500 Tabs
(originally published on sarahshotts.com)
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
Smitten Kitchen Shortbread Biscuits
Puy Lentil Salad & Picnic Recipes
Chicken Mulligatawny Soup via @peternhorton
Christmas Jam via Jen
Patrick Stewart Beans on Toast
*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”
“wiggy wig bush”
Honorine Jobert Japanese Anemone
GARDENING
“chelsea flower show 2013 treehouse”
“harrods british eccentrics garden”
“chelsea yorkshire garden 2018”
“chatsworth laurent perrier garden”
“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”
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
“farmers nightmare seed mix”
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
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
FOR DAVY
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”
Victorinox, a Swiss-made knife sharpener
Raspberry Creek Custom Printed Fabrics
Bags of Hope Custom Printed Fabrics
Pottery Slab Roller
Christmas Candle Spinner
MUSIC
Belle & Sebastian
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
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
Mood Fabrics Free Cottagecore Patterns
Muna and Broad Plus Size Patterns
Sewing Weights (Rice or Pottery?)
Swedish Blinds, Escape to the Chateau 2021
POTTERY
“polycrylic on pottery“
History of Printed British Pottery
Where to Start with Glaze Making
UK TRAVEL
Lulworth Cove
How Stean Gorge
Portland Stone Quarry Sculptures
Red House, William Morrison (near London)
US TRAVEL
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”
“How to make clear bioplastic?“
“plato meritocracy”
ARTISTS, MAKERS & EDUCATORS
Robert Burns
Heath Robinson
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune
Down the Rabbit Hole
Stop Motion, 2018