lofty ambitions part 2

Well, I question myself, I truly do, because I have decided to do the holiday craft fair again this year. This is an annual market put on by my mother's church, where artisans and crafters and the like can sell their wares. It's been going on for such a long time that I recall going several times as a child and looking around at all the tables full of various things! I participated in 2022 and again in 2023, but sat out in 2024. However, I had been intending to participate in 2024, so I had made some stuff for it in advance. Lots of crochet mitts, and of course, I have plenty of rainbow-shaped pillows on hand.

As I mentioned, my little sister has recently moved out of state. She always shared a table with my mother, both of them being fine artists in addition to crafty gals. This left my mother to table by herself, which is honestly pretty demanding a task. Not only are you interacting with people who have questions for you and want to chit-chat about this-n-that, but you have to do the checkout process (math, ugh!!!) and also, if the customer so desires, pack things up into gift bags. So I told her, "I'll help you. I'll bring those things I meant to sell last year and help out with all that."

So, I have been pouring my limited free time (the time not sapped by band stuff) into crocheting and market prep. I already had plenty of things either totally finished or 90% finished or 50% finished, so I have been working on finishing WIPs.

I have several pairs of these tulip-inspired mitts to crochet a cuff onto. In terms of the other mitts I want to applique or decorate about half of them, and leave the other half pretty plain. I want to add bows made with my french knitter, some strawberry and heart appliques I have crocheted, and maybe other stuff too.

As you can see, I have quite the pile already.

I have a couple of rainbow pillows where I have completed the fronts and backs but just not sewn them together or stuffed them, so I'll finish those. I am going to make a few vine/flower charging cords because those are pretty fun for me, and I'll see if those sell. And I'd like to make two or three of a different style of mitts, if I can find a pattern I like but also doesn't kill my wrists. More complicated mitts tend to be labors of love.

In years past I've sold beaded rings and bracelets, and one year it sold a ton and the next year it didn't sell much at all! Since I'm not super into doing that right now, I probably won't even take any of my leftover stuff to sell.

I am definitely filling my plate overly full. And to be honest, I am incredibly, incredibly sick to my stomach at the idea of having to check people out at my table without the help of my younger sister. I'm terrible at math and also terrible at personal interactions, haha. But I'll try not to think about any of that at all until December, at least.

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lofty ambitions part 1

So I know I said that I felt like doing some more doll-dressing, but what I actually ended up doing is taking off all my dolls' clothes. All twenty-one Neos are standing around nakedly in my room this past week.

I did this because:

• I wanted a blank slate for all the girls. Some of them have been wearing the same 'fits for a really long time (over a year) because I liked them, and I just realized all of a sudden, "I'm never going to want to change some of these outfits, but I should anyway."
• I wanted to see every single pair of shoes I have, specifically!
• I wanted to see if I had proper storage, still. All my dolls being totally undressed is a thing that never happens, really, but I wanted to see the state of my storage options. I need to change some of what I'm doing; boxes are overflowing as it is.
• I wanted to see if all my girls had underwear. A couple don't! I don't strictly think they need panties. Some things fit better without that layer in the way, taking up valuable space. But I also irrationally don't want any of them to feel less loved because they don't have undies. Hahaha.
• Just really want to do Blythey stuff right now. I want to do dressups I've never done before. Revisit my doll wardrobe and find pieces I've never used (I have many, haha) and use them, finally. Maybe even declutter??

I kind of had fun grouping my girls somewhat, as I put them all back where I keep them (atop my desk and on a ladder shelf). All the blondies and peachies. The gingers. The sandies/brunettes. I love seeing new (old) girls like Olive betwixt Fey and Zasha. I love seeing Lamb and Holland side by side -- those curly girlies. It's inspiring me. And the utter hilarity of Klara and Tiphanie sitting on the same bench when they have scads of hair that fells them so easily...

So, I'm going to have to dress all these girls again, when I hardly have the time to even do so right now! Because I am trying to do a lot of stuff right now. So as ridiculous as that sounds: Dressing all these gals again officially falls under the heading of Lofty Ambitions. I'll post about another Lofty Ambition I am undertaking quite soon. I feel insane for trying to load more onto my plate these days, when I have sort of bitten off more than I can chew already.

Finally -- and this has nothing to do with any of the rest of this post -- I did some light Halloweening with some cat ears and makeup for a family party. My mom took this pic of me and my nephew, who has grown so much lately. He is fifteen months old, a big boy who has started walking and can say "hello," "bye-bye," "kitty," and "night-night," and I have been treasuring time with him especially of late because he and his parents are moving a few states away in just a few days time. So this is just an addendum of a memory, for my own enjoyment.

