hair

Snapshot #147 | 10 Things for 23 February 2020

Personal

Currently…

1. starting… to think about picking up the camera again. I’ve been decompressing for a month (exactly), and I’m starting to get twitchy.
2. going… a couple shades lighter blonde. It’s not the white-blonde I’ve been daydreaming about, and I’m not 100% sure I like it yet, but I’m giving it some time.
3. trying… a new waffle recipe. Good, but I do need to fine-tune it a bit.
4. psyching… myself out. I need to get my head back in the game.
5. shopping… for new pens.
6. troubleshooting… a new cookie recipe. All of the ingredients and proportions make sense, and everything seems right, but there’s something missing. (Nothing that kept me from eating the cookies, of course, but I’d like to make them better.)
7. daring… to hope that I might be able to start my running season before the end of March. (That’s always my goal; the weather has never cooperated.)
8. marvelling… at how terrible the combination of Chapters/Indigo and Canada Post continues to be.
9. getting… ready to redesign the site. Again. (Sort of.)
10. wondering… why my downstairs neighbours are blasting ‘Jingle Bells’ at full volume. In February.

Snapshot #145 | 10 Things for 26 January 2020

Personal

Currently…

1. having… the worst luck.
2. trying… to choose my next writing project. (I thought I’d decided, but another idea is demanding my attention. After I finish the current draft, of course.)
3. reading… too many books at once. I need to rein that in. Again.
4. chopping… off my hair. It’s very short. I love it. (Still waffling on changing the colour.)
5. making… new plans for the blog. (Always, I know.)
6. hanging… more art. The gallery wall is almost done.
7. feeling… relieved. I’m so glad to have the 366 project out of the way… and I’m brainstorming ideas for what comes next.
8. waiting… out the rain.
9. looking… for new boots. The ones I have are fine with jeans, not so great with tights.
10. watching… some really good movies.

Snapshot #144 | 10 Things for 12 January 2020

Personal

Currently…

1. setting… big goals for the year.
2. remembering… how much work shovelling snow is. Everything hurts.
3. realizing… that some of my plans for the year make it seem very much like I’m training for some sort of revenge mission, which just makes the whole thing more fun. (And will probably drive my wardrobe choices in 2020.)
4. finishing… the Christmas cookies.
5. getting… back to work. It’s been a really good week.
6. downloading… the 2020 edition of Christie Yant’s Tools for Writers spreadsheet. I loved it last year—seeing the calendar fill up is incredibly motivational.
7. trying… to decide what colour to dye my hair. I’m ready for a change. (I’ve narrowed it down to purple or teal—probably purple—but I’m tempted by platinum, too.)
8. editing… so many photos. So many. (Taking a bunch, too. Expect 366 updates to start this week.)
9. accepting… that I’ve got a bit of a cold. Maybe. I can’t tell anymore.
10. thinking… of ways to use up some of the notebooks I’ve been collecting.

Snapshot #143 | 10 Things for 29 December 2019

Personal

Currently…

1. trying… to think of ten distinct things I’ve done in the last two weeks, but it’s all blurring together.
2. getting… ready for the new year. I think it’s going to be good.
3. watching… the discussion unfold re: the RWA. (This is a good summary.) I’m not a member—I don’t write romance—but seriously, all writers should be paying attention.
4. debating… whether or not to cut my hair. It’s just reaching the length where I can do something with it, but… I’m bored. (Also: we’re on the eve of the ’20s. Short hair feels appropriate.)
5. making… too many cookies, as usual. Every year, I swear I’m going to scale back, and yet.
6. looking… forward to a normal day.
7. catching… up on the TV backlog.
8. feeling… tired.
9. starting… to get excited about photography again. (Still catching up on my 366 backlog, but it’ll be done by the deadline. Promise.)
10. wondering… what to read next. It’s not like I don’t have a huge stack of books to choose from, but nothing it jumping out at me right now.

Snapshot #141 | 10 Things for 1 December 2019

Personal

Currently…

1. falling… behind on just about everything that isn’t directly related to The Black Sun, including my photography, this blog, and reading other blogs. I’ll catch up soon.
2. assembling… the gallery wall I’ve been planning since I moved into the apartment. (Five years ago?) It looks fantastic.
3. dying… my hair purple, completely by accident. It wasn’t too bad—faded to pink in a day or so, and now it’s just a few very pale pink highlights, which I’ve been getting so many compliments on—but it’s renewed that urge to go properly pink again, so… yeah. Might be a problem.
4. breaking… out the big down coat. Already.
5. running… into a roadblock in the Big Scary Photo thing. It’s on hold for at least another month or two, and I’m so annoyed.
6. trying… to figure out what to bake for Christmas. I’m running out of time.
7. hoping… I can make my phone last just a few more weeks. This is a terrible time to need to shop for a replacement, but I can’t put it off much longer.
8. thinking… about my goals and plans for 2020. I’m really looking forward to the new year.
9. wondering… if all the typing and sewing (I’ve been sewing!) I’ve been doing lately might’ve messed up something in my wrist.
10. taking… a big step in the right direction.

