The Water Woman

I wrote this little story several months ago. I shared with some people but I figured I'd put here too.

Prompt: Someone to write a book where mermaids are the women thrown off ships when the sailors got afraid because having a woman on the boat is bad luck. And as they sink to the bottom legs tied together they change slowly until they can breath, until they can use their tied up legs to swim. And they drown sailors in revenge, luring them in by singing in their husky voices still stinging from the salt water they breathed.


* * * * *

My name is Charlene.

I fell in love with a boy who was a sailor. One day he went off to sea and never returned. I was devastated. I knew where he went. He went to the new world in search of riches. Why he didn’t take me I have no idea. So I did the only thing a poor girl could do. I stowed away on a ship intending to join my love. I see him in the birds in the sky. I see him in the grey, rolling clouds of fall storms. I see him in the blue calm sea that he loved so much. I can’t bear to be apart from my love.

They caught me hiding behind the rum barrels. The men flung me onto the deck roughly. They were scared. I was scared. The captain came and stood before me. He ordered me thrown overboard. I looked at him in shock. Throw a helpless woman overboard. Was he mad? I was naive. No one told me that sailors were superstitious.

I tried to breathe in air. All that I got was lungs filled with salt water. I tried to free my hands and feet from their rope bindings. I needed air. I was scared. So very scared. I didn’t want to die.

"Child, be calm. We will help you." A singsong chorus of voices echoed all around me.

Women were in the water with me. Their long hair was swirling about their pretty faces. I almost missed there fins. Mermaids. I was surrounded by mermaids. They told me they were woman who had been thrown overboard by scared, superstitious sailors.

My brain screamed at me to get free and breathe air.

Everyone thinks that mermaids are goblins or faeries. Well, I’m here to tell you differently.

My name is Charlene. Once I was a human, now I am a mermaid.

* * * * *

This Blog Lost Momentum

I haven't been over here for a long time.

I think using some other social media took away my thoughts to write a blog post.

Well I'm back. So let's keep you updated.

...

Instagram. I'm still taking photos for a daily prompted photo challenge. Sometimes I'm better then other times but I'm getting good at seeing things differently. This month I started a second challenge with book related prompts. It's been a lot of fun.

I've bought a few more quilt patterns. I'm excited to make them all eventually. I bought a new binder to keep all of my patterns in. I have a lot of patterns now. I made a table of contents for the front.

I'm still slowly working on my Aviatrix Medallion quilt. I have one main border and two small neutral borders to complete. Also I still have to figure out how I want to do the center block. But the borders I have made, the blocks are so pretty. I'm really excited to see the quilt all put together. I should start looking at backing fabric.

Work is work. The football season is winding down. We have two more games. We have had a pretty good season. Right now we are 6-3. Basketball is starting. Next week we are hosting high school football. Those are always busy days.

Reading. My goal for this year was to read 40 books. I got busy and didn't read for a few weeks. So as of right now I've only read 20. According to Goodreads I'm 14 books behind schedule. lol. But I went to the library the other day and checked out eight novels. A few of those are the first in a series. But I couldn't decide what to read right then so I got them all.

I Do Exsist

I know it's been over two months since I posted here. I've just been caught up in other things.

I'm still working on my Aviatrix Medallion quilt. I have a couple of border's blocks done. But I haven't sewed anything for maybe a month.

At work we have been stuffing the 2014 season football tickets for the past couple of weeks. It is a lot of work. More so then previous years.

As evidenced on my Instagram.

I have been sucked into joining GISHWHES this year with Katie. But let's be honest here. I didn't take much convincing. This sounds like so much fun. You'll be hearing more about this after that week.

And yeah. That's going to be it for now.

The Start Of A Beautiful Thing

About a month and a half ago I found this wonderful quilt by Elizabeth Hartman. I bought the pattern and have been hunting for the perfect fabric for weeks now.

I finally have all my colors in hand and I'm ready to start making this Aviatrix Medallion quilt.

Here is Elizabeth's original quilt in all solids. I love it so much.

