Ridiculous, even for me

Almost a year between blog posts? Yikes - I really have been lagging! It seems every time I've thought a subject may be worthy of a post or two, my brain has filtered it out before I could park myself at the pc to start typing. Or maybe the pc is the problem, or more to the point, the multitude of open tabs sitting waiting to distract me. To be fair it's not that difficult. Health stuff I'm having a bit of a restricted day physically as I type this while hooked up to a blood pressure cuff which is going off every fifteen minutes or so and if I'm not staying still it throws up error messages at me. This adult version of musical statues kinda sucks. There's not even music! Last August I had a health check with my local practice and as a self confessed stresshead it probably shouldn't have come as a shock to find out my blood pressure was high. Except that it did come as a shock and wasn't best pleased to find out my cholesterol wasn't great either. Not horrific but definitely higher than I was comfortable with. I'd also sneaked up into the overweight category which didn't bother me too much but with everything combined I thought screw this and bought the thing I've avoided for years - bathroom scales! I can get fixated really easily and weight used to be one of those things I'd focus in on but back then I wasn't doing it in a healthy way. This time I've managed to stick to one weight check per day and it's felt really good watching those numbers come down. Since August, I've managed to lose 15kgs / approx 2 and a half stone and I'm literally feeling so much lighter. And I've been on the waiting list since then to get fitted with this cuff for the day to see if I still fail at pumping blood satisfactorily or not. I mean I've had to give up coffee for this so it better be better! Business stuff A lot of small businesses have closed down or downsized in the past year and it's made my heart sad to see. I know I'm very far from where I once was, so close to being self sufficient and having a business that could support me. I don't know if any kind of economic recovery is on the cards in the next few years globally but as far as Twysted Roots is concerned, it's not going anywhere. I have taken a step back from commissioned work which I've spoken about before and I have eased off from a million miles an hour on the making side of things too while I try to find a work / home / life balance. I mean it's due - it was the business anniversary on March 31st! 8 years of tree making is quite the accomplishment and I think 5 of those have been spent fending off burnout in one form or another. I have started listing some of my surplus bead stock, something I've been wanting to do since around 2020 but couldn't quite get my head round how to deal with shipping costs. That's since been sorted after brilliantly managing to lose money on a sale of a lower priced item last year when I realised the 'postage included' option doesn't work when the item costs less than what it does to post the thing. Ahhh to have a business brain instead of a creative one!

Nice work creative brain!

So yeah, beads are slowly getting listed and once those are done, surplus crystals will be next. This is sort of me downsizing but mostly it's me letting go of old stock I've had for years... even before I launched Twysted Roots. If I've not touched it in 8 years, chances are it'll sit for another 8 and it's better if someone else can make use of it. Overseas Penguins and tariffs have featured heavily on social media recently and people far wittier than I have commented on it so I'll keep it brief. Currently as it stands, the new tariffs implemented in the US affect imports of anything starting from $800. I don't sell anything near that amount so nothing should change in respect of purchases from me or anyone in the UK for that matter. I'm keeping an ever watchful eye on events and if it changes, I'll update accordingly. That is possibly all the news I can think of and to be honest I've done pretty well considering this day has been spent clock watching as I await 4.30 and can rid myself of the pressure cuff. And don't worry if you don't see another blog post for a while - I probably won't be dead, just procrastinating writing a new one! Big love! ❤