Just Create - Sunburn Edition

[silvercat17]

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky

Comments

[silvercat17]

I went to a RenFaire today. I also, foolishly, did not put sunscreen on my arms. The sunburn isn't very bad.

[verylongfarewell]

Ugh, sunburn is the worst, no matter the degree.

[zenigotchas]

Sorry :( That has to hurt

[kickair8p]

Ouchy tho, hope it gets better soon.

~

[verylongfarewell]

I've had an extremely prolific week.

The first three days I wrote a short story in English about Lilith seducing the Virgin Mary, it's for a private submission call in my local writing community for erotic fiction. I've never written spice like that before, so I don't know if it'll get picked, but it was a lot of fun writing it! I've sent it to a professional editor I'm paying to give it a look-over, which is the first time I've gotten to that point of a writing process, but I'm very excited (and very nervous) about it. Hoping it's not going to tank my confidence in my own work too much.

Latter part of the week, I've been working on a Danish short story about my favourite old-time character, Marie-Claude, who will be featuring in an upcoming epistolary novel my girlfriend and I are going to write over summer, hopefully, so I thought I should get into the right mindset to write her. I finished this short story last night - I'm pretty satisfied, although I'm not sure the ending works, so I'm waiting to have a beta reader read it over and give me some feedback. Especially the ending might need some revisions.

However, all in all I've written 10k words this week and I'm ready for more next week.

Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>The first three days I wrote a short story in English about Lilith seducing the Virgin Mary, it's for a private submission call in my local writing community for erotic fiction. <<

That is so awesome. I ship it.

[kickair8p]

Awesome!

~

[zenigotchas]

Been following Trent Kanuiga's comicking schedule pretty faithfully and succeeded in the rough storyboarding stuff. Now today is the day I make my final edits to the script!
Proud of myself to sticking to this.

I also started brainstorming a Harvest Moon creepypasta. I love horror but I've never actually tried my hand at writing anything in the horror realm.

I also started listening to the Pseudopod podcast. It's interesting enough.

Oh and I did my laundry by hand and it was much less painful than I expected (and it gave my arms a good work out, lol).

[luna_moon]

I used to be a big creepypasta fan back in college. I didn't have a phone or laptop my first year, so I would read them in class off of my 3DS's internet browser lol.

Is there a specific HM game you were thinking of making the story based on? Or any specific characters or themes you've thought of yet?

[cornerofmadness]

Good luck with your story.

Oo, I've been thinking about submitting to Pseudopod

[cornerofmadness]

I finished the edits for a publisher and I finished a short story for an open call. I still have a huge to be written pile so I'll be tackling that

[luna_moon]

gl with the open call!

[kickair8p]

Two out of huge is two less in the huge, sounds good!

~

Done!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> What are you working on? <<

Garden chores -- currently a lot of stuff needs weeded or trimmed around.


>> What have you finished? <<

* Weeded and planted telephone pole garden. It's mostly flowers. Asiatic lilies have buds.

* Weeded and planted septic garden. This one is mostly flowers.

* Assembled a lot of pots to turn the new picnic table into a garden with some of the top, on the benches, and on the ground. Plus made cords to secure the trough pots. This one is mostly vegetables plus some herbs and flowers.

* Assembled and planted the two strawberry towers.

* Set up all the new wire planters with pots. At some point I'll want to get trough pots for the tall one with shelves, and more wide low pots for the little round ones, but for now I've used what I had.

* Set up the Cookie Jar Terrarium.

* Today I weeded the purple-and-white garden.

* And made my goal post for May.


>> Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype? <<

Next up will be the Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, June 3 with a theme of "Gentleness Is Strength." I invite you to drop by, watch the fun, and give me prompts.

summerofthe69 and sunshine_revival are coming up soon!


>> What have you been watching or reading? <<

We recently finished watching the first season of Dark Winds, which is a Navajo mystery show. It is exactly the kind of content I wished for back in college when all the modern Native American literature was bleak to the point of dangerous. This is honest about the dark stuff, but also includes brighter elements like how people pass on their traditions in the face of oppression. Also it would make great crossovers with some other shows, like Supernatural or Lovecraft Country.

Most recently we finished reading Nutritious Delicious, a cookbook about cramming lots of nutrients into recipes. We marked a lot of recipes in that one. I've just started reading Anti-Caste Speculative Fiction -- a good choice if you're playing 50books_poc.

