A friend and I are making up a world for the fun of it. There will be several different creatures/races, including faeries, elves, dwarves, mermaids, and humans. I have been working on sketches for some of them, and we can't quite agree as to the length of the men's hair.

What say you? Long or short?

These are two of the more completed races. The humans are rather well know to everyone so they require little development.

The mermaids will be evil so I did my best to convey that in the drawing, I'm just not sure how to do the hair. I find white eyes to be quite spooky, and yes, I do realize that her head appears rather too large for her body, but they are an underwater species so their body doesn't have to support it....besides, I don't feel like fixing it. :P

The picture isn't very defined and the curve of the page distorted the pic a little bit, but you get the idea

Every once in a while I will think of a rule I would have if I ever had children. I wrote down all the ones I could remember last night and this is what I've got so far....

For the child(ren)

• No allowances
• No sleepovers
• Piano/instrument lessons for at least 5 years
• No snacking between mealtimes
• Must pick up all their things before each meal
• No television/movies during the day
• No PG-13 movies until they're at least 13 years old
• No watching certain movies until they've read the books (LotR, Narnia, Jane Austen, etc...)
• No bragging or self praise
• They must personally greet every new kid in their class/group

For Myself (every time I added one for the kids I made myself add one for me :D)

• Be consistent - enforce rules
• Keep children's strengths/weaknesses in mind when making them do something
• Push them out of their comfort zone - start early - Make them do some of the activities that they don't want to do
• Always try to give positive feedback with constructive criticism
•  Never lie to them, even if it's a "white lie"
• Always be an example of what I'm trying to teach them
• Apply their Bible lessons to their lives - help them to live it
• Pay attention to their feelings and don't disregard any without first putting myself in their shoes
• Be sure to spend time with them regularly, even when I don't feel like it
• Always speak kindly and respectfully about my parents, siblings, and relatives
• Don't give in to begging or whining. If they want something then they must persuade me with reasoning
• Don't let them go around like ragamuffins

What say you? Be they reasonable or no?

Writing stories (or developing the plot at least) is a most diverting pastime. The trouble always lies in keeping one's story from sounding like someone else's. The stories I come up with for my own enjoyment are a patchwork of all the things that have struck my fancy from as far back as I can remember. We watched a movie when I was 5 or 6 years old and I only remember three tiny snippets. Two of those snippets have shown up in one form or another in many of my little stories (there are a vast number). Sometimes I get pieces from trailers for movies that I never watch, or an episode of a TV show that I only watched part of. It is always little bits and pieces that strike me; rarely, if ever, the whole thing. So if someone were to hear one of my stories I wonder if its having taken from so many others would make it seem like an entirely new story or what it is, a patchwork. If the latter I wonder if that would be considered good or bad.

Lilacs - First love

My estate which I will live in for most of the year

And when I'm not there I will be here, in my summer home. I realize that it's bigger than my estate, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with something this big all year round. ;)

My brother says I'm setting myself up to be disappointed. I know it will never be like this, but it's still fun to plan it. :)

Our English assignment this week was to attempt to write poetry. This is the result of looking around my room for inspiration.

"Items In My Room"

A dancing girl from Japan,

and a little tea set from Bosnia.

A wooden box from Lebanon,

and lots of elephants from India.

A key chain from Germany,

and a bracelet and ring from England.

A woven bookmark from Peru,

and another tea set from Poland.

Another key chain from Moldova,

and everything else was made in China




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3-22-13
I tried messing around with syllables to see if I could make it any better but I don't know if I like the result :)

"Items In My Room"

A dancing girl from Japan,

and little tea set from Bosnia.

A wooden box from Lebanon,

and lots of elephants from India.

A key chain from Germany,

and a bracelet and dolphin ring from England.

A woven bookmark from Peru,

and another tea set; this one is from Poland.

Another key chain from Moldova,

and almost everything else was made in China

Fort Macon

Fort Macon is an old fort from the 1800's on the coast of North Carolina. It is now part of a museum and visitors are allowed to wander around all over it.

Kitty and I had a bit of fun taking silly pictures with that cannon. Unfortunately, they were taken with my phone and I don't have them anymore.

  To go to this place in the clothing of that period would be such fun! So long as there wasn't anyone else around, that is :)

A faerie is said to be the wandering spirit of a child who died before it was baptized. What if faeries were all the miscarriages and stillbirths? What if they weren't sad, lost souls, but busy, happy, little creatures doing God's bidding?

They all have short hair, naturally. Babies never have long hair.

They dress according to location, for they are all across the world; anywhere people are or have been.

Of course they are quite small; only rarely more than seven inches tall and often a good deal shorter.

And they keep the features inherited from their parents and their personality.