Category Archives: My Life

Fun summer necklaces

I’ve been in a chunky jewelry phase lately, which is funny since I used to only where really simple plain stuff. My current taste is reflected in what I’ve been making, including these beauties listed today:

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Chunky Green Square Stone Necklace

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Layered silver chain necklace with flat mother-of-pearl beads

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Double strand natural mother of pearl diamond beads necklace

Frozen between “want to” and “should”

Sky over my house

I just read this post by one of my writing mentors, Charlotte. In it, she discusses all of the procrastinating things she does before writing. But once she’s writing, it’s amazing, she doesn’t want to do anything else.

I have the same experience in writing. But I have it in the rest of my life too. There are things I “want” to do- like go to a Zumba class or a long bike ride, and there are things I “should” do, like mop the floors and organize the house. I feel guilty if I do the “want to’s” but don’t want to do the “should’s,” so often I end up doing something completely different and, often, unnecessary. In these moments of paralyzation between “want to” and “should” I sometimes (often) read Facebook or twitter, watch TV, or take a nap.

Why is that?

These things leave me feeling emptier than cleaning the house. Why can’t I find the motivation to get the should’s done so that I don’t feel guilty about the wants?

Does anyone else experience this? Or is it just me? What do you do for motivation?

What I’m reading: Point of Origin

After the review I posted of her first book, Amanda Havard’s publisher contacted me an offered an advance reading copy of The Survivors: Point of Origin. Of course, I was thrilled! Here’s my review of the book, available one week from today.

The second installment in Amanda Havard’s Survivors series, Point of Origin creates nearly as many questions as it answers. We join Sadie on her quest to reveal the origins of her family, a group of immortals exiled during the Salem Witch Trials. The elders founded a colony in Montana that nobody every leaves. Except Sadie. Never comfortable living apart from the world, and distrusting of the elders, Sadie ran away to live as a human. Her departure set in motion a restlessness among other survivors and now 28 more have left. A vision from Anthony foretells a coming war a between the rouge survivors and the rest of Sadie’s family. She is searching for a way to prevent the war, or, barring that, to find a way to overcome their immortality.

Along for the ride is Sadie’s betrothed (boyfriend is too light, finance is too formal) Everette, and his family, also immortal. Everette and his siblings are vampires, as are those survivors that escaped from the commune. These aren’t the sexy we-only-eat-animals vampires either, they are people killing blood drinkers. A group of shape-shifters also join in the hunt, having nursed Sadie back to health after a battle in Book 1.

Havard does a fantastic job putting us inside Sadie’s head. While on this life-and-death quest, she is also dealing with the intense emotions and confusion of first love. She is unquestionably in love with Everette, but she’s also attracted to her human friend, Cole Hardwick. Where Everette is an immortal vampire, Cole is a normal guy, able to let Sadie live like a normal human, if she so chooses. I was sucked in to the love triangle, enjoying the feelings of falling in love with Everette while at the same understanding the amount of pressure she was feeling. I found myself rooting for both men, as unable to chose as Sadie seems to be. It’s the allure of being “normal” versus the obligation to protect her family.

This is, at it’s core, a mystery, not a romance. While the relationship with Everett and Cole is there, this isn’t a Twilight-knockoff about how hard it is to fall in love with a vampire. There isn’t a lot more I can say about the plot without spoiling it, but I will say this: for a while, I felt like I was watching Lost all over again. Havard ties up just enough throughout the story to keep you going, but she leaves you with even more unanswered questions that you started with.

The one caution I have for the reader: The ensemble cast in this book is huge and sometimes a bit hard to keep straight. I was never so lost that I couldn’t pick it back up, but just know that you need to read this book with your full attention or you may get confused.

New in my shop

I spent a lot of time preparing to take Spiraling Forward into the “real” world last month at fEASTival. However, TDOT had other plans, beginning a huge road project that closes the easiest route to East Nashville every weekend for the whole summer. Thus, fEASTival has been rescheduled for September 8. Although disappointed, I am happy and agree with the organizers’ decision. I want fEASTival to have the best turnout possible, to give Spiraling Forward the best exposure possible.

The good news is, because I was stocking up for the festival, I now have a huge amount of stock to list in my store over the next few weeks/month. Here’s today’s offerings:

Necklace: Green glass necklace, Silver and green necklace, Summer necklace

Earrings: Green glass earrings, dangle earrings, drop earrings, summer earrings

Wire-wrapped heart necklace

Wire-wrapped heart necklace in black and silver

Juicing, day three

I started the juice fast at about 2:00 pm on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday went well, and the scale has been making me happy. Today, though…not fabulous. While I’m feeling fine now, I spent most of the day feeling like I had been punched in the stomach. Nothing tasted good, so I had one fruit juice for breakfast and then nursed a salad-in-a-glass juice. All day. And only drank half of it. I’m drinking cucumber-lemon-orange water now (1/3 juice, 2/3 water). It’s alright, not super enthused about it.

Tomorrow I am meeting a friend for juice at Whole Foods in the morning and then going to a juice bar later in the day, so maybe “eating out” will re-energize me a bit.

 

Juicing

Have you seen Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead yet? I never really understood the point of juicing before watching it. I get the idea of the reboot.

So we got a juicer, and for about a week now I’ve been juicing two meals and eating one. Tomorrow will be my first day full-on juicing. I plan to take it to then end of the month and then see from there.

Tonight, I had my version of a juiced greek salad:

  • half cucumber
  • two tomatoes
  • most of a head of green leaf lettuce
  • a bunch of basil
  • half an eggplant
  • an apple

I must admit– it wasn’t wonderful tasting going down. But, the aftertaste is exactly the same as if I had eaten it. Tomatoes and basil. Yum.

Magnetic Paint?

Click photo to be taken to original

I’ve just learned that Magnetic Paint exists. Anyone ever used it? I guess it’s technically primer, so a lot of people paint over it with Chalkboard Paint. I love this idea for my kitchen. I want to do magnetic spice tins, I was going to just get a sheet of metal to hang them on, but this would work better. And I could make a weekly meal calendar, shopping list, etc., if the whole wall was a chalk board.

So??? Help me out! I guess it takes several coats, so it’s not super duper easy, but according to some reviews, it’s worth it. Yes? No?