We are only a few weeks away from Abe’s summer vacation. And we are all very excited. Wally is spending a lot of his time sleeping on our bed in anticipation. I think he is resting up for all the shenanigans he and Abe will get into.
Dodo birds seem like they were laid back. I bet they would have danced little jigs when they were happy. So here, I have made a dancing dodo! I was inspired by a wooden jumping jack we had when I was a kid. It’s that toy where you pull a string hanging from the bottom and his arms and legs flail about. I still have him, but he is missing the lower half of one leg. (I’ll fix him eventually.) My paper dodo currently has all its parts, but the knot at the shoulders came undone about 15 infuriating times. Two flaps and then all kicks. When Flying Dodo Magazine #1 comes out later this month, this is one of the crafts that will be included.
Talk about taking a long time. I started this hand-made planner cover when I ordered my first set of Traveler’s Notebook journals. Which means it was way back in . . . November, maybe? I finished it a month or so ago. It was good timing to finish the new one because my original plain planner cover was getting too full. I divided them into daily essentials and general trackers. This felt planner is for just daily essentials, so I am no longer carrying a 2-inch-thick planner. It was a bit of a beast.
There’s a little pocket on the inside front and back covers. And I ironed some interfacing to the back of the exterior blue felt because it’s . . . not a high quality. Simply holding it in my hand, it wanted to fall apart. But it is so soft and I love the color.
June 24 to 26 at the Jansen, I am teaching at the kids’ summer art camp! I’ll be doing a daily class on drawing animals, with different kids each day.
Later this summer, also at the Jansen:
July 9: embroidered watercolor poppies and Abe’s still photography
(Can you tell we are commuting together?)July 23: pieced block stamps (like my bloberry totes) and Abe’s photography of moving subjects
August 6, inking with a nib and Abe’s how to take pictures of people (he’s really excellent at this.
August 20, embroidered photos and Abe’s macro photography.
I was hunting around on Etsy, probably researching prices of various printables, when I came across a type I had never seen before. It was a little book that was also a house! A robot house. I haven’t seen anything like it. I was a little confused by the instructions, but I powered through. But I also paid less than $5, so who am I to complain? A jerk, that’s who! It is honestly not the worst instructions I’ve gotten with a printable, and many don’t have any. Something I will need to keep in mind when I am stressing over writing up my own instructions. So I printed it up and colored it with a randomly selected palette of colored pencils, which took about two nights. I cut and glued over the course of two nights, too. Which wasn’t great because I think I lost at least one piece. And now I have this delightful little house with three rooms that can be fully opened to show them all.
I love me a point-and-click mystery game, and I love me some humorous stories. Duck Detective: The Secret Salami fits the bill. (See what I did there?) It’s a quacking good time: spot-on voice acting, cute art style that makes use of sticker-style avatars for the characters, and great twists on noir tropes. (The detective’s vice? Bread.) The music is so fantastic, I’m thinking about buying the soundtrack. And it’s really funny: each load screen includes a duck fact, such as “a duck can breathe underwater for up to 72 hours” and “if you drop a duck, it will always land pointing north.” My only complaint? It was too short. I shot through it like a duck through butter. Luckily, there is already another one!
I hope your day gets better from here!
-Angela
P.S. Wishing you a joyful day filled with wonderful scents to roll in.
