Hiatus

Sorry, this blog is taking a winter hiatus.

Webster's:  hiatus--any gap or interruption, as in continuity or time

I am working on a book, and helping another person get started with his blog.  

You might want to check out some of my older posts:

1) if you are interested in writing:

http://atticreflections.blogspot.com/2011/02/abbys-house-guest.html  (all time favorite post) The original inspiration for my first novel.

http://atticreflections.blogspot.com/2011/09/jop-link-party.html  Or you might search 'JOP' in the search bar to see several other short creative writing entries from the past Jumping Off Places series.

See also, the small stones page or search 'Haiku' for a series of haiku writings.

2)  if you are interested in crafts, sewing or Etsy, you might be interested in these highly popular posts:

http://atticreflections.blogspot.com/2015/09/new-project-romantic-wrist-cuff.html

http://atticreflections.blogspot.com/2014/04/family-baby-quilt.html

or just search 'creativity'

3)  if you are interested in art:

http://atticreflections.blogspot.com/2012/08/negative-painting.html

http://atticreflections.blogspot.com/2013/05/header-sketch.html

Or just search, 'art', 'watercolor' or 'sketches'

4)  Also, I have another blog, which I will post to occasionally; it may have more current posts. 

SabbaticalVenture.blogspot.com

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Thanks for visiting and I hope to be back to blogging here in the Spring! 

Blog Comments

Just a little note today about blog comments.  Sometimes I get quite a few, and sometimes not many. It is quite disconcerting sometimes, when I see that 25 people have visited my post, but only one has commented. I wonder if my content is not interesting or engaging.

It helps to evaluate these stats. I'm sure, if you are a blogger, you have experienced this.   You watch your stats and wonder who is reading your posts.  The only way for you to get feedback is for readers to comment. So, my theme for my posts this week will be a tribute to blog commenters . . . .

Thanks to all of you who regularly visit my blog!

Thanks to those who comment!! 

I appreciate everyone of you, even those who don't comment.

a Basic Creative Person

Recently I rearranged my business and blogging life.  Most of my crafty business posts were in another blog, which I am now changing with a new URL, to an exclusively wholesale site for the promotion and sale of my custom logo aprons.  Thanks to all of you who have followed me on that blog for more than four years! (If you were a follower there, please consider following this blog--Thanks!)

Although I have had this blog since early in January 2011, it was basically devoted to my creative writing and my art.  But life has changed my focus and now I am revamping this blog to handle all of my art and craftiness!  I am a complex person much like this little pillow that I created to represent myself:

 I love many forms of art and many mediums with which to create--beads, buttons, lace, trims, embroidery, applique, patchwork, paper, watercolor, etc.  Basically I just love creating!  So this blog from here on will be all inclusive of my various interests.

Yes, there will still be displays of my art.  

Yes, there will be some creative writing, that is just who I am! 
I want to say authentic to myself.  (For my writing, check out the tab at the top of the home page for 'Small Stones'--short little creative writing bits, or-- for an ongoing story: 'Abby's Story'.)

So, on with the adventure!  Hope you will follow me to see what creative thing I am working on and hopefully, gain inspiration for your own creative endeavors!!!

Segue

Segue:  to make a transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption, as a bridge.

Kendal Bridge - source 

This blog needs a segue since I have not posted here since last July and it will be back online on a regular basis on Monday April 21st.

Although I have been blogging during this time, in my two other blogs sites:  PruittCreations.blogspot.com and SabbaticalVenture.blogspot.com.
I frequently bounce between each blog from time to time depending on my current emphasis, as I have many interests.  As a segue here, from July to April,  you can see what I have been up to in my other sites, here and here and especially this post that tells the vision for my future blogging. After visiting those posts, I hope you will join me on Monday for the restart of Abigail's Attic and follow for inspiration thru art, writing and craftiness!  It should be fun!

Header Sketch

Recently I have been  working on a new header for my art and creative writing  blog -- this one obviously!

 I did this sketch for my theme.  Turned out pretty good, except when I photographed it, it was an overcast day outside and the photograph turned out blue! I know the rule, "Let your white be WHITE and your blacks be BLACK!" I've tweaked it all I can to remove the color, but alas, it's still blue!  Maybe I should have run it through the scanner instead of trying to photo it!! 

Enjoy anyway . . . 

Linking today with:
Sunday Sketches

New Adventure!

I am currently in the process of changing my focus for creativity.  For the last few years, I have been concentrating on my Etsy businesses of hand crafted jewelry and hand sewn products and not my art or writing.  Oh, I have had two blogs to keep my hand in writing practice and I have participated in Blue Chair Diary's Sunday Sketches but mostly this blog has been an 'on again, off again' project as far as any writing is concerned--not consistent nor concentrated.   My other blog  has been my focus, including my Etsy businesses, my BBA team, my handcrafted business friends and acquaintances.

Since recently re-thinking my outlay of time in regard to blogging and writing, I have decided to take August thru October to rest from my other endeavours and return to my writing and illustration in this blog.  I will concentrate on a couple of writing projects that were left on a back burner in my brain.  One project is actually a part of this blog, called Abby's story.  There is a tab on my home page to find this project.  But, alas, it is unfinished.  Another project is a children's book series that I started about eight years ago.  Then my breast cancer tragedy struck, my life changed a bit, and I just let my book writing plans go.

So if you are up for it, I will pull out one of these latent projects and take it up again.  I hope you will go on this journey with me to see if I can complete it. I will try to post about three times per week plus posting on Sunday's with my illustration progress on Sunday Sketches.  Your participation with me may be the boost that I need to keep plugging along toward the finish line. 

And, just as a taste of the future, these pictures show what I pulled out of a closet of that old project.  (I will explain in subsequent posts.)



Some old practice pieces

What have you dreamed about completing?

Join me, won't you? 



Planning vs. Just Starting

Writers often just start writing and see where it takes them.  Sort of like a journey to discover what is in a head and how it will come out on paper in the end.  Do you write like that?  Or do you make a plan?  Most of us were taught in school to make an outline before we start to write our story, essay or thesis.  The trouble with just starting is that you get lots of sentences on the paper, capturing your thoughts, but they may be disjointed, and scrambled.  At some point you must fit them together to present the overall picture. 



Writer's Friend by frenchiefoo Etsy shop



On the other hand, some of us plan extensively before we write.  We think about it.  Test out several scenarios in our mind.  Talk about it, bouncing ideas off of a friend.  All this should be a part of the process to good writing and, I find, helps dispel writer's block.  I have been blogging for almost three years now and have experienced writer's block several times.  I believe this is due to lack of a plan.  I have learned, the hard way, to sit down at the beginning of the month and scribble out some probable blog posts for the coming days.  This planning keeps me focused and on track with consistent posting and takes the pressure off of trying to come up with something new all the time!

A plan is important. 

Plan your writing. 

Plan your blog posts in advance. 

Do some "homework" setting your plan to paper.  It can always be revised as you go, but a good plan (outline) is essential to good writing. Try it, and see if it helps you have a better writing product or blog.