The Cup of Fortunes: Week 22 (May 25-31)

We're getting close to the midway point of this year's project, so it's almost time for me to buy a lottery ticket. I don't play the lottery. I've never purchased a lottery ticket, even a scratcher, in my life. My dad occasionally plays when the Powerball pot is really high and he likes to buy scratchers for Christmas stocking gifts. We never win more than $5 on those. 

One of the things I love about fortune cookies is how people respond to them. Some people hate that part of the meal; maybe they saw the tv movie version of IT too many times. Other people, like me, save their fortunes for whatever reason they save them (I'm a weird type of hoarder - I'm like a dragon except my treasures are trinkets and weird mementos not gold). There's also a huge population of people who use the lucky numbers to play the lottery and make other numbers-based decisions in their lives. 

The question is how do I use the numbers? After the first few weeks of this project, I realized a few numbers had been included in the fortunes I had embroidered so far. Twenty-two is the most common number so far. I started tracking the individual numbers each week. I'm interested to see if there are more common numbers used across fortunes or if I just like tracking random data (bit of both I'm guessing).

So as I come to the 26th week of the project in a few weeks, I have to decide how to play the numbers. I've narrowed it down to three possibilities. Keep in mind I also have to do this for the last week of the project:

1. Play the lucky numbers from my favorite fortune(s) to date
2. Play the lucky numbers from the fortunes I embroider during Week 26 (there will be two)
3. Play the lucky numbers that have appeared the most in the first 26 weeks of the project

Which one should I do for Week 26? 

Here are this week's fortunes and lucky numbers. It was a two fortune week. 

May 25

May 26

May 27

May 28

May 29

May 30

May 31

Weeks 1-22

WIPs, Some Vintage Home Decor, and Other Small Joys

Scream 6 is done!! I finished up the piece earlier this week and it's now hanging with its friends. Scream 6 (Stardust) turned out so beautifully. I love the watercolor paint and the metallic fabric. The glow in the dark thread looks great in the dark too. This is one of my favorite pieces I've made this year. 

I started stitching the first flower pressing piece I made. I opted for the purple thread; it looks better against the flower dye. I hope to finish this one up today or tomorrow. I have two other pieces ready to stitch; I think I'm going to add insects to one of them.

Last weekend I painted a little cat from a paint by numbers set I got at Michaels. It's cute. I forgot how fun paint by numbers sets are. 

As I've shared in previous posts, I've gotten back in thrift store shopping. I used to love thrifting and stopped for some reason, but have gotten back into it since March. I love finding fun and unique items and being able to use them in my house or gift them to people. I'm slowly redoing my kitchen with thrifted and vintage items. One of my dream things to find is a Merry Mushroom canister set from the 1970s. These sets were sold at Sears and fit perfectly in my mushroom core decor scheme. However, they're expensive if buying from an online seller. My thrift goal is to find a set in the wild. I'm hopeful one day I'll achieve this goal. 

Anyway, there are other sets from the same era that are equally as amazing and usually more budget friendly. Arnels was another popular brand, and Seymour Mann made home decor as well (he was better known for his dolls). I found a beautiful Seymour Mann set on Etsy recently and decided to buy it as an early birthday present. Check out Copper Crow Vintage on Etsy if you like shopping or just looking at vintage things. She's got a great shop. And she packages stuff so well. There was no way any of these canisters were going to be damaged in their journey to my house. It was amazing.

I love them so much. Now, do I know where I'm going to put them? Absolutely not. Are they food safe? Probably not. Any ceramic item made before 1995 more than likely contains some level of lead paint. I'm purchasing a lead test kit today to see how they do, but ultimately, these won't be for food storage. I'm thinking of using the small one in my art studio. I think my cookie cutters will fit in the large one. The middle size may end up being just for decor. One of my tasks for this weekend is to move things around in the kitchen (again) to see where they best fit. 

My last small joy of the week was building the other Lego botanical kit. I spent part of Monday helping my chaos agent brother work on his Lego Batmobile, and let me tell you, I was not prepared for him to be the type of Lego builder who goes based on vibes. It was wild. He finished the car yesterday. I have no idea if he had to rebuild the section that wasn't working or if he just "fixed" it. I'm not asking and it ended up looking really great. Here's my chrysanthemum.

I'm off to buy a lead test kit. I hope your weekend is as exciting as mine!