Category Archives: projects

Making of the mini album: I saw it on a street flyer

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In mid-August, I decided to prioritize doing, buying, and supporting things and people and causes I see advertised on street flyers around town over habitually googling “things to do in Portland this week/end” every few days while couchrotting in my living room. Naturally, I’m making a little project of it. Because I love when people share a peek behind the curtain, I’ve decided to document the process here on the blog.

Early morning photo of flyers of various sizes advertising various events, news, and causes stapled and wheat-pasted to a large boarded-up window on a brick building on SE Hawthorne. The rising sun casts a golden light on the scene.

My first idea was to commemorate all of these side quests by publishing a series of blog posts in which I’d share about the doing and buying and supporting of the things and people and causes I see on street flyers, along with a photo of each flyer. The thing is, as always, I want something that I can hold in my hands. The solution: a mini album.

For this project, there are five main decisions to make:

  1. Album format
  2. Album size and dimensions
  3. Cover page and front matter
  4. Main spread layout and design
  5. Back cover

So far, I’ve made the first four decisions.

Album format

This was not a difficult decision. In fact, it wasn’t really a decision at all: I went into this project certain I wanted to use one of the acrylic albums I have in my stash. It didn’t even occur to me until I sat down to write this post there are other formats I could use for this project, like making a pocket pages mini album, or having a photo book professionally printed.

The acyclic albums appeal to me for four main reasons:

  • I can add to the album over time, unlike with a professionally printed photo book
  • they’re forgivable and I can easily remove or replace or otherwise edit or change something I don’t like, unlike with a professionally printed album
  • there are minimal supplies involved—even fewer than are needed for a pocket pages album!
  • they feel limiting in a way that pocket page albums and professionally printed photo books don’t. Sometimes I need tight boundaries on a project so that I don’t get bogged down in the details, which, on account of the autism, I’m hardwired to do

Album size and dimensions

Of the acrylic albums in my stash, I considered three for this project: a transparent 5×7 album, a frosted purple 4×5.5 album, and a frosted black 3×8 album (the others are too small (they’re this size) and don’t make sense for this project).

Overhead view of three acrylic albums as described in the body of the post arranged in a row on a green craft mat.

The black 3×8 album was my first choice. It always is. I’ve been dying to use it for a project since I bought it several years ago. So far, nothing’s felt right, including this project (the dimensions don’t work well). Sad!

I decided to go with the 5×7 album. While the dimensions of both the 5×7 and 4×5.5 albums work well for what I’m envisioning, the 5×7 album offers more room to work with, which is important to me when it comes to the right-side page of each spread, where I plan to include handwritten journaling to accompany the photo on the facing page (more below). The larger size makes the most sense: I’m wordy, and handwriting takes up more space than does typed text.

Cover page and front matter

I knew I wanted to use a full-page photo for the cover, and I knew exactly which photo I wanted to use. I also knew I wanted at least one spread of front matter, to both set the scene and ease the viewer’s experience into the album.

A 5x7 photo of remnants of street flyers on a utility pole and my planning notebook opened to a spread on which I've written in pencil my plans for the project's cover page and front matter, as described in the body of the post.

Right now, I plan to have three spreads of front matter: The first will have a blank page, likely of textured white card stock, on the left and a short write-up about the project on the right. The second will have a full-bleed map of my and adjacent neighborhoods, which is where I see all these flyers. The third will have a blank page on the left and a section title page on the right. I’ve not yet mocked up any of these spreads.

Right now, I plan to section the album by month and year. This could change. Maybe it becomes seasonal. Or annual. Maybe I decide to arrange the album by category (events, products, causes, etc.). Who knows. The ability to change how the album is organized is one of the reasons I chose to use a set of acrylic covers, held together by adjustable binder rings.

Main spread layout and design

I had the most ideas for this section of the album, and the toughest time making a decision.

As is often the case, I wanted each spread to follow a template. I like a cohesive look, and I also like having a set formula to follow. Once the initial decisions are made about the template layout and design, there are few, if any, decisions to make along the way—it’s plug and play.

I brainstormed several possible spread layouts. In each scenario, the left-hand page of the spread includes a photo and the right-hand page is home to journaling that accompanies said photo. Below, I outline my ideas for only the left-hand page layout and design.

Option 1: A 3×4 photo of the flyer in question in the wild (affixed to a utility pole), centered on a 5×7 sheet of patterned scrapbook paper or solid-colored, textured card stock. I pulled some paper and card stock from my stash that I thought might work well (pictured), and also made some mock-ups in Photoshop Elements using digital scrapbooking papers (not pictured).

A few sheets of patterned scrapbook paper and a sheet of solid-colored card stock fanned out on a table.
Option 1

Option 2: Same as option 1 above, with the photo centered on a 5×7 photo of scraps of flyers on a utility pole.

A photo of option 2 as described in the body of the post.
Option 2

Option 3: Same as option 2 above, with a 5×7 sheet of vellum between the 5×7 photo of scraps of flyers on a utility pole and the 3×4 photo of the flyer in question.

A photo of option 3 as described in the body of the post.
Option 3

Option 4: Same as option 2 above, with a scan or tightly cropped photo of the flyer in question.

A photo of option 4 as described in the body of the post.
Option 4

Option 5: Same as option 3 above (vellum), with a scan of the flyer in question. I didn’t take any photos of this option.

Option 6: A full-page, 5×7 photo of the flyer in question in the wild (affixed to a utility pole).

A photo of option 6 as described in the body of the post.
Option 6

Option 6 is the winner. It’s also the last option I thought of, days (days!!) after all the others. It seems so obvious this would be the top contender, I’m still baffled I didn’t think of it sooner.

A note: From the moment the idea for this project popped into my head, I began taking photos of any and every street flyer that advertises something I’m even remotely interested in attending or buying or otherwise supporting. So that I can quickly and easily reference them, I add all of those photos to an album on my phone (“I saw it on a street flyer”). For visual continuity, I take a vertical photo from about the same distance. Sometimes this is challenging because of where flyers are affixed to the poles, or surrounding objects that obstruct access. In these instances, I try to get a wider shot, which I can crop. When I can’t, I take the photo I can get and move on. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and I don’t spend a ton of time framing a shot, only a few seconds at most.

Back cover

I’m not yet sure what I want to do here. If I had to make a decision today, I would go with another full-page photo of a utility pole covered in flyers, just like with the front cover. I don’t have to make a decision today, though, so this is still up for grabs.

* * *

To get an idea for how the ideas in my head will translate onto the page, I printed out some of the photos I plan to use on the card stock and photo paper I use in my Project Life albums. In keeping with tradition, I’ll have the photos I end up using in the album printed by Persnickety Prints, which means the color will be more vibrant and the pages will be studier.

The grid paper is from one of my Mnemosyne notebooks. For these mock-ups, I removed a sheet from one of my A5 grid notebooks and trimmed it to size. The grid is printed on only one side and the paper is buttery soft. For the project, I plan to use sheets from my A4 grid notebook, which will give me two 5×7 pages per sheet.

To round the corners of my pages so that they match the acrylic album covers, I used this corner rounder punch (the 4mm option).

A4 and A4 Mnemosyne notebooks with grid paper.

