Slow Living

Life Updates

Has anybody else’s social media feeds become inundated with posts about “slow living?”

Look, I know the hygge trend isn’t new, but I don’t think I’ve heard this much about it in years, and certainly not all of a sudden. I don’t know if it’s in backlash to the absolute fucking chaos that 2025 was and 2026 is shaping up to be, if it’s a response to the increasing awfulness that is AI and the devaluing of the humanity inherent in art and creativity and connection, if it’s woman and femme-aligned folks just finally getting fucking sick of the things associated with them — teaching, nursing, cooking, art and crafts — being devalued whole cloth, but man, people are pissed.

And their response to that seems to be a determination to live more slowly.

And I say this to you fully recognizing the (at least) grain of irony inherent in this all transpiring on the internet, but I am also nothing if not slightly hypocritical, because even in my most steadfastly held beliefs, I know there is nuance. I’m never going off-the-grid, and I think it’s an unfair expectation in this day and age, but goddamn it, I can dim the lights a bit. I can light a fucking candle.

I started noticing the move back towards slow living in the days before the new year; lot’s of posts on Facebook about returning to genuine connection in the new eyar, in relearning the value of practicing a skill, in taking our time to do, instead of rushing to document the having-done.

Then more and more peopel I subscribe to via newsletters and Substacks began putting out pieces about slow living. I started getting fed recommendations for articles about hygge practices.

I started wondering if there was maybe something to this.

It was this article — Offline Activities for Every Week — that really opened my eyes to what “slow living” really meant. Upcycling, cooking, collecting, dancing. Self-care. Connection. Quiet afternoons with good friends. Cooking. Journaling. Pot luck dinners. Sharing favorite books.

Again, none of this is new. And none of this is new to me, either; the whole hygge thing swept the US years ago.

I guess the thing that’s new is how much I feel myself drawn to it now.

I’m tired, guys. I’m trying my best to live my best life — and I’m doing pretty great in a lot of ways! — but I’m tired to feeling stressed out, over-streched, and just generally worn down.

I need to center. I need to connect.

And goddamn it, sometimes I need to get offline.

Sometimes just being in the online space makes me forget myself; makes me forget that I started coming on here in order to motivate myself to be more creative, to meet other creative folks, to have a place to share the fruits of my creative labors with the world.

What has happened, though, is when I am not creating — when I am in a fallow season, or I am not creating fast enough, or I am not in mad rush to show off what I have created — I feel like I am failing. I’m failing at being a good content creator by not updating three times a day, every day.

But I never signed up to become a “content creator.” I was just looking for a little place to store the tchotchkes that I made. I didn’t sign up for stress or judgement.

I didn’t want my creative outlets to become a slog. I didn’t want to have to quell my meandering creative interests in the interest of honing in on some kind of marketable brand.

I just want to light candles, drink tea, and make shit, you know?

I’m not leaving here — here, my blog, but more widely, here, the internet — but I’m not going to let it have such a chokehold over me anymore.

Maybe this is my hygge year. Maybe I need to slow down.

Hope you’re all doing well. Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Hello 2026!!! Two days in, and I am luxuriating in having a child-free house for a few days while Bear is off at my in-laws. He is in his glory, getting one-on-one attention from his grandfather, having free reign of the common house piano, and adventuring around with his friends (he’s amassed quite the posse over the last two years). All in all, a much needed and restorative getaway for both of us, I think.

And that means I have time to just… exist. Write, sketch, sleep, catch up on my YouTube subscriptions, all of which are on the roster for today.

But first, the guiding light of my creative endeavors this year — Art Goals Bingo.

My 2026 card:

(Card template available in a five card variety pack on my Ko-Fi, btw)

I’m so excited for this year in art; I’ve been conscientiously away from it long enough that I’m eager to go back, and I have so many cool things planned for 2026, with more, hopefully, to come.

A short entry today — days to myself are few and far between, and I’m not about to let the time slip away from me.

I hope you all are excited about your prospects for this year. Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Christmas Eve (and Other Stories)

I would love to think that I’ll be around to update again before the new year, but… c’mon. Let’s be real, people.

