Today is the Day

I couldn't sleep the last hour or so this morning. All I heard in my head was Today is the Day! Today is the day that I will finish NaNoWriMo. Today is the day I can actually say I am a writer, that I am an author too and not feel like I am lying just a little. I'll be able to say I have written a book. This is such big milestone for me that its hard even for me to believe I have done it. I am getting ahead of myself. I am off to write the last 2,750 words to my goal. Enjoy your day everyone.

Almost There

I am almost there, I can see the end in sight. 44,117 words is my count as of this minute. I have 3 days left so it is doable but I can not slack off one bit. I am also a little leery of waiting till the last minute to post my word count at the NaNoWriMo website so I really would like to be a done a day early so that means intesnse writing the next 2 days. That leaves 5,883 words, or 2,941.5 words a day. I can do this. I will be back for a real blog entry as soon as I reach the goal.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's Turkey time once again. At least that is if you're not a vegetarian, I guess its squash time then. My vegetarian friends seem to make that on this day.
Every blog I read seems to have this wonderful list of thing they are thankful for so I won't break with Tradition.


1. I am thankful to be alive, life is a precious gift and I hope I use it wisely.

2. I am thankful that my daughter Sarah is home for thanksgiving and that Dave and I can spend a wonderful weekend with her.

3. I am thankful for my sisters Marianne and Peggy who keep in contact and bring me lots of joy.

4. I am thankful for my spinning sisters Judy and Shirley. You are special to me.

5. I am thankful for my Glitter Power Sisters, you are all new in my life this year and I am so grateful that you have come into my life.

6. I am thankful that I did sprain my ankle, all the time layed up lead me to Danny Gregory and Violette and the Glitter Power Sister and many more wonderful internet friends.

7. I am thankful for my sciatica, through you I met some wonderful people at Ellis Physical Therapy. You are a great group of people and I am blessed to know you.

8 I am thankful that although Idaho remained Republican at least most of the
country saw a need for change.

9. I am thankful that I can live in a place that allows freedom and opportunity.

10.I am thankful for my Art and creativity, whether it be in fiber or paper or paint I love that I am able to express those areas of my life that have meaning.

May this Thanksgiving bring you hours of joy and may you be appreciative of all you have. Happy Thanksgivng

Sarah comes home today

Its a regular occurrence this time of year but still an exciting day for me. My daughter comes home for Thanksgiving today. This is the first time she'll be home since she left in August so I know she is really looking forward to it. I have been baking pies this morning so I don't have that much to do when she gets here. Tomorrow I have the funeral for my friend Jan so I also made up a vegetable plate to take. So I have the needed chores done. My friend Ginger invited me out to lunch today so that will be nice. I need to squeeze in the writing time along with cleaning up the house and all that jazz so it will still be a busy day.

I haven't done any art not even a doodle. Perhaps I should draw my food like Danny Gregory does. Just the simple stuff like doing the mug the other day. Or maybe like Tinker I should do some Art around this whole writing thing. There's an idea.

I picked up this book used on Amazon and I thought Kai and Lisa Oceandreamer might really like it. Its called Pen on Fire A Busy Woman's Guide to Igniting the Writer Within. Its all about taking time to write that novel. I love Amazon's used books, I think I got the book for $6 and that included shipping and it was brand new. I also ordered Marry your Muse recommended by Anna I haven't gotten it yet but am anxious to peruse its pages. I love books that inspire me and help me jump to the next level.

The Tenth Dyepot

After the tenth dyepot I notice that my shoulders hurt, my arms hurt and I am just bone tired. My friend Amy is going to Salt Lake on Wednesday so that was a perfect opportunity to send some dyed fibers to Kristines's shop. I had dyed 8 pound last week and I did 10 more today, so I should be able to fill up the shelves at Three Wishes again. All to keep those christmas shoppers happy.

I got All creatures Great and Small from the library and have been watching a few episodes here and there. I love the setting and I get to spend time in Yorshire again. What a treat. I just love the actors they get for that show. Some of these old timers look like they stepped out of the 1800's. Of course I always love the episodes with sheep in them, but they are all so fun. I just love the interaction between the Farnon brothers. They are so funny sometime.

