Dear friends,
Happy May! I hope it is as gloriously sunny where you are as it is here in London (I am sure that in a few days time it will be grey and miserable again). I have had a lovely month, and I hope that you too are managing to find small joys amidst the global hellscape. You can read about it (my month, not the global hellscape) here: https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2025/04/april-2025.html
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You can also listen to my monthly radio show here: https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-may-2025/
I hope your May is off to a good start — what have you all been up to?
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Dear friends,
I hope you’re having a restful weekend. I’m back to report in on February, which has been busy and fine, and I hope you enjoy reading about it. The first of Feb was hourly comics day! (As it is every year). You can see this year’s hourlies here…
https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2025/02/hourly-comics-day-2025.html
And then the full regular blog is here:
https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2025/03/february-2025.html
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There’s also a radio show here, as always. https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-march-2025/
As mentioned in the blog, my pal V declared it ‘the year of the blog’, and I would really like it if this were true. What if we all ditched social media and published our own blogs and subscribed via RSS? What a cute utopian lil scene?! Will never happen, but if you have a blog (or a mailing list), please send me a link to it so that I can read too.
I am going on hols in March — another mystery trip with Journee (https://www.journeetrips.com/) which I will be posting about on Instagram and Bluesky. If you are interested please keep an eye out on Sunday March 23rd when I will find out where I am going. In 2023 they sent me to Lisbon and it was the besssssst. One of the things that made it so good was that so many friends gave me top tips, so keep an eye out and if you’ve been to my destination city before please give me many pointers, especially for vegan food and weird infrastructure sightseeing and good museums/galleries!
I hope you have an excellent March, see you at the other end.
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Dear friends,
I hope you are having a good 2025 so far. I think I am! You can read all about my January here:
https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2025/01/january-2025.html
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Also, as February 1st rolls around once again, it’s time for HOURLY COMIC DAY! It is my twelfth year taking part and it was fun as ever. You can see my hourlies here (as well as links to all previous years):
https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2025/02/hourly-comics-day-2025.html
As always, there’s also a new radio show here: https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-february-2025/ — I hope you enjoy it.
At the moment, like many people, I am grappling with which online services I should sever ties with, vs which I still need to hold on to. I guess I’ll probably do a visual diary about it at some point, it feels like it’s brewing… As part of that pondering, I have finally joined Bluesky. After joining threads early (and not clicking with it, for some reason), and joining mastodon (ditto, but mostly due to lack of friends on there), I decided to wait on Bluesky to see a bit more clearly how it’s being used and whether I am likely to find community there.
I still miss Twitter, and the space it offered me to say the stupid things on my mind without anxiety about aesthetics or professionalism, so I have decided to use Bluesky mostly for getting 'back on my bullshit’, so to speak — hoping this one sticks, as Instagram is feeling increasingly devoid of community for me. If you too are on (or considering) Bluesky, you can find me here: https://bsky.app/profile/undividual.bsky.social
Hope you’re keeping warm, and I hope to see some of you soon!
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Dear friends,
Another year is up! 2024 has been, I think, somewhat below average for me.
You can read about my December and some reflections on that here. http://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2024/12/december-2024.html
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You can also listen to this month’s radio show here:
<https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-january-2025/>
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Audient / January 2025<https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-january-2025/>
mixcloud.com<https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-january-2025/>
Now I am heading into 2025 with optimism!! Inspired by my friends honor and Olu, I created my own ‘2025 bingo’ to give me some tangible Nice Things to shoot for this year. Obviously this is a bit of an advance spoiler for next month’s visual diaries, but I enjoyed the exercise so much I thought you might enjoy it too (either reading mine or creating your own). (I reserve the right to tweak this somewhat before the end of the month as I suspect I am going to come up with some more fun things I want to cram in!)
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With that, I will leave you to your respective Januaries, hope you are staying warm and happy.
