Nanowrimo winner tonight!

Yes, it's true. I produced 50,000 actual words that make up a story/novel beginning - with flashbacks, two alternate story lines and two fascinating women characters in the lead "roles."
My gosh, I'm proud of myself, aren't I?
I did it with the help of a wonderful man, who cooks, cleans and shops. Now we know one of the secrets behind successful Nanowrimo winners.
Next year? Sure, why not?

Here's a video that several family members had fun producing.
It took a lot of work, giggling, sweat and plain goofiness to refine
the finished product, but I think you'll agree it was worth it.
The perfect finish to a 9 year old's birthday.

Nanowrimo - almost there!

Hello there. Just wanted to let you know that two of the most wonderful things have happened.

No. 1: As you can tell by this photo I'm including I have been spending an inordinate amount of time on my laptop working on Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) and I am almost up to my 50,000 words -- even though I started late!!! You can still search for "femminismo" under authors at the nanowrimo.org Web site and read my crazy excerpt.
No. 2: I am going to take a workshop with my heroine, Judy Wise, this weekend! I know!! I can't believe it either!! I can't stop using exclamation marks and I feel like crying and laughing at the same time. A whole day workshop making art journals - I can't wait. (!!!!!)
I am one happy person tonight. Happy, happy, happy! I hope you are too. Not just for me, but I hope you find something in your life soon that enriches you, revitalizes you and makes you revel in the fact that life can change for the better in a split second - or even in 30 days ... and you can wait that long. Look at me with the 50,000 new words toward a novel that I now possess. Makes you feel like you could do anything! Cheers! Femminismo.

Family and the Tea Bag Lady

Last night we spent the evening with family celebrating the 9th birthday of a very special little girl, Cassandra, our granddaughter.
On Nov. 5, it was also the birthday of my own special girl, Ruth. I did a really quick watercolor of her in my art journal with watercolor pencil on very thick watercolor paper. It probably deserved a better artist, but even though the picture isn't an exact reproduction of Ruth, I was pretty happy with it.

The other photo is my rendition of a "tea bag" lady suggested by Judy Wise on her blog. (You take a used tea bag, dry it, carefully unfold it, empty the contents and draw something on it. Judy used shellac on hers, but I don't have any. I'll have to wait for the right medium to appear. Or maybe leave it like this.
Gotta' go! femminismo

FirstGiving

Donate to FirstGiving, and Nanowrimo's Office of Light and Words will help promote writing in the classroom. For everyone who donates, I'll be eternally grateful. From the halo over my head on my Nanowrimo page, you can tell I've already donated.
Donate and keep me writing. Make me feel compelled to keep going because you've stepped up and put money down. That should keep me busy working.
Make a donation and I will write your name into my story and post an excerpt on my page. You might be surprised what "your" character ends up doing! (Nothing too naughty, I promise.) I'll let you know when your name appears.
Thanks for listening. Halfway through November and I'm only at 13,000 words. Keep those donations coming!
femminismo

Nanowrimo

Here it is: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/107496
Copy and paste it into your browser and find me at Nanowrimo.org. I am working like mad on my story "Asking Eleanor."
There is an excerpt posted now, and it doesn't make me gag too badly. I think I am remembering slowly but surely how to write without stopping and still make a bit of sense.
I am thinking of reasons why my character might be having a difficult time right now in her life (first person novel) and what might have happened in the past.
Cheer me on. Tell me to sit down and type/write/scribble.
I will try my hardest not to let myself down. You can also search under "Authors" (gosh, that sounds good) at the Web site and find me by typing in femminismo and then click on "search."

Is it time for a new post or what?

Cannot believe how quickly November began and started rolling.
The art event I helped with is now over and (almost) done. Just a committee report and totaling up expenses and, hopefully, profits.
Now it's off to the writing races. I am down in my word count for Nanowrimo - unbelievably down. Tonight I have 3,666 words and I've got to add more than 2,500 each night or I'm sunk. I won't achieve the 50,000 total words needed. Put on the coffee pot, mama, I'm staying up tonight!
So now you'll know why I've been so slow to post. But just in case you think I've been laying around gathering moss, I have some new photos to post also. I hope you enjoy them. Kelli Perkins, the lovely "scrap crow doll" maker - f November/December, personally gave me the go-ahead to make the crows, seatured in Cloth Paper Scissors forell them, promote them, etc. She sounds wonderful and has a great blog. Just check her out.
Ciao! (And the new photo to the left, top, asks the question: What do you desire?

Make the Paper Day

Thursday we make Friday's paper. Here is my lunch, my proofreader's pen and the copy. Busy, busy day. After work, I rushed home to sew another "scrap crow" together. I am getting more organized at turning them out. After that I was off to Valley Art to clean and decorate the front windows for our Annual Artist Event coming soon on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Cannot wait until that evening is over!
Enjoy the new pictures. And here's my Nanowrimo link. See if it works for you.

FOR HALLOWEEN I WORSHIP ORANGE.

