WIP Wednesday: Forward...

...life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.

~~~Jimmy Buffett

Here's to ticking more off my scavenger list than I did last year.   Let the journey begin!

Coulda, Shoulda, Gonna

I coulda not posted today.  To tell ya the truth I was looking to have some big topic on writing, some funny home spun yarn about my week, but nope, nada, nothing.  I am winging this post, but I am making one.

Regular posting on Blog = WIN!!!!!

I shoulda joined in on the writers challenge with the folks over at Romantic Friday Writers, but I realized I not only didn't have anything that fit the challenge, I also had no time to write something up on the fly and be good enough to share.  I am thinking I should have thought about that before entering said challenge, but I was so excited about joining in on something again, here in the Bloggerverse.

 = SHOULDA

I AM gonna join in on the NaNoWriMo action next week.  Honest Injun, I will take on the 30 days and nights of writing, however I shall be cutting the word count in half at 25,000 words and not 50,000.  I am learning my present limitations.  This is good.  But my limitations will not limit my aspirations.  I will continue to write.

=  GONNA!!!!

So coulda, shoulda, woulda my writing?!?!?!  Not gonna.

Sunday Musings from Under the Steps: Time to Make Hero's

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

~~~Ralph Waldo Emerson


I do not believe we need larger than life hero's to save us from our hard times. We need everyday people with immense hearts and even larger volumes of courage. I like the quote above for that reason.

Heroes can be the guy who sells insurance down the street or the granny who smiles at you every morning at the Circle K. All of us hold a possible hero within us. All we need to do is hang on just a little while longer...

The Day After WIP Wednesday

The two rules of procrastination: 1) Do it today. 2) Tomorrow will be today tomorrow. ~Author Unknown

Sunday Musings from Under the Steps: Talent Knows No Style

I think when two opposite forces, beings, cultures, styles collide something beautiful can come from it. I think the world of art and entertainment thrives on this.

Take Bing and Bowie as the perfect example...



Merry Christmas folks!

WIP Wednesday: Self Realization Time Again.

When starting this blog, I referred to myself as a Work in Progress. I don't think I fully appreciated that statement or that fact at the time.

More than anything, the WIP part was pointed more at my professional and creative endeavors. I understood that through working on these things, I would find changes in myself. This occurs with any new road one takes. What I didnt fully grasp or maybe just wasnt ready to see yet, was the more personal--more elemental things that would-could change in me when the WIP's in my life delved into big life changes (i.e. the little space alien inside my tummy and what its birth will mean).

You see, I have had some major shake ups in my life within the last few years, but the changes they evoked in me were somehow different than what I am experiencing now. I would sooner name all the stars in the heaven than I could exactly or accurately explain what I am feeling now... but I like it.

So many changes are coming for me. Things that will join my present works and other things that will change them. Jim and I will find a house before spring and that will be a big change in our daily lives--but a welcome one. I will continue to care for my little family and myself and fall in love with him or her as the day grows nearer. And then I will be a mother, a job I believe I have been in training for a long time and will justly make my priority.

But how will these changes mix with the things I want for me? Should they be pushed aside and turned away like many of the women in my life have done? Or maybe WIP's and dreams do not have to disappear, only change a bit. The true nature of a WIP don't you think?

Sunday Musings from Under the Steps: My Gift to You.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8 year old Virginia wrote this letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial ever.

And although the earnest words of that child touches me, it is the response that warms me each time I read it. My gift to all of you this hectic holiday season. A bit of perspective--a moment to see how we should see this time of year and every day that follows it. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.


Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.


Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.


You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

WIP Wednesday: My Other WIP Salvaged Beauty

As stated in my About Me, I am a WIP who is juggling a few WIP's at present. My Jewelry Design Business, Salvaged Beauty, is definitely one of those.

I've never had a business of my own. It can be a lot of preparation and planning. It's a lot of multitask check off lists throughout a week. It can be frustrating and sometimes lonely even. But I like having something that is all mine. And I do like being my own boss. I mean--my boss may be a bit lazy sometimes, but she lets me drink as much coffee and eat as much chocolate as I like. AND she doesn't even blink when I show up in my comfy clothes for work or when I'm late finishing an assignment. Okay, she rocks!!!!!

Good things I have accomplished recently:

• Applied to enter one of my area's largest craft shows. *Crossing fingers*
• Collecting craft show set up equipment (displays, tables, a sign, etc...)
  
• Created a business card...
  

(Just image on linen textured and colored paper with a decorative red inked stamp in the right corner.)

• And I am working on a new jewelry project. Painted wood beads for Halloween. Eyes and planets so far. Maybe skulls later?

And today, the decider of this post, was a lovely message I received on Etsy, telling me I have once again been chosen and placed in another sellers Treasury. A Treasury is where members create curated lists of enjoyed or favored items and share them with the Etsy world. And it's another way to get free andvertising for your shop. So thank you Lizzie Caye of Lizzie Caye Uniquely Made Handbags!

