I don't know, it just seemed like a good title, although I'm home now.
It's cool enough today to wear pants. Like, the kind that come down to the tops of my shoes. Real jeans.
It was in the upper 60s this morning when I went out to do a few errands. I briefly contemplated grabbing a jacket, but ended up going without one. It was fine.
Since I got up early (I wanted to spend a little time with Eric this morning before he left for work) I was showered and dressed and decent at 8:20. Which left me 40 minutes until the Goodwill store closest to me opened. I fiddled around for about 20 minutes and headed out.
Found a couple small things there. The kids have been really enjoying the game Connect 4 all summer. We only have one at summer site, though. I found one in perfect condition for three bucks and delivered it to site 10 minutes later.
Drove over to the meat store. It's a madhouse when you go on the weekend, but at 9:30 on Friday morning, it's not intimidating at all. I picked up a few things and didn't even have to pull a number to wait.
I bought some sliced deli roast beast, too. I usually buy it at Freddy's when we do our week's shopping, but I'm so tired of the way they run their deli that I have given up on them. Ten people will line up in random order. No numbers to see who got there first. Six people working behind the counter and only one waiting on people. The other five are doing prep work in the back. Taking chickens out of the roaster or putting them in, washing dishes, slicing cheese, filling bowls for the display case. It's truly a pain in the ass to stand and wait, and at least half the time some asshole LIES and says, "I was next." It's not worth it to me to stand in line for 15 minutes for half a pound of protein.
Not buying my deli meat there is quite relaxing. That link leads to a YouTube video that's about 3.5 minutes long. If you're not busy, it's worth watching.
After the meat market, I stopped at Michael's. One of my families at work gave me a $20.00 gift card at the end of the school year. I wanted to purchase some Diamond Glaze, but they no longer carry it. I contented myself with 9 colored pencils, chosen carefully from the Prismacolor stock in a locked case. Bonus? I ordered the glaze from Amazon and found a larger bottle than the ones they sell at the craft store anyway.
I'll try the pencils out tonight while I hang out in the living room with my husband. We watch TV together and I draw. And color.
Speaking of color, I've been playing with dye a little bit this afternoon. Last week I dyed a shirt. I mixed some blue and yellow into a bottle, hoping for a pastel green. It came out yucky. It was so light it was almost no color at all.
So I decided to try the ice dyeing technique my friend Karen linked me to last week.
It's different than the regular dyeing process. You take your garment and soak in the soda ash solution as usual. Wring it gently, you want it to still be wet. Place it on a rack inside a tub. I used four inverted disposable plastic cups to ensure the rack did not fall down into the tub in a lopsided disaster.
Then, using cubed ice, crushed ice, or a mixture of both, pile it all over the top of the garment.
Then (and this step is important) put on your mask. Dye particles are harmful to your lungs if you inhale them. Get out your plastic dye spoon, which you only use for dyes, not food... and sprinkle spoonfuls of dye powder on the ice. Combine several coordinating colors. Or, if you're contrary, colors that have no business on the same shirt. Whatever. Interesting results are the point.
Let the ice melt. 'They' say to wait 24 hours for maximum dye retention, but I have never had bad results from rinsing and washing right away. I usually just wait until I have time to mess with it. That's my timer.
Here's the work in progress, sitting out on my front porch. It looks like the science project I used to do with my kids and my scout troops with the charcoal and bluing and salt.
It's cool enough today to wear pants. Like, the kind that come down to the tops of my shoes. Real jeans.
It was in the upper 60s this morning when I went out to do a few errands. I briefly contemplated grabbing a jacket, but ended up going without one. It was fine.
Since I got up early (I wanted to spend a little time with Eric this morning before he left for work) I was showered and dressed and decent at 8:20. Which left me 40 minutes until the Goodwill store closest to me opened. I fiddled around for about 20 minutes and headed out.
