January
I started my terms of venery series and had a couple of items on Etsy's front page. I was selected as a finalist for the Mini Print International - Asia Pacific! I exhibited at the Year of the Dragon printmaking show in the Distillery district.
February
My groundhog with thermochromic shadow proved popular. I reached 1300 'hearts' for my shop. I completed the patchwork for my Space Jellyfish Fractal Triangle Quilt, complete with NASA imagery and block printed panels, and my Bioluminescent Comb Jelly Lightbox - my foray into combining electronics with my art. The lightbox was written up by Adafruit, which made me really pleased.
March
We continued the arduous process of house hunting in earnest. Much to our own surprise we succeeded in buying our first house, with our first offer! It's not uncommon here for people to have to make many offers before they succeed or to be looking for months, or even years.
I completed my Polar Bear and Aurora Lightbox and taught the polar bear to speak Italian (with the help of my Arduino microprocessor). RJH finally got an iPhone (trust me, this was an event). I was sad to see that an arsonist burned the High Park play castle, after all my years of living across from the park.
This month was an emotional rollercoaster, as my job situation worsened and my step-mother's health grew worse. She died on March 22. All of her family had a chance to visit during her last week. We knew that she could not survive, but we did not know she would die so soon. I spent a lot of time with my father, her mother, siblings, her children, other step-children, in the immediate aftermath.
April
My artwork was shown in Australia for the Mini-Print International Asia-Pacific. We packed up the apartment to prepare to move. I made a block printed bumbleebee in electrically conductive ink which senses the viewer capacitatively and buzzes (since the sheet itself is a speaker, thanks to a simple circuit and a magnet). I made a thermochromic portrait of Wilhelm Röntgen, which reveals his skeleton, much like his discovery: x-rays. I confessed to 'readers' block' due to the unusually low number of books read. I reached 1400 'hearts' for my shop. I had some items shortlisted for the 'Handmade Olympics'. RJH celebrated his birthday in our new home. BigScience suddenly decided to let me know some info about power, which required me to be extremely creative with large batteries and work continuously in the lab for the last week of the month. Meanwhile, we managed to deal with all the bureaucracy of moving and buying a home.
May
I had another birthday. Big Science demanded my equipment, with 2 days notice, so I recruited RJH to help with the physical labour involved in preparing an instrument to be deployed to the bottom of the ocean. Then, they failed to pick it up. However, we were moving house so only found out when the department's shipping and receiving called me at home. Considering the miracle of having prepared it for its deadline, while moving house, and the risk that it would miss being taken to sea, this was quite the blow. Eventually it got to the coast.
We were happy to be in our new home and found we have remarkably friendly neighbours. By the end of the month we had learned that one neighbour was displaying signs he was in need of help for some mental health issues.
June
There was a torrential downpour and Union Station was flooded with gray water; mercifully, I was at St. Andrew station, so I managed to get home, slowly. We learned that our troubled neighbour looked like a pirate, complete with parrot - though extremely improbably, this is actually true. Luckily, it seems he received the help he needed. BigScience left my instrument ashore because, while it works to specifications, its communication signal strength was too low to drive the cable assigned. I was unable to view the transit of Venus, because it was cloudy, but I enjoyed the event nonetheless. My laptop began its slow deterioration to uselessness. I launched the new 'About' page. We discovered our laundry room roof was not only leaky, but rotten and infested with ants. RJH fixed it! I started my series of under-recognized local bees.
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