Winner

Did you notice the change in Icons on my sidebar in case you didn't here it is again.







I had a devil of a time with Word 2007 and Vista,normally you scramble your file before you upload it. I tried 3 times, and every time it scrambled it WORD told me I had 1277 words. Yikes. I finally just had to upload as is and I was so relieved to see the letter saying YOU WON. There is nothing like that feeling.

In case you are curious, no I am not finished, In fact I will probably dump a lot of the first draft and add a whole lot more. Doing this the second time was really interesting. I think its the fastest best way to get a first draft pumped out of you.

What Planet are you from

My friend Sue over in England posted this so I had to play along. I have always had a fascination with Jupiter so now I know why.

You Are From Jupiter

You are exuberantly curious - and you love to explore newness. Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating intellectual discussions. Foreign cultures and languages fascinate you. You love the outdoors, animals, and freedom. Chances are you tend to exaggerate, so try to keep a lid on that. If you do, you'll continue to be known for your confidence, generosity, and sense of justice.

What Planet Are You From?

Art of Appreciation

I found this on Christine Kane's blog yesterday. If you are having trouble getting into the groove with the upcoming holidays or you just need to find a different way to celebrate this year go to her blog and read her post.
It is incredible. Make sure you read #6 that one really got to me.

Now go read it and then come back to the rest of my post.

I try to talk to sales clerks all the time. Use there name treat them like a person. Sometimes a few words can make their day go better. I think it would be fun to just give some random sales clerks notes of appreciation. Its easy to think of the postman, and other service people who you see regularly but how about the people who never get any appreciation. How would that make them feel, How would it make you feel.

I am not thrilled about the holidays coming. Don't even want to decorate but I will for Sarah cause she needs it. I am going to do some appreciation of people in my life who don't usually receive it. I'll let you know how that goes.

Word count is at 47000 only 3000 words left. I could do it in one day but I am not going to push it. If that happens then it will be awesome. I will be glad when this project is over.

I finished my pages in the Round Robin book. I don't really like them but I am out of time and its time to move on. I haven't even started the Ornament yet so it won't go out on Dec 1. I figure it doesn't take that long to get to my person so I have some leeway there.

I need to start Sarah's sweater. There is no way it will be finished by Christmas so I she may be opening a box of yarn or maybe I'll have a front. I have never knit anything so complex so I know it won't go fast. She'll have other things so it will be ok.

SPC - What I Wear

I thought I would do another SPC before the months over. Theme is what I wear. Lots of warm cuddly sweaters. go here for more Self portraits.

The Last Write In

The Last Write in for our Nanowrinmo local support group met on Saturday. There were eight of attending plus a special guest. My daughter Sarah was home from college for the weekend so she came along with her friend Kristen who are both doing Nano.














Here is Sarah and Kristen, I don't think that Sarah wanted her picture taken.














Megan Kyle and Amber














Here I am with Amber, I had to show that I was there too.














Maggie, Lee and Kirsten














and look who showed up at our write in, yes its the one and only St. Nick.When he saw us with all our laptops and we told him we were writing novels he wanted to know if it was all the same novel. He said that would make for an interesting book if each of us wrote a different chapter. Alas we won't take the bait and will continue to plug away on our own novels.

Monday I managed to pump out 3200 words and that felt great. I have been struggling with my novel all month. Never liked it or where it was going but yesterday a new facet popped into my head that I really like and I am excited to be writing now. That felt so awesome. I now don't have the worst novel ever written. I can see some potential now and that is thrilling.

Round Robin Book

This is a little video about the beginnings of a round robin book swap I am involved in. I am in this with 8 other women. I have to get my pages and cover finished and mailed by the 30th so in between doing Nanowrimo and everything else I try to squeeze some of this in. I am running out of time so I really need to get back to it. I tend to be a last minute type of gal. Its not that I work well under pressure I just don't know what I want to do so I keep putting it off. The theme of my book is Kindred Spirits which has turned out to be much harder than I thought.




I have my last write in scheduled for this afternoon, so Sarah and I will be going to it and then I have no plans. She goes back to school tomorrow. Its been way too short a visit. Luckily she'll be on Christmas break for a long time. Last year it was about 6 weeks. She has a job for that time period so that will be great for her.

We watched Amelie yesterday, what a fun quirky delightful movie. I really enjoyed it. We have Whale Rider to watch tonight. I have heard its pretty good too. Strangely enough I don't have much to say today so I will spare you any more rambling nonsense.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope all of you have great days of Gratitude tomorrow or whatever day it is you plan to celebrate. Thanks to all of you for being a part of my life.

