#i miss having time why do i overcommit i actually want to

[fili-urzudel]

A Kiss Hello - Fíli x Reader

Hey guys, look who keeps overcommitting :D

Anyway how about instead of any of the requests I have in my inbox you read a short piece I wrote in November 2022?

Word Count: 0.7k

Warnings: none

Fíli had always thought it was a bit of a strange greeting and goodbye. One kiss to each cheek, your hands easily resting on his shoulders to pull him in. You told him it was normal where you came from, and he supposed he wasn't one to tell you you weren't allowed to practice your culture near him.

It helped that he didn't exactly mind. You had lived with them under the mountain for years, and he was still the only one left with a burning face and butterflies in his stomach once you were out of sight.

"Fíli, this is getting ridiculous," Kíli sighed goofily as they traversed the halls of the mountain, trying to find the longest and most time-consuming route to their meetings. "I can see hearts in your eyes whenever she's around, why don't you just... confess?"

"Because I'm not you, Kíli," Fíli said, a bit agitated. "It's expected of me to find a nice dwarrowdam and settle down, keep our people happy. I can't just... just..."

"Just be happy with the woman you so obviously love?" Kíli interrupted, seemingly unfazed by his brother's sharp words. "You're free to make your own decisions, but I can promise you will live with regret forever if you don't do something. And soon."

Fíli looked slightly up at his younger brother. "What is that supposed to mean? What do you know?"

Kíli shrugged, eyes trained on the path ahead of them. He wasn't smiling anymore.

"Kíli!" Fíli felt his frustration rising, and with it, panic. What was happening? What were you going to do? "What, is she going to leave?"

Kíli only looked at him.

The golden prince's heart sank.

Was it his fault?

Fíli paced, wringing his hands, in the marketplace you always seemed to find yourself in, sometimes to sell, sometimes just to shop—oh, how he loved how vibrant you were when you shopped with him.

At this point, his heart was no longer in his stomach, but his feet. He couldn't stand it if you left, all because he chased you away, all because he was stupid and didn't know when to admit it—

"Y/N!" He interrupted his own thoughts, seeing you draw near. You held the basket you always used when shopping, the one he bought you in one of the towns you stopped at, before Erebor had even been won. It was looking a little worse for the wear, but you refused to give it up.

"Fíli!" You called back with a smile, but your eyes looked strained.

He wrestled with his brain, trying to figure out what to say first. His words became an incomprehensible knot. "Are you leaving?" He blurted. He just... he just really needed to know.

"Yes, actually, I am," you admitted, gazing at the floor. "I figured... I don't know, I think it's just time," you nodded, mouth twisted in a sad smile. "I hope you won't miss me too badly."

Fíli's heart raced. "Actually, if I could—"

A voice called out to you, and from the looks of it, it belonged to the head of a caravan you were looking to travel with.

"I'm so sorry, it looks like I have to go," you apologized, moving forward to bid him goodbye.

First, it was the right cheek, and as you moved to kiss his left, he turned, catching your lips with his.

The contact was fleeting, you startling back, flustered. "Oh, goodness, I'm sorry—"

You were still only centimeters from him. "Don't go," he murmured, moving to kiss you again. He didn't want to leave any doubt in your mind—that was not an accident.

His heart fluttered as he felt you kiss back, tilting your head as his hand rose to cup your face.

"I won't," you said as you pulled away, hot breath fanning across his face.

He felt eyes on the two of you from all sides. There would be no hiding this, no killing rumors or trying to keep a secret. "Good," he said, his lips still almost touching yours.

He had always liked your goodbyes, but this new beginning was much better.

[akutasoda]

Hey, continue with Sunday and Noelle reader, please?

Reader is selfless all the time, the fact you’re willing to help and save people, ignore your health and keep get hurt.

This can be the reason why Reader never pass to be the Cloud Knight member… I think Sunday find this reason when he talk to your guardian.

“The Cloud Knight do need someone that can protect the Xianzhou… but they don’t need someone who don’t care about their health and keep hurt.. or worst, death..”

i thought you believed in me

synopsis - he gave you an opportunity and now he'd ripped it away from you

includes - sunday

warnings - gn!reader, reader is based on noelle, angst no comfort, small blood mention, wc - 871

a/n: a continuation of this

taglist - @teddirika, @frankiesteinn, @little-miss-chaoss

when sunday had first proposed you that job, you didn't quite know exactly what he had wanted you to do. all he had said was something about 'helping those curious enough to get lost in the corrupt parts of the dreamscape'. however it turns out it wasn't so much a new job as more as it was an additional shift. after you're shift as a tour guide, you would be payed to enter those corrupt parts of the dreamscape and look for any guests (or stowaways) who has slipped further into the dreamscape.

you were grateful for the extra pay and so you didn't complain but sometimes it reminded you to much of the cloud knights. all you could imagine is the cloud knights doing the same patrols and protecting xianzhou civilians from the mara struck. you tried your absolute hardest to push it to the back of your mind and get by with your job to focus on your new life.

arguably, this attitude would land you in much more trouble than what you thought. you're desperate attempts to rid yourself of any remaining memories of the cloud knight had admittedly caused a major amount of carelessness. not so much to those you rescued but to yourself - you would overcommit to ensuring the safety of those in the dreamscape and in turn, would put yourself in too much danger than necessary.

sunday couldn't even count on both his hands the amount of times you had escorted an unfortunate guest into his office, for the sake of making sure they keep quiet, with your clothes bloodied and looking like you were on the verge of unconsciousness. he worried that maybe this job had been too much to ask of you but everyone know their limits right?

it didn't take very long for sunday to start thinking about what caused you to be so careless about your new duties. he may of had his crow start following you and it was to confirm his suspicions that you were only reckless when it came to putting your life on the line if it meant saving someone else. he decided that maybe approaching you directly wasn't the greatest course of action as you seemed so dedicated to your job that he knew he wouldn't be able to get through to you, and so he settled for a close companion of yours.

due to you not being from penacony you didn't actually have anywhere to stay when you first arrived - sure there was the reverie but you couldn't pay to stay there forever. fortunately, you had become acquainted with someone who was a local and they allowed you to room with them. you two had grown very close due to this and they were currently the only person in penacony who knew of you're real home and story. sunday figured that they would be the best person to ask.

and he was right. after a few questions and a little help from the power of the harmony, sunday had figured out that it was this same reckless behaviour that had caused your initial rejection from the cloud knights. it know made sense as to why they hadn't utilised your immense abilities in combat. knowing how to fight was one thing, but knowing how to take care of yourself in the process was a completely different thing - you had only mastered one of those.

practically everywhere would have some form of security or protection, the cloud knights were the xianzhou's. they would need someone who can hold their own in battle and still manage to keep themselves safe and this was also the requirement in penacony.

it pained sunday to even decide that he was going to force you back into being just a tour guide. you had done an excellent job with the task he assigned you but he wouldn't stand for you being so reckless about your health in the process. sunday knew that rejection from a similar setting was what had forced you to leave your home originally and he didn't want you to feel the same way when he informed you - especially because he offered you the job in the first place.

but he knew it had to be done, he couldn't risk you dying to the meme's in the distorted memory zones because of your own carelessness. sunday would assure you over and over that you were to keep you're job as a tour guide but he'd prefer you not keep up the extra work. suddenly it felt like that dreaded day all over again.

you hadn't really known what sunday could want to talk to you about but you would've preferred anything but this. your face immediately fell and the rejection hit hard. how could you lose a job that had been offered to you? surely you didn't mess up that bad? and as cruel as it felt, sunday was kind of glad he'd forced you away from the danger - or atleast until you could learn to look after yourself properly and learn that the sacrifices you made weren't needed.

[unsteady-calcium]

Ok, I'm mid season 7 now, and I’ve had a moment to collect my thoughts. Fair warning, this is rambling...

To me, most of seasons 6 and 7 is great actually.

I like Booth’s anger and rage. I get why people don’t, but I do. I think it’s not only understandable and in character and makes me feel empathetic towards him; I actually think it’s a damn interesting narrative choice, and makes Booth a more real character than he has been before.

And I love Brennan’s fear, too. She develops so much, and her "fall back on rationality as a defence mechanism" armour is finally starting to crack. It's damn fascinating to watch.

I like that the two of them had real, emotional, character-driven obstacles to overcome, before they can be together. And that identifying those obstacles doesn't automatically mean that they've overcome them at the same time. It stays true to their characters and the journey they’ve been on together so far, instead of some half-assed “I have to focus on Parker” or “crime solving takes up too much time to try to have relationships”, which most TV couples are reduced to when trying to keep up the tension. I love that they gradually overcame the fear and the rage, their small victories and choices adding up to something big. They rebuilt the trust and faith that has always been their bedrock. It feels like the natural conclusion of their relationship developing for years, with the highs and lows that it has been comprised of.

Granted, the writers fumbled the ball when it came to the actual emotional resolution at the end. It could, with only a few changes, have been improved by coming at the tail end of a case which forced them to confront something about their relationship. Or the bare minimum, make it more implicit how scared they were to lose each other without having even been together first. Just, you know. Any reason why it happened when it did.

But. There’s always fanfic, I guess.

What bothers me the most is actually something else.

I feel like there’s multiple seasons missing between s6 and s7. Obviously there were pregnancy factors and all that, and my heart rejoices at B&B getting the full domestic treatment. And this is hardly a novel take - everyone seems to agree. But there is so much missing before season 7, to the degree that it’s almost hard for me to believe that these are the same characters and not... Well... Pregnancy AU, 13/13 chapters, 45k words, status: complete.

Don't get me wrong: it's a damn good pregnancy AU. They deal with a lot of stuff that is very in character. And honestly? The idea that actually, once these two overcome their fears and decide to try being together, they are rock sollid? is fair. It makes sense.

But still.

They're Booth and Brennan.

They deserved a full year of Temperance “my childhood trauma made me scared of my emotions, prone to discard reasoning based on emotions, and simultaneously desperate to, and terrified of, being part of a family” Brennan.

And a full year of Seeley “my childhood trauma makes me overcommit to romantic partners way too fast and also makes me obsessed with being a Good Man who does the Right Thing regardless of what the people involved actually want or need” Booth.

They would clash at every stage. Every label, every milestone, would be rough and every victory would be a hard-won battle. Defining what they are to each other, deciding whom to tell and when and why, moving in together, overprotectiveness, independence, trust... there is something new to tackle all the damn time.

There would be so much doubt, and so much fear, because the stakes are so high. Because they are Booth and Brennan, and if they lose this, if they lose each other, they lose everything.

And, after a year of trying their damnest to figure all this out and finally getting somewhere, the prospect of an unplanned baby would crank every single aspect of it up to 11. Brennan would be terrified of that baby. Because she wants it so much, and she wants what it means in terms of starting a family. Making something permanent. She would regress into her hyper-rational persona. Their happiness would depend on Booth recognising that, putting his own feelings to the side, and helping her through it. And we know that the more emotionally invested he is, the more he struggles with exactly that...

They would need every ounce of love and support from their friends to get through it. Every bit of faith from their found family. And that would be cathartic as hell, because forming and trusting those bonds has also been a part of the journey to get to this stage.

And they would get through it for the same reason that they have gotten this far in the first place: because despite it all, Booth and Brennan help each other to find faith, and choose to trust. They give each other the strength to risk heartbreak.

They would get through it. And it would be glorious.

Then, and only then, I would like season 7 to happen exactly the way it happened.

[3416]

okay. SO! i’m not a veteran hockey fan i’m a relative rookie (haha) and i would very much appreciate your expertise… i feel like bertuzzi is a good player?? i know he doesn’t have any goals but the way he plays and seemingly gives it his all is crazy impressive and i thought he was really good with mitch and auston? but he’s no longer with them in the starting line and so i’m wondering am i missing something or is this a keefe thing or maybe both… also i don’t like reaves how do you feel about him im so sorry for unloading all of this I JUST LOVE YOUR OPINIONS ON THE LEAFS!!!

JFLKDSJKLF I'M AFRAID I WOULDN'T CALL MYSELF A VETERAN EITHER, LOL, but i do appreciate that people want to hear my opinions, though they're evolving as i learn more and more. but THANK YOU FOR ASKING MY OPINION, I LOVE TALKING, LET'S GO. SORRY FOR THE LONG POST.

bertuzzi basically became a big name at the trade deadline last year as one of the most viable guys being moved around bc teams were trying to bulk up for the playoffs. he was traded to the bruins where it took him a bit of time to warm up tbh.. he played 21 regular season games with them and only scored 4 goals 12 assists, but then scored 5 goals 5 assists in their 7 playoff games before elimination... that made him a really big target during free agency this summer bc he kinda popped off under the most pressure w the playoffs, and the leafs were basically looking to acquire forwards who can do that and bring "grit". now personally..... i don't think watching 1 round of playoff performance is like the wisest decision when he's actually a VERY injury prone player.. like he's good when he's healthy but that's not smth you can predict. but i was also kind of fine with it bc we do need left wingers on this team and it's only a one year deal. at this point i'm feeling very ????? about him because... like the underlying numbers aren't horrible but he's just not finishing. he DOES have 2 goals and 1 assist so far, but plays aren't really like... being completed it feels like when he's out there. keefe's obviously not happy with him after demoting him to 4th line last night and saying he wasn't listening to the way he needed to simplify his game, and idk anything in depth abt the leafs setup or systems or technicalities to their game specifically so. IDK.... i don't know if it's just gonna take him some time to warm up here like it did in boston? or if he's being deliberately ornery/doesn't like it here like boston fans were implying yesterday lol (i doubt it... lol he wants good stats jsut as much as anyone going into ANOTHER contract year lmfao...). there's just no way to know... idk a lot about him personally besides the anti-vax stuff but i've mostly just been... kinda unimpressed with him both on the ice and off it. i don't think he's doomed, i think we just need more time to see.

reaves... i'm gonna be honest and say i have NO clue why he was a target for us or treliving this summer, lol. there is so much discussion about bringing an intangible 'toughness' to this team despite us bringing in some mean players like simmonds and muzzin in the past ... tried it last year at the trade deadline under dubas too with schenn and ror... didn't REALLY work.. and i'm like ? why did we think it was a good idea to overpay and overcommit to a player like reaves who does nothing but offer fights on the ice and good vibes off it. like treliving hadn't been around the leafs long enough to know what they needed in the ~room~, although he did know they lost guys like holl and kerfoot who were universally liked as people so??? maybe that's what he was trying to fill?? i like ryan a lot as a person, but i do think he's actually doomed from a hockey player/stats perspective like.. we will not be getting anything more out of him as a player, and frankly after yesterday where he didn't really fight or get pushy with anyone after the marchand thing... and hasn't since the second game... i'm not sure we'll get the fighting aspect much either.

