Sorry about missing last week's update. I had actually written something to go up, but last week was a but of a Murphy Week for me: things just could not go right.
I won't get into every tiny thing that piled up on me two weeks ago, but I will say the swing that hit this blog was the one about technical devices and their "love" for me. The programs I was using were slow and laggy, or I couldn't find the command I wanted/needed to use, or the thing would just crash. Happened to me with Zoom and my Zumba classes too. My laptop just wasn't having a good week. It wasn't just the laptop though. It was like all electronics in my house went on strike against me last week. All little things, but happening frequently enough to be a bother. Things like the TV projecting sound but not video, or the other way around, even though the wires were all properly plugged in, and it only happened when we were watching cable. A simple "power cycle" - a term I recently learned and LOVE - usually fixed the problems. Even my CAR started acting up with the radio cluster blinking off and on, and once my car wouldn't even start unless I first lowered then raised the driver's window... Thankfully the car's dash told me that's what I needed to do, but still....
I'm guessing that qualifies as "essential" enough to warrant taking the car into the shop? The radio thing has been going on more-or-less for a year now (but the mechanics never seem to find an issue while doing diagnostics), but this new "car won't start" thing miiiiight be too much of a problem to wait for this pandemic to ease up.
Anyway, that's why I didn't post last week. My battling with electronics just drained me too much. It was about 1pm and I wasn't even done writing what I was working on because of all the technical issues, so I ended up just waving the white flag.
Trust me, it wasn't much of a loss.
As you could probably guess, I didn't do, like, ANY writing yet. Instead, about 80% of my waking hours has been dedicated to, you guessed it: Animal Crossing: New Horizons. At least I'm not alone in this, considering the game has become quite the phenomenon. It's even outsold Nintendo "Mascot Games" such as Mario and Legend of Zelda! I think it is currently the best-selling Nintendo game since people started keeping records of that sort of thing.
Anyway, I'm not here to try to sell you on AC:NH or a Switch. Odds are, by now you either already have both, or you're waiting for a Switch to become restocked so you CAN have one, or you have no intention of ever getting either. My point is that I'm still in the same old slump/routine as I have been lately, with a few minor tweaks.
One being that I have taken some breaks from AC:NH in order to watch some of my shows, watch more of OutsideXbox and Outside Xtra's videos, I've expanded into watching the personal channels of the Outside Xtra cast, and I've broken up my console video gaming with some House Flipper on my computer... when the thing is acting properly.
Another thing I did to get away from video games for a spell, help out myself and my husband, AND chew through far too much time because I'm apparently trash at all domestic activities, was make us a few reusable masks.
I have neither the space for nor the possession of a sewing machine, so I've been hand-stitching these fabric masks using the SIMPLEST instruction I could find online: cut two 10"x6" rectangles out of fabric too dense to see light through, stitch them together - 1/4" hem along the two long sides, and a 1/2"-thick sleeve along the two short sides - and thread ear loops through the sleeves. You're SUPPOSED to use elastics so it's more comfortable on your ears while keeping the fabric flush against your cheeks. There were no elastic strips left when I hit up Walmart about 3 weeks ago - and I've been trying to avoid Amazon as much as possible right now for... reasons... so I've been using shoelaces and old apron strings. Yay, scavenging!
The trick though, is that I am NOT an advanced sewer in the slightest, and so the most secure stitch I know is the back-stitch. Also, for whatever reason, if I have a length of thread about as long as my arm, so that I don't have to re-thread as frequently, it almost always knots up on itself somehow, and almost always in the middle. So I have to re-thread semi-frequently in order to go with shorter lengths of thread to avoid those knots. Also, my vision has been getting a touch blurry lately, probably due to screen strain, but maybe also because I haven't had an eye exam in over a year now, so my prescription has probably changed as well. Maybe because of that screen strain.... AND, on top of all of that, in both sewing and crocheting, I tend to stitch too tightly, and it scrunches everything, so I have to purposefully move slower to make sure everything is a touch looser and flat, unless it's supposed to curve. I also grip pens/pencils too tightly which is why I prefer to type over hand-write things.... I might have a fine-motor issue I don't know about.....
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AAAAAANYWAY.... Point is, add all of that together, and also add in that the instructions don't QUITE work for Hubby or myself, so each new mask I'm slightly tweaking the instructions and, well... each mask takes me HOURS to complete...
With all of that taken into consideration, perhaps it wasn't the most brilliant idea to start off my project with one of Hubby's custom-request masks....
So, here's the thing, as I mentioned above, about three weeks ago - a little less, but close enough - I hit up the local Walmart to gather materials to make reusable/washable/fabric masks because I didn't trust that the one Hubby's work gave him was as washable/reusable as they claimed. Plus, it's now state-mandated that I wear one while in public places where I cannot keep the social distancing of at least 6 feet. Places like the grocery store or the laundromat. Or... if I have to drop my car off with the mechanic....
