I have an OLD recliner in my office. I bought it ten years ago or so for $45 at Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I bought out from under and another couple. I had no guilt. This was the perfect chair for my office. Luckily, it is old and janky so I didn’t mind when the kitten started scratching at it. Only piece of used furniture we’d let her do that on. The material feels like corduroy so it’s held up very well. Anyway, while I think it’s perfect for crafting, playing video games, watching a show or just sleeping in when I don’t feel well, baby girl thinks it’s her chair for naps.
Last night I tried to sit down and get ready for a restless night since I haven’t been feeling well. I gently tried to coax her out of the chair for a minute, I started recording at about 30 seconds. Finally, I got tired of waiting and used a bit more of a forceful pat to finally get her out of the chair. She was for sure being a little shit about the whole thing.
I have joined the Cricut cult. I’ve wanted to for years but couldn’t justify the price for the limited space I had. Now I have oodles of space (comparatively). I still didn’t want to make the investment into a huge monstrosity that would cost a ton of money and a ton of space. So I decided to buy a Cricut Joy.
I chose to purchase from Amazon so I would get it within a day rather than a week. I received it yesterday and within an hour out of the box I made this.
It would have been much faster but as I knew nothing, I had to do a little trial and error. The machine worked perfectly out of the box but I had to learn how to use their design space (not that intuitive of an app. Might switch to my laptop in the future.) Then I had to learn how to use the vinyl. I bought a kit with test materials but it didn’t have all the answers. So, a little trial and error and within an hour I’m hooked. Next I’ll test making cards!
It’s the little things that make me happy. Justin knows how much I love armadillos. While in Texas he found an armadillo pen for me as a souvenir. But it’s not just any ordinary pen… it’s a BUG EYE GOOGLY EYE armadillo!!
On the way to the apartment yesterday, we saw a rainbow over Waffle House. I argued it was a sign and we should stop. That was vetoed 😂
Better view of the rainbow. After the nasty weather and tense drive due to damp conditions and stupid drivers, it was a nice sight to see.
Before anyone has thoughts, both of these were taken from the passenger seat by me. Justin remained focused and kept driving. Though, he might have thought I was crazy.
I have always been interested in collage or more specifically speaking taking magazine or other ephemera and putting it in more aesthetically pleasing way (to me obviously, everyone’s opinions about what is pleasing to the eye differs especially in collage.)
It started with my mammaw. We’d cut things out of construction paper and make little scenes in a notebook. Then in my late tweens/early teens, I would destroy Seventeen, Glamour, and Teen Bop magazines. Cut out the interesting bits and reorder them into new outfits, or more pleasing room decor. Then over the years starting into my thirties, I picked up the hobby of destroying magazines again. I would cut out my favorite parts to glue into journals. This continued off and on till I was 42 and found junk journaling. I dipped my toes in and found I really liked it. For whatever reason I didn’t keep it up. A couple of months ago I picked up the hobby again. I blame Insta and Reels.
I’m still finding a groove/style. And it’s hard to be consistent in the practice because I keep jumping back & forth in living locations. While this hobby uses less resources than say painting, I still have created a large stash that would be too difficult to carry with me.
I’ve found a shop I love for specific, detailed and themed ephemera. Cora Crea Crafts is the name of the shop. https://coracreacrafts.com. I rely on Amazon for the filler pieces. I use a multimedia spiral sketchbook for thick paper and room to expand. Layes of paper on a page adds up and will make for a thick journal.
Best of all, through the shop, I found a very active Discord group. They are super supportive. There are daily and monthly prompts that challenges you to be think out of the box. It makes me try themes I’d never think of otherwise-like the Olympics or journaling a spread about my favorite book.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Can you guess the book?Would never in a million years think I would have used sports stickers.Tolkien ThemeJungle ThemeLemon ThemeRandom one I made inspired by some pics a friend sent me.Mg first themed spread of a 1950s kitchen vibe. This was the first time I stretched my stash and made me think in a different, specific mindset.
The woman who lived here before us, loved gardening. I want to at least take the time to pull all the weeds after the move is over.?(
Walking around the house everything is in bloom or blooming. I had to look each up. The tfirst is a hibiscus, the second a hydrangea bush, and the third one I’m really excited by because it is a calla lily.
During PHP, my therapist recommended a self care goal setting app called Finch. By setting and completing goals you can grow your wee bird from a chick to adult. Along the way you can get wee pets as well as clothes and decor for your bird’s nest.
I didn’t expect to use it so much and become involved and reliant on the app. I track my daily chores there (at least till my planner starts in July). I have self care goals, like sleeping and showering. I have work goals, like log off by a certain time, etc.
My favorite goal which is “literally survive the day.” I feel like this is such a good and oddly motivational goal, especially on those really bad days when getting out of bed is tough.
I’m almost to my 50th adventure that you can send your finches on to grow further as they explore different regions. There are monthly themes and you can use it either paid or unpaid subscriptions.
All in all, I would recommend this app to give you a boost in practicing goal setting and seeing those goals to completion.
After Metamora, we drove up to Indianapolis. I admit to not having been to Indianapolis since I was a kid and had no idea what to expect. With my expert navigational skills, we got to Indy and found our hotel.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown. We got there just at 4, so we were able to check in immediately. I paid like an extra $10 for a “capitol view.” We were on the 9th floor and that extra $10 was worth it because our view was awesome.
I had to rest a bit, but I started trying to find some place for dinner. Every place was way fancier than we wanted. I made reservations at a restaurant, but as we were walking there, we saw Buca di Beppo. We love that restaurant, and we knew that we would be properly dressed. We ordered way too much food, but it was a lot of fun.
We had a pretty good night’s sleep, well, I did. And then we had breakfast in their restaurant. We were seated and we were legit the only guests. It was kind of weird to get all of the attention But, our waitress was fabulous as well as the food. Normally. it’s a buffet, but they said there were so few people overnight, that it didn’t make sense to set up the buffet for so few guests.
My Plucky Life 