ditsy/down with the decoupage

Hi; happy March!

Today my mom and I worked on some prototypes for an Easter project we want to do with our knitting club ladies: decoupaged wooden eggs. They turned out so cute, in my opinion! We used various old leftover party paper napkins taken down to one ply, wooden eggs from the craft store painted white with some coats of gesso, and of course, Mod Podge.

This was really, really fun. Mine is the egg with pink flowers, all harvested from a floral napkin that had a ton of different variously colored flowers printed on it. My mom did the blue and white egg (she added in some beige napkin bits for an antique look). It looks so impressive for such a simple craft. I learned a technique to help with smoothing the wrinkles out of such delicate material as a single napkin ply, which was putting my whole hand in a plastic sandwich bag and gently rubbing the recently-Mod Podged flower with the smooth plastic of the sandwich bag covering my fingertip. It worked a treat for getting things to lie smoothly and evening out the application of said Mod Podge.

I haven't done decoupage in a billion years. Over fifteen, probably, or else I probably would have posted about it here, and I can find no such post. The last thing I decoupaged was a decorative box, I think. And I'm fairly sure I cut up some ancient Seventeen magazines for the images I slathered upon that box. So it's definitely been a grip.

Once I finished my prototype egg, I spent quite a while cutting out a lot of shapes from napkins, because I am not sure everyone who attends knitting club and might be interested in this craft is going to be able to handle scissors themselves. It seems prudent to have flakes of various decoupage-able things already on hand instead of having people cut their own.

The ditsy floral look is really appealing to me... always. But definitely right now. Here are my last two selfies, taken weeks apart.

Two different days, two different shirts, If You Can Believe It. I am currently into wearing my hair pinned back behind my ears. I got a haircut in February for the first time in a few years. While it is still long, my hair is no longer Pentecostal-length.

(Screencap from band video just 'cause. Still at it and it's still taking up half my time.)

Other notes:

• I've gotten to play my Omnichord a lot more than I expected to in band! High-key thrilling tbh.
• I was asking myself all morning: "Why do I hear 'decoupage' in a Strong Bad voice?" Turns out there is a sbemail. I had zero recollection of this particular sbemail, but one single tiny braincell must have packed this association away. (My brain has a fair few Strong Bad-oriented pathways. I should do a post about Homestar Runner-isms that I still use...)
• I've been rewatching Outlander since the final season just premiered. I want to be properly emotionally primed. I'm on season three right now, so season two is still fresh in my mind, and can I just say, what silliness is this "Faith survived" business? There is no way a newborn (if she did indeed survive) infant could remember a song. SILLINESS!!! They have got to explain this biz.

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Omnichord corner

Oh BOY oh BOY oh BOOOYYY, it's hard to exist right now! To quote Cathy: ACK!!! I'm definitely of the mind that creativity and finding joy in this world are acts of resistance, and extremely necessary, not only for one's own soul, but for the sake of humanity's collective soul. It is vital to not let the things that bring comfort and peace in this world be overshadowed and extinguished by the unending, ever-encroaching darkness. But wow. It really feels like doing My Little Things is very Who Cares right now. I'm distresed by everything all the time. People aren't meant to live this way.

Look. I just really have to dress dolls and play music and work on projects and appreciate the good things in my life. I have to do it or I might as well just die.

So, here's a post about my Omnichord corner.

My sewing table has recently become my Omnichord corner. (I rotate out what I am doing with this little desk at any given moment. Were I to film a doll video, or take a picture of a doll with one of my many fabric backdrops, I would do it here.) I can plug it in nearby and use this little bendable grippy arm to film clips of myself playing from overhead, if I want. I've been doing that lately, using my backdrops to make it very tidy and ~aesthetic.

Video screenshot:

I have been recording covers here and there, as I have felt like it. But have also felt too shy and self-conscious to share them on my Instagram stories. Even though I post band clips there sometimes, to my "close friends." The Omnichord stuff feels more self-indulgent and personal. Maybe because my voice is quite close to the phone mic when I'm recording from overhead, and I am of course playing/singing solo. So, I dunno. I have wanted to post clips somewhere, but not inundate people who follow my Instagram due to doll stuff. (I know why people follow me!! And it's not for music content!!!)

Sooo, I made a side Instagram!

🎀 HERE 'TIS! 🎀

You can follow it if you are at all interested! No pressure! I seriously just post clips here for fun, at random, when I feel like it. I don't care if anyone follows it. I'm not trying to be a musician or singer. It's more just like a little archive for me, and a way to share some clips of it with my friends. I figured I'd post about it in case anyone is actually interested, but I don't expect that.

