Here are the scraps of ephemera I saved in June, a solid third of which are related to a dental disaster I endured that spanned nearly every single day in June.
Top row
Packaging from the Kroger-brand Orajel
Tag from NASA Rise plushie
Packaging from the water at the oral surgeon’s office
Second row
Packaging from the red and white twine I used to package my Lonely Hearts Club Postcards
Packaging from my new eyelash curler
Portion of the medication guide that came with my Tylenol 3 prescription from the dentist
Third row
Underwear packaging
Various packaging for items related to my dental disaster
Packaging from my Persnickety Prints order
Bottom row
Shipping label from my long-lost Ulta order (an absolute fucking nightmare, I will never order from them again)
Piece of the KFC box my Michael Jackson Memorial Lunch came in
Packaging from yet another protein pancake mix I tested out
I’ve been on a roll lately and have several updated projects and completed projects to share in the coming weeks. Today, I’m kicking things off with my Hike Passport, which I’ve updated to include my summer 2026 hikes.
Angel’s Rest; hiked July 2, 2025. My third time hiking this trail (one of the few trails I’ve hiked more than once), and my first hike in three-ish years, after mental illness kept me off the trail for way too long.
Twister Falls via Eagle Creek Trail; hiked July 16, 2025. First (and only!) hike this season that tested my OCD. Still a little surprised my brain didn’t turn against me during this one.
Oxbow Loop; hiked July 23, 2025. The best part of this hike (“hike”): a body of water that I can spend hours upon hours lying next to and floating in, almost completely undisturbed by other people.
Ramona Falls; hiked August 8, 2025. Last proper hike of the season, and the last one I shared on the blog. Still can’t get over how big the falls are. Look how teeny tiny I am in that photo!!
Angel’s Rest; attempted September 24, 2025. First attempt at a sunrise hike. Did not finish.
Look. Listen. What happened was, I’d decided to end the season with my first-ever sunrise hike. What better local-ish spot to watch the sunrise than Angel’s Rest?
About 15 minutes in, I decided to try to capture in a photo for my kids how dark the trail was under the cover of trees. I turned on my phone’s flashlight to help illustrate this. As I began to lower my phone to turn off the flashlight and put it back in my pocket, the light caught a pair of glowing, yellow-ish eyes about 25 meters ahead of me, right in the middle of the trail. I froze immediately, staring back at the eyes, trying to figure out what to do.
I’ve said before that while I have experience hiking, I do not consider myself an experienced hiker. Partly because before this instance, I’ve never encountered wildlife on the trail before. Not knowingly, anyway. And certainly not in the dark, alone, in cougar country. I very quickly made the decision to calmly and slowly back away, then turned around and booked it back to my car. I was disappointed to not watch the sunrise from the summit, and I’m happy with the decision I made. Better safe than sorry. Especially when in the dark, alone, in cougar country, with a pair of glowing, yellow-ish eyes about 25 meters ahead of you, right in the middle of the trail, staring you down.
* * *
I’m pleased to announce that this set of hikes corresponds exactly to the number of blank pages I had left in this Hike Passport and therefore completes this volume. I’m sad to announce (1) I have only one Hike Passport remaining, which, like my other two volumes, has space for 20 hikes, and (2) the company that used to make them no longer does. RIP.
Wrapper from the piece of gum I chewed during my first run in forever. (Before CrossFit and weightlifting and powerlifting, I ran. Often. Seven to nine miles a day, rain or snow or shine, and through two pregnancies. I miss it and I’m very excited to (incrementally!) add it back into the mix.)
Packaging from my favorite fun/fizzy drink. (I’M SORRY, MICHAEL!!!)
Packaging from the cupcake mix I cooked for one of my kids’ birthdays.
Second row
Some of the receipts from my many Michael viewings.
Portion of the envelope my ballot arrived in.
Packaging from one of my gym snacks (gummy bears).
