Long-anticipated Article

I tried to get this story in a different newspaper this time last year, but it didn't work out.

Writing about something that you wrote about earlier is an interesting experience. You see how your perspective changes and your writing does too.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/oct/26/cultural-connections/

Writing Routine Tips

I’m reading a memoir by Haruki Murakami called “What I Talk about When I Talk About Running.”
Through journal entry-like writing, Murakami reveals the routines and methods he has used to become a stellar novelist and athlete.
I’m trying to let the book teach me how to be a better writer.
He says that to be a good writer one must have talent, focus and endurance.
“You’ll naturally learn both concentration and endurance when you sit down every day at your desk and train yourself to focus on one point.”
I have made it my goal to spend two hours a day every day at my desk (actually a sewing table) writing. I need to learn to focus and endure. I’m an hour and twenty minutes in right now.
Earlier in the book, Murakami wrote that he stops every day when he feels that he could write more so that the next day’s work goes more smoothly. He sets a pace and keeps rhythm in writing just like in running.

Fall Photo

These dogs have accessories for every season and holiday. They live outside a barber shop in the Otamayashita neighborhood of Sendai, Japan (or at least they did until this time last year).

An assignment

I covered a Pagan Pride event for the Knoxville News Sentinel.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/20/celebration-unites-east-tennessee-pagans/

Evolution of the birdie

It took me three solid tries but I finally figured out how to make this bird. I got the pattern from spoolsewing.com for free. It is a simple project, but my sewing pattern naivete shown as I didn't interpret the fold instruction to mean that the fabric was folded in half at that place. If anyone wants to make a duck-headed penguin seahorse, just ignore that fold instruction and cut the body half the size of the bird's.

Handmade Envelopes

Today was a rainy day. The children had to stay inside. We showed them how to make envelopes from old magazine pages. I used this template available on etsy. http://team.etsy.com/downloads/envelope.pdf

I just printed it out on card stock, then reduced the image to 85% on the copy machine so that it would fit National Geographic size pages. The children flipped through the magazines until they found a picture they wanted to make an envelope from. Then they outlined the template, cut it out, folded and glued their own envelopes.

Rainy days are good for crafting.

A Stitch of Inspiration

I just stumbled into a good tutorial on machine sewing on paper. It was written by Julia Stainton, a mother of five and the apparent queen of paper crafts, on her blog Belle Papier {pretty paper}.

I made a Valentine this year with some stitching, but I hand-sewed it. I would have never imagined that I could have used the machine. I think I needed the entirety of the detailed tutorial, packed with basic sewing tips, to convince myself that sewing on paper might not damage my machine. But I think I will still wait until I have a needle too dull for fabric to attempt this.

I have an idea for a Christmas card that I will post when I make.