Personalize Your Embroidery Designs

Erica, Free

Embroidery is wonderful in that a simple repertoire of stitches can produce endless designs but they can also make it make selecting a new design overwhelming. With an infinite number of wonderful beautiful patterns available at your fingertips, how are you supposed to choose just one for your next project? Some of you may be organized enough to have a queue of artists whose patterns you want to produce for yourself. I am not that disciplined. With every new project comes the terrible task of winnowing down the possibilities until I select my new design. I have learned to make this process easier on myself by looking for ways to make each new embroidery project very personal to me. Here are three embroidery motifs that are extremely easy to personalize:

My current embroidery of constellations. This will eventually be a dice bag.

Stars: This is first because it is the subject of my current project. Also space and stars are just awesome and great for embroidering on dark fabric. For this particular project I wanted a star map, but not just any star map. I found a website that shows the night sky at any time and place you enter. I input a significant date time and place in my life, printed it out and transferred it onto my fabric. You also search for a favorite constellation or astrological arrangement of planets.
Flowers: Flowers are great on their own, or with the myriad symbolic meanings attached to them. You can do some research into Victorian flower language to send secret messages with your designs. You can use flowers associated with your birth month or the place where you are from or currently living. Or, you can simply choose flowers that are special to you. Choose your flowers that grow at your favorite time of year or flowers that grow in your favorite place. One other benefit of choosing flowers is that it is easy to find patterns of nearly every type of flower in nearly every style from highly stylized to extremely realistic.
Quotations: Embroidering quotations is a way of keeping those words that speak to you so deeply, but that you still do not want tattooed on your body, close by. There is still a lot of poking involved, but when you decide that maybe that the words that spoke to you so deeply five or 10 years ago do not really hold any bearing on who you are now, you can simply take them off the wall. No need to explain how much they meant to you at the time for the rest of your life. Embroidering text is also a great way to experiment with new stitches and fonts. For those looking to create and sell patterns, the public domain is full of wonderful quotations to use.

-Erica

*This is a Charles Dickens quote I embroidered for a friend.*

Decorating Tips and Tricks for Sentimental People

Carolyn, Free

I have seen many of Erica’s decluttering and re-decorating attempts foiled by her emotional attachment to objects. Only recently has she begun to incorporate the most meaningful of these objects into her actual decorating. Erica was very inspired during her initial and enthusiastic employment of the Marie Kondo method. After the initial purge, she continued to employ the method with varying degrees of success. The little displays in her terrarium and on her dresser being the most consistent.

Erica's Terrarium — *Erica’s terrarium. The grow light is on so you can’t see the reflection of the messy living room*.

The Terrarium: The terrarium was first purchased for practical reasons: to keep one curious kitten out of Erica’s plans. At first, it only contained three rather boring pothos plants in three extremely boring black flower pots. Since those original plants outgrew their home, the terrarium has become a whimsical display replete with family heirlooms. (A terrarium is also a great place to protect delicate knickknacks from cats.)

The bird shaped candle holder was a gift from a family friend who has since passed away. Since candles and cats are also a bad combination, it now holds a small succulent propagation.

A small cat figurine it’s a gift from her mother. Before that it was a gift to her from Erica’s great-great-grandmother. It was given to Erica when she followed in the long-held family tradition of being a cat person.

The pottery mug is also a gift from her mother, as is the plant inside it. The mug, thrown by her mother at some childhood summer camp and at some point boxed up in the attic for many, many years is now looked upon every single day.

The tea cup is inherited from her grandmother. She was a prim and quiet woman who shared Erica’s love of tea and floral prints. The plants inside it also comes from her mother’s house. You can see where Erica gets her hesitancy to purchase house plants.

A Picture of Erica's Dresser — *There’s also a family photo on her dresser, but that has been removed for privacy reasons.*

The Dresser: Erica has managed to pare down the objects on her dresser to just a few with great significance to her. The plant is one of the first she brought from her childhood home, wrapped in a wet paper towels and successfully ushered through airport security. The dachshund jewelry and wallet holder was also a gift from that since past family friend, who used to take Erica antique shopping. The plaque was a gift from an aunt Erica does not see very often but thinks of fondly.

