Return to Phae

 A few things to get out of my brain before they are lost:

• I started writing a new blog. Well, an old blog renewed. dreacros.wordpress.com - don't know why. I just did. Maybe because I didn't want everything linked to a pseudonym that I'm not sure about keeping. Maybe when I let acrossett.com expire, I'll buy one for the new blog. Maybe I'll just let it be.

• Less social media time. I haven't been taking the mental health breaks that have been suggested over and over, and I'm worn out on hate and anger and incredulity. I want to spend the growing season revelling in the beauty of nature instead of sitting helpless while a foreign country's​ heartless regime destroys it and everything else that is beautiful in life. I need rest. I am going to take it. And I am not going to apologize for it.

• More books. There are hundreds of classics that I have never read. Summer is for reading. There will be reading.

• Feri. I have signed up for Vee's class this summer. Re-reading Evolutionary Witchcraft as well, and finally working through the lessons. It's powerful stuff. Stuff that's needed.

• Also, old tv shows with coffee. This is my self care. It helps me remember what it was like before the rise of the regime.

• Poetry. I'm going to add more to my life. Reading, writing, finding. 

The sun is shining. I'm going to go out and soak some up.

Why exactly am I justifying my culinary decisions to you?  GF cooking is sticky enough if you aren't used to it (or don't know what you're doing).  GF baking is another level all together.  I've been doing it for two years and I am still not proficient enough to wing it.  

I'm happy for you that "letting dough rise" is no problem for you.  When you've made GF baked goods from scratch, and they came out tasting just like the "regular" version, then talk to me about how terrible it is to look for shortcuts for folks who are new to GF living.  It's enough of a strain on your wallet to try and get GF versions of regular food, making Sabbat meals GF should not make your life even more difficult.

*fume*

 So, I just finished up P.  I have Q started (I started it before I'd finished N, just never got around to finishing it).  R, S and T and then I will be all caught up.  My summer was pretty good, thanks :)  How have all of you been?

I have an idea for what I want to write about for S, but I'm finding myself a little stumped on R.  I'd love to do another short story or maybe do an image for one of them, but I'm not really sure what.  T, maybe trees or totemism or travelling.  

I'm also gonna get back to doing the Witchy Wednesday meme, when I remember.  It's really important to me that I embody the 'Blogginh Without Obligation' tag that I have on all of my public blogs now.  Somehow it helps me to keep things in perspective.  Just that little graphic and the pledge not to beat myself up if I don't blog every day or even every week.

I also got a comment encouraging me to go back to working on my Wheel of the Year section as well.  And snooping around my blog, I found that I could pretty easily get a handful of book review posts up pretty quick as well.  Time to start scheduling again so that I don't have to worry about things getting done on time ;)

I've recently finished the line art for my Halloween painting.  I have a great idea for one to do for November as well.  The November one involves snow impressions  - which is another area that I've never really explored before.  I love trying new techniques.  It makes me feel like I am really moving forward rather than catching up on rusty old skills.  I think I may call the November one something like 'A Thousand Words' or '50,000 Words' in honor of NaNo.

What would be really fun is to team up with someone who planned to write and have them use one of my paintings as the base for their NaNo submission.  That would require getting my snow painting finished before November, which wouldn't be impossible. Hmmm, anyone wanna do NaNo but don't have an idea yet?  If I get no takers, I may advertise that idea on my blog.

That's about all that's new and interesting with me.  Time to turn Gobbles the turkey into the sink to finish thawing before he goes in the brine for tomorrow.

 I have about half a dozen articles/tutorials that I should be putting together for my blog(s).  I have a kitchen full of produce that needs to be prepped so that I don't have to do it before/while cooking.  My house needs to be dusted in a bad way.  There is also laundry, a project from my old school that I said I would do a month ago and various other things that are half finished ATM.  I've misplaced a lot of things that I need for my various sewing projects (straight pins, sleeve press, new needles), so I need to hit the fabric store soon too.

I just signed up for three different web forums (well, two, but it seems that my MW account has been deactivated, probably from disuse, so I count that one as well), all accounts are awaiting moderation approval - which is something I'm not used to.  Probably for the best.  Something tells me that I'm not going to get approved at one of them (I didn't realize that you needed to fill out the profile info completely to get approved).

I want it to be sunny so that I can go outside and enjoy my coffee on the deck.  Weather app says it's going to rain for the next 3 days.  I love rain, don't get me wrong, but I've gotten used to sunshine now.

I've also fallen down on my daily meditations.  I should get back to that.  There isn't a whole lot of peaceful time with a teething baby, tho - both bottom eye teeth coming in.  Her poor little mouth is so swollen :(

I think I will finish my coffee and play catch with my baby.  Maybe I'll be productive later.

 Well, not all.  Let's say LOTS of the things.

So, the cold snap is over ... for now.  Temperatures outside are finally on the plus side of the thermometer.  Yay!  

Also, we found a house.  Again yay!  I am tempted to gush over it, but we haven't signed the lease yet, and we don't have the keys, so I'm feeling a bit superstitious about the whole thing.  I'll gush when keys are in hand.  Suffice to say that it's a 2 bedroom bungalow built in the 20s. And even though we will be the last tenants before the owner tears it down in favour of building something bigger and brand new, I intend to make sure this little blue house feels lots of love in it's last years :)

I haven't been as careful as I should since I've been here, diet-wise.  A house full of gluten is a minefield for me, since everything in my kitchen is safe for me to eat (unless it's DW's bread, which is easy to spot because it's the only white bread).  And because I haven't been careful I got one hell of a head cold (crappy immune system, plus -40 weather, plus dry as desert climate).  I'm feeling a bit better now, but I hadn't been that sick since before I went gluten free.  It sucked.  I only hope that I didn't pass it on to the baby.

I've been inspired by the cold and dry to start making my own hand creams and lip balms.  If they turn out, I'll put them up for sale on my etsy store.  After some thorough product testing, of course. I'll be looking for volunteers as soon as we are moved in, set up and I have my first batch finished ;)

I also dug out my old BOS file from my back-up hard drive.  I need to go through it and make something cohesive and useful.  Maybe a PDF.  I have Acrobat trial for another month or so.  We'll see how I go about learning to work with it.  It may turn out to be a beloved program like PS.

I also found my old website files.  And the files for Wickets.  That made me smile.  Even though it didn't really work out.  I liked working on it, and I learned a lot about BB coding and whatnot.  I have been thinking a lot lately about updating my blog from 'school enforced business idea' to something more easy, personal, more me, but had been having trouble coming up with an identity for it.  I've been doing a lot of reviving lately, maybe Wickets deserves another incarnation as well.

I have a new computer.  It's just a little netbook, but it's portable and lets me surf or get things done while the baby is asleep in my lap.  I don't have PS on it because it isn't powerful enough to run it, so I have been making use of Picnik and it's pre-google-absorption special.  It's pretty awesome for an online photo editor.  I hope that G+ doesn't change too much.