Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

Ugh, I've never had to postpone an art deadline before and it took me some deep breaths to inform the author I claimed in the QBMM, but my muse just didn't cooperate the past few days (weeks?) and this story really deserves my best effort. I'd rather bend (my own) rules than deliver artwork I'm not happy about. Fandom is supposed to be fun, dangit!

My brain is occupied with the whole LiveJournal exodus and also lots of real life planning. I'm considering doing a course in the autumn that requires a change in workhours, I have an evaluation coming up (I'm not too worried about that, but those always make you wonder about your abilities, right?) and I've taken a decision for a different kind of summervacation (which is more stressful than it should be;)

Definitely not all bad things, but all steps out of my comfort zone that mess with my creativity.

( okay, a little bit of work-out chatting;) )

Ehm, let's see, what else. Oh, right: finished two books last week (2!!!) so my bookpile is slinking slowly but surely. \o/

Now that I'm posting from Dreamwidth, I am working on backing up my LJ Scrapbook (that has over 6500 pictures in it!) and am giving priority to my artposts. I found an add-on for Firefox that sort of automatically downloads all the images per post ("DownThemAll"). Once that's done I'll make new folders at Photobucket, so I can adjust the image links when needed in the future. Brotherdearest heard about the issue and being an IT nerd, he immediately started writing a code to easily (re)name all the image files. (Will let you know if he comes up with something that can benefit other LJ movers:) Needless to say, I'm at least clinging to LJ until all my images are safely backed-up!

I'm trying to keep up with both my LJ-flist and my DW-circle, but have yet to find time and brainspace to respond to all posts. I'm not ignoring anyone, I welcome all old and new friends on any platform, but I may just be lurking for a bit until I get my brain and body back in order.

Last but not least: my LJ statistics!

Gosh, we've spend a lot of time here, huh? I saw some of you have even been around longer than I have! And yes, newbies, I saw you too;) *smishes you all*

J.

Wow, I noticed it's been exactly a month since I last posted, oops. (I have been busy on Twitter though, so if you're looking for me that's where you can find me every day;)
Here's a quick update on life before I spam y'all with artposts next week (I hope;).

I'm still doing 30 Days Work-Out Challenges, for June our LJ/Twitter group is doing the Summertime Sweat Work-Out (which we renamed #somertimesweat in honour of our fearless leader somersault_j *grins*) Today was Day 20/30. For July I'm hoping to find a crushing ABS thing with floor exercises, as I'd like a change from the standing and jumping;)

Work is still fun, I have an evaluation talk tomorrow, dundundunnnn. I had to fill in a form grading myself and we'll compare it with the manager's input... Hopefully I'll also get more clarity on the duration of the project. I already have a guaranteed job until December 31st (if I don't screw things up, obviously) but there has been talk of an extension for five years for the whole department. Fingers crossed!

Mom and I visited Gran on Friday (my dad's mother, the only grandparent I have left) - she is now aware of her dementia, although she thinks that applies to being forgetful, not her experience of getting visits from my dead grandfather (who according to her is sneaking out of heaven to see her, which God would not be happy about if he knew...) or imagining her sons living as young boys in her attic (which she doesn't have, as she assured me she knows: "I don't have an upstairs, but they are there."). I find this all pretty hard to respond to, bless my mom for knowing how to talk to her. My gran does appreciate our visits though.
Afterwards mom and I went to Ikea to decompress. We strolled for three hours (!!) and had a lovely meal of Swedish meatballs:). I was looking for a sidetable, but didn't find one I like. I did buy a very cool plate, two mugs and coasters:

( I just like eyeballs, okay )

:-)

Last but not least: in three weeks I'm gonna meet up with amberdreams in Amsterdam! We'll also have lunch with big_heart_june (who I also haven't met before!) and sillie82 (who reminded me in July it will be TEN years since we got together for our first CSI-marathon) - exciting!

Until then I have two three artprojects to finish: a second set for spn_meanttobe this weekend, a pinchhit for spn_j2_bigbang next week and then I want to do the Matchmaker Challenge for the quicky_bang. (Sign ups are from July 1st - 31st, here's a post with more information!!)

Speaking of quickies, I made a Sam&Castiel piece that could do with a bit of love: The Ice Age (it goes with an intense short story that I heartily recommend:)

J.

I got the job! It includes a two weeks training course which starts on March 14. I'm very excited:) Bonuspoints for being located in my town, so it's cycling distance, wootwoot.

