9 posts from January 2008

Posted by neighbor Girl Wonder and reposted by me just 'cos:

1. Grab your nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

5. Tag 5 different people.

This is actually from the third book I picked up because the first (Choose Your Own Adventure:  Prisoner of the Ant People) only had 115 pages and the second (Every Day Matters) didn't have page numbers.

From my current read, Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions (highly recommended!):

We made the four o'clock flight to Albuquerque with twenty minutes to spare. Ideally, I should have taken the Xanax by the time we reached Holyoke or Springfield, Worcester at the latest, but I was too wrapped up in talking to Alma to interrupt the conversation, and I kept putting it off. When we drove past the signs for the 495 exit, I realized that there was no point in bothering to take them.

I did this back in October, but it didn't have the request to tag people them. Hm. I tag Jazz, Lorri, Riotous Lionness, Very Scary Carnival and WB Mook.

Pre-cookie

1 comment

Something wildly unexpected is happening in my home.

I am making cookies.

Because I was bored and somewhat antsy.

I blame Lioness and Thing-a-Day, but am still debating who gets the lion's (heh) share.

Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

I am so insanely lucky to have so many people cheering on my creative endeavors and the snippet above is just one brief example. I love how my friend said, "Go, do it!" before she even knew what I was thinking of. I can't properly quantify that kind of inspiration, but I know I leave the conversation exhilarated, nurtured, and emboldened to go, to do, to risk, to thrive.

I'm going to spend some time in my studio reflecting on this possibility and going to create something meaningful to submit to Virginia Spiegel's call for artists. Having lost a painful number of people to cancer, I'm very motivated by the idea of making something to give back to the ACS.

Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

Do you make things? Any sort of things? Do you take or draw pictures, write poems, knit, sew, bake, direct your friends in avant-garde flicks or fold origami? Then join Thing-a-day with me and commit to making one thing every day for the month of February.

Put your trepidations aside; it's the shortest month of year and you can do it!

I plan to draw a one-inch square per day and make other stuff, yet to be determined. I usually make ATCs, cards, cigar box purses and also do some sewing and embroidery. I've also been recently introduced to inchies and 4x4 via the various challenges I've been keeping up with. Not only will the process be motivating, but Thing-a-day seems like the perfect thing to kickstart my new crafting blog. Wish me luck!

Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

Originally published at file under "Miscellanea". You can comment here or there.

1. The last compliment I got was from a friend; he said "so once again, you're smarter than me."
2. I'm reading The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster. I've previously read his novel Timbuktu and was so very impressed with his storytelling and look forward to seeing his take on different characters and situations.
3. I woke up today and thought I would accomplish a great deal today.
4. Why does there never seem to be enough time?
5. The last thing I ate was yoghurt with Kashi cereal mixed in.
6. January has not met my expectations and that's a good thing.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing, tomorrow my plans include sanding, staining and applying layers of poly and Sunday, I want to fill up the new pantry my husband and I have been building!

Mayfly

So Sayeth Blogger Meg Pickard of meish.org:

The Mayfly Project
At the end of every year since 2000 , we invite readers to look back on the last twelve months of their lives and reflect on what has been important, defining or constant during that particular year, and then sum their year up in just 24 words.

I did one last year and, with a gentle nudge from a friend, have revisited the exercise for 2007:

I wrote that all in one go, thought about tweaking it, then realized it was perfectly 24 words on the first try. Yes, other things happened in 2007 (I saw some friends, got a job, watched a best friend get married, learned how to make paper and some other stuff), but the underlying current--and sometimes the tsunami at hand--was always the loss of my mother and trying to make sense of life without her.

This is not something I ever suspect I'll be successful at, but it's my task all the same. Right now, I'm just focusing on not obsessing over the fact that there was less than 20 years difference between she and I and not letting the idea of only having 20 years to live paralyze me (20 more years is 2028:  my brother will be 32, I'll have been married for 25 years, I'll be on my way to a half-century, but I know I'll be greedy enough to want more).

Obviously, I'm not even being successful at the relatively minor "not obsessing" task, eh?

1.  New cat:  Friday before Christmas, a bundle of black and white mewing was at our door. Seeing as she was very good looking and declawed, we assumed she had made a run from her family. We put signs up in our neighborhood the next day, but have received zero calls to claim her. A couple of brief tests later, she's now trying to acclimate herself to life with the other pets and the preteen.

2.  New pantry:  As I type, my husband is busily and noisily screwing drywall up for those most massive and wonderful pantry I've ever had the privilege to cook out of. Since moving to Florida, we'd been making due with a little four-foot, thirty-dollar job from Target to hold dry goods. This one is at least six times that size, has lights, deep shelves and is making use of a previously unused area of the house. Brilliant.

3.  New hair color:  Egyptian Plum by Clairol. Because I'm worth it, dammit.

4.  New plans:  Motivating a friend to write a book or a dozen, getting my crafty biz going, learning new art techniques, and doing everything in my power to live a blissful, creative life.