Productive Days

Yesterday didn't quite go as planned, but that's the normal way of these things. My nap took a detour when the roofing guys showed up to replace some shingles that had been blown off in our last major wind storm. For some reason, I can't sleep when people are walking around on the roof. ;-)

However, I took and made that time highly productive instead. I got all of my chores done and then went and did the grocery shopping. By the time afternoon rolled around, I did not feel even the slightest bit guilty for taking a few hours and concentrating on my quilting.  As a matter of fact, I enjoyed that feeling so much, I'm going to get all of my chores done this morning again, same chores as yesterday of course, before I start quilting again. That guilt-free feeling is a great one. :-)

I managed to finish up one block yesterday. I did my Ohio Star and rather like how it turned out. We had open interpretation on what we wanted to put in the center, so due to the sun I carefully fussy cut and placed there, I opted for a spiral. The rest is done in "echo shells" which I sketched onto the fabric before I quilted them. It went a lot better, I'm sure, than if I'd tried to do that without the lines. My spirals already show me I can't keep a consistent distance.

Yes, I have a thing going right now for music fabric. I came across them in my last trip to the quilt store and bought several fat quarters knowing I would be using them in this quilt. Since I recently started playing the flute again, it's appropriate and I love them.

My little quilt extension table worked like a charm! I love that little table though it's forcing me to change how I sit at my sewing machine and where I rest my arms as I work. I'll get used to it as time goes by, but it is odd feeling right now.

I have been studying my Modern Dresden Plate and trying to decide how I want to quilt it. We're supposed to be learning pine needles and then use more echo shells, but I'm not sure I like that idea for my block. Mine really looks more like a sun than it does a flower.

However, I might just go ahead and do it the way she suggests to get it done and over with. While I find this quilting technique easier than if the entire quilt top was already pieced, it's starting to get tedious. That might be why I prefer piecing quilt tops to quilting them.

She is teaching another class on Craftsy called "Free Motion Fillers Vol. 1". In there, she has you make a smallish quilt where the entire thing is mainly focused on the quilting aspect.  Funny how much I want to make that considering I am thinking that quilting itself is annoying. However, to be able to show that I 'can' quilt free motion and to complete something like this would be a great accomplishment for me.  Last night, while digging out other random fat quarters for the back of the sampler quilt, I pulled all of my tonals to get an idea for the other quilt. We'll ignore the fact I want to actually finish 4 other quilts before I start it. ;-)  Based on my choices, I went with a rainbow color palette with a black background. It's nice having a decent sized fabric stash.

These lovely fabrics are a combination of my hand dyes, batiks, and normal cotton tonals. I think it will be lovely when it's finished. I'm also planning on quilting it in a light gray thread since I obviously want the quilting to show on this one.

I'm thinking today is going to be "piecing day" so I can finish the last 4 blocks for the sampler quilt. That right there might take the entire day as we're talking 2 blocks with curves and then 2 paper pieced blocks.  However, it would be great to have them finished and ready to be quilted.  If I'm going to do that, I suppose I'd better get up and get a move on. I have things to do before I can sit down with my beloved sewing machine. :-)

Starting the Sampler

Yesterday, I decided I'd done enough practice and it was time to tackle the actual blocks. In a way, I see all of my quilts as practice pieces anyway, especially when it comes to the quilting part. I rarely make it past making tops as basting is difficult for me. I have NO idea why, but I can never seem to get it right on the first try. When you're talking about a large quilt top, having to undo all the pins and redo them is frustrating.

The first two blocks of the sampler turned out okay. I like the first one way better than the second. I wonder if it's because I practiced the quilt stitches used for the first block before I did it and I didn't the second? We'll never know. LOL  I used thread in each of them to blend in with the block. I still love my piecing more than the quilting, so I want IT to show up, not the quilting.

This is the first block. It has a stipple in the center, paisleys in the white part and then just long "U" shapes in the corners. I'll admit I'm not too fond of the U shapes. I thought they looked a little "cheap" when added with the other two, but I couldn't think of what else to do there. It also might be because, when I was changing colors of thread, the purple in the corners was a heavier weight than the other two. Beats me how I ended up with a 40wt when I usually only buy 50 or 60. Oh, well. It was only for a small area so it's not that big of a deal.  I matched that blue in the center so well, you can't even tell it's stippled in pictures. You'd have to see the actual block. The backing fabric on this one is sheets of music, so it also completely hides the stitching. So this is the only shot of this block there is.

This is the second block. It's a wonky log cabin and was quilted with a spiral from the inside out. As you can see, the background fabric has cute paw prints on it. I fell in love with it in the store and had to have it. How handy I was working on a quilt where I wanted each square done with a different background fabric. :-)

I will admit that I call this my "drunk spiral" as I couldn't keep a consistent distance from the previous lines for anything. However, considering this was eyeballed and completely free hand, it didn't turn out that bad. :-D

I was also talking to my husband yesterday about my desire for a quilting table. He thought for the longest time I meant an actual table that my machine would sit into. He didn't realize I meant one of those platforms that would just fit around my machine to give me more surface area. When he did realize that, thanks to the Keepsake Quilting catalog having a picture of a Plexiglas version,  he ran right out and made me his version.

