#starting this blog was really a huge step for me i spent hours crafting small asks to a couple of blogs like for joseph mun

[wallwriterstuff]

A Little Trouble || Alec Volturi x Reader||

A request for: @tiger-khans-blog

Words: 4225

Warnings: None!

Summary: Alec’s mate is...not what he expected. Between hair dye, brownie mix and kitchen fires they’ve started their very own reign of terror in Volterra, but Alec’s learned that sometimes a little trouble can be a good thing...

When Aro had first seen Sulpicia, she had been selling seaglass on the shore of Greece, the sunlight reflecting off of dark streaks of hair and dark eyes so enthralling he’d been ensnared ever since. He’d brought almost a whole bag of the pretty, frosted glass and spent hours crafting the pieces into a beautiful necklace Sulpicia had done everything in her power to preserve until the centuries just made it to fragile to keep wearing. She had been smitten the moment she met the man willing to craft her a courting gift that looked every inch as precious as the pearls the wealthier women in town wore.

When Caius had first met Athenodora, she had been fire and brimstone in the shape of a woman towering over those who would oppress her. He had been immediately enraptured by the feisty blonde tearing off the arm of a man who had clearly wronged her in some way, the dark crimson of her eyes drawing him in and not letting go. She had easily taken care of the two Romanian lapdogs tracking him to, and as he watched her pale face shine in the flames Caius had known in that moment there would never be another woman for him. They were both such romantic stories and Alec had been inducted into this life hearing them, seeing the way Chelsea and Afton had fallen head over heels almost instantly and Marcus had fallen into despair with Didyme’s death. He knew the importance of the mate bond, knew it was something to be treasured, that his mate should be protected and loved by him at all times no matter the cost.

Imagine his surprise when the first time he met you, you swore at him for being in your way.

Modern women were nothing like the women he had been surrounded by growing up, or even the women in the guard. The old-world ideals of the demure and chaste woman were something the world had outgrown and here you were now, causing trouble wherever you went, the consequences be damned. If it wasn’t your mouth getting you in trouble it was your actions. He still shuddered when he recalled the first time he had presented you to the Masters. He couldn’t just leave you where he’d found you after all; you were his mate and so many things happened to vulnerable humans – and that was without the added complication that you were the mate of a witch twin. You had fought hard despite your obvious disadvantage until Alec had stripped your senses and taken you from your home city.

Aro had insisted on reading your thoughts, intrigued as to who could be compatible with his most powerful Guard. His stare had been intense and his skin ice-cold and, well, these people had just kidnapped you after all so nobody should have really been surprised when you tried to shove him away from you.

“What the hell is wrong with you all! You think you can just kidnap me and do whatever you want with me? You can take your huge ass forehead and shove it man, stop trying to touch me, Dome of Creepiness!”

Caius’s indignation had him pushing to his feet so fast his hair had swung about his shoulders as he spoke down to you, while Marcus only watched with the faintest wisp of a smile on his face.

“Insolent human! You are beneath-“

“I ain’t beneath nobody King Blondie Sparkles! You look like you’re in a damn Loreal commercial or something and you? Don’t even start me on the gloomy dude! This is some kangaroo court stuff right here!” You’d cried out. Felix and Demetri had been very obviously amused by you but Alec had just about died all over again, the embarrassment and astonishment too much for him. The whole room had been stunned into silence until Jane dropped you for your insubordination. His embarrassment had dissolved to sheer horror in moments and for the first time in his life he’d actually snarled at his sister. You’d been a handful when he met you and you’d continued to be one ever since. He could vividly recall your first month with them, where’d you’d endlessly pranked and shouted at them in an effort to be so annoying they’d simply let you go.

Jane had been your first victim, since she had naturally been predisposed to disliking you given your association with her twin. Every little thing you did irked her so it was really no surprise that the simplest of things had been what set her off on your second week in the castle. Anywhere that the Masters and the Guard were not was a refuge for you, and it just so happened that more often than not, the gardens were your chosen spot. Jane had taken to tending a small corner of the garden decades before you’d ever arrived and it was coming to the time of year where she stripped out and replanted it, but that was her job, not yours. Finding you knee deep in mud, her soil strewn everywhere and the bulbs that flowered every year scattered along the path while you tried your best to bury Felix’s journal had set her on a warpath she’d been on for months after the incident. Alec had barely saved you from her and had only ended up covering himself in dirt in the process.

Demetri’s hair had been the first real casualty, in Alec’s opinion. He’d been out for the day looking for trouble of his own, spending his down time how he pleased, and as was his tradition he took a nice, long hot shower when he got home. He had had no idea you replaced his leave in conditioner with bleach and to say he was furious to find the natural colour of his hair gone and the strands drying and brittle was an understatement. He’d screamed so loud the Guard had come running thinking he was in danger, only to find him holding a handful of his own, unnaturally blonde hair in hand and wearing absolutely nothing to cover his modesty. He had worn a hood for three weeks before the venom managed to leach the bleach out and return his hair to its natural luster and volume. It took him three months to consider accepting your apology.

Then you’d set the kitchen on fire.

It had genuinely been an accident on this one occasion, and Felix had been keeping an eye on you so was able to prove it. You had really just been trying to cook yourself some lunch, your usual mischievous mood dampened by three months of captivity in the castle and absolutely no progress in earning your freedom. When the sleeve of your shirt had caught fire on the hob it was perfectly understandable you had panicked…it was just unfortunate that your panic had carried you straight into the tablecloth, oven mits and tea towels, setting small fires everywhere that didn’t mix all that well with the natural wooden countertops. Aro was furious he had had to call the fire brigade and have so many humans in their home. It had drawn more attention to the Castle than there had been in almost two centuries.

