It's a bit late, but I thought I'd go over some of the things that I experienced and accomplished last month. I'd like to start doing monthly recaps moving forward.
Crafting
I finished my first needle felting project, a dragon for Danny that he named Phillip. You can see a crunchy photo of it (unfinished) on my piclog here. I really wanted to start some sort of crafting journey as a way to relax, and it turns out that I chose probably the least relaxing craft, as it's quite easy to stick yourself with the needle! I'm getting used to navigating around it, though, with the help of foam blocks. I really enjoyed making Phillip, even though he was challenging for a beginner project. My next project is a handful of felt pumpkins to use as decorations this fall, and I'm looking forward to it! I definitely want to stick with needle felting -- pun intended.
Traveling
We went to two concerts in May, and I wrote about both of them here on the blog, so I won't go into detail. I love traveling, especially if it's to go see some good live music, and seeing Lacuna Coil was a bucket list item crossed off. They're my #1 favorite band, so it felt a bit like a dream. I had fun getting all goth'd up for the show as well and sporting some black lipstick and heavy eyeliner.
Dog-Sitting
At the end of the month, I spent a week in the Blue Ridge mountains dog-sitting and house-sitting for my brother and his family. He and his wife took their baby daughter to the beach for her first vacation. Here's Bo, the younger dog, and they have an older dog named Rilo. I lugged my work computer with me and worked during the days, but I spent the evenings playing outside with the dogs and cuddling with them on the couch. My mom decided last minute to join me, and I was grateful for her help because I ended up spending two days during the trip with a stomach bug. Despite the illness, it was a nice time and I always like being in the mountains, but I did start to miss home after a while.
Reading
I finished The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader. I struggled a bit getting through it, as it was slow-paced and quite heavy in subject matter, but it has stuck with me nevertheless. I have a great interest in medieval history, and the life of an anchoress is a mysterious and intriguing one that I was grateful to get some insight into. Cadwallader's prose is lovely, and the slowness was more of a side effect of the book's topic rather than anything to do with the author's writing. There was a lot of rumination and little plot. I've also made quite a bit of progress on The Mayor of Maxwell Street, which I'm enjoying immensely. I almost don't want it to end. This month, I've joined a book club via Discord, and I'm excited to dig into my first book for it.
Watching
I didn't watch anything last month, unless you count YouTube videos. I've mostly just been watching CJU play through some horror games, and I watched Epica's Omega Alive concert. I did pick up a free 30-day trial to HBO Max, so in June I'm hoping to make my way through Station Eleven, an adaptation of one of my favorite books.
Playing
I finished Indika and Crow Country at the beginning of the month, both of which I loved. Indika's world is such an interesting one, and Crow Country is a fun throwback to the original PlayStation and old-school survival horror. I became addicted to Backpack Battles for a while, which I wrote about on my Quick Reviews page. I've also been playing quite a lot of Elden Ring in preparation for the DLC coming out on the 21st. You can probably expect a full post dedicated to that once it releases.