Tada!

I made it! I wrote a novel of 50, 000 some odd words in less than 30 days! It's an amazing feeling. It's a relief and at the same time, I'm kind of sad that it's over. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me and who supported me throughout this whole adventure. And it was quite an adventure. Now I'm gonna go read a book _I_ did not write and then sleep, sleep, sleep.

Pay it Forward

I saw this on Angela's blog and I want to do it. I don't know if I really was one of the first three to comment on her post but even if I wasn't, I find that it is a wonderful idea. Here goes:

PAY IT FORWARD : handcrafted gifts :) I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay it forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. So basically, if you comment, I’ll send you something crafty that I’ll make! Once you sign up, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work.


Any takers?

More Christmas Cards

Here are four more Christmas cards that I made. Friday was a ped day at school so I was working different hours. I finished at 2pm and had arranged to meet with Catherine for some good company, good food and maybe good creations. I decided that this was a good time to do some christmas cards so I brought all my stuff to her house (she has a fun studio/office and room to work!)



I realized, while working on these, that I have a hard time doing simple things. Meaning that I usually put more than is necessary when scrapbooking or making cards. With all of these, I felt that there was something missing but eventually let them be. And I am very pleased with the results. I used supplies I already had on hand, mostly scrapbook papers from last year and Christmas themed chipboards. This year, I'm trying to use stuff that I have and to NOT buy more unless I make a big dent in my stash. So far so good.

Catherine and I spent 9 hours talking, creating, eating. It certainly didn't feel like that much time had passed when I left. It's great having a friend with whom I can talk about anything, practice and share my favourite hobbies (crafts), try new things. We are not the same age but most of the times, the age difference does not matter or even show. We get along great.


Now, about my Nanowrimo novel. I'm so caught up in the back story of one of my characters that I seem to have completely forgotten to continue the plot. I reached 40,000 words just before writing this post and am confident that I will add at least another 1000 before going to bed tonight. I am almost done with the back story and will be able to go back to the main story probably tomorrow or tuesday. Luckily, I can link everything together and it will make sense. I can already see the Nanowrimo finish line! I will definitely make it thanks to a lot of encouraging people.

Now I should go buy some food if I don't want to starve this week. Even authors have to eat some time!
PS there is another card to be shown but I thought it might be a bit messy for my scanner so as soon as I manage to take a picture of it, I'll post it here. Don't hold your breath though!

Impossible Love... and giving thanks

Remember this page? Here is the final result. I wrote a little text, in french, then distressed it a bit with sandpaper and then smeared pastels on top so the white wouldn't look so white. I'm not sure that it is totally finished but I can't see what it needs so I'm leaving like this. It looks good enough but you never know...

These two characters, Alice and K-52, have made a short appearance in my Nanowrimo novel. The novel itself is going well. I'm right on schedule with my word count. I will actually make it to 50 000 words before December 1st! Woohoo! I really love writing this novel but at the same time, I'll be happy when I'm done with it. It's keeping me busy and taking more time out of my days than I thought which means I don't have as much time to create other things. I think that December will be my "create everyday" month. Or maybe not. I don't know. I like the idea of tackling one big project for a precise period of time like Nano in November. When there is a deadline, I give myself the much needed push to do some things I would not otherwise take the time to do.

This week, I've been looking at my bank account and trying to figure out how much money I will have left before the next paycheck in two weeks. I have four bills due before the end of next week and rent on the 1st. I realized that with today's paycheck added to my balance, I would still have a bit more than what I originally thought. Cool. I did not panic (even though my account will be at its lowest since it was first opened) and you know what? Well, the Universe, seeing that I was not panicking and stressing over the amount decided to make it still more than what I had calculated. Not much but still. Anything is better than nothing. I received a small pay increase AND got 10$ in the mail today for having answered a survey a couple months ago. See, 10$ will eventually turn into 100$ which will in turn become 1000$ and so on until I finally have my dream house! Isn't it gorgeous? That house is SO going to be mine one day! And it's just one street east of where I am right now (so still very close to work.)

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. Here in Canada, it was in October. Still, today I am grateful for all the wonderful friends I have made online and for all the wonderful artists and bloggers who allow me to get a peek into their lives, the artistic parts and the "boring" parts. I say "boring" because some people might find what they do boring while another person would find it interesting and a source of inspiration. If you haven't done so yet, click on some of the links on my sidebar. You'll find some amazing creative souls amongst them.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. And to everyone, have a wonderful day/afternoon/evening/night. Look for something that will make you smile and lift your spirit. There's always something. No matter how small.

