Princess of Play Necklace

During Memorial Day weekend The Space had sponsored this free jewelry making event using a variety of beads. I decided to check it out and I made my first new necklace in a few years. Here is what I did.

I found some floral beads along with glass beads in various shades of pink and I thought they looked good together. But then I found this bag full of beads that had words on them and three beads happened to be next to each other in the bag. One said “princess,” the other said “of,” and the third said “play.” The words formed the phrase “princess of play” and I totally fell in love with that label because the way flowed when they were said together. I felt that they had to be the focal point of my new necklace while the pink and floral beads only highlighted the femininity of that necklace and the phrase “princess of play.”

It wasn’t until I had taken the three beads out of the bag and strung them together that I realized that each word bead had two different words on each side. I flipped the necklace over to see what phrase would be created on the other side and it read “like let divine.”

To be honest, “like let divine” made less sense than “princess of play” and the phrase just didn’t flow off the tongue as well as “princess of play.” I will probably end up displaying the “princess of play” side when I’m wearing this necklace.

Here’s a full selfie of me wearing that necklace after I finished creating it.

Link-O-Rama

This guy makes vintage cars and trucks out of rocks and they look incredible.

Free tutorials on how to use LED lights in various projects such as fairy wings, jewelry, and greeting cards.

Woman makes an adorably tiny bed for squirrels in her garden.

A look at an effort to preserve Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language.

A look at the beautiful birds of Peru.

Father builds Star Wars rocking horse for his daughter’s first birthday.

A free tutorial on how to create hand-drawn GIFs.

Street artist paints a mind-bending illusion of a sphynx cat on an old gas tank.

Studio Ghibli released magnificent free backgrounds for videoconferencing.

How to recycle old broken crayons into new crayons.

Creep out your neighborhood with baby doll head planters.

Couple’s photographs of the elaborate dollhouse that they have constructed during quarantine goes viral.

The 11th Anniversary of This Blog

I wrote my first post for this blog eleven years ago today. This past year was the 10th anniversary. I initially celebrated that anniversary with a sushi dinner and some cupcakes with candles. I also made a special video commemorating this occasion. I was hoping to be able to do more celebrating that milestone in a big way throughout the year, such as doing some fun traveling to a place like Ocean City or Hersheypark or something like that.

But then everything went to hell. I wrote all about it in detail on New Year’s Eve. I just feel emotionally sucker-punched by my mother’s death from multiple sclerosis followed by the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic just a few weeks later—which has now killed over 356,000 Americans as of this writing—along with the deaths of six other people I knew pretty well, the impossible challenge of finding steady work in a major pandemic, and the sudden resignation of the minister at my church. Then there was the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, which came on the heels of the killing of both Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, which caused civil unrest.

Going through my blog posts over the past year indicates that 2020 could be split into two periods: The first two months of normalcy in January and February. The COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter for the rest of the year. Here are some highlights from the past year.

I submitted a completed sketchbook to The Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project.

Took my first stab at the currently trendy art of diamond painting.

I found my mother’s old childhood home in Baltimore, where I took a few photos of it and her old neighborhood. (Unfortunately she passed away before I was able to show them to her.)

I took a workshop where I made my own bath salts for the first time in my life.

Went to the annual Martin Luther King Day celebration at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

Took a free visioning workshop where I made a special visioning board that expressed what I would like to achieve in 2020. (Which turned out to be an exercise in irony since I took this workshop shortly before the pandemic arrived.)

Took part in the Poor People’s Campaign’s We Must Do MORE Tour when it arrived in Washington, DC.

Created my first Instagram Mosaic.

Took a walk around the Takoma Park-Silver Spring area admiring the colorful murals.

I won a gold heart-shaped diamond pendant in a Valentine’s Day-themed drawing at a local mall that included a couple dressed as Cupid and Aphrodite.

I visited the parts of Baltimore and Glen Burnie where I grew up after I attended my mother’s funeral.

