HaikuCat Creations

 I got to the end of June without catching up on my challenges, but that was fine because I did get closer. And, honestly, I was being a little unreasonable with the timeline anyway. Whatever. New plan! I'm going to catch up on all categories by the end of July! I made myself a little schedule that told me how many whatevers I needed to do/make/watch/listen to in each week and then promptly set about not doing them. Today is Thursday which is the last day of the week (you might think the last day of the week is actually Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, depending on your particular philosophy of day-counting, but you would be wrong--at least for the second half of 2026...hello, welcome to my brain), which means I can catch up to my schedule by catching up to this end-of-week checkpoint. Which means I need to make two blog posts today. I'm sure this all makes perfect sense to everyone in the world, including, and especially, to me. I also needed to finish creating some object or othe...

 I posted this one the other day thinking I was finished, or possibly that it just needed a couple small things added and to shift the hoop frame because the top was off center. So I shifted and added and it turned out I actually needed to add quite a bit more. But it's done now and I'm calling it Orange Crush. I'm currently stitching two additional cloudburst hoops that were a custom order of two designs I had previously made and then sold. This custom order made me think I could probably make a custom listing for this size of cloudburst hoop, made-to-order style, in which one can order from a variety of designs I have previously made. So I'm working on getting that together, but first I need to make sure I have the materials. Then I need to decide which designs to offer. I do not normally offer commissions or customs, because it stresses me out. But remaking something tried and true is different and something I think I can enjoy. As for my catching up with my challeng...

 With an order that I took today, a custom request for two cloudburst pieces that are essentially re-making two cloudbursts I made in the past that sold, I have officially surpassed my highest year's revenue since I opened my Etsy shop. I won't mention what that amount is because my business is still really at the hobby level, but I just wanted to make note of it because having gotten to that point when the year's still not quite to the halfway mark feels really good.  In other news, yesterday Pat, one of our kids, and I went out to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge for some nature therapy. It was over 100 degrees, but there was shade (in places) and a breeze so the heat didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. There was a lot to see and hear (Merlin told me there was a Blue Grosbeak! (birds became interesting to us when we turned 50, that's just how it goes)) and I took the time to really notice the calm, peace, and happiness in my body that was purely the...

 I've sent out a handful of orders in boxes that I upcycled by adding posca pen decorations to appropriate sized boxes I had received myself in the mail. I loved doing that and felt like I was adding a fun element for the person who had ordered my art. Not only did it give me a chance to reuse something that was essentially garbage, but it added something personal to the experience of buying some of my art. Unfortunately I don't get appropriate-sized boxes that often. My usual go-to for sending out a piece of embroidery hoop art is a bubble envelope. But I want to keep my whimsy level sustained for all of my packages, not just some. So, I decided to pre-decorate a couple of them yesterday and today. The rainbow is cute, but basic. The butterfly, though--! I'm enamored with how that turned out.  I'm going to work on creating a small stock of decorated packaging, so I have it ready for any and all sales. 

 I wanted to talk about some of my other 52 for 52s. These are the ones I didn't talk about in any previous blog posts because I was trying to keep the blog focused on art and creativity. But, a) I don't really want to limit myself like that anymore and b) watching movies, listening to music, and playing games is actually part of the creative process. It's part of the input phase. The things we experience go in and the creativity comes out. A creative person takes inspiration from all kinds of places and I don't want to discount that part of the process. So, games. We have a lot of board games. This picture shows only some of them. Another couple of shelves were cut out of the picture. This picture actually kind of sucks, but I don't like to make a blog post without a photo, so... We actually used to have more, but last year we did a challenge in which we played all of our games in alphabetical order (one game night per week, playing two each time--you can do the ma...

 At the beginning of the year, I came up with a series of challenges, all related to the fact that I was turning 52 this year and there are 52 weeks in a year. 52 for 52. I intended to create 52 things (art/crafts), read 52 books (that's actually my usual goal number each year, so not exactly out of the ordinary), take 52 photos of ordinary beauty, blog 52 times, play 52 board games, listen to 52 albums, watch 52 movies, and...um, I think that's it? No, that's not it. I also wanted to write 52,000 words of fiction by the end of the year. I have fallen behind on almost all of them. I have changed my internal rules about many of them. But, today I am determined to get back on track. There are 12 days left in June and when June is over, the year is halfway done. So, my plan is to use these 12 days to catch up on everything . Then I will get back to a more manageable weekly schedule for these things. Except, actually, the writing. It was a really low bar I was giving myself the...