When I was contacted by Stephanie – Biffy Beans – about reviewing a webbie and doing a giveaway, I jumped at the chance.  As a lover of notebooks and fountain pens, I have a special fondness for Rhodia products and this one did [...]]]> The contest is now closed.  Thank you to all who entered.

When I was contacted by Stephanie – Biffy Beans – about reviewing a webbie and doing a giveaway, I jumped at the chance.  As a lover of notebooks and fountain pens, I have a special fondness for Rhodia products and this one did not disappoint.

First off it has a lovely sturdy cover, elastic closure, ribbon tab, and pocket in the back.

When I opened it I found smooth creamy blank paper.  The journal itself lays flat for easy writing.

Finally I tested it out with a Lamy EF in Poussiere de Lune.  It writes like butter across this paper.  No bleed through, and some pretty shading emerged.

Overall this notebook is a clear winner and my new favorite.

Now if you would like to win one, please leave a comment.  If you would like a second entry, please tweet about the contest or post to your Facebook page and let me know — I’ll put you down for a second entry.  Once we have all the entries I will create a spreadsheet and use a random number generator to pick a winner.

Contest closes on Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 8PM CT.

Also please make sure to check out the Rhodia Facebook page as they are listing out all the places you can win your very own Webbie.

Finally…. you know it’s hot when spiders even look for the shade.

To get me writing every day, I’ve decided to set myself a little challenge.  They have 250/500/100, so I decided to start slowly at 250 – 6 days a week.  Today is day 1.  I’ve decided that all writing counts for this round…so be prepared for long winded, off-topic blog posts my dear [...]]]>

To get me writing every day, I’ve decided to set myself a little challenge.  They have 250/500/100, so I decided to start slowly at 250 – 6 days a week.  Today is day 1.  I’ve decided that all writing counts for this round…so be prepared for long winded, off-topic blog posts my dear friends.     You may even get some poetry, if I’m so inclined.  Did I mention that I’m having a poem published in the next edition published by the Rockford Writers’ Guild?  I’m very excited.

Also lookie what I got today -

I’m starting the day off right.  While having my morning latte I decided to seize the day… or the year… or whatever… and I signed up for a fundamentals in fiction writing workshop.  I had a coupon for 15% off… so the price and [...]]]> I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

I’m starting the day off right.  While having my morning latte I decided to seize the day… or the year… or whatever… and I signed up for a fundamentals in fiction writing workshop.  I had a coupon for 15% off… so the price and timing were right.  I’ve been feeling like I need a good foundation class.  I feel like I’m treading water and can’t get going.  A good fundamentals class will hopefully get me on my way.

Each class goes over two weeks, so it’s not too overwhelming with everything else going on.  Also, you may notice that I only signed up for one class.  With the coupon I instantly wanted to sign up for more than one workshop, but decided to enact my New Year’s resolution.

So, what is this New Year’s resolution that I speak of?  Well it’s simple really – moderation.  I just find that when I enjoy things I have a tendency to dive off the deep end.  My motto has always been go big or go home.   Moderation is definitely in order.

Yesterday when I noticed that I only finished 21 projects – less than two per month.  I started thinking I bought way more yarn and fleece than I actually used this year.  Of course it is necessary to stash, but I think I’ve reached my quota.  I’m sure some of you may know what I speak of – one more ball of yarn and the house may explode.  Or in other words I will be totally overwhelmed and stop knitting altogether.  To avoid having this catastrophe happen I decided that moderation is in order.  For instance I finished 5 pairs of socks, maybe 6 – I don’t think I included my sock swap ones, but I bought at least 12+ skeins of sock yarn this year.  I’m think I’m just stashing now.

So for me, moderation means I don’t need to have a skein in every color or buy every fleece at the show, especially considering that I haven’t spun one this year.  Don’t worry though… there will be fleece bought, I am still human after all.  Now this doesn’t mean I won’t go, do, try new things and occasionally stash.  I just want to slow down, do one thing at a time and enjoy the stuff that is already stashed.

So this is going to be the year of moderation.

We think we have one more spot in the house for another one, so hopefully we will find another suitable one soon.

