The Fluffbucket Diaries

ICAD 16/61; accidental use of “Chartreuse” prompt. Acrylic paint, punched card stock, metallic marker.

Another card to make up for two days of not creating. We flew home yesterday, the three of us. I had created this background well before I knew of the “Chartreuse” prompt; I’m not sure this is pure chartreuse, but whatever. It seems to work.

The slightly squiggled butterfly is punched from black card stock that my daughter scribbled in metallic marker when she was 5 or 6.

(Also, I just realized that the “Chartreuse” prompt was a day or two before. Oh well.)

ICAD 15/61; no prompt. Acrylic paints, washi tape, previously punched thesaurus page on card stock.

I’m behind on posting cards — and in fact was off on my card routine the past few days. Tuesday was Mom’s funeral, and yesterday was our long travel day back home. I had some supplies with me, and some ideas for cards, but now that we’re home, I’m catching up through a cloud of jet lag and the exhaustion that is finally catching up to me.

Here, we’re seeing off Mom.

ICAD 14/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint on inchies; printer paper; washi tape.

I didn’t realize I hadn’t posted this here after I made it Monday. Love this Simone Weil quote.

I just ate my weight in leftover funeral lumpia for dinner. I somehow want to think Mom would be proud.

ICAD 13/61; no prompt. Smushed acrylics, gold metallic Sharpie, Pilot G2 bold pen.

After a long day of travel yesterday, I pulled out a prepped card and doodled. Sigh. It’s something.

ICAD 12/61; no prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen, cheap Target glitter pens.

Not a great pic of not a great doodle card. Colored this at O’Hare airport as our flight was canceled and we were rebooked on another direct flight to our destination, landing about 90 minutes after our originally scheduled arrival.

Doing an early weigh-in and post before we head West for Mom’s funeral. Being a gathering of a Filipino family in a hotbed of Mexican food, I expect to throw carb limits out the window during our time in California.

I checked in at 236.8 pounds, or 3.2 pounds down from last Monday. This puts me at a 16.3 percent weight loss since January.

Even if I go over my carb limits, I’ll still log my eating. I’ll continue restraint, but I’m not going to go nuts, either.

Of course, I weighed myself before having a last-minute Portillo’s Polish with everything – including the bun, which I rarely eat now. I anticipate ingesting an unusual amount of noodles, tortillas, and sweets – as well as homemade oven-fired pizza at my brother’s place – over the next several days.

Bonus ICAD card for today. Let’s call this 11a/61; no prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen, cheap glitter markers, bronze metallic Sharpie pen that was low on ink.

Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart. Wanted to do something for it.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.

My first reaction to the Pulitzer Prize announcements was that the apocalypse must be near if BuzzFeed won a Pulitzer.

Of course, BuzzFeed won for actual quality reporting, not a listsicle of Best Kardashian Dating Stories or something. But I like teasing BuzzFeed, anyway. Good for them on the Pulitzer.

Obit finally posted to Mom’s memorial website. Probably will post it separately on the blog at some point.

ICAD 11/61; “Library” prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen. Simple and to the point this time.

ICAD 10/61; no prompt. Acrylic paints, washi tape, cutout of my daughter’s index card scribble.

Late posting of yesterday’s index card. Last (for now) in my accidental series.

In the Before (COVID) Times, I’d give my kid pens and 4 x 6 index cards to busy herself during church. I was hoping she’d maybe take notes or draw something about the readings or homily; instead, she’d produce idle doodles of Pokémon or dragons or whatever else she’d be fascinated with at the time. I have a pile of these drawings now, and I’ll be incorporating some of them into these cards.

So much for sleep health.

ICAD 9/61; no prompt. Craft acrylic paint; washi tape; inchies made of repurposed cereal box cardboard, Eastern European newspaper, and Sharpie.

Took the look of the Day 7 card and switched things up slightly. I think I may have the makings of an accidental series here.