I haven't tried it out yet as I'd already quilted the previous two blocks without it, but they still need their "river path" borders. Leah doesn't cover that in the lessons until the very end, but I was talking to my friend about it. After realizing I'd have to go back anyway and add it to ALL of the quilt blocks, I thought I'd stop now and add it as I went. So it will give me a chance to try out this little table he made. It's a great use of some recycled materials as he used left overs from some black shelves we used to have. It might not be fancy, but if it gets the job done, who cares? There's a small gap in one corner where it fits around my machine due to the fact these new machines have lots of curves to them. However, it's a small gap and I don't think it will make that big of a difference. We also covered it completely with clear contact paper. You can see there where it overlaps. It made that top real nice and smooth. I really hope it works and I don't have to tell him that all of his work was for nothing.

If you're curious, my sewing machine is a Viking Quilt Designer. You'd have a hard time finding one as they are considered antiquated in the realm of computerized sewing machines and were quickly discontinued in favor of the Designer II. However, it's been an awesome sewing machine and I'll keep happily using it until it dies.  Unfortunately, it will be the stitch cards that will die long before the machine itself does. I had to replace one recently and I had a heck of a time getting my hands on one. While these computerized machines are nice, there's something to be said for the older machines. I have a vintage Singer 301A sitting off to the side you can't see. That pretty baby was made back in the 50s and is still going strong. Nothing like a silly stitch card or a corrupt memory chip will keep it from running! It still makes the most beautiful stitches, too.

I guess that's enough 'rambling' for now. I have a nap to take, chores to do, then I'll get to play with my new quilting table and see how it works. :-D

Thinking in Circles

I am thinking myself in circles today. I ended up with an empty hour with nothing to fill it. I was supposed to go to a doctor's appointment but I called and canceled it when the pest control guys showed up. I had to corral the pets for an hour while the spray dried. So, I'm waiting now.

The thinking in circles is this. The kids are still in school, hubby went to go take a nap. It's perfectly quiet in the house and it's weird. When this happens, I think too much. I have a knitting project almost finished. So close to finished I could easily finish it in a day. Okay, so do I work on that? Or there's my son's quilt. I finished the major sashing quilting last night. It's all done and the pins are out. So I'm studying the squares now and wondering if I really want to do the original design I picked out or if I want something different. Then my mind skips to the Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month I started last year. I still have 2 blocks cut and ready to be pieced there, not to mention 7 or 8 blocks sitting with their sashing ready to be quilted. I want to do the Free Motion Quilting a Sampler class on Craftsy and Leah uses these blocks. It would be awesome practice for me. I have some of the batting cut and ready, too. All I need to do is square up a piece of fabric for the backing and layer it. I'm using different fat quarters for the backing to use up more fabric and to make it more fun. I even have several fat quarters all pressed and ready to be squared up.

So, to help myself out, I decided to blog about it instead. LOL  I'm also waiting for my coffee to finish brewing so I can continue to think while sipping on that. I'm leaning towards squaring up some fabric and getting a BOM block ready to be quilted. I just need to load up my class and see which one is first as I'd like to do them in order.  There. I took the time to go look it up and here's my block one. It would appear it's the Greek Cross.

I suppose I need to go look now and see if THIS block has its sashing. LOL  If not, I definitely need to add that before I can quilt it. I was adding sashing in the order the blocks were made, but of course that's not how she decided to teach it.  Oh, well, I'll survive. :-)  I guess I'm off to check on that sashing and see what I need to do to get this started.

Long Time No See!

Holy cow! I can't believe how long it's been since I've written anything on my quilts. Then again, I've been knitting and crocheting almost solidly since the last post. Now I was productive in that realm right up until I ended up with DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis that ended up with my having surgery on it at the end of last year. I'm still in occupational therapy for that, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

When March hit, I got hit with the "finish it up" bug. I had two quilts still in partial piecing mode and two quilts in ready to quilt mode (we won't discuss the number of knitting and crocheting projects in partially finished stages). I've signed up for some classes on Craftsy and have been learning new techniques on free motion quilting. I hope to use them on my new quilts.

This is the quilt that is currently basted and ready to go under the ol' machine needle. It's for my youngest son. Last year, I realized that he was the only one in our family who didn't have a quilt.  Well, besides myself. But finishing one for me isn't very high on my list at the moment. I did a sample block chunk made up from several of the same fabrics to play with my free motion quilting as it's been a LONG time since I've gotten this far on a quilt.  I like how it turned out and plan on using this free motion pattern on his quilt with a double line doodle swirl in the border. All of that after I stitch every single seam. It turns out that emphasizes the piecing process. As there was serious piecing in his quilt, I want it to show up, by golly!

Yeah, I had a few issues as I'm using cotton thread on the back and polyester thread on the front. You might be wondering why in the world I'm doing that, but it's because I wanted a single color on the back and beats me how you wind thread on my machine from a cone. LOL That and I'll be using multiple colors on the front. This sample is going to be turned into a matching pillow for his quilt.  How does this match, you might ask?  Well, I made a minor error when I bought the backing fabric and I didn't get enough. So, I ended up making a few adjustments and added a pieced section.

Not the best photo, but you get the idea. ;-)  This is a strip that runs down the very center of the back of the quilt. I think it's going to look great. Obviously, I will NOT worry about stitching in the ditch on this side. Only the front will get that treatment. 

