Welcome to THE SILLYVERSE 🤠🍭
Grab a beverage and snuggle in!
KNOCK KNOCK!!
Helloooo silly gooses!!
If you were subscribed to my newsletter before, you may or may not have seen my update on Instagram about that platform shutting down mid-January, not long after my January newsletter went out. They sent creators ZERO (0) warning, and just simply turned the lights off. I had no access to my drafts, my templates, my past newsletters, my freaking email list with all y’all, it was all toast.
I had a lil pity party for a sec and then got to googlin’ and eventually landed here on Substack, and honestly? I really think it was all for the best. This is the platform I should have been with in the first place. (Like hello, I can insert Emperor’s New Groove gifs? Match made in heaven tbh).
ALSO, hot tip, I’m newly obsessed with the Substack app, I had no idea the interface was so nice, and most of my favorite newsletter creators are on Substack too. It’s nice to have all my newsletters in one place without, like, wading through Promotional emails and Password Reset confirmations, ya know?
TL;DR welcome to Substack! I’ve also taken this all as an excuse to switch up some ~branding~ as well, because my Enneagram 7 ass loves change and hates commitment. 😘
So, it’s “thank u, next” to 7th Disco, and “BOOM BABY!” to the SILLYVERSE.
Bookish content/updates are down at the end, and we’ve got some journaling and meme-ing to unpack on the way there.
warming up to everyone’s favorite frosty frenemy, ✨ imposter syndrome ✨
Recently, I’ve been struggling with feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day (or days in the week) to do right by all my goals and projects and hobbies and chores and relationships.
There are probably 4,000 things I’d *like* to dedicate meaningful time toward on a regular basis. And because there are so many, I can’t help but feel like I can’t do any of them justice, and therefore am failing at all of them. Doomed from the start. Half the time, I’m overwhelmed just trying to choose one thing to prioritize in the present moment, and freeze up completely and open up Instagram to numbly scroll instead.
“Can’t you just pick one thing?” - me to myself on a daily goddamn basis
I have two primary time-management intentions for myself this year:
Gently practice better self-discipline when it comes to following through on projects I’m excited about. I love starting new projects when they’re still shiny and full of potential, but I want to work on flexing my discipline muscles and embracing the delayed gratification that can only come from FINISHING projects.
I recently watched a great YouTube video from Elizabeth Filips on the idea of “soft discipline” and it’s profoundly changed the way I approach personal willpower & achievement.
Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work. — Chuck Close
Give myself grace (rather than guilt) for “neglecting” other projects/hobbies/outlets. Logically I know there’s only so much time in my day/week/year (the same as everyone else), but the productivity-addicted gremlin in my brain still makes me feel shitty when I can’t get it all done. I hope to see myself resting without guilt, allowing myself to “quit” things I no longer want to give time to, and being truly present and joyful in the activities I do choose to prioritize.
There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither. — Alan Cohen
If I’m Squidward, all my creative projects/ideas are Spongebob.
🦑= 0, 🧽= 4,000
But what does all that have to do with imposter syndrome?
The short of it is, I’m tired of keeping everything in separate boxes. There’s a larger thesis here somewhere about hustle culture and monetizing our hobbies, I’m sure.
But for me, right now, all this means is that I want to be able to share all the strange parts of myself with whatever niche community I’m a part of. Maybe I can’t do it all separately, but I can put it all together, and stop pressuring myself so much to keep to a super strict niche. All my interests are going to start overlapping, and I’m going to try really damn hard not to apologize or qualify or self-deprecate about that.
Imposter syndrome says, “Everyone else produces regular content without struggling, you’re just bad at it.”
Imposter syndrome says, “Having more than one primary interest disqualifies you from thriving in this niche. All your time has to go towards this or it’s a waste.”
Imposter syndrome says, “If you don’t do it perfectly, it’s trash. There is no in between. It’s either good content or it’s not.”
Imposter syndrome says, “You’re just adding to the noisy mass of mediocre online content.”
Imposter syndrome says, “It’s cringey to take yourself seriously.”
Imposter syndrome says, “You just don’t have the special sauce.”
I’m realizing that so far, this really hasn’t been very silly.
(Imposter syndrome says, “Yep, you’re a fraud. You should start over again.”)
*clears throat*
*adjusts pink cowboy hat*
*cracks a La Croix*
Let’s take a break for the earworm of the day, lol.
Growing up we watched a lot of VeggieTales (we even had a VeggieTales Dance Dance Revolution game on CD-ROM), and to this day I will passionately go to bat for this criminally underrated Silly Song. Pizza Angel is an honest-to-Bob-the-Tomato masterpiece, and I still know every single word. It’s a good blast-in-the-car-by-yourself vibe, okay?
🎵🎶 PIZZA ANGEL, PLEASE COME TO MEEEE— 🎶🍕
You’re welcome.
(Told you these embeds would be a hoot. Are you having fun? I’m having fun.)
