Oh what the heck….here’s one more photo of a painting in progress which I started last Sunday. It’s an acrylic painting I had mentioned earlier about the lake and the bird and the trees I kept envisioning. Right now, there isn’t much to it, but I plan to take some more photos as I paint it so you can see the progress I make. I plan to have this one up for sale on here too, so if you are interested check back soon or let me know.
Painting in Progress February 23, 2008
These are a few of my favorite things… February 23, 2008
Here’s another photo post. I decided to take a picture of some of my most recent favorite things. The new packaging for Celestial Seasonings Tea is what inspired me to take the photo. Whoever works in their marketing department deserves a huge raise! It sold me on the product, although I always liked it before. Berry zinger, tangerine orange, blueberry, India chai, it’s all yummy!
At the grocery last week, I picked up something called Bolthouse Farms. It looked like a cross between Starbucks frappucino and chocoloate milk….but oh my, it tastes like heaven. It’s mocha cappucino with whey protein…42g protein per bottle that is! Vitamin A, B6, B12, C and D, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Zinc, Potassium…there’s a little bit of everything in that bottle. There are other flavors too which I plan to investigate next time!
And although that bag looks sad because it’s been well used, if you haven’t tried the store bought version of Dunkin’ Donuts then you don’t know what you are missing. I love the French Vanilla!
Perfect Love February 23, 2008
Here are the tulips J sent me for V Day. I snapped a few photos while they were the centerpiece on our dining room table. They are all gone now, and I plan to use the vase to hold my paintbrushes, but they were nice and friendly while they lasted. Ahhh, sweet sweet perfect love…
Tick tock…. February 23, 2008
Not since December, when J was gone for 3 weeks for job training, have I had a Saturday all to myself. He has to work a Saturday every so often now, in exchange for having the Friday before off. So, he was off on Monday for President’s Day, called in on Thursday due to the bad weather (but his company closed down anyway), then he was off on Friday because he’s working today. How lucky is that!?
A Saturday for us usually consists of chilling out at home. J plays video games and watches TV. I write, surf the web, and do laundry. Today, so far I’ve managed to post to the blog, surf the web, chat, take a shower, finish a pot of coffee, start another pot of coffee, and here I am…
I should really be writing or editing right now. As I said before, I started a new short story yesterday that I’m excited about, probably what I will work on once I finish this post. It’s called Mississippi and it’s about a guy who’s drawn to the river for particular reasons, of which I won’t expose here now!
I spent a lot of time this week thinking about The Piano Maker and going back and reading what I’ve written so far. At 40,000 words, I’ve etched out a great historical novel. I just need to go back and really develop those characters and give the reader some more background. I need to show the reader why these characters became who they are. And of course, I haven’t written the ending yet. I’m torn between adding more romantic elements to it (not Harlequin) or more haunting ghost-like elements. After all, it is on the verge of being a ghost story. Maybe I’ll add both…
I’m also slowly working on what I hope will be the last edit of For the Most Part, at least for a while. It’s amazing to put your manuscript down for two or three weeks and then come back to it and discover things you missed before or things to change and add. I went a whole week this week without submitting one single query, but that’s mainly because I need to polish the synopsis.
I think I just heard the buzzer on the dryer…laundry to fold…so many things, so little time….*sigh*
“Feebay” Making More Changes February 23, 2008
Check out this article on more fees and changes you can expect from Ebay soon. Sellers were encouraged to boycott Ebay this week and not post any new items for sale.
Starting in May, eBay will only allow sellers to leave positive feedback for buyers, and continue to have the option of leaving no feedback.
Gosh, I remember many years ago before Paypal when I bought a $70 dollar ring from someone on Ebay and had to pay by check or money order. I never got my ring, and there was no feedback system for me to tell anyone. Things have definitely changed since then. I’ve bought and sold things on Ebay quite a bit over the years, but recently slacked off when Paypal started charging fees for using them to collect money. They now take a small percentage of your transaction for their service. With the price of postage these days, there’s barely any money to be made after you ship an item.
Here’s a better success story about selling things the old fashioned way…
When J and I bought a house back in 2006, I decided to have a moving sale at our apartment. Unfortunately, I had to have it the weekend of July 4th. There was no other time to have it, and the clubhouse at our apartment complex was nice enough to let me have it there. I spent all night that Friday after work moving stuff over to the clubhouse, setting it up, making and putting up signs, then went back at 6am on Saturday to start pricing things. J frowned on having to deal with the whole thing, but I put my mind to it and didn’t give up just because we were about to move and having to stress over other things. People started arriving at 7am, and J didn’t come over and join me until noon.
By then, half the stuff was gone and I’d made $100 dollars. Well, that definitely excited J, so at the end of the day we made another trek through the house to gather up more things to sale the next day. On Sunday, an hour passed before anyone came. Hey, you know how lazy Sundays can be! But when they started coming, they didn’t stop. By the end of Sunday, I had a small box left of just mix matched items. We were packing up and getting ready to leave when one last customer drove up. I made them a deal and sold them that box of junk for 5 bucks. So, when J and I walked away we’d made $300 dollars in two days and literally sold EVERYTHING. We walked away with just our money, and the radio that I had taken over to listen to.
Yeah, this is just my story and I know I probably wouldn’t get that lucky again, but my point is I didn’t have to pay any fees or postage that weekend!
Water for Elephants February 23, 2008
If you haven’t ready it already, I highly suggest you pick up a copy of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
If the story doesn’t inspire you, then the author’s rise to writer fame definitely will. I won’t go into much details about the book itself. Just click on the link above and you can read over 1,000 reviews about the NY Times bestseller.
And speaking of the NY Times, read this story about Sara’s book deal. If you are a writer, it will definitely motivate you. Mrs. Gruen’s original publisher turned down Water for Elephants, so she sold it to Algonquin Books for $55,000 back in 2004. After coming out in paperback and beating two Oprah books in the NYT bestseller list, Spiegel and Grau swooped in and paid Mrs. Gruen $5 million dollars for her next two books. Add another $1 million to that for the movie deal.
So yeah, that’s a lot of money, a dream come true for many writers. I know it would be for me, but another reason Mrs. Gruen inspires me is because she is a huge animal rights activist. She donated some of her money to the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. Check out her web page for other organizations she supports!
I’ll post my thoughts on the book itself once I’m done reading it.