Finally, I'd like to mention the stand I recently attained for my Omnichord specifically, haha! I have been needing a bespoke safe place to put my Omnichord out of fear of knocking it over and/or stepping on it. It's often just leaned against something, or left flat on my bedroom floor. I stepped on my little yellow ukulele years ago on accident and broke it, so this fear is not unfounded. The Omnichord is too small to fit in either of my guitar stands, though. And there don't seem to be stands manufactured specifically for Omnichords out there. That makes sense; it's kind of a niche little instrument.

Most mentions I saw in my search for Omnichord stands seemed to be for the type of stands that one can use whilst playing the instrument live, not for, like... storage while not being actively played, which is what I personally was in the market for.

So I thought, "Maybe a violin stand, or something?" And looked around for something that seemed sturdy, and also like it wouldn't scratch my super freakin' expensive instrument.

I ended up getting this (pink!!!) ukulele stand from Amazon.

The pink is VERY cutesy, I know, but, well... consider whose blog you are reading. I was like, "This may look super cheesy, I don't know... It might not be the right size, I don't know..." But actually, I'm glad I went with this one, in this color. The Omnichord fits perfectly and it feels sturdy, but also like it's not going to leave any marks or dents. It has a soft touch covering.

I know I have mentioned Omnichord-related stuff a bunch of late -- or so it seems to me. My bad, y'all. Sometimes I am just into something specific and become one-note about it. I'm trying not to be self-conscious about it being my whole personality right now. I could be soooo much worse. I could have so many more annoying hobbies. You have no idea how close I have come to getting into Jellycats.

P.S.: How Kirsten Larson-core is that blue floral backdrop!

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sick daze

Being sick is a heckuva way to kick off a new year. For two weeks I was on a rollercoaster of feeling better only to yartz half an hour later, or whatever. I kept thinking I was on the mend and then I'd have an evening of chills and nausea.

I can't rightly recall what I even did for some of these endless evenings where I felt too bad to really do anything much. Oddly I did some cleaning and organizing. I played a lot of merge games (I play almost no games on my phone other than Solitaire, usually), to the point where I was having merging-related dreams. Speaking of dreams, I had Stranger Things dreams even though I haven't finished ST5. And speaking of TV I haven't finished, I tried to watch Heated Rivalry, but got irritated when episode three abruptly switched focus to the other couple -- the juice bar guy and other hockey guy -- so I paused in the middle of the ep and haven't gotten back to it yet. I'm not sure that I even like it but I'll probably finish it up.

I'm officially on the mend now; I was able to attend band practice this week and knitting club this weekend.

Between holidays and illness I didn't have band practice for a month, so by the time I got to attend again, I was feeling really intimidated and nervous about the idea of playing and singing in front of people again. I am actually very shy, aha! Our drummer was out, so the practice was more low-key, and I ended up being really thrilled because I got to bring my Omnichord!

(These pictures are screencaps from video footage -- hence they're pretty grainy!)

I mainly wanted to demo it and get their thoughts on its usability as a keyboard/synth element for us. It was so cool to plug it in and hear it amped in this setting, and to play it along with other instruments being played. We ended up playing through "Daniel" by Elton John a few times and the Omnichord really filled in the sound of that song. I was actually completely stoked!!! I was also stoked because I was able to keep up fairly well. I did mess up here and there; I'm still in that phase of learning the instrument. Sometimes it's a lot to try and process in the moment, what note is needed and where that button is on the instrument, on top of perhaps singing the song. It becomes a pileup in my brain and I just fritz out and mess up. But, in my opinion it sounded great, and the band guys were very supportive. I was honestly elated at how well it works for "Daniel" and I think we'll hit that song again and polish it up more in future sessions.

I'm also kinda stoked because the gingham backpack I bought (which I featured in my last post) has ended up being the PERFECT size for my Omnichord. This was nothing I had in mind while buying it. But I can fit my band chord notebook, my Omnichord, and several smaller bags for my cameras and external batteries and a number of cords in the backpack with ease. It's nice because I don't want to tote the Omnichord around without some padded covering and I feel this backpack offers it better protection than me trying to chuck it into a tote or something.

To end this post: I took all the Christmas ornaments off my pink tree and put on some heart-shaped ornaments to make a Valentine's tree.

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