Glue Babies February 2025 in Review
wherein I finally take a day off
Hello all and goodbye February!
February is the shortest month and it sure feels like the shortest month; March is when I feel the new year begins and it’s always a flurry of activity. I hope you all are taking care of yourselves right now. Below is a recap of my month including my experiment with giving myself weekends and a bunch of lovely things to bring you a bit of joy.
Quick reminder for my paid Substack supporters that the February Micro Terra go live in the Secret Shop at 6 pm EST tonight. Link/password was emailed last week.
Thoughts on February
Last month I talked about how I was going to finally take days off and then report back. I’m happy to say that I actually did it! I took two days off per week; one day during the week and one on a weekend. I thought this would give me time with my husband but also a day off where I could have some much-needed alone time. I also had a cleaning day so I would actually organize my studio properly between monthly collections rather than once or twice a year and do self-care like put away laundry (to moderate success). On my weekdays off I did things like read or wrote (my main hobbies) for long periods of time without guilt and it was great. On my weekend day off I usually had something that had to get done that precluded fun, but that’s a pretty typical weekend experience.
The monthly drop seemed to make it through just fine even with the days off and that’s because my burnout was significantly reduced, though not eliminated. I also felt a lot less stressed because things like vet visits and taking care of my dad were scheduled for my day off, so I didn’t feel upset to be doing those things while “I could have been working.” Two consecutive days off would be nice, so I might change it around again soon, but I like the one weekend/one weekday format.
This month I also vended at the second annual St. Pete Zine Fest in St. Petersburg, FL. It was such a great event and I met so many nice people. I even had a few people come up because they recognized my art or had come out to see me; hearing that made me want to tear up, it was just indescribable and such an honor. I can’t travel for shows (two chronically ill cats that need x2 daily meds and RX wet food) and don’t have the spoons for vending most of the time, but this event was early in the day, fairly local (less than an hour away), and only 4 hours long which is as close to perfect as an event can get for me. When I got home I still had to lay down with a crushing migraine for the rest of the evening, but I was buzzy and happy for days so it was absolutely worth it. Note for next time: take a migraine pill before I get the migraine if I’m in a situation where I know I will get a migraine. I will absolutely be vending again next year though and I am energized to make a new zine soon.
February Lovely Things
Recently I saw some rename “doom scrolling” as “hope questing” and I loved it. I, too, sometimes feel like I am just waiting to see something positive before I let myself log off. So here are some lovely, fun, and interesting things from February 2025 that caught my eye and will hopefully help you on your hope quest.
Laverinne’s gorgeous and extremely intricate watercolor creators have captured my heart this month. She currently has a show, “Time of Wonder,” up at Haven Gallery and the pieces are breathtaking and you can view them here. I need an art book from this artist, stat.
Gorgeous ceramic cat jewelry by Rachel Brown. I am obsessed with these and want one of her cat rings so bad and I don’t even wear jewelry.
One flying cat is not enough! This Cupid cat by Danielle Gundry Monji Moyle is just about the cutest thing. Maybe this is how the cat distribution system secretly works?
My toxic trait is believing that I, too, could make an elaborate Lego rug like Dante Dentoni.
Sonia Lazo’s fashion and art is colorful, whimsical, and joyous. They have a distinct point of view but also never fail to surprise and delight.
I watched Drag Race España Season 1 this month and my favorite queen was Hugaceo Crujiente. Their drag is some of the most artistic I’ve seen and it’s so stunning even though they’ve moved away from the more Cubist-inspired elements they were using during their Drag Race appearance. España didn’t seem to “get” their drag, so I would love to see Hugaceo on a Canada vs The World season where I feel like they would get their flowers.
Speaking of flowers: bees! I only started seeing orchid bees when I moved into my current house (they love this one type of yellow flower we have in the backyard) and the ones that I see are a little more blue-green. Turns out they’ve only found in Florida so I thought it would be fun to share them. We have bees, honeybees, and orchid bees where we are and I like to let the thistle grow to help them out.
If you’re looking for something longer to watch, Mummy Joe just finished his Kid Vampire series. They were posted as Shorts and have just been compiled into this “movie” which is about an hour long. It’s the story of Kid Vampire, who just wants a cell phone (aka a pahoney), but ends up crossing paths with a lemon mogul, frog linguists, a mad scientist, and a super baby all while trying to complete a school project. I love this series so much and I even overheard someone at Zine Fest talking about it and almost ran over because I wanted to talk to them about it; 10/10 recommend. Maybe the true cabbages are the friends we made along the way …
March 2025 Lock Screen and Wallpaper
I wanted a floral theme for this month’s lock screen and wallpaper so I went with this floral Tiny Terra covered with pearls. I hope you like them! These are also posted to my IG where I have a monthly Story highlight that I regularly update, and Patreon where paid subscribers get a bonus wallpaper set each month.
Thank you for reading the February 2025 recap and I will see you again in a few weeks for a tour of Tiny Terra Series 22.