Tuesday, October 27, 2009

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

i love snow, for about one month of the year. i seriously think it should be outlawed to have snow before halloween. >_< *cries* the truly horrible part of it is i can't wear a coat with my costume, i've got wings. i think i'm going to be the ice fairy.....
oh and another thing, thanks to one of my followers who knows me on another site, i figured out that with the current settings mac users couldn't post comments. i have fixed this, so you should all be able to comment if you so wish.
much love people!

PS
epic fail pictures
see more Epic Fails

it's dead as a door nail

well, this week has been very crazy. i finally decided on what i wanted to be for halloween. unfortunately this left me a week to make a rather complicated fairy costume, plus the costume that my sister decided on, an elf (meaning cool fantasy, not santa-ish.) also NaNo starts on sunday. plus homework=a very busy week.
so understandably i haven't gotten to posting pictures of past projects. but, in the course of things, i learned that my camera has died :'( i think it's the battery, but the battery is one of those weird ones that you have to order from the store. *sigh* so it's probably going to be somewhere around december when i can actually take pictures to post. *crosses fingers* sorry about that people.
until then i'll just have to tell you all about the NaNo process. and maybe whine about my camera.... :'( i especially wanted to post about my costume. it is going to be so epic i can't even tell you! i'm making the wings and everything. *sigh*
i sit here so very tired, but i don't want to go to sleep. i feel like i should be accomplishing something useful. maybe it's just because i've been running very hard this week. i'm not used to being able to just sit down and do nothing. maybe it'd be a lot better for us if we got used to being able to relax a little. running all the time can't be good for us. perhaps that is one of the biggest flaws of today's culture. we're always rushing around. is all this technology really helping? or does it just distract?
well, i leave you with that random bit of 'wisdom.' g'night! and remind me not to blog after 11. i usually wake up in the morning with a hundred spelling mistakes etc.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

NaNo approaches

as Nov. 1 gets closer, i'm getting more scared. to put it bluntly, my inner editor is trying so very hard to escape the little box i've locked him in. my characters are all mary-sues, the plot has no point, i can't write worth anything etc etc. how do i get him to shut up?
another thing, though this is good news, i've figured out that writing the required 1667 words a day isn't actually as hard as it seems. i did a little experiment. i just sat down and wrote about literally the first thing that popped into my head "hmmm, a girl standing on a street corner in Manhatten, with her dog, in the winter. because of a fortune cookie. waiting for someone. aaannnndddd...that someone is in the military" *rolls eyes* anyway.....i just wrote, no idea what was going to happen. what do you think? is my inner editor lying to me about the quality of my writing? or is he right? if so, tell me what's wrong, so i can fix it before november!

it was a cold afternoon. Jane pulled her coat tighter and sniffed her nose. her golden retriever pulled on the leash, urging her to go forward. but Jane wasn't ready to leave just yet. she wasn't superstitions by nature, but for some reason she put stock in the mass-produced fortune that she had got at the Chinese restaurant the night before. as the sun set the temperature dropped, but still she waited. her dog, Maisey made a whining noise. she flipped her straight, brown hair out of her face as the wind kicked up. with a sigh, she turned away from the street corner and headed back to her Manhattan apartment. she couldn't believe herself. she had gone and caught cold because of a stupid fortune cookie. 'you will meet the person you are missing where you last said goodbye' pah! who would believe such rubbish? she sighed again. something inside of her had begun to hope, but no. she knew john had died in iraq, but why was she still expecting to see him everywhere she went? she picked up the pace, partially to keep warm, and partially to burn off the anger she felt toward herself at that moment. maisey picked up the pace too, until Jane was flying down the street behind a half frozen dog racing to get to the warm apartment and dinner she knew awaited her.
the thing Jane did not know, was that an army veteran had just stepped on to the corner that she had left. but he wasn't john.

