Take a Break and Go For a Walk

We don't stop to think about walking or any type of exercise when we are at our computers all day, but it is important to take some breaks and get some sort of exercise each day. 

Some of us get stuck into a routine with no exercise and as we get older, it becomes more important to do this.  The effect of the previous holidays and extra eating often cause us to now think of dieting and exercising.

I'm not really one to over eat.  I tend to eat in moderation and my typical three meals a day.  Where my culprits are, are in the canned foods that I add to my pasta or rice.  There are extra salts and carbohydrates in those that we don't stop to think about.  And then another bad habit is snacking on chips.  My downfall.

I love those kettle cooked chips in all flavors and at least crave one bag a week.  Which as I start to get older, I might have to watch my blood pressure if it increases.  But it is often hard not to snack at all.

I don't bake as much as I used to. 

But after having four children, I still have a belly and often women have thought I was pregnant.  I'm skinny everywhere else.  It's just the suddenly tremendous stomach.  I'm also on prescribed medicine that makes me gain weight and I'm also on birth control that also makes me gain weight.  And suddenly, they weighed me at the doctors and I was surprised by the weight gain.  It seems like more than when I was pregnant, which as I get older probably isn't a good thing.  But at being in my forties, I don't want a baby at my age so I will have to deal with the weight gain.

I have decided to start walking.  I went on a short walk today from my kids house to the end of the street and back which was a good start.  As I do it more often, I will go on longer walks through the whole neighborhood.  But today with the snow and cold up and back was good.  There is a little hill to walk up on the way back, which is also good.

We don't stop to think as we get older, we need to also think of our hearts and keeping up with some sort of exercise.  Plus walking and any sort of exercise increases our metabolism.

I would half way think of a second walk today, but I'm coming down with a nasty head cold.  But being out in the cold air seems to help un plug things.

Last night, I ended up sleeping on my couch to elevate myself better.  I had the tv on and my cats slept on me.  At a certain point into the night, I partially woke up and heard a woman on the tv say, "I'm from Kansas."  In the back of my brain, I was thinking I'm not from Kansas.  Then I realized that it was an old black and white movie that had started.  I was sleeping through part of it.  At first I thought it was Katherine Hepburn and then I realized it was an actress I didn't know of.  I got watching it.

 It was about a woman who met a man and then they parted ways for a little bit.  She became paralyzed and couldn't walk.  So there was another man friend that took her places.  Towards the end, they went to the theater, and then at the end of the movie the other guy and a girl see her.  The woman never stopped loving him of course and didn't want to tell him she couldn't walk.

She goes home.  And then the other guy finds where she is living and pays her a visit.  She's sitting on the couch and he still isn't aware that she can't walk.  At the very end of the conversation, he tells her about the painting that he had done of her with her wearing the shawl that he has just given her tonight.  Then he goes on to say that the gallery owner said a woman bought it and she had been in an accident. 
Then suddenly he begins to put the pieces together and puts his stuff down and goes further into the room and he sees his painting hanging on her wall.  So about now, he is realizing it is her.  Happy ending, and you know they end up together.

All those black and white movies end up in a happy ending with the two main characters looking into each other's eyes and confessing their love.

I grew up on so many of those movies.  My Nana used to visit a lot when we were little and she and my mom would watch all the old black and white romance movies.

I didn't catch the beginning of this movie though to know what it was called.  And at the end, I was hoping to find out who the actors were.  I forgot that most of those movies had all the credits at the beginning of the movie.

But back to walking and exercising.  Walking is one of the best exercises you can do and it is free.  You don't have to sign yourself up to a gym to do it.  But if you would like the gym atmosphere, that is a good thing to join.

I had joined a gym a few years ago after my separation.  I went in hopes of meeting someone too, but nothing happened there for that.  But I did enjoy walking on the treadmill and then having a nice hot shower after.  

And when you are first starting to walk, don't push yourself too hard.  Work up to where you want to be, or else you will find yourself hurting your shoulder or something.  You should never over do too quickly.

Sit ups are good to do too.

I tried hopping on a bike for the first time in fifteen years last spring.  It took a little bit to get used to and I didn't end up doing it too much.  I probably only used it four or five times.  I think partly, the seat was a little too high.  But it is sitting inside the garage at my kids house waiting for me to attempt it again in the spring time.

There was a bike path out behind a school in the neighboring town.  I tried it there and the path goes for quite a ways.  I will probably try it again sometime.  A bike is fun to have just to take a little bike ride around the neighborhood in the Springtime on a sunny day.  That is when we always see everyone out and about.