[alxclaremont]

i’m so tired. i have quite literally a million things to do tomorrow and this weekend. all i want to do is go to bed but my suitemates insist on being the nosiest people in the entire world.

[ingu]

I love your work sm ;_; For the Tua ficlet, ❛ Promise me you’re not gonna over-react. ❜ or ❛ What are you, trying to give me a heart attack? ❜ whichever you like!

There was something particularly irritating about the fact that despite having successfully committed an axe-massacre without getting so much as a scratch, it was being tackled off a table by an overcommitted receptionist that got Five injured. 

It wasn’t anything bad, just a cut from a shattered water glass that was deep enough to need stitches. Five had slapped a compress on it when he first got back to stop the bleeding. Then he’d prioritized organizing his siblings and finding Vanya. But now that he’d passed on the instructions, there was no reason for Five to not tend to the injury before they left. He still had about twenty minutes before the deadline, after all. It so happened Elliot had the supplies Five needed, though he’d had to do a small amount of digging through the dead man’s belongings to find the sewing kit.

Five stood in the bathroom of the apartment, trying to stitch the wound closed as he used the mirror to guide himself. Gritting his teeth, Five pulled the thread through his skin, closing a little bit more of the wound. He was focused so intently on the stitching, trying to ignore the stinging pain, that he didn’t hear the sound of approaching footsteps until it was too late.

“Five?”

Five jumped, almost stabbing himself with the needle, and then sighed when he turned and laid eyes on Luther. His brother was hovering in the doorway, staring at Five with a look of widening horror. 

“What are you, trying to give me a heart attack?” Five said in annoyance, before he turned back to the mirror to line up the next stitch.

He really needed to work on his situational awareness if even Luther could sneak up on him. At this rate, missing a threat was going to get him killed.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Luther said as he took a step inside, his expression worried. “How did you get hurt?”

“Does it matter?” Five said, distracted as he poked the needle through his skin again.

“Of course it matters, Five.” Luther said, in that annoying ‘I know I’m right’ voice. “Were you in some sort of fight? Is that why you showed up covered in blood?”

“Eh,” Five resisted the urge to shrug. “Fight is a strong word for what happened.”

Five ignored the burst of warmth inside of him at Luther’s words. Of course it matters. Five matters.

“Do you want some help with that?” Luther said.

“I’m fine,” Five said, pulling another stitch closed. “It’s nothing I haven’t done before.” 

Five was almost done anyway. He’d stitched himself up just fine a week ago, it wasn’t much trouble to do it again.

“Right,” Luther sighed. “So... what happened?”

“Did you get Allison?” Five hid a wince as he passed the needle through his skin again

Luther frowned. “Yes, I told her, she’s saying goodbye to her husband right now.”

“Good,” Five replied, pausing to glance at his watch. Thirteen more minutes, that was enough time to finish and get downstairs.

“Five,” Luther said, insistent. “What happened to you?”

Five sighed, realising Luther was just going to keep badgering him until he explained. It was his fault for not closing the bathroom door and letting himself get cornered. He pulled the stitch closed, gritting his teeth against the burning pain.

“I got tackled by some lady,” Five said. “And managed to land on some broken glass.”

“Wait, what?” Luther said, something angry and protective darkening his tone. “Why would she do something like that? You look like you’re thirteen!”

Five swallowed a sigh, and threw Luther a look of frustration. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“And that doesn’t explain the blood,” Luther said. “Five, just tell me what happened.”

“I will tell you…” Five said as he finished off the final stitch. “Only if you promise me you’re not gonna over-react.”

“Uh…” Luther paused. “Why do you need me to promise that?”

“You remember how I looked when I got back, right?” Five said, reaching to pick up the scissors from the sink. “Just use your imagination.”

Luther paused to think, and then his eyes widened. 

“Wait, did you…” Luther said. Then, his voice lowered into a whisper. “Kill people?”

Five raised his eyebrows at Luther, as he snipped the thread and tossed it into the bin alongside the needle. What was with the whispering? It wasn’t like there was anyone else in the house to hear them.

Luther stared at him nervously for a moment, and then sagged when Five didn’t respond. “Fine, I promise. Just tell me, alright? Why do you need to keep so many secrets?”

Five shrugged off Luther’s accusations, and took a moment to study his brother, making sure he was being serious. Luther didn’t look happy about it, in fact, he looked positively sulky, but Five supposed it was good enough. Luther might not understand necessary evils when it involved murder, but there wasn’t much he could do to change what had already happened.

“I made a deal with the Handler for a briefcase,” Five said quickly, reaching for the box of band-aids on the shelf to pull out a bandage. “In exchange, I had to kill the Commission’s board of directors.”

“You what?” Luther exclaimed, eyes widening into saucers. “That’s how you got the briefcase?”

Five rolled his eyes, and ripped open the packaging. So much for not over-reacting.

“Five!” Luther said when Five didn’t respond.

“Look, I did what I had to, to get us home, alright?” Five said, waving the bandage as he made his point. “Or do you want to be stuck in the 60s for the rest of your miserable life?”

“It doesn’t mean it’s right to kill a bunch of innocent people!”

“Innocent?” Five scoffed, covering his stitches with the adhesive before rolling down his sleeves. “Don’t be a hypocrite, Luther. You spent a year working for a crime lord.”

“I-” Luther hesitated, uncertainty flickering across his face. “Jack never involves civilians in his activities.”

“Is that what he told you?” Five said, turning to face his brother with a look of fond skepticism. He was as amused as he was saddened by how Luther had still managed to hold onto this kind  of naivety, despite all the criminals he’d fought over the years. Luther was so desperate to see the good in people, especially in those he perceived to be authority figures, it would almost be pathetic, if it wasn’t just… Luther. 

“Luther, you realise that the Commission’s standard M.O. is assassination, right?” Five continued. “Which is neither the best nor the only way to influence a timeline. The organization’s main ethos is cold blooded murder. The people in charge of it are not innocent by any definition.”

Half the time, the Commission was trying to fix the butterfly effect of their own actions. They were neither efficient nor good at what they claimed to do. If Five had actually cared, he might have actually done something about it during his years there.

“That doesn’t mean they... deserved to die,” Luther mumbled, though he now both looked and sounded conflicted about it. Five was going to take it as a win.

If Luther had any idea how many truly innocent people Five had killed just to make it back to them… But it didn’t matter, not really. Luther could condemn him as much as he wanted as long as he was alive to do it. Five didn’t care what his siblings thought of him. He hadn’t come back for their recognition or their approval. Five had returned to fix his mistakes, to repay them what he owed, that was all.

“If anyone deserves to die, Luther? It’s them.” Five smiled mirthlessly at his brother as he grabbed his blazer and pulled it on. “Now come on, we need to get down to the alleyway.”

Before Luther could reply, Five blinked away from the room, praying that the others would already be there waiting.

If Five could just save his siblings, then that would be enough. 

Nothing else mattered.

[lhstrategies]

Work Hard, Rest Hard

How much time have you already wasted today? Contrary to the majority of self-help philosophies out there, I am here to tell you one of the main reasons we are unproductive during our working hours is because we are not resting during our resting hours. We are always “on.” We don’t truly “unplug” and therefore we can never truly “plug-in.” Sound familiar? Rest is the missing element of work, and the least talked about in this space today. In the content below, rather than detailing why rest is a critical part of your working rhythm, we are going to explain how to get better rest by identifying areas that promote rest and those that inhabit it. Most of your best rest will be directly linked to the elimination of the inhibitors below. And yes…you can thank us later.

First, here are some simple practices to promote rest:

Disconnect from media, especially social media…give yourself a break from your screen!

Schedule in some much-needed SILENCE. Who knew?! Meditation apps such as “HeadSpace” work wonders.

Set appropriate boundaries – we’ll go into more detail about this one below.

Rest according to your personality. Do you like to be alone or with others to recharge?

Be one with nature! Did you know being outdoors actually has science-backed health benefits?

Take your sleep seriously! Make those hours count! Your room should be like a “sleep chamber” when you are ready to get some serious zzz’s.

Rest Inhibitors and How to Avoid Them:

Distractions Time wasters – we all know’em…YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, you name it. Every alert on your phone, every viral video your friends send you, every minute you spend swooning over your friends new baby-in-a-pretty-headband pictures…even though you don’t even want babies yet (or is that just me?)…there are a million distractions in your life. It’s time to get serious, because they are stealing your future.

How to fix it

Eliminate Non-Essential Notifications

Utilize the “Do Not Disturb” Setting

Schedule Time Blocks for People and Activities

Put a Limit on Your Social Media or Other Non-Essential App Usage …and stick to it!

Delete Non-Essential Apps – Either Temporarily or Permanently

Make Time Wasters Difficult to Use…unplug the tv, delete YouTube off your phone, download website blocker plug-ins for your browser, etc.

Artificial Boundaries Has anyone ever pushed your buttons? What does that even mean anyway? It means, that someone has overstepped your perceived boundaries.

Boundaries are barriers we put up in front of ourselves to guard our time, our energy, our emotions, our physical space – basically, our life. Most people don’t put up boundaries correctly when dealing with other people and too often find themselves overcommitting. Does that sound like you?  A proper boundary is a barrier with the door nob on the inside – so YOU are the one that determines when you open the door and when you close it. An improper boundary looks like a barrier with the door nob on the outside, where certain people can just open that door and walk right through without your permission. Many people react by putting up walls, but the problem with that is no one gets in and no one gets out! Putting up walls is not effective or efficient for growth, even if it provides temporary comfort.

How to fix it:

This could be an entirely separate blog post, but the main premise to become aware of is to know what your boundaries are in every situation. Then you must be aware of which side of the barrier the door handle is on, and ALWAYS make sure you are in control. For more information on boundaries, check out The Art of Saying No by Damon Zahariades or Boundaries by Henry Cloud.

Procrastination How much time have you already wasted today? Procrastination comes in many forms – distractions, interruptions, focusing on non-priorities, and so much more. We have all dealt with procrastination in one form or another. What if I told you this was more of a coping mechanism rather than laziness? When we are faced with difficulty, we tend to let procrastination get the best of us. Procrastination is a snowball. It pushes our work down the road until we reach a snowball where we are overwhelmed and under-motivated. This is what inhibits rest the most. And that is why it’s a cycle.

When you procrastinate and don’t get your work done during your “work time” you end up having to do work during “rest time.” Your “me” time. It’s time to interrupt this pattern and stop the cycle!

How to fix it:

GET CLARITY. First, become aware that you are procrastinating. Next, ask yourself what you are avoiding and why. Then, ask yourself why you should face it and what would happen if you don’t. Then, TAKE ACTION! Pick one, very small action you can take to tackle your task ahead. This can break the procrastination cycle.

For more tips on how to improve your rest, check out The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne.

[euphoric-melancholyy]

The Secrets We Keep

I’m on a personal vendetta against “May’s abusive boyfriend” trope so I thought it would be fun to give May a really awesome, loving boyfriend who’s just a little confused as to why she lets her teenage son stay out til 1 every night and sleep somewhere else every weekend. Also, he’s friends with Tony Stark? Chris - May’s new boyfriend -  feels like he’s missing something here. 

I’m posting this instead of a fic rec today

Also on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net

May Parker hadn’t planned on stepping back into the dating scene, but then again she hadn’t planned on most of the important life events that seemed to shape her. His name was Chris. He was handsome, tan with dark hair and scruff that couldn’t quite be called a beard yet, and hooded green eyes that all the hospital patients commented on. Chris worked alongside her at Queens Memorial, exchanging quips about 90s pop culture and recipes to actually cook for Peter. He cared for his patients with a rare sensitivity to their needs, always trying to brighten their day and learn a little bit about what makes them happy.  Like her, he was a widower, having lost his wife eight years prior to cancer. And she hadn’t planned on him crashing her little bubble, being a balm for the isolation of raising a super-powered kid who seemed to attract danger like a magnet. Not that she could tell Chris that. 

But even so, he soothed her worries when Peter was out on patrol and being with him felt like relearning how to breathe. It felt euphoric, and scary and soothing and exciting all at once. She wasn’t sure when she had last smiled as much as she did when Chris entered the picture. It didn’t go unnoticed by Peter either, her newfound giddiness after long days at work now more commonplace than exhaustion. 

After three dates, she tells her nephew, nervously twirling spaghetti around her fork as she awaits his reaction. 

His eyes brighten as she speaks and he puts down his fork, eagerly leaning forward as she tells him about the Italian dinner he made for them on their last date. “That’s great, May! As long as you’re happy, I’m happy. I know Ben would feel the same way, by the way." 