My next steps are to order my first set of photos from Persnickety, gather supplies for and create the front matter, and begin the journaling that will accompany each flyer photo. I’ll be back with an update when I’ve completed at least two of those three tasks.

Holiday Build-A-Bear mini album: part 2

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Who else remembers last June when I shared a little bit about my family’s most enduring holiday tradition along with a peak inside the mini album I’ve slowly, surely been making to document it and also a little bit about my process for the project and then ended the post basically promising that I’d be back in November with an update?

"So that was a fucking lie" meme.
Source

Well anyway. I’m back with an update now.

The update: There are still two small things that need to be done. (1) I still haven’t figured out the title page. My idea—which I outlined in the first post about this project—is to type up a brief blurb about the tradition on white textured cardstock. I’ve sat down to draft said blurb a billion times and haven’t yet found the arrangement of words I’m looking for that all fit on the page. (2) I’ve also yet to decide what I’m going to do about the date stamp issue for the first two years/photos. Aside from those two things, I’m caught up with this project.

The delay: Despite it being obvious from the outset that I didn’t have enough to do so, I was dead set—and I mean inflexibly, stubbornly dead set—on using only scraps of gift wrap from Christmases past as backing for every photo. I went through the first four stages of grief several times before finally progressing to stage five and letting that idea go. Then, I became dead set on using only holiday-themed gift wrap. I figured I’d just buy enough individual sheets and/or rolls of wrapping papers that I liked during the 2025 holiday season to use as backing for the 10 photos that still needed it. Turns out, I either didn’t like the options at any of the stores I went to, or the scale of the patterns wouldn’t work well when sized down to 3×4. In June of this year, I decided it was more important to me to make progress on this project than to let it stall out, and ended up using holiday-themed digital scrapbooking papers that I printed at home onto thin cardstock to back the remaining photos.

Various holiday-themed papers cut down to 3 inches by 4 inches and arranged in one long row, overlapping.

Here’s a look inside at most of the pages.

A clear pocket filled with stuffing and a heart from Build-A-Bear, pieces of gold thread, and red and gold star-shaped glitter, stitched together across the top with gold thread.
2013. A black and white photo of six kids posing with their Build-A-Bears.

That first “page” is a Photo Flip pocket that I filled with a few pinches of Build-A-Bear stuffing, a Build-A-Bear heart, some red and gold star confetti, and some strings of gold thread. I cut off the top and sewed it shut using gold thread. I think it’s so cute, I love it so much. The patterned paper is a letterpress greeting card that I cut to size. I’m genuinely sorry to report that in the course of writing this post I learned the Photo Flips have been discontinued.

2014: a black-and-white photo of two kids in line to have their stuffed animals stuffed by the Build-A-Bear employee.
2015. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2015: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of three kids in line to have their stuffed animals stuffed by the Build-A-Bear employee.
2016. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2016: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of three kids in line to have their stuffed animals stuffed by the Build-A-Bear employee.
2017. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2017: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal and black-and-white photo of three kids and one dad in line to have their stuffed animals stuffed by the Build-A-Bear employee.
2018. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2018: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal and black-and-white photo of four kids in line for me to pay for their stuffed animals.

In 2019, our group grew by one with the addition of my kids’ step-sister.

2019. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2019: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal and black-and-white photo of four kids in line to have their stuffed animals stuffed by the Build-A-Bear employee.

2020—the last year we were all in the same place for the holidays, unbeknownst to us at the time. In the years since, we’ve spread across the U.S. and the five of us (my three kids, their step-sister, and myself) are now in three different states.

2020. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2020: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of four kids in line to have their stuffed animals stuffed by the Build-A-Bear employee.

In 2021, my oldest came to visit me in Portland for Thanksgiving. Because it was our only chance to do so together that year, we went to Build-A-Bear during her visit.

2021. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2021: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of me and one of my kids posing with our stuffed animals inside Build-A-Bear.

The following month, I flew back to D.C.-ish to spend Christmas with my two youngest and their step-sister and we did Build-A-Bear while I was there. It felt weird to split it up, and I’m so grateful we found a way to keep the tradition alive.

2021. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2021: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of three kids in line to have their stuffed animals stuffed by the Build-A-Bear employee.

In 2022, spread amongst three states over the holidays for the first time, we all went to our local Build-A-Bear on the same day and shared photos with each other afterward. This was the first year I didn’t get my standard from-behind shot of any of the kids, and the first year that my oldest began bringing a friend. It felt even weirder this year than it did the year before, and also I’m very grateful we again found a way to keep the tradition going.

2022. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2022: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of one of my kids and I holding our un-stuffed Build-A-Bear stuffed animals.
2022: a black-and-white photo of two kids posing with their Build-A-Bears inside the store.
2022: a black-and-white photo of one of my kids and her friend posing with their un-stuffed stuffed animals inside Build-A-Bear.

In early 2022, my youngest and his step-sister (and my co-parents) moved to a place without a Build-A-Bear (sad!). Since then, every year I FaceTime during our visit here so they can pick out what they want, and then I ship them their stuffed animals and whatever accessories, if any, they choose. My oldest (and whichever friend she brings that year) continues to go to her local Build-A-Bear on the same day that my middle child and I go here, and we share photos with each other afterward. The tradition continues to evolve.

2023. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2023: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of me hugging a stuffed animal in bed.
2024. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2024: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal a black-and-white photo of one of my kids from behind, stepping on the pedal that "helps" the Build-A-Bear employee fill the stuffed animal with stuffing.
2024: a black-and-white photo of me and one of my kids posing with our Build-A-Bears in the store.
2024: a black-and-white photo of one of my kids and a friend posing with their Build-A-Bears in her car.
2025. The top page is a piece of patterned paper. The bottom page is a piece of vellum stamped repeatedly with the date. Beneath the vellum is a black-and-white photo from that year's visit.
2025: the vellum page stamped with the date is flipped over to reveal and black-and-white photo of me and one of my kids posing with our Build-A-Bears in the car.
2025: red paper with a repeating candy cane pattern on the top page, a black-and-white photo of two outstretched hands, each holding a Build-A-Bear stuffed animal wearing a Santa hat, in front stockings hanging in the background.

This year’s photos will begin here. Fingers crossed that whichever one is first pairs well with the “ho ho ho” paper.

A patterned piece of paper with "ho ho ho" on it on top and a Build-A-Bear gift card in a plastic sleeve on the bottom.

The final “page” you see here is one of the many gift cards we’ve purchased at half price over the years, slipped into a 3×4 Photo Flips (RIP) with the top cut off.

(For every $25 you spend during any given Build-A-Bear purchase, you can buy a $10 gift card for $5 (I think this applies only to in-person purchases). We usually spend around $100 each year, sometimes a little more, so each year we walk away with $40 or $50 of gift cards for $20 or $25. I use the gift cards to fund basically half of the following year’s purchase. For the first years of this tradition, Costco sold $100 worth of Build-A-Bear gift cards for, depending whether they were on sale, $70 or $80. I’d also buy these, for a little extra savings.)

* * *

The backs of the first 10 photos are mostly wrapping paper from Christmases past. A few are scrapbooking papers from my stash (both digital and physical) that are no longer available.

Various holiday-themed papers cut down to 3 inches by 4 inches and arranged in two rows.

The next 10 papers are all digital scrapbooking papers that I printed at home. Most of them are still available.

