A Strange Collection

Disclaimer: In this blog post, there be nudity. I really do try to keep this to a minimum but I've also made my peace with it after taking a Life Drawing class. I promise that it will never be nudity for its own sake nor will it be pornographic. The specific image I am referring to in this post is of a woman who spent most of her life alone in the woods. She does not understand modesty at this point in her story. You have been fairly warned and it is the last image herein so you can just ignore it if you wish. It honestly shows nothing as I'm posting an iteration of the piece that has no nipples. I simply wanted to share it because it spells a great deal of improvement for me as an artist.

Well now that that unpleasantness has been dealt with, on to the fun stuff! And by fun stuff, I mean what I've been up to while not updating this blog for so long.

This is my sourdough start, known as the Blob that Ate New York. At the time I took this picture, it wasn't quite as intimidating as I'd separated some into small jars and put them in the fridge. It completely filled that vase previous to that and is back to that status. I really need to use it more often.

This is the first food I made with Blobby. This is cinnamon sourdough pancake batter. It made way more than I was expecting. There are still some pancakes in the freezer should I decide I'd like more. It looks oddly pumpkin-y. My only guess is that I used the "white wheat" flour I have hanging around, which tends to do this. It's been so long I can't remember. 

And here are some of the pancakes. Holy moly they were good with some frozen berries and Greek yogurt. I barely made through three when I can usually demolish more conventional ones. Just goes to show you how traditional methods produce more filling results.

This is my sad sprout jar. It's currently on hiatus right now because I can't seem to remember to harvest my sprouts before they grow their embryonic leaves. The last batch even got hairy and thus when to the stock veggie bag. I'll get better at this once I'm not in the middle of a new project.

And here is the new project! Last week I received my kefir grains in the mail, from Cultures for Health . Two evenings ago they were finally hydrated and yesterday morning produced this lovely kefir. Unfortunately I missed out on a third of this first batch. I used most of this to make a berry smoothie. Everything was perfect until I reached out to put the blender jar back on the motor. I knocked my smoothie over, losing almost half to the depths of the stove's left from burner. After screaming "WHY?!" at the top of my lungs, I proceeded to clean up that horrible mess and enjoy the smoothie.

I've yet to try plain(er) kefir. I'm not that brave yet. Well, more that I'm not entirely used to the taste of fermentation yet.

And in new not food related, I found one of the most difficult part of my Fluttershy Cosplay 2.0. These boots have been agonizing to find! At first I wasn't sure what I was looking for, then when I did, I COULDN'T find them for less than $50. I am not made of money therefore that wasn't going to work. But when I thought that I'd never find the right pair, these popped up at Meijer for about $20 and I practically cried. They are cute and somewhat feminine but not impractical. You could take care of chickens in these and still be adorable. That is the essence of Fluttershy.

By purplefairy456

She's just so darn cute!

I've also been having fun with my Bamboo tablet. This is one of the first semi-finished sketches I have done since I received it. Only one of the characters is mine, Uzumaki Reiko on the bottom right. That's Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata (top and bottom left respectively) from Naruto (Kishimoto Masashi). Ahhh fanart, how I love thee! This is for one of the fanfics that made the cut.

Now this is one very loose sketch but I had to learn eventually that Sketchbook Express flattens layers of any file you close and then reopen it...and that is why Akimichi Chouji (also from Naruto) here is soooooooooooooo unfinished. I plan to finish him some day because the squishy expression has an adorable reason!

WARNING! This is where you need to stop if you do not wish to see the nakey. If you don't mind, keep scrolling down.

. 

Down

.

.

.\

.

Down

.

.

.

.

.

Down

.

.

.

.

.

Down

.

.

.

And here you are.

I posted a colored head shot of this before but I couldn't help but post the rest. This is the best piece I have draw in a long time. This is a rare image that turned out almost exactly as I'd hoped it would. I never tire of drawing my Lithium so that makes this kind of growth that much more special.

Well, that's what I've been up to. I hope to be better about posting in the future.

Way Too Many Goals

Hello Internet Peeps!

As I said in the previous post, I've been working on my goals for 2013. The list went from sane to impossible before I knew what hit me. I'll be doing a lot of trimming but I figure I'll share it anyway with some comments/snide remarks about how some of the goals have been progressing.

Spiritual Goals:

 - Read the Bible in a year ( This one has been off to a rocky start. My mother has been sick so she has been sleeping in the living room, where I usually do my quiet time. It's really hard for quiet time to be quiet when my mom feels talkative).

- Memorize two verse a month (gotta be honest, I forgot about this one until just now, as I type this!)

- Pray the Spiritual Discipline Prayer as often as possible (once a day)

- Pray for my LIFE group, one couple/person per day

- Pray for my husband and a selected family member every day

Homesteading Goals:

- Start a small project each month (in no particular order)

       ~ Continue Sprouting

       ~ Begin a Sourdough Starter

       ~ Lactofermenation (probably cabbage)

       ~ Crockpot yogurt making

       ~ Grain/nut/legume soaking

       ~ Indoor herb/microgreen growing

       ~ Sock knitting

       ~ Composting (find a bin regardless of garden status)

       ~ Sewing functional clothing (only made cosplay costumes thus far)

       ~ Tincture brewing (for lack of a better term)

       ~ Kombucha brewing

       ~ Kefir making (both milk and water)

       Bonus: Make a 5 gallon or bigger bucket washing machine

- Fully Research these subjects:

      ~ Raising Chickens (layers and meat birds)

      ~ Raising Goats (Read the Storey Guide so far. It was a little intimidating)

      ~ Raising Sheep, Llama or Alpacas

      ~ Raising Dairy Cows ( I REALLY want a mini Jersey!)

      ~ Gray water safety and how to used a backyard wetland to filter it for garden use

Real Food Goals:

- Cut White/Brown Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and artificial sweetners from at least my diet, preferably everyone's diet, by June.

- Source a hand-crank grain mill

- Source grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and pastured eggs and price them by January 31st

- Try out a few farmers markets and road side stands in season

- Determine if the local year-around market is worth the drive into down town

- Avoid soy products that have not been properly handled (so pretty much all of it that's in a store, including in packaged food, some of the worst offenders)

- Work meal plans so weekend meals are covered by March

- Make bone broth at least once a month (source the best chicken possible at this time)

- Try liver by June (Just me for now, though my husband eating it too would be nice)

Health Goals:

- Stop taking that darn birth control pill by March, for the sake of my continuing health ( it has not treated me well, and research indicates they are rather terrible for fertility and the chance of getting certain cancers)

- Try to lose a much weight as possible January through March. If nothing seems to be happening, speak with my practitioner about this issue.

- Get back into some basic hygiene habits (college reeked havoc on my teeth-brushing habit!)

- Start using herbal tinctures as supplements by June

- Pay off the remaining medical debts so the check ups are possible.

- Eliminate soda for life by June-July

- Keep a weight loss journal through March

Creative Goals:

- Drawing

   ~ Draw every day

   ~ Set up a monthly schedule with one male drawing and one perspective drawing per week 

- Comics

   ~ Finish Planning stages of Lark Song by May

   ~ Start Script for Lark Song May- December

   ~ Work out layouts along side script

   ~ Set up Kickstarter by December

- Cosplay

   ~ Revamp Fluttershy by March 15th

   ~ Make a concrete plan for future cosplay by March 30th

   ~ Improve prop construction for JAFAX 2013

   ~ Along side the cosplay plan, make a "parts of costume and materials" list

   ~ Learn shoe covering

- Fanfiction

  ~ Pare down list of stories to ones I actually care about

  ~ Finish Eva outline by June

  ~ Finish Eva writing by December

- Sewing and knitting

  ~ Sew two projects a month

  ~ Finish the baby blanket by December

Decluttering Goals:

- Reduce my person possessions by half by June

- Assess my "save for kids" items and save only what I really want for them

- Read through book collection and give away the ones I don't want to keep.

- Make paper crane chains and branch so the bin can be used for storage

- Separate clothes into Keep, Donate, Repair/ Repurpose, and Rag Bag categories

Weight Loss Goal:

-  Lose 1-2 pounds a week to get as close to 170 pounds by December, unless pregnancy occurs.

So yeah, that's clearly a crap ton of goals. I'm sure many will not be attainable this year, but I will do the best I can and roll over the good ones that I don't finish for 2014. What kind of goals do you have?

On a less list-heavy note, here's a part of the first full piece I've done with my new Wacom Bamboo Create tablet.

   

Best picture of Lithium I've done yet!

Bai Bai Buu!