Snow Bunny

Elusive snow bunny sighted with first big winter storm!

Beware, holiday decorators! This frost-furred creature survives primarily by consuming outdoor Christmas lights (especially the orange ones).

Arting my Ink

Alas, I have few artistic skills, but thanks to PowerPoint clip art I can give my stories pseudo book posters! Both posters contain hidden clues about important elements of the plot and characters in my YA fantasy:

Mirror, Mirror . . .

Shattered . . .

Dream Dabbling

Hurrah! I just finished a 75k YA fantasy I've been working on since 2012. To celebrate, I played with PowerPoint clipart and made a pseudo book poster for my epic tale. It's not too hard to guess which fairy tale I am retelling! (It also helps that I'd already designed an earlier poster).

Fairy Home

A good friend made me a most unique present for Christmas: A fairy home! Apparently, she got the idea from Pinterest.

Plenty of pearls and pixie dust to please the most particular fairy . . .

Notice the front door and window? Now this is what I call a mini-mansion of luxury!

Cinderella Coach

What do you get when you mix a pumpkin with dollar store jewels, glitter, confetti, lots of green wire, and a hot glue gun? Why, Cinderella's coach, of course! My little sister and I conjured a bit of mortal magic this weekend for a friend's birthday . . .

Side 1

Side 2

Side, without wheels

Top, without wheels

Cracked Marbles and Creative Muses

How do you nourish your creative muse? I like to conduct empirical stress tests on the fractal patterns of crystalline matrices in glass spheres. Okay, I quite enjoy cracking marbles and gawking at their facets.

Here is one site that will show you how to make cracked marbles. Be careful and wear safety goggles and oven mitts or gloves when handling them!

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Baked-Marble-Pendants/

Playing with Powerpoint and Literature after midnight . . .

Sea Coronets and Ultimate Recycling

So my little sister made me a crown for Valentine's of such extravagance I'm fairly certain that even Ariel would turn sea-green with envy! The crown is a combination of Floridian sea shells, broken glass, faux pearls and gem stickers all hot glued onto three pie tins.

That's right, pie tins! I'll never look at recycling the same way again.

1. For anyone wishing to construct their own crown, you will need a three pack of Hefty EZ pie tins (mine is slightly larger than the regular 8 inch pie tin size, but the size is entirely dependent on your preference).

2.Keep the three pie tins together. Use scissors and/or a razor to cut out the bottom of the three pie tins and crimp the edges shut. The edges can be sharp, so you might consider wearing gloves.

3.To mold the crown to your head, cut the ring of foil open and then punch holes in either end. Connect the holes with a ribbon or a strong strip of foil.

4. Now comes the fun part-choose your gems and apply copious amounts of hot glue. Mirrors shards and colored bits of glass work splendidly. Just be careful not to go overboard with the ornamentation . . . the crown gets heavy, fast!

If the rim of the crown is uncomfortable, consider gluing on a strip of felt or cloth, and you're ready to rule.

The Power of Pen Pals

Sometimes both ink and wishing wells run dry. That's when it's time to call up our companions from the pages that first shaped our minds with wonder, to cry "Elboreth Gilthonial!" and "Eulalia!" as we lay siege to the syllables locked inside.

Childlike Empress Pearl Headpiece

Seeing as Halloween is swiftly approaching, I decided to make a tribute to the Childlike Empress this year.

I adore Michael Ende's The Neverending Story not only for its fantastic elements, but also for its exploration of what it truly means to wish. When Bastian reads the enscription on the AURYN, "do what you wish," at first he thinks it is an easy task, but the lion Grograman knows otherwise. The Many-Colored Death warns that a wish is our "deepest secret," and the journey to it the most perilous of all because it demands both the "greatest honesty" as well as "vigilance" (p.238) And why? Because the journey in which we follow our wishes can also become the easiest path to lose ourselves.

As I destroy drafts, renew ink and throw all I am into syllable for the sake of a single wish (WRITE), I am growing to understand the AURYN's message. "Do what you wish" is no idler's whim, but a banner unfurling from the most fragile and defiant part of the soul.