------------

Jane blew her nose hard into a tissue. her cat jasmine was intertwining herself around her legs. Jane was home late, and this disrupted jasmine's usual routine, and she was not happy about it. Jane got her pets dinner, and sat on her old green couch to have her own. out of habit, she reached for the tv remote, but stopped as she realized she didn't want to watch.
"Am i crazy or something? what makes me think that he's suddenly going to come back, huh?" Maisey looked at her with what seemed to be an amused expression.
"yeah, i'm crazy. even my dog thinks so. aren't you guys supposed to be extremely loving?" Maisey just licked her lips and went back to eating her kibble. Jin pressed her mouth into a thin line. she knew she had to get over this. it had been a year. if for nothing else, she knew that john would not like to have her still wrapped up in the past. if she couldn't do it for herself, she'd do it for him.
she got up and stretched, and headed for her computer. she had a deadline to make, and her characters were getting impatient. as her antagonist started threatening to kidnap her cat if she didn't start writing his story soon, she said,
"i'm coming! i'm coming! give me a minute to put this in the sink!" this was probably precisely why she could never get a boyfriend. she was a freelance fiction writer, and her characters frequently talked to her. what was the real problem was that she talked back. no one but john ever understood that. not even her father, who was a author as well.
Jane shook her head as she sat down at the computer in her bedroom. she needed to write about her characters, and their problems and thoughts. she needed to keep herself out of this. but try as she might, she couldn't. she kept thinking about that corner, that deserted corner, save a silly woman and her freezing dog. and this time, no matter how her characters complained, she wouldn't even try to take her mind off it.

--------------

the next day, Jane walked into her friends cafe. she glanced down at her watch. Nancy should be on break soon. meanwhile, she sat at a table and pulled her laptop out. she set it up and wrote about whatever came to mind. half an hour later, Nancy came and sat facing her.
"Hey, what's up?" Jane started. she groaned as she realized she had written absolutely nothing in twenty minutes. Jane replied, frustrated,
"i don't know nancy. i just can't seem to get anything out anymore. i'll have these stories running around in my head, but when i sit down to write, nothing. it's like i've lost my voice." Nancy looked puzzled.
"i'm not sure i know what you mean," she replied as gently as she could.
"i'm stuck. i can't write anything worth keeping, i talk to you and my pets, and i'm still expecting john to come home any day. you know the fortunes we got?"
"oh no, do honestly believe those? you know that they're just made up my some guy who still living in his parent's basement, right? please don't tell me you went to that corner."
"i did nancy. i went there. it's not like i honestly expected john to show up. i don't know what i was waiting for. some sort of sign, i guess. did it ever bother you that he just disappeared? poof! with out a clue what happened?" a waitress came over and handed them some hot chocolate. after they sipped for a minute, nancy replied.
"Jane, those kind of things happen some times. it's part of the risk of serving in the military. you knew it, and john knew it. and he went any way. he knew it was the right thing to do. honey, you've got to accept that he's gone. you can't live your life in the past. you've got to let go so you can have peace. it's affecting your whole life. you're becoming a social recluse. you can't write, which has always come to you easily. you haven't been on a date since the letter came."
"i'm trying nancy, nothing's working. just when i think i've let go, i get a stupid fortune, and i go freeze my butt off, waiting for who knows what."
"Jane, you're not really trying. you're still in that apartment. you've got pictures everywhere. he gave you that coat for your last birthday. et cetera! you don't want to let go. you've got to! it's taking over your life."
"nancy, honestly tell me, why would you let go of something so wonderful?" to this, nancy sighed and said,
"i gotta go, my breaks over." even though she knew perfectly well that she still had half an hour.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

ATTACK OF THE PLOT BUNNIES!!!!

they've arrived. the dreaded plot bunnies. i thought i had a hard time getting my plot figured out before now, but boy was i in for a surprise.
for those of you who don't happen to know what a plot bunny is, let me explain. plot bunny is the name NaNoers have given to the annoying bits of random plot ideas that try to either hijack your plot, until it's a mess of unconnected subplots that don't have much to do with each other, or try to get you to write about a completely different story, distracting from your NaNo as nov. 1st draws ever closer. and as their name would have you think, once there are just a few, they start to breed, and a plot bunny army invades your mind. then the subplots aren't only a mass of confusion, but they become strange mutants that have combined themselves in insane ways. these guys can show up even before october, but for most people, they start making appearances around the second week of october and stay till NaNoWriMo is done. then for some they scatter, leaving you with absolutely no ideas for other novels now that you have the time to think about them. those pesky little buggers......
that being said, what do you think is essential in a story? what ties it all together? help! if you don't, i'll be overun with these guys, and my characters will be lost in a strange and confused world, with no point or actual plot.
oh, and i need a title. i'm drawing a major blank on this one, so any ideas will have a good shot at winning.

