Author: AJ Mullican

Nope, didn’t make my goal this weekend. Not even close. I got about 1000 new words written, but not even half a chapter, let alone two.

I think I aimed too high, even though I thought it was a conservative goal. I forgot about my tendency to skip around with projects. I ended up sleeping a lot (weekends tend to be my catch-up times) and drawing rather than writing.

I did accomplish one goal (kind of). I started doing exercises in the morning. They’re simple exercises, just different kinds of crunches & floor exercises, but the soreness from yesterday’s exercises felt so good today that I did them again this morning. I’m going to try to keep doing them every morning if I can. Problem is, I know once I get out of the habit that’s it for me. I have to keep doing them consistently or I’ll never get anywhere with them.

This weight has to go. It just has to. I can’t go on being huge forever. I have to find a way to get to a healthy weight and stay there. I feel terrible. Sluggish and jiggly. Yep, jiggly. I jiggle. Mostly my upper arms and stomach. And butt. And thighs. So basically most of me. Jiggling. Cue disgusted shuddering.

Will I make my New Year’s resolution goal by the end of the year? Not likely. But I might, just might, get back under 200 lbs. It’s not ideal, but it’s my own fault for allowing myself to slide back so far.

Okay, I’ll admit that I’m stubborn. And that I have to do things myself if I’m going to learn something new. That’s just the way I am.

Well, today it paid off. I finished a scrub top that I made all on my own, just used a seam-ripped scrub top to make a rough “pattern” for it. It’s a little tight, but that’s just motivation to exercise more & eat less. The point is, it fits, and there’s nothing backwards or fucked up on it. Maybe the pockets aren’t perfectly straight, but with the design on the fabric I used you can’t even tell.

Still haven’t written much this weekend, and but I’m bringing my laptop when I do laundry so I can work on it.

Ever wonder what would have happened if you’d chosen a different major in college? Taken a different job offer? Gone out with a different person?

I have moments like that. I’ll be sitting there, minding my own business, when suddenly the past surges up to show me all the places where my path could have turned in another direction solely based on simple choices I’ve made. What if I hadn’t chosen marketing for my first major in college? What if I had stayed with it instead of changing to art a year in? What if I had stayed with that instead of dropping out for a year? What if I hadn’t gone to community college for medical transcription? What if I hadn’t moved back in with my parents after my first apartment lease was up? What if I hadn’t moved into that first apartment?

There are an infinite number of “what ifs” in life, an infinite number of places where one choice could change the course of your life.

So what “what if” would I change if I could? None. I wouldn’t change anything.

Is my life perfect? Of course not. No one’s is. But my choices have brought me to the place I am now. I have a good job, a great husband, and a nice home. The ride here wasn’t always smooth, but I wouldn’t exchange a single bump for anything.

So make your choices and live with them. You can’t know until after the choice is made if it’s the right one, so don’t worry too much about it. Your choices may not take you directly to where you want to be, but they’ll take you to where you need to go.

Okay, so I haven’t met the goal yet…but I’m setting one. I currently have a new novel-in-progress that has been plaguing me for a couple of months. I’ve been stuck on the first chapter, because first it wanted to be an erotica, then when I didn’t like how that was going it just kind of faltered as the story tried to find its footing.

Last night, it finally did. I have what I hope is a semi-strong opening (hey, “strong” is too strong a word for first drafts), and I’m ready to move on past that tricky chapter.

My goal now is to get at least two more chapters written by the end of the weekend. It may not sound like much, but I also have a possible upcoming art commission project as well as my weekly live tweet of SyFy’s Dark Matter, plus the sewing project I’m stuck on, and of course the usual weekend chores and whatnot.

I’m not setting an end-of-year goal for this manuscript because I started so late in the year. Maybe I’ll say, oh, halfway? Nah. Not going to push it. I’ll set my goal for mid-to-late 2016 for the first draft. (If it goes anything like my current manuscript–which is now on its second edit–I’ll finish long before that, but I like to err on the side of caution. No point setting a goal you can’t meet.)

I’m starting a new thing! I’m calling it #workofartwednesday, and basically I’m going to post some of my art (drawings, paintings, clay sculptures, etc.) every Wednesday. The pieces that I’m posting ARE for sale … just inbox/email me for details 🙂

Here’s my first Work of Art Wednesday:

No, this is not a book review.

We had our front door fixed the other day, which naturally required the door to be open for quite some time. Not surprisingly, many flies got in.

They have multiplied.

