We’re almost through the first week of June, so it’s time for a May 2026 recap. The month was busy. We survived the Whisker Mixer. Everyone who attended seemed to have a good time (myself excluded, of course). We netted $2,000 more than I had anticipated. Most importantly, it’s over for another year. On to the Mutt Market!
In happier news, Mom and I went to the greenhouses and planted the cemeteries in Lansing. It’s always one of the best weeks of the year!
I set a limit on my garden spending this year, and held to it. I’ve been working on dividing and moving perennials, so that has filled in some of the space as well. I was just planning on weeding the driveway border bed, but the lily of the valley had gotten so bad, everything had to be pulled, removed, and planted with something else. I’ll be interested to see how it matures as it will be a huge change from previous years.
Mom had minor surgery on her foot, so she has been working on the driveway garden at her house. I did finally get over and start weeding and planting her backyard. The next step is to divide and replant her perennial grasses. I figure it will take about three more sessions to get all of that done. April was the rainiest month on record in our area. May was quite dry and quite cold right up until the end. I suspect June may be hot and humid.
In May, I put together the first Wish You Were Here snail mail club and got it up on my Etsy. I went through my list of sales and sent a postcard I made (above) to the 50 most recent zine customers to let them know about the mail club. So far, I’ve had seven out of 25 total sales. It sure would be nice to get some positive reviews back on the ones I sent, and sell some more. I am still at this point planning on making one in late August for autumn, and maybe a surprise one for Halloween.
Each package, priced at $9.93 plus $2.05 shipping gets you a vintage postcard from my collection, a double-sided newsletter featuring my vacation memories, three stickers, a bookmark, a card with an entry to win a bag charm, and a handwritten letter, all wrapped up in a vellum sleeve and sealed with a wax seal. This snail mail club is a stand-alone; you don’t need to sign up in perpetuity and have to cancel later if you don’t want it. Convenient, right?
Also in May, I finally painted up my most recent zine on tardigrades, and I even made a video of it for my YouTube Channel. It is also for sale on my Etsy page, but no one has purchased a copy.
My plans for June include my Summer Reads, starting with Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time, which is a non-fiction book about the great American Dust Bowl. I sketched out a cute snail mail thing, and I plan to carve it and print it using linocut printing, which I haven’t done in quite awhile but I enjoy. I am also planning on painting with gouache using some vintage postcards as reference images. I haven’t sold any bag charms or beaded items in awhile, so I’m going to step away from that and focus on maybe getting more snail mail club sales, making a few more zines, and just doing art to satisfy myself. I seem to have a plethora of doctor appointments in June, so maybe I can get myself sorted out.