Found a couple small things there. The kids have been really enjoying the game Connect 4 all summer. We only have one at summer site, though. I found one in perfect condition for three bucks and delivered it to site 10 minutes later.
Drove over to the meat store. It's a madhouse when you go on the weekend, but at 9:30 on Friday morning, it's not intimidating at all. I picked up a few things and didn't even have to pull a number to wait.
I bought some sliced deli roast beast, too. I usually buy it at Freddy's when we do our week's shopping, but I'm so tired of the way they run their deli that I have given up on them. Ten people will line up in random order. No numbers to see who got there first. Six people working behind the counter and only one waiting on people. The other five are doing prep work in the back. Taking chickens out of the roaster or putting them in, washing dishes, slicing cheese, filling bowls for the display case. It's truly a pain in the ass to stand and wait, and at least half the time some asshole LIES and says, "I was next." It's not worth it to me to stand in line for 15 minutes for half a pound of protein.
Not buying my deli meat there is quite relaxing. That link leads to a YouTube video that's about 3.5 minutes long. If you're not busy, it's worth watching.
After the meat market, I stopped at Michael's. One of my families at work gave me a $20.00 gift card at the end of the school year. I wanted to purchase some Diamond Glaze, but they no longer carry it. I contented myself with 9 colored pencils, chosen carefully from the Prismacolor stock in a locked case. Bonus? I ordered the glaze from Amazon and found a larger bottle than the ones they sell at the craft store anyway.
I'll try the pencils out tonight while I hang out in the living room with my husband. We watch TV together and I draw. And color.
Speaking of color, I've been playing with dye a little bit this afternoon. Last week I dyed a shirt. I mixed some blue and yellow into a bottle, hoping for a pastel green. It came out yucky. It was so light it was almost no color at all.
So I decided to try the ice dyeing technique my friend Karen linked me to last week.
It's different than the regular dyeing process. You take your garment and soak in the soda ash solution as usual. Wring it gently, you want it to still be wet. Place it on a rack inside a tub. I used four inverted disposable plastic cups to ensure the rack did not fall down into the tub in a lopsided disaster.
Then, using cubed ice, crushed ice, or a mixture of both, pile it all over the top of the garment.
Then (and this step is important) put on your mask. Dye particles are harmful to your lungs if you inhale them. Get out your plastic dye spoon, which you only use for dyes, not food... and sprinkle spoonfuls of dye powder on the ice. Combine several coordinating colors. Or, if you're contrary, colors that have no business on the same shirt. Whatever. Interesting results are the point.
Let the ice melt. 'They' say to wait 24 hours for maximum dye retention, but I have never had bad results from rinsing and washing right away. I usually just wait until I have time to mess with it. That's my timer.
Here's the work in progress, sitting out on my front porch. It looks like the science project I used to do with my kids and my scout troops with the charcoal and bluing and salt.
And here's the one I did last week, using a light blue shirt to start with. It's a terrible photo because I tossed it on the back of a chair, but you get the idea.
I plan to sneak in a short nap and then get up and make tacos for dinner tonight. This taking Friday off thing has been great.
I'm just sorry that it can't last forever.
What creative things are you doing?
I'm just sorry that it can't last forever.
What creative things are you doing?
That is so cool (pardon the pun). I'll take mine in an XL, please. (j/k....not).
ReplyDeleteWho knows.. I may surprise you someday. It's an interesting effect, I did a green one that I wore yesterday. I'm not sure if I like it or not. Still considering. The blue one, I love.
DeleteOoooooooooh... I LOVE the results!
ReplyDeleteIt really is an awesome effect, isn't it? It's a little more time consuming/messy than regular tie dye, but the unique results are worth the effort, I think.
DeleteI try to write to be creative, of course, but beyond that I sit in my bedroom and play my bass guitar to no one but myself. Very relaxing.
ReplyDeleteI spend too much time with creative stuff and not enough time on the things that I really need to get done. I will never wish I'd spent more time cleaning, though. :)
Delete