little joys and little sorrows #23
reflecting on march: physical media in the mornings, turning off substack stats, making friends as an adult, growing flowers on the windowsill, scary pilates injury
hello quiet readers,
other than my birthday, today is my favourite day of the year. daylight savings. suddenly the world is right again, the picture on the wall has been tilted back to a straightened position, the perfect amount of milk has been added to my tea, my crops are growing, my skin is thriving.
to celebrate this wonderful time of year, i’m offering 20% off paid subscriptions, just in time for next week’s quiet list zine too. if you fancy something handmade posted through your letterbox every season, as well as more personal subscriber-only posts that i don’t want the whole world to see, now is the perfect time to upgrade.
how has march been for you? it’s been a long month but hasn’t felt like it at all. every morning i have noticed our bedroom covered in slightly more sunlight when i wake up, and it makes me so eager to start my day. i love walking into the sun room and not having to turn on a light, i love going for walks without a scarf, i love breathing in all the magnolia-scented potential in the air.
as always, feel free to leave your own little joys and sorrows in the comments as your form of reflection this month. i always love to hear what has made your month special to you.
okay, let’s get into the lists.
thank you for being here and supporting the sun room. your support means so much <3
little joys
coming downstairs each morning and practically running to the kitchen windowsill to see how much our seedlings have grown, saying good morning to them, telling them how beautiful they are, wishing them a nice day looking out onto the garden.
giving my desk a complete refresh and feeling like i’m dusting off the winter just like nature is doing outside my window.
and how it’s like looking in a mirror now, all my hobbies facing me, radiating joy every time i sit down at my desk (big fan of my new washi tape display).
finally finding clarity with something i’ve been struggling with for a long time. substack hasn’t felt fun for a while and i think it’s because the numbers got to my head a little. but turning off stats and my sub count has already made such a difference. i’m enjoying getting back to the type of writing i was doing when i first joined the platform.
and thinking about the shift that’s happened online, we’ve gone from posting pictures of our food and random unfiltered pictures twice a month to becoming mini businesses with content schedules and perfectly curated feeds. i’m trying to get back to a place where being online doesn’t feel like work but just another hobby, including substack. i’m already feeling like a weight has been lifted.
slowly coming out of my s.a.d and starting my mornings with something physical in my hands instead of a screen: my journal, the velvet moon gazette (a lovely newspaper on girlhood), my cup of oat milk tea of course, lighting candles on cloudy mornings.
finally getting to use my spring-themed mugs.
swapping out my autumn/winter decor around the house for spring ones, watching the house come to life a little
getting ready to do the same to my wardrobe very soon!
feeling the heat of the sun on my skin again, reminding myself of how much i missed this just a couple of months ago and drinking it all up like sweet lemonade.
seeing my favourite shade of blue in the skies again.
seeing baby leaves unfurl on trees, my all-time favourite sight to see.
watching our garden slowly come to life, thinking about all the future trips to the garden centre, all the flowers i’ll get to watch from my window.
discovering colouring as a new hobby and wanting to fill every spare moment i have with it (you can colour with me here if you like :’)
getting a job!! and having a really good first shift!
little sorrows
i am in a major reading slump and it has affected my ability to write short fiction. feeling very uninspired at the moment
it’s getting brighter which means i have no excuse anymore, i’m going to have to venture out and do the horrendous task of making friends as an adult in a new city
forever wanting to be someone who goes to the cinema solo and but finds there’s never anything i want to watch that’s playing
i haven’t played on my switch in a while but i can feel another animal crossing obsession on the (new) horizon(s) (sorry)
i injured my chest and back the other week from a pilates workout and it was genuinely scary not being able to move for a couple hours because of the pain. haven’t done a floor-based workout since.
wow that was a lot of joys this month! spring really does something to the soul. thank you for reading this week’s post, i hope you enjoyed it. don’t forget to drop your own little joys and little sorrows in the comments if you’d like.
next week’s post will be the release of the quiet list zine spring edition! paid subscribers will get a 100% off code to use in my etsy shop, but if you can’t upgrade just yet, you can still get one for just £3. look forward to that next week :’)
in the meantime, if you missed it, here is my latest post with a long comforting spring-filled list and here is a cosy hobby with me vlog where you can watch me make a start on this season’s zine.
okay that’s all from me this week. i’ll see you next week in the sun room <3
I adored this post! 🤍 my biggest little joy this month has also been noticing more sunlight filling up my home!! Hm, a little sorrow that comes with it is despite the sunshine, it’s still so cold here in massachusetts 😭
If you're one for cathartic crying, may I recommend watching Heated Rivalry, The History of Sound, or Hamnet? The latter is probably in the cinema still, too, seeing you wanted to go to a movie solo!