#giving joyfully

[lymphomalass]

"Find yourself joy in giving!

To my mind there's nothing quite like the joy of that "gotcha!" moment when you've found and given someone a truly great gift and you can see they really love it!

I remember when my brother gotcha'd me one big 0 birthday, giving me an album of carefully selected old family photos he'd scanned and had printed up. I was entranced and delighted by the photos of him looking in my crib, of us playing cowboys in the back garden and then sailing together. No pretence was needed. I just loved the gift and everyone could see it!

A few years earlier for his big 0 birthday I'd asked a really lovely fellow artist to paint an oil painting, of my brother helming his sailboat to victory in a race. My brother had not been sure he could top that, but he did!

My brother likes games that double as ornaments, and so for one Christmas I made a little embroidery of playing cards, set it in the top of a hand made wooden cards box, and added a couple of rather nice card sets. Another year I won him a beautifully hand-carved soapstone chess set in a little church raffle, by buying more than 50% of the tickets. I then wrapped each piece individually.... because I am the little blister! I remember my mother rescued him from all the unwrapping...

Obviously, some years it's just not on the cards. Time's too short or an idea just doesn't come, however hard we try, and then expressions of politely simulated pleasure may be the result. It can take months of looking around for ideas and preparation, but by really listening and thinking from the other person's point of view, it is sometimes possible to think of that special gift that'll be treasured for decades, and that's just magical!

One of my lovely customers picked up a commission today, which she asked me to paint as a Christmas present. She'd thought of it more than a couple of months in advance, and I think that painting may also turn out to be a gotcha gift! Well, I'm hoping!

I'll not say more as I'm keeping that piece secret till after Christmas Day, so the art I'm using today is of a pumpkin farm that my husband and I visited last year. Now, that was a lovely day too!

The art (without the text) is available printed on all kinds of lovely things at: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/129079869

Thanks!

Sam aka LymphomaLass xx

[thepoisonroom]

'I flirted with the idea that instead of being trans that I was just a cross-dresser (a quirk, I thought, that could be quietly folded into an otherwise average life) and that my dysphoria was sexual in nature, and sexual only. And if my feelings were only sexual, then, I wondered, perhaps I wasn’t actually trans.

I had read about a book called The Man Who Would Be Queen, by a Northwestern University professor who believed that transwomen who were attracted to women were really confused fetishists, they wanted to be women to satisfy an autogynephilia. And though I first read about this book in the context of its debunkment and disparagement, I thought about the electricity of slipping on those tights, zipping up those boots, and a stream of guilt followed. Maybe this professor was right, and maybe I was only a fetishist. Not trans, just a misguided boy.

About a year later, on the Internet, I come across a transwoman who added a unique message to the crowd refuting this professor. Oh, I wish I remember who this woman was, and I wish even more that I could do better than paraphrase her, but I remember her saying something like this: “Well, of course I feel sexy putting on women’s clothing and having a woman’s body. If you feel comfortable in your body for the first time, won’t that probably mean it’ll be the first time you feel comfortable, too, with delighting in your body as a sexual thing?”'

-Casey Plett, Consciousness

[tiercel]

People that claim to love nature and animals when a bug dares to exist near them (they actually only care about cute fuzzy mammals)

[librarygf]

something about armand choosing to kill those who are already suicidal, easing them into a pain-free death, an easeful death, rest. armand stating that nicholas and claudia are too fragile to survive vampiric life, so aware that their life is mostly endurance. and yet, armand trying so hard to make louis live, even when he tries to walk out into the sun. “will i be on suicide watch for the next 1000 years” “you are chronicling a suicide” “no no no”

[hanzajesthanza]

Pretty fucking place, isn't it?

i always think about the fact that while in beauclair, geralt's hanza lived in the palace lying that they were nobility, travelling incognito... what that meant for angoulême, whose only ask was to be made a countess... i like to think that she enjoyed her time in beauclair then...

spiritual successor to this gwent card edit

angoulême model 🏰 icewine mod

[wereshrew-admirer]

conflicting desires for lyke and duvall in sangfielle season 2:

-duvall low-key resenting lyke over the chine thing

-lyke high-key resenting duvall over the oratorio thing and EXPECTING duvall to resent him over chine but instead it's the same one-sided tension that they had on the jade moon

i want them to be involuntary friends. I want it to look like a huge 8ft tall straight* guy calling his obviously gay best friend a wretched bitch and everyone is a little uncomfortable about it except for duvall, who may or may not be behind lyke's bizarrely bad luck when it comes to flies landing in his drinks.

(*i don't think lyke is straight but i do think he's the type of bisexual man that people assume is straight)

[cursedthing]

Happy belated Valentine's day! Woe my aro 'n ace headcanons be upon ye!

[portokali]

playlist: captures the essence of bad reputation by joan jett

woohoo that's a great one, hope i did it justice!

(bad reputation - joan jett) rebel girl - bikini kill drunk walk home - mitski うっせぇわ (usseewa) - ado teach me to fight - yonaka fight club - the anxiety ladylike / WHATTA BITCH - the regrettes lash out - alice merton paradisin' - rina sawayama vortex - nova twins stfu - rico nasty cherry bomb - the runaways

listen here!

send me a concept for a playlist!

[pissfaggit]

I just gotta say. After watching tng and moving on to ds9, I can't speak for any of the other captains but. Any of the scenes with Picard that are supposed to be moving or inspiring or emotional- ain't shit compared to the fucking HEART that Avery Brooks put into playing Captain Sisko

[soupacool]

congrats on taking T and experiencing voice changes, that's so exciting!! 🥳🥳✨✨

thank you!!! it's been a period of intense learning of myself and my place in the world and I wouldn't trade it for anything

[thiagodasilva]

Chelsea may be clowning but I continue to thrive off of teams I hate that are clowning just as well

[onewomancitadel]

I'll reserve judgement until I actually play TOTK but they did a story-heavy Zelda once which elevated the gameplay and its mechanics and it was great, without leaning into twee anime tropes

[kairoschant]

I'm in such an anthropological fanfic mood. Why is the most bookmarked sansa stark fic a Naruto crossover! What's going on there!

[dreams-in-daylight]

.

[cadburycreampie]

It’s heartbreaking that I have human needs, wants, and desires I wish I could be uncaring and not crave love so disgusting and smothering that I can no longer remember what it was like to go without

[repurposedbones]

I wish there were more blatant examples of people like me living successful lives that weren’t characterized by daily vent posts about the trauma of it all. 

I wish the list of joys far outweighed the list of complaints. I wish it somehow wasn’t unbearably boring to make or see a ton of “woke up this morning, I'm still happily myself, and everything is ok!” posts. I wish people were safe to share positive experiences without risking harassment and discrimination. 

I wish it wasn’t so complicated to find people like myself who are just happy.