I really like alliteration and I wasn’t about to give up the chance to include it in this post’s title, regardless of consequences.
There are so many things that I want to talk about in this post. Mainly because I always wait until I have two months worth of things to talk about before I remember I have a blog.
New Hobby?
I picked up journaling again but in a new way. I’ve been coming across videos here and there of junk journaling and other stationary hobbies. I’m a sucker for some good stationary and an even bigger sucker for a nice journal and an even BIGGER sucker for a nice pen. I found a bunch of Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube accounts of people putting together junk journals or decorating pages with all sorts of ephemera. (Side note, I’m sorry to Ephemeral Rift that it took me until very recently to bother looking up what ephemeral means. In all fairness, I watch your content to fall asleep and not to dive into a rabbit hole of looking up new definitions at 12:30AM.) So one day I just decided I wanted to pick up a new hobby and went with it. I bought an extravagant amount of supplies from Michael’s that I definitely didn’t need and ran home to work on my first page. I found a journal that I had been sticker journaling in a handful of times and decided to repurpose it.
I wouldn’t call what I do junk journaling really. It’s more of a combination of art, junk, and scrapbook journaling. The intention was to actually do some journaling in it too but make it more creative in nature. I wanted a place to use my own pictures, scavenged pieces of papers and stamps and stickers, do some collages, journal, write some poetry, draw, and anything else I feel like doing on the day. In my mind somehow it’s all cohesive.
I really loved the first page I did, and I’m working on ideas to make future pages more interactive. I want to open windows and pull out secret papers from the page and find hidden pockets with a photo in them. I’m really enjoying watching videos on Treasure Books YouTube channel. She has so many fun ideas and tutorials for all kinds of things to do with a junk journal.
I got to use a vintage postcard, some washi tape, my punches, a 1919 map of New Haven, CT, some stamps, and a few fun stickers including a big holographic one I had been holding on to for a while. I did a little bit of poetry writing on this page, too. I really love it for a first page and I’m so excited to keep going.
New Home?
TL;DR: I might finally be moving out which was an eventuality anyways because of huge changes happening soon in my current living situation.
It might finally be happening. I might be moving out. I don’t want to jinx it because I really need this but I’m so excited. It’s a small house on a small piece of land in the outskirts of Boston, but it’s a home. It’s a start. It’s an opportunity. I won’t give too many details because nothing is set in stone yet, but I’m too excited to not talk about it.
It’s been so hard to find a way to move out. Just when David and I finally had a good amount of savings needed to put a down payment on a home, the market went and turned itself upside down and now we would need probably double that amount. Starter homes in the area we would need to live in (close enough to David’s job) are going for upwards of $400k and that’s just way too much. These are two bed one bath houses that need work, too. The houses available under $400k all seem to need their septic replaced which is not something in the budget. With the market the way it is, we’ve been set back a year, maybe two, before being able to put down a serious offer on a starter home of our own.
The home that’s been offered to us for rent is still far away from David’s job but we both agree it’s better than nothing and better than our current living situations.
I haven’t talked about it here because plans are always changing, but my brother, his wife, their new baby, their two dogs, and my sister are all moving back into our family home within a year. My brother and his family will be taking over the house essentially. There are lots of renovation plans and changes in general being talked about for the home I’m in right now. Everyone will be paying rent and pitching in. This would all be fantastic if I had any desire at all to live with my entire family in the same house as an adult. I do not. I love my family and we’ve grown a lot closer over the last few years, but under no circumstances do I want to live with 6 family members, one of which is less than a year old) and most likely a lot of family friends. It was also suggested that I give up my bedroom so my brother’s family could use it (keep in mind this has been my bedroom for pretty much my whole life and it’s the only space in the house that I have to myself). I’m trying to talk about it lightly and not let my emotions taint the whole thing, but I won’t be paying rent for a living situation that I hate. Not gunna happen. The only option for me is moving out for my own mental health. If I can’t find a home to buy, my dramatic ass would trade in my car for and SUV and tow a camper to live in.
