Author: Becky

Framed!

Frames were what I forgot to get on my shopping excursion the other day. Fortunately on another errand with Tom and Debby, I was able to pick up a couple. I needed them for prints I received from Laurel Storey. Longtime readers might remember Laurel from LiveJournal, which is where I likely became acquainted with her through ‘Nathan and Dan (all in Canada, and I suspect their original connection might have been BookCrossing). Later, I followed Laurel on her blog Alphabet Salad, where I think she stopped writing around 2017, but by then, we’d connected via her Instagram, where we still interact. I like keeping up with all the adventures she and her husband enjoy (trips, music, art, restaurants, Lego® kits, photography, desserts, cats!).

I’m not sure when Laurel began pursuing her interest in Zentangle (quick explanation: the Zentangle Method allows an artist to create images using structured patterns, called tangles, by combining dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves, and orbs). Laurel is now a certified Zentangle teacher, who teaches and exhibits her art at the Walkerville Artists Collective Gallery in Windsor, Ontario.

This work is in the public domain.

No surprise that Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings, including this one from 1888, are among my favorites of his work, since I not only appreciate his art, I’m also a fan of sunflowers. I was delighted to see a Zentangle piece created by Laurel that was inspired by the Van Gogh painting, and I ordered a print.

 


(Sorry for the reflections you can see in the glass.)

When I received my order, she’d generously included another print that I also framed.

Here’s a bonus photo from Laurel’s Instagram of the crosswalk outside the gallery this past August to celebrate Pride. Pride Month comes again in June, but another significant date coming up on October 11 is National Coming Out Day, so it’s a good time to share this. I’m always happy to join other allies like Laurel in support of LGBTQ+ equality.

©Laurel Storey, 2023

Here are the two prints hanging over one of the windows in the office at Houndstooth Hall.

Thank you, Laurel!

Tiny Tuesday!

When I was staying with Pollock at Tim’s recently, I needed a clothespin and opened his junk utility drawer to look for one and found these. So cute!

He thinks they could have been made by a contemporary of his parents who he knew growing up. Very crafty! I just used the plain clothespin that I found to close a bag of chips, but I took a photo of these so I could share them here on some Tiny Tuesday. And now I have.

Button Sunday

My mother worked crossword puzzles for as long as she could, and I’d buy increasingly larger sizes and simpler books of them, until Alzheimer’s finally took away her ability, and therefore her interest, in doing them. When she died, I still had a few of those books, and I’d work puzzles in them occasionally, but I never really shared her enthusiasm. I more often like finding words in big blocks of letters (also why I enjoy playing the game of Boggle), and I really like Scrabble (as did she), which is why I still play the online version of that with several friends.

I think all kinds of games and puzzles, whether with words or numbers (numbers will never be my go-to), help keep us sharp as we age. (Not to mention the way cut-throat card games can keep us social and hopefully having shit-talking fun.)

I think I’ve mentioned before on here that I do a game that’s emailed to me each morning in the newsfeed I subscribe to. It’s a word game that I use to test my mental acuity, and I don’t actually play by the rules of the game (which would make it similar to Boggle, with more rules), I just try to find the solution that suits my own criteria. I started doing this in 2020, and I’m still going strong. It’s a rare day when I don’t find the one word I’m looking for, though it has happened.

In August, my newsfeed started including a new daily game called Connections, which I think can probably be found on other online sites. I LOVE it, and again, it’s a good way to make me think and reassure me that I still can. You’re given a list of 16 words, and you have to divide them in related groups of four. Since words could often be included in more than one group, it can take some thinking. Here are three examples below if you want to grab a pencil and piece of paper and see how you categorize the words, and I’ll put the solutions behind a cut.

Continue reading “Button Sunday”

Runner up

I had a post planned for today, and when I ran errands, I was even in a location where I could have gotten what I needed to complete the post. AND I FORGOT. It’s because I was happy about something I unexpectedly found there and let myself get distracted.

However, I picked up some fabric, too, because even though the writing will now move forward on the Neverending Saga, I always want a “thinking” activity between bouts of writing. Sometimes it’s coloring or painting, sometimes it’s writing other things (songs or poetry), and sometimes, like with the quilt mending I completed earlier this month, it can be sewing.


I already had some prints I wanted to use to make shirts and other apparel for Mattel Ken etc. dolls that I thought could work for the decade I’ve been writing.

Since not all my characters are groovy or trendy, I also picked up some solid cottons today for other shirts. These will all need to be washed and ironed before I can use them.

I cut out the first shirt, determined to follow the instructions, because back when I was sewing a lot, shirts were often a challenge (shown here: the fabric I chose, shirt front panels and collar, shirt back with yoke, and sleeves with cuffs).


Isn’t it ironic? Ken looks like the iron is holding him up (in a criminal way). But really, the wee ironing board I borrowed from Tim is doing that (in a helping him stand way). The shirt back is done, the collar’s attached, and now I need to sew in the sleeves and add their cuffs, finish the front, hem everything, and sew on snaps and (decorative) buttons. Tomorrow’s soon enough for all that.


This doll really does represent one of the characters in the saga. Not one of my favorites, but an important part of the story nonetheless. Playing with dolls: fueling my imagination since I was nine years old.

ETA: Here’s the finished shirt.

Thursday thoughts


A little errand running today, which earned me this self-indulgence. Decadent, maybe, but at least that’s a reusable straw and the cup is recyclable.

I was thinking about my Wednesday post and remembered I’d saved this on my phone. Still makes me laugh every time.

I’m writing again. Makes me feel like SUPERMAN!

(Except not in a display box. Though Rhonda has said, when she’s in the hallway and passing the sanctuary with its gate to keep out dogs, how she feels like she’s at one of those historical landmarks where stanchions block visitors from some rooms. 🤣)

Back home

Life’s been a little nutty since the first week of the month. Tom traveled (so he could be with his family for special events!) and then upon his return, he worked from home and quarantined (for caution’s sake, as we know several people who tested positive for Covid, some after travel, some not), and I mattress surfed thanks to friends and family. Then Tuesday, after he got his second negative test, he got to go in to work, and I got to come home.


I may be a bit of an overpacker. That’s like a bin of groceries, a bin of cold foods, five or six bags, my purse, my pillows, and my laptop table, and it doesn’t show the oversized fan I took along for the night noise that helps me sleep.

It’s good to be home with husband and dogs again, and back in the sanctuary to work. Meanwhile, I’m feeling grateful the new Covid vaccinations are available. Half of the people at the Hall are vaccinated, and the other half have appointments to be. Flu shots, too. =) I don’t believe in the integrity of some state politics, but I still believe in science and medicine. And art of all kinds. And that there are vastly more good people than bad people. And good dogs. I definitely believe in good dogs.

A little mellow country for your Wednesday.