Blogging full time is hard

 So I think I may need to restart the count on the Writer Badge as I haven't been able to frequently add to this. I know I could update on my phone but I found it a bit too hard and I forgot that I have my mum's old tablet I could attempt to use. Hey ho.

I've just worked on the last few points of my Codebreaker badge this evening as far as research goes. I just need to read my choose your own adventure book which will be later. Whether I can stay awake is another matter, I'm exhausted. Pretty sure I'm coming down with a cold.

The Classic Substitution, or Caesar cipher, is very simple. Each letter is replaced by the letter 3 positions after it alphabetically so A B C becomes D E F. X Y and Z become A B and C being at the end.

The Homophonic Cipher is possibly the most complex I've looked up, even though it seems sort of easy to explain. Each letter is given a certain number of symbols (letters and numbers, or just numbers) based on their frequency in language. E is the most common in English and so often has the most substitutions. The substitutions themselves, however, are random, making it one of the hardest to crack.

This week my mum hopefully is going in for the surgery she had postponed last month due to having covid. Because of that, we're going into isolation tomorrow so I'll have a lot more time to do more.

Yesterday I tried calligraphy with not too bad results. Will be having another go as I have more templates to try.

I also organised my file to display the certificate cards that come with the badges too which I'm quite proud of.

But now I'm utterly exhausted so I'm gonna turn in, despite it being so early. Definitely feel that cold coming on.

Gratitude diary:

1. Being able to take my Cubs out to the lake for the first time in a long time to do kayaking and paddleboarding.
2. Not being at work when I feel meh
3. A break in the rain to take my dog for a walk (after getting soaked right through at the lake!)
4. Yummy food
5. Coffee! I've needed it today

4th April - A day of painting

 Today I was up early, despite it being my day off, because I went for breakfast with a friend of my mum's. Lovely lady and it was nice to have a good catch up with her. The breakfast was nice too. If anyone is local to me, I recommend Dolly's, especially for breakfast!

We came home and I checked my Rebel Journal definitely had everything I wanted to include for the month. I had missed out a few things so that's up to date now. Hopefully. It's probably gonna be quite fluid though in case plans change. This Thursday for example. I think I've put stuff down to do after work, forgetting that I have a Cubs planning meeting.

Once I was all sorted, though, I decided to make a start on a painting kit I got myself with a birthday discount from Hobbycraft. I can't remember if it was the last birthday or the one before, but I'm 3 weeks away from my next one!! 😅

I'm going to put this towards my artist badge as the painting of a landscape. I know it's not quite the same, but this is my level of capability. I also already had this resource, I can't buy too much towards badges. I've already bought calligraphy books and plants so far.

This is the design I'm doing. I love the colours, they look really amazing and I'm rather fond of horses.

I find it amusing how as you paint one shade at a time, it just looks so random until the blocks start to fill.

This is how much I got done today while we watched NCIS. I had to down my brushes to go to my friend's house. I take her daughter to Cubs after her tumble class, but it was nice to see her boys too.

At Cubs, we played a version of Blind Man's Buff which is apparently Chinese in which instead of being blindfolded, everyone covers their face (we used Easter Egg shapes because it was the last meeting before the school break) and one person is chosen to speak. It was an exercise in recognising voices rather than feeling a face as in the traditional version.

Then we had an egg and spoon race using Creme Eggs (my team won!) where we also checked our pulse before and after, followed by making Easter cards and electric circuits.

So that's my day. Fire evacuation training at work tomorrow!

Five things...

1. My Cubs. They're a great Pack of young people and we had lots of fun. A few of them asked where I'd been as I missed the last two meetings because of my back. One of them said she hoped my back felt better. What lovely kids!
2. Painting. I might not be very good at it, but I enjoy doing it. It's nice and relaxing.
3. Breakfast at Dolly's. Forget Tiffany's, Dolly's does the best breakfast!
4. My bosses at work. I still struggle a lot with my back but my bosses are so good to me. They're reassuring and always help me.
5. Our Firestick. It's a bit first world of me, but I am grateful to have it for days when I'm off, especially when I'm off on my own. I put my favourite radio station on through the TV. Today we watched NCIS through Prime on the stick because it tends to work better than streamed through the Virgin

Rebel Badge update

 

I was going to be all organised and write out the first three months of my journal but I think it's easier to stick with the first month and make sure I haven't added too much. They're all little tasks, but they add up.

There are also a lot of tasks to add that aren't going to be done on a daily basis but I can't add them until I know my rota for work. So far I've got next week and no further so it's hard to plan in things to do on my days off when I don't know my days off! Lol.

Hey ho, does feel like an achievement to at least have completed this much. Just need to stick to it now. It'll all start fully on 1st April (no, not a Fool's).

On another note, I decided to take a progress photo of my current project, Northern Lights. It's part of Dimensions' Sky Lights collection. The photo isn't the best one because it was starting to get dark when I took it, but the colours are amazing. I particularly like the use of satin threads to give that brightness in the green. There's also a purple and blue shade in the satin but they don't stand out quite so much.

Cross stitch is one of the activities I'm doing to cross off an aspect of the Craft badge, but then I've been doing them for 27 years! I will be trying new things as well.