Thursday, February 25, 2010

Not a Bad Day

Well, I've officially made it into the second round of the Amazon Breaktrhough Novel Award competition http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011. Still a long way to go, but it makes me feel a little better about the query letter.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Has it already been a week?

Yes it has, yes it has. Where does the time go? Obviously into some parallel dimension where I can't follow so I stand on the edge of the abyss and scream for it to come back. It never does. Stupid time.

Anyway, this week has largely been consumed with making kanzashi for both my online shop and myself and the church auction. I seriously can't even remember what happened on Tuedsay. Monday was president's day, so my husband had it off. Tuesday was...tuesday. Wednesday was laundry day. Thursday I got to go out to eat after making a cake and more flowers. Friday was game day and more flowers.

Oh, now I remember what happened on Tuesday. I went to the zoo. How do you forget something like that? I blame my brain.

You see that gecko up there? My friend took that picture. I like it.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Thoughts of a Week


Things have been pretty busy for me lately, and unfortunately it hasn't involved a ton of writing, but it has involved a lot of crafting.

I volunteer on my church's Women's Ministry Team and spring is always a busy time for us. We host brunches, for it is well known that all women love brunches, and we hold a silent auction to raise funds for our missionaries and sponsor various Women's Ministries events. This means I get to spend a bunch of time crafting, baking, and organizing things on various tables.

And I love it.

I taught myself how to make Kanzashi this year, which is the Japanese art of fabric flowers. I'm having a ton of fun with it. Unfortunately now I have a bunch of books I want to buy so I can learn even more.

And as far as the writing goes, I've got a few stories out bugging editors and right now I don't know what other markets I want to pursue, and there's only so much reading up on guidlines I can take in a month. I've done a couple short stories, but I'm not entirely happy with them so they get to lurk in a virtual folder until I figure out how to torture them some more.

Also, I have discovered I don't like lentils and lentils do not like me nor the ones I love. So I think lentils and I will go our separate ways. Lord knows I've tried more than once to make this relationship work, but it's just not meant to be.

The Kanzashi pictured are not mine. They were made by the very talented and far more advanced PetalMix of etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/PetalMix

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Banana Boston Cream Pie (Cake really)

I made this http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/banana-boston-cream-pie-recipe2/index.html last Friday. It came out really good, despite the fact I overcooked the pastry cream slightly. If you've got a bit of a talent for cooking or just aren't scared of trying more complicated dishes, I'd say give it a shot.

Also, don't get nervous if the pastry cream gets a little lumpy, if you cool it and beat it with a whisk it'll be fine.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Tree


Here's a tree. I hope you like it. I rather do. It's currently growing on the Twin Sisters in the Rocky Mountains. Unless it died. Then it's not. But I assume it is. I'll have to go check sometime.

Sunday, February 7, 2010


Here's a picture of one of the things I've been working on over the past few weeks. For those of you that don't know, these are hair sticks (not just insanely gaudy chopsticks, though I suppose you could use em that way). They might raise some questions, so *ahem*.

Yes, I'm a geek.

Yes, I have insanely long hair (so long that the vacuum on one ill-fated occasion managed to suck it up and wind it around the drive shaft. I lost some length that day and am now paranoid whenever my hair gets close to where the tube attachment and the machine meet).

No, I don't mind advertising my bizarre love of table top games. These ones are for sale in my online shop, but I do have my own pair of purple ones. I wear what I sell, yo.

Friday, February 5, 2010

What I did today

1) apparently poured ganache on my husband's stirfry--they do not mix and I got questioned on just how bad I was feeling last night that I would end up chocofying his lunch

2) worked on hairsticks

3) tried to make a casserole

4) realized that I did not have one of the ingredients, thus necessitating a bike ride to walmart--second time in as many days that this has happened. I don't know if I'm getting forgetful or if God is conspiring to make me get more exercise

5) nearly ran down a grade-schooler on my bike because I didn't see the bus stop and it didn't occur to me that pedestrians getting off a bush might--oh--walk through a bike lane. She was very understanding though

6) arrived home and finished the casserole

7) swore at my word processor because it randomly decides just how I want to make lists

8) posted this