The Cup of Fortunes: Week 18 (April 27-May 3)

I love getting mail. I grew up with grandparents who sent cards for everything, a dad who traveled and sent postcards, and a mom who loves a Hallmark store. She can spend hours picking out the "right" card for someone. Given that I also grew up moving, I also grew up trying to be a good pen pal to the friends I'd leave behind when we were off to the next post. I wasn't good at that as a child; I think I've gotten better as an adult.

I make my own Groundhog Day cards. I have a vast postcard collection and spent the early days of lock down sending out postcards to people every week (I think I sent over 100 postcards that year). I love sending random cards for no apparent reason. I can't stress enough how much I love getting mail. 

Most of the mail I get now is boring and official...bills, ads, unwanted credit card offers, and flyers for services I don't need. I love it when a random card shows up in my mailbox (see an example later in this post), so this week's fortune was made for me. While I haven't received any cheerful letters or messages in the actual mail, it's been a stellar week for chats and messages, particularly memes and Instagram reels. Did I need to see a frog sitting in a dahlia? No, but I'm sure glad I did see it. Did the many, many memes about my astrological sign (I'm a Gemini) help me accomplish anything? Nope, but they did showcase how absolutely awesome and weird I am. 

If memes and chats are the new mail, this week was absolutely perfect in the cheerful messages department.  

Here's this week's fortune and lucky numbers. 

April 27

April 28

April 29

April 30

May 1

May 2

May 3

Weeks 1-18

WIPs, the Plants, and Other Small Joys

I haven't made any progress on Scream 6 this week. Since I'm spending my day at home today, my plan is to work on Scream 6 at some point and hopefully finish. It's so close to being done. 

Last weekend I tried out a technique for using flower petals to dye fabric. I've seen a few people do this on Instagram, and of course, I can't find any of their videos to share. If any of them see this: thank you for sharing such a fun technique!

I didn't realize how satisfying it would be to smash flower petals into fabric using a hammer, but it's incredibly satisfying. Not as satisfying as smashing glass, but on par with cleaning really dirty metal (more on this shortly). The technique works like this:

• Collect flowers - I had fresh flowers that were on their way to the garbage, so I used three roses (different shades), a yellow daisy, and a purple mum (I think it was a purple mum). 
• Hoop a piece of fabric. I used some of my favorite linen fabric from Matryoshka Doll Shop. Natural fabrics and non-treated fabrics will work best.
• Start hammering! 

I didn't take a lot of pictures of my set up or process, but I used a wooden cutting board as my workspace and a regular hammer. I tried using the entire flower first, but wasn't as successful with that approach. I decided to try individual petals instead and that worked perfectly. It was so cool to see the colors that come from each petal. The red rose was more purple on the fabric, and the pink/peach roses were various shades of pink. The daisy and mum were more subtle, but the yellow really pops. 

Immediately after finishing.

After sitting overnight.

I'm not sure what I'm going to embroider on this. Since I wasn't successful with getting an actual flower shape, I don't think embroidering flowers is going to make sense. I'm thinking a quote would be lovely - anyone have any favorite quotes about flowers or nature?

I can't wait to try this again. I have a list of flowers I want to try. I think certain types of flowers will work better for the whole flower approach (maybe peonies or azaleas). The petal technique works really well, and you know I like stuff a bit more abstract, so I may just keep doing that instead. There are techniques to treat the fabric to keep the dye from fading, but I don't plan to do that for my pieces. I'm not displaying them in direct sun and don't really care if they fade. I'll try this again the next time I buy fresh flowers or find some outside that are past their prime. The only other change I would make is to find a slightly smaller hammer. I used my regular hammer and it was fine, but I think one size down would work better.

The travel case is moving along with some speed. I spent part of the last weekend and a little bit of this week cleaning the metal on the exterior of the case. Why is cleaning metal so satisfying?! I used Brasso, a toothbrush, and a small paint brush to clean the metal. 

The back hinges - look at the difference after I cleaned the one on the left!

Mid-clean

Before cleaning

After cleaning

The metal is as shiny as it's going to get. The goal wasn't to get it to be perfect, but less dull and I think I accomplished that. I'm going to focus some time this weekend on cleaning out the interior and starting to cut the panels and fabric. I'm also trying to figure out how I want to create the magnetic strip for storing scissors and other metal supplies that aren't needles. The top lid is going to be a large pin cushion and I want to add a felt needle minder to it, so I need to design and stitch that too. This project is so much fun and I'm enjoying making this case my own. 

The mirror from the travel case is going to have a new life as a trinket mirror. I started playing around with that a bit this week. I'm not ready to glue anything, but I found some fun stuff to use in my collection of weird, tiny things.

The plants are doing so well! I did a big cutting on the window sill herb garden and hung them up to dry. Some of the herbs were ready to crush and put in jars yesterday. The oregano and mint still need more time. I also trimmed one of my lettuce pods and thought it was done growing, but no! There's more lettuce emerging. Amazing! 

Look at that little lettuce!

The lemon balm has really taken off so I'm infusing it in some olive oil. I don't have enough for a full recipe so I made up what I thought would work with what I have. I have to shake the jar every day for four weeks before I can strain it. It's supposed to be a good moisturizer or can be used to treat bug bites. We'll see.

I did a little thrifting last week on my Saturday adventure day in Old Town. I also made the rounds of a few independent bookstores and checked out an art fair in Carlyle Square. All of this brought me so much joy. 

This is Theodora. She's amazing.

I bought this frame for a different painting, but it was too small. It's the perfect size for this watercolor painting my friend Kelly sent me for St. Patrick's Day. 

Some pieces I picked up at the art fair. The painting is by Kellie Sansone. Kellie is the artist who taught me how to paint a portrait of Keely. I love Kellie's work, particularly these tiny paintings. The ceramic mushroom is from Boot Sole Pottery. How much mushroom art is too much mushroom art? (The limit does not exist.)

After I post this, I'm going to sit out on my pollen free(ish) balcony and start a new book and drink the rest of my coffee. I picked up The Comfort of Crows last weekend and am excited to start it. I've never read any of Margaret Renkl's books. I have a feeling I'll want to read more. 

I hope you do something nice for yourself this weekend. Have a little treat. Rot on your couch. Send a strongly worded email to your Congressional representatives. Whatever brings you joy.