Not Slacking

I haven't updated in a while because there hasn't been much to report on my progress with D&D. There are new pages, but not a lot. A scene here or there in between tasks at work. Not like with the beginning of HM when I generated page after page. Of course, that was during NaNoWriMo. Maybe I should pretend it's November. Might help.

Using Ali's idea of listing what I have accomplished, I see that I haven't exactly been idle. Research seems to be at the top of the list right now. That's not a bad thing. A lot of different things happen at spas that I don't know much about. I need to find out the way those things work so I don't sound like an idiot when I write about them. I have even more research to do about migrant workers for the jewelry series.

The blue bedroom seems to have collected a lot of junk since last year. Saturday was a clearing out day. One step closer to being a lilac writing room. I moved the Spooky's food dish out to the kitchen, but she doesn't like the relocation. I'm giving her a week to get used to it. If she doesn't, I will have to find a Plan B.

Even though it feels like May is just about over, I have almost two weeks to accomplish more. I may get to my page count goal yet.

Bead Weaving

Friday evening was Mary's jewelry party. Imagine two rooms filled with beautiful beaded jewelry. Women wandered back and forth, picking up one thing then another. Five, six, seven times through and I know I missed things that I would have loved. As it was I purchased two necklace/earring sets and two necklaces.

The second part of the evening was the bead weaving lesson. I learned a few things I have been doing wrong. A couple pieces can stay as they are, but one or two will be changed. I picked a moderately complicated piece to use as a template. Mary's clear instructions and drawn pattern helped a lot. Although I was slow, it did make it through with only minor problems. I'll post a picture when I get a chance to take one. And I feel like I can better figure out how to duplicate other pieces I liked.

I now have the fever to do more beading this month. I may have to make time to do that.

A Little Help From My Friends

Mary's hosting a beading party in a week or so. She'll be teaching a basic bead weaving technique. Should be a lot of fun. Not only will I get a new set of jewelry, but I'll be learning something I can use in the Bennie books. And spending time with friends. Triple threat.

Ali's also offered to do a polymer bead class. That should be lots of fun, too. I love the stuff she does with polymer.

Now if we can just convince Nicole to share what she's learning in metalworking.

April Fool?

Deb's enthusiasm for April seems to be catching. Now that I have a working outline for D&D, I think I will be able to write fifty pages easily. I have been prewriting for a few days. That means I can utilize shorter periods of free time to jot a paragraph or two. It's not ideal, but it's what I have right now.

Having completed The Artist's Way, I have become aware of certain "nasty" words. One of which is "should". I used it three times in the original version of the first paragraph. See if you can figure out where.

I subscribed to a couple spa magazines last week. They are really interesting. One of the most beautiful spas I've come across is here in Colorado. Tax deductible, right? I would have to have the money first, but it just might be worth it.

The jewelry book has been eluding me. It seems that once I found Bennie, the rest of it went away. I tried to sign up for a metalworking class, but it was full. Maybe that's part of it. It's not a totally bad thing. One at a time is good. And maybe if I do run into trouble with D&D, that's when Bennie will start telling me her story.

Perspective

Deb visited a store called Beads Galore when she was in Phoenix. She came back bearing gifts. There are some unusual beads, colors I wouldn't normally pick but beautiful, and some great charms and pendants. I will post pictures when I get a chance.

The funniest thing to me is that she wants me to teach her to make jewelry. It's funny because I'm still very much a beginner. I feel I need to learn so much. Yet her argument is that I've made more jewelry than she has. True as far as it goes. Maybe we can take some classes together.

How does one go from thinking of oneself as student to teacher? I would be more comfortable teaching quilting than knitting. Even though I learned to knit a dozen years before I looked at my first quilt pattern. Teach writing? Probably not. Not yet anyway. I still have a lot to learn. I think with most things, especially the creative ones, we are always learning. Or at least we should be.

First Effort

Here is the result of meeting Ali's deadline. I had to have at least earrings done by last Saturday. I'm pretty happy with the result. The yellow is all from the background as the beads used were black, clear or some combination of the two.

I did notice, though, that Ali didn't stop anyone else at the door to check for newly made jewelry.

Jewelry Post

Ali very gently reminded me yesterday that I haven't made a jewelry-related post in a long time. That's probably because I haven't actually made any jewelry yet. I started to on Friday but felt like I still didn't know enough to accomplish anything. Yesterday I bought Jewelry Making & Beading for Dummies. It explains all those terms and techniques I couldn't quite figure out from the magazines I had. So I should be able to have a new pair of earrings done by Saturday. That's the deadline Ali gave me for completing my first project.

I also picked up a copy of Stardust while I was at the bookstore yesterday. I've been reading all the posts and comments by Ali, Deb and Jenny about Neil Gaiman. It may be time to check him out. Deb's offered to lend me Neverwhere and American Gods if I like Stardust. I'm not a big fantasy fan (except for Butcher, who really writes mysteries), but we'll see.