Monday, August 16, 2010

My blog has moved

Dear Shell,

Due to issues with people not being able to leave comments, issues with not being able to post pictures or working links, and other issues...I am leaving blogspot/blogger and moving to wordpress.

My new blog, Inside My Imagination, can be found at http://insidemyimagination.wordpress.com/

I hope you join me and follow my new journey.

Shell

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Fiber Cult

Dear Shell,

The title probably is making you go "What the hell! What is Fiber Cult? Is it a cult of people increasing their fiber intake? Who would join a club like that?"

You'll be glad to know, Fiber Cult is not about increasing your fiber intake. A Fiber Cult is actually more of a craft club, the actual name of it is Eye For Fiber. A group of women, including my mom and now myself, gather once a month to compare craft projects, talk about crafting, and offer suggestions if needed. Most of the crafting involves fabric and what you can put on fabric, from what I understand of it. I've only been to one meeting so far.

And the funkier and brighter, the better! Why use tan when you can use orange? Why use soft blue when you can use neon green? Why not add sparkly rings and fuzzy yarn?

A few months ago they decided to start a fabric challenge based off an idea in a magazine (I'm not sure which magazine it was though). Each person starts with a roughly 18" x 22" fabric piece of their choice. Whatever color they want. Each month, a piece of paper is pulled from a cup with a prompt on it. The prompt tells what needs to be added next to the piece of fabric. One month's prompt could be completely different from the month before, resulting in a very interesting end piece once all the prompts are done and the challenge is called to an end.

I joined the group on the meeting where they pulled the 3rd prompt for the challenge, so I've been trying to get caught up on my fabric piece so that I'm at the same point as everyone else. It's been interesting so far. I almost have the 2nd prompt done and am trying to figure out what to do for the 3rd. 'Add something unusual to add texture'. Hm, this could be...very strange!

Well I have dishes to do and dinner to plan, then a challenge prompt to finish, so I'm going to sign off for now.

Shell

p.s. Mom... look! a new blog post! :P

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Dance Exercise

Dear Shell,

Recently I picked up a dance exercise video. Hip Hop Dance Mix, in the 10-Minute Solutions family of videos. Wow... after one 10 minute session I was ready to collapse! I think my body forgot how to move for more than walking and other daily activities. Worked up a good sweat with that session as well.

Today I picked up Dancing With The Stars - Latin Dance Mix (something like that). Some of the dances on there, it was hard to get my body to move like that. The Samba wasnt too bad. I only tripped myself, oh, a few times. :)

This is the type of exercise I think I can stick with. It works out my body and teaches me something fun at the same time. Eventually, I'll be able to pick the exercise with music only option instead of instructions option (this is on the Dancing With The Stars video).

Here's to hoping I can "dance my ass off"...literally!

Shell

Thursday, May 20, 2010

5 Years Ago...

Dear Shell,

5 years ago tomorrow, May 21st, I did something very special, and in a unique way. I got married to a wonderful person, and we had the wedding ceremony on... a train! Yes that's right, J and I got married on a train. Not just any train, but the Michigan Star Clipper dinner train.

5 years. 5 years is not very long in the scheme of life overall, and it went by in a flash, but a lot happened in the last 5 years. I'll just touch on a few items here.

J had a few changes in the work end of things, finally ending up at a place where he seems to really like his job. He quickly moved up to being a team leader, proving to his team and his employer that he was highly knowledgeable in his work.

I quit working at one job to finish college, and saw my health improve drastically from what it was while I was working there. I went from having obstructions in my lungs and very poor breathing to having low-end of normal breathing with no obstructions. Finished college, with a bachelors in Management... a field I have no interest in anymore. Now I'm back working for a place that I worked at when I was 19. And I'm really liking the place. Different duties now than I had then, but it's a good job.

A year ago we lost a beloved pet. It was difficult getting to the point of being able to think about Junior without crying. Even now, I still miss him.

