2024 The Start

Posted On February 25, 2024

I’ve been trying to stretch my creative writing skills lately. It had previously been something that brought me a lot of joy, making weird little snippet worlds and sharing them here on my blog or with my friends. So what do we do then when the bulk of creativity is being given to AI? I spent all morning looking up creative writing prompts to get past my writer’s block, and when I got to “dystopian creative writing” all I could think of is how is anything more dystopian than losing art? I mean yes, the ice caps are melting, and the jet stream is destabilizing and everywhere you look something awful is happening in the world, but like at least we still had artists. We could still interpret this pain into something, now it’s just… prompts and stolen images.

I don’t mean to be depressing. That’s why the majority of my content is cute B-roll of my horses and the mountains and outfits. I don’t want to add to the downward spiral of others. I hope to bring a little brightness. So here I am, for the first time in over a year, getting back into writing. And I know this post is going to drive my editing friends insane with its lack of structure but I’m practicing. Can’t get better without being bad at something first.

This is my first update in a long time on here. So, let’s do some house cleaning. The cottage stalled for a bit while we had some math issues with framing and building our own stairs. We solved those problems but then our horse shelter decided to take a literal nosedive into the ground. So, we stopped working on the house and built a new barn. If you’ve been on my Tiktok you’ve seen the progress with that project. The outside is nearly done we’re in the home stretch on roofing and siding and then we’re going to insulate and panel the inside. As is with all 6 horses in there on a cold night it stays about 20-30 degrees warmer than the outside and the difference in the health of our more senior horses is very noticeable. Once we finish that project, we’re going to finish a temporary pen around it for special diet needs and switch back to the house.

We’re so close on the house I can feel it. There’s very little logistical stuff left and then we’re on to the fun stuff of finishing. We are both determined to make this our last year in the trailer. It’s in pretty bad shape and upkeep and heating it is unsustainable. A very large part of how we designed the cottage was to lower our resource needs. As I’ve been pinteresting our future little house this whole time I have fallen into many adorable cottagecore spirals. A lot of it reminds me of my abuela, just this almost punk rock dedication to softness in the middle of a world that is trying so hard to make you tough.

I’ve really fallen for this almost Persephone like aesthetic, a goth cottagecore if you will. The whole “you can be a flower goddess, and the queen of the underworld” thing. It’s informing a lot of even my personal style choices lately. I’ve missed black. I wore it daily for years, and convinced myself I couldn’t keep wearing it now in my “new life” which is silly. None of this is new, I’ve had horses since I was 12, and I’ve been listening to metal just as long!

They say you’re 30’s is when you really become who you are and stop caring. And maybe that’s true. I spent my 20s just trying to survive and turned 30 very shortly before the world locked down for a year.

I’m hoping this is the year I have the energy to write more. And to create more.

And to play more TTRPG’s God damnit.