Vintage Romance Junk Journal & Authentic Living This Week
Another week lived in and shared with you, dear friends
Hello Friends!
Here's what you'll find in today’s newsletter:
A Piece of Life in Focus This Week
Vintage Romance Junk Journal: A fun and unique creative project
Authentic Living This Week
Gratitude Corner - The internet, pants and beta readers
Making Memories - Lots of family moments and close connections.
Reality Check - Kindy woes and lost keys.
Fiction Writing Progress & Learnings - beta advice and my submission deadline
Inspiring Finds - Substack reads and social media follower insights
Welcome to My Substack! My Name is Tania.
I invite you to join me on a journey of embracing authentic living. Through honest stories, personal insights, and reflections on authenticity, I seek to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Subscribe for free & tap the ❤️ if you enjoy this post!
Life in Focus This Week
I had another long-awaited craft day with my friends this week where I finally finished my vintage romance-themed junk journal. It was my first time creating something like this.
I made this using a blank notebook and a printable junk journal kit that I put together myself using the Wonder AI image generator app and Canva.
What is the point of it you may ask?
I see it as a pretty piece of art in book form with a cohesive theme and imagery that tells a visual story of sorts. To me, it feels like a lift-the-flap book for adults. Each page is a visual surprise with interactive elements such as pockets, envelopes as well as bookmarks and tags that can be pulled out of secret spots.
People can write in a junk journal if they wish. For me, I've decided to use it to keep some of the poems I wrote for my kids. I hope you enjoy this flip-through video I made of this art journal:
Authentic Living This Week
This Substack series is devoted to everything that I feel adds authenticity and realness to my life and I hope it helps you focus on the authentic joy you can create and experience in your day-to-day lives too.
Gratitude Corner: Finding Appreciation in the Everyday
Taking time to find things to be grateful for in everyday moments is a great way to stay grounded and remind yourself of the things that really matter.
This week I’m grateful for:
The internet. How lucky are we to have the internet? It’s something we forget to be grateful for because it’s so ingrained in our day-to-day lives. Many jobs were created and exist because of the internet, information is far easier to find and many tasks are easier to do across so many aspects of life. So thanks internet.
Comfy drawstring jeans. Sure, they may not be a fashion-forward choice. They are the typical ‘mum’ pants designed for comfort above all else. I wouldn’t have been caught dead wearing them 5 years ago, but as a mum of toddlers, I love them. I have the same pair from Kmart in multiple colours. Comfort and durability are king when chasing active little boys around the house.
My beta readers. They have been essential for perfecting my story and making it the best it can be for the competition I'm submitting it to later this week. Getting feedback and critique on my writing was more nerve-wracking than I had expected, especially since I was used to getting criticism and feedback on my work as a content writer while working for a marketing agency. But because this story is more personal and closer to my heart, the feedback I got simply mattered more to me.
What are you grateful for this week?
Making Memories: Cherished Moments & Milestones
Making memories and recording them has always been incredibly important to me. Our memories tend to fail us, so keeping a record of precious moments enhances our memory-keeping abilities.
Here are my favourite memories from this week:
My children having an amazing fun-filled day at their grandparents’ house playing with their auntie and two older cousins during the school break. It’s a joy seeing how my 3-year-old’s social skills are growing and changing as he gets older. It’s easy to underestimate how difficult it can be to navigate social queues and varying social situations for new little humans. Sometimes I even have to figure out the best way to navigate them so I can teach him properly.
Having a play date in an empty park with my two mum friends and their two 3-year-old daughters. We hadn't seen them in months so the kids were shy with each other at first. Eventually, they were playing with balls, and sticks and hanging out on the play equipment together. I did have to chase my one-year-old who insisted on bolting at full speed away from everyone on multiple occasions, so he sat in the pram most of the time instead, happily snacking and watching the others play.