More good news: tanisafan came over for an awesome midweek sleep over marathon of Please Like Me; we managed to watch all three seasons (26 episodes) and caught up on life and books and fangirling:)

Also: this morning I finished the Day 17 session of the 30 Days Shred Challenge and I even managed to do a couple of the advanced level squat thrusts and planking jacks. \o/

It's been an adventurous weekend so far. After the waterballet in the kitchen on Friday, yesterday my new washingmachine was going to be delivered between 13:00 and 18:00 (1 and 6 pm) or so I was promised. I would also get a phonecall thirty minutes ahead of delivery. When I still hadn't heard or seen anyone at the end of the afternoon, I called the shop. They said the delivery truck was running a little late because it had been so busy after their big sale last week.
I would think that you can't book more than a maximum amount of deliveries in a day, but okay... Anyway, I waited for two hours, but after I didn't get a response to a tweet for help, I decided to call again at 7. I was told the truck would keep going until everything was delivered.

Finally, at NINE pm, the guys showed up with my new washingmachine. Good thing they were cute and apologetic and rather adorably inexperienced (I had to lend them my tools and they kept asking each other wich way to turn the screws, boooooooooooys!). With a little bit of my help they managed to get the machine working. All on their own they had lifted the beast up all my stairs (I live on the third floor with no elevator) and brought the old machine down to the truck as well (that one was heavy: approximately 90 kgs) so at least I was in awe of that *g* Oh and one of them wore a beanie indoors, aaaahw.

Here are some pictures of before and after in my kitchen (especially for bflyw who wanted a better look;) sorry, no photos of the delivery guys.

( New washingmachine! )

BAKING CROISSANTS!
Today I created my own fun: on my bakingcalender I got from Sinterklaas I found a recipe that didn't scare me!
( I baked croissants with knakworst and cheese: )

( WORK-OUT! )

Last but not least: this morning I did a try-out for my next 30 days challenge. I liked the tone and tempo of the instructor, so I decided to go for Level 1 of the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels. It's a 25 minute full body work out available on the Be Fit YouTube channel here. There is a DVD version that has 3 levels and I think you're supposed to move up a level after 10 days. Level 2 is also up on YT: here.
I downloaded both of these videos with VideoGrabby:) so I don't have to be online to do them.
For now I'm focusing on the first level, if that's doable I may move on after day 15. I'm also allowing myself restdays if needed (because that turned out to work as a great motivator for that 30 days ABS challenge I did;). I'll probably go with Wednesdays because that's when I cycle to my moms (that's about twenty minutes including a steep bridge;). On those days I'll do the Lowerbody floorwork on my Gilad DVD instead.
The biggest challenge for the Shred will be the Jumping Jacks, because I really REALLY hate those. I'm going to preemptively reward myself for trying by buying a sportsbra :-p

J.

Blah, still needed to go outside on Saturday, because I had totally forgotten to pick up my bike from the repairshop on Friday afternoon. I also completely forgot to have dinner, I blame it all on hormones and the internet. (Not like that, you perv.) Fortunately today was a full pajama day, haha! This will be my final post of the weekend, it's been a while since I've had time to spam y'all like this, it felt nice to be involved with LiveJournal again. Just in case you missed something, here's the complete list of stuff I posted:

picspam of my town

marvelous J3 art by badbastion (sexy snuggling, nsfw)

presentation of my own artwork: paperportrait of Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier)

a birthday party with J3 for tmn1966

Poll to pick your favorite Nick/Greg Banner for CSI:S15

I was rather worried to post that Winter Soldier artwork; not only to have made art outside of the SPN fandom (and knowing not a lot of people on my flist would be interested) but also outside of a challenge or collaboration (the solo-est of all solo-projects;) Still: it was a fun project and the receiver was happy, so I'm happy with the result. Not sure if I'm up for another commission though, that was scary.

Next up: another solo project. Although that will feature an SPN favorite, so hopefully more flisters will want to see that *g*

( Babbling about Yoga and books )

Now it's time for TV. There are two shows I'm currently watching: The Great British Bake Off on BBC every Wednesday and the Dutch version Heel Holland Bakt on Sunday evening. I could watch bakers every day. *chinhands*

Fair warning: I may spam you with posts today. The second week of my summervacation has begun and in order to fight the depression that's looming from feeling rather useless, I've decided to not linger on thoughts but to get them out as they pop up;)

This morning I slept in for the first time during this vacation. I did get up around 8.45 to watch the news, but I was still snoozing on the couch, so after catching up with the world, I crawled back into my cozy, warm bed and relaxed for another hour and a half, go me!

When I got up for real I figured to not only acknowledge that I am currently not happy with my body but to also take action. I'm tired of not being able to bend properly and I'm tired of being sad when I have to deal with clothes. So I took a deep breath and got out my old workout video from Gilad Janklowicz and did the whole 30 minutes of floorwork. I wasn't able to do all the exercises fully and had to do normal time when Gilad did double time, but I did finish the whole workout, so yay! I plan to keep it up every day and encourage you to ask me about it, as a reminder:)

Today I want to make a start on the cleaning out of the spare-room, but before I can do that I need to go back to the store to change the storage boxes I bought; the size is right, but the lids have the wrong colour, which has been bugging me all weekend. Ugh, the stupid little things I let get to me. *frowny face*