further insanity

when i started my insanity, i had no idea what to write my novel about. now, a little under a week later, i have a pretty good idea of what to this novel is going to be about. it's strange how things work out. i had a lot of help with plot ideas etc from the NaNo forums, but it was mostly my rather random mind.
my novel is fantasy (no surprise coming from me :P) it is about a girl who is a die hard perfectionist and an over the top tom-boy, who has to go with two fellow school mates (one her best friend, and the other her bitter rival), seeing as they're at war and are therefore a bit short handed, to retrieve a dragon egg from the enemy soldiers. as they race across the country, the rivalry gets ever stronger, the solders ever closer, and the stakes ever higher. in a twist of events, the main character (still unnamed, AGGG!) comes in contact with the egg. after all she's been through to get to this point, she begins to wonder, is she truly rescuing it? or enslaving? she must make the choice, and face the consequences.
they're are still an abundance of plot holes that need fixing, so feel free to make some suggestions. who knows, it might end up in a best-seller some day.

Monday, October 19, 2009

i swear my brain went through the microwave!

urg. so i got a head cold, which has contributed to the fact that nothing has been put up. *gurgle* it unfortunately gives me really big headaches. but i felt the need to post something, so you get to hear about me feeling like a zombie :D i'm sure that's what you wanted to do today.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Oh the insanity....

i am officially insane. if it wasn't official before this point, it is now. i have signed up for something called NaNoWriMo. that stands for National Novel Writing Month. (link if you'd like to look at their site http://www.nanowrimo.org/ )
the point is to write a novel in one month. the requirement is 50,000 words, which is roughly six pages a day, give or take some. yeah, i'm crazy. it takes place in november, so i'll be a little dead during that month. i'm working on the outline, so hopefully i'll be up to this. though i might not post so much about crafty/other stuff, i'll be sure to give you guys updates. and maybe, just maybe, this thing won't eat me, and all my creativity to boot. wish me luck!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Brrrrr, it's cold outside!

haha, it's raining right now. i'm getting all snuffly and my hands are freezing. i don't know how i'm going to survive when the snow gets here :P

well, on to why i really started this post :)
these are pictures of projects i just happened to have on my computer, all ready to load up. lucky you! i'm feeling slightly out of it, so i wasn't going to go take any pictures today. unfortunatly, they're all sideways, and my computer is being a pain, and won't let me turn them. maybe i'll fix that later....

they're pretty self explanatory... the first one is a simple t-shirt recon. i added the bands of white to make it kind of hoodieish looking. i tried to make the neck line a simple swoop neck, but it wasn't working. it was sticking straight out. so i make it a cool looking boxy/cornered neckline, which i actually like better than my original plan
this next one is a shirt i made to go with a skirt that is very similar. i'll put pics of that up later this week hopefully. it is made out of nice and stretchy t-shirt material, and is and overall fun shirt to wear. the looks i get wearing it down the street are just plain entertaining XP
this one here was a shirt i got from one of my guy friends. it was getting holes in it all along the seams. i couldn't fix it for him to wear (making new seams would make it too small for him), so i made it for me. this is a very comfy shirt!

this one was just plain fun to make. all the chaos stitching was a blast! i basically went crazy with it, and it magically turned out :P go figure.
XD don't you just love my mad editing skills? as said earlier, i'm feeling out of it, so i was too lazy to go take a picture of it without my face in it. that left only good ol' paint.
anyhoo. this is a skirt that i made out of the coolest clock print ever! there are clocks, cogs etc. all over it. i might even use it in my halloween costume this year (so excited! halloween is my favorite holliday. it's socially acceptable to play dress up out of doors. not that that hinders me for the rest of the year, but doing it with everyone is a blast.)

this one i think is my favorite of the batch. it's a plushy of the mario death mushroom! woohoo! i made it out of an old bath towelish thingy and some white t-shirt fabric. my amazing sister painted the eyes with fabric paint. *claps*
speeking of her, *waves* you're awesome! just thought i'd remind you again.

earflaps hat

yeah for not being able to format this. oh well.
this is the earflaps hat i crocheted over the weekend. i used a j hook, and some worsted weight yarn that i had laying around. i used a really sketchy tutorial, but i basically made it up as i went, because i have a big head :D
i think i accidentally let the stitches get really loose after the crown, cuz it got kinda big on me, but i love it all the same. it makes me feel like a mischievous little kid for some reason :P
PS i promise that my carpet isn't that pukey color. stupid lighting.


Tuesday, October 13, 2009

WOOT! new blog!

heya! this being my first post, i'm way excited! i'm going to go crazy with crafts and other cool stuff. i'm going to be posting all my old projects along with the new ones, so there will be a lot of stuff in the beginning. so check back often! tell your friends!