Third row
Packaging from a mini candy I got at one of my weekly volunteering gigs. (I hadn’t had these in YEARS! Maybe even decades.)
Pre-printed postage from a vintage envelope.
Shiny packaging I found on the ground during a walk that caught my eye.
Bottom row
Paper wrapping that was around a wall calendar I had printed at FedEx Office.
Items found on the ground during my walks.
Packaging from a canister of Bar Keepers Friend, which I used to clean all the gunk off two stainless steel frying pans I scored from a neighborhood free pile.
As always, I have approximately one billion projects in various states of progress going on over here, and at least thrice as many ideas and plans and concepts of plans ricocheting around in my head. Four things I’m working on (and excited about!) right now:
PDX Correspondence Cooperative “stamps”
The PDX Correspondence Cooperative meets once a month at one of my favorite stores in Portland. Last month, I attended for the first time. I was nervous to go, and I’m glad I did. I met so many creative, crafty people; it was a lot of fun. Once you attend two meetups, you’re eligible to receive a handmade “passport.” At the end of each month’s meetup, attendees trades “stamps” to adhere in their “passport.” The “stamps” can be anything—stickers, little drawings, pressed flowers sealed between strips of tape, actual stamps, etc. For my first “stamp,” which I’ll hand out at the April meetup tomorrow evening (!), I used a postage stamp-shaped paper punch to make “stamps” of security envelope patterns from duplicates in my collection. I love them so much.
Pinback buttons
During the great pinback button blitz of 2026, I decided I wanted to make my own pinback buttons. After some quick googling and youtubing, I learned (1) it’s a very easy process, and (2) there are two places in town that have the required equipment and materials, available to the public for use: the Beaverton Library’s Makerspace, and the IPRC. Because I am impatient and the IPRC is much closer to me than is the Beaverton Library, I used their button maker. I love how all my test buttons turned out and have been completely captured by this new crafty hyperfixation. More to follow in a future post.
Project Life 2026
For the first time in several years, I’ve begun my yearly Project Life album in January (!!) and’ve stayed current with it (!!). Two miracles. I plan to share some of my pages documenting January through March in the next week or two—whenever the sun comes out during the right part of the day and for long enough for me to take some decent photos of said pages.
Project Life 101
I’ve been working on a “what is Project Life and what do I need to get started?” post and it’s finally almost ready to share. Project Life is my favorite way to document my life. It makes me sad that so many brands and shops that made and sold Project Life supplies have closed, and that so many people have either drastically cut back on using this memorykeeping approach or altogether stopped using it. I’m excited to share my post about this hobby that I love so dearly; I hope it inspires even just one person to give it a go.
Coins and confetti found on the ground throughout the month
Portland Art Museum sticker
My name written on a scrap of paper by the dance store employee who helped me choose a pair of ballet slippers for the adult beginner ballet class I signed up to take (!!)
Third row
Tag from one of the pinback buttons I thrifted in March
Dried flowers found during my first evening walk through the neighborhood of the season
Packaging from Trader Joe’s Protein Pancake Mix
Bottom row
Oil change sticker
EKG lead and scrap of Coban wrap from a mid-month trip to the ER (everything’s fine)
Two quarters with designs on the back I’d never seen before
Here are the scraps of ephemera I saved in February.
Top row
Packaging from G2 pen ink refills.
Packaging from a Hostess cupcake, a favorite childhood snack.
Scrap from a “puzzle history sheet” from the puzzle exchange I’m launching at my gym.
Second row
A coin and sticker I found on the floor.
Tag from a stuffed animal I gifted one of my kids for Valentine’s Day.
Packaging from a favorite Crystal Light flavor.
Third row
Price tag from A Room of One’s Own, which I bought in 2017 and (finally) read for the first time in February.
Packaging from my weekly Rice Krispie Treat.
Label for a new medication.
Bottom row
Packaging from another favorite childhood snack (the good news: I finally found a place that sells the individually boxed version; the less good news: they cost $3.69 a piece!!!).