The small quilted potholder, from what I gather, has the most interesting story. Erica went on a few youth service trips in high school, one of which involved repainting and repairing the roof have an elderly woman’s house in the mountains of West Virginia. One afternoon Erica and her sister spent hours listening to the woman tell them her life story and in the end she gave them each a handmade potholder. Making quilted potholders was how she occupied her time in her old age. As with many youth service trips, Erica I never had any contact with this woman again, but enjoys the daily reminder of that pleasant afternoon in West Virginia.

I know Erica often sees only the spaces in her apartment that are heavily cluttered or those sentimental items that she has not yet figured out how to properly display. She will get there, and I hope that she spends a little more time seeing these two little displays and taking pride in what she has constructed.

-Carolyn

Invest in Your Hobbies, Even if You Don’t Take Them Too Seriously

Erica, Free

I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would enjoy Dungeons and Dragons. I joined my friends’ group about two years ago, afraid that they would be more committed to the intricacies of gameplay than I had the attention span for. Even after discovering that they mostly used the rules as guidelines for elaborate goofiness, much more my style, I was still hesitant to commit. I borrowed dice from my friends until the pandemic forced us all to play over zoom. I finally shelled out a few dollars for a set of dice (actually two), and decided that a dice bag would be a good embroidery and beginner sewing* project.

Since D&D is an adventure game wanted the embroidery design to be related to navigation. I had an old pair of dark blue jeans with white polka dots that I wanted to use for some kind of project. These would be the perfect background for a star map. I cut out two circles of the denim, one large for the outside and one small for the inside pockets, and two corresponding circles of some old bedsheets as lining.

I found a website that generates a star map for any date, time, and location that you can think of. I chose my birthday. The printed star map was about 7” in diameter and the circle for my pattern was 8”. I did not want the pattern to be too small, so I drew a 7/8” grid over my print out and made a 1 inch grid on tracing paper. I did my best to translate the stars and constellation lines from the print-out to my tracing paper. I left a 2” diameter circle in the middle blank because I did not want my embroidery to be damaged when I set the bag down.

*Full star map embroidery (in progress).*

Once I had my star map translated to tracing paper, I pinned it to the fabric in my embroidery hoop. Transferring designs onto dark fabric can be hard and I have found the way that works best for me is to baste my designs onto the fabric with white thread and take the threads out as I go along. I’ve tried using the white embroidery pencils but since it takes me so long to embroider, they often fade before I get a chance to embroider that part of the design. I marked each star with a little X, embroidering the fabric through the tracing paper. Once that was done I ripped the tracing paper off.

I embroidered the stars in DMC B5200, making tiny satin stitch circles as neatly as I could. I didn’t use French knots because I didn’t want them to snag. Embroidering through denim turned out to be difficult, especially for small designs, since the weave is not the same as the quilting quarters I normally use. It’s nice that the weave gives a little bit of a stretch when you wear jeans, but not necessarily when you are trying to embroider. I reluctantly had to use stabbing method instead of sewing method. I also embroidered over my tiny X’s rather than take them out because I realized I did not pay attention to the order in which I made the X’s and did not want to accidentally pull a thread and lose a star.

For the constellation lines, I used DMC 3865, slightly off-white. I realized that I should have basted in the constellation lines as well. Just like it is difficult to connect the dots when stargazing, it is hard when embroidering on a slightly inaccurate star-scape. Luckily it gets easier the more and more consolation I embroider. I am using a tiny split back stitch for these delicate lines.

Detail of the moon — *Detail of the Moon. Sorry the photo quality isn’t great. It’s been cloudy here.*

The other details of this project include the Moon at 91% waxing, done in multiple shades of white and gray to the best detail level I could approximate. I will be using a chain stitch in the DMC 3078 for the ecliptic, which shows the sun’s path across the sky. For the stars whose colors I could find, I’ll be using the lightest shades of yellow, blue, and red that I could find, DMC 3078, 775, and 948 respectively.

