It's NaNoWriMo Time

Its that time of year again.

This year I am going to be a Nano-Rebel. Which means you don't follow the rules. Sometimes that means you are working on non=fiction, or working on a story you've already started, or any other reason you can come up with.  I am going to continue working on my story of Caitlin the Celtic Archer.

My local group always has a theme.  This year its pirates. Here are my home made pirate fingerless gloves. aka an old pair of socks.

Here is a little drawing of my kitty Boromir. With all the writing and such going on in Novemeber I will be posting less, maybe 3 times a week instead of 5 or 6.

Reflections on a Busy Month

Its time for my month article focusing on creativity.  This is also posted in my newsletter.You get these if you subscribe to my newsletter but I like to include them here for any new visitors to my blog. 

Reflections On A Busy Month

This past November I had a lot of activities going on. Usually in November I participate in The National Novel Writing Month.  Now that activity is enough for a normal person but for me I had several other things going.

When I signed up for Connie Hozvicka’s Workshops, Creative Circles & Retreats it was going to be a handbook.  So I didn’t expect it to impact November at all.  Well she changed it and it turned into 4 conference calls. So there went that plan.

Then a couple months ago I signed up for Pauline Agnew’s course Draw and Paint What You Love.  It started in October and I knew it would impact November but I knew the course would be up there awhile so I had some leeway.

Then at the last minute I decided to sign up for Art Every Day Month.  I knew I would not be able to give up working in my art journal all month, so I thought I would do what I could do. I gave myself permission to participate fully or as little as I wanted to with no pressure.

So how did I manage it all?

The Creative circles course was all recorded so I downloaded the content to listen to later.  I printed off all the PDF’s and created a file for them and put them all away.  I plan to listen later.

The Art class worked in conjunction with Art Every Day Month. Often my art for the day was what I had made for my class assignments.  Its great when you can do double duty.  We had a Facebook group for our class assignments and first I would post there and then I would do a short blog post, uploaded it to Creative Every Day and I was finished.  It made it easy. I even threw in different creative days like weaving or knitting.  It really was an easy process for me.

Most of my writing was done at night.  We had scheduled Google+ Hangouts with my writing group so that was easily accomplished.

I think my success this month was structure.  I had a structure in place that made it easy to accomplish all the tasks I needed to do. As a creative person I usually resist schedules and structure.  I think this time my structure was fluid so it worked for me. So if you are a person who doesn't like structure you might give it try one more time.

November Is Almost Here

This November, I'm writing a novel. An entire novel, started from scratch, and completed in just one month, as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  And you thought nothing interesting ever happened in November.

This will be my 8th time participating in this fun, wacky, crazy event and I hope you'll step up and offer some support.

NaNoWriMo is free. I'm raising money to help the nonprofit that runs it build communities in classrooms, coffee shops, libraries, and living rooms all over the world and help the inspiration flow for me and thousands of my fellow novelists. Last year, they helped more than 450,000 people on six continents tell their stories, the way that I'm now telling mine. Through their Young Writers Program, they provided free curriculum, workbooks, and virtual classroom tools to 80,000 students and educators.

Every dollar I raise will keep my spirits high as I write my way towards the realization of my creative goals. More importantly, your contribution will help The Office of Letters and Light build a more engaged and inspiring world.

Thank you so much for your support of my writing! I'll be posting updates on my novel and fundraising on my sponsorship page throughout the month.

Go Here To Donate.

This years novel is going to answer the question What if you bought and old house and then started having visions of the past.  Our heroine Emma Cooper, recently widowed and facing financial ruin inherits an old house with a mysterious loom. Soon she starts having visions of the past.  Will her sanity go next?  Or perhaps the handsome stranger next door will help her solve the mystery.  Only time will tell.

I'll be posting my running word count in my sidebar so you can follow my progress.  This also means I will be blogging less.  I am going to try and post once a week.