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pumpkin pumpkin

Happy Halloween and RIP October. You felt so brief...

The other day I took these pictures of Wisp, and I kept breathing, "Jeez!" just looking at her. And then gravely told my mother, "I think I just took the cutest pictures I've ever taken." I posted a couple to Instagram and here are a couple more.

Pumpkin beret: MadelineNancy
Dress: BostonBlythe
Tights: made by me! 8) (Same pair from this post!)
Shoes: Takara...??

To be honest, I don't recall if these strappy boots are someone's stock or what!! I have acquired a lot of pairs of this mold, between dolls coming with them as their stock shoes and packs like the Takara Shoe Cruise packs. (These aren't from either of those packs, though.) I just have zero memory of where exactly these boots are from. Did I buy them off Insta? Etsy?

It's not important, but I try to list where I got things, if I can.

Ryan BostonBlythe made three dresses with this fabric and lace, and I got two, but I should've gotten the third one, too!!! Regrets.

Today's weather is utterly lovely, which is so fantastic. It's been on the dreary and rainy side. But the sun is out and it's a tolerable temperature. Our trick-or-treat candy bowl looks so cute that my mom and I both took pictures:

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four blue eyes

It's been gray, rainy, and increasingly chilly out, which for me is more than welcome. I have the opposite of seasonal depression. When it's gray out, I come alive and feel very cozy and energized. But it has made it challenging to get some pictures of my girls in some autumnal duds. Luckily it's only a little wet today, so outdoors I tromped! backstreetboystellmewhy.gif I simply had to take two girls who have the very most hair out to model in the wind?? Well, it's because I got Vesper's dress especially for her! And Klara was already wearing this outfit, so I grabbed her spur-of-the-moment.

Klara's mushroom dress: TiredMomKnits
Klara's petticoat: MINIJIJO, many years back
Klara's boots: her own stock

Vesper's autumnal dress: BostonBlythe
Vesper's crown: I made it yonks ago
Vesper's shoes: her own stock

Personally I love both of these shops very much! I have several dresses from each and can't recommend them enough! And you know that Vesper needs elevated wardrobe pieces. I always have my little eye out for things Vesper and Citron especially can wear.

Goodness, can't you see the bonkers difference between the FBL face mold and Radiance Radical or whatever (give 'em the boot, the roots, the radicals -- just kidding, I looked it up, it's Radiance Renewal) mold? Vesper's eyes look humongous!

Well, pals, I picked the ideal day to make beef stew in the crock pot. It's chilly enough out that the hearty vibes of nice, hot, slow-cooked stew are just hitting the absolute spot. I loaded my stew down with carrots and those very fancy baby peas from that brand with the silver label, and made some cheesy toast too. I'm devouring it as I type this and the angels are singing overhead, I swear.

And I'm so frickin' inspired by the dolly dressing I did today that I'm going to attempt to do some more, haha! I just haven't had the time for months now. Sometimes I go for a while without doing Blythey stuff and when I get back to it, I am hit hard with serotonin.

Tonight: Evening walk through the neighborhood and band prep. Tomorrow: band. Friday: Halloween hangs with my great friends J and L. Saturday: Halloween dinner party with my family!

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scattershot October

Happy October! Best month! I am still extremely embroiled in jam band stuff and have nothing interesting to report because of it! Like, I barely feel like a real person right now. So this is going to be a post about some small stuff, such as the matching Snoopy mugs my mom and I got. We had to throw away some older mugs lately that had cracked and just been hanging around for years. We have been the lookout for good replacements but are both picky about mugs (a thin lip is preferred). We saw these and got autumnal jibblies, so we got them to match. We have been saying to each other with much satisfaction, "I drank out of my Snoopy mug this morning," and the like.

It's crochet pumpkin season. Back in 2023 I made some and my mom has ended up using them as decor at her church. So we have made some more! Also, my grandma decorated her porch for fall the other day, planting some yellow mums. My mom wanted to take a picture. I said, "Get in a picture with me, Grandma!" I don't like it in terms of it being a picture of me but love it in terms of being a picture of me and my grandma! She's my bestie!

I have been really into wearing plaid shirts this fall, all of which I have acquired from the men's rack at the thrift store for 5-8 bucks each. I got one (1) that fits me so perfectly and is not overly warm, not being flannel, that it triggered a bit of a plaid rush for me. My ideal outfit right now is a pair of black leggings, a tank top, a plaid shirt, and a ball cap.

In fact, I have been wearing my fave cap a lot and finally was like, "I should buy another one that is this exact brand and fit." And I saw that a lot of Etsy shops offer those specific caps with custom embroidery, and I saw one listing that was $8 or something ridiculous like that? So I was like, "Oh, well then!" And I got myself one that says "EAT THE MIC." I have been reminded to do that during band practice because my voice is tiny and I need to basically put my mouth as close to the microphone as humanly possible. Or, "eat the mic."