Enjoying weekends packed full of stuff including shopping trips, a walk around Old Petrie Town, playing at the local water park, going for a bike ride and my favourite part, going to ‘mummy kindy’ as my three-year-old calls it, which is a craft day I enjoy with my girlfriends for a few hours on Saturday morning. That’s not even all the things, but yeah lots of stuff happened to keep the boys entertained.
What memories have you made this week?
Reality Check: Navigating Life’s Challenges
Writing about or vocalising the tougher moments in life helps us process them and knowing we're not alone in these struggles is helpful too.
Here is a some struggles I’d like to highlight this week:
We visited a new kindy for a tour and play. It was a disaster. We were there barely 10 minutes before another kid came up to my son and pushed him over on the concrete, hard, right in front of me and the caregivers. Lots of crying and fuss ensued. He was in my arms wailing with a big welt forming on his right temple and a caregiver rushing over with an ice pack. I hauled him out of there in a very loud and tearful mess with him telling me over and over again that he wants to stay at home and doesn't want to play with other kids again. Lord knows how I'm going to get him to go to any kindergarten now. Full-blown Kindergarten starts in 6 months and the ones he's on the waitlist for are asking for enrolments to be accepted now. We have one kindy left on the list. we are hoping that will be our saving grace kindy of choice.
My one-year-old put my car and house keys in the recycling bin on garage day. He puts random stuff in that bin all the time and we usually catch him in the act. But the timing was just right for the keys to meet such a fate. We have looked all over the house for them. We have an AirTag attached too. The tracker isn't detecting them. My husband is still hopeful they are in the house somewhere but my hope is already lost. I'm using the spare keys until new ones are cut.
What do you feel like venting about this week? This is your safe space! No judgment here.
Fiction Writing Progress and Learnings
I’m currently focused on improving my fiction writing skills and am working towards the goal of publishing my first novel. Follow me on my journey…
I got feedback from all three of my beta readers this week. Each one gave such different and valuable feedback. I found my beta readers on Reddit who are also current or aspiring authors and I offered to return the favour if they needed it.
Because I only needed feedback on three chapters, I think it made it much easier to find people to take a look at it. If anyone is partway through edits on their first draft, I highly recommend getting some beta readers to take a look before the whole thing is polished. The feedback they give may impact the trajectory of the remaining edits within your story. It has certainly been the case for me.
I’ll be submitting the first three chapters plus an outline and synopsis to a writing competition later this month. Even after it is submitted, I’ll continue to edit and work on the rest of the story in the meantime, no matter the outcome of the contest.
Inspiring Finds
Inspiration helps drive us to do more, be more and perhaps even take our lives in a whole new direction.
Here are a few Substacks that caught my eye this week:
You need less time to write a book than you think by
from Wite More, Be Less Careful.from Talking to MyselfWhat I needed was to think about my writing differently: not in terms of what I couldn’t get done, but in terms of what I could. With kids and a day job, time to write is often limited. I had to be efficient with the time that I had.
My contradictions extend beyond my personality into my daily choices. I'll have green juice for breakfast, embracing health and vitality, only to indulge in a lunch of chocolate chip cookies. My bed is a pristine cloud of crisp, clean white sheets, yet I happily let my black dog jump in, leaving paw prints and fur in her wake. I find solace in reading Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings on mindfulness and peace, yet I'm not above unleashing a torrent of curses when caught in traffic.
I also wanted to share this video about ‘The Death of the Follower’ that I found on YouTube. Fascinating insights here from the founder of Patreon about the changing landscape of online followers and communities in today’s version of the internet.
Death of the Follower & the Future of Creativity on the Web
What has inspired you this week?
Here are a few quotes to send you off with this week:
Kindness always
Rather than thinking ‘this is going to be hard’ change your mindset to ‘challenge accepted!’
Write like no one is reading it
Please let me know what you think of my posts by leaving a comment below or reaching out to me in the app. If you enjoy reading this newsletter consider hitting subscribe. Have a wonderful day!
That picture with the petals on the ground!!!!
Thanks for the shoutout 🤍
thanks for sharing my newsletter! hope the keys turn up!