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some pictures

Last night as I rambled on facebook I mentioned posting a picture of my cat’s insanely blue eyes and here are a few pics:

So my poor puppy doesn’t feel neglected, here is a picture of her in  her dragon costume. Perhaps it would be kinder not to post the picture but it’s so cute and so here it is:

FOT55BDOn Saturday we meandered on over to the state park that recently opened behind our house (our property butts up onto it.)  It is beautiful and I have tons of pictures on my camera but because I haven’t uploaded them yet, here is a picture I took from my phone:

FOT2FE8And finally we have the project I have been working: fans for my daughter’s jazz dance group, the top picture being the items used (except for the original fan – a folding, lightweight wood fan) and the bottom being the finished product, well two of the five that were made . My favorite item: the glitter spray paint. It gets glitter everywhere and since I have discovered this amazing product my entire house sparkles. 🙂 :

fan project

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Pictures – retitled blog post

My daughter’s Halloween day Halloween Costume:

FOTEE6F good and evil witchShe went as Lexi Darling dressing up as a witch. The cloak was reversible so she flung one side over her shoulder to expose the black underside and that was her evil side. Siren Song is her favorite book and she adores Lexi Darling even though she hasn’t read the book and won’t be reading it until she’s sixteen at the earliest.

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Happy Halloween!!

This year there has been no hand made costumes, which is depressing but not unforeseen. Luckily there are enough costumes around the house for Little Miss Tweener to find something – for every day of the month or nearly so. 🙂 This year, the dance studio allowed the girls to dress up so on Monday she was a witch. a pirate, a detective, and a goth bride (her tap trio uses hats), on Tuesday she was Little Red Riding Hood and she had a wolf in a basket, and on Wednesday she was a fairy. Of course, the clothes were dance-friendly but she was adorable none-the-less. Today she will dress up as a witch. I think. Be sure to click on the image to see it in full magnificence.

four hats 2 little red dancer

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Our new mouser

We got ourselves a mouser! A rescue cat who is beautiful and a little bit skittish and a blue point Siamese. His name is Jacks and he’s a year and a half old. ❤ He was super sweet at the pound and on the ride home but then he freaked out  a little (a lot) when we got home and it was time to get him out of the car. It didn’t go well and we almost lost him when he bolted. But we got him back and now that he’s inside in a stable environment he is super sweet once again, purring with abandon. My hand, on the other hand, is a little worse for the wear. Poor kitty.

FOT8BF3 FOT4112Since he’s a rescue kitty we have to keep him quarantined for a few days so we don’t know if he’ll get along with Lucy-dog. Or how Lucy will get along with him. They are about the same size (Lucy weighs more, of course) so we’ll see. Lucy does take on bigger dogs is to protect her family so maybe she’ll be okay with a cat.

Writing is going. I seem to get a lot done at the studio while my daughter’s in dance but not so much the rest of the time. 🙂 I think once things get back to a semi-normal schedule that will change. If there is such a thing as a normal schedule.

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The Wedding!!!

It has been a crazy, awesome, wonderful weekend. The bride was gorgeous, the groom was handsome and the wedding was beautiful. I had three cameras – my really good pink camera, my inexpensive purple camera and my phone. I checked the battery before I left and they were all full. I took about fifteen pictures with my pink camera and then it died – before the ceremony even began. My purple camera, which takes really good shots when it feels like taking good shots, lasted longer before the battery was exhausted, not quite making it through the reception. And then my phone finished up the job, luckily having enough battery life to see the kids off. Luckily I got most of the important shots. 🙂

 

 

 

 

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Whew! Thank goodness that is done. Mostly.

