Things I'm Loving (v.28)

A dose of joy, mess, musicals, and mindfulness.

It’s been a full couple weeks over here. Last week I drove down to Memphis, TN (in a car without air conditioning) and back to Maryland over the course of 3 days(!). My 12-year-old niece is visiting me and we drive back again this Friday (by the time you’re reading this, we’ll hopefully be a few hours into our drive already) for a day, then back again, to Maryland on Sunday. Am I bonkers? Maybe. ;) But I sure do love my nieces.

Also, last week my soon-to-be brother in law was diagnosed with lymphoma and they began chemo immediately. Again, by the time you read this, he’ll be home from the hospital and doing the post-chemo session healing/hell. My brother set up a GoFundMe, if you’re interested in learning more or checking out more details about his particular flavor of lymphoma.

So yeah. Pretty full week, even with normal life stuff happening.

I really love looking for these moments of delight and joy to share with y’all. They help me, too.

Something for play

Okay. Hear me out. Kinetic or play sand.

You can buy it at the store (Five Below often has some or any of the many Dollar store iterations). You can make your own, like this 2-ingredient recipe or this 3-ingredient one.

If you want to fancy it up, use food coloring to bring in some extra pop or joy. Or, use something like purple yam flakes to add natural colors if you want to avoid food dyes. (Avocado pits will make purple dye, and onion peels a goldish hue, did you know?)

There are loads of recipes out there— some titled moon sand, others titled play or kinetic. The DIY recipes aren’t actually true kinetic sand — for that you’d need to coat the “sand particles” with silicone, and that’s just not possible for most folks to do at home.

I bought some kinetic sand that was pink and added little toys from a dollar store. Using a plastic container keeps the mess contained + portable. Playing with filling molds or just scraping the surface with a fork has been fun and grounding (both of which I can use more of!)

Something to listen to

It’s not often that I find a new musical that really captures my imagination and pulls me in. But SIX is one of them. Pandora served it up for me on one of my 10 or 15 year old stations and I absolutely love it.

SIX tells the story of six of Henry VIII’s wives, and it's told in the format of a Reality TV show pop competition, ala American Idol or The Voice, almost. If you want to check out the entire musical, I found it here on YouTube.

Something to help you relax

This simple body scan from YouTube is something I’ve been doing with my niece in the morning. The animations are interesting, and keep her attention. It’s a 3 minute mediation of checking in with your body.

I don’t always do this sort of morning meditation, but it’s nice to be experimenting with different ways to access relaxation and calm.

Will report back if I see anything significant as far as impact. 😊

Something to watch

Okay. So this technically falls into “something to listen to” as well, but I’m putting it here, because the visual aspect is the coolest part.

If you like epic music, you have to check out this playlist of fan art animations that accompany EPIC: The Musical.

EPIC was another musical that Pandora served me up alongside SIX mentioned above. Every once in a while they hit one outta the park with the algorithm, and that week I was super lucky and got two. 😆

EPIC is a nine-part series that tells Homer’s Odyssey in musical form. Apparently, it was a TikTok sensation— Jorge Rivera-Herrans started to work on it in 2019 as his senior college thesis.

I hope you enjoy this musical as much as I do!

Wildcard - Something I’m proud of

Look at these beautiful bath items from Avril at Beautiful Freak Cosmetics!

The soap bar is reminiscent of the Venus of Willendorf figurine that's roughly 30,000 years old, the stars are shower steamers and the jar contains similarly color-themed bath salts. (I used the salts last night and they’re glorious and shimmery). The journal (designed by me) contains a self-love ritual + spell written by Sara Mastros.

If you’re interested in purchasing any version of the items combined into a kit, they’re listed here.

I don’t get any earnings from these, just really love Avril’s work and was super delighted to be a part of this collaboration.

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That’s all for this week!

My only other news is that I’m still sharing Mindful Moments: 52 Prompts on the Sacred and Mundane which came out a couple weeks ago!

If you’ve ordered a copy, I’d love to see a picture of you holding it and/or know what you think!! Even though there’s been loads happening, I’m super delighted that it’s in the world.

~M