Sarah came home last night and we haven't done much writing since. I expected that to happen so I need to get back to focus. She had friends over last night and then is out again tonight. Tomorrow I am sure she'll stay home. We'll watch the parade's together and have some quiet times. We are having a simple dinner with a small turkey and cutting down on some of the side dishes. Dave is on this diet and doesn't want to be tempted by too many leftovers. I only made one pie instead of 3 or 4 that I have before. Downsizing always seems a little strange.

We went shopping today, Sarah picked out the sweater she wanted me to make her and of course it is one of the most complex ones in any of my books. We headed to the Yarn Connection and I came home with a bag of Cascade 220 in charcoal gray. I was all set to start a swatch and was in the middle of it when I looked at the gauge info in the pattern and it is 5.5 stitches per inch and Cascade is set up for 4.5 or 5.0 I was so mad at screwing that up. So I spent some time on the net to see if anyone else had made the sweater. I did find someone who used Cascade 220 so being the stubborn person I am I really want to use it so I will be doing several swatches to get it right. I figure if I can't get the gauge right I may just have to do a different size. Its annoying but I really don't want to take the yarn back and start all over looking for something appropriate. Sometime creating things involves way too much frustration.

Have a great Holiday!

My baby is coming home

My baby is coming home today. I haven't seen her since August 22nd so I can't wait. It has been the longest ever so far. Sure we can see each other via a webcam but its not the same by any means. Sarah has always been a big hugger and I can't wait to catch up on all those hugs and everything else. She is also doing Nanowrimo and we'll be having our own little write ins while she is home.That will be great. Its always helpful to have a partner supporting you.


7 Random things again.

Well I just discovered that Beverly from Embrace Your Gifts and Soar also tagged me for 7 random things so let me see can I come up with 7 more.

1.I used to be an avid cross stitch embroiderer but I rarely do it anymore.
2.My greatest heartbreak is that I was never able to have another child.
3.I think that the Dalai Lama is one of the greatest people on the planet.
4.I do Buddhist meditation even though I don't consider myself a Buddhist,
5.My second favorite spiritual person is Thich Nhat Hahn
6.My favorite candy lately is Lindor White Chocolate Truffles...yummm
7.When I am eating a bowl of chips or other snack I hate it when my family comes and takes some out of my bowl. They know I hate it but they keep doing it. I know its weird.

I am not going to tag anyone else, anyone who reads this consider yourself tagged.

I have my word count done already so I hope I will be able to get some Art done. I stopped at the craft stores looking for new paint brushes. I don't think my watercolor brushes work that well with acrylics. I picked up a liner brush since that seems to be the first one I need. I also got a jar of titanium white, I just can't resist 50% off coupons. Plus my tube is almost empty so it was needed. Have an Artful Day if you can.

Random things a some yarn

So I was tagged by Olivia at Happy Luau to write 7 Random Things About Myself. These are the rules:

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.4. Tag seven random [?] people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.


Ok 7 Random Things

1. My first degree major was in Political Science, second Data Processing.
2. If I were to go back I would study Art or Textiles, or Archeology,or History or.... I really love learning.
3. I love books, I think I have books in every room of my house.
4. I can be reading a half a dozen different books at the same time.
5. I never act my age.
6. I am highly allergic to fish
7. I prefer Red wine over white.

I am tagging.

Kai
Lisa O
Blue
Lisa F
Janet
Gemma
Julie

Spinning

I have been working on this yarn a long time. It really is gorgeous in person so her are a few pictures of it. It is made out of Blue Faced Leicester Wool and is mostly dark puple with other colors running through it. I spun it fine and made a 3 ply. It came out so much nice than I thought it would. I like happy surprises.

Self Portrait time

Since so many drawings turn out to look like me I figure it was a time for a self-portrait again. I spent just a little time on this. I messed with the eyes so much that one is way bigger than the other. I like the hair though.


















I sat in church this morning and drew this lady. A little boy was watching me and during coffee hour he wanted to see the drawing. He wanted to know who it was and I said oh just something from my imagination and he said, what is her name? I said she doesn't have a name yet, He said she should be Cassidy and then he changed his mind and wanted Cassy so that is what she became. I love have interchanges with kids about art.

Writing

I am up to 30,000 words in Nanowrimo so its going pretty good. I am finding I like to work at the library. They have these little tables where you get an outlet and an ethernet connection. I just plug in my earphones and listen to music while I write. Its like I am in my own little world. In my Art room at home there are quite a few distractions.

latest drawing

Another face done in pencil in a moleskine sketchbook. It wasn't what I intended but that seems to be normal for me.