Various holiday-themed papers cut down to 3 inches by 4 inches and arranged in two rows.

Top row, from left to right:

Bottom row, from left to right:

*Papers with an asterisk are part of the same paper pack. If you’re new to digital scrapbooking supplies, that means you pay a flat price ($5 in this case) for multiple .jpgs of various different patterned and/or solid papers. The two paper packs linked above that are sold by Hey Scrapper offer variants with different colors for some of the patterned papers included in the pack; these color variants are not shown in the product photos on the website (for example, the red and white floral pattern (third option in the top row in the photo above) is included in the linked pack but is not shown in the product photo).

If you print your digital scrapbooking papers at home, a benefit is you can play with the scale of the pattern to suit your preferences and the project’s dimensions. You also have infinite access to digital papers you purchase—you can print them over and over, for use in as many projects as you want, forever. A drawback is that, unless you have a professional printing setup, the paper quality and color vibrancy won’t be on par with professionally printed gift wrap or scrapbooking paper. You can see this in the two photos above: in the first, every paper is professionally printed and the patterns look brighter and sharper; in the second, every paper was printed at home onto cheap cardstock by a basic inkjet photo printer and look a bit muted and less crisp.

* * *

Where to find physical holiday-themed scrapbooking papers: Aside from your local craft supply store and Michaels (and the like), you can find a large selection of physical holiday-themed scrapbooking papers at Scrapbook.com in both individual sheets and paper packs. Often, their individual sheets are double-sided, with a different print/pattern/color on each side.

Where to find digital holiday-themed scrapbooking papers: I think your best bet for digital holiday-themed papers are Hey Scrapper, The Lilypad, and, of course, Ali Edwards’ December Daily product line, which offers both physical and digital options.

A few ways to adapt this project concept: If Christmas isn’t your thing, you might instead use this project concept to document Halloween costumes. Or first-day-of-school outfits. Or birthdays. There are plenty of Halloween-themed and birthday-themed scrapbooking papers out there, and you can pair first-day-of-school outfit photos with so, so many different paper colors, prints, and patterns.

Pandemic Puzzles mini album: an update

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Only a few puzzles to share this update. This hobby has taken a back seat for the last year or so while other creative pursuits have captured my attention and bank account.

First up, a puzzle I had made by a local puzzle company from a photo I took of a large mural on the side of Portland business circa 2021 and cropped to make the image more dense. I love how bright the colors came out.

Spread #1. The left-hand page is a photo of the puzzle's unpuzzled pieces. The right-hand page is a photo of the completed puzzle of various brightly colored flowers painted on a blue wall.
Custom puzzle printed by Portland Puzzle Company. 500 pieces.

This second one was a Portland Puzzle Exchange find and I’m sorry to say I don’t know the brand and I don’t remember the piece count. I do, however, remember that it was a pain in the ass to put together because so many of the solid-colored pieces seemed interchangeable until you realized they’re not.

Spread #2. The left-hand page is a photo of the puzzle's unpuzzled pieces. The right-hand page is a photo of the completed puzzle of illustrations of flowers in a vase on a counter in front of a window.
Unknown.

Obsessed with this puzzle, which I found via Twitter when its creator announced the launch of her online puzzle shop. The title is so perfect.

Spread #3. The left-hand page is a photo of the puzzle's unpuzzled pieces. The right-hand page is a photo of the completed puzzle of a photo of an old computer keyboard with a coil cord.
CTRL + ALT + COMPLETE by Salem Goods. 1,000 pieces.

Another Portland Puzzle Exchange find.

Spread #4. The left-hand page is a photo of the puzzle's unpuzzled pieces. The right-hand page is a photo of the completed puzzle of an illustration of a city residential scene during fall (probably NYC).
Fall in the Neighborhood by Galison. 1,000 pieces.

Look how cute and fun this one is!! I found it at Always Here Bookstore while visiting the mutual aid lockers. I accidentally ordered photos of the wrong size for this one, which: oops. I was very annoyed with myself about this—I’d delayed placing my order for many months until I had enough photos in my cart to make the shipping feel worth it. Oh well. The good news is, I can just order the correct size the next time I place a Persnickety order.

Spread #5. The left-hand page is a photo of the puzzle's unpuzzled pieces. The right-hand page is a photo of the completed puzzle of illustrations of various breeds of dogs performing different exercises like jumping rope, stretching, weightlifting, etc.
Well-Trained Dogs by Mudpuppy. 500 pieces.

What I’m working on: June 2026

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My latest Persnickety Prints order arrived the other day, which means I’m able to continue working on a handful of projects and completely finish a few others. Finally! Four of those projects are below.

A cardboard mailer full of photos printed by Persnickety Prints open on my dining table, with a colorful "thank you" card peeking out.

Also the other day and included below: I picked up the complete print run for a project I’ve been working on for what feels like forever.

Artemis II album

Back in April, after watching the Artemis II launch on my knees in front of the TV like a little kid and being filled with a sense of whimsy and awe, I decided to scrapbook the mission. I printed most of the photos for this project at home and used Persnickety for only the 3×8 and 6×8 photos, which my at-home printer that prints only up to 5×7 can’t handle.

A 6x8 photo of the Artemis II launch and a 3x8 photo of three images stacked on each other and taken from three different NASA Moon missions.

There are still a few things left for me to do before this album is complete and ready to share here on the blog. I’m looking forward to tackling those few things and to being done with this project.

Hike Passport

Happy to finally be adding my summer 2025 hikes to volume 2 of my Hike Passport.

Lonely Hearts Club postcards

Lonely Hearts Club postcards (formerly known as @tindertisements)!! Finally!! After months of ordering proofs of this project from different printers, I found one whose quality both meets my standards and whose pricing is within my budget. A miracle. Last week, I got the email the order was ready for pickup.

Two boxes full of 1,000 postcards, sitting on my passenger seat.

There are 100 each of 10 different designs. I’ll be selling them on Etsy in packs of 10, one of each design. Stay tuned for a link directly to the listing once it’s live.

Michaelmania project

Yep, another Michaelmania-induced project. I didn’t stop at the magnets, and I can’t promise that I’ll stop at this project. I don’t want to say too much about this one yet, so these two teaser screenshots will have to do for now.

Screenshot of texts between a friend and me. May 1, 2026, I text: "Last night in bed I had another incredible idea. I can't share yet. Just standby for the finished project" May 1, 2026, my friend replies: "I am patiently sat" with the eyeballs emoji May 22, 2026, I text: "Supplies acquisition has officially begun" with a photo of gold, white, red, blue, black, and silver glitter card stock May 22, 2026, my friend replies: "Ooooo!!!!!!!"
Screenshot of continuation of texts between a friend and me. June 1, 2026, I text: "First set of photos ordered!!" My friend hearted the text. June 8, 2026, I text: "First set of photos have arrived!!" with a photo of the unopened box from Persnickety Prints. My friend emphasized the photo. June 9, 2026, I text a photo of the main supplies for the project arranged on top of the glitter card stock. The supplies are cropped out of the image. All that's visible are slivers of blue, gold, and white glitter card stock and my friends reaction to the image of the heart-eyes emoji.

Pandemic Puzzles mini album

And, finally, this month I’m updating my Pandemic Puzzles mini album.

