Wednesday, January 31, 2018

TOP 10: THINGS I SHOULD DO . . . BUT DON'T


As with every top 10 list, these are in particular order. Of course, it should be the top billion things I should do, but we just don't have enough space or time for that. So, here goes:

1. Exercise!! At one point, I worked out every day. Ran, lifted, aerobics--you name it I did it. Yeah, not so much now. I have a Garmin step counter deal, but, believe me, it hasn't motivated me to do more. Now, it's just proof of how lazy I am. 
I could so say that it's because it's winter. When I get home it's dark and cold and blah, blah, blah. We all know that's not true. 

2.Write every single day. I think that's more than enough said on that topic.

3. Eat healthier. I really try, but you know when someone has a birthday at work and they serve cake. CAKE!! Yep, can't turn that down.

4. Take better care of myself. I'm not talking about exercise or eating healthy, but being kinder to me. Sometimes it's easier to be nice to those around me, than to be to myself. Does that make sense??

5. Save money. I have a retirement, but it's certainly not nearly enough. I really should save more, but it ends up looking more like:

6. Actually publish a book. 

7. Save to travel to Scotland. I've always wanted to go. My dream is to touch Hadrian's Wall. And, this has been a dream since I was a child. Don't ask me how I learned what Hadrian's Wall is, since I have no idea. But, as long as I can remember, that has been my biggest need/want/desire.

8. Spend more time outside. I'm indoors all the time. Whether it's for work, or traveling, or once I get home. I rarely spend any time outdoors, but I need to. I used to hike, but that kind of slipped away. I have this thing about bugs. I mean a huge thing about bugs. So, when I've hiked before it was in the winter. No bugs. So, I need to get back to that. You'd be surprised the things you can see in the winter. For instance, no bugs.

9. Craft more. I actually love crafting and enjoy it while I'm doing it. So, I should do more of it.

10. Get out more. I have clinical depression and it rears its ugly head quite a bit. When I'm in the middle of it, all I want to do is hide away. I lose touch with people that I love. I just stop communicating. It takes so much energy to get up and go to work and do the things I have to do, that once I'm home I just can't people anymore. I hope they understand. It's not that I don't want to talk to them or hang out or whatever, but I just don't have the energy.

And, there we go, the top 10 things I should do, but don't. Now, go see what's rocking with Bronwyn, Jessica, Kris, Torrance, Siobhan, and Deelylah

Sunday, January 28, 2018

CRAFTING: FAIRY DOOR FOR MID-WINTER


A friend of mine asked for a tutorial for the fairy door I made, so here it is. First thing you need to know, is my crafting skills are limited. I can do a bunch of stuff (knit, make jewelry, make soap, and so on) but I'm not amazing at any of them. I enjoy doing it and so I learn enough to not kill myself. 

Second, my sister and I celebrate a made up holiday we call Mid-Winter. If you want to learn more about it, check out this post. And, if you want to celebrate, then go you! If you read the post, you'll know I have decorations for Mid-Winter, but I love Fairy Doors and none, obviously, exist for Mid-Winter (weirdly enough, they don't exist for fall either). So, I set out to make my own. If you wish to make your own, it's really easy. 

The first thing you need to do is find a small door, any kind of door that makes you happy. Sis ordered a set of 6 doors for me from Amazon. Here's what they look like out of the package:
Totally no thrills, no frills. But they're really cute. 

Next, since the colors for Mid-Winter are an icy blue and silver, I went into our craft stash and found blue paint I thought would work. I was stunned when it was the EXACT color I wanted. When you find your color just paint the entire door. I even painted inside the little windows so no wood would show through.

Now we come to glitter and Mid-Winter is nothing without glitter and sparkle. I knew I wanted to use blue and silver glitter so I decided that the window needed to be silver.
I dumped some glue, I used Elmer's School Glue, onto a paper plate and painted the window using a small paint brush. You want to make sure you cover the entire surface or the glitter won't stick very well. Don't be stingy with the glue.
Once the glue is in place, dump that glitter on. I had a paper plate under the door so I could dump the unused back into the container. If you see spots that didn't get glue, just dab some glue on. If you pick up some glitter no biggie. Then, toss glitter on those spots.
Next, I pulled out my blue glitter. It's really fine and I prefer it since it's easier to dust on. The color is also perfect for Mid-Winter. I can't remember what we bought it for originally, but I'm so glad we did.
Then, I covered the rest of the door with a good amount of glue. I used a larger brush to cover the entire surface.
Thankfully, the glitter has a shaker lid and I shook that stuff all over the door. Not thick like the window, but just enough to give a good coat. Then I turned it over and dumped off the excess. If I saw a spot that didn't get covered I shook more out, until I was satisfied.
Next, I added a door knob. Since I make jewelry, I have a LOT of beads. I dug out a fairly large, kind of flat, crystal
And using hot glue, stuck that where I imagined the knob should go. Yeah, no measuring, nothing scientific. Just eyeball that sucker and glue

A few years ago, Sis and I made our own holiday houses, basing them off the old Putz houses we had as kids. We bought a gob of different holiday/winter themed scrapbook stickers. We just happened to have a large package of snowflakes
I decided to stick them on the door in a random way. Not too many, since I didn't think it would look good and not all lined up either. 
And, voy-ola it's a Mid-Winter Fairy Door! I plan on making doors for spring, Ostara, summer, fall and on and on.  