Sometimes there is nothing better than some good orange food. Today I could hear it calling me from the other end of the room. It's spooky on Halloween to hear voices, but food voices I hear all the time.
It was the salty, cheery other-worldly glow of Cheetos that I craved and so I indulged myself as you can see from the self-portrait of my hand holding a bag of orange goodness. What would we do at work without the snack table?
When Cheetos don't work, Dorito nachos chips do the trick, and guess what? They are orange too!
Sometimes I worship at the altar of the Church of Orange Non-Food Products. Other times it's apples ... but no more candy. I've sworn off candy unless it's dark chocolate, and then only in small portions. The other night I was at the grocery store and I had eaten a small bag of Cheetos that day and I wanted to buy a great big bag and finish them in the car before I drove home. I didn't do it, however. Then, right there at the checkout stand, was a cart with a small girl (about 3) holding a large bag of Cheetos. She was quietly waiting for her parents to the put the rest of the groceries in the cart until she saw my eyes on her bag of Cheetos. She glared and me and suddenly clutched them to her chest. Her large brown eyes narrowed and you could tell she could read my mind. She gave me the evil look that said, "Oh, no, you don't. They're mine!"
"Don't you just love Cheetos?" I asked. "They are my favorite too."
My tone won her over, I guess. She smiled a little but she didn't loosen her grip on the bag. Smart girl.
Her mother assured me the little girl didn't get them often. "Just once in a while," she said.
Ha! I'm sure the girl wouldn't get many of them. Not if the mother and father worshiped orange non-food the way I do. Somehow the Cheetos would disappear faster than anticipated for the little girl ... unless she took them to bed with her. I wondered if I should warn her ...? But being a parent is rough enough. The two of them looked as if a few Cheetos wouldn't hurt them, and there's always more of them coming from the Land of Bright Orange Snack Food every day.
Happy Halloween everyone. Tomorrow - at midnight tonight - Nanowrimo begins. Wish me well on my quest to finish 50,000 words before the end of November. Visit my Nanowrimo page. Search for "femminismo" or literary fiction writers in the Pacific Northwest. You'll find me I'm sure. Watch my progress. Cheer me on.
More later, that's for sure.

Ah! So Much Has Been Going On.

Too busy. That's reflected in my art/journal page which isn't more than cutting and pasting. I admired this advertisement and it seemed to fit ... so I stole it.
It's fall all around, underfoot and overhead. I captured some photos of that.
I finally got my copy of Cloth Paper Scissors and was so happy to read about Judy Wise. She is absolutely the busiest, most creative person on earth.
I've also been busy baking "pies" for our Annual Artist Event at Valley Art. The theme is "Preface," with a strong emphasis on the nursery rhyme and story book about the four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. In the same Cloth Paper Scissors was an article on fancy "scrap crow" dolls, so I made one last night. Now I just have to make one every night until Nov. 6 and I'll be set to decorate tabletops with them in "pies."
Must leave you once again. Hope you enjoy the photos. femminismo

It's about time!

That's what all my loyal fans are saying: "It's about time!"
Well, what can I say? I've been busy? Yes, I'll say that. It's not that I've been lazy.
Here are photos from the latest class I took. They are huge. I'll have to make them smaller and repost them.
Sorry about that.
It was a class in "Shrinky Dink" art. We stamped shrinky dink material, colored the stamped image and then put them in little toaster ovens.
It was fun and the time flew by much too fast.
Enjoy. Hope your fall is going well. - femminismo

Paste paper ... and it's easy and fun!

Saturday was a too short day of playing and making art. Patricia Edmonds taught a class at the Accidental Bookmaker and though we were slow to take off, when things got cooking (one cooked element was the paste itself) our inhibitions "baked away" and we were churning out the artwork.
Paintbrushes were dipped into tinted rice and wheat paste and we covered our paper. Then we used a variety of tools - never intended for any other purpose besides whisking egg whites or combing hair - to make patterns in our paste mixture.
I tried to restrain myself from applying glitter on everything, and once or twice succeeded.
Some of these finished papers will go into books and some could stand as framed art alone ... (she said modestly).
There were many different papers to try. Black papers coated with paste and then "combed," with the original paper color underneath revealed, were lovely. Many of my papers were left in the studio to dry overnight. This morning I ironed the wrong side of the ones I brought home and I have feverish plans to include them in my November art journal, which I desperately hope will be better than my October book. It has been given short shrift because of my other projects this month.
However, in November I will also begin Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). I'm not sure what my novel will feature this year, but I have a couple of ideas. You can wish me luck with it by following along at the Nanowrimo.org Web site. Search for "femminismo."
One of the nicest things about Saturday - yesterday - was getting in touch with Judy Teufel who also took the class. I have been thinking about her lately ... wondering how she was doing. Now I know. She has a new kayak and will be taking it out soon. Her new "ship" is a color she calls "Mango Tango." In a few years, I hope I am as vibrant and alive as this woman is today.
Enough. Take a look at my pictures of yesterday.

My, October is racing along!

Yes, it's true time is racing. Perhaps it's because I spend too much time on the computer altering and changing blogs and documents - and exploring those irresistible sites that I seem to happen upon by reading other blogs with yummy applications in them.
I found a way to tile some photos and I'll put the link when I get another spare minute. It was fun. Now I just have to find where I stored it on my computer.
Let's see if it shows up. Just like a treasure hunt ... you would think I would learn to make better notes on files. You would think ... .