Photos of unpuzzled puzzles pieces and completed puzzles, ready to be inserted into my Pandemic Puzzles mini album.

* * *

Individual, photo-heavy posts detailing each of these projects to come.

Michael magnets

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As I knew it would, the release of Michael last month reignited my Michaelmania, a condition with which I have been blessed since the early 90s. To date, I’ve seen the movie 25 times, will watch it at least four more times before it leaves theaters, have watched a ridiculous number of video essays and analyses on Michael and his music, and have preordered both the DVD/Blu-ray/4K Amazon exclusive and the Lionsgate 4K/Blu-ray/digital Collector’s Edition.

A bunch of my Michael movie ticket stubs arranged in a grid on a wooden table with a glittery red photo strip featuring three photos of me holding up said ticket stubs like a fanned-out wad of cash. At the bottom of the photo strip is text that reads "King of Pop" with the "I" in "king" a silhouette of Michael Jackson.

Most importantly, in response to their reprehensible upcoming MJ docuseries, I signed the petition to have it pulled off the platform and also cancelled my Netflix subscription. Getting rid of Netflix was a decision I’d been contemplating for quite some time. The release of that fuckass trailer was the final straw for me. LET THAT INNOCENT MAN REST IN PEACE!!! (If you’re unfamiliar with the actual facts of the cases, I highly recommend listening to The Michael Jackson Case for Innocence podcast. It’s deeply researched, well-organized, and well-produced. And, bonus!, it has exactly zero ads.)

Anyway. In the throes of Michaelmania, I’ve also made a set of six Michael magnets, using miniature decorative frames and featuring photos of both Michael and Jaafar (his nephew, who plays him in the movie) as Michael.

Six magnets I made of Michael Jackson and his nephew, Jaafar, who played him in the movie, using miniature gold frames.

I was inspired by a miniature framed photo of a dumpster that I stumbled upon a few years ago while on an evening walk. It was stuck to a metal tag on a telephone pole along my route.

A miniature gold frame featuring a photo of a dumpster, stuck to a metal tag on a telephone pole.

Before going all in and ordering this pack of miniature frames, I picked up two from a local craft store to make sure my vision would translate. (If you’re in or near Portland, you can pick up mini frames in-store.) The larger frame came with a piece of acetate transparency, which functions as the “glass” of the frame. The smaller frame did not.

Screenshot of tweet that reads: Adult Michael rehearsing Beat It voice: I wanna try something. Just got an idea. Young Michael at the dinner table voice: Look, I made magnets The tweet also features two photos, one of me holding two mini gold frames in their packaging and the same two frames turned into magnets featuring photos of Michael Jackson and Jaafar Jackson.

For these first two, I removed the art that came in the frames, used double-sided tape to adhere the photos to the backs of the frames (while the tape worked fine for testing out the project concept, I recommend using a stronger adhesive for the final product), adhered the thin cardboard backing that came with the frames to the backs of the photos, and glued magnets to the backs of the backing. They turned out great.

Two photos ready to be cut to be made into magnets.
Prepping magnets to be made.
Two completed magnets.
Two completed magnets on my fridge.

To make the magnets using the frames from Amazon, I adhered the photos to the backs of the frames using Krazy Glue, and used E6000 to adhere the magnets to the backs of the photos. Because I don’t plan to handle/move these magnets often, I didn’t use any backing material. For two of the four, I used acetate transparency to function as the “glass.” Ultimately, and unexpectedly, I think the photos look more vibrant and glossy without it, so I didn’t use it on the other two.

Close-ups of two of the six magnets.
Close-ups of two of the six magnets.
Close-ups of two of the six magnets.

The most fun and the most frustrating part of this project was choosing which photos to use. There’s not a single bad photo of Michael. I wanted to use them all!!!

All six magnets on my fridge.

If you’d like to make your own, here are the supplies I used and recommend:

  • Miniature frames. If you don’t like these ones, you can find other options by searching “mini decorative frames” or “mini Victorian frames” on Amazon or Etsy. You can also find mini frames at any store that sells miniatures for dollhouses.
  • Magnets. I like these ones because they’re super affordable and very strong—they can hold around 7 sheets of letter-sized paper without slippage.
  • E6000 craft adhesive. To adhere the magnets to the backs of the photos.
  • Krazy Glue. To adhere the photos to the frames.
  • Acetate transparency. I don’t know what brand I used. I used a leftover sheet from a pack I bought about a decade ago and no longer have the original packaging for. Any brand should do.

Semi-related: two other incredible treasures I’ve spotted on telephone poles during my walks:

The six of cups tarot card tucked behind a flyer stapled to a telephone pole.
Me holding said six of cups tarot card.
A pinback button tucked behind a numerical marker on a telephone pole.
Me holding said pinback button, which features a black and white photo of two sets of feet interlocking their toes and the phrase "5000 potholes" printed over the image. So weird!!

What I’m working on: April 2026

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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.

A spread in my 2026 Project Life album featuring flowers, a dressing room selfie, the book "The Road to Tender Hearts," a screenshot of the map I made showing all the photo booths in Portland, a package I sent to my kids for Valentine's Day, a screenshot of an email from Etsy congratulating me on my first sale, a photo of me from behind, hanging on the rig, with my back muscles poppin', and a journaling card that details some of the photos in the spread.

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.

PDX PHOTO BOOTH MAP

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Looking for a photo booth in Portland? There’s a map for that!

In the spirit of “create the things you wish existed,” I’ve finally begun work on a project I’ve been thinking about for several (!) years: the autistically detailed map of photo booths in Portland, Oregon, that my autistic brain wants to see in the world. It’s called the PDX PHOTO BOOTH MAP and I’m very excited about it.

The map is organized into two categories: “bars and restaurants” (purple icons) and “everywhere else” (reddish-orange icons). I chose these categories because I love photo booths, I don’t drink or eat out (and therefore don’t spend time in bars or restaurants), and I wanted a list of photo booths I could visit that weren’t in those spaces. My hope is that these categories will be useful to others, too (teenagers, families, other adults who don’t drink and/or eat out, etc.).

Screenshot of the PDX PHOTO BOOTH MAP as seen when viewing on laptop/desktop, with purple icons denoting photo booths inside bars and restaurants, and reddish-orange markers denoting photo booths in establishments that aren't bars or restaurants.
View of the map on desktop/laptop.

For whatever reason, the map doesn’t consistently work in the Google Maps app—sometimes a location’s details show, sometimes they don’t. According to the internet, this is a known issue with no solution. If the details of each location matter to you, you’ll have the best experience accessing the map from browser on mobile (copy/paste or type www.photoboothmap.com into your phone’s browser), or from a laptop/desktop. If you’re after only the location and don’t care about the other details, accessing the map in-app will work fine.

Screenshot of the PDX PHOTO BOOTH MAP as seen when viewing in browser on mobile, with purple icons denoting photo booths inside bars and restaurants, and reddish-orange markers denoting photo booths in establishments that aren't bars or restaurants.
View of the map on mobile, in the browser.

