July had a few expected and unexpected twists and turns.

I got my first speeding ticket (unfortunately because I didn’t notice the signs change - I generally drive like a turtle, haha) right before the month started. I spent a portion of the month trying to figure out how to pay the ticket but had it taken care of before August hit.
I’ve been working on finding a middle ground between the anxiety/stress of living in VA again (and living in a space that is not my own/most of my stuff still being in storage) and attempting to be at peace with the entire situation until I am able to move on. We are blessed to have the friends we do that have provided us shelter. Still, I’m tired but I’ve been actively pushing myself to meditate and be as mindful as I’m capable every day (both toward myself and toward other people).
Muddy and I had our anniversa-week (that we extended to be most of the month). We’ve been together since 2008 and that’s still kind of mind boggling and filled with a lot of layers.
I applied for a job a little more than a week into July and started working about midway through. I liked the work but it’s too hard on my knees and it requires a faster pace than I’m capable of so my last day is this upcoming Friday (This will be the shortest amount of time I’ve ever stayed at a job before but I need to listen to my body). I’m actively looking for other work to hold me over until I either build a client base here or am able to start pulling income in online.
I dedicated a big chunk of the month to taking self portraits, which is something I rarely ever do and I really like a handful of them. I’ve decided I’m going to look through and pick out my favorite 30 and post them as an entry on here in the upcoming weeks. I’ve also been trickling a handful onto the online “cane-yo” group, a telegram/instagram/etc community where artists post references for one another to use.
I tried a “brownie in a mug” recipe that Muddy and I have been having at least once a week. Still trying to tweak that to perfection and when I do, I’ll share the updated version here.
Speaking of recipes, I made my first attempt at writing out an approximate recipe for a friend that I’ll likely share here for coconut curry tofu. :) I need to start making food posts in general.
I’ve not been making much art aside from taking the self portraits and some pencil sketches but my parents reached out a couple weeks ago and asked me to paint a portrait of their recently passed pup, Buttons. The supplies just came in the mail so I’ll be slowly starting to work on that (which I’m sure I’ll update here as well)

Looking forward to prepping more posts and putting them up here. Also planning to work on posting videos again on yt, even if it’s only a couple a week. Slowly following through but still following through so that’s what matters to me at the end of the day.