Life has still been weird, but I've actually been doing pretty good! I've been trying to keep myself busy working on mouse ears, desk sets, and doing little projects here and there around the house. As a result, I haven't been posting on here as much, but that was a goal at the beginning of the month- to spend less time on my laptop in May.
In April, I spent most of my time and energy writing, researching and working on my Things to Do While in Quarantine blog series. I spent a lot of time sitting on the couch typing away on my laptop and in hindsight- I think it was causing me neck and shoulder problems. I had a lot of migraines and headaches- some lasting a few days.
After some research, I came to the conclusion that they were more likely tension headaches rather than sinus migraines. I tested the theory by taking a weekend off from the laptop and it resulted in no headaches, less neck pain and less muscle pain in my shoulders. I've unknowingly been giving myself "tech neck" all this time. Add that to the trouble I've had sleeping, falling asleep and getting comfortable and you have a recipe for disaster. Thus, I made a pact with myself to spend less time on the couch, less time on my laptop, and instead to spend more time working on other things.
It seems to be producing good results! I've been in a lot less pain the past couple of weeks. When I feel a headache coming on, I've made a conscious effort to get into a different position. I've been more in tune to when I'm stressing out and I feel tension building in my neck, shoulders and back. I've been using an app for calming music and sleep meditations. I've also been listening to some calming music videos (that I found on YouTube) before bed or when I can't fall asleep. Not only do I feel better, but I'm more calm and I finally feel like I'm getting restful sleep! Self-care for the win!!!
Over the past few weeks, I've had a burst of creative energy that's resulted in lots of new notes, new lists, more Pinterest pins and a lot of Etsy favorites. (Ok, I've spent a little bit of time on the phone and my laptop.) I've got a lot of new ideas for decorations and artwork around our house. I've organized my idea lists and created a bunch of new ones. I've also started to collect a few special pieces to add to my collection.
I've been doing a little bit of online shopping over the past few months. Eliot and I usually use some of our tax refund money to purchase items for our house. Most of the stuff that I've ordered this year was to decorate the house since we're trying to head in that direction. I've started to get a few of those things in the mail and I'm so excited to start putting them all together!!! Right now, they're all getting tucked safely into storage containers while we finish painting and moving furniture. It's going to be so exciting when I finally put them on our walls! Our house will be so bright and fun!!!
Speaking of bright and fun, I've also ordered a few new pieces for my wardrobe. June is Pride month so this is the time when all of the stores are releasing their rainbow collections. Last year, I was impressed with Disney's 2019 Rainbow Collection. As far as I can tell, they haven't released much for this year yet, but a lot of items from the 2019 collection are still available online. However, other stores like Target have a ton of new items available. I ordered two rainbow Mickey shirts for Eliot and me. I also got myself a new rainbow skirt and dress! My wardrobe is going to be a lot more colorful!
Of course, we've still had to do a little bit of in person essential shopping. A few weeks ago, I had my first experiences shopping at the store while wearing a face mask. Eliot and I met at Walmart one night after he got out of work. It was surreal to stand in line with everyone waiting to get into the store. Then, we felt a bit rushed to get everything we needed since the store was closing early. A few days later, we went to the grocery store to get more food and that was also weird with the aisles having arrows.
So far, those are the only two times I've left the house in weeks. Eliot still picks things up for us after work so I don't have to stray too far from home. This weekend, we're going to need more groceries though, so we'll be making a trip to do that. We're also going to need supplies for a few more home projects, so I see a trip to Home Depot in our future. I have to admit, it'll be nice to leave the house for a little bit!
Thankfully, we're able to order most of our business supplies online but I do need to get out to pick up a few items at the craft store at some point. I wasn't aware that I could, but I recently looked into picking up items at Michael's and realized that our local stores were open for shopping anyways. I'm hoping that I can go to both Michael's and Joann's to pick up a few essential business things, as well as supplies to work on home decor projects and some other things to keep me busy the next few months!
Business hasn't been crazy busy for Happily Ever Hatter, but we are finishing up a few custom orders that we've gotten. We shipped out a bunch of orders earlier today. If things continue to be slower than usual, we're planning to switch gears and work on new designs, finishing samples we never finished, and making ready to ship items.
This past week, we've been busy making things for Snowblade Creations and Eliot's new desk sets. We've gotten a bunch of orders, way more than we were expecting for our initial release, so that's really exciting!!! We're also going to be releasing a few new products in the next week or two, so that's pretty exciting for us as well!
Other than that, Eliot and I have tried to make an effort to spend more time relaxing and not constantly doing things. We like to keep busy, but it's important that we find time to rest too. Eliot and I watched both of the Disney Family Singalongs that have been shown on ABC. We also watched the online livestream of the 25 Years of Disney Broadway Show. We really enjoyed all of those shows and seeing some of our favorite artists perform our favorite Disney songs! Disney music always makes me happy!
We've also been continuing our Once Upon a Time marathon. At this point, we're in the second half of season five. It's been years since I've watched it and I've forgotten a lot of the storylines- which has actually proven to make it more fun! I've loved getting back into it and rediscovering the characters. Plus, it's been really nice to watch it with Eliot- now I have someone else to talk to about the show and he's been enjoying it too!
Over the past few weeks, I've also started and finished watching another tv show I haven't seen in years. Eliot and I enjoyed Make It or Break It when it was on ABC Family about 10 years ago. It's on the Freeform app so I started watching it through our Roku. I usually watched one episode while eating breakfast and another while eating my lunch. That ensured that I took a few breaks throughout the day. It only lasted three seasons and 48 episodes, so it wasn't as long as other shows. I enjoyed watching it and like Once Upon a Time, I'd forgotten a lot so it was fun to see it again!
Like the last time I checked in about a month ago, Eliot and I have been watching a bunch of new Hallmark movies. I've been checking movies off of my Hallmark movie app left and right. A lot of the movies we've never seen before have been showing on the weekends, so we've been recording a ton of them on our DVR. (In fact, in the past 3 days I've watched four movies that I'd never seen before!). We've still got a bunch of movies to go through on our DVR, so I'm sure that will also keep us busy!
Anyways, we haven't been up to many exciting things, but I'm sure everyone feels like that at this point. We have to find the fun when we can. Thankfully, things have been looking up here. I'm getting pretty good at the 'keeping myself busy during quarantine' thing. Hopefully, that continues the rest of this month and into the unknown... °o°
No comments:
Post a Comment