I'm really trying to remind myself to get right up on the mic when I sing, even though it's against my every instinct, haha. So this cap is a good reminder.

My band mate -- the guy that gifted me the wireless setup that I mentioned in a post a couple months ago -- who told me to eat the mic initially also needs to do that, now that we have a drummer. We'll be drowned out if we don't eat the mic. So I got him a matching one, and he seemed really tickled by it! Here's a screencap from a rehearsal video. It's grainy, but as you can see, we're wearing our matching caps.

LITTLE EXTRAS:

• Looove Taylor Swift's new album. I prefer her pop stuff so this one was made for me. "Opalite" might knock "State of Grace" from my personal number one TS song bracket
• I'm wearing this old Target dress from 2011 today after having it out of my rotation for a few years. So fun to rediscover old favorites
• also broke out the fox hat for the first time this season today. Got in 2011 and wear it every year
• beret season is SO SOON
• been taking 8pm walks around the neighborhood and last night it felt cool outside...

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put me in, coach

I've had this band-related post sitting as a draft for a month now, whoops. As you recall, I joined my dad's jam band back in July! It didn't really seem to be a band at the time, but it has since really started to feel like one. We recently got a drummer (!!!) and it has added so much energy.

First off: I love, love, love playing with these guys. They are so incredibly kind and nice, and the atmosphere of each jam sesh is so positive and encouraging! Even a shy person such as me can play and sing along and contribute to a song, even if I'm just slamming my foot on a tambourine. Perfection is not expected. We mess up, we start over. We forget to sing when we're supposed to. Whatever!! We're just having "a ball," as one guy regularly puts it.

However: Twice now I've discussed with my therapist that I am still trying to figure out how to balance my time/energy, because I've been dedicating a lot of it to jam band stuff. I am sure there's a happy medium, and I'm sure that my own personal equilibrium will balance out again. But for me, there's a lot of learning and prep work involved! I think to an extent that is true of all the members of the band. I know that the other guys also practice solo to learn new material. But I only have familiarity with about two songs for every ten or twelve we do! The rest I either learn there on the spot during practice, or try to study in advance. And those new-to-me songs can kind of pile up, because we're putting together new ones every week.

I hand-write the lyrics and chords for everything, because this way, I can organize everything so it's easy for me to read and play. I can make notes to remind me of how to play or sing a certain part. I use a lot of markers and highlighters to denote choruses, pre-choruses, bridges, and outros -- all that! Just reading chords off a tablet screen that I have to constantly scroll doesn't work well for me. So I lay everything out exactly as I want it on a page or two, no fiddling with page-turning necessary!

(At this point I have four disparate guitar chord notebooks going: my main notebook, which is huge and heavy, with all my songs I like to play; a "family sing-along" notebook with more folk/60s stuff that my grandma and other family members know, which I can use to accompany them when we get together and sing; a notebook dedicated entirely to Christmas music; and pictured above, my band notebook.)

Whew, babey. The pre-pro and rehearsal aspects are both a lot of work for me. Even if we just meet once a week, I am doing that preparatory work several days a week right now: prepping the chords and lyrics in advance, all by hand, listening to a playlist of songs that the guys wanna do so I can learn the tunes, practicing playing on my own, and sometimes rehearsing with my dad.

And:

I've started recording big chunks of our practices, just using my phone on a tripod. These videos are for my own personal posterity and enjoyment. I like catching moments I missed, seeing my dad get really into a riff or seeing the bass player grin when a song is hitting him right. They're also a learning aid for me. Listening back helps me learn the way we're doing a song. But I've also been sectioning out some songs and uploading them to YouTube for the guys to enjoy too. I was just posting them unlisted to a channel where I dump all kinds of spare stuff -- concert footage, personal videos made for friends, past guitar covers I've recorded. But one of the guys said, "Hey! Wouldn't it be great to have our own YouTube channel?"

And of course, it was well within my power to make that happen. So I have created our band's YouTube channel and have started funneling the videos there. (I'd link it here, but I dunno, it's very real lifey.)

This is another way I am dedicating time and energy to this endeavor. Even if I'm just editing the video on my phone to clip out a song and uploading it right from there to YouTube, it takes some time to scrub through hours-long chunks of rehearsal footage and do that locating, that cropping. I prefer transferring the footage onto my computer to do more targeted cropping in Premiere. And if I do that, I can also do some more advanced editing. Adding zooms, fade-ins/fade-outs, or the occasional text note or other little details. I can create videos for audio-only recordings one of the other guys often takes, using stock footage or whatever. Just zhuzhing things a tad, when it strikes me as better to do so.