“Your irresponsibility could have cost lives far more valuable than your own. Do you understand how reckless you have been? This petulant sulking will no longer be tolerated and you will-“

“Whatever.” You had muttered. Aro’s mouth had snapped closed, Caius’s eyes bugging.

“I beg your pardon?” his voice was soft, unthreatening. Alec knew that meant trouble. You kept your head bowed, your fists clenched at your sides, and he caught the slightest twinge of salt in the air. The truth was, Alec had been keeping an eye on you from a distance, waiting to see if you calmed. You had been given an extended period to see if your wilder tendencies could be calmed before you were changed – no one wanted to deal with a wild newborn after all. Instead, he’d watch your flame flicker and dim, your cheeky spark dying slowly as the darkness of Volterra enveloped it. He hated it. You were supposed to be loud and mischievous, a hurricane in human form; he wondered how he had ever handled the quiet before you came into his life because he couldn’t stand it now it had returned. Your energy was just drained from you and Alec didn’t want this, not for you, not when you were clearly miserable.

“Master. It was an accident.” Felix’s voice had surprised him, but the giant had stepped forward calmly to give him his hand and show him everything that had led up to the dreadful accident. Aro was quiet for a moment, his expression changing drastically.

“Are you alright, my dear?” he asked finally. Your glare had been venomous when you looked up at him then but Alec had decided enough was enough. In many ways he still looked back on that as a defining moment in your relationship, because Alec had done exactly what mates were supposed to do in that moment and stepped in to protect you. His concern had put the Masters off of punishing you as he ushered you from the room and into his. He’d ran you a bath so you could clean the soot from your body, and whilst you languished in his tub he had sat leaning back against the closed door, asking you the first things that came to mind. By the end of the night, as you lay fast asleep on his sofa, he knew all of your favourite things and all your worst fears, but more importantly he knew how to talk to you. It was easier after that, to engage you in conversations that didn’t end in a screaming match, and it had taken him a little under a month to fall completely in love with everything you were.

What you were was a complete menace, of course.

Felix had become your partner in crime and your pranks continued to extend across the castle, your cheeky spark returning once Alec had professed how much he missed it. In the span of three weeks Caius’s hair had turned neon green, the Guard’s robes became tie-dyed with shapes cut out of them, Marcus had had his hair braided quite nicely but Aro’s hair had had multi-coloured streaks woven into it and he’d been forced to wear it that way for a trial…Alec had no idea how you and Felix managed any of this but it had become very clear that you weren’t going to change your ways, much to the Master’s chagrin.

“Why exactly are we doing this?” Demetri sounded exasperated and Alec shot him an annoyed look.

“Y/N has never been given flowers, but Heidi insisted that humans liked receiving flowers and I would like to make it clear that my intentions towards Y/N are romantic.” Alec repeated for the umpteenth time. Demetri sighed quietly and Alec diligently ignored whatever it was he muttered under his breath while they observed the flowers at the stall in the square. There were blooms of every colour, size and shape, with equally as pretty ribbons and papers to wrap them in. It was almost too much choice almost. He knew your favourite colour of course, but he’d never asked about your favourite flowers because you just hadn’t seemed like a flower’s kind of person.

“How about a mixture of these?” Demetri suggested, his fingertips ever so gently lifting the stems of flowers from the tubs of water keeping them fresh as he picked out his samples. Alec tilted his head, quietly watching him work for a moment until he had two large headed blooms and some smaller sprigs of blossoms.  

“The small ones look out of place with the bigger flowers.” He frowned. Demetri shook his head.

“Not when arranged in a full bouquet. Besides, the meaning is impressive. These are salvia and the red ones in particular mean forever mine. This yellow one is hibiscus, it symbolizes delicate beauty, and these purple ones are morning glory’s, representing affection. Placed in a whole bouquet you are promising your delicate beauty your affections forever.” He concluded. Alec stared at him in shock.

“You speak the language of flowers?” he questioned. Demetri’s eyes rolled as he handed his stems to the stall owner with a few quick instructions in Italian.

“My lovers do not line up at my door purely for the scintillating conversation, Alec.” His tone told Alec he needed to drop that particular conversation, and since the tracker was doing him a favour Alec let it slide this time. Wrapped in some pretty polka dot paper with a white satin bow wrapped around the stems, he held his bouquet with a small smile, please with how it turned out. He couldn’t wait to give it you, see your face when you realised someone had decided to do something nice for you. It was his first real romantic gesture towards you and he hoped you wouldn’t turn him down.

“Do you think we should have gotten the card?” he fretted. Demetri raised an eyebrow.

“Why go to all of this effort Alec?” he fired back, brows furrowed, “They’ve done nothing but cause trouble since they arrived. How could you possibly find it in yourself to expend the effort to reach out to someone so….so…”

“Demetri. I dare you to finish that sentence,” Alec said coldly, his eyes focused on the tracker in a steely glare. Demetri didn’t cower at much, but the witch twins were enough to make even the strongest men fall to their knees in fright. “Just tell me where my mate is.” Demetri was quiet for a moment as he put his gift to full use, and then he twisted and began to walk away, leaving Alec to follow him silence. Alec understood why so many of them had turned away from his mate, you had hardly made life easy for any of them after all with all your mischief, but Alec saw the reason you behaved as you did where nobody else took the time to. Your most harmless pranks (like dropping a water balloon full of hair gel on Caius who was stuck trying to get his hair to go flat for four days straight) were done for fun, a product of your immaturity and youth, but the big ones were usually reactions to things. You had done your very best to piss them off simply because you were scared of the monumental change you were having to adjust to, not to hurt anyone. You didn’t have a malicious bone in your body, he was sure.

