Another Aspirational Idea

Last week, I mentioned aspirational hobbies and I forgot to mention my book journal.

The image to the left is from 2025. This is the journal I ended up throwing away because it was such a disaster.

2026 was going to be different, though! I wasn't going to make the same mistakes this year that I made in 2025. And I didn't.

Instead? I just didn't ever work on the book journal.

Print out book covers of the books I read and cut them out with my sticker cutting machine? I can do that later.

Write up my thoughts about the book? Briefly because I was doing very limited space for each book in the journal. I knew I wasn't going to want to write much. Yeah, that can wait, too.

And as more and more things kept going into the it-can-wait column, it became absolutely daunting to even think about doing any of it. So I haven't. I literally haven't touched the journal since January.

Instead, I have a list of the books I've read in my regular planner. On a full page sticker that gives me room to list the books, authors, format I read it in, and star rating. This is what I've been doing. I did it in 2025, too.

I've conceded. No book journal for 2027 unless I feel compelled and then I'll just stick it in the 2026 journal that I abandoned. But the book list in my planner? That's perfect. That works for me. That's so much easier and I'm all about easy because there are other things I'd rather focus on. 

Hobbies

One of the challenges I face with ADHD is jumping into new hobbies full tilt. Before I know whether or not it's worth buying all the things necessary for said hobby.

Sometimes I get lucky, like with knitting and it's a hobby I continue with. That means investing in all the knitting needles and cords and stitch markers, etc was worth it because I'm using them regularly.

Then there are the hobbies that are less successful.

An example here is that I bought a machine that cuts stickers and vinyl. I can make my own stickers for my planner! This will be awesome! This will save me money!

Yeah. So I kind of make stickers when I feel like it, but it's not often because my laser printer flakes off ink when the sticker sheets first come off the printer, and if I don't grab them off fast enough, I have patches that look like someone did a bad job with an eraser.

I have an all-in-one inkjet that used to belong to my dad, but it doesn't produce a high quality image, and because I rarely use it, the ink is frequently dried out and it gets expensive to keep putting in new cartridges.

Also, it's just so much easier to order stickers. They look better, they're cut better because my cut lines end up too wide, and they're usually on thinner sticker paper so they don't bulk up my planners.

This is midway between success and failure because I sometimes still do it, just not often.

Then there are the aspirational hobbies. Like sewing.

I like to think I'd sew more if I could get the craft room organized with enough space to leave the machine out all the time. And maybe I would because I am so picky about my T-shirts. (SOOOOOO PICKY!)

But this is an aspirational hobby more than something I actually do.

On the plus side? My mom gave me one of her sewing machines when I moved to Atlanta, so I didn't have to buy one. I do, however, have a stash of fabric and I bought pins and sewing machine needles and other little things. I did resist buying the specialty sewing machines.

Barely. 

Brutally Disappointed

I canceled two of my craft sub boxes.

Okay, I paused one and canceled the other.

I probably should have done it earlier than I did, but the themes were cute and it was hard to cut myself off. And then I realized that I haven't used more than a few pieces of the one I canceled.

The one I paused? That one I used all the time last year, but realized I wasn't using it so far this year, so I said I need a break after the March order arrived. This one I might resume, but maybe in 2027.

Some of my problem is that I want to use these items for the perfect project and there is no such thing.

I started because I saw this woman on Instagram get kits and lay down stickers and washi and create these amazing, arty pages and I thought, hey, I can do that! I can lay down stickers.

It turns out that 1) this woman is an actual artist and 2) no, I cannot lay down stickers and end up with anything as nice as what she created. 3) the delusion finally died and there was no point in thinking I was suddenly going to become artistic enough to even replicate what she did, let alone create something new and fresh myself.

This was a brutal disappointment, but it also finally gave me the impetus to cancel the sub box, so win?

The Hobby Keeps Expanding

As you can see from the photo beside this text, I'm still struggling to stamp and have it look like an adult did it and not a five-year-old child. I don't know why this is so hard for me, but it totally is.

I guess maybe I just need to sit down and stamp and stamp until I can do it?

Anyway, I'm going to talk about a couple crafting companies, but they did NOT sponsor me. I paid for everything from both of them with my own money. I also bought the Tombow marker pictured, too.