If I somehow went back in time and proposed this project to my past self who had just started playing D&D, she would have said I was crazy to think she would invest that much time in something that she didn’t even take that seriously. But now I know that you don’t necessarily have to take something seriously to enjoy it or invest in it. And it is always worth investing in good times with good friends

-Erica

*There will be another post later on the actual assembly and sewing of the dice bag.

The Simple Macaron Recipe that Will Make You Question Your Life Choices

Ella, Free

As promised, I am providing you the recipe for Erica’s macarons. This post will include the basic recipe for macarons as well as the basic recipe for the cream cheese frosting and fruit curd fillings. These little pastries will be the delight of everyone at your next garden party or brunch, and will surely leave you deep in a state of existential dread.

Which I now understand was Erica’s intention. She is used to an omnipresent anxiety about her life choices. She wakes up every day and goes to a job she does not like, and occasionally must spend her free time with these “friends” who look down on her for it. Why shouldn’t they also feel the crushing weight of the world once in a while? Realistically, they probably feel it to some degree, but are too deep in denial to admit it. Even high-paying jobs can be just as difficult to feel good about in a world where most of what we do is meaningless. But reality is difficult to resist when its dressed up in such an appetizing package. Macarons are still macarons after all.

So, if you want a challenge that will bring you face to face with your own questions about the meaning of life, even if you can’t pass it directly along to those who will eat your creations, try baking macarons. For extra anxiety about your place in the world, you can make these without electric beaters, like Erica did. Nothing will make you question your existence like whipping egg whites to a merengue with a tiny whisk, and only switching to hand beaters when the eggs are substantial enough, or mashing cream cheese, butter, and sugar together with just a fork.

Before I give you the recipe, I will recommend break the process up into three steps: baking the macarons, making the filling, and filling the macarons (especially if you take the hand beater route). There’s plenty of self-doubt to go around. Take it easy.

The Very Basic Cookie Recipe (one batch makes ~2 dozen full macarons (4 dozen cookies))

Ingredients:

1 cup fine almond flour (blend or food process it if you just have regular almond flour)
¾ cup powdered sugar
2 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ cup granulated sugar
~1-2 teaspoon of the flavoring of your choice (Erica used Almond extract, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder)

Instructions

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside
Sift almond flour and powdered sugar (and cocoa powder if you’re making chocolate) together into a bowl (discard any pieces of flour that don’t get through the sieve). Sift into another bowl, repeat the process back and forth a few times. Set aside.
Beat the egg whites in a large bowl until foamy, add cream of tartar, continue to beat as you add granulated sugar a bit at a time. (if using a liquid flavor/extract, add it here). Beat until stiff peaks are achieved.
Sift almond flour mixture over egg whites and gently fold into egg whites. Do not over mix. When a small drop of batter disappears back into the rest of the mixture after 10 seconds, the batter is ready.
Transfer batter to a piping bag and pipe ~1 inch circles onto the parchment paper.
Tap the cookie tray on the table or counter to get out the air bubbles.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and let the cookies rest for 15-30 minutes, until you can touch the top of them without any batter sticking to your finger.
Bake on center rack for 18-20 minutes.
Allow to cool on cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Fill (once you’ve made your filling) and refrigerate.

