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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P.I.P.

Wait, it's Sunday again??

About time a girl wore this MINI JIJO dress! I've had it for a good long while and even though I've considered it many times as I'm dressing a girl, for whatever reason I usually pass over it.

Frankly I didn't know it would wind up on Holland, of all my girls, but paired with this pink tutu (also from MINI JIJO) and her own stock shoes, I think it looks cute, if a little atypical of the way I usually dress Holland.

Holland's also wearing University of Love's pink hair bows and Didee Eureka's stock socks... remember how one of them didn't even fit?? I turned it inside out and cut out a bunch of fabric along the inside hem. Now it will fit, but it's still noticably smaller/snugger than the other sock. I actually don't think it's too noticable in these pictures, but just look how the hem where the lace is attached to the top of the sock bulges around the ankle! Why so crazy thick??

The primary reason Holland's hair is up in these odango (buns) is just because her hair is a real mess whilst down. Holland and Wisp are both in desperate need of hair treatments, and while I'm at it, I might as well give Lamb one, too. Curly girls need a lot of help! Holland's hair is not as curly as Wisp or Lamb's, but I don't think I want to eradicate her waves.

What I've Been Up To This Week:

• worrrrkk
• making deer hats!
• watching anime while I cut felt for said hats (Puella Magi Madoka Magica; Wolf Girl and Black Prince; Kimi ni Todoke)
• working on a channel trailer for YouTube... so much harder than it sounds!
• playing around on my electric guitar, which I just realized I've had for nearly a year now -- I still mostly reach for my acoustic guitar, but really jamming out is just a must sometimes, and when one must jam, one must reach for the Stratocaster!

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Spring! Sprung!

Spring has arrived, and brought all its local eccentricities with it. Tornadoes! Wildly fluctuating temperatures! Being too hot indoors because it's not A/C time yet, and easily getting too cold when you do enter establishments with A/C turned on! Everything was brown until a recent spate of thunderstorms, and then seemed to turn green literally overnight.

Plummery is rocking this little mustard yellow helmet from The Crochet Factor! I bought three items from this shop and I'm only opening them up one at a time, to prolong the "new clothes!" excitement. I just love these helmets, though. They're so simple and sweet, but the texture of them is wonderful and the color selection is great. I'm going to buy more sometime!

Also, Plummery is wearing a dress from Sweet By Nim. I ordered these in mid-December (I mentioned them in my end-of-2014 Blythe haul video!) and there were lots of delays in every phase of delivery, so I didn't get them until the end of February. It was crazy.

Still romancing my 50mm lens. It's taking some getting used to since it doesn't have a zoom, but I increasingly enjoy it. I must position myself relative to the framing I want in the picture rather than let the zoom do that for me. But it's worth it for that creamy bokeh. The kit lens my Canon came with is awesome and the lazy part of me loves dat autofocus, but I also love controlling exactly where I want the focus to be with this lens. The kit lens is also very, very long, and very heavy, and the 50mm is so much lighter.

I continue to wait for my replacement light bulbs to arrive. It's been over a week since I ordered them. People have been subscribing to my YouTube channel a lot lately and asking where I am... eek!!

Stuff I've Been Up To:

• tons of spring cleaning! Room in disarray; checklist isn't even half done
• watching iZombie (if you like Veronica Mars, this feels extremely similar) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (if you like 30 Rock, you'll like this)
• painting pots for my sweet little cacti
• finally attaching a ton of granny squares
• tentatively writing again...
• tentatively knitting again...

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hat swap part two

Oh, I guess it's March!!

As I mentioned, Andi and I did a hat swap last month! She very sweetly made me two! I was so flipping excited when I opened the package and discovered this, because these hats are to-die-for cute. Aury has been in this pink one non-stop since it arrived a couple of weeks ago.

As you can see, it's snowed here. Several times, toward the end of the month. I even got into a winter precipitation-related fender bender with a friend of mine last week, which apparently was one of hundreds on that day. Thankfully, it wasn't major and everyone involved was okay. It was an alarming situation and the cars were not as damage-free as ours, so I'm counting myself very lucky, even though it doesn't feel like it was a lucky situation.

Anyway, I waited until the most recent snow melted to grab a picture of Lamb in the other little kitty-eared creation from Andi.

The button on the side is a heart, you guys!!!

Anyway, February was a really busy and typically pretty expensive month for me, but this year there were several stressful occurrences -- the car accident being the least stressful somehow -- so I didn't feel very much like posting here. Cure Touch, as I've said before, is where I try and keep it happy, like a little sanctuary.