Also in bizarre news, we have Charlie sitting with Madison.  Whoa!  It must [...]]]> Thank you Julie for the title.  So for Cat’s on Wednesday… the new kitty tower is a big hit.

We think we have one more spot in the house for another one, so hopefully we will find another suitable one soon.

Also in bizarre news, we have Charlie sitting with Madison.  Whoa!  It must be my granny’s blanket that soothed them into submission.

Poor Faygo is still suffering with the eye thing.  We’re going to try a new treatment and I have to run him back in tomorrow.  They are going to make serum from his blood.  I haven’t elected for the surgery yet as I’m worried about the cone and showed the doc his cone head pictures.  I’m worried the old fellow will give himself a coronary in the cone.

Poor Tobey went in yesterday to have a few procedures.  One of which was to put some sterile water in the lungs to try to figure out why he has kitty asthma.  One theory is that he has a persistent bacteria and by finding out what it is, we will be able to treat it more effectively.  He also has some stones still building up, which is stumping the new doc because he has a ph of 6 and shouldn’t be making crystals.  He also has nice pearly whites, because he also had a teeth cleaning.  I figured since we were putting him out it would be a good time to get the works done.

The worse part was…by the time I got him home the poor fellow had messed in the crate – so to add insult to injury – he had to have a full (except the head) bath.  Poor guy.  Here he is in happier times last week sitting with his bud Shadow.

So I sent my first short story out and got my first rejection yesterday.  I figure I’m officially a writer now that I’ve been rejected.  Don’t worry I’m not discouraged.  I will live to submit again.  Maybe poetry this time.  I will keep at it – plus I still have to use up all the paper I bought during the back-to-school sale as well the large supply of ink I’ve acquired lately.  I can’t let that good stuff go to waste.

Today is the day stars [...]]]> Have you heard about readwritepoem? It’s a great place for poetry.  They now have 500 members and growing – to celebrate they are doing a collaborative poem with their members.  Everyone submits one line that starts off with the same prompt – today is the day, so I added -

Today is the day stars fell from the sky, swirled around my feet and lifted me up to the heavens.

The novice poet has submitted her first line.

Tuesday there was the Rock ‘n Knitter’s guild where my friend Beverly was sworn in as president of the guild.  Yeah Beverly! I had to hustle there and back though [...]]]> I better pick up the pace or else I’m just going to just be a Saturday blogger.  So let’s see what happened this past week…

Tuesday there was the Rock ‘n Knitter’s guild where my friend Beverly was sworn in as president of the guild.  Yeah Beverly! I had to hustle there and back though because Mike was at a work event and didn’t get back to late.

I’ve been working on giving Coco more freedoms – right now were at about the 2 to 2.5 hours that I can leave her without putting her in the bathroom.  She seems to still be a bit confused by this and I think she runs around the whole time.  I’m tempted to set up a web cam to see.

Wednesday was our regular Stitch ‘n Bitch, which was a good time per normal.

Thursday I had dinner with two friends to celebrate a birthday at a nice restaurant.  I had gigantic scallops that took forever to eat, but were delicious.

Friday was Mike’s night to fool around with the TV.  I watched Eureka on one of the TV’s that was already mounted.  He bought a new TV this week and has mounted in the bedroom like were in a hotel room.  The hotel room was his words, not mine and very funny, but I have to admit hotel room or not, it does look nice.  I think this was all brought on because I keep erasing his shows on the DVR and/or bumping them down.  There was talk about another hi-def DVR, so he could record his shows in peace.

Then Friday night I didn’t sleep well.  I went to the ENT during the day and they said I have a sinus infection.  No idea I had a sinus infection, except I have pressure.  Well, I have sinus troubles and I nearly always have pressure.  They think it’s been lingering.  I have to go for a CAT scan and then back to talk to the doctor where the dreaded scope up the nose will be done.  However, I’ve noticed over time it seems I have a harder time breathing especially out of the left side of my nose  – behind the left eye is right where my current headache is sitting.  I just wonder if it’s not a deviated septum, or a polyp, or something that is blocking the air.  My GP said that she thinks maybe the adenoids have to come out.  Well we’ll see in a few weeks.  I also have old fluid in the left ear built up they are trying to drain, so I have a feeling this isn’t going to be a quick fix.  The good news is my hearing is very good.  They tested that to see if it’s affecting my hearing.  So if everything drains I wonder if I will hear better.  Hmmm… that’s something to note.