My obsession with the Currently idea started when I saw the Cocoa Daisy Flutterby August Deluxe Journaling Kit, which is apparently impossible to get your hands on? I wait listed myself for it more than once and have never heard back. The Deluxe Journaling Kit had a Currently stamp with Reading, Listening, Watching, and one other event that I can't remember.

I wanted the entire Flutterby kit because I loved the butterflies so much, but most of all, I wanted that stamp. I didn't get it.

Then I heard about a Layle By Mail and that she sells an acrylic pencil board to help stampers get a crisp stamp in a journal. Since I thought this might help me with at least one of my stamping issues, I headed over there to buy it. And while I was there, I took a look around at other things. Because of course I did. :-)

And I found she had a Currently set of stamps. She actually had a Currently bundle of two stamp sets. Since the "Writing" prompt was in set 2, I bought the bundle. I really like this stamp set. It's exactly what I wanted and it's at least as cute as the one I wasn't able to buy from Cocoa Daisy. Layle By Mail also has the added benefit of more prompts. A lot more.

So I guess things worked out for the best. I got the Currently set that I wanted with a ton of more items I can track. I don't want to do twenty things, but maybe in 2026, I can pick a selection that I stamp (and update) every week. That might be an interesting way to keep track of the year.

And of course, just because I didn't get the Cocoa Daisy kit I wanted doesn't mean I didn't get anything. I am now a Creative Kit subscriber. Yeah. This latest hobby of mine is exploding.

Reading Journal: Stamping is Hard

I think I might have to make a special Reading Journal image instead of repeatedly using "steampunk," but that's a project for another day.

After listening to two of my nonfiction books in audio format, I was ready to start filling in my reading journal. I printed the book covers on sticker paper, used my paper slicer to cut the length, and then used scissors to cut the vertical. I should have used the slicer on all of the cuts because straight lines are beyond my skill level, but that's a lesson learned.

I was debating whether to go with 3 inch covers or 2.5 inch. I opted for the larger height. I think that looks good. My book review silicone stamp set arrived and I was ready to go!

I pasted down the first two book covers, inked my stamp, and pressed down.

Stamping was not a success as you can tell from the picture above this paragraph. Too much ink on some parts of the stamp, not enough on the top. I also managed to get ink all over the acrylic block and all over my fingers. There was also some ink on my table.

Not cool.

I tried practicing on scrap paper, but I didn't get any better at it. I watched a few YouTube videos on how to stamp and tried again. Um. I might have an issue here. I still couldn't do it well and there was ink everywhere! No lie. It was especially bad on the acrylic block.

It got me wondering if maybe the block that came with my stamp set was too big. So I bought a smaller block, one that just fits the width of my stamp.

The picture shows the block I was using with the new, smaller block on top of it. The edges of the new acrylic block are wavy.

I haven't tried stamping yet with the new block. Part of me is worried that this didn't fix the problem because I don't know what to try next. Maybe I buy stickers, but that will make my journal swell in size. I just need to pick it up and give it a try. I can't do worse than I was doing previously.

Book Journal Vloggers, Sigh

On Tuesday, I talked about how I watched a lot of book journal videos and that I had a few complaints. This is my blog detailing my frustration.

The idea of a book journal was exciting to me and I can actually tackle two new hobbies at the same time. The only thing tripping me up was what pages would work for a nonfiction book journal?

Surely, I can find all kinds of examples on YouTube. I went to find them.

There were many, many videos with titles like Setting up my 2024 Book Journal or something similar. I also had other years to work with. I had my pen at hand, ready to make notes on the pages I needed.

And what I got from these vloggers was videos on how they're decorating their pages. About why they chose the aesthetic they're using. About how they like to use double sided tape or glue sticks or what kind of markers they like to use. Now and then, they'd mention the page they were working on, but they were things like Book Battle, where the book they liked best each month throughout the year competed to win their book of the year. Or a spread for how many books they planned to read in a year.

Pages I'd seen a hundred times, but nothing new or different or exciting.

Okay, maybe if I watched the year-end flip throughs of their book journals, I'll get some ideas on the pages I want to create.