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Dear friends,
I hope you’re excited for a cosy December (and that you have a cute advent calendar to open — I have the ‘H!P vegan oat milk chocolate one and it has a bunch of different flavours, so I am excited)
You can read about my November here: https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2024/11/november-2024.html
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There’s also a December episode of my radio show here: https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-december-2024/
It might be that you’re all very well organised and already all set with the Christmas presents, but on the off chance you’re still shoppin’, check out my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/emmacharleston
There’s not really much new stuff there (I simply have not had time this year!) but still loads of old classics that might please gift recipients in your life!
Wishing you a restful festive season, and I will see you in the new year.
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Dear friends,
Happy November! As I write there are lots of fireworks banging outside — Jessie is mercifully unbothered by them (unlike Chase)… If you are a firework enjoyer I hope you’re having fun with it, and if your dog or other pet is a firework hater, I hope you’re staying safe and cosy and distracted.
October has been a month marked by the grinding gloom of low-level sickness, very much hoping things are on the up (though right now I have an absolutely terrible sore throat, so I’m not counting on it)
You can read all about that AND MORE (mostly lots of food by the look of the preview below) here: http://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2024/10/october-2024.html
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And my monthly radio show is here https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-november-2024/
I hope you’re all staying well. On the bright side, for once, I am actually quite enjoying cosy autumn for some reason. Maybe it’s because I finally live in a house that’s not freezing?! Who’d have thought
See you all soon, I hope
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Dear friends,
Happy October. Despite the incessant rain, I am feeling more cheerful about autumn than I maybe ever have done before. Summer was marred by injury, financial/job uncertainty, my dog being a dickhead, and the culmination of all these things really crushed me down a bit.
Now it’s autumn, I am running again, I have a ‘real’ job, my dog is mostly less of a dickhead thanks to ✨doggy prozac✨ (it’s literally just human prozac in a smaller dose), and I stopped taking the pill as an experiment which means my moods are ALL OVER THE PLACE but mostly peppier than they were in summer.
Here’s the blog with more detail on all those things and more, if you’re interested. (just to say to long time readers, it means so much that you are interested and look at my stupid drawings some/most months, and I don’t say it enough)
https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2024/09/september-2024.html
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There’s also a new episode of my radio show here: https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-october-2024/ (honestly I am smug enough that I think this most months, but… it’s a fun one?!)
I hope you’re all doing well, and if autumnal gloom is getting the better of you (like it does me most years tbh) I hope you can find cheerful things to make the days a bit less dark.
Shout out to Jade and Emil, without whom I would not have discovered the joy of HEATED THROW, which has literally revolutionised my experience of the winter months. I am not being paid to say this, but if you are a miserable cold person like me, this is the one I have and it’s probably paid for itself already in the reduction of times I put the heating on https://www.dreamlanduk.co.uk/products/deluxe-velvet-herringbone-emerald-gr…
Stay warm (with or without heated throw),
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Dear friends,
I hope you have all had wonderful summers — ideally, better than mine! It could have been worse, but it could also have been a lot better, in all honesty. You can read about the August bit of it here:
https://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2024/08/august-2024.html
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This month’s radio show is a 00’s/10’s ravey party, and I hope you enjoy. You can listen here: https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-september-2024/
I hope you’re all going into September feeling good — I am feeling cautiously optimistic, though also somewhat trepidatious about having to actually wind up my motivation again and get back to work…
Late summer warmth from Croydon,
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Dear friends,
My July has been somewhat mixed, and I have been trying to make the most of not having much work on. Things are looking better at the end of the month than they were at the start (spoiler alert, I guess), but if anyone has any tips for helping me grow to love this terrible gremlin (Jessie the dog) I now share my life with, I’m all ears. (Genuinely — she is a sweetgorl and I want to make it work).
You can read my monthly blog here! http://emmacharleston.blogspot.com/2024/07/july-2024.html
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And my monthly radio show is here: https://www.mixcloud.com/emma-charleston/audient-august-2024/
I have just started making a zine about my Capital Ring walks. I am not sure how much widespread appeal it will have, but it’s nice to get my teeth into a new project that is just for me (during this rare period of time where I actually have the hours in the day!)
I hope all’s well with you, whatever you’re up to this summer.
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