His nose twitched as Demetri led him in the directions of the kitchen, something bitterly sweet invading his senses. What was that? He couldn’t place the scent at all though he did pick up on the lingering smell of gas, indicating the oven was on. Was his mate cooking perhaps? But what was she cooking that was so bitter?

“Ah!” the short, sharp yell had Alec moving at lightning speed towards the kitchen door. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what that bang was, what sort of trouble you were getting into now, but come hell or high water Alec was going to save you from whatever hair-brained scheme you –

“Ghost!” Demetri screamed, his pitch so high Alec cringed slightly. It was enough to make him panic, as his eyes raked over the figure before them, a mixture of denim and dark brown that was bordering on black, the white of its eyes screaming at him through the dark sludge. For the briefest moment, Demetri’s own panic had skewed Alec’s perception enough that he didn’t see anything for what it really was. No, no Alec saw the brown sludge as burnt flesh, thick and solidifying and sliding slowly off of the bones of the creature before him. He saw exactly what he should have become all those years ago. A tortured, melted creature. It was enough to make even the fierce witch twin scream, and the flowers Demetri had helped him pick so carefully went flying upward out of his hands so he could use them at a moments notice.

It wasn’t until Jane shook his arm that he snapped out of it somewhat.

“Alec what is wrong with you!”

“Jane! I saw – it’s a – a – what?” he stammered.

“It’s a ghost Jane, tell me you do not see it!” Demetri snapped. Jane groaned, her expression exasperated as her arms folded.

“It’s not a ghost you fools! It’s Y/N,” she huffed, turning her cold gaze to his mate next, “And they’ve made a complete mess.” You had the decency to look embarrassed at least. Alec took another look at the ‘ghost’, sighing slightly as he realised his sister was right. The brown sludge was not burnt flesh after all, more…more…some sort of chocolate mix perhaps? Your lower lip came out in a pout and you looked so unbearably sad Alec couldn’t help but come closer to you, tempted to hug you but also not wanting to get your mess on his clothes.

“Y/N? What on earth happened to you?” he questioned. You whined pitifully at him.

“Jane taught me to make brownies with this recipe she knows and so I tried to do them myself, but the oven is too high up and I lost my grip on the tray and now I have a sore head and no brownies.” You had never looked more upset than you did in that moment and Alec blinked in surprise because…since when did his sister spend time with you? Jane huffed quietly behind him as he sighed and gently wiped some chocolate from her chin before it could drip to the floor.

“Oh dear. How about you get yourself cleaned up and I will clean up in here?” he suggested. You lowered your head.

“I didn’t mean it this time Alec, I swear, I just wanted brownies. I didn’t mean to scare your or Demetri.” Your voice was so small, it shattered his heart. You may have been a troublemaker at heart but you were also a bit of a guilty soul, and he knew you felt genuinely bad when you truly upset someone. You’d been trying to subtly make it up to Demetri for months now but the tracker was having none of it.

“I know sweet thing. All is forgiven.” He promised. He watched you trudge from the kitchen, leaving a trail of brownie mix behind you. Demetri was nowhere to be seen though Jane remained standing near the doorway, staring apathetically at the mess on the floor.

“It isn’t your mess to clean.” She pointed out.

“Nor is it a mess she made deliberately. Chocolate will be much harder to get out clothes than a wooden floor; though, as the recipes creator surely you’d know?” the subtle invitation to tell him and the smirk on his face was enough to make Jane scowl at him.

“Maybe Y/N isn’t so bad…but she cannot bake.” She sniffed, turning on her heel to leave the mess to him. Alec chuckled slightly as she left, pleased in the knowledge his sister was clearly trying to get along with his mate now. She had sworn off of you beforehand, so this was an improvement. It didn’t take him long to run a bucket of hot water, scooping up the large globs of chocolate mix before mopping the floor. He’d definitely have to change his shirt today but he had done it in half the time it would have taken you to clean up, and by the time he wondered to your room to find you you hadn’t even left the shower yet. To his surprise, when he poked his head around the door, his nose caught the smell of fresh flowers, because sitting proudly on your desk was the bouquet he and Demetri had bought for you. His brow furrowed, he didn’t remember giving you those, in fact they’d completely skipped his mind.

He decided to read whilst you showered, determined to speak to you after you were done and confess his feelings for you, but he got so absorbed in the pages it wasn’t until his door creaked that he realised you were clean and dry once more. In fact, almost immediately after his door creaked the sound of your feet thudding against the floorboards hit his ears, and Alec’s hands quickly dropped the book in favour of catching you as you all but dived over the arm of the sofa with a grin to reach him. With his strength he easily held you about a foot up from his lap, slowly lowering you down with raised eyebrows.

“Still trying to fly?” he guessed. You nodded.

“You betcha! One day I’ll manage it, you’ll see. If I have to have a gift it’ll be the coolest one, I’ll be the worlds first flying vampire.” You boasted with a smirk that told Alec you knew it wouldn’t happen anytime soon, if ever, as you sat up on your knees beside him. It was yet another thing Alec loved about you, just how refreshing your perspective on life was. You never took anything too seriously whereas his life had been focused around first, surviving, and second, gaining the reputation that ensured nobody dared mess with him or his sister again. He had had little time for games and tricks and fun but you…you were young and free, living the life he had missed out on, a life he could live vicariously through you.

“You know one day you will fall face first.” He said with a chuckle. You shook your head.

“No I won’t, you’ll always be there to catch me.” You sounded so confident and Alec couldn’t help but smile at you.

“Oh, will I?” he teased. You nodded your head.

“Yeah you will, because red salvia means forever mine, right?” your eyes were a little guarded still, a light pink coating your cheeks. Alec’s brow furrowed, his back straightening.

