The Cup of Fortunes: Week 29 (July 13-19)

It's hard to believe that July is almost over. I feel like the second half of the year is jetting past while also feeling excruciatingly slow. Time is definitely a construct. I'm counting down the days until my August vacation and it cannot come fast enough. I need a little break from being responsible for lots of things and being on all day. June and July have been exhausting. 

Anyway, this week was a two fortune week. I think I have the remaining fortunes allocated across the rest of the year so the multi-fortune weeks rotate with a single fortune week. I think. The second line of lucky numbers is working so far. I'm matching the spacing of the new numbers with the first line so I can get the same amount of numbers around the second border. This should work and get me to the end of the year. 

I'm partial to the second fortune. It reminds me of that time a former co-worker of mine told me I was funny in a Charles Grodin kind of way. That tracks.

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

July 13

July 14

July 15

July 16

July 17

July 18

July 19

Weeks 1-29

WIPs, the Plants, and Other Small Joys

I started the Jessica Long raccoon kit I picked up a few weeks ago. It's coming along nicely. I've never done long and short stitch to make fur, so I'm looking forward to working on that part of the design this weekend. I'm using this as a bit of a practice piece for one of my Goodwill paintings. I may use the long and short stitch for animal fur in that project if I can make it work with this kit. This is my first time working with one of her kits. Overall, I like the design and the kit itself. If you're newer to embroidery, one thing to note is that the written pattern instructions are in a slightly different order than in the video tutorial. I do stuff in the order that makes the most sense and have adopted the way I like to do certain stitches, but if you're not as far along in your embroidery journey, that may be a little confusing.

From last Sunday

Progress as of Wednesday.

Y'all, I think a tomato is going to emerge any day now. Maybe even more than one. I noticed some new growth on a few of the plants this week, and I think tomatoes are on their way to tomato-ing. This is very exciting.

Look at it! Look at it! Next time I start tomatoes, I'm only going to plant two of each type. Having six plants is a little out of control (in a good way, probably).

The new lettuce is coming along nicely. I don't know what happened with the set I planted previously. The pods weren't sitting around that long, but my guess is that was the issue. 

I'm enjoying this whole "Summeween" trend this year. I love Halloween, so any excuse to look at fun Halloween decorations and add to my mug and kitchen towel collection in July is right up my alley. I added a few mugs to my collection this week and a few other little Halloween joys. 

Not Halloween, but having another rainbow mug in my collection is fantastic. 

I also found some LE Smith Moon and Stars candlesticks at the thrift store this week (at least I think that's what they are). This was a popular glass pattern in the early 1960s. I like the color a lot and think it will work nicely with my Halloween and fall decorations. Apparently, I'm also becoming a candlestick/candle  collector. I have this set, a Westmoreland pink koi set, and just found a Royal Haeger blue green set from 1954. I also have a bunch of other vessels that either are candle holders or I've turned them into candle holders with small LED candles. I guess what I'm saying is that when I die, I hope there's an estate sale and people look at my collection of art and trinkets and think, "Wow, this lady liked haunted ceramic cats, a 1970s mushroom kitchen, and eccentric table settings. I bet she was mildly entertaining at parties, could tell you the history of a particular glassware company that closed in 1990, and baked a mean Swedish visiting cake."

The gargoyle is from the Biltmore Hotel - my parents got it for me when they visited a few years back. I found the candle holders at Goodwill.