I attempted to go to a STEM-oriented job fair despite suffering the stomach flu just three days earlier. I ended up taking pictures of the impressive displays instead of submitting resumes or networking because I still felt tired from my recent illness.

I went to a birthday celebration where a taco-shaped piñata was smashed.

Took part in the making of a community mural for Black History Month that featured former President Barack Obama.

March 7, 2020 was the first time that I mentioned the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic in this blog.

I walked around Dupont Circle after I had gotten out of a job interview and took some photos of the area. It also happened to be in the very early phase of the Coronavirus pandemic just before everything was on lockdown and people were encouraged to stay home as much as possible.

After I went to Dupont Circle that day I attended a meeting of the local chapter of the Poor People’s Campaign and shot a few pictures. It turned out to be the last in-person meeting of any kind that I attended before the pandemic caused the area to go into lockdown.

Friday, March 13, 2020 was the first time I saw that the COVID-19 pandemic was getting real for me when the local stores in my area ran out of food, hand sanitizers, cleaning products, and toilet paper. (In a way it was appropriate that everything went down on Friday the 13th.)

On St. Patrick’s Day, after I went through a truncated first day of training for my day job with the Census Bureau in Hanover, Maryland, I went nearby to Arundel Mills only to find a mostly empty mall where half of the stores were closed due to the recent arrival of the pandemic.

I took photos of the first few Coronavirus-related signs in various public places that were put up. One of them announced the temporary closing of the public library (which still remains closed as of this writing).

I took advantage of my pandemic-imposed downtime to teach myself TikTok where I uploaded the first few videos on that platform. It turned out to be the start in a whole new direction for me regarding social media experience.

I really began to hit my stride on TikTok soon afterwards.

I took photos showing how the pandemic had affected a local Wegmans and downtown Takoma Park.

I created a free face mask video tutorial for dolls and stuffed animals for both YouTube and TikTok.

I attended my first protest in the middle of a deadly pandemic in Washington, DC, which was on behalf of Black Lives Matter. This came on the heels of the killing of George Floyd followed by the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Washington, DC.

I attended another Black Lives Matter protest in Hyattsville, Maryland.

I attended a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown DC again.

I attended a Black Lives Matter vigil in Greenbelt, Maryland just hours after attending the protest in Washington, DC.

Attended another Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, DC.

I took part in a virtual-only Artomatic where I exhibited a few of my artwork on a website. I ended up not selling anything mainly because that event was poorly publicized in the local media compared with previous Artomatics that I took part in.

I checked out a special Black Lives Matter bake sale on the Fourth of July (which was the only organized event since fireworks, picnics, and other events were canceled due to the pandemic)

I helped a friend with deciphering some old sheet music using the open source software MuseScore.

Attended a Black Lives Matter protest in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Attended another Black Lives Matter protest, this one also in Greenbelt, Maryland.

I created my first-ever online escape room game using Google Forms.

Took part in a postcard writing campaign encouraging voters to go to the polls on Election Day.

Made my first trip to Union Station in Washington, DC since the pandemic began and I found it very eerie.

Visited the Supreme Court after it was turned into a makeshift shrine in memory of the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Visited the fountain outside of the Library of Congress.

Began a new video series called The Baltimore and Washington, DC That Tourists Rarely See.

Took advantage of early voting for the first time in my life.

Shot pictures and a video showing what Roosevelt Center in Greenbelt, Maryland looked like after Joe Biden was officially declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Shot pictures and a video of one of the weekly Black Lives Matter protest that took place outside of the Town Hall building in Greenbelt, Maryland during the fall and winter.

I made my first visit to my mother’s newly dug grave and I found the location of the now-defunct St. Martins Catholic school in Baltimore where my mother and aunt had attended as children.

Attended the Pasadena Toy Expo in Millersville, Maryland.

Made my first-ever visit to the Paper Moon Diner, which has a very eclectic decor, in Baltimore, Maryland.

I took part in the Poor People’s Campaign Caravan to Annapolis, which highlighted the number of people who have died from COVID-19.

