Revisiting Fonts

Using Pangolin, a bold and compact font

There are some cute fonts on Blogger Blogspot. From what I have seen on other blog host websites, the variety of fonts on Blogger is number one, far above the others by miles. 

Short Stack is my second favorite font, clear and easy to read.

Handlee, this is the font I like for photograph captions. 

Macondo Swash Caps is a font I like to use for special headings. 

Sophia is a favorite get fancy script font. 

This font, Playwrite GB J, is my favorite. It has the homiest vibe. As you can see, The curvier fonts are thin and small. That is why Playwrite and Short Stack are front runners for me. 

Changing fonts as you type hasn’t always been do difficult. I add photos into the text, for example, because when Images are added first, the font is only either default or Verdana. 

On my list of things to do in 2026,  is to find a personal font, one I like to use all the time. It is sort of like giving my writing hand a face.

Browsing fonts online is fun, gorgeous stuff out there. But, after awhile, I start to want to create my own font. I’ll find s fee that if they were blended, that would be my go to font. 

Note, I love lettering. A dream of mine is to own a small vintage hand press. 

What are your favorite fonts?

Indoors

Fads & Time

The first fad I remember as a kid is lost in memory. Most fads that cost money were not within our low income budget. I do recall having a Hula Hoop. Most everything else was second hand (or more). 

Pulling that realization over the last forty years is like dragging mud out of a puddle. By the time the mud is out of the water, what was in the hand has washed away. Fads are like that, high fade value.

In the electronic era of buying the latest, there are more fads that I have not owned than there were when I was a kid. I’ve never owned a Walkman, a Blackberry or any game video player thing. The computer is not a fad nor is a smartphone. 

So, we are sort of in the tech fad era, that appears to have no end other than AI replacing humans. 

As for myself, I’ve entered the era of not opening the blinds can make it feel like morning at noon because I’ve been on the Internet too long to notice time as it flies.

What era do you feel you’re in? 

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Flowers For a Day In January

Flower photos from over the years

 

Mid January Digging In With Art

Alas, on this mid January sunny day, here I go again sorting through portfolios. To my credit, it is evident that past portfolio sorting decreased the number of watercolors that went nowhere. I am pleased how few there are to finish.

The watercolor (photo below) is the one I’ve chosen to finish. It is from a photograph taken circa 2010.

No print out of the photo is attached. It would take me hours if not days to find the photograph. I believe the tree is gone as well. 

Old watercolor in progress

Winter Photo: The Old Pinwheel

For years, I kept a pinwheel on a post anchored in an umbrella stand. As an alternative to a wind sock, the spin is entertaining. This year, though, a wind sock is a possibility.

Gmail Glitch

The Gmail account recovery system Google has in place, I believe, has a major flaw.

I manage to reset a password.

I log in using the new password.

I update personsl information, email and phone number.

I make sure the recovery email and phone number are updated.

I click on the Gmail icon

A log in page appears.

I enter the password.

Password is rejected.

Start password reset

Get code at recovery email address.

Change password.

Log in with password

Click Gmail icon

Password required is rejected

Code can be sent to phone number, but it is the phone I no longer have access to. No other option is given. Waiting a day or so doesn’t help. 

Chat program results: since multiple tries without success, open another account.

Google Gmail account recovery has a major flaw that is years old. To date, it has not been fixed. I hope tomorrow, just maybe, this time the system catches up and stops using my old phone number and/or stops blocking me from the Gmail email feature. 

23 January 2026-Gmail still blocked by old phone number. Help Chat doesn’t understand the problem, gives me account recovery option that does not apply to the old phone number problem

The Holiday Stragglers

 A tradition developing is once all the holiday decorations are put away, finding something out in the open that missed being boxed up. Last year it was a vintage plastic holly tree hanging on the wall. Before that, the ornaments on the faux deer head I made, that, btw, are still up there. 

He has become the representative of a joyous season. (The pumpkin wall sculpture is a foot or so off frame to the right.)

This year, the cat on the sill is still wearing her holiday jewelry. I’m thinking of making her a winter scarf to replace her bling.

Do you have holiday stragglers?

Update 19 January 2026: 

Sitting here reading comments, guess what I see. (The vase has been moved back.)

🤣

A Word, Clutter, Still Life & White Coffee

For some reason, I believe, we latch on to words meaning things they are not. I thought a vignette, aside from a photo, is a small display similar to a still life. There may be a similar word that I’m just forgetting at the moment. 

The vase, ivy and faux flowers would make a nice still life painting. Maybe my clutter is just a matter of surrounding myself with art. 

😂

A fun experience happened yesterday. Remember the one about how distracted folks poured orange juice in their cereal? 

Well, I was going over in my mind about what I was going to do that day while making my first coffee. Out of instant, I boiled water for the French press. Cup ready, with a dash of sugar and half&half, I’m waiting, thinking, waiting. And before I know it,  pouring hot water right into my cup.

I stared at the cup for a second wondering why my coffee is white!

😂 

Then I took the coffee out if the fridge and put some in the French press that, btw, is not my cup.

This Blog’s Future

The December 2025 blog break gave me a chance to not only get through the holidays, it presented me with blog thinking time. 

Early in my blogging days 2008, I saw that posts that teach, posts tutorials and such receive a higher number of visitors. 

Statistic watching in those days was the norm. Over the years, blogs that are not business based, don’t appear to be hungry for high numbers. Many blogs have moved into their niche and do well there, as I see it. 

Most of the business based blogs I followed, aren’t around and/or, I don’t follow them anymore. One reason for that, other than my blog reading slow down, is that they moved up into either Wordpress or their own website through a website host. 

In  my 17 years of blog following, I recall only one blocking me after I disagreed with her  political views. My experiences reading blogs has been 98% positive. Bloggers are a wonderful community.

This blog will change in 2026, probably after January. So far, I have posted every day in 2026. I want to keep that going. 

I’m not sure what will change here. I suspect more art and crafts, less rambling thoughts, and maybe health focused issues. 

Thank you all for visiting

I greatly appreciate it.

Day 16 of Week 3 January 2026

 Here already? 

How do Fridays do that, get here faster

than the other six days?

Lousy winter weather yesterday of rain to snow as in ice, made me not want to even look outside. I do not drive in wintery mix weather.  Sadly, I expect this season will have too many fickle days like that.

There is nothing major going on art wise in my life at the moment. Clearing out the easel area and desk isn’t finished yet. Same old, same old.  On that note. My life is sounding like a broken record. 

During my continued decluttering and moving things around, I have decided on some simple changes:

• Have sit down at the table meals. 
• Don’t put birdseed out everyday because they don’t eat it all anyway. 
• Stop saving in-case-I-go-hiking boots
• Stop keeping cardboard boxes because they’re small and cute

Have a Simple Change Weekend!

Call an old friend

Bake an eggnog pie*

Count the interior corners of your home

Draw a large barn

Listen to a symphony

Take a walk with love ones

Make something with branches

* There’s a recipe in the Dec 2025-Jan 2026 edition of “Country Living”

Winter Photography: Drooping Pine

Pine trees drooping under the wright of snow and ice have  a philosophicsl vibe.