Scraperfect products contest

I am on the ScraPerfect Design Team - which is great fun. I love the products.
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Courtesy ScraPerfect and the beautiful Scrapbooking and Beyond Magazine: 

HOW TO WIN? Go to Facebook.com/ScraPerfect and post a response on the thread that says: 

WANT TO WIN A PRIZE??? Just tell us where you heard about this contest for ScraPerfect Products.  We'd also like to hear questions or comments about our Magically Perfect Craft Products...Where's you first heard about them? What do you love about them? How you use them most?....


THE PRIZE: The Best Glue Ever, Embellie Gellie, Perfect Crafting Pouch and 2 Perfect Cleaning Cloths. 


Contest Details: Contest ends November 15, 2011. Winner will be drawn at random from the Facebook posts. Paid shipping to the US, as well as Israel & Brazil where we have DT members. (If winner is from another country, they may choose to pay shipping or forfeit the package.)


More info and ideas at the ScraPerfect blog.

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The Best Glue Ever can be used for more than just scrapbooking and paper crafting applications. It works for fabrics and woods too, some metal uses, and for home decor. It's a general purpose glue that stays super tacky and holds like crazy.

 

What has Jayn been doing?

As I start collating all the random thoughts and laser focused ideas for my upcoming Good Vibrations presentation, and as her birthday approaches (she'll be 12), I have noticed a change in Jayn's creativity and her interests.

When I first proposed the idea of a presentation about unschooling and creativity, I was thinking of expanding my article about it. Jayn was still doing a lot of drawing, very visible manifestations of her artistic pursuits. In the nine (?) or so months since then, she has really shifted her attention to computer gaming and storytelling. Although she still picks up her pencil and paper to sketch out ideas, she is more making notes to herself about characters, rather than making a running commentary about her emotional life.

She has started writing stories, usually with the intent to film them via The Sims, and she is very keen to acquire some decent editing software. She has also started revisiting older stories, ones that she dictated outlines for me to write down, rethinking them in terms of movie scripts.

Just as I predicted, as she has become a fluent reader, she has begun chatting by text with some of her friends, especially those she joins on Free Realms, and rarely needs my help with decoding.

Jayn has always been an illustrator, with only rare forays into sculpture or building, the latter usually being doll related paraphenalia. Now she is clearly far more excited by the prospects available to her digitally, especially character creation. She still loves designing clothes for her Sims, and by the way, has an awesome incisive understanding of exactly what fashions in clothing and shoes, especially shoes, suit her. I've never told her what to wear, and I have no plans to start doing so now.

Her professional goals have changed - or more accurately the path she envisions to her goals. Instead of focusing on doll design, she is more interested in game design and animation. She is very interested to go to Comic Con next year too. She still speaks of her doll museum, and looks over the new releases in the stores, but she hasn't actually played with a doll for about a year. I always said she looked at them as a Collector.

So lots to think about for my presentation.

So just how are my screenplays coming along?

Time for an update on my screenwriting projects.

I've been working pretty steadily on Mermaid Lake, my family oriented fantasy film about a young mermaid secretly trapped in a mountain lake who befriends a teen and has to escape the clutches of a villainous industrialist. It originates from a story that Jayn devised. Think Disney - live action with FX. The themes are family, friendship and redemption.

I'm at about my third draft. I've got the story pretty well along, but my villain needs to be a bit more serious, and menacing, and a little more difficult to escape. I'm giving the dad a more interesting history, more to lose, and I'm going to show some different family situations, and the explore the idea of people changing and growing.

As for the other ones - Spinning Wheels is still in the story outline stage, while my producer friend Ron is shopping Clean Up my martial arts action/romance which needs another pass to make the whole thing a bit more spectacular, beef up the middle part and put some more bang in the finale.

So there you have it. Working, moving forward. Slowly.

Natural Life Article Footnotes - Furniture refinishing

The August column (my 13th!) is about refinishing old wood furniture. As I say in my article, I've done quite a lot of this over the years mostly in theater, mostly using ordinary acrylic paints and a few other methods.