Piece of cardboard from a puzzle I had made of a photo I took years ago.
Image sheet from a puzzle in my collection. I have no idea why it’s so small. I’ve never seen a puzzle come with an image sheet this small. It’s pretty useless.
The first ephemera grid of the year is in the books. Here are the scraps of ephemera I saved in January.
Top row
Packaging from the bread crumbs I use to make my daily lunch and dinner of crispy breaded chicken breast (it’s just store brand).
Portion of an old hard drive I had destroyed.
Packaging from a box of M&Ms that my son gifted me for Christmas, and that I finished in January.
Second row
Wrapper from an Andes “after dinner” mint. (When the kids were much younger, we each had an Andes after dinner every night. Early in the pandemic when we became split between households and then states, the nightly tradition died out. In January, I decided to buy a box and began having one each evening before bed.)
Packaging from an electrolyte sample.
Tag from a new gym t-shirt.
Third row
Tamper-proof seal from one of my supplements.
Portion of packaging from a natural toothbrush that I tried.
It’s been a long time (years!) since I’ve shared my Project Life pages online. I’m both nervous and excited to begin sharing them again. Today, a look at some of the spreads in my 2025 album.
For the last two years (2024 and 2025), I’ve not begun keeping an album until July. I’ve also not gone back to fill in the first half of the year for either year—and I don’t plan to. Is this ideal? No. Am I happy to have some of the year documented v. none of it? Yes.
Some of these spreads are unfinished; they still need journaling. The holdup: I’m still not sure whether I want to handwrite or type my journaling onto the cards that are missing journaling. So it goes sometimes (most times).
In 2024, I included in my Project Life album for the first time the media I consumed throughout the year, using 6″ x 8″ pages divided into 2″ x 2″ pockets and Avery self-adhesive insertable tabs. I enjoyed the practice and continued it in 2025.
In 2024, I included thumbnails for only the movies I streamed at home. In 2025, I included thumbnails for movies that I streamed at home (on the left) and movies that I watched in the theater (on the right), separated by pages holding my “movie ticket stubs” (I am endlessly annoyed about the disappearance of well-designed and quality-crafted ephemera).
I included only those TV shows and podcasts that I watched or listened to either in full (season or series) or consistently throughout the year. If I watched an episode or two of a TV show or listened to an episode or two of a podcast to get a feel for it and didn’t continue watching or listening beyond that episode or two, I didn’t include it.
I do realize that I watch a lot of TV. Much of my TV time is spent pedaling away on a stationary bike.
I LOVE a good soapy show (Call the Midwife, Grey’s), and a good DC show/political drama (Homeland, Scandal, Slow Horses). Homeland was partly a rewatch (I’d seen only the first four seasons). I’d never seen Grey’s or Scandal before and I loved both. Fisk is excellent autistic representation. Pernille, a Norwegian show on Netflix, was my favorite watch all year. Charming, heart-wrenching, funny. I wanted to live inside their life. 12/10.
Most enjoyed podcasts in 2025:
The perennial favorites:
Diss and Tell (RIP)
Even the Royals (RIP)
I Said No Gifts!
Scamfluencers
Smosh Reads Reddit
The others:
Articles of Interest
The Knife: Off Record
The Severance Podcast
The Telepathy Tapes
Trail Tales
True Crime Bullshit
The latest season of Articles of Interest—”Gear”—is so good. It explores how military apparel inspired America’s early outdoor industry, and how military apparel continues to inspire that industry, as well as streetwear and fashion in general. For example, did you know Lockheed Martin makes streetwear? Neither the fuck did I.
I started listening to The Knife: Off Record after hearing a teaser for an episode of the show that covers the murder of someone who was, once upon a time, in my social circle. It was the first time I’d listened to a true crime podcast from the perspective of someone who knew the victim and it completely rewired how I think about true crime podcasts and the true crime industry. The hosts did a great job with the story, and I’ve been listening ever since.
