Bubbling

Bubbling over, to be honest.

And that isn't Always a good thing. Think pasta pots and stovetops. Think wasting a third of a bottle of tasty prosecco if/when I stumble before opening it, and two shakes of a good bottle later, you have less than you'd wanted.

But right now, it is a good thing. My brain is thoroughly a-bubble and it's been productive (not something I can usually say.

My two short stories have feedback trickling in from a few generous beta readers (THANK YOU LADIES!!) and I am putting together checklists and action items to keep things moving forward.

WHAT The heck for?

I am putting together a mixed-media portfolio of sorts, including assemblage/collage art. When the portfolio is complete, there are several different options I am considering for product development. And I do have a specific idea of what this will entail, but until I can pound out a business plan, it doesn't bear mentioning here. Happily, the web is full of HIGHLY encouraging resources.

As with writing, business doesn't get anywhere if you give up. Because of my blessed situation at home with the kids, it is to my benefit to pace myself and keep our world calm and stable. If I charge into something, I will burn myself out, and then EVERYthing will suffer. And I won't stick to my plan.

In practical, real world terms, I am going to be drawing and painting more, brushing up my business correspondence skills, and trying to do everything More efficiently at home, so there is MORE time for my loves and for my art. I am digging into research (so far I have about 25 pages of notes and pictures) and following up with practical resources online. As things unroll, I will post visuals here, so you can see the busyness pay off. I will leave you with a scrap of story number three (actually, it's the entirety of #3 so far, but it is fun :-) and there will be more.

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Paternal Duty, Discharged

My daughter sends me out, a withering glance heavy as a shove across my shoulders. I shrug them into the feathered cape, while she nods twice. Abruptly. Tilts eyes sidewise and looks down her nose. Says to my back, almost out the door, "Don't think of coming back without meat tonight. I don't care whose. Even if it takes you till morning." 

I half turn, and bow low to her. She, my only child.

"Bonne nuit, ma chère fille. Bonne nuit."

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There you have it. Lucky number three.


Have a lovely, productive day :-) I'll check back in next week, and let you know if I've already fallen into a self-dug pit. At least, if I do, i think it will be a pretty one!!

thanks again for coming by!

S.

very quickly, mini-news at the orchid house

Hello lovely strangers!

 I am only posting in quickly to say that I have hit a strange burst of creativity and have written two short stories this week, and started the seeds of a third. They are MINI stories - damn near 'flash fiction' and are thematically linked.

They are part of my 'multiple media' project I am burbling away on, and it's an exciting feeling to, um, Finish Two Stories.

I sent them off to the appropriate audience (er, I hope) for beta-reads, and should have some feedback. My readers are at varying levels of maturity and proficiency so I should get a nice cross-section of viewpoints.

Little bitty victories, but victories nonetheless.

I'd hoped for some quiet time with my husband tonight, instead we have a very Awake little boy. If I want to be Half as alert in the morning, it would behoove me to hop upstairs and see if everyone finally made it to sleep. Quiet time will have to wait for.....another quiet moment in the orchid house, I guess.

oh well.

I'll let the thrill of creativity surf me through tomorrow, and hope that can fire me up for less imaginative, but more important, parts of the real day. It's likely I will get a few 'Huh?'s", and perhaps a few...."hmmmms", for feedback,  and that's okay.

if I don't put it out there, I won't know what I have. And if I don't figure that out, it doesn't have legs.

And I'd rather hear that from people who presumably like me than complete strangers!

So, off to the next tomorrow.

Sweet, creative, and not-remotely-singed-dreams to you all ;-)

s.

Back to our new normal

Good morning, friends -

Those are snowflakes, not spots of white dirt on my window...

I have a few minutes here to point out that good old fashioned winter days still hit the midwest. It is snowing huge fluffy flakes, we've had a week of murderously cold temps (-30F wind chills. Mars is colder. Manitoba, too.) and we've all been pining for a break in the chill so we can go out and play.


When we can't go out and play, we get crabby and bored.


I am never a fan of crabby, but bored has it's upside ;-) I'm not technically ever bored, but if I get in a rut, the creative mode refills and, boy howdy, I get a headfull.

Basically, I have written 2 and a half short stories that came about via some visual research. I have an interest in developing decorative papers, and they ballooned into story lines :-)

Very short, sweet, and a bit funny, so now I don't know what color this kettle of fish is (a book? a multimedia book? a Digital multimedia book?) but it's keeping my brain busy. Happily, I discovered evernote - a management program that can save images, notes, webpages, websnippets, links, and contacts each into it's own 'notebook'. So, that's coming in handy!

I have a fresh pot of energy (seriously, not, today, a euphamism for coffee) so I am going to drink a big glass of water, exercise for a bit, and then get the day rolling. By the end of the day, I have more inspirations and I collect them in each notebook as the kid fall asleep. (I sit in a rocking chair, between the rooms at night by the lamp so each can see me if they need to). And then I spend the next day trying not to daydream. If this becomes more concrete, it will be fun to post the stories for you, but in the meantime, an orchid house update:

every routine shot to hell ;-)


most of us cleared of winter colds


orchids FINALLY budding, after years of waiting (feeding plants weekly. Who. Knew.???)

Orchid buds and snowflakes. January. Minnesota.

officially daydreaming about the spring gardening


volunteering at school (sometimes 3x per week) and I must be doing ok, no one has thrown me out yet.


That's all I can ask for, really.


I hope your winter is treating you kindly, and that you are safe and warm :-) Happy winter dreams to you all!


S.

This little light of mine....

Ah, at last.

Weeks late.

But, I did say I would post a picture of an ice lantern.

That was right before our spring thaw.

Which was followed by something like -22 C.

So, not ideal ice lantern weather.

There are two, courtesy of some mostly-useful cheap thriftstore buckets.

I was left with lumps of ice that were quite pretty (from weighing down the interior cup for the candle cavity), but I couldn't come up with a use for them. Watering the plants, I guess.

Anyway, they seem to work better than the half-orb bowls I did last month, they block a bit of the wind.

Minnesota winters are, in general, breezy.

We'll be going up and down the thermometer in the next two weeks, so whatever melts one day will be utterly dangerous all over the sidewalk the next.

Alright, back to the mayhem. More than usual (tame mayhem, by most standards. But mayhem and frazzle inducing nonetheless.) Among other things, I am sincerely wondering if I am smart enough to keep ahead of my kid.

Oh well, a bit of worry is as good as caffeine when you need to get something done :-)

Good night.
Stay warm.

Shed a little light.

The world seems to need it right now :-)

s.