“You know what the flowers mean?” he asked. Your blush darkened, head slowly nodding.

“Demetri speaks flower…actually, Google Maps said quite a few things, actually.” You admitted. Alec felt his stomach curl tight, the anxiety settling in his gut like a ball and making him feel as close to nauseous as a vampire could get. He turned his body to face you, studying your expression carefully. You didn’t seem like you were setting him up for any bad news at least, your expression wasn’t twisted, you just looked…shy. It was a new and rather bizarre look on you since his loud and cheeky little mouthed mate was never shy. Demetri hadn’t been too harsh then.

“Such as?” he prompted. You took a breath, fingers twisting in your lap.

“Such as he’s never heard me apologise and mean it before apparently – which is a lie but we moved past that – and…and you don’t want to give up on me, because you think I’m okay as I am.” You murmured, not quite able to meet his gaze now. Alec felt his stomach flutter, those proverbial butterflies kicking up a storm as he reached for your hand.

“I think you’re more than okay.” He said softly. Your hand twitched as his fingers brushed your own, but you didn’t pull away and instead let him intertwine your hands with a small smile.

“Even if I’m loud? And annoying? And immature? And-“ You were cut off by Alec’s finger against your lips, his eyes rolling.

“Demetri’s personal opinion of you is something I could care less about. I like the noise and the pranks and when you are unapologetically yourself, Y/N. Maybe you do get yourself into a lot of trouble from time to time but you’re having fun with your life, you are living as you wish, you live freely and that is something I envy.” He admitted. Your eyes widened slightly.

“You envy me? But…you’re so powerful!” you exclaimed. His eyes rolled.

“Power isn’t everything Y/N.I know your life changed in ways you didn’t expect, that you weren’t really happy with it either, and I can never really make up for just taking you away from your home like that but I would like to try.” Alec squeezed your hand lightly, his eyes pleading for that one little chance he knew he didn’t deserve but so desperately wanted. You bit your lip, clearly thinking through your options. You hadn’t really been made to feel welcome during your stay, but if one person had consistently treated you like another human being instead of an out of control child it was Alec. It helped he was pretty handsome to, and for whatever reason, he liked everything about you that put others off.

“How?” you asked finally, head tilting. Alec smiled slightly.

“Humans go on dates when they meet their mates, don’t they? Perhaps we can start with that. I’ll take you to this bakery not far from the square and get you all the brownies you desire.” He proposed. You couldn’t quite fight the smile breaking out on your face.

“Deal.”

Alec came to the startling conclusion that sometimes, a little trouble is a good thing.

[artkarthik]

My First Kickstarter Project: Golu Boxdolls!

Secret Origin Story

We have this festival in South India called Golu. This is celebrated by displaying clay dolls that represent the various aspects of life and culture in the traditional South Indian society (sort of like the nativity scene during christmas). So families build these steps and arrange their collection of gods, temples, dancers, weddings, villages and so on, some collected over several generations. 

Having lived outside India for the past decade or so, I've always always wanted to celebrate this festival at home but since we didn’t have access to the traditional Golu dolls, we were a bit puzzled about how to proceed. 

Then we hit upon the idea of calling our friends over and making our own boxdolls out of discarded materials together!

The first year, I made a Brahma doll out of a milk carton, with one face on each side of the box. I felt this had some potential, but didn’t quite know what to do with it. 

The second year, I made a Ganesha and folded it’s ears out of the box, giving it a more 3D look. I felt that perhaps this could work as a book. 

The third year came around and I made a Garuda, with magnificent wings folded out of the box from behind. This time I was sure there was some potential to this, but I wasn’t quite sure how to handle the complexities of pitching it to a publishing house to make a book out of it. And If i self published, I wasn’t sure how to handle all the logistics. 

The fourth year arrived and it was one week before Navratri, the festival of nine nights, which celebrates all of the Goddesses in India. I came across a project on Kickstarter which had a completely digital offering: someone was designing paper models for Dungeons & Dragons, which the supporters could just print out and assemble themselves. This sort of set of a lightbulb in my head. Would it perhaps work as a Kickstarter project? Its sort of ironic that it took four years of stewing in my head and it all fell into place within a matter of minutes and I was able to launch it as a Kickstarter project within a week. 

Campaign Setup & Progress

Mon 18th Sep

I wrote down what my project was about and why I was doing it, specifically asking myself the question, "why was this so important to me?”. 

I decided on a goal, which I set to a modest goal of 500EUR for 10 Golu Doll Blueprints. My backers could download these, print them and have fun assembling them on their own. 

I also made a list of reward tiers that I could offer, starting from 1EUR (which could get you one doll) up to 25EUR (which could get you a custom avatar doll).

Tue 19th Sep

I Decided on what dolls I’d make for the initial offering. For this I decided on the 10 most visually unique, iconic and appealing characters from Indian mythology: 

Brahma-the God of Creation

Ganesha-the Elephant God

Garuda-the Eagle God

Hanuman-the Monkey God

Narasimna-the Man/Lion Avatar

Shiva-the God of Destruction

Krishna-the 8th Avatar of Vishnu

Lakshmi-the Goddess of Wealth

Durga-the Goddess of Power and 

Saraswati-the Goddess of Wisdom & Learning

For stretch goals, I decided that I would add 1 new design for every 50EUR that exceeded the main goal

Wed 20th Sep - Sat 23rd Sep 

This time was spent fervently dreaming up designs for all of the Boxdolls and pulling them out of my imagination using a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop. 