Basic Cream Cheese Filling Recipe

¾ block of cream cheese (room temp) (seriously)
1 stick of butter (room temp) (just as seriously)
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup optional flavoring (cocoa powder or fruit puree. Use MUCH less if you’re using vanilla extract)

Instructions

If you haven’t left your cream cheese and butter on the counter for a few hours, do that now.
Beat the butter and cream cheese together
Add powdered sugar and flavoring. Beat until smooth.
Refrigerate until ready to use

Basic Curd Recipe

3 egg yolks
4 tsp butter
½ cup powdered sugar
½ cup pureed fruit

Instructions

Make a double boiler/bain marie by filling a larger saucepan with water and putting a smaller saucepan about halfway submerged in the water (let it rest on the water, don’t let any water inside the smaller saucepan).
Combine ingredients in a bowl
Turn on the stove, allow water to boil
Pour ingredients into smaller saucepan. Stir constantly until mixture reaches desired thickness.
Remove from heat and transfer to heat-proof bowl to cool

-Ella

Summery Syrups to Delight and Refresh You

Ella, Free

Summer is undoubtedly upon us. Here in St. Louis that brings an oppressive humidity and a bottomless appetite for all things cool and refreshing. Citrus, mint, and ginger are three flavors I often turn to when looking for a reprieve from the heat. One issue I have found, however, is that many recipes calling for these ingredients often require much less than is available at the grocery store. The chunks of fresh ginger root are often much larger than the one or two tablespoons a recipe often calls for. A recipe calling for lemon juice leaves much of the pulp and the rind discarded. And anyone who has ever grown mint knows it is far more abundant that it seems to have uses.

One solution is to use these extras and castoffs to make syrups. The syrups keep for a very long time in the refrigerator and are perfect for flavoring everything from cocktails to iced tea to just adding a little bit of sweetness to a glass of seltzer. They are easy to make as well. Simply add equal parts sugar and water to a sauce pan along with whatever you are using for flavoring, whether it be citrus rinds, sprigs of mint leaves, or leftover ginger. If you are using citrus rind, make sure to wash them well and with dish soap before you put them in the syrup. Stir the mixture constantly and allow it to come to a boil. The longer you keep the flavor in the syrup and keep it on the heat, the stronger your flavor will be. Taste as you go and when the syrup reaches your desired flavor, remove it from the heat, pour it through a strainer, and discard the used flavoring.

*Maybe you don’t want to spend your day boiling lemons, but the result will be worth it.*

I know it seems hypocritical to complain about the heat and humidity while I suggest that you stand over a steaming pot of boiling sugar water for up to an hour. You have to believe me that it will be worth it. First off, it’s possible that releasing all that heat and humidity into your kitchen will make the rest of your house feel so much cooler. The copious amounts of steam produced will allow any incorporeal residents of your home the chance to be seen, should they choose it. They often miss their bodies dearly and the water vapor in the air gives them a chance to approximate a physical presence.

And once the syrups are made and stored in the refrigerator, you will feel infinitely fancier than before. Maybe you’re like me and the idea of purchasing flavored syrups or anything with the word “infused” or “botanical” for just one recipe seems like a gamble. What if I don’t like it and now I have too much? But if I can make it to my taste and save something from the trash, it seems worth it. And when you hand a friend a cocktail made with orange and ginger syrup and casually reveal, when asked, that you made it, they are sure to be impressed.

-Ella

Fancy Cocktail Syrups Aren't Hard to Make

Actually Sewing My Dice Bag (I Finished Something!)

Erica, Free

I should probably lie and tell you that this is my first ever sewing project. You will tell me I did a great job looks really nice. But this is not my first project. And after hearing that, you might be surprised to hear me say that this is an improvement.

This project was still a first in a lot of ways. It is the first time I used an actual pattern. If you to make the dice bag, you should follow that link. It’s a great tutorial and the instructions are very easy to follow. And because I used someone else’s pattern, I won’t be discussing the step-by-step process of making this bag. What I want to write about today are the ways I put a bit more care and foresight into my work and saw massive improvements.

To start, I planned way more than I usually do. I thought about how I wanted to sew each layer together, and where I wanted stitches just show on the outside. Before my embroidery needle had even pierced the fabric for the first time, I wrote a step-by-step guide to sewing these pieces together. I also planned out which threads I would use for the top thread and bobbin at each step and wound my bobbins accordingly.

