The Importance of Making Time for Yourself.

Bonjour honey =).

Last Monday (As in, "the day before yesterday"...), I decided in favour of creating a schedule for fitting my hobbies into my day, and thus far I really did it AND enjoyed it. I must say, there is more to this kind of "system" than meets the eye at first, because I also am tracking my progress & whatever I learned along the way. I watch tutorials / lessons in certain areas of interest in order to really learn something along the way... I track the video name & the one who's responsible for uploading & creating said videos.

Then, I take notes of whatever I am told... It is a bit like at school and/or university; I am responsible for whatever I learn or don't... Thus far, I took virtual lessons in Finnish, drawing, Japanese & journalism. Plus, I wrote a poem, which I will share in a minute, and interpreted a tarot card for my friends & followers on IG. I am doing my best to really fit everything in, and I am allowed to change things around as I go, too.

What I learned today is that there are really so many fields you actually should rely on your knowledge & whatever it is you actually can do, rather than what you have been told & taught at uni (That maybe didn't really seem interesting at all...). And I feel there is so much truth to this, though I feel there are still jobs out there you need a degree for (Doctors of all kinds...) - however, some fields I feel it is not necessary to really "study". There are of course benefits, but the education system is partly really screwed... And so, I feel there is some truth to "Fake it until you make it." :) Just start seeing the spark in yourself, going "I am an artist / a writer / a musician / etc.!", and take it to the next level.

As for the poem I wrote... There was a really nice (AND CUTE!) encounter I recently had with a ladybug. :) The little one didn't want to leave my arm / hands, not even when I tried putting them onto a leaf and other really nice green places around me. I even looked up what kind of ladybug it was, and ended up writing a poem when I was home again. Here it goes (I haven't written poems for so long now, though. I hope you like it.):

Ladybug

The ladybug is smooth, not smug,

She flies from you to me.

"Greetings friend! I'll bring you luck,

Just believe and see!"

Once she leaves your hands alone,

You wonder where she's flying,

Heading off to what you've shown,

Sitting on leaves, sighing:

"I'll bring this person luck and wonders,

Just if they treat me right.

Maybe joy, or health," she ponders.

"And love - all day and night."

As for the drawings, what I practiced mostly was where shadows are located & how to sketch the right way (Many little lines except for one rough line on its own.), which helped immensely, too. I mainly drew round objects and how the shadow was building below / on them. And I tried drawing a tree & a glass that was standing near me on the table. Hm. Keep going, will you! ;)

Other than that, I have nothing to say. Today's goals I already completed. Tomorrow will be an astrology day & a crafting / sewing, etc.-kind of day, and the day after, I want to focus on numerology & music making.

Have you ever done something like this? Did it help you? (As for me, it is an act of self-care & stabilising my mood.) Do you have any pieces of advice for me?

Have a lovely day & See you soon!

~R i n a.

I am doing my best.

Hello dears.

The Moon has risen again - "or something". :P How are you all? I hope everybody's fine. :)

I have ditched keeping my bullet journal so often, only to return & stroke its back until it wouldn't gnarl at me anymore. (I sometimes imagine items are angry at me for me not using them for quite some time.) I decorated the front page of July 2018 (Which ironically is directly following the front page for APRIL 2018!!!) with a "Mind The Gap" image. So much for this.

Now, I noticed I am much more productive if I do keep a bullet journal. It is not as detailed as other people's - In fact one could say some pages are really messy! - but I still get things done & that is the main thing. I know my mind can be all over the place so often, distraction is everywhere... But this little buddy helps. :) And, I have to add: I *hate* to-do-lists. Really! But this is a more flexible system I am using.

I can show you the world the bullet journal, in case you are interested. For next week, I already plan on doing some kind of exercise from my favourite book then (Which is "Living Out Loud" by Keri Smith.), and continuing working my way through a book on time management for creative & chaotic people. I do belong in this category, and I must say, thus far it is a very good read!

I noticed today I spent about two hours writing something (and it is not nearly finished!), but this is for some kind of work I am doing, so yay for me. :) I actually like writing *that*, though. It is not necessarily considered "creative writing", even though my way of explaining things could probably count as that :P, but... It still means a lot to me.

Other than that, this makes me think of NaNoWriMo. Which I really, really want to do this year. I just need some kind of plot. Maybe I should read more~... Either way, even if it is not the best idea that I will come up with, it is still worth putting time and effort into that. You know, NaNoWriMo happening like two or three years ago was actually at first quite successful for me. Especially since I also felt inspired to do other creative things. I loved this effect it had on me 💓!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day. And if you really want to... You may have a look at the planning system. *ahem* Or I could simply explain it to you (That would probably do.).

Post No. 100, or: The tulle tutu, too?

Hey there, lovelies!

So, FINALLY, I finished the project of a (mostly) no-sew tutu, but I have come to the conclusion I'd do some things differently next time, which is still good because it also is a learning experience :).

Here are some pieces of well-meant advice from my side...

Number 1) Don't shop for sewing essentials at shops which offer "cheap prices"... At least for me it was horrible to thread a needle I bought from there with yarn I bought there; I ended up breaking the only thing that really helped me thread the needle... And a pair of scissors, too, which I bought there. Yes, I did laugh a lot about this, but still... Please buy your essentials from shops selling better quality yarn, needles, etc., you name it. I will definitely do this next time, and I am quite sad because still I wasted that money on the sewing essentials in that other shop... Ah well.

