Smash Journal


Posted by Laylian

Hannah got an e-mail from Michael’s last week. They were talking about these things. Smash Journals. Basically they’re like a a scrapbook, but more active. To me it’s about logging memories as they happen, like writing in a journal at the end of the day. Scrapbooks are where you store memories from big events. I feel like they’re a ginormous project. These Smash Journals feel much more approachable. It could just be that I LOVE journals.

Anyway, Hannah went to the store, but they were all sold out. The guy behind the counter said they’d have more tomorrow.  When Hannah wants something bad enough, it gets done. So she went with mom while I was at work and picked a couple up.

These things are amazing. In their YouTube Video they show a couple of the myriad ways these journals can be used. People track their school progress, their pregnancy progress, showcase their doodles. You could use it to make a timeline of all the movie stub you’ve collected over the years. Your imagination and supplies are the limit. I’m creating a book of things that inspire me, or have inspired me, to feel special. Things that made me feel more than a cog in someone’s engine. Or things that have made me feel in general, good and bad.

Maybe I’ll try to post some pictures of it, haha. But you special people will probably just have to ask me to see it :)

Ta~


A Japanese New Year


Posted by Laylian

imageToday at work we made Kadomatsu for the New Year. Everything was cut from the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix. We didn’t spend a dollar! My coworker and I had a great time. Because the bamboo is really strong, we asked one of our gardeners to help us. He cut the long stocks from the back of the garden, trimmed them and sanded off the knots.

imageThen we collected different kinds of pine, some Australian bottle brush and Nandina for decorations. We arranged them when we got back to the office. My boss had mizuhiki from Japan that she made for the front good luck knot. My coworker even brought her calligraphy brushes for the greeting.

imageThe last step of production was adding the mizuhiki. The knot is fairly complicated. We didn’t have glue, so I’ll have to add pictures of it tomorrow.

It was really fun to work with my coworker and boss on this project! It’s my first real cultural event like this.

That’s all for now ~


Hanging Out


Posted by Laylian

It’s happened. I’m doing something socially. As in not related to work. Hanging with people outside my family. Shocking? Yes. But probably good. A friend is back home from the military, so we’re going to see a movie.

I helped make my love’s face glow yesterday. He wanted some gaming headphones, so I helped him buy them for Christmas. Yay! Best month ever~

That’s it for now!


Christmas Day


Posted by Laylian

Here we are again. Happy Christmas/holidays to anyone reading. I hope your year has been productive and filled with happiness. I’ve been (mostly) happy, but not productive at all. This year’s word count of 13,152 is at least 40,000 words less than I wrote last year. The 2011 writing file is woefully thing compared to the last couple years. Obviously I’ve suffered from a lack of discipline and motivation. Between my family life and work I’ve had a lot on my plate. Still, those feel like excuses. Every time I’ve been down, I turned to writing, but after I recovered I didn’t keep with it. I just faded back into an ‘average’ life. I ate, I worked, I slept. It wasn’t very fulfilling at all. So this next year is going to be different. I know, I always say that. But this time I’m recommitting to discipline. So it will get done.

I’m just not sure what I’ll do yet. I’m currently doing a series of exercises where each day I write at lease 500 words of anything except me rambling (see this blog post). So maybe I’ll keep that going. Time will tell.

But that’s all for now. I hope you have a happy holiday season and stay safe~


And the Time Flies By


Posted by Laylian

I know it’s a long time after November. You can be sure if I’d won, that my silent audience would have known about it. Real life rose up and bit me in two. When it comes down to working to survive and writing to life, I had to forgo having a life for a while.

On a brighter note, the team at Yarny.me has made a great product! It’s an in-browser writing software. Even free it’s fantastic. They’re just out of beta and working on getting some neat features for paid users. Eventually they will be an offline version of the product that syncs up with the cloud when you get back in contact with the internet. I can’t say enough happy things about it.