Checked out Small Business Saturday in Hyattsville, Maryland, where very few people shopped due to a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and a very weak economy.

Spent my first-ever birthday in the middle of a deadly pandemic by going to Tysons Corner Center in Virginia.

Tried to captured some Christmas spirit for myself by visiting Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, Maryland.

How I went to see Wonder Woman 1984 in a movie theater in the middle of a pandemic.

Took photos showing how the city of Greenbelt, Maryland decided to go through with its annual Festival of Lights despite the pandemic.

I’m just hoping for relative calm this year. At least Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America in a few weeks and he’ll be a definite improvement over Donald Trump. (It was Trump’s complete mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to the deaths of so many Americans and a totally collapsed economy.) I expect Biden will actually spend more time working in the Oval Office and less time on Twitter and golfing trips.

Link-O-Rama

How to dismantle white supremacy.

How the “Karen Meme” confronts the violent history of white womanhood.

Meet the man whose love of dolls knows no bounds.

Guillotine earrings were a must-have fashion accessory during France’s reign of terror.

A place where artists with disabilities thrive.

Fernanda Suarez has done a series of illustrations showing what the various Disney princesses would look like if they existed in 2020.

A brief history of anti-fascism.

35 influencers who went too far on social media and got called out for it.

What is attention violence?

These photos of black girls as fairy tale princesses are so beautiful and important.

Exquisite 2,300-year-old Scythian woman’s boot preserved in the frozen ground of the Altai Mountains.

Valentine’s Day Activities, February 1 and February 8, 2020

For the first two Saturdays in February The Space and Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland held joint Valentine’s Day activities. I was there for both Saturdays and I took a bunch of photos.

On February 1, 2020 Cupid and Aphrodite went around the mall encouraging people to check out the activities in the center of the mall and to promote a drawing where the grand prize was a gold heart-shaped diamond pendant.

The Space founder Shaymar Higgs sewed pillows that were used in a free creating exercise.

People of all ages were encouraged to take a free pillow and make it into an Emoji pillow.

I worked on a pillow myself. I customized both sides of the pillow with actual Emojis.

The other activity that The Space and Beltway Plaza co-sponsored was providing coloring papers that people could use to create special Kindness Cards for Valentine’s Day.

I colored one such Kindness Card myself. Here is what I did.

Cupid and Aphrodite did the drawing. The grand prize was the gold heart-shaped diamond pendant and there were also a couple of gift cards that were included in the giveaway.

I filled out a form at the last minute for the heck of it although I didn’t expect to win anything. I rarely win anything in a drawing so I didn’t expect to win this time around. But then Cupid and Aphrodite drew my name and I actually won the gold heart-shaped diamond pendant grand prize. I was thrilled because, like I wrote earlier, I rarely win anything. Here is the box that the pendant came in along with the pendant itself.

I was really eager to wear it immediately even though I was too broke to afford a chain. I went to The Space where I cut a piece of string that’s long enough that I can wear it as a necklace yet is also thin enough that it can thread through the pendant. (Despite what my pictures show, the pendant is pretty small in real life.)

I hope to one day be able to afford to buy a proper chain for it but right now this string will have to do.

I returned to The Space on the following Saturday, February 8, 2020. The day began with a drawing workshop where we drew a variety of still life images with an emphasis on shadows with a variety of provided materials. I drew a bust and a feather with chalk pastels then I drew a toy elephant with markers.

Cupid and Aphrodite returned. This time they arrived on a tandem bike.

Once again there was activity in the middle of the mall where people of all ages could work on Emoji pillows and Kindness Cards.

Aphrodite walked around giving people free Hershey’s Kisses.

Shaymar Higgs and Kimmie from The Space joined Aphrodite and Cupid in a drawing. Once again the grand prize was a small gold heart-shaped diamond pendant and a couple of gift cards. I decided not to participate in this drawing because I had won the pendant the week before and I felt that someone else should have the chance to win that pendant.