Peter’s lips are pressed together in a soft smile and she’s not sure why she’d been so worried to tell him. Pride overwhelms her in that moment, of who he is and his kindness, his inability to let the little guy suffer when he knows he can help. She might not love that he’s risking his life as Spider-Man, but she can still be proud of him for it. It coils in her chest with the near constant ebb of fear, but it’s warm and inviting and she’s not sure how she got to raise the best kid in the universe.  

"He’d be so proud of you, Pete.” She beams at him before eating a forkful of spaghetti.  “Spider-kid.”

“It’s Spider-Man, May.” He protests. “You sound like Mr. Stark when you make those nicknames.”

“Oh, we can’t have me sounding like him, now can we?”

“You already tag team me like divorced parents who stay friends, so I don’t see why not.”

“It’s called co-parenting,” she responds and Peter rolls his eyes. 

“So when can I meet this Chris?” Peter asks and she doesn’t even try to stifle her smile at his eagerness. She might not be able to help him with homework or any of his Spider-Man activities, but this - this she can handle.

-/-/-

They set ground rules. The first and most important rule is that Chris can’t know Peter’s Spider-Man, at least not for awhile. It means Peter can’t leave his suit lying around or continue crawling on the ceiling out of boredom or stress or whatever reason he decides it’s a better place to pace than the floor. 

They also agree not to tell Chris that he spends half his week with the Tony Stark. 

(“People at school already tease me about it being fake and I don’t care, but…it isn’t normal for a random teenager to just hang out with Mr. Stark. And what if he connects Spider-Man? Then that puts him in danger too and I just, I- I don’t want him to know yet May.”) 

This is a secret May still thinks she can handle — at least, for a time. If asked, she says that Peter has an internship with Happy Hogan.

And, in some weird twist of fate he never wants to experience again, Peter finds himself giving the talk. He’s beat red the whole time, cheeks flushed as he stammers through his explanation. 

(“May, I-I have enhanced senses and um, I can hear your heartbeat. And I can hear a - hear a conversation happening two blocks over right now. So like, if - if he’s gonna spend the night, or something, please for the love of my innocence, let me be at the Compound. Or- or just tell me. I need a heads-up.”

“If your hearing is actually that good, I’m sure you’ve heard worse.”

“Yeah, but not from you and I never want to.”)

-/-/-

The second rule is broken three weeks after Peter meets Chris. Though they get along famously, Peter usually isn’t around when Chris is at the apartment. It isn’t planned, he’s just busy and overcommitted. At this point, it’s only his third time being in the older man’s presence.

They’re all at the table together, eating lasagna that Chris had made when Tony knocks on the door and May answers. 

“Ah, Ms. Parker, lovely to see you as always. Mind if I borrow Peter for a few days? It’s for,” he glances at Chris and gives a signature fake smile and nod, “Internship stuff.”

“Uh, Mr. Stark, what are you - what are you doing here?” Peter asks, his voice getting higher the more he talks. “I thought Happy was coming, not that it isn’t great to see you. It is I just - I-”

“Happy’s in the car, kid.” Tony says, smiling to himself at Peter’s nervous rambling. 

May sighs and side steps, inviting him in while Peter gets a bag together. “If anything happens to my kid Stark, I will personally come and kill you. FRIDAY will let me in and you won’t even see it coming.” She keeps her face stern for a moment, then breaks into a wide grin. “Chris, meet Tony Stark. Tony meet Chris."  

Chris is unsurprisingly starstruck and confused, stumbling over his words in a way that May finds to be the most adorable thing she’s ever seen. "Hi, uh, hi. You’re I-You’re here? And you’re Iron Man. And Peter?” he stops mid-ramble and extends his hand. Tony takes it. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Stark.”

“Likewise. Peter’s told me a lot about you. Speaking of, kid, hurry up. I don’t have all day." 

Peter runs back into the common area, backpack in tow and wearing his suit, sans mask, under his clothes. The red spandex peaks out at his wrists. Tony cocks an eyebrow at his protege.  

"What?” the teen asks. 

“Nothing. Let’s go." 

Peter kisses May on the cheek, promising to be safe and update her three times a day, before following his mentor out the door. 

-/-/-

The next night, they’re curled up on the couch together with May’s head on Chris’s chest and legs intertwined. The news plays softly in the background but May isn’t really paying attention. 

"So when were you gonna tell me that you’re BFFs with a billionaire? With Iron Man himself?” Chris asks, running his fingers through her hair. There isn’t anything accusatory in his tone and May cuddles closer to him. 

“We’re not BFFs. He mentors Peter sometimes with… science stuff. It all goes over my head. Peter asked me not to mention it. He doesn’t like drawing attention to himself." 

"And Iron Man just whisked Peter off to. . ?” he lets his question trail off. 

“Some nerdy science conference in Italy.”

“Damn, that’s-” he pauses, looking at the TV and pointing. On the screen, there’s a breaking news alert about The Avengers fighting another alien army, because apparently normal villains went out of style in 2012.  “Wait, that Italy?" 

She sees Peter, Spider-Man, next to The Hulk, Iron Man flying above as they fight off their oppressors. Everyone’s there - Cap and Widow and Iron Patriot and Hawkeye, but they are pulled away to another part of the fight. They’ve been fighting for at least half an hour when she watches as Spider-Man is thrown into a building. The bricks break with the impact and it begins to cave and she swears she stops breathing for a moment. It’s another five minutes before she sees him again, red and blue swinging around and webbing up the aliens. Iron Man fires his repulsors at the last big baddie and Hulk smashes their foe’s head half a dozen times. 

"Don’t worry. I’m sure Peter’s fine,” Chris offers, his voice low and serious. “He’s at a conference, not fighting these monsters." 

"Yeah.” It’s barely above a whisper and she takes out her phone when she gets a message from Peter. 

Don’t worry. I’m okay. It’s gonna take more than that to take me out. Tony is going all “dad mode” on me. It’s embarrassing. 

May looks up to the TV to see Iron Man cradling an injured Spidey and flying them to their jet. She smiles and types out a response. 

I can see that. You did great, Pete. Take an ice bath or something, that looked like it hurt. Love you.

“He’s fine,” she says, grabbing the remote and turning off the TV. 

“Told you,” Chris quips, leaning in to kiss her. It’s soft and it calms her nerves in a way she can’t explain. “So, you know Iron Man, but who’s your favorite Avenger?”

“I’m partial to Spider-Man. He is Queens’ local vigilante after-all." 

"May Parker, a Spider-Man fan,” he teases. She throws a pillow at him. 

-/-/-

“Shouldn’t Peter be home by now?” Chris asks one night. May glances at the time on her phone. It reads 12:33 a.m. 

“He has until 1 a.m.”

“Isn’t that kinda late? I mean he’s only sixteen - he could get seriously hurt out there. Or partying and drinking his weight in-”

“He’s fine, Chris. Peter’s a good kid. I trust him.” She looks towards his bedroom door. It’s shut so he can just silently swing in. The crime has been quieter lately - thank god. No alien attacks or evil mutant who has it out for her kid. “His curfew goes back to 11:30 once school starts up." 

Chris looks skeptical, but he’s not about to tell her how to raise her nephew. "Whatever you say.”

-/-/-

Peter’s body aches, muscles throbbing with the all-enveloping pain of post battle. Blood trickles down from around his left eye, which is now swollen shut. He cries, a short high pitched wince as he comes back into consciousness, his body pressing against a pile of rubble. 

A sharp pain erupts at his most definitely broken ribs and he bites down another cry. He could hear someone calling his name in the distance, their voice muffled as if they were screaming underwater. 

“Peter! Spider-Man!" 

Peter groans, opening his eye as he tries to recall where he is but there’s a glint of red and gold blocking his sight. 

"T'ny?”

“Yeah, bud. You blacked out there for a few minutes and I thought I’d come get you.”

“I’m o-” His word is caught on a hiss of pain as Tony lifts him into his arms and Peter curls into himself. “Shit.”

“Maybe don’t become a ragdoll for steampunk Ursula next time, okay?”

“Wha?”

“Otto Octavious - madman with mechanical arms. I’ll explain it to you when you’re more coherent. Pretty sure you have a concussion.”

Peter wakes later in the dim light of the medbay. Mr. Stark sits in a recliner next to him, checking and promptly ignoring his emails. Peter’s head throbs, his left eye still swollen shut, his body aching, but it’s duller than before, the pull of drugs making his mind fuzzy. He’s been stripped of his suit and looks down to find he’s wearing an old MIT hoodie of Tony’s and…his Hello Kitty pajama pants, great. 

“Four broken ribs, a concussion, a skull fracture, and of course there’s that eye - I’ll get you an eye patch and you can cosplay as Nick Fury.” Tony remarks, looking to the kid. 

“Better that than these pajamas. Really, Mr. Stark?”

“Punishment for scaring the shit out of me,” he says with a smirk, but the rest of his face betrays his cool demeanor. There’s worry lines etched into his expression that furrow his brow and dark bags under his eyes. His hair is disheveled and Peter has the urge to reach out and fix it, but decides that would be weird. It’s strange to see his mentor like this, so unguarded and worried, and not TV ready. Tony isn’t even trying to hide it, which seems to be the worst part for Peter.  He hates that he caused this.

“I’m sorry. Thanks, for - for saving me.” Peter says with a sheepish smile. 

“Don’t mention it,” Tony says, reaching a hand out to ruffle his hair. Peter leans into the touch. “Actually do. Please mention it to your lovely Aunt. She gets off at two tonight so I’m gonna drive you back. Don’t worry, I’m sending some Captain America level narcotics with you for all that,” his hand makes a circle in the air, gesturing to Peter’s everything. 

Peter gets home at 1:45, the hood of Tony’s sweatshirt pulled over his head in a sad attempt to hide his eye and some dry blood caked into his hairline. The smell of homemade pizza overwhelms his senses before he even walks in the apartment. It’s odd, May rarely cooks especially in the middle of the night. 

“Hey hon,” Chris calls as Peter walks through the door. He’s standing in the kitchen, looking in the oven. “I thought I’d make you some dinner befo- oh my god Peter!”

Peter freezes, trying to stifle the panic that’s bubbling in his chest. Chris is already by his side less than a second later, hesitantly pushing the hood off Peter’s head and examining his eye with a concerned what the hell happened? 

“Uhh…I was jumped? Yeah. Jumped. I was jumped.” 

Chris considers him for a minute, soft gaze searching Peter’s in a way that makes him uncomfortable, like he’s learning something new. “C’mere,” Chris’s says, voice low and laced with so much concern that Peter doesn’t even protest as he follows him to the couch. 

“I already went to the doctor. Mr. Stark took me. Really Chris, it’s okay. I’m fine.”

“Even if you already went, I’m worried and I’m a doctor, and I’d feel a lot better if you let me look. Please, Peter.” 

The way he says Peter, it’s not unlike how Tony says his name sometimes, like a whispered prayer for him to be okay, and it breaks his resolve. Slowly, Peter lifts the hoodie over his head and tosses it to the floor. Chris gasps and it’s full of surprise and fear and all the emotions Peter wanted to avoid for at least a week, and Peter chances a look down. His torso is littered in bruises of varying shades and there’s a cut along his stomach. He can feel the medicine Dr. Cho gave him wearing off and it hurts. 

“Pete,” the older man whispers, hands held in suspension above Peter’s ribs, like he wants to touch them but he’s terrified of causing anymore pain. “Your ribs…You-”

“They’ll be fine in a few days. I have a concussion too, so can I just,” Peter sighs, resting his head against the back of the couch. It’s soft and comforting and he’s just so ready for this day to be over. “Go to bed, please?”

The door opens in that moment and May walks in. She’s wearing blue scrubs and her hair is tied in a loose ponytail. Immediately she locks eyes with Peter, and her face crumbles as she rushes over.  “Peter, baby! I- Tony said you were in a fight, but this…”

“I’m fine, May. Really. It really wasn’t a big deal. It’s not even worth worrying over.”

May shoos Chris to the side and sits down in between them. Her eyes run over Peter in a professional way, ending on his swollen eye. One of her hands goes to cup his cheek, “Okay, first off you cannot possibly say it’s not a big deal when you look like this. What did Dr. Cho say?” Her thumb brushes over his temple and a scowl replaces her worried look. As if wanting to prove her point, a gut-clenching pain shoots through him and he pulls his knees to his chest, sucking in air when his ribs protest painfully.

“A couple of broken ribs, skull fracture…” Peter whispers, wishing his metabolism didn’t work its way through all the painkillers in five minutes. 

“And a concussion,” Chris reminds, his hand resting on May’s knee.

They look like a team, Peter thinks, and May’s presence had calmed Chris’s erratic heartbeat the moment she came home. The idea elicits pangs of guilt on top of everything - guilt at the lies he and May have concocted to keep his identity of Spider-Man safe. He wonders how hard it’s been on May and Chris’s relationship, how many white lies she’s had to tell, but he pushes the thought down and focuses on the throbbing in his head instead. At least that can be dealt with, he thinks, and asks May to get his medicine from his backpack. She hands it to him with a sad gleam in her eyes. It makes him want to crawl under the nearest blanket and hide from their sympathetic glances. 

“Really May, it’s nothing I can’t handle. Just everyday stuff,” Peter tries to reassure her. 

“Peter, you were jumped,” Chris says, his tone serious. “That’s not an everyday thing, or at least I hope not. It’s a big deal and it’s scary. Your ribs are broken for god’s sake. Your eye is swollen shut. I just-” Chris pauses, looking down at the cut along Peter’s ribs. May’s brows furrow in confusion at the mention of Peter being jumped, but she quickly schools her expression. 

May sighs. “We’ll let you get some rest, okay superhero?” She offers her hand to help Peter get up. He takes it and stands. “Call if you need anything. We’ll be right here.”

“Thanks May. Thank you, Chris.”