Again!!! Whew, babey.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining. I love playing music with these gents, and I love video editing. But I am still struggling with an overly-full plate. Hopefully I will settle into a groove or better schedule for band stuff, because I haven't had the spoons to do much else. No crocheting, no sewing, no dolly stuff, no drawing, no writing. I'm usually a big-time journaler but have abandoned my pen. There are zero photos or videos on my phone of things other than the band. NOT EVEN NEPHEW PHOTOS!!!

Can't ever just have a little hobby. Always gotta do the most. What's that about??

I think things having their "season" makes sense, and I tend to go through mental crop rotation in terms of hobbies anyway. So it's okay if this is "band season" for me. It's okay to concentrate on just one thing and not do 354 things all the time. But I'm just a "do 354 things all the time" kind of person!! I miss feeling involved with my doll hobby stuff. I miss having those spare spoons and using them to craft something impromptu. My therapist has stressed self-care right now to try and combat what feels like endless pouring from my not-so-full bucket, so I've been trying to carve out time to play my own preferred music on my guitar by myself, without turning it into a "let's do this with the band" thing. I've been trying to play Tetris while I listen to the songs I need to learn.

Anyway, who knows how long this experience will last as a whole? How long can all of us join together? How long will we all be available and capable? How long will we have a dedicated rehearsal space? I do want to appreciate this group and this experience while it is happening.

I'll end with a few undeniable positives:

• spending time with my dad, doing something we both enjoy, increasing our commonalities and touchstones
• expanding my musical palate with songs I've never heard and would never normally hear
• playing music with others leads to improvement in musical skill all-around, and I welcome any and all practice and fun on the guitar
• I have always loved to sing and it is just nice to be able to do it in any capacity
• getting to play instruments I've never played before: the djembe, the harmonica
• socializing with kind people is such a treat
• putting my video editing experience to use is satisfying
• just such a cool thing to get to do, be in a band!

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ripple throw progress report(s)

Blanket drive ripple: dunzo! It's been finished for more than a month now, but I was dealing with some meds side effects at about the time I finished it and could barely sit upright there for a while, so I only just now got some pictures taken.

I like this blanket a lot. Choosing each color spontaneously as I made it definitely made the process more interesting -- not that I at all mind repetitive tasks. I kind of thrive doing repetitive tasks. But something about juggling colors I had a lot of versus colors I was running low on and getting to make color choices every time I worked on it was fun. The loosey-goosey approach -- whilst still sticking to a "palette" -- was something I hadn't done since my very first ripple throw.

Because I finished this, I have since picked up another ripple WIP that I may or may not donate to that same blanket drive, depending on a) the progress I make with it, and b) how ugly it turns out.

I've been calling this the "ugly ripple." As in, I started making it intending for it to be ugly, using dingy colors. Browns, beiges, mustards. Note the swath of gray. I have sort of mentally updated to calling it the "spices ripple," because it puts me in the mind of cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, basil leaves! It sort of reminds me of a certain soup I like to make with a Mexican flavor profile, which has a lot of vegetables in it. Makes me hungry just looking at it, to be honest...

We'll just see how this comes along in the coming weeks -- whether it stays ugly or becomes more of a cohesive vintage cabin vibe. I'd really prefer to use only yarn I already have to progress on this, but I will probably end up depleting myself of the required palette and buying more yarn anyway. Many of the yarns are Big Twist, a Jo-Ann brand, and I'm not sure about whether I can replace the precise colors. Hopefully that won't matter too much.

Another ripple WIP in my near future is making one in shades of purple for my bestie K! She asked for one and I need to confer with her about what sort of style to go for. Color block? Random? Some particular repeating pattern of stripes? It will be really fun to work on something for someone specific again.

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small projects: flowery mini amp handle

I don't believe I've ever posted about my mini amp here, except for the Christmas where it was on my wish list! (Wow, did I really get this thing in 2014??) As you can see, I ended up getting it, and I have had it since! For almost eleven years!

As I've mentioned before, I haven't used it much, although I like it. One reason is that dealing with the thick, lengthy, tangly, heavy black guitar cable is a pain, especially for such a little teensy amp. Another reason is that I had a different electric guitar for a long time -- this one -- and I didn't enjoy playing it to the same extent as I enjoy my current electric guitar. But I've been trying to use the amp more lately, since I want to become more accustomed to hearing myself play electric. I'm still getting used to being plugged in and on mic.

As though Karma is working her magic, one of my new guitar buddies has recently changed my game by giving me a little wireless system! It basically removes the need for that thick cord. Pop one dongle in the guitar and one dongle in the amp, and there you go! It transmits what you play wirelessly to the amp!

What a gift, I know!!! He said he got static interference with it and didn't like it, and if I wanted to use it, I could have it. It's actually perfect for me. I have limited space, and removing the guitar cable from the situation is a huge advantage for me. And it sounds really great on my teensy amp, imo. I recorded this little clip on my phone for the guy who gave me the wireless system so I could show him it worked, and so I could thank him for it:

As you can see, I was on the verge of watching Drawfee.

Also as you can see, the wireless dongle is there on the corner of it, where the jack is.

And also also as you can see, in this video, the little black handle that ought to be on the top of the amp is missing. Said handle recently broke into several pieces. I guess it was brittle from age? Again, "pleather" is the worst. But I soon decided, "I bet I can crochet myself a handle." And thus I arrive at the actual reason for this post.

I wanted to crochet around something that would provide the handle with some shape and resilience, and landed on a pipe cleaner. I bent the pipe cleaner in two so it would be doubled up, inserted each end into the metal tabs where the old handle had been attached, and crocheted around the whole biz. Worked perfectly.

And OF COURSE I put some matching icy blue-green flowers onto the handle!

It's actually very secure and sturdy-feeling, but not to the extent where it would be difficult for me to snip the handle right off again, if desired. The amp is very small and light -- I tend to plug it in rather than use batteries, so I'm not worried at all about toting it with this handle. I think it'd be fun to make a variety of handles, perhaps beaded or braided or embroidered ones. But for now I'm really pleased with its new flowery handle, and really pleased I have been using the amp more in general the last month.

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small projects: flowery charging cable covers

Just wanted to post the result of a little endeavor that's been in the pipes for a while: sewing little crochet flowers onto phone charging cables that I've crocheted to look sort of like leafy vines. I first did this in early 2024 and used that cable -- which was already on its way out -- until it finally died several months later. Then I missed it, because it was very easy to spot amongst other cables in my room, so I decided to crochet around another. ... And then another. ... And then another! So in total I have made four of these now. And I finally decided to add some flowers onto a couple of them.

(I've linked this before, but here's the pattern I used for the flowers!)

Above is just a regular little iPhone lightning cord with some flowers done in a couple of different shades of pink. It makes me sooo happy when I see it! I use it a lot in conjunction with a pastel green external battery that I carry around in my bag, and the whole look is basically too presh. Sometimes this flowery cord is spilling out of my bag and it just tickles me. It adds some whimsy and softness to something that's otherwise irritating and techy to be carrying around.

I have some six-foot long braided charging cords too, so I vined up a couple of them in different greens. To one I added some blue and white flowers:

It was fun to use a couple of different yellows for the center of the flowers.

I gotta say that it takes longer than you'd think to crochet all around a charging cable, especially because I don't want the cover to be too gappy. So I really pile a lot of stitches on there. I also do the leaves as I go. The six-foot ones take me several sessions of working my way along. Hours, I wanna say! But it's just really fun to take something from being a bit of an eyesore to something cute. It's also easier to tell what cord is what at my charging stations; it's easier to spot amongst other cords. I don't have to verify whether the cord I'm picking up is the right one with the right dongles; I know what I am reaching for.

I also crocheted a small handle for something using this method/aesthetic lately. Post upcoming!

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bandstarter

So for a while my dad (just behind me in the picture above) had a side-hustle buying, fixing up, and selling guitars. I mentioned it in this post from 2022, because I used to take pictures of the guitars for him. He no longer does it, but this business of his put him contact with a lot of new friends. For the past little while he's been meeting up with what my mom and I refer to as his "guitar buddies." They aren't a band, per se -- they just meet up and jam out playing covers, for the heck of it.

Well, guess who recently got invited to the jam sesh!!!

To set the scene: They meet up anywhere that works, and as of late that's been in a warehouse belonging to one of the fellas. It's a clean and nice (but very warm in the summer!) space. In the warehouse there's a little area set up with a drum kit, lots of guitars, a piano, microphones, speakers, pedals, cables, tripods, music stands, and a computer. Unless they decide to meet up at someone's house, this is where they've been playing.

The attendees are in their 50s and 60s, and so they play a lot of songs from their younger years. 70s, with a skosh of 60s and 80s as well. Currently they do not have a drummer, but do have a drum machine. My dad plays lead guitar; one guy plays rhythm guitar; and one plays bass guitar. I think there's another guy who sometimes shows up, and I have no idea what he plays, but perhaps I'll find out someday.

