Silly Little Things vol. 6

A cleaning schedule, free online classes, and a writing update.

Hello friends, and welcome to summer!

Can you believe we finally made it? We had a bit of a heat wave this week in New England, but not to worry, it’s going to rain all weekend. Check in on your New England pals. We are not okay.

Can you believe it’s also been over six months since I had a job? I can’t. I can hardly even remember what it feels like to be a working woman. Truthfully, it would be nice if I never had to remember what that felt like again, but alas, we haven’t yet won the lottery.

Anyway, let’s do a little June recap and see what I’ve been up to, shall we? This is a loooong one, so you’ll need to open it in a browser or the app to see the whole thing!

Did you know that Harvard has an entire catalog of online courses you can take for free? I’ve got this one and this one bookmarked for a writing project I’ve been noodling on. I’m sure there’s also lots of people who could benefit from this one 👀.

I’ve actually put myself on a shopping hiatus until September. No new clothes, accessories, shoes, or hair or makeup products. I don’t need anything nor do I have the disposable income to buy anything right now. We’ll see how I do. In the meantime I’m shopping my own closet and recreating some of these Pinterest looks:

I’ve stockpiled a bunch of “summer" reads and I’m happily working my way through them. My June reading recap will be up next week just in time for the holiday weekend, so keep an eye out for that. Right now I’m reading The Love Haters and so far it’s fun but I’ve been warned it doesn’t deal with certain topics well, so I’m holding opinions until I’m finished.

Well. It’s happened. I was coerced into watching Love Island. And now I’m hooked.

You guys.

This show is a commitment. It’s on nearly every day! Not to mention I jumped into this season late and had to hustle to watch 18 (!!!) episodes to catch up (I did skip the Aftersun episodes. I’ve only got so many hours in a day.) I spent an entire day earlier this week watching it and while my brain felt like mashed potatoes afterwards it was actually the perfect Rot Day activity and I have no regrets. If you’re watching feel free to sound off some thoughts & opinions in the comments.

Also as a follow up from last month:

🌳 The Four Seasons (Netflix): Loved this. Thrilled there will be another season.

🧜‍♀️ Sirens (Netflix): Loved this, hope there will be more coming out, maybe with White Lotus style seasons that focus on different people?

🐻 Paddington in Peru (Netflix): This was cute and my 3-year-old really enjoyed it!

Your girl is on a roll with her current work in progress. It is very much a first draft, aka not great at all, but it feels really good to be writing. I’d like to take this endeavor more seriously and potentially have it professionally edited, but that is $$$, so we’ll see. Right now I think I’m going to continue going the self publishing route because I am not a patient person and the traditional publishing machine moves very slowly.

If you’ve read any B.K. Borison, Lucy Score, or Annabel Monaghan you’ll have a pretty good idea of what my book is like. Here’s a little sneak peak at the mood board:

I have a lot of work to do to finish the book and learn as much as I can about marketing and promo and then, you know, actually do those activities which kind of makes me want to barf.

I also tried to read the first book I wrote and self published the other day but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Talk about cringe. I’m sure it’s not terrible, but it was written during a time when I thought I could be the next Colleen Hoover and I have since grown out of that notion. So let’s plan on this next book being better than that. Thank you to the 8 people who took the time to post reviews. Pretty sure 7 of them are friends and family.

At this point these really no longer warrant their own posts. I’ve run out of things to say about being unemployed. If you want to check out my previous posts that have all my tips and tricks you can find them all here.

Since December 2024, I’ve applied to roughly 172 jobs. I’ve had I think 9 companies want to interview me. I haven’t been keeping track of things as well as I was at the beginning of this journey, especially if they were calls about freelance or contract work.

The good news is I should be signing a freelance contract with an agency today (if I haven’t already by the time you see this.) The bad news is it won’t replace my full time salary, but it’s something. I’ve got 6 weeks left of unemployment (they extended it once, I don’t know how lucky I’ll get again.)

The nice thing about this career break has been the opportunity to really think about what I want to do with my life. Obviously in a perfect world that would be nothing, but since that’s not possible right now I’ve decided I really do want to continue to pursue contract/freelance work and keep things as flexible as possible. That being said, it is not easy to find these type of gigs, so I’m still applying for any and all roles that feel like they might be a good fit. I wouldn’t be opposed to a role that’s going to pay me a boatload of money but still allow me the time and flexibility to write and pursue being a full-time author.

Phew, we made it. See you all next week for my June book round-up! And I hope you all have a lovely 4th of July, full of liberty and justice for all.