In which many things are planned
Look, new yarn! This one was dyed for some friends, as part of their baby blanket. I’m quite excited about this one as it is so subtle and beautiful and just glows.
It is part of my Neil Gaiman “Death and Dreams” series, and it is called Stardust.
I haven’t written anything on the novels in weeks.
I’ve been stressed, sick, and overwhelmed.
Even just last week, I started a dental emergency. Anyone who’s been a long time reader of mine knows that I’ve had problems with my teeth for years. Well, I’m finally getting things sorted out. Not in the way I want of course. This is more of an emergency situation.
Last Wednesday, I started having severe pain. Then I woke up on Thursday and my face was swollen.
I did what I could do to help the swelling go down, but on Friday it was again swollen and I had been up all night in pain. I hadn’t experienced that pain in many years, not since I had been living in Boulder and I had my wisdom teeth extracted and they hadn’t given me my syringe and I needed it.
Well, on Friday I managed to get an appointment at Peak Vista. Which I must say is an awesome place. I didn’t have an appointment, but they squeezed me in. And if I had gone to the emergency dentist I would have paid 300$. Well at Peak Vista, I paid a total of 29$, and that was including the prescription for antibiotics to get the swelling down. Yeah I had to sit around waiting a while, but that was fine. It wasn’t like I was going to be doing much that day anyway.
Due to the swelling they weren’t able to try extracting the tooth, which actually is fine. They couldn’t have given me more than just a local anesthetic shot, which from past experience… would have been bad. The last time I had a tooth extracted, a baby tooth mind you that they just used a shot.. it took 4 shots and I still felt every single tug and it hurt like a bitch.
So I’ve been referred to an oral surgeon. Which is most likely who I needed anyway since there isn’t much tooth for them to grab onto, and they have to remove the post that was left over from the root canal.
The tooth that has been giving me fits, was one that I wanted to have extracted years ago. But I was naive and I let the dentist convince me to just get a root canal done. Well, that was my mistake. I should have gone with my plan, my own gut instinct. My plan was to just get them pulled, and wear my retainers to keep my teeth from shifting, and then get implants some day. Good plan right? Well, the crown immediately broke on the tooth, and then I was generally in too much pain to wear my retainers, which means my teeth have shifted. Not much, but its noticeable to me. And means I’m most likely going to have to get braces again. I am going to start wearing my retainers again anyway, as theoretically the pain I was having that prevented me from wearing them will be gone. Now it’ll just be a matter of seeing if my teeth that have shifted slightly, will shift back in to place. (I’d be happy with that)
The hubs2be knows what plan we need to have for my teeth, and that I would rather have my teeth fixed than a sparkly necklace.
My cheek as of today is back to normal. Yay.
Now back to writing.
Yesterday I wrote over 2300 words. I am quite excited about this since I hadn’t written in weeks. Unfortunately it was all on The Q2-Files, and not Aether Horizons like it should have been, but you write when inspiration hits.
I’ve also figured out a lot of the direction that I want to take the Q2-Files in. So that makes me happy as well. My first set of readers who have gotten the few measly pages, love it. Which makes me believe I have a real hit on my hands.
Oh, and the Minion and I are planning great things for Baking After Midnight; there will be a contest soon. We are just working out the details right now. OMG, the month is almost over. We really need to get cracking on getting those details sorted so that ya’all know about it.
Alright, I guess that’s all for now. Cheers!
Because I could…
I could say it’s a result of the stress I’ve been under the past couple of weeks.
I could say it’s because I have been marginally good when it’s come to my sweet intake the past few days.
I could say it’s because I won’t have anything like this for a while again.
But the truth is… I did it because I could.
So I had myself a bowl of Cookies and Cream Ice Cream (Blue Bell since it just came to Colorado Springs, and Mim had never had it. Being of Texas myself, I have of course had it) topped with a chocolate chip cookie.
I made chocolate chip cookies today for this weekend. I like to feed people who are helping me out, and I’d rather myself have homemade cookies than store bought ones.
I couldn’t find my usual recipe from Martha. So I am trying one of her other ones. I think this is the same recipe I used while I was in England… I thought that they were my usual recipe but I guess not.
When I was in England I blamed the difference on the butter/chocolate chips. I am not fond of the chocolate chips I had in England (Milk chocolate. BLEGH! Give me Semi Sweet or Dark!) and the future Mother In Law does not keep butter in the house. (She runs Cardio wards in hospitals. I personally would rather have the real butter and take care of my heart in other aspects.)
My French Grandmother would roll in her grave if she knew I had used fake butter to bake with. But that is another time.
Today I used real butter, and had proper chips. The recipe I used is still different than I’m used to, but it is quite yummy in deed. Nice and cakey. Almost too cakey.
Today I also made myself some hummus. Made it for the first time. Used a mortar and pestle even. I did use a blender, but as my blender is a tiny thing I decided to help it out by premashing the garbanzo beans.
I think the hummus was a success. It was nummy.
Next up will be to make different flavors, and also to make Edamame Hummus.
Pictured above is also some English Muffin bread that my mum made. It is always a yummy success.
For dinner Mim made crustless Quiche and I must say that I much prefer crustless Quiche to regular Quiche. I’ve never been fond of most pie crusts, and Quiche was not an exception. I think from now on I’ll be making this version as I am fond of Quiche, but always am disappointed with the crust.
I’ll post the recipes up but today you are just going to get the cookies.
And the next time you most likely hear from me will be after Denver’s first ever Anomaly Con. I am quite excited. It’ll be my first time selling anything from The Asylum in a public setting. I will also be harking my scribblings. Yup, as an author. (Well, it’s my artists table that I’m paying for … so it’s not quite being there officially as an author.. but hey, my Asylum.. my rules!) Yup, Aether Horizons will be at the Con. I’m quite excited. It will make me feel all official like.
Martha’s Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake until cookies are golden around the edges and set in the center, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
Happy Birthday Mum – a giveaway
Edited note: Remember, to get multiple entries you need to do multiple comments (not just saying “I followed this, this and this” in 1 comment). Otherwise my RNG won’t find you.
Today is my mum’s birthday. I cannot for the life of me remember how old she is, but that’s nothing new… I’ve never remembered. We’ll go with the classy reason of “To me… she is ageless.” Yeah… that one works.
The chocolate cake I made a few weeks ago is defrosting (first time ever freezing cake… we’ll see how it goes.).
Her pressies are ready and waiting (yes, you might think I’m a good daughter. Truth is, I totally forgot it was her birthday, but luckily I bought her presents last year and didn’t misplace them.).
So Happy Birthday mum. Hope it’s a good one.
Now onto the giveaway. No, this really wasn’t planned due to mum’s birthday… but again.. I’ll just say it is.
I have not announced this new little project before because I’ve been too busy. (Really… I need a full time assistant, and an actual work space now. This is getting ridiculous.)
The Asylum For Wayward Yarn is being a secondary sponsor for the Crafty Diversions Fan Appreciation Knit Along.
I am absolutely honored to be a part of this. I really like her patterns (had quite a few of them queued without realizing it when I agreed to be a part of this KAL), and this is a huge step up into the big leagues for my little Asylum.
I couldn’t have done it without one of my fans/customers being juts totally awesome and dropping my name when the question about yarnies came up.
Well, right now I am very sleep deprived. And when I am sleep deprived… I do stupid things. This stupid thing, you will benefit from.
On top of the prizes I am going to be doing for this KAL, I am offering up one now.
Oh, I guess I should talk about those first.
1) You are allowed to purchase some of my new colorways that I have not debuted here on the blog. (I guess I should do that) My only rule is that you actually participate in the KAL if you buy the yarn. I’ll be sad if you don’t, and a sad Erin means no more giveaways. (I’ll put the new yarn pictures down below)
2) I will be doing a Finished Object random drawing winner from this KAL. Doesn’t matter what yarn you use, if you finish your shawl, you can possibly win one of my yarns in a colorway of your choosing.
3) I will be doing an Asylum Finished Object random drawing from this KAL. If you use an Asylum yarn, you get entered to win another skein from me, colorway of your choosing.
4) Oh wait… 4… that was just me giving a skein to someone already. Nevermind… ignore that. (Yes, someone has already been lucky)
So I’m a gonna do another (yes, what great sentence structure from me this morning…) drawing. Right now.
There are several ways you can enter.
“Like” The Asylum on Facebook. – This one is obvious as to why.
“Like” Me, the author on Facebook. – I know, it’s blatant self promotion, but hey… my Asylum.. my rules. And I bet a few of you didn’t know that I have an author page on there now. Well, now you know.
“Follow” me on Twitter. – I’m not sending you to my Asylum one on twitter because I don’t really use it anymore. Just go with my personal one. I’ll do yarnie goodness on there as well. And I’m trying to be better about using twitter. (Make sure in your entry comment you tell me who you are on Twitter so that I can associate you with it)
“Follow” this blog.- Seriously, just do it. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
And one last one because I’m totally about promotion right now…
“Like” Aether Horizons on Facebook. – If you don’t know what it is, it’s a novel I’m hoping to publish later this year. Does it have anything to do with this KAL? No. But it’s my baby, and again… my Asylum… my rules.
Comment here in the comments each action you take. (I’ll be checking, so don’t try to lie… ) For each action, please leave a separate comment (it just makes it easier on me when it comes to picking the winner, and if you shove all of it into one comment, you’ll only get ONE entry.).
Alright, I think my insanity is over for the moment. On to photos of new yarn goodness.
“Beware” inspired by the most awesome band “Bitter Ruin”. I kind of love them. Kind of more than I should. If you haven’t listened to them, you should. Go do it. You won’t regret it. This yarn was created as I am knitting a hat for Georgia, who is the more feminine half of Bitter Ruin. But that is a post for another day.