The chosen piece is my Bollywood Disco Pendent Necklace. My mind had went strait to good old fun lively glittery Bollywood when I found this fun bit of salvage at the market.

Measures at at 31 inches, not including the 3 1/2 extension of chain and 1 inch ball pendent. Suspended on brass crossover chain and accented with two gold Czech beads and black glass beads, this is a easy wear necklace for summer, fall or winter.

To view the rest of the Treasury check here.

And a writerly note, remember Write On Con is still going on, so check it out. And some up and coming blogfests...

* And at A Little Slice of Nothing, "The Weather Blogfest". Due August 14.

* The Literary Lab's second annual Genre Wars Anthology presents "Notes From Underground" contest!

* Jen at unedited, is throwing the Guess That Character Blogfest August 19th and 20th.

Know any other great contests or Blogfests let me know!

Weekend Recap: Paintbrushes and Predators

This weekend I enjoyed paintbrushes and Predators *evil smirk*. The paintbrushes were a part of my Volunteer gig at my old Alma Mater Youngstown State University. The Summer Festival of the Arts played out this year under blue skies and packed full of Art Booths, Food Vendors, Performance Art, Children' s crafts and clowns--a lot of clowns.

On that note, say hello to my new friend. We met while I was helping ankle biters--said lovingly--make beautiful messes at the Children's Craft tent. He squirted me in the face with fake ketchup (later he gave me the secret recipe) and I told him his monkey needed feeding. I think he was attracted to the bright, coma inducing colors of my above shirt *rolls eyes*. (Really, I loved the shirt. I felt very safe walking across traffic.) Ya gotta love fast friends, art fests and the projectile stage prop.

















All kidding aside, I volunteered last year at a friends insistence and plan to do so from now on. It's just that much fun to me. The kids, the art and the crowds make for a wonderful weekend. And YSU always had a beautiful campus. It's a great place to do time in the name of art and volunteerism.





















And it was a great chance to talk to other Artisans and vendors. Next year I thing I may set up my own tent for Salvaged Beauty. Help the Children's tent set up first and then sell my pretty bits of jewelry and art. So maybe...
...and the paintbrushes I promised you.

Now the Predators. I am a huge fan of nail biting action and of course Science Fiction. No matter how many high heels I've bought or chick flicks I have watched, my thirst for blood and bullets has only grown, much to the delight of my husband.

I blame my father for that. Early on I was armed with a pocket knife, good aim, a independent attitude, the mantra 'Don't you ever start a fight, but you sure as hell better be the one to end it' and a steady diet of Rambos, Die Hards, Lethal Weapons with a education from teachers such as John Wayne, Bronson, Eastwood, Lee and Schwarzenegger. So no matter matter how much Jane Austen, high heels or pretty things I place my life I shall always yell proudly.....LONG LIVE ACTION!!!!

The new reboot of Predator definitely appeased my old school action sci fi lust and gave me a new look at a favorite actor Adrian Brody. Some critiques may have originally paned him "he's no Arnold" and "The Pianist Guy who kissed Hale Berry at the Oscars?", but I loved him as Royce the MC. He looked the part and moved like the part of a professional killer. He behaved the part as a dark, skilled, all business soldier turned merc who'd become a predator of men because he felt he could not be anything else. A quote he gave in explanation of his 'predator' status amongst men...

"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter."--Ernest Hemingway (from "On the Blue Water" in Esquire, April 1936)

Add a few other well cast killers--predators in his or her own right, throw in alien hell dogs, nasty Predator aliens and a insain Lawrence Fishburn and it was a satisfying evening of popcorn and mayhem.

WIP Wednesday: My First Blogger Contest!

Today I entered The First Sentence of your WIP contest at A No.2 Pencil Stat! I have been meaning to enter a on-line contest at some point and I am very pleased to see so many here on Blogger. My entry to this particular bit-o-fun is from my paranormal romance, Ghost Mountain:

"It was that feeling again, like having your hand palm down on a railroad track, knowing the train was on its way."

As for my WIP, I am diligently typing away at it today and hope to have more to share with you in the future. ;-D Actually I am more like fusing bits I did months ago into what I wrote last week. Some stuff is getting axed leaving room for new things to grow and evolve.

Oh well, its fun anywho! Happy writing folks.

The Hope To-Do List:

This weekend I enjoyed the camaraderie and the critique of my writing buds at Focus on Fiction. We meet at our local Barnes and Noble every 4th Sunday of the month. And I also sold another pair of earrings to a friend. A friend? but a sale none the less and most appreciated. Both happenings reminded me of what I must focus on when filling this weeks to-do list. Make more jewelry and make more words!!!!!!