I bought a few of those square-scraps of fabric Walmart's crafting section sells for like 97-cents each. I couldn't unwrap them quite enough to see how thick they were, but they seemed like fairly thin fabric, so I specifically bought two blue and two black - one patterned and one solid as a backing - in hopes that it would be thick enough once doubled up. Also, as I said before, I grabbed shoelaces for like $2 per pair to use as my mask loops.
I got home. I opened up the fabric to cut them into the 10x6 rectangles. I held them up back-to-back to the light aaaaand.... You can still see the light shine through them. Not. Good.
You see, this light check is to see if the fabric is good for the protection you are aiming for. If the light penetrates through the fabric it means the fibers are too far apart and won't properly filter the air. Now, fabric in and of itself won't fully filter anything, but the thicker it is - without suffocating you - the better.
Now, Hubby's work gives them t-shirts to wear for the summer months since they're lighter than the polos normally used for the uniforms. Each shirt is specific to that summer with that summer's promotions. Why they don't make a generic Summer Shirt so the company doesn't have to constantly replenish everyone's uniforms each year is beyond me, but the end result is that Hubby has 2 shirts that he could no longer wear into work past last August, and since they are plastered with work promotions, he never wishes to wear them outside of work. Perfect. I can chop those up and use THOSE as the backings instead! EXCEPT.... in January we did a purge. We kept like two of those shirts to use as Cleaning Shirts - clothes we don't care if we ruin while we're scrubbing down the apartment - and then trashed the rest.
I was about to wave the white flag when I remembered, "WAIT A MINUTE! I have free access to discontinued upholstery fabric samples that are going to be junked anyway!" I think my coworkers had a similar thought, because there seemed to have been fewer discontinued samples in the store than I remember there being when we closed....
Anyway, that problem was solved, hooray!
The upholstery fabric was definitely thick enough to do the job, but the fabrics that were left were a bit too rough to wear directly onto your face, and I wasn't the biggest fan of most of the color options either, so... they became "filter layers" between the two cotton fabrics I bought from Walmart.
Still... I spent less than $10 on enough fabric and shoelaces to make at LEAST 2 masks for each of us, and the way I've been making them, I'm actually capable of getting to 3 or 4 masks for each of us. So each mask will cost around $1.50 to make. Not too shabby.
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| NuaNia Facebook sticker by PRANEAT |
Now, back to Hubby's custom mask....
While MOST of the fabric I swiped from work was too course to have pressed against our mouths and noses for hours on end, there was ONE fabric that was from my personal "I'm swiping this disco'd fabric to use for projects later" stash at work. It's super soft, and Hubby liked the color/pattern of it as well. So not only did he wish for it to be one of the sides of his mask for work, but he also wondered if I could make his mask reversible: the soft fabric on one side, which will usually be against his face, and the blue patterned cotton fabric from Walmart on the other side. That way, as long as both sides are clean from the mask being freshly washed, he could switch out which side he wants facing out: the heavier upholstery fabric to switch up the look and have a thinner fabric against his face, or to have the blue facing outward and have the thicker, warmer fabric against his face.
Seemed doable... until I went to actually construct the darn thing. Again, I am trash at sewing. I should have known better.
I couldn't use the simple instructions I found online, aside from using them as a base guide to know what to tweak about it. I then had to more-or-less re-invent the wheel as I figured out where to hem and how in order to still have the sleeves needed for the loops and whatnot. Also, originally we were using old apron strings for Hubby's reversible mask, and he was going to tie them behind his head and neck. So I started constructing the mask with those sleeves along the top and bottom 10" sides. I also struggled to NOT stitch the strings in place as I closed up the sleeves. That way Hubby can then scrunch up the hem to better angle around his chin and nose/under eyes. The amount of times I had to completely undo a hem because I did it wrong, or the line wasn't straight, or I stitched the sleeve before flipping the mask to be right-side-out, or I stitched the apron string to the mask so it wouldn't be able to pull like a draw-string bag.....
And the best part is... I don't have a seam ripper! Or, at least, I can't find mine! So every time I screwed up I'm sitting there with my scissors and a straight pin trying to pop open the seams and try again. It was a nightmare, but I pushed through it. It needed to be done, and I was getting a sense of accomplishment in being able to conquer this problem. I could do this. I could make the mask the way Hubby wished.
All of this, only for Hubby to pull an audible and want ear loops instead because he realized it would be annoying to constantly tie and untie his mask. I COULD have followed those internet instructions a bit more accurately instead of trying to sort things out myself....
