weekly retro #39: hoping for a renewing november
happy november! this week brought a new month along with other new things and, after a couple of days of bad post-menstrual anxiety exacerbated by the senseless consequences of our government shutdown, i am feeling renewed and ready for november.
work-wise, it was a chill week as the bugs rock halloween drop came to a close and i was able to start going heads down on what's next for the shop. one of the things that's next is beeswax.
i've been experimenting with both yellow and white beeswax. yellow is the standard wax with a natural sweet scent. white beeswax is often pressure-filtered to remove the nectar and pollen that gives natural wax its rich yellow color. you may see it described as bleaching, but it's through filter and sunlight and not, say, clorox. i keep the yellow wax in its given state, but the white wax i add color and fragrance to. both are soft and sticky enough to carve flowers into.
with halloween candles no longer my responsibility, i was able to go out more and enjoy others participation in the holiday. there was spookiness everywhere.
terrifying!
it was an exciting mail week as my thriftbooks ordered started coming through. i got andy a shogi book and i got myself a bunch of vintage candle-making books as well as a japanese airbrush book which i added to my airbrush library.
a new thing i started this past week was an 8-week semester of hand-building ceramics. after struggling on my own with air dry clay, i decided it was time for some proper, structured professional development. the studio, staff and members dogs were all great on day one, and i can't wait to build more and share what i come up with. it's nice to be joining a new community, too, and be reminded of the joy of making things with others.
another new thing is the computer i'm typing this retro on. i'd been using a 15" macbook pro from my last job that had that terrible keyboard everyone hated in 2018. after my recent work gig, i'd had enough of lugging that monster across state lines! the timing of its arrival was too good, as i got to catch some pedestrian plaza power-washing downtown and get home in time for an insane rain squall that hit the city.
we got so much powerful wind and rain, on friday during my walk to the gym i passed many neighbors outside putting their halloween decorations back up. after my workout, i had a call with a pal and then i rushed some face makeup and paper ears to represent pumagreg as i helped my friend lisa hand out candy to our local trick or treaters.
saturday i managed somehow, despite port authority's weird construction schedule, to get down to visit my dad with my brother. while he's able to feed himself - a huge improvement! - he's still only able to drink thick liquids, so i got him a jug of powder. this jug was not easy to find, it turns out duane reade keeps the dysphagia items on a shelf below the dick pills - or as they label it, "male romance".
things i enjoyed this week
- my new computer, my first macbook air. it's nice to have a laptop that doesn't weigh 500 pounds and wasn't priorly used by no fewer than 3 people in a work setting. i'll write about how i set it up so i could do things like write this blog post and deploy it.
- i gotta give a huge shout out to thriftbooks because it's such a treasure trove of vintage craft books, the kind of books that don't get made as much anymore unfortunately because of the internet. i'll share my candle library soon!
- i really enjoyed the aesthetic and information in this book tour video from cute games club. iirc she also mentions thriftbooks a shop to buy out of print stuff. anyway, even if you're not a game designer, a lot of these books are great and she mentioned some that are now on my to-be-read list. i also just really love the editing of her videos.
if you're reading this, that means i managed to build and deploy this site successfully, a sign of more building and creating things this month in spite of those in power making it difficult to do so!
xoxo jenn