I made a thing!

Today I had an idea for a holder for my barrettes and other hair things that would actually fit in the cabinet in my bathroom. After sketching out some options, I measured the cabinet and realized it wouldn't fit. Drat. Those sketches may become a desk organizer instead :)

Then I realized that if I angled the panels, it would fit - Yay! I had a blast making it, and making notes for an improved version.

It's basically an open box with two angled panels. Barrettes hang on the angled panels, a few on the back, and other hair accessories can go in the base. The angled panels keep the barrettes visible and accessible.

I'm especially pleased with the clear tape lip at the front.

And here it is in place, where I'll be using it until I make version 2. If I can get some better pictures, and pictures of the steps, I might put together a tutorial for it, just in case anyone else could use hair toy storage.

Oh! As I typed this post I had an idea for making a travel case like this...excuse me, I have some notes to make!

I've made stuff!

I made a few little things last week!

An origami box (using a page from an old calendar) to hold my collection of stickie notepads:

Drabble for Story a Day May!

I am very pleased to report that I have written a short story for each day of this month so far :) I'm not ready to share the first two, but today's drabble feels ready to share. I was inspired by this prompt, to use the last line of a book I love as the last line of my story. Huge piles of nerd points if you recognize the line :)

A crash sent Jason running downstairs. He stepped into the kitchen slowly, remembering how often voices had been raised in anger recently. Parenting a teenager seemed to be almost as tough as being one. He found his wife and son covered in splatters of what had to be the candy they were making. Sprays and splatters festooned everything. For a moment, they all held their breath. Someone snorted, as if holding in laughter. In a moment, Jason was pulled into a sticky three-way hug, all of them dissolving into helpless laughter.

Even with nougat, you can have a perfect moment.

National Poetry Month, day 30

I want to sweep words across the page to the swell and sway of my thoughts
Treble, darting ideas dancing harmony with the bass-drop beat of my heart
fast-twitch words adding snap to sinuous lines unrolling across the page
to fill and move your mind like music fills and moves my body

Holding this page in your hand, these electrons on your screen,
will your mind follow the lead I've written? How could I even know?
May the space here cleared give you something you can use; a moment of peace,
a kick in the brain, even just the pleasure of the poem ending.

National Poetry Month day 29

A pair of unconnected lunes for day 29 :)

playing with hair toys
magic comb
cascade ponytail

Fresh, on-trend glasses
youthful look
transitional lens

National Poetry Month day 28

Today I am very grateful for the NaPoWriMo prompt for today. I just couldn't get anything started until I read that prompt!

Drive out of the parking lot, into your week's vacation
Before that
Stroll out of the office with the remnants of jautiness
Before that
Clock out for the week, and for the month
Before that
Walk back to your desk to clock out
Before that
Remember you haven't clocked out
Before that
Stroll out of the office, jaunty and ready for vacation
Before that
Take one final look around your desk, happy to see everything in its place
Before that
Collect your things from on and under your desk
Before that
Change your voicemail greeting and set up your email autoresponder
Before that
Process, pass on, and clear any lingering tasks
Long before that
Request time off for the week after your birthday

National Poetry Month day 27

Today I've combined the NaPoWriMo prompts from today and Monday:

O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices?
Words poured into your ear, both intimate and impersonal when you're taking a call in the customer service phone bank.
The exactly phrasing varies, but you know that almost all the calls tell one of a few stories
Those few distill down to one voice reaching out through wires or towers or digital signals
This voice questing into telephonic infrastructure, trusting to technology for transformation and guidance,
For the means to reach out to you. This voice cast like a net in hope of finding the help, the remedy, the solution
You can provide

National Poetry Month day 26

I wrote a lune for my dad's birthday :)

On this special day
I love you!
Happy Birthday, Dad!

National Poetry Month day 25

A lune of enthusiasm and encouragement:

You know you want to,
2016
Story a Day May

I am super excited about Story a Day May this year, especially since I might actually manage to write all 31 stories! I will post about the process and my progress, and at least some of the stories. If any of you good folks will be participating, let me know - we can help each other stay on track :)

National Poetry Month day 24

Shoe Sonnet

Party shoes can be a lot of fun
Matching colors to your favorite dress
Trying on until you find the one
That's just the one to make you look your best.

