A Challenge of Three and a Drabble

So, my holiday cards have been mailed (except for Marta - I need your address!!!). Now I'm focusing on holiday gifts because I really need to mail Sharon's gift soon, and I only have half of it done. I'll be working on that on Wednesday, and hopefully will finish it up quickly. I'm quite happy with it so far. 

Holiday cards have been mailed - going all 
over the nation and the world. I just love 
sending cards to my friends. I also got my 
first card in the mail yesterday. Thanks 
to Tinnean for starting my season out 
so beautifully. 

An e-friend on Dreamwidth posted with a request to allow her to choose three random items in your personal tags and tell her about them. So I decided to take the plunge. The three things she chose were (1) beadwork, (2) hard rock and (3) sewing. That's pretty easy, so after a quick explanation, let's see if I can pull a quick tale out for them as well. 

This project of mine is named "Hobby Horse Dreams". I 
constructed a hobby horse, padded it and covered it with 
fabric, then beaded the fabric, added wings and composed 
a poem about a forgotten hobby horse in a dusty attic 
who dreams of flying into the stars. It won People's 
Choice for the exhibit, but didn't win a "prize". Still, 
I'm proud of the piece and love it. 

I own and operate a bead store. I have beaded on and off throughout my life, but seriously got involved in beadwork when my hands were unable to handle fiber arts any more. So, that's mid-1980's to early 1990's. I re-learned beadwork, took lots of classes and workshops, taught around the country, entered competitions, published projects and patterns, and generally made a pretty good name for myself in that art. COVID has changed a lot, including my finding a doctor who gave me back my hands, so my craft has switched back from beadwork to fiber once again, and I'm very happy. 

There are all too many times when I feel stuck between 
a rock and a hard place. It would be nice to have my life 
under my own control again, but it's still going to be a 
while before that happens. 

But, being between beading and fiber sometimes puts me between the devil and the deep blue sea - in other words, between a rock and a hard place. Thus ... hard rock. I deal with hard rocks in my jewelry making, but that's not what I meant by my term "hard rock". 

I love my sewing machine. It's the same model as this (although 
mine is in better condition). I've always had a sewing machine 
of my own since my mother bought me a Bernina in 1978. 
My niece has my Bernina now, and I have a New Home 
(now called Janome). Great machine! 

As for sewing, that's a lifetime thing. I'm not a talented seamstress like my mother was, but I know my way around a sewing machine and patterns. For many years I made a lot of my clothes - it was a matter of lack of funds and desire for new things. I recently got my sewing machine repaired, so I'm back in business once again. Yippee! 

Now for a quick tale. Late last month I did a quick drabble of a woman seeking the body of her beloved at the broken gates of Minas Tirith. I'm going to continue that tale and tie it into the three items chosen by my on-line friend  ... 

The wails of others surrounded her, but she heard them not as she fell to her knees beside him. Her trembling hand reached toward the bloodied fabric under the mangled breastplate. Hesitant, it hovered, before coming down to rest on the beadwork. He had laughed while she embellished the sewn fabric with beads. "I'll flash all the way to Mordor," he proclaimed. But he took the token, pushing it next to his heart. Now his body lay broken on the hard rock, the bloodied token all she had left of him. She collapsed, keening, as tears flowed down her face. 

That's it for today. Be well, stay safe, and please wear your mask. Always be kind, and I'll be back on Monday. Thanks for the challenge, Bladespark! 

 

Today Will Be A Perfect Day - At Least, That's The Hope

Sometimes the day starts out great. Today is one of those rare days, and since it's only 4:00 am, I'm just hoping that the way it started is the way it continues. Why or how did it start so well? Things clicked. Easy, peasy. 

I love it when things come together beautifully. This morning
was one of those wonderful and rare times. Since I have my
income tax appointment with my accountant tonight, I'm
hoping this trend continues throughout the day. 

Last night, while watching the first episode of this year's "Spring Baking Championship" I cobbled together a very sad story for today's Back to Middle Earth prompts. The prompts, 'rust' and 'spirituality' made me think a bit - those two words don't work smoothly. Then I thought of prayer and how people will say that they are 'rusty' at praying when they haven't done so in quite a while. OK, rusty prayers. 

Prayer - to some people it comes easily, perhaps too
easily. For many, however, it is something that
is rarely practiced with true heart. 

Why would someone need to pray? Usually, for someone to finally use prayer when it has been put aside for a long time, there is an event - often tragic - that pulls the person to appeal to a higher being. That appeal can be harsh, or accusatory or just a long groan of a "why?", but it is tragic and heart-felt and immense. 

There are 1000's of images of Maglor, but this one is one
of my favorites. Kudos to Elena Kukanova for a
beautiful rendition. 

I turned to a character I've written about many times in the past - Maglor, musical son of Feanor - and his stunned reaction to his father's death. Death was almost unknown to the elves, they were immortal and would live on Arda for as long as Arda still existed. To live as long as a planet is not absolute immortality, but it's a VERY long time. Thus, elves are immortal in my eyes. Yet, here Feanor, an immortal, had died and been pulled from the Circles of the World and thrust into the Halls of the Dead. 

There are a lot of drabbles and drabble challenges out there. I've
participated in some of them in the past, but no longer force myself
to keep to the 100 word structure. Still, it was fun to have a
story fall into that without even trying! 

His sons must have been devastated and stunned that such a thing could even happen. So I wrote a small part of this through Maglor's eyes, edited the story this morning just before starting my blog post, put in my headers, and quickly checked my word count. It was exactly 100 words. I had a drabble without even trying for the word count. Yeah Me!!! 

Thus, my day starting out great. Of course, I'm going to hope that I'm going to continue with a great day, instead of having it shift around. I want to slide down the mountain today, not pull my gear out of storage and begin a hard climb up. Here's hoping your Tuesday is fabulous and fantastic. I'll be back tomorrow - at least, that's the plan. Happy Day to you all! 

A Day Off Never Really Means A Day Off

Wednesdays are my "day off" from the shop. Of course it doesn't mean I'm not there, just that I'm not there by the time the doors are opened for the public. I'll still be there early this morning putting some things away, cleaning up, pulling items for a mail order and turning on the computers before I leave for the bank, the grocer, and to get gas for the car. After all that, then I can go home and start the laundry, make the beds and settle down at my computer keyboard to finish my Ardor in August story and watch the rebroadcast of Le Tour.

This is a total beast of a stage with a Hor Cat finish at the top of
the mountain. Ooof! The legs and lungs will be hurting today. 

Speaking of Le Tour, we're in Stage 17 today and the second of three days in the Pyrenees. It's a total BEAST of a day and I can hardly wait. Just look at that stage profile! Yummy!

I did this pencil drawing for Chaotic Binky's
OEAM 2012/13 story. I'm still not 100% happy
with it, but there was a lot of good in it too. 

The call-out for OEAM Big Bang went out today for those who participate. I've done this in the past, but have been pushing my time toward NaNoWriMo in November instead for the past two years. I've signed up to do artwork for Big Bang in the past, and I may do that again. I always have fun illustrating the stories of my friends and future friends. But I have a bit of time to decide on this. Right now I have to finish my Ardor story and then catch up on my latest set of drabbles - birds. I think they posted the fifth bird type this morning and I haven't written for any of them yet. My bad, but time has been hard to come by.

Today's bird prompt was "Raven". (Shades of
Games of Thrones!) I think I have story ideas for many of
the assigned birds, and raven isn't really a problem, but I don't
think I've ever met a Thrush (last week's bird) and I'll
have to do a bit of research to get a feel for that bird's approach. 

I've been totally tied up at work and unable to keep the laptop on after we've unlocked the doors, so my responses to commentary on my blog has been minimal and delayed more than my norm. I apologize and hope that things will get better by the end of the month. At least I'm trying for that goal. I always check in at least once a day and I'm trying to keep up with friends posts as well to the best of my ability. Right now deadlines have me a bit pressured and they have to come first.

Oh those deadlines. I keep them in mind all the time and they
still creep up on me. I have to finish my Ardor story TODAY! 

So I'll be bouncing around town today doing my errands and then getting home to do my work here, but I'll still have my weekly conversation with Aearwen (a true sanity saver for me) and a chance to hopefully catch up a bit by the end of the day. Have a truly wonderful Wednesday, I'll be thinking of you while I'm out and about.

I'm Tired, I'm Sleepy, and I'm Behind Schedule

Chickie returns next week so today is my final day of kitty care (hurrah!). Taking care of Sasha-kitty isn't difficult, but it's one more thing to interrupt my morning schedule. As a result, I am off schedule this week for my Ardor in August story (due soon) and need to really dive in next week with both feet and the computer working hard to catch up.

The raven of doom is croaking. Time is running out! 

I don't join the "Ardor" challenges (there are three of them each year) unless I feel confident I will meet the deadline. I have no doubt I will, but as always, I want the quality of work to be good and I rely on time to edit and edit and edit yet again. Without that time built into my schedule, I find errors after the fact that I just kick myself for. If it was a published book, finding and correcting the errors would constitute a first edition and a corrected second edition. But it's an e-story, so I usually don't bother revising unless the error is huge. So my mistakes and poor writing skills are entrapped in the ether for everyone to read forevermore. I hear Poe's raven croaking as I write this.

