Stuffed cusspots and an overstuffed heart

 

Self-care, self-comfort, and ease. I go with the flow and make these while lying across the bed, reorganizing my wayward vertebrae.

Here's the origin story and some follow-up. I've been making these little catch-alls for a long time. Both of these are crammed with scraps of hand-dyed cloth and are available. 

For a few weeks now, I've been using up the last of a cone of Lily Sugar&Cream cotton adding little vestigial arms, legs, and eye stalks to make the tails look reasonable. I think I'm done for now. These are things I can do without really looking too hard or focusing. I was watching TV.

To not channel surf the news outlets, I remembered how much we liked NYPD Blue when I saw that Hulu offers the entire 12 seasons. 

Starting in September of '93, this was award-winning adult TV fare.  This was one you did not record to watch later. You sat through it, hands empty, eyes on the screen. 

Unlike most of the TV rolled through our living rooms before cable, this show has held up incredibly well. The writing, the acting, the streets of NY at their grittiest. A strong, ever-evolving cast includes secondary characters, mostly (my new old favorite words)  skels and mopes being played by some of today's leading actors in what might have been their first jobs on the screen. 

 

This time around, I've been watching as a writer as I struggle to get back into the word game. 

But this morning I got caught up in the story and found myself weeping at a city hall wedding, coffee gone cold. Midway through the next episode came a memory like an icicle through the heart - the terrible realization that not every romance gets a happy ending. Twice in one day, I cried my eyes bloody.  

I am now exhausted and I never even got dressed. Pool time has passed and another thunderstorm is shaping up. I might even get some writing done tonight.