My creative mojo has been missing lately. I'm happiest when I'm making something, but I've let myself be dragged into the "things that must be done" mode - things that, honestly, I spend more mental time on that physical. I'm still only about halfway finished going through Bob's room. And that's just the first round of tossing or donating stuff that obviously has to go. I still need to decide what to do with the rest (like his hundreds of models). It's just so hard - seems so disrespectful. Which is why it has dragged on for two years.
There's also the barn - I've dragged loads of stuff out, but that's just a drop in the proverbial bucket. And I keep getting knocked down by this feeling of immense foolish love and loss. I saw a large storage bin, wondered what was inside, and opened it. Filled with empty plastic jars. In case he ever needed an empty plastic jar to put things in. This is in addition to trash bags filled with empty plastic jars, and the random empty plastic jars laying around. They went away.
Can't remember if I ever wrote about the propane tanks. I use one for the flame thrower. They are refillable. There were two more full ones. And nine empty ones, some so old that they can't be refilled. Why were they kept? They're gone now. So is the chain saw that couldn't be repaired. The 12 extra extension cords (small household ones). When I was hunting for the paint sprayer (more on that later) I found a small tool box labeled "mini motor tool." I remembered that - it had been on sale at Harbor Freight for $5. I thought it might be convenient for small jobs (and I'm a sucker for a sale). But it turned out to have so little torque that you could almost stop it with your fingers. As soon as you pressed it to something, it stalled. My thought it that oops - off to Goodwill with it. But Bob said that it worked on Styrofoam. I pointed out that so did his full-sized Dremel. But there it was, years later. (it's gone now)
But I digress. I was talking about creativity, and making, and how I haven't been doing it. But the Infinity Con is coming up this weekend, and as I haven't made anything new, I'm taking my Dragon puppet again (it was a big hit last year). Rob decided to bring Zeke up for it, and asked if I could "make him something to carry." I've been wanting to try needle felting wool locks to make faux fur, so I made what was supposed to be a "little woodlands fae creature" and ended up being a rat. Cute enough, but no "wow" factor, and the needle felting stiffened it enough that there is very little head movement (it's mounted on a glove - the forefinger of the glove is stuffed while the person's real finger goes into the head).
But at least it got the gears grinding. I had a bit of the fabric from my dragon left over so I made a "mini me" dragonette. I had a tub of self-hardening foam clay that I bought in The Before Times and I tried my hand at sculpting a head.
All in all, it turned out pretty good. Enough that I'm a little sad that I have to give it away. But I hope that Zeke will have fun with it. And then Amanda will make sure that it's kept forever (I found out that she still has the jester marionette that I made her when she was 3 years old, despite having moved many time, including Europe, and losing almost everything in a hurricane.) And, hopefully, I'm getting a little of my mojo back.
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