Valerean

Last weekend my guy and I were able to go to the Classic Car Show in Daytona Beach, and saw some gorgeous vehicles. A 64 Impala (my first car) brought back lots of frustrated parking memories -- it still looks like a boat! and there were some awesome customized beauties, too. To admire what we saw, check out my photo album here.

This year summer begins on June 21st, which at the time this post publishes will be nine days away. Summer is my favorite season of the year for many reasons, including all the lovely green growing things, the long days, the rain storms that often lull me to sleep, and yes, the heat. I grew up in South Florida where there are hot temperatures basically year-round, and the heat of summer is the only time of year that feels comfortable to me. I don't know exactly when I began looking forward to summer so much every year, but it was probably because of school ending. I did not like school at all, so I was always beyond happy for summer vacation. Three months of being able to go to the library when I wanted, ride my bike when I wanted, and play in the park were better than Christmas for me. Almost better than Halloween, too. :) We used to go to the beach most often in summer, and I miss that terribly. This year I want to go as often as possible with my guy. The beach i...

While at the antique mall where my donated throws were being sold I saw this pretty portait of a frog made out of beads, brooches, necklaces and other bling, and had to take a photo of it. This artist is so clever with how they recycle vintage jewelry and findings into new art. That day this little guy came home with me. He was cheap, made from a very old crazy quilt, very shabby, and has a serene quality that primitives sometimes possess. He'll be hanging out with me in the sewing room. Was it necessary to buy this? Nope. Do I regret the purchase? Nope. I also bought this apothecary jar filled with buttons, threads and other wonders. If you want to sort through it with me, check out more pics here .

A couple of months ago I donated a bunch of the throws and blankets I've made to our local church thrift. I really can't keep everything I make, and I like the thought of the profits from selling my work going to help people in the community (among other things this thrift store provides free food for the needy.) Among the throws I donated that day were the Iris throw and the star blanket I made for a friend's challenge -- second and third from the left. Fast forward to June. My guy and I like to walk antique malls because there is always something fun to look at. I do pay attention to the crochet being sold, as I love the old doilies and threadwork, and I'm always interested to see what old throws and blankets are made of, and what they sell for. We went to one about an hour away from our house, and as I was browsing I spotted a throw that looked awfully familiar in one of the booth cubbies. It was made in the Ocean Tranquility pattern, and had a border of d...

Say hello -- and goodbye -- to my trusty HP Laser 1320 PCL 5 printer. I spent over $800.00 on it back in the early years of my career. It finally blew up this week, which made me very sad. It has been the most dependable, reliable, long-lasting printer I have ever owned. Since it is 19 years old and I've been using it weekly (sometimes daily) since 2007 I think I got my money's worth out of it. Most laser printers only last between three to seven years according to Google. Say hello to my new HP Laserjet printer. I got it on sale for $259.00 (which is $120.00 off) so it was cheaper, sort of. It prints nicely, although it only has one paper tray and it's a bit slower than the old printer. Still, it will serve my needs. Here's the toner cartridge for it, which was $151.49, which is roughly double what cartridges for my old printer cost. That really hurt. Did I want to spend $439.22 this month on a printer and toner? Nope. Outside of medical bills, I...

When I spotted this pile of fourteen cookbooks at the online auction I saw three about grilling that I wanted, and put in a low bid. I figured I wouldn't win the lot -- only I did. Nearly all of them are titles that appeal to me, and I think I can learn a lot from them. Well, not so much from the Keto cookbook, but the rest, sure. :) The cookbooks are in very nice condition, and would probably bring in at least $70.00 resale; I got the lot for $9.99, or about seventy-one cents per book. Hopefully we can find some new recipes to inspire our summer cooking.

Last month I went over budget in almost every category, mainly because I was upset and not paying much attention to my spending. It seemed more important to get back my equilibrium and be happy, and I don't regret parting with a little extra cash to do so. I am an emotional creator, and my emotions tend to get out of hand when things go toxic for me. I am easily frightened and I know that intellectually, but what I tell myself in my head seldom migrates to my heart. I have triggers and I imagine I always will. Everyone does. Mine just happen to take a lot of work to quiet down. Anyway, I'm over the trauma, and I've taken steps to protect myself. It's time to get back on track. I already know that I am not suited to having no-spend months, mainly because it's almost impossible to resist temptation when I try. Then there is non-negotiable necessary spending (medicines, reference materials and other things I need for the day job, etc.) which I'll disc...

The other morning I was preparing to drink my second cup of coffee when I realized I was tired of drinking out of a plastic tumbler. I have about a dozen of them, all Starbucks, all red, all thrifted. Yes, it's safer if I happen to drop it (and I drop lots of stuff these days, thank you arthritis) but the color red always makes me nervous. Red equals emergency, blood, and crisis in my head. I didn't think about any of that when I thrifted them; I just wanted something cheap and convenient. Cheap and convenient is nice, easy, and preferable, but not always when it comes to mood. Part of me is tired of settling for what's easy and sacrificing my mood (and my happiness!) in the process. I want inspiration. I want to be surrounded by beauty and whimsy and things that delight me. I really, really want to smile in the mornings. So I ditched the plastic tumbler, took out my favorite Halloween ceramic mug and had my second cup of coffee in that. I don't care that ...

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.