Just to reiterate from the article: the recipe for furniture wax will go moldy - quickly if it is not refrigerated and eventually even in the fridge. If you are finding that it is too hard to use at room temperature, or to save time when you first get it out of the fridge, set the container in a hot water bath for a few minutes, or microwave in 15 second increments.

You can also lessen the proportion of wax in your blend. I'm considering a coconut oil/jojoba blend that would need very little wax, since coconut oil is almost solid itself - for really special furniture (but not valuable antiques! Please remember my disclaimer.) Coconut oil is not cheap, but it sure is good. Stay tuned.

Online some folks have other recipes for furniture polish that are liquid like this one at DIY Life, and this one at Care 2 which recommends some alternative oils to olive. It's wonderful how the oils that seem best for our skin also seem to work best for furniture.

My painted stool is looking a little faded now (see above). I think I should have paid more attention to sealing the finish, especially since I was using translucent methods (vinegar food coloring wash, and some translucent metallic paint). But I'm still happy with it. It was so dry and sad after having sat outside in the weather for who knows how long, that the wood just sucks up any application of polish or wax. Simple as it is, I still enjoy seeing at it in use in my living room every day.

Here's a link to the Google Image search for Gypsy Painted Caravans. Other than the unlikely picture of Ron Wood in the group, you'll get the idea at once.

Shabby Chic shows a lot of whitewashing.
Here's a blog post about using candle wax instead of petroleum jelly as a resist for creating a worn finish.

There is quite a lot on the web about distressing or antiquing furniture, but it usually starts with oil based paints and polyurethane varnishes, not the artist's paints that I was using. In looking for commercial paints please continue to consider low or no VOC brands (long list of links) such as:
Benjamin Moore
Ecos Organic Paints
Mythic Non-Toxic Paint
Also check out the ads in your issue of Natural Life for our wonderful suppliers.

If you are sanding your wood furniture, especially if it is older and has an unknown finish, please be sure to do it outside and consider a proper dust mask. Remember that fine wood dust is an irritant and a known carcinogen.

I still like using shoe polish, the "paste" kind, despite the warnings on the website. They are concerned that the wood will change color - but hey that's exactly what I want it to do! One of the reasons I like it for aging purposes is because you only need a tiny amount. One container will last for years. But there are some strong chemicals therein including naptha, lanolin and turpentine. I recommend gloves to avoid staining.

Here's a recipe for home made shoe polish - non-coloring, and rather familiar.

And don't forget the call for your materials in the article! I'm hoping for some really difficult and challenging boggles.

Time Budget Update

After about a month, I'd thought it was time for a quick report on how my time budget is working.

The short answer is very well. I have planned by budget for two months in advance, and the organization looks good.

However if I am being completely honest, and I am, I haven't stuck to it as perfectly as I wish. I have found that Jayn has been needing my attention, and she has been on a normal schedule. So we've spent some days out and about, eating in to the "professional" time. But that's a great trade-off! Also I've had doctor's appointments, and have shifted things around on the fly somewhat.

And there has a been a bit of frittering - much diminished, though.

At the moment for my business pursuit, I am working on the business plan. In the absence of software, I have downloaded and printed a blueprint for a good business plan, and I am laboriously making my way through it. The questions are tough, incisive, and it really is important to do your plan well, both for your own clarity and for the purpose of seeking funding/investors in the future. Finally one of the purposes of a thorough plan is to ascertain if it is actually a viable proposition, a good business that might actually turn a profit.

So moving forward, slowly but surely, instead of running in frenzied circles and falling on the floor in exhaustion. Better.

Aesthetic Preference Profiles - working on my style quiz.

Photo from Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic (tm) site.

I have been busy today working on my Style Quiz for Robyn Crops. I guess I had the idea that it would be pretty quick and easy. (Ha,ha). The whole point of it is A: something fun, but also B: a seriously useful tool for me to get to know what kind of scrapbook layouts and design style appeal to potential clients. So the answers have to be serious.

I realized that the first thing I should do is not think up crazy questions, but define the answers or the results to which the answers point. You know what I mean, the part where they say "if you answered mostly C you are an optimist with a disconcerting habit of climbing trees at every opportunity".

