Last Tuesday, we also went on a hike!

It was a pretty warm day, but a nice one for a walk. Alex wanted to go to Red Rocks, but there was a show that night, so the park was closed early. Instead we went to Matthews/Winters, which is a county park that borders Red Rocks. We've been there several times before. It's a bittersweet place for me, because we went there with Cy a lot, and it's the first hike we went on after he passed away.

The landscape.

It's Bella!

Twelve more pictures:

The water was definitely very low in the creek, but it was flowing.

Bella laying on the bridge over the creek.

There's a short little path that follows the creek upstream, so we went up that way first.

Looking back downstream.

There's a little "fort" of sorts set up, so of course had Bella sit in it.

We joke it's not a hike if there's not a picture of Bella sticking her tongue out.

A dandelion.

Chokecherries.

Back over the bridge and up the main path, the start is an uphill section... that basically always kicks my ass. It's not that steep, but man, I feel like I'm dying by the time I get to the top.

The short walk I'm trying to do a couple times a day at work does have an uphill section, which I certainly still feel when I do it, but I'm hoping that's going to help my ability to handle even relatively gentle inclines. (I can walk basically forever on a flat or downhill path, but the instant I'm moving uphill? I'm dying.)

I think it was a little easier for me to do this time? I was still struggling a little, but not quite as badly as I remember? So maybe the walks are helping my endurance, haha.

Tiny ant on an aster.

Up at the top of the loop is the Mount Vernon cemetery. I of course take pictures of it every time we go, even though I have pictures from every other time we've been.

The two stones are the only marked burials, though there are supposedly others in the cemetery. The cemetery is the only thing left of the town of Mount Vernon.

A cactus with a hole through it!

Then poor Bella had a no good very bad day. She drank water a little too fast, and immediately threw up. She was doing okay after that, until we got about 2/3 of the way through the loop. Then she stepped on a red ant, which bit her. She spent the whole rest of the walk kicking and biting at her foot, because I know it had to still be stinging. Ant bites suck! When we got back to the start she stood in the cold water of the creek, and that seemed to help soothe it.

A late blooming apple tree.

(I was busy trying to take a picture of the flowers, and missed getting to see a tiny snake that Alex spotted. Happy for first snake of the year, bummed I didn't see it!)

Then back at the car, Alex noticed I had a hitchhiker!

The tiniest inchworm! I let her go back in the grass.

After that, we went to get ice cream, as a local ice cream parlor was doing a fundraiser for my old high school. I got a "kid's" size of vanilla ice cream for Bella... They packed so much in there, lol. So suddenly it was back to being the best day ever, and the ant bite seemed entirely forgotten.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

althea_valara

I will be taking myself to bed once this is posted because I am rather meh.

1. one creative thing I did today

It was not a good day for fiber arts.

So, May is almost here, which means the current round of Nerdopolis is ending, and I have yet to make anything for it. I dutifully tried to make something today: a pocket tissue cozy.

First I tried a knitted one, using the suggested needle size. I didn't get far before deciding I hated it. I was going to drop down in needle size (...several sizes) and try again, but the yarn wouldn't cooperate and for once I didn't have patience to deal with it.

So I gave up on that, and tried a crocheted one, but I hated how that was coming out too, even though I had only done a few rows. Today was just not a day for yarn crafts.

I opened my

getyourwordsout Habit Tracker tonight to see where I was for the month and well, it's bad. But I did write one day, and that is one day more than I would have done if I wasn't attempting GYWO. I'm gonna try to get some more writing done in the next few days.

2. one thing I'm proud of today

My job is a set-your-own-hours contract position. I love it, honestly. It's perfect for my lifestyle right now.

I usually set a goal of working 3 hours a day, but Mondays are not good days for me and I often fail to meet that goal. Today I not only met it, but exceeded it. I finished the current sheet I was working on, because I wanted it done. So I'm ahead of schedule for the rest of the week now, which may mean I don't end up working 4+ hours of Thursday or Friday again. That'll be nice!

Also felt therapy went well today, but that's all I'll say on a public post.

3. video game progress

Hahahaha nope. I had vague plans to play some Tactics after dinner, but mom needed help/needed me to listen to her rant about Facebook, and by the time we were done it was 8pm. And I'd have to hook up my Switch again because I brought it up to dogsitting, and well, TOO MUCH LIKE WORK.

I thought about messing around in FFXIV but was too tired for that, and besides, would rather save FFXIV energy for new patch tomorrow. I plan on doing the alliance raid first thing in the morning! And then MSQ after work/lunch.

Okay, I did play some WordScapes today, but I usually do, so ??? -- I'm of the opinion that casual phone games DEFINITELY count as gaming, but there's not much to report about an ongoing casual game. Though I will complain that some of their goals are ridiculous. Dear WordScapes: you are a WORD GAME. Folks like me are going to play maybe 20-30 minutes a day, tops. Why are you making it so the best achievements take considerably more time? ....okay, yes, I know: they want money, and think the way to get it is to have you play more. Well. I paid my $2.99 to remove ads from it ages ago, and I'm too good at the game to require hints (no seriously, I have like 15 rocket hints collecting dust, and it's NOT because of fear of using them like fear of using Elixirs in RPGs) so there's nothing to entice me to spend money. I'm happy with my 3-5 puzzles before bed.

