November...

Crikey!

Where'd the year go?

Also, a happy and blessed All Hallows Day to those of you who celebrate it.

Well it's National Write a Novel Month.

"Oooohhhh... will you participating Evie?"

Yes and no.

I have a few ideas, but nothing solid.  Factor in that I just got two new orders for baby blankets from the neighbor. As much as I would like to try my hand on it, I have too much work to devote each and every single day to it.  (Which honestly is a luxury.)

I do however firmly believe in aiding others with creative endeavors, so I went hunted up about four-five writing prompts websites.  Hopefully, they'll have something that you can use.

The Teacher's Corner

Daily Teaching Tools: Journal Prompts (Try not to guffaw so hard there, you might hurt yourself.)

Poets and Writers

Creative Writing Prompts

Writing Forward: 25 writing prompts

Ya'll have a good (and productive for those you writing) weekend!

Heads up

Crapp... where'd October go?

It's coming up on that time of the year where my orders for knit and crocheted stuff skyrocket.

You folks know you can buy handmade gifts year round right?  And that it really helps out the person making them?   Anyways...

After the gear article series is done on Blue Collar Prepping, I won't be doing weekly articles until January 15th, 2015.  There a few reasons this, one that I just spoke of in the upper paragraphs.

1) I have several orders for Christmas already, and the last day that I'm accepting custom work in order to get it out by December 16th is November 15th.  After that the custom options are getting shut off until January 15th.

2) I'm about on dry in terms writing material that I can crack out.  A large number of the articles I had done for BCP was due to the fact that I didn't feel like a large number of these prepping blogs where actually addressing things that were important... they were all doom and gloom. (Hey, one of the things you're going to have to keep an eye is depression and you stupid fucks writing all doom and gloom aren't helping, ya jackasses.)

Yes I've had some coffee this morning but not a full cup yet.  How can you tell?

So when I am back full in January, I will have more articles on skills that are a good idea to be known and understood if you want to be comfortable during hard times.  First series once back I'm planning on doing a break down of gardening and bits and pieces of information you may not know.

3) We are trying to get moved from California to Arizona.  This is proving to be a major stress factor for me because we have soooooooo many things that we need to straighten out first before we can move.

Hence why I'm focusing on the crochet orders as much as possible so that they are as good as I can make them, and keep setting up that reputation as a good crafter for myself.  This is because the Zibbet and Etsy store are my main sources of income, outside of the tiny bit that comes in from Amazon links.

This blog here will be maintained, but it'll mostly be just showing orders that I've managed to get done and probably cute video of puppies, kittens and other various animals doing adorable shit.  But it's going to be a tiny bit erratic.

Now it's entirely possible that I will get all my orders done by the 16th of December.  What am I going to do between then and my return date of January 16th?

Simple.

Chill.

I have books to read, to work on and a large amount of research to do for the next year's articles.  If I do this right, I'll end up with several months worth of material again.

And probably several more adventures along the way.

In the meantime...

BABY BURRO!

Seen near Lake Havasu.

Apparently....

When it comes to staying on top of writing this fall, I'd better not make promises.  Saturday I got hit with a minor bug (sniffles, fever, etc) and could not do much anything besides drink hot tea and be miserable.

While I am better today, y'all aren't going to be getting much of an article until tomorrow, when I am hoping I'll have this stuff kicked out of my system.

In the meantime, have some puppies:

I got nuthin today...

So here's a couple of cool videos for you.

And now to introduce you to an organization that is... well, spectacular.

Krochet Kids

Hmphagrump

I have no idea what to write.
I have no idea what to write.
I have no idea what to write....!

Here I am sitting, staring at a computer screen and trying to figure out what in Avalon I want to write...

I have no idea what to write about....
I have no idea what to write about...

I have books I want to read and throw reviews up here on...
I have things that need crocheted and knit...
I have classwork that needs done....

I have a damn schedule that I need to iron for classwork...
For blogging...

I'm trying to get myself to write at least twice a week on here....
Am I successful... well, ya'll can see that for yourself...

I've been biting my lip since a certain celebrities death a lot.  I honestly didn't need those old questions drumming their way through my head again. I honestly didn't. For 16 years I worked, fought and almost lost several times over my fight with depression.  Several times over several hours after attempt of looking around going "well... that time didn't work."

Robin taking his life is a mixed bag.  He's inadvertently brought an incredibly large amount of attention to mental illness.  He's also unintentionally told only the Gods know how many people, that giving up and killing yourself is okay.  I'll lay afghans to dolls that the suicide rates and attempted suicide rates will spike for a short time.

There's this out lash at people who are calling suicide selfish.  That's because it is.  You're turning everyone, whose ever known you into a victim.  When you kill yourself, you take a small part of everyone whose ever been your family and friend with you. You've now actually made them suffer.