So I thought I would start by developing Aesthetic Preference Profiles (six times fast, please). I'm confirming for myself that style is a continuum and people who might love a particular style (eg Retro) will still slide back and forth into the neighboring or transitional styles too. I'll be bringing it back to scrapbooking though, and what might be overwhelming covering the largest room of your house, could be perfectly fine within a memory album, or in one small shadow box.

Today I've been researching Shabby Chic/Cottage Style - to quote Rachel Ashwell's site seeing "the beauty of imperfections...the allure of the timeworn...dilapidated elegance...faded velvet". The style has a lot of white and pastels, mismatched and mostly floral motifs, natural materials (wood, stone, brick, marble, linen and cotton), as well as the concept of  "honorable repairs adding additional character". There's lace and embroidery. At the cottage end of the continuum live Liberty Prints, but the clusters of blooms, rather than the Art Nouveau style, Laura Ashley and tea sets. Furniture is often traditional, Queen Ann's, Victorian but then whitewashed and sanded. The most practical aspect? Slipcover - white or cream but washable.

At the other end of this sliding scale is the Arts and Crafts Movement, Stickley, Mission furniture and William Morris. For William Morris to be Shabby Chic it has to go through some bleach first.

You might be a Shabby Chic enthusiast if your favorite detective is Miss Marple, one of your favorite movies is Picnic at Hanging Rock, and your favorite color is tea dyed.

Nether Wallop which doubles as St. Mary Mead, 

home of Jane Marple. Still thatched even today.

So scrapbooking with layers, lace, a whiter shade of pale, florals and silk flowers, worn text, aging and gentle distressing and natural elements. I'll rustle up a page or two in this style and post it over at Iggy Jingles soon.
Watch this space for more Aesthetic Preference Profiles. I should trademark that phrase....

Self Value

WIP

So let's also reverse it:

"When you undervalue who you are, the world will undervalue what you do."

Wow. This puts the responsibility for how we are perceived at least partly back on our own shoulders.

I was trying to think how this idea might apply to say, mothers, but surely it also applies to fathers, especially when these two people are in their workplaces instead of their homes. Are you a mother or homemaker who undervalues herself because you are not in the paid workforce? Let's ban the phrase "Just a housewife" from our speech and thinking.

Jayn and James at Legoland

I was thinking how it might apply to women, ("woman's work") but surely it also applies to men ("cos after all he's just a man"). Here are some surprising stats about time spent doing different activities categorized by employment level (FT, PT, none). At least, I was surprised. The page isn't perfect - they have left out the ages of the children which I think differentiates the three similar tables. Also they do leave out some (important from my pov) demographics - the minority of families where mother works full time and father is either part time or not working, or both work part time. Yet it is still very interesting. Who knew moms are getting more sleep than dads? And by the way, home schoolers, scroll down to the Reading to Children and Playing/Doing Hobbies with Children lines and prepare to be amazed.

Jayn's earrings on her Etsy store

Of course professionally women are still paid less than men for the same work - except that it isn't always the same occupations. Women are often still the first choice for the crappy ones. Plus it turns out women aren't as good at asking for more money. I know I'm not!

Aquarium of the Pacific public mural activities

The world tends to undervalue the daily work of children, unless it is at the level of prodigy (ie indistinguishable from that of an adult). I don't think it's because children undervalue themselves. Maybe they learn to undervalue their own gifts and strangeness in favor of the external gratifications of grades and the correct answers to test questions. What about the daily work of children in much of the third world, who are living as if they were adults? Their work is undervalued.

Swap-o-rama-rama

On another level, do you claim your highest aspirational title? I call myself Writer, not someone doing a bit of writing. I call myself Artist, Artisan, Crafter, Maker - increasingly leaning to dropping everything but Artist  - not dabbler, dilettante or hobbyist, not playing with stuff. This is serious professional business for me. If I value my title as a big part of my identity, maybe it will follow that the effort I place on my work, the quality of my work will improve and then the world will value what I do.