Current Mood: blah

mistressofmuses

This week is a sticker from Sunset Road's "Celestial Cottagecore" designs.

This was a decent week. I ended it feeling better than when it started; I started the week feeling like I was struggling against a cloud of depression, just not really wanting to do anything. Feelings improved as the week went on, and ended up feeling fairly good about what we did: happy that we went out on decent walks/hikes on both my days off, I did almost everything on my to-do list, I got quite a bit of reading done.

Goals for the week:

I did call my insurance company (supposedly my referral to dermatology will be fine)
I did finish reading Be the Sea
I worked on my reviews
I did not work on my reading page
I did clean up my plushie baskets, at least a bit
I dusted my small bookshelf
We went to a fundraiser for my old high school at a local ice cream place
I watered my plants
We went and got crickets
I started reading Return of the King
I paid our car insurance

Tracked habits:

Work - 5/7
Household Maintenance - 5/7
Physical Activity - 7/7
Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 0/7
Non-fiction Writing - 1/7 - over 500 words, plus one day of less than 500
Meta Work - 1/7
Personal Writing - 3/7
Other Creative Things - 2/7
Reading - 7/7 - I finished Be the Sea, started Return of the King, continued Game Changer, and Alex and I read some of The Luminous Dead
Attention to Media - 7/7 - Sunday we watched the first two episodes of season two of Fallout; Monday had various videos on in the background; Tuesday had some game videos in the background; Wednesday we watched two more episodes of Fallout; Thursday had storm chasing and then game videos in the background; Friday we watched two more episodes of Fallout; Saturday had more storm chasing in background.
Video Games - 0/7
Social Interaction - 5/7

Total words written: 683 words

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

althea_valara

Because of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I've discovered the

fanmix_monthly community which sounds fun! But I admit I would be terrible at making fanmixes, because my primary fandom is Final Fantasy, and the only music I listen to is... Final Fantasy. You see the issue there? lol.

Anyway! They are doing a prompt fest! Folks leave a comment with a fandom (and optionally, characters) and others comment with a song that reminds them of that.

My comment is here, and I'm looking for non-Final Fantasy songs that remind you of Final Fantasy XIV characters (except Zenos, I can't stand him.) I thought I'd post here because there's a handful of you following me who are FF fans... maybe you have some ideas?

Current Mood: curious

althea_valara

Not much today because a good portion of the day was spent getting ready to go back home and then getting there, but YAY I'M HOME! I had a fun "vacation" with the dog, but glad to be back in my own space.

1. one creative thing I did today

Worked on a swatch for a knitted tee. Just a row or two, but I touched it.

When I got home, I did some searching on Ravelry to find something for a Nerdopolis challenge. For those new around here: Nerdopolis is a crafting tournament in which we get themes to craft to. One of the themes this month is "deep space objects", so I've been looking for stuff that is reminiscent of spiral galaxies.

I found a great hat that I wanted to knit, but (a) I wasn't sure I'd have time because it was densely knit worsted weight AND double-layered, (b) I went to purchase it and it said "This designer is not taking payments at this time." Tried their Etsy store, and it's closed. Ah, well. I had previously started a crocheted doily that I might finish, but I wasn't digging it, so I dunno. The end of round is coming, though, so I'll need to make SOMETHING.

2. one thing I'm proud of today

I cleaned the house before I left, to my satisfaction. Also left a note to say how good the dog was, here's some things they should know about, and thanking them for trusting me with their home and dog.

3. video game progress

I logged into FFXIV just so my console would be ON (I had shut it down completely before I left), which meant I did the PlayStation 5 OS upgrade and new TOS agreement. Now the console is asleep, or will be soon. I'm purposely leaving it sleeping so when patch hits tomorrow night, it gets updated and I won't have to wait for it before I play on Tuesday morning. I didn't do much in game, just checked retainers (they sold a bunch of things! That's what happens when you don't log in for over a week) and spent some poetics on HW relic materials.

and that's it for today.

Current Mood: pleased

flareonfury

If you would have told me any point within the last few years that I would be listening to a country artist, I would have probably laughed at you - I mean I like certain songs and usually limited to only a few artists but I started listening to Queer Love mix list via Spotify and I was like, why is Elvis on this list? Come to find out the song was Roses Are Falling by Orville Peck, which was definitely interesting to find out - to me, he sounds so much like him. Anyway I definitely suggest checking him out if you didn't know he existed like I did.

But to be fair, I haven't really listened to much outside of radio while I'm in the car or I usually do iheartradio artist playlists of usually of Mary Lambert, Hayley Kiyoko, Olivia Rodrigo, Maddie Zahm, Zolita, Fletcher, and Renee Rapp - the last six I found via Mary Lambert's "playlist/channel". If you're unfamiliar with iheartradio, if you have the free version (aka ad filled), you get similar artists whenever you click on an artist. Or at least familiar enough I guess. Chappell Roan I think I also found via that playlist, but also she kind of blew up a year or two ago. Pink Pony Club of course is I think my favorite song.

