Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
My mom would have been 78 today. I think she’d still be biking and gardening and wanting to travel. Maybe the two of us would go back to Paris. Maybe we’d all go to Hawaii again as a family.
Sometimes, thinking of the alternate timeline is really hard. But at least it’s gotten easier and easier to just think of her, to realize our life with her will never go away, that it happened and it shaped us and we’ll always have that.
Happy birthday, Mom. We love you.
Apparently, sweater knitting is either all or nothing with me. I’ve been going all-out for six weeks on my J. Crew-ish rollneck sweater and all I have left to do is some length on the sleeves and body!
It was 80 degrees in March so I’m not sure I’ll be able to wear this until the fall (or the next alarmingly mild winter) but I think it’s going to be really nice–oversized and classic and (most importantly) NOT ITCHY.
Whatever little bit of snow the mountains got is long gone and everything is sprouting and leafing out. Even with some wet weather moving in, it was nice to see it all yesterday.
1. How have I never heard of Tony Hart before now? He had a children’s art show in Britain and he’s a delight. Watch him draw with PASS-tels.
2. “There’s still some good in the world, Mr. Frodo.” Hiker’s dog lost in a wild New Zealand forest rescued by helicopter after strangers fund search
3. This sounds like a fantastic movie idea. 
Vinyl records are currently 90% of my personality and now I’m doing the [undiagnosed but let’s be honest here] autism spectrum trait of “go EXTREMELY deep on a hobby.”
Salt Lake City has a newer listening bar that only plays vinyl; they held a “Sunday Service” on Easter of jazz and soul. Their Instagram showed the playlist for the afternoon so of course I had to recreate it on Apple Music so I could hear all these rare tracks. (Here’s the link.)
And if really niche jazz albums weren’t enough to get into, there’s even more niche international releases. Vietnamese pre-1975 soul, anyone??
I was talking to some of my gym friends yesterday and realized that right around this time is the 8th anniversary of me starting weight training, if you count the continuing ed class I took to get started. (I joined my gym in June 2018; here’s a report from that July when I couldn’t even bench the bar).
Now I can deadlift 150% of my body weight, squat 115%, and bench 75% (we’re getting there), and just existing in the world is so much easier and smoother. I saw a Reddit post asking, “Muscular women of Reddit how does it actually feel to build and carry that strength?” this morning and, well, they said it all:
Mentally, I do feel more confident and empowered. I know I can show up for myself, I know that I’m disciplined, I know that I can do hard things.
I feel more capable and confident. I carry myself differently, I’m more aggressive and less apologetic. My body image issues are gone. I appreciate my body for what it can do, not what it looks like. But it has been healing to look strong and not “pretty” after being terrified of looking “bulky” for so long. Finally. Peace.
You feel more safe in the world. You learn to trust yourself through stressful experiences.
Mentally I feel grounded and clear. I cannot imagine my life without lifting and hope to never have to. I will never have enough muscle and the feeling is just wow. I look forward to the gym each day. I love everything I eat and it happens to align with my goals. Getting stronger over the years, putting on size, it all makes you feel so confident and capable of anything. Obviously you look amazing too, but that pales in comparison to how it makes you feel. Just alive and full of joy.
I finally made some matching machine covers for the Luxury Sewing Lair so now the decorating is all done.
Look at all those matching machines! I used the Closet Core free patterns for this but adjusted them for my machines: I cut the serger/coverstitch one down about an inch in width and two inches in height based on the last time I made it since it’s a little big for a Juki. And I had to add quite a bit of width/length for the sewing machine cover, since my 740 is about twice the size of a regular machine.
The fabric is from Spoonflower. I just guessed quantities and got a yard of their heavier sateen wideback. At 108″ I was just able to fit all three covers on there, but I didn’t have enough to make a table pocket for the back of the machine cover.
That 6.5 oz sateen is a nice substrate, though. Part of me wants to get more printed so I can have a pillow on the couch that matches the machine covers, but that might be getting a little TOO matchy-matchy.
We did the new Easter tradition of brunch and cookie delivery over the weekend. Six dozen cookies and six pastry tips this time!
I took today off too, because it’s so slow/I decorated cookies most of Saturday. Time to eat cookies and sew!
1. I might be a little too excited about a woman in a rocket named after the moon goddess, but in our theme of space and parodies this week: Shoot Men Into Space. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” for 2026.
2. Via Robin Sloan, the JR Kuyushi Railway Company site. Look at those trains! Let’s book the one that goes to the hot springs.
3. This is absolutely what Toyotas would sound like:
View this post on Instagram
I haven’t made a new entry in the “space” category of the blog in six years (and before that I was really excited about, uh, SpaceX) (oh, my sweet summer child)–but the MOON ROCKET launched successfully yesterday!
View this post on Instagram
Nothing will make you feel more “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” like seeing humanity do an amazing thing in 2026, but the moon rocket did indeed cure my depression yesterday.
View this post on Instagram