Well… Hello and welcome.

Hello to you, and hello to 2022.

How was your holiday?

Mine was busy, so let’s get into it.

December…

I started the month with the usual yearly clean out of housework that moved into the yearly clothing/jewellery/accessory audits, and we finished up the writer’s group.

I went through my jewellery to see what needed cleaning and repairing, combined several sets together as I did a few years back, and cleaned out my designer jewellery chests and put most of the jewellery into Ziploc bags for protection as there’s so much of it. It also made more room for more pieces… I just need to repair a few bracelet stacks with floss elastic.

I set up the final T.K. Wrathbone story for the year for pre-order and upon release did a bunch of businessy stuff. I got stuck into other business stuff, starting on the usual end of year paperwork. I started cleaning out the computer, reorganising files, etc and ended up with nearly 1600 items in the trash. And because I made some choices about social mafia, ah, media, more files were deleted in January.

I started my yearly planners for next year, took a tonne of photos for next year’s posts, added to this list and jumped online. But the Internet was dodgy and I had to ring up to get it fixed. Turns out the modem was dodgy and I’m being sent a new one. Ironically, once I managed to get the laptops connected again, the damn thing worked like a charm. And, to top that off, my printer crapped out and I need a new one.

I continued with paperwork, had x-rays done on my hands, knees and feet, had a blood test, set up some appointments for next year. And all of this was done outside of the usual weekly shopping day and then housework day on Thursdays and Fridays, I also pottered around and read a tonne of books. 18 novels in total over Dec and Jan.

Christmas eve eve I did the shopping early and then went to the library and was done for the day. We had munchies in front of the carols on tv and watched a few other things before hitting bed around midnight.

Christmas eve I slept in I was so buggered. Did the housework and went out for our usual roast lunch but the store was closed thanks to getting a Covid deep clean. I had to go back after 3pm to get our food and only then it was via drive thru. Had more munchies in front of the usual Christmas eve carols and watched other things until hitting bed around midnight.

Christmas day we took things easy as I had the early stages of a migraine but managed to read a James Patterson book.

Day after Christmas, I read two more books and laughed and cried.

And for the next couple of days I did a couple of loads of washing and went to work on Pinterest, continuing to add to the TK, RSP and JDS accounts so I can close the LJD and TKW accounts. More on that in coming posts.

New Years Eve Eve I went shopping (a day early because of the impending bloody heat) and bought some clothes on sale. Came home and bought more online.

On New Year’s Eve we watched, Can’t Stop the Music, again, for like 30 years in a row, the fireworks, which went longer than they did last year, and since someone got into a shit, we went to bed not long after midnight.

January

I started on the paperwork of my clothing/jewellery/accessories after the audit, but it was too hot to continue through most afternoons and I couldn’t finish it until some items I’d bought online came in. Four weeks late. So I worked on clearing up other social media and websites to help streamline the upcoming process of deletion. I also bagged up the stuff from the audit for the op shop.

I did the outline for the first few JDS blog posts, and uploaded the news to JD, LJ, and TK social media accounts about closing the accounts.

Remade of all of my books’ back matter and finished it in about ten days. The heat just knocked me out so it was done sporadically. It also took 2-3 days to upload it. I still have uploading to do, simply because it will cost money to do so. So, budget!

I changed the tablecloth on my desk to a navy with white stars, switched out my large sharpie pen box into two smaller desk caddies, changed out my paperbacks on my cupboard for my hardcovers. I always wanted to see my hardcovers on a shelf. Cleaned up other areas, took some photos, and had a tidy up. My back, butt and leg muscles were killing me after that, not to mention my feet which have been wreaking havoc with pain.

Did the usual weekly shop and housework every week, and did some online shopping.

Finished off those 18 books I mentioned last month.

Continued to re-organise laptop files and deleted another 2000 or so.

I read Gone Girl in preparation for the novel I was about to start on, and started that novel by writing the prologue on a Sunday night, and then on the following Tuesday I wrote about eight pages. But it felt forced, and weird, and didn’t flow as well as I wanted it to. When the weather became a bit cooler, I decided to leave the book and start on another idea, a very current one, instead, thanks to a Jason Sudeikis rabbit hole because his movie, Colossal, inspired an idea when I saw it. So since it’s so fresh in my mind thanks to him being so fucking hot, I’ll start it this month.

So I didn’t get much writing done due to the stinking hot weather making my allergies flare up with the heat and it puffed up my eyes so much it looked as if I’d been crying non-stop. The left one constantly dripped and was sore for days. Not to mention the two day migraine I had. Oi! And then there’s the weird malaise that follows bad migraines for a couple of days after one.

We had a public Holiday for Australia Day, and I tried to do some things but it was still hot.

Monday, the 31st, the last day of January… I deleted a pile of social media accounts which you’ll find out about in coming posts, January Style went out across Jewel Divas Style, and I finished prepping this month’s blog posts.

It’s funny, in January every year I make a yearly “to do” list, and then in December I make a “to finish off” list to be achieved over December and January so I then have something to blog about when I start back on JDS. But it seems I’m always doing something, even if something is put off due to illness or weather, because something else usually gets done. Because, there’s ALWAYS something to be done!

Welcome to 2022!