A Little of This, and a Little of That

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It was another beautiful spring morning until the sunrise became criss-crossed with heavy trails that eventually overcame the Sun. Clear blue skies seem rare these days. On a cheerier note-- along with the return of the Clan Robin, the Grackles, Cowbirds, and Redwing Blackbirds are all back as well. And one interesting thing to note, as goes the Cowbirds and Redwings, I've seen only the males. But, the feeders [with my neighbor is still helping] are teaming with activity.

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Some of you will remember the Slide proposal I posted the first week or so of January [which has since been pulled off into the Draft folder], for a children's picture book: A Day at the Marsh. Well, I opened that file and keyed the text into a Word.doc for further fleshing out. I also need to go through my photo CDs to collect the required images; both for the subsequent manuscript and future submissions and queries. Reading through Top Ten Writing Mistakes Made By New Children’s Writers helped to steer me toward [aside from keeping up with my blogs], what project to focus on next. While I still monitor my BP, I can go through the CDs and photos while on the couch. And though I’m practicing a new stitch, my knitting can wait.

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There is also the fact that Script Frenzy begins April 1st. I very much enjoyed the process of scriptwriting, but failed to finish Remembrance, in 2007. I have my Final Draft software out and ready to install, I just need to make the commitment and follow through. I would like to see a complete first draft. I can decide what to do with it later.

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I’ve got a few hand-written notes on the results of one of my NON-writing-related goals for 2009. While offline I worked with sprouting lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans and split peas. Though the split peas have since been relegated to future soups, the other three worked wonderfully well. A post on all of this will likely be found in my Quill of the Heart blog.

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To close, here are a few photos of a recent sewing project; again, done while off line. I came to the point where I needed a case to properly store my knitting needles. The only thing is, it just wasn’t something that was going to fit into my limited budget anytime soon.

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So, I pulled out a couple of fat quarters of this Victorian print flannel [from my quilting stash], and went about designing a case. I didn’t have a zipper [another something I simply could not afford], so I looked through my hatboxes of laces and trims and found this silk frog closure, and dyed it in a coffee bath. I believe, though, I'm going to remove the fire-polished crystal drop; as it detracts somewhat from the closure.

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Here's a look at the inside pockets. The small one, upper left, is for row and stitch counters. The gussetted one holds my circulars. And those to the right, pretty much speak for themselves.

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It took a few weeks to accomplish; what with not being able to sit so long at either the table and/or the sewing machine. But I’m quite happy with the end result. Enjoy!

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This is it for today. I need to give my back a break from this chair.

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Blessings,