Sun 24th Sep morning

I created the previews of all the campaign rewards and stretch goals

Sun 24th Sep afternoon

I realized that I now had to record a video for my Kickstarter campaign. The guidelines suggested that campaigns with videos tend to do better, because the audience can see that there’s a real person behind the campaign and could relate to their cause a lot better. I wrote down a basic script with my thoughts and feelings and started rehearsing it in front of my laptop camera. The first few takes were terrible cus I was very nervous, but after the sixth or seventh take I loosened up a bit and unclasped my hands to actually use them while I talked, which helped quite a lot. 

Sun 24th Sep night

With all of the components ready, there was nothing really preventing me from launching it, but I kept deliberating over it, navigating from page to page, re-checking everything and constantly making adjustments. In the end, I decided that I had done enough tweaking and I should just take the plunge. I closed my eyes and hit “Publish”. 

I opened my eyes and nothing had happened. Well, I got an email that my project was published, but that was it. But then my first backer came in within the first 20 mins. I checked it and it was for 1EUR, the first reward tier. Had to start somewhere, I guess. I shared the campaign on Facebook and went to bed. 

Mon 25th Sep

The first marketing messages start coming in with magical offers to magnify my social media presence and give my project more visibility. In exchange for a small fee of course. This whole magic marketing angle felt like it would take away any potential learning experience along with the fun and freshness of a new project. I declined their offers. This was followed by six more offers for giving me publicity, each one claiming to have the best network and that the others out there were terrible. I ignored them. 

I checked later that night and found that the campaign was already 20% funded. I was genuinely surprised that folks were interested in this. I shared an image of the Garuda Boxdoll with my backers on Kickstarter. 

Tue 26th Sep

The campaign was now 35% funded. Progress! I assembled the Ganesha and Hanuman dolls and shared them to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, asking people to check out the project. 

Wed 27th Sep

I had a weird dream that the project had gotten more funding but then I woke up and realized that this was just silly. However I was shocked to see that in fact, it had! My original FB post had gotten more likes, comments and shares. The project got some big backers and was now at 60% funding. 

Later that evening, I printed and assembled the dolls for Narasimha and Krishna and shared them as project updates.

Thu 28th Sep 

I got my first fake spam phishing mail. It had an offer from a nice sounding person offering to feature me and my project on their blog. All I had to do was to send them some pictures and click on a link where I could answer three questions about my project. Clicked on it and nothing happened. Clicked again and a popup was blocked. It slowly dawned on me that this was a phishing attempt, looking to either collect some data from me or make me download a virus. I marked the mail as spam and reported it on kickstarter, enlightened but disappointed that there were so many people trying to leech off of honest campaigns. 

By that evening, the project got a sudden boost and reached 85% funding

Fri 29th Sep

The project was at 93% funding

Sat 30th Sep

The project was at 97% funding as more pledges poured in

Sun 1st Oct

One final push from a benevolent backer pushed the project to 100% funded in under 7 days! 

Mon 2nd Oct

I created the Boxdoll design for the first stretch goal: Kali, the Goddess of Time & Destruction

Thu 5th Oct

One backer cancelled their pledge and the project dipped below the goal. A little saddened by this, I started researching more Facebook groups related to arts and crafts promotion to share the project on. 

Friday 6th Oct

One new backer had pledged in the highest reward tier and the project was back to being fully funded at 103% 

Sun 8th Oct

A Kickstarter marketing expert reached out to me to inquire about my project, congratulated me on getting fully funded, and then asked if I was interested in overfunding beyond my stretch goal. I was quite thrilled by his interest and said that this was a small project and that I was happy with the funding and while I'd be thrilled at meeting stretch goals, it wasn't a huge priority for me. Sharing the project with people who were interested and giving my backers a great product was always on the forefront of my mind. Unfortunately this was not the answer that the marketing guy was looking for and stopped answering my messages after that, which was a little disappointing. 

Tue 17 Oct

The project was fairly quiet for over two weeks until one more backer made a pledge, taking the project to 106%

Wed 18 Oct

One more backer made a pledge in the highest tier, taking the project to 110% funding, unlocking the first stretch goal: Kali!

Mon Oct 23

On the last 24 hours, the project got one more backer in the highest tier, pushing it to 115%. I designed and posted the 12th and last stretch goal doll for Vamana, the dwarf avatar

Tue Oct 24

To get through the last stretch, I posted additional photos of the dolls. With 4 hours to go, one more backer supported, pushing to 117%

3 hours to go, one more backer pushing to 119%

15 mins to go, one last backer pushing project to 121% unlocking the second stretch goal: Vamana!

Campaign ended successfully! 

Wed Oct 25

I sent out the survey questionnaires to all backers, asking the backers in the highest tier what they’d like their custom avatar to look like. The responses started trickling in slowly as I got to work with the rewards.

Thu Oct 26

I finished designing the final Boxdoll blueprint in PDF format using Indesign

Fri Oct 27

I sent out the Boxdoll blueprints to all backers, hoping they would have as much fun assembling the Boxdolls as I did designing them!

Sat Oct 28th

I started sending out the custom avatars. I had a lot of fun putting in tons of detail in these to make them come to life.

Special Highlights: King Bhumibol of Thailand, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy and Napoleon Bonaparte 

Some interesting metrics

The project ended at a modest 606€, at 121% funding, with 26 backers, involving 12 mythology Boxdolls and 20 custom Avatar Boxdolls!

41% of backers came via Kickstarter’s organic search (wow!)

