Heat calls for....

 Creativity

Last night the temperature outside was 80 until it cooled off to 77.  The dewpoint was 75. 

Yeah...that makes for a wicked thick air and major discomfort. However, we have that wonderful little minisplit that cools the downstairs and keeps us cool.

The breezes outside are pretty strong and the heat will intensify this weekend. Enough so there are extreme heat warnings out for the next few days. Then? The storms and rain will move in for a few days.

Welcome Summer!

Update on my Respite Day and new decisions and schedule. I made the most of my time on Friday. I filled Shay in on the doings for the day. She offered to make stuff for supper while I was 'gadding' about.

I showed her a huge pail of fresh strawberries I'd picked for Olive. I hadn't had time to hull them and chop them up. I asked if she'd mind hulling them. She said she'd be happy to.

Then I asked her to take half of them home to enjoy with her son. Her eyebrows shot up and she smiled. Ding Ding! It is always pleasant to share isn't it? It cost me nothing but time to pick them and I was so happy to share.

Boring, but I went shopping for the items I needed for cold salads for this weekend and a couple of other things. I brought a cooler with ice packs so put perishables in. 
I met up with my CF girlfriends at the Viroqua Food Co-op for some coffee, conversations, and laughter. We caught up in each others' grand kids, and weekly doings. 

I can't think of a better way to spend some Respite time [in the heat!] We chatted about Julie's cancer trial and how she was feeling. We are there for each other. They updated me about goings on at the gym and the progress they were making. And of course what was going on in their own lives. 
We mostly discuss grandkids which is everyone's favorite topics.

So where does the Creativity fit in? Well, hot days may push me indoors for the afternoon.

So I need to do something.

Remember the Jason Christoble Candle Holder/Sculptures I got? Well, some were chipped and damaged. 

Yesterday afternoon I got the brilliant idea of 'fixing' them and modifying them. The chipped and broken ones wouldn't really be worth any money anyway. They are not in good condition.

I mixed up some acrylic hobby paint and touched up the places where someone had slapped some white clay on the sculpture. It looked nice, but I decided to go a bit further.

I added a micro resin butterfly to his nose and added some moss to his broken bits.

I think I may just give him a mossy 'do' and add a few more butterflies.  

This one had a frog that had broken off. I used some super glue to put it back together. However parts of the frog were missing and it just didn't look nice. 

Solution? Add moss around the froggy!

I also had a tiny bluebird that had come from Aurora in a gift she'd sent. It had fallen off the stick, so I thought this Entish tree would love more company. 

I painted over her chips and nicks and stopped there. I think my grand daughter would love this piece for her bookshelf of fantasy books. I'll have to send her a nice photo of this and see what she thinks.

I've collected some very odd roots and pieces of wood over the years and never knew what I'd like to do with them. 

Until now. This weekend seems like a good time to stay cool and create something interesting with the pieces of wood. Who knows? My Lego folks and dragons may really love them!

At least I have a plan for the hot weather. Suppers are made, house is clean and it feels like a day off in a way....

Let the creativity begin!

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.

I'm a Winger!

I like making things up as I go along. I wing it when being creative. I don't plan, I do. Sometimes it is a fail, and sometimes it is a Win.

I decided to watch tutorials about 'making' terrain for sets and dioramas, most of the artists or creators drew up plans.

One fella who was using Junk he found around the house just 'winged' it.

That is my style. Take stuff and put it together to see what works and what doesn't work.

So, armed with old hair ties, a CPAP machine, tubing, garden mulch, cardboard, glue, spray paint, and paint...

I winged it....

I won't bore you with a ton of shots. I will offer 55 seconds of a series of photos with titles for what I did.

I discovered that I enjoyed working with cardboard more than the other materials. Cardboard is easy to cut into shapes that I want and when I am done with using it, I have no issue in recycling it.

Using the old CPAP machine was a great challenge. I cut apart the old and outdated hoses and enjoyed 'making' space junk out of them. Using mulch and chunks of wood as 'rocks' was fun also. I kept many of them loose so I could reuse them in different scenes. Of course I can toss the wood back into the flower beds too.

The process was a learning experience. 

I even used a screen grab of a wrecked spaceship to add a digital background to a shot.

The Lego Droid sort of gets lost in this shot, but photos that don't turn out perfect are how we learn.

Original:

This one almost feels too busy. A focus just on the little droids would have worked much better. But by trying this over and over, I will eventually come up with something decent.

I do like the detail of the background though, it looks rusty and very much like a space junkyard!

I did put a little balloon light inside the container that was bright blue.

My first photo of the morning was taken on the porch. It ended up being my favorite. It isn't just a shot of toys. He just looks so SAD!

Battle Weary Droid

This was the cardboard design I made. I think I like this little 'scene' best right now for a background.

I may make more of them with certain themes or ideas in mind.

I cannot image trying to 'make' this scene out of Legos. Besides, I like to mess around with paints and try new things all of the time.

I did watch videos on making terrain for wargaming sets. They were pretty interesting. I mostly was interested in those videos that used things that most people would have on hand.

Oh boy. I have a lot of boxes!!!

 

Distractions

My son sent me a quote which I felt was very thoughtful and needed to be shared here.

Once I read it and after we discussed it, I decided that this indeed was very appropriate. It also explains the 'why' I have toys and why I experiment in photography and graphic art.

"The opposite of play is not work - the opposite of play is depression." ~Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play.

Okay, so I knew this in the back of my mind. Play and exercise in some sort or another is what helps the mind get out of a rut. Well, it does for me.

With the Pandemic this year, the isolation, and ... well hell, the politics, 2020 through 2021 so far has been awfully trying. Endless days of fog and overcast weather can make things even more depressing.

So what does that mean? Not much. But I decided not to let all of that bother me. I took out my newly arrived Dragons and had a go with them. 

I spent most of my time while on the hike looking for spots along the creek that I could get good reflections. So I had to look for rocks to add to the creek bottom so the toys wouldn't be too submerged and they would stand up instead of falling over.

Yep. I crouched in a creek and arranged figurines. The whole time I was doing that my mind was clear of all intrusive thoughts. It was like going on a Mind Vacation.

Seeing as that I have Dragons in my creek, I wasn't surprised to see the Unicorns in the forest.

I amused myself by trying different methods of processing the photos. I use DxO's Photo Lab 4 for most of my processing. I dipped into Analog Efex Pro 2 for these shots.

It is interesting to try out different film effects.

The photo below is what I call a failed experiment. A fun one just the same. In camera double exposure. I did this indoors. The first shot is of this dragon, the double was of some 'fake' leaves. It sort of turned out with an interesting Bokeh effect but it took me down another path.

So I looked up 'how to create' a double exposure effect. And thought I'd give it a whirl.

There I am with my funky hat [bad hair day as usual]. A shot against a blank white wall. This took a long time to get the look I wanted. Don't look too close. You will see my wrinkles. I have decided that I am okay with that look too. 

I'm going to work on a few other things.
Yesterday I took Charlie for a long walk on the cropland on the ridge. I took my point and shoot Infrared Camera. Winter and IR usually don't produce great results, but I think the Creative Challenge will be a good thing.

Now to finish my errands. A trip to the butcher and we will be set again until some time late February except for milk.