One Full Month of Strawberry Syrup

Woot! Today marks one full month of Strawberry Syrup. While that may not seem like a big deal for a webcomic that's been running since 2007, 2011 has not been Strawberry Syrup-friendly. Between computer issues, health issues, and all sorts of other things, my poor webcomic spent months on hiatus. Therefore, I'm counting a full month of updates a victory.

Although we did learn something about the beloved Arcadia Sanguis High School today...



Their janitor's closet is huge. It is, as co-creator Koni put it, the TARDIS of janitorial closets.

They should probably look into that...

U.S. Open Tennis

And the final major of the year has begun! Looks like they did a great job of setting everything up after Irene. They're off to a pretty good start, although I really had to feel for the girl who flew in from Moscow today just to play and lose to Venus. Ouch.

As for Federer, I think the inability to really practice all weekend was affecting him. He looked a little rusty. But, as he said, it doesn't matter that it wasn't pretty; he still won!

In any case, my TV will be dominated by tennis for the next two weeks, much to the delight of my family, I'm sure. And while I'm doing that, I'll figure out something to get up in my gallery for August. Sadly, I haven't done much non-Strawberry Syrup digital art this month... I'll get something up, though.

Dangers of an Impulse Buyer

I admit it: I can be a little impulsive when shopping. Book stores and craft stores are definite weaknesses. Today's venue of choice: Hancock Fabrics. They had a sale on a brand of patterns, so my SIL and I headed over there to check it out.

Now, I am a very novice seamstress, and I'm mostly interested in bag, pouches, and so on, so I stick mainly to fabric remnants and quarters. And then... there's the patterns. Soooo many patterns... which is where being an impulsive buyer can get me into trouble. I think, "Well, I might learn something from this one!" And, of course, since I'm a complete n00b in the realm of sewing, I can learn something from just about every pattern I come across. I justify it with, "Well, when I learn these techniques, eventually I can create my own patterns, and then I can actually sell something!"

Before I know it, I've got ten patterns piled up.

This happens in book stores and other craft stores, too, especially when things are on sale. If I'm not careful, I could end up spending a whole lot more than I intended.

Fortunately, there's a way to help prevent it - or at least minimize the damage: delay check-out. Rather than grabbing things and heading straight to the nearest register, I spend some time walking around with my stuff. Eventually, I'll start thinking, "Okay, do I REALLY think I'll use this? Will I actually READ this sometime soon?" If the answer's no, then I put it back.

So far, it's been working pretty well. Then I just have to be careful not to grab anything on the way to the register... or at it.

Now I just have to put some of my new goodies to use.

And Back Again!

So, 2011? So far, not a great year for my poor little blog. Or my comic, for that matter... but I'm back again!

Here's what I've been up to lately:

• Getting Strawberry Syrup back up and running. My readers had to sit through one heck of a long hiatus this year, but I finally buckled down and took my own advice to build up a buffer of pages before I ended the hiatus, so with any luck, they won't have to put up with another gap for quite some time.
• Working on a few new items for my Etsy shop. A few new boxes, a few new sketch journals... One out of four is currently listed, so those are slowly going up.
• Learning how to sew. My sister-in-law has been kind enough to show me how to use her spare machine, because we all know if I tried it on my own with no direction, it would end up imploding or catching on fire. In true Kit tradition, I'm not terribly interested in, oh, clothes. Nope, my thing is bags, pouches, and other items you can put things in. The fabric equivalent of boxes, if you will. Once I master the sewing machine (or, ya know, am reasonably capable of sewing a straight line), I plan on making little pouches with embroidery worth of hanging off any Renaissance Festival-goer's belt.
• Watching Blue Exorcist on Hulu. GREAT series. Right up my alley... especially considering I don't usually watch subbed. I was also watching Tiger and Bunny, but I need to catch up on that one. As for dubbed, it's all Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Cartoon Network. It's wrapping up, but it makes waiting a week between episodes sheer torture.

And that would be what I've been up to this summer. Hope your summers went well. ^^