Bluebirds and Birch trees

 I had the opportunity today to visit the used bookstore just a short drive away from my home. And aside from some handy stocking stuffers, what else do I find but– –a book I'd never thought to find available!  I had read Princess Academy* several years ago when I was struggling for good books to read. (Seems I come by that problem more and more often as time goes on.)  This one was a bit of an unknown to me when I picked it up. I had already read 'The Goose Girl'* also by Shannon Hale*  I can't tell you exactly my first thoughts or opinions on the book, because of the simple fact that I don't remember.  But if my impression three or more years later to finding this available on a bookshelf in a used book store was–Oh my word I can't believe it!!!–then I'd say it's a fairly good assumption I enjoyed it.  For the sake of spoilers or any other present tidbits that might give the story away, I shall simply say this.  If you enjoy ...

 Hello there, Readers!  A brand new month is upon us, and I'm going to be doing my best to write even though NaNoWriMo has finished. With that in mind: it's my goal to try and blog at least once a week, with Sunday being day 1. I know I've tried this before and failed, and a bi-weekly as well. But I ended up worrying too much about what you all would or wouldn't like to read.  In short, I'm just going to post what I know I like talking about. Simple as that. (I don't know why I take so long to grasp simple concepts, honestly :P)  Via another blogger I follow, she said at the end of her blog post that anyone was allowed to say that they had been tagged by her. The fabulous  Hannah Heath !  Let's get started! The Writer's Book Tag: Books I Love, Hate, and Couldn't Care Less About. First Draft:  A book or series that you've never read before. The Mouse That Glowed.  I really should start reading this book. It has been sitting on...

 I've learned many things from the comfort of my couch at home. I've watched documentaries, seen the beginnings of tv shows that have now blossomed into full thrown mayhem and plot twists. I've also listened to a lot of music, and seen a lot of things around the room that I haven't always taken in before.  Sitting on my couch at home, even though my reasons for being there aren't always great, I always tend to take at least one good thing out of it. Even if it's just a simple sketch.  I wouldn't say I'm resigned to ending up on the couch, or that I'm always comfortable with it. But I've learned to be okay with it. Okay with the fact that, life happens, and sometimes you just can't go anywhere.  And on those days, I slow down. I don't feel the need to rush getting things done, so I turn my mind to other things–the learning things.  I watch documentaries on those days I'm stuck in the living room, because then I know I can learn or...

 Hey guys! So, I wasn't originally going to do this again, but I recently read three others posts who had been nominated and.... I was indirectly tagged in all three, no joke.  We have  Ruby ,  Remi and Spanner , thanks guys for giving me something to write about!  So, it seems only fair I do it again. I've been silent for months and don't know what to post on here any more. I tried and it just doesn't seem to want to work. So I'm going to answer all the questions that were posed to the nominees, feel free to read them all or not. I don't know when I'll be back on here again.  Alright, up up and away! Guidelines 1. Thank the person(s) who nominated you. 2. Answer the 11(in my case 33) questions sent by the person(s) who nominated you. 3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions. 4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo on your post and/or on your blog. Ta-da! Time for questio...

 Dear Chapter 1,  Why must you be so difficult? Forgive me if that seems forward. But I really think we have a problem. Your incessant inability to say what you mean, or what would be right to say. Tendencies to dawdle and delay, no knowing what to say. Why, just right now I do believe you enjoy not having any words on your page.  Oh how you infuriate me Chapter 1! You really do. Rewrite and delete, the circle is always the same. Oh when oh WHEN will you let me say what it is that I want to say!  Chapter 1, I know you have a load of possibilities, all wrapped up into one and simple phrase. That first sentence, that first solitary strand of words that so often change the tide. Must you be so picky, with both your words and understanding.  I do have to say, that this is quite possibly the most hardest thing I've ever had to say.  Chapter 1. You are the hardest.  No offers of what should be said or how I should proceed. You have no guidance a...

Sometimes, it's really easy to get caught up in life. Sometimes, so much so that you can easily forget what a lot of us might consider 'small things'. For example; drinking water. I have a bad habit of not drinking enough water, and I don't mean I forget to drink several glasses a day kind of forget, I mean "sometimes I forget to drink a single glass of water a day" kind of forget. I know that, the solution doesn't inlay in drinking down a tall glass all at once, because the body doesn't soak all of the water up like that, most of it might not get absorbed at all. However, sipping, taking time with it, that'll absorb and hydrate the body. For me, I don't seem to be very good at doing that all the time. I don't drink water very often throughout the day, which usually leads me to chugging down a single large glass in the middle of the day or later at night, and that's not a good way to do it. When I thought about it, I realized tha...