The first prompt is for swan. Although there is the
beautiful swimming swan, I'm finding my thoughts
moving more toward the aggressive swan. These
birds are large. I'd be quite intimidated if one was
charging me. 

Birds seem to be hanging over me. After I finish the series of prompts for my Gilraen drabbles, I'll start in on another series which have been featuring birds. The first prompt of this series was for swan. There have been some cute takes on it, but I thought I'd share a picture of a swan closer to what I'm thinking will be my end result.

The common nightingale is a rather plain-Jane looking bird, but
it is renowned for its large voice. It's rather cute, isn't it? 

The next prompt in the series is for a nightingale. This bird is celebrated for its voice, not its looks. It is not a flashy-looking bird, but oh, that voice. I'm not sure what direction these drabbles will take yet (one project at a time, after all), but it should prove interesting at any rate.

Tomorrow I can sleep and I'm already looking forward to it.
Pathetic!

But, in the meantime, I'm really tired. This is the final day of my six-day work week and my body is aching. My productivity was high at the start of the week, but has fallen down over the past day or two. I'm disappointed to realize that I'm just not as young in body as I used to be and can't recover as quickly.

We're finally starting to hit some mountains on Stage 8.  Although the
stage organizers are calling this a "Hilly" stage, not a mountain
stage, it's still got a nice, impressive end on the top of a Cat 3 climb. 

Le Tour Stage 9 is also called "Hilly" (apparently the "Mountain" stages
don't happen until stage 10). It certainly looks rather mountainous in
the stage profile, though. No HC mountains, though, so
maybe that's part of their distinction. But we're in the Alps, and all is good! 

Stage 8 of Le Tour de France is going on today, with Stage 9 on Sunday. Since I don't post on Sundays, I'm putting both stage profiles up here for your reference over the weekend. The riders are leaving the flat lands behind them for a few days and riding into the Alps. We'll see lots of very pretty mountains for the next few days, culminating with Monday's "Mountain" stage. Then, after ten days of vicious riding, they will finally get a rest day.

Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back on Monday.

Possible Activities For My Day Off

Originally my day off was supposed to be the great weather day of the week. That's turned into a lie - today is supposed to be warmer, but filled with rain. That mean, however, that I may be able to buckle down and actually get some writing down, an activity that will make me much happier.

Time to buckle down and get some writing done.

As I said yesterday, my muse has gone on vacation - a rare thing for me. I looked under a lot of rocks (as well as with a cabana boy because - well - it was a cabana boy!), but she was nowhere to be seen. She seems to be peeking over the horizon today, though, so I'm going to try and lasso her and bring her into line.

Time to lasso that muse of mine. No more cabana boys for her. She needs
to get back to work!

I have three drabbles to do, a birthday fic to continue, and I have the Dark Challenge to prep a fic for (I always look forward to indulging in my dark side). I want to catch up a bit because May is progressing and my schedule is compressing into limited hours of open space.

I loved my Alienware computer - I put it through its
paces and make it rock. I got a new computer because
it eventually just got too slow for what I needed.
It's perfect for our warehouse, though. 

We need a computer at the shop that isn't my laptop, so I'm thinking about taking my old Alienware computer, which still works fine, pulling off the non-essential information so that it will be faster, and taking that to the shop to put into the warehouse area. I can then link it to the store Wi-Fi  or cable it into the server directly so that we can do internet searches, etc without needing my laptop.

I'm sharing my space this morning. I don't share gracefully.

Well, DH can't sleep so he's sitting nearby, has the TV turned on, and my quiet time has been shattered. Therefore, I'm calling this blog post done and I'll find my pics and post. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Catching Up is Hard To Do

I used to be up-to-date, posting my stories to Fairie and AO3 and my general stuff as soon as they were ready. I actually keep a spreadsheet database to keep me current on what I've posted where. I looked at it yesterday and was appalled. I'm WAY behind on my archive posting. So, for those of you who read my drabbles and longer stories on Tolkien Weekly and LOTR Community Challenge posts, you'll be seeing duplicatees of these posted on Fairie, MPTT, SWG and AO3 over the next few weeks as I bring last year back up to date. Sheesh! I dont usually fall this far behind! Everything got rather wonky when my father-by-marriage passed and my "free time" got overtaken, but this bad??? I apologize.

I know I also promised to get my general fic out there more, so I will take my latest LOTR Community Challenge story, "Return to Moria" and post that to my general journal under a cut. Don't bother reading it again if you already have - unless you want to read a fun story. But I had promised to put my work more 'out there' and this is part of that promise.

