Another Day in Paradise

Yep.  I have been lax in the writing and posting thing.

Sometimes things just get away from me.

Life.

I have been jotting notes for the Nanowrimo coming up in November. Scribbling random ideas for other stories as the whoosh through my head.

Also working on that jacket I showed the first few pieces of in a prior post. It's coming along, just a few more finishing touches.

The pattern had me buy a carload of yarn. Much of which is left. So I will likely have mittens, a hat, and a scarf to match. And maybe a purse as well. 

Last week was spent working on my car.  I was drafted to help the husband install front struts and wheel bearings.  It only took two and a half days to screw up the right side.  We will be attending to that this week.  The left side only took five hours.  We learned a lot on the first side. And remarkably have spent less than half of what it would have cost to have done.

If you don't count the four fingernails I destroyed in the learning.

I also had the opportunity to read an advance copy of a book from one of my favorite people. I will have more on that later. Though I can say I giggle-snorted through the whole thing.  WIN!

Will have more to show and tell later!

I've Been to the My Write Side Cafe!

I have a new place to connect with writers!

My writing friend Stephanie Ayers has just launched a forum for writers to interact, get support and find the services they need to take that next step with their words. With her partner in crime, Scorpio Scribe (aka A.L. Mabry) they've produced  My Write Side Cafe,

It's part of her website My Write Side. While snooping browsing about her place I found some interesting construction going on.
There is a button for upcoming writing prompts.
Another one for contests.
Lots of info and services for writers.
Places to find that bit of inspiration and writerly wisdom to keep us plugging away.

I've signed up.
I'd love to see you there!

Canning and Baking and Yarn, Oh My!

Spent the day in the kitchen, which I enjoy much more since I'm not spending a million hours a week in a restaurant kitchen. 

The new neighbor gave us permission to gather grapes and apples. Yesterday I canned 16 jars of concord grape jelly. 

Today I sliced the apples and made crisp. 

While that was baking I gathered up the wild grapes that grow in the tiny woods behind the house. Wild grape jelly is awesome!

*****

Summer is winding down and with the mildly cooler weather (less than 90 degrees and lack of high humidity) I am more inclined to go outside. 

The locusts and tree frogs fill the evening with a symphony of sound. Like they're hurrying to get the tunes out before the season changes. 

The zinnias are still blooming and attracting tons of Monarch butterflies. I need to find a place to plant milkweed. Then they can breed here as well. 

The vegetable garden is pretty done for the year. The overload of rain really took its toll. And the fact that I was still working a million hours during planting season didn't help. I'm looking forward to next spring already. 

Also looking forward (not really) to getting out and finding a new job. A couple craft stores are hiring, which sounds wonderful. As long as I don't take advantage of any employee discounts that might eat a potential paycheck. 

Speaking of yarn...time to pick up the knitting.

Hope there was no expectation of profound thoughts. Cause I'm far too relaxed to be profound. 

Random Writing Resources and Babbling

I finally finished the crocheting that shawl I've been working on for a year. Now it's time to attach the 70 beads.

So I decided to write instead.

As I've stated before, there has been very little fiction writing happening. Which is the reason I'm hanging out here.

I do have a lot of half thought out ideas. And a work in chaos that is nagging me to return.

In the meantime, I have found a few writer's resources to explore.

If you follow me on the Twitters, you are aware that Thursday evening becomes twittersanity night on my stream. I engage in a few writer chats over a two (or so) hour period.

At 8 pm EST I am chatting it up with the StoryDam crew. We have a topic each week related to writing. All writers are welcome! Just use the StoryDam hashtag and jump in.

Then, at 9 pm EST I generally join the 10 Minute Novelist chat. Another fun way to connect with writers. That hashtag is 10MinNovelists. They also have a facebook page. here.

There are a load of twitter chats for writers. Put your favorites in the comments, I'd love to check them out!

As I was muddling around on the social medias, my writing friend Stephanie from My Write Side posted an article spotlighting a few resources. Take a look, you might find something just for you. She also has another project in the works for writers looking to connect. I'm excited to see what she's going to offer.