A Spontaneous Trip

I played hooky today. Amy called me up today and said "Do you want to go to Driggs and go to the yarn shop and the bead store." I had planned to write all day and almost said no but then I thought oh why not. Driggs is on the back side of the Tetons, These are the Teton Mountains from a distance.















A closer up view.














This is my friend Amy holding this great skein of silk she bought.



















We also went to a bookstore called Dark Horse Books, it was really a nice store. I really like independent book stores. I bought this book as a gift for a friend.














I fell in love with this hat. It turned out the pattern for it doesn't exist. The owner had taken a hat pattern and revamped it. So I bought the original pattern and she gave me instructions on how to alter it like she did. I thought that was really nice.


















I found this yarn in the .99 bin originally 9.99 what a deal. I will use it as a gift for someone.

It was a really gorgeous day and a perfect way to take a day off. I am really glad I went.

I don't feel like writing.

I had this scarp of watercolor paper and I didn't like the colors I had put on it, sorry I don't have a before picture. Anyways I added some red blue and white and then stamped in white and denim on it and came up with a nice background and tried a female figure again. She is kind of sour looking like some others I have done. I am determined to do one where the person does not looked depressed.


















I really should be writing I haven't felt like doing it all day. I had an appointment with a chiropractor today. It was my first time. and it went well. The Dr. I went to has the most wonderful bedside manner. I am a little sore right now. I may just skip the writing and catch up tomorrow.

Time for a little art

I just had to do some Art its been driving me nuts. These three pages have been in limbo for awhile. I am not sure if they are all finished yet but its all I have to show.

Norah's Art

I found this woman's site the other day and I just love it. Its called All Norah's Art Its funny in a way when I found this site it was the name Norah that made me look. I have a wonderful cousin named Norah and I also have used that name for a character in my novel. So when I found the site was really done by Sharon I was intrigued so I wrote her and she told me that Norah is what she calls her muse. When you go look make sure to look at the flesh journal pages they are incredible. Her work is incredible.

I am still plugging away at Nanowrimo, the icon on my sidebar will tell you where I am with my word count.
I had one of those days, I am in this reading club at the library and I needed to finish a book for tonights discussion. I was only on page 75 out of 238, so I spent the day reading the book instead of writing only to find out the library is closed today so I must have the date of the discussion wrong. Grrr. So I ended up staying home tonight but Heroes was well worth it. I love it when they have these episodes where they explain everything.

I really loved the Note from the Universe today:

Do you know how to give folks what they most, most, most want from you, Kate, without even asking them what it is?
In all regards, just be yourself.
That's what they were after when they manifested you into their lives.

Whoa!
The Universe

I need to remember that when I am feeling inadequate, just be yourself, in fact its hard to be anything else but knowing that its enough is great.
Here is a link to get the notes. emailed to you daily.

Have a great day everyone

eagle and crows

I tried to do a little film today but I can't get blogger to upload it. So I guess I will have to put it on YouTube. Pam there are sections here just for you. Sorry about the background noise. I could not do much about that.

Sheep and a Crow

That is Gabrielle peeking around the corner. I was out with Flynn taking a walk and saw her. Thats how I feel about my blogging this week. Its like I take a peek from my writing and then wonder what I used to do with all my time. I was trying to make a video on our walk but it wasn't to successful so I will try another day. I don't know why I kept getting pictures of the ground. I am sure I was pointing at the mountains.

I have been having some health issues reoccur and I am sort of angry about it and angry at myself for not taking the changes necessary to help alleviate the problems. I don't understand why we know what will be good for us to do but then fail to do it. I guess there are many levels to any issue and its not as simple as it seems.

Drawing














Here is my latest attempt at drawing a crow. Done in pencil in a moleskine sketchbook. My husband thinks it looks like a Raven but what does he know. I told him tail feathers and beak are different. I think each one gets a little bit better.

Great Video

I saw this on Violette's message board and it was so cute I had to pass it on. Check out Hippily bunny.

All the drawings reminded me of drawings Sarah did when she was young. Yes I am feeling nostalgic.

I've been trying to up the word count today but its amazing how things get in the way. My friend Kay is taking this hypnosis course and needed someone to practice on. I was so relaxed when she left that I did not manage to do anything for a couple hours. I am shooting for 10,000 words today and I have 8845. That is only 1155 to go and I can do it if I can focus. It would be nice to get a day ahead so I could take a day off. Well back to the writing.

