The NaNo thing

November comes to an end. The holiday hoopla starts now. While I love the holiday season it also means a busy time for me at work. My plans of finding time to do everything I set out to do before Christmas fall apart about now. Reality sets in.
The first casualty is my NaNo writing. 50,000 words by tomorrow. I have around 20,000. Nope, that is not gonna happen! On the positive side I really did enjoy writing this. The words just poured out of me. The story became! I have no business trying to write a novel. I had no plan. No outline. I had a goal. I didn't care if I reached the 50,000 word mark. My goal was to see if I could even put together a story. My only rule for myself was that it would not be about me or my life. Of course there are bits that are familiar, but not really mine. The setting was a place I lived in once and that's where the familiar lays. The characters grew personalities all their own. I was amazed. Now don't get me wrong here, this is by no means a publishable ( is that even a word?) writing. No it is drivel. Simple fun for me drivel. I will finish it and put it aside. Next November I intend to start another one. Maybe that one will be about my life. Who knows.
I am trying to finish up all gift projects. I am fairly certain that these will be ready for next Christmas...

Thanksgiving wishes

On this Thanksgiving eve I am taking time to really count my blessings. In these times of hardship for so many I am blessed with much. In these times of sorrow for so many I am blessed with love and happiness. In these times of despair for so many I am blessed with hope.

In these times of loneliness I am blessed with friendships and family.

It is easy to lose sight of all the good things around us each day. I am thankful for so many little things that make my life full and good. And you, my blog readers, are one of my blessings as well.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone everywhere.

on being ahead of the game....

Where does the time go!? Thanksgiving is this week! The holiday season is here. Now. I am not ready. what happened to October, that's what I want to know. I had it all under control. (snort!) this year nothing was going to sneak up on me...I was going to be organized and stay ahead of it all. (rolls eyes) my Christmas cards would be designed by Halloween ( who was I kidding?) and finished sewing by Thanksgiving (maniacal laughter) thus giving me loads of time to send them off. Christmas gifts that were handmade would be finished as well. all that was left for me to do would be to wrap them in pretty papers. OK then. in a perfect world. or maybe a parallel world. but most certainly not in my world. I just love the holiday season. the beauty of the first real snowfall (before the dirt and grime of the city mucks it up any way..) the lights that Adorne the houses. the Christmas music that plays everywhere. (because I know all the words and can sing along, much to the annoyance of family members.) the smiles on the faces of strangers in the shopping malls ( OK OK so that's a lie, no one is smiling at the mall. kids screaming and people being very rude about parking spaces, not to mention the lack of check out people is more truthful). The general good cheer that is such a part of it all. sigh. I will perservere and manage to get it done. ( well mostly ) So enjoy this, the start of the wonderful holiday season!

pictured is last years Christmas card. I finished the last one on Christmas morning....

in search of fallen leaves

Today I took a walk around the pond.
The leaves were all over the ground, dry and rustling underfoot.

I had high hopes of finding wonderful colorful leaves so I could try them out using Nellies pounding method found here.http://nelliedurand.blogspot.com/2008/11/enhancing-pounded-images.html . but all I found were broken dry bits of color.

And gathering geese. splashing and snoozing on the pond.

telling stories about the one that got away...

its a brand new day

New days ahead. clouds clearing. We still have a long long road ahead.

ELECTION NIGHT

All day long I heard about long lines at the polls. So it was with great relief when I got home and went to vote the line moved quickly. It is so good to see this turn out! Every election I tell myself I am not going to watch the returns and make myself crazy and every time I watch, cringe, keep watching anyway. I usually don't express my politics on the blog but here is hoping for Hope and Change to come!!!

On the sewing front I have been busy making various Christmas gifts. And working with younger daughter ( my daughter the police officer) on making a crazy quilt Victorian Christmas stocking for her husband. This is her first time sewing since a high school project where she made a pillow. We have the basic body of the stocking pieced together and now will come what I consider the fun part. All the embroidery. She is doing all this herself with my help being only in giving instructions and a quick lesson on scrap fabric. The photo below is of stockings I made some years ago and are the basic idea of what she is making.

On the writing NANO side of life I wrote some more this morning. It is in no way publish worthy but I am having fun with it. Will I get to 50,000 words by Novembers end ? I seriously doubt it. Not to worry though, It is a labor for the love of story. I have renewed admiration for all authors. I can not imagine how they pull off writing a whole cohesive book! But I am glad they do. If your so inclined then join in! It would be wonderful to have you there too!

Tonight I will be writing writing writing. I have joined in on the National Novel writing month site. The object is to write fifty thousand words before November ends. Now I don't expect or desire to reach that number but I will give it a go.
Join in! It is bound to be fun!
Tomorrow I will be glued to the television after voting. Isn't it a wonderful place we live in where everyone gets a say in our government. I hope all who can, will vote on Tuesday.