A Year Long Two Weeks

It’s been a year… well almost – at least as far as work (teaching in person) is concerned. It’s almost been a year since I last posted here too. So what am I doing? Well the short but colorful answer is that I’m trying to drag myself, kicking and screaming, out from beneath the stone under which I crawled.

I have been writing, fanfiction for the most part for the Once Upon A Time community – particularly Rumbelle. You can find all of that here. It’s something that from a CBT perspective, I love, and keeps me on the mellow side. Ask anyone… I’m a bear with a sore head if I haven’t written for a day or so.

I have been journaling. My husband discovered a fabulous resource for me. It’s a company (and community) called Silk and Sonder. They produce self care journals which are super helpful, and highly customizable. For someone like me, who resists schedules and lists etc. as if they were the bringers of pestilence, but who needs them to be able to function, they are a fun and gentle way to allow oneself to admit that, and accept the help they provide. I can’t thank my husband enough for finding them.

I have been doing a lot of crochet. It’s something I used to do when I was much younger, and when I needed another creative outlet in addition to writing, I thought I’d try and remember how. Several blankets and scarves and other garments later, CroStitch Creations was born. It is a small company offering made to order items for home décor, outer wear, and items for baby using crochet, and cross stitch, also plastic canvass crafts to produce items made to customer specifications. It started out on Etsy, and while I’m sure Etsy is good for some folk, it just wasn’t working for me, so I moved away from there, and will be promoting the Tumblr platform, which I love, except that the email link doesn’t work, so I’m going to have to figure that out. Hard to get orders if people can’t get in touch, right?

Naturally, I have been teaching remotely. Contrary to what the media might imply schools have not been closed for the past year, only the buildings. Teachers and educators have been busting our asses to be there for the students, and what thanks have we gotten…? None. None. At. All. In fact quite the opposite. We have been vilified by all and sundry and are now being forced to return to in person learning before we’re all vaccinated, without fully effective safety measures, justified by faulty science. I just… I can’t. I’m going to end up upsetting and/or insulting some people if I go on. *climbs off soap box.*

So… what now, you might ask? Well,.. I’d like to surface from obscurity once more, but I don’t know quite how my time is going to be. To try and make life easier for myself, I’m going to kind of echo the schedule I follow on Tumblr. So it’s been as follows:

Monday is Make-it-up-Monday.
Generally this means I’ll either share planning (of a fic) or a report of how something particular is going, for example, I want to start creating my own crochet patterns, so I’ll be making those up, and I can share. So Mondays will be a pot-pourri of content which I hope the few followers that have stuck around will enjoy.

Tuesday is TMI Tuesday.
On Tuesdays you can ask me anything. Ask about writing, ask about crochet, ask about life… anything at all, and I will answer. If no one asks anything specific here (use the contact me page please), then I’ll choose the most fun or interesting question from over on Tumblr (or maybe Twitter if I get to that), to post it here. I’ll have to think of a ‘deadline’ to make that happen.

Wednesday is WIP Wednesday.
As it sounds, this is the day where I report back on works in progress. Fics, crochet projects and anything else I might be up to. All of the above. Just watch this space.

Thursday is Three Things Thursday.
Rather like TMI Tuesday, only readers get to choose something that I’m doing (use the Wednesday post to be your guide), and ask me to tell you three things about it. As with TMI Tuesday, if no one asks here, I will choose the most interesting post from Tumblr and repost it here.

Friday is Final Line Friday.
As of the moment, I’m not sure how that will translate here, unless I do simply show and tell the final lines of writing and crochet for the week. Suggestions gratefully accepted.

Saturday is Scene-it-Saturday.
Over on Tumblr this doesn’t happen much because I never get asked for a scene, so if no one asks for anything, it’s difficult to deliver. Let that be your guide. If there are no Saturday posts, you’ll know that no one made any requests.

Sunday is Shout-Out-Sunday.
This is where I take something that has caught my eye during the week, and spotlight the heck out of it. If you’re done anything you’re proud of, or have particular websites of interest, please share. You might get them featured on Sunday’s posts.

For now that’s all… I have a fic to write, and it’s almost dinner time.