Greetings and Salutations, blog friends!

Currently it is Sunday evening, I have a frozen lasagna in the oven, and I am typing to you from my new work area! I am trying to give Bret space to work on his music and do his streams, while also giving me space to do my own thing and get my own work sorted. As you may know, I prefer to work with noise, and Bret prefers to work in silence. Additionally, when you are recording, you tend to want to have it be quiet to allow for a better recording.

Anyways, I took a shower while my frozen lasagna was in the oven and now I am sitting down to enjoy my dinner and get some writing done. I have a lot of work to do this evening, including brainstorming some more blog topics, editing Flake City, working on some designs, doing some knitting, etc, as well as laundry.

As you may know from the many times I have blogged about it, Sunday is my big prep day, and while I woke up a bit behind I didn’t do some of my cleaning like I normally do on a Saturday due to my friend Tina coming over. I love Tina, she is one of my oldest friends, but at this point, when I am spending so much time writing, social interactions are exhausting. Still, tiring as it was, I am so glad I got to spend some time with her, and was grateful for it, even though it did lead me being a bit drained. Also draining was Bret and I having to run to Walmart for a few quick (cheap) groceries, and frankly, even the smoothest of trips to the store can be tiring. Still, I got some frozen dinners, Bret some frozen pizza. We both got some more snack food, him getting chips and me getting some more Boom Chicka Pop. This time I grabbed the sweet kind and even though I NEVER like sweet popcorn other than occasionally caramel- I am obsessed with their sweet and salty kettle corn.

It’s funny because I hate kettle corn but I LOVE this stuff. Their salted flavor is amazing as well. That’s a sponsorship I could use. No I am not sponsored, obviously, I am a tiny little blogger who writes fantasy…I am not gonna be sponsored likely ever…for those of you who ever wonder and for those of you who DM and ask. Bless you for thinking people read my blog enough for a company to ever want to give me their sponsorship.

I have managed to get much of my prep for the day done, despite being behind, but I am in the part of the evening that passes so fast, 8:00- bed, when before you know it, it’s midnight and you still have to do laundry and schedule the blog…It happens more often than I care to admit.

Anyways, despite being behind, my writing isn’t too bad, I have eight prewritten blogs to edit and illustrate but are for the most part completed, and a small list of some more blogs to work on. The bedroom is much cleaner and more organized, now having space for me to work in decent lighting and with enough space to really enjoy my process.

I have been enjoying the results of changing my systems to make sustainable changes, more so lately, because I have been able to sit back a bit and watch the process happen, really appreciate the work I have been doing.

It isn’t easy to do the bulk of the cleaning in a home, and the cooking, as well as working full time, tending to your pets, writing a fantasy series, tending to a daily blog, making time for social interactions, side hustling, creating content, maintaining the pet’s instagram page, working out…

As you know, frequently, things fall through the cracks, like the working out. Part of my motivation to get this room all sorted was to make parts of the system, liking writing, working out, knitting, side hustles, easier. I also want to make going to bed easier which is why the long term plan for this room is to put a real bed in here and stop fighting with pulling out the bed every night, but I digress. The room being all sorted and clean also puts me more at peace, and while I do have more to do, like getting Bret to find a place for all the clothing he isn’t using that keeps taking up space, or finding a spot/convincing him it’s okay to throw away some old boxes (shoe and otherwise), and of course, adding the AC and bed, but the work area with ample space, space to photograph stuff, knit, play music, stream all the zombie content that I love but that gets into Bret’s dreams at night if I play it around him too much, having this space does a lot for my happiness levels, and also my productivity, and it allows the process to flourish even more.

It helps my brain feel a bit neater as well, and, all things considered, I am not dreading tomorrow as much. Sometimes, it is frustrating to try and get to writing, or dive into my evening half of the day, when I don’t have the space to go and do so properly.

My desk in the living room is just an old round table we have pushed against the wall, and while it is currently still home to my vanity, it isn’t having to double as so much of my desk now, which helps me actually get to work that much faster, without getting annoyed and frustrated at all the crap on the tiny amount of space, an amount of space that would likely be too small for only the writing, if I was spread out the way I like to be, like I am now.

Currently, I have a long table that is just wide enough to let me store things on it and also have a wide breadth of room to work in, so I can spread out two computers, a note book, my bubbler, grinder, water cup, knitting basket, and that evenings dinner, without ever bumping anything or having space problems.

It’s lovely. I am so glad I pushed myself.

You see, the way I got here was as follows. I was sending video DM’s to my friend Sam, (@WhaleySweetScents on IG go find her and buy her stuff it’s amazing stuff holy crap) and she was kind enough to call out the fact that I still hadn’t taken down my Christmas light configuration- where I have them in shape of trees, instead of some other design I can make with lights. We brainstormed new shapes, which was the main reason I hadn’t done the new pattern, other than the biggest reason, busy/lazy.

So, with that, I started working on the lights, and before long, I had a new peace sign in the living room, and some extra lights left over. I took the lights into the bedroom and realized I could run those lights and then I wouldn’t always be dependent on the big bright studio lights just to see in the dark room, if I had the string lights hung up around the room like I do in the living room and kitchen when we are awake, and in the bathroom 24 hours a day.

Having this soft lighting helps me always be able to see stuff, but also keep a nice cozy vibe in the home. I don’t think I will keep these lights plugged in overnight, but it is nice to know that the light I will have in the morning will be nice and light, a happy, cosy light, and not some bright, photo ready studio light.

So, while I am putting up the lights, I start dusting, and of course, moving tons of crap out of the way for me to move the chair to stand on to them put in the tacks needed to hang the lights. Along the way, so much got moved than I was forced to put things in different places, and since I had wanted to make this work area to begin with, and I was already that far into it, I said fuck it, and voila.

I applied my own blog lesson , the one from Saturday about forcing motivation, and now I not only have a new light set up for the living room, I have a new work area for me to work in, and I am very pleased with it!

All in all, the changes and methods I am using have been helpful and I have been getting not only more done, but more useful and practical things to lead to better long term outcomes. I didn’t just clean up in here, or put it off until I had money for more supplies to help finish the room, like the AC or bed, or even a better chair. I used what I had to tidy it up and give myself a better area to work in, and to therefore use the space a bit better, and be in better shape when I can do things like the AC.

Thankfully, I should be able to work in here, and maybe even work out, because we have three days of rain called for in the next few days, so the temperatures shouldn’t be too high, keeping it not too hot in this room. As long as it says under 80 outside, this room doesn’t get too hot to do stuff in here, so, I may get lucky and be able to ride the last of the cooler temperatures here in Houston before pay day and then order the new AC. I was going to buy one, if you recall, from Walmart, but they didn’t have the one I had been eying for months, when I went to buy it, and had to look for a new one, which required researching a new one, and all that.

Now I have a new one picked out, and come pay day, we will be picking that up.

Anyways, I think that is it for my Sunday update and application of my own blog lessons, and now I think it is time for another one, minding my time well and getting all of my projects for the day done. I have been trying to knit at least one face scrubbie a day, and I still need to knit todays, and I may try and knock two out, since I have to still wait on the laundry we just put into the washer.

All in all, I think I am pretty well prepared for Monday, and the week, and I should be able to carve out time to write, and hopefully work out, now that I have more space to do so in.

I hope you were all able to get whatever prep for the week you need to get done, completed, and that you are ready to go for tomorrow.

Let’s all have a damn fun, fucking awesome week!

Thanks for Reading!

❤️

Abbi