Pet Bandanas!

I have been on a creation kick lately. Spending some time with the materials and creating a whole new thing from them has been making me feel productive with my days. The latest obsession started off with some fabric found on clearance at Wally world. I picked it up because it was a great price and the patterns fit the general themes that my family tends to gravitate towards. It was not bought with a project in mind.

It wasn’t until one night when I was chatting with my Mom in her room that I decided what project my three one yard pieces would be used for. I saw one of Maggie’s bandanas that she had gotten from the groomer, and it sparked a thought. I definitely had the skills and materials to make the fabric I bought into bandanas.

(Side note: I would like to thank my maternal grandmother for all the time she spent teaching me and having lots of patience. She spent hours with us grandkids, teaching us how to use a sewing machine. Because of her, I have more skills to help with creative problem solving.)

It ended up being one of my sleepless nights, giving up on trying to sleep at three in the morning, that I started my production process. I got up, got dressed, and started gathering the needed tools to work on my project. Cutting mat, ruler, rotary cutter, sewing machine, thread, and of course the fabric, were all placed on the dining room table.

I did not imagine that I would be doing geometry at 3:30 in the morning, but it needed to be done to figure out how big of a square I needed to cut in order for the middle diagonal, or the hypotenuse, was long enough to fit around the necks of my dogs. The answer, a 19 in square creates a 26 in hypotenuse, which is plenty big. I even measured my dog’s necks just to be extra sure.

So by the time my Mom was up and getting ready for work at 6 am, I had already cut out 4 bandana triangles out of each of the three fabrics, and was getting ready to start hemming the sides so that they stayed pretty and the fabric didn’t fray. When lunch time rolled around, I had 12 dog bandanas sewed up and ready for wearing. It might have been the lack of sleep by this point, but that success started a bit of a frenzy.

The next day I started the process all over again, thankfully around 5 am instead of 3 am. This time I had a different animal in mind. Erza will pretty much wear anything for me, and I thought I would give it a go to try and make some bandanas that were her size. This meant more early morning geometry for me.

The first set wasn’t big enough. The second was! I managed to get it tied on Erza. So I started sewing that set of triangles together. Later that afternoon though, I noticed that the point of the bandana, the part that you are actually supposed to see, was disappearing in Erza’s scruff around her neck. Kind of pointless to put the bandana on her if your were not going to be able to see it. So I set to work again, this time with two fat quarters that I had picked up.

For a cat Erza’s size, I need to make 12 inch squares. This gives plenty of tie length and the design on the bandana can clearly be seen while she is wearing it. I also think it is pretty safe to say that she enjoys wearing them. She helps pick out which one she wants to wear, and gets a bit upset when I take them off, pawing at them as if asking for them back. What can I say, my girl likes to accessorize.

Since I am a girl who is obviously a bit obsessed with her cat, I went into production mode once I found the correct size for her. Remember that frenzy I mentioned earlier? Well, as of last week, I have sewn together 32 dog bandanas, and 33 cat ones, for a total of 65. Don’t worry, I have give the majority of them away for other animals to be able to wear as well. Ruby, my maternal grandparents’ dog, looks extra pretty when she wears a bandana that features red, living up to her name. My paternal grandparents’ golden retriever Luna, posed for the picture that they sent with her wearing one of the bandanas I gave them. She obviously was feeling pretty.

Some of the frenzy has died down, but Erza is currently laying on my calves wearing a bandana with print on it featuring Hocus Pocus characters and sayings in honor of Halloween. I do plan on making more for future holidays and seasons as well. Obviously Ezra will be the most spoiled, and I might have to get a second bin to supplement her current bandana storage plan. For now though, I am pretty content with the productivity that came from this.

Sleepless Nights

As someone who has chronic pain, I am pretty used to it waking me up in the middle of the night and poking at my nerves enough that there is no use in going back to sleep at that point. So I have had the “pleasure” of seeing what the world is like when the majority of the people around me are sleeping.

Obviously I have the mornings where I am annoyed by the fact that I am awake, we all do even if we wake up at a much more reasonable time. However, I do enjoy the quiet. There is no one around to bother me, other than the cats, while I write or draw. My ADHD feels quieter when there is no one else around to create the distractions that have become so easily available.

