I have 215 yards of acrylic self-striping yarn. It isn’t the new Red Heart stuff like I thought, not that it matters. It’s yarn. It’s self-striping. I love the colors (earthtones). It was on sale. What’s not to like?! I wish there had been more than one skein of that colorway. I’d have bought more.

But now … what to do with one 5 oz skein of acrylic, self-striping yarn? It sucks to have some really cool yarn and not know what to do with it!

Now if you will excuse me, it’s freezing cold in the house, and I turned on the oven for the sole purpose of hovering over it to warm up. It just clicked to let me know my hot air experience is ready and waiting. Then … the search for something fun and cool to make with this yarn shall commence.

Back from the store. I didn’t even blow the whole $24 I had allotted myself to spend on art stuff. I walked out with a can of matte clear acrylic spray-coat, 8 oz. of Mod Podge and a skein of Red Heart’s new self-striping yarn. What I didn’t get was anything resembling poster board or illustration board. Poster board is about half as thick and sturdy as it used to be (though it is cheap), and the illustration board was just too damn expensive. In order to fulfill my cardboard needs, I will be cannibalizing the empty product boxes in the attic. Sure, it isn’t archival quality and won’t last 200 years, but it’s free. Can’t beat free.

Since it was sunny today, and I had my camera with me, I thought I would stop and take some photos of what used to be the Buffet Palace. All was well until the wind really started gusting. In the past, when I have said I could be blown over by a strong wind, I was mostly kidding. Well, it’s not so funny anymore. I huge gust of wind blasted across the parking lot and did, in fact, knock me right over … in front of a bunch of big rig drivers who were parked nearby. I proceeded to scramble back to the truck, and then, because I was all flustered about having been knocked over by a strong wind, I found myself incapable of properly shifting, and the truck stuttered and stalled on me. I will now crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment.

I’m going to go attempt to do the dishes without having a catastrophe of any sort, and then I think some Final Fantasy X is in order … or a nap. After the bizarre day I have had, a nap might be my safest bet.

The wind is just insane out there right now. Bet Lin is having a bad day at work.

Myu is not having a good day today. Poor thing. She had just simmered down from her terrifying run-in with paper and super glue when I heard a crash from the other room (Ronin, of course), I turned quickly to get up and go see. I had my jumbo mug of ice water in hand, didn’t see the cat on the end of the desk, and I bashed her in the head with the mug and then spilled ice water all over her.

She’s gone into hiding somewhere in the den. I don’t blame her. It’s been a little crazy around here this morning.

Now for a relating of this morning’s cat adventure.

I bought some slow-acting super glue at Walgreens the other day in order to repair my prescription sunglasses. This morning I finally felt confident enough with my hands being stable and there being enough sunlight in the house to do it without messing up, so I settled in at the kitchen table with the glue, the eyeglass frames, the lens, and a sheet of white printer paper. As I expected, the sounds of me opening the package of glue attracted the cats.

Myu laid down on the table beside me to watch the show. Ronin got right in the middle of my work area. I ignored Myu and distracted Ronin by throwing the plastic packaging on the floor and giving him a shove off the table. That looked like it was going to buy me a few minutes, so I set to work trying out the glue dispenser on the paper to figure out how much pressure to apply to get just the right amount to come out. Then I set to work on the frames.

I had no problem getting a tiny drop of glue on the frames and carefully slipping the lens into place without getting any glue on it, but then, just as both hands were busy trying to apply a little pressure to the two pieces to get them to hold together, Ronin jumps back up on the table. In a flash, he grabbed the cap to the glue container and took off with it. I couldn’t exactly put the glasses down until I knew the two pieces were joined right and sticking well, so he batted it around in the hall for the few seconds that took. I then laid the glasses down out of harm’s way and went after the cap thief.

Ronin loves nothing more than to be pursued, so he picked up the cap in his mouth and flew down the hall to the bedroom lickety-split. While I couldn’t see him, I knew he was headed under the bed with it, because that’s where he hides everything he steals. I heard the sound of a small plastic cap dropping just as he got through the bedroom door, so I attempted to distract him from picking it up again by screaming. Yes, screaming … quite loudly too. It worked. He hustled under the bed minus his latest plasitc treasure, which I quickly grabbed before he had a chance to come to his senses and rush out to get it again.

All of this was just the distraction that Myu needed to put her paw on the scrap sheet of paper, right on the small dabs of glue I had been practicing with. Because it had been sitting there throughout all the previous shenanigans, it was getting tacky and ready to set, which it did. As I exited the bedroom, all I saw was a black blur flying around the corner into the living room … a black blur with a sheet of printer paper stuck to it. I couldn’t very well just drop the glue cap and chase after her, so I took a moment to recap the glue and put it out of harm’s way as well. Meanwhile, I hear Myu tearing around the house losing her little cat mind.

It took me 15 minutes to corner her. Though the sheet of paper was somewhat shredded on the edges, it was still quite whole and wholly stuck to Myu’s paw. Have you ever tried to get a piece of paper that has been super-glued to a cat’s paw off said paw? I didn’t think so. Cornering her was the easy part. I then had to basically sit on her to get her to hold still while I carefully attempted to rip the paper away from the part that was stuck, and then I had to equally carefully rub olive oil into that spot to get the paper and some of the glue to come loose.

