Life Update

I Finished It!

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I am so excited to share that I finished the final edit of my first Cozy Mystery called Houseplant Homocides! I cannot wait for it to be available for you to read but I still need to find an editor and send it off for them to review.

I have spoken with one editor who is going to do a sample edit so we can see how we work together but I would also like to try and find a few others before committing. This is all brand new to me so I am just taking it one step at a time. For now, that step is just enjoying this accomplishment!

I also started work this week on my first ever serial based on my dollhouse renovation. I am really excited about the concept and I will be sharing it both here and over on my Substack. I am still working out the logistics of that but I also need to get one chapter under my belt before I need to worry too much about that. If you would like to write your own serial I found this awesome creator who talks about it on Substack.

I have also been making some great steps on the dollhouse renovation project. If you haven’t already you can check out my channel where I share the progress. I am up to 21 videos over there and I upload every Friday.

In addition to the dollhouse video I am sharing a fun create with me video on a Five Below ceramic bookshop I picked up that is Halloween themed. It is so cute and I had a lot of fun painting it. I’ll link the video below and if you want leave me a comment and I can also make a video for the two other Halloween houses I picked up.

We went pumpkin picking on Sunday and it was such a lovely day for it! Not too hot and not too cold. DH and the kids got the last of the Halloween decorations up so we are all ready for some times. My youngest is being Baptized this coming week which is really exciting and we are looking forward to celebrating with her godparents and lunch at her favorite place.

There isn’t much new to report on the move. We have done some house shopping but have pretty much decided to stay where we are at least through the year end most likely through the winter. It’s not the best time to relocate across country and with all the travel DH is doing at the moment it’s not really ideal to add a major move on top. Still we are open to what comes our way and I’ll keep you all updated. I am still thinking of blogging the process and the trip across the country. I do love watching people’s vlogs so let me know if you would like to see more from me. I am giving some thought about taking part in Vlogmas again this year so let me know if that sounds interesting.

That’s all I have for you this Monday. I hope you have been able to get some creative time in this past week. If so let me know in the comments below I would love to hear!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

You can watch the video I mentioned by clicking below

 

 

We are Moving!

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Not the best way to build suspense with a title like that I suppose but I really just wanted to get in to sharing the news!

A bit of back story-I have lived in the same town my entire life and the past 10 years or so I have wanted to move. It was a bit of longing, bit of a calling to set down roots somewhere new, maybe have more land and a slower pace of life. The trouble was I wasn’t quite sure where I was supposed to move to. How do you just pick a place?

So I have talked and prayed and looked and each time it felt like God was saying, “not yet.” So, I (not so) patiently waited.

I am grateful for the waiting. In that waiting I fell in love with our home and neighborhood again. Connected with people, found my church again and most importantly my faith and I just decided that if we were meant to move we would move.

Then my husband was suddenly looking for a new job and that new job is leading us to move to the middle of the country. It’s been a roller coaster of a summer and I am so grateful for the break he had before starting his new job so we could spend time as a family, clear out 25 years of stuff we had accumulated in attics, out buildings and basements and most of all-dream a little.

Nothing is finalized. His work involves travel so for now we are looking searching and trying to figure out our next plan while he settles into the job. It would seem like we would have mapped out the entire move but there is so much to consider that we are just taking things one step at a time and enjoying our time in our home while gradually preparing the next steps.

It’s in this time of change that I have found my creativity again. At the end of July I cleared out of my studio space that I have had for the past 4 years and rearranged my creative corner in our home to be better situated for the crafts I’m working on and most importantly writing. My goal is to have my first cozy mystery finished by the end of this year so having a nice clear space ready for me to write in feels so lovely.

I have reconnected with my dollhouse and have been finding my time working on this project to be so meditative and therapeutic. My kids will sit and chat with me while I putter away and it’s been such a nice way to get back into the creativity that has been taking a back seat most of the year.

I also decided to get back into making and sharing content. I am not the best at consistency so I decided to start creating content that is ready to upload and when I have 6 videos and blog posts ready to go I will start uploading. I love knowing that my favorite blogs and videos are there each week so my plan is to share all my creativity here on the blog and my Substack and then my Dreaming Dilettante YT channel will have studio vlogs and creative projects and then my Dilettante’s Dollhouse YT will focus on my dollhouse projects.

It might seem silly to start more projects with a major move looming but I really love the idea of documenting and sharing that journey here on my blog and the projects themselves are really grounding me during this time.

I also thought that having a back log of content ready to go will make it easier during busier times when I may not be able to create as much.

So that has been my summer. Lots of change coming on the horizon but for now I am in a bit of a holding pattern not quite sure what’s next but I will keep you all updated. I appreciate you visiting as always and wish you an amazing week!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Click Below to Watch this Week’s Studio Vlog