Can I read it word for word? Fuck no!

I have done it! I am giddy with triumph!

It wasn't that hard, and the instructions weren't any more confusing than the instructions on cheap furniture assembly always are; but for whatever weird brain reason, I could not get through the "ID all the parts" phase when I first tried this however many years ago, and it's only since getting back on my feet post-foot-surgery that I've felt able to tackle it again. Failure to do it marked the beginning of a long nosedive in my ability to Cope, so this is a milestone.

This evening, or tomorrow, D and I can have a conversation/strategy session about what to do with the vinyl, which DVDs need to be arranged in some way other than alphabetical by title (we have box sets, series, movies, non-fiction, related properties, etc.) and then I can buckle down and make a huge improvement, not only in this room, but in other rooms where random DVDs have accumulated for no good reason.

Well, tbh I wasn't really sure if I was going to make this post. I bounced the idea back and forth a fair bit, but after some awesome advice from a friend I decided to make it happen.

Some of you may not know this, but I only started doing digital art back in the summer of last year ('18). I've been drawing since I was able to hold a crayon and have always had a huge passion for art in general. Sadly though, I just ended up having less and less time for my art over the last 7 years. I got out of practice, and things that used to come easy to me didn't anymore. I started to get frustrated with how much I'd let my artistic abilities slide, and so I just didn't want to deal with it.

Then last year we had a very serious health scare for my youngest elfling, and I really needed a way to centre myself and help get my mind off of everything going on that was out of my control.

So I picked up a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet and pushed myself to start drawing again. It was rough to begin with and I kept it simple, but I wanted so badly to be able to create amazing art like I saw here on Tumblr. So I started to push myself. I went out of my comfort zone, and practiced every chance I had. Slowly what I'd lost started to come back and then I pushed myself to get better than I had been.

I can look back now and see the progress I have made, but damn if it wasn't rocky there for a while. I keep giving myself new art goals now, and I honestly couldn't be happier to be doing what I love again, even if it's only in my spare time.

Practice makes perfect, but loving what you do gives you the drive and passion to keep going even when you're so frustrated you want to scream and give up. I hope my story inspires anyone who's trying something new and is struggling. Don't give up. You can do it.

I have finally managed to make a strawberry jam that not only tasted awesome but set.

I'd like to thank my cat for all his support and me for kindly eating all the jam that didn't quite make the grade. It was a tough job but someone had to do it.

(I did think about putting this post on instajam )