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged by Lisa and this how it goes:

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random [?] people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

Here are 7 random and/or weird (I'll let you be the judge) things about me:

1. I have 6 tattoos (had the first one done at 16 and the last at 26)
2. I was allergic to cats but still wanted one so badly that I endured one week of being really sick just to have my beautiful Diesel. I'm no longer allergic to cats!
3. I once auditioned for Canadian Idol (but did not make it very far)
4. I love bats
5. I don't have a favourite colour
6. I've fallen down stairs too many times yet never broke a bone
7. I love to smell things

I'm not going to tag anyone specific. If you're reading this and you want to do this little list, consider yourself tagged!

A card and Nanowrimo update

So this is the card that I made for my mom's birthday last week. I used my new favourite techniques: painting, collage, drawing and oil pastels. Since this was a card and not something in a journal or to be framed, I attached a piece of vellum on top of it. I only had printed vellum so I found a piece that was not too obstructive. I really like how everything turned out. Mom loved the card. Now she has a one-of-a-kind collage card signed SoFy (that is how I sign my name on my art, be it visual art or literary works.




Speaking of literary works. In the past week, I had a hard time working on my novel for Nanowrimo. I know I wasn't the only one but still I felt a little sorry for myself AND for my characters. After all, I created them out of thin air. Their lives depend on me! I was getting behind even when I was writing. I wasn't adding enough to my daily word count. Well, this afternoon, I sat down to write. I think I hit a wall even before I could start. I had gone grocery shopping in the morning so that meant I had food. Okay, I had a little something to eat. But then, still nothing. I read the forums on Nano, looking for inspiration. I listened to different kinds of music. Nothing. I washed some dishes to clear my mind. I don't particularly love washing dishes but I find that once I'm doing it, my mind often wanders off and I stop thinking about the little annoying things. I guess it is a way to meditate for me. So after having cleaned some of those dishes (I kept some for tomorrow, just in case!) I sat down again to write. I put on the same music I've been listening to for the past week (a mix of songs that soothe my soul) and I started writing. I told myself that I would not look at anyone's blog until I reached at least 28000 words. And it worked. After that, my goal was today's word count of 30000. And I made it! Yes! I'm back on track! So in the past 24 hours, I wrote a total of 5500 words! Woot! I'm impressed with myself!

Now it's late but I'm not tired. By body has gotten used to the late nights of writing so I think that for now, I will reward myself with some art. The colours are calling my name!

The lines of miscommunications...

... are now closed! Yes, instead, I'm opening up my lines of communications. Let me explain.

This week, I stumbled across this test and one of the result was that my throat chakra is over-active. It said that with an over-active throat chakra you tend to speak too much, usually to domineer and keep people at a distance. You're a bad listener if this is the case.

I always thought I was a good listener so I ignored that last part. I shouldn't have. Tonight I realized that this week, I did not take the time to really read (ie listen) to a friend's email and I made a bit of a fool of myself. It was nothing serious but still, this is an eye opener. The Universe is telling me to slow down and pay attention, to listen, really listen, to the world around me, to the people around me. So now, I will be more careful and more open, more aware and more understanding.

Maybe I should start getting into meditation to realign my chakras and to open the closed ones and re-balance the over active ones. In the meantime, I'll go journal a bit.

Preview

A sneak peek at a card I made with my collage/mixed media techniques. I attached a piece of printed vellum on top of it so as not to get the oil pastels from the card on the envelop and on the hands of the recipient.

Yesterday, I didn't write. Again. Today, I managed to write 2000 words so far. I still need about 1200 to be at today's goal. I'm finding it increasingly hard to continue with my story. I still don't know where it's going. It's a little bit frustrating. And so far, I haven't found the perfect music to write to. I'm not ready to give up though. I'll keep writing even if my story doesn't make sense and sucks. I keep telling myself that it's not the story that matters but the fact that I am writing it. Yeah, try telling THAT to my characters! :-P

Christmas card

Here's a Christmas card I had started to work on at Catherine's Halloween Crop. I just finished it. Well, actually, I'm not sure it's quite finished but at least it's mounted and I would not be ashamed to give it to someone.

I didn't write today. Didn't feel like it. I'll catch up tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow night is mom's birthday supper.

A birthday

This my Mom! It's her birthday today. She is my best friend.

Bonne Fête Maman!