“Les Pacte Des Loups” inspired by the creature that actually terrorized the French countryside in the 18th century. The Beast of Gévaudan (huh, guess I could have named it that… non? Oh well, if I ever have to change the name… that’s what I’ll change it to.) was responsible for an estimated 210 attacks, resulting in 113 deaths and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten. Some say it was a giant wolf. Some say it was a hyena (I don’t give into the people who say it wasn’t due to not having the right amount of teeth. When you kill 113 people or more, you are bound to loose a few teeth eh?). Some say it was a wild boar. Some say it’s sire was a red furred Mastiff. Some even say it was a Mesonychid. We will sadly never know.
“The Silver Kiss”, this one amuses me because while I was dyeing it I kept thinking it reminded me of Silver Kisses. Don’t ask why, it just did. I decided on Silver Kiss instead and only then remembered that The Silver Kiss was my very first vampire book that I read as a child. I’ve spoken about the book before, in my post about “Blood and Chocolate” by Annette Curtis Klause. She also wrote The Silver Kiss. So yes, I unintentionally named it after the first vampire book I ever read. It feels appropriate.
The photo does not do the yarn justice. The subtlety of the steam and brass and copper tones is gorgeous on this yarn. I can’t wait to see it knitted into something. I had been planning a series of Steampunk yarns for a long time now, this is just the first of what will be many. Oh hey.. there ya go.. there is the tie in to Aether Horizons. See, I can justify anything.
Copper Dragonflies is another in my Steampunk line. Inspired partly by the most fabulous friend of mine who is Copper Dragonflies. Her hats will be with me at Anomaly Con (ACK, another thing I haven’t posted about.. whoopsie. I guess I’ll be doing another blog post soon!) as she is my… “apprentice”. *shifty eyes*
The Governor’s Daughter is the next in the Parley of Pirates series. Betcha can’t guess who that’s supposed to be? I’ll give you 5 guesses and the first 4 don’t count.
“The Anguisette” is the latest in my Love as Thou Wilt series, based off the immortal works of Jacqueline Carey and her Kushiel Legacy. I think it turned out just perfect.
And last but most certainly not least…
Sleepy Hollow. I really wanted Fall colors for this yarn. I think I got exactly what I wanted. Headless horsemen, Ichabod Crane… things that go bump in the night…
Alright, you’ve seen all my new yarns (which other than for the KAL, will NOT be available until April, after the Anomaly Con is over.
The Mystery of the Carved Bones
This has been an interesting year. I never win anything. I always want to win things.. but I never do. This year though, I have won 2 things. A book (Which I still haven’t read), and now a pair of custom made earrings by the fabulous designer Alena from Alena’s Originals.
Her Artfire shop is here, and her Facebook page can be found here.
I discovered her jewelry in a quest to find jewelry inspired by the tv show Bones. I love the necklaces that the main character of Bones (Based off the novels by Kathy Reichs) wore in the beginning seasons. I had found the actual designer many years ago, but her necklaces were going for thousands of dollars… and I’ve lost that link.
I ran into Alena’s shop once again in my quest for the necklaces.
With this set of earrings that I won, it was entirely up to me to pick what I wanted. Well, I didn’t know what I wanted so I told Alena to be creative. Just to give me something organic and earthy looking. I think she did an amazing job. I LOVE them. Wooden beads, A Walnut see, and Silver. Lovely, just absolutely lovely. And so light weight!
I love to look at pretty things. I can’t necessarily buy pretty things right now, but I can look at pretties and also send my “likes” to the hubs2be who is now terrified to buy me pretties because the only jewelry taste he is familiar with, of course is his Mothers, and his Sister. I am going to attempt to put this as delicately as possible.
I have the direct and total opposite taste in jewelry than my future Mother in Law.
She freely admits to loving the Bling.
I love things that are more organic and delicate. I do not love the bling. Guy has tried to show me things that he wanted to buy me. Thank gods he didn’t surprise me with pieces because quite frankly… I had not been happy with his choices.
OF course if he had bought me something, I would have loved it and loved him for buying it for me. Even if I thought it was the ugliest thing in the world. You do that for your spouse.
But he and I communicate with each other. He’s starting to learn what I like. When he and I are finally cohabitating, he’ll finely be able to see what I like, and not just hear what I like.
Well, I like Alena’s work.
And I was absolutely floored when I won a pair of custom earrings made by her. Even though I’m allergic to sterling silver (Though my ears aren’t hurting right now after wearing them for a few hours yesterday) I wasn’t going to mention it since these were free. If they had been less than SS, I would have offered to pay the difference so that I could actually wear them. Even with the SS, I chose a wire style that would allow me to change the wires out if absolutely necessary down the road.
Yesterday I had a photoshoot with Rebecca. We used the church of Grace and St. Stevens in Colorado Springs. That is my mother’s church, so while we were photographing, she was working in the garden. The reason we chose to have the photoshoot there was because the administrative offices are is in this amazing building next door. It is called the McWilliams House, and it is an old Victorian.
Now I shouldn’t be showing these photos yet, as there is a certain one that is for something very specific… but I’m going to risk it.
We had fun doing the photoshoot. I borrowed my mum’s hat for it, as I don’t have one of my own at the moment.
I have many more photos, but they aren’t ready yet.
I have quite a headache, so I’m going to leave it here for now.
Ta!
Oh, and stay tuned for more information about that pretty scarf I’m wearing. In a few days you’ll get to hear all about it with some detailed photos!
Sometimes the Universe Listens
I won’t go into a discussion about my religion here today. Not because I don’t want to talk about it, no not at all, I’m always up for chatting about my beliefs. Especially if you have opposite beliefs. I love theological discussions and always have. I just ask that when we have that discussion you don’t try to force your opinions on me, as I won’t do that to you.
But so last night, I was praying to the gods. Asking for guidance, asking for assistance in my family’s future.
I also asked for help with my writing. Whoo boy did that one get answered almost immediately.
About 30 minutes later I was inspired something fierce. Morpheus of course promptly left me high and dry on our nightly date, and I had to run downstairs to fetch a notebook. I could not use the notebook next to my bed, as that one is for Aether Horizons, and this story most certainly was not Aether Horizons. Actually, that reminds me I need to go order myself a new Moleskine notebook… I think this project is going to be that big.
Never fear. I shall not let Aether fall by the wayside. But I just had to get this story started. If I didn’t, I’d loose it. And my insomnia wasn’t going to let me get back to sleep anyway.
It kind of scares me. It’s not a genre I was fully planning on ever writing in. It’s a genre that already has so many greats, that I would very much be the little fish in the very big pond. But who knows… Perhaps someday I could be one of those big fish. I won’t know unless I jump in.
It does mean that I will have to dig out a copy of a book I’ve lugged around for years (and wow, in my search to find an image of it.. I realize that I got my copy for a STEAL!)
Actually, that is another story of the Universe telling me to do something. I don’t know if I ever told the story on my blog, if I have forgive me.
Back when I was living in Boulder (hmmm… another coincidence that I can’t talk about right now), I was working at PetSmart. I hated it. I was struggling something fierce. I had just graduated from High School, I had just been rejected by CSU (sorry, when your mother is going through Chemotherapy and radiation treatment, the SATs aren’t that big a priority…). I was pretty miserable.
I asked the gods and goddesses (and anyone else out there in the universe) to give me some guidance about what I should do.
I ended up missing my bus home. So I walked across the street to The Bookworm. Which was one of my absolute favorite used bookstores.. in the entire state of Colorado. (My California favorite is The Bookaneer in Thousand Oaks)
For some reason the idea of criminal forensics was stuck into my head. And going to school for it. So while I was in the Bookworm, I was just looking about… I picked up a few novels I wanted to read. And as I went up to the counter, the young man who was working the counter walked away. In his place was a much older lady. When she asked me if I had found everything, I paused and went…
“You know… do you have anything on forensics?”
She paused thoughtfully, then replied with:
“As it happens, I got a book in today, that I didn’t know where to put it.”
I followed her to the Law section (by the way, this was before the influx of CSI fans and the subsequent forensic books) and she handed me a hardback heavy book. “The New York Police Department; Practical Homicide Investigation” (I can’t remember what edition I have is)
I decided on the spot to get it. I mean, could a symbol be any brighter? There I was wondering if I should go to school for forensics, and lo and behold a text book for the NYPD falls into my hands. I paid 20$ for it, at a time when 20$ meant the difference between me making rent that week. (Oh and I say it was a steal because I paid $20. To buy it, it’s $70+. YOWIE!!!)
I ended up not going to school at all, and most certainly wouldn’t have gone for forensics. I realized that I already had a late start, and the burn out rate is too high. I didn’t want to do that to myself. (Okay, I was afraid of failing)
I would have loved to be a lab geek. I wanted to do ballistics. Somewhere in a box I have an entire bag full of bullet casings because a friend knew I wanted to do ballistics. (I hope those haven’t been lost in the moves)
So maybe the Universe wasn’t telling me that I was supposed to become a forensic tech. I’m human. I can get the message wrong at times. This time I think I’ve got it though.
The many pages that got written last night were good pages. Opening up an entirely new world to me. A world I had tried to delve into previously, but with a twist. It didn’t work out. I decided I didn’t want to go that route. This time it’s different.
Hopefully we’ll see both of these stories finished this year. Hopefully you all will enjoy what I’m creating.
Hopefully I might someday become that big fish.
2011 With a new look!
Well.. it’s taken some tinkering, but I think I’ve finally decided on a look for the blog that I like.
