First up is my progress on “Fairy Flora.” I still enjoy working on her and every time I put a few hours into her I know that I am that much closer to finishing her. BUT… Every time I work on her I also know that I still have a long way to go.

As a matter of fact, according to my records, it won’t be long before I hit the 200 hour mark on her! That’s right… I said two hundred hours! I have never in my entire life put so many hours into a single cross stitch piece! I guess when I finally finish her I will know that I have earned the mark of a true Mirabilia stitcher.

These days when I am not working on Flo I am working on “The Bookshelf.” I find it to be a soothing stitch and with its minimal color changes, it will be done in no time. As of this evening it is 50% complete.

Tomorrow is my SAL day with Dawn. Since she is still waiting on her Kreiniks for “Harvest Witch” we have decided to go ahead and start our next SAL piece, “Summer’s Magic” by Dragon Dreams.

I am not exactly sure what fabric I am going to use for it, but I am leaning towards something in brown/tan to represent sand (the dragons are on the beach) and have three or four possibilities in my stash.

And finally, I want to wish all of the mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day tomorrow. May you get breakfast in bed, flowers, a card, and plenty of time to yourself for stitching!

You Are Basil

You are quite popular and loved by post people. You have a mild temperament, but your style is definitely distinctive. You are sweet, attractive, and you often smell good.

Hee hee… I was told just this morning (by He-Who-Must-Not-Yet-Be-Named) that I smell good too!

Of course, two weeks later when I finally did decide to make an appearance I did it in literally the most ass-backwards way. You see, I was a breech baby. My mother always jokes that I presented my best side to the world first, but I suspect I was just being cheeky.

Anyway…

This morning I received a visit from someone who, at this point, shall remain nameless. After an encounter we had last weekend, I had been waiting for (and looking forward to) this visit all week. During my discussion with He-Who-Must-Not-Yet-Be-Named the subject of my birthday, which this year falls the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend and on the opening day of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, came up.

When I mentioned to He-Who-Must-Not-Yet-Be-Named that my plans for my birthday included a long holiday weekend in which I planned drive to The Big City to see the long-awaited fourth installment of the Indiana Jones movies in a fancy cinemaplex, his response was that he would hate for me to be alone while celebrating these two important milestones. In that case, I told him, he was welcome to come with me and after he confirmed he would love to do just that, we made plans for… dare I call it a date?

I just hope he doesn’t mind too much when I drool over Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones for the entire two hours!

So… what did I learn in my novel writing class this semester? The simple answer is a lot. However, that doesn’t make for a very interesting blog post so I will expand.

I think the most important thing I learned in my novel writing class was that I finally got over my reluctance to let other people read what I write. Now, I am sure those of you who have been reading my blog for the past 4 years (If there is actually anyone out there that has been reading that long!) are probably thinking, “What the hell is she talking about? People have been reading what she writes all along.”

Well, I suppose that is true, but I will admit that for a while I turned comments off because even though technically I knew people were reading, it wasn’t until they started leaving comments that I really knew they were reading.

But when you write fiction and people read that… well, it’s different somehow.

Granted, when I write in my blog there is a certain amount of creativity that goes into each post, but at the same time I am reporting what is going on in my life and my life is not that much different than anyone else’s. I go to work, I dabble in my hobbies, I show off pictures of my children cats, I complain about things that irritate me, etc.

But when you write fiction, it’s art.

You pour your heart and soul into this creative process. You think about the characters you create and you become emotionally attached to them. Some days when you write you go places that you would never dream and other days you can’t believe the garbage that has flowed from your fingers. You know the story you are trying to tell and you do your damnedest to set it free. Although I have never given birth, it is the only metaphor that I think can probably do justice to the creation of such a thing.

And like a child, I want to protect my creation. I don’t want other people to criticize it. I don’t want other people to make fun of it or be mean to it. And so, if I keep my creation safe and secure in my drawer or on my hard drive there is no chance to expose it to the unsavory elements.

But eventually you realize that by protecting it (and yourself) you might be doing more harm than good and so you take a chance and you let other people read what you have done.

And that is what my novel writing class did for me. We were all in the same boat. We were all telling stories that meant something to us and as a result, we were sympathetic to one another’s hopes and fears about our writing. Our criticisms were productive and the ones I received only made my subsequent drafts better.

Now, I am not naïve enough to think that everyone that reads my manuscript will be as considerate as my classmates, but I believe now I have a thick enough skin that I can take whatever criticism comes my way.

For April, I planned to:

1. Continue my Sunday “Harvest Witch” SAL with Dawn. - Yep!
2. Participate in the April SAT. - Yep!
3. Work on “Fairy Flora.” - Yep!
4. Work on “Poet’s Heart.” - Yep! Finished it too!
5. Stitch (and finish) a Christmas Ornament for my 10 Ornies Challenge - Yep!
6. Order the Kreiniks and charms for “Harvest Witch” and the beads for “Spring Queen” and “In Cupid’s Garden.” - Yep!

All in all a very successful month if I do say so myself!

I think I will stick with “Fairy Flora” as my focus piece in May and go from there. So, for May I plan to:

1. Continue my Sunday SAL with Dawn. (While we wait for her Kreiniks to arrive we may go ahead and start our new SAL piece “Summer’s Magic” by Dragon Dreams.)
2. Participate in the May SAT.
3. Work for at least 10 hours on “Fairy Flora.”
4. Work on (and finish?) “The Bookshelf.”
5. Work on “Spring Queen.”
6. Stitch (and finish) one of my PIF gifts.