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wisteria_blu
05 October 2008 @ 10:48 pm
I Challenge You to a Challenge!!!!  

As taken from  discordia_intus

For the first three people that reply to this post, and who re-post this challenge: you win!!!

For your prize, I will send you a gift. I love gifties!!!

It might be something I've made, or something cool from my hidden stash of fabulousity. It might be a mix CD, or a rubber duck, or a book I think you might enjoy. A love letter, a useful object, or something else that is awesome or maybe just taking up room in my house.

Whatever it is, I promise I will get it to you in 365 days of your posted comment or less, and I will need your snail mail. (You can email it to me if you're the winner!)

The only thing you need to do to receive your gift is PARTICIPATE.

Be one of the first three journalers to reply to this, and post this very same thing in your journal, and YOU are the lucky giftee!
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Current Location: Dr. House's lap
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: various commercials
 
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wisteria_blu
16 October 2007 @ 08:38 pm
Meme Challenge from GirlNotGone....  
 Just comment on this post saying you'd like to play. Then I will choose seven interests from your profile, and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post these instructions along with your answers in your own LiveJournal so that others can play along, too.


Those were my instructions, which I followed, and here are the ones chosen for me:

art
cooking
books
ireland
making jewelry
travelling
writing

Art:
   Art is both my curse and my gift.  Not only do people in my family share physical and emotional traits, on my father's side, we share artistic abilities.  The only time I've ever drawn a stick figure, really, was when my nursery school teacher did and I thought, "Wow, that's funny looking, I wanna draw that." My drawings actually had bodies, not just lines and a blank face.  When the kids in my class were drawing pointy-eyelashed girls with gi-normous lips, I was drawing bangs and braided pigtails on my girls, never mind the elaborate cloud vehicles and flowing dresses they were using and wearing.  How many 8 year-old girls know there's an artist named Titian and because of the red-gold tones of his paintings, that's why Nancy Drew (girl detective)'s hair is described as "Titian-coloured"?  Art has always been a part of my life, either in drawing, making clothes, creating crafts, or just watching my Dad styling hair.  In high school, I was sure I would become a forensic pathologist for the FBI, but after watching a couture fashion show on TV, I realized that no matter how much I was trying to get away from it, I'd have to formally study art and make it my college major.  My muse comes and goes, like she always does, sometimes at the moments I have the least time to answer her call, but I love it that art is, and always will be, a constant in my life and in my family.

Cooking:
   Again, a family tradition.  I love to cook, I just hardly ever have the time to, it seems.  My favourite thing to cook is dessert. I have a raging sweet tooth, and I love making something gooey and sinful that causes people to close their eyes, hum appreciatively, and then ask for my recipe.  Cooking is fun, it's challenging, it's intimate and it's one of the best therapies, ever.  Even if you're just making something for yourself, at the end of it, your tummy is full, you've just eaten something wonderful (hopefully), and there's so much more out there for you to make.  I remember people, sometimes, by food I've made for them, or with them.  GirlNotGone comes to mind whenever I make a grilled cheese sandwich, see pate, or taste chocolate mousse.  Heck, it's her fault I'm addicted to Duke's mayonnaise!  When I make a bread pudding, it makes me think of my husband, b/c it's one of his all-time fave desserts.  And as for the therapy part: you try not working out aggression when you're crushing Butterfingers for a chocolate cake filling.

Books:
    Oh, books.  Best things ever. Really. I think I love books more than napping,  more than new shoes, more than....well, more than quite a lot.  Books are pretty, they're fascinating because anything can be in them, they smell good when they're old, they are more entertaining than some people or events, and they've been a part of my life, all my life.  If you look in my purse, you will probably find a book lurking there.  (Which is why I carry such large purses!)  I adore reading.  I love spending HOURS in a bookstore, whether it's some shiny new coffee-scented shop, or just an unorganised, eclectic jumble hidden between shops in a new city.  I love savoring an old favourite volume or plowing through a new one that won't let me put it down until it's told me all of its secrets.  I love talking about books, discussing what I'm currently engrossed in, or just hearing a recommendation from a stranger.  Seriously. Best things ever.

Ireland:
   Just the word itself breathes out of your mouth like mist with it's back-of-the throat "R" and the almost airy click of the "D" at the end.  You can't help but think of green, wet grasses rolling over a hill, turning a thousand shades of emerald, jade, and peridot when the sun slides over it.  My hands feel rough granite stone under them when I think of Ireland, and I can taste warm cake with currants and sultanas and feel the cool edge of breeze as if I were there.  It calls to me, warming my blood and making me ache for a land I've never seen.  Can one be homesick for a home never known, miss a land never walked upon?  

Making Jewelry:
  I blame this on my friend Lavendar, who is an amazing jewelry maker.  My fascination with wire-work for jewelry actually started in college when a friend in one of my art lectures fashioned a tulip for me out of silver and copper wire.  I was blown away.  I had no idea that you could make something with simple wires and beads, and it wasn't hard at all!  Oh, sure, I'd seen the handmade jewelry at dozens of craft shows, even owning a few pieces myself, but I didn't fully start my addiction until I met Lavendar, several years later.  We met at a temp job and she had on this stunning copper and amethyst necklace, tiny spirals dancing against her neck and gems twinkling.  "Oh my God, did you make that?" I gasped, staring at the artwork she wore so casually with a long denim dress.  "Yes, do you like it?" "That's amazing!"   Six years later, the woman made my wedding jewelry as a gift after teaching me quite a few techniques, and fuelling my love for handmade adornments.  I've tried selling my work, but that didn't go so well, so now I make it for fun and for gifts, loving the instant gratification of making a new pair of earrings before I head out for work, sometimes.  And yeah, I love it when I get the reaction I gave Lavendar all those years ago, "Oh my God, did you make that?" tee hee!

Travelling:
   I miss travelling.  Even if it's just two hours down the highway to a nearby city, I love it.  Learning a new place, finding some great restaurant that only the locals know, or just seeing the landscape flying by your car are some of my favourite things.  Damn, I need a road trip.  Or a plane ride. 

Writing:
  Writing started from several sources for me: reading everything I could get my hands on and wanting to make my own stories, mandatory language arts competitions in school, and the stories my mom and grandfather would create for me while I was growing up.  I still have the stories of a group of creatures named "Yippies" that my papa created, written in his own hand, at least twenty years ago.  I think, though, the first real story I put my heart and soul into was the one I wrote with my friend (at the time) TalonWitch in high school. We were obsessed with "The X-Files" and felt the need to re-write some of the episodes and create our own.  This then progressed into a trilogy of our own creation about an FBI agent being best friends with a Mafia wife and how do they handle keeping up a friendship that has been around since the two women were in high school. (Yeah, it's a Mary Sue. Bite me.)  I write fanfic and almost always have some plot bunny hopping about in my head, annoying me until I can put it on paper and lead me on a merry chase.  I've collaborated with only four people in all my years of writing, each of these authors bringing amazing influences and ideas to the game.  It's been a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see what my pen feels like creating next.

Well, there they are, my seven randomly-selected interests. Hope you enjoyed!!!
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Current Location: Deep in my head
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: "Just a Ride" by Jem
 
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