After the drawing I went back to The Space where I shot this picture of a wall from an unusual angle.

Christmas Eve at The Space, December 24, 2019

I spent some time at The Space, a non-profit makerspace and art studio located inside of Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland. Unlike Christmas Eves of the past, the shopping malls are no longer totally crowded. Prior to 2018, when I first noticed this trend of fewer shoppers on Christmas Eve, I would make a point of avoiding all shopping malls and shopping centers because they would be so full of cars. Even if I managed to somehow find a parking space and go inside of a store, the checkout lines would be so long that one would have to wait at least 20 minutes or so.

All that is now changed. I know that part of the reason is because of the unstable economy (even though the economy was supposedly booming, most of the jobs I’ve seen available are either gig economy ones or in low-paid jobs like retail). I think another reason is because these days most people prefer to order online through Amazon and have their presents delivered. From my point of view, I no longer have to avoid stepping foot inside of a shopping mall or shopping center on Christmas Eve.

Shortly before Christmas The Space received a donation of a bunch of watches that someone had been collecting as a hobby. Most of them needed new batteries but that was about it. The idea was to install new batteries then sell the watches for $10 each as last-minute Christmas presents. Here’s a photo of The Space founder Shaymar Higgs working on the watches.

Here’s a watch depicting what looks like a cutesy Virgin Mary on a cloud with a cutesy angel inside. (Or so I think. LOL!)

Here’s a cute watch showing Mickey and Minnie Mouse kissing each other.

I think the most unique watch was a snowman where if you press a button, the watch will play “Jingle Bells.” I view this watch as one of those where it would be appropriate to wear in December but the rest of the year it would be out of season. (Can you imagine wearing this watch in—let’s say—August?)

Shaymar was pretty nice to me. He decided to give me one of those watches. All I had to do was to pick one. I ended up choosing this white watch. I still wear it on a regular basis. (Thanks, Shaymar!)

Changing Focus Auction, Dinner, and Dance, November 2, 2019

The one thing about actually having a day job this year is that I was able to afford to do a few more things than previous years. One was the annual big gala that’s sponsored by Changing Focus, which is the name of my support group for people who are separated or divorced. In the past I couldn’t even afford to pay the entrance fee. This year I could afford the entrance fee but I was still limited mostly to playing the Chinese auction because I couldn’t really afford to bid on the really big ticket items (such as a stay in someone’s vacation home next summer). I managed to take a few pictures instead.

The event was held at the Annapolis Moose Lodge. Here’s my entrance ticket with my bid number for both the Silent Auction and Live Auction parts of the event. While I couldn’t afford to bid on much, I was able to enjoy a tasty dinner.

One of the Silent Auction items was this pen that was made from an illegal gun. The bid on this one went up to $100.

The Live Auction items included this picture that was actually signed by members of the 1980 U.S. hockey team that won the gold medal in Lake Placid that year.

There were a few gift baskets that were available as part of the Silent Auction.

There was this cute winter/Christmas themed picture that included flickering lights.

There were also Kiss pens that were available for auction. I attempted to bid on a couple of them but I was outbid by others.

The only auction I was able to safely afford to participate in was the Chinese Auction. For only $10 I got a bunch of tickets where I placed in a few baskets. Here is one of my tickets. (All of my tickets had the same number.)

I ended up winning the Chinese Auction twice. One was on this jewelry set.

My other prize was a different jewelry set. So I won a bunch of jewelry that night. At least they are different designs and colors.

And here is a photo of both sets of jewelry that I won that night along with the winning ticket number.

After the auction ended it was time for the dance part to begin. I didn’t do any dancing with anyone that night. I basically shot this short people of people dancing along with the deejay who kept the music going all night.

Baltimore Comic-Con, October 19, 2019

Thanks to holding down a few jobs this year, I was able to afford to do some more fun things, such as going to this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. This was the first time I attended since 2017.

Here is my bracelet and the cover of the program guide.

This year’s convention was just as good as the other years I’ve gone, as these photos show. There was all kinds of comic books along with other kinds of arts and crafts on sale. Yes, there were plenty of cosplayers around as well.