Whilst a gigantic fan blows around papers covered in chords and lyrics, songs get worked out. Everyone who wants to sing does so. Specific songs are pitched by whoever, whenever.

Left pic courtesy of my dad!

The first time I went, I didn't know even one of the handful of songs they played. I learned one of them on the spot. First the chords, then the tune, by listening to the guy singing lead. They gave me a mic (!) and I sang some backup. Shyly. Even though that was the only song I could play and sing with (besides a very impromptu acoustic cover of "Stand By Me" with one of the guys while something else was going on), that was honestly my goal in attending: to be able to play along with at least one song.

Nailed it!

After my first time playing with them, my dad said, "Yeah, you fit right in." I took that as a super high compliment, because I am not skilled at all. However, I think it was a more a vibe thing: I am basically a 67-year-old man in all other respects. So.

The most recent time I went, I sang lead (!!) on what is truly my personal anthem: "One Toke Over the Line," by Brewer and Shipley. Just kidding. It's a song I learned expressly for this jam sesh. Hahaha. Not my usual fare. But fun to play. Honestly it is very fun to play music with others, and I'm honored I was invited. My skill level is honestly such that to be able to even remotely keep up with a song here or there is an achievement for me. I'm also nervous to sing in front of other people, but they make it a really chill environment and are so positive and encouraging.

I mentioned in the post about my guitar from 2022 that my dad and I don't have a ton in common, so even though we both play the guitar, our differing skill levels and musical tastes have kept us from really being able to play together. Those differences definitely remain. I am not a skilled player, and we don't listen to the same music. But I'm learning his songs, and he is learning at least one I picked out. This is really beyond any expectation I ever had. I'm happy to be able to have this experience with my dad.

(Almost all the pics in this post consist of screengrabs from phone videos, by the by.)

BONUS: Here's "One Toke Over the Line" as performed on the Lawrence Welk Show. Personally, as I am an honorary old guy, I enjoy it.

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summer of '25

Hi! Just a rando post before July slips away totally! As you recall, I started a new med of late, so things have been a little wonky for me. I'm feeling a lot better, but at the same time, I'm just doin' my best on any given day.

Now: some summer stuff. Forgive this collage. I just snatched a crappy mirror phone pic and did some crappy Photoshop. (Check out that bent arm; it's giving content-aware, it's giving Goofy Wormpus.) As you can see, in this pic I am wearing the Mary Janes and a pair of socks I mentioned in this post last year.

Space buns have been THE MUST, of late. Hair on my neck? NAUR. Of course a regular ballerina bun or messy bun would get the hair off my neck, but I feel like space buns are more fun. I've been putting flower hair clips on them for extra fun. These claw clips are small enough that I have also used them in Blythe hairdos.

I lately got a new undereye corrector, and have been enjoying it. It doesn't crease on me and a little goes a long way. To be honest my under-eye circles are like... completely next level. I not only have visible greeny-blue veins all around both sockets but purple/gray skin discoloration as well. The circles are literally all around my eyes due to the way the veins sit. Which makes it nigh impossible to effectively camouflage it all. These dark circles actually have nothing to do with sleep or diet. I've had them since I got sick with impetigo as a kid. Seriously, if you see pictures of me from elementary school, there they are, making me look like a haunted horror movie child. They are everyday for me, and literally never any better. I always look like I recently got two black eyes that are still healing. But anyway, I've liked this corrector! But I am aware that I will probably need two discrete color correctors if I really want to conceal. And I just don't have the mental batteries or the desire to futz that much!!! Maybe someday. In the meantime I like this a lot right now.

(I have some STUFF to SAY about makeup because a lot of products I've used for a while have been lately discontinued, or the company's gone out of business. It's left me to need to find some new things to try. And I do not want to deal with it!)

My nephew loves my phone case. It's large and heavy and colorful. Very attention-grabbing, if you are less than a year old.

Scooped some pastel Sharpie S-Notes to add to my collection of markers I regularly use to bujo and highlight guitar chords! Thrilling purchase, especially because they were $2.50 where I got them. Did I need them? Decidedly no. Did they give me serotonin, yes.

I got this insulated lunch sack recently, since I have been packing lunches and got sick of carrying my lunch all loosey-goosey in my regular bag. Just another example of my daisy sickness. It's so groovy though. Unfortunately I really like it.

Lastly, I have recently done several diamond paintings, and I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT. It's MEDITATIVE. Amongst three other kits, I did this pink guitar one and hung it on my wall. I needed this hobby like I needed a fractured toe and a locked jaw. (Two other things that happened to me this summer, both of which I have basically memory holed.)