As of publication of this post, there are 43 entries on the map: 29 photo booths in the “bars and restaurants” category, 14 in the “everywhere else” category. Not all of them are complete. Here’s what a completed entry looks like (on laptop/desktop):

Screenshot of the photo booth inside the NE Davis location of Voodoo Doughnuts, as seen on the PDX PHOTO BOOTH MAP. The information reads, "$6 card/$5 cash - four photos per strip, same photos on both strips - two strips; one BW, one color - horizontal strips - Voodoo Doughnuts-branded strips - glittery hot pink background - glossy paper Booth location: from the front entrance, immediately on your left. Have additional or updated information about this booth to share? Email pdxphotoboothmap@gmail.com Last updated: January 21, 2026"

In addition to these details, the entry also includes three photos of the booth itself that I took: one showing what it looks like and where it’s located (as seen in the screenshot), one showing what the background option looks like (hot pink sequins), and one showing what the photo strips you get from it look like. My goal is for every entry on the map to include the same details seen in this photo booth’s entry, and the same three types of photos.

Almost every photo booth in the “everywhere else” category is complete. The one exception is QuarterWorld, which has a few details but is missing others. It’s also missing photos. Almost all of the photo booths in the “bars and restaurants” categories are incomplete—they have no written information or photos. Can you help complete these entries? Do you have additional or updated information about any of the photo booths included on the map? Do you know of a photo booth in the city that’s not yet listed on the map? Email me (please!): pdxphotoboothmap@gmail.com. And, of course, please share the map with your fellow Portlanders, visitors, and photo booth enthusiasts. Happy photo boothing!

Behind the scenes: making the MDR Word Search Puzzle Experience

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UPDATE – 2/2/2025: I added 11 more word searches—for a total of 24—and made a digital version that you can print at home available for purchase. If you’d like to be notified when a physical, bound version is available, you can sign up here. Thank you for your support!

In early 2025, I got very into word search puzzles. After completing a few hundred of them, I decided to try making my own. Almost immediately—like, minutes after thinking, “I want to make my own set of word searches”—the creative gods blessed me with the idea of making a Severance-themed collection. And so ensued a three-week-long descent into extreme, all-consuming autistic hyperfocus. The result: the most fun outcome possible.

My hand holding a stack of five spiral-bound word search puzzle booklets entitled, "Macrodata Refiner's Word Search Puzzle Experience." The booklet's design and verbiage are based on the design and verbiage in the Apple TV show Severance.

By the end of that first day—the day the creative gods blessed me with this idea—I’d:

  • sketched on my whiteboard a very rough idea of what I envisioned each word search puzzle would look (the MDR terminal screen);
  • begun scouring the Severance wiki for every bit of information I could find about the typefaces, colors, and branded assets used for Lumon documents;
  • started researching different printing techniques, paper types and suppliers, and local print shops and their capabilities and prices;
  • created a spreadsheet to organize puzzle theme ideas;
  • and begun the first of a ridiculous number of rewatches of both seasons, to collect possible word search themes in my freshly made spreadsheet, and to note color and design details of documents in the show.
Close-up photo of a section of my whiteboard, on which I sketched a rough idea of what I wanted each word search puzzle to look like.

Within a week, I’d:

  • ordered paper samples,
  • emailed various stationery brands and print shops across the U.S. with questions about specific materials and techniques I wanted to use,
  • researched word search puzzle generators,
  • researched which design program was best for this project (Adobe InDesign),
  • watched hours of YouTube tutorials on how to do a bunch of basic things in InDesign,
  • scoured YouTube for a decent tutorial on how to create a word search puzzle in InDesign,
  • finished several rewatches of the entire series,
  • updated my whiteboard to include a very rudimentary checklist of the main project tasks and decisions,
  • tentatively decided on a local print shop,
  • and started a file of reference material (colors, paper weights, binding examples, printing techniques, etc. I wanted to use) to bring to the print shop with me.
An open file folder, lying flat on a wooden table, holding a variety of examples of different paper colors, weights, and finishes types; and binding that I like.

At this point, I also realized I needed to make two important decisions, or else I’d never get the project out of my head and laptop and into my hand:

  1. I needed to pick a number of word search themes for this first run, and
  2. I needed to pick a date by which I’d start Adobe’s seven-day free trial.

In the spirit of “make it exist first, make it perfect later,” I decided on 13 puzzles and a June 10 deadline, which gave me till June 17 to do everything I needed to in InDesign before the free trial was up.

Close-up photo of a section of my whiteboard, on which I wrote a list of projects tasks and decision, and a June 10th deadline date.

After deciding on the number of puzzles and my “design by” deadline date, I:

  • completed a few more rewatches of the series, each time paying attention to a specific puzzle theme or Lumon document design;
  • decided on cover and page colors, and word search dimensions (25 letters across, 15 down);
  • reviewed all the entries in my spreadsheet; chose the first 13 themes with word and letter counts that would fit the puzzle dimensions;
  • created the word searches using two different online puzzle generators;
  • rewatched the YouTube tutorial I found on how to create word searches in InDesign several more times;
  • decided which pages would be what color; and
  • committed to a printing technique (digital) and local print shop.

Because I was on a tight budget for this project, I needed to complete the entire thing within Adobe’s seven-day free trial window. Before I signed up for the free trial, I made every possible decision about the project’s design that I needed to, including visiting the local print shop I decided to use to select my cover and paper options in person, and watched enough YouTube tutorials enough times to feel confident I could do what I needed to in InDesign to bring this project to life on such a tight timeline.

Then, I researched how to cancel the free trial and walked through the steps to make sure the instructions were accurate—I needed to know in advance how convoluted of a process it would or wouldn’t be so I knew how many spoons to allocate to it (thankfully, and surprisingly, it’s a very straightforward process). Only after confirming Adobe’s cancellation process did I sign up for their free trial—which I immediately cancelled so I didn’t forget to do so later/wasn’t charged at the end of it—and got to work. I had seven days to figure out the program and get the project done.

Paper samples in whites/creams, greens, blues, and blacks that are similar to the colors used in the show.

It took me a few days to create all the puzzles and answer keys; figure out how to format the word banks (which didn’t go as planned); and settle on font sizes and weights, and the placement and spacing of the Lumon logo, letterheads, and lines. During this stage, I spent a lot of time browsing other Severance fan art/projects, mostly on Etsy and Reddit, to study the design choices other people—people with actual graphic design skills and experience and knowledge—made. Once I was happy with my project, I sent it off to the printer. A few days later, I picked up the proof.

I was elated. It was so cool to see something I worked so hard on come to life. To hold it in my hand. Prior to this project, I had no experience with or exposure to InDesign (I’d never even opened the program); I had no experience making word searches; I had no experience with professional printing concepts or conventions; and I had (and still have) no graphic design experience or skills. I was thrilled that it all turned out.

My hand holding an unbound proof of what ultimately became the final word search booklet.

A few months later (finances), I formally approved the proof, which officially moved my project into the print queue, and the rest is history.

Here’s a closer look at the final product:

Front cover

Overall, I’m very happy with the front cover—the design, the color, the typography choices I made (typefaces, fonts, leading and kerning, placement in relation to the logo and band of lines).

The Lumon logo is a high-res image from this logo pack. I created the band of lines manually—line by line—in InDesign, using this image, this image, and various other stills from the show I took on my phone as reference for the weight, spacing, and placement, including running the band of lines closer to the right edge than to the left edge.

Screenshot of the InDesign file of the booklet's front cover.

