Oh summer!

Oh summer, I feel like I've been waiting for you all year.

x

First draft

The book blanket grows. These 25 squares are my first draft squares. Somehow, someway, I found enough words and ordered them into enough sentences and paragraphs to finish the first draft of my book.

If I were a novelist I would have written a big fat capital lettered THE END after I typed the last word, but because I am not a novelist, and because the last chapter I wrote was the middle one and not the end one, I didn't.

And even though I am only half way through this book making process. Even though I have lots of edits, some research, lots and lots of making and HEAPS of photo taking ahead of me, I have finished the first draft of my book.

And at the risk of sounding a bit show-offey (I'm sorry) I'm a little bit thrilled. Partly thrilled that this bit is over, partly thrilled that I was actually capable of it and partly because it means the days spent alone tapping away on my computer are numbered.

The first draft bit of my blanket is now big enough to be folded up, used as a lap blanket and hung from a tree. The words of the first draft of my book have been sent in a word document to my editor.

I am both excited and terrified for what the next 25 squares of book making will hold.

Big love and thanks so much for your kindness.

xx

Summer words.

The strangest thing has happened. I feel like I've run out of blog words.

Perhaps I've used them all up in chapters and lists and patterns for my book. Perhaps the stuff I usually write about here seems petty compared to the fear and devastation and sadness being experienced by so many affected by the terrible bush fires in our country's south. Or maybe I can blame it on the heat and the wind and the summer school holidays.

I'd like to write words about the rhythm of our hot, summer days. Words about opening my eyes wider and letting my five year old be the tour guide in my quest to rediscover the magic in my day to day. Words about really getting in amongst it and playing with my girls, not as a means to occupy them and pass the time, but as a way to discover joy. But I can't. I feel a bit too self conscious and the words feel wishy-washy and hippie even.

So today there is no story. No description. No list.

Just thoughts for all those affected. May they find security and peace and safety and home and happiness once more.

xx

Sweet and juicy

It's a funny time of year, slow and dreamy but also alert and listening.

I love how the brand new 2013 seems to lie in front of us filled with promise and adventure.

I've had a draft of a blog post open for four days now but I still can't seem to decide on the most important details. Resolutions? A word for the year? Words to live by? Do I need them? Should I make them? Will I use them?

Farmer Bren is up and at 'em super early each morning. He's changed taps, fed and watered animals and checked fire hoses and sprinklers and generators before I've even opened my eyes.

It's hot and dry but very still today. On the radio they're calling today the baking day. Tomorrow will be hot and windy. High fire danger. My farmer boy has the fire wireless strapped to his waist constantly chirping in his ear. We have a plan, a few plans and we are mostly fire-ready but when you live in the middle of a forest, are you ever really fire-ready?

In the mornings we drink coffee and then we collect the eggs. We wear long pants, white business shirts and wide brimmed straw hats. We are cool and protected from the sun but I know we look silly. Cool but not so cool.

The girls are slow and lazy. Sometimes they help us with the farm jobs but mostly they play quiet games together, they lie under the trampoline, they write words and numbers in little notebooks and they eat lots of ice-blocks and juicy fruit.

We still have no Internet. I'm uploading this blog with wifi from my phone. It's crazy frustrating and upsetting.

And the book blanket grows.

And in amongst it I try and write lots of book words. It's coming together slowly. Soon we'll finish with the text and start on the images. It's a book about caravanning and family and adventure and vintage vans and craft and food. I am so grateful for your kind words of encouragement, they are keeping me here at my desk writing and editing and imagining and remembering. I really hope you like what I'm doing.


I wonder how you are spending these first few days of the brand new year.
Are you slow and steady or are you straight back into things?
Have you made resolutions and plans?
Will you stick to them?

From our family to yours - we wish you a happy new year.
May your 2013 be super sweet and juicy!!

I have a great feeling.

Lots of love xx

Blog writing vs book writing.

I know there are people way more qualified to write this list than me. I know there are people who have been writing blogs for longer and who have so much more book experience too.

But, for what it's worth, here's where I'm at two months into this book writing caper. It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride, but something tells me it'll all be worth it when I hold my own book in my hot little hand.

