Early Birdie

As miraculous as it may seem, I had never heard this Owl City song before this evening.

-

I'd ask but we don't know
How far these interstates go
Or how deep the city routes go down
In chilly subdepth railways
The weathered concrete stairways
Provide me with the means of getting home
If I ever leave.



_

10 Ways to Seduce a Writer

This list is amazing. Just so you know, these aren't ways only to seduce writers...these would also work for anyone who wanted to become my best friend/favorite sister/brother/mother/father of the year.

source

NaNoWriMo 2013!

source

I know what you're thinking:

"Great gravy, its only July! November is over three months away! And besides, you've won NaNoWriMo THREE TIMES already! What business do you have doing it a FOURTH year!?"

I answer you:

1. Its never too early to start trying to make this NaNo better than the last NaNo.

2. Winning doesn't mean I was proud of my completed project.

3. I love NaNoWriMo. I will do it every year that I possibly can for the rest of my life.


I even have an idea I'm already tossing around. My working title for it is Flower and Thorn. It's based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale Thumbelina, but it would be a modern retelling and from the perspective of Thumbelina's 'mother'. There are some odd ideas I have for this one, and my biggest concern is that it would suffer the fate of both NaNo #1 and NaNo #2: TURN INTO A SOAP OPERA. It has a lot of potential for drama, and with so much energy and emotion going into NaNoWroMo already, I tend to let a dramatic story go out of control.

Unfortunately, I also have two other ideas.

One, Crossfire, is about a battlefield nurse who loses everything and everyone she loves when she shows mercy on the enemy king. This was actually the story I intended to write last year for NaNoWriMo 2012, but I got the idea for Leprechaun Holiday and wanted to pursue that one instead. I have this story almost completely plotted out, I just don't know how it'll end, but it would definitely be the smartest story to choose for NaNo.

The other, which has no title yet, and is not exactly developed at all, would be set in the Viking era. My main character would be a mysterious young man with dark secrets. I'm really excited about several scenes in the book that I would write, especially one involving sirens (you know, those mystical monsters who lure ships to their doom?). But it would take a lot of research, and I don't think I have it fully-formed in my head yet. It's just bits and pieces right now. So that one will probably have to wait.


As anyone who reads my blog already knows, and, as I already said, I love NaNoWriMo. It is so much fun, and it really turns writing into a priority, which, unfortunately, it isn't always.

So, I would like to strongly encourage anyone whose ever even vaguely considered writing a book, to participate in NaNoWriMo 2013. You can even set your own goal! 50,000 can be too  many words for some stories, anyway. It is a lot of fun, a great challenge, and very satisfying.

I've had a lot of friends (and silblings) bail on me in previous NaNoWriMo's, so I'm also looking for a few writing buddies.

I can't wait for November!

Cookies for Clare

Today I went to work for the first time in a week. 

I was scheduled 10-4, which was rather inconvenient for everyone (meaning myself and my parents) because, if I only worked later, my dad could pick me up and my mom wouldn't have to make an extra trip to town.

Well, without any effort or gumption on my part, I managed to pick up 3 extra hours and stay until 7! Go me! I was fine with that because it meant I got three breaks instead of one, which is always nice, especially when you aren't feeling 100%, anyway.

Apparently this was a much bigger deal to my parents than a realized, because when my dad heard I had managed to pick up hours, he told my mom to make me cookies.

And she did.

They are amazing.

Don't quote me, but I BELIEVE they are oatmeal chocolate chip. There appears to be coconut in them, too. Whatever is in them, they're just really, really good.

I think this is the first time anyone has made cookies for me personally.

Its a wonderful feeling. 

The cookies are also a perfect way to celebrate the fact that it is my feast day! Today is the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, who I chose as my confirmation saint!

I hope your week has gotten off to as great a start as mine. 

Reasons Why I am Beautiful

source

I have made myself a promise. 

I am not going to talk, think, or act like I am not beautiful. 

Because I am. 

Denying that I am beautiful hurts me and it hurts the people who see the most beauty in me. 