My mom told me a few weeks ago that they decided to start charging me rent beginning September 1st. I’m sure it would not have been a huge amount, but it didn’t sit right with me for a number of reasons that I won’t go into. So my timeline to move out jumped up again. I became fairly frantic and talked with David who mentioned the offer for us to live in his Nan’s old house. When I brought this up to my mom she said that the whole rent thing was a big scheme and they planned on giving that money back when I moved out anyways. I’m grateful that my parents want to help me save, but it made me even more upset about the whole situation. I’m 24, almost 25. I feel like after the last several years of me talking about how hard I’ve been working to save money (with evidence that I have been succeeding), I don’t need someone holding my money for me just to give it back at a later date as a “gift”. Am I crazy? That’s money I was going to save anyways??? It still bothers me but there’s no sense in harboring on it. My mom told me that since my plans are to move out as soon as possible that they won’t charge me rent starting in September after all.
Anyways, I’m very hopeful that I will be moving out soon and it will be better for all people involved.
New H-Ideas?
BOY do I have some h-ideas for you. Mainly just things that I’m really excited about doing in the future, especially with the chance I’ll be moving out soon. Most of these ideas will require me to have my own (more ideal) home so they may be pretty far in the future.
I really want to begin offering readings and custom runes on a more permanent basis. I don’t feel confident offering readings online so that’s why I haven’t branched into that yet, but I do really want to continue offering them in person. I would love to have the option to just set up a table in a park or something in the evenings and let people do walk up readings or runes but I’m not sure if that’s something that’s allowed. The other option would be to buy some kind of shed that I can turn into a room for readings, runes, energy paintings, meditation sessions, and anything else I may add on to the spiritual side of my business in the future. I love the idea of sheds for some reason. I want a separate shed for my art studio as well. But, my sheds will have to wait until I have a larger property to actually put them on.
I’m also considering offering spiritual subscriptions. It would be a monthly/annual subscription and you would get something along the lines of a free reading every month or some number of free runes. Or maybe discounted readings and a free rune each month. Something that wouldn’t be overwhelming for me but still benefits you.
My other ideas involve mostly collections. I have a few ideas for a fall collection right now that I’ll be sending out a survey for soon.
Fall collection ideas are:
- Fall harvest theme: colorful trees, autumn colors schemes, pumpkins, etc
- Animals in costumes: chickens with t-rex arms, cows in astronaut suits, pigs as pirates, etc
- Chickens doing fall things: drinking pumpkin lattes, carving pumpkins, picking apples, wearing costumes, etc
- Witchy themed: witch familiars, potions, spells, witch cottage aesthetic, cute but spooky theme
Other upcoming collection ideas:
- Winter on the farm theme: sheep huddled in the snow, horse with a jacket, winter scenery on the farm, etc
- Chickens doing winter things: drinking hot cocoa, ice skating, snowball fight, sledding, knitting a sweater, etc
- Wildflower/floral collection
- Large fields/farming landscape collection
- Veggie collection
- Orchard collection
- More bees
For prints, I want to start grouping collections into seasonal categories and rerun the limited prints from previous seasons each…season. I don’t like that I just used the word season three times in the same sentence lol. It would depend on how much interest there was. Still a budding idea, hasn’t flowered yet.
Something Interesting
Something interesting that I’ve noticed at the fairs and markets that I’ve been attending is that the artwork seems to draw people in, but they almost always stay for the readings or runes. While I want to make a business primarily off of my art, I’m also really excited about the idea of the energy readings being the star. In all honesty, everything that I bring to the table is something that I would be happy to do for the rest of my life, and I would love the chance to develop lasting connections with people and provide them with insight whenever they need through the readings. I will always continue to paint and offer everything else that I’ve been offering up to this point. I may just end up shifting the focus a little to be more on my readings too 🙂
