Hello Dear Friends & Foragers!
I hope the fall (or spring) weather is filling you with so much joy. It has been a while since our last Monday Mushroom and hightime for an update!
Things got a little quiet over here due to a few health curveballs 😳, but I’ve been working as I can behind the scenes. All our troop listings are loaded and up-to-date (finally—thank you for your patience).
I’m looking at that photo above longingly as it is still 85ºF here in Florida. I am not a summer weather kind of gal which means my current address is nothing short of ironic. One day I will live in the land of all four seasons! So you who are enjoying cooler days already, please soak some fall goodness up for me.
A More Analog Autumn
As October unfurls, I’m finding myself craving a more analog autumn. The online world can be overwhelmingly noisy. And lately I have missed flicking through journals and scrapbooks. My world exists so heavily in digital form. I screenshot a recipe to save it and then have no way to find it 2 weeks later. It has disappeared into the abyss of my cloud drive.
If you clip a file and it disappears into your phone or cloud storage does it even exist at all? Deep thoughts. I know.
So here’s some of what I’m trying. These might make for some fun ideas for some cozy October evenings.
I set up a “PRINT this” photo album on my phone. Instead of scrolling social media, I scroll the photos on my phone and add to it. Then I either print them out as photos or print several at a time as a tiny photo collage that can be cut up and pasted in my analog life sketchbooks/scrapbooks I have affectionately dubbed The Analog Files. ⬇️
I’m starting a brand new notebook for October and I’ll share more here as it progresses. But this time my goal is to get the things on my phone and tech stored offline and shared in print and paint and glue and all the things. Think… turn the things worth saving from your phone into a scrappy sketchbook/ junk journal. It will probably take me months of doing this to even make a dent, but it sure feels like a worthy hobby. Adding MORE friction into the process helps us choose the things that matter.
Break out the DVDs like it’s 2005. Watch 1 movie offline. Not binge a season of the latest series while scrolling shortform media or surfing Pinterest. (I do that too sometimes. It just hits differently.)
SIDENOTE: I think the usage of the word analog in our online era doesn’t always refer to purely “analog” media. I love a good vinyl. But I see the word analog used more broadly in the sense of choosing digital media that is not connected to the internet. It’s why when I write (my day job), I have a whole open-source offline writing setup so I can turn off my internet and just focus. With NO subscriptions.Carry a tiny $2 notebook with me and write observations instead of scrolling.
I’m starting to carry an old-school pocket digital camera with me. The photos feel closer to film than phone photos.
As soon as it is not a feels-like temperature of 90 around here, I can’t wait to break out my picnic blanket and go enjoy some creative wanders or times reading in the fresh air.
Analog living and whimsy aren’t just internet aesthetics. They don’t have to mean buying that breaks the budget. They are first and foremost choices of how we choose to interact with the world around us. These are just some of the ways I’m weaving these things into my world.
I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts and how you navigate these things in your world!
What’s In the Works
Our October Field Guide is coming the end of this week/weekend.
I’m also working on our beret tutorial, a simple mushroom miniature project, and our first badge sketchbook. Lea has a genius tutorial coming this month as well too. We are getting our rhythms evened out.
Please let me know which of these you are most excited about and I’ll do my best to prioritize getting these created and posted accordingly. (They are all coming. It’s just a matter of what comes first.)
We'd love to see what you're making and how your troop is growing. If you have a handmade project you or your troop created, or a story, milestone, or meaningful moment from your troop that you'd like us to consider for a future Monday Mushroom, just reply to this email.
Also if you have questions or need assistance, just reply and your reply comes straight to me.
All my love,
First I wanted to comment that the Paprika program is ab fab for saving recipes you find online and then *actually being able to find and use them*. It's lovely.
That being said I fired up my laser for the first time in a month or two and made some functional art (which is my favourite kind :-) I'm building a guitar chord practice neck - it's only 5 frets long, has real strings, and is wonderful when you still want to practice but are taking a trip where a guitar is a bit too much for the packing space :-D
We painted rock pumpkins today!