Back to what passes for Normalcy

 So I'm back to work.  I've had two shifts so far, one cake decorating and one bakery close, and things are starting to feel right again.  I've gotten good inroads to getting the house decorated for Halloween which is racing up to meet us with all haste.  More to do yet, but so far so good.

I've gotten all my DAC orders, lost the footage of half of one unboxing, and have been fighting with updated software both to film and to edit the footage, so there has not been much activity on my channel of late while I parse out the problems.  I think I have it sorted, but we'll see.  I've tried uploading one video now three times - I'm hoping this fourth one is the charm now that I've poked the software used to encode it a few times.  Ahh, technology.  Wonderous when it works, more frustrating than anything when it does not.  

Also, note to self: check the size of your painting before you buy it.  These are some pictures of Caitlyn holding up my Festive Fireplace!  It's a blanket!

I started working on my Hogwarts painting, and already 2 squares in I'm getting frustrated with the drill quality.  So instead I've been working on the custom for my husband instead.  It's one of the last good pictures I have of my family with my mother-in-law Silvia.  It's Mother's day 2013 - she passed of Pancreatic cancer in October of that year.  Here's my progress so far:

I'm hoping to get it done and framed for my husband's birthday in mid November, but if I miss that date it'll be a Christmas present.  

Finally the Youtube Gods have smiled upon me and allowed me to upload.  Here's my post review of an Easy Whim painting from the Diamond painting club subscription box: https://youtu.be/edaH1z8fpyc

Announcing the Diamond Painting Community Calendar!

 That big thing at the top of my blog?  Yeah, that thing.  Here's what it is.

The diamond painting community has a tonne of events, but no way, at least no way that I have found, to keep track of them all.  There is a listing of lives, which I may add as recurring events, but nothing for the collabs, the fun hashtags, or any of these cool things that we do as a community.  

That's where this comes in.  I'm still testing it, but I need help.  As far as I can tell, I am the only one with permission to edit it, but I can probably expand that as needed.  I have put a few events on the calendar that I have details for and know about, and am hunting down details for a few more, but I am not everyone and cannot be everywhere, and my brain is insufficient to keep track of all things, thus the compulsion to put this into a calendar.  So I need the community's help to keep track. If you have an event or know of one that is missing from my calendar, email me: Hallowqueencrafting@gmail.com and I will put it in.  I'm hoping to make this calendar the go-to for our community.  

So what do you think?  Is this superfluous, is it genius?  Please let me know!

Negative test does not make me better

 So today I got the news that I don't have the current plague.  What's ailing me is something different, probably a case of the flu.  This is going to weaken my case when I actually get confronted by my bosses about my absenteeism, even though it shouldn't.  Staying home while sick didn't suddenly become the right idea because plague, it's always been the right idea.  Show me someone who says they never call in sick, and I'll show you someone who has come in when they shouldn't.  Not only does it make it harder for you to recover from said illness, it also makes you a germ vector.  I work with people who have pre-existing conditions.  I work with a woman who is pregnant (she just announced it publically, so I can say that now).  I work with people who are old enough to be classed as senior citizens, and while not in my own department some who are quite elderly.  And that's ignoring the customers outright.  The flu can still cause serious illness and even death.  It would be irresponsible of me to take my actively contagious rear end to work, no matter how much it hurts me financially to stay home.  

Now to step off my soapbox, yesterday I posted my video on the Wish Halloween landscape, image above is the image it was supposed to be.  It scored a dismal 3 on my unboxing scale.  Perfect score is 10.  The cost per square centimeters is 3.494 cents, which is actually pretty high.  I suppose that will have to become clear as I add in more entries here on the blog.  If you're interested in how the painting turned out, check out the video here.

Since we were going into the long weekend, I shelved the custom to keep hubby from looking too closely at it, and started another Home Craftology project - the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party image that attracted me to Home Craftolgy in the first place.  I broke it up into 12 sections and I've already finished three of them.  The Halloween gallery wall is getting more populated - I hung another Nightmare before Christmas canvas up there and moved the Hello Fall Truck over.  I had to reframe the girl's school pictures and finally got them hung up, just in time for them to sit for new ones.  If they're even going to have school pictures this year.  I can't imagine they'll have the class pictures this year, but they could do a mosaic or compilation of the individual pictures - I actually have one from my childhood.  

Interesting times, people.  We're living in interesting times.

Day in the Pandemic life

 Yesterday was much the same as the last several days.  Get up, call the kids out of school - not going to send them to school during a pandemic when their mother is actively symptomatic.  Drag my poor aching self down to my comfortable computer chair and let the girls play, while I diamond paint and let the internet entertain me.  I then spend most of the day sitting until I can't, and then go back to bed for a while.