This morning I was up at 4:30.  By 5am I gave up sleeping, made a latte, started surfing and worked on my correspondence.  By 7:30 I  was knitting on my swap pal sock.  I have the cuff nearly done on the first sock.  This is totally fun knit and I just casted it on, so it’s going very fast.  I may even break with our tradition of black and white’s and show a color picture in advance this time, since it’s striping nicely.

Then I raced off to the library when I realized I had a book overdue by one day.  I rushed in at 9:02 and they said no fee and gave me another 3 weeks with it.  Whew…. I browsed around there and then managed to get myself to the gym.  Just 45 mintues of walking and bike riding and then did some errands.

Finally I came home to a nap and now I’ve been catching up on my reading.  I have a book out from the library that is wonderful.  It’s called Writing Poetry from the Inside Out .  I had no idea poetry could be so magical.  Something about this book is very inspiring.  I was not a great fan of poetry before this book and I just can’t put my finger on why this book is so special.  The presentation… something, but this book is fantastic.

I had no idea I had a poet inside of me.  I’ve been practicing some of the exercises in the book.  The first exercise is easy – you pick out a four word group and you go.  Let yourself be creative.  Without even the need of arm twisting, I may show you all a few of my creations, if you want… I know this is a knitting blog or so it used to be.  It’s funny… I was having a conversation with my friend Cindy and she said she thinks that when you are a creative person it just spills into every area of your life.  I thought that really does explain it, doesn’t it?  We can’t separate the creativity out of us.   I know everything I do has to have a creative bent to it or I’m not happy.  I also want many mediums to express my creativity or art.  The further I go, the more creativity I look for in life as well.

It’s been colder than heck around here, complete with a cold rain that gets right into your bones – so tonight I pulled out some chicken soup that was in the freezer and that made a delicious dinner.  Plus I think the warm soup helps with the sinus thing.   They’re talking 30′s early in the week.  I’m threatening to get out the electric blanket.

Now I’m off to knit some more and find a movie to watch.

So how was your week?

This one is by far one of the best.  Weaver’s Craft.

I’ve been wanting this subscription for a long time, but I wanted all the back issues as well.  I’m so happy to get them all.  [...]]]> So this week DH and I celebrated our anniversary.  I was bestowed with lots of beautiful gifts.

This one is by far one of the best.  Weaver’s Craft.

I’ve been wanting this subscription for a long time, but I wanted all the back issues as well.  I’m so happy to get them all.  I’m going to be pouring over them before the weaving class starts.

I also got a few more Lamy’s (oh a pink one is on it’s way as well) and some new ink.

Unfortunately, I made a rookie mistake with my first Lamy this week by not clicking in the converter all the way and ended up wearing Poussiere De Lune all over my pants on Wednesday at work.  How embarrassing!  It was nice splotches of moon dust.  I took a picture, but before I could get it uploaded to Flickr my laptop died.  Not to worry though as it’s under warranty and will have nice new bits compliments of Dell.   The ink mostly washed out.  There is still a bit of a faint spot, but not too bad.  I’m sure the pants are still good enough for work.

Anyway, not to be daunted by a little spilled ink, I’m trying out some lovely new colors.  I haven’t ventured out to other ink brands yet, but I suspect I will.  I saw one person write on Fountain Pen Network that the J. Herbin inks were decidedly vintage and I would have to agree.  I love vintage.  I’m currently writing with the top three in the picture.

My knitting mojo seems to be funkified this week.  I’m coming down off a high of finishing some big projects.  I’ve also got another sock near completion.  So I was thinking I would warp the loom this weekend, but I think I need to cast on a few more projects and get my wheel out, I’ve got a marathon of shows and movies to watch to keep me busy.