I wanted to do a scrappy version but staying close to solids. So I thought of batiks. I looked online and ordered some fabrics I thought worked well together. But when I got them I saw that I need to sub out a handful of fabric colors because they didn't look well together. The final mix I have now is bright and gorgeous. It's just what I am wanting. Not all of the fabrics are now batiks but they are very basic tones so they still work very well with the fabrics I still have. Let me show you what I've picked out.

Left: My original thoughts for colors. Needed different blues and yellows.
Right: Final colors. The purple and gray are the only colors I didn't add too.

Purple

Yellow

Green

Blue

Gray/Neutral

Left: Kona Ash for background.
Right: Kona Bone for accent white.

The gray fabric is actually what Elizabeth uses in her original quilt. I liked that combo so I got it too. But I'm putting in a different order. I like the varying gray colors mixed around, not in a row like the colors are.

I haven't bought backing or binding for this quilt yet. I couldn't decided on a color and I don't need to until later. I do like how she uses one of her grays for the binding. I might do the same. For the backing I actually had an idea to just sew large pieces of fabric together. Something like this. I would use the same fabric that I use in the top, of course, so it still coordinates together. Something fun but simple for the back is what I'm going for.

Now I'm all ready to cut the fabric ...

If I Rub The Lamp Do I Get Wishes

My lamp base is one that can be filled with something. When I was little it had fake flowers in it. For the past year or so it has just had strips of green scrapbook paper while I thought of something fun to put in it. Last week sometime I had this brilliant idea to take my lamp and fill it with colorful pom poms. So that's what I did today.

{Click on the photo to enlarge.}

I didn't want the whole lamp to be full of pom poms. I knew I could form some sort of spacer for the middle. I just didn't know what would work best. I tried flower arranging foam first. That was messy and I didn't like it. So I ended up making a cylinder out of scrapbook paper. I turned the lamp base upside down and put a layer of pom poms at the top. Then I put the cylinder filler in place. And I continued to fill the rest of the base. I screwed everything back together and now I have a fun lamp.

Messy floral arranging foam. I got it at the dollar store so I didn't feel bad throwing it away.

Scrapbook paper cylinder filler. I had a few pom poms fall in but I got them out before putting the other end of the cylinder on at the end.

The finished lamp back on my nightstand.

I love this lamp so much. It's so much fun to look at now. It will be even better when I get a new lamp shade. :)

Lots of Updates

It's been a while since I wrote here. Let's see if I can do a little bit of updating. Sorry it might be a long post. ... I can do a tiny table of contents.

• Starburst quilt progress
• My new phone
• Instagram and photo-a-day
• Classical music
• Work
• Flower wreath
• Nail Polish boxes
• Gorgeous weather

That Starburst Quilt I have been working on is all sewed. As far as the top goes. I still need to measure out the backing and sew that piece and then send it off to the quilter. I still can't decide how I want it quilted. I love this quilt so much. It's awesome.

Please forgive the wrinkles. I did not take the time to iron after a sewed it all together.

I got a new phone earlier this month. I upgraded to a smartphone. I went with a Moto X, which is the same phone as Steven and Chad because it is the one I was the most attracted to. I really liked that I was able to completely customize the the colors of my phone. (See that website here.) I went with a white front, a mint green backing, and purple buttons. I also got a clear case for it. And I was happy that the phone came with a white charger. I just bought another wall charger and screen protectors for my phone. They should be here in a couple of days. I wanted a second charger so that I could keep one in my room at all times. And the one I have now I will use for travelling, like bringing to work. I decorated my cord with washi tape so that I would be able to keep track of it better. Also it just looks fun now.

Front and Back. ... It is much more mint green then what this photo shows.

More of the details.

My phone charger.

With my new smartphone I got the Instagram app in the hopes that I could jump back into that photo-a-day challenge. I have kept up and loved every moment of it. I have even taken a few other photo using Instagram. But I mostly use it for the photo-a-day. (You can see the current list I'm following on FatMumSlim's blog.) My username on Instagram is "khiggs_ute". I chose that because I like the nickname that my manager has given me. It works great for a user name. The original thought was to use just "khiggs", but that username was taken so I added the "ute" to the end. I like it. My username makes my smile.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram or my photo blog.

