After my great grandmother passed away, they went through her house. A lot of stuff just went to the estate sale, but they kept a few things. Everyone in my family knows I love to craft. I got that from my mammaw who got it from grandma. So, when they were going through her things, they found this book that they thought I would love. And they were right. An entire book on pantyhose crafts.
Have I tried any of these? Absolutely not. Am I horrified by some of these, absolutely.
The best part of this book, and the part that made me sob, was a doodle grandma made. She loved to doodle on pieces of scrap paper. This one was on the back of a grocery list.
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.
At first, one of the many catalysts that spurred me into PHP & IOP was the process of buying a house. I found it so stressful. You would find a house you loved, bid on it, and find out that another buyer offered cash or bid $30,000 more than you did. There were so many ups & downs, my fragile mind was exploding over the strain.
We offered on one house, we even offered after doing a virtual walk through with our realtor. We were taking a lot on faith. This was the house that the bidder put in an offer over $30K. So, we were clearly out of the running. We looked a few more houses and put down another bid that was declined. Meanwhile, the first bidder bowed out of the house purchase. Maybe they realized that they had overbid, but we were the next in line as far as bid price and flexibility. The next step was an inspector and an official bid/contract from our side. Done. Everything mostly looked good. No house is ever perfect. Then it was time to get an appraisal.
The first appraisal took about a week, and the appraisal came in about $30K less than what we offered. Obviously, we weren’t spending that much more for a house that wasn’t worth what we were paying. The other realtor pulled more comps and asked for a redo on the appraisal, came back the same. About this time my brain had fried, and I started PHP. At this point everyone was a little perplexed. How could an appraisal come back the same with new information to take into consideration? Our case was escalated in the bank branch and finally a third appraisal was done. By now I had moved on to IOP from PHP.
The Friday before Memorial Day, we got the appraisal back and it was for the exact amount we had bid!! We were back in business. By this time, it was nearly a three-day week. We knew they wanted to close on Wednesday, but we weren’t sure, and it would depend on how quickly everything was pulled together. Tuesday around 1, we finally got the go ahead that we were closing in less than 24 hours. Now there was scrambling to get wire transfers and other paperwork ready. It was a frenzy. I even cancelled a therapy appointment to make time to get everything squared away.
We drove to the closing Wednesday. There were still hiccups being ironed out and I was getting stressed. I knew I was dissociating and trying to not freak the eff out. Finally, it was time, and we went inside. The best part so far was that the agency offered me a diet coke and rice krispie treat. I hadn’t eaten or really drunk anything that morning.
The papers started getting passed around. I signed, didn’t pay a lot of attention to, well anything. I handed the papers to Justin, let him skim and sign and then I signed. We did this for an hour. And then, suddenly, a set of keys and garage door openers were passed across the table. We were homeowners! I was finally able to process the fact that we (and the bank) bought a house. We celebrated afterwards. I had a margarita and I got to go to my new house tipsy. It was a glorious feeling.
On my first day of partial hospitalization, I was so nervous. But it was a half day and the therapist that day was fantastic. I don’t remember everything we did that day, but what I remember the most was that we wrote letters to our mental health. I actually wrote two and found it very cathartic. I met some great people that first day. I found a couple of geeky friends as well as a couple of inspirational friends. I laughed half the day and found that this group and group therapy was going to be good for my soul.
It was a beautiful April day and we decided to sit outside… for five hours. It felt so good, but needless to say that much sun and no sunscreen, disaster. Before:
I needed to disconnect from life for a weekend. So, mom and I went to Metamora & Indianapolis for a weekend. We started our trip in Metamora, Indiana. Metamora is an old-fashioned type of town attraction on an historic Indiana canal. Metamora
We’ve been many times before. I remember back to childhood when we would take a day trip to Metamora. It’s not the same as it was 30 years ago, duh, but it’s still fun. There are handmade gift shops of different kinds: candy shops, wood shops, a shop dedicated to cookie jars, restaurants, antiques, and more.
Ma and I had a lot of fun. We bought some gifts for Justin, real, local maple syrup, I bought a t-shirt, and we had a good lunch of fish & chips with warm blackberry cobbler for dessert. We walked around and enjoyed the sunshine. It was in the 50s with a brisk breeze so we were chilly, but otherwise we really enjoyed our time at Metamora.
A few weeks ago, we were invited to a wedding between Miranda & Ben. I was so excited and happy for them both. I bought the perfect dress, with the perfect shawl, shoes, and purse. I had to work nearly all day up to when we left. I was FRAZZLED. I had a shower earlier in the day, and then literally, 20 minutes before we left, I got dressed. Justin drove, thank goodness, and we were early, as usual. We walked over to the venue and I realized quickly that the frazzledness didn’t go away. My social anxiety went through the roof. I was shaking and nervous. But it was a was a wonderful wedding and the bride was beautiful, the groom was pretty handsome too. Unfortunately, my nerves forced us to leave a little early, but I’m so glad we were able to go. I loved being with family, but maybe my favorite moment of the wedding was when Justin tried to repeatedly take a pic of the two of us. “This is horseshit.” LOLOLOL
It’s the sushi of the future! I know conveyor belt sushi has been around for ages, especially in Japan, obvs, but it finally came to Columbus, and we had to try it. We went a few weeks after they opened for my birthday dinner. We arrived nearly an hour early, we were not the only ones waiting. Most of us stayed in our cars because it was COLD. By the time we decided to get out of the car, there was a line of at least 30 people. And the line just continued to grow behind us. We spoke with a waitress, and she told us that there had been six hour waits at times since they opened. It was SO MUCH FUN. I have to admit I was worried. I had been anti-sushi for nearly a year. I had some gross day-old grocery store sushi that turned me off sushi for ages. But I was finally getting over it and it sounded tentatively good. We sat there and the conveyor belt started, and it just kept going round. I don’t remember what all rolls I had but it was so good. We also ordered some shrimp tempura and dessert.
We were at mom’s during our anniversary weekend. Justin looked up some food ideas and came up with ANOTHER conveyor belt sushi restaurant. It’s dangerously close to my mother’s. Less than 15 minutes away. We ate a little less this time than the last and it wasn’t quite as attraction-like as the restaurant in Columbus but I felt it was as much fun. Both had robots that would bring your drinks to you and smile. The plate contraption was a little easier to use at this place, but I’d say that the quality was pretty equivalent. The fun thing about this restaurant was that special orders were delivered by little “trains.” I still don’t remember the rolls that I had but we ordered dessert. Justin had green tea cheesecake. I had tempura fried Oreos which were pretty amazing. I don’t know that I would only eat conveyor belt sushi, but the next time I want an “experience” for dinner, this will definitely be a destination.
I was going through my photos from this year. There were many memes and even more cat photos, some embroidery and some paintings, and a few other occasions too. Compared to previous years, my photos of the year were somewhat anemic, unless we were talking about the trips.
This year was marked by two wonderful trips. The first was a trip of a lifetime to Scotland and Ireland with my dear family. There was a transatlantic flight, a ride on the Harry Potter train in Scotland, a proposal, beautiful cliffs of the Wild Atlantic Way, and a trip to an aquarium in Dingle, Ireland. Later in the year was the cruise with Justin where we got to reconnect with each other after being apart for some time. A new year’s resolution for 2024 is to take more photos.
My Plucky Life 