It’s been awhile since we participated in any group writing projects, but Liz Strauss has one running that inspired a few words. This isn’t the first time she’s run a 25 Words project, but for some reason the subject for this one touched something in the creativity well and brought to the surface.

Read, Enjoy, Think - and then share those thoughts with someone else!

Tapestry

Each person
A thread, a color
In a tapestry woven.

Weaving, blending
Single threads entwined

Each thread a place
As patterns grow
To beauty reveal.

I have various craft blogs in my feed aggregator and get periodic e-mails from non-syndicated sites. Not to long ago, I stumbled across a crochet pattern for a cute little baby dragon and decided it would be worth trying to make.

I made quite a few little mistakes as I was working on him, and my crochet technique isn’t wonderful, but I think that gives him a little bit of personality. I’m quite pleased with the way he turned out.

In addition, working on him gave me some ideas for other things I could crochet - I think I may actually create a pattern or two myself! If I do, I will post about them here.

I don’t know if I’m going to keep my baby dragon or give him to someone. I haven’t decided yet, but it will depend in part on whether or not anyone wants to adopt him!

Here are a few pictures of my baby blue dragon for you. Leave a comment if you have name suggestions for him or you’re interested in adopting him.

What do you do with all those plastic grocery bags that collect with each trip to the store?

Even when I bring my own canvas grocery bags, the checker and bagger usually end up giving me a couple more.

I can use a few of them - I have cats and a litter box to clean up each week. But I still found them piling up.

What to do with them? I was pondering that question when something came across my RSS feeds - crocheting with grocery bags. Using plastic grocery bags to make a reusable grocery tote seemed appropriate some how.

Here’s how it started, though this is only 10 bags out of however many I used - I lost track!

I had two or three of these bags that were stuffed full of more bags. I didn’t use them all, but I used a lot of them.

The finished tote. The different colors and textures are from bags from different stores.

Interested in the process? More pictures and the beginning steps behind the cut.

If you’re inspired to give a variation of the project a try, let us know how it goes!

(more…)

I don’t usually buy into the “click here and help me” pages. So very many of them are nothing but get rich quick schemes and phishing sites waiting to take your money and your life, and not particularly in that order.

However, when I’m looking at the same thing from what I would call two reliable sources, Neil Gaiman’s Journal and R.K. Milholland’s Something Positive, I stand up and take notice.

And what I found is a site called Project Download – A click a day saves a life. Erin, the site founder, is suffering from Chiari malformation and cranial lesions and is looking at having to undergo a lot of surgery in the very near future; as anyone in the United States can tell you, if you don’t have health care insurance you’re pretty much screwed.

So what does this have to do with creativity? In this case, it’s a very creative way to earn the money she needs to afford her surgeries.

Instead of asking for donations she’s hooked up with MegaUpload and figured out how to raise the money she needs with their help. You don’t have to send her money; instead you click on a little link and download a small, virus free file that tells you a little bit more about her and her maladies. Five million downloads earns her ten grand for her medical expenses. All the details are on her site.

She’s even got a LiveJournal and Yahoo Group that’s being updated day to day on how things are proceeding. If you want my opinion, and if you got this far you’ve already gotten it, it’s a creative solution to her woes.

Give it a click, get the details for yourself and maybe download the file and help save a life.

Okay, so I was wrong - I was going to post an Inspiration Tag today, but I changed my mind. I promise I’ll post either an Inspiration Tag or a Lyrically Speaking tomorrow!

A Brief Change in Programming

Instead of our normal fare, I wanted to bring something to your attention that you may not think has anything to do with Creativity at first glance. It’s a site for a movie called The Golden Compass coming out in December 2007. Not only does the movie look interesting (at least to me), but there’s an interactive feature that is very creative and, I think, creatively inspiring.

A major aspect of the movie is the concept of Daemons. Each person has a Daemon, which takes the form of an animal, and the few people who don’t are considered mutilated or handicapped. During childhood, the Daemon shifts forms, eventually stabilizing as the person reaches adulthood.

What’s Your Daemon?

The most creative and creatively inspiring section of the site is the area where you can find out what your Daemon is. There are 20 questions to answer and then you are presented with your Daemon.

Sounds like a standard meme, right?
Wrong.
This is where it gets really interesting…

For the 12 days after you discover your Daemon, it can shift based on input from your friends. You are given a couple of options to let your friends know about your Daemon and ask for their input on how they see you: you can put your Daemon into your online Journal or blog, or your can send email to your friends to notify them.

Not only are the aspects of the Daemons sources for creative inspiration, but watching how the Daemon changes over the 12 days it can be influenced can provide inspiration as well.

Gemini and I both found our Daemon’s this morning - and we’d like your input.

ShadowsEdge’s Daemon

Gemini’s Daemon

I thought we’d change things up a little and point you in the direction of some other sites on the ‘net that might inspire you. So here’s some link love for sites we’re frequenting.

1. FicLits - This is a pretty new site. Here you can read and post short stories (short being 1024 characters or less). In addition, you can add to the stories that other members have posted. It’s reminiscent, in some ways, of the old choose-your-own-adventure stories but you get the chance to write a segment or two.

2. BlogCarnival - This is a site that indexes blog carnivals (where one blog hosts links to themed posts on other other blogs during a stated time period). There are lots of carnivals listed under Arts & Entertainment, Hobbies, and Writing. So far, there are few to be found that directly relate to creativity, but there are definitely some good resources there.

