4. increasingly well as i get older! i think when i was younger i found it very difficult to take criticism, constructive or otherwise, because of my low self esteem. i would always take criticism to heart, and found it difficult to listen to opinions (especially on creative endeavours). as i’ve gotten older, though, i’ve realised that my creativity is only spurred on by criticism - it makes me strive to do better, and to be better at what i do. it’s easy to get lost in your own creative mind sometimes, unable to see the song, (or story, or painting, or essay) for what it is and therefore unable to make progress. now i get as many opinions as possible, and a pattern will start to emerge that i can use to make my work better. 

5. i don’t know about ever, but dan is constantly surprising me with something so sweet it makes me choke up. yesterday i had the worst day i have had in a while - actually, it has been an awful week in general. when i got home dan was waiting there having got off early from work with flowers and the biggest hug ever, and he cooked me dinner and ran me a bath. i am so unbelievable lucky. 

31. dream library! ugh! my grandfather lives in ipswich in england, and i think i would pretty much describe my dream library as a melding of his and my own. his library is a whole floor of his house, and is full of first edition classics, two original shakespeare first editions, beautiful ornaments and classic styling. mine and dan’s is a motley assortment of cultural and literary theory, modern and post modern literature, classics i’ve collected from thrift stores since a young age, tattoo books from around the world, children’s literature, and japanese children’s literature. this whole conversation is making me want to go and turn my studio into a library!