500 Tabs

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I recently discovered that my iPhone has a limit of 500 tabs. I don’t know if this is a new limit or my new personal record for opening tabs and not closing them down. Flowers to plant, blogs to read, things to buy, recipes to make, music, films, games, places. I’ve got them all.

These days I’m often interrupted during the cycle of thought → research → idea. Over time these forgotten rabbit holes add up.

When I was sick over Christmas I got curious about what all those tabs were holding. I had to keep my mind busy while my body healed so over 48 hours I opened every tab and made a list of all the interested links & topics in my Notion app.

I created this list an archive for myself, but perhaps you’ll find something that sparks your curiosity as well. Enjoy a nosey peek into my neurodivergent mind. It’s crowded in here.

When I was curating this post I remembered I used to something similar on Patreon (with links I’d already read or made a note of somewhere). Maybe this is my way of returning to that.

My creative process is fueled by inquiry so there’s always a connection between my random musings and the work I end up creating. I love documenting this part of the process and sending these little curiosity sparks out into the world.

The Data

Out of 500 total tabs there were 203 useful links and topics (if I counted right). The rest were duplicates, duds, and dead shopping carts. There were also a fair number of links to do with physical and mental health which I didn’t include here.


Categories

I was curious about what kind of links I was hoarding so I did a little nerdy tally.

Here’s an idea of what you’ll find below.

Flowers & Gardening - 59

Breadcrumbs - 26

Recipes - 17

Shops - 17

Blogs & Articles - 15

Crafting Patterns - 12

Books - 11*

Music - 10

People - 8

Films - 7

Travel - 7

Pottery - 5

Words - 4

Games - 3

NW Arkansas - 1

*If this number seems low its because books are almost always added to TBR pile on Storygraph instead of an open tab.


Recipes

Anzac Biscuits via @emsie_kins

Sourdough Pancakes

Broccoli Rubble Farro Salad*

No Knead Sourdough Bread

Smitten Kitchen Shortbread Biscuits

5 Minute Peanut Noodles

Puy Lentil Salad & Picnic Recipes

Lentil & Chickpea Salad

Mature Cheddar Mac & Cheese

Apple Cake Recipe

Black Bean Spread

Strawberry Summer Sheetcake**

Biryani

Chicken Mulligatawny Soup via @peternhorton

Parkin

Christmas Jam via Jen

Patrick Stewart Beans on Toast

Apple Cider Donuts

*Ah, so this is why I bought farro! For what it’s worth I found this one twice.

**I actually baked this one, but I accidentally made it upside down.


Books

The Listening Path The Creative Art of Attention (A 6-Week Artist's Way Program) Author: Julia Cameron

A Life Made by Hand (The Story of Ruth Asawa) Picture Book

Born with Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

Tim Gun: The Natty Professor by Tim Gunn

The Complete Book of Flower Fairies

Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race

No Great Mischief by Alastair MacLeod 🇨🇦

Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom Harvest in Translation by bell hooks

Unearthing The Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett Marta McDowell


Plants to Research

“tetrapanax”

“euphorbia spurge”

“delphinium elatum”

“tree heather”

“amelanchier” via Laetitia Maklouf

“white agapanthus”

“stipa gigantea”

“viburnum plicatum mariesii”

“hardy geranium the lovely weed”

“crambe cordifolia zone”

“group 3 clematis”

“giant hyssop”

“globe thistle”

“astrantia”

“jamaica primrose”

“salvia involucrata”

“grow flax”

“gwendoline sweet pea”

“purple hyacinth beans”

“coreopsis moonbeam”

“trachystemon orientalis”

“stipa gigantea”

“bears breeches”

“red stem bush”

“winged everlasting”

“rudbeckia butterscotch biscuit”

“spicebush”

“species tulips”

basket willow

“wiggy wig bush”

Lady of Shalott Rose

Climbing Roses

Quaking Grass

Honorine Jobert Japanese Anemone

Cosmos 'Rubinato’

Poetical Liz Rose

Echinops & Knifophia


Gardening

What to Plant Each Month

“chelsea flower show 2013 treehouse”

“harrods british eccentrics garden”

“chelsea yorkshire garden 2018”

chatsworth laurent perrier garden

hazelwood landscapes

“chelsea rotating trellis panels 2021”

“chelsea flower show treehouse slide”

“monty don writing garden”

“seed tray hollyhock prick out”

“oxygenating pond plants weed”

“haws watering can”

“mexican fleabane steps”

“pinto bean plant support”

“grape vine trellis”

cucumber beetles

Episode 6 Gardeners' World, 2017 (Monty presents an hour of gardening for the Easter weekend. Nick Bailey gives tips on how achieve a luscious lawn, and Adam Frost starts to transform a herbaceous border.)

