🍞 Things I Loved in July

Dear reader,

We're quite a bit into August already, but here are some things I enjoyed in July! My migraines have been pretty persistent again and it's been a bit tough to find the brainpower to write much

1) baby's first sourdough starter

My friend's mom gave me some of her sourdough starter, and it's not as much work to feed and use it as I expected! I've made some no-knead bread and pizza dough with the active starter, and chocolate chip cookies and peach & blueberry crisp with the discard.

It's apparently traditional to give your starter a name, and I feel like mine is asking for a grandmotherly one. What do we think of Philomena?

2) harvesting sungold tomatoes

Not everything in my garden has survived the summer heat (or the hungry rats; RIP basil plant), but my four sungold tomato plants are thriving! I've enjoyed their bounty most atop avocado toast (on my homemade sourdough) and in this easy pasta recipe. My mom likes to add in some crab meat right at the end for a ✨fancy dinner✨, but it's still tasty with just tomatoes, garlic, and butter.

3) making onigiri

Last food one for this month: I impulse-bought an onigiri mold after watching Honeybunch of Onion Tops make onigiri on her YouTube channel and it was $6 well-spent. They are so fun to make!!! So far I've only made sesame-soy shiitake, but I think this would be a great way to use up leftovers.

4) Braiding Sweetgrass

Another book from my TBR pile down! I feel like everyone else in the world has read Braiding Sweetgrass, and I'm here to report that it was just as enjoyable as I expected. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist, explores how traditional Indigenous wisdom can work alongside Western scientific knowledge to help us reconnect with the earth. Her writing style is personal and beautiful; she writes about plants as one might write about old friends. I would highly highly recommend reading this.

5) building my digital archive

I've been on a privacy-and-organization kick when it comes to my digital life, and I put quite a bit of time this month into organizing my photos and documents.

I had been keeping basically nothing on my computer and everything in Dropbox because I was paranoid about somehow losing it (and my computer's drive always seemed to be full). After using Neodisk to help make some more space on my hard drive, I downloaded everything but my sewing patterns and active projects from Dropbox, and then was able to downgrade my Dropbox back to a free plan! Then I backed everything up to an external hard drive and set reminders to do that more regularly.

Taking the Week of Archivist class from artist Mel Mitchell-Jackson really helped me get everything in order, and start my own digital garden! Everything really comes back to gardening, huh?

6) solo gaming in community

I own very many solo RPGs and have played very few of them, so the "solo gaming together" night from Knights of the Roll Table appealed to me. They had a variety of Princess Sword games for us to choose from, and every so often, the facilitator would draw a tarot card for us and we'd incorporate it into our play. I had a great time with Tavern at the End of the World, and it made me want to try my hand at writing my own Princess Sword game!

7) the only social media sites I won't endlessly scroll on

In an effort to spend less time on my phone, I've finally deleted my Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit accounts, and blocked myself from online shopping on my phone. But I must admit, sometimes my brain wants to shut off for a little bit, and I've been back into using Pinterest and YouTube on my computer. It does feel a little like having "computer time" on my family's desktop computer when I was a kid, and I don't find myself scrolling or watching for hours on end. So far, this is a form of social media I can live with – it's just fun and doesn't make my brain feel horrible.

What have you been enjoying lately? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!