He’s asleep not even ten minutes later, lulled by the concerned whispers of May and Chris from two rooms over. When he wakes the next morning, his body is sore, but his eye is almost back to normal. 

-/-/-

Five months have passed when May wakes to the shrill of “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath playing from her phone at 3 a.m. Peter had thought it’d be funny to set it as her ringtone for when Tony called and she never got around to changing it back. Her bedroom is coated in darkness, save for the light from her phone and she squints at it. Chris is wrapped around her like a koala, arm slung over her stomach and lips pressed to the back of her shoulder. 

“ ‘Ello,” she yawns as she answers, her eyelids drooping and the remnants of sleep threatening to pull her back in.

“May,” Tony’s says, his voice serious and raw with emotion that she’s never heard from the billionaire and it scares her, wiping away all the tiredness and replacing it with fear. May shoots out of bed, trying to keep her breath even but it fails. “Peter’s alive, first off, so don’t worry about that. He’s okay, kind of, well, he will be. He’s - he was shot earlier on patrol - twice. The damn kid. And Happy is on his way to get you, he should be there in ten minutes, so-”

“Peter was shot?” she whisper-screams, the words knocking the air from her lungs. And she can’t help it, the way her mind immediately goes to Ben on that fateful night, Peter at the police station covered in her late husband’s blood, silent sobs racking his body. The edges of a panic attack seeps in at the memory and her heart is going to beat out of her chest and she can’t breathe, she can’t breathe, can’t breathe, can’t-

She hears someone call her name, but she isn’t sure where she is anymore, and her mind takes her back to that first night without him, an inconsolable Peter wrapped around her muttering apologies between broken sobs. Peter didn’t go to sleep until noon the next day. She’s at Ben’s funeral, and there’s flowers everywhere - bright and vibrant and sickening wisps of color among black suits and dresses and her husband’s cold body. Everyone comes up and shakes her hand, offering words of comfort and food, but she doesn’t want any of it. Peter’s at her side and she squeezes his hand, tries to reassure him (and herself) that it’ll be okay. Peter nods, his eyes red and his motions slow and robotic and Peter-

Peter. This is about Peter. Peter’s been shot. 

Her world comes back into focus and she sees Chris kneeling in front of her, sleep mussed hair and wide green eyes full of concern. His thumb wipes at a tear on the apple of her cheek and she presses the phone to her ear. Tony is still talking, telling her to breathe and that Peter’s okay and Happy’s almost there.

“I’m sorry,” she chokes out a sob. “Tony, I…”

 “It’s okay. He’s gonna be okay. He has to be okay,” he pauses. “Do you want me to stay on the line?”

She leans her head on Chris and her eyes flutter closed. He wraps his arms around her and it’s grounding. Peter’s alive. Peter isn’t Ben. Peter’s alive. She repeats it over and over, a silent mantra and she realizes both Chris and Tony are waiting for a response. “I…” she speaks into her phone. “Chris is here. I- I’m okay,” May hangs up and turns her attention to Chris. 

“Peter was shot. He - I have to go. I - Happy, he’s outside I gotta-”

“Let me go with you,” Chris says. And god, she wants him too. She wants to curl into his side in the car and tell him everything, but she knows she can’t do that to Peter. Not right now. He asked her to keep his identity safe, to keep Chris safe, and that’s the least she can do when her nephew is out saving the world every night. 

“I need you to stay at the apartment, please I- I know you want to come, but I need you here. I’ll be back in a few days. I just - I’m sorry, I need to go.” She kisses him, soft and quick and rushes out the door before he can protest.  

-/-/-

Unable to process the night’s frightening turn of events, Chris is left standing at the doorway. He had called multiple hospitals looking for Peter, but none of them seemed to have anyone that matched his description. It wasn’t until May called the next morning saying that Peter was okay and recovering at the Avengers Compound, that he figured out why. 

Why is he at The Avengers Compound, May? That’s insane he had said, but she acted as if it was normal, saying that Tony preferred treating him there. When he asked about what happened, she said it was an unfortunate wrong place, wrong time, but that it didn’t matter now because he was okay. 

Now, five days later, Peter and May were coming home. He waits inside the apartment for them, pacing the living room as he cleans the countertops for the seventh time in the few days they’ve been gone. He can hear laughter down the hall and it takes him a moment to realize it’s them. Peter is rambling excitedly about something - he can’t tell what - and he stops as the door opens.  What he doesn’t expect is to see Tony Stark behind her, his arm around Peter’s shoulder, beaming at a perfectly healthy, energetic kid. It throws him for a loop how domestic they look. 

Like a family. 

And that’s when it hits him. The internship, the nights at the Compound, the easy banter, Stark taking care of him after he’s injured. Chris pauses his inner monologue, sweeping the group from head to toe with his gaze. “Wait…Is Peter Tony’s secret son or something?”

Fin 

[fantroll-purgatory]

Hello! It’s 2am, I’ve been rewriting this for 3 hours because words are the hard and I’m just tired. (Sounds like you are ALSO dealing with Time! But, that doesn’t make you a Time player either- let’s get into it.)

World: Alternia

Name: Tempus Facrem

“Tempus” means “time” in Latin, and “Facrem” is derived from “factorem” which means “maker”. Assuming I’ve not beansed the name (which is very, very possible), it should mean Time Maker which compliments her story and classpect nicely.

Age: ~8 sweeps

Theme/Story: Tempus is a hobbyist clock maker who’s hive is located in a quiet area of Alternia who tries her hardest to keep to herself and keep out of bother. Despite this, she’s often commissioned by trolls higher up the hemospectrum than herself and almost never has time to do her own thing or even make a clock for herself. I try to follow the general theme of time with her overall.

Goals: A general overview would be appreciated, as well as some suggestions for whatever I couldn’t decide on. As Tempus were originally created for a casual and definitely not canon-compliant Lords and Muses only RP session, I couldn’t adapt everything. (I am going to open my review here, because a General Overview of a character like this, by nature, turns into a Overhaul. I talk about Overcommitment To Gimmick A LOT in my reviews, because it plagues many fantrolls, ESPECIALLY Time Players.) (Your Troll is not the first Clock Themed Time Player Fantroll I’ve received, and I always point to canon. Aradia? Damara? Dave? When are any of these characters clock themed? You use the word “Time” 28 times in this profile, which points, once again, that that’s kind of her only thing.) (I will tackle alternate Aspects for her under Classpect. Much of this review is going to be trying to tease a more rounded character out of this. Perhaps your initial RP had more character for her? But, if there was, it hasn’t translated through to here.)

Strife Specibus: Sniperkind (or maybe riflekind, I can’t decide) (Riflekind is more general, and it’s what Jade uses!)

It also leads to some interesting questions you can ask yourself about her character- is she good or bad at guns? If she’s good at it, where did she learn and is this a passion? Is it just for protection or is there more? And if she isn’t good at it, why did she choose to pick it up and why does she stick with it? 

Fetch Modus: Honestly no ideas here, chief.

I could probably make a cuckoo clock joke here, but I honestly don’t want to reinforce the already drowning-in-time theme. 

God I could more jokingly apply a TikTok reference here. She has to make a musical.ly about the object in question. 

Or if she’s fascinated with universal constants, she could have a more abstract time system, like an Orbit system. All the cards are locked into a central ‘orbit’ and can only be uncaptcha’d when they line up in particular ways. 

Really, fetch modi usually involve alternate interests or coding jokes and it’s hard to think of any of those to apply here. I’d expand on her interest set and then come back to this!

Blood Colour: With reference to Fir3h34rt’s hemospectrum chart, between scarlet and cardinal.

I know we’re already making a lot of change recommendations and we’re hardly even half way, but I have to say that she really doesn’t read like a rust to me. We have to remember that rusts are rooted in Aries. The extended zodiac says rusts are wild, they crave adventure, they love drama, they’re dynamic, they’re quick to anger, they’re incautious- where is that in Tempus? 

Further, clockworking isn’t a very low maintenance career. Most of the rusts we see have “menial” labor or things they can do on their own, adventuring out into the world without much equipment. If a rust can’t have prescription glasses, how are they getting a clock studio? Where is she getting the materials? Where did she get the startup materials? Did someone else act as her patron? Why? 

This kind of niche skill and dedication to a craft isn’t something we see as emblematic of rusts, it’s something that’s more in line with bluebloods. That’s not to say I necessarily think you need to make her a blue (though I think it would be an interesting twist on the character and a good way to migrate her away from the obvious Aradia association). I just think you need to bring more of that Rustblood Fire to her, even if it’s repressed. Where’s the boiling under the surface tension? The desire to throw off her shackles and run free? 

Her theoretical EZ symbol with your current assignments would be The Headstrong. Where’s the headstrong? 

Symbol and Meaning:

A minimalist empty hourglass. Represents a lack of time. (I don’t have a better sign off the cuff, but refer to my comments above as to why I think this is a poor choice.)

Handle: I’m also not sure what to put here. This was another detail that I just couldn’t adapt. Her original handle was timeyWimey because she was meant to be a Lord of Time and my humour isn’t very creative. (I… actually think that’s pretty cute.)

Quirk: Regular capitalisation. Vowels are replaced with respective numbers, unless if the number created from the quirk is greater than 12. e.g. My n4m3 1s T3mpu5 F4cr3m.

Again we can kind of see the overcommitment here. I can’t fault you too much for it, but you might want to step away from the clock thing Too strongly here. You say she likes rhythm, tempo. Maybe you could think of different speaking patterns instead. Find syllabic patterns to give her, or even just chop her words curtly, monosyllabic. Ex: Give. Her. A. Drone. One. Syl. La. Ble. At. A. Time. It. Is. Slow. But. She. Is. Pa. Tient. Are. You? 

But I again recommend looking more into her interests and then coming back to this later. 

Lusus: Greater Skarthi, a dog-sized beetle with two horns. A very relaxed lusus who taught Tempus the value of patience. They share a good relationship.

I honestly think she could use at least a little conflict. Having a soothing lusus relationship is easy, sure, but how about the interest of trying to focus on her craft when her lusus routinely wrecks her shit? The stress. The Drama. 

Interests: Tempus is fascinated with clocks and rhythm as a whole, seeing time as a universal constant that should be respected. She chooses to respect time by making clocks, and prior to her being frequently commissioned she used to make them in a variety of shapes and sizes through different methods for entertainment or to pass the time. (So… her entire interests are clocks and Time. A Time Player is not like this. Let’s look at Dave’s intro page:  “Your name is DAVE. It is an UNSEASONABLY WARM April day. Your BEDROOM WINDOW is open to let some air in, and your FAN is cranked. Arguably even more cranked would be your FLY BEATS, which brings us to your variety of INTERESTS. A cool dude like you is sure to have plenty. You have a penchant for spinning out UNBELIEVABLY ILL JAMS with your TURNTABLES AND MIXING GEAR. You like to rave about BANDS NO ONE’S EVER HEARD OF BUT YOU. You collect WEIRD DEAD THINGS PRESERVED IN VARIOUS WAYS. You are an AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER and operate your own MAKESHIFT DARKROOM. You maintain a number of IRONICALLY HUMOROUS BLOGS, WEBSITES, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES. And if the inspiration strikes, you won’t hesitate to drop some PHAT RHYMES on a mofo and REPRESENT.” Homestuck ACT 2, Page 312) (Aradia gets kind of a free pass for her intro page because she is… well… a ghost. And her stated remembered interest is Archaeology, not Clocks.)

This is where you have to ask your self some additional questions. How might she have gotten into clock making? Did she start with woodworking? Was she inspired by something else? Did she just do it out of convenience because she didn’t have one? Does she just like DIY in general? Because DIY could be a very interesting origin point for a character like her. A lot of self-crafts DO take a lot of patience and you can capitalize on that character trait in ways besides saying it. 

And, of course, you should ask what she does in her downtime. Unless she’s a workaholic or is in extortionist circumstances, most people have downtime. Does she have unfair contracts keeping her working constantly and stopping her from pursuing old intrigues? Does she miss her other interests? Or does she choose to burn the candle at both ends and neglect leisure? Because if neither of these are the case, she needs other hobbies. 

Appearance: Has long black hair, similar to Aradia’s but slightly shorter and a tad tidier. Her horns share the ram aesthetic of Aradia’s too, however they have significantly less curling and point downwards and forwards. Wears a tool apron with her symbol on it over a dark grey jumpsuit. (I would absolutely love it if you could draw your interpretation of her to see how it compares to mine, but it’s absolutely not necessary.)

Personality: While she isn’t particularly optimistic, Tempus is good at looking at a situation from different perspectives which can be confused for optimism. In reality, she’s far more calm and relaxed under pressure than she is optimistic. She’s incredibly patient, both with people and in a literal waiting sense, thanks to her lusus. As she has the patient of a saint. when she does rarely get frustrated it’s usually very small scale. In spite of this, she’s prone to cursing, but not often to directly insult someone or something and more for comedic effect. (I think we have the beginnings of a solid character here. The thing that she’s really missing is the Time sense of fighting. She’s got this serene, steel will which is a useful trait, but where’s the STRUGGLE? Where is the drama, where is that draw to cyclical destruction.)

^^^ You’ve given us red on red, here. Time and Rust together have an inherent drama and tension. I really think that’s what we’re missing here. I think you could easily do something with the fact that she’s been put on commission to so many highbloods. Is she playing up her patience? Is she putting on airs for her professional career? Does she have a fury boiling beneath her skin? If she about to snap? Is she one snide violetblood comment away from tearing a clock off the wall and committing murder? Is she trying so hard to be a patient person but god people make it so HARD don’t you just want to go APE SHIT? 

Lunar Sway: Prospit, as she’s loyal to her acquaintances and often employs a creative approach to problems, even if they aren’t the most efficient ways of doing things. She also lives in the moment as she doesn’t always have the time to plan ahead. (Checks out to me.)