I’m finally on break, a reprieve from the very real burnout I was suffering (I love my job, and I adore my coworkers, but it’s just been a lot lately), and I’m hoping to spend today and tomorrow having a blast and a half with my family, and then starting my annual Big Clean. Weirdly, I’m almost equally excited about that…?? I think part of my burnout has been the persistant need for just a general reset, you know? Reorganization, cleaning, getting things in order and under control. The ambient disorder isn’t necessarily the cause of my burnout, but it’s certainly contributing. I’m looking forward to getting back on track now that I have two weeks with the burden of work taken off my plate.

I’ve also taken a very conscious break from any attempts at creativity over the last month for much the same reason — I was burnt out, and pressing it was not actually helping the situation, but exacerbating it. I decided putting a kibosh on my expectations of creative output until the new year was for the best, and instead I focused on what I wanted to get out of the upcoming year — goals, resolutions, and intentions I wanted to set for myself.

So, in the interest of my own accountabilty, I’m gonna show my whole ass here and post exactly what’s in my Goals and Resolutions doc right now:

✨Goals✨

Long Term (Ongoing)

  1. Language lessons at least 2x a week (more if possible!!!)
  2. Properly meal plan at least once a week
  3. Create weekly lunch menus so I can shop for them thoughtfully
  4. Read at night – an actual book – for at least 30 min.
  5. Two meatless meals a week
  6. Keep all my doctor’s appointments
  7. Spend at least one hour a day devoted to just Bear
  8. Establish Family Nights
  9. Focused workout 15 min a day (reassess after established)
  10. Start writing again – weekend mornings before everyone is up
  11. Begin curating my wardrobe more closely
  12. Start using Bluesky and Insta more effectively
  13. Build my Cara portfolio
  14. Consume more new-to-me media (TV, movies, music artists, etc.)
  15. Start a fun non-art project I really enjoy
  16. Establish a weekly reset day for things like pantry, drawers, fridge etc.
  17. Learn to read Tarot
  18. Start and maintain a Little Free Library
  19. Establish something like a TikTok or a YouTube
  20. Screen detox
  21. Get at least one tattoo and piercing
  22. Exhibit in at least 3 shows

Every year, I’m ambitious — I set a lengthy list of goals, and even if I don’t accomplish all of them, I usually make at least some progress on most of them, and honestly, any forward movement is a success. I am most passionate about the health and dietary goals, as health (mental and physical) are my top priority this year, as is centering my family (especially my son and my siblings) more solidly in my life.

Of course, my creative ambitions come with their own set of goals — as is tradition, in the form of an Art Bingo card, which I will post after the new year (but which is more or less finished — might tweak a few things, we’ll see). My overarching intention for this year with my art is to work more efficiently, to post updates more frequently, and to experiment more.

Anyway, I am wrist deep in watching Christmas television and getting ready for when my wife gets out of work so we can go out to dinner. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Gratitudes

Life Updates

It’s that time of year again.

I’m stunningly grateful for a loving and supportive wife, who has pushed me to pursue even my most self-indulgent ambitions when she knew they would bring me joy, who constantly reminds me to take better care of myself and to treat myself with grace, and who is supporting me through this next exciting phase of my journey — more on that in a moment.

I’m grateful for my kid, who continues to blow my mind with his intelligence, curiosity, and humor; at his dedication to learning the things he’s passionate about; at his gift of perfect pitch and his ability to play music by ear; at his confidence, his compassion, and his creativity.

I’m grateful for my siblings, who I have always been close to, but with whom I have reconnected this year in a way we haven’t since we were children; I am grateful for their incomparable, dark, and sometimes surrealist humor; and I am excited to see what the three of us get up to in the new year, from sleepy Sunday brunches, to more silly escape rooms, to artistic collaborations.

I’m super grateful to a number of people — Becky, and Aimee, and Sarah, and Patrick, and Maria, and Michael, and and and — for being part of the figure drawing group that my wife and I started on a lark back in August and has been a consistent highlight of every month, making sure that even in the trenches of art block, I always get some art (and socializing) in.

I am grateful to my coworkers — not limited to, but most especially for my office mates, who respect my knowledge and experience and value me as a professional; who always have my back and support me in both my professional and personal life, and who tell my stories that routinely have me absolutely rolling. Even on the worst days, facing the chaos with them makes it bearable.

I am thankful for finding such a vibrant and active fan community via the Red Dwarf fandom — for bringing me back to creative writing after a decade away, for spearheading wonderfully fun collaborative projects, for being exactly my flavor of unhinged, and for bringing daily doses of levity to even the darkest days.

