Hi there! Remember me?
It's been a minute. In true blogging style, I'm resurfacing to provide proof of life (so trendy these days). Breaking from that fine old tradition, I will not commit here and now to blog more regularly. I just want to spend a chunk of time catching you up on what I've been up to, and to confirm that yes, indeed, I'm still here, still cutting paper and so much more.
First, because this is my Crafterall blog, let me start with some papercutting pieces I've made recently. This first piece is a many-layered and popped topographic rendering of a portion of Yosemite Valley, with the Merced River in metallic gold snaking through the scenic vistas. It's a little tricky working a river across multiple layers, but I think this one turned out really well.
From grand scale topography, to small enough to fit inside a ring box, here's another piece I'm really pleased with.
It's not often that I get requests for pieces smaller than 8 x 10". This one, measuring just over an inch square, features a teeny tiny heart on a wee island, in a custom palette of blues and brown. It was specifically made to fit in the upper lid of a custom wooden ring box (see photo at the top of this post), and the heart marks the location of the planned (and successful!) engagement. I so enjoyed working with this kind buyer, and loved how it all turned out.
Another atypical piece involved making a colorful, layered version of a subway train sign in New York. The buyer gave me a nice balance of freedom and parameters. This is a close up of one part of the piece.
On the more typical side of things, I recently completed this piece featuring the complicated shoreline of Prince William Sound in Alaska. The package flew all the way up to Utqiaġvik -- the northernmost city in the US, which is kinda amazing.
Earlier this year, when the state of my dear Minnesota was at once it's most grim and it's most lovely, I sold a lot of Minnesota Flag cards, including one bulk order for a special buyer. Happy to have a flag worth reppin', and happy to rep this resilient state.
Business has been pretty slow, so I've had plenty of time to explore other ways to make, craft, and create. One of the simplest pleasures for me was to make a sizable pile of simple greeting and thank-you cards out of scraps and nature photos cut from the Minnesota DNR's little magazine. This process brought me back to my early card making and scrapbooking days, feeling relaxing and almost meditative.
I also pulled out my sewing machine for some shirt cropping and tote bag making, pulling both from my considerable stash of fabric and some new stuff I found at an enormous fabric store. I have so many sewing tips and ideas saved on my phone, but ultimately, I stayed within my comfort zone with these, only daring to go as far as to try French seams for these unlined totes. Honestly, I love making them, using them, or giving them away as gifts.
In the kitchen, I've been perfecting my go-to chocolate-chip cookie recipe. I prefer a soft, slightly chewy, but not mushy or crumbly cookie, and these tick all the boxes. I start with this recipe, and then experiment with different add-ons or substitutions. So far, the winner, at least for the hubby, is the batch where we added peanut butter powder. So good!
Somehow, we've managed to keep some plants alive, and we were able to propagate a very large and seemingly quite happy dieffenbachia. I think it's the "Snow" variety. Here's a look at the pot it's in.
I lopped off the main cane, cut that into 3 chunks, plus the leafy top, buried the leafless chunks in the dirt, and put the leafy top in some water. As soon as the roots were pretty robust on the leafy top, I put that in the pot as well. Then, within a few weeks, the original cane sprouted a new limb (on the left), and all three buried chunks sent up new growth as well. We dug out and repotted one of the chunks to give to our oldest kid who has the greenest thumb of all of us, and it's been thriving in her care. Pretty wonderful things, these plants. Since then, we've adopted a few more green things, repotted some other plants that were flailing, and have enjoyed seeing everything grow so well.
Out in the garden all my plants seem to be enjoying the summer so far and have fended for themselves to the point where I only need to pick a few weeds and tree saplings every now and then, and water even more rarely. One of my joys is this adorable volunteer hosta that decided to try growing in the rocks around a tree.
We can't grow veggies or really showy flowers in our super shady lot, so we value hosta, sedum, and other shade lovers for any beauty they contribute.
Meanwhile, life goes on. We've had some lovely moments to mark the passage of time. Some were cake-worthy celebrations,
others were quieter, less tangible moments that come when there's no more walks to the bus stop, and no pressing urgency other than to be here and now.
We traveled only a bit, including a few trips to my hometown of Bemidji to see family and take in the new landscapes left after a wicked derecho flattened much of the area in June, 2025. The sunlight finds its way to new places, and the forest tries again.
I finally decided to sell or give away all of my art/craft show displays. There's a pretty small chance I'll do another show someday (they're SO much work), and if I do, I'll scale down the production value in favor of ease. It was lovely to hand it all over to other folks starting their own vendor journeys, and I relish the empty space left behind now that they're gone.
Last, but not least, our work with Jasper Jones, who I only just introduced in my last blog post, continues.
His behavior has greatly improved in some areas so that our daily routines are pretty smooth, easy, and predictable. In other areas, we struggle more. He's become very leash reactive and we cannot currently walk him in our neighborhood. While he's most often an excellent dog-park dog, he has sometimes been hard to recall or disengage from other dogs, so we've paused on those trips as well. Instead, we've been doing some training at home, and walking at a local park that's wonderfully empty most of the time, and even then he's muzzled.
Some days I feel super connected with him and feel like we're really making progress, and other days, I feel like we're starting over at a loss. He's currently taking some L-theanine as a calming/focus supplement, and we may seek pharmaceutical help at some point as well. I don't want to lose his curious and clever nature, but I'd love for him to live a calmer, less-anxious life as well. He's such a fascinating dog, overflowing with character and potential.
When not doing any of the above, I've been doing content entry and copywriting contract work, reading, watching shows, riding my bike with my sweetheart, and staying in touch with our kids who are flapping their own wings a lot these days. I even wrote a couple of non-fiction children's books that are coming out next month. It's been fun.
It's impossible to encapsulate the nearly two years that have elapsed since I last blogged here. And this is no small capsule! If you read this far, thank you. And thank you for checking out my site, my work, and me.
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