I try my best to not make too much noise myself. Since there are other people in my household and they are still trying to sleep, I don’t want my circumstances to affect them in any manner. So while almost silent activities are my only form of entertainment, the modern technology of my incredible headphones certainly come in handy. Most mornings though, I don’t use them.

Like I previously stated, I tend to work on my writing while the world around me sleeps. There is something about the stillness of the morning that makes the words come easier. I do have writer’s block occasionally, but while the outside noise is muted, I have less in the way of the ideas that end up creating things. Several passages in my book, Elementals: Spark, were at least inspired by, if not directly written during, the time when I am awake all by myself.

Later today, I will take a nap, and cross my fingers that I can get some of the missing energy back. For now though, I sit in the living room, waiting for the world to wake up and say good morning.

Writer’s Block: Shake It Out

Being a writer is never a straight forward process. It requires creativity and inspiration. When I write, I have music playing, but it can’t have lyrics because then my mind will attach to those words and not the words on my page. It also can’t be too loud, or I get a bit overwhelmed by the noise.

Music is one thing that helps when I have writer’s block. I will be listening to music in the car while I drive, and scenes that I want to put in my book will pop up in my mind. Usually they are related to the song that I have playing but I try and use those ideas when they actually fit the flow of the story. Can’t just throw something in because I thought of it, it has to mesh with the rest of the plot line.

I also will put on music when I am really blocked. Stepping away from my keyboard, I will dance for a little bit. Nothing too crazy, but enough to shake up my body and the moment. Focusing on dancing and the music helps me feel a bit more energized. It might even spark emotions that I want to convey through my characters. The feeling of the music becomes a sound track that helps me get the creativity flowing again.

Another tactic is a change of scenery. For a while I was writing with a tower computer. I would sit at my desk and work on my book. Often this led to me having a hard time sitting still. I would swish back and forth in my chair, tap my finger on the desk, and stare off into space trying to think of something that was good enough to capture my attention again, to write about, to continue the story. Now that I have a laptop again, I can be found in multiple spaces around the house, working in a setting that just feels right for the day. I will be in my room, with the door closed, when I feel the need for space, or I will set up camp in one of the living room chairs when I want to feel like I am still part of the tempo of the house.

My pets are also a wonderful distraction. They have no preconceived right or wrong ideas of how to act, so having them around, and playing with them, will help me find a new angle to see things from. They make me laugh and pull me close when they want a hug. Sometimes all I need is to curl up with one of them for a moment and take a deep breath. I am forever grateful for them.

Writing a book takes patience, something I am still working on improving. Funny thing is, I tend to have more of that virtue when the creativity is flowing.

Distractions Please

This week I have been trying my best to keep myself distracted. Having to sit with just my thoughts would not have been too fun for the past few days. The right side of my jaw has been in quite a bit of pain and I have been doing quite a few things to not focus on it. (I have been to the dentist and I am working on getting better.) One thing that has managed to even make me laugh was a conversation that I had with my family last night. I asked a simple thought question: Do Transformers need to buy car insurance or life insurance?

My sister answered first, “They need both.”

Mom then turned to her and asked, “But then which one pays out if something happens to them?”

This started a whole string of questions and laughter. Sister thinks that the payout depends on which mode they are in when they are “injured”, car mode or robot mode. I tend to agree with her. Many other trains of thought stemmed from this overall idea. Who would get the ticket if the Transformer is in an accident? Normally it is the driver but if the car is self driving, as is the case with robot cars, does the car itself have to pay? (On a side note, do Transformers even have money? Who pays for the parts they use to repair themselves?)

Then the idea of playing chicken came up. For those who are not aware, playing chicken in cars is where you drive directly at the other person while they drive at you. Whoever swerves to the side first loses and is deemed the chicken. When it comes to Transformers playing chicken, if neither of them swerve to avoid a head on collision, and the damage is bad enough, is that considered murder? (Kind of a dark thought sorry.) Now another thought to consider, are the Transformers ever really dead? To the best of my knowledge, the majority of engines in modern times are able to be rebuilt with spare parts. And even if the full engine needs to be replaced, would that be like a heart transplant? I am guessing an argument could be made that the body of the car, as long as it can still be morphed into the robot form, is what makes a Transformer.

We had a lot of fun just asking questions and throwing out answers on this strange topic. That is just how conversation evolves when three out of the four participants have ADHD.