A Saturday Market Kind of Morning

Cool, cool nights into the low 40s. This morning found us at our local Saturday Farmers Market looking at all the wonderful pears and vegetables. How about those photos? Some raspberries and peaches were still on show, too. The smells of the sausage stand brought us over that way. Carnivores until the end, I guess.
The trees seemed to change color on my way to and from the market. I swear they looked redder and yellower. Different weather from yesterday. Then it was sunny and pretty warm. The sunroof was open and small yellow leaves swirled like snowflakes, some making it into the car. Today it's too changeable and cold to leave the windows open very long.
I had some good news yesterday. That made the day special. Today I spent some time with my brother. We worked on his blog and put more pictures on it. Tonight we are going to a movie with friends, so that should be fun, too.
Art ... manana.

What Have I Been Doing?

Time has been getting on and what have I been doing, you ask?
Well, staring at the autumn leaves. Writing sporadically in my art/journal. Working at a paying job. Working on the computer for a volunteer organization.
The days and evenings race by and there's not much being done with my art.
I've drawn a few pictures in October's journal and I promise I'll do more.
I am working on a design for blackbirds for a project. I think black construction paper would work well, with black and white checkerboard wings for the birds.
I really need to marshal my organizational skills together. I am chairperson for an art event on Nov. 6 and will be doing Nanowrimo again this year - for the third time - and it begins Nov. 1. Yikes!
I haven't decided what to write about. It's usually a last minute decision, since you're supposed to start from scratch and I'm a very strict rule follower, even when no one's watching.
Paranoid, I guess, just a little. More later ... stay tuned.

A Corded Book.

Saturday, Sept. 29, I took a class in making a "corded" book at The Accidental Bookmaker shop with Patricia Grass. I had fun choosing papers and then figuring out how to attach cords to "j" hooks and tighten wing nuts to fix tension.

Next came sewing the pages together and wrapping the waxed linen thread around the cords to cover them.
The result was something I really liked and it was fun to do. My results weren't perfect, but if I kept doing it I'm sure it would get easier and I'd have ever so many nice gifts for friends.
My September book/art journal ends today (One Day At a Time) and tomorrow I start October's book.

Today, Sunday, my sister and husband and I went to the cemetery to take Mom some flowers since her birthday is October 2. It was finally a rainy day in Oregon. That should keep the flowers fresher, longer and keep the pretty plant well watered.
Goodbye, September.

This is looking up into the American elm in our back yard. Soon it will be covered with yellow leaves which will automatically release at a predetermined time (by someone or something) and descend to the ground. If we are lucky they will stay dry long enough to rake easily ... in light piles. With rain, however, more leaves will leave their posts earlier and we'll have heavy piles to compost. But we do need the rain ... .
This is a random post. I am still working on trying to get photos to enlarge in blogger when you hover over them with your cursor.
femminismo

Fall is here.

It's not official, but fall is here in the early morning air and throughout the day. It reminds me of the days when a new dress for school and brand new sharp crayons and pencils made me excited to start learning something new.
This fall I want to learn lots of new things.
If there is anything that teaches us that time is not finite, it's the rapidly ongoing change of the seasons. If I hear once more how quickly time seems to be passing I think I will scream. (I already know this. Don't tell me again! And I promise not to say it myself.)
Here are some photos of flowers still in the yard - autumn crocus and roses ... don't know what kind, but they're lovely.
It's time to plant bulbs now for flowers in the spring. Best get busy.

Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival Day!

Yes! What makes the perfect ending to summer? Chalk Art! There was so much to see and do and people to visit with and good food to eat. So many artists blossoming on the streets with colorful chalk drawings and "paintings."
What imaginations and great skill a lot of them had. The koi in the small sidewalk "pond" looked real enough to feed.
Opinions were expressed, real people and cartoon characters were honored ... it boggled the brain the riot of color that blossomed.

I, of course, this year had vowed to get a balloon hat from Joe Mishkin, the balloon man. As I waited patiently in line with the kids, I decided I wanted a crown. Just a modest number, with no estates, subjects or castles included. Joe came through for me as I'm sure you can tell by the fetching balloon gear I am wearing on my head.
I had so much fun. Three granddaughters were also there, and a son and a daughter. What a wonderful, wonderful way to end summer.

Getting Ready for Fun.

Tomorrow is Sidewalk Chalk Art day and I have to admit I am excited and anxious at the same time. Excited because Chalk Art is always so much fun, marking the end of the summer but with the excitement of fall in the offing, too. Anxious that everything goes well and my contribution is worthwhile.
It's actually just a total day of fun when you can feel like a kid and get filthy while drawing on the sidewalk.
I will have three grandchildren there and my daughter and son will be there, too. It doesn't get much more fun than that.
I never really envisioned the rich warm feeling I would have seeing my older children together with their own children - and those children playing together. It is almost as good a feeling as holding your own baby close to your heart.
I will enjoy tomorrow, whatever it brings: clouds, a little mist, a cool morning. I will be with friends and doing something I enjoy and watching my children play together again.