People tend to be couped up all winter.  And all of us writers tend to flock to the computer all day writing our hearts out to try to earn our online money.

Take a break and go for a walk, jog or run.  My brother is a runner and is always running all year long.  He finally qualified for the Boston Marathon about five or six years ago.  He has been in that at least two times.
He's come up to do the Burlington VT Marathon a bunch of times.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 21, 2012

If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

Drinking Coffee Helps Reduce Type 2 Diabetes

I was reading a little today about the facts that drinking coffee helps reduce Diabetes type 2.  And the more coffee you drink the better your chances of reducing the chance.

I love coffee.  I don't think I could ever quit.  I'm addicted.  I did cut back on my coffee intake though.  I was drinking at least two cups a day and then cut back to one cup.  I have been craving the large MacDonald's coffee for $1.09.  I ask for cream and sugar.

Then I get it home and need to add two to three more tablespoons of sugar.  I love my coffee sweet.  Coffee with my sugar?  Yes.  Even my nine year old daughter, Julia likes to have a few sips of my coffee.  One day, I came back to my cup of coffee and found it half gone.  A little culprit drank it.

Although, I am thinking where I need to add lots of sugar to my coffee every day, that probably isn't very good. 

And I could never drink it black.  I tried a sip once and thought it was terrible without sugar.

I even like those sweet coffee creamers, all flavors.  My sister loves them too.  She usually has hazelnut on hand.  Too bad she lives a few states away or else we would be sitting at each other's tables drinking coffee together and going shopping too.

And my daughter gave me a set of coffee flavorings for Christmas.  Of course they are gone.  And we needed a man to help us get them open.  Then Julia and I fixed ourselves a cup of coffee and added the flavorings.  I let her have a cup of coffee once in a while.  It wouldn't be good for her all the time, but on a special occasion, or a special treat, I let her have half a cup.  She usually gets hers watered down with extra milk.

Sometimes she would like the flavored creamers added to her milk.

So, now that I cut back to one cup of coffee, I am suddenly thinking I will go back to two cups a day.  I like the idea that it can reduce my chances for diabetes type 2.

My father has diabetes.  So it's possible as my siblings and I get older, we could get it too.

And thinking of coffee and food, I probably should start a walking routine soon for exercise.  That's another post.

Drink more coffee!  Lower your chances.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 20, 2012

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If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

Creative Ways to Organize your Stuff

Do you sometimes want to clean house and organize, yet don't really feel like getting rid of some of the clutter to weed out your house.

There are many ways to get creative and be organized when it comes to designing your lifestyle in your home.  We all want to be creative in making our house a home that we are going to want to live in.  Sometimes we look at our disheveled house and wish things were neater.  Don't you ever look at one of those Better Homes and Gardens magazines or another home magazine and look at the pictures and wish that room was yours?

Sometimes these magazines help us to figure out how we want to decorate our rooms.  Try cutting out some of your favorite pictures of what you would want your rooms to look like.  Make a little scrapbook out of it.  Write some little notes.  Maybe ideas about how you want to use the idea in your house.  If your into sewing or crafting, maybe you want to write some notes of the things you want to make for your house.

Then, when you've got your little scrapbook kind of thought out a little, it is time to do some shopping.  It's always fun to go looking for things to fill your house.  And yard sales are always fun.  Just when you go yardsaling, learn to be selective.  You've got to remember that you don't want to end up putting it right back into your yard sale.  Or then you sometimes buy something and then later think, "Why did I buy that?  That was a stupid purchase.

That's why we always see so many people returning things to stores.  They often get it home and end up deciding that it wasn't what they wanted after all.

Some other ideas if you are really creative and like to sew or knit.  I've seen some pretty homemade curtains that cover up some people's sinks.  Something I designed once was some fabric curtains to cover up the stuff underneath my studio table.  I then attached some Velcro to the fabric and the table, so I could remove them at any time.  Maybe you want to add some cool pockets to them, so you can put little supplies in them.  It would be a neat way to hold some pencils, scissors or pens.

I often would look at other artists studios to get ideas for inspiration for organizing.  Everyone likes different types of containers to put things in.  Some people love baskets, others like photo boxes, mugs, bins, etc...  There are all sorts of different types of containers that are useful for placing your stuff in.  Maybe you want different containers for different types of supplies.

Say a container for your gardening supplies or scissors, art supplies, crayons, rubber stamping stuff, knitting, and on and on.

Making little pocket books to hold stuff is a good idea too.  One friend I know made one of those quilted caddies that get tucked into the arm of the couch or chair and then you can hold some of your magazines and remote controls in it.