Hope you enjoyed this and it makes sense. If you have questions, you're more than welcome to hit me up in the comment section or on my Facebook page.

Friday, January 26, 2018

JANUARY CHECK-IN


Hello!! Can you believe the first month of the year is already over? So crazy. I actually didn't have a list of things I wanted to accomplish this month. Hell, if I could manage something I'd be happy. Yeah, I know, I'm so easy to please.

I wanted to blog every time this month. Needless to say, I missed that. I had email issues and decided to go into my account and then I couldn't remember my password. I tried to change it and it wouldn't let me. So, I was locked out of my email. Long story short, it took two days and phone calls to finally get back into my email. By that time, I was exhausted. 
Okay, fine, I actually forgot. Exhausted, forgot, it's pretty much the same thing. 

Okay, huge win (and yeah, when I typed that, it came out as wine) anyway, I worked on Entangled!!

So, that IS a huge win or wine, whatever, for me. Wine!!!

Next month, I plan on blogging each time we're supposed to. That's 7 times. Yeah, I can totally do this!! And, I'm going to try and finish Entangled. Not, like, fake finish it, like before, but really and truly finish it. For total realz!!

Okay, so now go and check out how my amazing friends Bronwyn and Jessica did this month.

Monday, January 15, 2018

JANUARY'S INSPIRED BY A MELODY . . .


This month's song we're writing to is Florence and the Machines Dog Days Are Over. I love this song! It makes me really happy, which is probably why my piece reflects that. Oh, if you don't know the song, here's the lyrics and the video.


Okay, so here's what I wrote, it's short, but I think it works. Oh and it involves my couple from last month. Hope you enjoy it.

Rain streamed down the window as Cara felt as though she were going to cry. Of course, it would rain. Why not? It was only one of the most important days ever. She never thought she and Spencer would get here, but they had. And she’d wanted the day to be perfect. Thunder chose that moment to rumble loud enough to shake the room she stood in and she couldn’t help but laugh. Nope, not going to be perfect.
“What are you doing?”
Cara glanced over her shoulder at her best friend. Maeve had been with her on ever step of this journey. Hell, she’d been there when Cara had first met Spencer. She had been the one to encourage her to go out with him, even though he wasn’t like any man she’d ever dated before.
“Cara?”
“Why did I want an outdoor wedding? Why did I think it would work out?”
Maeve smiled. “Because you wanted to be different.”
“Oh yeah, I’m different alright. Pretty soon, I’m going to be walking down a mud aisle, as rain ruins my dress, then get struck my lightning. Because, yeah, that’s my luck.”
“Ah, we’re having a pity party. I hadn’t realized that.”
Cara rolled her eyes. “Maeve, I’m serious.”
“And, so am I. If we’re having a party we need music.”
Saying, this she moved to where Cara had set up her MP3 player and stopped the classical music that had been coming from the mini-speakers. After a moment, Florence and the Machine’s song Dog Days Are Over issued from the speaker.
Maeve bounced over and grabbed Cara’s hands. “Dance party instead of pity party.”
“I’m not in the mood.”
“Oh, but you are. It’s your wedding day. You’re marrying a man that is totally crazy for you and you’re crazy for him. You’re surrounded by people who love the both of you. What’s not to be happy about?”
Thunder chose that moment to rumble across the sky, followed by a bright flash of lightning. Maeve quirked an eyebrow and rolled her eyes. Against her own will, Cara laughed. What else could she do? It wasn’t like she could control the weather.
Maeve pulled her to the center of the room and began to dance, if anyone could call what Maeve did that. Mostly, it involved bouncing around, flailing around like a deranged Muppet. When her best friend flashed her a huge smile, Cara laughed and began to bounce and flail her arms too.
The two women bounced and flailed as the rain poured down and Cara decided, what the fuck. Maeve was right. She was marrying the man she loved, no matter what happened.
Spinning, she found Spencer leaning in the doorway, clad in his tux, watching her with that look. The look that told her he wanted nothing more than to strip her down and devour her. Oh yeah, she could so get with that program.
Stepping in, he took her in his arms and spun around as Maeve danced around them. It was going to be okay. No matter the storm or anything else. She and Spencer were okay. Hell, they were better than okay.
“I love you,” he said. “We’ll figure this out.”