 I think that every time my family gets sick, (it goes in a sort of round you see) this is always how the shopping list goes: Orange Juice Crackers  Honestly, it's either orange juice or ginger ale.

 Why hello there readers! Have you come to join me today? For on this, the February the seventh, is my two year Blogiversary! To be honest, I don't know what all to include on such a thing as a Blogiversary. But, I've got to start somewhere!  How this all came around on this little blog of mine, was short list, and a rather simple goal. Summer 2015 - A Brief List 1. Learn as much as I can. 2. Be the best I can be. 3. Connect stronger with God. 4. Do the things that have been set in my heart to do! And the goal, of writing one short story for every day of the year. Because, as I said then– "It's impossible to write 365 bad short stories if you write one a day!" (I'm quite certain I'm quoting someone here.) So how did that all go so far? Well, let's see. Learn as much as I can... well, that's quite a lofty goal. But I'll say that I've managed to learn what it is that I've needed to learn when I n...

"All textbooks should be burned." -my Mom, Jan. 30, 2017.

Apologies for the lateness of this, but here's a thing! I've been tagged by the lovely Autumn Meadowlark from  Alpine Writer ! Thanks dearie! Here are the rules: Copy these totally amazing and spectacular rules onto your post. Smile and twirl in a circle and look at your favorite inspiring thing and take deep breaths as you prepare for my amazingness (or awkwardness perhaps in my case). Thank your gorgeous, lovely tagger. Tag five other bloggers (or more, or less, or whoever) Have fun and be honest and answer all the questions (and feel free to add some of your own!) Step one, done. Step two *does it* done! Step three, done! Step four–oop! Getting ahead of ourselves, let's answer some questions first! No. 1: What is one of the most inspiring things to you? Well... It's hard to say what is the most  inspiring thing to me. Perhaps, sitting in nature during quiet moments, or being in busy coffee shops, I think, perhaps just being is often times ...

 Recently I managed to acquire the full 11 scores by Adam Young (though he has them all available on his website for free and I encourage you to go check them out!)  Today I listened to the album titled: Apollo 11: the music to accompany the momentous event of man landing on the moon. As such, I feel that the music is a magnificent accompaniment to one of the most well known events in modern history. I encourage you to go listen to the fabulous album, and let me know what you think! -Mae *I do not own this artwork, it belongs to the creator James R. Eads.

Well, I for one find my friend  Rubix's  ways of tagging people quite fun, and half the time I end up doing or having or wearing one of the things she lists for the tagged people. This time, I was wearing blue and red patterned socks. Well, here be the pretty picture to go along with this nomination: Quite lovely in my opinion! And without further delay, the rules/recommended order of things. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog Write a post to show your award Give a brief story of how your blog started Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers Select 15 other bloggers for this award Comment on each blog to let them know you nominated them and link to the post you created. How I started my blog, well...  I started blogging about 6 years ago on a blog that no longer exists. Then about 5 years ago I began my second blog with a very similar intent but it didn't go for very long, then a third blog that lasted...

 So often, oh so often, things in life bog us down. And we wonder, "why?" My friend, life is hard. But at the same time, are you taking care of yourself? Now I don't mean that in a discouraging way, on the contrary, what I'm asking is, "are you taking care of your health and wellbeing?"  It's easy to get caught up in life and have things easily slip away from us and out from underneath the limelight. I know, it happens to me all the time. But one thing I am endeavoring to change for certain this year, is how well I take care of myself. Such as: drinking more water, getting at least 1 hr. of high cardio a week to start, not eating so much sugar, spending less time on the computer and more time reading books, less time watching tv and more time studying.  These things, can be either simple or hard, it just depends on how you look at it. Drinking water: I don't know when this became a "problem" for me, I just stopped drinking as much ...

 Today, January 1st, 2017.  I didn't go to sleep until well past 1 AM, and woke up about 8 hours later.  I didn't finish a drawing I was working on, until close to 12:30 in the morning.  I didn't do a lot of things this past year that I could have. But I won't let that stop me from doing my best this  year.  I use the word I a lot. Because I find myself both easy and hard to talk about. I talk about myself and my experiences, because I don't know what else to say.  Sometimes I'll post a word, or maybe a story, an opinion, who knows. But for the most part, I've talked about myself because I don't really know what to say. So how about this for a change:  Talk more about things, people or places. I mean, come on. I feel like I spend all of my time researching. Have something I talk about consistently maybe once a month or once a week. Share joys, not sorrows.  Three goals for my blog. How about three goals for me: Grow c...