Let me know what you all think? Anything I need to change and what not.
I’ve got many ideas and plans for 2011, and now that I’m not cranky and depressed I’m starting to focus on those.
I can’t tell you about all the plans, simply because there are some meanie heads (yes, that was being polite when I really want to call those people (and I’m using a plural to be polite) a certain 4 letter “C” word that I never never never use and generally want to punch a person in the face when they use it. But these “people” deserve the label.) will attempt to steal the ideas.
But yes, I’ve got very big plans for this year. And I’m not talking about the move or supposed wedding!
In regards to the wedding and move, I’m not making any plans. To make plans would be to tempt fate once again.
It’s been a tense couple of days between me and My Guy. Moving brings out the worst in people, finding suitable housing always makes me cranky. I hate searching for places. The UK also makes it very difficult for apartment searches. They don’t believe in renting over there, the mind set is “to own”. Well, that is all fine and dandy if you are one who not just wants to own, but can own. So you are lucky if you get a crappy image of the outside of the building when it comes to rental properties. Oh, and that is the only image. No floor plan, no measurements. Nothing. Just a crappy outside image.
So it gets frustrating. And My Guy is wonderful, but the worst when it comes to searching for housing. He’s picky to say the least.
As I was typing this up though, I checked my email and found that a deposit has been put down on a place.
My Guy sent me the link yesterday, with photos from his viewing. And after the big upset that had happened over the last “promising place”, I was certainly nervous opening the email. (The argument had not been pretty.) I will say I let out the breath I had been holding. There was light.
One of my big things was fear of living in a dark cramped little closet. I get depressed. I suffer a bit from Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D). Also moving to a new country, with weird customs, and no friends close by… All while not being able to work for the first 6 months… in my mind is a recipe for severe depression.
This little place has light. It has a galley style kitchen (only it doesn’t go through to anything other a Juliet Balcony).
It has a black stovetop which is good if I ever dye. Woodgrain countertops, and though the sink is smaller than I’d like (and only a 1 basin sink) I’ll manage somehow.
The bathroom is downstairs, with a window. Which makes me happy so that I can get the steam out and not have a mildew covered bathroom.
The bedroom is upstairs. That is the only problem that I really see (other than just general size of the little place.. but can’t do much about that on our budget right now). I can just see me with my bad knees having to go pee at 2am and going down those stairs. Oh well, if there is a problem, it might mean I finally get the second knee surgery I need lol.
It’s over a shop, which is weird to me. I’ve never lived over a shop. I might go mad during those first 6 months. Or it means I’ll spend my days at the pub next door, with my laptop working on the novel. The pub is literally down the stairs next door. It’s called The Seven Red Roses. I rather like that name for what will be “my local”. The post office is also literally right next door. As well as a Curves (which I’ve never gone to curves, but if it’s the closest gym, I might give it a go). There is also a pilates studio, that has the machines. I might give that a go, I know I can’t just do the floor routine for pilates, not with my back the way it is, and I haven’t had the chance to try the pilates machines.
I still do not know if I will be allowed to run my business during the first 6 months of living in the UK. I understand the reason for the “not allowed to work”, as they don’t want people just marrying for the Green Card. Wait, to they call it a Green Card in the UK? You know what I mean though. I think there should be an exception for owning your own business though. *shrugs* we’ll find out, and if I’m not allowed to run the business, I won’t. (Hear that government people? I won’t work during those 6 months. If I dye, it’ll be for my own personal use, and that is all.)
I started a diet at the end of last year. And since the 2nd of January, I have lost 14.4lbs. To put it in British terms, I have lost just over a “stone“.
I don’t know if it’s simply because of the diet, or if it’s just the universe telling me something I should be doing with my life (beyond dyeing yarn)… but I have been dreaming and fantasizing about owning a bakery for the past few weeks now.
Colorado has far too strict laws in regards to food sales, so sadly all my plotting and planning will have to wait till after I move to the UK. I have someone researching the laws in the UK, but I believe they are slightly more relaxed.
But just because I cannot sell my wares right now (once my diet is over of course, I’m not going to tempt myself like that) doesn’t mean I can’t bake them and perfect them. I’ve already got a menu of items to perfect. I can also test an idea I have in regards to keeping things fresh and shipping them, not just across the country but across the pond.
This little baking dream I’ve been having has actually done a wonderful thing. My big brother Merlin and I have reconnected over it. Baking and cooking was a very magical thing in our house growing up. All of us kids did it, and we enjoyed doing it. Whether it was grilling a piece of fish on a tiny grill hanging off the back of the boat, or if it was a Chocolate cake with Peppermint Frosting (pink even!) for a sleepover. We are a family of foodies.
In my comments about this dream on Facebook, he encouraged me. Since I haven’t actually seen Merlin since… Wow, I want to say 10 years ago now… this is a big deal to me that we’ve reconnected. I didn’t get to see him at the engagement party, that he and his now fiancée flew out for. (They got engaged the night before the engagement party, but didn’t tell anyone until afterwards because they didn’t want to take away from my “thunder” well, considering I wasn’t even at the engagement party, I would have been pleased as punch for them to announce it then as then it would have been a REAL engagement party. lol)
Stories I am working on this year:
Aether Horizons
Nope, haven’t dropped this one. Still working on it. While I was in England I did a little artwork to get myself inspired.
That is an idea for Vesper Ravenwood. I enjoyed playing with it.
And here is a logo for the HMAES Valerian, the ship that takes them oh so far amongst the clouds.
Then there of course is still the Unnamed Blitz Novella. I don’t think it’ll get a name till it’s done, and I cannot finish it till I get into England and can take a walk or two. I am not giving this one up at all, because I really like it.
Mind you, the image for the Blitz Novella isn’t pretty. It was thrown together without the aid of photoshop. Someday I’ll clean it up when I have photoshop again (meaning after the move as the main computer of the house has it)
And then of course there is the new little short story project that I am working on. I announced it in the last blog.
Can’t really give you the title at this time, but you’ll know it has to do with the mysterious person named “Bliss Leigh Happy”. I cannot wait till this one is ready for public consumption. It shall be quite fun!
I’ve been working my ass off the past couple of days dyeing yarn. I’m exhausted. Today I’m going to edit some photos and put listings up in the shop, and I might do a bit more dyeing, but I’m certainly not going to do as much as I did the other day.
The Sherlock Holmes Yarn Club has been a hit! People are expressing that they enjoy the yarns and the swag they’ve received, which makes me quite happy. I was nervous about my yarn babies going off into the world.
Books I’m currently reading:
Tekwar by William Shatner (haven’t actually touched this one in a while)
Two for the Dough by Janet Evonovich
and I just got from the library (haven’t opened them up yet but I will later today):
Death Masks by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #5)
The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson (#2)
I guess I’m done yammering. I should go make some lunch and then get to work on what I was going to work on.
Bugs and Hisses everyone.
Bliss Leigh Happy
I shouldn’t be blogging right now. I’ve hit a depression so I know this blog will sound blah.
After much frustration I got all the packages for the first month of the Sherlock Holmes Yarn Club shipped off. This club has been a labor of love. I will admit I overstretched myself. I knew I was going to do it. I should have given myself more time between getting back from England and when I needed to send the shipment off. I was not counting on getting sick with a Toxic Waste cold that knocked me on my ass for most of December.
I’ve been working on a short story. I wasn’t planning on starting a short, but anything to get me back into writing (which I hadn’t done since I left England) is a good thing.
I’m hoping that this short will become a good old fashioned serial of stories.
I’ve got a few friends working on artwork for it, for cover work and promotional items.
I’m hoping to actually sell the short stories, and each story I am including cooking recipes that pertain to the story.
In diet news: I’ve lost 12.4lbs since Jan 2nd 2011. And basically an entire inch in all the places that I need to measure.
I think I’m going to make some dinner and then call it a very early night and snuggle in bed with a book.
Help out a fellow writer.
Hello world. No, I am not dead. I just have been slightly dead. I know I should have been posting about my trip to England, which I will do… eventually. I was sick while I was in England, and then I got sick once I got home. So I have now been sick going on a month. Not fun.
I’ve also had lots of dyeing to do. I’m gearing up for my big Sherlock Holmes Yarn Club, which starts this January. And when I say starts this January, I mean for the clients. For me.. it started back in September. I’ve been buying yarn and swag, and designing things, and knitting etc. I’ve spent the last 2 days dyeing up over 30 skeins of yarn which is only HALF the first month’s shipment.
I’ve got more to dye today once I finish this blog. I tell ya, once I’m done with this club, and the Big Ass Order that I’ve got at the same time… I might have to take a break lol. No, I won’t. But I am working on some Super Sekret Projeckts (yes, technical spelling there).
But today I’m going to talk to you about a friend and her book. I am honestly proud of her because she is finally publishing her book. She is going the self publish route, and she has personally given me lots and lots to chew over. She shares her experiences in the back end of the business, to which I find invaluable.
If you are ever interested in her tips, you can read them at her blog here: To Publish or Not To.
Because she has chosen to go the Self Publishing route, a route that I my self might be headed in… that falls to us to help her out.
I’m going to steal her own words now, as it’ll give you a tiny idea of her writing style.
“But word of mouth is powerful, and it’s a good book. If you like darkly comic fantasy with lots of sex, complex characters and moral situations, and multi-layered world building, this one is for you. If you read 100 pages of Twilight and decided the characters were just too damn painful to deal with, if you loved Harry Potter until JKR went off the rails in Deathly Hallows, if you really, really loved some of the fantastic adult oriented fan fiction that Harry Potter inspired, if you wanted to shoot Lev Grossman in the head for inflicting The Magicians on us because nothing happens in the book and the main character is a whiny twit, give Sylvianna a read. I wrote Sylvianna with those things in mind, creating a book for people who love fantasy and want an intelligent, grown-up version to sink into.”