He took her lips and Cara knew he was absolutely right. They would totally figure things out.

Now go check out Bronwyn, Jess, Kris, Siobhan, and Deelylah

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

JANUARY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY


Welcome to the first Wordless Wednesday of 2018. This first one is our choice to share whatever we'd like and, since it's so damn cold, I'm going to share pics I took at a botanical garden Sis and I visited. 








Now go see the pics that Bronwyn, Jess, Kris, Jessica D, Torrance, and Siobhan posted.

Monday, January 1, 2018

JANUARY PHOTO FLASH FICTION!!


Hey!! Welcome to 2018!! Let's hope it's a hell of a lot better than the year that shall not be named.  Anyway, the very first flash fiction for the new year is set around the picture below. So here it is!

Mary Kathryn rolled down the snow covered road, her foot an uneasy companion on the brake pedal. The windshield wipers slapped furiously at the falling snow, but the stuff came down faster than the wipers could manage. The clock on the dash read six-thirty. She should have been at her destination two hours ago. Spend a week up at a beautiful mountain cabin her friends had said. It won’t be a problem at all. It’s so easy to get to. Easy her ass.
She poked at the GPS mounted on the front dash. In a snotty tone he grumbled, “Recalculating.”
“You’ve been recalculating for the last twenty minutes you piece of shit.” Mary Kathryn shouted. “You led me here. I wouldn’t be here, but for your directions. So get me out.”
The only reply was, “Recalculating.”
“I’ll show you recalculating.” She ripped the offending piece of electronics off her dash and hurled it out the window into the snow. “Recalculate that, why don’t you?”
For a moment, she felt good, triumphant, but then realized she’d thrown out her only means of navigation. She had no maps or written directions. She only had an address and it was currently stored inside the GPS that now sat outside the car. Outside in the snow. In the snow that was falling faster than she cared to notice.
“Fuck,” she muttered, bringing the car to a stop. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” She added for emphasis.
Wearily, she put the car in park and climbed out into onto the snowy road. She hadn’t pitched the thing that far, she reasoned with herself, so it should be easy to find. She walked confidently to where she was sure it was and found nothing. She kicked at the snow hoping she would suddenly see black plastic, but it didn’t happen. Frantically, she dropped to her knees and began to comb over the ground. What the hell? One small mistake and she was permanently lost? Never to be found? Until the spring thaw when someone would find her lifeless remains in the middle of the road only mere feet from the damn GPS.
“Please, oh please.” She said as she sifted and dug through snow. “I’ll never curse again. I’ll be polite to people who don’t deserve it. I’ll start eating better and exercising.”
Her hand closed around something small and square. Pulling it forth she discovered her GPS and cradled it to her chest. Okay, she was okay now. Huffing out a breath she climbed to her feet and stumbled back to her car. The snow was falling faster or maybe it just felt like it since she was out in it. Either way, by the time she closed herself back in the car she was wet all the way through and freezing. Ignoring the shivers, she dried the GPS off with a towel and tapped the screen. The thing hesitated only a moment before it came on and told her it was acquiring a satellite signal.
“What? You had a signal. Why do you have to try to acquire one again?”
She laid it on the passenger seat and began the breathing exercises her therapist had given her. Slowly, she pulled a breath in through her nose, held it, and slowly let it out. She tried to imagine calming images such as a roaring fire, waves rolling on a white sand beach, and a cup of hot chocolate. When she felt calmer, she opened her eyes and smiled. Yep, she was fine. Everything was okay.
“Drive to highlighted route,” the GPS directed.
She picked it up to discover no highlighted route shown on the screen, only a series of squiggly black lines that could have been anything from roads to worms.
“What highlighted route?” She demanded.
“Drive to highlighted route,” the voice replied.
“What the fuck!” She shrieked. “There is no highlighted route, you mechanical piece of shit.”
“Drive to highlighted route,” the voice now taunted.
She turned the screen to face the snow storm. “Do you see a fucking highlighted anything?  I don’t. I see a big load of nothing. You were supposed to take me where I wanted to go. That’s how our relationship works. I put in the address and you tell me how to get there. But instead, you prattle on about recalculating and highlighted routes. Are you fucking nuts?”
“Drive to highlighted route,” came the snotty reply.
“Bite me.” She tossed the idiot box in the backseat and put the car in gear. Obviously, the thing had some kind of defect so she would just get herself out of the mess it had gotten her into. She gave the car gas and began to once again move down the snow covered road. It had to lead somewhere, right? I mean, no one would have built a road that led to nothing. MK snorted, yeah right, with her luck the thing would lead her right off a cliff. And the damn GPS would still be yelling at her to drive to the highlighted route. Asshead thing.
