Repurposing old hobbies

Like most Americans, I have drawers, boxes, shelves and other respositories full of stuff I haven't used for years. In many cases decades. I oscillate between shame at my inability to throw these things out (as decluttering experts are always declaring we should do) and being glad I kept it. 

Today is one of the happy days in the second category. I've been trying to come up with DIY embellishments for my scrapbook pages, mostly disappointed at the commercially available packs and products aimed at scrapbookers (who are evidently an incredible goldmine of mindless spending for the folks who are making their living riding the back of this trend). I admit that I have been sucked into that commercial whirlpool and have spent some $$ on tools and materials. But before I went out and bought another little baggie of disappointingly crude "embellishments" or an expensive decorative punch It occurred to me to take a look at the residue of some of my abandoned hobbies. 

Well, look what I found in my box of old bento box supplies! Decorative punches for making little dots and starbursts out of sheets of dried seaweed! Yahoo!


And then, of course, there's that scary drawer full of random sewing and jewelry making embellishments, including at least a few things that are 2-dimensional enough to glue to a scrapbook page. Whee!







Starbursts and colored dots are always fun, but I'm still looking for decorations for the travel pages. I actually bought a little pack of those (only $3 at Joanns!) but found only a few of them usable - mostly they are clumsily drawn clipart of over-sized cameras and open suitcases in weird candy colors. Anybody have any ideas? Or some old magazines or travel brochures with small pictures that could be cut out and pasted to cardstock? 

Dabbling in Peacock

Taking advantage of an Amex Offer to get 2 free months of Peacock TV, and really enjoying it. I signed up specifically to watch Resident Alien, which did not disappoint. It's a warm-hearted, goofy ensemble comedy with sharp writing and an excellent cast, headed up by Alan Tudyk as the stranded alien.

The other Peacock show I wanted to try was Poker Face, which is a gender-swapped mashup of Columbo and the Fugitive starring Natasha Lyonne. It's not bad, but lacking in imagination. Sure, it's a high-concept setup, but once you get past the cleverness of the elevator pitch it's pretty derivative. I like Natasha a lot, which might be enough to keep me watching through 10 episodes. But if they just keep recycling old Columbo plots with occasional frissons of "Oh no, here comes Lieutenant Gerard again!" I'm not sure I'll stick with it. 

Tonight I noticed that as a companion to some totally unnecessary remake of the old Quantum Leap show, Peacock is offering the original 1989 Quantum Leap, a show I remember dimly but with great fondness. I just watched the first episode and I'm kinda hooked. I'm not sure I'll rewatch all 5 seasons, but at the very least I need to see the 2nd half of the 2-hour pilot. 

I'm also watching Mrs. Davis, but won't know until I get to the end if it was worth spending time on. I'm beginning to suspect that it's another example of what spiderplanet calls the "must be deep because it's surreal" syndrome. Yeah, it is surreal. But I'm increasingly dubious about the "deep" part. 

Even if you don't have an Amex card, Peacock is only $5/month with ads (and the commercial breaks are short). It's definitely worth a month or two just for Resident Alien.