Exploring Oil Pastel Sealers

Oil pastel on mixed media paper.  I still seem to be making those rock cairns from Sedona. I love them as an image.  They bring a sense of peace to me. I have discovered that doing all these heavy il pastels in my art journal has resulted in a problem.  How to seal them so they don't bleed on to the next page.  The internet menions 2 ways to seal, gloss/varnish and a spray on sealer.  I have tried both.  The gloss varnish leaves a glossy look an brush marks, The spray is better but it still put a sheen on it and it smells.  I really like it without, so one I could just leave the page next to it blank.  Then I would not need to worry about it contaminating another page. On my next one I will try hair spray and see what result that gives.

I ordered some of Alisa Burke's stamps and they came today.  I cut them out and stamped them all   on some scrap papers.  I love them, they are going to be so much fun to use in backgrounds.

Today I have had the post nano blues.  I spent most of the day cleaning, first my bedroom and then my office/writing room. Went out to lunch with a friend, spent some time with my daughter on the phone, wrapped some Christmas gifts, dug out some new projects to work on but can't seem to settle on anything.  When you are involved in something so intense as Nano is, its hard to change gears. Its hard not to feel a little bit sad that its over.

Raven Makes Me Smile

I was feeling a little down yesterday and then I saw Connie's post about crows and thought maybe I need to paint one of my own,  I had this blue/green background in my art journal that I didn't know what to do with it. I picked up a black oil pastel and drew this raven. I like the idea of keeping him partially blue/green.  It was a satisfying little drawing and then I felt uplifted.  I love how raven does that for me.

Nanowrimo is winding down.  I'm just a couple days from finishing and that feels good.  I am going to my last write-in with my peeps tonight.  We'll write and cheer each other on. I so love the community we have created.

My Inner Pink

One of things I have been doing for this years Nano is having fun.  One of the tools of Kaizen-Muse coaching is to act as if we were someone who is doing or being what we want to be. So I am acting like one of my favorite authors.  I got myself a pink wig so I look lik Laini Taylor. I am really exploring my inner pink this year .  What do you think, is it the real me? The color is even brighter than this shows.  Its been fun.  My friend Adam called me Laffy Taffy last night. He siad my hair reminded him of the pink version of the candy.

We have been having lots of fun in our group this year, I know I will miss it when the month is over.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Hey you still have an opportunity to help out with my fundraiser I am doing for the Nanorwrimo. The proceeds go to fund the Young Writers Program. Which is a very worthy cause. Just click on the button below. Any amount is helpful.

All Day Write In

I have been at an all day write-in today for Nanowrimo.  There was a lot of great food and conversation and boosting of word counts.  What more could you want.  It was a perfect day but I am pretty tired now. Thought I'd show my latest  journal page.  I have been doing a little art every day. Some is just a background and some I do try and make something with.

I hadn't intended to do a page on Frida. I created this wonderful background and tried doing a face. I always forget you can't do something like that over spray inks. Then I tried to fix it and the paper started to disintegrate so collage was the next step. This scrap of Salma Hayek as Frida seemed to fit the space very well, I am always amazed by the courage she had to live her life.

A Happy Accident

I had a happy accident in the studio last week.  On day one I cleaned off my pallette on some pages in one of my journals.  First I added orange.  The next day some green and the third day some blue. When it dried on the third day I looked at it quite surprised.

I had created what looked like a map.  How cool is that.

Then I outlined all the continents and bodies of water with a fine pitt artist pen.



















I love how I have all these little islands and rivers and lakes and some pretty interesting looking continents.  I think it would be fun to create a story to go with this world.

Speaking of stories I am a few days into Nanowrimo and things are going well. This page is a homage to that journey. I think every year I forget how hard this task really is.

Don't these colors look yummy. Its funny that I ordered similar colors in different mediums.

This page came about when I tried out my new Panapastel colors on it. I just drew shapes over all those luscious colors.  What fun. Its sort of like a cityscape with nothing particular in mind.

Have you had any surprises in your journal lately?

A Mermaid Arrives

This is the mermaid I painted for DEEP it is very tall, it actually goes from the ceiling to the floor in my studio.  I think the dimensions are about 24 x 90 but that is just a guess. The painting was a lot of fun.

NaNoWriMo started and we are off and running.  I won't be posting as much as a result.  I'd love it if you could support me by donating a small amount the the wonderful organization that puts this even on.  Check on my sidebar to donate or click on this link.