Been getting to bed by 2 or 3 a.m. the past few nights. Working on photo scanning, editing, and uploads to Mom’s memorial site. I still have a full obituary to write and a slideshow that I need to figure out how to create — all, ideally, by Friday. And I still have a job to tend to during the day.

Not complaining. All of this is the least I could do. My siblings have borne the far greater burden of our mother’s slow decline. And shuffling through hundreds of photos is helping me rebuild memories of someone I have been grieving over the past five years.

Weighed myself yesterday, per usual, but I forgot to post the weekly update. Down to 240 pounds, or 43 pounds less than the start of all this in January. That’s a 15.2 percent loss so far.

We’re heading West this weekend for Mom’s funeral, and I expect my eating patterns to go somewhat haywire. They’re already haywire now; I still forget to eat for stretches at a time, though I make up for it at dinner and afterward. Except for today (when I opted for a fudge pop that put me over my carb limits by 3 or 4 grams), I’ve been pretty good with keeping under my doctor-prescribed limits.

The Fitbit app now gauges stress levels; my score has been in the 50s and 60s over the past few days. There’s work, and then there’s some tasks related to preparing for the funeral and memorializing Mom. I’m trying to keep up my daily ICAD stuff, which has been such a welcome distraction and stress reliever. In a way, it anchors me these days – as does, to some extent, the dietary scaffolding of my low-carb “lifestyle.” Grateful for both anchors.

ICAD 8; “Umbrella” prompt. Black, pink, and blue Pilot G-2 bold pens; cheap glitter markers from Target; gold metallic Sharpie.

I was ready to post a different card, but the “Umbrella” prompt was especially compelling to me for some reason. I was stress doodling and ended up with this.

ICAD 7/61; no prompt. Metallic, pearlescent, and matte craft acrylic paints; metallic Sharpie; washi tape; old postage stamp.

Late getting this done after rifling through more supplies I didn’t realize I had. May be divine intervention involved, because I was close to giving up on this one. Actually happy about this card.

ICAD 6/61; no prompt. Gel pens, metallic Sharpies, printer paper, and repurposed cardboard.

Spending much of my weekend scanning family photos for an online tribute and slideshow for Mom’s visitation. This seemed kind of appropriate.

(I’m also finding she really rocked the hipster spectacle frames back in the day.)

ICAD 5/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint, metallic Sharpie, printer paper, and an artist trading card topped with inchies made with a metallic Sharpie and acrylic paint on repurposed cardboard.

My Saturday got kind of crowded, so I’m late in posting this one. “Productivity” has been on my mind a lot lately.

ICAD 4/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint, newspaper scrap, and inchies made with a metallic Sharpie and washi tape on repurposed cardboard.

This is one of likely many “I’m-overwhelmed-by-life-and-I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-I’m-doing” ICAD pieces.

I’ve been poking through a large stash of inchies I’ve created over the years and am trying to integrate them (and likely make new ones) into this project. It’s been a long week, and my brain cells are largely spent. So, I slapped this one together on a previously made paint background with inchies and newspaper scrap.

At the very least, this gives me somewhat of a template to play with for future cards.

ICAD 3/61; “Lyrics” prompt. Acrylic paint; Sharpies; collage atop painted inchies with punched cardstock and printer paper.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I would sing “Blackbird” by the Beatles to her in my womb. She’s 13 now.

It’s that time of year. I would have rather voted for Victor Caratini over Austin Nola for NL catcher, but oh well.

I weighed myself Tuesday (rather than the usual Monday), but didn’t get around to posting anything. Preoccupied lately.

I hit 241.2 pounds on Tuesday; that’s 1.8 pounds down from the previous week. (I weighed myself this morning and was at 239, but I’m not going to count that. My eating habits were atypical yesterday, and I’m sure it’ll even out when I can get back on track.)

The Tuesday weight gets me down 41.8 pounds since I started all this in January.