life right now

making I have been making a lot of stuff lately, and have plans to make so much more. I want to make a lot of gifts for the holidays this year (bc I am broke) and I just have so many IDEAS. This week I’m working on customizing the shoes for Gwen’s Halloween costume, as well as finishing up a new pair of boots for her. She actually just grew out of her entire collection of handmade boots, and she’s getting a little big for just suede-soled footwear so I tried something new and put a rubber sole on this pair. It didn’t turn out perfectly, and there are a couple of spots around the edges that could use a little more glue BUT I think they are alright. Some other things I want to make include more suede/leather patches, a painted leaf-patterned paperweight for my desk, and a felt woodland garland for Gwen’s bedroom.

reading After recently finishing the umpteenth re-read of my fave fantasy series of all time Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, I decided it was time for a reread of another series by the same author: Otherland. I originally read this series when it was first published (between 1996 and 2001) and own all the books in hardcover. UNFORTUNATELY we are between bookcases and all our ~physical media~ books are in boxes in the back of Gwen’s bedroom closet. I was thinking of digging them all out but ughhhhhhh there are literally a dozen boxes to search through. In the end I bought the first book for my kindle and like… it was $9 and it’s taking me FOR.EV.ER. to read it. So either I will have the time to find the motivation to get out the actually books for the rest of the series, or I will be spending $9 a month for the next few months on the other three books.

watching Almost all of my tv shows are back! In fact I think we are watching TOO MANY shows and I might need to quit some that I feel are not a worthwhile anymore cough*Supernatural*cough. It’s just so bleak; it’s fallen into the speculative fiction tv series trap where each season needs to outdo the last in terms of how terrible the struggles faced by the protagonists are. Every season and they face stronger and stronger foes and have more awful turmoil and everyone’s miserable and it just gets bleaker and bleaker until it’s JUST FUCKING DEPRESSING. Honestly when Taylor told me it was back on last week my reaction was “ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

loving This autumn weather. There have been a few rainy days but there have also been so many beautiful sunny, crisp, wonderful ones. It’s been hard to get much done around the house because all I wanna do is take Gwen out on adventures. Even the rainy days have been alright, Gwen has her Newt Suit from MEC (I cannot recommend this suit enough, it is so much better than any other kid’s rainsuit I’ve had experience with) and I just got a new raincoat myself. My old raincoat was still in perfect shape, but I loaned it to Sym. She is SO PICKY about coats and she liked mine so it was just easier to let her keep it and get myself a new one. I’d been borrowing Taylor’s Trail Model raincoat from LL Bean and I liked it so much I decided to get myself the same one. There is a women’s version but I got the men’s because a) I wanted a green coat, and b) I think the men’s is longer. Taylor’s is in the “tall” style and I would have liked to have gotten that length for myself but they don’t make a medium in tall.

planning So much holiday/birthday stuff! idk why I thought it was a good idea to have two kids 11 years and three days apart right after Halloween, but I did and now I have to plan their birthday party while simultaneously planning Halloween, and also for good measure why not plan some Christmas stuff too? I have this little house-shaped wooden shelf that I’m thinking of using for an advent calendar, and I finally bit the bullet and ordered a rug to paint for the play mat I’m making Gwen for Christmas. Actually, I ordered one rug and then cancelled the order because literally the next day one of the other rugs went on sale 40% off! The rug I ended up getting will be more work to customize but I think it will turn out really cool.

wishing I had money to spend on furniture. I really want to get a bench for the foot of my & Taylor’s bed, to use as storage for linens and also to replace the dog stairs. I also want to get this sideboard for the dining room and I absolutely need to figure out some sort of storage situation for the hallway, something with cupboards below to keep craft supplies and extra shoes and stuff in, and bookcases up top so I can finally unpack all the aforementioned boxes of books.