It's a Writer's Life for Me!

When you read a writer's short biography on the back of a book have you ever noticed that there are rarely "boring" lives described there?  Writers write, but we also live.  Without living there really isn't anything to write about.

My biography would be something like:

Born in 1969, Dawn came home on Christmas Eve.  Thankfully her mother stopped her sister from throwing her away and thus she lived. At the age of two Death tried harder, but from burns to scarlatina to chicken pox to stinky sinus steak she won with the aid of her family. This was also the time where her family picked up the habit, or maybe hobby?, of breeding and showing dogs.  Dawn raised Dachshunds and ducked bullies until she went to college and sucked at studying.  As an adult Dawn has traveled the Midwest, okay she moved from Kansas to Missouri, to Michigan, to Illinois; but it counts! She has created her own family while adoring the one she was born into as well. When cancer knocked on the door she kicked it out and turned the baby room into a rec room. She has recently been dealing with chronic illness, but in living a life long dream and moving to the Southwest she will be moving beyond that. Dawn owns and creates stone art with her family via Shadoe Stones and also paints, creates artistic photography and writes poetry because sleep is for wimps; happy, healthy, well rested wimps, but wimps nonetheless.

What would your bio look like?  I know there are things I want to add to mine.  I am planning on getting my massage license in Arizona and going to UofA to get a degree there.  The degree I am looking at requires travel over seas and Switzerland is a trip I would love to take. I want to travel all over the country and the world. I want to be published not just in my writing but in my photography as well. I want to sell art and spend time with my family. I want to be happy. Live your bio every day; make your life what you want to see on the back of a book some day!

Patreon helps content creators create!

Tumbling Rocks!

One of the things I picked up again when we started Shadoe Stones that I have loved my entire life is rock tumbling. It is not a fast process but the results are often unexpected and stunning.  After we have moved I will go ahead and take you through the process with rough stones so that you can see what happens and how long it can take, but for now let me lay a little knowledge on you.

First off here is a kit for a beginner that I can recommend.  While the price looks steep, please remember that we are talking about a system that is throwing rocks around the inside of it for close to a month or even more through all of the stages.  You are going to want something that can hold up to it. On top of that this is a kit with the "polishing" compounds needed to make the rocks look good too.

One thing to remember when either purchasing or finding your rough rocks to tumble is how "hard" they are. If you have ever heard that diamond is the "sharpest" rock there is, then you have a basic start on the "Mohs Scale." A stone's Mohs number tells you how fragile it is. You should tumble stones in the same basic range together. One of the wonderful parts of tumbling is watching a rough stone turn into a polished tumbled stone. Tumbling breaks off the parts that aren't the specific stone you are working for and turns those into more grist for the mill.

A great way to find the Mohs number for stones is to look it up here where they also show you how to test an unknown stone for what it's number is. Where do you order stones to tumble? Ebay is a good source if you are interested in small batches or you can simply look outside.  If you start wanting to tumble larger quantities I would recommend finding a local rock hound club and letting them help you with finding local stones.  You can start your search for local groups to help you or your children here.

We will revisit tumbling after the move when I have my area set up.  Remember that stones lay around forever so this is a hobby that takes time and requires patience. Please visit Patreon if you love what I do so I can keep doing it!

A Bucket of Fun!

Last week on Crafting Tuesday you barely got anything, because I had a tough week and didn't have much time for crafting. This week you are going to get some links! Why so many links? My amazing friends shared the with me when I was having trouble deciding what to do with all of these pine cones! So let's get started!

Martha Stewart

Craftaholics Anonymous

A Fanciful Twist

Why didn't I do any of these amazing things? Because they all, everyone, require more than just some pine cones and some ingenuity. Did I try?  Yes.  Did it work? Nope. Why no pictures?  Because I am too lazy to go into another room to get my tablet and photograph crafting disasters. I have some nice painted cones that I will probably mix with the lilac scented wax ones from last week into a bowl for decor in a bathroom this winter. Other than that Operation Bucket of Pine Cone was a total meltdown.

