Christmas Crafts

So in November during the heat of Nanowrimo, I came across UHU's sample offer thanks to Go Freebies.com. Basically, they send you project materials and a sample of their product in exchange for your opinions. I thought the project sounded easy, so I sent an email, and quickly learned that there were no samples left to be had, but they had projects every month.

December's project was to create glass bead magnets. I've seen this done before where a family made a whole bunch to sell at a flea market using very small stickers. They were cute, but not appealing enough to me that I wanted to buy any. I requested a sample and was pleased to find that I'd been selected.

When my package arrived, I found they'd supplied me with a full size bottle of their Twist and Glue product, along with ten glass beads and ten magnets. I decided to go with a wintery theme for most of them, and used a couple old Christmas cards with snowflake images for all but one.

The instructions were pretty simple. The glue was pretty easy to use, though the glue did blow tiny bubbles a few times while I was using it. After gluing the paper to the beads, I used my hubby's pocketknife to cut away the excess paper and then glued the magnets on. The magnets had a little tendency to slide off the glue, but I remedied it by standing the bead on the magnet. The glue dried amazingly fast, and I was even able to use it to repair the plastic USB Christmas tree too.

Here are pictures of the finished product. Four of them are going to be a Secret Santa gift. I'm keeping the rest. I love snowflakes :)

Phew!

Once again, it comes down to the wire.

On midnight Sunday, I wound out having my most productive day ever with over 4,000 words written in a single day! This brought the total word count to 48,333, which meant that after 29 days, I finally managed to get caught up.

With only 1,667 words to write to make the 50,000 words, I was feeling relatively good. I worked for another hour and a half before heading to bed, which left only about 1,300 words to go. I toyed with the idea of calling in sick, and rejected it. I took an hour long lunch and banged out a few hundred more words. I spent my afternoon break writing a few more words by hand. I thought I might get more written on the drive home, but I managed to make it through the majority of the lights.

But once I got home, it was tough going. I got kind of stuck until about 9. At 10 pm, my son called me, wanting to talk while he waited to catch the MAX. I listened and continued to type. I still had a few hundred words to go. I knuckled down and managed to reach 50,000 words around 11:00. Feeling drained, I decided to call it a night at 11:30 with 50,264 words and 1,931 words written for the day, an improvement from last year on both stats.

I also came up with the grain of a possible idea for next year's Nano. It's bookmarked and I'll come back to it later. And I don't think I'm going to Las Vegas in November next year. So maybe I'll try for 51,000 words. :)

Uncertainty

Wow, the last weekend day of 2009! Where did the time go? I've still got slightly less than 4,500 words before the deadline of midnight Tuesday. I'm not sure I'm going to make it, but my confidence grows with every 100 words I bang out.

So now for a short intermission of household chores and tea brewing, and I'll be back at it once more!

Halfway there!

Well, things didn't go quite as well as I hoped. On my way home from work, the flash drive containing my Nano fell out of my purse and slipped under the seat. I had to dig it out, which wasn't an easy task. One of my two plot ninjas is also missing, as it probably also fell out of my purse and slipped under the seat, but I didn't notice that in my haste to make it in the door. I've still got one though, and he seems to be helping.

Tonight I made it to 25K, the halfway point, and continued to forge ahead. I spent a little time celebrating it and watched the Blazers game on tv. (They pulled out a win...barely) I made it to 26K a little after 11. When all was said and done, I fell about 40 words short of my current catch up point, but hey, that still means I wrote over 1,900 words today, and over 2,000 yesterday. I'm still hopeful about catching up...the weekend isn't too far away and I hope to make some real progress....

Nanowrimo Souvenirs

If I haven't mentioned it before, this is my 6th year doing Nanowrimo.

Over the years, I've collected various objects that either inspired or aided me in my quest for 50,000 words. The most memorable items include:

Bicentennial quarter - exceedingly rare to find in your change these days, it was the inspiration for my 2008 Nano, Tricentennial.

