Remember Nutsy, in Disney’s Robin Hood? He’s a vulture (?) keeping the night guard, walking around the courtyard with an axe and shouting the time on the hour: “1 o’clock and allllllllll’s well,” to the Sheriff of Nottingham’s sleepy irritation. The past few weeks, writing these intro paragraphs has felt like that. It’s Friday, I’m here with my axe, and all is as well as it can be. Also can we talk about how good the Disney Robin Hood is?

1. Museum Asks People To Recreate Paintings With Stuff They Can Find at Home, Here Are The Results, Sad and Useless. These are real cute! It’s cool seeing people be creative and how everyone is working to imitate the light in their chosen painting. I like the Mondrian open face sandwich the best (or the dog one at the end!).
2. How Craft is Good for Our Health, The Conversation. “One of the strengths of craft practice, especially as a contributor to well-being, is precisely that it can be both solitary and collective, and it’s up to the individual to decide. For the shy, the ill, or those suffering from various forms of social anxiety, this control, as well as the capacity to draw away any uncomfortable focus upon themselves and instead channel this into the process of making, is a much valued quality of their craft practice.” I like this a lot. I sewed a lot of face masks in the past week, which made me feel both empowered and exhausted, and now I’m taking a breather to decide if I want to keep working on sewing projects. If not, there’s always coloring books, a welcome break for my brain.
3. Wild Geese, Mary Oliver. “let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves.” A comforting classic.
4. A Few 19th-Century Parlor Games to Amuse You While You’re Stuck at Home, LitHub. I’ve been thinking a lot about Jane Austen books lately — the parallels for social distancing and many, many evenings at home with the same few people are easy to draw — and mildly amusing parlor games seem like something the Bennetts might have done to pass the time. These games are really weird and clearly designed by people who don’t get out much. But hey, better than reading from Fordyce’s sermons, right?
5. This Flapper’s Dollhouse Cost More than Most People’s Homes, Messy Nessy. I. Love. Miniature. THINGS. What a thing (“including the smallest Bible ever written”) to pour millions of dollars into. We visited the Biltmore last year with David’s parents, and as we walked through the house, each room more elaborately furnished than the last, David’s dad kept saying, “This is STUPID money!” Which is how I feel about this dollhouse. I can’t relate to the priorities, although she did use it to raise charitable funds, but it’s definitely a work of art.

Bonus features:

• Ina Garten making a modestly-sized cocktail (Twitter video)
• 17 Best Canned Tuna Recipes from Easy Tuna Melt to Tuna Pasta, Food52. – My dad made me a tuna melt the other day and it knocked my socks off. Would recommend. Haven’t tried many of the other things listed here but it’s just about time to break out the weird food combos.
• COVID-19 Artist Resources, BOMB Magazine. Some of the grant applications on the links here are out of date, but it’s a comprehensive list of resources for artists, musicians, freelance media workers, and creators, check it out if that’s you!
• A couple created an art gallery for their gerbils – This cute n silly bonus feature is dedicated to my whimsical BFF Emily, whose birthday is tomorrow!