In the Beginning

I've wanted to write since I was a kid. I still have a story that I started in middle school. I never finished it but I've kept it just the same. About 15 years ago I started a mystery novel. I've worked on it off and on over the years. It isn't very good. But I had fun writing it. I used to get the magazine Writer's Digest. According to what I've read in it, I went about writing it correctly. I'm just not very good at expressing what I want to say. For my nursing degree I needed to take technical and report writing for one of my english courses. I did very well in that class. I've found I really like doing research. Mostly I like doing it here online but I don't mind going to the library. I don't like doing experiments, though.

I do believe in journals. I recommend them to patients all the time. Even those that can't express themselves very well or those that can't even read or write well can still use a journal to help them deal with events in their lives. I have found recently though that I haven't been expressing my feelings in my journal but using it more of a diary. Last night when I sat with my journal, I couldn't have told you what I was feeling. Or maybe I just didn't feel what I was feeling was worthy of writing it down.

Mostly lately I've been somewhat excited. I've been painting my bedroom and it's almost finished. I think it looks very cool. I did it in vertical stripes of a earthy light green in flat finish for 15 inches, deep purple in satin finish for 4 1/2 inches, and white in trim finish for 1 inch. The stripes went in this order, green, purple, white, purple, green. All the trim is in the white. I'm going to cover the ceiling with white sheerish fabric. My upstairs where the bedroom has dormer ceilings so two sides of the room has walls that only go up 4 feet. I want to gather the fabric along the center top and the shorter walls. Someone at work asked me how I was going to clean the fabric which is when I decided to attach the fabric the the ceiling with velcro. The only other thing I will have left to do is replace the carpet. Oh, I want to put in a vent-free gas fireplace on one of the shorter walls. The dressers are in another bedroom which I am using as a dressing room. I have a chair that I'm going to recover to match the purple of the room and I'm going to build a table to use for having tea and such in the room. I want to cover the table with 1/2 inch glass tile mosaic. When I get it all done, I'll try to put a picture of it on here.

The other thing that has me excited is designing hardanger. For those that don't know, hardanger is a Norwegian needlework. This past August I demonstrated hardanger at the Finn Grand Fest 2005 in Marquette, Michigan. When I knew I was going to do this, I decided that if I'm supposed to be this expert on hardanger, then I should try to design. Since it is mostly geometrical shapes, I thought that I should be able to do this. I started with a tablecloth for myself. It's not finished but I did get quite a bit of it done before the fest. I had a great time but I wanted something that if someone wanted to sit with me for a while and actually learn to do it, I would have something for them to work on. So I designed a small Christmas ornament in hardanger and sold it in kits. I didn't sell all the kits that I made so I've been selling them on ebay. From that I started designing more ornaments and making them into kits and selling them.

Well, I guess I've rambled enough for tonight.