She is offering her book for free. Yes, for FREE.
Simply go to this link: Sylvianna by Keryl Raist on Smashwords and use this code: EN72N
That code is good until January 21st 2011. (whoa, almost wrote 2010… can we tell I’m not ready for it to be the end of the year yet?)
Even if you have NO intention of reading the book, please please download it anyway.
The more downloads a book gets, the higher in ranking it goes. Then the more people who see it, the more likely it is to sell. Feel free to pass the code around and give it to anyone you want. She is looking for as many downloads and reads as possible right now.
If you want a physical copy of the book, there is a little widget on the side of my blog. Now if you click through that link, I get a bit of money. And since I’m a not quite, but almost starving artist(writer) trying to finish my own novel… CLICK IT!
Alright, it’s time for me to do the dishes, then get back to dyeing… I’ve got a lot to do in not a lot of time and I still hate being sick.
I will try to get back to a more regularly scheduled blogging. I am also attempting to actually finish my novel and the Super Sekret Projeckt. Those are my goals for 2011.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and for those celebrating today a Wonderful Boxing Day.
I myself did not really celebrate, the presents are still under the tree. We are waiting on Mum coming home from dog sitting before we open anything.
I did however, make pumpkin bread for our brekkie, tuna steaks with spinach and sweet potatoes for our dinner, and we had a Japanese chicken noodle soup as well.
Oh, and there was no snow. How about that… not a white Christmas. It kind of amused me.
Frak the Ash Cloud
I’ve been such a bad blogger. Please forgive me my peeps.
Believe me… I’ve been wracked with guilt at my lack of updating.
I’ve been busy with my little Asylum. Yuppers… things are starting to happen. This is exciting.
I also booked a flight to Florida. Whoa… Really? Florida? WTF??
That’s right. In just over a week and a half, I am getting a plane, which thankfully is not being affected by the Volcano Gods… nor the Ash Cloud of Doom.
As you all may have heard me gush about previously, I am a fan of Fresh from the Cauldron yarns.
Well, Squib who runs FftC is needing some assistance. All of her normal (as I call them) minions have upped and moved. One of them even moved to Colorado.
I looked at this as an opportunity. She needs help, I have been wanting a One on One dyeing lesson from her (basically been wanting that since I first started talking with her). Realized I had the money… (well, not really… but I can justify it for my business.)
So, this is a good thing. Sure I’ll be doing most of her grunt work, but I’ll also get to sit at the feet of my Mister Miyagi and watch / help her work. This is worth it’s weight in gold peeps. Really it is.
Today I spent the morning sitting in a cafe (okay.. it was Panera) writing on Aether Horizons. Didn’t get as much written as I would have liked because it became too noisy for me to really concentrate.
I also gave a little girl a purple flower. Alright… it was a sketch of some flowers on a purple sticky note. But she loved it. And her mom loved it. It was my way of saying “I totally know that you know I can hear your convo and I’m sorry to hear about your problems with your military husband that you are discussing with your priest/whatever he is and also about your childhood issues with your father’s affair while you were growing up in Germany but lets pretend that I cannot hear you at all. Oh, and I’m totally stealing the line your husband said to you that you love telling because it’s the most romantic thing in the world. Kthnxsbye!”
After that, I picked up Mother of Mine and her friend “Dances with Pitbulls” and we went downtown for lunch. We did sushi.
I tried something that I had never seen before.
Sweet Pumpkin Roll.
It was good… It was mellow… It was interesting. I say interesting because I think the texture is why I think it was interesting.
After that I walked down to Poor Richard’s book store while Mother of Mine and friend went to the College and took photos at the statues.
I bought books. Bad me! 5 books to be specific! BAD ME!!!
3 of them though are books I NEEDED.
2 of them were books I wanted just for pleasure.
Considering one of the books has already helped me feel better about my writing and I think will be of good use to me in the future… that makes me very happy about buying it.
One of the other books… well if I decide to fully write in the mystery genre it will be invaluable right alongside my “Practical Homicide Investigation”.
And the 3rd useful book I bought was a Knitting Book. Specifically an Interweave Press “lace and eyelets” which I decided I had to get because it had at least one stitch in it that I can use for the scarf I have been designing. This will solve a problem I was having.
The 2 books I bought for pleasure were both by Kim Harrison.
Book number 1 “Dead Witch Walking” in paperback. It was a practically brand new copy and I’ve been itching to reread the series.
The other one was “The Outlaw Demon Wails” in hardback. I know, I shouldn’t be buying hardbacks, but there is a reason I got it. In the UK, they do not call it “The Outlaw Demon Wails” they call it “Where Demons Dare” which is silly. It ruins the flow of the Clint Eastwood Western Titles.
Not to mention, I just really like the US covers better than the UK covers, and I do plan on owning all the books in Hardback (since they are re-releasing the first books in the spiffy hardback version, which is nice since they never got into hardback in the first place.)
So since I still don’t have Hockey blog ready to go.. here is a new yarn for you all to drool over.
I give you Jamie Fraser, shown here on Superwash Sock. Straight here from the wonderful pages of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series for those who aren’t in the know.
Happy Hearts Casino, Great Big Sea, and Ravelympics
Well, it looks like the majority of people decided on “Happy Hearts Casino”, so… I’m gonna go with that.
It works for me.
While the Olympics were happening, there was something in the knitting community known as the Ravelympics. There was also the Knitting Olympics hosted by the Yarn Harlot, and then several other events put on by various groups. I only participated in the Ravelympics.
I was on the fence about claiming victory though. My goal, was simply to work on my Doomsday Cardi.
Having to rip it out and start over, my mental goal was to at least get back to where I had stopped. Which I did. So technically my goal was accomplished, and I get the gold medal.
Or a shiny Bob pin. Having been on the fence though, and broke.. I did not get my pin.
I decided today to add myself to the notify list when the next batch of pins come in. I decided that since it’ll be 4 years before the next Winter Games, I should just jump on my accomplishment now. For 6$, it’ll make me happy, and it’s not a big thing to pack. 
This weekend I am taking Mother of Mine to Denver to see Great Big Sea for her birthday. This will be the last chance we get to see the boys together before the move. It’s actually quite fitting, as Great Big Sea (opening for The Chieftains and Sinead O’Conner) at Redrocks was the first concert we went to the summer we moved to Colorado. It was one of the first things we did in general, not just concert. As I’ve said before, it was a great concert. And the reason it was a great concert was because of those 4 boys who strode nervously on stage (they had been together less than 5 years at this point) and had us up and dancing in the aisle. Sinead’s voice was ethereal.. but meh. And the Chieftains phoned it in. It was GBS that we took a cd home of.
I’ve learned I can’t clean the house while listening to their music. I end up dancing and singing along instead of cleaning.
Huh, that reminds me… I need to add them to my Zen as they would be good to rock out to at the gym.
I guess that’s all I’ve got to report at the moment.
Doomsday is going along. I had to restart the left sleeve as it was too tight.
The writing is going well as well.
As Frankie Said…
I did it my way.
Today was not a good day for the most part. Kept waking up in the middle of the night because my lower back locked up thanks to the joys of having a uterus. So I had weird dreams and thus was cranky in the morning.
I couldn’t even form coherent thoughts until well into the mid part of the day.
I have half a wedding dress.
It started so simply. I needed to go to the post office to mail out a yarn order (woot). While at the post office, I realized I didn’t have my wallet. I prayed that it was simply in my jacket at home, and not some where in the street between Whole Foods and home for the last 24 hours.
Then I needed to go to the library. So, Mother of Mine tagged along as she had a package to send as well.
As we were leaving the library (and me still not coherent yet), Mother of Mine says we are going to go to Mill Outlet. We were going to buy the fabric for my wedding dress as they were having their 45th anniversary sale.
40% off one item, or one cut piece of fabric up to 3 yards. And 5% off the entire order.
Sadly, I needed 6 yards, but for some reason I still got 20% off the other 3 yards of fabric, and then even still got the extra 5% off of that.
We paid 176$ for the fabric, when normally it would be 250$
Last week I bought the under fabric for the dress, and spent…. I wanna say around 45$. So, just over 220$ spent for my wedding dress.
This doesn’t bother me, as yes… I’m sure I could go to one of those 99$ sales…But…
Would I find anything that fit? No.
Would I find anything that looked good? No.
Would I find anything that I could actually wear for more than just my wedding? No.
Would I actually end up paying 99$ No.
I’m not built like most girls. I have very broad shoulders. I also do have an Hourglass figure (though, thats been slightly hidden over the years thanks to working in call centers… it’s still there though.. still an hourglass) So if a dress has any kind of fit in the top, it won’t fit my shoulders, and if it fits my shoulders, it’s generally to big in the waist, or my hips etc etc.
This is why I am having a dress made for me. (Notice I didn’t say “making my own dress”, I’m being honest here.)
I will not look like a giant meringue, I will not look like a bell (and that is not to be confused with “belle”).
I know what shapes work with my body.
I know what length and flow works.
This dress will look good. I hope.
Found my wallet. Had it with us the entire time in the car. Must have fallen out after Whole Foods yesterday. Crisis averted once again.
After that, I was finally awake enough to do what I didn’t do yesterday.
Make homemade ranch dressing.
Which… is mighty tasty if I do say so myself. I didn’t have all the herbs I wanted, so I improvised. It’s not bad. Mine is not your classic Ranch, simply because of the herb change up. But it’s good. Next time, I’ll make sure I have the correct herbs that I want. I’ll keep experimenting till I get it just how I want it.