I’m less happy with the actual title. Or, rather, the second word of the title. I’m not sure why I went with “Macrodata Refiner’s…” instead of “Macrodata Refinement…” While some document titles in the show contain a job title (e.g., “Senior Refiner Morning Checklist,” and “Innie Resignation Form”), not a single document I noticed during my rewatches contains a possessive in the document title. These details are important to me—from the beginning, it’s been important to me this project be as true to Lumon branding and design as possible.

Originally, I’d subtitled the booklet “A Collection of Word Search Puzzles, Volume 1.” Ultimately, I modeled the subtitle off the subtitle of the Security Office Protocol Quick Start Guide, using “Compendium” instead of “Collection” and “Edition” instead of “Volume.”

Screenshot from the Severance wiki showing a close-up of the design of a document from the show.
Source

What I plan to do differently next print run: Change the title to “Macrodata Refinement Word Search Puzzle Experience” (I plan to do this on the “Congratulations” page at the end, too).

* * *

First page

Mostly good.

A lighter blue page featuring a Lumon header and the words, "This booklet contains 13 Lumon-approved word search puzzles. Words may be found in any direction, including diagonally, and may overlap each other. Please try to enjoy each word search puzzle equally, and not show preference for any over the others."

I modeled this page (and the “Congratulations” page at the end) after the Lumon letterhead, as seen on the Music Dance Experience selection card.

Source

I created the letterhead using a high-res logo included in the same logo pack linked above, and by individually drawing each line using the line tool in InDesign. I’m not sure why I didn’t use the black Lumon logo. It’s true that the logo pack I purchased didn’t include it. It’s also true that it’s available on the Severance wiki. I have no clue what I was (or wasn’t) thinking.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Replace the transparent Lumon logo with the black one. Add the word “backward” after “diagonally.”

* * *

Word search pages

Overall, these pages turned out great. I’m very happy with how well they mimic the MDR terminal screen. My biggest frustration: the word banks.

One of the word search puzzles, themed "Dylanisms."

In the show, the MDR terminal screens display five evenly spaced columns at the bottom. I wanted to mimic this and divide the word bank into five evenly spaced columns. To my infinite frustration, I could not for the life of me figure out how to both divide the word bank into five equal columns and, when necessary, get the text to wrap correctly. The only configuration I could get to consistently work across all pages with all word options was three evenly spaced columns.

Source

My other frustration: the sets of double lines bounding the top and bottom of the puzzle area don’t fully extend to the left side of the page.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Try to figure out how to divide the word bank into five equal columns and how to get the text to wrap correctly. Ensure the sets of double lines bounding the top and bottom of the puzzle areas fully extend to the left side of each page. Add more word searches (13 isn’t enough!).

* * *

Answer keys

These pages turned out great. I wasn’t sure that they would. To make the answers easier to read, I removed the sets of double lines bounding the top and bottom of the puzzle area. I also removed the word banks and left the placement of each puzzle alone instead of centering it on the page. I wasn’t sure how this would look and feel to the eye. I worried it might look and feel ungrounded. When the proofs came back, I was thrilled at how they turned out.

The back side of a word search puzzle page, featuring the answer key to the puzzle on the front of the page.

Each puzzle’s answer key is on the back side of the page the puzzle is printed on, with the puzzle reversed so that when you flip up the page you can easily see the answers key without turning the booklet around. The weight of the paper I chose is thick enough that the answer keys aren’t visible through the page.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Nothing.

* * *

“Congratulations” page

Similar to the first page, I’m mostly happy with this page. The color turned out great, and I like the size and placement of the text. My two issues with this page: the transparent Lumon logo, and the possessive in the text.

Bright, darker blue page featuring the Lumon letterhead and the words, "Congratulations on completing the Macrodata Refiner's Word Search Puzzle Experience. A handshake is available upon request."

What I plan to do differently next print run: Replace the transparent Lumon logo with the black one. Remove the possessive: change “Macrodata Refiner’s…” to “Macrodata Refinement…”

* * *

Credits page

Modeled after the show’s end credits, I’m very happy with how this page turned out. Perfect. 10/10. No notes.

Final page/back cover, which is solid black with the words, "Created and designed by Kelsey M." in the style of the show's end credits.

(Related: this interview with the artists responsible for the show’s title sequence.)

What I plan to do differently next print run: Nothing.

* * *

Back cover

In this first run, the “credits” page doubles as the back cover (it’s printed on cover weight paper). It’s fine. In a dream world, the “credits” page would be a regular page and the back cover would be thick chipboard, with a small Lumon teardrop icon debossed into the bottom center on the back. Unfortunately, none of the local printers I asked are able to do this.

The completed, bound booklet laid face up on a cutting mat, so that the front and back covers are both visible.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Convert the current back cover (which is the “credits page”) to a regular page and use the same cover weight and color of paper as I did for the front cover, with a small white Lumon teardrop icon centered at the bottom on the back.

* * *

Binding

In all of my rewatches of the show, I noticed only one example of a bound notebook—the Wellness Center steno notebooks carried by Ms. Casey (in S1E5, she’s holding one while observing Helly R. in the MDR office upon her return to work after her elevator incident, and is later seen holding a stack of them while walking through the halls). These notebooks are bound using Wire-O binding color-matched to the front cover.

Low-res, zoomed-in photo of my TV screen showing a scene in which Ms. Casey is holding a blue Lumon-branded steno notebook with color-matched Wire-O binding.

For this reason, I was determined to use Wire-O binding color-matched (as best as possible) to the blue of the booklet’s front cover. Unfortunately, the printer I worked with doesn’t offer Wire-O binding in-house and the binding service they outsource this type of binding to quoted me a ridiculously high dollar amount that was miles outside my budget ($100 for 5 bindings; $20 each). I found a place in town that lets you Wire-O bind your own material using their supplies and tools, for only $0.60 per binding plus a $7 facility day-use fee. After reviewing the proof and seeing how thin each booklet is with only 13 puzzles, I decided to skip Wire-O binding with this first batch and opted to have the printer spiral-bind each booklet in-house, which ran me $5 per booklet.

Two things are true: the binding is well-done, and it’s not what I wanted—and for that second reason alone, I’m not happy with it. I had my heart set on Wire-O binding for three reasons: it’s authentic to the bound notebooks in the show; it’s more durable; and it provides a more polished look. I’m determined to use it for the next print run.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Wire-O binding. The next print run will have more puzzles/pages, and will therefore be thicker and, I anticipate, better suited for Wire-O binding. I’m hoping to use a dark blue identical or similar to the color of the cover. If that’s not an option, I plan to go with black.

* * *

Orientation and dimensions

Because I was set on having the word search puzzles mimic the MDR terminal screens, the collection of puzzles is bound horizontally. It was also important to me that the size of each booklet adhered to common word search book dimensions. Each booklet measures 7″ x 9″, which is similar to many other popular collections of word search puzzles. Before committing to those dimensions, I measured all of the word search books I have at home, and researched the dimensions of a number of top-selling word search book online.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Nothing.

* * *

Colors

I’m very happy with the colors I chose.

Paper samples of the colors I selected, arranged on a white background. The colors are: a deep navy blue, a lighter blue, white, a brighter-darker blue, black.