So, that's where I'm at on his quilt. It's basted and ready to be quilted. The sample block is sitting on my cutting table for me to admire and remind me why I'm going through all this work. ;-)  I suppose I should stop blogging now and actually get around to starting the quilting, especially since the cat is currently not claiming it. Every time I turned around yesterday, he was on it, no matter where I placed the quilt. He has decided it's his. I hope I can convince him it belongs to my son when it's finished... lol

More to come

Well, my Crafts By Erin blog is up and running with more photos of things I've done. I've been a busy little bee as of late. I have orders for 5 paperback book bags and 5 cell phone/gadget cases. I'll go through my fabric here before too long and start pulling different fabrics for them. Of course, the paperback book bags will be the easiest to make. There's no lining and quilting involved. Then I have another Piano Key purse lined up I want to make. This one will be red/black/white. I can't wait to see it finished. Oh! And I can't forget the Blue Star Banner I'm making for a friend. Now that the red fabric has finally been rinsed out, I need to start that. She'd like to have it in place before her husband gets home from training. Since the book bags and cell phone cases are for my mother, and I think they're for Christmas gifts, I can put them on the back burner until I get this finished. She'll understand. :-) She'll probably agree that it's more important. Okay, that and it will probably only take me about 2 days, tops, to do the banner. That's not much in the way of things.

Oh, and my son wants a messenger bag. Dang. He wants that to take to school for the last two days and show off. LOL I could actually get the front, back, and side panels prepped today. I need to buy fabric for the lining this evening, so I wouldn't be able to finish it until later.

I think that it's time to start carefully scheduling my crafting time. Since I'm still working on my coffee, I think I'll create myself a little page I can write on every day and plan what I'm going to work on. Today, I think I'll cut out my friend's Blue Star Banner and put that together, layer it, and get it ready for quilting. I will also cut out the outside of my son's messenger bag and start quilting that. I think that will pretty much fill up my crafting day. :-) Now, to write that down so I don't get sidetracked. LOL

Whoops!

Okay, it's been forever and a day since I've logged on and posted anything. Lady Liberty is a thing of the past and so far, isn't finished. I have since completed a thousand and one things in other areas. We've moved to Texas as well. Needless to say, I switched to Facebook and spaced my blog. However, I think that it's time to move on this again. :-)

Recently, I came across a cute pattern for a purse and made one for my son's teacher. Since I showed it off, I have already received two orders for them! I'm making them for "free" in exchange for word of mouth. ;-) My friend calls it "self promotion." Or if they insist on paying, I'll put it at a much lower price. I also have one more purse in mind that will be for sale from the very beginning. Ut, oh. I just thought of another color combination I want to try. Yeah, I'd better get off my lazy tail end and get a move on!

The strangest thing happened yesterday though. I decided that this purse was so dang cute that I needed one! As soon as I hugged it as it was partially finished, EVERYTHING went wrong. And I mean everything. I finally got smart and just put it away for the evening. Hopefully, I can finish the next 3 steps on my purse and call it finished. And I'm serious there. I stopped with only 3 more things to do. But I was messing up so spectacularly, that it seemed the right thing to do. Oh, and wait until you see the REST of the doodads going into my purse. It will be awesome. And, of course, each piece is sold separately. hahaha


This, by the way, is the purse I made. Adorable, huh? It IS missing a button to hold that flap down. I hope to escape to Hobby Lobby today and pick up a few fun buttons. Or, maybe, I should buy some of those larger buttons that you cover yourself... Ooh, that's an idea.

Okay, enough with the ideas. I'm off to finish up my purse. Hopefully, photos of it later today and you'll see how different they look with different fabrics. :-)

Lady Liberty Update

In all realities, the name of the pattern is "She Stands Tall." However, I renamed it to "Lady Liberty" the other night. I like it better. :-D Anyway! I realized that, when you switch how you're attaching the beads, it changes how they lie and the tension in the thread. Oops! As I'm doing this in sections, it's very important that they line up when they're finished. So, the second section I was working on, along with almost half of the first section, are a complete wash. In a way, it's annoying and aggravating... However, I learned something important, so I guess I won't be too upset over it. :-D

I've also decided to make myself a loom. I came across this pattern and decided to give it a try. All I'll be out is a single piece of wood and some wood screws. Not too pricey if it doesn't work. However, several comments on the page lead me to believe that it will work just fine. Unfortunately, I need the wood cut in about 3 places to create it. Bummer for me that I don't know how to use power tools and we don't own a hand saw. LOL Fortunately for me, my father-in-law will be home soon and I know he'll cut it for me. :-) Then I'll create my loom.

That leads me to a question my husband asked me, "Since you're having to completely redo 'Lady Liberty,' why don't you just wait for your loom to be finished?" It's a loom pattern, so his question makes perfect sense. Thank goodness he understands me so well. LOL He knows how much I enjoy doing handwork and the more intricate things by hand. In time, I might be willing to do things like this on the loom. Makes more sense actually as this is 100 X 101 beads. There's just that sense of peace and accomplishment I get from doing it by hand. As I told him, I'll just do the quick simple stuff on the loom, like my bracelets and the like. Stuff that I plan on selling to fund my larger tapestries. I hope to be able to sell my tapestries later on. We'll see. :-)

For now, I just want to quietly work on "Lady Liberty" in my own way. It might take longer, but it's worth it in my mind.