50% of backers came via facebook (a lot of friends stepped up, sharing their love and support, for which I am eternally grateful) 

4% came from Instagram (a little disappointing, there seems to be very little way of garnering any sort of interaction with your audience)

4% came from linkedin (a little bizarre but true) 

The Project video was played 193 times and watched all the way to the end 65% of the time

Special Thanks

And last but not least, I would like to give a very special mention of thanks to the following amazingly lovely backers who made this project possible:

Willie, Nak, Clare Wieck, Liss C Werner, Emilee, Karen Wetmore, Bharat Pathiavadi, Linh, Christoph Philipp, Pati Keilwerth, Nate Guerin, Kristina Broens, Kinn Chan de Velarde, Julie Petrytus, Vaishnavi, June Osti, Conlan Rios, Edward Puckett, Maya Shin, Pascal DESBAR-ATS, Mark Pulse, Derek Kocher, Grisan Kv, Steph Parker, Emanuele Libralato & Sudeshna Pantham! 

Now Available!

For those of you who missed it, the dolls are available for purchase at

http://www.artofkarthik.com/papercraft/boxdoll1

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1668251757/boxdolls-indian-mythology

Onwards to the next project! 

[lindoig]

Days 158 to 164

Well, we are home again so unless I get feedback that requires another post, this will be my final post to this blog and future blogs will be in separate streams.

We were in Bourke at my last post and on the Sunday, we drove a roughly triangular route down the Mitchell Highway to Byrock, then across country to Tarcoon and back to Bourke.  Byrock was a fascinating little place and we stopped in for a coldie at the very quaint old pub.  It was decorated with the usual things we see in quaint old pubs – cutsie bumper stickers, old-time mining and pastoral gadgetry, a wild boar’s head or two, a rash of locals’ and tourists’ bragging photos and of course an array of annotated caps, hats, bras and undies – even hard-hats hanging from the ceiling or tacked to the walls. What was different was most of the furniture.  It was locally collected and crafted mulga wood and it weighs a ton!  Quite beautiful and rustic (although I have sat on more bum-friendly concrete), but it takes about two beers to accumulate the energy required to move a chair away from the bar – maybe there was some method in their madness in furnishing the bar in such a manner!

Driving back on the remote roads was quite delightful and we saw quite a few birds and a couple of snakes along the way – and yet another blazing sunset as we drove the final few clicks back to camp.

Monday we broke camp and set off intending to stay at Cobar, but we were there by lunchtime so elected to keep on down the Kidman Way to Hillston where we had intended spending two nights – now it would be three.  We had stayed in Hillston a couple of times before and I enjoyed the birds and even caught yabbies there so wanted to try my luck again.  We spent a week or so there one Christmas and still need to explain to people why we choose places like Hillston, Casterton and Dunolly to hide out while the crowds are storming the beaches and major rivers in the hottest weather.

The birds were as interesting as usual and I caught enough yabbies for Happy Hour one night, but I didn’t have a lot of bait so only left the nets in one day.  On the Wednesday, we took the Monia Gap Road to Rankins Springs: another really interesting quaint little town with plenty of birds to watch and some somewhat extraordinary street art scattered around town. We added Rankins Springs and Byrock to our lengthening list of places to revisit.  We had lunch and watched the birds under some shady trees there and then drove up to Lake Cargelligo.  It seemed bigger than last time we visited, but maybe there were so many people and the noise of the traffic and speedboats meant that we didn’t have a proper look around then – even off-season, there were a lot of free-campers, but it was certainly more peaceful near the lake than last time.  We found a great birding place – a wetland only a kilometre or two from town and despite the intense heat, I spent an hour or two ticking off 20-odd species including over 20 spotted crakes: normally very reclusive birds that are usually very hard to spot!!

Next night, we stayed at Finley, just over the border in New South Wales.  We detoured a bit on the way, down to Griffith and then across to Leeton, Narrandera and through Jerilderie.  It was a very pleasant drive and allowed for some birding around the Finley lake on arrival, but it was all tinged with a modicum of regret that we were so close to the end of our trip.

We had arranged to have lunch with Karen in Nathalia and afternoon tea in Shepparton with Kate to help celebrate her 30th birthday, so we just moseyed along very slowly and caught up with both of them and enjoyed our visits, even if both were necessarily fairly short.

Our last night was in a pretty awful caravan park in Kilmore.  The sites were very small and hard to get into.  We had to park at an angle across the site with half the car across the roadway to stay connected.  At least that meant that coming home to a clean and comfortable house with all the comforts of home was a tad more acceptable than it might have been if the Kilmore park had been more luxurious.

On arrival back at Brooklyn where we have parked the van for the past few years, we found that the changes they had made in our absence meant we simply could not get our van in – and even had we managed that, we certainly could never have got it out again. Despite all the phone calls and negotiations we undertook when we were in the north-west, we had nowhere to park when we arrived home so there were a few frantic phone calls before we secured a spot in Burwood.  It is about 50% more expensive and 50% further away, but perhaps marginally easier to get in and out, certainly a little more secure, totally under cover and although we no longer have 24 x 7 access, I am sure we will manage quite successfully.  The biggest catastrophe was that whilst unloading heaps of stuff from the van into the car, the entrance step skidded away from under Heather and she crashed heavily (like a fairy?) and severely injured her right ankle.  She has been hobbling around with a stick all week as a result, but nothing is broken (apart from the step!) and she is healing slowly.  The step had slid away from under me a few minutes earlier and I had intended putting the rubber mat under it, but I got involved with other things and catastrophe struck.

What did we achieve along the way?  A thousand things, not least of which was a huge amount of pleasure and a wealth of knowledge about a wide range of things, a lot of which quite astounded us.  But in terms of specifics, we noted a few that we felt significant.  Some of them are:

We travelled almost 50,000kms

We completed visits to the four cardinal points of Australia (NEWS)

We also completed visits to the cardinal points of all States and mainland Territories except for the north of WA

We completed driving the entire length of Highway One – in Tasmania as well as the mainland

We also completed driving the entire length of the Savannah Way

We drove the Gibb River Road

We drove the entire length of the Stuart Highway

We drove the entire length of the Barkly Highway

We drove the entire length of the Great Northern Highway

We drove the entire length of numerous shorter roads/tracks, e.g., the Carpentaria and Tablelands Highways, the Tuwakam Track, etc.