Originally, I was set on having the text of everything except the puzzles and answer keys printed on colored paper, so I ordered a bunch of paper samples in different finishes, weights, and colors. I quickly learned digital printing made more sense for this project (you live and you learn). No problem. I used the CMYK values of the colored paper samples I liked to make each colored page the correct color in InDesign.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Nothing.

* * *

Typography

I stayed as true to the show’s typography as much as Adobe Fonts allowed, and I think the typography—all of it—looks great.

The typography section of the Severance wiki was the primary resource I used when deciding on typefaces and fonts to use. I also found this article—written by the design studio and foundry responsible for one of the typefaces that features most prominently on the show—helpful.

What I plan to do differently next print run: Nothing.

* * *

I’m very grateful I had enough time, executive functioning, and money to take this project on. I had so much fun working on it, I’m very proud of how it turned out, and I cannot wait to bring version 2.0 to life.

UPDATE – 2/2/2025: I added 11 more word searches—for a total of 24—and made a digital version that you can print at home available for purchase. If you’d like to be notified when a physical, bound version is available, you can sign up here. Thank you for your support!

The final 62 gym parking lot sunrises

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Two hundred and twenty-two sunrises later, I’m officially done with this project. I had a lot of fun with it, and I’m glad to be done (“done”) with it (I’ll almost certainly have a photo book printed at some point).

A grid of 20 photos of the morning sky from September 16, 2025, through October 20, 2025. Sometimes the sunrise is vibrant, other times it's cloudy and dark.
September 16, 2025, through October 20, 2025.

The project spans a little more than a year—I began it—randomly and unplanned—on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, and took the final photo Thursday, December 31, 2025. The practice: each day that I went to the gym, I took a photo of the sunrise (“sunrise,” in some cases) over Mount Hood while standing in the same spot in the gym’s parking lot.

A grid of 20 photos of the morning sky from October 21, 2025, through November 25, 2025. Sometimes the sunrise is vibrant, other times it's cloudy and dark.
October 21, 2025, through November 25, 2025.

During the summer months, when the run rises here absurdly early, I’d interrupt my workout to run outside and take that day’s photo (the earliest photo in the series: 4:59 am on June 10). During the rest of the year, the sunrise happened later in the morning, closer to or right at the end of my workout, requiring much less planning and remembering to photograph (eventually, I set a reminder in my phone, adjusting it throughout the year so it popped up about 10 minutes before projected sunrise, to ensure I could work to a good interruption point in my workout to run out and take that day’s photo.)

One bummer about this project: Because I have a standing commitment on Monday mornings that requires me to leave the gym well before sunrise most of the year, I missed a fair number of beautiful Monday morning sunrises. I still took photos those mornings, they’re just not as stunning as the sunrise actually ended up being many of those days.

A grid of 20 photos of the morning sky from November 26, 2025, through December 29, 2025. Sometimes the sunrise is vibrant, other times it's cloudy and dark.
November 26, 2025, through December 29, 2025.

And the final two:

A grid of 2 photos of the morning sky from December 30, 2025, through December 31, 2025. The sky is relatively vibrant and cloud-free in both.

Below are larger photos of some of my favorite sunrises.

The three that started it all:

Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.
7:02 am, Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Sunrise over Mount Hood with a few clouds in the sky.
7:18 am, Thursday, December 5, 2024.
Sunrise over Mount Hood with many pinkish-orange clouds in the sky.
7:19 am, Friday, December 6, 2024.

A solid set of January 2025 sunrises:

Just before sunrise with reddish, blueish clouds in the sky.
6:51 am, Tuesday, January 7, 2025.
Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.
7:11 am, Monday, January 20, 2025.
Cotton candy sunrise over Mount Hood with orange, yellow, and pink clouds.
7:27 am, Tuesday, January 21, 2025.
Sunrise over Mount Hood with yellow and orange clouds.
7:10 am, Thursday, January 23, 2025.
Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.
7:10 am, Monday, January 27, 2025.
Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.
7:12 am, Tuesday, January 28, 2025.

That purpley, pink-ish-orange!

Purple and pink clouds covering the sunrise over Mount Hood.
6:34 am, Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

I shared in the last batch of photos that I was surprised the most dramatic sunrises happened during fall and winter. Because our summer days feature more clear skies than do our days during there rest of the year, I’d assumed the summer sunrises would be the most dramatic. Nope! Most summer sunrises were lackluster. After a few in the spring, consistently pretty sunrises didn’t return till fall.

Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.
6:29 am, Thursday, September 25, 2025.
Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.
6:56 am, Tuesday, October 14, 2025.

The sunrise on Halloween Eve is my favorite of the bunch.

Sunrise over Mount Hood with yellow, orange, and pink clouds.
7:32 am, Thursday, October 30, 2025.

The clouds on Halloween morning were so fucking cool. I wish my iPhone camera could capture just how incredible they were.

Sunrise over Mount Hood with orange clouds.
7:48 am, Friday, October 31, 2025.

I wish, too, that my iPhone camera was able to capture what the sunrise the following week felt like. The way the sky was illuminated made it look and feel like it was glowing. It felt like standing in a dream. Very surreal.

Sunrise over Mount Hood with golden clouds.
7:06 am, Friday, November 7, 2025.
Fiery orange and pink clouds blocking the sunrise over Mount Hood.
7:06 am, Tuesday, November 18, 2025.
Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.
7:07 am, Tuesday, December 30, 2025.
Partially cloudy sunrise over Mount Hood.
7:14 am, Wednesday, December 31, 2025.

Last but not least, a photo of the earliest sunrise of the year, mentioned above: 4:59 am, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. Absurdly early to be so light out.

Clear-sky sunrise over Mount Hood.

Related: this person’s collection of 2025 sunset photos, and this person’s collection of all the flower-related photos they took in 2025.

Screenshot of a tweet that reads, Watching the sun rise and watching it set. What a divine experience. Watching a day being and making it through to watch it end. What an honor.

The Portland Movie Theater Project

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Last November, I, a person who is not at all a movie person, not even in the slightest, decided that over the next year-ish, I’d watch one movie in each of Portland’s historic or independently owned movie theaters. The idea was inspired by the hundred-year-old diary I found at an antique market a few years ago. In it, the diarist recorded her daily life, including the movies she and her husband went to see. She recorded 18 movies in the diary and included a very short review for nine of them, sometimes as short as a single word (“Fine.”), never longer than a sentence (“We wished we had gone home instead.”).

Page from a diary from 1923. The relevant portion is quoted in the photo's caption.
Movie review from the bottom portion of the page reads, “We ate at Hazlewood [sic] at 7:15 [pm] then went to Majestic to see Harold Floyd in “Safety Last!” We wish we had gone home instead.”

My original plan was to watch each of the 18 movies recorded in the diary. I thought it could be a fun way to connect to and learn about both the past in general and the diarist’s life specifically, and a low-stakes attempt to do something outside of my usual creative box. I looked up each title on IMDB and Wikipedia and very quickly learned that all of the movies the diarist and her husband watched in 1923 were silent films (the first movie with synchronized sound didn’t release until three years later), which: no thank you!!! I’m not a regular, modern-day movie person. I’m absolutely not a silent movie person. Nevertheless.

