Headboard

I made a headboard for myself.  It is covered in grey velvet. (The colors in my room are grey and purple).  It was a pain to actually put together, and I dont think i will ever do it again (unless i was paid very well to do it, haha).

It has some mistakes here and there, but overall i like it and i think it turned out really well.

Here it is:

Painting

I bought a Groupon some months ago for a painting class that I thought looked fun.  Then I sorta forgot about it.  And then I put it off because of all the craziness in November.  But I knew the expiration was for the Groupon was coming up soon, so I signed up for the class and went tonight.  I went by myself but I actually had a really really good time.  It is a class where they give you all of the supplies (paint, brushes, canvas) and take you step by step through a whole painting and you get to walk out with your artwork at the end of the night.  You are basically just copying a painting that someone else has painted and donated, so you know when you sign up what you will be painting.

Our painting was called "Whimsical Tree of Life." Which looks like this:

It sort of looks tribal, or...something.  (Oh, and that tall black thing on the right branch, a bird, not a person, which we all thought for a second.  ha!)

Here is mine:

Blank canvas

 My tree

 This next step was really hard for me.  I really just wanted to develop my tree and leave it as a tree with none of the other stuff.  I am sort of a minimalist that way, but i plugged on, reluctantly.

 Finished!

Not exactly the same as the original, but close and it is uniquely mine, I suppose.  I really had such a good time and it felt so good to start the evening with a blank canvas, feeling totally insecure that I wouldn't be able to make it look good, to a nice finished product.  Awesome!

Also, I won a drawing and got to pick out a painting from the wall of finished paintings.  This is the one i picked (to hang in my bathroom):

I like its straight lines, and sharp contrast of shading, and its minimal-ness.  

The Plot

In case you were wondering what the plot of my story is (several people have asked), here it is.

It is about a girl in college who's father was adopted as a baby.  She decides she wants to know who her father's biological parents are so she researches and finds the mother.  The old woman is living in a nursing home close to where her parents live.  She decides to go meet her, but is afraid to tell her who she is, so she comes up with a story that she is writing a paper for her English class about the 1950s and she needs a first hand account.  Through a series of flashbacks you see the old woman's life in high school and all the decisions she made leading up to giving her baby away, along with the emotional and social repercussions of that decision.



As a totally random side note. I took a typing test to see how fast I can type now.  57 wpm.  That is up from 43 before I started November.  Pretty awesome.

Here are my stats from the contest.  (just for fun)

The NaNoWriMo

Most of you know that I participated the The National Novel Writing Month contest last month.  It was a month of pure craziness.  But I made it! I joined the winners who participated with just 90 minutes to spare.

The Challenge: To write a novel in a month.

The Goal: Write 50,000 words in 30 days.
      -That is an average of 1,667 words per day

There were some obvious obstacles that were going to come up no matter what.  They included work, Thanksgiving, and starting 5 days late.  I didn't even know about the contest until Amy was literally shouting at me on Facebook that we "have to do this!"  :)

Then there were the unforeseen obstacles.  I had an old roommate and her family come in from out of town.  They stayed with me for about 4 days.  I enjoyed visiting with them, and I didn't feel like I could just shut them out for hours at at time.  So I didn't write much then.  Then I started P90X which was took about an hour and half of additional time out of my day.

But all was well.  I was cruising about 10,000 words behind every day.  I knew I would get caught up though.  I usually do well in the 4th quarter.  That is just how I roll.

And then it happened.  Life reared its ugly head and threw every curveball it had RIGHT AT MY HEAD!

First, I notice that my throat was getting sore.  oh no! By Monday morning (Nov 26) I was in full blown cold mode.  My head was in that foggy, stuffy, cant-remember-what-is-going-on phase.  That is when the stress started.  I was out of sick days at work for the year so I had to go to work every day last week.  Then the headache started.  I think it was a stress headache because it was all across the back of my head and down my neck.  It lasted from Monday until Friday with not break!  No joke. Then I slept on my neck wrong so my neck was literally crying anytime i moved it.  I was taking DayQuil and NyQuil to manage the cold but I was still barely able to keep my eyes open at work.  Then on Tuesday my world really started to crash down around me.  My boss told me they wanted us to work an additional 20 hours that week.  Meaning between Tuesday and Saturday we were supposed to get an added 20 hours in on top of the normal 40.  That is when I almost cried at work.  Seriously.  I played the sick card (yeah i did!) and asked if i could just work an additional 10 hours of OT instead of the full 20.  They agreed. Then the cramps started on Wednesday.  In addition, I was going to bed somewhere around 12:30 at night and getting up at about 5:45 am.  I wondered a few times if this was what dying felt like.  (I know that is dramatic but I was drugged and sleep deprived, don't judge)

I was literally a hot mess all week.  They are lucky I wasn't curled up in the fetal position and crying under my desk.  I am proud to say that didn't happen.

Oh and did I mention that i still had 20,000 words to go as of Monday the 26th?  Yeah.  It was pretty awful.  I thought about giving up a few times.  I figured I had enough good reasons to.  No one could argue with me that I didn't have a lot going on.  But I decided I would be disappointed in myself if I did, no matter the reasons.  So I plugged on.  I actually almost finished a day early, but I accidentally fell asleep after work for two hours on Thursday.  I was really dying though.

Then on friday (Nov 30th) I only had 1,540 words left to go.  I got home and opened my laptop excited to finish this thing!  And then life threw its last curve ball.

WRITER'S BLOCK!!!!