The Jewelry shouldn't be a trouble. I have quite a few to post on Etsy this week and I have about six to photo today or tomorrow. I am also at present trying out painting wood beads. My first set resemble the planets in our solar system, the next earth tones and possibly Fall and Halloween themed beads. (Will definitely be posting pics) I also have new batch of re purposed pearls and glass beads on their way to becoming multi-strand statement pieces. (So going to take pics)

As for my WIP, lets just say the reviews and critique at my FoF meeting went really well. A lot of honest raves and very helpful hints and critique. This week I will brush up what I had critiqued and then slide into the rest of Chapter 1.

And of course participate in The First Sentence of your WIP contest at A No.2 Pencil Stat! I hope you join me!

And Happy 4th BTW! Remember that we are our country. Your neighbor, your friends, the goofy guy selling shoestrings down the street--we are all what makes this United State of America the amazing home that it is. Make sure to stand and be counted this patriotic day. Celebrate, enjoy your family and friends, fly that flag and remember we are the people of the United States. Remember what it took for us to be this freedom laden land and that it means to keep those feedoms secure.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

The ‘Hope’ To-Do List

Last week…
• Finished non-kitty and hubby tore up couch pillows. CHECK!
• Finished my writing group (Focus on Fiction) assignment and dug up a writing exercise for group. CHECK!
• Have an entry for Shelley's 'I Can't Say It! Blog Fest.
• I did not pick out possible photos to print and matte for Etsy shop sales and will do so this week.
• Did photo recent jewelry creations and will be entering this week. Also finished more to be photographed if Mother Nature permits the sun to come out. Double CHECK!

• And I may not have finished the first chapter of my present WIP Ghost Mountain due to unforeseen life reasons, I do have a fairly strong start and have come up with a better idea to begin the chapter. A more action driven and fairly humorous start with a tinge of eerie mystery and woe for my main character. A sample…

Chapter 1
Just Howling at the Moon

It was that feeling again. Like having your hand palm down on a railroad track, knowing the train was on its way. Only it was his entire being that felt the low rumble and he could bet his star that the ‘something’ coming was just a bend turn away…

Now help me out on this one. Does this sound familiar to any of you? It does to me and I hope to Hell I didn’t unconsciously copy it from somewhere. When I write something that sounds decent to me, it feels familiar. So it could be that. I hope it’s that.

So, this week…

• Find those pictures.
• Finish Chapter 1.
• Continue making jewelry, photo them and enter on Etsy.
• Prepare for Jim and I next camping trip. Get out the camping list or the “If Zombies Take Over the World” packing list.
• And edit my entry for A No.2 Pencil Stat! first sentence of your WIP contest.

Here is hoping I knock out the list through the week. How about you? Knocking out or being knocked out by your to-do lists? Anything finished and proud of?

The 'Hope' To-Do List

My weekend was rained out, so not much to recap. *pouts* But I do have some things crossed off my list from last weeks Weekend Recap...

Today, I started the new pillows to replace my sadly cat and husband mauled couch pillows. Fabric fresh from JoAnne Etc and picked by Jim and I. He doesn't get a ton of say in the dec part of our loft, but he is a willing participant when asked. The fabric wasn't a bad compromise. He wanted tropical and I wanted soft blue and green in a indoor/outdoor fabric.

I did not enter a item a day on Etsy but I did enter a few new pieces and in addition tweaked the shops appearance and workings a bit. I also found a future craft show to attend in the fall and filled out my volunteer form to work at the childrens craft fair at our local Colleges Art Fest next month. It was a blast last year. www.ysu.edu/sfa . And signed up again for www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com and was accepted to join the this year.

I have made and will be finishing up some new necklaces and earrings for my shop. I'm sorta into the beads and ribbon thing right now. I love the combination of hard smooth beads and soft ribbon....
And I did add to my prologue for Ghost Mountain, which I shall share Wednesday. And presently I am tackling a more filled out Chapter One and not the brief sum up I have presently. I WILL GET THIS DONE! I WILL GET THIS DONE! I WILL GET THIS DONE! (Side note: Need to find a word counter to instal on this blog! Anyone???)

Now, this week...

• Finish next batch of jewelry for Etsy, photo it and enter. And of course keep making more.
  
• Finish pillows!
• Finish Chapter One (Ghost Mt.) rough draft.
• Start my writing group (Focus on Fiction) assignment and dig up a writing activity for group. I have been co-moderating said group for the last few months. Each month, I come up with a sort of lesson plan and homework.
• Start my entry for Shelley's 'I Can't Sa It! Blog Fest. storiesintheordinary.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-cant-say-it-blog-fest.html
• Pick out some possible photos to print and matte for Etsy shop sales.
  

Okay then! I hope to get the majority of this done around the life stuff. *shaking head* Silly life stuff getting in the way! That's okay. Issy the-flying-cat (pictured) will assist, at least in the jewelry department.

So how about you? Do you guys make a to-do list for the day, week, month, year? How closely do you follow it?