A little bit of positivity to end this post:

• I really do love these hats, haha!
• I'm tapering off taking a medication that had made me really uncharacteristically unmotivated. Mental health, yeah!!! I hope I get back to my normal swing soon.
• I've been playing the guitar a lot lately.
• I saw Jupiter Ascending with a couple of friends (and it was awesome; I have no taste) and bought a bunch of grape Blow Pops for contraband movie concessions. Grape Blow Pops take me back to seventh grade in the best way. Sometimes I don't necessarily enjoy nostalgia, but in the event of grape Blow Pops, I definitely do. 

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just plum darling

I'm loving Petaline in this dress from sleepforever. Even though it's very vintagey, she manages to look like a very prim schoolgirl with the headband, and prim is perfectly Petaline.

I paired it with Simply Peppermint's black headband, these purple tights I've had for a while (Petaline is not the type to flash her plastic, so if she's going to be showing leg, it's got to have tights or high boots!!), and Leopard Sass's super-adorable heeled oxfords. Love these shoes!

This past week I've mainly been asking the cosmos at large every day for my best friend to receive some news she's been waiting on for what seems like ages now. I feel like most corners of my brain are cobwebbed with thoughts and hopes for her, so even though I'm doing other stuff and working, I'm preoccupied and anchored. I know that what she's going through right now won't last forever, but it's been long enough already! We usually chat regularly but I haven't seen much of her since September, and even though we emoji at each other on iMessage, I really miss easier, faster, deeper real-time conversations with her... But mostly, I just want her to hear some good news and be able to rest at ease.

I've been practicing my knitting (still... always... I will always be practicing my knitting since I find it difficult, even just making squares) and thinking about trying hexipuffs again. I'm very intimidated. I did a few a while back, but DPNs, oh my lord.

Other stuff:

• watching: Just about every episode of Dateline, 48 Hours Mystery, and other true crime shows on YouTube.
• listening to: Florrie's Too Young To Remember
• obsessed with: Sam/Rachel on Glee. Don't judge me. I've shipped them since season two -- it's my time to shine. A couple I like hasn't happened since Dan/Blair was too gold to stay on Gossip Girl. (I don't expect Samchel to be around for very long, either, so I gotta enjoy it while I can!!)

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Fall, finally!

Woke up today to these on the table... made by my little sister. So festive!

I'm so happy it's autumn, all officially and everything. Last night my bestie and I watched Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, which is my big autumnal feels-bringing movie (along with The Rocky Horror Picture Show). I watch it every year and I love it so!!

Feeling like continuing with my ripple... I'm actually into a pink swathe now.

Other stuff of note:

• Still on my cold shower grind! I'm 21 days into the 30 day challenge.
• I now have over 100 subscribers on YouTube! What??
• Faking It is back! Shane remains the best.
• I'm hanging in there. Are you?

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march of March

Man, Aury is just livin' in pink lately. Me too, Aury.

In case you wonder why I usually take pictures of my Blythes in front of a tree, I live on the plains, where everything is flat, and the tree in my backyard is this lone sundial, providing the only shade... and I think a tree is a better neutral background than the siding of my house!

Finished up this floral striped journal I got from Staples a few years ago; it covers 2013, plus January and February of this year. It's time for me to make the jump to this adorable green journal with foxes, owls, hedgehogs, and toadstools on it that my little sister got me for Christmas. Spot-on, right??

Listery:

• Listening to: Glee's cover of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For; emotional and nostalgic.
• Eating: A Snickers ice cream bar... don't judge me
• Playing: Ace of Base's "The Sign" on my ukulele
• Dreading: my major dentist appointment on Friday...

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look down; look up

Nothing's better in the autumn than boots. Of course, boots are good all year!

Trees here are only just starting to change color and still mostly have their leaves. It's crisp outside, clear, and a temperature between cool (sweat weather!) and cold (jacket weather).

I finally bought a table for the sewing machine I got for Christmas -- which is so long ago, now! According to all the stores, it is Christmas time already! I haven't even gotten to use it yet because I'm so shy, I just want to huddle in a corner in private where I won't feel like I'm disturbing anyone and I won't feel like anyone is watching me or listening to me. I'm excited (mostly nervous, really) to set it up and learn how to use it. It's my November goal!

I spent my October days writing, knocking out granny squares here and there, finishing up my sister's green and white ripple, and snacking way too much on Goldfish crackers. I can't help thinking about color patterns for more ripples I want to do...

Stuff I've been enjoying:

• Danny Elfman (composer of everything Tim Burton -- as well as Jack Skellington's singing voice!) singing Jack's Lament, What's This?, Jack's Obsession, and Poor Jack in concert!! So impressive. I love his voice so much. Jack's songs, and indeed the soundtrack to The Nightmare Before Christmas, are the single best thing about the film.
• Boots!! I bogo'ed these mofos.
• rewatching Adventure Time!

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fire and ice

Plummery makes it look practically warm outside. Nope! It's icy!

Currently I'm...

• listening to: a playlist called "90s Pain!!!"
• eating: toasted peanut butter and banana sandwiches -- so Elvis
• working on: three short stories (only one has a good prognosis, probably...)
• thinking about: what my UOL Blythe's name is!!
• watching: everything YouTube has to offer on the Antikythera mechanism

Happy Monday!

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red

I am definitely in crafting mode (my abandoned writing looks on in despair). I just want to knit and/or stitch. I'm also in the mood for Christmas. I tend to skip right over Thanksgiving in my brain, as it's just about my least favorite holiday. I might make some Christmas ornaments!

Other things I am in the mood for:

This fox sweater... from Old Navy, of all places! Is that how you know a trend is on its way out? It doesn't matter either way; my love for foxes goes way back! I bought it as a reward for myself for getting through something stressful.

This season of Dexter! It's so much better than last season, I think.


"Red" by Taylor Swift. What an addictive song. I have a love/hate relationship with Swifty, I admit, but she's so stylish and her songs so hooky, it's hard to stay annoyed.

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cold snap

Happy October! October's my favorite month! I have a sneaking suspicion it's most crafty people's favorite. The weather's finally getting cool enough to have a pile of yarn on one's lap, and the season's pretty inspiring, itself. There's my lazy autumnal garland (a la Elsie's) on my desk.

Right now I am trying to save money, so of course I desperately want to buy a lot of yarn. Like, a lot. And ripple once more! This is ridiculous because I already have another ripple to do -- one for my little sister. And I don't need another ripple. Not even vaguely. I just want to have fun pairing up colors!

Stuff I'm loving right now:

• deep-cleaning!
• cinnamon-scented candles... still
• Smith's Strawberry Lip Balm
• Hoarders is back and more exploitative than ever; hence my deep-cleaning

Can't wait to carve a pumpkin with my best friend K!

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every single day

I honestly cannot eat enough peanut butter and jam sandwiches these days. Every now and then I rediscover them and revert into a six-year-old and can't believe how freaking good they are!

Today, I'm:

• watching: The Glee Project season two
• crocheting: fauna hats
• planning: to try and knit??

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hot outside; cold inside!

Surrounded by embroidery floss and hoops... florals... scraps of felt... and a bad tendency to sort things into color families kicking up and causing me to rearrange all my shelves and dress all my Blythes accordingly!

While embroidering, I've been watching (or rather, listening to) makeup videos on YouTube, just as background noise. I don't wear makeup all too often, even though I like it in general -- much more, I like watching organization videos! I love seeing how people organize their collections and talk about their passions!

Particularly fun was to see some of these big beauty gurus who actually borderline make a living off of doing their videos do a $20 makeup challenge without their high-end products or brushes. There was some glorious schadenfreude happening on my part, let me tell you.

Other stuff I've been up to:

• fantasizing about rippling again... I really want to!
• writing, writing, writing for a project that ends June 15th!
• watching a BBC show called Antiques Uncovered - obsessed!
• listening to "Threw It On The Ground" a lot... because it's inspiring???

PS: I have an adorable Deena and Ozzy wallet that I love so much I haven't been in the market for a new wallet for some time, but when I saw this one at Target, how could I resist? Well, I couldn't! Sheesh!

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tripping the fox fantastic

What to do when you're looking back on an exhausting month, you've finished your ripple throw (aka Reason For Being), all your TV shows are ending for the summer, and your yellow ukulele was backordered till August?? (Why does this always happen to me?) That's right. Window shop!

I've got it so bad for foxes + florals!

little dear's felt face Blythe dresses are always fabulous but this one just takes the cake!

A darling print from Chipmunk Cheeks!

Cutest. Bag. Ever. from littleoddforest!

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Animal Hat Gang

Everyone knows I love a good animal-eared hat! I wear my fantastic fox hat from awberry all the time and I always get complimented on it (most people are sincere, too; the sincere outnumber the bemused, promise). I've been looking around on Etsy for a new hat to add to my little collection...

I really like all of the sleek animal-eared affairs bobcathats offers! But the unique barn owl and raccoon hats are probably my favorites!

Another beautiful owl hat available in a nice variety of colors from River City Knits.

Love this super-sweet kitten hat from Vixie & Mynx.

Too-cute teddy bear hat from Backwoods Knifty Knitting.