And I just signed up for a newsletter from WritersLife.org.  They offered this list of writing prompts.

For those newbies with a few thousand words that need a place to go, One Story is looking for submissions. (I need to round up some words and try to organize them.)

If you are inclined to see what I'm up to here, or on the fiction blog, Elsetime & Otherwhen, you can like either or both on facebook (bats eyelashes.) I haven't been working them to the extent I should, so any input would be great.

Well, I've randomly ranted long enough, so I should probably find some beads...or words.

Write on!

Don't All Writers Hoard Yarn?

Here I am again at the Rants.

With nothing to really rant about.

Well...there is the fact that I haven't been writing my fiction regularly.  Sometimes it just doesn't come together.
So Elsetime & Otherwhen has been kinda idle.
And the Wattpad story, Renewal, has been on hold too long.
I have been working up an outline for a Nanowrimo project.
Yes.
I will be submitting myself to the insanity that is nano.
Fingers crossed for a first time actual completion of 50,000 words that may or may not make sense.

So I haven't been totally unproductive.

Doing stuff around the house.

Indulging in my yarn love.

I've been working on a broomstick crochet shawl for over a year that is finally close to completion,


And because I can't stand to do only one project at a time, I started knitting a jacket.
That may or may not be done before next spring.
Here is the little bit I have so far.


Yes, that is multiple patterns and colors. It's a free pattern at Lionbrand.com.

The link takes you to the free pattern page, the jacket is the second one listed.

Hopefully that's how the jacket will look. Except for a couple of colors changes where my local yarn hoarder's store didn't have what was asked for. And I'm all about instant gratification. So I picked what looked good for me.
I'm easy to keep happy if I have yarn and a new project.

Now off to maybe raid the new neighbor's grape vines and apple trees.
(It's okay, I have permission.  Really.)

So Many Things to Do, So Much Life

It's been a long couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago was the loss of my long time fur friend, which I wrote about here.

Last week was a crisis of the extended family which I will not write about. It's not my story, but did have an impact on my immediate family.

But now I have hauled my butt back to the keyboard.

I need to get back to my story,  Renewal, that I've been writing on Wattpad.com.
I need to keep working on my random flash fiction stories on the other blog Elsetime and Otherwhen.

And I need to get back to the things I'm trying to accomplish around this house.

I did manage, in my time away from working, to reorganize my kitchen.

Get my Christmas horde semi-controlled.

My project now is to go through the gazillion pictures scattered around this house. They have been tossed into boxes, haphazardly slipped into albums, and many are still in the envelopes from which ever photo service was used to develop them.

Pictures of Christmases past. Many of my parents with my daughter. Some pictures from the distant past of relatives gone long before I was born.

I call it my ancestral archeology.

There are still farmer's market to browse, since the garden was not at its best this year. I've been able to get some canning and freezing done, but not as much as I'd wanted.

Although, I did succeed at sauerkraut this year!

And of course my long love affair with yarn. I'm trying very, very hard to use up the yarn stash before I buy new yarn.
(No, no I'm not.  I already have new yarn plans.)

So...enough boring life. Off to elsetime. To write stories of otherwhen.

History Avalanche

I'm spending some days in the upstairs of this old house. The one I grew up in, and returned to live about 6 years ago.

There are tons of pictures to be sorted. Some of my mother's family, some of my husband's family, my family, and so much more.

I wrote about the stoppage of time in 1952 here when my grandmother, Minnie, died. I wasn't around until 1956, so I never had the opportunity to know her. Except through my Daddy's recollections. Those came only occaisionally.

But I have a treasure trove of pictures, letters, and insane stacks of household bills from the late 20's until her passing.  A suitcase full of postcards she collected from 189? until shortly before she died.

There are also a few letters and a lot of pictures from my grandfather's side as well. As I am a geneaology freak, I have plans for these. Many of them have names and dates. Some of them are of people I'll never be able to identify. Maybe.

I have a fascination for these things that should have been garbage seventy years ago. Bits of paper with ancient information. Fragile pieces of wood pulp once held by hands long turned to dust.