Writing Wednesday- Nano Kickoff Party

We had our Nano Kickoff party last night. We usually have a theme because its fun and it keeps people motivated. This is my CO-ML Amber with the artwork that my daughter Sarah created.

Amber is our super hero leader.

The two ML's of our group otherwise known as Wonder Woman(Amber) and her faithful sidekick Art Woman(Me).

We made 75 of these masks. Mine needs to be moved up a little, I can't see a thing.

Lee and Robin, you don't want to mess with these two.



Ana-Lisa, Amy and Rupert all in their masks.

These guys are also known as The Avengers and they are the best writing buddies a girl could have,

The had to pose as the You Should Be Writing Guys.

Then some of us unmasked ourselves. These ladies are new members so I don't know their names. We had a blast at our kickoff and I know November is going to be awesome.

For those who need some art inspiration, here are two pages in my art journal that I have been working on.

I showed these backgrounds previously in this post 

Its Almost November

I missed most of October being gone so now November is right around the corner.  How time flies. As many of you know I set aside November to write a  novel. This enterprise is put on by the Office of Letters and Light the organization that hosts the National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo as it is affectionately called. It is a worthy cause and organization that is run by donations.  They have a young writers program and an adult program.  I always try to do my part and donate something every year.  This year I am going one step further and am giving all of you a chance to donate and to take part in my Nano month. You can go directly to my fundraising page and read all about it here.  Or just donate through the button below. I will be posting my progress throughout the month on the site and as I usually do here on this blog.  I would really love your support.

Writing Wednesdays - Pinterest for Writers

Pinterest is a familiar application for a lot of us. In my first look at Pinterest I thought of it as a way to collect the things you like that you find the net. I did not use it a lot at first. Then I saw how people are using it to market their products. There are seminars on how to use Pinterest this way. Then there are the Artists who are using it, Some use it to show off their work and others create boards of inspiration. This can really be fun to do.

Now how can writers use Pinterest? There are several ways I use Pinterest for my writing. First the simplest way is to create a board about your Work in Progress. There are a lot of writers doing this. Its nice to have a visual of what your characters might look like, or the setting or of the events that will happen in your story.  I like to look at my board to keep me into the story, to keep me motivated. Motivation for writers is always a good thing.  But how else can you use it? I have boards for possible future characters, favorite scenery, costuming ideas, Words of wisdom, and more. The ideas are only limited by your imagination.

I print out pictures and put them in my notebook when working on my outline. Sometimes I create screen savers of all the pictures for my novel. I did that for NaNoWriMo last year and it worked great. Pinterest is a fun tool for writers but its easy to get sucked into spending hours on it.  So you may have to work on limiting your time on the site.  You can follow my boards here  If you have a unique way of using Pinterest tell me in the comments.

I WON NaNoWriMo

On Monday night I finished Nanowrimo for this year.  A whopping 50,021 words. The story is not finished but a I have a good start on this and that is what Nanowrimo is all about.  Getting your story,your ideas and some sort of plot on the page.  I am taking a break in December and then I plan to get back to working on this story in January.

The latest 2 page spread in my altered book journal.

The background was made with stamping ink pads and oil pastels and charcoal,

This background was made with ink pads and water. Images were added and embellished with charcoal  and oil pastels.  The bird is from a collage sheet by Zorana

I still will be a doing a little art stuff in November, mostly simple pages that will not take too much time. This page was made with an oil pastel background and a picture I took in Sedona a few years ago.  We stopped in this place where there were vortexes and these rock cairns were everywhere.  It was such an amazing thing to see.

Nanowrimo started yesterday, so we are off an running now.  I put a word widget in my sidebar that you can view to see my progress.

Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead

Well granted it is not really Día de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead until tomorrow but I am posting today anyways. My church always celebrates and this year I took part in creating the altar decorations. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday.

Here you can see bread left out and the skulls my daughter made.

We have members put out pictures of their loved ones who have passed.

We added a stuffed animal pet to represent those pets we have lived with and who have died. You can also see the picture of my grandmother that I have placed on the table.

Dishes and food are left for our ancestors in case they are hungry when they come back.

These are the 2 shrines I made for my parents. They were made out of old altoid tins.
















Here is a close up of the skulls that my daughter made. First they were crocheted and then deorated with embroidery floss. Aren't they just the cutest?

