Why Did You Open That Door

Let the Christmasing begin

I'm making 20 cups of cinnamon roasted almonds.

The holiday baking begins!

“No matter how attractive a person’s potential may be, you have to date their reality.”

— Mandy Hale

Song, Allen Ginsberg

by Konstantin Grigoryev

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

i think it’s really important for everyone to have high standards in love. then, it’s important for people to start treating themselves the way they expect from a loved one.

learn to write long reassuring passages for your own self when you feel low. likewise, make a make a cup of herbal tea and make a playlist for your own self. take pictures of you smiling under the sunshine and post that appreciation post for your own self. watch the movies that you would make your loved ones watch and cook your favourite meal for the movie. tuck yourself in bed with a cozy blanket and turn those fairly lights on for your own self. buy flowers and buy tiny little gifts. take yourself out to a cozy places and write poetries about you being in love with yourself despite the struggles. tell yourself that you still love yourself when you’re breaking down and your mascara has spread beneath your eyes because of the tears. tell yourself you’re in love with the mess because you’ve also always loved the best.

learn to be in love with yourself the way you romanticise someone else doing it for you because at the end, it’s you who will complete you.

-nishtha.

Sometimes love isn't grand gestures or daily phone calls

Sometimes love is when my mother comes home from visiting family 7 hours away. Where I couldn't go. Because, because car ride are too much and I'm sick.

She comes home and tells me of my whole family crying about me when they were leaving. Wishing they could do something

Maybe love is when my cousin gifts me fabric and patterns because she knows I love sewing. Even if I can't right now.

Perhaps love is my aunt gifting me rolls of leather and upholstery fabric and 3 kilos of cherries for the same reason.

Love might be another cousin crying, wishing my mother to tell me she thinks about me every day but doesn't have the words.

These people, my blood, that never felt like family or close. That are so far away in the world and in life.

Perhaps life is in those small moments. And way more people care for you than you think. Even if you have no clue. And thought they'd abandoned you long ago.

Another good thing to come from this bummshit journey :)

People care, we are all just as awkward and lost for words. Give others the grace to be as awkward as you think yourself to be. They might surprise you

"If roses could talk, they would not boast of their beauty, because they know that they have always been beautiful."

-Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover

Dovekie aka Little Auk (Alle alle), family Alcidae, order Charadriiformes, Iceland

Photograph by Christophe Moning

Terrarium Life collection~

I painted these way back during the pandemic (hence the hoard of toilet paper and Switch that I wish I had, but they were all sold out) No pandemic now but the chimney smoke from all the neighbors have made the air unbreathable and I'm stuck inside again 😭 cuddling my dog, drinking tea

tending to my fish tank and my plants