The Friday Edit

Textured Wall Art

Why you’ll love it: beginner friendly, low cost, creative

What you’ll need (with links): joint compound, stretched canvas, scraping tools, paint set

A few months ago I came across a random tutorial for creating textured art, and my ADHD brain just had to try it out. Essentially, you take plaster-like material from your local home improvement or arts and crafts store and create different designs with it on a canvas. After allowing the plaster to dry for at least 24 hours, you can choose whether or not you’d like to sand away any imperfections and paint some fun designs! After making two pieces for myself within a week, I soon began finding myself creating pieces for friends and family. 

What I really love about this hobby is it’s easy to start, but you can really make it your own based on your unique skill set and style. After just a few tries, I felt comfortable to expand the tools I was using to create unique textures, such as sponges and sand. Here are a few examples of my first few pieces! 

Host Fun, Themed Dinners

Why you’ll love it: choose your own adventure, connect with friends, practice other skills

If you’ve got a knack for planning and love a good social event, this could be right up your alley. Once a month, or whatever schedule makes sense for you, tell your friends/family that you’re hosting a themed dinner. Encourage fun outfits, ask people to bring a favorite dish, and decorate your home to your hearts desire!

Not sure what kind of themed nights you should have? Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• Around the World (dishes from different countries & cultures)
• Favorite Things Night (ask everyone to bring their favorite dish)
• Nostalgia Night (ask everyone to bring a special dish from their childhood)
• Throwback Dinner (pick a decade or time period and have your friends dress up while you make a famous dish from that time)
• Things that Start with Letter (insert letter here)

Online Styling

Why you’ll love it: make extra money, discounts on clothing/services, work remote, creative

If you’re a fashionista looking to make some extra cash and have 15 or so extra hours per week, you should really look into online styling services as a side hustle! Over the last few years I have worked for two large styling companies, and its a really easy and fun way to make some extra money while maintaining my full-time career and exercising my fashion sense. While the pay itself typically isn’t amazing (usually ranging from $16-$22/hour), most companies will offer great discounts on their clothing. Plus, the hours are typically very flexible, allowing you to set how many hours you’d like to work each day of a pay period, but not dictating when those hours take place. I like to work an hour in the morning, and split out the other few hours throughout the day and evening as my schedule allows. 

If you’re looking for companies that may be hiring online and/or remote stylists, try checking out Short Story, Stitch Fix, and Taelor.

Puzzles

Why you’ll love it: stress relief, low cost, no urgency

Okay, I know you probably already know that puzzles exist. But… when was the last time you actually tried to do a puzzle? If you’re anything like me, it’s probably something you forgot even existed. As someone with anxiety, puzzles are a great activity to pull me out of the whole “hustle” culture, and just be present and focus on the task at hand. 

As a result of one of my other many hobbies, I actually created several puzzles that are now for sale online: The Dukery: Puzzles

Solve a Crime from Home

Why you’ll love it: individual or group activity, brain teaser, can take several hours

What you’ll need: Unsolved Case File

Use those detective and sleuthing skills with this really fun unsolved case file game! The game linked above is a comprehensive case file of a fictitious murder, and the goal is to examine all of the evidence and files to catch the killer. These games are great for anyone who loves a good murder mystery podcast or documentary, and there’s a ton of varieties out there to choose from. I’ve solved one case with my husband, which took us about 3 hours total. With a larger group of 6-8, we were able to solve the mystery in about an hour. 

Order the Chinese takeout, grab some friends, and let the detective work begin.