Its week 3 of nanowrimo and I seem to be keeping up. Sarah and I both ordered the tshirt so now we are determined that we will finish. I don't want to wear the shirt if I don't win. So I am determined. A special thanks to aall my supporters. You are great!

We have a winner!

My glitter sister Ang is the winner, not only did she answer the 3 questions correctly but sent in a bonus answer too. Good job picking up on the secret.

The answers:
your favorite movie is LTR however your favorite NEW movie is "The secret"
Your pet who died was Moonbeam, precious kitty
And you are participating in Nanowrimo.

I still don't know what I will send Ang but it will be a fun filled package of artistic supplies.

Did anyone see Larry King last night. He had 3 people from the Secret on plus others, it was an excellent show. Check your listings, maybe it will be rerun this weekend. I keep telling myself that I should have taped it. Its one you could watch easily.

I am off to a marathon writing session today. Have a fantastic day everyone!

Its my Blogiversary

I just realized its my Blogiversary. I know that is not a word. I was looking for a picture to add so I googled it and they think its a word. That is funny to me. Anyways I couldn't find anything I liked so here is an old picture of some flowers I received on my birthday.

Although I signed on to Blogger back in 2002 I didn't really use it much. I really started blogging on Tripod November 16,2004. I completely missed the first anniversary so I wanted to make note of this one. It has really changed my life and I need to thank all of you. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't share my life here the way I do. Its seems that other people have contests to celebrate so I will do one too! Since I have readers who are spinners and knitters and artists and friends its difficult to choose something fun. So I decided whoever can answer the questions first I will pick something appropriate to give away, like yarn for knitters and art for artists etc. Yes there is more than 1 question, I can't make it too easy can I.

What is my favorite movie?
What pet of mine died this year?
What project am I doing in November?

send me an email with your answer.

25,000 Words/Thread Project Recap

Well I hit the nose to the grindstone or the pedal to metal or something like that. I pumped out 3400 words to make it to the 25,000 mark half way through this Novel writing month. I am back on track which makes me very happy.

I have my bowl of mac and cheese beside me to guide the way. Yes I am still eating it and no I am not tired of it. Maybe I should have my protagonists eating it too. If Stephanie Plum can eat olive sandwiches I guess Claire can eat mac n cheese.

Here is a picture of the Thread Project hanging in St Paul's Cathedral, New York City. The picture isn't very good but the one I wove was green and its the 2nd one from the right. The cloths will be on display next year at City Gallery in Charleston, SC; the Charleston exhibit will run from September 8 – October 28, 2007. I am hoping to go see them then.

Pam's Challenge/Shetland Roving

 
















Pam over at Violette's message board gave us a new challenge. This my favorite coffee mug to drink out. I like it because its big. I have another one I like too. I may draw that later. It has sheep on it and I bought in the Cotswolds in England 2 years ago. It has all these special memories attached. Its much harder to draw. So I did the so called easier one. I wanted to specially thank Kai and Lisa for sending me such encouraging notes regarding the book. You help me keep going. You are the best.

I had some of my Shetland prepared into roving, I picked it up last night. Now I have clouds of white and grey fluff to sell. Here they are. I have 2lbs of all three and a little more of the white. Cyndi are you reading this. I will sell the whole lot or smaller amounts. 4 oz 6.25 8 oz 12.50 1lb. 25.00. here is your chance to get some wonderful Shetland roving. All you Salt Lakers Amy is coming up next Wed and could deliver it if you want. Just let me know.

 















This one is very light grey from my old rams robbie or zane I am not sure which.

 













This one is white with a slight amount of grey threads from my Ewe Luna.














This one is more pure white from Gabrielle.


Oh as a postscript, the Macaroni and Cheese was fantastic. In fact I made so much that I will be eating it for days.....

 

Best Laid Plans

Sometimes I hate the way you plan something the day before and there is no way its going to work out. I have nothing on my plate for today. I have a craving for home made mac and cheese. So in between trying to figure out my characters and motive and all that I thought I would cook some macaroni and cheese. Well I got the macaroni cooked and drained and started to make the white sauce needed and discovered we have about 1 cup of milk left. Do you think we have any dry milk, well of course not. So here my noodles sit until I can drive to town to get some milk. There goes a wasted hour at least.

