[Image description: a digital painting of Squirrelstar and Ivypool from Warriors. Squirrelstar is a small dark red cat with green eyes, standing in front of the much taller Ivypool, a gray tabby-and-white cat with blue eyes and many battle scars. The background is dark blue. end ID]
happy new year everyone!! 🌟✨ it's been almost exactly a year since i first tentatively poked my head into this little space here on tumblr, and being part of the wonderful am/miles/tlsp community here with you all has truly been one of the highlights of my 2023 💗
as i'm sure is the case for most of us, it's been a year of ups and downs for me. i've been lucky enough to experience some amazing things (living in a new city, reconnecting with my creativity, getting my dream job, discovering music that speaks to my soul, making new friends, reading some amazing books) and human enough to experience some less incredible things (chronic pain, family difficulties, discovering my dream job is not in fact my dream job, getting long covid, the ever uphill battle of healing from trauma). through it all, this space has been a continued solace and source of joy, where i've met some truly special people and felt part of a little community where i get to have fun and flail and just be me. i can't even begin to express how grateful i am to be part of a space like this, or how grateful i am to everyone here who makes it what it is ✨
i also just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has supported me with my writing over this past year, whether that's through kudos or comments or messages or amazing cheerleading/editing help. one of the absolute gifts of discovering this fandom has been the writing fic side of it. maybe it sounds silly, but writing four walls has genuinely been one of the highlights and biggest achievements of my year. writing has always been something incredibly close to my heart, but my degree left me totally sapped of inspiration and confidence, and i'd been struggling for a while to climb out of that after graduating. something about alex and miles just instantly sparked off inspiration in me that i hadn't felt for a long time, and getting to write about them over the past year has reminded me of the sheer joy of creating and the magic of getting to share that with people ✨
it's something that's finally given me the confidence to pick up my own original writing again too, and i couldn't be more grateful to alex and his wonderful lyrics (particularly the entirety of humbug) and to everyone who's supported my fic ventures for helping me reconnect to and explore my creativity. it's the best feeling in the world to finally feel like i'm coming home to that part of myself and carving out a proper space for it in my life 💗
2023 was far from perfect, but it was filled with so many brilliant moments of illumination and i feel i am leaving it with a deeper sense of myself and my path moving forward. i know it's going to be a rocky one at times, but i am excited for what 2024 holds in store for me - and i can't wait to continue flailing with you all over all things milex and to enjoy all the amazing fics/gifsets/posts/art to come!
wishing all of you a year ahead full of wonderful moments and new experiences and fulfilment 💫✨ i really am more grateful than i'll ever be able to adequately express for this space here, and to all the amazing people i've been lucky enough to get to know through it. here's to an amazing 2024 for all of us 💗💞🩷💓💖💕💝
(the photos above are just a random little collection of ones over the past year that i particularly associate with the various things i've talked about in this post)
If you’ve been around for a few years, you’ve seen me vaguely mention a “Silverborn Countdown Challenge” several times. It’s been delayed and changed as many times as the book itself, lol.
If anyone wants sort of a low-stakes, very chill and spaced out version of this ye olde never tackled challenge to complete in the next year before Silverborn, I propose what I’m doing:
Every 3 months leading up to the initial release, I am creating one thing based on each of the books.
Last month one of my neighbors who appeared to be selling their house left a beautiful hardwood table in pieces on the curb as trash that had just. Had the MOST UGLY WHITE PAINT slapped on it in the most slapdash, hideous fashion you've ever seen in your life, which I assume is why they put a 35 year old cherry table on the fucking curb.
Anyway I rescued it and I need everybody to see my refinishing process photos because I am shameless and also extremely proud of this table (I've never refinished furniture before).
"chucky did one with the cardinals not too long ago did you reach out to him any advice?" "i didnt... yeah just going for it we'll see what happens 😃!" (proceeds to be consumed by the spirit that haunts loan depot and airmails the ball)
"Have you thrown a first pitch before? And just your nervous level for tonight?"
"I have never thrown a first pitch... a little bit of nerves! You always wanna throw a strike but I think I'll be alright!"
"Did you play baseball growing up at all?"
"Just a little bit, just when I was younger. And then started to kind-of get into hockey a little bit more and—so just when I was, you know, up until I was 7 or 8, I think?"
Fox Sports 940 | 9.6.24
wonderful form this man did not want to get chirped for not reaching the plate he put his whole arm into that 😭😭😭😭
me in the day thinking abt tsp: hehe funny british man get mad n pissy, buckets and average man
me at 2am: narry do you ever wonder if my worries of designing you in an original way are, in a sense, dramatic irony when considering the fact that its very much related to the topics of ultra deluxe, where both of us got stuck in the cycle of feeling anxious over changing ourselves for the sake of pleasing others and of fear of driving them away, only to realise that in giving external reviews of our art power and desperately trying to appeal to all of them do we end up losing the original joy of the art? do you think its fucked up how through this experience, ive ended up with a skip button ending of my own where ive been forcing myself to make the content i think others would love instead of the ones i love personally. would a redesign even feel fitting? should i forgo the whole originality aspect and just let you be yourself, like how i should let myself make the art i want to make, and let you speak and be heard rather than skipped over?