However, I did do a thing! Last weekend I purchased a hand drum. Similar to a tambourine but no cymbals. This one boasted a natural skin that I was dying to paint.  A field of grass and a field of stars with borders painted in red and yellow for fire and air. The paint improved the tone of the drum and now I have to decide if I want to play it or sell it.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be highlighting some amazing folks who do crafts.  One or two of them are much more than crafters, but would never see themselves that way. Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.

What DO You do With a Five Gallon Bucket of Pine Cones?

My family is moving!  We are relocating to the great Southwest. Tucson to be precise.  We don't know when yet, but Sar has the job and we are ready to go! Before we do though there is one craft project that has been lurking in the craft cabinet for so long I don't even know when we collected them.  A five gallon bucket of pine cones.  I know that one of us probably said oh we can do something with them.  They are pretty and they smell good.  Then they sat, and sat...and well you get the idea.  We have been in this house for just over two years, I don't know how long this bucket has been sitting; I'm just hoping we didn't move them from Michigan!

So step one:  Waxing nostalgic...if there is one thing that I am never short of it is candles...right up until I need/want them for a project.  I did manage to find four.  They were even in Lilac my favorite scent.  I melted the candles (5 minutes in a microwave safe bowl for four votives) and rolled the pine cones in the wax.  I then poured the left over wax over the nine cones I had managed to coat.

Result?  My house smells amazing right now. Light purple is not darker then brown and thus the cones just look a little shiny.

I haven't tried burning them yet, but I have been told that they will make great fire starters...and they will smell great too!  That's all I am going to have for this week due to time constraints.  Hopefully we will have much more next week.

Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.

Where I realize that Crafting Tuesday is going to be HARD!

So yeah...crafting hmmm.

In all seriousness, last week's post did result in me picking up the quilt and getting started again.  I also remembered a very good reason that I haven't crafted much lately-I have different priorities for my money right now.  Housing, food, you know; the little things. I have everything I need to finish the top layer of my crazy quilt, but I am going to need some fabric and batting to finish it up. One step at a time!

I do however want to give you some excellent resources for crafting here as well as getting myself up and doing.  Crimson is a knitter and she has some webpages and knitting tutorials that she uses that deserve to be shared.  She started knitting just over a year ago and is already doing large projects and lace. This is all self taught with the internet as her guide.  It can be done!  Once it is done you should probably share it!

Ravelry-Facebook for the crochet and knitting community.  There is more to it than that though.  You can find free patterns, keep track of future projects and even post photos of completed projects!

Drops-Think natural fiber yarns are too expensive?  Think again.  They have regular sales and have really soft, pet-able yarns as well as wool and cotton.  They are a British company so remember to think in dollars not pounds!

Very Pink-Knitting tutorials and more.

Also make sure to search YouTube!  Crimson has done some amazing work and she is just getting started!

Sar wearing one of Crimson's first projects-Navy Watchcap in Black

The beginning of her first commissioned piece. I already have 1 of these, it is dubbed the "Warm Circle."

Between knitting and sewing Crimson is hoping to save us some money by making natural fiber or mostly natural fiber clothing for us. Not just clothing, though; as there are patterns for "poofs" and even chairs on Ravelry. This is something I am planning on helping with!

Once upon a time I was in a group called 4H.  I loved 4H on a lot of levels, but being a kid, I had to complain about it. Being me I also had to postpone projects until the very last minute.  One of the projects that we did as a family was macrame.  Each of us had a macrame project or two every year.  We used jute cord most of the time (except for one sister who was allergic to the jute, she used cotton cording).  Trying to find the Jute cord again has been a trial.  I remember it coming in a wide variety of colors (about 5 or 6) and in a much thicker cord than what I can find.  If you have any referrals send them my way!

Next week:  What exactly are you going to do with that 5 gallon bucket full of pine cones?  Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.

Procraftination

Procraftination has two meanings:

1. Crafting when you should be doing something else, i.e. knitting when you should be practicing piano (clears throat loudly).