• flower hair clips (Target, 2023)
• CC undereye corrector (Tarte)
• tulip phone case (Five Below, last year)
• pastel Sharpie S-Notes
• checkered insulated lunch bag (H*bby L*bby)
• pink guitar diamond painting kit (Michael's)

Also this past month in particular, I've been spending time doing things with my parents, which to be clear is something I enjoy. I just have one friend that lives in my city -- my friends are either online or in other cities -- so my family are my built-in IRL social group. Lately my parents and I have been going to get smothered fries at a BBQ place (we get them with chopped brisket, mmm). We get to visit with my nephew some days and my grandma on others. I am actively trying to appreciate this season in my life, where four generations are sometimes in the same room.

With my mom, I go to knitting club every Wednesday. In addition to that, I have been a volunteer alongside her at a children's camp, doing both a music hour and an arts and crafts hour on Mondays. I can now say I've demonstrated the function of a capo to a bunch of four-to-six-year-olds. Intimidating. (Legitimately! I was not prepared for that!) I've provided guitar accompaniment and done a lot of prototyping of art projects. Just helping as best I can to make these children's hours go smoothly. It's more of a production than you'd think, behind the scenes. Luckily I'm not running the show. I have felt glad to be of assistance in whatever ways I can be, however.

With my dad, I have lately joined him and his group of buddies who get together on Thursdays to play music! I have a post about this in the pipes, so I'll talk more about it there. Suffice to say that learning new-to-me songs and doing associated pre-pro aspects of this activity is also taking up a lot of my free RAM lately.

Looking back at this post in future summers, I think this little graphic of all of this stuff will take me right back.

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now i'm your daisy

Happy July. No sense in not mentioning it: I've started a new med (ya girl takes like a dozen pills every day) and it's made me feel real wonk in a startlingly wide variety of ways. So this post, while it does have a running theme, is not going to be my most coherent. Just a small collection of different Things Of Late. Whee!

As pictured above, I recently got some daisy knobs for my guitar! Y'all remember Karma, surely! Well, Pinterest totally got my ass. That's where I saw them. They were cheap enough to seem like a fun purchase, and it was definitely an impulse purchase on my part! I rarely actually plug in my guitar to my mini amp, so I don't use the knobs frequently. That's good, because I don't think these knobs are super functional. One of them doesn't seem to turn the dial it's supposedly gripping onto. However, these are just a little something that makes my guitar look and feel cheery and me-ish, so I really like them nevertheless. They make me happy whenever I pick up my guitar.

I've been making these crochet flowers the past couple of days. Another throwback to an older post: I crocheted around a phone charging cord to give it a vine-y appearance. It is just to cute-ify things, you know! A whimsical touch to an otherwise boring and ugly thing. I always thought, "It'd be even cuter with flowers." Since that post, the cord pictured has met its final end, so I've crocheted two more cords, and may well do even more, if I need things to do during knitting club. And I have decided to go ahead and experiment with sewing flowers onto the cord. I'm still in the flower creation stage right now. I'm using this pattern for these flowers. But I'd like to find a few more so I can get in some variation.

Just for fun: Olive in a drawstring dress printed with daisies! I'm gonna freakin' squee just looking at her!! I have yet to dress her in anything other than green. Maybe someday.

Also just because I think it's fun/cute: I got this pink and daisy-print heating pad last month. I'm super rough on heating pads. I use them all the time. And of course eventually they give up on me. I've gotten the same plain gray heating pad the last three times I've had to replace my heating pad, and this time I decided to switch it up. Maybe this one will last longer than a couple of years. Or maybe it won't. But I'll find out! It's very cushy and fuzzy, which I'm not used to. But I gotta say it goes better in my room than the plain gray one I keep replacing over and over.

To be honest this is not even the only daisy-ish stuff I could have added into this post. But like I said, I'm feeling pretty wonky right now, so getting pictures of things is a challenge for me. Just sitting here at my desk, I feel like keeling over and yartzing.

Hopefully these side effects will ease up soon.

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wip: blanket drive ripple

Something I've been working on in my knitting club for the last couple of months is this ripple throw. It's for a blanket drive at my mom's church. I'm using leftover random yarn from prior projects, such as these rainbow pillows and this rainbow ripple. I have so many pinks, peaches, blushes, et cetera! I'm also using some cool tones -- some baby blue, some periwinkle purple, some lavender. Nothing too bright and saturated and nothing primary. It's sort of got a pastel twilight vibe, if that makes sense! Like the sky when the sunset is more springy and blue-gray, rather than golden and orangey.

I'm using a lot of variegated yarns, too, as long as they fit with the tones I'm using. There's a variegated yarn that's got pinks and blues and tan in it, and when crocheted together it looks GREEN, so that's why it appears that there's green stripes in here. A couple of the yarns have spots of yellow in the variegation, too. Keeps it from being too boring and samey, I guess!