Discovered a whole bunch of new musicians that way a few years ago. I fell in love with Mary Lambert's version of Jessie's Girl and quickly loved her other work. Now for Maddie Zahm I think one of the first ones of her work was Fat Funny Friend or If It's Not God which I adore. I think Renee Rapp got me with her In The Kitchen and Pretty Girls. Zolita I fell in love with her music with Somebody I F*cked Once. With Fletcher I believe it was Girls Girls Girls. Olivia Rodrigo I think was Vampire. Hayley Kiyoko with Girls Like Girls.

I think through listening/watching the official music videos of the above singers, I discovered Cloudy June (Girls Like You) and many more like Morgan Wade (Fall In Love With Me), Ryan Cassata (Daughter), Rosemary Joaquin (Erika), Devon Cole (Hey Cowboy, although W.I.T.C.H. was my original favorite),, Xana (19), girli (More Than A Friend), G Flip (GAY 4 ME), King Mala ("she calls me daddy"), Maggie Lindemann (she knows it), Hollie Col (Unholy), Aston (For the Girls & Mama Didn't Raise No), Sarah Barrios (Thank God You Introduced Me To Your Sister), Pale Waves (She's My Religion), Chloe Adams (Dirty Thoughts), Halsey (Strangers), Alexia Evellyn (Savage Daughters), Chinchilla (Little Girl Gone), Iluka (Cry Evil!), Kacey Musgraves (Dry Spell), Paris Paloma (labour), Em Beihold (Brutus), Ella Red (He Asked For It), Kiki Rockwell (Burn Your Village), Viking Barbie (Creep), SkyDxddy (Medusa), Peggy (Talk Shit! | Feminine Rage), Ashley Ryan (Hush Little Baby), Lauren Sanderson (Come Say Sum), Sofia Isella (Everybody Supports Women), Jax (i choose violence) and Matilda (Apologize). Also really liked Jeangu Macrooy's Independent Girls & Nasty Evil Gays (which with that title, kinda gave me pause, but then you hear the lyrics and it makes sense and not actually anti-queer)

I think the last "new" country songs (not sure how "country" they are though) I've enjoyed over the last few years are: Tanner Adell's Buckle Bunny and Lil Nas X (Old Town Road). Also really enjoyed Ashley McBryde's What If We Don't.

Anyway, I don't normally talk about music on my journal, but I wanted to do something for

3weeks4dreamwidth & since I've been doomscolling too much on instagram lately and the world is just shit and I haven't felt like writing - so I figured I'd talk about some music I've enjoyed over the last few years - and yes most of them are queer related, so if anyone has any favorites or recs, please suggest away! And let me know if I introduced you to anyone new! Or if you also like them.

ashelterofpages

Why yes, I am behind on many things and will be making another post later, but for now...

goodbybird has inspired me to join in the tarot fun and do prompts for Three Weeks For Dreamwidth!

Leave a comment with a request for one of the following decks and anything up to 4 cards and I'll draw some for you! You can ask for more than one prompt, but please do so in a separate comment and maybe give me a few days before you do.

The decks on offer- :
- Dark Wood Tarot
- Ghosts and Spirits Tarot
- Hayworth Tarot
- Embroidered Graveyard Oracle
- Outgrow Yourself Oracle
- Wild Unknown Archetypes

Feel free to use them in any way you like, and definitely come back here and show me! I'm so excited to see what people do with these!

althea_valara

I meant to post this last night, but I was le tired. My schedule has gotten all messed up from dog watching; I've been crashing at 9pm and getting up at 6am. It's only 7:05am and I've already had coffee and a bagel. That's UNHEARD of for me to eat that early!

Anyway: during the gear-up to the start of 3W4DW, I had decided I would post daily during the celebration with some check-ins. Here's the check-in for day one. We will ignore it is now day 2.

1. one creative thing I did today

Not much, but I worked on a swatch for a tee I'm going to knit! Actually, I already started the tee, but (a) I misread the pattern, (b) the icord edge was really tight and making everything look sloppy, so I decided to start over, this time doing a proper swatch instead of just diving in.

I also asked

smallweb for some advice. Actually, I'm interested in non-techy answers, too, so I'll ask here as well:

Currently, my Final Fantasy XI fanscripts are laid out as one expansion's entire mission line on one page, though I have horizontal rules between each mission, and also have "jump to" links at the end of each mission to jump to a different mission. Example page: https://altheavalara.neocities.org/ffxi/rotz

I'm banging my head against those jump-to links. I'm working on documenting the next expac in the series, so I need to put the jump-tos in to be consistent, but... I hand-coded them, and that is a pain. I was trying to figure out if I can automatically insert them with Jekyll magic, but I'm stumped (Jekyll is my static site generator).

So now I'm wondering if it would be better to split the expansion into separate pages for each mission. I could possibly use Jekyll magic for pagination, then. It would mean a LOT more pages on the site, but may be easier to handle? There's benefits and drawbacks to both methods. As a reader, what would you prefer?

2. one thing I'm proud of today

I started cleaning up! I'll be going home today and would like to leave the house pretty much how I left it, so I gathered dirty dishes and garbage and took care of that. I need to run the dishwasher and handwash some dishes, but I'm proud of the start I made instead of leaving it to last minute.

