Valerean

After the double DNF of June, I did very much want to enjoy Sandra Balzo's Dead Ends . One of my blind dates with a book, it promised a cozy mystery that would be maybe more interesting than the Pokemon brain the last book gave me. That's when the Universe decided to remind me that interesting is often used in Chinese curses. The book was either 1) not edited by anyone, 2) was not edited by a professional editor with an understanding of industry standards in regard to formatting, or 3) the author insisted on STETing the incorrectly formatted text and the frequent absence of other things like dialogue tags so you know who is speaking. This lack of correct formatting and dropping of tags make the text basically unreadable. If you're not sure why, tell me who is speaking the third sentence on this page. Is it the character above the paragraph, or the character below (who is also unnamed because there is no dialogue tag there, either.) I don't know what ha...

Last week my guy and I went wandering, stopping first to walk through the farmer's market in Celebration and hike around the big lake in the town center. I love Celebration. It's a beautiful town, and there are so many neat places to walk. From there we went to Lake Alfred and hiked around the Mackay Gardens and Lakeside Preserve. This is a gorgeous and very quiet spot for anyone who likes Nature walks. There are plenty of trails that wind through the preserve that make you feel as if you've stepped through a time portal and are visiting old Florida. There are also lots of pristine manicured spots that likely serve as wedding and party venues. Finally we found a lovely little antique mall, Country Primitives, in Winter Haven that has become one of my new favorites. Definitely stop by there if you want to see unique antiques and wonderful gifts for the vintage lover.

Last month I didn't post much about the tote for my calendar project, so here's what happened with it. It started as another fail, as if May's problems were still clinging to me. The thrifted fabric I chose was too short. My hands wouldn't cooperate with hand-stitching so I doubted I could do any quilting or embroidery. I felt defeated before I even began. My spiritual studies have taught me that it's important not to linger in the past or worry about what might happen in the future, so I set aside my negative emotions and started problem solving. I went out and thrifted fabric to solve the shortness issue and to line the tote. I picked out embroidery threads I love from my stash and did a little stitching at a time, as much as my stiff fingers would allow. I embroidered intermeshing circles, which I also love, over as much of the top portion and some of the print as possible. With this tote I wanted to express my happiness (and relief) over s...

Sometimes I get ideas from the stories I write that are so strong and clear I can't ignore them. That's the reason I bought a giant ball of bejeweled handspun art yarn back in April and then started looking for a basket, which took two months and I only found a week ago in an antique store in Winter Haven. I sat down to weave the art yarn into the basket. Please note, I have zero experience with weaving. Didn't matter. I knew what I wanted to do in my head. Several hours later, this was the result. It was inspired by a character in a story I'm writing, and that's about all I can tell you about that, but it is 100% what I saw in my head. That really never happens. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to make something that only existed in my imagination. I will probably crochet a lining for the basket next month, but I'm so happy with the final result I'm fine with leaving it as is. Wonderful experience.

Since I'm officially turning into an antique this month I want my calendar project tote to be very vintage, like me. :) That's why I invested in an old, banged up, stained feedsack from The Coop. This is the kind of textile I love to work with in art quilting. I also invested in a bundle of quilt scraps from my favorite Etsy seller, 14carrot. I don't have a design in mind yet, but will let the elements guide me. This bundle of antique lace and linens, also from 14 carrot, should work nicely as trims and embellishments, and I might use the panel with the two pups as the back of the tote. Anyway, stayed tuned to the blog to see what I make of it all.

I've reached the last page of my desk journal (the messy thing on the right) so it's time to break in a new one (the one with the handsewn cover on the left.) Although this working writer's daily jots are a bit cryptic, and probably not very interesting, I thought I'd give you a peek inside. My desk journal is a hold-all catch-all and allows me to store bits and bobs from my personal life as well as my work life. I started this one back in Spring 2024, when I was still tracking my word goals by hand (I do that with Excel now.) That's what's on this page, along with a note about what state produces the least toxic rice (California) and an address for Trader Joe's in Orlando, which we visited for the first time that week. I was building our emergency pantry that spring, and deciding what sort of rice to buy for it. My NDA means I can't show you all the notes, research jots, sources and such for work, but here's another page with some p...