November 1


In addition to being The Day of the Dead, November 1st is also the beginning of the National Novel Writing Month.  Since I will be participating again blogging will be taking a slide. I promise to blog at least once a week during the month.




 Oh I just saw this video and loved it. Don't you love watching other artists work, I know I get inspired watching videos like this.

Happy Halloween, Samhain and Day of the Dead to all of you.

Sketching a character

I don't have much of a blog post today.  Its been a very busy week.  I am doing a series of sketches of some characters in a novel that I am revising.  This is the first of a series. She is not exactly what I envisioned but I will keep working at it.

I have done very little work in the wax class other than make paints and medium. I am hoping for some studio time soon.

We had our Nanowrimo kickoff tonight and the response was amazing. 40 people showed up and the library had put us in this tiny room. It was fine but crowded and great to be with all these wonderful writers.  I am looking forward to the frenzy of November.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

The Night of Writing Dangerously

One of the events for Nanowrimo is held the 3rd Sunday in November in San Francisco.  Its a big production with lots of people and prizes and all that jazz. Our local group decided we needed to have our own version. It was held Friday night. It  is an all night event but I only stayed till 2:30 AM. Also note the Viking helmet is a Nano symbol.

Here is my friend Amber and our ML this time, as a Viking.

Robyn our host on the left in the back. That is Sarah beaming because she got to 50,000 words that night.

I had to have the hat during the night too!

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen where all the food was.

and finally some serious writing got done.

At the write in on the next day.  Sarah has her army buddies.

Then the army got all lined up and ready for war.  Now let me tell you that we all got soldiers in our goody bags at the beginning.  They were there to help us push on through to success.  I have a whole collection.  You need to have something to play when you don't feel like writing.

A great time was had by all, I did manage to get quite a bit of writing done. Thanks to Robyn who hosted this event. We now have 3 people who are finished. That is pretty amazing since we are only half way through. Congrats to the winners!

Wishcasting Wednesday What do you wish to enjoy?

Its Wishcasting Wednesday and since Jamie has been out of town at a wedding I wasn't sure if she was going to be posting today or not.  Since she is back now we get to wish.  So the question of the day is What do you wish to enjoy?

No question about it I wish to enjoy doing Nanowrimo this time. Now I really do enjoy it or I would not be doing it for the fifth time. It is more that I wish for less stress about the whole novel writing process.  I wish to get a grasp on what this story is really about.  I wish to have fun with it and not take it too seriously. I wish for the ideas to come easily and that I  just enjoy discovering what its to be.

What do you wish to enjoy?  Come join in here and see what others are wishing today!

Let the Games Begin

Let the games begin. Just a heads up for all I won't be blogging as much this month as most of my words will be going into a novel.  I usually start at 12:01 November first and get a few words in before I go to bed.  Last night I was so tired I just couldn't stay up. So this year I am behind already but I can catch up easily.  I am giving myself a little procrastination time this morning.

Yesterday I had the most interesting day. Some of you may have been to Sedona or know that Sedona has these amazing vortexes where the energy is really different. Well apparently Idaho has some similar areas and I so wish I had pics to share. It had been a stressful morning where everything went wrong and I left my camera at home.  I know you have probably seen cairns before.

This is one in Sedona from a couple years ago.  Sometime the rocks are flat or other times you can see them more like this.

These cairns also in Sedona are all smooth rock piled in beautiful arrangements. Now picture yourself in a very rugged landsacpe of the deserts in the west. There are rolling hills filled with 

lots of sage brush

and juniper bushes

and lava rock

 and then you see these cairns piled in these high points.  There were 5 in the first place we stopped and they are called the five guardians. All the rock piled are jagged lava lock and the energy felt so amazing there. You can not help but wonder what the native people used the area for.  I also learned there are also areas like this with cairns all over the dessert.  We stopped at another place and had a fire and a gratitude circle.  It was the last day of the Celtic year so we wrote out all our wishes for the new year and put them in the fire.  I was with a big group of people of all ages.  It was a really special day.

I even decided to use the area as a setting for my novel.  I like how that worked out.

(Sedona pics were by taken by me but all others are from the internet.)