The door had been closed except for us going in and out, yet we see more and more flies. It creeps me out to think that they’ve laid (lain?) eggs & hatched. I almost wish we had a spider or ten to get rid of them.

Going to the store today to get fly strips or something to catch and/or kill them.

On the up side, I found a use for the Spanish instructions for my sewing machine. Makeshift fly swatter for when I’m too lazy to leave the craft room to get an actual fly swatter.

I finished the cosplay gloves this morning (still had a bit of sewing to do on the second of the pair)–Check them out on Instagram @AJMullican :). Now I have to prepare for a phone interview with a musician later today, then shopping with my mom & sending out a drawing to a friend.

Very excited for the Hobby Lobby excursion. I get to pick out fabric and other bits for making/altering scrub tops & cosplay. I feel so confident after making the gloves with no pattern and no idea really what I was doing. Scrubs should be a cinch after that lol

It’s also exciting to sell artwork again. I need to make more, but my ADD/bipolar mania has me stuck on sewing at the moment. Also, I have to be careful how much artsy-craftsy stuff I get out, because I have to be able to clean everything up for company coming over in a couple of weeks. Can’t make a mess bigger than I can handle cleaning up.

I also should probably take out the trash. There’s a lot piled up, what with boxes from the birthday presents and such on top of the normal weekly accumulation of living.

I have successfully designed and made something using mainly my sewing machine! (I had to hand sew some parts I couldn’t figure out how to do on the machine.)

Introducing my new TARDIS fingerless glove! (Matching glove to be finished when I’m not so tired and sore.)

Pretty damn cool, right? Well, I also made one with black and white Doctor Who fabric.

Doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Except if…

They’re the same glove! Fuck yeah, reversible! I feel like I can do anything lol Well maybe not anything…but a lot

I’m slowly learning how to use my sewing machine.

Yesterday, I began the morning with threading the needle wrong and breaking it. I managed to replace the needle without incident, but a little while later the thread somehow came unthreaded and got slightly tangled inside the machine. Again, with the help of the instruction book, I was able to carefully untangle the thread and get it running again.

I got one laundry bag completed before I got frustrated and stopped for the day (not to mention it was getting almost time to do, well, laundry). This morning I plan on attacking the machine again, this time to make the third laundry bag–the first was made on my mom’s machine, and the hamper thing we have needs 3 bags–then I might play around with it until I figure out some new things.

I might (emphasis on might) attempt a scrub top, but I’ll use some spare fabric first if I do that. Don’t want to mess up any nice fabric. Tomorrow I’m headed to Hobby Lobby to spend a gift card I got for my birthday, so I might get some cheap fabric for practice purposes.

The bobbin winder that I got proved less contrary and works great. Very simple to use.

Once I have this machine mastered, I’m going to alter some clothes and make some cosplays. I already have my next big project for the next convention I go to sketched up and preliminarily designed. (Yes, spell check, I know that’s not a word. Bite me.) Provided that it turns out, it’s going to look awesome if I do say so myself. A lot of the fabric I need for it I already have, so it shouldn’t be too terribly expensive–I hope. It all depends on how confident and ambitious I get. The design so far is simple enough, except for the top, which will be either a faux corset or possibly an actual corset. Again, depends on confidence and ambition. And cost. Those steel bones aren’t cheap. That, too, will have to have a practice run, but thankfully I have fabric that I purchased months ago for making myself a corset of some sort, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

I’ll get this sewing machine figured out. I’ll master it–at least enough for cosplays, simple clothing, alterations, and repairs. I’m too damn stubborn not to.

So due to low number of doctors working at the office next week, I’ll have Monday off. What to do?

Okay, so I know I’m going to be spending most of tomorrow on sewing up laundry bags & playing with my new sewing machine before doing laundry, and probably most of Sunday doing such as well. But Monday I’ll have to get started on cleaning up our spare room for my in-laws coming to visit soon.

There’s not really much to clean up (especially once the laundry bags are done) but I really should step to it. The less mess I have now, the less to deal with then.

I’ll be working more on the design for the #TARDIS dress in the coming weeks and possibly some other things. I want to lose weight, so I need to do the majority of the actual work for the dress later on (so there’s less taking in if I do in fact lose the weight. I’m going to try to make most of it so that it’s adjustable (elastic waistband, corset-type top that I can cinch more/less, etc.), but that still doesn’t mean I can make it too early. Plus, I need to practice with smaller, easier things on my new machine before jumping into the kind of endeavor I’m planning for Comicon next year.

Oops, lunch time almost over. Gotta run.