Amanda W

@amwesselmann

Interested in books, history, neurodiversity, cooking, art, and democracy

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Amanda W@amwesselmann· 4d

I made a jellyfish! It’s lumpy and not nearly as cute as the example, but I am proud of it for a first crochet project. #TinyJoys #knit #crochet #CraftSky 🧶

A small jellyfish made of light blue yarn. It is lumpy and the tentacles are varying lengths. I am thoroughly pleased with it.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· 17d

Lemme get this straight. I plant tomatoes for years and barely get any harvest, but some small mammal “plants” a tomato seed by concrete and it just grows? #Gardening 🌱 #GrowYourFood #TinyJoys

An indeterminate tomato vine with leaves, yellow blossoms, and small green tomatoes growing near a patio and building.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· 25d

I finished reading Too Small Tola by Atinuke with my little kids. We broke it into smaller chunks, and I had to provide some additional information to them, but it is a great book for younger kids set in Africa. Bonus that the audiobook had a Nigerian narrator. #BookSky 📚 #Africa #ReadAloud

Book cover for Too Small Tola by Atinuke. On a yellow background is the head and shoulders of a small child with dark skin and black hair carrying a basket full of different foods, a reference to the first chapter of the book. The title and author appear in red patterned letters.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· 27d

THE COSMOS ARE BLOOMING! Months ago I tore up part of the lawn and scattered #wildflower seeds. For a long time it looked like only grass and goldenrod were sprouting, but now the cosmos flowers have started blooming! #garden #BloomScrolling #TinyJoys #NativePlants #nature

A cosmos flower (Cosmos bipinnatus) is almost open with yellow petals surrounding a red center. Behind it and slightly out of focus is a fully open cosmos bloom. More buds dot the green foliage, consisting of cosmos, goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), other wildflowers, and the dreaded foxtail grass.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Jul 15

Happy birthday to me! #TinyJoys

Me, a pale woman who is older today than yesterday, sitting in the shallows of a lake beach. I am wearing my favorite khaki bucket hat, a red long-sleeved rash guard, and black swim shorts.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Jul 13

This fly is so green! I started following a gardener in my area, and they post lots of pictures of insects they find among the native plants. It has raised my appreciation for and ability to notice details about insects. #gardening 🌱 #insects #invertebrates #nature

A small bright green fly with translucent wings, Condylostylus sipho, landed on a pale human.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Jun 28

I carefully chose and purchased some Ruellia humilis for a part sun garden, only to get about a dozen volunteers in a different full sun part of the yard. 😏

Ruellia humilis, or wild petunia, volunteering in a sunny garden. The blooms are light purple, 5-pearled, and bell-shaped. The foliage is fuzzy, pointed, green leaves. These plants are growing about 8 inches high.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· May 25

Me in March: The hops are sprouting, and I am going to be brutal and thin them! The hops in May:

Many hops vines overflowing a trellis made of wood and clotheslines. It’s appears as a wall of leaves.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· May 23

It’s an ecosystem! I removed the fencing from the native perennials and some critters nibbled a bit. But the plants sprouted different stems to compensate! #Gardening 🌱 #TinyJoys

Crowded stems of yellow coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa) growing green out of brown leaf mulch. The stems nearest the edge have been nibbled short by wildlife, likely rabbits. New stems grow around the nibbled ones.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Apr 30

Marry someone who will buy you a Hobbiton tea towel that you use to line the bread basket. #LOTR #TinyJoys

A shallow bread basket lined with a yea towel and containing yeast rolls. The edges of the towel folded over the rolls shows the lower portion of Bag End, and the word Hobbiton.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Apr 26

Cooking with #herbs season has begun! #TinyJoys #GardenSky 🌱

My pale fingers holding several long, skinny green leaves of garlic chives over a simmering pot of soup. Floating at the top of the soup are a few leaves of sorrel. Both garlic chives and sorrel are perennial herbs picked from my garden.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Apr 8

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook is an excellent book. I thought the Setting in the author’s childhood homeland of rural Sri Lanka was beautiful, and the adolescent characters were relatable, even though they do some pretty ridiculous things. Definitely recommend. 🧵1/2 #BookSky 📚💙

Cover of the book The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook. The title is at the top. Centered is an image of an adolescent in a shirt, long skirt, and a long braid of black hair riding an Asian elephant. The elephant has long tusks and a trunk raised like it is trumpeting. The pair are marching along a river through a jungle at sunset.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Apr 6

Tribute to the matriarch! My mom eats hard boiled eggs often, but my kids don’t eat the eggs they color for #Easter. So we give #eggs to Nonnie!

A Tupperware container containing 6 colored eggs, including 2 with a patterned shrink wrap

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Mar 30

The hops garden is productive already… a cottontail rabbit has made a nest there! #nature #wildlife #gardening

A mama cottontail rabbit in a raised bed garden. Her front legs are splayed because she is nursing kits, not visible under her. After she left, we saw 3 little furry kits.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Mar 15

My photo app wants to identify our pet rabbit as a dog. 😂 #TinyJoys #DogSky

A black Flemish giant rabbit lying floofed on its side in a carpeted room. There is also a scattering of hay on the floor, cardboard boxes for “bunstruction”, and a large dog crate because this sass-ball can’t be trusted at night. The photo app on my phone thinks the rabbit is either a Scottish terrier or a French bulldog, which cracks me up.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Mar 9

Starting US history with Native Americans because native history *is* US history. #NativeAmerican 🗃️💙 #AmericanHistory

A play table, kind of like a train table but structured like a river with banks and hills rising from it. There are toys, including small brown wooden pegs representing people, a wooden campfire, cut logs, rectangular houses, and a mastodon “that is friendly and you can pet it,” according to the youthful scene creator. This river table is meant to show life in part of Illinois over the past 10,000 years.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Feb 2

#JustFinished reading The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim. Set in Seoul during the Korean War, I liked the perspective of Korean civilians, the effects of war, and relationships. High Five to my local library, where I got this in a librarian-curated browser pack. #BookSky 💙📚 📚⏳ #LibrariesMatter

Cover of the graphic novel The Naked Tree. On a blue background, a black, leafless tree weaves branches through the yellow words of the title. To the right, a young Korean woman stands turning as if looking over her shoulder toward the other side of the tree. There is a wind-up key, like ones for a mechanical toy sticking out of her back. The author’s name, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, is at the top of the cover in white letters.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Jan 30

It’s hard to tell, really.