The shoes you wear to work are different still
Footwear maketh how you are perceived
Even when you work more than your fill
What's on your feet trumps what you may achieve.

Even when you're going to the gym
You find a shoe designed for any need
Who can know the best match for your limb,
When so much of advice is mixed with greed?

Yet none of these can ever be so sweet
As walking, dancing in just my own bare feet

National Poetry Month, day 23

marathon training
then to find
only room to sprint

National Poetry Month days 21 and 22

Poem for day 21:

Middle class, "good girl" teenager
Radio plays her secret love
Intimate, explicit superstar

This former teenager's formerly secret love, always a superstar

Poem for day 22:

Procrastination
by nature?
Enneagram 9

National Poetry Month day 20

Nephew's birthday gift

Is also a gift for me

Welcome to Nightvale

National Poetry Month day 19

Nerdy poetics
mathematics of the date
indivisible

National Poetry Month days 17 and 18

Yesterday was International Haiku Day, and I totally failed to write one. My only consolation is writing one today :)

Wisdom sprinkling
Through seventeen syllables
scattered spring blossoms

And for today, a Terzanelle:

Declining years of lifetime's palace
Tears and laughter ever shower,
Mixing joy with tender sadness

Some will smile and some will glower,
Meaning's in the story told,
Tears and laughter ever shower.

Be bold, be bold, and still too bold.
Striving then failing is still success,
Meaning's in the story told.

Whether moving or at rest,
Do or do not; there is no try.
Striving then failing is still success.

Study, learn, and then DECIDE,
Choose the path of larger life.
Do or do not; there is no try.

Drink the sweet with the strife.
Declining years of lifetime's palace,
Choose the path of larger life
Mixing joy with tender sadness

National Poetry Month day 16

I love today's prompt on NaPoWriMo! In case you're curious, I'll post today's answers to the Almanac Questionnaire after the poem :)

If I cannot have your voice
The wind and waves will
be my only music

Almanac Questionnaire

Weather: Warm to hot, moderated by sea breezes

Flora: minimal, because of the salt on the breeze. Live oak grow gnarled and sculptural, shaped by the wind. Some dune-holding plants, and kelp and other ocean plants that get wash on and off of the sand.

Architecture: None, unless you're going to call temporary structures like tents architecture

Customs: Always warn others about encroaching seagulls - they're bold as brass around here.

Mammals/reptiles/fish: all the usual intertidal suspects, anenomes, sea stars, crustaceans, mussels, barnacles

Childhood dream: To spend time here without having to return to "real" life

Found on the Street: sea glass, shells

Export: seafood

Graffiti: minimal, and generally effaced by the salt spray

Lover: Me!

Conspiracy: developers try to find ways to sneak into law ways to make beaches private and keep the public away

Dress: swimsuits, casual wear

Hometown memory: stepping out into the waves, playing with the waves like with a friend

Notable person: Me!

Outside your window, you find: the Pacific ocean

Today’s news headline: Neap Tide reaches Record High

Scrap from a letter: "one day. For now, the wind will have to be my music, if i cannot have your"

Animal from a myth: Kraken

Story read to children at night: The Little Mermaid

You walk three minutes down an alley and you find: A cave in a rock formation

You walk to the border and hear: Highway traffic

What you fear: Developers

Picture on your city’s postcard: Sunset over the ocean

National Poetry Monday day 15

Today's poem is inspired by today's NaPoWriMo Prompt

You do the best you can
Like every day
Everything changes
Like every day
You do the best you can

National Poetry Month, Day 13 and 14

I did write this yesterday, but left it at my workplace instead of posting it - oops

Last Fortune Cookie
The child's had two desserts
half a soda
wants ice cream at home
And still tries to sneak the last fortune cookie

And a lune for today:

The sunset's meaning
is a gift
by and for yourself

National Poetry Month day 12

Today I've created a Book Spine Poem, using books I have at my workplace.