For the more understated bear-eared hat, you can't beat this one from Nolie Polie Olies.

This tan fuzzy animal-eared hat from Miss O's Creations is simple but looks so cozy! She's got other similar hats in all kinds of colors and I must say I like them all!

And I must confess, I just bought this adorable fox hat from Designs By Lines for a birthday present... FOR MYSELF because I'm an aduuuuult:

I'm so excited!

I sure did see a whole lot of babies sleeping with their hands tucked in their chins wearing all manner of adorable animal hats... and a lot of stuff that I'm sure is on Regretsy too.

Animal Eared Hats Bonus Links!!:

• CAT TOWN - An old favorite of mine, the Animal Hat Gang "ARE ALWAYS UP TO NO GOOD! EL GUAPO TEACHES THEM A LESSON EVERY TIME THOUGH"
• Mathematical Jake the Yellow Dog-inspired hat! I would wear this.

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understated as ever

It's so incredibly lovely out on these April afternoons! Despite Miss Beatrix looking extra cute in a very vintagey orange and blue plaid (!!!) dress that suited her so perfectly that she wore it for a few months, I finally let her have first dibs on this fabulous charcoal-gray CannonBelle cardigan. She's also wearing one of my fave Reve de Rui dresses -- it's quite airy -- and Very Vicky's dark teal stock Mary Janes. The little bow keeping her side-part back in a twist is from a scrap of mustard ripple yarn. I just love Beatrix in yellows and mustards. Her front-facing chips are yellow!

Currently:

• listening to: "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" -- not gonna lie, I still love the music video for it!
• coveting: this J. Crew. sweater... in ruby!
• working on: laundry, writing, ripple blanket
• contemplating: what on Earth to ask for for my birthday in a couple of weeks!

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rust and stardust

It must be spring... I'm in the mood for these delicious bright/sweet colors. I suppose I've actually been in the mood for these colors for a while -- I designed my current blog layout around pink, orange, and mustard, and I'm crocheting a blanket with those colors, as you probably know!!

I am just satiating my color compulsion all over the place... I picked up some t-shirts on sale at Target today, long ago my sister gave me this Essie polish in St. Barth's Blue (it's quite pale), and I already constantly use my EOS lip balm -- so constantly that I'm on my third repurchase of the lovely sweet mint flavor.

It's amazing how much color can cheer me up!

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goodbye, February; hello, March

Still ripplin'!

Here is what I accomplished during the month of February. I would say it's about 18 inches in height right now. If you're a Blyther, here's Plummery as a height reference.

I have discovered that this is no longer a throw. It's a full-fledged blanket, son. It may only be a foot and a half tall, but it's six feet and four inches wide. That's the entire length of my mattress from head to foot! That's taller than many Hollywood leading men, and about a foot taller than me. It's become so tall that it's cumbersome to try and hold in my lap as I work on it. It totally gets in the way... but that's satisfying!

It takes me a little over an hour to crochet across it once. Good thing I actually have learned to love that ripple pattern and really enjoy the way I don't have to think much about what I'm doing as I work.

On my mind lately (besides rippling):

• my rice cooker; it's a full-fledged romance
• Dan and Blair on Gossip Girl!
• so sad about Davy Jones passing; The Monkees may have been popular way before I was born, but when I was very very little, reruns of The Monkees re-ran on Nickelodeon. My first musical memories involve The Bangles and The Monkees; my first favorite song, when I was a toddler, was "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone." I have always loved them, even in the face of criticism! I suspect I'll be listening to The Monkees a lot in March!

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double Blythe mail day

Ooh, double Blythe mail all the way 'cross the skyyy! My trade package from Care of StitchWhipped got here today! Now Bonnet has her very own teensy-weensy little dresses (seriously, they're so tiny). So happy!!

Care's amazing. These dresses are so well-made and they are so small that the construction of them blows my mind! I really have to learn to photograph Middies... they seem to have their own unique thing going on that I haven't really learned how to capture yet.

My two little cannonbelle cardigans got here today too -- gorgeousness! Can't wait to start layering with these babies. I can't believe they arrived already! I only blogged about these things a couple of days ago!

Just because, a little bit of listery:

• listening to this cover of "Somebody That I Used To Know" a lot the past couple of days!
• this song by Sucré is my jammmmm!
• still making my way through Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
• cleaned my room like a crazy person yesterday... it just made me realize how cluttery it is in here and how I'd like to get rid of a bunch of junk! Matt Paxton, Extreme Cleaning Specialist of Hoarders fame, would be so proud... wait, what's that, he has a podcast? Must listen.

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