It's wet...

...and rainy and kind of weird outside, with a tornado watch for the next county over.
Taco frantically ran up and down the hallway, and then decided on a safe hiding place to wait out the thunderstorm.

crazy looking clouds

how great are these multi-colored flowers?

for some reason, I really like the railing in this photo...maybe because I can see the raindrops on it?

Yeah, so that's life. I've officially dubbed this the Summer of Weaving, because I've spent literally every last brain cell I have on weaving - rugs, tapestries, how to manage funding a giant loom in the next three years...the list goes on, but it gets boring. Eventually I'll share some photos of my woven work.  :)

basic window operation

"dis window bwoken"

Windows are hard to operate, sometimes.

"HUMOM can you fix dis?"

Curtains are complicated.

What do you know about armadillo chins?

"You know nothing, John Snow."
Seriously, who knew an armadillo's chin was hairy? Not me.

museum inspiration

Textures. Turtles. Taxidermy.
I'm weird, I know. I went to see a textile exhibit, but the taxidermy never fails to steal my attention.

whatcha up to?

 I've been doing the same old stuff - taking weird pictures of household stuff,

 writing a veritable TON of letters (it was InCoWriMo in February, and I totally nailed it!),

 over-thinking how many colors I should paint my nails at one time (answer: 3 - neon coral, orange, and GOLD!),

and reading some really awesome books.
Have you watched Adventure Time? If the answer is no, please go check it out. It's one of the best shows, ever.

Taco Tuesday - cat spy

Taco and I spent a long time staring through the door together.

 

 Sometimes Peter would stare back at us.

 

And sometimes he would nap.

Taco kept sticking his paw through and trying to swipe at Peter.

Peter just doesn't care.

Taco meows with indignation throughout the ordeal.

I keep telling Taco to mind his manners, or else his friend won't come back to visit us again.

how to refill your Pilot Precise V5 rollerball pen

Because who doesn't love taking apart a pen and re-filling it with a different color of ink?

Here's what you need:
+ a used-up Pilot Precise rollerball pen to dismantle
+ pliers, probably needle-nose
+ a small cup of  water (like a rinsed-out yogurt container would be fine)
+ a big fat rubber band (or one of those rubber grippy things you use to open jars)
+ a syringe (or a pipette, or an eyedropper, or maybe even a plastic drinking straw could work, but it'll be messy!)
+ ink!

Basically, the hardest part of this operation is to rip this ink-feeding plastic bit out of the body of the pen.
Wrap the rubber band around those disc-things right behind the white plastic piece, and grip the rubber-band-wrapped-plastic with the needle nose pliers.
Pull. Hard. I found it was easier to grip the pliers with my dominant hand, and hold that steady while trying to yank the body of the pen off, sort of towards the side, so that nothing goes flying off into the distance, and also you won't accidentally punch yourself in the face.

You can see that I used enough force to leave a mark on the plastic. It's not quite as shiny anymore. If I figure out how to do this without squeezing the bejeezus out of it, I'll let you know.

Next step: rinse. Leave the feed in a cup of water to soak, and rinse the body of the pen out in the sink. Shaking the water out of it helps - just point the open end towards the sink. You're done when the water runs clear. The water soaking the feed might need to be changed a few times.

The fun part: refill with ink! It can definitely hold 1.2 mL (yes, I measured!) and maybe a smidge more. The syringe with a blunt needle is the neatest way to do this, followed by a pipette or an eyedropper. You could try to pour your choice of ink (hahahaha, no, don't!)...or maybe employ the straw trick. (Stick straw in liquid, cover top with thumb, lift out of liquid, position over pen body, release thumb....and probably over-fill by a lot. Prepare for spillage if using this method.)

A note on ink: fountain pen ink works really well for this. I'd think of any other kind of ink as an experiment. My guess is that acrylic inks would clog it up eventually, but hey, you were going to toss this disposable pen anyway, right?

Last step: put the feed back where it belongs. It slides back into place and then you just give it a little push (no tools required) and it snaps closed.

My black pen now writes purple. What color will you use in yours?