NaBloPoMo – Currently Clueless

NaNoWriMo = Success

Posted on November 30, 2010Leave a comment

Seriously folks, I know that this is officially my last post for November, but I’ve been writing all day, trying desperately to get my NaNoWriMo novel finished and my wrist is just KILLING me. Hurts so bad, and I still have a wee bit more writing to do so that I can officially win NaNoWriMo. And win it I will. I really didn’t think that I was going to be able to do it, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to if I hadn’t put back in some content that I had originally decided to leave out. Does that count as cheating? I will probably leave this content in the final edit, because now it actually fits the story better than it did before.

The most exciting part of this is that the story isn’t finished yet. I’m looking forward to seeing just how many words I actually do end up writing. But I might actually give myself a break for a week and do some sewing. So for everyone out there that was reading this November, thank you 🙂 I’ll be back in a few days, time to give my hands a bit of a rest from the typing I think.

November is nearly over

Posted on November 29, 2010Leave a comment

WOW what a ride November has been. It has been full of ups – huge highs and downs – major lows. I have to say that at the beginning of the month I knew that I had set myself up for a full on month. I stupidly thought that I might still be able to do a little bit of sewing, but who was I kidding? The closest I got to sewing was the craft and quilt fair at the beginning of the month. The fabric that I bought there is still sitting on my desk waiting for me to start cutting it out and make something wonderful out of it.

But the reality of the month has been that I have lived on my computer. If I wasn’t blogging on here, then I was desperately writing, trying to get my 50,000 word novel done. A novel that I had no idea about even on the 1st November. I just started writing and hoping that something was going to come out. And it did come out, though not as quickly as I would have liked and there were quite a few setbacks along the way. So tomorrow is the last day of November, the last day that I am obligated to post here every single day and the last day for my novel to be finished.

And as much as it pains me to say so, I don’t think I’m going to get to 50,000 words. I’m currently sitting at 36,000 words, and unless I manage to pull out a very magical rabbit out of a hat tomorrow I’m not going to get anywhere near the 50,000 words. So wish me luck everyone, I’m going searching for that magical rabbit now.

I need a tree

Posted on November 28, 20101 Comment

First off I would just like to say thank you very much to both Marshmallow, Chris and Linda for their kind words yesterday. When I woke up this morning and saw your comments you put a smile on my face and Marshy your Hugs just brought a warm feeling to me. When you think everything in your life is getting low, and you can feel yourself falling into the deep black hole that you thought you had crawled out of for good, just a simple hug can make everything a little brighter. So thank you once again.

I would like to say that things are looking up and that it’s on the mend, but they aren’t. I posted the other week about Facebook and the damage that it can do sometimes, and once again, Facebook has been the cause of my current woes. Mick had written something to my stepfather, after he had put quite insulting statements up on his status, and now my stepfather has gone and completely twisted the story around to my mother, who now believes we were being purposely nasty and insulting – which neither of us were. So now, my mum, who I’m really really close to, will have nothing to do with either Mick or I. All because of a Facebook lie.

I should probably point out that I have never had a very good relationship with my stepfather, and I had always dreaded the day that he decided to create a Facebook account. But when he did, to keep the peace with everyone I befriended him. My biggest mistake. I should have stuck to my guns and said no, I won’t befriend family on Facebook. But I did, and now I’m paying the price – a very unfair price to be sure.

I think the thing that is hurting me the most at the moment is that my mum won’t actually listen to me at all. So sure is she that we are in the wrong. It’s like she has just abandoned me all over again. As if leaving me when I was five wasn’t enough, now she’s doing it all over again, but over complete and utter stupidity.

And an even weaker part of this story? My christmas tree was being stored at my mums house, along with all the decorations. And now it is being held to ransom. All I have to do is unblock and befriend my stepfather again, make a public apology (for nothing) and make sure I never delete him again so that he can “monitor” what I say. I seriously feel as if I am in a children’s story, so stupid is this whole situation.

