Valerean

I thrifted a book of origami that included the papers from our local church thrift for $1.99, and decided to try a few of the designs as something different and fun to do. This bunny was my second attempt (the first I had to abandon when I couldn't figure out the directions.) Then I made a swan. Origami is pretty exacting, and sometimes the way the illustrations show to fold the paper is confusing. But I like the results when I do get it right, so I'll keep practicing. I'd love to be able to fold a thousand paper cranes. :)

One morning a few weeks ago I was starting my morning routine when I noticed dried blood on my ankle. I vaguely remembered scratching an itch in that area before I went to bed. Evidently my skin is getting so thin I can tear it with my fingernails. This is one of a few new body problems I have to deal with. Note to self: get the Benadryl lotion when you have an itch. I would like to write more poetry (the inspiring kind, not the depressing kind) so I invested in this poem-a-day prompt book. It has nice pages with a one-line prompt and space to write a poem under it. Only I forgot that due to my arthritis I can hardly hold a pen any longer. Ah, well. I'll type the poems on the computer. I have a story I want to write for pleasure this summer, and I decided to try some free AI online image generators to see if I could create cover art for it that way. I have only tried using AI a couple of times and was expecting something half-assed, frankly. Plus it's ver...

In June I'll be looking at ways to incorporate more writing into my life without infringing on the day job. Because writing is my job I have a certain amount of professional work I have to do every day, and that tends to be in the same universe every year. It's not boring but I do feel like I'm in a rut most of the time. I miss writing for pleasure and in genres other than what I write for work, and I want to do more, especially as we roll into summer this month. I always have more time to write during the summer for some reason, probably because it's too hot to do much else. :) My first idea was to try some writing prompts, which is why I invested in 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts . This book contains 501 prompts and was written by creative writing teacher and author Tarn Wilson , who certainly has the knowledge and experience to help build writing habits. What I liked about the book was the clarity and simplicity of the prompts, which are interesting as w...

My favorite person gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card for Mother's Day, and I finally made the trek to the one in the Villages to use it. This is nice, too, as I'm planning another attempt at a no-spend month in June. Ordinarily I thrift books or buy used from Alibris to save money, so the chance to buy new was a real pleasure. Browsing gave me so insight as to the current state of the fiction market (I used to keep up with it more when I worked for NY.) In regard to reading for pleasure, there aren't a lot of titles on the market that tempt me -- all seem to be uniformly depressing or ultraviolent, two things I do not want in my imagination -- but I was intrigued enough by the flap story descriptions of The Astral Library by Kate Quinn to give it a go. I spent the rest of the gift card on my other loves (crochet, art quilting and cooking) because they were what interested me, not that I needed them. I'll pass the quilting mag along to a friend as I usua...

May was a tough month for me, as I spent much of it finding out just how much I can screw up a project (a lot, if you're wondering.) I also had to give up and shut down my social media account because of a toxic to me issue, so that hurt a bit. I will miss the creative folks on there who were so nice to me. Anyway, I made this cute lemon yellow amigurumi bear while trying out Hobbii's Honey Bunny Shine yarn for the first time, ran out of the yarn and had to improvise to finish the toy. I crocheted this throw, which was too small because I misread the pattern. I patched a hole in one of my thrifted Vera Bradley purses. This I did not mess up. :) I crocheted an amigurumi giraffe for my grand niece, who collects them. Actually I crocheted two giraffes, but the first one passed away from either bubonic plague, or my own ineptitude. :) I crocheted a toiletries basket out of thrifted bulky flecked yarn. I did not have enough yarn to finish the pattern, so I had...

The two quilts I thrifted at the online auction just arrived, so let's see if they're worth what I paid for them. I can already tell I got a steal -- they're both vibrant, look unused and are nicely made. Here's the smaller quilt, very nicely pieced and machine quilted. Love the colors and the message. The larger quilt has very nice colors. This looks like something someone put together to try a technique. I love it for summer. The backs of both quilts. They're unsigned, but I will treasure them all the same. Do you think they're worth the $9.99 I paid for them? Yep, me too.