I have been so engaged with carving lately that my poor canvases are just sitting in the corner collecting dust. Even the tubes of oil paints are neglected because I use acrylic instead.
Everyday I would carve a piece, two if the mood hits and definitely more on weekends. The citizen count of Gigglesville now stands at 48, minus the superheroes series.
Sigh… I hope to go back to painting. Eventually.
As Gigglesville is booming, I felt I needed more new colors. I am not too particular of the brand but the color choices available. So over the weekend, I bought another two tubes of acrylic, burnt umber and red ochre, totally new from the brands that I have because I just so happen to be at a new bookstore and not my usual art haunt.
It has been very colorful so far for the citizens of Gigglesville and now with the introduction of brown (I call it mocha), the range is pretty diverse. I foresee a boom in mocha-colored citizens as they need to catch up in numbers with the rest of the red, blue, green, orange and purple citizens.
It must be a burst of energy or something because suddenly Gigglesville is booming! Or could it be that Citizen #30 migrated just two days ago and I have this need to replace the void. For every one departure, there should be at least two replacements.
Citizen #30 is the second one to leave the sanctuary, the first being Citizen #10 who now resides in Penang.
Gigglesville is shaping up well with a mayor, citizens and superheroes to protect them (especially from Evil Buster). Citizens even have passports issued for them if they are selected to leave to spread their giggles. Citizen #30 had its passport approved hence, its migration. This weekend another will leave… sniffle.
I have grown to be very attached to all my citizens but it is for spreading giggles and love that I am allowing them to migrate.
Gigglesville!
Citizen #10 (top) and Citizen #30 (bottom)
Citizen #30 with its passport
Sometimes an injury not only takes the person out of action, it makes a person out of sight, out of mind too. I have not been to my golf club for ages because of the tennis elbow. And because of this, I missed all my golf buddies. Boo hoo hoo…
The friendship and friends are far more important than the game I realized. I miss the company, the laughter, the silly banters, and love. Throw in the food and drinks, I miss all this. Boo hoo hoo…
Over the weekend, the club held its Annual Championship and for the first time, I did not participate. I don’t think I could survive the two-day tournament. The spirit may be willing but the body, the arm specifically, would not be able to withstand the outing. It would be a painful nightmare and a big setback to healing.
But I went to the club to support all my golfing buddies because I missed them. It was indeed good to catch up with everyone who played in the tournament. And after the two days of intense golf, the defending champion prevailed to retain her title and I am glad I was there to celebrate with her and the rest of my golf buddies.
The 12-year old Glenlivet whiskey (and 12-year old Singleton plus an 18-year old – which I forgot what label) were thoroughly enjoyed on that humid Sunday afternoon after the morning excitement subsided. And it felt good to see most of my friends after so long. Ahh… the company, the laughter, the silly banters, the love and drinks…
Maybe I should reconsider playing again just to be with friends. After all, it’s the friendship that matters, not the game.
Hubby had been very busy the past few weeks with his air plant creations. Every evening, after dinner he would sit at the terrace and be at it while I would be either carving an owl or just chilling indoors.
During the day, if time permits he would be on the net looking for inspiration. One day, he stumbled upon a site that took orders online. The lightweight box arrived in the office two weeks ago.
They were some interesting air plants that he purchased. It’s amazing what one can buy from the web, all sorts of things big and small, and even live plants.
Over the weekend I decided to buy two new colors to add to my acrylic color collection. I made this decision after holding out for so long because I thought I could mix the orange and purple consistently when I needed these colors to paint the citizens of Gigglesville.
But each time I mixed, I failed. The purple has come out in many shades unfortunately but luckily, the orange fared better and not so obvious. There seems to be no consistency in my mixing ability because I forget the ratio every time.
So to avoid this for future citizens, I thought best to get the two colors in tubes like the red, blue and green that I already have.
There’s at least four different shades of purple!
The orange less obvious in shades
I must say both our girls make us proud. M1 has recently landed her second internship for this summer! Last year, she interned at the university’s seafood lab and this year, it will be with a leading seafood processing and distribution company.
I thought I was good getting an internship with WBMG, Inc. in New York City but M1 is better than me, with two internships! She starts this July.
Well done.
One of my favorite design tool is not the Mac computer but the X-acto knife. I could be called old school but tools like the T-square and triangle rulers are still used by me, more so now because of the carving.
Recently I bought a new blade, an X-acto #16 to replace the #11 and to supplement my other carving tools and I must say, I love it!
The angle and its size is just perfect to etch the tight spots of the balsa wood. Carving just got more fun! Whee….
A few weeks ago, hubby had a huge and colorful air plant hanging on the frangipani tree in the garden. From that big fella, he harvested many little ones to create interesting displays on driftwood pieces or simply by themselves with just wires that he would bend with a plier. Like me with an activity interspersing painting with carving, he’s into cactus and air plant creations.
I ventured into the garden upon his insistence and lo and behold, a whole lot of them are hanging on the tree! The green fingers in him certainly makes the garden more interesting. And the tiny air plants sitting on wires are just as appealing indoors.
Sometimes games with daily rewards can make one to be obsessed and dedicated beyond reason. I am certainly guilty of this. While I have removed Candy Crush Saga from both my iPhone and iPad, I could not for Candy Crush Soda because of its daily rewards appeal. Unlike other apps that run this on a weekly basis, Soda’s rewards program goes on forever.
So for the last 300 and 100 days, I have been diligently going into the app on both my iPad and iPhone respectively to collect the daily rewards. If I miss a day, I have to start all over again and I just cannot bring myself to break this. Silly.
Sometimes I go in just for this and don’t even play the game! Crazy dedication is what it is.
On the iPhone, it’s Day 100
On the iPad, it’s Day 300!!!
Angieneering 
Remarks