Coffee cup - arrived in my Nanowrimo care package last year.

pair of postcards from Illinois- (see above). I've included postcards from the Rose City when I sent out my Nanowrimo care packages.

squishy six-sided die - a great stress reliever bought for my 2007 Nano A Roll of the Dice.

set of light blue frosted polyhedral dice - picked up at a convention many years ago as 'swag'. Used for my 2007 Nano as a decision making tool.

pair of 1 1/4" ninja figures - picked up in Las Vegas last week during the convention I attended. They are 'plot ninjas', helping me boost my word count.

pair of rubber bouncy balls given to me by an ML (Municpal Liason) in 2005. I chose them because my MC 'had balls', literally and figuratively...

Okay, so I don't really have much in the way of souvenirs for my 2004 Nano, but still, it's starting to be an impressive collection.

2,000 word day!

Still feeling poorly from a lingering cold/sinus infection, I decided to stay home from work. I got up around 9:30 am and set to work on the Nano. I also got the clean dishes put away and did three loads of laundry.

But more importantly, I managed to write over 2,000 words today. Finally, I was able to catch up on some of the word count I lost while I was in Las Vegas this last weekend.

Unfortunately, I think I'm feeling well enough that I'm going to go in to work tomorrow....

We interrupt this Nano....

4 days and so far so good. I've hit 4,500 words, which is a bit behind, but not terribly so. I hope to make a lot of progress on our flight to Las Vegas. I'm attending a convention, so I don't expect to get a lot of writing done this weekend except in small bits and pieces.

However, I do expect to have a lot of fun...and I'll miss my two cats terribly.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Less than an hour to go. I'm tired after playing 36 holes of disc golf (and getting up too early to play), but I'm determined to make it to midnight. I'd like to make it to two and see the Changing of the Time, but that's a different battle.

Another cup of tea for me? Probably.

What to do? The notes are open, the spreadsheet is waiting. A new word document awaits. Now to file some papers and wait with bated breath.

Breakthrough!

Well, I was fretting about not having a good idea, but it seems the logjam broke, and the outline actually started coming together. I have an end in mind, but as always, the trickiest part is getting there from the beginning.

I still need more characters, but I have decided on the main character. She's not going to have a very good day...

Wow, October Already

Wow, it's October already and I've got the small fragment of an idea for a Nanonovel. So I have the main character. Now I need a team to build around the MC. And they need to have some interactions between them too. Perhaps they can be like the A-Team of old. Nah, I've never been too good at crazy.

I do have something going for me this year, as Daylight Savings Time actually ends on November 1st, which means an extra hour of writing. :) I'm going to be going to Las Vegas for a few days in November too, which means I'll have less time to write, but I can certainly write on the plane.

But until then, there's Halloween to worry about. I have three Halloween party invitations. One (the week prior) I can't do because we'll be out of town that week. Usually it falls on my gaming night. The other is hosted by a local store, and the last is a friend of my hubby's. We'll probably not go to them, as we're playing the Hope Open, a disc golf tournament in Corvallis.

Counting the days....

The 1st of September

Wow, the summer's over. Nanowrimo isn't too far off. This year's going to be challenging, I think, as I'm planning to go to Neoncon in Las Vegas from the 5th to the 8th. At least they have lunch and dinner breaks, so maybe I can sneak in some novelling.

But right now, I still have no idea what I'm going to write. Nothing new, really. But there's still time.

Speaking of time, work is still as stressful as ever. At least I get to work overtime, but that's because one of my co-workers went back to Texas, so now there are only 4 of us doing the work of 6. Ugh! I suppose I should be glad that I have a job, since my state has the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the whole country.

The other challenge is Facebook. It's a major time sucker. Must cut back....

April Sunshine

So now it's April and the first weekend of nice weather we've had here in ages! So I didn't waste it and went out disc golfing. It was supposed to be me, my hubby and two friends, but another couple decided to join us Friday evening, and two more guys showed up that morning, so we started with a huge group of 8 but soon decided to split off - three girls, five guys. Only problem, the three of us didn't have a clue about the course. We played 17 holes and then called it quits. Doh!

Okay, so I've been occasionally working on rewriting my 2007 Nanonovel. I've also taken back the reins of Mage Phoenix. But I suppose I should start thinking about 2009's novel. Only thing is that there's a convention in Las Vegas that I'm thinking about attending. Fortunately it's the first weekend of November, so maybe I won't lose too much word count. :)

And I'm back to trying to find a different job. I made some progress in February, but my grandfather's death in March set me back a little ways. I haven't found many jobs that have met my criteria but I'm still looking...hope springs eternal, right?