Also, I posted my list of community recs again, as I said I would when 3W4DW started. Go me for following through on a plan.

3. video game progress

Well, being away from home means less video gaming. I pretty much just played WordScapes on my phone. Not much to report there. But I also answered some questions on Mastodon from someone who had FFXIV Free Trial questions, and reposted my starter guide from Bsky to Mastodon... which I might have already done in the past, but whatever, it's reposted.

flareonfury

In honor of

3weeks4dreamwidth, I thought I should do an icon challenge over at

supergirl_tv since I was planning on doing a drabbleathon for the Summer.

So without further ado:

No official sign-ups, no claiming, you can use any character/pairing/universe as long as Supergirl appeared in it (even if only briefly!)

althea_valara

Colorful image that says 3weeks4dreamwidth friending meme

Friending Meme! Come make new friends!

OKAY FOLKS it is time for another round of Althea's List of Interesting Dreamwidth Communities! I last posted this during

snowflake_challenge this year, so just a few months ago, but I've stealth added some more since then.

Rules:
1. Share freely! This post is public for that reason.
2. If you know of a good comm and want to see it featured, comment and I'll very likely add it.
3. I refuse to add comms that full of bigotry and hate. That seems to not be a Dreamwidth thing, but I am sure they are out there. I'm here for supportive / fun places!

And now, here's the list! ~~They are roughly in reverse chronological order to when they've been added, so newer ones are at the top.~~ EDIT @ 12:22pm: I've redone the list to be broken down roughly alphabetical by category, which should make it easier to manage!

Dreamwidth

Non-official communities to help make your time on Dreamwidth more rich.

3weeks4dreamwidth is a thing in which people post/interact more on Dreamwidth, to show love for the platform. ♥

addme_fandom A friend finding community, but with a specific fandom focus! Interested in a particular fandom right now and want more people to talk about it with? Here’s a good place to find fellow fans!

addme_fandom is a place to find friends who share your fannish obsessions.

findingfriends : Similar to the addme communities but with a more in-depth approach, including things like posting style and what sort of interactions you’re looking for. Takes more brain power than the addme comms, but I imagine that the connections result in a higher level of compatibility.

followfriday recommends people/communities to follow each Friday.

getting_started is a community with resources for those new to Dreamwidth.

moodthemeinayear is what it says on the tin: the folks there are working on creating custom Dreamwidth mood themes over the course of a year.

reddit_refugees offers resources for newcomers to Dreamwidth.

snowflake_challenge runs in January, and is a way to celebrate fandom and meet interesting people on Dreamwidth.

sunshine_challenge Like snowflake_challenge but runs in the summer months (northern hemisphere, but our Southern Friends experiencing winter are welcome too!)

twitter_refugees is for folks migrating to Dreamwidth from Twitter.

Bingos

Creative or commenting challenges based on a bingo card.

allbingo - They do all sorts of bingos, mostly writing-related but I think they've had some crafting ones as well. There's new challenges monthly!

comment_bingo is a bingo challenge community for commenting on all those fanfics you read.

genprompt_bingo - for the writers! They generate bingo cards of prompts, with all the prompts being gen. You can, of course, write a shippy fic from the prompt – it’s just the prompts themselves that are gen.

ladiesbingo is a bingo challenge to make works focused on the relationship between women, whether gen, femslash, or familial. I'm currently having great fun trying to fill my bingo board!

lyricaltitles is a bingo fest for fanfiction and original fiction centering around using songs for inspiration!

vid_bingo is a community for vidders to use bingo card prompts to inspire vids

Prompts

Writing or creative challenges that are prompt-based but not bingo cards:

100words is a drabble community for fiction of all kinds. They post weekly challenges there.

1character is a writing challenge where you choose a character and prompt set, then write one line sentences to fill each prompt.

25poemsamonth is a community where a 25 prompt table is posted at the beginning of every month and then, members have until the beginning of the next to fill as many prompts as possible.

fan_flashworks is a multifandom comm that posts one prompt for the week you use to write a short fanfic.

ffprompts posts monthly prompts for the Final Fantasy video game franchise. As a big fan of this series, I'd love to see more fills for the prompts happening!

fic_promptly is created for leaving prompts and answering prompts. All fandoms are allowed, as are original work and real-person work. Fills can be fics or poems. There is no minimum/maximum word count.

inspiredby posts writing prompts monthly.

kittens_and_spitefic 's goal is to prompt fan content by acting like a total troll and pretending to bash what you want to see up one side and down the other. Commenters then engage with the supposed "troll" by spamming them with cat (and other animal) macros and/or content that caters to everything the original poster professes to hate.

sweetandshort is a low-pressure community for creating small fanworks / original works each week.

threesentenceficathon People leave prompts, other write short fills of 3 sentences or longer.

Writing

Writing-related communities that aren't Bingos or Prompts.

10trueloves is a writing challenge where you pair a character with ten others (IIRC, they don't have to be romantic pairings, but I'm not sure – check the comm rules for more info!)

getyourwordsout is a writing challenge community where you can challenge yourself by wordcount of number of days written per month.

makezines is for folks doing just that!