Snapshot #128 | 10 Things for 2 June 2019

Personal

Currently…

1. getting… back to work.
2. talking… myself out of dying my hair pink. Or teal. Or any colour other than blonde. I miss real colour desperately but I know I can’t be bothered to maintain it.
3. planning… the next draft of Violet Lane. I’m ready to start writing on Monday.
4. experimenting… with the whole bullet journal thing again. Turns out the setup I was using didn’t work as well as I thought.
5. trying… Beyond Meat burgers. I was pleasantly surprised—not the best burger I’ve ever had, but perfectly good for something store-bought, and far better than any other veggie burger I’ve had. I’ll have them again. (That said, I do want to finally try making my own veggie burgers this summer.)
6. catching… up on my podcast backlog! Completely! As of right now, there is no backlog. Which means I’m tempted to go looking for something new, to start the cycle all over again.
7. making… plans for the site redesign. Now I just need to pick a day to tear everything down and rebuild.
8. meeting… the new ravens! Over the past few years, I’ve managed to become friendly acquaintances with the local pair; this year I got to see their fledglings! (Which, yes, meant I was standing in the middle of a public path talking to four ravens like they understand English. But four ravens! 😍)
9. starting… to build my DVD/Blu-Ray collection again. I got out of the habit, but as streaming services multiply, it makes more sense to me to buy anything I want to see more than once. Now I need to figure out how to store these things.
10. refining… my goals and updating my inspiration board.

Snapshot #103 | 10 Things for 17 June 2018

Personal

A day late with this (time got away from me this weekend), but here goes.

Currently…

1. working… on, like, six different projects, all of which I’m super excited about. (And, because creativity begets creativity, I might be toying with another idea. Or two.)
2. processing… my emotions about Anthony Bourdain’s death. I’m really surprised at how hard it hit me.
3. finishing… the four-week running program I’d been doing! Now I need to set a new goal.
4. going… with a lighter shade of blonde, at least for the summer. I kind of love it.
5. sorting… out logistical issues.
6. waking… up at three a.m. for some reason. And then staying awake until about half an hour before I have to get up. (It’s happened twice now, and I hate it.)
7. thinking… about baking something. Because now that it’s finally starting to feel like summer, why not look for more reasons to turn on the oven?
8. figuring… out how to fix the ending of The Black Sun. It’s kind of awesome.
9. trying… to get back on track. The last week was a bit of a disaster, as far as my schedule goes.
10. reading… for fun. Weird how easy it can be to let that slip, isn’t it?

Snapshot #96 | 10 Things for 11 March 2018

Personal

Currently…

1. taking… steps to eliminate some of my more annoying distractions. Or trying to, at least.
2. eating… all the Cadbury Creme Eggs.
3. cutting… my hair. Finally. I’ll probably regret it in a few weeks when I start running again and can’t pull it back, but for now, it’s fantastic.
4. thinking… about art and craft and process.
5. watching… Black Panther. So good. (And this time, I don’t have to wait two months to read all the analyses!)
6. feeling… simultaneously frustrated and motivated. It’s… actually not a bad place to be.
7. saving… every single resource linked in this article for future reference. (Writers: take a look! There’s a lot of potential usefulness here.)
8. cursing… Canada Post. Which I end up doing every single time I order something. (All of my parcels did eventually arrive. So that’s nice.)
9. enjoying… the 100 Days of Black & White project more than I thought I would. Mostly. (More on that subject later today.)
10. looking… at cupcake recipes. Still.

Snapshot #93 | 10 Things for 28 January 2018

Personal

Currently…

1. feeling… restless. There’s been a lot of daydreaming about tiny studio apartments and Airstream trailers lately.
2. wearing… the fingerless gloves I got for Christmas. I love them.
3. rethinking… pretty much all of my social media use.
4. discovering… that my hair is finally long enough for a decent messy bun, just at the moment when I’d decided it was time to chop it all off. Now I’m torn… I like the idea of being able to do something with my hair, but history shows that when it gets this long, I’ll just get annoyed and throw it into a ponytail.
5. learning… how to use my AeroPress. 🖤
6. preparing… a new regular feature for the blog. I think it’s going to launch on Wednesday.
7. trying… to rebuild my habit of watching at least one new-to-me movie a week.
8. waiting… for the specific bulletin board I want (have I mentioned that I’m really picky? Because I’m really picky) to come back in stock. I’m literally checking the website twice a day. It’s absurd.
9. getting… back into the routines I put on hold back in November.
10. debating… whether or not to rearrange all my books by colour. I need to do something with my bookshelves, but I don’t know what. (Exciting, right?)

Snapshot #84 | 10 Things for 27 August 2017

Personal

Currently…

1. feeling… productive. I’ve been reviewing my to-do list setup and schedule, and… I think it might be working for me? Maybe? The whole thing’s still a work in progress.
2. making… ice cream. It’s been a few weeks. (This week: Rocky Road House, from the Big Gay Ice Cream cookbook.)
3. researching… web hosts. It’s time to move. Unfortunately, it was a lot easier to navigate this stuff… 14? 15?… years ago when I last had to think about it. This also means that things are going to be a little bit weird around here in the next few weeks… and I’m probably looking at a full redesign, just because.
4. editing… photos. I’ll be ready to share them soon. (Though… probably not until the redesign is finished. Maybe keep an eye on my Instagram.)
5. missing… pink hair. I might have to go back sometime soon.
6. putting… together a list of everything I need to do to get ready for NaNoWriMo. It’s… a lot of stuff.
7. rethinking… my running program. The C25K plan I’ve been following didn’t quite click for me, so it’s time to try a different approach.
8. thinking… of new ideas, and expanding old ones.
9. trying… not to get overwhelmed by all the things I have to do over the next couple of weeks and months.
10. wishing… the neighbour cat didn’t have to move. She’s awesome, and I miss her already.