Title: Maid of Time. Don’t have much commentary regarding that :/ sorry

(And here it begins. Is this character a Maid? I don’t think so- Maids have a pretty classic character arc of being pushed around and then snapping and going absolute bonkers- Aradia beats Vriska to literal death, Kanaya chainsaws Eridan, and Jane…. oh boy, half of Act 6 is Jane’s.) (Is this character a Time player? I often use the phrase “Chosen by Time” in my reviews, because Time players are so DISTINCT, and required by Sgrub/Sburb. Time players aren’t chosen to be such because they like clocks or time, but because they have traits that allow them to whether the endless destruction and struggle that the Red Mantle puts on their shoulders. She needs a core of restlessness, a core of churning, if placid. EZ says that “at their worst they are ruthless, defensive, and impulsive”, which I think helps put them into perspective. Time players can and will lash back out at you.) (I think… this might be a Void player. She’d need an overhaul just to be something other than a walking clock reference, but she has the makings of one of those. A draw towards creation but in a lowkey sense, expanding on things that are already known…) (Otherwise, she may be a Space Player. She has that creation focus, and she reminds me more of 1-4 Jade than any Time player in Canon. Jade also leaned very heavily into her Time inversion for most of her life, to the point where she received Seer of Time powers for quite a while.)

I have to agree here. I think if you wanted her to be a Maid of Time you’d really have to lean into what I addressed under the personality section. She has to be ready to SNAP. Her narrative would have to be about being pushed around and then she lets go and finally embodies the full chaotic force of time.  Otherwise, she’s just not a time player or a maid. Space player is where I’m leaning, personally. They embody the patience and mutability you describe here way more and they also tend to be of the craftier and more hands-on sort. Void player is also a great way to go for a creative. You’d have to lean into her interest in the universe, in the unknown- you address her caring about universal constants, but why? That’s the sort of question the Void assignment would ask. 

[nsofties]

college!mark

undergrad!mark political science and english double major creative writing minor mark chose political science as his major because making new laws for equality and representation is incredibly important to him - he really wants to make a difference in the future for people was told that "if you can help change just one person's world, that's enough" but mark firmly wants to help many people - he wants to make many people happy and bring change to the world a lot of people in high school told him it was stupid of him - that politics can be very corrupt and not everyone will be kind or helpful or have the same intentions as him and he might get tricked by people but mark is an optimist and firmly believes in the good in people and so he gets to college and still decides to major in political science because even if that's people's perception of politics, he will make a change and do what he intends on doing, even if he has to run himself into the ground and that honestly worries everyone around him, because they know he will - mark is one of those people who earnestly puts his all into everything and will work until he's exhausted and having to survive off of energy drinks and smoothies and protein bars however, mark is always sure to have a way to relax, and so he is also double majoring in english and a double major may not sound like relaxing to literally anyone else, but mark finds so much enjoyment in being an english major and in all the assigned readings and myriad of papers and projects because something about english he finds so much fun - maybe it's the variety of subjects he studies and writes about for his different classes, or maybe it's the many different people he gets to meet jokingly his professors all call him the next global traveling poet because of his very clear distaste for poetry - it's not that mark doesn't like poetry, but he much so prefers to write short stories and may or may not be secretly working on a book on the side in his free time he loves fiction because he loves making up new worlds, creating realistic characters, creating dialogue... it's something about life that he can control. even when his life seems hectic, because it really is, he has his stories to relax to the hardest working student out there - on the student council, in the honors program, works at the writing center, has a part time job at homegoods, works for local political campaigns... honestly mark is just a very hard working young man and he's stretching himself a bit thin; his friends are all like "dude chill for maybe five seconds" and mark is like "maybe YOU chill" and lucas has to be like "no seriously mark you've had like six hours of sleep the past five days and i'm pretty sure your pants are on backwards you. need to chill." mark, a few minutes later: hey siri, how to chill out lucas: mark that's not the way to do it actually in high school, mark was much the same way - he was on the hockey team, was on debate team, was in model un, was student council president, tutored other students, was in the national honors society, had the job at homegoods, in all advanced courses, was in band... and back then lucas used to tell him that he has to relax, too. so, their bantering isn't new but lucas is still stressed by mark's overscheduling and overcommitting and lucas vividly remembers during prom how mark was so tired that he was slumped over at the dinner table, head narrowly missing falling into his plate of food as lucas pushed it out of the way which is? sort of how you met mark? you were a childhood friend of lucas's and you didn't know any of his friends - "what is a haechan?" - but sometimes lucas would make memes of his friends and send them to you, so you received a picture of mark that night with the caption of "slumped" and you were like lol and then lucas help him and you all ended up at the same university and you finally get to meet this mark character in person - "haechan is still in high school" "haechan is a person?" "uh yeah -" "lucas's stories about haechan made them sound like... idk a really excitable puppy?" "close enough" - and he meets up with you and lucas for lunch in town and you ask him what his schedule this semester is like and when he starts listing everything you're like "when do you breathe?" "i breathe all the time?" "... no, i - nevermind" you get along with mark well enough and you eventually admit to him that lucas makes memes of him when he catches him sleeping in the library and mark is like brb i gotta go fight lucas and ur like "his hand is as big as your head" "yeah i know he's like big foot but big hands" "i thought bigfoot has big hands too" "then why wouldn't his name be big hands and feet?" "discourse in the bigfoot community" despite you and lucas being close childhood friends, you and mark honestly are on a really similar wavelength so you get along really well and eventually lucas is like "wow might as well just not hang out with you guys anymore" and mark is like "yeah but it's mostly because you've called out of work sick the past ten shifts and i'm sure they're about to fire you" and kind of like mark you're overly involved on campus, and your schedules actually match quite nicely, so the two of you end up spending most of your meal times, no matter how short they are, together, and honestly it's relaxing a nice break from your daily schedules and the hectic, fast-paced life of a university student and eventually it gets to the point where lucas and mark are hanging out without you one day and lucas turns to mark and was like "so are you two dating?" and mark is panicking and like "i??? don't???? i don't think so??? are we??? did they say that i'm?????" lucas: cool okay hold on i'm telling them you want to go on a date this weekend ok cool you two are going to meet at the local cafe on saturday morning see you mark: duDE lucas: UR WELCOME mark: HOW ARE YOU TALKING IN TEXT SPEAK OUT LOUD lucas: LOL and when you two meet at the cafe on saturday morning, mark sits down with his coffee then immediately, after taking a single breath, says "i just wanted to let you know that this was lucas's idea but i do actually like you so i hope it's okay that this is a date and that you're not upset by that and if this makes you uncomfortable i'm totally cool with just being friends actually anything is cool it's all fine i just really like you oh my jeSUS I JUST SAID THAT OUTLOUD i'm sorry oh my gOD" and his panicking makes you panic and you two sort it out after a prolonged moment of silence where you're like "oh wait we like each other" and mark is like "what" and you're like "yeah" and lucas from across the street is like "WHAT'S UP IT'S YOUR BOY CUPID" (sicheng, from homegoods: something... something is wrong....) and it's cute because a lot of your dates together are just lil' study dates in a local cafe or the campus library or sometimes mark has even convinced you that the zumba class offered on campus would be a fun event and you agree but only because he wears a lil' sweatband and has the time of his life not cooped up studying mark is always very busy and you're honestly afraid that he doesn't know how to relax - that maybe he doesn't even know the meaning of relaxing? and so sometimes you're just like "hey how about we go to the arcade with lucas and sicheng and johnny and everyone else and just have fun for once? a little break won't hurt?" and those few times are when the polaroid cameras come out and you get little memories with everyone that you're sure you'll cherish far into the future mark and you really like the chocolate croissants from the cafe that you two had your first date at and on important events, like a huge exam or a huge event, you'll go to the cafe and get a chocolate croissant for each of you and honestly mark is working himself into the ground and you're busy yourself, but you're always sure to remind one another that taking a break and taking care of yourself is important, too overall you two prefer to stay inside when you hang out, and both of you are equally poor at videos games so sometimes you'll play mario kart online with jisung and everyone and jaemin will text him like "i didn't think you could find someone as bad as you at video games but here i stand corrected" (haechan: actually i think they're at least getting better mark hasn't improved for five years mark: HEY HAECHAN haechan: chenle here's my will chenle: ok) we love mark lee pls love and support him

[scrambledthoughtz]

busybusybusy

transfer office rep intern, court watch intern, student publication editor, camp counselor, mentee for two programs, ui/ux quarter-long project, part-time job. this is everything i’m doing this quarter. rn, i’m also doing a short-term research coding project. next quarter, i will take on an office staff position, i will be starting the departmental honors program, and i hope to pick up a minor. 

i think i’ve overcommitted myself. before i even entered this school, i was told, “you can’t do everything. there will be so much to do, but whatever you do - don’t overload yourself.” i took that advice, threw it out the window and told myself, “i can do whatever i set my mind to.” and that’s how i ended up with a low C on my midterm. the first C i’ve ever gotten at this school. how did i get this grade? well, i’m used to looking at my fucking notes when i take exams, that’s why. all of my exams have been open-note, and i think i literally forgot how to study otherwise. this was a wakeup call and a harsh reminder that when i return to in-person classes, i won’t have the option to control-f through my 80 page document of extensive notes. at this point, school is something that i’m just doing on the side - i feel like i’m doing way too much, but not enough. 

i’ve committed myself to so many activities, and i’ve never felt more fulfilled, yet guilty in my life. i wish i had not taken on so much so that i could actually focus on one over the other. i’m just doing the bare minimum to complete my extracurricular projects, when in reality, the whole reason that i joined these teams and projects was so that i could learn more about the fields. but now, the most i do is prep for my meetings an hour before. if i hadn’t committed myself to so many things this quarter, i would actually have the time to really look into user research, to practice using figma, to watch videos on user flows and to look into design branding and what it entails. i would actually have the time to fully study for exams, rather than spark-noting my readings and cramming in my recorded lectures on the weekends because i don’t have time on the weekdays. i feel like i’ve lost sight of why i’m doing everything that i’m doing. why am i doing so much when i’m not even committing myself to the full experience? do i really need to be working so many hours? these opportunities don’t come by often, and i feel like i’ve blown my chances to actually fully immerse myself in what these fields may entail. and the irony is - i’m doing so much this quarter, but i’m still stuck on square 1 in terms of what i want to do after i graduate. part of the reason why i applied for all these extracurriculars was to see whether it’s something i would actually be interested in. i applied for the creative project to see if i want to do ui/ux research or design. i applied for the court watch bc i thought it would give me a good glimpse into the legal system and processes. i applied for the student government internship bc i thought i would be able to learn more about policymaking and change on the student level. and i have. trust me, i have. 

but at what cost? i’m working so many hours that i can’t even make most of the networking events, career panels, professional development, and recruitment events that my career center posts. and i think that makes me feel the most guilty bc i know that those events are the closest thing i’ll get to really advancing my career choices and learning from individuals who are actually in the field. instead of getting my resume and cover letters looked at or interacting / networking with professionals in fields i might be interested in, i’m working at my job. and while yes, it’s great to be able to make money and save up, i feel like these opportunities are limited too and i’m missing out on almost all of them. so, idk. i need to realign my priorities and get my head in the game. i need to reset myself and take a deep look inward. fuck. 

[empmoniitor]

DEADLINE ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK IT IS: 07 ESSENTIAL TIPS TO CONSIDER

“Meeting The Deadlines Is Not Good Enough, Beating The Deadlines Is My Expectation.”

-Dhirubhai Ambani

Deadlines! Isn’t the word itself as scary as it feels when you are under the pressure of one. It just feels like the hands of the clock are running way faster than they actually should have, as you still have a pile of tasks to complete. Also, every step you take towards meeting your objective falls short and is not helping you achieve your intentions any sooner.

In the fast-paced corporate world, it is a fact that almost all the employees feel the pressure of deadlines at some point in time. And it simply needs more concentration, a little more effort, midnight working, and a cup of strong coffee to make sure they achieve the said objective within the required time.

But at EmpMonitor, we do not perceive deadlines as a disadvantage. Preferably they are realistic. We see it as an enhanced way to maintain our employee productivity and keep our clients pleased.

MEETING DEADLINES

Deadlines are pretty significant at the workplace because they define the destination towards which the employees start working. If we remove this term from the corporate dictionary, employees might end up taking their assignments casually, and this behavior would lower the dignity of the organization itself.

So, as we see deadlines are necessary, the higher authorities can put up a target for the below-listed reasons:

To make sure the employees do not delay any task, may it be urgent or a regular one

To ensure effective collaboration and communication within the team

To establish higher expectations from employees

To make your employees more responsible towards their job

To maintain the perfect track of business

But there are times when employees miss their deadlines, and it is a serious matter of concern. The higher authorities need to understand where the employees lag in completing their tasks. There might be a lot of reasons for the team’s inability to meet the deadlines, and here we have listed out a few:

Miscommunication between the employees

Incapability to manage the task efficiently

Over-commitment towards the project

Too many distractions

Unreasonable work deadlines

Need of responsibility

Every team manager and higher authority must aim at achieving deadlines for the overall success of their organization. Also, do not run away from them. For keeping the clients happy, it is necessary to get all the tasks done within the deadline, every time.

MUST-KNOW TIPS FOR MEETING DEADLINES

Meeting deadlines is highly essential for an organization. But sadly, there are still some companies struggling to get it back on track. Hence, we have penned down a few efficient ways to meet the said deadlines without being impatient every time.

1. PRIORITIZE THE DEADLINES

The very first step towards achieving success is considering and caring about the deadlines. Keep them at the top of your priority list, and do not make a habit of skipping deadlines. Also, if you see your deadlines getting extended now and then, it’s high time you keep a watch on your employee activities. Once your team understands this, you can secure a healthy and positive working environment forever.

