The trays that I use to house all the Citizens of Gigglesville look so empty these days despite a population of 170. Well, when so many of them migrate, 90 to be exact I am bound to have empty nests. I need to step it up to fill the void.
Forget the big Meranti pieces for the time being, just focus on the Citizens and I shouldn’t have any problems to fill up the trays again.
The Giant Citizens, Superheroes and Baby Whales decided to take one tray to fill the void
A friend recently requested for a white colored Citizen of Gigglesville. Now I have never done a white one as the end result because white is always the base before any colors are added.
But I obliged her for special reasons and voila! I now have what I call the Trophy Owl. This could be the beginning of something new or a whole new category by itself. Hmm…
After that creative run to carve up 36 Citizens of Gigglesville, I now find myself suddenly stuck for ideas. I have been staring at this two-piece glued Meranti block for some time already but just cannot figure out what to carve. Another Gandalf-like Gnome? Or perhaps a Gnome abode, something totally different? Hmm…
Actually I am caught in between wanting to start a new piece on a Meranti and wanting to play more golf. Knowing that working on big Meranti pieces will aggravate my tennis elbow will inadvertently affect my golf, the balance is tough.
Then again the itch to carve is strong. That’s why I have continued with more Citizens on soft balsa to preserve the elbow after the 36 Citizens was done.
The block beckoned again. In the end, I opted for a one piece Meranti and started on Monument 11. The block would have to wait.
I seem to be losing to hubby as far as our battle of the boxes is concerned. I have stopped my online shopping for the time being because there’s nothing more for me to buy to enhance my carving tools while just about every week, he’d received a box or package at the office and it’s usually an air plant, what else? Haha.
This latest package came and for once, it’s not an air plant but a dozen plastic garden pots that are not available at the regular nursery.
This is it! All 36 Citizens of Gigglesville are finally packed and ready for their mass migration tomorrow. I hope the recipients will treasure and love these Citizens as much as I do. It has been very therapeutic and satisfying for me carving and painting each and every one up.
Goodbye my Citizens, be good, behave and be happy in your new homes!
I have amazing girlfriends and they inspire me with their grit, mental strength and focus. Over the weekend, three amazing women came out tops in their respective activities, two in golf and one in an ultra-trail race.
Girlfriend #1 defended her Champion title in the Women’s category in her golf club’s Annual Championship, Girlfriend #2 was the Nett Champion amongst men in a golf Invitational tournament while Girlfriend #3 romped to fourth placing in her category in the 100km race. A weekend of champions indeed! Well done, girlfriends, you ladies are simply amazing.
Out of the blue, I decided to change the colors of two Monuments. I felt the original colors were not contrasting enough. Also the fluorescent green on the smaller Monument was patchy, I didn’t like it.
The new Martha Stewart Granny Smith green color beckoned and lo and behold, I painted it over the fluorescent green. But I couldn’t do the same for the blue on the bigger Monument because there’s green already. So I used Fire Engine red instead.
I like both the Monuments much better now. All they need is just a final gloss varnish for the finishing touch.
Besides avoiding dairy and caffeine, these days I also avoid onions, eggs and beef if I can help it. Life as a cow (consuming just greens) sometimes can be very bland and boring. So in between meals, I would munch on seeds and nuts because they are supposedly good for me.
Recently, I discovered I can’t eat sunflower seeds! Oh dear. I like sunflower seeds and have been eating them my whole life but of late, these puny seeds make me bloated and a horrible discomfort would ensue. It looks like food listed as good will not necessarily be good for me. Every Endometriosis sufferer is different and it’s a matter of trial and error, or rather eat and suffer, to discover.
I then checked again the symptoms for Endometriosis and sure enough, bloating is right there after the back pains and cramps. So maybe it’s not the sunflower seeds after all. Somehow this bloating was never so pronounced before and was mistaken for something else at the beginning of the year which then led to the discovery of Infectious Colitis.
Still, this bloating issue is a new problem to deal with. I have to monitor and see if this is cyclical. Sigh…
This is a crazy milestone and I’m not even sure why I am keeping up with it. Sometimes I can’t even play the game on my iPad Mini because the device has been unstable but I can launch the app just to get this.
For the record, I have kept up with the Daily Bonus for Candy Crush Soda for a span of 700 days; I think it is rather mind boggling, almost two years.
I started out on both the iPad and iPhone but somehow, on the phone, the chain has been broken several times. However on the iPad, it’s still going strong. So for every 100 days, you’d see a post on this crazy number.
So I tried the Ciao Bella mango sorbet. Hmm… I am not sure if I like it although I appreciate hubby and M2’s thoughtfulness of buying it for me. Ice cream has always been up there on my list of comfort food but not sorbet.
It was a bit weird to spoon frozen fruit puree instead of smooth ice cream. Moreover, it was too sweet for my liking given that I have eliminated sugar almost totally from my diet. Are all dairy-free sorbet this sweet? Maybe I should try another brand and flavor.
Perhaps after this pint is consumed (I’m sure eventually), I may go back to normal dairy ice cream just to appease the urge for something cold, bearing in mind not to be excessive in the portion intake. After all moderation is the key to manage the Endometriosis pain levels.
On one hand, I’d like to be careful with what I eat, then again I’d like to enjoy and savour the choice. Unfortunately, I just can’t relate to this sugar-laden, dairy-free frozen puree.
Angieneering 
Remarks