Mid-December DID/SAW/HEAR/DRAW

ornament making and fiction reading

Dec 19, 2024

Well, hello there!

Somehow… we’ve made it to December. It’s been fun living up the December vibes with hot chocolate, ear muffs, and Christmas shopping! But in between, let’s chat about what I’ve been doing/seeing/hearing/drawing.

DID:

I decorated our Christmas tree!

This is the first year that I’ve had full creative reign on our Christmas tree. In our last apartment, it was simply too small for a full-sized Christmas tree. So I got to work folding a bunch of paper cranes, making mushroom ornaments out of egg cartons, and DIY-ing a star topper with left over origami paper.

My tree is quirky and colorful and feels a little Dr. Seuss-esque, and I absolutely love her!

SAW:

I saw LESS of my phone this month… thanks to my Black Friday purchase for myself, my cute kindle! <3 It’s small enough to fit in my purse and I’m hoping to do less needless scrolling in 2025, and more reading!

I’ve found myself wondering… do I care about the things I care about because I get fed things on social media over and over until I start to care about them? Especially when it comes to celebrities, pop culture, politics, and beauty trends… would I actually care as much if I wasn’t bombarded with it each time I pick up my phone? Why do I bring my phone with me into the bathroom, and then out of the bathroom and into the living room, and then propped up on the counter next to me to listen to something while I cook… it’s endless. And why? Why do I do that? Why do so many people do that?

I’ve decided that I want to read more fiction in 2025. Ironically, fiction has a way of telling the truth so that it sticks with you longer than a 300-page self-help book that could have been a tweet. I’ve been reading mostly non-fiction and memoirs this year, but I want to change that. When I was teaching high school English and students would do their obligatory groan when I introduced our next work of literature, I would explain to them that fiction allows us into someone else’s world, it gives us opportunities to feel real empathy and learn new ways of seeing life. And I find that to be true, again and again!

I read an amazing book last week, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. It was an intricate story with complicated characters and an interesting omniscient narrator. I heard there was a Hulu miniseries created from it but I am too afraid to watch it because I loved the book so much. It sparked in me a little fire for fiction again, and I’m excited to continue that in 2025.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng — Kards Unlimited

HEAR:

I came across Beautiful Chorus last year, and I feel like it’s a perfect pick-me-up mantra song. This one, Trusting Myself, has been on repeat as of late… trying to remember that as I prepare to make some big life decisions!