MK gave the car more gas as it struggled to break through the snow covering the road. She doubted this place ever saw a snow plow. Hell, she doubted it saw people since she hadn’t seen another vehicle in hours or was it days? She wasn’t sure anymore. When…if she ever made it back to civilization, she was going to kill every one of her friends who badgered her to go on this slow trip to hell.  So what if her life was boring? So what if she hadn’t dated in so long she couldn’t remember? She had a job she somewhat liked. Okay, tolerated. But it paid the bills and right now that’s what she was looking for. Not some grand adventure. Unfortunately, she’d found the adventure, but she didn’t know how grand it was. Being trapped in a snow storm with no clue where she was or where she was going wasn’t exactly something she had wanted when she’d started out.
She leaned closer to the wind shield as the wipers attempted to keep her vision clear. The snow was falling so hard that even on high the wipers were getting bogged down. She hated to admit it, but if this kept up she was going to have to stop since she wouldn’t be able to see. Then what? She wasn’t sure. Her foot got heavier on the accelerator as if that was going to help things. All it did was make the car shudder and the wheels begin to slide. She eased up only slightly as she continued down her own personal road to Hell. It had to be because she couldn’t think of any other explanation. She couldn’t figure out what she’d done to deserve any of this, but it had to be pretty horrible to warrant this type of abuse.
“In one mile, turn right,” a muffled voice from the backseat proclaimed.
Mary Kathryn started, remembering she’d tossed the GPS back there. One mile? One mile! Yes. All she had to do was stay on the road and she would get to where she was supposed to be. She did a little jig in her seat and leaned even closer to the windshield. Energy surged through her body as she thought about the interminable journey coming to an end. One mile and she could quit the stupid car. One mile and she could relax, crack open the wine she’d brought and drink until she passed out. Life was good.
She didn’t care that the snow was coming down so hard she doubted she could see the right to turn. At this point, she’d walk. She just wanted to sit someplace that didn’t move. She blinked to clear her vision. Only a little longer, she told herself. You can do this. You are woman and you can do anything. She sang about how cool she was as she brought the car to a crawl. The GPS, once an evil piece of crap, now informed her that she would be turning any minute now. She sang to the GPS then, telling it how awesome it was.
With the GPS egging her on, MK slowly began turning the wheel. She couldn’t entertain the thought the thing was wrong or she could be turning off a steep cliff. All she wanted was to reach her destination. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. With a lurch, the car eased onto what she thought was a road. Since it wasn’t shooting like a rocket down a hill she was happy as she began to straighten the wheel out. From the backseat the voice of doom called out.
“Recalculating.”
“What? I made the turn.”
“Recalculating.”
She took her foot off the gas, but the car kept going. Fortunately, it didn’t go far, just a few feet. Unfortunately, it slid down a small hill until it ran into a large something. The belt snapped her back against the seat and the engine whined.  She blinked, unsure of what just happened. One minute she’d been on the road and the next…she wasn’t sure. The airbags hadn’t deployed so that was a positive. The car was also running. Taking a deep, shaky breath she eased the vehicle in reverse and touched the gas. All that did was cause the engine to whine louder and the tires to spin. She was stuck. Well fuck.
“Drive to highlighted route,” the voice prattled from behind her.
Mary Kathryn burst into laughter. Sure she would, just as soon as the snow melted and she could back her car out. She was also planning to get a new GPS since this one obviously had issues. Serious issues. Maybe it needed therapy. Sighing, she shoved her door open and tentative stepped out. Instantly, she dropped down and found herself ass deep in snow. Of course the car would wind up in a snow bank. Where else would it go? She boosted herself back into the car enough to turn the engine off and grab her purse. She wasn’t sure where to go, but she couldn’t stay where she was.
She looped the purse strap over her head until it hung down across her chest and began to slowly wade up to the main road. Or at least she hoped that’s where she was heading. At this point, she didn’t care. She just wanted out. Losing her footing, she yelled out as she fell on her face and slid back down next to her car. She attempted to get to her feet, but with nothing to hold on to, she was once again eating snow. The process of attempting to get up and ending up back on her face went on for a good long time until MK rolled onto her back and screamed as loud as she could. Her frustration level was through the roof and she could understand how someone could finally lose it and do something heinous.
She lay in the snow panting as a voice chimed out, “Please drive to highlighted route.”
“Well fuck me,” she muttered.

“Is that an invitation?” A low male voice inquired.


Now, go and see what Bronwyn, Kris, Siobhan, and Kayleigh came up with.