A few months ago, we bought our first "real" house. A 1700 sq foot ranch with a basement and garage, and 1 1/2 acres. We moved from a double-wide trailer in a park, which was a good home, but didn't fit what we really wanted. This house, while it needs work, is just what we wanted. We're learning a lot while we find things here that need to be fixed or updated, and it's been fun.

A few months ago we also acquired a new pet. A black and white kitten that we named Penelope. She's quickly become a very affectionate, very loved addition to the family. She loves to cuddle, especially with me.

What will the next 5 years bring? Hopefully a child or two. Our house becoming more of what we want with the updates. More knowledge of apple trees...(our house came with an apple orchard, we're hoping to not kill the trees off haha).

Whatever life brings, we'll face it together.

Looking forward to the next 5, 10, 50 years,
Shell

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Decaying Flesh...

Dear Shell,

No, I'm not talking about a disease. I'm talking about the color, former color that is, of the spare bedroom in our house. It was a godawful orangy-peachy-salmon-icky color that wouldn't look good on anything, especially not bedroom walls. I'm not talking about the nice salmon color you see on shirts or other fabrics. This was.. horrible.

But, it is now a soft and pretty blue called Ocean Dream. We only have the first coat done so far but it is a huge improvement on the room. One wall, an accent wall, will end up a shade or two darker tomorrow when we put the second coat on. Then once everything dries, we put the curtain rod back up, put the bed back in and together, and get the decor set up.

I thought about going with a beach theme, with stenciled seashells and such. But there will be a very special quilt on the spare bed which my grandma made for J and I as a wedding gift. It is several shades of blue and has flowers scattered through the fabric. Since the quilt is very special and I chose the blue for the room based on the quilt, I will end up stenciling in some flowers and doing the decor along those lines.

The curtains that were in the room, Mom and I are going to see if we can maybe alter them slightly to make them fit. They have burgundy on them but also have flowers embroidered into the fabric. I think if we can figure out a good way to add some blue to the curtains, then they'll fit nicely into the room and I wont have to buy new curtains.

Well it's late and I have to work tomorrow so I better get to bed so I can get a good night's sleep.

Slightly high from paint fumes...
Shell

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Overtime, Crafts, Writing, and ME

Dear Shell,

Work has been going well. Lots of overtime, but I expected that when I hired into the company. The work is easy and my team has been great. My boss was pretty cool about letting me take this weekend off to recover from exhaustion and an ear infection/sinus infection.

The downside to working all the overtime... I haven't had much ME time, for my crafts or my writing. I think I've only dedicated 2-3 hours total to writing since I started working again, and some of that was on editing not new writing (although the editing seriously needs to get done). The past two weeks I haven't done much with crocheting either. I'm still at the 2/3rds mark on the 3rd lap blanket. I tried to crochet some last night, but ended up napping instead. Really needed the nap though.

I woke up this morning with a scene for one of my novels running through my head. So far I've been awake 4-5 hours and I have three sentences of it written down. Oops.

I miss writing. I miss my writing group. I've missed all meetings since NaNo ended. Its hard to head to Flint at 6pm for a meeting on a Sunday though when I've been up since 3am and already put in 8 hours of work and have to be up at 5am the next morning. Hopefully next weekend when the next meeting is scheduled I'll be able to make it, since I had this weekend off to recover and catch up on some sleep.

Well, I'm going to try to get the rest of this scene written down while it's still running through my head.

wondering where her sanity is,
Shell

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lap Blankets for Cancer Patients

Dear Shell,

Mom and I are crocheting lap blankets (36"x36") for one of the cancer centers that Mom's friend goes to. Karmanos Cancer Institute (Michigan). If I understand correctly, when a new patient comes into the cancer center, they are given a lap blanket that becomes their blanket to use. They take it home, bring it back for each of their appointments, etc. It's something to give them something to fuss with with their hands, something to give comfort, something for warmth. Right now, Karmanos Cancer Institute is low on lap blankets. They need more.

Wouldn't it be great if they had an excess, because they didn't have any need for them due to patients being cured? Unfortunately, that's not the case. They have more patients than they have blankets to give.

