#WeekendCoffeeShare (August 6, 2022)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone on this first Saturday of August. Okay, that starting phrase gets boring, but who cares? Well, me, but I can’t think of any better way to start my post. I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare today. I’ve had five cups of coffee already today and it’s mid-afternoon. Want one too? I hope I haven’t used up the whole pot. Well, it’s a virtual coffee share. Let’s have a coffee and let’s chat.

If we were having coffee, I’d ask about your weather as usual. Ours has been mostly warm, sometimes hot. On Wednesday in particular, the daytime temperature rose to 31°C. Today, it’s only about 21°C. I even wore long sleeves this morning when going out for a walk.

If we were having coffee, I would share that I discovered a function I hadn’t previously known about existed in JAWS, my computer’s screen reader. When you press INSERT+4, INSERT being the designated JAWS key, JAWS displays a menu with special characters to select from, such as the euro sign, the degrees sign I used above, etc. Before I knew about this function, I’d do a Google search for something that’d pop up the character I wanted, copy/paste it into a text document and copy/paste from that document to my blog. However, if I wanted a character that wasn’t yet in the document, I’d need to do a search all over again. Besides, it’d mean having to open a separate app, in this case Notepad, and copy/pasting from there rather than selecting the character from the menu.

If we were having coffee, I’d share that, today, I started on 25mg rather than 27.5mg of aripiprazole (Abilify), my antipsychotic. So far, so good, but I’m not expecting any effects as of yet, as aripiprazole has a half life of 72 hours and the dosage decrease is so small anyway. This is my second decrease out of possibly twelve, each taking three months. That’s an incredibly slow taper, but it’s this way so that any possible changes in my mood and/or behavior can be observed over time.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’ve been busy crafting this past week. Someone from a neighboring care home has her birthday next week and a fellow resident from my care home has his birthday on the 25th. I asked the woman who has her birthday next week what her favorite color is and she immediately understood why. “Ah, you know when I have my birthday!” she exclaimed. Of course, I didn’t reveal anything else. I am creating a necklace with all polymer clay beads for her. I did this for someone else, who had her birthday at the end of January, and back then it’d taken me weeks to create all the beads. Now, I was able to do half of them in one day. The other half is a little harder, because that color of clay is more difficult to work with.

For the man who’s having his birthday on the 25th, I bought a canvas, which I painted black this week and am going to decorate with polymer clay cookie cutter shapes once I’ve finished the necklace. I am doing his name and a car. Since the challenge theme for this month in the Dutch polymer clay Facebook group is mixed media, I’m also thinking of including some other technique, but I’m not yet sure what.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d share that today, my husband went to get his new-to-him car, a Fiat Panda. He’s coming for a visit tomorrow. We originally thought of driving to some town or city in the area, but neither of us can think of an interesting one, so we may just go to Subway to have lunch.

How have you been?

20 thoughts on “#WeekendCoffeeShare (August 6, 2022)”

  2. How sweet of you to make handmade personal gifts. Everyone needs such a thoughtful friend:) Here’s to a beautiful week ahead!! And, glad I got in one cup of coffee with you before you finished the whole pot:) Five cups – wow!!

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    1. Thanks so very much! I really do hope they’ll enjoy my gifts indeed. The man who has his birthday on the 25th just asked me to make a new lip balm for him, as I’d gifted him a homemade one about half a year ago and he used it up. I rarely make personal care products anymore, but I just might make an exception for him. Then again, he’ll probably enjoy the polymer clay canvas too.

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  6. That’s really nice of you to make special gifts like that. 🙂 I tried working with clay once, it was just some Crayola clay, I made a bunny for Easter that I was going to paint and give to my partner but somehow it got lost in my daughter’s room. I hope your medication change goes well and also your visit with your husband!

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      1. To be fair, I never actually made it around to painting the bunny because he disappeared, but my daughter has painted a few of her sculptures and I’m pretty sure those were all made with Crayola clay. 🤔

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  7. We have had a lot of mixed weather. Rainy and grey some days and warm with blue skies others. I like the heat, I think the most that it’s getting up to is about 24C which is fine for me.
    The new function you found on your screen reader sounds useful. It sounds like the change in your medication is going well. I hope it continues to go OK.
    I hope you have a lovely time with your husband today. x

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    1. Thank you so much, Kim. Glad your weather’s been okay. Send us some rain please, as it’s much-needed here! 24°C is about my favorite temperature for a daytime high.

      Yes, I had a good time with my husband.

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