Stock up on travel reading

On Sale on Amazon, today through 12/15/17

Already ready my novel? Check out my list of book reviews for some other good reads this holiday season! 

The Procrastinator's Friend

I try to minimize using this writing/personal blog for towel promotion (other than the widget in the scrollbar). However, this is the final sale of the year, and it's for everyone who finds themselves scrambling to get those last few gifts on their list. Not only do I have a variety of designs, Christmas and otherwise, but I'm also offering a discount of 15%, today only! (Normally each towel costs $6.99)

(Although I personally don't tend to procrastinate on Christmas gifts, I do on other things, so I offer this sale in the spirit of solidarity as well as marketing ;) )

I really enjoy creating these towels, and they work well as a supplemental income source that I can manage with my health issues. Even if you're not in the market for more shopping this year, I'd love to invite you to come on over and take a look at my little shop! And, if you like, you can also follow my photos of this adventure on instagram or Facebook, or sign up for my mailing list (the most I'll visit your inbox is once a month, but usually less than that).

I often get asked about my designs, so I'd like to share that I source most of them from the lovely company Urban Threads. I am always happy to add more of their designs to my personal library, so feel free to make suggestions of what you'd like to see!

Reflections on My Mother's Dresser; or, a Room Redecorated

Nathan and I recently completely redid our bedroom decor. And by redid, I mean that we replaced every piece of furniture and painted everything. It was a big project. And not one that I undertook lightly. 

When we first married, we moved into an apartment and had the tiniest bedroom, since the larger room needed to go to the sewing business. (Nathan was completely on board with this, BTW). We pretty much combined the furniture we already had, got a new bedspread, and lined the free wall with bookshelves. 

Then we moved into our new house and I knew that eventually I'd want to do something really cool in our master bedroom. It needed to be a design scheme that we'd both be happy with for a long time. We were getting all new-to-us furniture (more on that in a bit), but it was all dark wood and I'm not fond of dark wood. So that meant we needed to pick a color for the furniture, and Nathan really liked the look of light cream. I approved of this because it meant that I could pick a color for the wall and I LOVE colored walls. 

The problem was that our favorite colors that we haven't already used in the house are red and blue. Combine them with cream and you get a very patriotic mix. Could we really work out a scheme that evoked a different feeling than "USA!" ? 

We thought that we could. 

Offline Reflections

I have been feeling very inwardly focused these days. But in an outwardly way. That is, my attention has shifted away from communicating with the outside world via the internet, and focusing more on the practical matters of getting things done in my house and business.

The reason for this, (I am fairly sure), is because my health at home has become fairly manageable, to the point where I actually have energy and even feel better when I'm moving around than when I'm at the computer. I embarked on some serious physical therapy for my headaches this fall and it has been quite amazing. I went from every day painkillers, to maybe once a week. Computer work, as you might expect, is not the best for my neck, and a large portion of my computer time needs to get spent on completing "The Professor and the Siren"  (it is longer than "The Mermaid and the Unicorn" now) or marketing my etsy business. (Need a whimsical flour sack dishtowel?)

And it's wonderful. Having energy to LIVE. Sure, my limits are still pretty low, and leaving the house is hard, but I've still come such a long way from where I was two years ago when I could hardly leave my bed. I've been consistently writing all year, getting back into sewing (for fun, at least), and slowly knocking off various home projects.*

*our basement flooding has make actually organizing the house quite difficult. But we're getting there. The basement is actually repaired now, we just have to get the sheetrock back up...

I'll say this for chronic illness, it makes you really appreciate every moment when you have a little bit of low-pain energy.

So I'm not on the computer as much these days. I'm online, but largely on my phone, which results in more reading and less posting. Which is fine. Observation and knowledge gathering is important for writers.

It's snowing here. I love Minnesota for so many reasons, but cold short days are not on that list. Still, snow is beautiful. And snow, accented by Christmas lights, is the perfect background for a good writing session. I lack a fireplace, but considering that real wood burning fireplaces tend to cause allergies, I can deal... I've got a puppy, anyhow. And in between novel sessions, I'll keep plugging away at my correspondence. I know too many wonderful people all over the world to give up internet all together... ;)