What I'm doing all of February

Okay, I have scoured the internet for a potentially cool month-long challenge meme and I've decided to do my own take on WhitePeachBlog's 30 Day Photo Challenge.

Should be interesting, even though I've shortened it to 29 days, because, well, it's February. ;)

Here's the list!

Day 1: Self-portrait

Day 2: What you wore today

Day 3: Clouds

Day 4: Something green

Day 5: From a high angle

Day 6: From a low angle

Day 7: Fruit

Day 8: A bad habit

Day 9: Someone you love

Day 10: Childhood memory

Day 11: Something blue

Day 12: Sunset

Day 13: Yourself with 13 things

Day 14: Eyes

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 16: Technology

Day 17: Your shoes

Day 18: Something orange

Day 19: Bokeh

Day 20: Faceless self-portrait

Day 21: Hands

Day 22: Sunflare

Day 23: Animal

Day 24: Something pink

Day 25: Close-up

Day 26: From a distance

Day 27: Flowers

Day 28: Black and white

Day 29: Self-portrait

Day 16 was originally supposed to be 'Long Exposure', but my camera is just a cheapo Canon digital and if it can do custom exposures, I sure don't know how to do them - and I don't want to screw around with getting film developed and digitized from my 35mm SLR Nikon. So I deleted it. So there.

Anyway, that's my list and I'll stick to it all through February!

If anyone wants to join in, I'll start a linky box over to the right, just like I did with the January meme. :)

January Challenge - Day 30

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here. 


Heh. Late. Seriously late. But it's still today, and for the last post of the challenge, I am supposed to talk about what I learned this month.


I've learned that people I know and love really do follow my blog, even when I'm not posting prompts and such all over the internet.


I've learned that pretty much no one thinks my pictures are as blecky as I do.


I've learned that I can, indeed, stick to a schedule and post something every single day.


I've learned that quilt posts, and posts about my inner turmoils and foibles, get the most comments, but my post about Harley Quinn got the most hits, followed by my post on quilting.


I've learned that I've received about 1/5 of the page views for the ENTIRE LIFE OF THIS BLOG this past month. That's insane. but, apparently, daily postings make a difference. lol


I've learned that my biggest traffic source is http://www.justforlaughsgags.tv/. Which I've never even heard of before and it makes me wonder - Am I funny? I don't feel funny.


Mostly I've learned that I can do this. I can be a productive blogger. And I can share more things about myself, my life, and my perspective, and it's all okay.


Tomorrow, I'll post a new meme which I'll start on February 1st - still trying to decide exactly what meme I'll do - and I'll do my best to keep this trend going.


It's been a great month, and a great year, so far!  {{huggs}}

January Challenge - Day 29

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here. 


This time I'm supposed to post my favorite song. Frankly, it's a toss-up between two classics, both of which are below.  

And

The Eagles and Skynyrd. You betcha.

January Challenge - Day 28

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


One more picture of me, and how I've changed since last year.

Gak.
Just gak.

I took this picture on my 47th birthday last summer. I can't remember what we were doing that day - likely not much. And it was humid - see how curly the mop is? I usually have that brushed out or at least contained.


Since then I've lost 22 lbs. I've become a grandmother. I've shed much of the writing angsty shit that's paralyzed me for so long. I've mourned a beloved pet. I've worried endless sleepless nights over my husband and his new job. I've done my best to reclaim myself and not be what and how other people expect me to be.


It's been quite a year. lol

January Challenge - Day 27

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


It's been twenty seven days, and I haven't missed a one. Been a bit late a couple of times (frankly, I've been fighting a crappy-ass headache and cold and have been going to bed much earlier, which screws up my evening routine, so I've written a couple of posts in the morning instead of the night before, but I still think that's 'on time'. Right?) but have not missed a single day, or a single post.


Why, then, am I doing this, this crazy, self-absorbed 30 day challenge?


For a few rather specific reasons, most of which involve my introversion.


