iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Its a silver Toyota CHR, reg FD19 AGX

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Last night my car was stolen in SE London. There’s some v sentimental irreplaceable stuff in there so I’m desperate to get it back. If you live in SE London please do look out for it, and if you can share this to people you know in the area that would be wonderful!

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Once the dashboard is up I'll share it on socials - there's also the option to leave your email address if you want and I'll drop you a line to let you know the dashboard is available, that way you won't miss my updates here. Do let me know if you've any questions! 🌱🌻🍄

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

The plan is that once I have around 100 responses or so I'll make a publicly available dashboard that people can search that might help with planning themed garden spaces. If you know a plant that fits the brief please do fill it in - and share with others that you think might like plants!

docs.google.com

Literary plants

The aim of this survey is to find plants that: - Are named after real or fictional literary people - Are named in a general way in a work of fiction (i.e. Lord of the Rings mentions 'roses') - Existe...

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Hi everyone - I'm crowdsourcing some plant data! 🌱 I've put together a survey where I'm looking for plants that: - Are named after real or fictional literary people - Are named in a general way in a work of fiction - Existed in the British Isles at the time of Shakespeare (1564-1616)

docs.google.com

Literary plants

I picked three 'themes' - food, embroidery, clothing and my goodness they come up so much more than i would have guessed at the start. I almost gave myself a fourth of 'natural world/animals' and i'm pleased I didn't because it again comes up so much!

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It's called Feather & Flame - it's part of a series of four books called The Queen's Council that take Disney princesses (this one is Mulan) and gives them a next story, one in which they are a ruler in their own right - in this one Mulan becomes the empress of China (not a spoiler - on the cover).

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Once I’m done I’m considering turning this into a longer post if people are interested?!

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But what do I do next when I get to the end of the book? English lit people - help me out! Go back through and see when and where each theme comes up and what the context is, then see what it tells me (if anything?).

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It’s been super interesting, and has gone from being something I do not enjoy at all to something that’s giving me a little thrill each time I have to post it.

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But I decided I would pick three themes at the start of the book and post-it every time they came up, and good crikey, I’m not even halfway through and I have so many sticky notes in the book.

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I’ve never really been an ‘English Lit’ girly - I always found activities like ‘dissecting the themes of the book’ really draining and something that took away from my enjoyment of the book - which is what I felt they were there for. To be read, and enjoyed.

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I’m doing something that I don’t do all that often - I’m reading a work of fiction like I would a historical source.

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Got my March Madness locked in! Go Bulldogs!

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Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

My secret hope is that he'll think it's great and that it should be turned into a collaborative paper to send off to be published...more likely he'll look at it and think it's garbage (which he'll then tell me very politely and diplomatically)...now I just have to wait and see!

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Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

ADHD brain occasionally gives me side-quests. For the last few months I've been working on a quantitative research project, and I just completed the initial analysis! No idea if I've done it right as I'm not a quant person (this project was mostly to learn), but I've submitted it to my supervisor!

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

If you don’t want to miss a post from the blog, why not sign up to my newsletter here: open.substack.com/pub/lucybrew...

open.substack.com

A Week Off

My own personal reading week

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Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

A new post has gone up on my site all about the week off my PhD I gave myself to try and recharge. Catch up on all my activities here! #phdchat #phdsky www.lucy-brewer.com/blog/a-week-...

lucy-brewer.com

A week off. — Lucy Brewer

What to do in my own personal reading week?

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Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

In good news? A week free of Phd writing means I can read Poirot and work on my embroidery without feeling guilty! 😂

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Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Over the course of this year (and particularly this week) I’ve been working on a new version of my #PhD upgrade doc that was due today. Big news - I just emailed it off! Now begins the self doubt of “what if my supervisors think it’s rubbish/not changed enough” 😂. Well I’ll hear back next week…!

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Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

If you followed along with my two day postathon this week you’ll have seen “finish embroidered starfish” on my to do list, and you might have wondered what that was…well I’ve finished it! 🪡🧵 #embroidery #starfish

Embroidered, beaded, starfish in pink purple and gold with a central white pearl. Sat on a flowery bed spread

Photo is largely black with some glow in the dark beads in a swirly pattern.

Embroidered, beaded, starfish in pink purple and gold with a central white pearl. Being lifted up for a side on view, on a flowery bed spread

Lucy Brewer @lucybrewer.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Phew, after two very busy PhD days I'm tired as all heck - but straight back to work. I've written a little bit about how I got to that point, and how I'm trying to get through it all over on my substack! open.substack.com/pub/lucybrew...

Black background with white text that says 'Part-time PhD Exhaustion'

Very sensible - October sounds like ages away but it'll fly by!

And in case you were counting...the document is now at 14,561 words. Up 3335 since this morning. Now it's time for Poirot.

And just like that I've finished my “two days in the life of a sleepy and distracted PhD student”. No idea if anyone read all the way along, but if you did - thank you! I hope it was a vaguely amusing insight into life of a stressed out, distractable part time PhD student trying to hit a deadline!

Definitions of key terms drafted ✔️ It's 10pm, the football's done, I'm tired, and whilst I didn't get to two of the PhD tasks today (task 4 and 5) I'm hoping that tomorrow evening, plus maybe an early start Thursday/Friday I'll be able to pull something together that I can send to my supervisors.

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(6) Fox mosaic - first stage done ✔️ (7) Starfish - not done (8) Flowers - planted ✔️ The big issue now is that the football is on upping the distraction factor...Hopefully the definitions won't take as long as everything else *said with ADHD time blindness brain*

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Ok task list check in: (1) Case study - a very initial draft done, loads to go. Won't get any more tonight ✔️ (2) Initial draft of thoughts on visual media - done ✔️ (3) Definitions of key terms - I'm doing this next (4) Lit review - haven't started (5) Historical background editing - haven't started

Well that took a turn and introduced me to a case I hadn't heard of before, and wasn't expecting. Would recommend the article - only 6 pages, and really interesting.

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Oh the Javallina looks very cute (though those teeth look a bit scary). I mostly just have to deal with slugs and snails eating the foliage (though occasionaly the squirrels get a bit cheeky and nab a bulb, but that's less of an issue in my front garden where all the bulbs are).

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The fox has been glued! Now I’m back to reading. I’m reading an article called ‘The Afterimages of Emmett Till’ which, so far at least, is about how we view images and how additional context changes how we view them. Very much enjoying it so far.

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Do you have a looming deadline for it?

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As always I’ve ended up going down rabbit holes but now I must pause for the next phase of the fox! 🦊

Nice! How are you finding that part of the thesis? I’m so many miles away from it that I haven’t even thought about it really!

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I banged out a couple of hundred words with no citations and little rigour but it’s something. Took a quick break to tick off task 8 (photos for proof). Now back to task 2 - have been writing about the downsides to photographs as sources so far. Time to add in some more method I guess. 45 mins 🕰️

Well I'm not entirely sure how that was 45 minutes...I've read some stuff, I still know nothing, and I've got nothing to write....I guess another 45 minute timer? *sigh* The glamour of doing a PhD ....

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45 minute timer is being set…3, 2, 1…GO

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For that I’m going to be starting by trying to quickly find the relevant bits of this - Doing Visual Ethnography by Sarah Pink. Any good ideas of where to start!?

Book - fourth edition. “Doing visual ethnography” by Sarah Pink. The sociver is a pink textured looking surface.

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Phase one of the fox done. Phase two will be gluing it down. I’m now moving on to task two - the methodology section!

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I'm up to 12,450 and have incorporated all of my initial wave of tabs into the doc - huzzah. Now I get a lunch break with some crafting (the fox mosaic, task six). Photo to follow...

No. No I will not complete the task. ARGH!! New plan - Keep going with this till lunch at 1. At that point I’ll stop and do the fox mosaic for a fun activity. Following that…we shall see….

45 mins starts now....I've got 5 different tabs of sources open to incorporate...will I do it?

britishmilitarybadges.co.uk

There's so much more research to do, but I think that moment will be a good stopping point to move on to a different task on the list. If only for a bit of a break. The person I'm looking at was in the WAAC and during my googling I came across this...should I buy it?

WW1 Womens Army Auxiliary Corps WAAC (Women's) Cap Badge - British Military Badges

This is an original WW1 Womens Army Auxiliary Corps WAAC Cap Badge for sale. In good condition. Please see our other items for more original WW1, WW2 & post war British military cap badges for sale in...

Wowsers that hour FLEW by. Almost distraction free too which I'm pleased about! Five minute break to grab another drink, then I'm back for a 45 minute session I think. I'm trying to incorporate all of the tabs I curently have open into the text.