I finally started putting up my art in my apartment (I moved in July 2025). But I realized pretty quickly that I don’t have enough art for the increased size of my living space. High ceilings are amazing until you have to put things on those incredibly tall walls. And what art I do have, I don’t like as much as I used to. So, I’m on the hunt for art! Which leads me to thinking about art—a pretty big topic. I’m trying to figure out what I like, what art I appreciate, what I want to look at every day... it’s a lot.

Let’s break it down:

This one isn’t too hard to answer. Books, cats, & noodles (naturally), queer life, tattoos, food, sleeping, crocheting, witchy and/or a slightly surreal or spooky stuff. You know, just like, girly stuff. Tee hee.

I don’t want my apartment to look like the inside of a Spirit Halloween, but if someone walks in and catches something weird out of the corner of their eye, that’s cool.

Here’s what I bought:

This is harder to answer, just because I’m not that familiar with styles of art. When I visit museums, I tend to enjoy contemporary and modern art more than say, the Dutch Masters. It’s all about bright colors and illustrative styles over realistic portraiture or landscapes. For me, it’s so enjoyable when the art has a sense of humor about it self.

Here’s what I got:

The etsy algorithm has gotten to know me pretty well at this point. Once I saw this piece, I had to have it. Capybaras in the bathtub! Is there anything so delightful as this?

I also found this table lamp on WorldMarket.com and absolutely lost my mind. There’s a matching floor lamp but it’s wicked expensive. How many floral lamps is too many for one home?

I’m going to do a big gallery wall in my bedroom with the etsy art and some of my old stuff. I think it’s gonna look great. You should come over and see it sometime.

She Made Herself a Monster by Anna Kovatcheva: an orphan teenage girl and a con artist/vampire slayer dream up a monster that maybe ends up being real? Also, the cover art is “Judith Slaying Holofernes” which is just ***chef’s kiss***.

Bone of my Bone by Johanna van Veen: “blasphemous masterclass of sapphic historical horror” says one reviewer in the blurbs.

Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky: “brutally hysterical” novel about a young wife daydreaming of killing her husband.

Truthfully, I’m still somewhat obsessed with queer sports romance novels. It’s pretty much all I have been reading. But! I am working my way through some non-hockey related books that are worth talking about.

Itch! by Gemma Amor: a young woman discovers a decayed dead body on her walk home through the local woods and begins a downward spiral into madness. I really liked 75% of this novel. The last bit at the end? I felt like all the urgency kind of left the book once the monster was exposed. 4 stars.

Fundamentals of Being A Good Girl by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone: A nanny and single dad romance. I’m about halfway through and the female lead is all “the sex is great and I’m so happy keeping it casual” and the male lead is like “oh no, I have feelings!” And they’re not talking about it. Which I find very frustrating.

Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey: A hotshot hockey (I can’t escape it!) rookie falls for a softball pitcher and has to win her over after sticking his foot in his mouth in a big way. Bailey’s romance novels don’t always appeal to me, but so far I have really enjoyed every book in this series. This one was fun, funny, cutely romantic, delightfully sexy and spicy, and just all around a pleasure to read. 4 stars.

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle: I just can’t get through a Tingle book. I like it ok while I am reading it, but then I put it down or step away and never pick it back up again.

It snowed! I live on the southeastern coast, so snow is pretty rare for us. Our winters are usually pretty mild and I don’t miss the snow/sleet/ice/frigid temps at all. I basically refused to leave my house for 3 days until the snow melted.

Pumpkin and Fiona have only seen snow once before. Wallace spent formative years in Washington, DC so he is more familiar with snow but hasn’t really been out in it too much. I opened the porch door and the cats were immediately curious, but it was so cold! No one wanted to go outside. I quickly shut the door and we all curled up on the couch with our blankets, hot tea, and cookies (for me) and tuna treats (for them).

I am killing this New Year’s resolution to eat 6 new-to-me pasta shapes. Here is new pasta shape #2, fidanzati capresi. Google tells me “fidanzati” means “engaged” (as in to-be-married) and that’s where this twisty shape gets it name from. I found the pasta at HomeGoods and even though I am kind of leery of buying food products from discount stores, I decided to go for it.

This pasta was delightfully chewy and fun to eat, but I should have made it with a saucier sauce. It was kinda hard to scoop up the thick meat sauce and also spear a noodle all on the same fork.

Art has been plundered from etsy! Books are (still) being read! Noodles have been consumed! It’s another month, and here we are, reaching our goals and killing it like the badasses we truly are. Happy Palentine’s, Galentine’s, and Valentine’s to all who celebrate going to CVS on the 15th and scoring discount candy.

Love, Marcella