It is a week of anniversaries. Today is my 9th anniversary at my current company, which officially makes this the longest stint of my career. [Sidenote: in October, I’ll be celebrating 20 years at the Bar, aka being a licensed lawyer, which sounds SO strange because how is it possible I’ve been doing anything for 20 years??] On Sunday, my son turns 15. FIFTEEN!!! How is that possible?! It’s true that I have to crane my neck to look him in the eyes now, but still … he’s my baby boy. How exactly does he have a budding mustache now???

Don’t mind me, just tripping a bit over here …

I am getting ready for my bestie to fly to Edmonton for a visit (next week, eek!!), soon to be followed by our annual trip to BC, so I’ve been working extra hard to wrap up a few writing projects beforehand. That meant second edits on Inspector Hawthorne book #4, and first edits on my most recent WIP, an urban fantasy mystery with a bit of a gothic twist. The latter is also, tentatively, intended to be part of a series. I say ‘tentatively’ because I’m currently in the most difficult stage with this book, trying to turn a messy first draft into something resembling a story and trying to figure out if there’s an actual story there. The complicating factor? I’ve just had a kickass idea for a book #2 in the series. D’oh!

My ambitious goal for this coming week is to knock out another editing round on my second fantasy mystery book. I’ve been getting beta reader feedback on it, and I need to make some decisions about the direction I’ll be taking with this one. Needless to say, come the last week of July, I will be ready for a long break!!

Somehow, I managed to read two excellent books last week — mostly because both were extremely bingeable, and I finished each in, like, 24 hours. (Reading on the walking pad, for the win! I love multi-tasking, lol!) Anyway, highly recommend The Clock House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, and The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada. The latter is a honkaku classic that has been on my TBR for a while now, and did not disappoint — it has one of the most ingenious methods of murder I’ve ever read. And if you’re not familiar with Japanese honkaku mysteries, this is your sign to get on that 😉

I went to the Re-Use store again — surprise! lol! — and got another motherlode of magazines. I’ve not had as much time lately to work on my collages, but I’ve been gathering materials (aka ripping up old magazines) and, honestly, that’s quite soothing and meditative in its own right. It’s especially satisfying to work on a magazine where I can use up the majority of pages for scraps.

Have a great weekend!

A few weeks ago, I finally made my way to the city’s ReUse Center – and hit the magazine jackpot! Let me explain.

For those of you who are not familiar with it, the ReUse Center is basically a shopfront where the City of Edmonton puts out small items that get donated/tossed out but, instead of being recycled, can be reused by others. Most of what we’re talking about are paper-based products, craft stuff, decorations, containers of various descriptions, and similar categories of things. Everything is free – you just pick what you want, weigh it (they keep track of what gets “upcycled” this way), and go.

There is a section for magazines, and when I went, it was quite large and full. I was in heaven!

In total, I ended up with about 60 or so magazines. Some to use for scrapbooking, and some to keep in my personal collection at home. This included some amazing vintage magazines – and even a collectible, the inaugural issue of George, with Cindy Crawford on the cover. That thing is selling for hundreds of dollars online! I’m going to keep it, as a piece of JFK Jr./CBK memorabilia.

Here’s my scrapbooking haul:

And these are some of the vintage magazines I’m keeping:

Talk about nostalgia! These are all from the mid-to-late 90s, aka my teen years. Flipping through them gave me one flashback after another. Some good, some bad. I was a shy, nerdy teenager (and not very well-off) so I spent most of my adolescence feeling like an outsider, watching from the sidelines while other people were having all the fun – cute clothes, parties, boyfriends, etc. Magazines were a window into a world to which I had no access. I loved them, but they also made me feel bad, tbh.

Now, 30 years on, I have enough emotional distance to be able to look at these magazines with the perspective of my current self (who’s living 15-year old Adina’s dream life, tbh) while also holding space for the memory of my old experiences. Bittersweet, but also just quaint and sweet.

The December 1994 issue of Seventeen hit extra nostalgic:

Little Women was my generation of teenage girls’ Roman Empire. And the one and only Laurie:

There was also an ad for a just-released Sun, Moon, and Stars – still one of my fave perfumes.

I couldn’t afford it then, but a couple of years ago, I was able to track down 2 vintage bottles (one thrifted, one on Poshmark) so I’m set now for a while. I believe they still produce a perfume under this name, but it’s not the original formulation, so I had to make sure to get the vintage ones. They smell like the 90s, in the best way.

I also found some outfit inspo … of course. How fun is this outfit:

I have a few vintage oversized blazers that could work, and a similar necklace, but I need to track down a pair of daisy-printed leggings, haha! Here’s hoping the thrift gods deliver. Remember how popular daisy prints were in the 90s? I’ve been looking for a dress like that for ages now, too, to scratch the nostalgia itch. Picture it with a white tee and some Dr. Martens boots or mary janes – it would be perfect! Haven’t found one yet, but I’m not giving up yet.

I thought this was pretty funny — predictions for fashion, 10 years into the future (so, 2004):

The caption is actually quite prescient — though it’s quaint to think that we’d still be walking around with literal faxes and radios in our pockets. But the spirit of the future was definitely haunting the page 😉

Anyway, I’ll be back at the ReUse store soon and keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll find another treasure hoard.

Hi, hello. Stepped away, I’m back. Slowly settling into the rhythm of summer school vacation. I took a short social media break, and it was very nice. The problem with social media is that consuming too much starts to feel overwhelming in a very insidious and very damaging way. Even with a carefully curated bubble, you end up having too many signals – “this is what’s important/what you should aspire to/what you should be doing” – that can drown out your own internal values compass. And you can find yourself chasing ideas and goals that aren’t aligned and true to yourself. And being miserable. And by “you”, I mean me.

I needed to re-set. And I made some progress with that (it’s an ongoing process). I missed the good parts of social media – connecting with my peeps – so I’m back, but this has convinced me that it’s perfectly okay to take little breaks, whenever it feels necessary. I am not a slave to the algorithm, lol!

Things have been pretty quiet; between the weather (which messed with more than one set of plans) and the see-saw of my mental health, I haven’t been doing much. Trying to enjoy time with the kids as much as I can before I lose them completely to teenager-dom, and picking away at my hobbies whenever the mood strikes. Gardening has been nigh impossible, thanks to the mosquito apocalypse of 2026, and thrifting has been a bit blah – though I did find a few great pairs of pants lately, and a ring I’m obsessed with. Scrapbooking, of course, never lets me down or disappoints.

I’ve been feeling discouraged about writing (social media strikes again!), so I decided that the best cure for that was … um, editing two books at once. Lol whut?! But, actually, it kinda helped. They’re two very different books (genre, writing style, setting, etc.) and somehow the contrast helped me to see their respective merits more clearly and enjoy them both for what they have to offer. I was having doubts before, but now I’m pretty sure that one of them will be publishable (with a few more rounds of edits). The other one is still up in the air, but it’s a maybe.

As far as reading goes, I’ve been in a bit of a slump, but I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been slowly accumulating books to take with me on my annual family trip to BC – which is always a reading fest for me – and I’m excited about diving into them. Meanwhile, I just treated myself to The Clock House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (the latest in the Murder Houses series, which is one of my faves) as well as The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, which has been on my to-buy list for ages. I’ve already started on the first, and it’s so good!

I’ll share more of my summer reading list soon.

Have a great weekend!