I used the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for it. You can find it here.
I also made The Best Lasagna … Ever.
Which is also one of PW’s. Here.
Of course this is me… I change things around.
I was short 1 cup of cottage cheese, but I do not feel that took away from the yummy factor.
I used 1 pound 95% lean ground beef and half a pound ground buffalo instead of hot breakfast sausage. What can I say… I’m not fond of spicy hot sausage.
I used the fresh parsley instead of dried, as I conveniently had a bunch of it left over from the ranch dressing.
I also added another layer into the mix.
Artichoke and spinach. Oh yes, I went there. I went there and damn it was good. Wanna know something else? 2 cans. Yes, you heard me. 2 cans of artichoke hearts. Damn I’m good. Damn it was good. You know you love it. Succumb to the the power of the artichoke heart.
Fast forward ohh… about an hour now, and I have a full belly.
The only thing I think I would change would be to reduce the salt. But thats just my own choice, I don’t tend to use much salt in my cooking, and Mother of Mine can’t do the salt. As I was holding measuring the salt out the second time, I actually debated reducing it. But no… I decided to go with Ree on this one this time… that way I would know my own opinion for next time. I think I would reduce it by half through out the entire recipe (if you read the recipe, you’ll see what I mean).
I don’t think that I had a full pound of mozzarella cheese. They were out of the shredded packs at WF, and so I just grabbed a brick and the nice cheese man who had gone to look for the shredded packs, sliced it for me. I think it was closer to just over half a pound of cheese. I did not find the recipe lacking for this fact.
I did not use any tomato paste. Didn’t need it either. Take that lasagna, I made you how I wanted.
For the amount of food this lasagna made… I’d say it was well worth the effort.
The knitting is going well. I’m up to row 61, so I’m very close to where I had to stop on the previous attempt. The cables are going the correct ways, and the only thing that I’m not happy about, will tighten up when I wet block it later. Woot! Only 56 rows to go till I put the body down and start making the sleeves.
The writing is also going well. I’m about to change up my routine so that I get myself to do more writing each day. I’ll tell you about it when I get it to actually work. Might not happen this week though because of the exhaustion factor.
I am debating making some pernicious s’mores for dessert. We’ll see if I’m up to it or not.
Pumpkin pancakes. NOM
Today I’ve not done much.
Mostly because for now the second day in a row, my hips feel like they’ve got a corset strapped on too tightly.
Not nearly as bad as yesterday, but still… every time I move it’s painful, and just sitting, or laying down, or standing hurts.
The reason for this, is yesterday at the gym… I ducked out of Aqua class early.
For a few reasons. I didn’t like the substitute trainer we had. She had us doing everything in circles. Which totally threw off my rhythm. And she kept jumping in and out of the pool, and the 3rd time she doused water in my direction, I was just kinda done. Jes had already left as she had forgotten her wallet at home and there was no way she could go to class without having eaten something after a gym workout.
So I went out to the gym area and basically redid my entire morning workout again.
6 minutes on the elliptical machine the first time, and then another 6 minutes. It didn’t kill me!
I think doing the hip abductor machines (both inside and outside) for the second go round is what did me in.
I also focused on my arms in the second half of the days workout, which left my arms feeling quite like jelly yesterday. Today they are better.
If my hips aren’t better in the morning, I’m going to skip out on gym, only because I don’t want to do further damage. Instead I might go on Thursday. (just gym, not aqua class… I’m still not wanting to do aqua at 630 at night)
All of this means I’ve been getting a lot of knitting done. Woot. I am kicking this cardi in the bum.
Why is it that when you make a pledge saying “No other projects till this one is done” you start getting itchy fingers to start something new?
That is quite frustrating when it happens, and yes… I am suffering from that right now. But I’m holding fast. Knitting is not like writing where if you don’t write down the idea, it might vanish in the recesses of your mind.
I’ve been getting some good writing done. This is making me happy. Lotsa action.
No, I am not watching the Olympics. Which is a good thing, as what I have seen… NBC is screwing it all to hell. Instead I’m watching McLeod’s Daughters season 5.
I guess that’s all I’ve got for now. Pancakes for supper tonight.
Pumpkin pancakes. NOM.
Twitch.
It’s Sweaterday and I do not have photos of my Doomsday to post. That’s alright. Soon hopefully.
I’ve made lotsa progress on it. I’m up to row 47, so I’ve got about 70 rows of the body left to go before I set it aside to do the sleeves.
Drove to Denver today. That was not fun. My back was twinging the entire time, heck it even kept me up throughout the night. So a 3 hour round trip car ride was unpleasant to say the least.
The company was… strained. I was not in a bad mood, but I was hurting, and people were being… well there were dumb drivers on the road, and I had to deal with some people who drive me absolutely batty. (And when I say that, I do not mean Batty in the awesome way.)
Didn’t get any knitting done while at the SnB, because I forgot to bring another skein of yarn, and I was at the end of the current one.
I didn’t get any writing done last night or while at the SnB because last night it was after midnight when I went to bed and I was tired, and today… well it was a chaotic environment which wasn’t good for that.
Tonight when I crawl into bed, I will hopefully get my two pages done.
Reading: I put down “Must love Hellhounds” which has a Charlaine Harris short story. It was… meh. And it’s due back at the library so it’s been put down. I might read it again after the move, but I’m not rushing out to do so.
Picked up “Dying for Chocolate” by Diana Mott Davidson. But truth be told, I’m really looking forward to the next book in my pile more. “Cross Bones” by Kathy Reichs.
I guess I’m done for the night. The opening ceremonies last night rocked.
Bugs and Hisses!
A cover that shall never be… (most likely)
I feel as though I’ve gotten nothing done.
Which is entirely not true.
Up and at the gym in the time I’d like.
The strangest thing happened to me today. I was on the elliptical machine up to 5 minutes, and I realized I was in my final minute. I looked up and the next time I looked down, I was in the post workout 5 minute cool down and wondered why my timer had reset it’s self. I then realized I was in the cool down (which I never do, as when you are only doing 4.5 minutes, it’s stupid to do another 5 minutes). I had done 6 minutes! I hadn’t even realized it. This shocked me a bit.
After gym and aqua class, I scooted home. I had invited Jes over to help me eat the crab and artichoke.
Had a good lunch with her. There was much laughing. I miss laughing with friends. I’m also slightly sad that when/if I come back to Colorado after the move, she will not be here. Instead she will be on the West Coast in the Seattle area.
Unloaded and loaded the dishwasher.
Then quickly ran out to do some errands. Post office, library, gas station.
The library was not fun.
Some idiot decided that even though I was backing out, he was going to back out of the spot immediately across from me. I stop as soon as I see him (And yes, I was there first) I honk, a woman witnessing this in her car honks, the man… remains oblivious. As quickly as I can I put my car into drive to go back into the parking spot I had just (only have way) vacated. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had not done this, as the woman who was witnessing this says that the man actually hit me. I did not feel it, so I don’t know if that’s true (my car is slightly a tank), but if it is true then my god he would have really hit me if I hadn’t been in the process of moving in the opposite direction. Now, he also nearly hit the woman who witnessed’s car as he decided that there was enough room for him to zoom past her. (Which, really… there wasn’t that much room.)
I’m fine obviously as I didn’t feel the tap if there was one, and of course my back hurts, but it always hurts, and I had a pretty major workout week when it comes down to it. The problem with chronic back pain is that you never know if the reason your back hurts is because of something specific, or just the normal pain you deal with every day.
I guess the reason I feel like I’ve got nothing done this afternoon, is that I spent he majority of it tinkering in Pixlr.
I’ve kind of got an idea for a cover of my novella. Yes, I said novella. Which most likely won’t get it’s own cover. And no… it still doesn’t have a name yet.
But if I don’t post my tinkering, I really will feel like the afternoon has been a waste.
All I can say is damn I really want a computer with Adobe Photoshop on it again, and also a computer that can handle running photoshop.
This image was a very rough image, but like I said, it’s mostly just to give myself an idea of what I would want for the cover. (The cover that most likely won’t ever happen since it’s a novella)
So, even though it’s a rough image… I’d love feedback.
Would this cover draw you in whilst in the bookshop?
Well, I’ve realized I’ve not had dinner, and I’m watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics (which… I must be pmsing, as I keep getting overly sentimental and emotional over things while watching it).
Well, Donald Sutherland’s soothing voice just came on the telly, and I’m going to possibly knit a few rows and just spend the rest of the evening relaxing. (even though it’s already past my bed time now)
I am not taking place in the Ravelympics, nor The Yarn Harlot’s Knitolympics or whatever she calls it. No, I am just knitting for me, and shall work on my Doomsday. No new projects till it’s done, and I’m sticking to that.
Oh, and these Opening Ceremonies are frakking AWESOME.
Green Arrow, be still my heart.
Today has been spent mostly giving my laptop some much needed TLC. For the past couple of weeks it’s been crashing, or showing me that ugly Blue Screen of death far too often. This past week alone, I couldn’t boot it up without going into F8 “Last known good configuration” mode otherwise it would crash on me.
Hopefully all the work I’ve done on it today will keep it from Blue Screening on me tomorrow when I boot it up.
While working on my computer, I was also knitting. Yes, I am a tech support person who can fix my computer while knitting. Look at me go.
I got somewhere around 10 rows completed on my Doomsday Cardi. Woot.
The thumb/wrist issue is feeling slightly better. Not 100% yet, but getting better… I think.
