Day Two: Top five from Etsy. How Glee keeps me from writing. Pretty folk music.

Two things you should do right now:
1.) Go listen to "I Can See Glory" by Benjamin Riley
It's the first song that shows up when you click on that site. It's really folk-y and soulful. I saw him play at Founders the other night... ugh. His voice is lovely. I'm obsessed.

2.) Visit www.etsy.com if you haven't. I have loved this website for years, but I haven't ever ordered anything from it. Before I started my jewelry website, I considered selling only through Etsy, but decided against it. There is some AMAZING, creative, handmade stuff on there if you are ever looking for unique presents.

Here are my top five that I love at the moment:

1.) Neckwarmers
Infinity scarves. Chunky knits. I like the brooch on this one.

2.) Pillows
Lots of colors and sizes and styles. They're SO expensive in stores (I think I spent $25 on one pillow a few months ago), but they can be a lot cheaper on Etsy.







3.) Steampunk and Birds
Steampunk jewelry is a really interesting concept.  It's almost always handmade with an antique and feminine feel. Most feature gears, watch hands, or vintage looking keys.







4.) Clutches / Eyeglass Cases
Most of them are between $8-$20 on Etsy.









5.) Upcycled Art
I'm not sure that I would ever buy a lot of the "found art" that I've looked at on Etsy, but I think it's fascinating.







  

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Writing Challenge Day 2
I'm doing a 31 day writing challenge, found on the Reverb website, designed to reflect on the past year and look forward to what's to come in 2011.

Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?

 I really NEVER write for fun anymore, so there are probably a lot of things. Here are a few:
-Time. Obviously, writing takes time. I don't have a lot of it. If I do, I'm always thinking about what I can do to get ahead in lesson plans or grading. I can't relax. Blah.
-Motivation/ideas. I used to keep a notebook of ideas for fictional stories or poems, and I'd write in it whenever an idea popped into my head. I don't do that anymore. It made it easy to focus when I had a little bit of extra time, because I already had a set idea in my head.
-Glee and Millionaire Matchmaker. Haha. Usually when I have a spare hour, I'll catch up on some of my favorite shows online. Those are just two of them. They're so entertaining. I don't have cable in my room, and our TV in the living room blew up, so I'm stuck with online episodes.
-Routine. In the past, I've set aside a time of day where I would sit down and force myself to write. Sometimes freewriting, sometimes continuing a draft...

I really miss having time to write. I don't think a lot of things keeping me from writing are things I can necessarily eliminate, it's more that I just have to fit it into my schedule.
I took 3 extra writing classes in college (that didn't count toward anything) just because I wanted to and knew it would force me to make time to do it. I'm planning to get my Masters in Creative Writing eventually... I think it will be good for me. And thinking about that makes me really excited. (: