Perfect, next!

In my last post, I mentioned I was using my Thursdays at the library makerspace to learn how to draw. The first picture was directly from the tutorial, which is supposed to be a dragon hatching from the egg but somehow looks more like a dragon in a hot tub. (Note: I'm okay with this vibe. My version is cuter than the original, though I couldn't say exactly what mistakes made this possible.)

After that, I followed the tutorial for this dragon. There were early signs that the proportions weren't quite right when the head didn't end up in the right place with respect to the body but... it's a mythical creature. Who am I to say it's wrong? That's like complaining that the casting of a non-white woman in a role for a character who hatched from an egg isn't historically accurate. (The movie is doing well, so suck it, Space Karen!)

All that is to say that clearly I had mastered this whole drawing thing and it was time to ignore the tutorial and draw things on my own without leaning on a tutorial to show limb placement!

It was at this point that I realized I don't actually understand perspective. But I still think it turned out just fine! (Yes, the book is far wonkier than the dragon. That is objectively funny.)

It probably would have turned out better if I'd found my thin black pens to do the outlining, but I was in a hurry to get out the door.

Foster Updates (lacking pictures because I am too lazy to take them)

Francis Noodle and Kitty Tuna are in my office and they get along really well. Francis Noodle still flops around like a fish on land (neurological issues probably due to FIP), but he seems happy enough.

Francis Noodle and Kitty Tuna

They will soon be joined by The Kitten Formerly Known As Prince, who came to the shelter with a string wrapped around his very swollen leg. We weren't sure how much function he would regain in that leg, but it's healing well and he's using it almost normally.

In the spare room we have Nimbus and his four minions (Pickleball Joe, Sammy Slim, Omaha Jake, and Big Bob). The boys seem to be on the mend after some vague vomiting illness was superseded by a little bit of limping and then high temperatures. They've been eating and playing throughout all of this, so it hasn't been too concerning.

And finally, we have a mom and three babies in the bedroom. Mom is not friendly, though I was able to handle her enough to give her oral meds for the first five days. Then she started feeling better or more comfortable or something and now she tries to kill me every time I reach into the large dog crate where she is staying. But she's a good mom and her babies are thriving. They've reached the age where they are playing, so I lure them out to socialize them a couple times every day.

Week-old picture — he is bigger now

So that's the foster situation at the moment. And now it's time to get back to the cozy edits...

Silhouette

My local library has a makerspace on the first floor with a bunch of hobby stuff including a 3D printer, laser cutter, and sewing machines. It's all free and very cool and I've been meaning to check it out for the last ten years, but going there on my own without a specific goal in mind felt too intimidating. Also, most of the advertising seems geared at teens and groups of teens are super intimidating. So I haven't gone. Until now.

Silhouette Cameo

A week ago Tuesday, Facebook accidentally showed me a post I wanted to see: the makerspace was offering a free four-session class on the Silhouette Cameo machine and they still had five spaces available. Did I know what a Silhouette Cameo did? Absolutely not. (I googled — it's similar to a Cricut, which I've also never used, but at least I kinda know what it does.) This was my excuse to get a toe in the door, so I signed up. But first I checked and it said the class was for both teens and adults.

Class was supposed to be T, Th at 4pm for two weeks. Half an hour after I signed up, I got an email that due to scheduling conflicts and low enrollment, they were changing it to four weeks of Thursdays. It was a little weird that they changed the schedule an hour after posting on Facebook and the day of the first class, but whatever.

Week One: Vinyl sticker

I showed up, signed in, and was directed through a busy area to a room in the back. I took this picture seven minutes before class was supposed to start. I was the only person in the room.

This was the point when I started to wonder how low the "low enrollment" really was, but I took comfort in the fact that there were three computers set up, so it wouldn't just be me.

The next people through the door were a woman with her two kids — one child was probably less than a year, and the other little girl was... eight, maybe? She could have been a tiny ten-year-old. (I don't know. I'm terrible at guessing ages of kids.) Anyhow, I wondered how much the mom would be able to concentrate while riding herd on two (admittedly really well behaved) kids. Meanwhile, she looked at me and said, "Oh, is this class for adults, too?"

The third person never showed.

So it was me and the eight-year-old. She had the advantage of the confidence of a kid who knows what she wants to do, whereas I knew how to use a mouse and how to press the shift key to get capital letters. We were actually pretty evenly matched.

The instructor, who introduced herself as "Pam" to me and "Miss Pam" to the little girl, had prepared the class for teens and adults, but she's a school teacher and she had no trouble adjusting. She had a makerspace aide work with the girl and went through the software with me and it all worked out far better than I'd expected.

I made this vinyl sticker for my phone case:

I called week one a success and went home to prepare for week two.

Week Two: Cards Psych!

The Cameo can cut card stock, so you can make really intricate birthday cards, and the schedule said we'd be making cards during week two. This time, I had something in mind and I was all prepared when I went to the library, except...

The makerspace was closed for scheduled maintenance.

In retrospect, this shouldn't have surprised me because I had evidence that scheduling was not their strong point. Still, it would have been nice to know class was cancelled before I walked half a mile in 90-degree heat.

Oh well. Next week...