We visited all of Tasmania's accessible islands

We saw over 400 bird species and identified probably hundreds of plant species

We spent 67 nights in our caravan in Tassie and 164 post that – and have now lived in our caravan for well over 1½ years in aggregate.

What were the highlights? I couldn’t even start to list them – so many and so varied that they can’t even be compared one against another. They would include our trips into the Tassie wilderness, around the Cobourg Peninsula and over the Bungle Bungles, probably our adventures on King and Flinders Islands, maybe places like Borroloola, Nallan Station and Marble Bar, our nights camped in gravel pits with a roaring campfire burning…..  The list goes on and that is without really stopping to review the trip in any analytical way.

What were the disappointments?  Not many, but two stand out.  The first was the broken axle that prevented us driving the Tanami and the second was that we had to come home – at least for a little time.

Finally, some statistics (for both components of our Ozzie Odyssey – Tassie and the Big Island) for anyone who might be interested.  If nobody else is interested in them, they are at least a record for me and I am interested.

We drove 7344 km in our car and 1498 in hired vehicles in Tassie – a total of 8842 km.  During that trip, we towed the caravan 2442 km and added another 2600 (+/-) in flights and cruises – over 11400 km all up.

On the Big Island, we drove 28472 km in our car, including 21320 towing the van, probably at least half of it on dirt.  We also added a further 4000 km (plus) on tours, flights and cruises (including the Cobourg Peninsula jaunt), making the whole trip almost 33000 km in total.

Combined, we drove almost 42000 km, including 23762 towing our mobile cubbyhouse, and nearly 7000 km in flights, cruises and tours.  At first glance, one might be tempted to suggest that we saw most of Australia during our travels, but when sketched on a map (Heather has it all set out in an app called Polarsteps), there are VAST virgin areas still to be explored.  We live in a huge country with so much to see, so much diversity, so much beauty and adventure, a thousand lifetimes would not be enough.

As for birds, we saw 126 species in Tassie, of which 23 were new ticks for us. On our longer trip, we identified 319 species (41 of which we had also seen in Tassie), including 78 new ticks for us.  That takes us to 404 species for the calendar year – that is 101 new ticks for us this year and our personal list (since we started recording in 2008) stands at 689 – plus a few Australian species that we have seen outside Australia, but not on Australian soil.  There are still so many still to see, including a few special ones that I would really love to set eyes on.  We were congratulated by the birding group we were with on Christmas and Cocos islands a little less than 3 years ago for reaching our personal ‘500′ milestone toward the end of that trip so we have identified a further 180 or so species in the last 3 years.

So, until I start my next blog………

Lindsay

[kmalexander]

Prose Palaver with J. Rushing

So, funny enough, despite being friends with a lot of fantastic authors, I’ve never once used this blog as a platform to interview them and pick their brains about fiction, stories, and writing in general. A great big missed opportunity, right? After all, whether you’re a reader or a writer getting insight into an author’s approach can be really eye-opening. Plus, it’s always a great way to discover new writers and, of course, new books. Today I’m going to fix that!

Welcome to Prose Palaver, my new series where I’ll be interviewing fiction authors who I personally know. The goal is to do something a bit different from the standard author interview. These won’t be canned “where do you get your ideas” sort of questions. I’m hoping the tone within is more conversational, allowing us to open up and talk craft on a deeper level.

In this first interview, I’m interviewing my friend and travel buddy J. Rushing who’s debut historical fantasy novel RADIO just launched in ebook on April 4th. Jim and I have known each other over a decade now, we come from a similar background, and we’ve spent many hours drinking scotch and talking stories in those years. A former elementary teacher from Seattle, Jim now finding himself living and writing in Baden, Switzerland.

[!] Quick Note: The intent of this article was to try to regain some sense of normality as we’re all sheltering-in-place and working to flatten the curve in our communities. Because of that I specifically avoided discussion about the virus or related topics. Enjoy!

K. M. Alexander: Hi, Jim. Thanks for coming to my blog. You get the dubious distinction of being the first Prose Palaver interviewee—no pressure.

J. Rushing: Thanks for having me. You know I’d never pass up an opportunity to talk shop with you, and it’s an honor to get to be here while you smash the champagne against this new ship.

Thanks! I’m excited to launch. So, let’s talk about you. Congrats on the launch of RADIO! I bet you’re eager to get it out in the world. Tell us about it. Give us a short pitch.

Thanks. It’s been a long time coming and I’m so happy to finally give readers the opportunity to discover this world I’ve been living in for the past few years. While RADIO has a strong plot, it’s really focused on the characters. If there was one core theme for RADIO it would be struggle. The struggle against addiction, a struggle to save one’s livelihood and legacy, the struggle to work with people who are at odds philosophically but share a common goal, struggle with feelings of loss and betrayal, every character struggles with something. As for a pitch, I’m pretty happy with my back cover copy so I’ll go with that:  

Amid the music, lights and energy of 1928’s Paris, something sinister pulses through the æther. The Radio of the Gods manipulates minds across the continent and its creator, the arrogant god Marduk, will sacrifice everything to keep his kind from perverting his masterpiece.

Attempted treason and bitter betrayal force Marduk to escape into a new, unknown body. Worse still, the previous owner, an opium-addicted jazz guitarist, is still inside.

