September Fresh Starts

La Belle Jardinière – Septembre, by Eugène Grasset (1896)

Back in January, I made a resolution to post on this blog at least three times per month. I managed more or less to keep to that schedule for the first half of the year, but after the end of June, my blogging output dropped precipitously, and I scrounged up just one post apiece in July and August.

I wish I could say that my lack of updates was due to being busy in other areas of my life, like stocking my Etsy shop or working on creative projects, but the truth is I've felt somewhat directionless this summer. I've been thinking a lot about my plans going forward in major areas of my life, and the resulting preoccupation and anxiety I've felt has taken me away from my usual hobbies of crafting, baking, and generally creating. These hobbies are what typically inspire my posts here, and without that inspiration, I ran out of the fuel that keeps this blog going.

So, I took some time off to refuel. I went for lots of walks around my town and surrounding area, which as a coastal region is at its busiest and brightest in the summer. I planted blueberry bushes and annual flowers in my garden, and replaced some of the latter when successive heat waves did them in. I encouraged myself to read more (another hobby in which I'd become somewhat slack) and to make the most of the warm weather while it lasts by taking books out into the garden. I rearranged all the furniture in my room, as I hold the firm belief that refreshing your surroundings can refresh your spirit, too. Conversely, I rewatched old favorite television shows, because sometimes you need the comfort of something familiar when you're feeling a little lost.

Now it's September, and while it's still blazing hot and there are almost three more weeks of summer left, I feel that the time has come for a fresh start. It's the day after Labor Day and my college classes have resumed, and I'm reminded of how this same day was the first day back to school (or homeschooling) throughout my childhood. That sharp change in routine and the coming change in the weather always made this time really feel like a new year to me, more so than the actual turn of the year in January. 

While I won't make any firm resolutions, I do hope to post more frequently here in the autumn--if for no other reason than to encourage me to pick up more of my hobbies again. I've already started behind the scenes, as I'm working to restock my Halloween pennant banners in my Etsy shop after a sudden late-August sellout, and I've launched a new daily enrichment program on my children's literature resource Sparrow Tree Square. I'm also planning to shake up my beauty routine and fashion choices, which I might document here, and to try other new things to enliven my day-to-day life that might also find their way onto this blog. Since September is a month of change--from summer to autumn, hot to cool, vacation to school--now seems like the perfect time to affect a change in my life, too, and to start afresh once again.