A post by shedances underthemoon that reads, “Can’t tell if my bad mood is due to perimenopause or the fall of democracy.”

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Jan 14

The Song of the Winns trilogy by Frances Watt looked like a cute adventure with mouse characters to #ReadAloud to my kid. It quickly became a kid-friendly primer for resisting oppression. Highly recommend. #BookSky 📚💙 #resist

Tan cover of the first book in a trilogy. At the top, a yellowed banner displays the name of the series in script font, The Song of the Winns. Below that, the title reads The Secret of the Ginger Mice. The image is a drawing of two mice, both orangey or yellow “Ginger” colored, riding a raft down rocky rapids. One mouse wears a scarf flapping in the wind, and both hold makeshift oars that are thoroughly useless in the situation. At the bottom is the author’s name, Frances Watts.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Jan 9

We made seed cakes from bird seed and gelatin, and a squirrel seems to be enjoying the buffet.

A child’s playhouse with white siding, gray shingled roof, and purple porch railings. On the roof is a squirrel, apparently named Munchers, nibbling on a seed cake it brought up there. The roof is littered with seeds that have fallen in the process.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Dec 31

I exceeded my reading goal this year and read 84 books! Sometimes I impress myself. #BookSky 💙📚 ⏳📚 #TinyJoys

Screenshot from The Story Graph. It says that I have read 84 books, over 18,000 pages. Bars of color at the bottom indicate the different moods of the books, but the image cut off the labels. Adventurous is the biggest mood, and includes most of the Redwall series and all the Poppy and Friends series. The tracked books include chapter books I have finished. It does not include picture books I read to children, magazines or newspapers, or books I didn’t finish. Or what I read in January, as I started using Story Graph in February.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Dec 30

I asked my youngest to get figures I could use to act out part of the Christmas story, and this is what they came up with. 😄 #TinyJoys #Christmas #AdventWreath

A photo of a selection of toys and an advent wreath arranged on a wooden table. The advent wreath in the background is from my childhood. It is made of brown clay, with various biblical symbols stamped around it, and it holds 3 purple and one pink candle. In the foreground, a group of shepherds gather to adore the baby Jesus while Mary and Joseph look on. The shepherds are played by a superhero, a couple of princesses, and a bunch of wooden peg dolls painted to look like different saints and an angel. Baby Jesus is played by a small mouse toy in a crib “manger”, Joseph is played by Fred from Scooby Doo, and Mary is played by a wooden doll representing herself. Toward the right of the photo, two My Little Ponies play angels, and in the back left, a spotted horse plays the donkey. Merry Christmas!

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Dec 19

Who’s got two thumbs and 140 handmade cards to give to nursing home residents? 👍 this guy👍 Spread some cheer, people. Your small gesture might be the only one someone gets that day. #holiday #community #TinyJoys #SeasonsGreetings

Handmade cards are scattered about a shoebox used to transport them to a local nursing home.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Dec 15

Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate! #Hannukah #holiday

Digital art depicting a lit menorah, sufginayah (like a donut), a wrapped gift, a dreidel, and several gold coins. The words above the items reads, Happy Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Nov 29

Fashionistas are worked about outfits that go day to night, but I‘m over here going from fall to grinch. #knit 🧶 #holidays

A selfie of a white, brown-haired woman with glasses smiling and wearing an orange sweater, skirt patterned with leaves and pumpkins, and sage-green colored knitted cowl.

Selfie of a white, brown-haired woman with glasses scowling at the camera while wearing a grinch-colored cowl over her head. The cowl is the same as the lovely sage colored one in the previous picture.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Nov 27

Me: *mumbles giblet gravy recipe directions * Creepy Teen: and add one soul… Me: it already calls for chopping the heart and liver, and picking meat off the neck. Isn’t that goth enough? 😂 #Thanksgiving #parenting

A pale-skinned hand holding a peeled potato carved to resemble a human skull. Because no, giblet gravy is not goth enough.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Nov 26

I planted lettuce in…September?…and am harvesting because we have a cold front moving in with possible snow, and I want to put the gardens to bed. Behold, my harvest! 😂 #gardens #TinyJoys #GrowYourFood

A handful of tiny baby lettuce leaves, rinsed and sitting a damp white towel used to pat them dry.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Nov 5

I give you Pepper Thee Pepper. This bell pepper plant grew from a seed a child planted after most pepper plants are well-established in our area. Pepper sprouted, was nibbled by a rabbit, persisted, and in October set flowers. One grew to this teensy bell pepper that I love. #Gardening #TinyJoys

A small bell pepper plant with one tiny green bell pepper hanging off a low branch. Around the plant, the wooden walls of the raised bed and the red maple leaves used for mulch are visible.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Nov 1

Happy Halloween! 🎃

Eight pumpkins decorated by kids sitting on a porch. Three are drawn on with sharpie and 5 are carved. The carved ones are light from within by electric candles.

Amanda W@amwesselmann· Oct 14

Who was gonna tell me that dill flowers were so pretty? Who?!? #GardenSky #BloomScrolling #MagentaMonday #TinyJoys