Now... to pick up some pretty silver-colored bugle beads to see if my latest design idea will work. Though I suppose I should finish up Kokopelli first. See how he turned out... LOL

Writing, among other things

Not too many people know this, but I've started writing. I stretched my wings and allowed complete strangers to read what I write. Boy, was that a huge stretch for me. Until November 2008, I'd never let anyone outside of family and a few teachers read what I write. Imagine my surprise when everyone agreed... I write well. I guess I believe it now. My dream of becoming a published author began to take shape in my mind... And then, BAM! It happened again. What's that, you might ask? Well, I have this weird habit of only working on one thing at a time. Well, I only work on one thing that interests me at a time. I do have a family with 3 young boys, 2 of which are in baseball, so I really only have time for one thing for myself at a time.

As you can tell by the name of my blog, I'm a quilter. I was solidly a quilter for 7 years before my eye started wandering in other directions. Normally, I quilt in the colder months. Generally from late fall to early spring. This year, however, I got caught up in writing, so no quilting. Now, I'm into beading. I like it... it's a lovely cool hobby. :-) I just do that, though. Switch from hobby to hobby without much thought of what I left behind. Strangely enough, not writing anymore haunts me. I know in my heart and mind how important it is to me. I just can't seem to convince myself to sit and keep writing.

To top it off, I was reading a few things the other day. Did you know that a lot of agents and publishers won't even look at you very close if you don't have a popular blog and a large following on Twitter? Well, I don't use Twitter and this blog has never been popular. Heck, I'm not even sure how many read it! LOL I did have a large following out on writing.com though. Does that count? ;-) The true readers loved my writing. I think that's more important than a general blog that looks like every other blog. Then again, I never had high hopes of being "officially" published. I was looking more along the lines of being self-published due to the fact I have serious issues with rejection. Even the bestsellers can be rejected several times before finding their 'home.'

Perhaps it's time to sit myself down for 30 minutes a night and work on my current book and see if it won't lead me somewhere. I can still picture exactly where I left off my characters. I think it's time to get them moving again. LOL I can try it. If nothing else, I might at least finish a book. I've never done that before. I'm normally a short story writer, so this book idea came out of no where and surprised me. :-)

With that, I'd better go get cleaned up and get around. I get to take 3 boys grocery shopping... I'm NOT looking forward to that. *sigh*

Beading Merrily Along

Welcome back to my insane world of beading. Well, technically it's welcome to any insane world I happen to be residing in at the moment.

I'm not sure if I mentioned how many beads my latest project has in it. Since I don't remember, I'll post it here. :-D It has 10,100 beads. Well, technically 10,101 right now as I messed up last night and accidentally added a bead where one shouldn't have been. Now, don't start quizzing me on why I didn't go back and remove it. I will ask you a question though. Why is it that I always find my largest errors, usually ones that should be fixed, right after I tie in a new thread? To fix the error, I would have to remove several rows of beads, even if the mistake was right before the tie in point. *sigh* Too many knots. The thread has already been trimmed after being hidden. Usually, I just try and bluff my way through the mistake. :-D

By the end of this evening, I do believe that I will be a whopping 1/5 of the way finished with my latest project. That's not that bad as I think I've only been working on it for about 2-3 days. Each section holds 2,020 beads, so that is not too bad. I'm cruising merrily along. If I keep this up, this little mini-tapestry might even be finished within 2-3 weeks. Too bad I'm already looking around myself going, "I want to do another one. Where's a pattern for a new one?" LOL

With that, I'm going to go take another look at where I'm at in my project and then get a move on for the day. There's plenty I need to be doing and I just need to be content to work on my beading in the evening. :-)

The Economy

You know, in my opinion, the economy isn't all that terrible. Now, before you lynch me and point out all the people who have lost their jobs, let me point something out. We wouldn't be in this situation IF people had used common sense. Apparently, that is lacking when money is involved.

Let's start with the unions. Were they needed in the past? Absolutely. Are they needed now, I'm not so sure. The unions were put in place to guard people from unscrupulous business owners. However, I'm not sure that the unions aren't what we need protection from now. They chased our companies out of our country. With constant increase in pay, the companies had to increase the cost of their goods to cover it, which then caused the unions to step up and ask for more pay. See the nasty cycle there?

Next step is the fact that the "American Way" got skewed. It used to be that you worked hard for what you wanted. You got it by the sweat on your brow. Since when did loose lending practices that guaranteed a home for everyone enter into that equation? When did credit cards come in and replace our savings accounts? See that nasty cycle there? We started getting what we wanted when we wanted it without any work. With the quick and easy loans for everyone, our housing prices skyrocketed. People borrowed more to own that "perfect" house. Usually with way more space and rooms than they needed. Last time I checked, it wasn't a law that every child needed his/her own room with more toys than they could possibly ever play with in a year.

What's going on now is an equilibrium move. Our economy is righting itself. The ability to buy everything we wanted it when we wanted it killed us. Now, we can't pay our credit card bills. Now we can't pay our mortgages for our expensive homes we didn't need in the first place. So now our homes are being taken from us.

Was our family perfect when all of this was happening? No. However, we "equalized" almost 2 years ago. We now only spend what we earn. We don't have any more credit cards and refuse to get another one. We make every single payment on our home and car every month. We have no threat of losing either one. We can put food on the table and even do fun things periodically, like put our children into the local baseball league for the summer. Now that we're equalized, we need to begin storing as much money as possible into savings. That will take the place of our credit cards. At least that way, we'll be making interest instead of those horrid companies. Yes, we've been much happier since we started living within our means.

