NaNoWriMo continued

Tags

card making, NaNoWriMo, procrastination, progress, Second Saturday Scrapbooking

Yesterday I bemoaned my lack of writing progress for the NaNoWriMo challenge I accepted earlier this month.  The end goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November, and there is a lovely web page where participants can track their progress (if they are making any, that is).

I have really only worked on my novel four days this month (including this morning).  I am living Judith Viorst’s statement that “You can have it all, just not all at the same time.”  I wrote this morning because I was supposed to be working on cards for tonight’s Helping One Woman dinner.  And I think in order to write, I should be “supposed to be” doing something else, which I will put off by writing.

Anyhow, The NaNoWriMo webpage has a progress tracker for writing, based on  the word count I post each day.  And according to their figures, I am in a world of hurt!  My progress goes something like this:

Your average words per day:  270

Words written today:  1271

Target word count:  50,000

Target average words per day:  1667

Total words written:  4599

Words remaining:  45,401

Current day:  17

Days remaining:  14

At this rate you will finish on:  May 4, 2016

Words per day to finish on time:  3243

Lifetime Achievement:  Total NaNoWord Count:  4599

Two statistics on this list really jumped out at me:  “At this rate you will finish on May 4, 2016” and “Lifetime Achievement:   4599”

Not only do I have a ridiculously long way to go, still being 45,401 words short, but I have also written 4599 words more than I had on October 31, 2015.  I may not –no, probably will not — finish 50,000 words by November 30, 2015.  But I have started, and am gaining momentum.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go make some greeting cards for tonight.

Thanksgiving card created for Second Saturday Scrapping workshop last weekend.

Occupational hazards

Tags

"Where Women Create Business", card making, creativity, Etsy, inspiration, paper packs, scrapbooking

Today I experienced one of the occupational hazards of working a variety of rotating shifts. I stayed up too late after work, woke up tired this morning and decided to skip church for sleep, and re-set my alarm for a weird time. I then woke up again and scurried around in a bit of a panic so that I wouldn’t be late for work.

As I rang the side doorbell so that someone could let me in (the restaurant hadn’t opened yet), it hit me: I had initially planned on taking the girls to church, which meant I wasn’t scheduled until 11:45. It was 10:20. In my defense, I must explain that I started work at 10:45 three days this week. Yikes! I quickly returned to my Jeep to regroup. What could I do in an hour (there wasn’t enough time to go home)? Of course! JoAnn’s Fabrics was just down the street, and I had received a coupon via text message earlier this morning.

I had a lovely time wandering through the magazines and scrapbooking supplies, and needed to work most of today’s shift to earn the money I spent on the goodies I found!

The Magnolia Way Stack by DCWV.

The Chateau Lavender Stack by DCWV

I picked up two beautiful paper stacks to use in card making this spring. (Card sets to put in my Etsy store…more about that later.)

One of my favorite inspirational magazines, “Where Women Create Business” by Stampington, Co.

I also found the newest issue of my quarterly source of inspiration, “Where Women Create Business”. And everything was on sale. Such a lovely way to spend a “found” hour. What would you do with such found time?

Aunt Betty

Tags

Annual Inspirations catalog, Aunt Betty, card making, Close To My Heart, CTMH Convention, family, love, scrapbooking

Today was pure delight! The Faith-based subcommittee of the City’s homeless coalition met first thing, and two of the members spoke from the point of view of those who had experienced homelessness from the inside. Their contributions to the conversation were much more real than those we have heard in our larger meetings with the City and its service agencies, and sparked some good ideas about how to truly serve homeless families with children in areas of greatest need. It will be interesting to see how our own congregation responds to these more clearly understood needs in the near future.

Afterwards I headed to Fresno with all my newest Close To My Heart papers, stamps, and other goodies, to hang out with Aunt Betty and make cards all day. (If you haven’t already met Aunt Betty, you can read more about her here.) At least that was the plan. But as is often the case with plans, our hearts had other ideas. Instead of card-making, we looked at, handled, smelled, and oohed and aah-ed over everything I brought back from Convention.

We made lists, we edited them, we shared ideas, we talked about making cards, we talked about our families, we talked a lot about Mom (as we always do). I told her about the presenter at Convention who commented that she “knew we didn’t like to cut with scissors” but her design called for a bit of “fussycutting”, and how I realized a few days ago that when I am “fussycutting” a design piece from printed paper I am thinking about Mom and how much she enjoyed cutting out intricate things.

We took a lunch break and then headed back to the Annual Inspirations book to make more lists. And we planned on what we would do when we got some more new stuff. By the end of the day our eyes and brains were tired, but our hearts were full.

And next week I’ll be back for Doll Club, and maybe we’ll make a card or two afterwards!