Current Favorite Fidgets // 90's Throw Back

 Last Christmas (the Christmas we all got the flu and felt like death warmed over) my mom brought me all of my Barbie clothes from my childhood.  In that box was a little teeny tiny doll with long, long hair.  Pretty sure she was my sister's, but I immediately grabbed it for my newly established trinket collection at work.

Quickly that little thing became my favorite fidget...meet the Fabulous Hair Freinds!

These little gals interlock their arms in each other's back packs and become the perfect little hair play toy...or if you're a newly diagnosed ADHD adult suddenly realizing that twirling your hair was always soothing, they are the perfect little fidget toy for your life.

I play with the one I have at work SO MUCH that the hair plug popped out and I had to super glue it back in.  I instantly took to eBay to see if I could find more (because I'm scared I'll lose the only one I currently have!) and ordered 3 of these NIB! I've only opened one pack so far...gotta save some of that dopamine for later.

I love the little hair style ideas and 100% want to clip a set of these gals on my badge at work lol.  I already have a crap ton of doo-dads on there including a giga pet and some hit clips.

My grand idea is having these in various places to fidget with but I don't know how I'd keep their hair from tangling!

If you need me, I'll be twirling their hair....ttyl!

Day in the Life // Clarissa Jade

 A day in the life of Clarissa Jade:

In the fictional town of Brookside, Clarissa is a vet tech/pet rescue volunteer who also picks up shifts at Paws Coffee (see the start of Paws Coffee in this post!)

Today she is running an adoption event so she stopped by the pet store (after grabbing an iced coffee) to pick up some necessities for the day....and some not-so-necessities for her own cat.

She drives a Chevy Spark (one of the only dolls in Brookside to canonically have a car).  After the pet store she heads over to the rescue to load up supplies for the adoption event.

The adoption event is local to Brookside so she stops to shop at the market where she meets a new friend.  No one is ever sure if she's the one seeking out animals or if they are seeking out her....

After the market and her second iced coffee of the day she grabs her one-eyed cat for a nice relaxing evening drive.  She just wanted to listen to music and leave the day behind.  It was a lot of work running the event, so many adoptions happened!

Clarissa Jade is loosely based on my sister who once fostered a cat (it had both eyes though) and drives a yellow Chevy Spark.  Clarissa, like my sister, is kind and caring, has no problem organizing things, regrets saying yes and still pulls it off anyway. Clarissa, unlike my sister, drinks 2-3 coffees a day and still falls asleep as soon as she's in the bed. Clarissa's doll profile is here.

(disclosure: images are AI generated)

What I Made for my American Girl Doll Coffee Shop!

I made a Library for my 18 inch dolls back in July/August & even decorated it for back to school!  Now that its September I had the idea to bring Paw's Coffee (the coffee shop in my fictional doll town - Brookside - that helps support the pet rescue next door!) to life! Talia and Clarissa work there...if you wanted to know.  You can find Clarissa on my Doll Collection Page here.

I used a thrifted desk organizer (I think it was a desk organizer) to make the shelf, some packing paper for the coffee bags, and craft foam, craft foam stickers, and some paint to make the cookies.  I am SO PROUD of the cookies!

I thrifted some craft foam - I've been trying to thrift a lot of my craft supplies honestly - and used some paint to make it 'cookie colored'.  I also heated up the foam with my heat gun and used a stiff bristled brush to make it 'cookie textured'.  The frosting on the cookies is fun foam stickers from the seasonal craft stash.  I used some leftover plastic packaging + some tape to make the little baggies the stapled some packing paper to make a little tag.

The coffee bags are made from recycled packing paper (because I always save it!) with a trimmed popsicle stick on the bottom and some pebbles inside.  I made the labels using chatGPT and printed them on sticker paper.  Washi tape keeps the bags closed!

A bit ago I made some candles with some recycled plastic packaging, washi tape, and tissue paper.  I had some flameless candles left over from ...something.  So, perfect for a craft! This little table I found at the thrift for like .49 cents...there's just ONE thrift store around me that STILL HAS prices like .49 cents!  I think someone made it from Jenga pieces....its pretty neat!