I have been listening to a lot of classical music lately. Like everyday. I listen to Classical 89. I like this station so much I was willing to make a donation. With the donation I received a gift. I chose a 5-CD set. I really like this set. It has great music on it and I do listen to it all the time. But I still like the radio station too. I am actually currently listening to this station. Ooh that also reminds me that I bought symphony tickets for April. I invited some others to come with me. We are seeing Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3 from the Utah Symphony. You can see more information here.

Work has been fun the past couple of weeks. We have had the last few games for basketball and gymnastics this last week. The week before that we hosted high school basketball for 4A and 5A schools. We had to staff those events and so we all worked a ton that week. It was long hours and simple but annoying transactions. The Utah High School Athletics Association doesn't allow tickets to be bought with a credit card so it's a cash, or check, event only. That causes frustration with the customers but also on us because we have to send them to the nearest ATM. Which to be fair there is one just outside our office. Mostly on our end the high school events are long hours and lots of people. Now that those events are over with it is quite nice and slow here at the ticket office. I don't mind one bit.

My white flower wreath that I was working on a while is becoming more complete. A couple of weeks ago I bought a yard of felt and cut a bunch of felt flowers. Today I hot glued them onto my wreath form. It's so fun. I love it. I'm going to switch my twiggy wreath for this one. Maybe I'll make a bow to go with the season.

I don't hink I ever told you about my nail polish boxes. My polish collection had outgrown the one shoebox so I decided to expand into other boxes. To make them prettier using wrapping paper. The boxes with nail polish in the I made blue with a silver lid. And the third box that is silver with a blue lid has tools, remover, pads, and other nail accessories.

We have been having the greatest weather lately. I'm scared that a cold front is coming and we'll get snow. I'm so done with winter. Last Saturday I went on a walk around Oquirrh Lake with some friends and it was so pretty.

And that all can think of that has been going on in my life recently.

Starburst quilt progress

A few days ago I found the most adorable backing for my Giant Starburst quilt. So I bought some and paired it with a great binding.

I chose Tamara Kate Helen's Garden Enchanted Cream for that backing and dear Stella Confetti Dot Cantaloupe for the binding. They look so lovely with my selection of greens that are to be the front. I LOVE them ALL!

The backing. Isn't it so lovely? It's even more adorable in person.

The binding. It's a fun pop of color for the front and goes great with the back.

Binding and Backing.

And the greens in the correct order.

Before I got my greens I had a plan that was based off of the the computer colors of the greens. I knew I'd probably be changing the order once I had the actual fabric and I was right. I switched a few around.

The plans.

Today I cut all the fabric for the front. It took me a couple of hours because I was checking and double checking the instructions. Remember I'm doing eight colors, not four. So I have to do a bit of checking to make sure I have the right size pieces. And I was occasionally geeking out about how lovely all my colors are. I got into a rhythm and I went faster as I continued cutting. (And I had to stop to get drinks of water and do my laundry.)

After cutting this is the progress so far laid out on the dining room table. With the afternoon sun streaming across.

I'll probably sew a bit on Saturday. Mostly I will sew next Monday. That's my day off and I get a lot done those days.

This is part of a quilt along. Although I'm not keeping up with them. That's okay though. I love it. My first real quilt!

via Canoe Ridge Creations. (HERE)

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Quotes I like:

"Proteus: ... For he was more than over shoes in love.
Valentine: 'Tis true, for you are over boots in love ..."
(Act 1, Scene 1, lines 24-25.)
This reminds of the phrase "Head over heels in love." I wonder if it came from Shakespeare.

"Lucetta: Fire that's closest kept burns most of all."
(Act 1, Scene 2, line 30.)
I like that line. It's pretty.

"Valentine: Ay, Proteus, but that life is altered now.
I have done penance for contemning Love,
Whose high imperious thoughts have punished me
With bitter fasts, with penitential groans,
With nightly tears, and daily heartsore sighs,
For in revenge of my contempt of love,
Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes
And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.
O gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord
And hath so humbled me as I confess
There is no woe to his correction,
Nor, to his service, no such joy on earth.
Now, no discourse except it be of love.
Now can I break my fast, dine, sup and sleep
Upon the very naked name of Love."
(Act 2, Scene 4, line 131-147.)
This speech is full of passion and I love it.