And, returning to something mentioned earlier, I am so grateful to be embarking on the latest phase of my journey — I’ve recently started HRT, and am excited to further explore my non-binary identity in the coming year.

I hope you all surround yourself with those you love today — family (biological or found), friends — and take the time to breathe. The world is on fire, but there are still beautiful things.

Everything is on fire,
but everyone I love is doing beautiful things
and trying to make life worth living,
and I know I don’t have to believe in everything,
but I believe in that.

– Nikita Gill

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Oops

Last night, exhausted from work and finally throwing in the towel on this year’s writing challenge (25 out of 31 prompts, and over 26k words…!), I was telling my wife how hugely excited I was to work on visual art again, how many ideas I had, how thrilled I was to start working on my own stuff again — just as soon as I finished these two pieces for a project I’m a part of.

“Then I think I’ll end it there,” I said. “Just do the two.”

“Ok,” she said, as one of the two organizers of said project. “That’s why we on-boarded pinch hitters, so if someone drops out they can pick it up.”

That more or less stopped me in my tracks.

Pinch hitting?

Dropping the project??

It was then my lovely wife reminded my that I had signed on to complete six pieces, ahahahahaha. Oh my God, how had I forgotten that…??? I’d even had a prioritized list of all my concepts. But it had complete slipped my mind.

So, yeah. I will be working on my own stuff in the coming weeks, but I will also be working on the remaining four pieces for my part of this project. Jesus. How embarrassing, lol.

Anyway, I’m not exhibiting, but I’m looking forward to attending Nerd Alert: A Micro Con at Essex Art this Saturday, it looks to be a good time!

What stuff is coming up that you all are looking forward to? I’m excited for a day with my siblings next week (escape rooms, bowling, and possible tattoos), the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (in just about a month), our friend Aimee’s book event (woo!), and of course our November figure drawing session on the 15th.

Hope you all have good things to look forward to. Do good when and where you can, and take care of yourselves and each other.

Things That Buoy Me Along, Pt. IV

Life Updates

1.) These Recent eBay Fandom Finds

I opened my first eBay account in years last summer to try to start properly collecting, and I’ve been dabbling in throwing some bids out here and there, but my favorite thing in the world is finding something I want with a startlingly cheap “Buy It Now” option.  These past two weeks, I have acquired both a rare zine and an incredibly cheap copy of a tie-in book that I’ve been eyeing since August.

The Small Rouge One is a limited run, 1994 fan-published Red Dwarf zine – old school fandom, the kind of vintage, pre-mainstream internet shit I love.  I’ve never seen it going for less than $10 to $15, and almost always from the UK (so essentially, double that cost – at least – when you include shipping fees).  This one was, including tax and shipping, under $15.  I was stunned, I was thrilled, and of course I snatched it up.  This is the second in a run of three, I’ve got eBay alerts on for the other two, but obviously they are all standalone, so the order doesn’t matter.  I’m thrilled to have it.

I also picked up Psych’s Guide… for under $6, with free shipping.  Whaaat???  This is a big book – I was expecting a trade paperback, but this is a substantial QP that retails for $18.  I’m so excited to have it, I love these stupid detectives with all my heart.

2.) This Jacket from Torrid, via Savers

Look at this jacket.  LOOK AT IT.  $6.99!

3.) Halloween Goodies at Aldi

From Halloween LEGO kits, to crochet amigurumi kits, and fucking Halloween cheese…?!  I’m so stoked for the season.  We grabbed one of the Halloween LEGO kits for Bear (who worked on it while he was sick at home last Tuesday) and two of the crochet kits, as well as a couple of Pumpkin Spice Wensleydale cheeses (which came with us to our adults-only pumpkin carving night last Sunday – most of us, including me, really liked it!  Kira seemed… perplexed.  She ultimately decided she didn’t hate it, but it really wasn’t for her). This is on top of the candles and such we’d already snatched up, lol.

4.) Pumpkin Carving at Aimee’s

Our friend Aimee hosts an annual pumpkin carving night, and this was our second year attending.  I never really carved pumpkins as either a kid or an adult, but since starting to hang out with Aimee, I’ve found I really like it, and I’m not bad at it.  I decided pretty last minute what I was actually going to do this year, and I free-handed it (well, I drew the design on the pumpkin first, but I didn’t use a stencil or anything, is what I mean).  I’m really happy with how it turned out!  It was a beautiful night and it was a lot of fun hanging out with this group, watching schlock horror, and doing something creative.

(Also, peep Chouli’s kickass Bill Cipher design! Loving it!

Mine is the skull, btw!!)

That’s it for now. I’m finding comfort and happiness in the community around me, and in the support and creativity of my friends and allies. I am doing creative things that I love, giving back when and where I can, and I hope you are able to do the same.

My final check-in for the collaborative project I am working on is October 31st, coinciding with the end of my writing challenge, so expect me to come back to visual art with a renewed resolve and passion, lol. I’m already thinking of so many things I want to do and make.

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Dipping Out on Drawtober

Life Updates

Here’s the thing:  I will (and do) enthusiastically encourage everyone to try challenges when they are first establishing a creative practice.  I’ve done NaPoWriMo, NaNoWriMo,* Inktober,** Drawtober, and ArtFight, and all have been instrumental in pushing me to explore new techniques, tackle subject matter I otherwise wouldn’t have, and adhere to some sort of schedule.

But.  But but but.  

For me – and this is a very “for me” situation – after a certain point, the usefulness and appeal of challenges starts to fade.  The more established I am in my own creative routine, the more creative momentum I have of my own, the more of my own original ideas I have to work on, the more said challenges start to feel like burdens rather than buoys.  And that doesn’t mean I don’t think people with their own art practices can’t benefit from or enjoy challenges, God – please don’t take this to mean that you shouldn’t engage with things like ArtFight or Drawtober or whatever other challenges are out there if it makes you feel fulfilled and productive.  I’m just saying, when (or if) they begin to feel like a burden or an obligation, it may be time to rethink your participation.  Not even wholecloth; even just from challenge to challenge.  Drawtober 2024 might have been a snoozefest for you, but 2025 makes you vibrate with excitement.  That’s fine, that’s cool.  Just listen to your instincts, is what I’m saying.

All this to say, I charged into Drawtober 2025 gung-ho and then realized… I’m not sure I’m totally feeling it.  And it’s not a Drawtober issue – like, I really love four of the six prompts, and find the last two intriguing-but-not-for-me – it’s just that with the exception of two of the prompts, they aren’t really anything I feel compelled to churn out on a deadline.  Like, I think I still might pursue them, but they aren’t priority items for me.  Which is fine.  It’s fine.  These are the problems I wish I had, back when I first thought I might like to get involved in visual art – too many ideas, too many concepts and ambitions and projects rattling around in my brain.  A glut of inspiration is an enviable problem to have.

But it means that Drawtober as a timed challenge maybe isn’t for me this year.  That’s not to say I still can’t use the prompts as inspiration, just that I will not be breaking my back to complete them on the week-to-week deadlines.

Especially not since I’m running my own writing challenge in October again. And man, let me tell you, I got one hell of a positive reception to that, so I am really looking forward to it. I’m excited to be writing again, and I’m looking forward to an influx in fic in this fandom, for sure.

So that’s where I’ll turn my attention for the next month, while I update and elaborate on my Art Ideas document (best thing I ever did — create a color-coded Google doc with every spare thought and idea I have for potential art projects. Easy, accessible, and literally at my fingertips — no more lost ideas. It is about a dozen pages long and has been an absolute lifesaver).

Work has been fulfilling, but non-stop, lol. Domestic life has been full of creativity and whimsy. Social life has been quiet this month (had several schedule upheavals), but I don’t have a single free weekend in October due to social obligations, so that’s clearly picking up momentum.

More big things on the horizon, both personal and creative, but I’ll talk about those when I’m free to (…spoilers).

Hope all is well, and good luck to those of you participating in any creative challenges next month.

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Swinging into Fall

Life Updates

So, following up from my last post, as an update: I did in fact put in for the Embrace the Deception zine, and I’m currently awaiting acceptance or rejection. Planning ahead, because I’m participating in so many challenges/projects, I have successfully sourced a reference image (from the lovely Adorkastock) and will be drafting that in the next few weeks. If I get in I’ll be ahead of the game, and if I don’t, I can always grace the Psych-o’s on Tumblr with it, lol.

We’re entering into a portion of the year where we are consistently busy. Fall is really my favorite time of year, and it feels like that’s the overwhelming consensus in the majority of my social circles, so of course it tends to be a busy time when everyone I know is trying to cram all variety of seasonal celebrations in.