I kept waking up in the middle of the night whenever I wanted to shift sides, consciously not rolling onto my left side. I don’t know if this helped or not, or if it just was leaving me sleep deprived. And no, I did not consciously choose to do the right side sleeping only.
So as I was spending the entire day working on the laptop, I did not actually get to transcribe any of my novel. Oh well, tomorrow I guess. I did get a page and a half written last night, which makes me quite happy. Page and a half to 2 pages is about what I’m averaging this week.
Today was also spent enjoying Smallville season 8 and Top Gear.
I am such a fan girl. I spend most of my time watching Smallville giggling like a school girl. Not just at the hawt men, but at the little inside jokes and homages that only true fans get. My kids will most likely think I’m crazy that I’m a Superman fan, as it truly is an American Superhero. But… I’m crazy that way. I like my man of steel.
Just don’t let Batman hear me say that. Good old Bruce thinks that all my loyalty belongs to him.
*shifty eyes* We won’t talk about any of those X-Men. *Whistles innocently*
But mostly I’ve been giggling like a school girl because of Oliver Queen… Aka The Green Arrow.
I’ve talked before about how I used to do archery. And I shall do archery again. (Hunny is aware of this, so he won’t be surprised when I start drooling over bows again)
So images like this… make me happy:
And this:
Oooh look at those muscles:
I mean… such a hottie… yum.
Yes… he kept me quite happy while I was dealing with the frustrations of my laptop.
He’s also the closest I’m going to get to getting a visit from Cupid this Valentines day… but I’m geeky enough to be alright with him being cupid lol.
Ironically, while knitting on my Doomsday Cardi, the main bad guy in season 8 of Smallville is in fact… DOOMSDAY! I only just caught that, and my god I’m giggling about it.
I guess that’s all I’ve got for now. Tomorrow will be the gym.
Waiting on my mailman to deliver yarn so that I can do some more dyeing. It’ll be fun.
Well, time for more Top Gear. Night all.
Books, Nine, and here fishy fishy..
So today I was actually up and out of bed when I wanted, and I was at the gym at like… 7:03… roughly.
Now as I’ve said before, I’ve never been one for exercise. I’ve never found that elation that comes with it. I still haven’t. But today something happened that I had never thought would happen.
I got on that hellish elliptical machine, set my timer for 4 minutes (remember I’ve been building up in 30 second increments) and before I knew it the 4 minutes were over! How the hell did that happen? I wasn’t dying, I wasn’t coughing, there was no burning sensation in my lungs. Sure, my legs felt it, they had since I stepped on it, but I didn’t feel like I was going to collapse.
Shocked is certainly an understatement.
Feeling good, and still having plenty of time I did a few of the machines. Not much on those, then I moved over to the rowing machine. I did a whole 30 minutes on that. Oooh boy. It didn’t kill me.
After that it was time for the bike, and I did my 20 minutes.
Aqua class time, this time it was a killer. You know those 30 minutes I just spent on the rowing machine? Well, our (sweet) instructor decided to have us do quite a few movements that were mimics of that action.
After class I headed across the street to Barnes and Nobel. Now this was completely a research trip. I had originally no plans on buying anything. Damn it just happened to be payday as well. And I have no willpower.
The trip was to look at Moleskine journals so that I could go online later and know exactly what size etc that I wanted.
There I was drooling over the leather bound copies of Wicked, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a few others… I was a good girl though and did not get any of those.
Though, there was one thing I did end up buying. I couldn’t resist it.
It’s called “A Sorcerer’s Cookbook” and it is something that made my inner Foodie, and not so inner Witch go “Buy. Now.”
When the move happens, I won’t be taking my 5 Anne Rice books (4 paperbacks, and 1 hardback), I won’t be taking any of the LKH books, I won’t need most of the paperbacks I have upstairs, so having 1 more book that I will actually read again and enjoy shall have space in my moving boxes. (Speaking of Anne Rice, if I do ever replace my Vampire Chronicles that I mentioned above, it shall be the nice leather bound all in one set that yes… is also from Barnes and Noble)
I skipped down the parking lot to Whole Foods, and once again spent too much money, but in my defense I bought flour and honey, and those two items took up a third of my bill and won’t run out for a good long while. (Well… the flour I can use up rather quickly with my bagel making.. but the honey… Will last)
Another third was taken up by my apparent need for fish. Perhaps it is because I’ve stopped taking Fish Oil and my body is finally protesting that… But this week I have been absolutely craving fish. Monday I found myself contemplating buying some crab meat (real not imitation) as it was just on my mind. I resisted. I was a good girl (it also helped that Monday I was absolutely broke waiting for my paycheck). But then today as I was in Whole Foods, they taunted me. Jones’ Crab Claws for 5.99 a pound. Now these claws are the big ones with lots a meat.
Yeah… I got them. I mean 1 pound gave me like 7 claws. I shall be having me some yummy crab tomorrow.
The downside to today, is that all of the awesome workout I had this morning must have pinched something. My left thumb which has been giving me lotsa problems this winter, is bugging me again. Can’t tell where the pain is actually originating from, but my thumb clicks and feels tight, and depending on how I move it, I feel it in my wrist, or all the way up to my elbow.
This is horrific to a writer and a knitter.
I did work on my knitting today even with the pain. Got 4 rows knitted on the Doomsday Cardi.
This evening I amused myself by putting myself on Neil Gaiman’s website. It is his blogiversary of 9 years. He put a call out to fans to submit photos of themselves, with something to do with the number 9. My submission was not clever simply because I had a slight headache from damp hair being in a bun all afternoon and the wrist/thumb issue. (Alright, I was downright cranky from it) I was photo #361. And all the submissions can be seen here.
If you don’t want to check out the page and see all the awesome submissions, here is my image that I put up: (which, it’s very neat seeing all the different fans, from young to old)
The photos will most likely be made into a collage at some point in the future as he did with another event.
Oh, and I just realized it’s Wednesday, which means I should be doing a Wordless Wednesday… Oh well, it’s hard for me to do Wordless Wednesdays since Wednesday is one of my busy days, whereas Tuesdays and Thursdays are not.
Well it’s time for bed now. There was something I wanted to mention, but I’ve completely forgotten it.
Night!
“Here we come on the run, coal fires burning”
“Here we come ,on the run, our coal fires burning.
Here we come, fife and drum, under the radar we crept on!”
I spent the morning rocking out to Abney Park. I finally got the chance to listen to their new album Aether Shanties. Which, totally rocks. It was a funny picture today of me in my kitchen, making custard dancing and grooving. Even more funny if someone had seen me, as I was listening on my mp3 player and thus I was the only one who could hear it.
What can I say… when I hear good music, I get the urge to move to it. Especially if I’m slaving over the stove for at 15 minutes of nothing but continuous stirring. (Yes, I rock out while dyeing as well)
Once the dyeing was done, I realized it was quite chilly in the house. I opened the front door and when “holy crap… it’s snowing.” I had no idea that snow was even in the forecast. But it’s my own fault. When I switched over from Firefox to Chrome, I lost my little toolbar that told me the weather, and I haven’t had a “real” television channel on in 3 days.
And on that note… Superbowl day? Really?
Who knew. No… really I did know… I’ve just chosen to ignore it. But I couldn’t for the life of me tell you who was playing etc. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Sometimes it leaves you cold and wondering how many inches we are gonna get.
Today has been a Stargate Atlantis marathon and dyeing.
Yesterday I did the bulk of the dyeing. Today was tweaking and fixing some things. I dyed a skein of Bellatrix on silk sock, and a new one. One I have been meaning to do for over 6 months now. Coraline Duvall from Moonlight. I also dyed a skein of Romp in the Heather for a customer. I’m proud to know that I was able to recreate it.
Hopefully tomorrow they will be dry enough so that I can take photos. Also hopefully the sun will be out enough to take those photos.
My original plan for Monday was to get up super early and be at the gym at 7. Yup, not getting out of bed at 7, but be at the gym.
The snow on the car will most likely prevent this. But I’ll still drag my butt out of bed early enough to attempt it. I would really like to make up for not going to the gym on Friday. After class tomorrow shall be running errands.
The good thing about rocking out to Abney Park this morning, meant I got inspired for writing.
The bad news, is it’s not getting me inspired to finish the novella. I need to find some nice WW2 music for that. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m more than willing to give it a listen.
Happy Nutella Day!
I didn’t blog yesterday. Sorry.
To sum yesterday up:
Woke up, felt better.
Had to drive Mum to Denver. We discussed the wedding on the drive up. Worked out some ideas for things on it. Even remembered to write those idea down. Look at us go.
She made me go to the Sew Expo. We ran into Katte, it was fun running into her. The expo it’s self was… Interesting. I wouldn’t say great, but I did learn something new and it did inspire me for something that I’ll most likely never finish. Also learned another technique, though truthfully I learned it from Katte and not the demonstrator, but ironically both things that I learned were from the same booth. There was a strong Pacific Northewst feel to a lot of the quilts and fiber creations. I really liked it. Was almost tempted to buy a pattern or two, and there was some neat northwest fishies that caught my eye. Other than that, not much happening.
Dropped Mum in Lakewood at her friend Shelia’s house. (Which meant I didn’t have to drive all the way up to Broomfield)
Drove home, happened to have my Zen with me in the car, which was nice. Though when I turned it on I realize my battery was almost dead. Oh no! Shockingly my music lasted the entire car ride home. Yeah, I forgot how good it felt to scream sing Jem, Amanda Palmer, and Doctor Who songs.
And yes, those three work together at least at first. Jem has a few songs that always make me giggle when I imagine it being sung from the Companion’s perspective. The first song on Who Killed Amanda Palmer is Astronaut, which is very appropriate. And then of course the Doctor Who songs just rocketh.