Last night I took apart the pirate sock again. The color changes are all occuring at the bottom of the foot. After 2" of that I realize its a little bumby there, that will not feel good. So I ripped it out and will try to do the changes on the inside right of the sock. I need good light to put the stiches back on the needle so I will wait till morning to tackle this.

I did some dyeing before the snow hit, so I spent time getting that all weighed and packaged. Its in a box now waiting for someone from here to go to Salt Lake and deliver them for me. I had 3 fleeces processed in SLC and I need to go pick them up from my friend Ginger. It looks like 2 trips out today for sure. I keep finding too many new ways to procrastinate.

I had better get to town now.

Kate

Travel Swap

Well my pictures from the Travel Swap can be found here

I am still plugging away on the book, I am suffering from 2nd week blues. This is where you think everything you have written is crap and you would really like to start over. I keep on trying though so that is good.

I really don't have time to read peoples blogs anymore let alone comment to them. I am missing that.

I had this great thing happen to me on Sunday. I got a fan phone call. Someone who bought my fiber at Three Wishes in Salt Lake City called me to tell me how much she appreciated my work. I was quite surprised and pleased at the same time. It made my day.

Ok Fiber Content

This one is for Judy, who complained of no fiber content of late. I looked around the house to look for anything that I haven't shown or talked about.














This is a pic of all my handspun yarns and spinning fibers all organized beautifully. Hey I challenge anyone out there to go ahead and show us your stash.














This is a pic of all the yarns I have received for a special project I am doing. I guess I don't need dark anymore, some white and grey would be helpful.
















Here is some rayon yarn I bought to do a triangular shawl. It is non-typical of my color choices, greens and browns. I am mixed it with another rayon yarn, that is goldish bown. They look pretty good together.














Here is a close up of the yarns on a small sampler loom. I think it will look quite nice when I get around to weaving it. I have some plain old Lion Brand Homespun on the shawl loom right now. That needs to be woven before I can begin this one. Now Judy, I think that is enough fiber content. I need to get back to the fiber content of the book now.

Update: I made to past the 1/4 mark. I've got over 13,260 now. I am almost caught up to yesterdays goal. Yippee another milestone...

Its been quite the day

I have been home for less than an hour all day and it 10:30 pm. Crazy day. I spent time with knitting womens, the writing group, had lunch with a friend, went to therapy. Came home only to find that tragedy has struck again.

A friend from church is missing and presumed dead. If you heard about the awful storms in Oregon and that 2 women were missing. One was my friend Jan and the other her mother - in -law. They have found the mother in law, but no luck finding Jan. She may never be found. The mother in law was found below a cliff, so whether she fell or was swept off in its high winds is unclear. No witnesses so its just a guess what happened. Needless to say I am really saddened by the news, she was a wonderful lady and will be missed.

I went over to church to share some time with friends. a very sad group. Then I headed over to my friend Ginger's to help with the loom she rented for the guild. What a mess it was. People apparently were using it who had no idea how a Baby Wolf works. We got it going though and then helped her get it warped for a workshop she is going to. Now I am beat. I am glad tomorrow comes with nothing on my schedule. I didn't write at all, I hope to catch up tomorrow.

Pocatell Write In

There is a NaNoWriMo group in Pocatello that had a write in today at 12:30 so I decided to go. I packed up the laptop and went down a little earlier just in case I got lost.The location was near Idaho State University so of course you could not park anywhere near the campus. I had to park 3 long blocks away, which isn't a big deal unless you are hauling a heavy laptop. I managed though, I met 2 other writers and stayed about 1 1/2 hours. It was fun, the big thing is that I reached 10,000 words, now that was exciting. Now I haven't been able to write anything since. I hope I don't have writers block, yikes.. Last night there was a meeting with writers here in Idaho Falls and I met some wonderful people that will be great to associate with, I love how that works out.

