#Writingallmonthonpurpose

It has been a while and this will be short. Sorry folks.  A lot has happened in the six weeks since the Marathon Bombing  and the freakishly freaky moment of lost hysteria, which may or may not be the last post I've done on this blog. None of it (my lots happening) is majorly life altering, some of it is just plain outright dull. But nevertheless I've sort of stayed busy.

I finished a few sewing projects. I've been in Craftermath mode for the longest, only because I keep thinking I need clothes. Realistically I'm never going anywhere to wear this stuff but that is just another one of those issues I've yet to deal with. Sewing is just a happy distraction. One I'll blissfully delve into at some other time. Every now and again I'll feel the itch to go cut some fabric. I even caught myself ordering some the other day. I couldn't help myself. But I'm going to exercise some discipline.

My next two projects are actually set to go. What's stopping me, JUNE. Yes, the whole month of June is stopping me. Yes, I know that my father's birthday and Father's day is in June. I also know that June is the month in which summer kicks off. None of that matters. What matters is that I applied to school and I am seriously hoping to get in. I should know by the end of June. If I get in I'll be starting in August. I wont even get into the amount of hops I didn't have to jump through while dealing with Admissions. So blissfully easy I wish I'd thought of it sooner.

I took the month of June to work on my book. The book that should have been in the revisions step of my process back in March. The book isn't even finished yet. What would make me happy is to at least finish the story before I let it collect dust. So on May31st, after a brief three way Facebook conversation between myself, my old friend Rita and my old shipmate Steven, I decided to take the month. I won't do anything but write. If I'm lucky I can get to the end and then actually revise.

Today is day six. I have stuff I could be doing. But I'm afraid in my usual fashion of afraidiness that once I leave the house I'll come home tired and not write anything that day.  So I haven't left my house yet this month. I did take out the trash and walk the dog a few time though. It's not a healthy way to live but fuck it the book has to get finished. I've got a billion ideas for the revisions and I can't do any of them until I get to the end.

So here's to the month of June. May every moment in front of the lap top be worth my "pale" summer tan.

Thank god for Spanx.

For two weeks I've been challenging myself by attempting a sewing pattern from 1956. If I were a good and steady person I would have said I'm not ready for this challenge skill wise. But I'm not and I like to make things hard for myself.

Several weeks back a good friend of mine and fashion designer showed me an awesome tip on making clothing your size. I found this tip invaluable at the time since I ordered a skirt from Pin-Up Girl on clearance only to find out that it doesn't fit. I had the sadz until he showed me how I can copy the heck out of it and make one that does fit me.

(I could have just went on a diet.)

But being a good friend and a better teacher than youtube, my friend,  sent me on my way. I made my skirt and moved on to something straight out of MadMen. I wanna be Joannie and Peggy smashed together. Let's call her either Jeggy or Poannie. Go with Poannie.

I even posted my progress earlier as a pre-prompt for the Fictioneers Submission. It was kicking my ass then and continued to do that to me all the way to the bitter end. I wanted to toss the whole thing but the Fictioneers being super supportive of everyone who does the blog hop, encouraged me to continue.

Frankly after I realized that I'd modified every part of the dress except the collar I should have just gave up then. I figured a way around that. I decided that I want to add a pair of frogs to it but I have to wait on that I haven't been to the sewing store. Other than not having the frogs to close off the top it is a done garment.

Thank God for Spanx though because I can't even wear the darn thing without them. The dress plus the lining is so damn snug I honestly can't move much without some kind of control something underneath it. Yeah Retro dress = Retro Size. I'll have to remake this dress again. Not just because of the size issue, but because there's a quarter inch gap under my arm where the side zipper is supposed to meet the top seam.

But the Million dollar question is: Is this a wearable garment?

You tell me.

I may be loosing my mind a bit. Or at least my way.

Not to this degree but it's getting there.

I have been making an attempt to be productive in my extended and unwanted period of unemployment. I've taken up sewing, I've even become a container gardner, I've mastered certain dishes to the point that they now seem more old hat and less complicated. That does not change the three things: I'm still unemployed, I'm still not in school, and I'm not writing like I used to.

Two of those things were never part of the plan. But either way the longer I continue to be stagnant the more stuff I'll have to "do" to keep from being more of a burden and less of a person making do.

I'd like nothing  more to get back into doing book reviews. I thought they were helping my in my goal of getting know. They were to an extent but I wasn't getting any companies to pick me up as a reviewer. I must have been going about that the wrong way. The second point about doing the book reviews was the cost. As I mentioned a million times before. I am unemployed. The amount of money I  put toward this non-paying hobby was seriously dipping into what little money I do have. I had to find another way.

I did enjoy reviewing the books. I hope to start that up again when I have the finances in a more stable, less starving condition. I think probably go back down to the one a week. Those E-books while much more convenient and more profitable for the author were just killing me.

You know what else is sapping my motivation? Dating. I'm of course talking about my addiction to Okcupid.com. I recently changed my profile to the most negative way I can portray myself just to see if the dogs would leave me alone. They didn't. So I had to add this to my profile and for a while I got a little peace.

 

It wasn't particularly nice of me but I still don't care. I figured that there is really no reason for me to complain about being single because seriously if I wanted to date I'd be dating. I just like looking at the profiles. It's sort of like shoe shopping without having to actually try on the pair in question.

Getting back to the sewing. I like it and with the National City Swap Meet selling fabric for $1.50-$2.00 per yard I'm going okay. I seem to be getting better. Some time in december I started doing this so that I'd have clothes to wear to job interviews. These two blouses I managed to finish with out losing a substantial chunk of my finger. But I get a kind of satisfaction from completing a garment. My office somehow morphed into a work room but I think once the shine has worn off on this new skill I'll get my office back. 

As I said before creatively I'm pretty stagnant I don't like it. I wonder if there is something to it? Maybe I'm not serious about writing? Maybe I've been wasting my time. This whole year has been full of ups and downs and random crap that has nothing to do with being a writer. Maybe I just need some regimen that I can stick to. 

But enough of that. It's Monday and I have things to do. One being that I need to clean my work room. There's thread everywhere and at least two patterns still open and strewn about the floor. I'm pretty sure if I walk in there barefoot I'll step on a push-pin and I definitely have to unplug my iron.