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Last month was there was this heatwave that has now been noted as The Hottest July on Record Ever. It affected many countries all over the world. Even where I live there were days when the heat went as high as 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
It got so hot that one day I decided to make my first return trip to North Beach in two years. I also decided to devote an episode to my ongoing web series The Baltimore-Washington, DC That Tourists Rarely See to that small beach town on the Chesapeake Bay. You can now view it on TikTok, Clapper, Instagram, and YouTube.
You can also watch a playlist of previous episodes in my ongoing series below.
I also shot a few still photos while I was there because it was lovely outside even if it was very hot and humid outside. I really liked the cloud formation in the next picture below.
Here’s a faraway shot of a boat on the Chesapeake Bay.
North Beach now has a Little Free Library box, which is convenient if you forget to bring a book to the beach.
Here’s a butterfly on one of the flowers that were growing on the edge of a local resident’s property.
The last two photos are of some dollhouse furniture that I shot at the Bayside History Museum.
Hilariously threatening warning signs.
Every part of this tiny Polish village is covered in lovely floral paintings.
Once a neglected house, the “Rainbow Embassy” is a beacon of rebirth in Arkansas.
People who are suicidal don’t want to die, they just want the pain to stop.
Here’s a free tutorial on how to build room boxes for dollhouses or model scenes.
Star Wars characters reimagined as Winnie the Pooh and friends.
New app lets you hear Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in the original 14th-century English.
People are recycling their old glassware into garden mushrooms.
Company is using plastic bottles to make roads that last 10 times longer than asphalt.
A number of years ago I wrote this blog post on how I made a folding backdrop for indoor doll photos. I created this after I saw online how other people were creating doll backdrops but their methods weren’t feasible for me. Their backdrops were created as permanent structures and the only bad thing is that I live in a relatively small place and these backdrops would be difficult for me to store when not in use.
So I created a foldable doll backdrop using illustration boards that were leftover from an art class I had taken, scrapbooking paper, and duct tape. It worked okay for me but there were some challenges as well. For one thing, this backdrop couldn’t stand on its own. I had to find a wall or a stack of books to prop the backdrop against so it wouldn’t fall over. It was the ideal size for any doll that was 16 inches and under but it was a bit short for my taller Asian ball-jointed dolls. (I had to shoot them in a sitting position because of it.) Despite the limitations I made do with it until that backdrop began to literally fell apart and I stopped using it.
I recently created a new foldable doll backdrop using this tutorial that was posted on the My Froggy Stuff YouTube channel.
Making this new backdrop was relatively inexpensive. There were a few differences between that tutorial and what I did. When I went to Jo-Ann’s Fabrics & Crafts for the poster board, I could only find ones in fluorescent colors. (The white ones were sold out.) I decided to purchase two of the fluorescent boards. I also purchased just enough of the scrapbooking papers to simulate a carpeted floor. Instead of covering the walls with more scrapbooking paper, I decided to use stickers to decorate the walls with. Some of the stickers were ones that I had lying around the house for awhile and others were ones I purchased on sale at Michaels Arts and Crafts. Here is what my new foldable doll backdrop looks like.
As you can see, this backdrop can now stand on its own so I no longer have to go through the hassle of finding something sturdy to prop the walls against.
This backdrop is basically for smaller dolls and plushes. I’m going to find a way of making another foldable doll backdrop for my taller dolls, which will be a challenge because some of them are taller than the largest sized poster board I see on sale at most of the big box retailers. I might go to an art supply store at some point to see what I could find. But in the meantime, I can take photos of my smaller toys like the Disney Nuimos Angel and the Marvel Rising Squirrel Girl doll.
Like the previous doll backdrop, this one can be folded up when not in use, so storing it is a breeze.
This guy makes vintage cars and trucks out of rocks and they look incredible.
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.
Stop asking people of color to explain racism. Pick up one of these books instead.
This teacher missed her students so much that she knitted tiny dolls of all 23 kids in her class.
A graphic designer fixes the “World’s Worst Logos.”
35 times influences got shamed for asking for free things.
Dollhouse doors are used as electrical outlet covers.
Time-lapse videos show how much your houseplants move every day and it’s a little creepy.
Italian yarn artist created a stunning crocheted aquarium.
Michelin-starred inn uses mannequins to make things look less weird.
A free tutorial on how to crochet a turtle with a removable shell.
An eco-responsible bookshelf can be reassembled into a coffin after the owner’s death.