And that, my friends, is what the rest of the country is learning now. They're learning what it's like to equalize. Unfortunately, it's going to be painful for awhile. It took us 2 years. How long will it take the rest of the country? I have no idea. Unfortunately, we chased most of our major manufacturers out of our country. We're lacking the jobs that used to support our country. I personally believe that it's time to penalize them within an inch of their lives. Their pockets is the only thing that matters to them. So hit them where it hurts the most. Let them know that if they bring back their companies to the US, it will be better.

As a country, we need to support what companies are in the US still. We might pay a little more for those products, but it's very important to keep them here. I've been squeezing extra money out to buy Huggies or Pampers for a long time now. They're made here in the US. It's just little things like that will help out our country and our fellow workers.

It's time to reset our values and go back in time to when family and friends meant more to us than money. Then, our country's economy will stabilize and we'll be a much better country for it. Money only makes you miserable. Think of that the next time your credit card bill comes in and you're wondering how you're going to make that payment.

Beading

Well, it finally happened even though I dug my heels in for a long time over it. I just had to start playing with beaded jewelry. I'll blame it on my car needing new brakes and the guys at the shop taking forever to do them. Near where I had them done, there was a cute little beading shop. I went in there while I was wasting time. From that time on, those beautiful beads kept circling through my mind. I finally gave in, but I have a few 'rules.'

Rule #1: I'm only allowed to use seed beads for the majority of my work. The larger beads are only allowed if they're accent pieces to a seed bead design.

Rule #2: I have to finish one project before beginning a new one. The last thing I needed was another hobby where I had a thousand and one unfinished projects.

Rule #3: I must keep my supplies within the limits of a shoebox-sized plastic box.

Not too many rules. I even get most of my patterns for free and I'm even starting to design some of my own patterns. I love the square stitch or loom weave style. I just love that solid band of beads, how they feel, and how the piece moves. They take awhile to create, but I still love them.

I will probably break rule #2 here before too long. I came across a free pattern that will create a bead tapestry. 101 x 100 beads. Finished, it will be approximately 5" x 6.5". That's going to take forever to make. So, I believe I will allow myself a break now and then to work with a net weave project. They finish up quickly and are very beautiful. However, I also can't wait to see what this tapestry will look like when finished. I'm already thinking of ways to get it hung so I can display it in a window. :-) I find that amusing as I just ordered the beads for it last night. I had to order them because it required some special beads called "Delicas."

They're beads that are made in Japan and are very strictly size controlled. Delicas come in about 1,000 colors, I think. Needless to say, no local bead shop can stock them all. I ordered mine from Fire Mountain Gems. Awesome place. If you're into jewelry making at all, I suggest you look at this place. They allow their discount to span the entire website. That means, if you buy 15 items of anything on their site, you get the discount. I was able to combine all the Delicas I needed with some more beading thread, Swarovski crystals, obsidian chunks, and some earring posts to get my discount. It really is a great thing they offer. Oh! And the shipping is only $5 Fed Ex for a single box. Surely you can imagine how many beads they can fit in a single box. A lot! So I think it's worth it. I'm hoping to have my new stuff by this weekend.

With that, I guess I'll go finish working on my Kokopelli. I'm not sure how it's turning out. The oval I put around him is a wee bit larger than I thought it would be. I might redo it in a different shape or attempt to create a smaller oval. I don't know. It's done in square stitch, so it's taking forever to do. I just passed the halfway mark last night. Oh, well. A few more hours of work and I'll see if it's going to work or not. That's the problem with designing my own stuff. I'm still not quite sure how beads work together to get the perfect look. I'll get there eventually. :-)

I guess I'll meander off now. I have pictures of everything I've completed so far. Maybe I'll even put them in this blog one day. For now, they're out on Facebook. Feel free to go look at them. Take care! I'm off to go work.

Ranting and Raving

To begin with, I'm not sure how many people will actually read this. I think I get more hits on my blog out on writing.com than I ever have here. However, I just feel like venting and this seemed like the more appropriate place.

As everyone in the universe knows, we have a new president. Just thought I'd warn people now. The sun doesn't rise and set according to him. I already have a God, thank you very much. As a matter of fact, I don't even think he's all that great. Before I look on him with anything but fear and suspicion, he's going to have to do something to prove it. So far, he's doing a horrid job. Pretty interesting considering he's only been in office for a few days.