3. Time Well Wasted - This is a new venture by our own GeminiFatCat. Having an extensive collection of DVD’s, CD’s and an appetite for good stories, Gemini posts a review each workday. You won’t find current releases here very often. Instead she hopes to bring some older and possibly overlooked movies, music, books and such to your attention.

The map of my life got a whole lot bigger in 2006. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, but Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger has a Group Project going this week that made me decide to write a post.

Coloring in the Map

2006 was a journey along a road that bore only a faint resemblance to the territory I was familiar with. There were bits and pieces that I recognized, but most of the year I was spent in uncharted territory. Now I can look back and see how much of the map I’ve colored in.

The job

I knew where I was on the map at the beginning of the year. My path was already beginning to leave the areas I knew though. I finally had a paycheck that was unaffected by holidays and vacations, so I started paying off some old debts. The resulting improvement in my credit score threw me even further into uncharted regions.

The house

I qualified for enough of a loan to buy a house. This was not what I had planned. Halfway through the year, I became a homeowner. Needless to say, there have been many little side trips in my journey since then.

The internet

Jaunting around the internet, as I’m prone to do every so often, led me off in some new directions as well. With a friend, I started this site. And I found blogs and podcasts that gave me some focus, which leads me to the next region

The writing

I’ve always written - but rarely, if ever, finished anything longer than a post. I realized this year that writing was important to me. So I took the plunge and did two things - I signed up for NaNoWriMo and I contacted an author who’s podcast I was listening to. I haven’t finished the book I started for NaNoWriMo, and am still working on it, but during the month of November I wrote more on a single story than I ever have before - and I will finish it by the end of the month. And it lead to my being involved in helping put together a local writing group.

The Map Today

There’s an awful lot of color on my map that wasn’t there at this time last year. What I realized though, is that there’s even more of the map that’s still uncharted. And all the roads I see lead out into that uncharted territory. So here’s to 2007 and the knowledge that I’ll see more color on the map - and to knowing that some of that color will be applied to places I don’t even know exist yet!

–ShadowsEdge

Just in case anyone out there is wondering how our NaNoWriMo preparation is going…..:)

As of November 1st, we will have our word count posted somewhere on the blog - probably on a new page, since there isn’t any room left in the sidebar!

ShadowsEdge

I realized today that NaNoWriMo is fast approaching. I’m not sure how ready I am.

Now there are some people who are doing no prep work at all - I’m not one of them. Not only do I have hopes of actually finishing the story I have planned, but I would also like the draft to be decent enough to edit and potentially submit for publication somewhere. *laughs* We’ll see what happens.

So where am I?

Well, my main characters have first names but not surnames. They have physical descriptions and some background information. Some of the secondary characters have names, some don’t. I made notecards of the scenes I knew I wanted to have in the story and put them into an outline. *chuckles* Thanks to the outline, I can now see the gaping plot holes that need to be filled. That’s somewhat depressing, true, but at least I won’t stumble on them by surprise and get stuck in November!

Gemini

Outline smoutline. *laughs* I am so not fully prepared for this. I have some great scenes, but connecting them is going to be the hard part. Have to thank Edge for the use of one of her characters, who has smoothly inserted himself and some of his ideals into my story.

My characters are rather nicely described. I could probably do character challenges with them, and just might before the month is over. Having some extra information on them might be handy and that seems like an excellent idea to get it. There’s four main, one who thinks he’s a main character and a sixth who is a real two-faced, lying, hypocritcal bastage. Can’t wait to get them all into the story itself.

Hmm… maybe I should rethink that outline idea.

It took Edge less than a week to convince me that I had to share her insanity. I had intended on just doing a personal challenge, especially since I’m having some surgery done on Oct 30th and company for most of November, but no….

She talked me into Nano. *sigh* Not that it took much talking, she just showed me the Dares threads (which I intend on implementing here as soon as possible.) which helped inspire rambling thoughts my Muse has been planting, which has enough plot bunnies to maybe reach 50,000 words. Thank the gods I can talk to people, spend time with people, and write at the same time.

So, Edge, Muse, I toast thee….. and if I make it through this sane… well… at least no more insane than I already am… then I owe you both one for getting me writing again.

Oh and if anyone wants to know…. The dare I’m working on is one that has the writer using the line of a song in order as their chapter headings. I’m using Blue October’s What if We Could, written by Justin Furstenfeld. Hmm… I’ll have to thank him too if I ever meet him again.

*wanders off to outline*

Gemini

For those of you who didn’t realize from previous posts that I’m a little on the crazy side (Or for those of you who were holding out hope that I was actually sane), here’s your proof otherwise. I have officially registered for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2006.

What this means is: I will attempting to write a 50,000 word (or more) novel during the month of November. Yeah, my sanity’s questionable! *laughs*

I’m not the only crazy one - last year there were over 50,000 people who made the attempt and over 9,000 who actually met the goal!

What does this mean for YourCre8tivity?

Not much really - We’re putting together a backlog of Quick Steps so that you’ll still get your daily dose of creativity during the week. You will be seeing periodic updates on my progress toward 50,000 words, though I’ll try to keep them to a minimum, unless asked to do otherwise.

What does this mean for you?

Anyone who is reading this has permission to nag, cajole, cheer me on and ask about my progress, either through comments or by emailing me!

Of course…. you could always join me!

–Edge