2. Doing everything in the world BUT the crafting you are supposed to be doing.

Well, I am not the knitter in the family, so guess which one I am doing?  Procrastination or procraftination is something we all do.  When we see something that seems to be too big to tackle we attempt to go around it instead of through.  One of the hardest things to do is see the steps that make procrastination the harder path.  Everyone knows that taking it one step at a time makes a large project smaller and easier to do; it is figuring out those steps and making sure they get done in a timely manner that is hard and makes putting it off until later seem the easier thing.

There are several steps to fixing procrastination of any kind.  Often though we know those steps (as I do) it is actually applying them that is the hard part. Getting off of your ass to do something that is going to take a long time to fruition is HARD.  As mentioned, many times already in this blog, I am a poet and a painter and a photographer as well as a crafter and a writer of fiction and creator of games (I know it's bad English but it makes the point).  When I am writing poetry, painting or taking photographs my gratification is instant.  I do these things with singular focus, I even paint in watercolors and acrylics  because I hate waiting for oils to dry. Crafting, novel writing and game creation is harder.  I have to sit and think and work at it.  So often I will put it off.  I can do that later. I will get to it after I finish editing this series of photos, get off Facebook, write this blog post (you get the idea).  I actually created this blog and specifically this day on the blog to get me off my bum and get to working on "The Quilt"  and do you know what I have done on it?  NOTHING!  I got it out, photographed it and put it away. This stops now, today....after I finish writing....

Looking for some motivation?  Check out Crimson's Blogs on Motivation:  The Motivation Files:  1, 2, and 3.  Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon.

Another way to sit at the computer and look like you are doing things while you do nothing:

The Elements and Artistry

I finished them and got photos!  Whoot!

EARTH

AIR

FIRE

WATER

I am exceptionally excited to have finished this, as it has been waiting for almost 6 months due to lack of funds.  We are still lacking in funds, but in the cleaning to find things to sell or pawn Sar found the Christmas present he had forgot he had purchased for me...so new paints!

Today we are going to talk about something on topic, but not related to these pieces specifically. 

 What makes an artist an artist?  

Short answer?  They do.  Long answer?  Fine, I'll do it.

An artist is an artist when they say (or admit-I have known several who deny it-they are normally the best, by the way) they are.  The viewer of the art can determine if they like it or not, but they shouldn't try to determine whether or not it is art.  Anything we are passionate about can be art.  Yes, anything-ask Don Juan and Casanova, better yet, ask the women they were with; whether or not they were artists.  You are a house painter, a plumber, a secretary?  You love what you do and you do it well?  Then YOU are an artist.  

That begs the question though of "do it well."  How do you determine that?  That depends on the criteria.  Secretaries should be able to type, file, search google for the boss' lunch again and many other things and they often have to be extremely flexible in what their day is going to be like (and I know secretary is passe. I don't care. I was one for years, I know what it takes).  At the top of their game there is some serious artistry involved.  There is also very little subjectivity to it.  A painter, a writer, or a poet though? Someone like me who claims to be all of the above and more?  There is a lot of subjectivity there.

So how do you know?  How do they know? This is the ephemeral part.  Art is art. Or is it?  My paintings would be considered "modern," but many people know 1st graders who could finger paint "better."  What makes one art and the other not?  Answer:  I do.  Art is the creation of work for the appreciation primarily for the appeal to the emotions or senses.  A small child creates to please yes, but seldom are they creating it as art.  An artist is expressing, sharing and giving you a part of their soul.

So I am an artist.  Are you?

Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon. Personal appearance this weekend in the Shadoe Stones booth, at the Indy Pagan Pride Day.

The Forgotten Quilt

Have you ever started on a project and then put it away for whatever reason and forgotten about it?  I think any crafter has.  Mine is "the quilt." About 10 years ago I started working on a crazy quilt for my mother.  I worked on it consistently for about 6 months, especially on the weekends while I was at dog shows. Then it got so big it was dragging on the floor at the dog shows and picking up a lot of hair, so I stopped taking it to the shows.  My leisure activities starting involving my hands not just my eyes or ears, so I put it away.  I have moved at least 3 times since that initial put away and I have moved the quilt, in it's bag, with me each time, with the best of intentions to start on it again "once I got settled."

