Tag: Blaugust

Blaugust Day 1: Introduction

No idea what Blaugust is? Go read about it first (TL;DR I post every day for the month of August, and I’ve been doing it as part of a community for years now).

I don’t really post a lot of real life things here on my blog, keeping it to my hobbies (art, gaming, fiber arts like knitting and spinning, cross stitch) but every so often something creeps up and I talk about it. There’s no real explicit reason for this secrecy except that I’ve got young kids, and my husband is a first responder, so privacy is something we very much value. I figured for my first Blaugust post, I’d do a little bit of an introduction for anyone following along.

I’m a mid 40’s mom of two young kids, and like I said my partner is a first responder who tends to work very long hours. In between homeschooling and tending to the kids (who have complex needs) I like to play video games, read, knit, and things along those lines. When I was younger (not even much younger, but let’s say pre-children) I was not a very nice person. I have a temper – and I’d like to think that it is since having kids that I’ve morphed into my final form, who I am pretty happy with, overall.

I love animals (sometimes more than people) and I try to make an effort to let others know I’m thinking of them or that they’re important. I tend to retain weird information about people but rarely let others into my private circle. I have lived all over the world. My father was air force, and we were posted to Germany when I was 7. I have lived (and driven) from one end of Canada to the other. While most people I speak to have lived in only a small handful of provinces, some even living in their home province for their entire life – I love that I’ve moved so much. I have a very well rounded idea of what I like as far as a ‘home’ goes, and what I don’t like. That idea has grown and evolved over the years, especially after we had kids.

Because my partner is a first responder I find it difficult to keep tabs on some people. My hours of availability are sporadic, which carries over into my gaming. I’m not a night owl, and tend to game EU hours despite living in Canada. I do try, but I’m not very good at reaching out. The first responder side of things can be stressful. My partner has seen and dealt with situations that no one should ever be exposed to. He has saved more lives and helped more people than most will ever know. He has given so much of himself over to this job. I am incredibly proud of him, despite not saying it nearly as frequently as I should. Again, privacy issues. The stories I have could fill numerous books.

I feel awkward when I’m talking to people. I overexplain situations and give far too much information (like I’m doing here, in this post). I have maybe two close friends I speak to on a daily basis, and everyone else I’d categorize as acquaintances. I think I am probably not worth the time. Did I mention imposter syndrome? Well, stick that up there too.

As far as gaming goes, I prefer the meta game to the actual game. In World of Warcraft (my main game of choice) that means gold making. I have been playing since it released, in some form or another. I take breaks here and there, but I always return. I love collecting things, and old world content – but I also love the QoL changes that have happened over the years, and thus any form of ‘classic’ is just not for me.

I also love RimWorld, and Wurm Online, my two other most played games. Wurm is very niche, but has a dedicated and passionate player base. I’ve been playing that as long as Warcraft. RimWorld is single player, and I love it whether it’s modded or not. That game just speaks to my soul.

I’m a very prolific reader, preferring most evenings to curl up with a book instead of any games at all. I’ve recently started diving into audiobooks in the morning while I post my auction house stuff in WoW. I don’t think it will ever surpass reading for me, but it’s a neat way to explore books.

I think that’s about it for now, this post is already far longer than I intended it to be (yep, I ramble). I hope everyone enjoys their own participation of Blaugust, no matter how many or how few posts you manage to eek out. Let’s have a great one! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Blaugust – but not really

It’s that time of year where normally I would sign up for Blaugust and make a post for every day during the month of August – but this year, I didn’t sign up. I’m not interested in the added pressure of trying to make a post, or the temporary social aspect. I get that this is very much a ‘me’ thing, but I’ve been writing my blog for 18 years now, and if I’m not inspired to write then I just don’t write.

That being said, for those who are interested I think it’s a fantastic event, and a good time to get started. If you enjoy reading blogs it’s also a good time to find some new ones, and if the action on Mastodon is any indication, there’s a lot of participants this year. There’s an active discord for those who are into that, too.

The end of Blaugust

Today marks the last day of August, and thus the last day of Blaugust – and it might not be apparent that I’ve even been doing Blaugust since I don’t follow the provided layout but I want to say a few things about that.

First, the event in essence is to get people blogging – and it absolutely succeeds in doing this. A wonderful community has formed because of it, and this year marked the greatest participation numbers ever seen. I think that’s wonderful. I started off wanting to be more involved in the community but quickly realized that real life had other plans, and that I cannot be in all of the places, as much as I would like to.

That’s OK.

I started the month wanting to write every day, to loosely at least, follow the suggested topics, and provide insightful commentary that people would enjoy. This also did not happen.

That’s OK.

How and when you choose to blog is completely up to you. The subject matter, again, up to you. I cannot stress enough that you should try to first and foremost WRITE FOR YOURSELF. If an audience forms because of it, that’s wonderful, but if you try to write expecting an audience and one never forms, it can cause more harm than good. I’ve added some wonderful RSS feeds to feedly this round, and I did my best, and I’m satisfied with that. I did manage to create a post for each day, even if it wasn’t posted on that exact day (I tend to backtrack when I have spare spoons, and push out a bunch of posts all at once). I hope everyone had a great time, maybe made some new friends, and realized that blogging doesn’t HAVE to be a dead medium. There’s still some of us around, just writing.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Calico Critter Starter Home Remodel (1)

I’ve been planning out what I want to do with this Calico Critter starter house ever since I learned you could remodel them. The first thing I did was fall down the rabbit hole of miniatures. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and I joined a lot of facebook groups. There are some insanely creative people out there! One technique I learned (fairly popular) is to take an egg carton, rip it into little pieces, use some mod podge, and vola, you have stonework! I decided that is what I would do with my house.

The general idea is to cover the entire outside in ‘stones’ then paint over it with a neutral stone-like colour. Then take some pastels, and bring out the shadows / highlights. Once that is done, I want to add stained trim to the house using thin stir sticks, and then I want to also add some moss in sections to give it a bit of ‘life’. I’m also contemplating adding a window box with some flowers, but for storage reasons I don’t know that I want to (I still have the box for this house, and I’d like it to still fit inside of that box even once modified).

In the meantime I’m also contemplating how I want to decorate the inside. Originally I was going to have a ‘typical’ house. The kitchen and living room on the main floor, and the bathroom and a bedroom upstairs. Now I’m not so certain I want a ‘typical’ house. I’m thinking a library and small kitchen nook might be better suited. I also need to figure out how to build a front door since this house is missing the one that came with it. A ladder to get upstairs would also be nice (it came with one, which is of course missing).

For now, it’s a neat little relaxing project to work on here and there. I don’t expect progress to move too fast, I already know I’ll have to order more mod podge and a glue gun (and some glue) as well. I did purchase miter shears so that I can cut things (hopefully not myself), I’d like to make real wood floors and picture frames. All of those little details are things I’ll have to work up to, for now it’s just one step at a time.

Little Sock Arms (3)

I’ve got 50 more rows to knit (with a decrease every 5 rows) then I think the first sleeve will just need a ribbed cuff and and it will be completed! I’m looking forward to starting the second sleeve, hopefully this week. After that I believe all that’s left is the yoke / collar, and then this sweater for my kid will be officially completed.

Knitting this is a big deal, because it will actually be my first completed project of 2023. As much as I wanted to do a lot more knitting, life got in the way. Still, it’s better than nothing!