1. Whenever I publish a blog that I'm not completely thrilled with, I make myself feel better by reminding myself that in a few posts time that blog will be in my archives barely ever seen or heard from again. This kinda takes the stress out of blogging for me. I like it. In books though, the words and photos are stagnant. They are there for the reader to read and reread and refer back to. Yikes!
2. Book writing is a job while blog writing is a hobby. There is no way I could ask farmer Bren to take the girls to the pool or to Ballarat for the afternoon so I could write a blog. But to write a chapter for my book? Of course!
3. My blog writing is diverse. It's sporadic. I write whatever I feel like writing whenever I feel like writing it. Book writing on the other hand is time-tabled, and check listed, and word counted, and edited, and deadlined.
4. When I tell people I write a blog often their eyes glaze over. That's nice they say. When I tell people I am writing a book, it's a completely different reaction. People are interested, they care, they ask questions.
5. In my early days of blogging, my blog used to keep me up at night writing posts in my head. But over the years it's become quiet and let me go about my own business. My book on the other hand is bossy!! It wakes me up with chapter plans and ideas and words. So many words. My book would speak its words to me underwater and sell ice to an Eskimo, if it could.
6. I am the boss of my blog. I am the only one who decides which photos I upload, what content I write and how I lay it out. I am the editor (with the occasional dad correction), I am the designer, I am the photographer and I am the publisher. It's a one woman band. Although my book will have my name on the cover, it's really a group effort. I write according to a plan I made with my publisher, my mum corrects my grammar, my editor asks for more information, changes the order around and makes it all work. And my designer makes it beautiful. Yay team!
7. Blogs are quick. I reckon a post can go from start to publish in less than half an hour if I really concentrate. Books on the other hand take forever. The book I am writing now will not be published until next August. And I've been told that's a fast turn around in publishing.
8. Whenever I spend time writing a blog instead of doing the housework or cooking, I feel guilty. Whenever I do anything else but write my book I feel guilty.
9. When I write my blog I feel like I'm part of a community. There's always lots of visiting and commenting and socialising involved. When I write my book I sometimes feel like the whole world is going out and having fun and I am stuck here, alone behind my computer.
10. A blog is a blog. But a book is a BOOK!!! I cannot even imagine the feeling of holding a book I made in my hands. A book filled with my photos and my words. I cannot imagine the feeling of seeing it on the shelves of a bookshop or in the hands of a stranger. Wow.

Have you ever bought a blogger's book?
Have you written a book, or thought about it?
Are you reading a good book?
Can someone please tell me to stop procrastinating and get back to writing mine? Thanks.

I hope the last two days of your 2012 are fabulous.

Bye!

Ends.

In the midst of all this book writing a whole bunch of stuff happened that I never got a chance to mention here. Miss Indi vintage frocked up and graduated from primary school, Miss Jazzy finished grade three, Jo-Jo had a hairy, Miss Pepper had her last bush kinder and kinder day, there was a creative dance concert and a ballet concert and this mama who doesn't cope so well with change and time passing cried a whole lot of tears. And crocheted a whole lot of motifs.

But then this morning in our house, something huge happened. A mile stone. Something that I just had to record here.

Miss Pepper had her first ever hair cut.

One minute she was the girl with the longest plaits in the world. She was going to grow her hair for the rest of her life. And the next minute she wanted it cut. Just like that. She was sick of it hurting when I brushed it and wanted hair just like Jazzy's.

So I cut her hair.

And she loves it. She loves flipping and tossing it and she adores jumping on the trampoline with it. She is most excited to wear it out all the time.

I don't have a baby anymore. Sob.

xx

The book blanket

A few days ago, just after I had finished writing a chunk of my book (!), my editor (oh my goodness I have an editor!!) wrote me an email telling me she thought I should celebrate with a glass or two of bubbly on Christmas day.

For the next little while I thought about that email a lot.

I thought about how despite my lack of confidence in myself as a writer, I had actually somehow put words together and written sentences and paragraphs and chapters.

I thought about how someone who was paid to edit books, someone who had possibly edited hundreds of books before mine, wasn't running away screaming from this project, but actually congratulating me instead.

And I thought about the celebration she suggested. Chances are, given the family we were spending Christmas day with, there would be lots of bubbly already. I wanted to grab the opportunity my editor was offering and make the most of it. I wanted something fun, something not at all book related and possibly something ongoing I could continue to use as a reward for the next few weeks of book writing.

So I decided to crochet a blanket.

A blanket that has nothing to do with my book. A blanket that is made by my hands, away from the computer and is meditative for my sore, word filled brain. A blanket made from cotton in fun gelati colours. And a blanket made up of small squares so it isn't a hassle to carry around in my basket.

When I pulled down my crochet book to choose a pattern for the squares I couldn't commit to one and decided to work through all the different stitch patterns instead. Rib stitch, lace trestles, simple crossed stitch, close shells stitch, simple bobble stitch, boxes and bars... What fun!

Just like the last blanket I crocheted holds the stories of the final month of our road trip last year, so this blanket will hold the stories of writing this book.

Hopefully I'll stick with this project long enough to make a lovely big fun blanket, but if not I guess I can cut it up and have a bunch of new face washers. Win-win.

Have you started a new project lately?
What will hold the stories of your summer/winter?

I hope the last week of your 2012 is fabulous!!

Big love. xx