To start, I'm trying to decide how I will approach social media in the future. I've pretty much abandoned Facebook because it was getting too personal, too invasive, and, frankly, too nasty. Bad words and bad attitudes seem to breed there like lice on a gradeschooler's head. And I know about that, because we fostered three kids back in 2007 and I have HORROR stories about the nasty things.


The lice, not the kids. The kids were pretty much awesome.


Anyway, Facebook was not a good fit for me (not only the negativity, but the time suck), and I don't think Twitter is either. I'm not clever enough for Twitter (nor do I have anywhere to tweet from other than my desktop puter which kind of defeats the purpose, I think) and I just don't get it. I've tried - and am, kinda, still trying - but... Damn. Most of the stuff in my feed I simply do. not. care. about. I don't. I try, but I don't. I pretty much consistently like Wil Wheaton's tweets, and TheBloggess as well as a few others, but I really don't give a flippity do about politics (the one reasonably-minded candidate I did like dropped out already so this fall's choices will once again be shitty and shittier. Yay for the USA! Again.) I don't follow sports. I don't care for the seemingly endless marketing and promotion from fellow writers (Good God, do NOT let me do that shit when M sells), and, well, I don't feel like I fit in. Re: I am not clever especially not in 140 characters or whatever.


So that leaves Google+ and - in theory - blogging.


G+ is all right, so far, but I'm really not all that involved. I read my friends' posts, usually, and it's certainly a lot more adult and mature than Facebook, but it doesn't have any urgency or zing, either. And most of my friends aren't there. So, shit, I dunno. Even the one game I played, Triple Town, has fizzled for me since they 'improved' it.


That leaves the blog. I was kinda getting into this blogging every day thing until my darling husband asked me night before last why I was bothering because 'isn't blogging dead?'.


Oh, gee, thanks, honey. I'm trying to get back into a habit of communicating with the outside world, so let's just kick it in the knee and watch it twitch.


For those of you who don't already know this, I am damn near a hermit. A stay at home wife/mom/writer/quilter who generally considers it an exciting day if I go to the grocery store and Target on the same day.


I'm not exaggerating much.


Anyway, I am shy, okay? Introverted. I don't like noise, don't like crowds, don't like unfamiliar places and events and hullabaloo. I can backspace when I type online, make little tweaks, not stick my foot in my proverbial mouth every 28 seconds. Sure, sure, once I know someone and feel comfortable around them, you can't shut me up - just ask people who actually know me - but, mostly, I'm quiet. Silent. Blogging is okay with that, most social media is not. The demand (real or perceived) by various social media outlets is to post frequently, comment often, and share, share, SHARE!! I'm not good at that, unless of course it's on my own terms.


And let me assure you all here and now that despite the open, genial, conversational tone of this blog and most of my online interactions, I don't share as much as folks might believe. 


I don't talk about my family other than in the most general of terms. I don't talk about Bill's job. I don't talk about my job. I don't talk about our house or where we live or what problems are making us lose sleep this week. I don't talk about health issues (other than my own safe ones - re: allergies and rosacea) and I don't talk about personality conflicts and troubles that erupt in my life. I do have them, btw, just like everyone else.


That shit's private. My goofy pets, a small fraction of my sewing projects, and some of the stupid messes I find myself in are acceptable blogging fodder, at least for me. They're also boring as hell, surely, which is another reason I accepted this challenge.


It's dragging me out of my comfort zone, at least a little.


As an introvert, the exquisite horror and shame of posting my own freaking picture, several times, was almost debilitating. Some times my hands shook as I hit 'publish' and I can say with absolute certainty that I never, ever would have uploaded any of them if they had not been demanded by the schedule. Shudder.


It wasn't just the pictures, but other things as well. This challenge nudged me into writing about things, even obliquely, that I tend to avoid. But I bit the bullet and only turned away from posts that might hurt people I care about. If it hurt me, eh, suck it up, Tam.