I know people out there besides Mom and I know how to do these crafts. The blankets can be crocheted, knitted, quilted. They don't need to be super fancy with all the frilly trim and delicate time-consuming stitches, but they do need to be warm. Cheerful colors are good as well, something to help brighten an otherwise dismal time.

Please, if you know how to crochet, knit, sew... please help us with making lap blankets for Karmanos, and possibly other cancer centers once Karmanos has extras saved up. The Lapeer Cancer Center is good on blankets right now, but they may run low at any time, so they will be kept on the list of potential recipients.

For those followers who know me, you can contact me through email, phone, Facebook, or a comment here, whichever is the best way, if you are able to make some blankets to help out. If you can have some made and ready by the end of each month, I can get them to Mom so we can get them delivered during the first week of the next month.

Thank you to everyone,
Shell

Thursday, February 25, 2010

2010 - Busy Year Already

Dear Shell,

Much has happened so far in 2010.

As you can see in the coupon savings widget on the right, I am again attempting to track all grocery savings for the year. I did pretty good in 2009. Hopefully I can improve on the savings in 2010. My goal is to save at least $700 this year with coupons and other savings.

In January, we moved into our new house. It's quickly become home to us, not just a house. We're still not fully unpacked, but some of the stuff is in the breezeway and it's freezing out there, so I told J that we'd wait til it warmed up a little before heading out there to go through the boxes. Most of it is knick-knacks and books, everything else is in the house and mostly unpacked. My office/craft room is still a mess. The shelves I planned on putting in here are still in the garage, we just haven't taken the time to clean them up and bring them in yet.

At the end of January I finally found a job (thanks to my best friend Jenn!). I'm back working for a company that I worked for back in 1995-1998. Lots has changed, and some is still the same. I'm doing a different job now though. I'm a Manufacturing Technician 1, whereas when I worked for them before I was a Machine Operator. I'm enjoying the work, it's fairly easy and I get to work with my hands. Oh yeah, I get to play with power tools! The hours are not too bad either, I'm actually getting about 6 hours of sleep each night, which is just about right (if i try to go to bed early, I still end up waking up after 6 hours anyways). I've been there a month now and I'm still liking it.

Around the same time that I started the job, we got a new kitten. My cousin Lisa rescued some kittens from behind her work, so J and I talked about it and decided to help her out by adopting one of the kittens. Penelope, or Penny, is a tuxedo cat (black and white) with very unusual copper colored eyes. J picked the name Penelope out before he even saw her, based on the description I gave him of her colors. And once we realized what color her eyes were, the nickname Penny really seemed to fit. She's a cuddler and she loves my hair. At night, at least a couple nights a week, she'll come into the bedroom and curl up around my head (back paws at my neck, body wrapped around the top of my head, and her head resting by my ear). She's only 4 pounds right now, so her weight isn't enough to affect my sleeping. Once she gets bigger though, she's not going to be able to sleep like that.

I don't remember if I mentioned it in an earlier blog post, but our house came with a small apple orchard. We were told maybe 7 apple trees. But looking at our backyard and counting all the trees that look similar (crooked trunks, short, similar branches, etc)... I think we have around 30-35 apple trees! I hope everyone at work likes apples because I'll be taking in boxes and boxes of them. As long as we don't kill the trees on accident! I've already started researching what we need to do with fertilizing, pruning, and stuff like that. Still need to figure out what we need to do for disease- and worm-prevention.

Now that I'm getting fairly adjusted to my new schedule (omg I have to get UP at 5am, not go to bed AT 5am!!), I'm finally getting back into some writing. I'm working on a short story right now to get the creative juices flowing again. Then I'll jump back into editing my first two novels, "Dragon Eye" and "Hideaway Inn".

Well I need to go take care of some household stuff!

Searching for a new red pen,
Shell

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Examiner

Dear Shell,

http://www.examiner.com/x-35797-Flint-Cooking-Examiner?showbio

I have recently started writing for Examiner.com. My first two articles needed to have some changes done to get them set up the way they wanted them, but now I am considered a regular Cooking Examiner! I just posted my third article today. From what I understand from the information that was sent to me and the training videos, I need to try to post at least 3-4 articles per week, the more the better. And they need to be local whenever possible.