Number 2) If you are planning on making a tulle tutu, too, then be prepared for the elastic band to twist... A lot. Which also makes it less elastic, and extends it to a length that is way too long at times. (I was planning on wearing it around my waist, but now it is even longer than my hips' circumference, so... I wasn't prepared for this.) Next time, I will try a shorter length for the elastic band or sew it together in two different parts after attaching all the knots of fabric.

Number 3) Buy more tulle for the next attempt. I bought eight meters worth of tulle, and it happened to work well, but now I don't have that much left over. I have several ideas what I could do with that, though, so don't worry :P.

Some other things I learned were: Sewing, despite all the mishappenings, is so much fun. I used a backstitch (mostly) for sewing together the ends of the elastic band, in case anybody wondered. I am kind of proud I mostly did all this myself, even though I did get some help from my mum with the ending knot of the yarn thread (She twisted the thread around the needle three times and then pulled this to the actual thread below the needle.). I also was kind of scared that the fact my perfectionism was pretty much not there at all would mess with the project itself. But contrary to this, perfectionism would have made it look really odd I feel. Of course, I am not telling you to let go of all imagination of how it should turn out in the end, but please don't pressure yourself. I surely wasn't, and that was a good starting point for me! :)

I cannot wait for another sewing project. I thought I could make something like the following with the remaining tulle:

• A black veil... All the tulle I have is black, and the goth in me already goes "Yippeee!" just imagining this, so... ;)
• Something like arm / leg warmers. I wouldn't need that much extra for this project, but still... We'll see!
• An eye patch. Even if the tulle were just for decorating the actual eye patch, I would still love it.
• I could sew some pieces of the tulle onto other items of clothing that I own to make them look more interesting. Maybe formed like letters?

Who knows...

Anyways, when I asked my sister to take some photos of me wearing the tulle tutu, one of our cats decided to interrupt it and looked at me all the time like, "I want to jump up to you, but... but... I can't ;_;!!", which made me remove the tutu as quickly as I could, and many photos were photobombed by him, too :D (I don't mind, though. I love this little guy, he can photobomb whatever he wants!!)...

So here's a photo of me doing some weird posing and if you find a hint concerning my cat, please tell me. (I know he is in the photo, but maybe not everyone will spot him :P!!)

Editorial posing at the PROFESSIONAL photo shoot.

And, yes, this REALLY is the 100th post. I cannot believe it either. I am so happy I want to hug the entire world now... Hope you are having a great day today, too.

Return of the FAULENZER.

It seems even to me that I am always just popping in to say what has happened and to apologise for the previous period of absence here, so I will leave it to this. It is not like I have done NOTHING in the mean time, though...

I did start writing letters again. It is slowly, but surely getting better. I found two new penpals very recently, one lovely lady from Malaysia, and another one from the US. Will not go into the details concerning these people, but it makes me happy to, for example, draw / paint for these people... To share what is important to us with each other... To learn about them, and their home as well... Ah well. I am planning on sending more letters soon, but I cannot promise them all going out in NO TIME, as I do want to put some effort into writing them and preparing stuff for people. But... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. ;)

I recently learned about the death of a loved one, and decided to write a song for them... It is still not very easy to deal with all this; the wounds are still quite fresh so-to-say.

And then, I started working on a tulle tutu this week. I cannot promise to really finish it this week, because there is still a lot of stuff waiting to be done OTHER than the skirt, but I do hope I will be able to make it still. I also bought some new sewing needles and yarn yesterday. And something to repair broken jeans' fabrics with. As in, you know when you walk sometimes there will be parts of the jeans thinning and such... THAT'S what I mean. I want to repair some jeans this way...

Recently, I have been in sewing / DIY mood a lot. But I didn't really get around to making much. I did watch some DIY tutorials on Youtube, though... So yeah. That tulle tutu is really easy to make, though (I GUESS XD!)... It is mostly a no-sew project, and actually quite popular. You will decide how much elastic band you will need for the project (Do you want your tutu to fit around your waist? Or around your hips?), cut that off (but with a sewing allowance!! I added about 1 centimeter for this project, so... I hope this will suffice!) after trying out whether you can still step in and out of it, then sew these ends together.

Next, you cut the tulle fabric in the colour(s) you want the tutu to feature into (I would say) about 20 centimeters worth of width. The length should be, however, roughly twice the length from the elastic band's final position (Once again: Hips or waist, you will decide!) to the final end of the tutu's length (This could be any length, really. I want mine to be rather short, but have no idea just yet how short in particular this will be :P!). You cut out as many pieces like this as you will need. Then you fold the pieces (or two or three together?) so that the ends meet each other, and tie these to the elastic band (You create a loop at the end opposite of the meeting point of the ends *gestures wildly*, then hold this loop next to the elastic band, and pull the other end through the loop over the elastic... ^_^).

So, that is the plan right now... I have cut off the elastic band as I said already, and I bought yarn & needles. Now on to sewing the ends together. I will have 0.5 centimeters sewing allowance at both ends (Which may be a bit too small / thin, but I will try nevertheless.). This is my first "real" sewing project, and to be frank, I am a bit scared it might go wrong. I know some tricks now as to threading a needle & tying a knot for the end of the thread, too, though, so that's great.

Let's hope for the best, shall we? And with this more-or-less understandable, written tutorial, I am leaving you today. I hope you all are in a good mood. ^o^