Charles Dowding's No Dig Gardening

Hampton Court Dry Gardens

“farmers nightmare seed mix”

Andy Gladman

Advolly Richmond


Blogs & Articles

When Mary Martin Was the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up

Curiouser & Curioser V&A Exhibit

Tenderness Shares A Root With Attention

Inside a Hollow Book a Secret Library

Much More Than Muffins: The Women Who Invented Home Ec, NY Times

Setting up a business in your 50s: JamJar Flowers

Claire Fletcher: Stepping Back in Time

Gary Graham and His Collaborators Are Rewriting History One Embroidery Stitch at a Time

Gary Graham Relaunches From a Room of His Own in Upstate New York

Ramble On: Rockers Who Love ‘The Lord of the Rings’

The Discoverie of Witchcraft via British Library

Hollywood Formula

Three Act Structure in Film

Diary of a Young (Autistic) Naturalist

Mourning in the Early 1900s, Mary Robinette Kowal

Adapting The Wheel of Time for TV Is an Epic All Its Own

‘The Wheel of Time’ Star Madeleine Madden on Facing Down Whitecloaks, Harnessing the One Power, and Planting Easter Eggs for Fans


For Davy

Kids Sheet Music

Rupert the Bear

Free (Goregous) Seasonal Coloring Pages

How To Read Sheet Music: Step-by-Step Instructions


Shopping

“bent wire garden supports”

“soil sieve”

“Roll Out Wooden Curved Garden Pathway”

Oilcloth by the Yard

Provisional Press

Bookshop.org

Victorinox, a Swiss-made knife sharpener

Cupsmith Tea

iPad Paintbrushes

Raspberry Creek Custom Printed Fabrics

Bags of Hope Custom Printed Fabrics

Tiny & Snail Tiny Cards

Pottery Slab Roller

Broadway’s Back Tee

Pollack’s Toy Theatre Kits

Stormlight Archive Shirt(s)

Christmas Candle Spinner


Music

Flower Duet

Belle & Sebastian

Raglan Road

Ballad of Morgan the Moon

Time, Pink Floyd

The Sound of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel

Sutton Foster in Little Women

Underground, Assassins Creed

Beecake

Ghost of a Robot


Games

Dungeons of Naheulbeuk

Turing Complete

Wheel of Time MMO Teaser

Hues & Cues Board Game via @tamtasticbooks


Films

Mom and Dad Save the World

The Dressmaker

Brigadoon

Three Men & a Baby (Disney +)

Starship Troopers

The Electrical Life of Louis Wayne

The Imitation Game


Mother Artists

Ruth Asawa

Jane Kaufman, NY Times


Sewing & Crochet Patterns

Broken Dishes Quilt Block

Sew Liberated Patterns

Crochet Hair Scrunchie

Mood Fabrics Free Cottagecore Patterns

Palazzo Pants

Sapporo Coat

Muna and Broad Plus Size Patterns

Studio Pants

Sewing Weights (Rice or Pottery?)

Swedish Blinds, Escape to the Chateau 2021

Lichen Duster

Quince & Co


Pottery

Mixing Clay Bodies

ceramics & cyanotype

“polycrylic on pottery“

History of Printed British Pottery

Bespoke Ceramic Transfers

Where to Start with Glaze Making


UK Travel

Lulworth Cove

How Stean Gorge

British Wildlife Centre

Portland Stone Quarry Sculptures

Red House, William Morrison (near London)

Lyde Garden


US Travel

Maryland Renaissance Faire


NW Arkansas

Meme’s Caribbean Flavor Food Truck


Words

recrudescing

tressoire

floriferous

inglenook


Breadcrumbs

“idris welsh mythology”

“monty don sensory garden”

“tomy tutor typewriter”

“forest pansy”

“starling”

“timorous beasties”

“arkansas land of opportunity”

“single gender worlds in fiction”

“valentino crochet”

“kew suffragettes tea pavillion“

“Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time." - Jean-Michel Basquiat

“voltaire tend your own garden”

“electrodes wet wood”

“fiction vs nonfiction book sales stats”

“sci fi vs fantasy book sales stats”

“wardenclyffe”

“specialisms” - isn’t this better than “special interests?”

“autigender”

“I am from” poem structure

“How to make clear bioplastic?“

Inclusivetherapists.com

“plato meritocracy”


Artists, Makers & Educators

Robert Burns

Heath Robinson

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune

Sam Metz

Wandering Blacksmith

Sally Dennis

https://player.vimeo.com/video/358398175?h=f502f74f15&app_id=122963">

Down the Rabbit Hole

Stop Motion, 2018

Sarah Shotts @sarahshotts