I was feeling just fine, so I decided to have some dinner and the last of my homemade strawberry Ice Cream as I had been craving it. Ooooh Boy that was a mistake. But I won’t go into details on that one.
Today I didn’t get to go to the gym, as I was still quite ill this morning. Bummer, I was not happy about that… It’s weird that I’m actually enjoying going to the gym.
I’ve pretty much been hold up on the couch being much more miserable than I normally am, I did have my book next to me, and my current novel that I’m working on, but I haven’t cracked either of those open yet. Instead I ended up fixing issues with my Zen library. (There were some albums that were showing up as Unknown instead of their actual name) Also transfered some music that I had been meaning to put on there. Now that I’ve got my new headphones (which rock) I need the tunes so I can rock out at the gym properly.
Today is World Nutella Day. I wish I was feeling better, and I also wish I had some Nutella in the house. For a good blog about Nutella, go over here to Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be feeling better and I’ll be able to do some dyeing.
Tonight, it’ll be yarn untangling and seeing if I’m happy with the finished product of that yarn. If I’m happy with it, it’ll get shipped off to England. If I’m not happy with it, I’ll be reattempting it tomorrow.
I guess that’s all I’ve got to say for now. Of to eat some custard and watch Dark Knight.
Zombie day…
So yesterday I did not blog. I said to myself “Oh, I’ll have plenty of time when I get home!”
Yeah right. Didn’t get home till 930pm and I had a major migraine happening.
Yesterday Mother of Mine and I got our free schmear from Einsteins. Yup, you heard me correctly, that was number 2 on the free bagels day. (We are sneaky that way- and also our local Einsteins annoyed us so we didn’t mind sticking it to them.)
Then we drove to Denver and went to the Lamb Shoppe.
I have to say… I am 100% more impressed with that LYS. I wish it was MY local LYS. (Yes, I technically just said Local twice, but thats how much I lurve it.)
It’s open, it’s got grand windows that let in light, it’s not got a single florescent bulb. You can bring your dog. And just the people are awesome.
I did not talk about a certain incident at our LYS here in the Springs a few weeks back, but the end result is I will never go to that Stitch and Bitch ever again and I really do hope those vile women go straight to hell. (It might sound bad, but I’ll be honest… If they got hit by buses… I wouldn’t be sad for them.) (And for the record, it has nothing to do with the shop it’s self. It was patrons, not the owners)
So walking into the Lamb Shoppe and feeling welcome, and actually being able to see the yarn and stuff was just… like a breath of fresh air.
The reason we were there, other than Saturday SnB, was that it was some birthdays.
I met a lot of cool people.
Then we went to Littleton (quite literally blocks away from the very first house we lived in when we moved to Colorado all those years ago) and had a wonderful Burn’s Supper with other Blairs.
I highly doubt Robbie Burns ever would have imagined his “Ode to the Haggis” being read off of an Iphone, but there ya go. It has happened now thanks to Torin.
Katte and Curtis and the Younglings joined us, and it was much fun. (Katte and Curtis have been honorary Blairs for years in our mind, and the other Blairs are fine with it)
I managed to get through all the events without a headache. Generally when I go to Denver for something, I tragically come down with a migraine pretty much during the drive up there.
This time the migraine didn’t start until the very end, and held off for the most part just until we reached Castle Rock. I of course was driving. Made it home without incident, but I promptly took an allergy pill and went to bed. (We were trying to see if the allergy pill would solve the migraine, if perhaps the migraine was due to the air particulates in the Denver’s air. Colorado Springs is much more windy, so yes you’ve got dust and dirt in the air, but it’s constantly moving through as opposed to Denver where it stagnates.)
Odd dreams of course, but I also did not want to get out of bed this morning. And I almost didn’t.
Spent the day doing really… nothing. I knitted and played on the computer. I was slightly grouchy depending on whom I was talking to.
Speaking of knitting. I frogged my Doomsday.
30 rows in, and I decide I wasn’t liking something. I could have frogged back just the 10 rows to my life line, but I decided to do it all since there was one little cable that was messed up, and so I decided to just take care of it all.
I didn’t get much knitting done yesterday, only a few rows while at SnB.
But now I’m up to row 12, so I’m making progress. I don’t have any more super sekret projekts to take care of right now, so I shouldn’t have anything to distract myself from Doomsday.
I did buy some yarn yesterday at the Lamb Shoppe. It’s this wonderful DK Merino Silk by Karabella.
I got two balls of it, Cocoa and Mink.
Mink is this gorgeous dark grey with a tinge of a pink shade… so it very much looks like mink.
Cocoa is a very dark rich brown, so dark it’s almost black.
If I could afford it, I think I would do my Clockwork Lucien in it instead. Which, I’m actually debating that project now. The yarn I have for it (Lucien) is Fingering weight, and to get even remotely the gauge I need, I need to have it at least 3 strands.
And considering Lucien is a hot commodity, I could easily sell it and make bank off of it. *shrugs* we’ll see. Mayhaps just every month (especially if I don’t get into VSC2) I’ll just buy a skein or two of the Cocoa so that I can do my vest in that instead and horde all the Lucien for other projects.
I’m annoyed with myself for not getting any writing done last night, as I crawled into bed with the migraine and allergy pill taking hold. So tonight, if I am finally out of this Zombie Fog, I’ll do my best to make up for not writing last night.
Thursday already?!
Today started with me not wanting to get out of bed.
Slept in for nearly an hour even. Well, I did kick my ass at the gym yesterday.
20 minutes on the sit down bike.
2 minutes on the elliptical machine.
45 minute Aqua class.
5 minutes (??) on the rowing machine.
I will admit I enjoyed the rowing machine, but I am not entirely sure if I was doing it correctly. I’ll find out soon enough. If I was, I’ll keep doing it.
So all in all, it was quite a busy day at the gym and I was quite sore but sore in the good way. This meant for really not wanting to get out of bed this morning.
But out of bed I did get. Dressed and off to Einsteins did we go. Thanks to facebook, Mother of Mine and I had free shmears.
After that, the grocery store and then the library.. (Which I still managed to forget to pick up a movie… oh well, it’s not like I won’t be there soon enough)
I finished a Super Sekret Projekt today. Nope, still can’t talk about it yet. Not till I block it, photograph it, and stick it in the mail to the person it needs to go to.
I also decided that even with it being snowy and cold, I was going to take photos of my new yarn.
Unfortunately my photographer snobbish side was only happy with how one of the yarns photographed. (I’m having such problems with purples and blues right now! New camera please?!)
Now, for some time now… well.. pretty much since I started yarn dyeing people have been asking me if I were going to dye some Harry Potter yarns.
Harry Potter yarns have been done… often. So my response has always been “If I am inspired.” As I really didn’t want to do what everyone else has done.
So when I do Harry Potter yarns, it is probably not going to be the “main trio” or the very obvious ones.
Bellatrix was a request. That request was not “I want a yarn inspired by Bellatrix” no… it was “I want yarn dyed in these colors so I can finally do my Bellatrix socks”. It just turned out that the color I did reminded me of Bellatrix from Harry Potter.
There is still another Bellatrix to be shown as when I imagined her, there was just a bit more to her than what had been requested. (Her photo shall come soon)
But today I shall speak of Felix.
Felix Felicis.
Liquid Luck for those in the know.
Now, for weeks now I’ve been imagining a hat made out of yarn like this. Specifically the Snapdragon tam by Ysolda Teague.
I really do not wear yellow. Yellow is pretty much one of my least favorite colors. But I just cannot imagine the Snapdragon in any other color at the moment. Most likely I would make the hat, and then give it to someone who would actually wear the color.
As I finished the Super Sekret Projekt, I need to get back to my Doomsday Cardi… This will require me quite literally getting my mind back in the project, it shall take much concentration on my part till I get back in the rhythm. But I get to transfer it on to my new Zephyr Needles from Knitpicks. We’ll see how they go.
Finished reading “M is for Magic” by Neil Gaiman last night. It is a collection of short stories and they were quite good. One of them in particular had me bawling like a baby as it was about the cats that have decided to call his house home, and I happened to start reading it the day that he blogged about putting one of his cats (Zoe the blind attic cat) to sleep. This is the 3rd cat he has lost in the last year. Zoe was the youngest at 14. Hermione and Pod were about 18 if my memory serves. So reading a short story involving his cats just quite literally had me bawling all over again. (This past week it had been posts about Zoe leading up to her final day.)
Tonight I start reading Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs.
On the writing front, I have had a wonderfully productive week thanks to my friend Hatter. It started with a text message at 11pm at night. He is one of the few friends that I can text that late and not worry about waking up. I sent him a text of “Need your help. Need a idea for a ____ from South America.”
I was shocked when I didn’t get a text back from him immediately.
Next day at about 11pm again I get a phone call from him going “Holy crap you texted. I’m sorry.. My phone sucks and didn’t tell me… here’s my thoughts on what you need.”
So thankfully, my fear about him not texting back immediately was simply a mechanical failure on his phones part. Phew.
For the next hour we chit chat back and forth bouncing ideas. He is a writer, but he is also someone who I can trust to bounce ideas off of. He also understands Steampunk like some of my other idea people don’t. -He is also someone who I don’t mind squeeing like a fan girl with about certain things… Like Anthony Stewart Head singing… Vampires… bloody scalpels etc… Sigh. I’m gonna miss My Hatter.
Anyway, the hour long convo he and I have totally gives me a direction to go in, something I had been lacking. Don’t get me wrong, I had the basics started, but I was hesitant. Now my direction is clear. (Well, at least this section) It allowed me to finish that chapter and start the next. Which, when it’s the first chapter of the book (or chapter equivalent), it is quite important to feel good about finishing that chapter and moving on to the next. If you are wishy washy about it, then it’s going to haunt you the rest of the book. My characters are making their personalities and presence known, and the world which I am creating is becoming much more apparent to me.