Let's take the first order of business he's done. He's shutting down Guantanamo Bay. Okay, that might not be the best thing the US has ever done, but really. Shutting it down and putting all of those foreign criminals through our justice system? That's insane. They're not even US citizens. They don't deserve the protection of our constitution. If he wants to shut it down, then fine. Send them back home. It will keep our military with jobs for a long time to come. A lot of them in there are suspected terrorists. Yes. By all means. Let them all out and bring them INTO the US for trial. Brilliant. Now, why don't you go round up all their little terrorist friends and bring them in too so they can "testify on their behalf." Heck. Give them all guns, too. Let's make it more fun. Not like they'd have any problems getting any when they were in the States anyway. Now. To keep ME amused, put the ACLU in front of them and let's see what happens. Actually, they'd probably become best friends and have a meeting to determine the best way to undermine the American Government. Then, the media can cover it all because they're on their side anyway, and they can report it as the best thing to happen to the US ever. *gag*

The recession we're in. I know, I know. Everyone wants to blame President Bush. But please, if you're going to blame people, put it back where it belongs. Carry it back to President CLINTON where it belongs. He's the one who decided everyone should own a home. Never mind the fact that most people aren't financially sound enough to do it. Then banks put in the practice of loose lending. Those same people who aren't very good with financial decisions took advantage of it and then proceeded to drag down the entire economic market. Oh, and by the way. Presidents have never been in "charge" of the economy anyway. It's the typical person who is. What we decide to do ripples throughout the entire market and influences others. One person walks away from their home and allows it to go into foreclosure, then it ripples throughout the entire neighborhood. If that same neighborhood hears that the other person went and bought another house before the foreclosure hit, then they decide it's better to walk away from their current home than it is to try and sell it. That right there started the home market down slide. After awhile, it started to hit the businesses. People got into homes more expensive than they could afford. So then the homes started being foreclosed on for real. Businesses started taking a hit when people were pouring all their money into trying to keep their homes. Without people buying their products, they couldn't stay in business. Then it got worse.

I'm just curious. Do you see that? Do you see how it all started? It all started with loose lending practices encouraged by President Clinton. Unfortunately, it took 8 years for it to all slide out from underneath us and create this recession we're in. Don't blame Bush. He tried to help keep it from sliding. But there was no stopping this. It was too big. All we can do is tighten our belts and learn to live as we used to in the previous generations. Used isn't all that bad. I learned that from my husband. Some of the best things we own are second hand. *smile* They're better made too. Besides, think of it. We're helping to save the environment by keeping it all out of the landfill. *grin*

I think that's all I have to whine about for today. I'm sure I'll come back when Obama does something else incredibly stupid. Why can't he do something useful? Like get rid of the "No Child Left Behind Act"? It's not helping anything and it's actually making our education system worse. Instead, take the money that is being poured into that, and use it to completely revamp our education system. Pay the teachers a higher salary so that you can keep the good math and science teachers out of the industry.

Aww, to heck with it. Our country needs our prayers. That's the ultimate answer. So I'll just take a deep breath, wait out our current president and hope he doesn't screw things up too bad, and pray for our country.

Dry Spell

Well, I have obviously been very quiet here. I've been spending a lot of time with my writing muse and, therefore, have been out on Writing.Com a lot. So that just about sums up this entry. Just wanted to put it in here in case anyone checks my blog and notices that I haven't been posting in awhile.

Later!

Unhappy with Christmas

I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the world to get depressed at Christmas. And hopefully, I'm not the only one who gets depressed over the overwhelming consumerism during this time. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. The time to sit down over good food and spend quality time with family. In my heart, I believe that's what Christmas should be. My favorite part of Christmas is when we drive over to my in-law's house for a wonderful dinner and just spend time with them.

You see, I'm blessed with a wonderful mother- and father-in-law. They're wonderful, loving and caring people. It's always a joy to spend time with them.

Tonight, I think I figured out why I get so depressed at Christmas. It's all the gifts that people buy. You see, no matter what we buy, we can never compete with the greatest gift of all. On Christmas Day, God sent to earth his beloved son to live among us. He set into motion the plan for our eternal salvation. There is absolutely nothing that we can buy that can compete with that. Oddly enough, gifts from the heart come closer to encompassing that ideal than anything else. For God's gift was definitely one from the heart. As it says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son..."

All the pretty wrapping paper, all the bows, all the pretty decorated trees, all the credit card debt and stress in the upcoming year when that first credit card bill arrives, that means absolutely nothing. If we'd just embrace the fact that we can't compete with the gift we've already been given and stop with the unending consumerism at Christmas, we'd be much happier people.

That reminds me of one Christmas we had awhile back. Money was really tight and we knew that we couldn't get the kids very much. So I had everyone in the house pick one special dessert each. I then proceeded to make them, one after the other, as a special gift. That holds the special memories. Not the presents under the tree that year.

This year, we're blessed financially to provide a good Christmas. As a matter of fact, the gifts are already purchased and many of them are high-end electronics. For some reason, every time I think of them, I get depressed. I miss that Christmas where the 'gift' was homemade goodies. I'm trying to decide if I'm "brave" enough to declare a "no gift" Christmas. We have 4 boys. Would they understand celebrating what God gave us over buying gifts for the tree? Would they understand if I was more willing to give them nicer gifts on their birthday instead? I doubt it. But the idea holds so much appeal to me. We actually took and cut way back on Christmas gifts a few years ago. The kids didn't mind it then. They each get maybe one or 2 special gifts and that's all. For awhile, that kept me happy. Now, I want to cut back even more. Maybe that's asking too much out of the kids.

Maybe I'll chalk it up to my normal Christmas depression. Add in the fact that Dad can't be here this year and it's just miserable. A very important part of my family is missing and it's just hard. Though, I still would like to make Christmas more about Christ, just like it should be. I'll think about it next year, when, hopefully, my family will be whole again. Though we did all agree, if we could trade in every single Christmas present for Dad, we all would in a heartbeat. I wish it was that easy.