Another aspect of this challenge was the daily nature of it. A big part of me wants to keep a regular interaction with my online friends, far flung family (most of whom are on Facebook. Sigh. Miss you guys!!) and the fans. 


Yes, the fans. 


I love my fans - well, all but the crazy stalker ones who worry me - and I really do enjoy interacting with you all. I do my best to answer every fan email that comes in - including the 'you and your writing and characters and stories suck donkey balls dipped in dog shit!' letters.  I figure, if someone who's read the Dubric books takes the time to write to me, I shall make the time to respond. Heck, even the obvious crackpots who write their emails in crayon (and, yes, I've had several of those) get a thank you for taking the time to contact me note. 


I have been taking - for me at least - huge steps to get back into writing for publication again. I've talked and emailed back and forth with my agent more this past year than during the whole 'Dubric Books Publication Saga'. I want to work again and, perhaps more importantly, my brain wants to work again. It's all healed up and raring to go out there and tell stories.


This blog challenge is part of that, my regular interaction with the story telling part of my brain, and the people who read it. I will finish two novels this year, maybe three next year. It's all about habits, and this blog is a habit, too. Blog something, even just a short note, every day for a month. Read something. Write something.


They say it takes a month to set a habit into place. For me, that was the main purpose of this challenge and I think I've managed it fairly well.


It's almost over though, but I intend to keep it going through February. I will admit that the topics and focus will surely be different and will not include photographs of me. Enough of them have been inflicted upon the interwebs already. ;)


Does anyone have any comments - good or bad - about this blog challenge and how it's played out here on TamboWrites?

January Challenge - Day 26

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


What do I think about my friends?


I love them, every one. 


Some, like LeAnne, I've known for damn near forever - we met in college when we were too young to know any better. Kat BM and Michele I've known almost as long. My life-long friends and I might go months without talking, but we always pick up right where we left off as if we'd seen each other every single day. Some, like Kat F, I've known only a short while but we just kinda click. Most (Sam, Josh, Jean, Monica, Stuart, Catie, Joely, Virginia, Sara, Tanya, Gretchen, and on an on - I wish I could list you all!) I've known somewhere between. I'd do anything for any of them. 


My friends help me with my books, and they help me with my life and all the crazy wackiness that seems to land randomly on my head. Most are online, but I've met quite a lot of them. Heck, I'm having lunch with Jean in a couple of weeks as she drives through Iowa, and she's from Texas. This will be our third get together. I've met friends from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, and Australia in person. Also New Hampshire, Kansas, Texas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Arizona, and lots of other places in the states. 


My friends rock!


{{huggs}}

January Challenge - Day 25

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


We're in the pink today as I tell you what you'd find in my bag.


I thought - briefly - about being clever (bag of tricks, a quilt project bag, bag of potatoes, bag of groceries, laptop bag, etc) but decided to just take the simple, straightforward approach instead. 


So, here's my purse.

I tell everyone I bought it at
Mrs. T's Mercantile,
one of the coolest quilt shops in Northern Iowa

It's pink, as promised, and while it's a smidge bigger than I tend to prefer, it's working out really well for me, probably because I don't carry much in it and it holds my sunglasses so I don't have to carry them separately. Most of the pockets - including both on the sides - are totally empty.

From the top. ;)

Actually, I keep only 2 things in pockets. My debit card, and notecards. Everything else is in the main compartment.

Ooooh. Two Avon lipstick samples! Forgot I had those!

Other than an occasional receipt, this is what I port around every day. I made the blue wallet, Michele gave me the worry-doll change purse, I keep the sunglasses with me (won them on the radio back in 2005? 2006?)  because my eyes are super light-sensitive after being lasered a couple of years ago, and I always have a little lotion, lip balm, ibuprofen, and cold pills. Add the checkbook, postynotes, some pens, my bank card, hair pick (circa 1986 lol), truck keys (car keys are in my coat pocket) and a scrunchie, and I'm good to go.


Does any item surprise you? Anything you expected to see, but isn't there?