I’ve been thinking about not calling these weeknotes anymore because it’s essentially become my entire blog and the majority of the posts. 😂 Like, who cares! I can do literally whatever I want. I can choose the direction of my blog in the way that I please. We’ll see. Something about numbering them seems so “in order” that I am reluctant to change. I mean, it took me like six or seven years to change the name of “Fashion Friday” to “Stylesheet”, so…

It feels like it’s been a long couple of weeks, but I have a day off tomorrow and I have slowly been trying to listen to my own needs and respect my own boundaries when I feel like I have been “people’d out”. I feel like my capacity to socialise is super low right now, although it might just have been running low for weeks because we had Halloween events, I went to the office a couple of times, and hung out with friends or family on weekends. I actually booked this day off a couple of months ago, and it feels only right that I take the “gift” that my previous self gave me.

I suppose for some people it can seem a bit of a strange thing to think of serving and looking after your future self, but I think we do similar things at work and in our lifestyles superficially – such as eating well and exercising – that serves our future selves, that it only makes sense to do the same mentally. Although the stigma around mental health has definitely improved over the past decade, that the different ways that people cope with it still raises a few eyebrows. We all cope with our struggles differently. I like to book in a day off about once every month or every six weeks to make sure I have a dedicated day – that’s not a weekend – to not have to worry about work and to spend the time with myself or enjoying my own company.

I’ve been trying to work from cafes recently, just for a change of scenery from home, and for times I don’t particularly feel like going into the office either. It’s been doing well for my productivity and focus but I hope I’m not overworking myself either. It’s been very successful for just sitting in and working on my blog or other computer/screen-related activities.

Regarding Halloween, I wanted to share some photos. I dressed up as Velma from Scooby-Doo, partially because Nick kept making comments about how my short hair resembled Velma’s. I thought I could pull off the character really well, so I jumped on eBay and purchased a few second-hand and new items (mostly second-hand) to put the outfit together. I couldn’t quite get the skirt right, but mostly because I was trying a bit too hard to purchase a red skirt that I could re-wear and that suited my current style. She has a skater skirt or a pleated skirt but I don’t like skater skirts anymore so I was trying to avoid those. I think the shoes and the socks were very successful, and I was so chuffed that I found something very close to Velma’s shoe style for just $10 in my size.

The main reason I wanted to dress up was because we were planning to go to Furnace and the Fundamentals’ Halloween themed show (we had been to their concert a couple months prior) and although I don’t love dressing up or getting into costumes, it was a pretty good excuse to get into the spirit. I’ve dressed up as Wednesday Addams or some variant or spin on her outfit way too many times – and again that was mostly because my hair resembled hers, ha – so Velma was a nice change. It just so happened that we had a work Halloween event at around the same time so I turned up to that in the same costume too.

We of course had to re-create the trope of Velma losing her glasses, based on this image:

This was the result:

In case anyone is wondering who Nick is supposed to be, he’s supposed to be Tony Montana from Scarface, but couldn’t get the exact shirt design in time. I realised at the Furnace show that he looked a bit like James from The End of the F***ing World TV show too, when he has his Hawaiian shirt and messy hair. 😆

We had dinner with my parents yesterday at an Indonesian restaurant and they also visited us at home for a while. I haven’t seen my brother for a while but hopefully we’ll see him soon when we hang out for his birthday!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I listened to Taylor Swift’s new album, and although I wasn’t 100% in the mood for her music at the time, I have been listening to it so much. I’ve put it on in the background while working, sometimes playing it through our Apple TV, through the good speakers and all. I still thoroughly appreciate Taylor’s use of enjambment (run-on lines) and literary devices that make her storytelling so poetic and unique. It makes singing along to her music so different compared to other artists’. Although I mentioned to my friend Daniel that I wasn’t sure if Taylor’s album would make it into my favourite albums of 2022… I think it will! 🤍

My peace lily is flowering which is super exciting! I also got a couple of new plants, a philodendron birkin and a monstera El Salvador. 🪴 I was a bit reluctant to move the monstera to such a large pot, thinking it might shock the plant, but it’s doing well. I think I am good with plants for now – that’s enough to take care of for the time being and along with my satin pothos and my snake plant (sansevieria) that seems to keep growing buds, I am happy with my collection.

I purchase my pots from Jones & Co, a small business in Sydney. I only started making purchases recently when I got into plants, but I actually started following Jones & Co about twelve years ago because I used to work for a web design and development agency that helped with their website. The founder is a Filipino-English woman named Jennifer, and she and her team work with artisans in the Philippines and Vietnam to bring their beautiful products to life. You can read more about the business on their about us page. 💚 I think their designs are one-of-a-kind and they have started shipping globally too! Get your plants some cosy homes.