A Child At Heart.

We are all just a puddle jump away from our youth.

~ Atticus 

To my dearest friends and followers,

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I hope you have been well. Personally, I've had a lot of fun this last week!

My sister, who had been staying with me since Christmas, went home. It was wonderful seeing her, but it left me tired - no, exhausted for a few days, as is expected when one is a host or hostess. 

Once I was able to catch my breath again, I went to work setting up my studio, since that room had been temporarily converted into a guest room. I set it up quite a bit different than it was before though, and I love it! It's snug, though comfortable, and cute! I feel like everything is organized nicely. I even decided to get rid of several things!

Which leads me in to my next exciting adventure. XD
I began an account on Offer-Up. It's pretty addicting. In case any of you aren't familiar with it, it's basically a platform like ebay, where you can sell your old things - except way cooler. It's just set up a lot different than ebay and has a clean fresh look to it.

Anyhow, I decided I should get rid of some of my old toys, specifically some of my cherished American Girl dolls and clothes. So I did. And they sold within a couple of hours of me posting them. I was pretty happy!

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But before then, I was looking at buying a few things as well. Sort of a trade as it were. Get rid of some toys to replace them with new toys. Yes. I got more toys. I can't help it. I love toys. I love going to small toyshops in malls or downtown. I don't usually buy anything, but they're so exciting to look at! So I posted several dolls and several boxes of doll clothes and a somewhat large canopy bed for said dolls and I used the money to buy a smaller bed for the dolls I kept - a bed that is easy to store, I might add.

And then I went looking for the American Girl Of The Year 2006, Jess. I remember I wanted her so bad when I was a kid. But I also wanted another doll, one which would not be retired after 2006. So I asked for both of them for Christmas, and I remember being slightly disappointed when I got the one doll, but not the other, not the Girl Of The Year. I never expressed that disappointment to my Mom, since I was grateful to have at least one of the dolls I had asked for.
But I felt like now was the time. Now was the time to fulfill that childish dream. So I found her on Offer-Up for a decent price, original box and book included. And I bought her. Jess McConnell 2006. She's everything I ever hoped for as a kid.
So yes, I bought 1 doll and 1 bed. I now own 3 dolls instead of 6: Kirsten, Mia, and Jess. I'm still a child at heart. You know you envy me.

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In addition to that, I also ordered chipboard a week or so ago and was finally able to make my new journal for 2021!! I'm in love with how it turned out. XD
Very very soon I'll be sharing more about my journals and quite possibly, you can get one for yourself too...

Until then, make sure you check out my book on my very own shop, my Ko-fi shop! If you enjoy what I do, that is the best way to support me! I have included the widget for my shop at the top of my blog page as well.

Thank you so much for reading!!

Yours truly,

Me

The Story of You (Wizard101).

To my dearest friends and followers,

Have you ever heard of the First World? It was an interesting place to be sure, but let us go back even farther. Before anything else, there was the Tree. He was very old and very wise, one eye looking to the past and the other looking at what was yet to happen.

The Tree had a sister too, the Raven. Aside from them, there was also the Spider.

Now, with the Raven's help, the Tree sang the song of creation and thus brought the First World into existence. In it, he made the Titans, the Giants, and the Dragons.
To the Titans, the Tree gave the magic of Storm. To the Giants, he gave Ice magic, and to the Dragons he gave Fire magic. Each of the beings were good and created to be a source of light in the new world.

Unfortunately, the Raven wanted to control the world and take away free-will. The Spider, however, disagreed with this. He gave the Titans, Giants, and Dragons the ability to freely govern themselves and break away from the Tree and the Raven. Soon the created beings began to fight against each other. From the spark of Storm magic and the warmth of Fire magic, a new magic was created; Life magic. And from the dark and cold shadows of Storm magic and Ice magic, Death magic was born. From the wonder and mystery of the opposites, Fire magic and Ice magic, Myth magic came to be.
Sadly, with the created beings all fighting one another, the First World was torn apart. The Tree and the Raven did their best to hold all the fragments together and created a new world called the Spiral. But things were different. The world was imperfect because the Spider, one of the original three beings, was not a part of it. The Raven, though she loved him, blamed him for destroying the First World and came to resent him. So she locked him away, and though his heart was the source of the dark and chaos, she took it from him and hid it away in the Spiral, that it might make the new world complete.