I like to save some of my seed packets in a small size pretty gift bag.  It keeps it organized and a little hidden too.

Maybe you might like to find a big gardening bucket to put some of your gardening tools in.  Maybe one of those pretty ceramic pots would be neat.  You could always hot glue gun a fabric ribbon on it.

Hair stuff and make up sometimes looks pretty in a nice basket that can rest on your vanity.  Again,  add some ribbon on it if you want.  That wire edged ribbon is neat to wrap around the basket handles.  I've done that before to dress up a basket.

Finding things that you can fix up is really neat.  Maybe you might like buying some plain pots and then practice painting on them.  Gold leaf painting is kind of a neat effect.  Maybe try rubber stamping on a pot too.  Or practice making your own patterns.  For this kind of thing, buying some of those special sponges in an art store can be quite pretty.  Dip them in different paints and dab it on your pot.  Then when you are done you could get a special type of glaze for them.  Once again, the art stores have many different clear glazes and Walmart always sells the timeless Modge Podge.  Who hasn't ever used Modge Podge?  I was brought up on that stuff.

Or you could glue pictures on pots too.  That could be interesting.  Get creative.  Look for any found object that might come in handy.  Textured fabrics that you don't care about could be useful for that too.  I used to have some bumpy dotted fabric from one of those old table cloths or bed spreads.  That came in handy for ideas.

Decorate plain boxes too for storing thing.  Anything that is going to put your personal touch on things is great.  And down the road your kids will love it because you made it.  I will also admit that I have also thrown out things that I made too.  We don't ever keep every single thing that we made.  Maybe we thought some of it wasn't very good.  I couldn't begin to tell you how many drawings I have ripped up over the years.  And I still have many of my favorites.

Wicker bins are neat to collect.  I used to buy a bunch from JCPenney and you can stack them anyway you want.

Laundry baskets are good for putting things in.  So many times we used to use laundry baskets to put the kids toys into.

I have a large wicker hamper that I put my fabrics in so my cats can't get to them. And a lid is really good.  Add a beach towel or something on top and your cats can have a nap on top.

I had one type of basket that I got at a yard sale, thinking my cats would like it.  They sure did.  So much that they attacked it and I was constantly sweeping up little broken bits of the basket.

People also love to get furniture and repaint it, sand it and all kinds of stuff to it.  That's another way of making a beautiful living space out of your furniture.  Get rid of anything though that really looks like it is falling apart.  Some things are just beyond fixing.

I've seen some gardens that make use of a lovely metal bedpost for the background.  I think that is absolutely gorgeous and your flowers can climb it.  Imagine clematis or your lovely rose bushes surrounding it.

Could you even imagine a bed in your garden?  Look at Kate Moss with that bed they used for their wedding.  Although if you had a bed outside in your garden or near a secluded lake, you would want it well protected so it wouldn't get wrecked by Mother Nature.  Isn't that the stuff of dreams?  Any dream can be made a reality.

Sometimes it is a good idea to keep a little daily notebook of all your thoughts and ideas. It can be sort of like a journal or a diary, but you can just choose to document any little idea.  Then you will have a little book to come back to filled with your ideas.

Then check mark them after you have done the project.

Knitted bags are always nice to put stuff too.  Something to hold your yarn.  Baskets are always great for yarn too.  And handmade fabric  containers are great for your needles.  I made a little floral one once.  Then a folded the fabric up half way and sewed up sections for all the needles.  Then it was something I could just roll up and tie with a ribbon, or even more fun (how about a knitted chain).  My girls know how to finger knit those things.

Once I even tried to braid some fabric to make a homemade jump rope.  It's long gone, but we had some fun with it when my kids were little.

If you know someone who can make built in shelving for you, that is also great.

These are only a few of the millions of ideas we can come up with.  We just need to spend a little time hunting for our favorite things to decorate our living spaces with or take time to make our own creations to surround us.

And another neat idea for holding art supplies is one of those fabric closet containers.  The ones that are on a hanger and you could put all your shoes in them.  Use those in your kids rooms too.  Your girls could put all their hair stuff in them. Clothing, jewelry, little knick knacks and all kinds of other uses.

I've seen people make their own fabric closet hangers too.  Those are gorgeous.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 19, 2012

Whatever you decide to do, have a little bit of coffee before you get started.  And looking at this picture I forgot, I used to love putting some of my sewing stuff inside a small ban box like that little floral one.  Marshalls and TJ Maxx sell a lot of those different  types of boxes and baskets.  And they are fairly inexpensive.  Those are great places to shop at.  Even though I don't work at  Marshalls anymore, I still find myself shopping there sometimes.  There's always good bargains there.  They get new shipments in at least three days each week, so there is always something new.  Unfortunately, there is only one Marshalls in Vermont.  So everyone travels to shop there.  They are always getting the Canadians shopping there.  I learned a little bit of French.

And then looking at this picture again, my coffee table that it is resting on.  I found this really cute little coffee table once at yard sale.  In it's early days, Sean and I glued pictures on it as if we were scrap booking on a large surface.  One section had all kinds of animals and dinosaurs on it and the other half had flowers, dolls and pretty women on it.

My Nana had a scrapbook when we were little and my mom had one too.  Then when my boys were little, she made one for them to look at.  She found all kinds of kid pictures, Christmas themes, snowmen, etc.. and filled it.  I think it is still at my dad's house.  I should ask him if it is still there and if I could have it for the kids.

It would be neat to have something that she made.  She used to make those knitted dishcloths too.

Then later, this coffee table turned into one with pictures of my kids.  Some of the scrap booking stuff was getting ripped up.  Then I had memories of my Nana's glassed coffee table that had all kinds of pictures of us in it.  My cousin ended up getting that one.  My Nana loved it.  And later on, she got Alzheimer's and we would keep telling her who everyone was. 

And that is yet another post with such a sad ending.  It's terrible when they suddenly don't know who any of their family is.



If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

It's Time to Start Getting Rid of the Clutter

Spring cleaning is just around the corner, but that doesn't mean wait for Spring.  Why not start now?  A house can be cleaned out, weeded and de clutterized at any time of the year.  It should be a regular practice to clean things up.

When you are in your house, do you constantly see things sitting around collecting dust that you don't use?  I know I do.  It feels really liberating to get rid of things that I don't use.  I have been cleaning out my house in the whole two and a half years since I have been in my new apartment.  In the beginning, I had tons of stuff in it.  I wanted to keep everything under the sun and realized I had a small apartment and needed to clean house.

I guess I would have been one of those people that you see on Hoarders or one of those other shows.  I'm an artist and a writer.  The artist in me collected lots of props for my drawings and I went through a phase where I collected lots of porcelain dolls, doll parts and almost any kind of doll.

Well, this year, I have even been attempting to get rid of a good amount of my doll collection.  I have a few drawers and a chest of my favorite dolls that I won't give up and a curio cabinet of some of my most expensive ones.  But I have desired to get rid of a bunch and just have digital pictures of them instead.  My sister heard this and said, "Are you feeling okay?"  When she heard I was getting rid of even the dolls she was surprised.  I've drawn dolls for years and taken lots of photos of them.

A few of them, my cats broke and I had to throw out one of my favorites.  This gorgeous Shay doll by a well known doll artist.  She was a wedding doll.  I also have a smaller doll of her that I wouldn't get rid of and three other doll heads of her in a little doll trunk of my mother's.  Julia wanted to see what was inside the trunk a few weeks ago.  Probably nothing too interesting for her.

Sometimes the cats have knocked over a vase or one of my lovely tea cups.  They knocked over an old one of my grandmother's.   I was a little upset by that one.

Look around your house and inspect anything that sits around collecting dust and you do not use it.  If it hasn't been picked up in years and is taking up space, it probably isn't needed.  But if it was handed down to you by a relative, it probably has sentimental value and should be kept. 

The things you can't really throw away are all the boxes of pictures.  Although, earlier last year, I did go through all my 90 photo albums of the kids and pulled out a lot of my favorites.  And the albums went to my kids house.  They are going to someday get them anyway.  My son, Sean was interested in finding pictures of our camp we used to have.

That was a sad thing to give up, but when it finally sold it meant that I got more alimony.  That was nice.  But we often miss the family camp.  It had been in my family for about three generations.  Last camp on the end of a dead end road and we would walk down the wooden stairway to the beach and the lake.  So many fond memories though.

So photos should definitely be kept.  But nowadays who needs all those negatives when we are suddenly into the digital world?  I've gone digital, so I suddenly didn't need all my negatives.  I've been taking digital pictures of all my favorite photos and I have stuff saved to a back-up.  The only negatives I have kept are my Nana's old negatives of when my mom was growing up.  Those are priceless.

Just think of all those knick knacks that we women attempt to accumulate over time.  And even in a short amount of time, we can gather quite a collection.  We shop at stores and buy new things, we go to yardsales and used clothing stores or even Goodwill.  I will admit I have shopped there too. And lately I have boughten stuff to sell on Ebay and sometimes it ends up not getting sold and I am either stuck with it, give it to my kids or it finds it's way into my yardsale or back at Goodwill.

But that is going to be the way of that, when I am buying stuff to sell.  I am going to win on some things and lose on other stuff.  It's all about taking a chance.

And if you would like to make some money on some of your stuff, Ebay is a good way to make some money off your stuff.  And if it doesn't go, bring it to Goodwill.  Give some of it away to relatives if you think they can use it. Sometimes kids clothing is a great thing to pass down to the cousins if you have younger cousins who can wear your kids stuff.

But when you are weeding out, make sure you save certain things.  Kids artwork is great to save, unless if you have an abundance of it.

Keep your favorites.  I always liked saving some of the kids baby stuff.  I might look through some of it though and see if there are any that I can cut up some circles for the yo yo quilt.  That would be a neat thing to do with some of the clothing.  It's a creative way to recycle stuff.

I've saved lots of my art stuff, supplies and all that stuff.  I'm still going to have a lot of time when I'm going to want to create more paper dolls or some drawings.  And I've got the artwork project for my video game idea.  Passions Unleashed a game for adults.  A game of mystery, sex and murder.  I'm writing the scenarios and drawing all the walls of my rooms.  That one will take years to do, and if I never get someone to actually turn it into a video game, at least I will have my idea all created in case someone wants to attempt it when I'm dead.  I've gone the lengths to copyright it so nobody will take my actual idea or at least my drawings and my original stuff. 

I mean, I'm sure I'm not the first person to ever come up with a sex and murder video game, but at least nobody could plagerize my stuff.  If they did, they would get in trouble.

But most artists and writers want to create their own stuff.  But we are always inspired by other people.

But when you are searching for stuff, you will find out all kinds of things.  Even our outfits.  How many times have you tried something on and it doesn't fit you anymore.  Or you try it on and suddenly you think it makes you look fatter.  Or that leather jacket is hanging in the closet and you haven't touched it in years. Or anytime something has a hole in it, trash it.  My mom, husband and  I used to laugh about holy socks.  We used to joke to my Mom and say, "Darn them."  Who has time to sew up a holy sock in this day and age?  I guess I would say really thrifty moms.

I guess I would attempt it if I had a favorite sock that I didn't want to throw out.

If you have a chipped cup or dish, get rid of it.  Unless it is the very last dish of your mother's best china or something like that.

Has anybody ever tried making a mosaic out of old dishes?  I did that once and made some mosaic trays.  I gave one to my sister and my sister n law.  They were quite pretty.  Some people have made beautiful tables out of that stuff.  That is a fun craft for some people to try doing.

Just don't linger too long when you are throwing things away.

Go through paper work periodically too.  Even that stuff builds up over time.  Throw out catalogs that are piling up.  I usually throw that stuff out right away.  I only save one of the most recent ones of my art supply catalogs.  Everything else gets tossed and not even looked at.  Some mail, you know is crap and shouldn't even be opened.

And your magazines that you buy and look at, pass them on to someone.  Also the local libraries usually have a magazine swap.  That's a fun thing to do.  I'm going to drop off a bunch of my People, OK and Star magazines tomorrow and see what they have.

Sometimes other places do a magazine swap too.  If you participate in a local art league, they usually have an art supply swap table too.

Or if you are part of a knitting group, maybe you want to swap some of your patterns if you look through them and don't want to keep them.  I am saving some of mine for my girls in case they want to do it when they are older.  I got rid of a few on Ebay but am saving a good pile of my nice books for them.  And someday I might want to attempt knitting again.  But I did it for a long time and got tired of doing it.

There are always things to get rid of.

And if you are someday thinking of moving, like I am then you want to have to move less things.  I'm just waiting for my boyfriend to ask me to move in with him.  But it is still early and sometimes it is good to take our time.  I wouldn't want to scare him away and be someone who is going to pressure him too soon.  That's a big step and we should do it when we both are ready.

Any relationship can get scared away if women or men are pressuring the serious stuff too soon.  It's nice for it to happen someday.  Most couples want that long term relationship to happen someday.

I could talk more on that subject, but that is another post all together.

So no time like the present to start kicking that clutter out of your house.  You will be happier because of it.

Unless if you throw out something cherished by accident.  Have you ever thrown out something that you wished you hadn't gotten rid of?  I've done that before in my haste to have the item gone.

I could kick myself for getting rid of so many things at Goodwill, when I could have made some nice money with it on Ebay.  But you can't change the past.  We can only live in the present and look forward to the future.

Have fun cleaning.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 19, 2012

This is a picture of my boyfriend's cup he has on his desk.  I thought it would make a fun picture.

Cups are fun to put pencils and stuff in.  We often like to hold onto baskets and different containers to put things in.  Creative organizing like that helps to also neaten things up even when we don't want to get rid of things.  At least a basket, photo box or other type of container keeps things hidden, so when company comes over, they aren't seeing all the clutter.


If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

Don't You hate when a good opportunity ends up being a dead end?

Don't you hate it when all your good opportunities end up being dead ends?  As individuals, creative artists and writers and many other great talents, we all have so many opportunities that end up being a dead end.  Nothing comes from it.

No matter how hard we try, our hopes that something will come from it ends up being another prospect down the drain of life.

Life always gives us hard knocks that sometimes can drag us down.  And we end up sticking to a dead end job, or something else, when we wish something else good would happen.

Haven't you ever had opportunities knocking on your door?  And you are anxiously waiting to take on a new job or a new freelance job, and then it falls through the cracks and you never got the chance to do the job?

I've had several opportunities that slipped through my fingers.  Once when my children were growing up, a neighborhood mother was writing a children's book and mentioned us collaborating.  It was just a thought that got mentioned but then never again got brought up.  Our lives got busy.

Then, when my kids were younger, we used to get the neighbors children to babysit.  One of the neighbors kids had an older brother that was writing a children's book and he wanted me to illustrate it.  He called me up and we started talking about it and I was like, "Yes.  I'd love to try my hand at it for you or something like that.  They had seen my paper dolls and he seriously wanted me to do it.

That phone conversation sparked me to write my first novel.  I think it was the thought of him writing his book that inspired me to write mine.

I'm not sure if he ever published it, but he never got back to me about doing the book and never brought a copy over for me to do the illustrations.  At the time, I asked his sisters a few times and they said they had to get after him about it.  And then, after a few times of asking, I just dropped it and figured it wasn't going to happen.

I did illustrate a children's book for a girl in Maine once.  She wanted a Twas Turner book done on her grandfather.  I think the theme was some how around the idea of the night before Christmas or something like that.  It came out cute.  Her grandfather had passed away and the book was going to be a Christmas Present for her family.  It was quite challenging as I had never done something like that before.  And I was still a young artist.

But how true is it that when opportunity knocks, it ends up not working out.

I can't begin to tell you how many things I tried as an artist and I failed at a lot of it.  I tried to make my own greeting card catalog of my photo cards and blindly sent them out to gift shops in Vermont, Maine and other states.  I ended up getting one Queen of Hats shops in Maine ordering about eight to ten of them and that was it.  But that one order was exciting.

I tried to do the same thing with a few flyer's on my paper dolls.  No luck.

I've advertised in the OPDAG paper doll trade magazine, with mostly no luck.  I did get one or two mail orders for a few sets of my paper dolls.  Once again, got lucky once or twice.

I sold a few of my greeting cards with Ebay once, but then tried my paper dolls with no luck.  Same with Etsy for the paper dolls.  No luck.

Paper doll websites earlier this year.  No luck.  I've got a new cheaper paper doll website.  Still no luck, but am going to stick it out for a year or two years at the most.  Sometimes it takes a while for that.  And I've heard that heavy advertising plays a part.  So if I can't afford heavy advertising (paid), maybe I'm out of luck.  And paper dolls are a specialty.  Not a necessity.

I've tried my hand at craft shows, and usually have just barely made back my fee to do the show.  Many people would rather just go to those things to look and not buy.  Or they would rather buy something else and spend money on the food and drinks.  It just depends on who is there and what they are looking for.

I did try to list one of my paper doll sets on ebay recently, but no luck. 

It really dampens people's attempts when all these opportunities end up falling through.  Or a clever thought to make some money ends up being the wrong thing and it didn't work out.

Same with galleries.  Many galleries are looking for a certain type of artist to represent and many artists get turned down and have to keep searching for a means to an end.

And some of these places that you think you can sell your photos at, end up not working out.  Like Backprint and Zazzle.  Nothing happened with either one.  But I have since learned that you have to do your own heavy advertising at both places.  And at Zazzle, if you only want 10% your items are cheaper.  But most of us at least want 50%, and then that makes the price of the item go up and nobody will want to spend a lot for it.

Go figure.

I'm waiting for my opportunity to knock.  Hopefully the online writing to earn will reap some results with time and patience.  And I am going to patiently wait for my paper doll website to get going.  But even with that, I won't be able to wait forever.  I wouldn't be able to go on for years and years on end and have nothing happen.  There's got to be a point when one has to stop and then try knocking on another door.

So also remember the old saying, When one door closes, another one opens.  We have to be optimistic that something good will come our way.  And we can't always wait around for it to happen.  We have to do something about it.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 18, 2012

A picture of a cannoli cake from the brides wedding last summer.  It looked delicious.  She loved her pictures.

If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

First lines to a novel or a short story

What would be your first lines to a novel or a short story?  Usually you want to snag your readers on your first line.  And basically the first paragraph should intrigue a reader to stay and wait for more to come.  You really want to engage your reader.

If the first lines are not going to do it, then chances are they will not want to read the rest of the book.  The first page should really try to capture the idea of where the novel or short story is travelling to.  I have often put down a book after I have read the first five to ten pages.  If it doesn't hold my interest, and I don't want to learn more, I drop the book and it ends up being donated to the library or Goodwill.

Here are some cliche first lines:

It was a dark and stormy night.......

Once upon a time........

There once was a girl.......

A long time ago......

Far, far away.....

Well, that's about all myself and my ex could think about for cliche first lines.  I guess go to all kinds of kids books to find more cliches.

Feel free to comment with cliche first lines you can think of and maybe you will jog my memory.

And of course a cliche last line would be:

And they lived happily ever after.

Classic.

Us writers really need to think up more creative first lines to our novels.  It needs to really grasp our reader and the audience selected for our novels.  Their attention must be collected.  We need to describe our main character right off the bat.  And you usually want some type of mystery about where the story might lead. 

But you don't want to reveal all in the first page.  But you want to entice them to want to know more about your heroine or hero.  Describe your heroine and perhaps something she is feeling.  Like my main character, Evangelean in my first novel I wrote.

Evangelean was a woman experiencing all kinds of changes in her marriage this year.  She felt like her ragdoll and was cast upon the floor to shatter into tiny shards of ceramic.  Her heart was also in bits and pieces.

I don't think I actually wrote it that way, but that is just an example.  Then, the readers suddenly want to know more about what her marriage was like.  Did something tragic happen to make her life a mess?  Who is Evangelean?

It is good to have questions for your readers, but you also don't want to have too many questions.  Sometimes a reader will get really annoyed if there are too many questions on every page of a novel.  I learned this after my local editor evaluated my first novel, Lustful Evangelean.  I had lots of questions on each page.  And sometimes she would write, too many questions.  Or we lose respect for Evangelean and the other characters when certain things happen.

You always have to think about your main characters.  Flesh them out.  Don't write a novel with just the skeleton of a novel.  You really need to make your characters stand out.  Let the reader know in depth about who your main characters are.  In order to do this, you really need to get to know who your characters yourself.  If you don't get to understand them, nobody else will.

And most always, you want your characters to learn something and change in the course of the book.  They should come away at the end of the story a changed person, or something changes in their lives and they understand where their life is taking a new direction to.  They must always over come something.  And many times there is an obstacle (villian, jealous female, male, or other mean character) that gets in their way of happiness.

But your first lines should give a hint at something that is going to happen, already happened or some sort of mystery that the reader wants to know more about.

And you should keep giving them clues along the way.  Especially in a mystery novel.  But you don't want them to figure things out too soon.  They shouldn't know who the murderer is right away.  Make them stray and try to decipher it.

Although in one of my recent mystery novels, I have decided to let them know a little way into it that the murderer is a female who can't get pregnant.  But they won't know exactly who it is.  I kind of decided I wanted to give this away, so they could understand the thinking behind the murderer.  And then they can either choose to sympathise with the murderer or still be sickened.  That novel is still in the works.  Red Ribbons, the sequel to my published Black Roses mystery.

I went with Authorhouse and self published.  Spent way too much money and my royalties sucked.

Next time around I am going with CreateSpace.  I have heard they are cheaper.  And it is worth the money just to get published and have some copies for my kids.

And then of course, your novel needs to have a beginning, middle and ending.  And all the way through, you want to make sure that your writings are excellent and up to par.  Always be a good editor too.  That part is also half the fun.

It is always a good idea to read through your novel after and keep editing it.  Novels always have room for improvement.  Some novelists edit their novels at least ten to twenty times or more before they are absolutely finished.  Some times in doing this you also have the right to change the course of your novel.  Maybe the very beginning will change, and you choose to start your novel in a different place that you first did. 

Maybe different things happen to the characters as the novel gets changed.  Maybe there is a different character that wasn't in it during your first draft.  Maybe someone died in the newer edition, but it hadn't happened in the first draft.

Editing also makes for better writing.  Most writers learn to be good editors.  They have a big desire to improve their craft.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 18, 2012

The rain poured down and made her fizzled and her life was drenched and ruined.  But her black cat was as happy and as dry as could be, same as her husband.  Happy as a lark.

