#Blaugust2025 Group Project – Small Joys, Big Smiles
_One of the possible tasks for the #Blaugust2025 Community Builder award is to create or join in a group project. I invited my fellow Blaugust participants to write about their “Small Joys, Big Smiles” – the tiny things that make them disproportionately happy!_ _If you’re following a bunch of bloggers, you may see multiple posts on this topic today._
### A Fresh Manicure
I am very decidedly *not* a girly girl. I sometimes forget to get my hair cut for literal years, I barely bother with skin care, and I only recently bought some makeup after not owning any for close to a decade. But there is very little that will perk me up faster than a two fresh coats of some sort of sparkly nail polish. Over the last several years, I’ve become a pretty dedicated fan of ILNP, and I retail therapy myself a few new colors far more often than I should.
When things aren’t going absolutely crazy in my life, I make it a point to sit down every single Sunday (give or take a day) and redo my nails. It’s not much – and really, no one else even sees them most week, except when I post on Mastodon about it – but it makes me feel good about myself. I’ll even admit that I occasionally just wiggle my fingers back and forth and enjoy the glitter.
My nail polish cabinet is getting pretty close to full! I’ve been building the collection up for several years now.
### The Process of Kitting Up a New Cross Stitch Project
I am currently **_so far ahead_** with projects that take months – if not years – to complete, because the process of preparing to start something new is just oh-so-very satisfying. I still have a few projects that I’ve ordered all the supplies for, but I’m holding back actually doing the prep work because I know that nothing will bust me out of a funk in quite the same way.
I can’t explain why I get joy from laying out all the little cards, writing the numbers on them, and then spending an hour or two removing floss from skeins and winding it on the cards. It’s just such a chill, meditative process, and it feels like holding raw potential in my hands. I may actually get more joy out of this step of the process than any other, which is too bad, because the actual stitching takes so very much longer.
### The First Few Days of Autumn
Don’t get me wrong – autumn is my favorite season by far, but those first few days every year when the weather starts to get cooler are incomparable as far as joy goes. I am not a fan of summer at all – the hot weather drains me in ways that the bitter cold of winter does not, and I am wishing the summer months away every single year. It’s such a profound relief the first time I feel chilly, when I go looking for the socks I haven’t touched in months, where I actually grab a sweater on my way out the door.
But the cooler weather doesn’t just mean increased comfort. It means the trees are about to be at their most beautiful. It means that spooky season is just around the corner. It means I’m about to put away the ice cream maker, and instead spend time in the kitchen making soups, stews, and baked goods because it’s no longer too damn hot for all of that. In a lot of ways, the start of autumn feels like coming back to myself, and maybe my joy in it isn’t disproportionate after all.
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_If you’re seeing this after Saturday, the 23rd, there’ll be a list of links to other Blaugustians small joys, big smiles below this. If you’re seeing this ON Saturday the 23rd? You may wanna check back later, because I expect many others will have more interesting posts than mine._
* **Small Joys Big Smiles** – Nerdy Bookahs
* **When a Flyswatter Makes You Smile** – Gaudete Theology
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