I fail to understand why some parts of your life can be going so good and then others are a downright disaster. I stopped on the way home to get gas and the gas pump denied my debit card. All I could say was #$*(. I came home and got online only to discover I was 89.00 in the red, and that included 3 bounced checks with charges of $66.00. Talk about having a bad day. I have been depressed ever since. I get myself in these money fixes all the time, when am I gonna learn....

Evolving Art

 
















I decided to do visual journal page on the pink house but I am stuck on it right now. I know it needs some words or another image added. So I am just letting it sit until it tells me what it needs. I actually thought a little book on this might be fun to make that could tell a little story about the little girl who grew up in the house. Just something with a few pages. I have a little premade book I might use. Maybe when I have some extra time I will pursue it. I also am finding myself collecting pictures of other colored houses, maybe there is a series of art in here somewhere.

Novel writing is going ok, I have 8,335 words but I have been procrastinating all day. I need to get to it. I went to a writing group this evening and its been great. This is a much better group. I could see where I would want to meet with these people long after November. That is encouraging since a writing group is just what I need to keep me motivated. 

Newspaper Challenge

My friend Pam over at Violette's message board gave us a challenge to draw faces on newsprint. It was done by another artist whose name escapes me at the moment in the current issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. My funny faces are here. They are nothing special just drawn with a Pitt pen and then colored in with either watercolor pencil or twinkling H2o's. A fun little exersize.

I am blogging because I am procrastinating on the book. I spent today shopping for junk food for the month. I decided to come down to my art room to write. Its isolated so there are no distractions and with the small heater its nice and warm. Now I need a little fridge down here and I could really become a hermit.

I think my therapy is going to change soon. I am pretty much doing the exercises on my own. I seem to be at a certain level of pain. It does get better but it is never perfect. I believe the exercise does help but it doesn't eliminate the pain just makes it more tolerable. I may go on the plan where I just go work out there on their equipment at my own time. It will be a lot cheaper to do that. Then if I really need a massage I will get one for the whole body. I talk to my therapist on Monday but I think that is what will happen.

I went out looking for a rug to put under my desk and everything is either huge, not appropriate or the wrong color. I guess I will have to keep looking.

Look whose Fifty

It was cold, it was too early to be out in the cold but it was still fun. Sylvia stays up late so we could not do it the night before. My friend Sylvia turned 50 on Thursday so we had to do something special. I took the idea from my friend Violette and we collected bras, thongs and a girdle and dyed them purple and hung them in Sylvia's front yard.



























Some were hung off bailing twine and others we just threw up in her trees.














Here are my co-conspirators Amy and Molly trying to see if the camera worked. It was so cold that my camera wasn't working all that well.














Amy and myself by the sign "Look whose 50", there is the girdle hanging from it. It was funny because some of the parts of the bras and underwear didn't dye so we had a variety of color. It was also hard doing all this without making any noise.

That evening we surprised her again by being at Johnny Carinos where Paul her husband was taking her to dinner.















Here are Sylvia and Paul.















Here are Cj and Dave Godfrey perusing the menu.















Dick and Debbie Culllison and Tim Kaser trying to sleep














Madeleine and Barb were a real date, they even ordered the same thing.



At this point the battery in my camera gave out and no one else had a camera, so no pics of me, Dave, Amy or Ginger. We had a nice leisurely dinner and had a great time. It was nice seeing some old friends again. Sylvia is saving all the bras for the next victim.

Let the Writing Begin

Well NaNoWriMo started at 12:00 am but I was asleep so I waited till 9:00 to get some words down on paper or maybe I should say electronically. I had a full day today. I met with my knitting friends this morning and finally mastered how to do 2 socks on 2 circular needles at the same time. Now I don't feel so stupid anymore.

At noon the public library held a writers group for participants. There are only 5 of us but I think it will be good to have some support. There is also a group on Monday night that I might check out if there are more people involved. Then I went to the Villa coffee house for lunch and worked on the book. To finish on time you need to write 1667 words a day. I've gotten 1000 in so I have more to do later tonight. I think this is doable as long as you stick with a plan. All I will say is my novel is a mystery set at a Fiber Festival. I had better get back to the book.