So wish me luck that I can find a new tree this week. I need one apparently 🙂

Christmas is still cancelled

Posted on November 27, 20102 Comments

Today has been a shit day. The dramas that started yesterday have just intensified to the point where I can’t think about anything else and don’t quite care about much. I have nothing more to post. Here’s hoping now that tomorrow is better.

Christmas is cancelled

Posted on November 26, 20102 Comments

No seriously people. Christmas is cancelled this year. My mum told me so today, when she said that she was no longer coming around for traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Why is it that at this time of the year when people are supposed to be happy, merry, cheery, bright and loving, it always turns out that people are nasty and horrible and stressed. There is never any good cheer and nicety in the shops, everyone is pushing and shoving each other, trying to get the better this or that, or trying to get in a better position in a queue. That I come to expect. But today my family has let me down. Big time, and quite frankly, I just want the Christmas season to be over with and for the new year to roll on.

I have no interest in posting tonight. I have nothing of good cheer to say, nothing happy and upbeat to say, I just want to sit here and be miserable in my little corner of the internet. I’m hoping that tomorrow is a brighter day. Sorry for sharing my misery.

Excuse me while I drool

Posted on November 25, 2010Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a copy of Elizabeth Hartman’s book The Practical Guide to Patchwork: New Basics for the Modern Quiltmaker. Well yay for me it finally got here. If you are a quilter, or interested in quilting, or just want to have a look at a book that has some damn gorgeous quilts in it, then may I suggest that you rush out and get your own copy of it.

I’m such a newbie at quilting, and I’m learning more and more every day, but I do wish that this book had been around six months ago, it could have saved me a lot of time and heartache with some of the things I had been working on. It is full of information on choosing your fabric and how to cut your fabric correctly, even a little information on free motion quilting. Jam packed full of goodness. Seriously I could rave and rave about this book.

I’m a huge fan of Elizabeth Hartman, my first major quilt was her Mixtape quilt pattern, and it was so easy to do, her instructions were so well written and in depth. I think that might be my only slight (and it really is only slight) gripe, and that would be that I don’t find the patterns in the book quite as in depth as the ones that are for sale on her site. But that’s not to say that they aren’t still easy to understand, because they certainly are.

So my only problem now? Deciding which quilt I am going to make first. Arghhh.

Wrist breakage anniversary

Posted on November 24, 2010Leave a comment

WARNING: ICKY PHOTOS THAT PEOPLE MAY NOT LIKE IN THIS POST.

Two years ago today I broke my wrist. It was a Monday morning, and I had just started a new job the Tuesday before, so I set out nice and early, totally excited about going to work – it was (at the time) the job of my dreams. I went outside, stepped on a piece of concrete, tripped over it and fell. Onto my wrist. At first I didn’t feel anything, didn’t realise I had done anything. I remember sitting back on my heels and feeling my hand droop and when I looked at it, the whole wrist just looked wrong. That was when I started screaming. And the screaming didn’t stop for a while, because that was when the pain set in.

Me in the hospital with my stuffed wrist

I had a really long post written out about that day. About how I had to have surgery and I now have a plate in my wrist, about how I have permanent scarring on my wrist where they had to put the plate in, about how the recovery was at times almost as painful as the break itself. I wrote about how I got pneumonia a week after after my wrist broke and ended back up in hospital, but the whole post sounded so whingey. So I scrapped it and just condensed it to this.

My wrist when the cast first came off. YUCK.

What I really want to say is this. My wrist, in the scheme of things is not a major injury. It’s certainly not as bad as some of the terrible things that happen to people – good people, but to me this was the worst thing that had ever happened. It still continues to give me pain and grief on a daily basis and there are still things that I can’t do. Never take yourself for granted. Do everything that you want to do, today, because you never know when the choice might be taken away from you. I spent nearly two years getting back to being able to cut material out again, and to hold a pair of scissors and cut again, and I still can’t really cut a straight line.