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| Yona from Yona of the Dawn anime Manga created by Mizuho Kusanagi |
In the end, while I quadruple checked with Hubby that everything fit correctly, turns out the ear loops are too long. Probably doesn't help that we tried all of the fittings BEFORE Hubby shaved off his lumberjack beard... So we now safety-pin part of the strings along the side seams. It keeps the ear loops secure and the correct length, and keeps the mask reversible like he wanted. Plus, aside from it being a TOUCH hot on the warmer days we get sporadically right now, it is very comfortable for him to wear for hours on end.
So... win?
We'll just ignore that all the starts-and-stops, the figuring things out as I went, and my already trash sewing ability meant it kept me roughly ELEVEN nearly-straight hours to finish Hubby's mask.... To be fair, I did stop to eat, take potty breaks, and to start/switch over laundry.
It's still holding together and holding strong, so there's that. What do you guys think? It was a pain to make, and I probably won't make another reversible one, but, in the end, I am proud of how this one turned out.
Next was making MY mask.
Yeah... I'm just THAT trash at sewing....
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Anyway, between trying for FAR too long to get the middle layer to stay put before FINALLY getting it to work, and my incredibly slow pace at hand-stitching a back-stitch... this still kept me roughly 5hrs total between two days.
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| Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc |
My second attempt does seem to fit better, but, in making it so snug, I think I made the shoelace ear-loops a bit TOO small. Next attempt, I think, I'll have to try pleating the sides a touch to get the angling right without putting so much strain on those ear-loops. Especially since, for both masks, those shoelace ear-loops are a touch uncomfortable after wearing it grocery shopping for about an hour. However, once I have access to elastic it should be easy enough to cut the shoelaces off and replace. In the meantime though....
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| Tada! |
I also managed to make a second mask for Hubby so he can rotate through them. In fact, I created HIS second mask before the above feathered one because, ya know... priorities....
Anyway, you know those apron strings I used for his reversible mask? Well, as we were trying to figure out strings long enough to tie behind Hubby's head - back when that's what he wanted - we remembered that I still had an old work apron from when I was at that grocery store. It was mostly in tact, and I had saved it so Hubby could use it as a backup. However, the pockets were falling apart and had been restitched and safety-pinned in, like, five different places. On top of that, Hubby already received spare aprons from work, he didn't need mine.
At least... he didn't need mine... as an apron.
Like I said, aside from the pockets, the apron was still in good condition. So we chopped off the strings and the neck strap to use for Hubby's other mask(s). Then we realized the angling of the apron to fit under arms would actually work awesomely for faces as well!
This mask was fairly easy. Three of the sides were already hemmed, so I didn't have to worry about frayed edges. The fabric was also thicker, so just folding and doubling up the thickness would work, which meant I didn't have to worry too much about lining up the fabrics. Simple fold. The hardest part was cutting down the lower half of the apron to follow the curve of the upper portion, and then stitching through those already very dense corners at the top where the neck strap originally was. It was a fun and fairly easy project.
Even so... it ALSO kept me roughly five hours to make.
At least I'm consistent.
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| Hubby's co-workers got a kick out of the re-purposing of the old apron |
I'm slowly - oh, so painfully slowly - improving upon the construction every time I make a new mask, so there's that. But dear LORD, WHY DO THEY HAVE TO TAKE ME SO LONG TO COMPLETE!?!?!
It's no wonder we each only have the two masks thus far. Still, I have the fabric and time to keep going, so I shall. And I'm getting farther and farther along in the game, so I might EVENTUALLY get to the point where all I really have is maintenance work on my island, and I can begin to step away from AC:NH a bit.
Heck, Hubby plowed through island beautification and hit that coveted 5-star rank earlier this past week.
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| Yes, Hubby's island is named An Island. Makes me chuckle every time still. XD |
Also, the owner of the store I work at called me up at the end of not last week, but the week before. Seems I'm being tapped to be the marketing manager or whatever. He's having me touch base with the marketing company that is rebuilding our company website from scratch, and then remain the liaison, as it were, between them and the store to make sure it stays up-to-date. I'm also now going to be in charge of the social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, and starting up a Twitter account. I have no clue how to promote a furniture store on these social media outlets, so I've been researching other companies, and the like. So that's probably going to be eating up non-gaming time.
Sad to say, as much as I'm loving seeing my stories getting more and more love lately, I probably won't be writing much for a little while yet.
I DID promise you a chance to meet my other villagers and to hear about my cheesy character shipping though. So, if I can get myself motivated and my computer to behave itself, I might do a few extra New Horizons themed posts throughout this week. It will be fun and stupid, and hopefully both brighten your day with my dorkiness, as well as make up for me skipping last week's update.
In the meantime, though - she's going to hate me for doing this, but screw it - can we all wish my mom a happy birthday? She hit the big 6-0 this past week.
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| Ya-Ya Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc |
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Maybe it will make up for the fact that I didn't write her a birthday gift this year....
And to the rest of you, please stay safe. Stay healthy. Try to help each other out the best you can. Try to maintain social distancing when possible. Be mindful of your mental health as well. And just take care.
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