Unfortunately, the "local" is Flint, and I do not know Flint all that well, especially when it comes to food/ingredient shopping. So I'm having to research the different grocery stores and such to try to include them into my articles as places to get ingredients. In my research though I did find a grocery store in Flint that caters mostly to Indian ingredients, so I may have an article about that store next. I did get permission to write about some of places in the towns around Flint, but they'd prefer I use Flint mostly.

Another unfortunate thing is, they frown upon first person writing, which makes it hard to write about an experience with a recipe and the results if you have to write it in third person. But I shall prevail!

Pay rate depends on page views and length of session on the page, although they are making a change next week. Starting next week, there will be a small bonus included for local articles, up to 5 local articles per week.

This won't be a high paying job, I'll be lucky to make enough for a nice dinner out each month, but every penny helps. I love writing and this lets me get some exposure as a writer, and experience doing it.

Keep those pots and pans ready!
Shell

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Green Glowing Eye

Dear Shell,

Time for a short short. Rough draft, has not been edited.

The Green Glowing Eye

What is that? I jumped back several feet, my hand creeping up to rest at the base of my throat. Heart pounding, I took two steps down the long dark hallway. Nothing. Just my imagination working overtime again. Sighing, relaxing again, I took another step.

Wait, there it is again. Halfway down this pitch black hallway. Glowing green and suspended in the air. Oval shaped, like an eye. Not blinking, just staring at me. What is that eye attached to? Some sort of monster waiting to pounce?

I can’t move. I want to run but I can’t. The breath is caught in my chest, sweat gathering on my forehead. My hands, I can’t even move my hands to protect myself. That green eye has paralyzed me.

It moved. I swear it just moved. Closer? Please tell me it didn’t move closer. The trapped air in my chest released, followed by several rapid shallow breaths.

What is it, what is that monster? What does it want with me? What is it going to do to me?

I have to be strong. I took a deep shuddering breath, closed my eyes to break the monster’s paralyzing stare. One step forward. Then another. I opened my eyes again and jumped forward, fingers curled like claws ready to gouge that glowing green eye out of the monster’s head. My fingers wrapped around the eye, ripped it out of its socket.

I held that eye in my hand, no longer glowing, no longer staring at me. With my other hand, I reached out and turned on the light. Looking down, I could only shake my head at the nightlight resting in my hand.





Hope you enjoyed it.
Shell

Friday, January 1, 2010

2009 Recap

Dear Shell,

2009 was a fairly good year. I got a lot of writing done, but I know I could have done more. I learned new crochet patterns and actually branched out into playing with crochet cotton and making doilies. I participated in NaNoWriMo again and won for a second year in a row. And I'm really liking the novel I wrote for NaNo this time. Not that I hate the first one I wrote, but I didn't make as many mistakes this time around.

The end of 2009 saw us buying a new home and starting to move stuff in. Stress, panic, joy, fear, happiness... we saw all the emotions flying in the last month of 2009. I have a lot of the smaller stuff moved in, but wow do we still have a lot of stuff to move! I think we have the guys lined up for the 9th to get the furniture moved in, so i have a few more days left to get the rest of the small stuff moved before hand (need to reuse some boxes so i need to move what i can now so we can use the same boxes for more stuff).

In 2009 I also started using coupons more for grocery shopping, and tracking how much I saved, which helped keep me going with it. From March to December, I saved us $528.96, which was 23% savings. So we went from an average of $232 per month grocery bill to $178.50 average bill. This is not counting the occasional trips up to the local meat market to pick up meat, which this year I plan on tracking better (no savings there, but need to track how much is spent). Since we're moving though and wont be practically next door to the meat market, I don't think we'll be having as much spent there now. I'll have to either get a meat bundle from them, or buy more meat from the grocery store. We're thinking of eventually getting a deep freezer for the basement or garage and then we can buy a half a cow or pig or something and stock up that way.

Well I should get back to packing,
Shell