I shipped off the last batch of prizes today and I am very happy that it went so smoothly. I only have two winners that never got back to me with their addresses, which is unfortunate. I kind of want to give them more time in the off chance they find the emails I sent buried in their in box or spam box – or they see the post on facebook and are able to get me their information. I have been checking my spam folder in case yahoo is trying to sabotage the system. 🙂 If I don’t hear anything by Sunday evening I will pick two new winners for the final two prizes.  Rafflecopter has a 48 hour time limit but that doesn’t seem long enough – so a week it is. I already have one winner who has received her prize, which is very cool. 🙂

Getting the prizes packed up has been interesting. If you get my facebook posts you will know that I went out on Tuesday after mailing off the first batch of prizes to pick up some boxes for mailing the mugs. I don’t know why I waited until the last minute but I did and when I went to the store they only had one box. So after I mailed off the second batch on Wednesday (I recycled boxes for the steins because the mug boxes were just the teeniest bit too small and the next size up was WAY too big) I went to another store where there were many, mane mug boxes. They even had some left after I got through with them! Today, however, I blame on forgetfulness. I had all of my boxes in my Ikea bag (they mostly fit) and the last two international envelopes and the daughter all in the car. We get to the post office and I get out, grab the bag and realize I needed to grab my purse from the front seat. Lo and behold it wasn’t in the front seat because I forgot it at home. So I packed the car back up, drove back to the house, ran inside and grabbed the purse and headed back up to the post office. Afterwards, I took my daughter to Dairy Queen, which was necessary by that point. 🙂

Now that the Fall in Love with a Gargoyle Giveaway (the Gargoyle Giveaway) has ended it is time to get back to writing – and editing. I received the proof of After Blight a few days ago and now that the prizes are packed up and sent off I can concentrate on that and get After Blight finished so I can focus on other stories (ahem: the sequel to Darkness Comes, and others.)

The Prizes, prepackaged:

WP_20130820_0082nd day shipment:

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3rd day shipment (minus the two envelopes that are below) My daughter helped with the boxes and marking them as fragile. She got creative.)WP_20130821_002

All of the envelopes, which contain items from books to bookmarks to key chains to t-shirts.WPz -FOT9C0C

Thank you all for making the giveaway such a massive success!! Muah!! XX

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Gargoyle Giveaway WINNERS!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4486b36/

You’re all winners unfortunately I only have so many prizes and not everyone won something. 😦 You all have won my love and everlasting thanks, though. The list of winners is located at the rafflecopter site above (no last names) and the winners have been contacted so if you see your name be sure to check your email  and your spam folder so I can get those prizes sent off.

The daughter and I just got back from a week and a half in Virginia (the middlest son stayed behind for a while longer) and while we were there we got to visit D.C. Everyone needs to go to the nation’s capitol at least once in their lives – this was my first time and it was really neat. I do recommend wearing really good shoes – there is a lot of walking involved.

Of course, being absent-minded I left my camera at home so we had to pick one up and that was the coolest thing because we got the Nikon Coolpix S3500 and it comes with some pretty fun effects:

Also, Stone Destiny is now available at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/348632 and will soon be available at other stores (Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, iTunes….)

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shaving the dog

(which is not a euphemism for something naughty) It’s been hot here – I mean really hot and humid – but we have been reluctant to shave the poor dog because she hates it. Well, it took four of us and two hours but we managed to shave  twenty pounds of hair from our little coton de tulear/shih tzu, which is amazing since she only weighs about ten pounds. Here is the before picture:

Before

Before

So here are the after pictures (with one of when we were almost half way finished.)

FOT9FB5

Just over half done - but it's the part with the mouth and the teeth.

Just over half done – but it’s the part with the mouth and the teeth.

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There's enough dog hair for another dog

There’s enough dog hair for another dog

IMG_4361

Thank God that's done!

Thank God that’s done!

WP_20130710_019She’s so much happier with no hair – and not having to be shaved any longer.

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My amazing daughter is at it again

Well, I am going to have to make my daughter step away from the cook books – she keeps making these delicious cakes. Today’s cake is black cherry chocolate chip made to look like a watermelon, an idea she got from a recipe in the Betty Crocker magazine. She took a regular cke mix, added a packet of unsweetened black cherry kool aid, mini chocolate chips to it, and baked it in a round pan. After it cooled she frosted it with pre-made pink vanilla frosting and green frosting. She added matching sugar crystal sprinkles and it looks and tastes delicious.

watermelon 2 watermelon 3 watermelon 4This week I also tried my hand at making beaded bookmarks. They were so much fun to make that I made a whole bunch with plans to make more. I think in my next giveaway I will add a few of these to the pot. The first giveaway I did should be ending soon – I think midnight tonight – so I will be contacting the winner soon. Anyway, here are the bookmarks. A few match up to the characters in my books. 🙂

bookmarks 2