In the process of trying to figure out how I’d approach this project, I poked around the Oregon Theater Project website to see if any of the theaters the diarist and her husband visited were still standing and/or operational (no), and I walked over to my neighborhood video rental store to see if they (1) had any of the titles for rent (yes), (2) had DVD or VCR players for rent so I could actually watch any of the titles I might rent (I forgot to ask), and (3) had any information or advice about how to watch a silent movie (no)—or where to find the music that would have accompanied each title when it was screened for live audiences (no) so that I could play the same soundtrack while watching the movies at home; or whether any local movie theaters screened silent films with live musical performances (not to their knowledge).

The front of Portland's last-standing and much-loved VHS and DVD rental store, Movie Madness.

Pretty quickly I knew that following through with this approach was more effort than I was willing to put forth. The juice, as they say, would not be worth the squeeze. So I decided instead to watch a movie at each of Portland’s historic or independently owned movie theaters, and I gave myself until the end of 2025 to do so. Close enough in spirit, and a much more manageable endeavor.

I ended up with 16 theaters on my list. (Some people will not consider some of these theaters to be independently owned. I wasn’t super strict with my definition—basically, any movie theater that (1) isn’t a big-box, brand name theater (AMC, Cinemark, Regal, etc.) and (2) is in the city went on my list.). To date, I’ve visited 11 of them, in the following order:

There are five theaters I definitely won’t be visiting, as they cater to an audience that I’m not part of and/or their earliest showtimes are too late in the day for me (my hyperactive autistic brain has a very early bedtime):

For all intents and purposes, I consider this project complete.

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When I first started this project, I planned to make a very simple mini album documenting it, inspired by Jamaica’s “see it live” mini album and her practice of saving movie ticket stubs.

Screenshot from Pinterest of a mini album documenting the concerts attended by memorykeeper Jamaica.
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Screenshot from Pinterest of a ticket stubs collected by memorykeeper Jamaica.
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I envisioned including a full-bleed photo of each movie’s title screen (or, alternately, each theater’s marquee) on one side of a spread and colored or patterned paper and the movie ticket stub on the other—or, like Jamaica did here, affixing the ticket stub to a sheet of transparency over the photo of the movie’s title screen (or the theater’s marquee).

Screenshot from Pinterest of a mini album by memorykeeper Jamaica.
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Screenshot from Pinterest of a mini album by memorykeeper Jamaica.
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Going into this project, I was also hopeful that more theaters would have photo booths, and that I’d be able to incorporate the photo strips into a potential mini album. Alas, only two of the theaters I visited have photo booths—Laurelhurst Theater and Kennedy School Theater—and neither of them are film, neither of them produce strips in the traditional/expected orientation, and they’re both branded. Sad! (I do appreciate that both photo booths are reasonably priced ($6.00 card, $5.00 cash) and both give you two strips with the same frames, though I don’t like that one strip is color.)

Photo booth strip and movie ticket stub from Laurelhurt Theater, where I saw "Conclave."
Photo booth strip and movie ticket stub from Kennedy School Theater, where I saw "The Substance."

At this point, I don’t plan to make a mini album documenting this project. Uniformity is important to me in a memorykeeping project like this. If I were to make a mini album documenting this endeavor, I’d want for every spread to follow the same formula. That’s not possible here because I don’t have a title screen photo for each movie, I don’t have a photo of each theater’s marquee (some theaters don’t even have a marquee), I don’t want to use a movie poster for each movie, and the movie ticket stubs (“ticket stubs”) are, frankly, pathetic (I will never shut up about the decline and disappearance of well-designed, quality-crafted physical ephemera). Also—I’m sorry!—movies just aren’t that important to me. I don’t feel compelled to document this project beyond this blog post, and I don’t want to spend more time or other resources on it.

Ticket "stubs" from the movies I saw as part of this project, each in its own 3-inch by 4-inch pocket in a 6-inch by 8-inch page protector.

My primary takeaway from this project: more than not being a movie person, I’m not a going-to-the-movies person.

At the movies, there’s too much simultaneous sensory stimuli for my brain to handle. Things that other people can ignore, or that other people don’t even notice, command all of my attention (autistic brains don’t habituate to sensory input the way that non-autistic brains do; we are constantly taking in everything around us, which is why we become so overstimulated so easily and so often). Things like temperature; the volume and complexity of on- and off-screen noises; off-screen movement, which is especially disruptive in theaters that have seat-side food/drink service during the movie; smells—of food, of people, of the facility; and, as in one theater I visited (not pictured), visual clutter (T.G.I. Friday’s-style flair all over the walls, including above and on either side of the screen).

All of these things make it very difficult for me to actually take in the movie: my brain is too overwhelmed by all of the other sensory input it’s inundated with, and I’m too focused on not having an autistic meltdown in public. And that’s before factoring in the whole host of other health issues I have that make existing in public inconvenient, uncomfortable, stressful, etc.!

Title screen of "Conclave" as seen from the very back of the theater at Laurelhurst Theater in Portland, OR.

Do I regret doing this project? Do I feel like it was a waste of time or money? No. I got in a lot of good walks, I saw some parts of Portland I don’t spend much time in, I learned about two photo booths that weren’t previously on my radar (always a win, even when they’re not film), and I learned something important about myself—I learned why I don’t enjoy going to the movies. Having clarity about any aspect of yourself is always helpful.

Will this new knowledge about myself stop me from going to see the Michael Jackson biopic in a theater on release day? Absolutely not. Michael was my first-ever autistic hyperfocus, which first formed in the early 90s with “Will You Be There” and further developed upon my mom playing the first record she ever owned for me one evening—the Jackson 5’s ABC. By then, I was eight or nine years old, the same age she’d been when the record was released. I will use all of my spoons and every last drop of my sensory and social batteries to experience this movie in person, among like-minded fans.

The iconic Hollywood Theater marquee in Portland, OR, advertising then-current showings of the movies "Queer," "Heretic," and "Flow."

Best marquee: Hollywood Theater. For sure the most iconic movie theater marquee in Portland, and one of the most well-known alongside that of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Coolest campus: Kennedy School Theater. I wish I’d had more time to explore this place when I was there. (I haven’t gone back to explore it because I have no reason to return other than to explore it and returning only to explore it isn’t worth the spoons for me right now.)

Favorite title sequence: Gladiator II. My relief when it was confirmed it wasn’t made by AI.

Movie I most enjoyed watching: Conclave. Visually stunning.

Theaters I’m most likely to watch another movie at (if I continue to go to the movies after this project): Bagdad Theater (below) or Laurelhurst Theater. Bagdad is enormous, which means it’s very unlikely I’d ever be seated near anyone else; I like that it has balcony seating; overall it’s just a vibe; and it’s close enough to my apartment. Laurelhurst is the closest of the two theaters with a photo booth, and also I love their light fixtures (see two photos above).

Movie screen at Bagdad Theater in Portland, OR, displaying the title of the movie "Companion," as seen from the balcony.

Total cost of the project: $91.50, which is less than I thought I’d spend. To be fair, 10 of the 11 movies I went to were matinees; I didn’t buy any concessions at any movie; I purchased 10 of my 11 tickets in person, which was at least $1.00 cheaper per ticket than buying online; and I either walked to or parked in free zones for 10 of the 11 movies.

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For the curious, here are the movies the diarist recorded in her diary in 1923, listed in the order she and her husband saw them. Titles are linked to their IMDB page. A review, if offered, is in parentheses.