Up to 32 drafts and more things to write. Up to 32 drafts and more things to do. What do you do when you're up to 32 drafts and other obligations? Why, you make another draft because just as you've begun the last one you were writing, something else comes up and the entire topic of it changes.  So let's get right down to it shall we? I have just purchased two inking pens for my artwork. Something I like doing when I have a little spare cash, I'll buy one or two of a specific brand of a certain art supply to see how well it fares. Up till now, I have been using Pilot G2 pens for inking in my artwork, both pencils and watercolors. But today, I purchased two Pigma pens. The .5 Pigma Micron, and the Pigma Brush. I have yet to use them to any great extent, but these are my first impressions.   Pigma Micron .5  My hands are a little shaky at times when I'm inking, both as a factor of the cold and occasional anxious tendencies. While the Micron .5 is a very cl...

 Because I liked Rubix's questions, and had no idea what to blog about. So this'll be a jump start of sorts.  So let's go!  Question 1: If you could paint your entire house one color, what would it be? I would paint it cream, or pale green. Either of those two colors would suit me fine!   Question 2: Do you prefer to write on notebooks or computers? This really all depends, up until recently all of my writing was typed on the computer. As I have begun writing on paper, however, it seems to be a much more satisfactory way to get it done.   Question 3: Winter or Summer? I'll say Winter, because there's just so much that I enjoy doing during the winter months. I have to be honest, though, I don't always care for the cold weather itself.   Question 4: Favorite movie currently in theatres? Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Hands. Down.   Question 5: If you could learn a skill overnight, what would it be? Out of any skill I could possibly think...

Hopefully, you've noticed that I changed both the name and look of my blog. But fear not, it is still the same!  While it's last name was 'A Touch of Euphoria' it had actually begun to wear on me some, despite the fact that I do love the candy like appearance of the last design.  'Bluebirds and Birch trees' is a name that came to me most recently, and I decided to give it a try. I hope you enjoy it too!  So a few things to talk about in the light of the new month:   NaNoWriMo 2016 has ended. Although saddening, it has finally reached the last day, as well as the first day of the month.  Many of my friends and a few of my readers did complete the 50 thousand word goal, set upon in the early hours of November 1st. Though now, we welcome in the beginning of a new month, and a new season. December is full, full of people and editing as well as scrambling gift giving as people like me do their best to try and figure out just what to get their friends and fam...

 Not being able to find a satisfactory breakfast is starting to become a bit of a habitual thing. As I am endeavoring to not eat gluten for every meal, it brings breakfast options down to one thing: eggs.  But, as I am not inclined to cook for myself every morning, I am resorting to the large cache of leftover halloween candy. This morning's choice; a package of M & M's that held 18 pieces.  Ordinarily I wouldn't recommend candy to start off the day, but chocolate does go so well with coffee.  Today marks one week for NaNoWriMo. I myself have already written plenty of words, and I do hope at least some of them are good. Because, as with all first drafts, you have to have some room to maneuver.  I've been thinking again about the Book Room Challenge. I find it very interesting at the different styles at which different writers approach the challenge. Some focus on the mood or tone of the room, describing the music you'd hear, or the types of lighting, thi...

  Today, November 1st, 2016. A massive group of writers have begun coming out of the woodwork and overloading servers, all under one conquest, one goal–NaNoWriMo.  And today, also marks the day in which many of the website's pages, servers, internet providers and data plans alike will skyrocket in numbers.  Suffice to say, we're sitting at our computers, but this time with a purpose! I include myself in that sentence there!  Hello there! Many of you know of the fabled mythological time known as "NaNoWriMo" and some of you have even participated! Well, it's begun once again. Out bright and early, some of us started writing as soon as the clock hit midnight. Others, (like me) just got up a little bit earlier. Though I do applaud those who began straight away, I myself had a full night of Halloween-ing, and crashed almost as soon as I got back. (What was your favorite thing that you got last night?)  So today, I tried out a little experiment with my writing...

This is a post about---If you had three words to describe yourself (a color, a sound, a word of your choice) what would they be? As asked by Mandy, from NaNoWriMo. Mine: Lavender, Birds, Searching. It's color of my hands as I sit here and watch. The feeling that I have when I'm bundled up all soft. The feeling of the wind as it runs through my hair, it's the crisp morning air as I whisper, and ne'er. How do I look when the water turns cold, yet it's the beauty that I see when the heather is foretold. The sense that I feel when the light is not yet dawned, it's the time of the day when it is not quite beyond. The color in this place of time, that I find to be, lavender. The sound when morning is just a frond, the paleness of the plants and growing tendrils. The glittering notes that you hear just outside. It's clear, yet soft, but it's enough. To make the world sound so near. The sound of birds. Restless, yet inviting. Searching, and enticing....