The structure of this post is inspired by divergentrays’ Weekly Wrap Up blog posts. I'm not sure I'm gonna have any sort of schedule here - probably not, but I might give it a try if I feel like it. Either way, here’s some of what I’ve been up to for the past couple of months.

I’m still so, so, SO sad about The Wheel of Time cancellation. SO SAD. I’m so devastated you’d think someone actually died, and I’m processing it accordingly. Sometimes I’m relatively fine, sometimes I’m completely crashing out. More often than not it leads me to (yet again) think about late stage capitalism and various global horrors that are the direct result of capitalism and it gets even worse. Yeah, things have been weird lately. I’ve also got some health stuff going on, so… not doing great in the anxiety department right now.

On a more positive note, we had our two theatre performances at the beginning of June and everything went well! My mom got me a lovely gift – a basket for my craft supplies/projects that she made out of fabric scraps ♥ She’s been really into quilting this past couple of years. This technique is called confetti quilt, I believe. It’s small fabric scraps sandwiched between two pieces of fabric, one of which is transparent.

My mom’s fabric stash is so old that some of the fabrics she used date back all the way to my childhood :”) The organza used to be a curtain, the butterfly fabric had been used for multiple purposes during my lifetime, there are bits of my old dress (made by my mom too, I wore many a garment she sewed herself when I was a kid), my mom’s old clothes... Handmade gifts are the best!!! I still haven’t decided what to put in this basket, though… it’s just been sitting on my desk looking pretty.

Speaking of crafting, I haven’t been cross-stitching much this year, but I still have two finished projects on my cross-stitch page. Well, I only added pictures of one because that page, to me, is for *truly* finished things – washed, ironed, framed etc – and I have no idea what I want to do with this lighthouse. I still want to post a picture of it somewhere because I like the way it turned out, so here we go:

Not stitching as much as I used to doesn’t mean I don’t have any ongoing projects! I’ve got another small plastic Aida kit going (those will be magnets), plus I recently started a big owl-themed sampler by Owl Forest Embroidery. It had all been printed out and ready to go for a while, except I kept losing my nerve because it's such a big project. No idea what I’m gonna do with that one when it’s finished, but I am enjoying the process and that's what matters.

I recently tried kumihimo for the first time! It’s a Japanese technique of braiding bracelets, cords and other such things. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before and I stumbled on it kinda by accident – I wanted to make a phone strap and was researching techniques – but I’m loving it. You need to use a circular loom and it *looks* complicated, but it’s actually extremely easy! I might make something else in the future.

Reading

I was in a bit of a reading slump for a few months. Thankfully, I’m out of that now (more on the books I’ve read since then later), but during the slump I managed to read an art book by one of my favorite artists – that’s the maximum amount of text I could stomach at the time – and I just have to mention her! I’ve been a fan of hers for some time and have several postcards with her illustrations (note to self: buy more merch if/when she releases it). It’s a Russian artist who goes by Iren Horrors – here’s her Instagram for those interested – and she draws in a style very similar to Abigail Larson’s, who was one of her main inspirations (and whom I love too). Here are some of my favorite works (click to enlarge):

I love so much of her stuff and it was hard to narrow it down to just these pieces! My *most* favorites are probably the ones based on Slavic mythology and fairy tales.

As I said, I’m out of the slump now, so I’ve thankfully been able to read books that weren’t primarily pictures. I’m also trying to focus on reading physical books I already own. I’ve had some of my recent reads for actual years, maybe even closer to decades! The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is one of those. I’ve frequently seen this book mentioned on the Postcrossing website as a book that has a connection to physical mail, but I’d owned it long before I even knew what Postcrossing is. This book does indeed have a very significant connection to mail – in fact, it’s an epistolary novel. It tells the story of a writer in post-war London who starts corresponding with a group of people from the island of Guernsey. A nice read, at times sad and at times predictable.

Another one I’d owned for ages was Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist, a grief horror I really liked. The premise is that due to some strange anomaly that isn’t fully explained or understood by the characters, the people of Stockholm that have died in the past two months start to rise from the dead. That’s roughly 2000 undead. Of course, they aren’t fully themselves either. The book describes how different characters deal with their grief and the added trauma of this strange event, and their clashes with the authorities over the treatment of the undead. I like explorations of grief in books, so I enjoyed this one. I also own Let the Right One In by the same author, a well-known book among horror readers, I believe. I haven’t read that yet, but maybe now I'll get to it sooner.