NaNoWriMo Update #1

Well, I wrapped up my first session this evening. Considering I walked into it tired and dreading it, but still pulled it off, I think I'll make it through the month. *smile*

With the plan of 4 pages, front and back, I kept writing until I had reached that goal. Actually, I ended up going over it as I just couldn't leave it dangling at the end of the 4th page. So, with that, the official count of this evening came in at 2,288 words! Hurray!!! My goal was 2,000, so I passed it. I'm actually pretty happy at that.

An amazing thing happened tonight too. I finished my very first chapter. Since I'm a short story writer by nature, this is absolutely thrilling. Having 5,333 words isn't too shabby either.

I know I only finished my "first" day, but I actually think I might see this thing to the end. Going in tired and really not wanting to do it, showed me that I can still force myself to do it anyway. Now, to keep that in mind when the going gets tougher. *smile*

I have a small cheerleading team lined up and they're really good at cheering me on in everything. As a matter of fact, they're the two people who got me back into writing. So yes, they'll cheer me on to the end. My husband really will as he gave me the original prompt that set this book in motion. He's really been wanting to see the end of it for a LONG time. Now, hopefully in about a month and a half, he'll get to see it in its rough form. I said "a half" because I'll need time away from it before I enter it into the computer.

I'm thrilled that I managed to pocket my Inner Editor. This evening, while counting the number of words I had, I came across the use of a word that a tough guy like Henrich (my main character) would never use. However, I noted it, shook my head at it, and kept on counting. I'm actually proud of myself for not trying to edit it at that very moment. I think it shows great promise for the rest of the month.

I have to grab onto every gem I can right now to keep me going later on. *smile* With that, I'm heading to bed. I have another 2,000 words to tackle tomorrow. *grin*

NaNoWriMo

Well, NaNoWriMo, the official one, is over for this year. It runs during the month of November. However, I went and got Chris Baty's book, "No Plot? No Problem!" the other day and read it. It's basically a guide on how to do your own NNWM any month you want. Well, this is my time! I'm bringing to the table a partially finished book. Technically, that's a no-no, but since I write in the style that's suggested anyway (by the seat of your pants), I figured it didn't really matter. Besides, the 'book' is only 3,045 words long in its current form. Barely short story length.

My goal is to write every evening from 10:30 - 12:30. However, my goal is going to be 3-4 pages every night. I don't know if that will dig me out of my deficit or not. Since I'm starting it on the 4th day of the month, I'm technically supposed to have a total of 6,664 words by the end of the night. Well... that's an awful lot for one night. So maybe if I jump it up to 4 pages (handwritten, I do about 500 words/page) every night, then I might be able to catch up. Hmm... According to the math, I can. I'd actually clear the goal (50,000 words in 1 month) by several days. So, there you have it. Four pages per day will get me to my goal.

As me again in a month how I did. LOL Naw, if I "win," I'll be completely over the moon I'll be so happy. You'll definitely know. *grin*

Feel free to cheer me on. I might need it before too long. LOL

Frustrated

Oh, goodness. I'm SO frustrated right now. I went out to my CD player in the living room to grab out a few CDs that I wanted to rip to my computer and ... well... Let's just put it this way. I have an old CD player that has one of those nice carousels. It held 51 CDs at a time. That was great for me. Plenty of room and it had all the necessary auxiliary jacks on the back to run the DVD player through it and all that. Now, my CD carousel is broken!!! Oh, I'm so sad and upset by that. Ever since MP3 players got so big and all that storage is in them, you can't find CD players like this anymore. Also, the stereo systems for the MP3 players rarely have the necessary jacks on them to also act as a media center. No. All those darn companies now want you to buy an iPod and then buy a separate multimedia center for your television. Which, in today's world, had better be at least 52" and a flat screen.

Those companies sure are great at making you spend a ton of money to buy all the necessary equipment when one $300 stereo was all you needed.

Now, I'm going to finish ripping the CDs I wanted and pile the rest on my desk. Now that the carousel is broken, I can't be sure I can even get them in and out of there anymore. Then I'm going to sit here and be upset for awhile while trying to figure out how to work around this.

I just had to vent this or I'd probably explode.

Hmmm... Now What?

Oh, dear. I feel as if I've hit a minor road block. All that rush and push to work on my writing and all of a sudden, Fizzle... I can't seem to do anything right now. Do you know how annoying that is?

Okay, it might actually go back to the fact that I have an idea on what I want to work on, but I haven't yet. Isn't that silly? Mainly because I'm hiding out in my room a lot to work on something and I'm feeling guilty at leaving my kids alone like that. However, I also have to be able to completely block out their noise, or at least their movie, so that I can write. So, yesterday, I went out and bought myself a new MP3 player. My other one was SO old that it pretty much refused to connect to my new computer. Okay, I know, that's painfully old. I am now an owner of a brand new Zune (I detest Ipods and refuse to own one). I just bought a black one even though they come in all sorts of fun colors. I'm just one of those people who knows my ideas of "good" change from day to day, especially when it comes to color. I figured black was my safest option.

It's now fully loaded with music, though I still want to rip several CDs to build up my "writing" playlist. I need specific music to do stuff like that. So I'll get that done and then I really have no excuse. LOL Well, unless I want to go clean my house. Ugh!

