure came in with a colorful and amazing sunrise.

Thursday morning I ran errands. I had Christmas Cards to pick up in case I got the notion to sit down and make out cards. I'm not very good at that. On a whim, I went by the toy isle and picked up a Jurassic World Lego Toy. It had a big truck in it and two dinosaurs. I was interested in mainly the truck.

When I got home, I unpackaged the Legos and set it down on the table.

Rich looked at it and said, "What's this?"

I said "Oh, hmmm, I needed a truck for the village and there is a red one in there somewhere. I need you to make it." 

I walked off to put some things away.

We had a Video Connect appointment with his Mental Health doctor and I had to have hm put things to the side.

Our conversation was much different than the one he had a month ago. It normally sounds exactly like this

How are you?
The same nothing changes.

...and it started out that way until....

I told him to tell her about the Lego building we had been doing. He rolled his eyes and shook his head and then the doctor was able to convince him to tell her about it.

He started to laugh and talked about how 'my wife can't build Legos without any directions and she messes up all the time so I have to supervise her!'

He said it was nothing but stupid. I interjected the obvious. I told the doctor that we engage for at least two hours at a time when working on the Lego 3D puzzles and he often can figure things out for himself. He was engaging socially, using his mind to problem solve, working with small motor skills, ... and NOT sitting and staring out the window.

Then Rich went on to tell her a bit about building and directions and how he was figuring things out. He explained that he used to run a welding shop where he had to think things up on the fly in order to create or fix things so Legos was sort of the same.

With Aphasia, it took a bit for him to explain it, but I could see her face light up while they were talking. He was animated and laughing as he explained the concept of Legos.

Who knew? Right? This doctor had never seen him laugh or engage like he did in this video meeting. She even quipped that she should prescribe Legos...and casually wondered aloud how to do that.

I'd sent a photo to his daughter of her father working on the red truck. She asked if Lego had tractors as she would like to get him something different for Christmas.

I sent her a link to a set that isn't very pricey but had a nice tractor and trailer build by Lego Technic which means the tractor will have articulated parts.

Hey, the guy loves tractors and cars. Maybe he can build some models. Of course we'd do it together because those really tiny parts are hard for him with his tremors.

Win. Win.

Then around supper time I received an email from the Kickapoo Valley Reserve:

Congratulations,  I’m happy to inform you that your photo “Campsite AA Gibbous Moon” has been voted for a Voter’s Choice Award.  If you are able, please come to the Holiday Happening on December 3 for the public announcement at 5:30 p.m. Please keep the secret until then!  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I hope to see you on Saturday. 

The photo above is the one the email refers to. SHHH, don't tell anyone!

More important though was the afternoon project.

And the result:

I wonder how the Christmas Village will welcome dinosaurs?

What a wonderful way to the start of December.

 

The Chair and Creative Play

When I get into the Christmas/Holidays Funk, I read what I wrote last year which was a Satirical Holiday get together for a family much like mine called Unrealistic Expectations totally made up!

I can't help but chuckle when I read it. 

In 2013 I used an old chair combined with a partial Christmas Tree in order to decorate our tiny cottage. This was before the remodel in 2016. The first time I took photos of it was in 2014 when I did it a second time. 

Even a small fake tree just took up too much room in our home. I improvised and found that it was much more fun doing something out of the norm.

This year I am changing things up a bit again. I have to admit that each year when I decorate an old chair it ends up being quite fun and never the same two times in a row. That is probably a good thing for me. The chair gives me a flat spot to continuously change up what is going on. I can walk by it and take a tiny Santa Claus and have him conversing with a dinosaur or perhaps a unicorn.

That old table that I brought in from the porch turned into a Legoland Table. Why not? Rich and I had so much fun over the past month or so building these 3 D puzzles that I decided to use them much like others would use a collection of Christmas Village houses.

The Wood Cabin build was really tough and very detailed.

The Lego Lady Contractor
shows off the Cabin Kitchen

Some of the build was extremely frustrating as the lights and wires really were difficult to work with. We found that we were missing a few pieces and the quality control was sucky at times. 

However, if I hadn't built previous Lego 'Expert' builds [The Gingerbread House], I would have given up. The roof bows and won't fit tight...but I learned a lesson. Lego Bricks Rule. I will probably dismantle parts and re make the house eventually.

The Sasquatch Family has no issues with it at all. They love it. They celebrated Thanksgiving in it before the roof was attached!

The Happy Sasquatch Family

They were so pleased when they got moved into the Lego Village.

Then the serious stuff started. Ol' Man Rich decided to take his ornament Champion Cruiser and find some Christmas Trees.

[When I told Rich that this Lego Person was him, he actually started to enjoy it. He really digs this car ornament and even pushed it around the kitchen table. He checks on what the Ol' Man Rich is doing each day. He denies enjoying it of course. But the smile on his face tells me otherwise.]

And by golly he did! He talked other friends into hauling them to the village!

Even the strange snowperson and the Polar Bears were pleased....

Having Christmas Trees in the Village would be awesome!

And every one rejoiced. I think the Lego

lady with the hair in a bun

was imbibing a bit too much?

Oh it looks like silly play doesn't it? Wasted time. But think about it. When a person decorates for any Holiday they are using their brain to create something beautiful, right? Create. That is play.

When a person knits or crochets, paints, draws, photographs, or does anything creative...they are playing. It keeps their minds active and engaged.

Play is good for the mind and soul.

Now.

If I can only think of cooking and baking as Creative Play. 

meh....