National Poetry Month, days 10 and 11

For day 10:

Nodding, smiling face

Engagement?

You will find no trace

For day 11, a lune from a NaPoWriMo prompt. I think this is my new favorite poetic form :)

Dogwood blossoms fall
Spring breezes
I sense, so I am

National Poetry Month, days 8 and 9

I didn't write a poem on Friday. Missing that one day made it soooo much harder to get myself to sit down and write today!

Sepals

I don't consider myself a southerner
The "legend" of the flower leaves me cold
Yet every spring I watch with eager joy
For the white flowers of dogwood trees

Day 9

I'm safer here than in my home
Unassailed in mind and heart
A crowd of people, each unknown

And now with nowhere left to roam
Nothing more for me to start
I'm safer here than in my home

With every mind a fertile loam
For seeds of books and art
A crowd of people, each unknown

The doors become a metronome
Patrons enter and depart
I'm safer here than in my home

Among the bookshelf catacomb
All together yet apart
A crowd of people, each unknown

Voices blend into a hum
There is no wisdom to impart
I'm safer here than in my home
A crowd of people, each unknown

National Poetry Month, day 7

Inspired by today's NaPoWriMo prompt, I've written a Tritina :) Please critique gently - this is very, very rough draft.

Title

By all that I hold dear
Until I'm done I cannot rest
No matter how I drain the well

write it now and write it well
make good the inspiration dear
it's mine so isn't like the rest

When finished then the draft will rest
Revise to make the weak parts well
Time will show what's cheap or dear

My dear, rest well, as often as you need.

National Poetry Month, day 6

Right at this moment, I don't think this poem is worth the time I've spent on it. Maybe I'll feel better about it when I've got some distance. Regardless, I've written a poem that didn't exist before! I still win!

Villanelle 20160406

Interlacing hook and thread
do the work and be the play
to reach another watershed

shimmering with sunlight dread
ball unwinds at end of day
Interlacing hook and thread

draw aside, be misled
not a promise to betray
to reach another watershed

the pattern or the yarn misread
so far yet to go astray
Interlacing hook and thread

going where I feel most led
no one has the right of way
to reach another watershed

far too much is left unsaid
growth mingles with decay
Interlacing hook and thread
to reach another watershed

National Poetry Month, day 5

Another lune :)

furry warm fox girl
face sunward
heliotropic

National Poetry Month, Day 4

November 1988

November is the cruelest month
At least for us
Taught to give thanks
By our late mother

Nation Poetry Month, Day 3

Three Reasons

With great power comes great responsibility,
So what of near-infinite power?

Finding Truth to understand,
Choosing actions or inaction,
To move toward Justice and mercy
Showing what it could mean to follow
the American Way

National Poetry Month, day 2

This is very rough draft, please critique gently :)

I open the album to you,
the last picture taken
of the whole family,
"There we are, " I say, not sure
if it's to you or my companion,
"Stiff and awkward."

He snorts, then says,
"That's what she said,"
as if the tired word play
were as inevitable as death,
and doesn't understand
Why I sigh, and walk away

National Poetry Month!

In honor of National Poetry Month, and to get myself into a daily writing habit, I am going to write a poem every day in April. I may not post them all, and I make no promises about the quality of these poems, but poems will exist that did not exist before - which is the whole point.

I've started following several blogs offering daily poetry prompts. Today's poem is a Lune, suggested on NaPoWriMo.net. Here's mine:

Bear in the shallows
batting fish
to the wolf on shore

Gratitude List

Today I am Grateful for:

~The wise,sweet offerings at Journal Wild
~colby jack cheese
~Being lent a really good ice scraper
~Curvy Yoga
~carrying a small purse again
~clear roads between my neighborhood and my workplace
~my workplace opening 2 hours late today

Otter Sketching

Look! Sketching!

I used the photo on this page as a reference.

In 2016 I will fill this sketchbook with sketches of otters. If this leads to being able to draw realistic otters - yay! If not, I'll still have gotten lots of sketching practice and gotten to look at lots of pictures of otters - still yay!