Believe it or not, my main character's name is not Henry. Her name is Charlotte, but as the novel is in written in first person, her name does not appear as much as his. Kellyn is the villian. I am glad the word "hair" is prominent, as my story is a Rapunzel retelling.
I cannot believe it, but I am a 2009 NaNoWriMo winner! I even managed a whopping 7 words over the 50,000. Let me tell you, those last nearly 2,000 words were definitely the hardest! It's so much harder to write when your story is finished and you're only adding extra words that you know you'll probably cut out later.
I was so desperate that I almost resorted to adding some sort of "About the Author" segment at the end. Instead, I inserted extremely long and goofy chapter titles, and extended one scene, as well as adding an extra sentence here or there.
I am so relieved that this month is finished, though. Now I can focus on the things I've been wanting and needing to do.
Maybe a real blog post will come tomorrow! But now I am just relieved that this thing is over and I can say that I wrote a novel. =)
Until next time,
Kristin (missvintagegirl)
Kristin (missvintagegirl)
When I took the ornaments off this year to put them on my big tree this past Thursday, they were so dusty that Elvis had grey hair. And, as we all know, Elvis never, ever had grey hair. It was practically illegal. I took that as a hint (along with the fact that I could write my Christmas greetings in the dust on my furniture) that it was time to dust my room. I did so after I decorated the tree, and my bookcases thanked me.
The tree that this post is dedicated to is a vintage 1960's (somewhere around there) aluminum tree that I got at an estate yard sale after my great-uncle and great-aunt died. It was about $5, and online they are ridiculously expensive, so it was quite a thrifty buy. Okay, so it's not the prettiest tree ever, not the most logical fad that ever hit America. But that's okay. It's very unique. It actually reminds me of something from Whoville. And putting it up is a long process. It's basically a wooden pole with holes drilled in it, and you have to put all the shiny branches on it. Each branch is in a little individual brown paper wrapper. It's sort of cute. Even if the branches occasionally shed little pieces of silver on the floor, and I have to crawl around and find them before my fat cat tries to eat them.
Here is what it looks like when it's finished. Not so pretty, I know. And the fact that it's cramped in a corner doesn't help things. But hold on...it gets better! I promise.
It comes with a little color wheel. It's a plastic wheel that attaches to a little spinning thing with a light bulb that shines through it. This is what you're supposed to use, instead of lights. It actually looks really pretty in these pictures, but in reality it doesn't light up the whole tree, only the bottom of it. Which makes it look like someone spray-painted the bottom and left the top. So I like to put two strings of lights on it. Here's with the color wheel:
Notice the big flower things on the ends of the branches? They remind me of Dr. Seuss's Whos for some reason. It's very whimsical.
So I put two strands of blue lights on it, which is not easy. Because the branches fall out when you try to wrap the lights around. Anyway, the blue lights and blue ornaments, plus all of my Elvis ornaments and a few of my other favorites. Tradition alert: Every year since I was born, my mom has bought me (and my brother) a Christmas ornament (occasionally more than one, but usually one). So I have a whole box of ornaments that I put on our real tree in the living room. There's everything from a "Baby's First Christmas" carriage, to Eeyore, to Harry Potter, to handmade ones with glitter and my school picture on them. This is the beautiful ornament I picked out this year, to reflect my newfound love of sewing.
I believe this one was last year's, or either one Mom actually gave to me for Christmas (I get ornaments very often as gifts, especially from my piano teacher, who started the Elvis obessesion). It is so obnoxious, but I love it. The headlight lights up, and it plays "Santa Claus Is Back in Town." Speaking of obnoxious, just wait until I post a picture of my Elvis stocking. It is the tackiest, coolest stocking ever. I'll give you a hint: think white jumpsuit pants, blinking lights, and a song.
My family went to Disney World for the first time over Thanksgiving week in 2006 (we went again for my senior trip this past January). Everything was beautiful, already decorated for Christmas. This was my ornament for that year. You can't really tell it, but the little hanger has mistletoe hanging above them.
It is lovely, isn't it? And the part that says, "These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives" is so true. It amazes me how my memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas are stuck so permanently in my mind. I love traditions (maybe a little too much). I'll probably be writing about our family holiday traditions some over the next month, along with my favorite Christmas music and movies. I would now, but I don't want to rush things along too much (says the girl who put up her Christmas tree on the first day of November). 
The inside front cover. This shows how I folded down the corners and glued them, and then covered it with other paper.
The first page. It says, "I *heart* to sew. Inspirations, Ideas, Lists, Drawings, and More..." and has a beautiful vintage picture cut out from one of my 1940's McCall magazines (the one that was already torn up! Don't worry, I don't dare cut up my other two that are in perfect shape, no matter how lovely the pictures would look in my journal).
The back outside and inside covers.
I had to tear the cardstock instead of cutting it, because I love the rough edges.
My 1960's aluminum tree has been standing in my room since the beginning of November, but I have yet to put lights on it or decorate it. It's so hard that I keep putting it off. The tree is basically a wooden pole with aluminum branches that stick in holes drilled in it. It's made to be used with a color wheel, which I have, but I think it doesn't look as pretty that way as it does with lights. So I like to put blue lights on it. The problem is that it takes about 2 hours to put lights on because the branches constantly fall out when you're trying to wrap the lights around. So I will do it sometime before Thanksgiving and post pictures of it, because it is such a cute, unusual tree.
The beautiful, famous Mabry Mill. Famous around here, anyway. It is a lovely place. Unfortunately, since we missed the peak by about two weeks (gasp!!), everything was shut down. The apple butter makers and the blacksmiths are gone. The park rangers are nowhere to be found. And the worst part was...
After that, everything was fine. We went in a Christmas store, where we found my ornament for this year: a ruler with a pincushion, dress form, and pair of scissors hanging from it. We went in Nancy's Candy Company, one of the most heavenly places that sells the best homemade fudge, awesome chocolate and white chocolate dipped pretzels, and "I Love Lucy" chocolate factory stuff. It's a delicious tradition for us to go every year and gain several pounds over the week after. We also stopped by Lover's Leap, still one of the most amazing views I've ever seen, despite the bare trees. Last year it was so foggy that we couldn't see over the stone wall.
Here's my outfit! I made the poodle skirt and the neck scarf (with the evil chiffon, it took nearly as long as the skirt did). I love rick-rack. It's seriously like my new favorite thing. I should probably start using it on everything. The poodle has rhinestone eyes and a rhinestone collar, so don't be jealous. Ignore the fact that I look very wide, with no definable waist, in this picture. The sweater I had to wear was very short and wide, thus making my torso look so. Also ignore the weirdness of my feet. You can't see my cute black vintage clutch that my mom found for me very well.
So...NaNoWriMo. It's very stressful! Notice I'm using an overabundance of contractions in this post, because I have forbidden myself from using them in my story. Of course, it makes everything sound awkward, but that's okay. It adds to the word count in a wonderful way. My writing is terrible. The dialogue is forced and cheesy. Oh, well. I'm writing a novel. And Charlotte (my Rapunzel) is going to be sort of like me...minus the long, blonde hair. Prince Henry is amazing, everything you could ever want in a guy (and trust me, I need that after the many disappointing goofs I'm exposed to at school every day). I am drawn only to writing fairy tale stories, for some reason. I am so completely out of touch with today's culture that I could never write a modern story. Unless it was very autobiographical, about a girl who loved old music and movies. It would be fun to be able to make Frank Sinatra and classic movie references in a book. You can't exactly do that in a fairy tale, especially when the girl's been confined to a tower for her whole life. 