Re: Done!

[cornerofmadness]

I am interested in the terrarium. I had one I built a year ago (the library hosted a party) but the plant suddenly died

[luna_moon]

I haven't been knitting much this past week. Most of my creative time has been gardening or working on sewing some new patches onto my vest. I have pretty much all of my garden in place now, but had some rain later in the week. I have a few more plants I still have to put in this week.

Last year I read Dungeon Meshi around the time the anime started, but never got around to watching the anime. I have been watching a few episodes here and there with my wife. We are about half way through the season and I will probably ask if she wants to watch a few episodes tomorrow since we have the day off and it is supposed to be hot as hell!

[cornerofmadness]

yay for getting the garden going (I need to get mine in)

[kickair8p]

Gardening is time-sensitive, knitting less so. Sounds good!

~

[dianec42]

Sorry to hear about the sunburn! I recommend dousing yourself in Noxzema. You'll smell like cloves but that stuff is magic.


I made a spreadsheet of all of my cross stitch unfinished objects that I can think of, and sorted them by "joy quotient" and then by effort remaining. Ta dahh! I have prioritized my backlog.

I gave each UFO two numbers from 1-10: How satisfying would it be to finish this (higher number is good), and how much effort remains (lower number is good). "Joy quotient" is satisfaction divided by effort.

I am very pleased with myself for inventing something called the "joy quotient".

I am a little sad that all I want to work on is low-effort stuff. And that I'm so burnt out at work that I am channeling my backlog frustration into my real-life hobbies. But you know what? Whatever works.

Meanwhile I am about 95% finished with Deer Trail. I'll post some pics when it's finished.

[winterfirelight]

Oh, I love this joy quotient idea!! What a great way to organize projects.

[ryl]

I finished my cross-stitch project! And I washed it! Now I just need to iron it, spray it down, block it, and put it in a frame. I have a picture, but I don't feel like uploading it because it was right after I popped it out of the embroidery hoop and it's all wrinkly.

[kickair8p]

Congrats!

~

[teslac0ils]

Still drawing every day, didn't manage any of the extra stuff I intended to BUT I finished 2 more books on the to-be-read pile (It is shrunk down to a more manageable size of 5 books now!) and over half of the one for my book club.

Don't think I am going to get anything creative done this week besides a daily drawing. 2 households in my family are going on vacation so after work & over the weekend I'll be occupied with pet sitting & garden tending in their absence. But hey, I'm looking forward to ransacking their beds of greens at least.

[winterfirelight]

Yay books!! I can relate to a large to-be-read pile, though you've made more progress on yours than I have. Congrats! (and enjoy those greens, that sounds delightful!)

[winterfirelight]

I build a couple of bookshelves for the craft room, so now we've got more space for All The Things. And I got a lot of herb harvesting done in the garden, with more to come today or tomorrow. At some point I'm going to have to start some oils or tinctures with all the things I've harvested, since I will never be able to drink all of it as tea.

And I finished a challenging part of my WIP that I've been struggling with all week! I think I'm happy with out it turned out, though I'll definitely have to do some editing later. I'm starting to lose steam on this story and still have a lot to go, so I'm just hoping I can keep up the momentum through the end.

[kickair8p]

Sounds productive.

~

[dragonjournal]

I've written this week, but that's about it. I need to work on other crafting.

[silvercat17]

I wouldn't call that nothing! Some days you have more time than others.

[dianec42]

Updates!!

1. Past Diane did, indeed, acquire another skein of DMC 989. Way to go, Past Diane!

2. It's finished!! https://dianec42.dreamwidth.org/687407.html

[ryl]

That is gorgeous!

I hear you on the eyestrain thing. I have to take my glasses off to cross-stitch now because my nearsightedness is getting more near with age.

[kickair8p]

Hoping to perk myself up (make art, in defiance), I've set myself a personal art challenge: to each day in June 2025 post art I made for this, that makes me happy. Details in the masterpost here, and I posted the first one early this morning.

Last month I got about a fourth of what I need done -- I'd hoped to get thru more so I wouldn't be rushing in June. But I'm enjoying it and I like what I've made, they make me happy to look at 'em. So far, win.

~

[silvercat17]

Go you!