Everyone have a great day! I'm off to go 'plunder' my CD player in the living room for the discs I want to rip. That's more exciting than cleaning right now. It's a wonderful all-around way to procrastinate. It's great! LOL

To write or to quilt

...that is the question. Sunday's are my normal "quilt days." I even have a quilt top waiting for me to work on. Oh, heck! I have about 20 of them. But the machine is already set up to be quilting one specific quilt and it's even stashed under the machine cover as it's really small. It's just that McKenna Ryan one that's getting large holes in it from the needle. Mind you, my quilting group all thinks that they'll go away when it's washed, or at least rinsed in hot water. They're probably right. I've also come to the conclusion that I need to switch my fusible web. I've always used Wonder Under, but it would appear that Steam a Seam 2 would be better (per many reviews and opinions of my fellow quilters). No problem there. My Wonder Under is almost gone so I can easily replace it with the other. It's just that I find those darn holes annoying and discouraging.

Okay, then writing. Oh, geez. Writing.com is one of the greatest things I've ever found. Unfortunately, one of the short stories that I released after working on it for only about 2 hours is getting torn apart. For good reason actually. It has grammar issues and one person pointed out that it threw him for a loop switching from first to third person. Mind you, I have those sections clearly delineated, but apparently that's not how you go about doing it. If I wanted it to stop bothering me, I should just either edit the silly thing or pull it off the site. Can you believe I can't even make a decision between those two things?! Geez! I'm such a goober sometimes.

So, while I'm getting wrapped up in a tight little knot over those 2 things, I'm stalemating myself. Even my house is such an incredible mess from my going into serious write mode the past 3 days that it's not helping any. It's so messy that I don't even know where to start there either!

I do think that it's time to get my act in gear. Time to set up a schedule I can adhere to that will take into account all of my necessary duties as a mother, teacher, quilter, and writer. There sure are a lot of things to work in there, aren't there?! I'd probably have to plan my day down to the last minute. Well, then I might have a clean house and still get everything else done. Yes, it might be time to seriously look into that.

With that, I think I'm off to go make a list of everything I need to get done every day and set up a plan. Wish me luck! At least it gets me out of having to choose where to start everywhere else in my life! *grin* But it might also jumpstart me to test out my new schedule theory. So in a way, it might be a good "waste" of time.

Now, I'm outta here for awhile! Hopefully I can 'force' myself to be productive today. Wish me luck!

Writing Comments

A strange thing is happening as I put out stories on writing.com. I'm getting so many different comments that if I were to take all of them to heart, then who knows what I'd write!

Actually, when I was younger, I did just that. I tried to please everyone who offered comments. It led to my not writing because it can't be done. So I now take them all with a grain of salt. Those with constructive comments on my grammar or how to format something, I listen to. Those who want to change my style of writing, I don't. Simple, huh? *grin*

See, I write with a lot of emotion and detail. The goal of my writing is to have others feel what I'm feeling as I write it. That can take a lot of words. To get the widest range of people to feel it, I have to put in various details that mean nothing to someone else.

I mean, really. If I tell someone who hates football and could care less that someone walked out on their favorite football team to go do something, would that mean anything? Of course not. If I told someone who hates sewing or doesn't understand sewing machines every detail of a new sewing machine I got, would that mean anything? No. (I don't have a new one, unfortunately. *grin*) If someone doesn't understand how men work, would they understand how guys can become good friends over something silly as a shared football game? Absolutely not.

I don't watch football, but I know how important it is to some. I sew, so that machine is really darn important. LOL All of my life, most of my friends have been male and I now only have little boys. I know a lot about those odd quirks men display that women are clueless about. Do I understand them? No. But can I tell what I see? Absolutely. I'm comfortable enough with men, and have enough male friends, that I can ask them why does it work that way? Why do you do that? It's great research.

However, what makes me really sad is that some people just can't buy the idea that a man would give up a night of sleep and his favorite football game to go buy someone ELSE a present. Oh, well. I guess I'm just blessed with a wonderful husband who would do something exactly like that. He's just that kind of a guy and I'm so incredibly blessed to be married to him. Now, hands off! He's mine! LOL

I'll admit that all of this comes from a few reviews from a single story. Maybe I'm taking it WAY too much to heart, but I have to analyze my feelings and come out of it without being changed too much by it. I have to remember that there are authors out there that I just plain flat won't read because I don't like the author's style. I'll just have to accept that there are people out there who won't read what I write because they don't like my style. That's all. *smile* It's a hard truth. Authors want everyone to love them. Too bad it doesn't work that way.

So that is my current 'truth' that I'm working through. It's a tough one, but I will come out of it better for the understanding. I will keep writing and that's all that's important. *smile*

I was blessed to run across a wonderful lady out there who is encouraging me left and right to keep going. I actually "met" her over this one story. So even though it didn't win the contest (the other entry was much better), it brought me this one "writing angel" to help me along. She's also an ex-medical transcriptionist so we have quite a bit in common. I feel as if I can share many of my writing dreams with her and find that she has many of the same. However, she's further ahead on them and is able to show me that it really does work. As a matter of fact, she published a book of short stories. I'm tempted to go buy it myself. *smile* She also has another book published (Home of the Red Fox). So, she's a great one to have on my side cheering me on. Oh, her name is J.A. Buxton by the way.

With all of that rambling, I'm going to take off. My house is a mess and I have a short story that needs edited. *smile* As they say on writing.com: "Write On!'