There’s still a little paper and glue stuck to her, but I think we both had enough of me trying to get it off. Maybe I’ll try again later when everyone has calmed down. At the moment, neither cat is calm. Ronin is peeved because he managed to make off with a plastic trinket and then it was stolen from him, and Myu is still thoroughly freaked out about the glue incident. Both of them are ripping around the house at full speed. I expect something else will get destroyed any moment now. Well, at least I have super glue. I can fix almost anything now.

And my sunglasses are 100% perfect again, which means I can officially drive during the day without being blinded by the sun. Yippee! I think I’ll go get dressed, and as soon as the monsters have settled down again, I am off to the art store.

A few positive goals, some unintended, have been achieved by putting the cats on a diet.

Ronin again wants to play fetch for a half hour at a time rather than watching the toy sail across the room, slowly ambling over to it, and laying down to take a nap on top of it. In fact, yesterday he followed me around all day with his toy and wanted to play all day long, just like he used to before I let him get too chubby.

Though I haven’t weighed him yet, Ronin appears to have already lost some belly fat. His belly now feels soft rather than feeling like too much sausage stuffed in too tight a skin.

The levels of cat poop have dropped off tremendously. I can now safely ignore the litter box for more than a few hours.

Both cats have discovered they are beholden to us for their very sustenance and are now acting loving and appreciative.

In fact, I have a cute story about sudden outbursts of cat affection. Two nights ago, I was on the couch playing Final Fantasy at some ungodly hour of the night. Ronin was curled up on the cats’ blanket on the end of the couch snoring, and Lin was passed out on the other couch (also snoring). Ronin jumped up at one point and climbed onto my lap. He just sat there purring, alternately staring at Lin and pawing at my hands. Then he would stand up in my lap momentarily and look as though he was going to crawl over the couch arm onto Lin. He did that a few times, making that silly little chirping noise he makes when he really wants attention. Finally, as though he couldn’t take it any longer, he lept directly onto Lin’s chest and stuck his nose right up in Lin’s face. Lin woke up somewhat. Who wouldn’t when a large cat pounces on you while you are sleeping? He patted Ronin on the head, Ronin licked Lin’s nose, and then he jumped back over onto the couch with me and started sucking on the blanket, purring madly. It was so sweet.

Not that everything has been sweetness and light since I cut down the amount of kibble the kitties are getting, mind you, but when they are good, they are very, very good. They are still evil little brats when they are being bad.

They turn a year and a half old tomorrow. My how time flies! I’ll have to crochet them some new toys for the occasion.

Ronin woke me up this morning playing with my hairbrush. I laid there trying to go back to sleep, because I don’t have to get up for another 30 minutes. As I was drifting, I remembered my birthday is coming up soon. Then I remembered the anniversary of my dad’s passing is coming up soon too. So much for going back to sleep.

Some pains just never heal.

We are defined by our limits. But what if you don’t have any limits?

Our strength is defined by our constraints. In fact, we require constraints in order to be strong … to be focused.

I’ve been thinking about something I said in a post a few days ago.

I am at that point in my life, when I need to choose the one thing I will do well for the rest of my life … the one thing I will devote myself entirely too … one skill that is the focus of my creativity.

Then I read the Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules, which caused me to reflect on being a young artist studying at college and my own experiences with same. Naturally, this caused a chain reaction and a long train of thought concluding with the statements at the beginning of this post.

This is where I spare you the hour I have been sitting here babbling internally by removing my hands from the keyboard and sitting back in my chair. Let’s just cut to the meat of the matter and least incoherent, shall we?

I have been floundering around in the ocean of art for too long. No limits. No focus. No constraints (other than monetary). It is time for me to move into one of the tidal pools and set down some roots, while still allowing the tide to come in on a regular basis bringing with it ideas, inspiration, and life. I need some artistic boundaries. I need to focus down from the limitless possibilities to a narrow band of avenues. In order to become the artist I can be, I am going to have to pose constraints on my creativity.

To begin with, I need to choose a medium to work in. One. One medium. Not pastels on Monday, acrylics on Wednesday, and digital on Friday. One. One medium all the time.

And then, I need to focus my ideas and find a cohesive path among them. One related set of ideas. A concept. Oh my god, maybe even a real artist’s statement just to keep my own attention deficit mind on mission. Won’t that be fun?

I’m going to leave this post as is now. I could go on, I am certain, but I probably shouldn’t. Something tells me it’s a subject that could rapidly jump of the cliff into the pit of incoherent babbling.

I think I finally get what they mean by a “mature” artist. It isn’t what I expected it to be like. It’s like coming out of a mid-life crisis single-minded about something when you have never been single-minded about anything else before. Or rather, it’s like realizing it’s OK to be single-minded about something, and you don’t actually have to be good at everything, but not yet knowing what that one thing will be. It’s a bit disturbing.

See … incoherent babbling. I’ll shut up now.