The third book I read doesn’t have an English translation, but I might as well mention it: it’s a horror story anthology called Ночной взгляд (The Night Stare). This is my third book by this author. I like her style and the nostalgic feel of her short stories – she does write mostly short stories, even her novel was basically a compilation of short stories set in the same village. I love the way she uses Russian and post-Soviet millennial nostalgia, urban legends and Slavic mythology. Short story collections are often difficult to rate because of the difference in quality of the stories and I feel like it’s rare for a collection to feel truly consistent. This one was no exception, I’m afraid, though I did enjoy it overall.

I think I’m in another one of my horror eras because my current read is also a horror: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas! Some sort of review coming soon, mayhaps? I’m halfway through the book at the moment and I have Thoughts. We'll see if I bother writing them down.

Watching

I haven’t been in the mood for shows or movies for a long time. There are several shows I need to finish and a ton of them on my watchlist, but I’m just… not feeling it. Besides, none of them are The Wheel of Time :’)

The new season of Poker Face started streaming in May and, I assume, has ended by now. I loved the first season, was super excited when they were renewed and was looking forward to season 2, but I kinda lost that spark a bit. I originally planned to do a rewatch of season 1 before season 2, and that rewatch has been going on for months now :’) I do still love that show so much (Rian Johnson speaks my language when it comes to mysteries!) and I WILL watch season 2 eventually. I am, however, continue to be bummed out that Natasha Lyonne is such a genAI fan… HOW can someone as passionate about cinema as she is contribute to this monstrosity and think it’s a good thing? This boggles the mind, truly.

On a more positive note, what has truly been a lifesaver recently is Taskmaster series 19! I’m so sad it’s over now! What an incredible series, definitely up there among the best ones for me. I mean, all of this is subjective, but this may be the most chemistry a cast has ever had on this show?? They had good rapport + each of them had such a unique brand of chaos. Going in, I was only familiar with Fatiha and Jason, but now I’m in love with all of them, as it usually happens at the end of a series. Mat Baynton in particular has captivated me with his endearingly pathetic ways. I love him, your Honor.

SPOILERS FOR S19 WINNER I’d been rooting for both Mat and Stevie and I’m very glad Mat won, but damn, we only have one free slot left for the next Champion of Champions and all of the other champions are men… I don’t really want an all-male CoC (which my mind quite fittingly reads as “cock”). I need one of the women of series 20 to snatch that remaining seat!

I’ve been watching a lot of The Sims 2 content on YouTube lately and it made me feel so nostalgic for the old days of playing it on my Windows XP computer! The last time I played it properly must’ve been about 15 years ago? Man. Well, long story short, I caved in, downloaded the full pack and am now in the process of setting it up! This may be exactly what I need right now… or I will hyperfixate on it and neglect my basic needs. We’ll see, I guess. I wonder if I still have my old notebook with Sim family trees and cheat codes…

Playing

Like everyone and their mother, I’ve been playing Date Everything, the new datesim that allows you to date humanized household objects with the help of a special pair of glasses. There are about a hundred dateable objects, each with their own personality, and their voices are done by some of the biggest voice actors in the industry. I don’t often play mainstream games, so I don’t know most of those actors, but when I discovered one of the characters was voiced by THE Grey DeLisle (Daphne from Scooby-Doo!), THAT gave me some perspective!

I’m quite enjoying the game and it may end on my Best of 2025 game review page – but I do have some issues. My biggest gripe is that with the abundance of date options, the interactions themselves feel too surface-level. It feels more like a race to find every single dateable than anything else, and after you get the romance or friendship status there’s not much else you can do with the character. I get that that’s the premise of the game and that it’s probably not possible to implement more time with a hundred characters when the game is already long, but it just leaves me wanting more. In a datesim, I want to spend more time with the characters and get to know them, so maybe this just isn’t my cup of tea. Besides, I still haven’t met many of the characters, so I think I’ll reserve my judgement for later. Maybe I’ll share my thoughts in a more coherent manner after I actually finish the game.

I’ve also been making my way through the remaining demos I downloaded during various Steam fests. I’ve got three that stood out to me for various reasons: