IWSG 2020 #12


November Goals
✓ work on a photobook with Album Epoca
✗ get Christmas gifts finished and shipped
✓ go more in depth with my Album Epoca book -- using page numbers and an index, possibly include a map or vector images.

Additional Successes
• Applied for my absentee ballot! (Runoff election in Georgia.)
• Edited a bunch of pictures. (They need the srgb color profile rather than the Adobe color profile I've been using +150dpi. I'm having to re-edit everything for my photo book.)
• Picked out creative and thoughtful gifts for family and friends. + Shipped a few. + wrapped a few others.
• I'm working on buying less food from the grocery store and eating what I buy, rather than trashing it. Trying to be more conscious of the impact my choices have on the world.
• Set up a new "garbage can" to collect recycling in the house and make it easier.
• Also, researched recycling to determine which plastics actually can be recycled and which are usually recycled but just end up in the landfill. YOUR RECYCLING BIN IS NOT A GARBAGE CAN. PLEASE DON'T TREAT IT AS SUCH.
• Helped the people I work for pack up their belongings to be moved.
• Also, helped my parents move their furniture so they could have new hardwood floors put in.
• Researched recipes in an effort to eat healthier. A favorite included a salad with fresh pairs, dried cherries, and walnuts. YUM! (And seasonal!)
• Made exchanges and returns to save money, while price-watching.
• ordered tea and caramel advent calendars.

December Goals
–

IWSG Question –– Are there months or times of the year that you are more productive with your writing than other months, and why?

YES, absolutely! When I'm at work, I get a lot less done. When I'm dealing with emotions or arguing with friends and family, I get less done. At the end of the year, I get stressed out due to the holidays; at the beginning of the year, I feel like I have a fresh start.

Your Turn

Only one month left to go in 2020 and I'm baffled. How will I handle 2021? What will be different? What will be the same? In a strange and eerie way, despite corona, life just keeps moving forward. So you have to continue to make plans, but you have to also be open to those plans falling through. Is 2020 making me more flexible? Are there things I'm not doing that I should be doing? ... Plans I should be making for the potential but as of yet unknown?

... As an aside, I've been thinking a lot about my blog. The comments section is broken. I'm too embarrassed to share my blog with people that ask. It needs a makeover. And I've considered starting fresh. But right now my focus is on my photo book and getting Christmas gifts out. I don't really want feedback, I just wanted to put those feelings out there. I'm hoping 2021 will give me a chance to improve and do better.

How are things going for you? Has 2020 pushed you to your limit? Are you, like me, overwhelmed and needing a break? Or do you find yourself bored with too much time on your hands? If the comment section is actually working for you, leave me a comment and let me know I'm not alone. Message me on Facebook or Twitter. I'd love to hear from you.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a joyous new year!

IWSG posts: #1 #2. #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11

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IWSG 2020 #11




October Goals
✓ Publish photobook with Saal Digital
✓ Clean including washing sheets, cleaning the bathroom.
✗ Finish planning Christmas presents.

Additional Successes
• Tried a new shampoo/conditioner -- it made my hair super curly.
• followed Weight Watchers all month. Didn't lose any weight, but I learned more about eating healthier and my desire to eat for emotional reasons.
• reconnected with a friend <3 and celebrated a friendaversary! 1 year! woot!
• sold my old canon rebel. Super glad to clear out and clean up.
• Also went through some boxes in the basement.
• Listed a few items for sale on Poshmark.
• Voted!

November Goals
– work on a photobook with Album Epoca
– get Christmas gifts finished and shipped
– go more in depth with my Album Epoca book -- using page numbers and an index, possibly include a map or vector images.

IWSG Question –– Albert Camus once said, “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” Flannery O’Conner said, “I write to discover what I know.” Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?

I write to share my experiences, encourage, and influence others.

Or at least that's what I used to do.

Recently my focus has been my goals and staying positive. It's been a struggle this year. I'm trying not to be too hard myself.

Your Turn

For us Americans, Thanksgiving is coming up. It is mind-boggling to me that 1) the year is almost over and 2) the holidays will be so different than previous years due to coronavirus. How did so much of the year pass so quickly? And yet, how did so much of the year pass so slowly?

My husband and I are already working on plans for 2021 and the question is: should we? How much longer will corona slow everyone down?

IWSG posts: #1 #2. #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10

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IWSG 2020 #10

 


September Goals
✗ Find a place to live.

Additional Successes
• Editing 8 years of images for a book. 
• ALL of the baking! Two types of chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, 2 types of scones
• Started Christmas shopping!
• Made a gif from old images.
• Tried Uber Eats for a fun dinner at home.
• Learned to make margaritas with top-shelf tequila. YUM!
• Tried new shampoo/conditioner/scalp lotion and face moisturizer. Pretty happy with some of my discoveries.
• Tea.
• My bro and SIL are pregnant with their third!
• Made some sales on Poshmark!

October Goals
– Print my book.
– Clean including washing sheets, cleaning the bathroom.
– Finish planning Christmas presents.

IWSG Question –– When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like?

That looks like someone that is paid to write a book, articles, or other types of writing. Maybe that individual wrote their piece and then was paid for their writing or maybe they were asked to write something and were paid for writing that piece.

In that sense, I am not a working writer. Recently I've barely been able to keep up with my blog, even with working from home during the pandemic. My focus has been moreso on editing images, finding new ways to make money, and cleaning my home. 

I'm not sure if I want to be a working writer. If that means being paid for writing something I've already written or plan to write, I'm ok with that. I'm worried about being asked to stick to a particular time frame or being asked to have a certain opinion or write about a topic that doesn't interest me. Given that I already have a job, I don't really have an interest in putting more time in to something that doesn't interest me or overcommitting myself.

Your Turn

Fall is certain to throw a loop for all of us with covid-19 still an issue. Halloween is the first major community-based holiday many of us will not be participating in this year. Will you be planning holiday celebrations differently this year? Because covid-19 has been around so long at this point, will it show up in your writing?

IWSG posts: #1 #2. #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9

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IWSG 2020 #9


August Goals
✓ Tea and relax. I'm going back to work, so I need to do some self-care.
✓ Continue making returns.
✓ Finish the master bedroom curtains
– Wash all of the bedding and towels before returning to work.
– Thoroughly dust.
✓ Condition the leather couch.

Additional Successes
• Sold more items on ebay and Poshmark! $30!
• hung artwork
• got rid of a box of "junk"
• got a few stains out of items (couch, clothes)
• painted our leather couch where the color had faded and was getting scratched up
• Went back to work

September Goals
– Find a place to live.

IWSG Question –– If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be, and why?

I'd really love to meet Anthony Doerr and talk to him about All the Light We Cannot See. I love the way he writes. According to Publisher's Weekly, along with writing Doerr is a teacher.

Doerr says his students always want to write about “big things like love or getting lost or heartbreak, and they miss the simple message of staying in the physical level all the time.” That level is evoked through detail, and, according to Doerr, it’s what lets an author “present an argument: that’s the essence of rhetoric, and that’s what we’re doing—we’re arguing readers into believing the fiction we’re making.”


I love Doerr's use of words/language and the style he writes in moves the story along with the use of short chapters. I'd love to spend time with him reviewing my writing, helping me use language in a more visual way.

Your Turn

If you are a writer, are you more interested in meeting your favorite author or would you prefer to meet the one you most admire? Is there a difference for you?

Just this month I found out I would potentially be moving. Have you had any surprising changes happen during covid that have thrown you off of your 'game'?


IWSG posts: #1 #2. #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8

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IWSG 2020 #4



March Goals
✓ Work on weight loss/count calories.
✗ Book flight EDI –> CDG
✗ Get tickets for the ballet in Paris
✗ Perhaps start a new photo post per month: my month in review via photos.
✗ Work on April spring break plans.

Additional Successes
• Walked to a bodega from my hotel in NYC by myself!
• emptied 3 boxes of books and put them on a bookshelf
• Went through clothes and listed approx 50 new items on Poshmark
• ordered mats and frames for paintings we bought while traveling
• thoroughly cleaned baseboards and behind bedside tables in the bedroom
* caught up with a friend I last spoke with in December
• spent a good bit of time outside

April Goals
– Continue to watch covid-19 updates and determine if travel plans in July need to be canceled or moved
– Measure images and buy the correct size mats and frames for the rest of my artwork
– Continue cleaning the spare bedroom and going through clothing.
– hang pictures we already have framed

IWSG Question –– The IWSG’s focus is on our writers. Each month, from all over the globe, we are a united group sharing our insecurities, our troubles, and our pain. So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the covid-19 pandemic, our optional question this month is: how are things in your world?

Unsurprisingly, covid-19 has brought a mixture of feelings to my world. I'm fearful of my parents getting sick, specifically my dad who already faces medical issues. And then I had a friend who I got into a major ultimatum fight with that has broken me. I'm worried about my job and whether or not I will have one at the end of all of this.

But there has been good too. – I had the incentive to put up 3 boxes of books that had been sitting for years. I'm working on framing and mating pictures I've collected over the past 8 years of travel. I'm cleaning intensely. I'm organizing. Wine with lunch every day isn't the worst.The lack of paper products on the market has us reaching for kitchen towels or cloth napkins instead of paper napkins or towels. And while I haven't actually booked anything, lower-priced flights aren't the worst (aside from my inability to go anywhere).

I did manage to get caught up with life and forget to write today's post though! So there's that.

Your Turn

How are things going in your world? Are you experience sadness, fear, and worry given the world's current situation? Or have you been able to make positive changes to your life?

IWSG posts: #1 #2. #3

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