Perhaps a beginning for something.

Sometimes you can get something from an image.  Have you ever tried to write something by looking at a picture, artwork or a photograph?



If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/ 

Does Your Blog Have a Junk Drawer?

Does your blog have a junk drawer?  Most blogs probably do have one.  We all know that we can't write perfect blog posts every single time.  There is probably a hidden drawer where some of our posts go.

Maybe some of our blog posts get deleted.  Do some of our posts end up remaining as drafts?  The ones that we feel that shouldn't be aired and are considered trash writing.  Do we have days when maybe we repeat ourselves?  We probably do.

We don't stop to think that maybe we have said something before, but in different words. 

Okay, we have a junk drawer.  By all means, don't throw it out.  You can still use the stuff in your junk drawer.  Just try to hold onto it.  Maybe there is a valuable phrase in there somewhere and you want to pull it out and use it in a new post.

Maybe something just is begging to get written again in a different way.  We just need to see past the old crap that we kind of wish we could throw out.  But we save it out of sentimental reasons.

And if you must throw out the stuff in your junk drawer, sift through it first.  If you find things you like, write them down in a notebook and keep them nearby.  And then you are safe to throw out the stuff that you don't care about.

About a month ago, I went through a whole bunch of hand written pages.  I had all these extra writings on my Lustful Evangelean novel.  They were lots of extra pages where I wrote down extra scenes that didn't get put into my novel.  My novel changed a lot since the first draft and some of this hand written writing was stuff from the original draft. 

I didn't care to keep them, as I had the newer versions of the novel and wanted to just keep the newest stuff. 

So, novelists also have a junk drawer.  Any writer tends to have a junk drawer.  Sometimes it is good to weed out the old junk and decide which pieces are still of importance.

It's the same as cleaning up all the clutter.  We sure do feel better when we can clean the clutter from our lives and then have a fresh look on life.  It's very liberating to clean out.  Give things to Goodwill, sell stuff on Ebay, but get it out of your house.

We seem to hold onto things for sentimental reasons.  Sometimes we think that we might still be able to use something.  So it sits on a shelf untouched for another year.  Some items we just tend to have for decoration and we hold onto things because they are pretty.

I have special tea cups that used to be my Mom's, Nana's and Grammy's.  I don't use them very much, but they used to be their stuff, so it is sentimental.  Some things we would just get shot dead (literally) if we were to get rid of them.  I have a large vanity from my Nana that I would catch holy hell if I ever got rid of it.  It's a three way mirror with a place to sit and drawers on each side and it has a matching chair.  I would never get rid of those.  And when I am dead, my girls can fight over it.

There is one little drawer on the top that I can't get open.  The knob is gone and it is stuck.  I should try sliding a knife at the back of it and see if I can pry it loose.  I would be curious as to what is inside.  Ooh... a little mystery to solve.  Fun.  Fun.  Fun.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 18, 2012

A rag doll I decided to sell on Ebay, but she didn't go.  I'm ending up keeping her.  She was this pretty $25 ragdoll I got at this elderly woman's house.  Her little shop was a really cute little place.  It was about five or six years ago.

I was driving on this long dirt road that leads to the Chapin Apple Orchard.  All my kids have had field trips there in the fall.  Anyway, it was end of summer and I saw a yardsale sign and drove up.  She had a lot of junk in the yard for the actual yardsale.  But then to the side of her house, I discovered a tiny little shop.

When I walked inside, I felt as if I had walked into a little piece of heaven.  This elderly lady had all kinds of handmade crafts for sale, and then she had several tiny rooms full of antiques for sale.  I saw the rag doll and knew I could afford to get her.  The woman also had three or four Raggeddy Ann dolls and some larger dolls that might have been Revlon.  It was a really neat little shop, that was kind of out of the way.  But maybe she was popular.

This last summer, as I drove down the dirt road, I tried to remember where she was, but I couldn't find anything.  Then, I kind of had another thought.  She could have passed away and the shop no longer exists.

http://authspot.com/poetry/what-defines-a-poem-by-jennifer-jo-fay/
http://authspot.com/poetry/broken-poetry-musings-a-poem-by-jennifer-jo-fay/
http://authspot.com/poetry/ripped-rose-a-poem-by-jennifer-jo-fay/


If anyone likes paperdolls or knows someone who likes paper dolls, check out my paperdoll post on each of my blogs where my paper dolls are for sale:

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferpaperdolls.blogspot.com/  The Official Paper Doll Blog
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/ 
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/