I had plenty of material.  But for some reason I had nothing in my head to write.  I knew the next thing that was going to happen in the story, but i just didn't know how to transition into it.  And it is a BIG thing that happens.  So it has to have a transition.  I was just lost.  So lost.  I briefly wondered if this was when I would fail.  On the last day.

I messaged my trusty friend, Nicole, and she came to my rescue.  We brainstormed.  She gave me a scene starter and so I said goodbye and started to write it.  As I was writing it though, it just didn't feel right.  I felt like I was betraying my character.  I knew she wouldn't say or do the things I was making her say and do.  I just told myself to write the words to get to my 50,000 goal and then I would delete it later.  But it still felt like a betrayal.  So I stopped and thought about what she would really do.  I realized what she would do and I finished off the scene that way.  And then inspiration hit.  I realized I had just written a perfect transition to a different part of the story that I had already written but was just chillin at the bottom, getting pushed further and further out, because I didn't know where to put it. Amazing how that works out.

So I made it to 50,000 words! My novel is not done.  I still have probably another 20,000-30,000 words left to go.  Hopefully I can finish that off in the next 2 months or so and then start to edit.  I will keep you posted.  Right now I am taking a break from it for maybe a week or so.  I am working on some Christmas presents and trying to recover from being sick.

What I learned: I am stronger than I give myself credit for sometimes.  And life it hard and sometimes you just have to plunge in and swim hard knowing that it won't always be like this.

Thanks for all of your support guys!  Sometimes it was the only thing that kept me going.  I have great friends!

And for your visual enjoyment, I took photos of myself as i was writing for about the last 2 weeks.  I was fun to see my different stages of tired.  haha

This week's stats

Not that you REALLY care.  But I care, and its my blog....sooooooo here are today's stats for Chest and Back (P90X).

Pushups: 79    (last week 65)
Pull ups (with chair help): 43     (last week 35)
Heavy Pants: 30    (last week 27)
Lawn Mower: 20 each arm     (last week 15 each)
Dive Bombers: 9     (last week 8)
Back Flys: 24      (last week 27)

Progress!  Love it!

Just keep going

is my theme for the month.  Here I sit in Barnes & Noble/Starbucks pounding away on my keyboard taking full advantage of their free (super fast) wifi.

I've decided that using my brain is exhausting.  I know.  I know.  That sounds so dumb.  But really, being creative and using your brain for hours on end...EXHAUSTING!  I do it for work, although that isn't really challenging my mind.  Then P90X right after work (which just challenges my body).  Then I unleash the creative brainwaves for like 3-4 hours creating a fictional story in my head.  And then I am exhausted at like 10pm.  10pm?!?! I am such a night owl that 10pm is laughable to me.

But no longer, my friends.  NO LONGER!

This is when I first got to B&N yesterday.

This is me today.  I think I look way more tired.  But things are getting done.  Words are down on paper.  That is what matters.  That is why I tell my brain anyways.

Oh, and I like their hot chocolate with raspberry.  :)

And just so you know, I look like a total fool every time I try to get out of my seat for whatever reason. Because I can't really walk like a normal person right now.  P90X will do that to you.  And there is a quite attractive guy sitting at the table next to mine.  Yeah, did I mention I look like a fool?

Bonus- "Tony Horton Tip for the Day: Don't smash your face!" He really says that.  And I laughed.  And then I almost smashed my face.  No joke.  Classic!

-End Break-

P90X Day 1

I started P90X today.

Day 1

Not the worst thing I've ever experienced, but I did take it slow as to not wear myself out in the first 5 minutes.

Here are my current stats:

Pushups- 65
Pull ups- 35 (with chair for help)
Heavy Pants- 27
Lawn Mower- 30 (each arm)
Dive Bomber- 8 (so hard!)
Back flys- 27

Ab ripper:
I couldn't do a lot of these workouts very well.  But I did the workout to the best of my ability.

I'll try to remember to update my numbers every few weeks to show my progress. :)

I day down.  89 to go!

November

I have been pretty busy lately.  I guess the end of the year does that to a most people, but this month in particular has already been nuts.  To recap:

-I began writing a new book that I started and am trying to complete before the month is up.  There is this challenge online here if you want to check it out. I am already so behind, but I didnt know about it until the 5th and didnt start until the 6th.  I am trying to catch up this weekend.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

-I have starting making a head board like this one. Mine will look a tiny bit different, but I have already started and it is taking forever.

-I wrote a letter of recommendation for a friend (as a character witness) so she can get funding to open a new restaurant.  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuunn!

-I am beginning P90X on monday which is going to take an additional 1.5 hours out of my day.

-I have been working about 4-8 hours of overtime a week.  Every week.

-I have been crafting.

Christmas Cards.  Get excited.  You might just get one. (if i have your address lol)

 This is just a rope to hang stuff i am working or just hang stuff for decoration. :)

Bottle caps made into magnets.

 Magnets Amy taught me how to make! yay! Isn't that owl in the center so cute?!

 I am learning to cover buttons.  It's hard work.  Just saying...haha.  Learning for the headboard.

 This.  Well, you are probably asking yourself what the heck this is.  I made static clings (like you would hang on a window of your car, or like the cute little plastic snowflakes you might stick to your windows in the winter. Well these are impressions of leaves made with mod podge.  I colored the mod podge with food coloring first, painted the leaves, and then peeled off the mod podge when it was dry.  if you have really nice leaves it leaves the impression of the veins and all that.  My leaves were all round, and i did it on the wrong side of the leaf (less veiny side). So they didnt turn out great.  But I'll try again soon.  I stuck them to the outside of a vase.  its a work in progress.  Don't judge. hahah Here is the tutorial i found on how to do it. Her's look soooooooo much better. lol

November is already making me tired.