Je t'aime!

10k and still going strong

Yes! I crossed the 10 000 words mark tonight! It feels amazing! My story isn't going anywhere but I don't care! I'm still typing and exploring. Ideas keep popping up and I'm taking notes. I now know that one of my characters, which I thought would be there until the end, must die but fortunately it's natural causes.

I received this colourful card and magnet from Violette yesterday. Thank you so much! I love them. (Note to self: I have to find better ways to take pictures of artwork and gifts and I have to learn how to use my new camera.)

I'm feeling much better than yesterday. My stomach isn't making as much noise as it did the past few days. My head doesn't hurt anymore and I have less sinus pressure. Hooray for that! I hope everyone had a nice day and that my Nano buddies are doing great! Keep at it girls! Together, we can make it to the finish line!

Of writing and receiving surprises

Fifth day of Nanowrimo. I haven't given up yet! My word count is a little below what it should be (about 700 words less than what I expected to be at) but considering I haven't been feeling well yesterday and today it's pretty darn good. My characters are talking to me and my story is going to take a twist I never saw coming til today. I took notes because that's not where I'm at right now in the story. I think that having told people about doing Nanowrimo and having friends to encourage me through blogging and comments and such is really helping me to do this and see it through to the end.

Violette sent me a cute card and a magnet that she made. I love getting mail especially when I don't expect anything! I ordered a few things from Botanical Paperworks and they shipped it this morning so I should probably receive it sometime next week. It's plantable paper! Cool, huh? You give a card to someone and instead of throwing it away, storing it in a box where they'll never see it or recycle it, they can just plant it and they'll have beautiful flowers! I think this is amazing. I'll take a picture when my order gets here.

I'm feeling a bit better. No longer have nausea which is a good thing. I still have sinus pressure headache and now my stomach is making these monstrous sounds (worse than that night at your house Catherine!) Now I'm off to bed. Working early tomorrow morning, filling in for one of my coworkers. Extra money is always welcome! (Hear that Universe?) ;-)

Feeling under the weather

I don't know where the day went. I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up with a massive headache, sinus pressure and nausea. Even herbal tea was tough to ingest. So I didn't do much all day. I did have to get some groceries and sinus medication though. But other than that, I just stayed on the couch in front of the television. I took a nap but it didn't make me feel better. I ate a little bit. I don't know if I'll be up to writing much tonight but I will certainly try.

Star of the Show

This one just came to me tonight while watching television. Absolutely nothing planned. I had no idea what I was doing, I just went with the flow. I LOVE this page.

She's in my spiral journal. I used a piece of wrapping paper (the tarot cards on the left), a page from a children's book, a piece of ruled paper, acrylics, watercolour crayons and pencils, crayons, Glaze pens, Sharpie PosterPaint Markers and Micron pens. Oh and a small paper flower with a brad.

I'm too tired to continue my book tonight. I'll have plenty of time tomorrow. Besides, the word count came easier than I had expected. So off to bed I am.

My new mug

Two weeks ago, mom and I went to paint another piece of ceramic. This time, I decided to go for a huge mug (for cafe au lait) and painted it with fun colours. Mom painted a cute little piggy bank. She picked up the finished pieces this week and I was able to finally use my mug this morning. What great timing! Making a huge mug of cafe au lait while getting started on my novel!

That's right! NaNoWriMo has started. I stayed up late last night so I could get started at 12:01 precisely. And I did start then.

So far, I wrote 1941 words which is pretty good for my first day. I might continue tonight after watching CSI and Grey's Anatomy. I'm telling the story from the point of view of a bird. And so far, it's about a girl named Miss T (or Misty but I wanted her name to count for at least two words!) She understands the language of animals and insects. Plenty of possibilities can arise from that! I'm excited. I'm tired but pumped at the same time.

Now I should eat lunch before going to work. It's a ped day (no classes, just daycare program) and I'm working a bit more hours. I was supposed to work 12:55 to 5:30 but I was asked if I could come in this morning from 8:00 to 9:00 which I did (AND I'm getting paid an extra 15 minutes because I agreed to do it!) I swear to everything holy, I am loving LOVING my job at this school. So different from the last one. So much better. And Anik and I get along so well working together. It's wonderful.

Now, if only the Universe could send me that wonderful, loving man I asked for! :-D

Oh yeah! I'm getting a Nikon D40x tomorrow! My brother bought a better model and is selling me this one for less. Woohoo! (One more answer from the Universe!)