I only managed to attend one seminar or workshop this year. It was based on the book Sketchbook Dares and it was given by the author, Laura Lee Gulledge. The only problem was that this workshop was held in the children’s area right in the middle of the Dealers Room so it was incredible noisy. It was hard to hear Laura speak at times and she had a microphone.

I managed to make two pencil drawings but the noise was so overwhelming that I couldn’t hear what Laura was saying so I left that workshop before it ended. One of the drawings I did was with my non-dominant hand (which is my left hand).

The other one I did was where I used two pencils to make a symmetrical drawing using two continuous lines.

It was too bad that it was too noisy for me to hear very well because it was an interesting seminar. This is one of those things that should have been held in a separate room instead of in the middle of the Dealers Room.

I basically spent the rest of the time checking out the various vendor tables at the Dealers Room. I ended up not buying anything this year because money is still a bit tight with me even though I was working. I just took a bunch of pictures instead.

International Edgar Allan Poe Festival, October 5, 2019

This year I was finally able to check out the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival in Baltimore for the first time in my life. It was held in Baltimore outside of the historic Edgar Allan Poe House. Tickets to tour the home was sold out but I didn’t mind because I had already seen that house a few years ago. The one thing that had changed dramatically is that there is a new apartment unit that had sprung up where there was an empty field back when I last visited that house in 2014. Seeing how developed that area had gotten has led me to make a mental note to come back and explore that area at a later date.

I shot some video footage that included a dancer named Calixta Starr who did interpretative dances inspired by Poe’s work and an Edgar Allan Poe impersonator speaking outside of the Edgar Allan Poe House.

I also took a bunch of photos as well during my time there. There were all kinds of gothic-themed arts and crafts as well as books (some were written by Poe while others are more contemporary books where the writers were inspired by Poe). One tent had continuous book readings by local authors. I also saw people who either cosplayed as Edgar Allan Poe or they were dressed in steampunk outfits. It was all pretty cool to see in person.

There was this casket where people were invited to have their pictures taken while they were inside of it—as the sign said “Get Buried Alive!”

I had someone take a few pictures of me inside of that casket. I have to admit that this particular casket was very narrow. I barely fit inside of it. It was also very tall. It looked like it was made for someone who was over seven feet tall and weighed less than 120 pounds.

I managed to purchase a few items at the festival. I purchased this cool looking keyring that was based on Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven” featuring the outline of a raven with the word “Nevermore.” Sadly this raven would literally break in half just a few weeks later and the bottom half was lost. (The wood was a bit on the thin side. At least I only paid $8 for it. I would’ve been pissed if I had paid $20 or $30 for it.)

I purchased this refrigerator magnet featuring one of Poe’s quotes from the same vendor. That magnet is still intact and it’s on display on my refrigerator in the kitchen.

This paper bag from PoeHead.com (which I used to carry my purchases home in) had this cool Poe design on it.

I purchased this bar of pumpkin scented soap from one of the vendors that was connected with the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation in Boston (where Poe was born).

I got this unicorn button from Mistress Rae’s Decadent Designs.

I did get one thing for free from that festival—this button that was a local organization known as Preservation Maryland.

Changing Focus Yard Sale and the Festival on the Green, Crofton, Maryland, September 28, 2019

Changing Focus is the name of the support group for people who are separated or divorced whose meetings I had been attending since shortly after my husband walked out on me in late 2011. I don’t go to as many meetings as I used to mainly because I feel like I’m on a further emotional peaceful point than I was back in early 2012, when I was a total nervous wreck. (My husband never told me he was unhappy until the night he literally ran away from home.) Even though I don’t feel the need to attend meetings as often as I used to, I still like to support them whenever I can because they were a definite help to me when I was at the lowest point in my life.