2. LIST OUT THE PROJECTS AND THE TARGET DATES

Use an employee monitoring software to list out the projects you have in hand and the employees working on them. You can collect all the information related to the part of the task which gets completed and the unaddressed details. Also, this tool will let you know about the employees working efficiently and the ones lagging. So, having all the data in one place unquestionably makes things easier while approaching the target date.

3. MENTION THE EXACT DEADLINE

When you have an agreement with your client, make sure you receive the accurate time and date of submission of the project. Hence you can deliver the same to your team. If you are not clear about the deadline, things will ultimately get messed up from your end.

4. BREAK THE PROJECT TO DIGESTIBLE CHUNKS

Do not take up the entire project all alone and make the complete process intimidating. Divide the tasks into smaller sections and assign time to complete each part. It makes your procedure of stepping forward easier. The team can make the most out of the time provided and check if everything falls in the right place before moving forward.

5. TAKE EACH STEP AT THE RIGHT TIME

As we said, when you break down the tasks, make sure you have a start and completion date before commencing. Hence, when each element of the project gets completed, you can see if you are behind or on time.

6. LOOK BACK AT YOUR MISTAKES

If you have ever missed out or skipped any deadline, jot down what went wrong to avoid the same in future projects.

7. OVERCOMMITTING IS A COMPLETE NO-NO!

Never commit your clients beyond the capability of your team. You must learn to deny if you cannot accomplish the task within the finish date as you do not want to disappoint your client at the end. In this scenario, talk to them and ask for another deadline or suggest one which seems feasible, meeting the purpose from both ends.

EMPMONITOR- THE EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT TOOL

After coming across all the tips, you might have seen a few fundamental tactics demanded to get your hands on an employee monitoring/management/tracking tool. And we will not put you into any confusion. So, we will straight away suggest you the best software to meet all your monitoring requirements.

EmpMonitor is the most reliable employee management software of all times that acquires numerous features to track all your employee activities perfectly, may it be your in-office or remote employees. With a reasonable pricing plan, the tool also offers a free trial. We believe you must look at the features of EmpMonitor closely to get intrigued with the software.

PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT

With EmpMonitor, you can get insights about all your productive and unproductive employees. You can check all their activities from a single dashboard and check how your productive employees work throughout the office hours to complete their tasks. And on the other hand, see if your unproductive employees need help because of lagging to catch up with others in the team.

SCREENSHOT MONITORING

When we said about receiving insights, we exactly meant keeping a closer look at all the employee activities. And for this, there can be no better feature than screenshot monitoring. The tool captures screenshots at random intervals and saves them to the cloud. Hence, whenever you wish to check on your employees, you can see their screenshots to see if they were honestly working or had spent their time doing other unproductive tasks.

KEYBOARD MONITORING

But still, in some cases, if you feel you need more evidence to know more about your employee activities, keystroke logging can be your best buddy. When your employees do not switch pages and stay on the same page for a longer time, you must check if they entered any keys or have left the workstation ideal. Hence, in this scenario, the keystroke logging feature comes in handy.

WEBSITE AND APPLICATION USAGE MONITORING

As your employees are not working in front of you, that does not indicate inefficient monitoring of what websites and applications they visit during working hours. EmpMonitor notes down all the website URLs and applications used by the employee throughout the working hours and produces a report.

STEALTH MODE

Now comes the best part of EmpMonitor features. The tool works in a stealth mode which makes it unrecognizable by the task manager. Hence, it keeps tracking all the activities behind the computer screen, which remains unnoticed by the employees.

EmpMonitor gets quickly intrigued with all the other software in your company, which does not need IT professionals to install it on all the devices. The employees can do it themselves. And the reports generated by the tool remain safe in the cloud. So, you do not need to panic about missing out on them.

So, if you find the tool interesting, which we believe you must have, then get started with the free trial today to know the EmpMonitor features in a better way.

Check Out Our Latest Posts:

Why Do Employee Privacy Policy Matters For Your Organization? 9 Tips To Create A Feedback Culture That Fosters Productivity In Your Workplace Attendance Management Software | 05 Best Tips To Improve Employee Attendance

TO WRAP IT UP

Meeting deadlines is a part of the business that keeps the entire organization expanding. But missing out on them will ultimately make the employees demoralized as they cannot see any growth in their performance. Deadlines need to get treated with complete concentration to ensure everything operates smoothly.

Also, the tips listed above can help the employees put a full stop to their struggle and necessity to push the deadlines. We assure you that these tactics can help you overcome the issues that you might face so that your team can deliver all the tasks on time.

Has your company ever faced the struggle of meeting deadlines? If yes, then how did you handle the entire situation while keeping your employees productive? Please let us know all about it in the comments below, as it can be a piece of add-on information for us and our readers as well.

I hope the article helped you know about meeting deadlines. Is there something that we can incorporate? Please drop your thoughts in the comments below. I would love to hear from you!

Originally Published On: EmpMonitor

[withcarlie-blog]

I say it all the time. In fact, it’s probably been my go to word for the last year, really. And you know what? I’m real, real tired of it.

  “How are you doing” Busy.

  “How’s business?” Busy!

  …and I know that you’re guilty too.

  And you know what? I bet you are in fact real, real busy! I don’t doubt that for a moment. I know what it’s like when the list never ends and making time really doesn’t feel like an option. We’re all overcommitted and we all feel that we have no way out of our busy lives that we can never seem to catch up with.

  Let me tell you a bit about my year. And no, it won’t be pretty. It will be honest. Why? Because nobody changes without being honest first with themselves and then with others.

  Running a business is invigorating. Riveting. Exciting. I fell in love with what I created a year and half ago. New business are so delicate. I think of it almost as if it were a child. You have to nurture and care for it in such a way so that it can grow and blossom and eventually not need as much from you. It’s a super fun picture, really.

  I knew that the beginning this new career of mine was going to demand much of me, I thought it was my job to be on time all the time. I really thought I needed to show up. I was checking email constantly. My phone was always on. Even that wasn’t enough. I wanted to do it better, faster, and more efficiently. Always running errands with my phone glued to my ear. Better, faster, more. I complained about my busyness and got completely high from it all at the same time. I became a busy addict.

  A few months ago, I lay in bed completely burned out and exhausted but yet unable to sleep because all I could think about was tomorrows to-do list. The more I thought, the more I lay in bed awake. The more I lay in bed awake the more overwhelmed I got. Tears pooled in my eyes as I thought all of the times I had to tell my friends “no” because I was busy. All of the times I had to cut phone calls with my mom short because I had go work. I began to add all of the missed moments up in my head. Something needed to changed and I could feel it in my heart.

  Just like I was bound and determined to make a business happen, I made the choice to steer that determination towards a new focus: rest. I vowed to not miss another moment of connection. I vowed to choose people. I vowed to show up for life. I vowed to choose the Lord.  And ya know what happened? My clients didn’t notice. My work didn’t suffer (in fact, sales went up).

  I also vowed to remove the word busy from my conversations completely. When people ask me how I am, they really want to know. They deserve a better answer from me. They don’t care about my to-do list. And by not bring it up, I open up space for better conversations.

  Loose the guilt. Breaking up with busy simply means living a full intentional life.

  I could label all of this as “Breaking up with busy”. But what does that actually mean? Slapping a label on a new way of life doesn’t serve you well when the going gets rough. It’s so easy to get sucked back in when you don’t have tangible goals that are clear and defined.

  So here’s what I came up with:

  I will measure more by what’s in my heart than what’s on my list.

If I didn’t get my list done, I felt like a failure. So what does that say about me? I measured my self worth by how much I got done in a day. My identity was fixed on my accomplishments, and putting my identity in anything less than Christ is a big, big danger. It’s not how Christ wants me to live. He didn’t put me on earth to get a list done.

    2. I will ask for help.

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but strength. Asking for help builds relationships. I can do it alone, but I can do it better with help every time. We’re all in it together.

    3. I will surround myself with those who want my best, not my busiest.

Not everyone has good in mind for you. There’s a fine line between those who push and challenge you for good and those who demand and pressure you in ways that just aren’t healthy. Those types of people put pressure on you that was never meant to be there. It gets draining, and FAST. Seek people out who value leisure time. They are some of the most refreshing people. We tend too put enough pressure on ourselves as it is, so why let others pressure you as well?

      4. I’ll prioritize my health.

I was starting to get stress headaches every day. In fact, I remember practically being glued to the couch one evening in October and panicking because I couldn’t get work done. Not pretty.  I’ve eliminated all over the counter mediations from my diet and rely on essential oils. I’ve (almost) cut caffeine out of my diet entirely (been treating myself once or twice a week). I drink kombucha  and spearmint tea daily and started also started a new supplement system. I’ve been headache free for two months!

      5. I will create space for solitude.

I’m a true introvert in some ways. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love people. But when too much is too much, I gotta get away. I gotta embrace my alone time (usually outdoors), and when I come back from my alone time I’m ready to create. I’m ready to connect. I’m pour into people and work with a clear mind.

LASTLY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY…

6. I’ll say no and not feel guilty.

You can’t make everyone happy. You are not tacos. So why are you still trying? Don’t say yes when you want to say no. Experience the freedom that comes with the word “no”. Will people get upset when you start using the word? Sure. Overtime they’ll come to accept the fact that you are a human with limits and they will respect you so much more. It’s super cheesy, but I once read this phrase in a book, “Without no-power, you’ll have no power”. It’s so true. No is a complete sentence. You don’t have to explain. You don’t have to make people happy. You serve a bigger and better purpose in life.

Breaking Up With Busy+New Habits I say it all the time. In fact, it's probably been my go to word for the last year, really.

[sherristockman]