We had our first party of the season on Labor Day weekend, hosted by our friend Raeann, which is always fun; and just this Saturday we had “Wing Out til You Ding Out,” hosted by our friends Pete and Jane, which was huge potluck centering on — you guessed it — wings (and holy shit, how many wings, lol. It was so good).

I also have a fancy, five-course, themed dinner party with my sister coming up; the start of Bear’s dance classes; apple-picking with Dan; pumpkin carving at Aimee’s; a six-week tarot-reading class; and of course, our September life drawing group. I’m very excited.

Today I plan on a mellow day spent relaxing and doing prep for my annual Red Dwarf writing challenge; my moot Artemis started it back in 2023, and I picked up the mantle the last two years. It’s yielded some really, really wonderful fic, and it’s just a joy to log on every day and see half a dozen new stories or vignettes (or sometimes art!) and to know that I’m in part responsible for their existence, lol. Generating the prompt list was less of a challenge than I’d feared it’d be, though I’m (foolishly, I guess) looking to next year already and thinking, “ugh, do I actually have another 31 prompts in me…?,” lol.

Also on the roster for today is working on tentative completion (pending review) of the two piece for my Big Collaborative Project), and hopefully starting my sketches for Drawtober. I’m not enamored with every single one, but I definitely have some great ideas for at least three of them, and I hope to get ref photos and sketches done today.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Last Day of Summer

Life Updates

God, that went fast.

So, yes; I return to work tomorrow (starting off with a bang with a seven-hour Safety Care recertification!) and have to get back into the swing of things — like going to sleep before midnight and getting out of bed before 9, ugh.

But the last few weeks of summer have been gratifying; I’ve eaten some amazing food, seen some amazing friends, and reading some amazing books (I’m finally reading The Locked Tomb series! Oh my God, the end of Gideon the Ninth had me in ugly tears! I also just recently finished Harrow the Ninth, which was… a lot, lol. Taking a breather, but planning to start Nona the Ninth this week!)

On the 16th, we had our monthly figure drawing group, with two new people (new to the figure drawing group, lol. They’re friends of ours, obviously; one a practicing artist, and one a hobbyist who mostly works in fiber arts, trying to get back into sketching), and it was lovely.

I’m still struggling with the 1 minute poses, but far less so than our first session! I genuinely feel like this group is helping me make fast and tangible progress with my sketching, which is something that I have struggled with in the past.

I’ve put some of that to good use in completing two portraits in the last few weeks, one of my beloved Timothy Omundson, and one of the gorgeous Yasmin Finney — neither of which are perfect, but both of which look more like their intended subject than many of my portraits in the past, lol. Progress is progress!

Speaking of my beloved Tim, today is the opening on applications for Embrace the Deception: A Psych Zine, which I am hype for. I am already involved in a large collaborative art project (which I am thrilled about!) and returning to work, so I’m a little hesitant to throw my hat in the ring, but by the same token, letting this chance slide by while I am in Psych hyperfixation seems like a wasted opportunity, lol. So, I might give it a go; no guarantee I’ll even get in, but I gotta shoot my shot, as it were.

No new art shows to speak of, but it’s felt like one after another after another for a while, so I’m cool with taking a break for a bit and focusing on my collab, my own personal projects, and maybe zines (’cause if I’m being honest, I’ve missed doing zines, lol)

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Another Year Round the Sun

Life Updates

Happy birthday to me. The Douglas Adams fan in me is sad to let go of 42, but I feel like cool things are on the horizon for me at 43.

I’m nearing completion of two large, personal art projects; I’m wrist deep in a huge, multi-artist collab, and on the precipice of joining a second; I have a lively and successful life drawing group that I run, and I’m overall just very enthusiastic about what I’ll be able to accomplish on this sweep around the sun.

43. Though some days I feel 16, and some days I feel 500.

I had a relaxing lunch out with work friends on Wednesday (lovely to catch up with Paula, who I hadn’t seen since mid-June), beach plans this weekend, and plans with my sister on Monday. All in all, a lovely, slow-release into the next phase of my life.

I didn’t intend to make this a long entry — and I won’t — but I do want to let you all know that the next several entries are very likely going to be about the intersection of domesticity, art, and whimsy, because I have been thinking about that a lot lately, and with a new year of my life starting, it felt like a good time to delve into my feelings and wants regarding the space in which I live.

Just, you know, in case you’re into hearing about that, lol.

Take care of yourselves, and each other.