My #NewYearsResolutions:
1. Continue with #UseYourStickers - I got a sticker box in 2023 to store them in and will keep putting them on things. I'm also going to find a new favourite bubble bath!
2. Fix my pro author website so it can actually be navigated, and post at least one blog post to it.
3. Do #ImprovPit's level one workshop series, with an eye to one of my 2025 NYRs being a second crack at #RAWComedy.
As well as #UseYourStickers, I'm making a bigger resolution this new year: I'm going to take one last crack at driving. Third time being the charm and all that.
For backstory, my earliest memory is of being in a car accident with my mum.
The first time I drove, I was trying to reverse out of our driveway and almost backed over a cop; I made it around the block with jangled nerves and Mum asking me very politely to not go over the edge of the cliff (it was a HILL we would have been FINE). When we came face to face with another car on the very narrow dirt road, the other driver pulled over and lit up a ciggy when he saw the L plate.
The second time I drove, I got to go forward out of the drive at least, but not yet being familiar with how far to turn the wheel, I overcorrected and did not hit the parked car on the opposite side of the road that I was avoiding, but instead ran into a phone pole to the tune of thousands of bucks damage to the front passenger headlight.
I'm terrified of hurting people around me and people in the car with me and I need to find a teacher driver who has one of those dual operational cars so that if I panic and go foetal they can take over.
Other phrases and quotes that have come to mean more to me in 2023:
'Slow and steady wins the race' - Aesop, 'The Tortoise and the Hare'
'Take the break before the break takes you' - Broms the Poet, in Feast
'Slow down to speed up' - haven't been able to track the exact source of this one, but I know it from Elizabeth Levy's Gymnasts series! #UseYourStickers
The other reason I'm tooting this is because it's started to apply to slightly more permanent things. Instead of putting pens in a plain pen cup, I'm using a lovely Labyrinth mug that was a gift from a dear friend, so it's not just shut away in a cupboard. (My attempt at making a mug display rack did not result in anything usable, sadly; it's on the long list to try again.)
My mental health has always been tricky business, with multiple overlapping diagnoses, a bit of DSM Bingo if you will. And I used to turn my nose up a bit at mindfulness, because I didn't want to slow down, I just wanted to smash my way through negative self-talk, trauma flashbacks, and intrusive thoughts and get on with life.
But during 2023 I've come to appreciate that getting on with life includes stopping to smell the roses (or the strawberry buttercream leftovers chilling in the fridge to be applied to something else yummy I haven't booked up yet). Why it's taken me until age 40 to have that really begin to sink in, I don't know, but I'm so grateful that it has. #UseYourStickers
I'm very lucky to be able to enjoy these little treats, because of course the cost of living is pretty wild these days, and so I relish every soft sweet mochi bite, every minute I get to spend in a nice soaky bubble bath (free time also being a scarce commodity), and every time I master a new recipe.
Taking risks with new-to-me ingredients and having that first bite turn out delicious is something I've particularly treasured just this last week, when called on to make strawberry cupcakes for a friend's birthday. A new cake recipe that used sunflower oil, plain flour, and bi-carb soda instead of the self-raising flour that's my baking staple, paired with a new buttercream recipe that brought in freeze-dried strawberry powder as an ingredient I hadn't tried before. The cakes were light and the buttercream was rich and we all took our time eating them. #UseYourStickers
As 2023 draws to a close I'm thinking about #UseYourStickers again, because why would I come up with a new New Year's Resolution when this one works so well?
I've adorned two new desktop monitor stands (bamboo, with drawers) with some stickers across the front, enjoyed black sesame frozen mochi from the little stash in the freezer without worrying about them running low (acquiring more is a complicated process involving a two-hour round trip into the city, a chilly bag with ice blocks in it, and hoping the mochi don't get smooshed on the way home), and used my Lush bath bombs/bubble bars despite acquiring more being a similar quest (online ordering is a no-go because I need to sniff them myself and also I've never met a Lush staff member I didn't like).
#UseYourStickers today's 'sticker' was a sea salt and driftwood candle that I burned to enjoy the smell while I learned some of the backend of BackerKit.
As a perennial hoarder of stuff, this post by @laurenthemself hits me hard. I have stickers still on the sheet, pristine notebooks, and unread books, some for more than a decade already, that I'm saving for... I don't know what. It's time to use and enjoy them. #UseYourStickers https://aus.social/@laurenthemself/109602295919388081
@laurenthemself I just used exactly this metaphor when telling my spouse why we should watch the last episode of #WitcherBloodOrigin even though, having watched it, it will be over (we watched it; it was really good) #UseYourStickers
#UseYourStickers and your temporary tattoos :blobheart:
@laurenthemself OMG, I can relate sooo much. Iām collecting stickers (and never use them) since 2006-ish. I finally pulled the trigger this July and used my stickers on my laptop. Felt so liberating. #UseYourStickers
@laurenthemself I think I've found my word for 2023 #UseYourStickers š
The hoard has become quite unmanageable.
I can totally get behind the #UseYourStickers hashtag.
My only #NewYearResolution will be 'use your stickers', as it has been every year for a long time.
It's not just sticker-specific, but a reminder that leaving the sticker on the sheet does nothing. Choosing something to stick it on means it will bring you joy. Might that joy be impermanent? Yes, but everything has the potential to be impermanent, and what joy is there in leaving the sticker on the sheet?
Burn that nice candle you bought for the smell. Use that bath bomb. Enjoy that snack treat. #UseYourStickers.