Catastrophic Consequences of Chronic Sleep Deprivation Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola About 1 in 3 Americans gets less than seven hours of sleep a night and more than 83 million adults in the U.S. are sleep-deprived.1,2 If you work long hours, have a sleep disorder or spend a lot of time in front of electronic screens, you may be sleeping five or fewer hours per night. Such little sleep can trigger a wide range of health issues, such as chronic disease, increased risk of accidents, reduced sex drive and weight gain. You may not realize sleep also plays an important role in memory formation, and chronic-sleep dysfunctions such as sleep apnea have been shown to accelerate memory loss. Earlier in life I disregarded the importance of sleep, at times getting no more than five or six hours a night. Now, because I value sleep as a significant factor with respect to my health and longevity, I get the recommended eight hours most nights. I have said it many times before, and I hope you are taking this advice to heart: Most adults need about eight hours of sleep per night to function well. Children and teenagers, because they are still growing and developing, require nine or more hours of rest. As you likely have observed, it is also common for them to sleep even longer on weekends. Sleep Deprivation: A Serious Threat to Society Matthew Walker, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and psychology, and founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, defines sleep deprivation as sleeping less than seven hours a night. "No aspect of our biology is left unscathed by sleep deprivation," says Walker. "It sinks down into every possible nook and cranny.”3 Sleep deprivation, he notes, is associated with a number of serious diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, obesity and stroke. In an interview with The Guardian,4 Walker points out how easy it is to observe sleep problems: “I get on a flight at 10 a.m. when people should be at peak alert, and half of the [passengers on the] plane [have] immediately fallen asleep.” According to a Gallup Poll,5 Americans slept an average of 7.9 hours a night in 1942, but only 6.8 hours in 2013. Walker pins the blame for our consistently declining slumber patterns on the following “enemies of sleep:” Alcohol and caffeine: These and other substances, such as sleeping pills, interfere with sleep quality and sleep time Artificial lighting: We have effectively electrified the night, and light at night damages your health by degrading your sleep Loneliness, anxiety and depression: The longing for connection and the effects of mental illness can often interfere with or cause people to forego sleep Long work hours: The international business environment, increased global competition and longer commuter times are just a few of the factors contributing to the increase in work hours and stress-related burnout Overcommitment: Schedules are filled from morning to night, and many people are unwilling to trade entertainment or socializing with family and friends for sleep Interesting Facts About Our Global Sleep Problem Below are some intriguing facts about our global sleep problem that may surprise you:6 Two-thirds of adults in developed nations fail to receive the World Health Organization’s recommended eight hours of sleep per night A 2013 study7 reported men who slept too little had sperm counts 29 percent lower than those who regularly got a full night’s sleep You are 4.3 times more likely to be involved in a crash than a well-rested driver when you drive on less than five hours of sleep; on just four hours of sleep, your risk of crashing is 11.5 times higher A hot bath before bed readies you for sleep because it causes your dilated blood vessels to radiate inner heat, lowering your core body temperature, which is an essential activity to initiate sleep More than 100 diagnosed sleep disorders exist, the most common of which is insomnia The global population comprises 40 percent morning types, those who prefer to awaken at or around dawn; 30 percent evening types, those who go to bed late and wake up late; and 30 percent who are classified as somewhere in between Why Is Lack of Sleep a Badge of Honor While Healthy Sleep Is Vilified? According to Walker, for whatever reason, lack of sleep in modern times has become a sort of “badge of honor.” You may feel compelled to talk about how busy you are or how much you are accomplishing, even if pushing yourself to do increasingly more is causing you to damage your health by foregoing sleep. On the other hand, good sleep can sometimes be characterized as a sign of sloth. “We have stigmatized sleep with the label of laziness,” says Walker. “We want to seem busy, and one way we express that is by proclaiming how little sleep we’re getting.” Walker asserts no one would look at an infant and suggest he or she was a lazy baby. That’s the case because “we know sleeping is nonnegotiable for a baby.” Unfortunately, the notion that sleep is vital to our well-being is quickly dispensed with as we age. “Humans are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason,” suggests Walker. Based on years of studying sleep, he is certain there is not a single person on the planet who can make it on five hours or less of sleep without suffering some level of short-term impairment or long-term illness. When asked if he takes his own advice about sleep, Walker replied: “I give myself a nonnegotiable eight-hour sleep opportunity every night, and I keep very regular hours. If there is one thing I tell people, it’s to go to bed and to wake up at the same time every day, no matter what. I take my sleep incredibly seriously because I have seen the evidence. Once you know that after just one night of only four or five hours of sleep, your natural killer cells — the ones that attack the cancer cells that appear in your body every day — drop by 70 percent, or that a lack of sleep is linked to cancer of the bowel, prostate and breast … how could you do anything else?” Sleep Affects Your Body’s Hunger-Regulating Hormones You may not realize a lack of consistent, high-quality sleep wreaks havoc on two of your body’s hunger-regulating hormones. Chronic lack of sleep can cause ghrelin — also known as your “hunger hormone” — to skyrocket, which has the effect of making you feel hungry when you really don't need to eat. Ghrelin appears to act on your brain’s pleasure centers. This explains why you may be inclined to reach for a second brownie based on remembering how good the first one tasted and made you feel while you were eating it. Leptin, also referred to as the "obesity hormone," helps regulate your appetite, metabolism and feelings of satiety. Leptin tells your brain when you’re full and when it should start burning calories. When you are sleeping, your leptin levels increase, signaling your brain you have sufficient energy and letting it know to curtail any calorie burning or signals for hunger. The decrease in leptin brought on by sleep deprivation often results in your metabolism slowing down and your body signaling a constant feeling of hunger even though you do not need to eat. Because leptin is secreted by fat tissue, if you are overweight, you likely have higher than normal levels of leptin, which may lead to leptin resistance. Overly high levels of leptin have been tied to heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and stroke, as well as blood sugar problems.8 If you are leptin resistant, your body will receive signals that may lead you to continue to eat even when you’ve actually had enough. While chronic sleep deprivation cannot shoulder total responsibility for the continuing surge in global obesity rates, Walker believes it certainly plays a significant role. He states:9 “I’m not going to say the obesity crisis is caused by the sleep-loss epidemic alone. It’s not. However, processed food and sedentary lifestyles do not adequately explain its rise. Something is missing. It’s now clear sleep is that third ingredient.” The researchers stated, “These differences in leptin and ghrelin are likely to increase appetite, possibly explaining the increased BMI observed with short sleep duration.” 11 A sleep-disorders study involving more than 1,000 participants, which was designed to uncover a link between sleep problems and metabolic hormones, concluded:10 Those who slept for five hours had 14.9 percent higher ghrelin levels and 15.5 percent lower leptin levels than those who achieved eight hours of sleep The short sleepers had higher body mass indexes (BMIs) Running Low on ZZZs May Put You at Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease While working on his Ph.D. in neurophysiology, Walker stumbled into the realm of sleep. After failing to successfully identify brainwave patterns in people with different forms of dementia while testing them during daytime hours, Walker stumbled across a scientific paper revealing a probable link between sleep and dementia. In the ensuing six months, Walker set up a sleep laboratory and began to study his patients’ brainwave patterns at night. In doing so, he found that sleep quality, it seemed, could be an early diagnostic for dementia. Now, Walker is convinced too little sleep during your adult life span significantly raises your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This is the case because amyloid-beta deposits that would normally be cleaned out of your brain nightly during deep sleep accumulate as plaques and kill off surrounding cells.12 This waste-removal system has been dubbed the glymphatic system, and operates similarly to your body's lymphatic system, which is responsible for eliminating cellular waste products. Because your brain is a closed system, protected by the blood-brain barrier, it needs its own system for waste elimination. Your glymphatic system gets into your brain by piggybacking on blood vessels in your brain. By pumping cerebral spinal fluid through your brain's tissues, your glymphatic system flushes waste from your brain back into your circulatory system for elimination by your liver. Because your glymphatic system ramps up its activity during sleep, when you don’t get enough sleep, the damaging plaques build up, attack and degrade particular regions of your brain. Walker notes a brain affected by Alzheimer’s has lost most of its ability to remove the amyloid-beta waste products, mainly because it is caught in a vicious cycle: more amyloid, less deep sleep; less deep sleep, more amyloid. If you are not sure of the steps you can take to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, please review my previous article “Alzheimer’s Disease — Yes, It’s Preventable!” Lack of Quality Sleep Contributes to Chronic Pain A U.K. study13 published in Sleep Medicine Reviews suggests poor sleep makes you two to three times more likely to develop a chronic pain condition, while also putting you at risk for other health problems. “Sleep and pain problems are two of the biggest health problems in today’s society,” said lead author Esther Afolalu, a Ph.D. student in the department of psychology at the University of Warwick in Coventry. Afolalu and her colleagues reviewed 16 prior sleep studies involving more than 60,000 adults from 10 countries. The studies looked at how well people were sleeping at the onset of the research as well as the effects of longer-term sleep changes on participants’ immune function, pain and physical health. Half the participants were tracked upward of four years. Afolalu and her team wrote: “A decline in sleep quality and sleep quantity was associated with a two-to-three-fold increase in the risk of developing a pain condition, small elevations in levels of inflammatory markers and a decline in self-reported physical health status.” Based on the research, if you do not get adequate sleep, you may be at risk for: Reduced ability of your immune system to fight off bacteria, viruses and other foreign substances Increased levels of inflammation Higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol Increased levels of other biomarkers related to fatigue, pain and poor health Deficits in physical functioning Notably, Afolalu and her team discovered recently developed insomnia doubles your risk of a chronic pain disorder and hip-fracture problems. While increases in sleep did not appear to directly diminish pain or arthritis, improved sleep did help participants function better physically. Keep in mind Afolalu’s research has two notable limitations: reliance on individuals to self-report their sleep patterns and a lack of consistent tools for measuring sleep quality and quantity. Poor Sleep, Depression and Your Brain’s Reward Center While the precise causes of depression are not always evident, certain factors such as poor sleep have been shown to contribute to it.14 Insomnia, for example, has been shown to influence the onset, severity and recurrence of depressive episodes. If you routinely suffer from insomnia, you are at twice the risk of developing depression as compared to individuals who sleep well. A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience15,16 suggests your brain’s reward center may help protect you from the depressive symptoms traditionally associated with poor sleep. Researchers at Duke University have taken a closer look at the involvement of your ventral striatum (VS) — an area of your brain responsible for reward processing and motivation. Their objective is to better understand the role your VS may play with respect to depression and poor sleep. Dysfunction in your VS is thought to be associated not only with depression, but also with addiction, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Parkinson’s disease. Because poor sleep is not necessarily associated with depression in every individual, researchers have found that stimulating the VS region of the brain has a therapeutic effect on some depressed patients. Reut Avinun, Ph.D., department of psychology and neuroscience, Duke University, and her colleagues engaged more than 1,000 university students to explore the relationship among depression, self-reported sleep patterns and VS activity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected while study participants played a card-guessing game designed to engage the VS indicated students with higher reward-related VS activity were less likely to report symptoms of depression even when their sleep quality was poor. Avinun said:17 "In our study, we showed how the negative effects of poor sleep can also be modulated by [the ventral striatum], so high reward-related activation can buffer the effect of poor sleep on depressive symptoms. This same region has been associated with optimism, so it's possible individuals with this high reward responsiveness can cope with stressful and negative experiences better by having a more positive outlook." Further research in this area may help scientists gain further insight into how depression works, as well as assist them in identifying biomarkers for depression risk. Says Avinun: "In the future, I plan to work on gaining a better understanding of depression susceptibility, and help to identify the individuals who are more at risk of developing depression by looking at their brain and DNA." Is Your Chronic Sleep Problem Caused by Sleep Apnea? Some 30 million adult Americans suffer from undiagnosed sleep apnea,18 a serious health condition which causes you to stop breathing while you are sleeping. Depending on the severity of your condition, these breath interruptions may occur just a few times — or hundreds of times — an hour. During these moments without breath, your brain and the rest of your body is literally being starved of oxygen. If you have undiagnosed sleep apnea, you may be unknowingly putting yourself at risk for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. In addition, sleep apnea can contribute to depression, insomnia, impotence, pregnancy complications and weight gain. Clearly sleep apnea is not something to be taken lightly. Sleep apnea can often go unnoticed because doctors don’t routinely screen for it and you may be inclined to dismiss daytime sleepiness as “a bad night’s sleep” or stress. If you suspect you may be suffering from sleep apnea, you’ll want to seek the help of a qualified sleep specialist. Ask your general practitioner for a recommendation, and also do your own research. Some sleep doctors offer solutions focused on addressing only secondary problems, while you will want to uncover and treat the root issue(s). Treatment Options for Sleep Apnea Potential treatment options for addressing sleep apnea are as follows: Buteyko Breathing Method: The Buteyko technique, which is named after the Russian doctor who developed it, is useful to reverse health problems caused by improper breathing, including sleep apnea Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP): CPAP is a special type of sleeping mask prescribed for severe sleep apnea, which is designed to mechanically restore your breathing by applying air pressure to open your airway Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy: Myofunctional therapy involves the neuromuscular reeducation or repatterning of your oral and facial muscles, including facial and tongue exercises and behavior modification techniques to promote proper tongue position, improved breathing, chewing and swallowing Oral appliance: If you have mild to moderate sleep apnea related to jaw or tongue issues, dentists specializing in sleep apnea can design a custom “mouth guard” you can wear while sleeping to facilitate proper breathing Weight loss: Because obesity and sleep apnea often go hand in hand, you may be able to dramatically relieve the effects of sleep apnea simply by losing weight; weight loss will reduce pressure on your abdomen and chest, thereby allowing your breathing muscles to function more effectively when you sleep When it comes to how you breathe, your diet may play a bigger role than might imagine. Processed foods, which tend to acidify your blood in an attempt to maintain normal pH, cause you to breathe more heavily and can lead to chronic overbreathing. As such, processed, high-protein and high-grain meals have been shown to have negative effects on the way you breathe. Give your body a break by consuming more water, fruits and vegetables, which have lesser impact on your breathing. Sleeplessness Is Having a Catastrophic Effect on Health and Well-Being In the video above, Walker asserts his belief that getting sufficient quality sleep is the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body and invigorate your health on a daily basis. I agree wholeheartedly. You may be surprised to know the World Health Organization, since 2007, has tagged shift work as a “probable human carcinogen” because it causes circadian disruption.19 While this news may surprise you, the truth is if you work erratic hours, particularly the night shift, you most assuredly are putting yourself at greater risk for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity. While you may not be a shift worker, you very likely are wrestling with one or more issues that are causing you to sleep poorly. No matter the root issue(s) you face, research linking chronic poor sleep and lack of sleep to disease and illness cannot be ignored. The scientific facts underscore my belief that there is no substitute for, nor any excuse for not getting, a full night’s rest. Says Walker:20 “The decimation of sleep throughout industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health and wellness. It is a silent sleep-loss epidemic. It’s time for us to reclaim our right to a full night of sleep, without embarrassment or the stigma of laziness. In doing so, we may remember what it feels like to truly be awake during the day.” Given its importance, I encourage you to take a few moments today to evaluate your sleep habits. Are you getting enough sleep? If not, what’s one change you can make to improve the length and/or quality of your sleep? If you need help getting started, check out my 16 Chronological Tips to Improve Your Sleep.

[endlessarchite]

Wood Inlay Ornament with German Glass Glitter

Hi friends! And hi to new friends visiting from the #CreativeChristmas Challenge hosted by Remodelaholic!

To those of you who don’t know me yet: welcome. Everyone else has already started drinking and saying really embarrassing things (about themselves, not you… we’re not a super judgmental bunch). To those of you who already know me: cheers. As always, you rock. And I was just kidding about the drinking thing (unless it’s football season and a Saturday, which yes to both).

Anyway, from time to time, I like to throw my hat in on a DIY challenge or two because nothing excuses buying more power tools like overcommitting to a deadline for fun (like the 2×4 summer challenge and boom: new coffee table!). This time around, the theme was making something for Christmas. I’ve already been finding inspiration for my color scheme this year in the form of acorns, snowflakes, owls, and other wintery-woodland things, so I figured: why not see if I can fill up the inevitable empty parts of my tree with what I have on hand, rather than buying a bunch of new ornaments? I also just happened upon a set of carving bits for my Dremel and have been itching to experiment with epoxy/inlays/resins, so I started playing around until this happened:

And as a fun little bonus: I actually made a video of it too!

Tools and Materials

affiliate links of items I recommend and use are listed in this post, which support this site at no cost to you… thanks!

scrap wood (I had 1″ x 4″ poplar)

scissors

printer paper

inkjet printer

acetone or nail polish remover

Dremel 200

Dremel engraving/carving kit

band saw or scroll saw

random orbit sander

wood stain (I used Minwax Ipswich Pine and washed while it was still wet with Early American… I’ll have to show you guys more about this as I’ve done it a number of times to get the colors I like)

Mod Podge

small detail paint brush

Miss Mustard Seed’s German Glass Glitter in Silver Tiara

Martha Stewart Crafts extra fine glitter in Smoky Quartz

clear spray sealer (gloss)

small drill bit

thread (I used stuff from my cross stitch stash)

First things first: print out the image (mine is available for download near the end of the post) and cut it out. I used a scrap piece of poplar that was bound for the burn pile, so I wasn’t really expecting perfection (in fact as you can see, I first used a different image that was WAY too intricate for a first-time experiment and then decided on the final design).

To transfer the ink from the printer paper, I swabbed the back with an acetone nail polish remover. As you can see, the image didn’t transfer perfectly, but it was good enough (I got the idea from my buddy Brad’s video here — then went with the option that wouldn’t require changing out of my pajama pants or going into the cold garage that morning).