Is this Denver's year for another Super Bowl win? Win or lose, I'll be
watching and cheering my team on. I want a new Champions sweatshirt. My
last one is from Superbowl 32. 

On a different note, yesterday saw a lot get done, but not everything on my list. Still, by the end of the day I was pretty happy with what I had accomplished. We have Super Bowl this Sunday (Go Broncos!) and I'll leave the menu up to DH. I'm perfectly content munching my way through the day, but he may want more. I'm broke right now, so additional food expenses are out until next week. It's on him to get what he might want to eat. Seems fair, at any rate :-)

It's going to be hard for the other contenders to beat this commercial
entry. The cowboy and dog is a great commercial. 

Watched "The Best Super Bowl Commercials" special last night. Of course, it's not just the game that I watch for, the commercials are equally entertaining - and sometimes more entertaining - than the game. The ones I miss, I catch up with the next day on-line. There are always some really good ones presented, the best coming from Budwiser Beer, Doritos, and Pepsi & Coca Cola products. Over the past few years, Doritos has been asking amateurs to submit commercials to them for inclusion in their roster. Five excellent finalists were viewed last night, and I have to say I'm torn between the Ostrich and the Cowboy Kid on Dog offerings. Both were really excellent. The others were good too, but it's hard to beat kids and animals.

Now that the teams have been chosen, it's time to get to work!

So as we re-enter another day of snow (sigh), I hope all of you have a truly fabulous Thursday. I'll be happily watching Tim Gunn's "Under the Gunn" tonight to watch him try and teach the mentors how to actually mentor, and continuing to update stories into my archives. Happy, happy...

Writing, Music and Play Time - Some Thoughts

I informed DH that last night I was going to put on my headphones, click on some music (my current fave is The Greatest Video Game Music played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra), and write. No TV, no conversation, basically I wanted to pull into my cave and get some work done. Now, I know I can't write my SinS effectively while DH is around and wandering, but I did settle down and begin the editing and revision process for it which also needed to be done. Just doing the editing clarified some things in the plot progression for me.

I love how I can lose myself in music and a plot...

Today is crunch day for me - I'll work at the coffeeshop for an extended time this morning, then spend as much time as necessary at the shop to get this puppy DONE! I don't want to be late at all - even with the few extra days that Red was kind enough to grant me because of my inability to do anything at all after the death of my father-by-marriage. FOCUS....FOCUS!!!!

Oh, those old model typewriters. I rely on a keyboard to write - I've never been
a competent or comfortable handwriting composer. These really old machines
were loud, heavy and clunky, but they did the job. I'd rather use one of these than
have to hand-write any of my stories.

I also got my latest drabble completed and posted last night. Things seem to be progressing in a linear fashion with this group of prompts and I'm delighted to indulge my muse and play. There is something so satisfying about writing a drabble for me - crafting a story that uses exactly 100 words provides the opportunity and requirement to choose my words very carefully. In a drabble you're not writing a tale, just a slice of time, but within that slice the reader needs to understand the character(s), their activities and their motivations. Additionally, all of this must fit within a specific prompted theme. I love writing them.

Crafting takes many forms. Although I craft with metal, glass and in words, I have
also done fiber arts and still love them. Superior crafting is always magnificent
to watch. This is a woman from Itagua, Paraguay, creating a piece of Nanduti.
According to the picture's caption, "Nanduti is a traditional form using 72 symbols
that hold strong cultural significance in Paraguay's daily life." It's a type of
embroidered lace. 

The seasonal clock is ticking down. The State Fair will open on Thursday (Chickie will be attending on opening day) and that signals the end of summer to those of us living in this area. My BFF Sharon will be flying in next week to spend the Labor Day holiday weekend with us going to the Fair for several days and then one day at Renaissance Festival before she flies back to Denver to recover and renew her daily tasks. It's always a joy to see her so I'm totally excited, but I still have some serious housecleaning to do.

Sharon often flies in on Frontier Airlines. Each Frontier plane features a different
animal on their tail. The animal is named and featured in seatback information packs and publicity
for their particular flight. I love this unique feature - their planes are pretty darned nice too. 

Ideally, when I drive into my driveway tonight, I'll no longer have a "Beast" occupying part of it. The Disabled American Veterans are scheduled to come by this afternoon, collect the title and keys, and tow that hunk of metal away. This will make me insanely joyous - to have an open driveway again! And DH has promised that we can take a look at snow blowers when we attend the State Fair, so I'm happy about that too. I hope to go to the Fair for dinner and a concert on Saturday, and then we'll all be there on and off next week Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The tickets and coupon books have been purchased - now to get my cash in hand and go play!