Recent favorites & highlights
If you’re familiar with my newsletters, I’ve been in the habit of including random highlights from my various interests. Feels only fitting after our lil chat about ✨ putting it all together ✨ that we keep ‘er going!
book:
This being the first newsletter since January 7th means this would basically be my favorite book of the year so far?! Huh, wild. Well, it’s an easy choice, and it’s All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir. Holy SHIT this book rocked my world. The audiobook was so well performed, the emotions and conflict just LAUNCHED off the page and into my brain. No wonder it’s won a billion awards (including my county library system’s Book of the Year, and now I get to meet her in April when she delivers a guest lecture!!)
show:
FORMULA 1 IS BACK BABY!! Last year Wes and I got so into watching Car Go Zoom, the Sport, and last weekend was the first race of the 2023 season. I could not be happier. I’ve just accepted that I unexpectedly love this sport now. Watching Drive to Survive together is such a blast (it’s basically a reality/documentary series Netflix produces each year, and kind of helps humanize and contextualize the teams and drivers), and I’ve also become obsessed with Two Girls 1 Formula on Instagram (and their podcast is great too).
music:
My absolute favorite baddie Qveen Herby dropped a fre$h album on Valentine’s Day!! Enough said!!! My fav track I think is CHUCKY CHEESE, closely followed by 5D. Her earlier album HALLOQVEEN is still my overall favorite of hers, but boy does Miss Amy spoil us. I’m obsessed with everything she does. Add the fact that she and her husband produce all her music independently, sans label? SWOOOOON
game:
League of Legends’ version of auto-chess is called Team Fight Tactics. One year for Christmas, Wes asked me to play with him, and it took me months to actually do it, and then after that I became addicted (exactly like he knew I would). They just launched early-access for their new season that goes live in a couple weeks, and I am PUMPED let me tell you!!
food:
The past month or so, Wes has been hyper-fixated on baking the PERFECT cinnamon roll (from scratch). I truly could not tell you how many batches of cinnamon rolls we’ve eaten in the last few weeks. But I’m certainly not complaining. We shared some with my parents (once he got a batch that he was happy enough with to share), and my mom said it was the “best cinnamon roll of her life,” so. Pretty quality baking, I’d say. A random hack we discovered (read: googled) is using dental floss to slice the rolls, instead of a knife. GAME CHANGING.
bird:
I would love to make my backyard birding hijinks more present in my content because, frankly, I’m learning SO MUCH and I find it all so fascinating! We gotta talk more about birds, okay?!
A recent bizarre/amazing encounter I had was coming face-to-face with an owl leaving work the other day. It was still light outside, and I was the last one to leave. I walked right under this tree on the way to my car, and felt a little prickle on the back of my neck. I turned around and BAM, me and this gigantic Great Horned Owl are in a staring contest. [silly]Goosebumps on my whole body.
✨ BOOKISH UPDATES ✨
WE MADE IT!
lol this is the unironic vibe, like I want to blast an airhorn and have a dramatic high-energy walk-up/choreography moment:
upcoming liveshows:
3/8: Book Club discussion for Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute, by Talia Hibbert with my wonderful friend Brittany (Literarily Smitten)
3/15: Readers’ Happy Hour with Syd (Syd BookWorrom)!!
3/29: March Reading Springs (around 6pst)
my recent videos:
I’m in a spot right now where I have SO MANY ideas, and time is just flying. But my favorite video I’ve made recently is the second episode in my “Oddly Specific” vlog series, where I read several Witchy Cozy Fantasies.
Something I’m working on balancing is my love of instant-gratification with my tendency to dream up big ol’ longform ideas. Like, pick one! But no need to keep beating that dead horse.
To help with accountability, I’m going to start sharing some of my in-progress projects in these newsletters, since we’re friends and all. I did something similar while briefly attempting Vlogmas in December (before landing a new fulltime job and having my routine turned upside down), and it was surprisingly super fun and helpful for my motivation and creative workflow.
upcoming vlog projects:
3/24: oddly specific ep. 03: the girlbossification of satirical litfic
4/21: classic retellings ep. 02: jane eyre, the genre
4/25: reading previous Women’s Prize for Fiction Winners (ALSO have you seen the 2023 longlist for the prize?!)
tbd: nonfiction GIRLies reading vlog ;)
Wow, that feels pretty long, but also I’ve had so much fun piecing this all together!!
If you enjoyed reading this bad boi and want to chat about it, please feel welcome to leave a comment or reply to the email (it comes directly to me).
You can also share this post on social media, or forward the email to a friend that might enjoy it too.
see you soon!!
Thank you SO much for reading all the way down here, I’m sending you all the sweet and silly Spring blessings I can imagine! 🤠🌿
You can expect to hear from me at least monthly around the 7th, maybe more often (but no promises, hehehe). 💖💖💖
Stay funky,
Noelle
my links:
YouTube // Instagram // Storygraph // Ko-Fi