I found it again a couple of weeks ago.  I worked on it a little more and am going to use this space to keep you updated on it's progress, thus making myself accountable to keep working on it.  There is still a lot to do and I am not sure how I am going to finish it off at this time; but I want the feeling of accomplishment when I finally finish this.

The Quilt

Why is this going to take a while?  Because, I have been hand sewing it.  I do not actually know how to sew using a sewing machine.  I am going to finish this topper with hand sewing and then machine sew the batting and backing together and hand quilt this to that "pillow."  That's a lot of time and some money away however.  For now I need to get this topper to king sized.  I have about 5" around left to sew on.

I am hoping this is something I can work on when I am bed ridden.  The biggest problem is going to be when I am having ocular aspects of my migraines.  Losing sight in one eye is not conducive to sewing without hurting myself.

I will post monthly updates on the quilt until it is finished, so you can watch it grow and to guarantee I actually work on it!

Love what I am doing and want to see more?  I am now on Patreon. Personal appearance this weekend in the Shadoe Stones booth, at the Indy Pagan Pride Day.

Crafting Tuesday

As I said in my post yesterday, Tuesdays will be for crafting.  I have a quilt I have been hand sewing for years and this blog is the excuse I am going to use for finishing it. Heh.

I used to do quite a few craft type things and I need to get them back into my life.  I need to get a lot of things back in my life.  You see, I have been pretty much living the last two years out of my bed.  No one can really tell me what is wrong.  They have found a lot of things "not normal" with me physically, but none of those are causing the problems I have.  Everyday, at some point in the day, I get a migraine.  I am prescribed medication that sometimes makes them leave, and sometimes doesn't.  When they get bad enough I end up in the ER for pain killers to knock it out.  The constant pain has deteriorated my body and my soul in a lot of ways.  I am in a fight to get both of those back right now.  I, finally, am angry at my body and I am going to make it listen to me.  I am not going to hurt myself; but I am going to start living again-as much as I can.

Part of that is finding things I can do while I am in bed and possibly half blinded (hand sewing a quilt does not work with that last part-voice of experience here-fingers and pin cushions are different things). So macrame, crafting with words, and various and a sundry other new crafts will be explored.  You will get to see the results here first.  Today we are starting off with something that was brought into my life via Crimson-our gemstone trees.  We have made this into a great business that is expanding through the amazing jewelry and art made by Sar.  The one, the only:

Shadoe Stones

Shadoe

So today we are going to talk about Shadoe Stones.  Crimson makes the "happy trees" created to move and resemble the real thing, I have started making mini-trees and small bonsai and Sar makes the most amazing medium/large bonsai and winged ladies. Our CFO (Chief Feline Officer), is the one and only Shadoe for whom the business is named.  ALL of our trees help to plant the real thing via our corporate partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.  One to ten dollars of every tree sold is donated to assist them with their very important work.

We work with semi-precious stones and base metals.  We use all natural products as possible.  As a family we consider this our art.  It is our belief that every piece we make is for someone in particular; and that person will find their piece when it is time.  To facilitate that we are going to as many shows as we can afford to promote the business, which started as a beautiful gift from Crimson to cheer me up and has developed into this amazing thing!

We do custom work so please feel free to check out the Facebook page above and check it out.  We are working hard and planning for a bigger, better, beautiful web presence within the next year.

A Green Brecciated Jasper  Bonsai on Tibetan Quartz (by Dawn)

Momma and Baby Tree Amethyst on Geode (by Crimson)

Pele on Amethyst Cathedral (by Sar)

I also cook.  I bake.  I do both of these things very, very well. They are by no means a hobby to me; although I am not professionally trained, but they are a craft.  I will be sharing my creations and recipes with you.  My family will especially appreciate that part as they will get to eat the experiments! 

I look forward to tomorrow and dropping some poetry and edge on you!  Maybe next week we will make my trail mix cookies!