This week kinda flew by but, somehow, I felt like I spent most of it spinning my wheels. It’s fine. Sometimes, you just have to accept being stuck in neutral for a while. If I could park my anxiety, that would be grand … but, of course, that’s one thing that always stays in high gear. Sorry, I’ll stop now. I really need to stay away from vehicular metaphors because what I know about cars is what the average five-year old knows about cars.

Query-wise, it was a pretty boring week. I got 2 form rejections, and one slightly less form rejection from an agent who said my book was too long for her to consider but that I could resubmit if I were to cut it down to 95K words or less. So that’s a fun thing I might end up trying to do in the near future. First, though, I have to finish my current WIP. I am about 2.5 chapters away from a complete first draft. I won’t bore you with the details here … mostly because I plan to bore you in a full-length post later on.

Lately, I’ve fallen down a weird and fun (weirdly fun?) rabbit hole, reading books about the history of magic and magic secret societies. Currently devouring Fraces Yates’ book on the Rosicrucians, which is opening up all sorts of rabbit hole tangents. My Wikipedia search history this week was a wild ride! It’s putting me in a Gothic-y kind of mood, which is somewhat helpful for my current WIP, but may also inspire future projects.

Sorta-not-entirely-unrelated tangent, I ended up watching Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty ballet movie this week and it was really cool. It’s on YoutTube in case you’re interested. (Be warned, it’s nearly 2 hours long.) I kept seeing snippets of it on my Instagram discovery page and finally decided to look it up and I regret nothing.

I got to have a little thrift adventure with one of my dear friends this week, which was a blast. I found a few cute things though, sadly, the jewelry was NOT giving. I despair of finding any cute rings. Just kidding. A thrifter never despairs. Hope springs eternal. The thrift gods will provide.

I’ve been trying to find time to go and pick out new plants for my garden for a month now, and I’m hoping that this weekend I’ll finally get some. I don’t have a plan or much of a vision, apart from wanting to fill some ‘dead’ space in my plant beds. My philosophy is to keep adding a few new perennials every year and hope that, in 20 years’ time, I’ll have a lush, verdant, overgrown oasis. Like a house, a garden takes YEARS to come together. Don’t be fooled by those perfect photos you see on social media and in coffee table books; none of those spaces happened overnight.

Have a great weekend!

Last week, I mentioned how I’m loving a more maximalist vibe for my jewelry — not via individual pieces, but rather by way of volume. Think layering. Think stacking. I’ve been especially digging the look of rings on every finger. Not super chunky ones, not super dainty ones. I’m like Goldilocks: they have to be just right. And just right basically means … I know it when I see it.

I took a bunch of pictures of my hands (one of my least photogenic features, lol, but you’re welcome) to help illustrate the idea.

I’ve figured out that ring mixing is very much an art. I’m not even talking about matching metals here. (Personally, I like mixing metals anyway.) There are proportions to consider, and vibes … not to mention sizing. I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but pretty much every finger on each of my hands is a different size. As a general rule, the fingers on my left hand are thinner than the ones on my right hand. On each hand, my pointer finger is bigger (ummm, girth-wise? ewwww) than my middle finger, which is bigger than my ring finger, and so on. That means that pretty much every ring I own can be worn on one specific finger, maybe two. Because I have more rings than fingers — and because I like variety — that means that if I change ONE ring, I more or less gotta change them ALL. [The only exceptions are my engagement ring and trinity band that I wear stacked on my left-hand ring finger pretty much all the time.]

So, even though I have a lot of rings, I’ve been on the hunt for more because I’d like to add pieces to “complete” various combinations. I also want to find a few pinkie rings, because I don’t currently own any.

Now, this isn’t a “can’t live without it” situation, so I’m taking my time. I want to find pieces that not only suit my aesthetic but will also last. That means I’m primarily interested in silver and gold (or gold-filled, vermeil, etc.). I also don’t want to spend a ton of money, which means I’m shopping secondhand for SERIOUS bargains … and, let me tell you, those are rarer these days than you might think. Slow and steady is the way to go.

Most of my current line-up is a mix of thrifted finds, family heirlooms (like my mom’s wedding band), and special pieces that my husband has bought for me over the years. That eclecticism is what I love most about this whole aesthetic. When I look down at my hands, I see memories on every finger. Every ring mix tells its own story. I think that’s pretty cool!

This was a pretty quiet week. Absolute crickets on the query front, which was both disappointing and helpful. I was able to put a LOT of time towards my current WIP [work in progress], particularly as I ended up taking the whole week off work. I spent most of that time either writing or hanging out with the fam. I went thrifting once, which is definitely noteworthy; if this had been last year, I’d have gone to three or four thrift stores during a week’s holiday. One of the reasons for this change of habit comes down to something that should surprise no one who’s been reading this blog for more than a hot second: I have more than enough clothes already. The bigger reason is, simply put, obsession. I’ll come back to that in a minute.

That said, I am hoping to hit up one or two thrift stores this weekend. Mostly, I’m hoping to find jewelry, which is something I haven’t had much luck with recently. I’ve been getting into a maximalist vibe with my jewelry – but not in terms of size/style as much as volume. I’m really digging the whole rings-on-every-finger / arm parties / necklace stacking lewk. I don’t want super chunky “statement” pieces, but rather unique and interesting ones that can be layered/stacked. I’m also looking for pieces that are at least on the nicer end of costumer jewelry, if not semi-fine (say, silver or gold vermeil). Finding stuff like that at the thrift store is like finding needles in haystacks these days. I don’t mind paying up and buying from the jewelry showcases, but even those are pretty empty slash underwhelming. But … we persist! The treasure hunt is the fun!

On Thursday, my husband and I celebrated our 15^th wedding anniversary. That number’s starting to feel a little more impressive every year. Like, we are getting closer and closer to “old timers” status, LOL! We didn’t anything “special” to celebrate on the day of, but we do have plans for a date on Saturday. We’re gonna go to a vintage car meet-up in my husband’s 1974 Beetle, hang out, and enjoy some bougie burgers. [aka from a place that isn’t A&W.] I still gotta figure out what I’m going to wear, but that should be fun.

Sorta related tangent: we’re going stop by the mall so I can get my fix of Orange Julius’ strawberry banana drink. I’m obsessed! It’s a crime – a CRIME, I tell you – that you can only get Orange Julius in malls nowadays. There’s a DQ not 5 minutes from my house, but they don’t sell OJ stuff in their stores anymore. WHYYYYYYY!?!?

Speaking of obsession. Twice in the last week, I came across Reels on my Insta feed/discovery page that talked about obsession being the key to success. It felt like a sign from the universe, so I’ve been thinking a lot about it. To be clear: in this context, obsession is different from perseverance, passion, or belief (though it involves/requires all those things). Basically, obsession means living, breathing your pursuit – whatever that is – 24/7 to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. You gotta be a cross between a horse with its blinkers on and a dog with a bone. [Or maybe a feral racoon with a piece of cake rescued from the dumpster. Maybe cross-species metaphors are not my forte.] You gotta be stubborn, persistent, and a little bit delusional. Maybe a lot delusional. And you gotta be prepared to make sacrifices.

That part is hard.

I’ve been sitting with that idea a lot lately, as I continue to grapple with both my day to day priorities-balancing act, as well as the bigger picture of what I want my life to look like, now and in the future.

I am not going anywhere with this topic, by the way. Not right now … because, like I said, I’m still sitting with it myself. But if you are also in the midst of tackling huge, lifelong dreams, maybe this will resonate 🙂

Have a great weekend!