I may not be perfect yet, but that is only because I have not fully become who I was made to be yet. 

But that doesn't make me any less beautiful.

So today, I made a list of all the reasons why I am beautiful. 

Here it is. 

Reasons Why I am Beautiful:

* God made me in His image and likeness, and who is more beautiful than God?

* I am a woman - the pinnacle of all Creation.

* I possess Feminine Genius.

* I am confident.

* I have long red hair.

* I have big brown eyes.

* I have freckles.

* I have a lovely smile that I use often. 

* I am honest.

* There is a great deal of love in my heart.

* There will never be another me, so no one can set a standard for how I should look. As long as I am the best version of myself, I am perfect. 

Stay beautiful.

Superior

(Me on the beach, and my bucket list for this trip layered over the top.)

For the past 6 days, I have been way up in Northern Wisconsin visiting my mom's parents!

Wisconsin is my favorite state that I have ever been in (although, truthfully, I've only been in 5 of the 50). It is absolutely beautiful here! Lake Superior is the biggest (and COLDEST) of all the Great Lakes, and I spent 3 days there this past week.

Family, food, fun -- and mosquito bites, but that sort of comes with the territory.

So far....

I got an amazing graduation gift from my Grandma.

I got serious Sister Points. (Happy Birthday, Terese!)

I got a sunburn. (Blah)

I got a carving tool for making rubber stamps.

I got to see my older sister and her boyfriend.

I got to eat a bacon and jelly sandwich (which, trust me, tastes way better than it sounds).

I got to sit for hours and talk to my Grandpa, pretty much the coolest guy on the planet.

I got to talk to my boyfriend on the phone on the 3rd anniversary of him telling me he liked me. <3

I got to see a few illegal fireworks, but some very beautiful (and tall) pine trees prevented me from seeing any of the real displays.

I got a lot of pictures of shoes and feet.

I got to see a bunch of my cousins, and confuse one of them with the color chartreuse. 

I got to watch two of my sisters fit their mouths around the rim of a glass cups. (More entertaining then you'd expect.)

I got to watch the movie Wreck-it-Ralph for the second time. ("What's going on inside of this candy-coated heart of darkness!?")

I got to see the art of an internationally famous artist.

And I got to go to Mass in one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. 

It's been a Superior trip so far, and we still have 2 whole days left!

I hope you are having a summer even half as lovely as mine. God bless!

Photo Edits: September

Turns out, I love photo editing. I discovered the site PicMonkey last year, and I've occasionally played around with it. I even made my most recent NaNoWriMo cover using some of the editing tools on PicMonkey: 

Three years ago, I first heard the song September by Daughtry, and I combined some of the lyrics with this fun picture of myself I took one cold winter night when I first got a desk lamp. There is nothing more pathetic than a fifteen year old girl with a camera. Trust me; I think I have about 500k selfies. 

Edit #1

(Three years later, I still look pretty much the same. Different glasses. That's about it.)

Anyway, I made this edit with the ancient Microsoft Word program called Paint, so I didn't even change the lighting. I just picked a plain font and put the refrain to September on it. 

This week, when I should have been doing more important things, I dug the photo back up from the deep files of my computer and decided to re-edit it. I no longer had the original picture, so I had to keep the words as they were. But I still managed, with the help of PicMonkey, to whip up three edits, each more extravagant than the last. 

Edit #2 

Fairly simple; I changed the lighting, brightened the eyes, and added some texture.

Edit #3

Here's where I went insane. This one is actually my favorite, even though its kind of ridiculous. Way too much going on here. This was the only one in which I edited the text by adding a second layer. Amazingly, I think I even found the same font!

Edit #4

I don't know what exactly happened here. I saw spiderwebs. I went with it. There are five spiderwebs layered on this edit. But I think it's cool, in a creepy kind of way. 

That's it. I am leaving for a long vacation with my family tomorrow, so we'll see how much blogging I have time to do. I will be working on some story ideas while I have an enormous lake in front of me for a whole week, which should be good for inspiration. 

Have a lovely Independence Day!