The group was having a yard sale that tied in with the Festival on the Green and they were looking for things that they can sell. I had donated a bunch of stuff to the group’s previous yard sales over the past few years so I didn’t think I had anything to donate until I looked in my closet and I saw my collection of board games. Some were ones that I’ve had since I was a teen and others were ones that were either given to me or I purchased as a gift for my then-husband. I used to play board games a lot as a kid. I continued playing board games from time-to-time as a teen and college student but I still played with them. I even played with them with my future ex-husband when we were dating. After I was married my husband and I played with them on occasion but we eventually stopped playing them altogether.

I took a look at those board games and I finally decided to get rid of all but two of them. (One of them is a special Monopoly edition that I hope to sell on eBay because I think it may be worth something. That one was released during the short-lived dot-com bubble of the late 1990s-early 2000s and it has names of companies that have since either gone totally defunct or have been purchased and merged with another company. The other is the Mad Magazine Game and I actually played it a few months ago when I took it to a get-together with board gaming enthusiasts that was held at a local community center.) The vast majority of the games I donated were the main Trivial Pursuit game along with the various add-on card sets that were sold separately but could be used with that game instead of the cards that came with the game.

This was a game that I purchased early in my ill-fated marriage, which was endorsed by renown sex educator Dr. Ruth Westheimer. I think my husband and I had only played that game once or twice.

Probably the most interesting of the games that I gave away was this edition of the Game of Life that was endorsed by noted TV personality Art Linkletter, who was at the height of his fame at the time. My parents gave it to me as either a birthday or Christmas present when I was a child. (It’s easy for me to forget since both days are only 10 days apart for me.) Art Linkletter has been dead for a number of years now but hardly anyone ever mentions him these days, other than this story on the Dangerous Minds website which delved into the tragic death of Linkletter’s daughter, Diane, when she was only 20 years old.

I had briefly thought about selling this one on eBay to see if I would get a lot of money out of it. I decided against it because the Art Linkletter edition was distributed and sold widely so it’s not like it’s a very rare edition. (Linkletter was a huge star in his day so it’s natural that there would be millions of copies of the game with his endorsement on the box.) I’ve seen this edition sold on eBay for around $11-20 so it’s not like I would make a huge profit. It was just easier for me to donate it to the yard sale.

I also had a 40th anniversary of Monopoly that my parents gave to me when I was a kid. This anniversary edition had more printed money and a special holder for all of the deed cards. I hadn’t touched that game in years when I decided to sell it. This was another game where I had briefly thought about selling on eBay but decided against it because the price for this particular edition was selling between $7-40 so it just seemed too much trouble to sell online with that little profit. It was easier and quicker to donate it to the yard sale. Unlike the Game of Life, I had neglected to photography my copy of that game but you can see photos of it on the Monopoly Wiki site.

The Changing Focus Yard Sale was held on the grounds of the Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church in Crofton, Maryland.

While there were a few kitsch items and other outdated stuff that could belong in a museum, there were far fewer for me to photograph than in previous years. Maybe it’s not good for this blog (LOL!) but, from the group’s point of view, I can understand why they would not want to have to deal with outdated stuff (such as an old fax machine) that they would have a hard time selling since it is supposed to be a fundraiser. But there were a few that I still felt was worth photographing for posterity of some sort. (LOL!)

I also checked out the Festival on the Green, which was held next door on the grounds of the Crofton Country Club. There was a variety of food trucks and vendor tables that sold a variety of handcrafted items.

I purchased one item while I was at the Festival on the Green. It’s a purse that was made from a recycled pair of blue jeans. It only cost me $8. It was a great find because the purse I had been using since before my divorce was literally falling apart and I had grown tired of repairing it with duct tape.

The jeans back pocket have been converted to a front pocket and it has a cute deer appliqué. I really like my new purse.

There was also a vintage circa-1950s blue car that was parked near the Changing Focus Yard Sale. That car wasn’t for sale, it was on display where it attracted some attention. I thought it looked so cool that I took a few photos of it.

The yard sale managed to raise around $1,000 or so, which is great because it’ll keep Changing Focus operating for a while.