This is where the vloggers talked about the books they read for the year and if they met their goals, the reading challenges they participated in, their To Be Read piles. But nothing that helped me with the setup of my own book journal.

Maybe the book community who journals already knows what pages they want and no one else needs this information?

Or maybe my needs are just so drastically different that it's not a good fit?

I'm not going to do a yearly journal. I plan to use the same journal until I fill it up. This means I don't need monthly spreads. I also don't want a yearly goal or to do any reading challenges. I know me and setting goals on this front will only lead to me avoiding reading these books because I'm weird like that.

I did find flip throughs of two incredible book journals (Video One and Video Two) and I've decided to stay as close to these two examples as possible with my own journal. I know what I do will never look as awesome because I just don't have that level of patience or artistic ability, but I like the general layouts and it's something to aspire toward. Now it's a matter of figuring out what I want in there besides the books.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Sometimes I scare myself with how quickly things escalate for me.

I was on YouTube and saw a video from a bullet journal vlogger who was talking about what she used her five notebooks for. I was curious since I have so many notebooks myself and watched.

She said the words "book journal."

My ears perked up. A book journal? That would be pretty awesome. 

I tried to rein myself back in. I know I'd never use a book journal. I'd start out with the best of intentions, but give up not too long into it. My inner voice said, yes, but what if you only did a book journal for nonfiction books? Yes, what if I did that? I have a slew of books related to writing and language that I've been meaning to read forever. What if a book journal got me to actually read them?

I jumped in with both feet.

I watched videos about book journaling. (I will blog about this later.) I decided that one of the dozens of A5 notebooks I own simply wouldn't work. I must have the 8x8 and placed an order. I didn't buy just one, I bought multiple. I have a lot of nonfiction books.

Next, I went looking for the silicone book spine stamp that so many book journalers use. It was out of stock everywhere I found it.

Hmm, I thought, I wonder if I could make my own silicone stamps?

The answer is yes, yes you can. After doing an online search, I found a company that makes them and a video on YouTube on how to do it. It didn't sound that hard. (Says the writer with no artistic abilities.)

Then I started wondering if I could make a silicone stamp for my planner to keep track of water, vitamins, sleep, etc. I found a great planner with full days for Saturday and Sunday, but I want these trackers.

I started thinking up all the other stamps I could use now that I know I can make my own.

And what if I combined scrapbook journaling with book journaling? My brain raced forward, thinking up all the cool new things I could do.

Then I went looking for items for my book journal. I found someone who'd made a printable bookcase with books on it which saves me from making my own. I also found someone who was selling scrapbook journal templates for things that would be awesome in my book journal, including expandable pockets for the inside of the covers.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped and laughed. I've been like this my entire life and no one suspected I had ADHD until I was tested this year? For real?

The Instagram Algorithm

Instagram is at it again!

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the furniture restoration reels they keep showing me. It was tempting, but I knew that would be too much hard work and that there was a steep learning curve.

This week, they started showing me card making reels, paper quilling, and (gulp) scrapbook journals. ::sobs::

The paper quilling is incredible! But I also know this not only requires a high skill level, it also requires a level of patience that I don't possess, so while I'm enjoying watching the woman do her paper quilling, the temptation to do it myself is low.

The card making was a little harder to resist. It just looked like so much fun! I was contemplating giving this a try and then I saw the scrapbook journaling. OMG! Here's a link to the journal artist that Instagram hooked me with.

I have all kinds of stuff from a previous attempt at scrapbooking. Papers, scissors, punches, chipboard, paper cutters, and assorted other tools/supplies. I never got great at it, and I gave it up after I scrapbooked all my Ravyn's Flight reviews and news and awards and stuff. I kind of meant to get back to scrapbooking some day, but since Ravyn came out in 2002 and I haven't done any scrapbooking since then, well the handwriting was on the wall.

And then I saw the Instagram reels for scrapbook journaling.

I know this one is going to have another learning curve since my scrapbook pages were...interesting. I know I don't have all the supplies I'd need even if I have a lot of them. I'm tempted anyway.

