So here we are in 2023! Welcome back to The Quiet and Curious for another year. Thanks for sticking with me so far, and if you’re new here, welcome!
In this post I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been up to in the last month, ramble a bit, and let you in on what my grand plans are for this year, specifically as it relates to this blog. We’ll start with the important stuff first.
My Plans For The Quiet & Curious 2023
Here’s my plan at a glance:
- A new blog post every Tuesday
- From July, I plan to post an article every second Tuesday that alternates with a YouTube video – The Quiet & Curious YouTube channel is here! This may or may not take some time to get the hang of, so I appreciate your patience and understanding if the videos aren’t every second Tuesday or come out on a different day of the week. It really depends on how my confidence is going, whether our sometimes dodgy internet cooperates, whether I have the space (alone time) to freely record a video and edit the thing, and other commitments in life.
- In the months of June and December I’ll be taking a complete break to refocus and make sure I’m not getting off track.
- You can still find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and now YouTube!
To Niche or not to Niche
Bloggers are highly encouraged to “niche down” and choose a specific topic to blog about. I really had no idea what niche The Quiet and Curious would fit into and I had too many different things I wanted to write about and help others with.
I like variety, and thought I’d probably get bored if I had to pick just one of the categories on this blog to run with. And maybe you’d get bored as well.
But then I realised that talking about a lot of different things makes for a confusing read and may leave people thinking, so what is she and this blog actually about?
So I had a think about it and decided to niche down. I present to you The Quiet and Curious blog revamped: the broad niche is lifestyle. It’s definitely not about the beauty, makeup, fashion, travel side of the lifestyle blogging sphere though!
The kind of lifestyle blog that this is at the moment (subject to change in the future) is home-centred living as a homebody, simplifying and slowing down, pet/animal care and welfare (with plenty of stories about Miss Soph and other animals) and lessons from nature. Because I believe these things are all connected.
My blog is a space for quiet animal-loving nature-appreciating homebodies where we can all slow down, learn, find solace and connect with other homebodies on our quiet terms from the comfort of our own safe spaces.
I hope to build a community of fellow quiet and curious homebodies.
You are very welcome here and I look forward to getting to know you!
And now for some good old ramblings from me! Here we go with what I’ve been up to for the past month and epiphanies had…
My December Break
In December I decided to take some time off to reassess, replan and refocus on what I really wanted my life to look like and what I wanted for this blog; my purpose and its purpose. I’m a big believer in co-creating with the universe, and this break gave me time and space to listen and receive guidance.
I also truly embraced slow living, which took some effort being the most hectic and potentially stressful month of the year for a lot of people.
In early December I stayed up at my parent’s place and house sat, looking after the three hills cats (and magpies and cows on the property). While there, I had some time alone to delve deeply into why I’m here. And after much musing I came up with the following:
“Living a meaningful, simple, slow, intentional, quietly exciting life in humble and dedicated service to fellow homebodies, the animals, our planet, and the writing craft” as well as “enjoy what you do” with the word SIMPLIFY in bold capital letters. I’d also add to that for this year specifically that I’d like to unhurry. If that’s a word. To not live with so much urgency or like I’m running out of time and everything has to be done NOW.
The reason I use the words “humble and dedicated service” in the above statement is because I was watching the TV show Supernatural (which for an HSP empath isn’t something I’d recommend because it is pretty violent but it’s surprisingly insightful), and there were a couple of lines in there that stood out to me.
A Cause to Serve
The first one was a character saying, “I’ve figured one thing out about this world – just one, pretty much. You find a cause, and you serve it. Give yourself over, and it orders your life… Obviously, these things shift over time. We learn, we grow.” (Supernatural “Reading is Fundamental”, Season 7, Episode 21).
Out of context, this quote struck something in me. It made me realise that the more I listened and followed my inner nudgings, guidance and slowed down, my life has taken on a sort of calm focus. There’s a nice feeling that accompanies having a cause to serve while letting that order my life. Or in my case it’s more accurate to say causes plural…
For me, one of those causes is helping and supporting my fellow homebodies live the lives we desire, and form meaningful connections with others on our own terms from the comfort of our safe space.
Another cause is the animals and their welfare, which includes living with compassion and reverence for nature, and supporting the environment as well.
I’ve been crocheting nests, knitting lamb jumpers, knitting blankets and doing other crafty things for the animals, focusing on what I can do with my capabilities at the moment rather than what I can’t do yet (like working hands on with animals out in the field – literally – although in the future I’d really love to be a foster carer for elderly cats, pregnant cats, very young kittens, and rabbits. I absolutely love rabbits and often think about opening up a rabbit sanctuary).
This is the year I get serious about supporting and helping the homebodies and animals who need it.
Humble and Dedicated Service
The next quote that struck me when watching Supernatural, and the reason I use the words humble and dedicated service, was when the main characters needed to choose and retrieve a bone from a nunnery crypt (I know, I know, it sounds awful but it makes sense in the show). The nun they choose is because of her “eighty-three years of quiet, humble, nunlike goodness” (Supernatural “Survival of the Fittest”, Season 7, Episode 23).
What I find appealing about a nun’s lifestyle as depicted in TV shows and movies is the simplicity, focus, devotion to something greater, the humility, and routine. And of course, the hermit-life aspect where they live mostly centred around the convent/home is one of the most appealing things to me as a homebody.
With that, I can take those aspects and apply them to how I live life; devoting my life (which I’d like to be slow and simple) to the quiet and humble service of homebodies, animals, the environment, and the writing craft. Hopefully, The Quiet and Curious blog will be a reflection of this.
A Quiet Christmas?
My final blog post of last year was ‘I’m Dreaming of a Quiet Christmas’, which I’m always dreaming of a quiet Christmas, let’s be real. Even though this Christmas wasn’t a quiet one and I had a lot of social things going on (that I actually attended this year because I had the capacity to do so), I still had a lovely festive season.
In simplifying my life and slowing down, I’ve been challenging myself in the kitchen, which has always been a source of stress and tension. The kitchen is generally not my happy place, and cooking is not my strong suit. However, I’m beginning to enjoy the process of baking and putting together simple meals.
I figure that for someone who doesn’t like cooking or spending any more time in the kitchen than absolutely necessary, baking yummy things is a nice gateway to actually enjoying cooking meals, which I call “meal creation” as it’s less intimidating than “cooking.”
There’s also an element of OCD and pressure that comes with cooking meals for myself and others, so baking takes that pressure off somewhat by being something to eat that nobody is depending on for nourishment; it doesn’t matter if it turns out or not, nobody is depending on these cookies or muffins or whatever for their nutritional needs.
So what I did this year was create gingerbread Christmas trees as gifts for family and friends, as pictured above.
It took me around 7 hours to bake the four batches of vegan gingerbread (recipe here! From Eight Tree Lane, the best I’ve found so far; it’s a beautiful simple vegan gingerbread recipe that you wouldn’t even know wasn’t vegan from the taste of it), and the next day I spent most of the day icing and assembling.
I actually enjoyed the process and the gingerbread was extremely yummy with or without the icing.
Another highlight for me was the Christmas carols that I watched on TV with family. It wasn’t a quiet Christmas, but it was one of the best I’ve had in a few years.
Final Thoughts
After all those ramblings, I’m excited to get back into the swing of writing blog posts for you to enjoy!
As always you can reach out to me at [email protected], or comment below.
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Much love from me,