Icons

Icon-creating challenges and other icon communities.

iconthat is another icon challenge community.

your_favourites is an icon making community that migrated over from LiveJournal. Looks like they have themes for members to create icons for, and then take a vote for best icon. I've joined it in hopes of finding more icons to add to my own journal.

Books

Read-alongs and other book communites:

booknook posts a weekly Read-in-Progress check-in posts on Wednesdays.

queerbookclub is a no pressure book club dedicated to fiction books of all genres that are queer in some way! each month we take suggestions on what the next month's book should be and we vote on it. if you're not interested in the book for the month, that's perfectly fine!

readingtogether - has seen some activity the past few months. It's not like a normal book club where everyone reads the same thing - instead everyone reads their own thing and posts their progress.

Crafts and General Creativity

everykindofcraft is what it says it is.

get_knitted posts daily check-ins. The folks there are GREAT about commenting on each other's comments. It's not just for knitting, either - there are people there who do scrapbooking and jigsaw puzzles.

justcreate - has weekly check in posts where you can update everyone on your creative progress. All kinds of creativity are celebrated there, including fiber arts, drawing, writing, and more.

nacramamo is National Craft-Making Month, and is gearing up now to kick off in October. The challenge is to work on some kind of craft every day for 31 days.

communal_creators is a community for creative types! A mini-round for time pledges will be happening this spring. ANY kind of creativity is welcome! We have people writing (both fic and original), knitting, crochet, vidding, storyboarding, baking, making websites... if it's creative, you're welcome here.

drawesome - has drawing challenges. I haven't taken part yet because I am a very sucky drawer, but I hope to start there in the future.

Culture

Communities focusing on a specific culture.

c_ent is for Chinese Entertainment, and comes highly recommended by a few people.

latam is a new community for people to come together to talk about latinamerican music, films, food, culture, fandom, and more! Everyone's welcome, no matter where you're posting from! And you can also post in your language (official languages of the community are Spanish, Portuguese and English!)

senzenwomen is a community regaling the histories of women in and around Japan, 1868-1945. Thanks to vriddy for signal boosting this fascinating community!

Nature

What it says on the tin.

birdfeeding covers everything to do with birdfeeding, gardening for wildlife, and related topics.

common_nature is a photo community to share nature pics from your area, and has been active recently.

Fandom & Gaming

Communities about fandom in general and in specific.

allkindsofdolls is what it says on the tin. If you love dolls, check it out.

anime_manga has seen some activity lately!

bnha_fans is for fans of Boku no Hero Academia

fandom_on_dw : Pretty much the same as above, honestly, but it’s good that there’s more than one place that hosts this kind of thing!

fandomcalendar : This is a community dedicated to announcing fandom events, which can include fandom-specific friending memes.

fictional_fans : A community for all fans and fandoms. If you’ve got a post you want to make about fandom in general, or a specific fandom that doesn’t have its own community, this might be a good place to check out.

finalfantasy - of course this would be here, if you know me. It's been very slow there lately, but I'd love to see more activity there.

indie_games sometimes sees activity, and in the past, we did a play-together of A Short Hike.

Social Justice

Because the world is a mess and we just need to fix it.

fandomtrumpshate raises money for charity by creating fanworks.

thissterlingcrew is the UK equivalent of the below.

thisfinecrew is a social justice community focused on the USA. It doesn't get as much action as i once did but there are still informative posts there once in a while.

womansplace is a community that holds dual purpose: 1) Celebrate characters who identify as women or who are aligned with womanhood in transformative fan works. Events include community recs, a prompt fest, and a vid exchange. 2) Raise funds via a vid auction

Other Communties

These didn't fit in the other categories but I feel are interesting enough to warrant being on this post!

queerly_beloved : An anti-exclusionist queer space to get together and talk about all things queer, including intersectional matters. Hosts a weekly recommendations thread, but more and other content is very welcome!

1word1day posts a vocabulary word a day!

agonyaunt - critiques letters to advice columnists and the answers the letter writers get. I love this community because it is filled with smart people that I am learning a lot from. I'm a person of a certain age, and I know because of the timeframe I grew up in I have a lot of inherit biases and whatnot. I try to be above those biases, but sometimes I don't recognize them. Reading the other commenters to agonyaunt helps me recognize those biases and better myself.

awesomeers - they make a post for each day of the week in which they challenge the members to comment with Just One Thing you did today that you're proud of accomplishing. Of course you are free to post more than one thing if you'd like! I love the idea of this community, though I haven't been very active in it lately. I hope to change that, if only to congratulate other people. Also: we celebrate all accomplishments there, so something as simple as "I got out of bed" would be acceptable!

bujo for bullet journalers.

crowdfunding connects creators, patrons, and fans of cyberfunded creativity. Watch for the mid-month Creative Jam with a new theme each time.

do_it - A community for posting to-do lists to make yourself accountable to others.

holiday_wishes - active in the last two months of the year. People post their holiday wish lists there, and others fill them! I really was blessed one year - I got a bunch of cards, some yarn, some chocolate, and some other sweet treats. &hearts

journalsandplanners - what it says on the tin: for those who use a journal or planner to organize their lives.

reference_library is a place to gather helpful links and share them, run by sharpest_asp

signalboost is for getting the word out to others about people needing help in some way.