Suicide is permanent.  And it doesn't fix anything. Just removes you from the equation and now you'll never know what it was that was causing your depression.  Trying to say suicide is okay is... vile.  Cruel.  Evil.

Depression is not a choice.  The causes for depression are almost infinite as are the other illnesses that depression is a symptom of or that go hand in hand with it.

Suicide is a choice. Giving up is a choice and there is no excusing making that choice.

Hell for all anyone knows, maybe this whole "it's not selfish!" that I keep seeing from otherwise rational people, might be leftist vileprog "tolerance and acceptance" bullshit that's leaking from wherever folks have to repress that kind of propaganda too.  

People are making excuses for Williams that otherwise, when 22 veterans a day are committing suicide, don't give a flying fuck.

There's that whole bullshit cropping from the "let's medicate everything!" crowd.  Just not going to go there because I'd like to not have hurting jaw muscles tonight when I go to bed.

People are trying to say "He died from depression."

No, he didn't.

So what did Tempest Smith die from?
So what did these folks and these folks die from?

Robin, should have kept fighting on... he didn't.  I don't agree with his choice to kill himself.
HOWEVER, it's lit quiet the fire underneath of people's asses.  It's been dropped in front of hundreds of millions of people and it can't ignored or forgotten easily.

It's a wake-up call that shouldn't have happened nor should it have shaken as many people as what it did...
Humans aren't widgets.  We all respond to exact same things in patently different ways, it changes from individual to individual.

Pretty certain that there are folks, whose only purpose in this lifetime was just be themselves, go as long as they could then die.  Their death was what they were here to do.  Because from death, comes life.  From death, comes re-birth.

What all kind of other fall out will this create?

Neither you or I know.



  

Combining Passions

It's actually incredibly hard for me to write.  No seriously it is.  It gets incredibly frustrating when I can't describe what I want to relate to another person. Doesn't really matter what the topic is. It could be the prepping. It could be me relating new insights into what works for dealing with my PTSD.  It could be talking about Witchcraft or crocheting...

It just doesn't happen as easily as what I would like.

I have found though that if I'm doing two things I enjoy at once like listening to music while crocheting or watching college lectures while knitting, its much easier for me to get through my days...but writer's block tends to happen more frequently than I'd like.

I have one story at over 30k words total and the sequel is starting to form itself into a semblance of outline.  I have one trilogy of stories that are starting to online themselves in my head, I haven't been able to write those down yet.  I have a one outline began to what promises to be a massive novel. (Think Deathly Hollows massive.)  The past few weeks though... I go to pick up the pen and my mind blanks.  I set it down and the worlds that have become a reality of sort in my brain come dancing right back.

Okay, so I won't force myself to work on those.  I'm not a deadline, I don't have a contract to fulfill (though ya never know) and I don't need to stress myself out over it.

So my friend G, gets me interested enough in something called Pinterest... oh boy... I should have plugged my ears.  Don't get me wrong, that site is a wonderful resource but geez is it a rabbit hole. So many wonderful ideas and pieces of inspiration...

Which reminded me of a prior attempt to combine my passions.  Ever since I started practicing Witchcraft, not just studying (there was a good three years there before I felt I knew enough to even to a daily affirmation properly. ...it's a long story.) I wanted to combine my Craft with my craft.  I wanted to figure out and design crocheted and knit things that were beautiful.  That were elegant. That a fellow Witch would go "OH! That is the perfect altar cloth for (Lammas, Mabon etc)".

Take a wild guess as how well that's going....

I would, as they say "Head desk" however I don't have a desk.

Is it because I just don't have enough motivation?
Nah.  You should see some of my sketchbooks.

 I have the ideas, I have the skills to put the ideas together... I just don't know how to present them to other Witches and pagans and Asatrau and Wiccans as something they'd enjoy.  So I let the ideas keep simmering.  I have made rune bags and tarot card bags.  Those turn out just lovely every time too!

So... back I bounce to my writing.  Many times (when the muses aren't in what would appear to be a damn cat fight) I can sit and have the story out in front of me and be letting my mind wander over the scene that's open while I'm crocheting away.  Here in the past month or so... that's not been happening.  I start messing up big time with my stitches or nothing comes to mind, and I end putting the writing away.

I've even been struggling to maintain a pace with my yarn working, I can get about two hours in right now... when normally it's 6-9 hours.  I know it'll spring back to normal, it's just when and what it's going to take to blow out this block I'm having.  FEH I say my good person!

Oh and then's there's awesomeness like this...

"WHOA... what?"

She broke her arm.  Not being able to be crafty, was driving her nuts so... she'd figured out a way around it.  Hell if she can do that, I can certainly find ways to improve my passions.