Blue Oyster Cult will be playing at the Leine Bandstand on Saturday night
for a free concert. I want to be there, but it's not a requirement, just a desire.
I'll have to see how things play out, but I  want to go to the Fair on Saturday.
Yippee for Park-N-Ride...

But first...to finish this SinS story....

Exploring Aspects in 200 words

An on-line acquaintance posted about aspects of her spiritual journey yesterday in groupings of double-drabble (200 word) paragraphs. (Why I am an ___, in 200 words or less). Another on-line friend responded with four aspects of what makes her a unique person whose footprint upon this earth will be imitated by none. I thought I'd take a quick turn and see what I could do with this, interspersed by pictures, of course.

Musician and Music Appreciator –

An adopted child of people from Vienna, music was always a part of my life. No “Rock-a-by Baby” lullabies for me, though. No, the tunes sung and hummed while mother danced with me in her arms were waltzes by Strauss, music by Oppenheimer, and of course some Mozart and Wagner. I grew up listening to rehearsals by symphony and chamber orchestras. I attended operatic performances inspiring me to sing my speech for weeks on end. I sat at a piano keyboard as soon as I could stretch across the keys and when a cello was first placed in my hand and my first note sounded, I knew I had found my anchor. Although I am not actively playing instruments any more for a variety of reasons, music is still important in my life. Classical music is always on in my car, I search YouTube for recommended contemporary music because I rely on the guidance of friends for a broader musical score. And every story I write always has music underpinning the words – even this one. Yes, I consider myself a musician, but more than that, I consider myself a music fan in all of its many forms, shapes and hues.

by Sara Nadeau

Artistic Interpreter –

When I was a young child I discovered that I could express my feelings through the visual arts. It is still my primary form of worship because through the works of my hands, eyes and spirit I celebrate the Powers who direct my life. My greatest happiness is to look at the artistic works of others and then return to my own studio to continue in my own endeavors. As a girl I worked with paints, pastels, pencils and clay. As I grew up I shifted into braiding elaborate braids with leather, embroidering and collage/decoupage. I always wanted to try stone carving but could never find a good studio and tools to use, but I worked with wood and leather, making a variety of items both useful and attractive. My art always was a foundation of my life, but the means of expression changed with my disposable income. For several years now I have been slowly accumulating the tools and equipment I want for the last twenty-thirty years of my artistic life. For the ending of my lifespan, as my body grows colder and less flexible, I’ll be working more with fire and molten glass, metals and color – always color.

Writer, Author, Reader –

If I wasn't born with a book in my hand, I should have been. From the time I was a small child I was raised with a love for books. My father believed strongly in the power of the written word and raised me with Greek Mythology as my bedtime stories. My father always wrote – stories, screenplays, and towards the end of his life, textbooks. My mother always read popular books – nothing earthshaking but she always had a book at her bedside. I had my nose in a book from the time I could read and have always written here and there. Because I despise handwriting anything, I have a trail of discarded journals behind me. The best gift of my youth was a manual typewriter. Suddenly I had a tool for writing and I never looked back. Many disastrous literary adventures and scholarly texts were pounded out on my typewriter, but I never actively sought to write fiction until a few short years ago. Now I am a published author, working on more submissions as well as a novel with another one in the wings. I have a broad group of on-line friends who share this addiction. How wonderful!

I wasn't quite this young when I got my first typewriter, but I wasn't
any older than ten years old. It was one of the best gifts of my life.

Spiritual Believer and Worshiper –

I was raised by parents who were, at best – agnostic, at worst – atheistic. The trauma of being Jewish in Europe during WWII never truly left my parents. It was part of their foundation and the reason why I had few living relatives remaining. Mother turned her back on God believing that any deity who would allow the murder of more than six million of his “chosen” people did not deserve her worship. I can’t say that I disagree. This lack of directed “popular” religious training allowed me to choose my own path. I explored everything – Christianity (several denominations), Judaism, even Buddhism. After many years I met the man I call brother – a full-blood Lakota Sioux and acknowledged spiritual leader. My steps on the Red Road helped finalize my divorce from traditional religions. Although I no longer worship at those altars, they taught me to acknowledge and to recognize the Powers. Today I am proudly Pagan. The Powers are everywhere in this world – they are multifaceted and their strength flows through each moment of life with a pulse that forms the heartbeat of Earth. This rhythm guides my thoughts and steps. It inspires my art and music. It forms my love.

I am so grateful for the life I've been granted and experience joy in each sunrise.

So there you have it – four different 200 word explanations of who I am and why I walk the pathway that I do. For better or for worse, this is me.