Current Mood: cheerful

mistressofmuses

Monday was a lovely day, and we wanted to take advantage of it. We decided to go to Harriman Lake, one of the local parks. We were surprised that the water level wasn't as low as we expected it to be.

A woodpecker apartment complex. So many holes!

Chokecherry flowers.

Seven more pictures from the walk:

Have a set of too-distant birds, haha:

A flicker! (On the branch toward the center.)

A meadowlark! (So bright yellow!)

Ducks!

Taylor and I agree that this looks like a Myst puzzle.

Dead tree, and you can see some nest material up at the top.

I like that this tree has fallen over, but is still growing. The little branch like a mini tree in the middle I like especially.

A small, late-blooming tree.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

flareonfury

In honor of

3weeks4dreamwidth, started a few drabbleathons at a few of my communities:

mistressofmuses

Have a handful of pictures from the last couple weeks!

Most of these are from my walks that I'm trying to take, though there are some random other ones mixed in.

Lilacs!

Bella, looking like a little croissant snuggling her blanket.

Nine more pictures:

More lilacs!

Interesting tree flowers.

Bee on a dandelion!

Moth disguised as bird poop on a dandelion! With bonus tiny ant that I didn't notice until later.

It made me smile that it looked like the magpie came up to get his order at the window.

I was very taken with just how intensely blue the sky was.

Purple flowers!

Little green stink bug.

Current Mood: headachey
Current Location: my apartment

ripplestitch

So a few weeks ago my mum asked me to help with her knitting group’s project to gather as many of these charity bear dolls as they can. They’re for their local children’s centre and will be handed out to the tinysmalls who go to their feelings class (I don’t know what that is but I’m guessing from the name that a lot of people could have used one at that age though. I am hoping the next generation will turn out a bit more well adjusted than we did?)

A line up of several finished bear dolls made by the designer.

Cute, no?

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/izzy-teddy-bear-dolls

In theory I should be able to knock these up fairly quickly, but I’ve had a block about it until yesterday when I finally managed to finish the flat knit part. Today between a well overdue haircut and some chores I’m hoping to do the finishing.

I followed my mum’s choice of knitting it flat rather than follow the pattern and do it on DPNs. Mainly because, though I prefer magic loop I didn’t actually have 3mm needles of any kind (how??) and the straight needles were cheaper. I am remembering now that I don’t love knitting stockingette on straight needles, so perhaps it was worth that extra… I don’t remember, it was probably a couple quid at most.

Oh, hey! THAT was the block.

I really like this yellow. I think it’s Winnie the Pooh colour so I might do a yellow/red one?

In other (gross) news I woke up with a mild infection in two piercings—entirely my fault and at a level that I can deal with at home with my sterile saline spray—but it’s aggravated my MCAS so I’m all blistery and eczema-y (in my hands? It always goes for my hands and feet first) and my bones hurt. I am not looking forward to dragging myself out for my haircut today.

I will look very cute later though, so I will take painkillers and my rescue meds and persevere.

Edit: hairdresser needed to reschedule and it’s for a terrible reason but I did get time to rest and feel better post rescue meds. Phew.

Current Mood: sore

mistressofmuses

Silver and blue moth.

This was a pretty successful week in terms of what I got done, but I didn't ever really feel very good about it. I did my medical appointment, but it just left me in dread of all the stuff I have left to do. I did some cleaning and errands and things, which was good. I did okay on reading. I decided to pretty much take a break entirely from writing, because it's just become an exercise in increasing misery that I dread attempting, so I feel relieved not to be trying to do it, but also guilty for not doing it. Work was fine. I got my pin boards mostly put together, which is nice - I've been trying to get that done for months. Mostly... I wish I felt better about the week.

Goals for the week:

I did go to my doctor appointment
Alex made Bella's vet appointment... which then got cancelled due to construction issues
I did finish reading The Two Towers
I started reading Be the Sea
I worked on my reviews
I did not work on the WIP outline, and indeed decided to just stop trying at this point
I did work on my reading page
I went to my work meeting on Saturday
I got crickets
I watered my plants
I cleaned the window blinds
I cleaned the window sill
I finished paying my hospital bill
I worked on putting my pin boards together

Habit tracking:

Work - 5/7
Household Maintenance - 2/7
Physical Activity - 5/7, plus one day where I tried to do an indoor walk because it was snowing
Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 0/7
Non-fiction Writing - 2/7, both over 500 words, but with three additional days of under 500 words
Meta Work - 2/7
Personal Writing - 3/7
Other Creative Things - 2/7
Reading - 7/7 - I finished reading The Two Towers, started Be the Sea, read a little bit of Game Changer, and a short story. Alex and I read some of The Luminous Dead.
Attention to Media - 7/7 - Sunday watched some game videos; Monday had some storm chasing in the background; Tuesday had storm chase and later game videos; Wednesday through Friday had game videos in the background; Saturday watched a paranormal video, some explore videos, then game videos.
Video Games - 1/7
Social Interaction - 6/7 - I accidentally filled in a box that I shouldn't have

Total words written: 2322 on reviews

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

ripplestitch

You know what, I might actually do little round ups of my games when something interesting happens.