However, at 1:15pm I had an appointment at the COVID assessment center at our local hospital.  I don't really know that I have COVID.  I kinda suspect that's not what I have, but as of today I'm now at 7 straight symptomatic days so identifying what I have is going to be important at least to my employers.  Fortunately if I do test positive, the last several shifts I worked were largely solo.  Mom bailed on driving me, and I don't drive myself, so I ordered a cab to take me and the girls to the hospital.  The dispatcher got my address wrong - seeing as my father owned this company and my address is the same house they lived in the entire time they owned it, she's clearly new, but the driver was not sent far out of the way so we flagged him down.  The drive there was uneventful and I paid and got out of the cab with my masked children.   

The hospital had red socially distanced waiting spots outside, two people were already in line, so we took our spot.  It didn't move for a bit, so I suspected that the staff had gone to lunch, and I'm trying to entertain the girls and wondering if they can even come in with me.  Then they started taking patients in, and I asked if the girls could come in with me, which they did allow.  They offered to do tests on all of us, but I decided that, since the test rumored to be unpleasant, and I was the only one with symptoms, I would just do me.  So I relaxed, they explained the test, where they take what looks like the tiniest swab on the longest possible stick and put it up your nose.  

So I took a deep breath and relaxed trying to be a grown up and not scare my children and at first it wasn't too bad, but then I realized that he was not getting the swab where it needed to be, and then it finally drove home.  I kinda was shocked at the sensation, and let out an audible groan.  It was the unpleasant sensation of having something where nothing should be, that weird sensation you get when something goes too far down your throat, before the gag reflex kicks in.  I wouldn't call it pain, although I did have some burning afterwards and even now I can kinda feel where it was, and it's been 24 hours.  Discomfort is the better term.  Would not recommend this test unless you need it.  But it was over super quick and we left.

I ended up having to call 5 times to the cab company before anyone actually answered my call.  The line outside had gotten a lot longer, so the girls and I moved around to another section of the hospital that had benches so we could sit and wait while properly socially distanced.  I finally got through and ordered the cab, but we still waited more than half an hour for the taxi.  A patient from emergency came out and was looking around for the vanishing feature of a pay phone.  She was 60s, possibly 70s and didn't appear to have a cell phone.  Normally I would just hand her my phone, but coronavirus, so I just offered to call her ride for her, which she took me up on and thanked me for.  A moment's kindness that cost me nothing.  

After we got home via a driver that I actually knew from the old days of working for the company, I sat down and finally finished Diamond Art Club's Sweet Tooth by Myka Jelina.  I'd started it back on September 10th so it had taken me about a month to complete.  I've temporarily hung it up as is with a magnetic poster hanger I got on Amazon, but I will eventually trim it down to fit, and cover the remaining borders either with paint or decorative tape.  I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working on laundry, my custom for my husband and heckling back to back DP lives, first Crafting Journey, then the Crafty Heifer, and of course Purple Door Crafts.  I did try to go to Tia's live - but bed was calling a little too strongly. 

Today I'm still working on the custom and still waiting for the results of the test.  I do feel less dead today, so that's something.  

Starting out with a whimper

 

Starting out with a whimper

A blog is so 2004. That may be true, but here in 2020, 2004 doesn’t seem so bad.

In 2004 I wasn’t afraid to be around people. In 2004 I didn’t have kids, let alone have to try to balance their mental health needs with the immediate risk of a pandemic. In 2004 I was in college, looking at a bright future. In 2020, I’m wondering how hard I’m going to have to fight to keep my retail job after being off for four straight days due to whatever virus I’m fighting, and wondering if it’s worth fighting for at all. In 2004 I wasn’t half hoping, half dreading tomorrow’s test not sure which result I was hoping for – confirmation that I was right to stay home because the virus I am fighting is the same one that has killed over a million people worldwide, despite the risk that then poses to those close to me and myself or a negative result that may result in ridicule for making a mountain out of a molehill and make it harder to fight for my job. As if staying home when you’re sick hasn’t always been the best decision, even before the pandemic.

So is yearning for simpler times the reason that I’ve started a blog? No. To paraphrase one of my favourite creators, Lindsey Ellis, “Sometimes you just have thoughts, and you’ve got to monetize them”. I have lots of thoughts. And one recurring thought that I’ve had is that I wanted a written repository of my adventures in life, in crafting, and in my newest obsession: diamond painting. And while I have created a presence for myself in the world of YouTube with my own channel: Hallowqueen Crafting https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUsNYHtE7kqJJRpEx_ZjLMg?view_as=subscriber, vlogging has some limitations that working in print does not. And I’ve always been better at communicating in print than face to face, or face to camera as it may be.

Also as part of my adventures in the world of diamond painting, I’ve started giving out ratings to companies based on a variety of factors. I’d like to have those ratings out there in a way that is more accessible than having to watch a number of rambling videos, and in a way that can more directly compare one company to another. I also wanted it to evolve as my understanding of the hobby evolves, as companies change and evolve, and as the hobby itself evolves.

Is this a big project? Yes, yes it is. But you tackle it like you tackle eating an elephant – one bite at a time. So let’s get down to chewing.