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This week fromaparrottsnest, my distancing from the internet and social media have continued. Although I’ve been experiencing some tough at times symptoms of social media withdrawal, on the whole I’ve been feeling much better – less ramped up and like I need to go to the bar and have a drink. I feel less anxious and more calm inside, and my abilities to concentrate and allow myself to think more deeply and pay more meaningful attention to things have returned. As a result, some sweet things have come in for Paul and I to enjoy, and we’ve been having a good time enjoying our time. I think that’s the sweetest thing of all.
Some good connections and opportunities have come in too – for me so far. Crossing my fingers that more meaningful opportunities for Paul will be coming in sooner rather than later. Anyway – in an effort to find a space to write a weekly newsletter to y’all with a mailing list component built in, I found Substack. It’s a wonderful hybrid blog, newsletter, mailing list platform for writers of any kind or skill level. They do have a few necessary whiz-bang networking type features on their platform, but generally it’s a calm feeling place with lots of great writers and lots of meaningful free and paid niche and mainstream articles, podcasts, videos and other content. I was only going to have a weekly newsletter here, but I like and am beginning to believe in the platform so much that I’m going to start writing other things. My focus will be “How to cultivate a meaningful pleasant feeling life when you live under less than ideal circumstances” like we all are doing right now in some way, shape or form.
I’ve also had what it takes to finish up and post some lingering unfinished products over on my Zazzle shop. Since finding what is trending has never been a strong suit of mine, I’ve started using Chat GPT over there to generate content ideas and get answers to other questions like “Who would want this product?” and “What would this product be used for?” I hope to find out sooner rather than later whether or not it’s been a help. I’ve been designing on that platform for 10 years, and feel like I’ve only began to get my footing with things in the last two years. For the most part, my time on Zazzle has felt like a huge struggle filled with lots of confusion, uncertainty, heartbreak, frustration and disappointment. But since I found some very small but appreciative niches who appreciate my art style, things have been going better. Yay me! 🙂
Cute Black Cats Purr-fectly Sweet Halloween Holiday CardShop Now!Cute Black Cats Purr-fectly Sweet Halloween Holiday PostcardShop Now!
Two of the cards I recently made are pictured above. They’re for Halloween and are designed for kids and adults who love black kitty cats and appreciate the sweet magical kind of Halloween as opposed to the scary kind. I’m particularly proud of these cards because they’re just so sweet. I think the black kittens with the green stripes and candy corn were a great idea. Thank you Chat GPT! My heart kinda melted when I was done making these. I hope they make the hearts of others melt too. BTW, the greeting card is also personalized for extra sweetness and “Aw…” I also have a small collection of Halloween cards you can check out by visiting Zazzle here – no pressure, just pinches, as Howie The Crab’s Mom often says.
Speaking of Howie’s Mom, I’ll leave you this week with a quote I saw in some comments when I did my weekly tiny peek on Instagram to check on the progress of Howie’s upcoming molt – “salad for your health and treats for your soul.” I like it! Hope you like it too! 🙂
Thanks so much for the read. Enjoy a sweet week!
Juliet