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"Class. Is. Dismissed..."
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What filled your glass this month, Subscriber?
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Halfway through the year and I'm experiencing a moody-weathered June here in Santa Cruz County. It is so delightfully overcast and spooky. I never thought I would be saying I enjoyed the kick-off month of summer, yet here we are! The month flew by (I know, I know, when hasn't it, lately?), and July marks the start of my second month at my new workplace. The job is VERY different from what I've done in the past, but I'm learning as fast as I can, and honestly, it feels like a much better fit. Fingers crossed it continues to be so!
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The school year for my littles ended the first week of June, as did my final days at my last job and then we jumped right into summer school and my new job. I ended up turning my off days into rest days or laundry days. It always takes me a little while to get into a new routine, but once it's established, I should have Fridays free to act as a whole day dedicated to creative projects. I cannot wait! I have a LOT of ideas I'm dying to get to work on. But! Since June was mostly this transition period, I didn't really get much done creativity-wise and just focused mostly on establishing routine. Which, ironically, put this newsletter a little later than it's usual time. I feel confident that newsletters will be back to the regular schedule of the last Wednesday of the month after this and chocked full of creative endeavor updates. Some of which, I am very to work on and share progress with.
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In other updates, for anyone that was interested by this blub last month, my recommendation list for monster romance has grown and I can't seem to put whatever book I'm reading down. Over the past two weeks, I got through five books of a series I did not think I would get past the first book of. I'm too embarrassed to openly brag about them here, but I've got a list if you're curious!
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If you are interested in the rest of my random gossip, you'll have to keep scrolling. But before you continue...you didn't forget to pour your own glass of boos, did you? Let's raise it to a jovial July!
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Life Occurrences & Creative Ventures— June 2026
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- June 1st: Started Orientation at new job
- June 3rd: Lil' Boo's Kindergarten Promotion
- June 4th & 5th: Last days at last job
- June 12th: Member Early Morning @ Monterey Bay Aquarium
- June 12th: Completed Cocktail Map @ Makai Santa Cruz
- June 27th: Watched BACKROOMS
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June was this wiggly thing of a month where a lot of things were happening and so it didn't feel like we did much other than ride it out. My son's school did a promotion celebration where all the kindergartener's became 1st graders in place of a graduation ceremony. My baby boy is officially a 1st grader! My daughter ended the school year hitting her reading goal and we are so proud of her. I'm hoping there will be many library visits in the next month since we didn't get to it this month. I want to support her reading habits as best as I can. Then, summer school jumped right into it the following week and I jumped fully into my new job.
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June Highlight: Joining Makai's Cocktail Club
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After over 4 years, we finally completed our first map at Makai. This delightful tiki bar on the Santa Cruz wharf has this secret drinking menu where, something would happen when you completed drinking every cocktail on their menu. Tiki bars often have secret menus or unique memberships when completing a drinking list, so we had no idea what to expect.
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Turns out, you get this adorably grumpy octopus mug and become a part of their cocktail club, complete with special events and other special drink experiences not part of the usual experience. This is the first time Erick and I have completed something like this, so it was pretty exciting!
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Meanwhile as we sip along on the Sips & Spirits Podcast....
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Episode 67 is COMING! I told myself I cannot work on anything else until I get this very belated episode edited. If I don't sit and work on it this weekend, I'll be doing so over the coming week.
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Mood Check
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Older Goodies for my Gossips
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I gain too much pleasure from loading these emails full of random toasts and teasers. However, I understand email newcomers may have missed out on something here or there. As such, there is a special page to explore, exclusive to my email subscribers. It is filled with all the goodies I have tucked away in emails since 2024, in addition to an email archive of past newsletters.
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Use the password: GossamerGossiper
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What I'm Weaving Behind the Cobwebs
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My view during the Monterey Bay Aquarium member morning.
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I know I said I didn't do much creatively, but I did find a little time to myself the second Friday in June. The Monterey Bay Aquarium had a member's morning where I could get entry a whole hour before general admission. I decided I would take advantage and sit in front of their kelp forest exhibit to practice on background illustrating.
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Trying a full color illustration
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Trying illustration with background elements
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I'm so not a background artist, but I'm trying. I do love how these little practice pieces came out, but I need to up them a little more. Backgrounds will not be optional with my next book project. All in all, it was super fun experience. I had adults and kids both asking me if I was a student from the college or if I was working on a class assignment then answering with "I'm a children's book illustrator practicing for my next book". What an exciting thing to say!
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On the topic of books, I am still figuring out the global distribution of my book. My samples from IngramSpark were rather disappointing. So it's back to the drawing board. I'm trying a second set of samples from IngramSpark, but my expectations are low. I want to make it more accessible around the world and I have had interested parties state that they want to purchase through Amazon, but it's a tricky thing as a self-published author/illustrator.
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I'll be sharing more about that in my author updates newsletter and on @pageweaverchelsea to keep readers updates on my books and their accessibility. I didn't really want to fuss over dealing with international shipping, but as of right now, if any interested international parties contact me, I am willing to ship directly to them if desired.
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