I decided to check out Small Business Saturday in Hyattsville mainly to get out of the house. There are times when I need to leave home for a few hours for my own mental health because it can be draining staying home while hoping that I don’t catch the Coronavirus. By then a new county law had come into effect where we have to wear masks if we leave home for any reason, even if we are going to be mostly outdoors.
I’ve been to downtown Hyattsville during Small Business Saturday other years but this pandemic has definitely had an effect. In the past I would go to Community Forklift first because they usually held a party that included music from local acts, a craft show featuring local vendors, and free craft workshops. This year there was no such event at Community Forklift, which I understood since their past parties drew crowds. This year I decided to skip Community Forklift and just go straight to downtown Hyattsville.
This poster announced that parking in downtown Hyattsville will be free until December 31, which was kind of nice.
While I saw some people walking around the area, it was relatively quiet this year. None of the stores I went to were crowded and there weren’t a lot of shoppers out and about. I think the pandemic coupled together with the collapsed economy have had an impact this year.
I saw that Franklin’s Restaurant had set up something in half of the parking lot called a Quarantiki. It’s got a few Polynesian-themed decorations while people can eat and drink outside. If it weren’t for the fact that it was cold that day, I might have tried eating there. (I later ordered takeout food at Franklin’s.) It was situated under a bridge that has murals depicting the Battle of Bladensburg that happened during the War of 1812. (Bladensburg is located just a few miles from Franklin’s.)
Here are a few night shots of the Quarantiki.
I checked out a few of the local stores, some of which were having sidewalk sales. I took a picture of this cool looking dollhouse that was in the window of Tanglewood Works.
The tables outside of Tanglewood Works sold vintage glass Christmas ornaments, which reminded me of the ornaments that my family used to have when I was growing up. (Over the years my family’s glass ornaments were accidentally smashed until one day the last of the vintage ornaments broke when I was still a teenager.)
The tables outside of the Three Little Birds Sewing Co. had mask sewing kits for sale and they included ones with Christmas fabrics.
I went to the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, which was having its annual 10 x 10 Show where it sold prints that are exactly 10 x 10 inches. I’ve been to that show other years when they would have a reception that included free drinks and snacks. This year there was just the show with no reception because a reception tends to draw crowds, which is a bad thing in a pandemic. The gallery itself wasn’t very crowded when I was there so it was probably just as well that they didn’t offer free refreshments this year. I took photos of just a few of the artwork that was on display this year.
I walked past the Streetcar 82 Brewing Co., where the people were drinking at socially distanced tables outside while the place was decked out in lights with an inflatable Hanukkah menorah and an inflatable Santa Claus.
Here’s a final shot of downtown Hyattsville after dark.
I remember when I went to a Christmas Eve service at my church we did some socializing afterwards. Someone found a tiny doll on a window ledge. No one knew where that doll came from. I remember a couple of people were posting the doll briefly before deciding to leave her on the same ledge where she was found just in case the doll’s original owner was searching for her.
The following Sunday the doll was still there. I decided to take a closer look at her. She stands at about 1 inch tall. She’s mostly made from wood with yarn hair.
Her arms and legs are bendable.
I even managed to get her to practice yoga by putting her in the Downward Facing Dog position.
At the annual Martin Luther King service (which is usually held on the Sunday that’s closest to Martin Luther King Day) I still saw the doll in her usual spot after the service. I decided to pose this doll next to a flyer advertising the service.
The tiny doll is still around at church. I saw that she was moved to the kitchen the last time I actually looked for that doll. She is a pretty cute doll that would look good in any dollhouse.
Original, very rare footage of Heller Keller in 1930.
The Hate Industrial Complex: How YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are the new Fox News (but worse).
How The Story of Ferdinand became fodder for the culture wars of its era.
The exhausting work of fact checkers who track Donald Trump’s barrage of lies.
If graphic novels are hip for adults, why not picture books?
Narcissists are sick, stressed, and insecure.
The flashy colorful side of Managua, Nicaragua.
How the U.S. has systematically destroyed Hawaiian culture for 240 years.
Nineteen never seen before pictures of Lucille Ball.
The benefits of having friends who aren’t “just like us.”
The latest front in Russian infiltration: America’s right wing homeschooling movement.
Inside the GM plant where nooses and “whites-only” signs intimidated workers.
Meet the economist behind the one percent’s stealth takeover of America.
Depressed people see the world more realistically.
Under Trump, Made in America is losing out to Russian steel.
Forget a fast car. Creativity is the new midlife crisis cure.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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