Being Green

I turned on the TV this morning to the weather channel since I wanted to know what the temp is. They were doing the world so I flipped over to network TV and ended up on the Today show. They were doing a segment on things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Something for every day of the week. Well I already do some of these but there is always more that you can do. Here is the list.


Day 1: Turn down the heat (just 2 degrees)
Day 2: Unplug gadgets (unplug toasters,coffeemakers etc when not using them.
Day 3: Wash clothes efficiently ( in cold or warm water)
Day 4: Eat less meat (go meatless once a week)
Day 5: Put the brakes on driving (once a week)
Day 6: Go green in the home( replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescent ones)
Day 7: Write a letter (to those who are doing great, or one to encourage other to do so)
There is a lot of detail on these choices here

Art Journal Pages














This first one is in my small Van Gogh moleskine. A Van Gogh moleskine is just the small sketchbook but the covers are silk fabric. You don't find them everywhere.


















This one is all about Joy a result of working with the Abraham-Hicks Well Being Cards. I love the look of joy on her face. I will be adding additional word later.


















This is page I did on fear at the start of Nanowrimo. I am showing this because if you look at the background you see a riot of color. I took the piece of freezer paper that I use to work on and made a copy of it and used it as background paper. It was covered with paint and stamping ink and whatever else I spilled on the paper that day. Sometime the protective paper you are working on looks better than what you made. I used to just throw it out. I learned this from Elise at the Artnest retreat. I think its a great idea.

Fantastic Day

I had the most fantastic afternoon. I had scheduled a write in with my Nanowrimo group. This morning I got a note that another person was not coming. So I was hoping for at least one two people to show up. I was so surprised when 10 peoples showed up. I even remembered to take pictures. We have a 12 year old boy, 3 men, 6 women, 2 English teachers and a whole lot of enthusiasm. We were all a buzz about our novels and sharing favorite websites, techniques and books. All I could think of that the group was so great that I hope they will want to continue after Nanowrimo is over with.














Maggie, Jason, Ryan, Amber and Paul














Stephen Amber Meghan Erin Maggie.

Don't we all look like such a lovely group. I was so enthused about writing after we left. It can be so exciting. I had better get back to the book.

Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month started yesterday. After a confidence crisis in the beginning I am on my way. I have kept up with my word count for the first 2 days so that feels good. I have a write-in to go to tomorrow so I will have time to write then too.

This does take up a lot of time. I am still involved in the 100 day challenge and decided not to post the videos here any more. I figure those who are interested can find me on YouTube and that way I don't bore the rest of you to death.

I have been working on some journal pages but none are quite finished enough to share yet.

I think I discovered something about acrylic painting that I should have known. I took a class in in quite awhile ago but I seemed to have forgotten everything. I was using paint right out of the tube and I think adding water of gel medium will definetly make the paint flow better. Every time I have tried a face I end up with this caked blotchy mess so maybe thinning the paint down a little will help. I can only try and see what happens.

Being Brave Synopsis

It seems that others are listing things that they accomplished for the Be Brave challenge so I thought I would share what I did last month too.



Be Brave list

1. Fixed my scanner
2. Asked my brother about family pictures
3. Started and finished an acrylic painting
4. Started drawing in my moleskine
5. Put a banner on my blog
6 Learned how to link a file on my blog
7. Learned how to make a video with my webcam
8. Joined the 100 day reality challenge
9. Wrote every day .
10. Sent a letter to an author
11. Wrote companies for Art supplies
12. Drew a picture from a photograph
13. Drew a self portrait in my journal
14. Found our who Linda Darnell was.
15. Called hospital to volunteer
16. Eat breakfast daily for 2 weeks straight
17. Joined the Self Portrait challenge
18. Learned more about my camera's features and used them.
19. Learned how to make a video with camera
20 Uploaded videos to You Tube
21. wrote my cousin
22. Did a watercolor drawing in my watercolor moleskine
23 Started a watercolor painting
24. Talk to Dave about a difficult subject
25. Spend time journaling about what I think a relationship is.
26. Learned to make those paper beads dipped and embellished
27. Explored drawings and collages in my journal
28. Started doing research for book on Grandparents
29. Standing up for my rights at Barnes & Noble when they over charged me.
30. Sending food back at a restaurant when it is wrong.
31. Telling the truth on a video for the 100 day challengehopn
32. Doing my first Art type video and asking for opinions about it.

Wow I really did a lot last month.