General Thoughts:

Overall, I liked this play. I didn't really agree with the ending. Both Julia and Valentine forgive Proteus all his sins. Proteus forsook Julia, his love, and pursued another woman, Valentine's love, Sylvia. Proteus had Valentine banished so he could pursue Sylvia. And Proteus tried to rape Sylvia in front of a disguised Julia and a hidden Valentine. And they all forgave him! I feel like he is the villain of the play and everyone forgives him in the end. I wouldn't have.

2014 ... The William Shakespeare year ... For real this time

2014 ... The year I read the complete works of William Shakespeare. ... For real this time.

... Each book (ie. play) is commented about on my blog. Here they will be permalinked so just click on the title to go to that blog post. ...

The Plays

1. Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, part 2
4. Henry VI, part 3
5. Henry VI, part 1
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love's Labours Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet
12. A Midsummer Night's Dream
13. King John
14. The Merchant of Venice
15. Henry IV, part 1
16. The Merry Wives of Windsor
17. Henry IV, part 2
18. Much Ado About Nothing
19. Henry V
20. Julius Caesar
21. As You Like It
22. Hamlet
23. Twelfth Night
24. Troilus and Cressida
25. Measure for Measure
26. Othello
27. All's Well That Ends Well
28. Timon of Athens
29. King Lear
30. Macbeth
31. Antony and Cleopatra
32. Pericles, Prince of Tyre
33. Coriolanus
34. A Winter's Tale
35. Cymbeline
36. The Tempest
37. Henry VIII

White Flower Wreath progress

Several months ago for a church Relief Society activity we made wreaths. We got felt of our color choice and a twig wreath. The idea was to make felt flowers (which I was all down for) and put them on the wreath. It would look similar to this one, which I do like. But I had a different wreath in mind. I wanted the flowers to be the wreath, like this one. I got the twig wreath though. It's been hanging on my bedroom door for months. I saw a wreath like my twig one that was spray painted bright blue. I kind of like that idea. Maybe I'll spray paint my wreath a bright color someday. Anyways, the reason for this post is because I am finally getting around to hot gluing all those felt flowers I made to a wreath form. I am about halfway done and I love it so far. Here is a progress shot...

I need to buy more white felt and make more flowers. And then I can finish this wreath. I think I'll hang it on my bedroom door when it's done.

2014 Resolutions

Reviewing last year's resolutions I did two two most important ones. I kind of sloughed on the other three. Let's take a look ...

1. Get out of debt. I did pretty good at this one. I paid off my credit card like I wanted. I still have a little bit to pay my parent's back. But I should be straight with them by April.
2. Paying tithing. I paid my tithing at the end of every month. I do see a difference when I do and don't pay my tithing. My life just goes better when I follow this little commandment.
3. Organizing my room. I did get rid of lots of clothes I never wore. And I did go through some papers that I was hording. But it never got as organized as I would like. And I still have areas of my room I haven't cleaned. Like under my bed.
4. Chat on FOJG more. Yeah. I never really did that. Which in turn makes me think if I should keep paying for the membership. But to be honest I like all the stuff I get. So I'll probably keep on being a member of Friends of Josh Groban.
5. Do a photo-a-day. I think I did a month but then I got bored. And I never remembered to take a photo every day. I completely failed at this one.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So what are my goals for 2014? In no particular order ...

• Go to the temple and receive my endowments. I would like to do this before my 26th birthday in June. But we'll see how that goes.
• Pray and read the scriptures every day. I do both of these sporadically. I am pretty good about saying my nightly prayers but I don't say them in the morning. And as for scripture reading I would like to read some everyday. I was thinking in the mornings.
• Get out of debt completely and continue to save money. I just have a couple more months of payments to my parents and then I am out of debt with them. I would like to continue saving a lot of my money after I get out of debt.
• Read the complete works of William Shakespeare this year. Thirty-seven plays. Twelve months. I have no biography to read because I already read that. It's about 3 plays a month in order to read them all by the end of the year.
• Journal every day. I got back into writing in my journal. I only missed a few days when I was sick just before Christmas.
• Complete the starburst quilt. I want to sew this quilt. Maybe I'll do another this year. But fabric is expensive.