Valerean

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Mysteries X 4

To cheer myself after the social media incident I went to one of my favorite antique malls and invested in four blind date/mystery items. Two are blind date with a book bundles ($8.00 each), one is a bag of mystery bracelets ($10.00) and the fourth is just a big mystery box of something green ($2.50 because the booth was having a half off sale.) The first blind date with a book bundle was labeled cozy mysteries, which I enjoy. I have not read either author so this was a nice surprise. I also got a bookmark, hand cream, tea, and stickers that were tucked in the folds of the wrapper. The second blind date bundle. I have read this author before, who pretty much writes the same story over and over, and I really don't care for that. But that's the gamble with blind dates. To be fair I'll read these anyway. The mystery bag of bracelets was the most expensive item, so I was hoping to be wowed. And I was! I don't have a lot of silver bracelets, so I...

You've Got E-mail

I just emptied my personal e-mail box completely for the first time since 2017. Yes, it was stuffed with nine years of e-mails -- well, not every e-mail I received, of course. Fan mail, of course, and then some notes from a few friends that were nice. I also saved the not so nice ones, the kind with digs, veiled insults, and unkind remarks that hurt me from people who told me repeatedly that they were my friends. It took me a long time back then to end relationships with bullies and toxic people, and I would pour over those nasty e-mails, usually thinking I was reading into it too much because hey, they said they were my friends, right? After Mom died, the blinders finally fell off, and I saw people for who they were, not for who I hoped they were. That's when I began cutting ties so I could start my journey toward peace and calm, although at the time I didn't know that's what I was doing. I was aware that I should have gone through all my saved e-mails and ...

Keeping Us Fed

I'm not alone when I say shopping for groceries has become like a test to get into Mensa. We now shop at five markets, sometimes weekly, to hunt and find the best bargains. The other day I went to three of them in one day trying to find affordable groceries. Here are some of my recent discoveries: Although I am hesitant about buying any kind of meat from Wal-Mart, after seeing the price for lean ground beef had swelled to $13.00/lb. at the store where I usually buy it, in desperation I bought a pound of their lean ground beef to try. In my opinion after making a meal with it, this is not 93/7 beef. It's more like 90/10 judging by the amount of fat it shed. It was dry, tasteless and I got terrible indigestion just after I ate a very small portion of it (I actually don't eat red meat very often, so that may be the real culprit.) Final thoughts: no more Wal-Mart ground beef for me and mine. Decent corn on the cob is very tough to find. I wanted to make it wit...

Crazy for May

After brooding for a week about the May tote for my calendar project, I got started by disassembling the black canvas bag I'm using as the foundation. I then spread it out on my cutting mat and arranged the vintage embroidered crazy quilt fragments and the heron block on it until I got the look I wanted. This will be the front side. This will be the back (I may rearrange the fragments one more time.) To give you an idea of how I'm going to put this tote together, here's a box top I embellished with a damaged vintage crazy quilt piece. I created the top by sewing the piece to some backing and batting, covered the patchwork damage with some lace, added embroidery to the places where the original needlework had worn away, and then quilted it with beads and added an old dragonfly brooch.

Just This

After that much-needed break I am back to blogging. I've decided to keep comments on all my blogs closed for the time being, possibly permanently, so I can maintain peace of mind and keep the toxic away. I appreciate your understanding. My one major achievement last month was finishing and delivering my first big work project of the year on time to my editor. My day job is quite important to me, and factored in to my decision to delete my Mastodon account. The problem that arose with social media did so two days before my work deadline, and three days before my mother's death anniversary, and that seriously messed with my head. I am already stressed to the max when I'm finishing a project; I don't need bullies and their need to pester me adding to the pressure. I feel a bit guilty over being such a drama queen about this issue, but I've worked hard to build a safe-for-me way to interact with others while preserving my privacy. I think being threatened ...

Prep Time

I am still off meditating, but I am scheduling this to publish in my absence for National Hurricane Preparedness Week, May 3 - 9, 2026. It is so important for people who live in the southeast, Atlantic coastal and Gulf Coastal regions to get ready for hurricane season, which runs from June 1st through November 30th. You can find lots of helpful information here , and get updates on systems and storms throughout the season at The National Hurricane Center . Every year my guy and I take stock of our supplies of non-perishable foods, batteries, medications and everything else we might need in the event a hurricane cuts us off from civilization. My guy tests our generator, and makes sure we keep enough propane on hand to use the grill if we have to for cooking. This is because we have lived without power for weeks many times in the past, and have never suffered because we prepared in advance for such events. I have just tidied and reorganized our emergency pantry to see what I ...