BRB, looking at mountains

January Update – Winter Has Returned

I had a plan when I made this blog, which was to write more regularly. Of course, even the best plans can fall through, and the less-than-best plans can definitely fall through. Still, it’s the last day in January and if I can’t manage once a week, then I’ll settle for at least once a month. A write is a write, after all.

January has been okay, though a bit slow to start in terms of work. I’ve crafted some more items, these being a dice bag and a keychain, and a bracelet that’s currently still in the works. I like both, though the dice bag did teach me that even the most careful measurements can be off. I hope the next one will be better when I just add 1.5 cm more to the circumference.

Further artistry includes me adding a bunch of new designs to my Redbubble, which has been kind of dry for awhile with regards to new content, so it’s good to put some life back into the old girl. You’re welcome to take a look HERE and see if there’s anything you like. I don’t get a large sales percentage, but I do get some.

Other than that, I’ve binged my way through seasons one through four and half of season five of Vikings since the new season is now well under way and I wanted to get a refresh on what exactly had happened and who was still alive. We’re now nine episodes into season six and I am disturbed by the lack of Floki. They’d better not give him an off-screen death, because, cold as it is, I will go and riot in the streets.

Other than that, things are relatively quiet. My Viking is doing math in preparation for taking a math exam and going back to studying IT, and some programming on the side. I’m here providing moral support and keeping my fingers crossed. Now let’s see what February will bring. Also, to provide support for this entry’s title, I leave you with the below photo. Winter has returned, but so has the sun.

Onward to 12020

Apparently, the decade is almost at its end and we’re on the brink of 2020, or 12020 if you’re going by Kurtzgezagt, which I am inclined to do since I’m pretty much whatever about the whole Christ-being-born thing. Either way, we’re entering the roaring twenties again, and while I look forward to the reinstatement of some of the fashion, I’d rather not watch (certain parts of) the world fall into a crippling depression, so do take care of yourselves, yeah?

It’s usual at the passing of the year to consider how you wish to shape the year ahead, and while it is a bit arbitrary, and we all know what happens to most of the people who go to the gym in January full of zest and vim, I still like the idea of pondering how I want 12020 to be, and who I want to be in it. I think we can all agree that 12019 has seen its share of ups and downs. I can talk for quite some time about American politics, about climate change deniers in power, about Brexit, take your pick. However, I’d really rather not since it sours the mood, and we’re not playing that tune in 12020.

Instead, I hope that 12020 will be a turning point for many of the things that are holding us back, either as individuals or as a species. I hope that for many of you 12020 will be the year you manage to shake that nasty habit, find work that’s fulfilling and doesn’t make you feel like you’re the dirt underneath everyone’s feet, when you remind yourself that you don’t have to be good at your hobby to have fun with it, and most importantly a year in which you love yourself and are kind to the people around you. When it comes to life, we cannot make the people around us do anything; everyone has agency and will. All we can do is treat people the way we want to be treated, and be a person we’d like to meet and be friends with.

For myself, I wish to keep my body in a state that allows me to work and spend time on my various hobbies, and to actually spend time on my various hobbies. 12019 has been a rough and busy year for me, to the point where I just took December off because I needed a good long break to recover. I am also still recovering from muscles that have been overused but not trained well enough, so various exercises and stretches are part of my daily regime to keep the muscles fit and active so I can actually do my job and spend time on my hobbies without being in pain or dealing with constant aches. I’m going into 12020 in a better state than I was when I entered 12019, but it’s on ongoing process.

As for hobbies, well… 12019 was not a great year for art or writing. 12018 was an art boom for me, and I had a great time making art and writing fic. 12019 sucked a lot of energy out of me, which all came out of the hobbies-jar. In 12020, I want to make more art and write more. It doesn’t have to be much, it just has to be something on a regular basis. That being said, I did start crafting a fair bunch in 12019. I made some dice bags, some mice, some pretty neat, layered holiday cards. It’s not that the year has been without creative outbursts entirely, it’s just not been as frequent an occurrence as I would have liked. That’s my homework for 12020. That and the usual eat-healthier-and-become-fitter-somehow stuff, but I’m sure we’ll fit that in somewhere as well.