Next, I took out my Dremel and a new engraving/carving set I’d recently purchased for another inlay project. In my opinion, crafting is a good intro before graduating to larger pieces, so I figured this would help me practice with diamond tips, how to control the carve, etc. A good method is to create the hard outline first, then carve out the middle, and continue to make the inlay deeper and deeper until it’s got enough depth to hold the inlay material (glitter, epoxy I assume, whatever).

Next, I sketched out the overall shape (spoiler: it wasn’t at all even, so I highly recommend using the template) and then went to cut out the piece. And this is when it seemed like things were conspiring against me: my new scroll saw was broken… right out of the box. Womp, womp.

To make the situation a little stickier, I was about 5 hours away at this point from needing to head out of town to Raleigh, NC (recap here), and I had no other tools that would give me the right depth and shape. Disappointed but undeterred, I figured the next best thing would be to ask to borrow tools from the person I’d be visiting (thankfully, it was a trip to visit some DIY blogging friends just for fun — my pal Brittany just so happened to have a band saw in her garage). Of course, now I want one of those, too.

Of course, I’d never actually used a band saw before, so despite the general don’t-cut-your-fingers-off rule, the piece still came out a little wonky (mostly due to my non-templating sketch). I was able to shape it a little more with an orbital sander. I also carved the edges out a little more and did a final sanding with high grit sandpaper before stain.

Since the overall concept was to make this look like an inlay, I wanted to use glitter with a little more grit and sparkle: enter, German glass glitter. It’s really amazing stuff in person. To paint it into place, I relied on a small paint brush (tip: if the brush starts to fray a little, spin it as you’re dipping it into the glue to get the point fine again… check out my video to see a demo of that).

You can layer the glitter in, too: after giving it some time to dry, paint another bit of glue on top of the glitter and add more into the recessed areas. It will add depth!

I added extra-fine gold glitter around the edge and sealed the whole thing with a clear gloss spray, then drilled a hole through the top and threaded it so it could hang on the tree.

Caveat: before I sealed with a clear gloss, I actually tried to seal with an old polycrylic which unfortunately made the top and bottom tips look faded/cloudy once it dried. At first I thought I’d lean into the mistake by painting the back and sides with chalk paint and sanding to make it look rustic, but it looked really sad instead and totally detracted from the sparkle on the front. I wanted to get this done in time for the blog hop, so I just continued on with sealing again and adding the glitter around the edge. So, if you try a project like this, don’t make my mistake and you’ll get even better results!

You can also try other inlay methods, other glitter colors, fill in the center vs the outer rings with opposite hues, etc… the possibilities are pretty endless!

All in all, I think it’s going to make a nice addition to my white/gold/chrome/woodland Christmas decor theme this year (and the less I need to spend on ornaments, the more budget I have to make Christmas cocktails, hehe).

Want to try this for yourself? You can download my template here.

To be perfectly frank, I think the photos really don’t do the sparkle on this piece enough justice (in fact, I worried that it was looking too drab in photos). So, I made a video tutorial too (I’d love it if you subscribed if you haven’t already… with what I’ve learned in making this tutorial, there is more to come no doubt!).

As I mentioned, this DIY was part of a blog hop, with 25 other bloggers participating — aka, enough DIY Christmas ideas to keep you busy right up until the actual holiday (if you were so ambitiously inclined). So, check out a preview of the other projects and bloggers participating in the images below. You can also head over to the Remodelaholic post (who is hosting this hop) to check out other DIYers submitting their inspired ideas (on social media, you can look for #CreativeChristmas to find them all).

DIY Christmas Trees and Ornaments

Wintry Silver Dollar Store Christmas Tree Decor | Remodelaholic Marbled Christmas Ornaments | Doodlecraft Scrap Wood Inlay Ornaments | The Ugly Duckling House (you’re here!) Woodburned Wood Slice Ornaments | Sisters What Flocked Pine Cones | Practical and Pretty Abstract Monogram Ornaments | Domicile37 Concrete Christmas Ornaments | The Palette Muse Wood Slice Deer Ornaments | Our Crafty Mom Vintage Gumball Machine Ornaments | Beth Watson Design Studio Etched Glass Ornaments | Just Call Me Homegirl Unicorn Inspired Christmas Tree | The DIY Mommy Driftwood Reindeer Ornaments | Sustain My Craft Habit

DIY Christmas Gifts and Decor

Christmas Pine Hoop Wreath | This Mama’s Dance Gingerbread Man Candles | Nourish and Nestle Wire and Glass Chandelier | Home with Cupcakes and Crinoline Christmas Scroll Wall Art | Grace In My Space Lighted Wood Trees | Frazzled Joy Crocheted Christmas Hat | Luz Patterns Christmas Card Photo Display| Hertoolbelt JOY Porch Sign | Ginger Snap Crafts Folding Bar Cart Table | Everyday Party Magazine Wood and Burlap Christmas Sign | Leap of Faith Crafting Wood Block Snowman | Anika’s DIY Life Holiday Candle Wrap | Dragonfly & Lily Pads Christmas Pom Pom Pillow | Small Home Soul Handlettered Wall Art | Smiling Colors

Those of us who did videos for this hop can be found in the playlist below, so those of you who would rather watch than read (or just want to blow off work for a few more minutes) have something, too! *If you’re having difficulty playing it, you can jump over to the playlist here.*

There you have it! Hope you’re getting into the holiday spirit just in time. Will you be working on any decor ideas this Christmas? This is going to be a very busy holiday season for me, so be sure to check back in for more DIYs (I’m going to give that epoxy inlay idea a shot, and a few more scrap ideas are just bubbling in the ol’ brain). Have a great weekend!

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Wood Inlay Ornament with German Glass Glitter published first on http://ift.tt/2qxZz2j

[chocdono]

Wood Inlay Ornament with German Glass Glitter

Hi friends! And hi to new friends visiting from the #CreativeChristmas Challenge hosted by Remodelaholic!

To those of you who don’t know me yet: welcome. Everyone else has already started drinking and saying really embarrassing things (about themselves, not you… we’re not a super judgmental bunch). To those of you who already know me: cheers. As always, you rock. And I was just kidding about the drinking thing (unless it’s football season and a Saturday, which yes to both).

Anyway, from time to time, I like to throw my hat in on a DIY challenge or two because nothing excuses buying more power tools like overcommitting to a deadline for fun (like the 2×4 summer challenge and boom: new coffee table!). This time around, the theme was making something for Christmas. I’ve already been finding inspiration for my color scheme this year in the form of acorns, snowflakes, owls, and other wintery-woodland things, so I figured: why not see if I can fill up the inevitable empty parts of my tree with what I have on hand, rather than buying a bunch of new ornaments? I also just happened upon a set of carving bits for my Dremel and have been itching to experiment with epoxy/inlays/resins, so I started playing around until this happened:

And as a fun little bonus: I actually made a video of it too!

Tools and Materials

affiliate links of items I recommend and use are listed in this post, which support this site at no cost to you… thanks!

scrap wood (I had 1″ x 4″ poplar)

scissors

printer paper

inkjet printer

acetone or nail polish remover

Dremel 200

Dremel engraving/carving kit

band saw or scroll saw

random orbit sander

wood stain (I used Minwax Ipswich Pine and washed while it was still wet with Early American… I’ll have to show you guys more about this as I’ve done it a number of times to get the colors I like)

Mod Podge

small detail paint brush

Miss Mustard Seed’s German Glass Glitter in Silver Tiara

Martha Stewart Crafts extra fine glitter in Smoky Quartz

clear spray sealer (gloss)

small drill bit

thread (I used stuff from my cross stitch stash)

First things first: print out the image (mine is available for download near the end of the post) and cut it out. I used a scrap piece of poplar that was bound for the burn pile, so I wasn’t really expecting perfection (in fact as you can see, I first used a different image that was WAY too intricate for a first-time experiment and then decided on the final design).

To transfer the ink from the printer paper, I swabbed the back with an acetone nail polish remover. As you can see, the image didn’t transfer perfectly, but it was good enough (I got the idea from my buddy Brad’s video here — then went with the option that wouldn’t require changing out of my pajama pants or going into the cold garage that morning).

Next, I took out my Dremel and a new engraving/carving set I’d recently purchased for another inlay project. In my opinion, crafting is a good intro before graduating to larger pieces, so I figured this would help me practice with diamond tips, how to control the carve, etc. A good method is to create the hard outline first, then carve out the middle, and continue to make the inlay deeper and deeper until it’s got enough depth to hold the inlay material (glitter, epoxy I assume, whatever).

Next, I sketched out the overall shape (spoiler: it wasn’t at all even, so I highly recommend using the template) and then went to cut out the piece. And this is when it seemed like things were conspiring against me: my new scroll saw was broken… right out of the box. Womp, womp.

To make the situation a little stickier, I was about 5 hours away at this point from needing to head out of town to Raleigh, NC (recap here), and I had no other tools that would give me the right depth and shape. Disappointed but undeterred, I figured the next best thing would be to ask to borrow tools from the person I’d be visiting (thankfully, it was a trip to visit some DIY blogging friends just for fun — my pal Brittany just so happened to have a band saw in her garage). Of course, now I want one of those, too.

Of course, I’d never actually used a band saw before, so despite the general don’t-cut-your-fingers-off rule, the piece still came out a little wonky (mostly due to my non-templating sketch). I was able to shape it a little more with an orbital sander. I also carved the edges out a little more and did a final sanding with high grit sandpaper before stain.

Since the overall concept was to make this look like an inlay, I wanted to use glitter with a little more grit and sparkle: enter, German glass glitter. It’s really amazing stuff in person. To paint it into place, I relied on a small paint brush (tip: if the brush starts to fray a little, spin it as you’re dipping it into the glue to get the point fine again… check out my video to see a demo of that).

You can layer the glitter in, too: after giving it some time to dry, paint another bit of glue on top of the glitter and add more into the recessed areas. It will add depth!

I added extra-fine gold glitter around the edge and sealed the whole thing with a clear gloss spray, then drilled a hole through the top and threaded it so it could hang on the tree.

Caveat: before I sealed with a clear gloss, I actually tried to seal with an old polycrylic which unfortunately made the top and bottom tips look faded/cloudy once it dried. At first I thought I’d lean into the mistake by painting the back and sides with chalk paint and sanding to make it look rustic, but it looked really sad instead and totally detracted from the sparkle on the front. I wanted to get this done in time for the blog hop, so I just continued on with sealing again and adding the glitter around the edge. So, if you try a project like this, don’t make my mistake and you’ll get even better results!

You can also try other inlay methods, other glitter colors, fill in the center vs the outer rings with opposite hues, etc… the possibilities are pretty endless!

All in all, I think it’s going to make a nice addition to my white/gold/chrome/woodland Christmas decor theme this year (and the less I need to spend on ornaments, the more budget I have to make Christmas cocktails, hehe).

Want to try this for yourself? You can download my template here.

To be perfectly frank, I think the photos really don’t do the sparkle on this piece enough justice (in fact, I worried that it was looking too drab in photos). So, I made a video tutorial too (I’d love it if you subscribed if you haven’t already… with what I’ve learned in making this tutorial, there is more to come no doubt!).

As I mentioned, this DIY was part of a blog hop, with 25 other bloggers participating — aka, enough DIY Christmas ideas to keep you busy right up until the actual holiday (if you were so ambitiously inclined). So, check out a preview of the other projects and bloggers participating in the images below. You can also head over to the Remodelaholic post (who is hosting this hop) to check out other DIYers submitting their inspired ideas (on social media, you can look for #CreativeChristmas to find them all).

DIY Christmas Trees and Ornaments

Wintry Silver Dollar Store Christmas Tree Decor | Remodelaholic Marbled Christmas Ornaments | Doodlecraft Scrap Wood Inlay Ornaments | The Ugly Duckling House (you’re here!) Woodburned Wood Slice Ornaments | Sisters What Flocked Pine Cones | Practical and Pretty Abstract Monogram Ornaments | Domicile37 Concrete Christmas Ornaments | The Palette Muse Wood Slice Deer Ornaments | Our Crafty Mom Vintage Gumball Machine Ornaments | Beth Watson Design Studio Etched Glass Ornaments | Just Call Me Homegirl Unicorn Inspired Christmas Tree | The DIY Mommy Driftwood Reindeer Ornaments | Sustain My Craft Habit

DIY Christmas Gifts and Decor

Christmas Pine Hoop Wreath | This Mama’s Dance Gingerbread Man Candles | Nourish and Nestle Wire and Glass Chandelier | Home with Cupcakes and Crinoline Christmas Scroll Wall Art | Grace In My Space Lighted Wood Trees | Frazzled Joy Crocheted Christmas Hat | Luz Patterns Christmas Card Photo Display| Hertoolbelt JOY Porch Sign | Ginger Snap Crafts Folding Bar Cart Table | Everyday Party Magazine Wood and Burlap Christmas Sign | Leap of Faith Crafting Wood Block Snowman | Anika’s DIY Life Holiday Candle Wrap | Dragonfly & Lily Pads Christmas Pom Pom Pillow | Small Home Soul Handlettered Wall Art | Smiling Colors

Those of us who did videos for this hop can be found in the playlist below, so those of you who would rather watch than read (or just want to blow off work for a few more minutes) have something, too! *If you’re having difficulty playing it, you can jump over to the playlist here.*

There you have it! Hope you’re getting into the holiday spirit just in time. Will you be working on any decor ideas this Christmas? This is going to be a very busy holiday season for me, so be sure to check back in for more DIYs (I’m going to give that epoxy inlay idea a shot, and a few more scrap ideas are just bubbling in the ol’ brain). Have a great weekend!

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The post Wood Inlay Ornament with German Glass Glitter appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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