And on that note, I leave you for the night. Tomorrow is the gym once more, then apparently a busy weekend after that. The snow is still going on, and I have a feeling that tomorrow morning shall be a “oooh it’s warm in bed, I don’t wanna get up and go out!”
Oh.. last note… according to the scale at the gym on Wednesday… I lost 1/2 a pound from last week. Which doesn’t necessarily mean a thing since I was on my period last week. I guess we’ll see next week.
Nom de plume…..?
It’s a very tough decision, knowing what you shall be known by when you are an author.
Even more so when you are female.
Even more so when you are about to get married.
Even more so when the person you are about to get married to plans on having a long career in politics.
Depending on the genre, female writers don’t do as well as male authors.
Romance- Heck yeah! In fact, they do better than male authors there.
Paranormal Fiction – Sure!
Classic Literature - Errr well… unless you are in the class of Austen and Bronte… then no.. not so much. (And truth be told, the Bronte sisters didn’t do well with their own name in their own time.)
Action / Adventure – Not really.
I don’t even know my genre yet.
I have one novella that is almost finished, which could fall in the Paranormal, and even Paranormal Romance. (It was originally written for a contest that was Paranormal Romance, but my level of romance is quite tame and nothing I wouldn’t do in the other novels.)
My current novel that I am also working on… (I know I know, I’m not done with the novella yet… I’m almost there though, and if I don’t get the words down now for the current one, I’m afraid I’ll loose them forever. I can multitask with writing.. really I can.) is a Steampunk/ Alternate Victorian / Action Adventure / with a bit of Mystery dashed in. – hmm…. that makes it a bit difficult to decide which genre is falls into in the first place, let alone what name should be on the cover.
I will admit, it’s a pride thing. I really want to see “Erin ….” on the cover.
But will it hurt my career?
Will having my name at all hurt Guy’s career? Will it help?
Then there are options. I could do my maiden name… but then I’m stuck with it for the rest of my life, and Guy will then be called (at least once) as “Mr. Gallagher”.
But will Erin Grandison sell any novels?
There are options…
E.A. Gallagher – Pretty androgynous
E.A. Grandison – Also androgynous
But I have to admit, I don’t know if I want to be known as “E.A.”
It feels like… I honestly don’t know how to describe how it feels, but it makes me slightly wiggy.
Now until I’ve actually got my manuscript ready for submission, this is actually all moot. But it is food for thought that I have been chewing on for a while now.
Part of the reason was a discussion that cropped up in a Pens and Needles group on Ravelry which that in it’s self was spurned by this article: Call me James
On one hand, going with a non de plume can cause problems. One of my favorite authors I just found out is not in fact Kim Harrison, but instead is Dawn Cook. I didn’t much mind (other than going “wow.. she doesn’t look like a ‘Dawn’…”), but apparently it caused a lot of strife amongst the fan boards, and it came to such a furor that Kim had to quit that forum and go back into being at arms length again. Now, Kim (sorry, I just can’t call her Dawn) did go all out with the persona though. Wig, wardrobe, backstory… So I can slightly see why some people might have been irked when it all came to light as a lie.
Sigh, even typing it all out here hasn’t helped make my mind up much. Mayhaps when I actually finish my manuscripts, I’ll have a long discussion with my close peeps and see if it needs to be under a nom de plume or not.
Random: The gym today was good. I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out afterwards. Woot! I am getting better at this.
Super Seeeeekret Projects almost done!
Could it be yours?
It’s a possibility. After all, I have a few of these I’ve been doing.
I’ve been naughty and not working on the Doomsday Cardigan.
Instead I’ve been working on something else.
Something I can’t talk about. So 
Writing: Last night I had an awesome dream. Now mind you, this of course was an awesome dream so I do not remember much of it.
It was almost Phantom of the Opera like in the fact that there was a … theater of sorts.. and rooms, corridors and dark corners abounding.
It was steampunkish, in the aesthetic appeal of everything. There was also this cool “light bomb” of sorts. I wrote down the details of that.. But I’m not going to share it here. Ya know.. gotta protect the intellectual goods.
I think it was snowing in the dream, but I’m not sure. It really is a shame I can’t remember all of it. It was rather neat.
I categorized this as writing, as well.. go back to the middle part with the light bomb. Connect the dots.
Tomorrow is Aqua class, and possible gym time (depending on how I feel about it, as I’ll be solo after class since Jes will have to go to school) . I am just now starting to be able to walk without wincing.
Then, I shall pick up my standard dyeing supplies after class as I’ll be on that part of town.
I think rather shortly, I shall be having a contest to name one of the new yarns. If the name comes to me, I won’t bother with the poll.. so stay tuned!
And randomly related… I really am having the urge to watch Stardust right now.
Snowball fight on Hoth
This made my geek happy. Carrie actually looks happy. Before whatever issues in her life were to happen, she had fun in the snow while filming a small scifi movie.
Today, Saturday… I have not moved much.
Yesterday’s day at the gym kicked my arse.
The trainer was not the same one we had on Wednesday, and she was that classic trainer.
Small, Energetic, Loud, Perky, 80% Dominatrix.
Still… it was good. Then Jes and I went out into the rest of the gym and worked out there. Which is why I cannot walk without going “owie!” today. My inner thighs are yelling at me in the most extreme. Which means on Monday.. I’m gonna do it again!
My dyeing ego is certainly feeling good right now. I debuted M is for Magic today, and I am getting great response from it. Actually, I’ve been getting great response from all three yarns I just debuted this week. This makes me happy.
As far as writing goes… I’ve got more characters starting to chatter in my head, and is giving me a better direction on where to go for this Airship novel.
The Blitz novella is still being worked on, I’m at a tough spot where I need to make that decision, and well… my muse is not helping me right now. She’s of on an airship right now if I know her. Oh well, I’ll figure it out and get it on paper.
I’ve got another batch of dyeing coming up soon. But I must go buy vinegar before I can do that.
Really I guess I’m just rambling. Happy Pie Day everyone. I’m going to go back to knitting and watching Monarch of the Glen.
My sincere apologies
Wow. I cannot believe it is already the 16th of January.
And wow. I cannot believe that my last blog posting was LAST year.
I haven’t forgotten you. Really, I’ve just been… busy yet not.
I finished one super sekret knit project. But I can’t talk to you about it yet.
I gave up on one project, as it was kicking my ass and I’ve sent it to it’s room. That was my Ishbel project. First Lace project. It could be that the yarn just didn’t want to be that project. We’ll see when I come back to it.
I started my Doomsday Cardigan. No photos as of yet, as I’m only like 8 rows into 117. (Link goes to Ravelry)
I am theoretically starting my first aqua aerobics at the gym on Monday. Which of course means I’ll be having a gym membership for the first time in my life.
I have been writing every day. Which is a very good thing. And I have noticed it has helped. Only one day in the last week or so did I not write much, but instead did brain storming. I do not feel guilty for this, as brainstorming is a much needed piece of the machine. Especially since I was quite unsure where the story was going.
I have to admit it is odd working on two pieces at the same time.
But, the Blitz novella is almost done! I’m in the home stretch of the 1st rough draft.
Small aside on that. Today I started reading M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. In it is an introduction explaining things a bit. On the subject of short stories: “In the beginning they were a great way to begin to learn my craft as a writer. The hardest thing to do as a young writer is to finish something, and that was what I was learning how to do.”- Neil Gaiman.
This made me exceedingly happy to read. I often forget that the things I am going through, are things that the greats themselves have gone through.
When I had to stop writing a few months ago due to work, and I realized that I was giving up finishing the novella in time for the contest, I was quite… put out. Truth be told I was down right depressed. It had been a deadline that quite literally went wooshing past. Then the last few months, with no deadline… no work stopping me, I found excuses. “I’ve got company coming!” “It’s the holidays!” Before I knew it, it was the end of the year.
Well, the time for excuses is over. I don’t have a deadline. But I do have a commitment to writing every day. I’ve been finding myself writing more and more each day. Mind you, this is written long hand in a spiral bound at about 10:30 at night when I’m in bed.. But I’m getting more use out of the time I am writing.
(Generally I try to shut off my light by 11:30)
Last night I found myself in a very short span, writing 2 pages. This made me exceedingly happy. I could have written more, but I had reached a point that I needed to ponder on, and as it was the end of my writing time, I decided instead to call it a night.
Yes, I realize I’m rambling. Deal with it.
Today I did some dyeing.
I dyed 3 different colorways.
Nothing that I had planned, as I was simply working on technique.
I will photograph them hopefully tomorrow, and post photos.
2 of the skeins are already spoken for, but I’ll have one skein up for grabs.
I received a wonderful gift from a friend of mine in Nova Scotia. You’ve heard me speak of her before, but Crystal is just absolutely fab.
The little bag of Cheshire Cat fabric was made by Pheelya.
The shawl is “Traveling Woman” based off of the character Angela Montenegro from Bones.
The yarn is amazingly soft, and I absolutely cannot stop petting it. I love it and I want more of it.
Other than that, there is not much new. The library is doing it’s 8 books in 8 weeks program like it did last year. Not as many sponsors which is a bummer. But oh well.
My life right now gets divided up between “Write, Knit, or Read?”
I don’t know if this should worry me or not lol.
I promise photos of new yarn soon!
Edit: Details of the shawl project can now be found on Halifax Mommy’s blog: Knitted Things for Knitting Friends