The end of a long week

Posted on November 19, 2010Leave a comment

Can I just say – thank god that this week is over. This has been such a long week that just seemed like it was never going to end. Work has been very quiet, there has been very little work that has been coming in, so I am sitting at my desk, trying to look busy, while desperately wanting to sit down and write my story. I hit 25,000 words last night and it was a great feeling to know that I’m halfway into the story (I still have issues calling it a novel), before the reality sunk in and I realised that I still had half of it to go. I had planned to have a good weekend of sitting down and writing as much as I could so that I could give myself a bit of a break during the week after I got home from work, but it turns out that we’re heading off camping for the weekend.

This means that I’m going to get little writing done and I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to blog at all. I’m hoping(?) that I can get some service on my phone so I can at least do a couple of quick posts, but not sure if I get any service at all where we are going. So this could put a serious dent into NaBloPoMo for the month. GRRRR I’ll be damned it I’,m going to do NaBloPoMo again. Don’t get me wrong, I love blogging, I always have since I started 7 years ago. But I don’t like forced blogs and that is what November has felt like to me.

So I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and enjoy yourselves, I know I will. Maybe I’ll talk to you all over the next couple of days, maybe not, we shall see. (Though who are you all? I see the stats on Analytics, but no one says anything, please drop me a line and say hi 🙂 )

Great night of writing

Posted on November 18, 20101 Comment

I have been writing up a storm tonight and my wrist is absolutely killing me, not to mention my fingers who have certainly gotten a workout tonight. Have gotten some great writing done tonight, and am really happy with where the story is going and YAY me, I have finally reached 25,000 words. That means I’m halfway there, with ummm less than half the month to finish lol.

So tonight, in honour of a good night of writing (and because I’m too slack to write a long blog) I leave you with an excerpt of the story.

There in front of them was the castle. It rose from the ground, an icy blue glass structure. It was surrounded by a moat, that somehow didn’t seem to be affected by the cold, and flowed freely without any ice affecting it. Beyond the moat was a wall as thick as Soggy Scab was tall, and entirely made of crystal. Soggy Scab wondered how that could keep anything out should they be attacked.

As if hearing his thoughts, Max spoke out. “Don’t let the fact that it is a crystal castle fool you. You may think that this would be easy to attack, but the castle and castle walls are protected by forceful spells, that it would take a dozen sorcerers a hundred years to try and break. No one gets into the castle grounds if we don’t want them in there.”

The castle itself really was like one of the castles from the fairytales that Soggy Scab had read to Snotface when she was little. It had a square base, with clear windows, which stood out against the icy blue of the walls. Where moss may have grown up the sides, this one had icicles that hung down the sides, sharp spheres that would impale someone should they fall off. At the very forefront of the castle was a tower that rose up and up into the air, topped with a peaked roof which was covered completely in snow. Behind the main tower were four turrets that rose up, almost as tall as the tower did. The top of each turret was a wall of windows, and hanging out of the windows were flags with emblems emblazoned all over them. On some were deers, standing tall and proud, but on others was a black and white cat, sitting there looking regally out across the country. Soggy Scab wondered about the emblems, and made a note to ask Max about them later on.

A royal wedding

Posted on November 17, 2010Leave a comment

When I woke up this morning and put on the news, without the sound, I thought there was something wrong with the monarchy for a moment *shock* *horror* *gasp*. But no, it was just constant news about the fact, that after many many years William had finally proposed to Kate. I admit, I got a tear in my eye for a moment. I’m not a huge supporter of the monarchy, it’s not that I don’t like them, or think they have their place, I just don’t really care about them. But after ten minutes of watching Wills and Kate gush on the tv, I had kind of had enough. Surely there are more important things happening in the world, that we don’t need to dedicate quite that much time to two people finally getting married?

So I went to work, after watching my Wills and Kate news – because let’s be honest, that’s all that was on the blasted news this morning – had a relatively Wills and Kate free day, come home to have a peaceful night in front of the tv, while I did some more writing for NaNoWriMo, and what’s this? A documentary about Wills and Kate. Already? And it wasn’t on just one channel. Seriously people, please don’t tell me I have to spend the next many months listening to endless Wills and Kate news? I’m over it already, and it’s only just happened.

Bring on the wedding day and get it over and done with is all I can say.