In another shocking break from tradition, this time I practiced the stitches that I was going to use on the sewing machine, I adjusted my tension, stitch length, and needle placement and practiced sewing along a curve all on scrap fabric before I even put any of my pieces on the machine. I measured constantly, always pinning my circle center to center before opened any of the edges. I thought long and hard about the seam allowance. Normally I just pick up line and stick with it with varying degrees of success. I measured based on my embroidery, not wanting to stitch over it if possible. After sewing, I ironed my final pieces topstitched the seams.

I also changed my design at one point. At first I thought maybe I would sew the innermost circle all the way through the outer fabric. But when I did\, I was not able to follow the circle that had been already been sewn to the lining fabric very well and the result was extremely messy. I use my seam ripper to pick a part every single tiny stitch I could slip it under. In the end, I did not get them all out, but I still think it looks better. I did decide to zigzag stitch the pockets to the outer fabric so that the lining would not be completely loose inside the outer fabric of the bag. The zigzag stitches were larger and more visible than I would have preferred them to be, but still would rather have them there than not.

*The dice bag with embroidered quote inside*

I made my own bias tape for the drawstring, which I must say turned out very well. It was my first time using a bias tape maker and honestly my first time actually sewing in a straight line. The holes for the drawstring were a little bit difficult. I still might go back and redo them at some point. I did not quite get the hang of sewing buttonholes with the machine and at this point I was too lazy to go back and look it up. So I just cut some slits in the denim and used some very messy handsewn buttonhole stitches to try to secure them. Those are probably the messiest part of this project and I will pay for it eventually by having to hand sew new buttonholes when these ones be going to begin to fray too much.

I am extremely pleased with the results. I’ve been working on this project for just about three months. And not counting embroidery it took me 6.5 hours (that includes cutting, planning, and sewing). All told, the only cost to me personally was the embroidery thread (about $2.00) and the bias tape maker (about $6.00). I originally bought that for another project, but this is the first time I used it. I had the old jeans and the old sheets, the sewing machine, and the sewing thread but, for those of you who might have to purchase any of these materials yourself I have listed out how much I paid for each of the items required to make the dice bag. If you don’t have fabric scraps handy, I recommend purchasing quilting quarters. They’re cheap, easy to work with, and come in a lot of fun colors and prints.

I would do something like this again in a heartbeat. It was so much fun and I’m so proud of how it turned out. I haven’t even played DND in a few weeks, but sometimes I just take the bag out to hold it and look at it because it makes me so happy.

-Erica

Item	Cost
Sheet Scraps	Free
Jean Scraps	Free
Embroidery Thread*	~$2.00*
Sewing Thread	~$4.00 (two spools at ~$2/spool)
Bias Tape Maker	~$6.00*
Sewing machine	$25 (thrifted)
Pins	~$4
Tracing paper (to transfer pattern and to protect embroidery from sewing machine	$5 for the whole book

* is items I purchased for this project

We All Need a Weeknight Drink Occasionally, Those Should Be Easy

Ella, Free

Even committed weekend-only drinkers find themselves in need of the occasional weeknight cocktail or glass of wine. With the number of sworn-by or sworn-original recipes out there, cocktails can seem especially daunting. That should not be the case, especially with a boundary-crossing boss willing to try nearly every motivational tactic in the book except for higher compensation. That requires a simple, quick drink. The kind to accompany you on whatever vacation from the real world you need tonight.

The simplest mixed drinks require three components: liquor, flavor, and something to dilute the liquor. You will find that some combinations work better than others, but there is no accounting for taste.

Erica’s standby mixed drinks are vodka and seltzer and a Moscow Mule. So obviously her preferred liquor is vodka. And her food preferred dilutant it is something with bubbles. For a vodka seltzer, she often pours a tall glass of seltzer and adds a splash of vodka and a splash of sweetened lime juice. These are perfect for hot summer nights after a day spent outside, or any evening after she has received a lecture from her boss on how all people need to achieve their goals is motivation. Or how some people just don’t want to work. The kind of indirect criticism one can easily smile and nod along to without taking personally.