Apothecaria

I have had so much fun with this game. So far I’ve written over 90k words over the last few years (not counting the bits I’ve thrown away while editing.)

It’s been my saviour when I’ve been bedridden but still able to use my brain enough to be bored to the point of risking mental breakdown. If it were an anthropomorphic book in one of those weird dating simulator games where you can romance your fridge I’d have carried it off into the sunset, leaving my husband to what I’m sure would be some very strange therapy sessions.

I’m basically playing this as a dating simulator anyway, because that’s how I roll.

The story so far:

Ivy, our witch, shiny and new after completing her apprenticeship, is posted out to a town in the Not-Scottish Highlands (I’ve tweaked the tone and setting quite a bit as time has gone by) to replace their previous witch who has gone ~~mysteriously missing~~ oooOooOo.

Ivy is certain that Cieran chose to leave because they left behind a grimoire and a note, addressed to her by name—written before she was even chosen for the job! The grimoire contains a botanicum of the reagents that Cieran has found in the region and their magical properties when used in potions and maps of the nearby regions in which they can be found (and many sardonic annotations). As the town of High Rannoc grew it spread far too close to the enchanted wood, and as a result the townsfolk are constantly coming down (or up, or sideways) with magical ailments that the town doctor can’t handle. It’s vital that Ivy step into Cieran’s shoes as fast as possible!

So far she’s spent two and a half seasons getting to know the townsfolk, making friends (and enemies, such as that bastard of a doctor and his stupid hat) and devising cures for the weird things people come to her with. Her long-suffering familiar Nutkin, a Fey spirit locked in the body of a squirrel, has aged about a thousand years watching Ivy learn how dangerous Rannoc is very, very fast. She’s a witch—and a good one—and they are all tough and learn quickly… but when she catches the attention of the Lady of the Glimmerwood and her court of dangerous creatures, Nutkin knows that it’s only a matter of time before they find out if it’s quickly enough.

While Nutkin struggles to warn Ivy of the incoming danger through elaborate charades and interpretive dance, time marches on and Autumn comes around. The veil between worlds weakens and spirits begin leaking into the world or the living. Ivy discovers that she is expected to take on the extra duties of getting said spirits back where they belong by helping them fulfil their unfinished business, leading the town in the traditional celebrations and rituals of the season, and completing tasks set by the enigmatic Keeper of the mysterious Manor that has appeared on the border between worlds—and all before the clock runs out or the spirits and monsters within will be on the wrong side of the veil come midnight on Bogle’s Night! That’s on top of learning how to deal with new ailments like haunting, possessions, and… the Shrinkies??

As if that weren’t enough her personal life has spun out of control.

Ivy’s odd acquaintance with the mildly terrifying Druid she keeps bumping into in the forest seems to have somehow turned into a situationship—to Nutkin’s horror (because he’s dangerous! Her ambiguous romantic pursuits are her business! He’s a familiar, not an agony aunt!) She is struggling to deal with the guilt of losing her first patient. There’s a vampire preying on the young people of High Rannock and she’s got to find and stake him in his weird freakish heart before his games kill someone. Oh, also she saw her Fetch, and she can’t get an appointment with her solicitor to make her will without her mother finding out she’s in town, which is almost worse than seeing the omen of her imminent death, frankly.

ripplestitch

I’ve been writing so much! I can see that I’ve improved dramatically over time which I’m very chuffed about.

It started out as a very ambitious game of Apothecaria—which is still running, though I’ve put the writing part of it down a bit. It got TOO ambitious and I need to let it cool off before I get stuck back in.

In the last in-game month: Ivy’s odd acquaintance with the mildly terrifying Druid she keeps bumping into in the forest seems to have somehow turned into a situationship, to the horror of her familiar Nutkin. She lost her first patient. She’s been charged with the sacred duty of guiding lost souls back to the Land Beyond by the time the Autumn closes with Bogle’s Night (not a lot of time!). There’s a vampire preying on the young people of High Rannock and she’s got to find and stake him in his weird freakish heart before his games kill someone. Oh, also she saw her Fetch, and she can’t get an appointment with her solicitor in her home town to make her will without her mother finding out she’s in town, which is almost worse than seeing the omen of her imminent death, frankly.

It’s all very dramatic. And told through the POV of a squirrel, so also difficult.

Then I picked up an ancient fanfiction that I started when I was, like… 15? Messed about with it a bit but it was for a fandom that shall not be named so the fun wore off. Sigh. If you’ve been in a fandom and had to reckon with discovering that the author is even more… unsavoury… than you thought. Well. You know how it is.

I’m also playing (with various levels of seriousness) in no particular order:

For Small Creatures Such As We (resource management and journalling, in space! Also there’s a hex map!)
Tangled Blessings (a solo or duet game, journalling in a magic university with a built in mechanic for rivalry and possibly romance <3 while you try not to die from all the eldritch horror going on.)
5’ Into Space (not too far into this one yet, but the story mechanics are interesting. It feels kind of like writing an episode of a sci show?)
The Prize (solo writing prompts exploring the inherent misogyny in ‘save the kingdom, get the girl!’ You play as the Hero’s fellow adventurer until you are demoted to ‘Queen’.)
Ironsworn (a very popular rpg system that I’m only just getting into.)
Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop (more resource management, kind of, and little stories about animals who own bookshops and stuff.)