It's been a long time since I did a ripple with random stripes like this! In fact, the last one I did was my first ever ripple, in 2012. Ever since then, I've done more purposeful patterns or color blocks. Doing random stripes is really, really fun, though. Deciding what comes next, pairing together colors... a lot of it can depend on how much yarn I have left over in a certain color, et cetera.

Not gonna lie, I have gotten like six skeins of yarn for this, because blankets take up a lot more yarn than you would think. I am using up all my pinks and peaches: a feat I thought impossible. So it's not entirely scrap or leftover yarn. But a lot of it is!!

And watch me like this too much to be happy about donating it. -_-

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more drawstring dresses

I have been wanting to post about this but have also been riddled with shyness, haha. Last year I got really into sewing little drawstring dresses! And this spring, to combat my months-long state of inertia, I cannonballed back into doing so. It seems I love nothing more than to develop a whole workflow and produce a whole lot of something, whether it be deer hats, socks, tights, skirts, or these dresses. As a result, I have made far more dresses than I personally need, just because I enjoy the process, and I enjoy picking out fabrics and coordinating thread and ribbon colors.

Someone once asked me if I'd sell these on Etsy, so that's my intention! I also intend to have them be fairly inexpensive -- in the scheme of Blythe doll dresses, anyway! I'm thinking $12?

And only that much because all the sewing I do is by hand. Although these are super simple, it still takes a little while to do all the hand-stitching to construct one dress. While I typically work in batch mode (cut a bunch of dress pieces, iron all the fabric, sew all the dress pieces, iron them all again, sew them all again, actually put the pieces together, put all the ribbon drawstrings in -- in that order, for these), I'd estimate a dress takes about an hour and a half to complete, from cutting the fabric to finished dress.

I can sew together one of these dresses on my machine, but I feel like they don't look as tidy... I'm still trying to befriend my machine.

I think regardless of the fact that these are a) so laughably simple they barely qualify as garments, and b) hand-sewn, which they definitely look, they have a nostalgic charm to them. They remind me of scoring similar dresses and simple hand-sewn items second-hand on Plastic Paradise or Blythe Kingdom back in the day. Some of my most beloved wardrobe items are handmade and slightly wonky.

And I think there's not a whole lot of things like them on the Blythe fashion market right now. I do a fair bit of browsing for Blythe dresses, very specifically, on Etsy. The typical silhouettes of Blythe dresses I see for sale these days are A-line shift dresses (it's always that one pattern, right?? Speaking of nostalgia) or party dresses with a fitted bodice and flared skirt. Sometimes the party dress style looks more babydoll dress in style, but the silhouette is still "fitted top, flared skirt."

I am a huge fan of such a silhouette!! Clean and classic. So, so pretty. But these have a different silhouette and look, with a ribbon tied at one shoulder. While not all that sophisticated, I think they can still be styled really cutely with different colored tights or socks, sweaters or jackets on top, shoes that match the ribbon or a color in the dress... et cetera!

All this to say: I put some of these up on my Etsy. I have a lottt more to take pictures of/list...!

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sewing chair

I did indeed get myself a chair just for my sewing table, as per my b-day list. I was all set to get the pink one, but then I saw there was a green one that was about half the price, so... duh, I got that one instead! Since it arrived, I set it up in front of my sewing table and got my machine out!!

Chair review: It's really light and was fairly easy to put together. Being able to adjust the height in order to comfortably use my sewing machine was imperative for me. It will also be adjustable for when I am filming dolly dressup videos or hauls or whatever else I need. So I am pretty pleased. But I wonder how it will hold up!

I have successfully, in the past, threaded my machine and wound a bobbin and everything. Even sewed some straight lines on some scrap fabric. However, for whatever reason, I got stuck trying to do the same, this second time. I relied on the same videos as I did last time, but it just wasn't working, for some reason. So I hung there in frustrated, intimidated limbo for a while before tackling it again. My mom's sewing a quilt right now so she gave me some guidance. And so I have been practicing, in this, my tiny sewing corner!

I have discovered that my sewing machine doesn't have speed settings. It is either not moving at all or is eating up fabric at 100 mph. I can only rarely find a "sweet spot" on the pedal where it's going a manageable speed. Rather than the pedal being sensitive, it seems like it only knows two speeds. I'm stymied by this right now. I want so, so badly to gain sewing skills and learn how to use my machine and be able to make things. I've successfully made a couple of drawstring dresses but they look a lot worse than my hand-sewn ones do!

Google says there are devices that can cap off the speed of the machine, but I don't know if it's worth spending a chunk of change on such a thing??

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