For days when the needling is more direct, I suggest a Moscow Mule. This can include any such incidents as being asked to do menial tasks despite not being your boss’s assistant or being held to the same expectations as higher-level staff without any additional compensation because you just need the right motivation. On evenings like that, Erica will make herself a Moscow Mule in a much smaller glass with slightly more vodka, seltzer water, sweetened lime juice, and the ginger syrup which I wrote about a little while ago.

So, when you are looking for an invigorating refreshment, or just to take the edge off a particularly terrible day, don’t let a complicated cocktail recipe stress you out even further.

-Ella

Garnish or not, it will taste the same. Cocktails shouldn't be complicated

The Hidden Trope That Fuels Your Vicarious Adventures (Repost)

Carolyn, Free

July is a free review month! This post would normally be for Patreon subscribers, but is being reposted for free. If you’re not a Patreon subscriber, this is what the Patreon posts are like. If you are a Patreon subscriber and have been wanting to share this post, now you can! (please do).

One of the last times we talked, you told me you didn’t really have a favorite genre. You said you would read any book or watch any TV show as long as it was good. I don’t deny that you have are very particular taste. And I am not trying to be reductive when I say this. I’m merely saying that I believe I have found a common thread in your entertainment choices.

Your favorite other lives to live and worlds to throw yourself into, whether they be deep in outer space, some dreary seaside town, or the regency era countryside, are the lives and worlds of people who are already good at something. To give credit where credit is due, you have little patience for stories where the protagonist is naturally good at something or magically good at something or (barf) the “Chosen One.” They need to have worked at it, but at some point before the story starts because you don’t really want to hear about that.

I don’t think it’s that uncommon. You just want to breeze past the hard part of getting in shape or mastering a new language or learning to paint or becoming a sleuth. And it’s a nice little vacation for you to pretend that you’re already there. Just like a vision board of future vacation destinations. It’s what everyone wants, and it’s so much easier to read about, and honestly to write, than it is to actually achieve. Every genre has this trope. It’s why your tastes are so widely varied across genres.

It’s why are you so gleefully ate up the story of a confident, jacked space lesbian in Gideon the Ninth. From the very beginning of the book, she could already do more push-ups than you could ever dream of doing. And that’s what you liked about. You like that it mentioned every once in a while the effort she put in and trauma she endured to get that kind of strength, but you would not have wanted to read a book about little Gideon training to become the wisecracking competent person she ultimately would.

It’s a nice little jaunt into a world where you, too, have already mastered some skill, but these books and TV shows have an extra secret bonus. Maybe they do it to make reentry into the real world a bit easier, maybe their creators do it out of subliminal jealousy. There is always some excuse buried in there to never, ever reach that level of achievement. In those little tidbits of backstory, there is always some trade off for that level of expertise. Maybe it was growing up so singularly focused on one pursuit, or some horrific trauma, or sacrifices made in adulthood, usually in the form of ruined relationships.

Take, for example, Ned from Pushing Daisies, I know, I know “but he’s magically good at something.” I would argue that he’s magically pretty capable, and the entertainment comes from his mistakes, but he is a skilled baker. Oh yes, he bakes beautiful pies, and does it so well he owns a bakery where he exclusively bakes pies. But what is the trade off? His mom is dead. They mention the correlation between the two pretty much every episode. And you wouldn’t take that trade.

So it really is the perfect vicarious experience. Pleasant enough to provide a brief respite from the real world but unpalatable enough that you’re not likely to linger.

-Carolyn

Adopt Your Very Own YA Love Triangle (Repost)

Free, Harry and Dash

It looks like you’ve fallen for the oldest trick in the book. In Fall 2019, you adopted another cat as a companion for me, hoping we would keep each other occupied while you were at work. How naïve you were. You did not realize the world would come to a standstill and our competition for your affection would become our favorite pastime.

We have different strategies, of course. I am moody and aloof during the day. I find the highest possible vantage point and watch you like a gargoyle. At night, I become exceptionally needy. You have bills to pay on your computer? I’m sitting on the keyboard. Cooking dinner? I’m underfoot begging for every single scrap. Going to sleep? I’ll be there, right beside you, making sure you can’t move your legs while you try to fall asleep, lest you forget me.