The Raven was the embodiment of good, while the Spider was the embodiment of evil. It was the Raven's desire to end the Spider once and for all, but because of her goodness, she was unable to. So she created a child for herself, Mellori (Latin roots, corvus mellori, meaning "Little Raven"). The Raven then extracted the good from herself and placed it in her daughter. Thus, Mellori became a source of light and good, and the Raven was free to kill the Spider. However, doing so would destroy the Spiral. 

While the Spider was locked away, three beings were born from his dark nightmares and dreams, the Rat, the Scorpion, and the Bat. The Spider called these beings his sons and wanted to use them for his benefit, to free himself and unleash chaos and shadow into all the Spiral.

The Tree saw all that was to happen and thus made plans of his own, wanting to have a child as well. So he looked past the Spiral, into another galaxy and found Earth. It was an odd place, filled with creatures who did not believe in magic. But he saw potential. And he found you. You. To be his Scion. To Learn magic and to be a bridge between light and shadow, to bring harmony, and to save the Spiral.

This storyline is from a MMORPG, Wizard101 by Kingsisle. I've been playing it for several years, though I've been playing it a lot with my sister these past couple weeks (since my sister came to spend Christmas with us and stay a few weeks).
Disclaimer, this is not a sponsorship or anything like that, I'm not getting payed to write this, I just really enjoy the game and the storyline.
In the next couple of weeks I will get back into writing my second novel and focusing more on my Ko-fi shop, etc.
Thank you so much for reading!!

Yours truly,

Me

Additional:

Check out my book on Ko-fi!!
Check out Wizard101!! (Let me know if you create and account, I'd love to add you as a friend!)

My Year of Accomplishments.

 To my dearest friends and followers,

I can only imagine how excited many of you are that 2020 is finally over!!

Initially I planned to write this post last week (December 25th) as sort of a list of highlights of my year and things I want to accomplish in 2021, but I had other things to do and I hope you did to.

It was a weird year, a scary year, and a difficult year for many. There were definitely difficult times for me as well, though I wish to keep my blog clear of personal family matters. Still though, there are a lot of things I feel grateful for and a lot of things I accomplished last year.

In January, I received my manuscript back from each of my beta readers!! I then began to go through them, making the necessary changes. After several more editing steps, I finally published my novel with IngramSpark!! That was HUGE to me, since it had been my dream to be a published author since I was around 12 years old.

Before that though, I had to have a cover for my book. So after being rejected several times by artists I admired to illustrate my book cover, I decided to design and illustrated the cover art myself. I got a lot of new art supplies this year and learned how to paint with watercolor!!

This isn't really an accomplishment, I just want to add that we (my husband and I) fostered several kittens in the spring and ended up adopting one. XD

During the summer, my husband and I read a bit of Marie Kondo's book, The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. We went through pretty much all of my possessions and got rid of A LOT of stuff!! I hated doing that, but I also loved it. It was so freeing. I feel so much lighter with so much less.

Toward the end of summer, I began to set up my own little studio where I could write and draw in my own space. I then published my novel as an ebook.

In November I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and wrote a big portion of my next novel, a sequel to the first.

Just last month, I set up my own shop on Ko-fi!! The best way to support me and what I do is to purchase my book, and now you can buy it directly from me!!

I then ended the year having read a total of 36 books, and nearly 11k pages according to Goodreads.
Some of you probably accomplished more things, or bigger things, but I'm pretty happy with my list and what I've done, even though there were several things I had planned and hoped for that didn't happen.

This year, there are 2 big things I can think of at the moment that I want to accomplish: 1. Finish writing the sequel. 2. Begin selling homemade journals on my Ko-fi shop. I think I can manage that. I like to start small, make a list I know I can accomplish. Once I've completed that, I'll add to it. XD

Let's hope 2021 is a better year for everyone!!

Thank you so much for reading!!

Yours truly,

Me