I need to make some cups and other coffee shop things and hope to get the coffee shop set up for fall/Halloween!  I bought some little solo cups from the Dollar Tree that are doll sized and I'm going to cover them with paper (I think) to make to go coffee cups!

If I make anything more I'll be sure to share!

Sunday Junk Drawer - August 23, 2026

On my old blog (which I haven't tried to recover...yet!) I used to do something called 'Sum Up Sunday' where I shared what I did during the week.  This post is going to be sort of like that but I'm also going to dump some bookmarks, pins, and saves from across the interwebs.  THEN you can go here and dump my junk drawers (if you'd like) to have your own printable ephemera and inspiration collection, if you'd like!

In My Life:

I made this little meme after having a not so great day this week.  I don't even know if it is funny it just...is.  I am all about the whimsy and I want to keep that in mind even when I have a bad day. 

I found the bubble wand image on Pinterest and knew I had to do something with it.

I spent some time last weekend making some stuff using some of my thrifted goodies!  I got two bags of figures - little people Barbies and some My Little Ponies - that I've been wanting to turn into bag charms.  I used some of my Lisa Frank beads that I purchased off of eBay to style some of them.  I had these Lisa Frank beads when I was a kid and I LOVED THEM.  I remember I got them for Christmas one year - the same year I got a basket full of craft supplies that my grama painted my name on - and just LOVED them.  I want to find some resin and make some earrings out of the bigger charms.

I also thrifted a Be Forever American Girl friendship bracelet book.  I've made one so far and it took me a MINUTE to figure out HOW to make the loom thingy work!  I put all of my bracelet making stuff in a thrifted Tigger from Winnie the Pooh caboodle type deal and just sit on the porch and make, make, make!

For The Blog:

I've made a few new sidebar things and pages!  First I made a few little gifs of my dolls so that they can rotate in a little sidebar widget with links to their profiles (when I get that made!).

I used Chat GPT to make the dolls, then used an app called Momento to make the gifs and add the pixelation.  I want to make this blog be a place that I go to hang out so while these things are fun for readers....they are mainly for me!

Generate a name/word sticker for your junk journal here.

Generate a receipt for your junk journal here 

From Around the Web:

I have a thrifted One Direction caboodle type box that I want to turn into the Y2K/Claire's/Limited Too box of my dreams so I've been pinning inspo.  I need a bunch of gems and the perfect either scrapbook paper or wrapping paper! If I could find some neat wrapping paper I think that would be the bees knees. Check out my Y2K Bedroom pin board here.

Click the images for the pin links!

I've also been loving the Y2K butterfly aesthetic. I have been watching a ton of repeating pattern making reels on Instagram - they have shown up in my feed frequently - and reeeaallly want to break back out the iPad/Procreate combo again.  I'd like to throw some of my own designed junk journal patterned papers back up here on the blog.  When oh when will I have the dagum time!

Click the images for the pin links!

And here's some junk from Pinterest I plan to use in some journal spreads when I also somehow have the time for that!

 Click the images for the pin links!

Hooray for weekly Junk Drawer Dumps!

Digital Junk Drawer - August 2026

Digital Junk Drawer

stuff i found, saved, thought about, laughed at, wanted to remember, or didn't know where else to put.

AUGUST 2026

ADDED AUG 16 2026

Task Completed!

Started this month's Junk Drawer! I'll keep dumping things through the month that I find over on Pinterest (mostly).

Check back through the month to see what else gets added!

AG Doll Library

 I’m SO EXCITED to show this little project off. It’s not 100% done but I LOVE IT. 

This is the library I made for my 18 inch dolls using a thrifted cabinet, second hand Our Generation doll stuff, and some printables. I also used some stickers to make it Back to School themed. 

So amazing! 

My goal is to make several little ‘playsets’ using thrifted cabinets, etc. Anytime I see a little cabinet/shelf I grab it right up. 

In these photos Lea is at the desk - she and Winnie work at the Brookside Library in my doll world - and Addy is visiting. In my doll world all the dolls have like Hallmark movie type jobs and they just live their best lives. 

The Mac I found on eBay and the round little orange table/ottoman was a part of a gift box I thrifted!

This display is on my old sewing machine table in the sunroom since I don’t have a place for a BIG dollhouse …. It is my dream though!

Ahhhh. Anyway. So excited. I LOVE IT.