Whoa whoa whoa whoa! It's time for the 8th volume of my monthly overshare digest! This time it really is an overshare cuz I'm feeling CHATTY and writing this on a Sunday!
Spare Time Creations
This is a story is about the stuffing I used for these critters:
Ok, this might be yawn at this point for some of you, but I can't tell you how big a feat it's been for me to learn to sew. As a multi-passionate creative, I've often been asked this question (like weekly): Is there anything you don't do? And I'm not saying that as a brag. I'm not necessarily good at all the things I dabble in. But I do dabble. However, the answer to that question for me has always been: Sew. I do not sew. We don't get along. Without going into all the details again, if you want them, head to Playgrounds Volume 4 & Volume 6) I am proud to say I have been sewing! And it's translated into my little weirdo critters! I couldn't be happier.
Something I'm even more excited to share is what I stuffed these with. Before I even bought a machine, I discovered a fiber (some of you will be like, duh Peggy everyone knows about that 🤣) in the Philippines when I was visiting my dad earlier this year, and I took some videos as I was performing surgery on the pods (removing the seeds so I could guarantee I'd be able to get it through customs on the way home).
We were in what's considered to be the mango capital of the world 🤤 Guimaras, getting fresh mangos (even in non-mango season, they were delicious) and all I could pay attention to was this tree pod on the side of the road that was split open, revealing what looked like the softest fiber that demanded to be touched. I looked at my dad's wife who grew up in the area, and asked her if it was okay to touch it. She laughed and said “yes, of course!” Then she proceeded to tell me that, growing up, her mom would use the fibers of the doldol tree (aka kapok, aka silk cotton tree) as filling for pillows and bedding.
OMG y'all, talk about creative lightbulbs, no, FIREWORKS igniting in my head. I looked around and saw more and started picking them up. I looked up at the tree towering over us, and it was READY FOR ME. Again, I realize some of you probs have this tree in your backyard and are totally rolling your eyes at my excitement 😂 The people at the mango stand went and asked the property owner if he could get some more down for me, and he came out with a huge machete attached to the longest bamboo pole I've ever seen, and he reached up and barely scraped at the branches, and let's just say I loaded up.
A few days later, we headed out for a road trip through the mountains, and through the entire drive, I separated the seeds from the fiber and stuffed the fiber into a bag to keep. My dad asked me what I planned on doing with it, and I responded, “hmm, I'm not sure, maybe I'll make some stuffed animals or little critter dolls” AS IF I EVEN KNEW THE FIRST THING ABOUT DOING THAT… 😬
But here we are. I've made them. I did it. I sew. And I've used the softest fiber that I hand-dissected from a gift in nature. And THIS, my friends, is what I love most about creativity. The unplanned, organically unfolding, raw nature of figuring it all out as we go.
Favorite Finds
I love it when I find a good ware. From essentials to splurges, these are my picks for wares this month…
- Over the weekend, we stopped by a bakery and one of the patrons brought a small device up to the counter to show an employee there. I overheard “4 tb” and couldn't help myself , I joined the conversation, which led me to the purchase of this tiny 4tb SSD hard drive that's for the price of 2tb! Ummmm❗️4tb❗️🤯 I obviously ordered it immediately. If you're a tech nerd, have ton of video or images, you KNOW how solid of a deal this is haha.
- OKAY DELICIOUS HEALTHY TREAT - dark chocolate quinoa crisps, that half the bag is one serving 😍
Andddd for those who need to watch the following, it's plant-based, gluten free, vegan, nut-free, only 6 grams of sugar… I mean, it has three ingredients. “Sorry I'm not hungry for dinner 😬 I ate 3 bags of dessert.”
Random Fact (& a bit of rumination about it)
I used the word overwhelm, and paused to think about “over” so I looked up “whelm." And I feel this: Once you know that whelm means “engulf,” it's hard to look past the fact that overwhelm basically means to double down or to inundate and then inundate again.
So ultimately, overwhelm is an example of pleonasm — a tautological phrase that includes two words that mean the same thing.
But I'm not one to talk about word usage because I use “literally” completely out of context all the time.
Behind the Scenes: gingiber x Peggy Dean
Exciting collaboration alert! I'm extremely passionate about these three things:
- Art
- Travel
- Other creatives
I'm so excited to be collaborating with Gingiber as they roll out their first guest artist collab! This tea towel features my art that was inspired by my very first trip abroad in Thailand. I can't wait to see it in the wild (aka your kitchens)!!
Personal Musings
- We took Jim to the beach for the first time and he loved it soooo much. We've never seen him run for so long! Poor guy was exhausted the next day. But he assured us it was the good kind of exhausted.
- I caved and got the new nano-texture iPad. It's not cheap and I honestly didn't know if I'd like it or not. You KNOW I'm opinionated haha. Can you guess which one is which?
- Cara app - This got a lot of buzz a few weeks ago when it was revealed that Instagram is using images from the platform to feed its AI content. While I'm not leaving IG, I do plan on sharing more random content over there.
Anddd that's a wrap! Thanks for playing with me in this month's Playground.
YOU make this community what it is. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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