His approach is nearly the opposite. He is purring and compliant. He rushes to you the second you walk in the door. He demands to sit on your lap while you watch TV at night. He will fetch toys you throw for him, allowing you to be doing something else in the meantime. All night, he’ll play on his own, but in the morning, he’ll be breathing in your face, reminding you that it’s breakfast time, even if your alarm hasn’t gone off yet.

We complement each other perfectly. Sometimes it’s the only thing we can agree on. Between the two of us, we can command nearly all of your attention. I wonder if you realize the irony of your situation. I did not know you when you were in high school, but I know your type. You were the kind of person who had very little sympathy for any fictional character who was involved in anything that looked remotely like a love triangle.

Now, of course, your perspective has shifted with more lived experience, a greater capacity for empathy, and a voracious appetite for rom coms. You don’t seem to realize that you’ve created that exact scenario, albeit with much lower stakes. You get all the attention and affection, but with none of the problematic expectations. Your life is still completely yours. Our needs and demands remain the same, food, water, clean litter box, engaging play. And best of all, there is no pressure to eventually choose between us. You’ve already chosen both of us.

It’s really the perfect scenario, the opposite of a catch-22. Either we continue this way forever, and you keep your continuous source of affection, or you need us less, we bond over our shared unrequited attention and you get what you want in the first place.

-Harry and Dash

You Mean Other People Live Here Too? (Repost)

Free, Harry and Dash

We know there are myriad reasons why you keep us inside. We are not going to argue with those. We happily except the consolation of occasionally running up and down the hallways of your building.

The hallway is, in many ways, the perfect environment for us to exercise our bodies and our minds. The long straightaway allows us to sprint or simply amble adequate distances and the tight turns we must make when you try to catch us keep us agile. When we feel our climbing skills need some polish, there is always the staircase where we can twist in and out of the wrought iron railing or walk nimbly down the outside ledge of the stairs.

There are always new and mysterious smells for us. Sometimes they are stains on the floor, and sometimes they emanate from the other doors. Occasionally, we hear sounds from behind the doorways, too. It is always an interesting puzzle trying to figure out what they are.

When we say it all together, it seems rather obvious. But you must understand where we are coming from. One of us was an indoor cat in a previous life, but in some grand, half-vacant palace. And one of us has never been an indoor cat before. We thought we hit an indoor cat jackpot. We had a safe place to run and investigate and had so much fun giving you the slip to get out the door.

You don’t have to imagine how frightened we were the first time we heard a noise coming from the stairwell. We both have seen that mysterious locked door at the bottom of the stairs, although only a few times since you try your best not to keep us on your floor. But we both knew that must be origin of the footsteps that grew louder and louder coming up the stairs toward us.

Luckily, you were there to save us. We only had to spend a few seconds cowering at the door waiting for you to catch up with us and let us inside. But of course, our quick retreat to safety left the source of those footsteps entirely up to our imagination. Now, whenever we hear footsteps ascending the stairs, or bolts turn in one of the closed doors along the hallway, our minds turn to the worst. You might think these rare but terrifying sightings would keep us out of the hallway all together. But in fact, they make it a much more exciting adventure.

-Harry and Dash

All Things Marceleste

Here to anti-influence you

Free

Personalize Your Embroidery Designs

Decorating Tips and Tricks for Sentimental People

Invest in Your Hobbies, Even if You Don’t Take Them Too Seriously

The Simple Macaron Recipe that Will Make You Question Your Life Choices

Summery Syrups to Delight and Refresh You

Actually Sewing My Dice Bag (I Finished Something!)

We All Need a Weeknight Drink Occasionally, Those Should Be Easy

The Hidden Trope That Fuels Your Vicarious Adventures (Repost)

Adopt Your Very Own YA Love Triangle (Repost)

You Mean Other People Live Here Too? (Repost)