That’s it for this entry. For next year, I’m going to try doing at the very least weekly updates so get back into the swing of writing on a regular basis. I wish you all the very best for 12020. May it bring you joy!

Bullet Bit

That’s it. My Facebook’s been removed. Well, apparently I have 30 days to change my mind before FB nukes my profile from orbit, but that’s very unlikely to happen. I did discover that my phone won’t let me uninstall the app, however, which is a bit of a pain. Apparently, I can only disable it. Either that or I’d have to root it and mess around with it outside of its indicated boundaries, which I may yet do. I also made sure to disable all of FB’s access to various parts of my phone individually, just to be safe. Still, I can’t say I’m 100% sure that the platform isn’t still sucking up information in some capacity, but whether that particular bit of paranoia is justified is another matter.

In the interim, I’m just going to make myself a nice space here and try to become better at structuring my writing and making it at least somewhat interesting. Keep an eye on this space, I suppose? That being said, I’m off to my mum’s in a couple of days for Christmas shenanigans, so don’t expect any lengthy entries during this time. I’ve got some art I still want to work on as I enter the third part of my one-month holiday, which is part of a list of activities I’d drafted. The list actually worked quite well in that it gave me a nice, clear overview of what I wanted to do, and getting at least a large chunk of it done feels good. Otherwise, I’d just sit here and binge the ‘ Flix, which has an appeal of its own but isn’t what I wanted to do. Not really. I’d end up feeling like I’d become stagnant, which isn’t conducive to a happy vacay.

I’ll leave it here as I wrap up a few other things today. I wish you all happy holidays!

Cards, Cards, Cards

This first week of my splendid staycation is all about cards. On one of the communities on Pillowfort, a user did a shout-out to see if anyone wanted to join a holiday card exchange, and I figured that’d be a great way to start off my break. I’ve managed to make five cards so far, three of which are for the exchange. I got to try out a new folding technique I got from the Viking, who found it in a video, and managed to make some six-sides snowflakes, which was neat. I also made two cards for friends I chat about and play Final Fantasy XIV with. All in all, it’s great to be crafting without being interrupted by work. I’ve added the cards below for your entertainment. The basic technique of working in layers is one I picked up from my babysitter, who used to make a lot of cards and sell them at local markets. Craft foam has my love, it really does.

Folding these and cutting out the various small openings was an exercise in patience.

I like this one for the relative simplicity of the thing. No fancy colours, just lines.

Victorian Urianger is totally worth the effort it took to put a hat on him. Hats are hard.

More Final Fantasy XIV, this time it’s Nero and a Paissa! This one’s my fav for the additional, yet not very visible, layer of plastic that functions as a window.

A Hearty Welcome!

If you’re reading this, then you’re likely one of my Facebook friends, who still wanted to keep in touch after my announcement that I will no longer be making use of the site, and was hauling my ass literally everywhere else. Don’t get me wrong: I see the positives of Facebook, but felt they no longer outweighed the negatives. If you took the time to come here and read my nonsense, then please know that I appreciate the hell out of this. Thanks for straying from a place where everyone is conveniently gathered, to come here, to this place, which requires a bit of effort to actually go to. Seriously, thank you so much.

In case you’re wondering what this blog will be used for, my thoughts on the matter currently are that I’ll be uploading some art, talking about whatever craft projects I’m working on, and sharing bits of poetry or prose that I’m writing. Also, since I do live in a damn beautiful place, there will be photos. Huzzah! Anyhow, this will be my new home for the foreseeable future. It’s also a nice thing to have a small nook to write in that everyone can access. If you’ve got a blog, drop me a link so I can properly stalk you. 😉

To anyone who doesn’t know me from Adam but liked the sound of the above: welcome, stranger! Take a seat and have a cuppa. I hope you’ll like it here.

~Issinder