Dizzojay's Dean Dreams

It can never be denied that the main factor in my wonderful fandom experience is the friends I’ve made  

Whether they are friends who have crossed over from online to real life friends or those who still live in my laptop, the joy of shooting the breeze with an awesome bunch of people from all over the world is something I will always be grateful to fandom for.

Thanks to my fandom friends, I’ve gained confidence, I’ve learned new skills, I’ve travelled, I’ve humiliated myself (GISH, I’m looking at you), I’ve met famous people and I’ve found myself in ways that I’d never even considered before.

I’ve laughed with you guys and I’ve cried with you guys, and I can’t find the words to tell you how much I appreciate you all.

Therefore, I have decided to abandon words, and demonstrate my appreciation through the medium of Jared, Jensen and Misha...

My main creativity at the moment is art. I work in pastel pencils and my process, such as it is, is as follows:


 

For this challenge, I decided to go for something a little different, and so I have done a top ten of my favourite places in the UK.

So, here goes…

 

I think I’m going to have to be woefully unimaginative here and go for AO3.

There can’t be a single user on this platform that isn’t familiar with the archive, and It’s just such a great, well-maintained platform to enjoy fanfic but also to upload it.

Fanfiction.net used to be my other favourite fanfic resource, but that’s too glitchy now, and riddled with bots. In that regard AO3 never lets me down, and when I get a comments, they're clearly written by a human, and the way things are on the internet right now, that's a big bonus!

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

Oh, you’re going to regret challenging me to write about my pets! 😉

My pets are two very spoiled house rabbits. They are littermates (I hesitate to say siblings because I think there may be different fathers involved, so half siblings) and they came from a rabbit rescue sanctuary here in the UK. We got them when they were 16 weeks old, and they will be five in March.

They’re free roam in the living room, and out in the back garden when the weather’s nice – that’s because we have to sit out there to supervise them and keep an eye for predators.

My handsome little boy is Nutmeg, he’s a grumpy little ratbag plus he’s a jumper and an explorer. Since we’ve had him, he’s been up on the couch, the windowsill, the coffee table, various boxes we have around the place for them to play in, and on one memorable occasion, up on the dining table.

His beautiful 'sister' is Juniper. She’s much more sedentary than her brother. She’s all about the food and the comfort, a real lady of leisure. She’s very sweet and loving, and will sit around being fussed and loved while her brother squirms away like we’re dirty! Juniper was named in tribute to jj1564 whose name was June. We got the bunnies three months after June’s passing.

I’ve always loved rabbits, and have several throughout my life, but these are my first in the age of Social Media, so these two have their own Insta and their own Youtube channel.

I’ve always been a vocal supporter of rabbit welfare, and even more so now that house rabbits are becoming more of a thing, and knowledge of them and their needs is improving.

Here are just a few pointers as to why rabbits, although the third most popular pet in the UK (may well be similar in other countries), are also the most misunderstood, and as a result many of them live miserable, lonely and unhealthy lives:

• Contrary to popular belief, rabbits are not good starter pets for children. Rabbits generally don’t like being picked up and held (they’re prey animals and picking up is a predation trigger). Children can often be noisy and unpredictable, something else that rabbits don’t do well with.
• Rabbits can live upwards of ten years. I’ve known of rabbits to make it to fourteen years of age.
• They’re active and require a lot of space. A hutch is not sufficient for them.
• They are social animals and do better in pairs or groups than alone.
• They have a level of intelligence similar to a domestic cat so they need attention and stimulation. They require toys and hidey holes, plus an environment gives them security and the freedom to engage in natural behaviours.
• They’re nibblers and that can’t be stopped, so nibblesome stuff has to be kept out of their way, or protected from them
• From a veterinary point of view, they are classed as exotic pets, and so veterinary care may be costly. It’s always best to find a rabbit savvy vet as they have complex needs to keep them healthy including annual vaccinations

And that’s just for starters!

So it anyone you know mentions ‘getting a rabbit for the kids’, please show them my post!

Anyway, that's it from Nutmeg and Juniper...

Signing off!

Challenge #14

In your own space, create your own fandom challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Hmm, I’ve had to think about this one, and I’ve eventually come up with this…

The Snowflake Challenge is all about positivity, so in that same vein, my challenge is tell us about your happy place, or at least one of your happy places.  A place, either physical or virtual, that brings you joy, or peace, or just good old-fashioned contentment.

And secondly only if you want to, no pressure, incorporate your happy place into a fanwork as or when the muse takes you.  Maybe link it back to this post.

I’ll start:

One of my happy places is at conventions with my fandom family, but I’ve already written in this Snowflake challenge about the joy that conventions and fandom bring me, so I’m going in a completely different direction here.

In the autumn of 2024, I went away for a few days with my husband, the long-suffering Mr Dizzo, to Stratford upon Avon, here in the UK.

On the first full day we were there, we had been walking around the town and we stopped off at a coffee shop and bought a couple of lattes and cakes.

The weather was beautiful with cloudless skies.  It was warm enough not to need a coat, but mild enough not to get hot and bothered, so we sat outside the shop.

On that lovely morning, we sat and drunk our nice coffee, soaking up the atmosphere of this amazing town with Shakespeare’s house right opposite us.  There was a busker playing good music a little way away, and we sat, chatted, enjoyed our drinks, enjoyed each other’s company, listened to the music, people watched, and lived in the moment.

It had been a long time since I felt that relaxed and contented.

I will, no doubt, go back to Stratford upon Avon again because it is one of my happy places.  We may even go back to that same coffee shop, but on that one day, the stars aligned and gave me the perfect experience.

I have a weekend with no commitments coming up and so have time to spend, so let’s see if I can convince my muse to write a fanfic about the Winchester Boys in Stratford upon Avon!

Challenge #12 Create a Rec Countdown. 

Wow, this one got me thinking!

Okay, so my recs are going to consist of:
5 books
4 films
3 Fanfics
2 songs
1 self-rec

Challenge #10

In your own space, talk about one of your fandom firsts. This could be your first fandom, your first fandom friend, the first fanwork you created, the first fanwork you interacted with... The options are endless!

So, I’m going to talk about my first convention.

I discovered the supernatural fandom in early 2010. In late 2010, I met a friend via Fanfiction.net, and we discovered that we only lived about ten miles apart. So, we had a couple of real life meet ups and during those meet ups she occasionally mentioned to me these things called conventions that she’d attended.

I’d heard of conventions in a broad sense, but wasn’t really familiar with what happened at them or who went to them.

Eventually, she talked me into attending the next convention in the UK, Asylum 7, with her. The convention was October 2011 and I was excited to find out what it was all about. I was also invited that Julian was one of the guests and I was going to get the opportunity to ‘hug Death’. Who could turn down an opportunity like that?

So the convention came, and I loved every second of it. I did indeed hug Death, and he was an absolute sweetie. I told him that he was my very first ever convention photoshoot and he seemed more excited about that than I did!

Since that fateful day, I’ve been to probably about forty conventions (who’s counting), many of them still with that same friend, I’ve met Jared, Jensen and Misha multiple times, and my convention-going has crossed borders into Italy, France and Germany.

I went to that first convention all those years ago to please my friend and because I was curious, and I am so very, very glad that I did!