I’m looking forward to picking up, at some point (I want to get a few of the above closed off first, I think):

Ashes (a ‘Souls-like’ solo rpg)
Drakonym (the solo version of a very interesting looking ttrpg which involves bonding with DRAGONS, hell yeah!)
Brambletrek (adorable looking explore/adventure something something with little animal people)
Wandering Bookshop
Gossamer Frontier (a campaign of, as described by the author, a mass-effect like story. I’m a BioWare fan.)
A lot of small indie games I got in various charity Itch.io bundles.

I have a few original ideas that I’m letting marinate because they’re not ripe yet. I write romance, though, so they’ll be kissing books D:

Current Mood: determined

ripplestitch

This is actually A Few Years’ Round Up.

Honestly the last few years are a bit of a blur but I try to take a lot of photographs so I can look back and remember that stuff actually happened. I found some pictures of notable knitting projects:

I knit a lot of socks! Some are for me, some for The Beef, some for my parents. I make them for everyone for Xmas and their birthday.

A photo collage of 6 pairs of hand-knit socks.

It looks like the original image of my Little Cotton Rabbit has broken but I made him in 2020, I think. I made a load of new little clothes for him recently though. I’ve made 3 frogs so far but this is the only photo I got before I gifted them all away. I plan to make more. Eventually. There have been some patterns for whimsical little clothes released since I made mine, and I simply must make a pumpkin costume, I must.

a small hand-knit rabbit doll wearing a pink cabled jumper and two other knit shirts either side. He is posed on a yellow armchair.

A small hand-knit frog doll wearing a purple turtleneck sweater, posed on a messy computer desk, held up by my hand because he kept falling over.

Little Cotton Rabbit: https://ravel.me/bunny-in-a-dotty-dress
Frog: https://ravel.me/frog-48

Gloves for my permanently cold little handsies.

A pair of hand-knit purple and black gloves, posed on a cafe table next to a cup of tea and my hand.

A pair of hand-knit gloves in graduating shades of yellow and pink, posed on my bed.

Crosswise Cadence Gloves: https://ravel.me/crosswise-cadence-gloves
Firewalker fingerless gloves; https://ravel.me/fadewalker-fingerless-mitts

Current Mood: determined

ripplestitch

Man. I haven’t posted since 2022. I don’t entirely recall why but I see in one of my last posts that I hadn’t pinned down my pesticide issue so I was probably Quite Sick for long enough that I forgot everything about my hobbies again.

In the meantime I have been diagnosed with MCAS, have an assortment of new medications, and have weeded out a lot of triggers from my diet and environment. Unless something unusual happens I mostly chug along with only (“only”) my M.E. and persistent vertigo to worry about.

I’ve been knitting! I’ve been writing a LOT. My dearest darlingest husband (henceforth known as The Beef) gifted me an iPad so I could write anywhere I am able to sit instead of having to set my laptop up in bed and it’s my prized possession. I now curl up in my bright yellow armchair and watch the birds visit the feeder and write my silly little stories (affectionate). In the last few years I have learned how to use full stops instead of simply continuing a sentence for as long as I feel like!

Hi! If you see this tell me what you’ve been up to in the last few years!

Current Mood: chipper

flareonfury

This was made for

smallfandomfest and posted here, graphics were made by me but images are from here.

Never did one of these fandom pimps before, unless you count me gushing about fandoms on my journal.... so without further ado, I give you:

The Hunting Party

What Is the Show About?
( A secret prison. A killer escape. The hunt is on...... )

Main Characters (don't worry no major spoilers!)
( the characters.... )

If you liked...
Mindhunter, Fringe, Criminal Minds, The Blacklist, and various other similar cop related shows, you'd probably enjoy this show. It's filled with light and dark moments.

Where can I find it?
( Read more... )

The Fandom?
( Read more... )

Profile

queer book club

April 2026

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Page Summary

mistressofmuses - Tuesday, April 21: Matthews/Winters Park
althea_valara - 3W4DW Day 3 Check-in
mistressofmuses - Habit Tracking: Week 17 (April 19 - April 25)
althea_valara - signal boosting: fanmix_monthly's 3W4DW challenge
althea_valara - 3W4DW Day 2 Check-in
flareonfury - Music
ashelterofpages - Tarot prompt meme? Tarot prompt meme!
althea_valara - 3W4DW Day One Check-in
flareonfury - 3weeks4dreamwidth > Supergirl 20in20 icon challenge!
althea_valara - 3W4DW - Friending Meme & Community Recs
mistressofmuses - Monday, April 20: Harriman Lake
flareonfury - Lots of drabbleathons!
mistressofmuses - Miscellaneous pictures:
ripplestitch - Izzy Bears
mistressofmuses - Habit Tracking: Week 16 (April 12 - April 18)
ripplestitch - Apothecaria: In which I’m a freak, I’m a weirdo
ripplestitch - Round Up Continued, Or It’ll Be Too Long
ripplestitch - 2022 to 2026
ripplestitch - (no subject)
flareonfury - Pimp Your Fandom: The Hunting Party

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