Not only do I have a ton of supplies, I also have a ton of spiral bound junk journals. I bought them to do my book notes, thinking this would work and give me enough pages to last a while, but when I tried to use one of them, it quickly became obvious that they wouldn't work for this purpose. I'd been hanging on to them, wondering what I could use them for. Instagram provided the answer.

I haven't done anything yet. I haven't attempted a page in the journal, I haven't bought anything to work with. I've been busy writing Case and Nyx. And I'll blog about that on Thursday.

Latest Knitting Project

Hopefully, by the time this posts, my cousin will already have her gift. Otherwise I'll be rescheduling this blog post so I don't ruin her surprise.

One of my cousins recently (as of my writing of this post) moved into a new home. I wanted to send her something cute and then I remembered the free pattern for the Kitten Kaboodle Dishcloth. Since she loves cats, I thought this would be perfect. Plus the pattern is easy, and as a beginner, that's my speed. :-)

I bought the yarn and plan to make 3 of them, possibly 4 depending on how fast it goes. The first one had a few errors, but overall, I'm happy with how it turned out. It hasn't been blocked yet, which means getting it into the right shape for you non-knitters, and I still need to handle the loose ends, which you can see on the top left and lower right, but there is a dishcloth with the outline of a cat, so I'm calling #1 done.

My gauge was a little small, so I went up a needle size for the second one. I'm still working on that, so no pictures. I had a really hard time with the beginning because I thought I needed to cast on 51 stitches and the subsequent instructions weren't working. It took me a little while before it occurred to me to double check the cast on. Sure enough. It calls for 55 stitches. I'm hoping I'm on track now because I have a shawl to work on and a few more projects behind it.

Project Update

I finished my first knitted scarf. Mostly. I still have to block it, but that's it. My seaming didn't go real well and I couldn't undo it and redo without wrecking stuff, so I decided to call it a learning experience. There's a few other imperfections, but overall, I'm pleased with it.

And I participated in a Marly Bird Knit-A-Long that started at the beginning of May. The reason I decided to join is that Marly did videos for each section of the shawl walking people through how to do everything that the pattern called for. As someone brand new to knitting, this was a huge help. I learned so much from doing this and I'm so glad I participated.

This is section one. I think I ripped it out and started over at least a dozen times. Maybe more than that. It was frustrating, but I learned how to do the garter tab start to the shawl by the time I got the entire thing right.

This is part two of the shawl. The lace was so hard for me and I must have ripped this section out half a dozen times until I put lifelines between every section of lace so I wouldn't have to start all the way over if I messed up.

This is the third section. The color in the picture is off. The most accurate color is the second picture because the yarn is an aqua/turquoise and very pretty. I had trouble with the lace again and the row after it. Those two rows were ripped out many times, but I only had to start section three itself over once.

And here is the finished shawl! It still needs to be blocked, which in this case means spraying it with water and pinning it on a foam mat, but otherwise it's done. Yea!

Baby Blanket: Crochet Project 2

I'm writing this blog post far ahead of when it will post because this baby blanket is a gift and I want to make sure the mother-to-be gets it before anything shows up online that gives away the surprise. I also knew that if I waited, I'd lose some of the excitement and sense of accomplishment that I feel right now and I wanted to share while that was fresh.

In a perfect world, I would have started making this blanket for my cousin earlier and had it ready with months to spare, however, I didn't know how to crochet until January and I wasn't far enough along in my lessons to make anything until February. I started this blanket on February 25th and finished it today, March 11th. It's only my second finished crochet project and I'm feeling very satisfied with how it turned out even though it's not perfect.

This was the project where I couldn't find the yarn I wanted anywhere, not even online. The color for this blanket is called Tickle, which was like my third choice for the blanket, but ultimately, I'm thrilled with it...even if I would have preferred more blue since she's having a boy.

My dad asked me tonight how many hours I'd worked on it and I couldn't tell him. All I know is that it took a lot of time.

Now that this blanket is finished, I have two more cousins with children for whom I plan to make blankets. I'm working on the second right now and searching for a pattern for the third. These other two children were born when I didn't know how to crochet, but I didn't want them to feel bad, so I've added two more boys to my project queue. Seriously, though, there needs to be some girls being born. There are the cutest crochet things out there for little girls that I would love to make!

Crochet Patterns

As a newbie to crocheting, reading a pattern can be challenging for me. I can't quite visualize what the creator is trying to tell me. I was lucky that my beginning crochet class did teach me how to read a pattern--it even covered how to read a chart--but seeing what I need to do and understanding how ti actually works are two different things. At least for me. :-)

The image here is the start of my cape/shawl that I'm working on. I had to rip it apart completely three times. I ripped multiple rows out several times and then something happened. The pattern and why the designer was telling me to do something clicked in my head and suddenly everything became so much easier.

This has happened on multiple patterns I've worked on. I follow the written instructions (I hate the charts!) line by line, clueless as to why something is required of me, and have problems. Something snaps into focus in my brain and I suddenly get it, then everything goes more smoothly.

I kind of hope I reach a point where I can have that Eureka! moment earlier. Like when I read the pattern through initially. I always read it completely before I begin.

There's one other thing I want to mention about patterns and this is something I don't understand at all. I've looked at a number of patterns now--both free and paid--and often the designer will say something along the lines of: you are not allowed to sell anything you make with this pattern.

What?

If I spend two weeks making something, how is the maker of the pattern allowed to tell me I can't sell it when I did the work? I can see saying it can't be mass produced by some corporation without permission, but an individual making the pattern with their own two hands can't sell the end product? Really? That's so bogus to me.

As a writer, I can create an outline with plot and characters, but it's not a book until the story is written. Just like a pattern is a template, but it's not an actual good until someone does the work. I just don't see how any designer can call the shots on an individual crocheting at home. So weird.

Crossword Mania

One of the things I really like to do when I have time is the Sunday crossword puzzle from the New York Times. My local paper carries it in syndication, so I'm behind the people who actually get the NY Times, but that doesn't bother me. I don't like doing any of the other days' puzzles, although if I'm at my parents' house, I will sometimes do them to pass the time.

I began with the Los Angeles Times puzzle when my paper carried that, but I'm actually not sure how I started doing them or even why I wanted to. In the beginning, I also did them every day, but over time, that switched to only the Sunday puzzle. I think I like it because it's bigger and it's not too easy or too hard. I also like that there are themes for the major answers and sometimes the theme itself is fun, other times less fun, but it offers clues that make filling in the boxes easier.

When I first started out, though, the puzzles were much harder for me than they are now. The reason? Now I know Crossword-ese. :-) There are some clues that appear over and over in the puzzle. Spanish gold is ORO. Music producer Brian is ENO. Imitates is often APES. San Francisco Giant is OTT. Hockey legend is ORR. They're not all three letter answers either, but these are the examples that spring to mind.

Then, of course, there is the Crossword-ese that I never seem to be able to remember. Bambi's Aunt. Sigh. I'm not sure. Prince Valiant's son/wife. Um, yeah, I've seen that before lots of times, but ???

I also have trouble when I see a clue with var. after it. That means the spelling isn't going to be the traditional way, but some variable spelling. ::head/desk:: I'm a good speller, but I'm not perfect and some of the crossword answers are obscure enough that spelling it the correct way is a challenge for me. When I see the var designation, I just leave it alone even if I know the answer and try to get it from the answers that cross it.

It's my goal to make it through the entire puzzle without using Google, but I'm not always successful. It's a disappointment, but I'm not competing, I'm doing this for fun. It was an online search that led me to my favorite crossword blog: Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. I don't know why, but until I found this, it never occurred to me that people might blog about doing the puzzle.

After I finish my efforts--whenever that might be (and sometimes when I'm busy, it might be months. I'm doing ones from last August now.)--I head over to the blog and read the entry and the comments. Yes, I'm a geek, but I find both the post and the comments entertaining and it's interesting to find out if my opinions of the puzzles jive with someone who's good enough to compete at the NY Times crossword competition. I've never commented over there. I've thought about it sometimes while doing a puzzle, but I'm a week behind because of the syndication (and that's if I've had time to do it the same week my local paper runs it)--and by then, at least one other person (often more) have said the same thing I wanted to say.

My paper syndicates two puzzles. The other one is called TMS, although I don't know what that stands for. I work that puzzle, too, as time allows, but it's usually a little too easy for me now and I don't enjoy it as much. It's gotta be the Times!