Thursday, August 14, 2014

Tag, I'm it!

Kathy Roeth of tapestry316 invited me to join her in a blog hop. I love Kathy's blog; she has a great sense of humor while dispensing her country charm, honesty and faith at the same time!  Besides, I love her watercolor! A delight to read!

She asked me to answer these four questions and invite a few friends to do the same. Writing about myself is not something that I regularly do and being that I was at a juncture where I was at a loss for writing material, I said, "Why not?"

Me with a couple of grands

1. What am I working on/writing?

Now there's a question!  What am I always working on?  Aprons!  I call myself  "the apron lady", it's continuous!  But in reality, I am always working with various mediums--you can see that by my varied blog posts!  I get bored working on the same thing all the time, so I work from project to project  with photography, watercolor, charcoal and pencil sketching, hand embroidery, crazy quilting, and using up scraps from my apron making--quilt piecing, yo yo making. I am a "Jane of all trades"! But I also love to write. I have two active blogs, this one and one that I write only periodically, called Sabbatical Musings and Adventures.   My current major writing project is a legacy book with my husband.  Being a widow married to a divorced man, we have a homogenized family of ten children (and at this point in time) 27 grandchildren. We want to leave a written history/commentary about our separate lives and heritage for our blended family and future generations. We are unique, in that our family is successfully blended and very large. In current culture, much family history is lost, so we are writing this book for family understanding and hopefully longevity of a well blended family.  I should be working on my grandma books (see tab on my blog home page), but I seem to be momentarily stalled on that project.  


Illustration from my Grandma Books

2. How does my work/writing differ from others of its genre?

I don't  know that my sewing or writing is so different from others---there's an abundance of crafters and writers out there in the world.  I just try to learn as I go.  My love of sewing has developed into a side business selling aprons, and they are my own design.  I guess that is a difference--they're original!  My writing brings a unique perspective because of my age and world outlook.  Many bloggers, from the 24-40 year old category, seem to focus on fashion and trends; I want to focus on things more lasting and substantial, even practical. I hope that my blogs model how to love family, spend leisure time with purpose, and learn some human relationship skills (thru my illustrated grandma books- which are focused on different generational perspectives).  I guess you could say that I am different because of my focus on family, not the baby/child/young family how-to stages of family, but the entire generationally bonded family. 


Thanksgiving with our clan

3. Why do I write what I do?

I write blogs, mainly for two reasons: 1) to keep an audience informed as to my products and my work process and 2) to keep my writing skills sharp.  The advice to writers is always, "Write!"  or "Just write something to keep in shape!" Writing a blog keeps my hand  in the craft. Of course, it's not all work, I put in some updates about my family gatherings and my grand children, I just can't resist!




4. How does my writing process work?

Process?  I just write!  Then, I go back and re-read and makeing adjustments.  In my lengthy book writing, sometimes whole sections are placed in another place thus giving the reader a better explanation of what I am trying to present. But most of my day-to-day writing is short and hopefully succinct, so it's the "off the top of my head" sort of stuff!  

OK, hope that gives a a better picture of me!  Time for three other recommendations.  These are three very different types of blogs, I hope you enjoy them:

My friend Margaret, has a wonderful blog called Splendid Little Stars.  I just love her photography!  Her nature photography from personal trips is awesome! Also, check out her tab for "Margaret COOKS" Yummy recipes!

Fellow Oregonian Sharla of BeadedTail has a unique blog written from her animal's point of view.  I always marvel at how she can write consistently in their voice!  If you love animals, you will love this blog! Psst . . some her proceeds benefit "Pawesome" animal charities!

      Sharla, Isabelle and Angel's post dated 8/25:  
       http://beadedtail.blogspot.com/2014/08/our-so-called-writing-process.html

And a friend that I met thru a blog team journal exchange--Laurie of IndulgeYourShelf.  If you love and I mean love, vintage, you will love Laurie's blog.  It is simply vintage finds and projects.  My favorite project that she has done was posted the end of July, called The Joy of Creating.  You'll love it!     

      Seems Laurie was previously nominated.  Here is her post:
      http://indulgeyourshelf.blogspot.com/2014/08/blog-hoppin.html

OK, that's it!  Time for you to go visit a few blogs.  
Thanks for visiting!! 



7 comments:

Memories for Life said...

Great post Linda! The books you and your hubby are writing sound so wonderful!
I agree about your work and writing being different than the younger generation...you have a wisdom in your words :)

Splendid Little Stars said...

I love this post!
so much richness!
Thanks for sharing your work, your family, your life, your processes.
The photo of you with your grandchildren is wonderful, as is the "grandma" illustration. You have captured the love between a grandma and grandchild beautifully.
What a great idea to write a legacy book.
and then--the surprise at the end. Thanks so much for the compliments.

Abby / Linda said...

Thanks Edi and Margaret for your kind words! I appreciate your comments!!!!

Judy Nolan said...

I really enjoyed this post, Linda! I'm coming from the same place/age as you, and am interested in passing along the stories and learning of my family to the younger generation. Ours is not a blended family, but a splintered one, at least geographically. So little letter-writing gets done these days that without a concerted effort to write down the stories and pass them along via blog, book, or whatever, they will be lost. And I think there's a part inside all of us that wants to leave a bit of ourselves behind, to be honest.

pasqueflower said...

What a great post! I am anxious to hear more about your Grandma Stories. Love the illustration -- and your real life photo with the grands.

BeadedTail said...

I enjoyed this post too and really like your grandma illustration! I like reading stories of your family and your crafty creations. Thank you for your comments about our blog too! I'll do my best to answer the questions - with help from Angel and Isabella of course! :)

Kathleen said...

What a great blog post! And wonderful answers to the questions! I love that you are writing a family history - such a treasure to pass on to the generations. You are right - so much family history is easily lost and that is really sad!