It’s almost Christmas, work is finally letting me get a handle on it and I have more books to read than the garden has extension cords. For those unfamiliar, it’s an awful lot. Sometimes I miss those time when we were younger, elementary school/junior high, when Christmas Break actually meant being able to rest and have vacation. Now it rolls around and all I think is, ‘Oh good! I can catch up on work’ or ‘Thank God, now I’ll have a couple hours to take for my mental health’. I miss the lack of responsibility we had when we were younger. But that’s what ‘growing up’ is all about, isn’t it?

Bye all~ Happy Holidays!


NaNo 2011


Posted by Laylian

Whelp, here we are. I’ve decided to go with Issachar, Greta and Moak as characters. Yes, it’s the ‘doll story’. I know. I said I would never go there, but here I am. In my defense, they were characters before they were dolls. Not that there’s anything wrong with writing the doll story! I just wanted to keep it as a photo-story, was all. Oh well.

I’m a little busy on one of my other blogs right now and don’t get me started on work, but I’ll try to update throughout the month. Wish me luck!


NaNoWriMo 2011


Posted by Laylian

It’s finally time to start planning~ My course of attack this year will start with reading the ‘No Plot? No Problem!’ book by Chris Baty and watching Whisper of the Heart. After that, I’ll start working on some basic character stuff. I’m trying to be as loose and free as I was that first year. I had the most fun then. And isn’t that the purpose of this? To have fun? It is for me and that’s what I’m going to do.

I’ve decided to go with Issachar and Co. this time around. They were characters before they were dolls. I only have short story snippets and such for them, so it’ll be perfect. I’ve found that if I have established characters, I can get a lot more done than if I actually used an outline. Too much planning when I write bogs me down. I would imagine that makes most professional writers cringe, haha. There’s probably some kind of balance between the perfect amount of research and writing, but I haven’t found it yet. Writing this way is what works for me, it’s what gives me a rough draft to go back and edit. So this is the way I’ll do it.

I’ll probably put some of my planning ideas up here once I get them done, but I’m also on a blog with my friends, so we’ll see what happens XD

Bye all~


Helloo~


Posted by Laylian

It’s been a while again since I’ve posted. For that matter, since I’ve written anything, but that’s a another matter. Work is starting up again in a couple days and school started a couple weeks ago. It’s difficult for my brain to shift from complete idleness to being very organized and busy. But hey, what’s life without a little challenge?

I feel like I’m cheating on my novel. I’ve been neglecting it for sure and that’s never good for any relationship, but I’ll get back to it. I don’t doubt that I’ll get it finished. It’s just not going to happen this year like I’d planned. Unless something amazing happens. Anything is possible. Until then, I’ve got a couple neat ideas for short stories. I can’t talk about them yet, but I’m going to start writing. I’m so much happier and well-adjusted (if a bit more air-headed, haha) when I’m writing. Hopefully that’ll help me shake off the blues I’ve been dipping into.

Well, there’s the update. I’m not dead, just reclusive :)

Laylian


Future Short Story


Posted by Laylian

This was a dialogue exercise from a couple of days ago.

“Corwin, I’m a Hunter.”
“I understand that.”
“And nothing you can say will ever make me stop being a Hunter.”
“I respect your dedication.”
“Then you see why this won’t work.”
“Not really, no.”
“I’m a Hunter. You’re my prey.”
“Why?”
“You eat people.”
“I certainly don’t. Why do you think I own the largest cattle ranch in the industry? It isn’t because I like the smelly beasts, I assure you.”
“You don’t… But there were three deaths in the region over the last month. All exsanguinated. Everything points to-”
“It wasn’t me.”
“Then someone’s done a great frame job.”
“I’ll help you figure out who.”
“That cow blood? It’s lowered your IQ.”
“Your ultimate goal is the cessation of these killings? Eliminate me and you’ll lose an ally. The murders will continue.”

I’m excited to see where it leads.