Desperate, drug-addled and fighting for control, Marduk is forced to rely on the few friends he has left – and one terrifying enemy — to see his mission to fruition. If Marduk and company fail, the gods’ vain machinations will destroy everything they’ve built, including civilization itself, all made possible by his RADIO.

You’re an ex-pat living abroad, and you lived in Paris when you started writing this book. I remember you talking about the idea’s gestalt when we were coming back from a trip out to the Olympic Peninsula. How much did the city influence and inspire the world and the writing?

I remember that day vividly. RADIO started out with two basic ideas. Well, one question and one challenge to myself. The question was, What if consciousness behaved like a radio signal? As in, what if it’s external to the body rather than intrinsic? That one small question started an avalanche of ideas and concepts. As I was setting out to turn those concepts into a story, I set a challenge for myself. 

Human beings are complex. No one is evil or good 100% of the time. Evil people still pet kittens and good people still wish others dead. I love it when a writer can make me truly like a truly bad character. The challenge I gave myself was, could I write a protagonist that is more than just an anti-hero, but a true asshole, and still have people like them? So far, the feedback I’ve been receiving is that yes, I can. That has been both a huge compliment and a huge relief. 

As for Paris, everything about RADIO is dripping with Parisian influence. Aside from merely setting the story in Paris, I wanted to capture the true atmosphere of the city. Paris is a million things at once. So much of the media surrounding Paris only focuses on its place as a city of light and love. Paris is viewed as a gleaming jewel or a fairytale city full of beauty and wonder. The trouble is that these images are absolutely true yet only ever show half the picture. Paris is a gorgeous, romantic city from the knees up but look down and the streets are filthy and trash-strewn. It’s a city full of art, science, and literature, but it’s also a city of excess, vanity, and selfishness. It’s a city that is both fuelled and hobbled by its history. Living in Paris is as much a non-stop struggle as it is a non-stop joy. It’s the hardest place I’ve ever lived yet the most vibrant. I wanted to build a story set in the darker, dingier half of the Parisian mystique. There’s so much to explore there and it’s so often ignored.

That’s a fair point. Paris, as a character, tends to get polished up and viewed through rose-colored lenses—overly romanticized. In many instances, it’s almost more of a fantasy setting rather than a living and breathing city. How much of the Parisian culture crept into RADIO—in particular, the characters and how they behave and interact with one another?

That’s a tricky question since most characters aren’t specifically Parisian but I think there are aspects of Parisian culture present. Paris is a funny place. Most of the French stereotypes people hold in the U.S. are actually only Parisian stereotypes and a lot of those aren’t even true. For a classic example, I only had one rude waiter in almost three years of living there. Seattle or New York are much worse. But there are quite a few that do still hold up. One thing that struck me as unique and a bit odd when I moved to Paris was how survivalistic people in public all seem to be. Day to day life always seemed to be about carving out your own space and not yielding to others. Population density likely has a lot to do with that and Paris has been dense for centuries. In a city like Seattle, or Tokyo, or Edinburgh, if two people approach each other on a sidewalk, they’d each take a small step to the side to allow each other to easily pass but in Paris, pedestrians will shoulder check each other to maintain their own path. On the flip side, if you ask almost any Parisian for help, if you make your interaction at all personal, it’s like a social switch flips and they are more than willing to make time for you. I think the brusque streets yet willingness to help when called upon definitely found their way into RADIO. 

Living in the city already gives one a unique perspective. How much research did you have to pour into this work? The clubs from that era really only exist as records, right? Any books you’d like to recommend that helped you out?

I tend to be very open and willing to experiment in my writing but there are a few aspects where I refuse to compromise. Most of my writing is set in worlds that are a take on our own. I only like to ask my readers to suspend disbelief over a few core details. In the case of RADIO, it’s mind control, gods, semi-immortality, and consciousness being external to the body. Past these few asks, it’s very difficult to allow myself to just make things up. 

RADIO was as well researched as I could manage. At one point I swore to myself that I’d never write anything historical ever again because the self-induced pressure to be accurate was so great. I’ve calmed down since then. Everything from the music of the era, to street names, trains, and clubs, all were present in January of 1928. I can’t and won’t promise perfection but I can say that to my knowledge there are no anachronisms and all of the details are as period-accurate as I could make them. While the research was difficult and often tedious, it often yielded some amazing fruit. For instance, I discovered that the grocery store I shopped at most often while living in Paris turned out to be the site of what was probably the most terrifying nightclub in the city. If you get a chance, look up pictures of L’Enfer. It was right across the street from the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre. Trust me, the effort is worth it.

As for books and resources, the internet was my best friend. I would try to find the same information from as many sources as possible to help determine accuracy. It wasn’t a perfect system but being an ex-pat makes finding more official English language reference materials a little bit challenging. I do want to mention one book, however. In researching opium and opium addiction, it became very clear just how biased and inaccurate the various available resources were. Then I found a book called Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction by Steven Martin. Basically, he was an opium antique enthusiast who also realized the shortcomings of the available material and decided to gather accurate, modern data by documenting his own experiences. Those experiments turned into a full-blown addiction and his book covers everything from his first antique pipes to his detoxing and withdrawals. It was important to me to make my depiction of opium use and how it affects the body as accurate and respectful as I could and this book was invaluable to me. It’s wonderfully written and I recommend it to everyone, whether or not you’re doing research.

You recommended it to me as well, and I have a copy in my TBR pile. You talk about being careful around anachronisms, and it’s funny how many writers don’t think about that stuff. But it really goes a long way toward making a place feel like a place and an era feel like an era. Paying attention to little nuances like that are essential, don’t you think? Otherwise, you risk pulling readers out of a story.

I totally agree. It’s really all about building trust. When your readers trust that you as an author, have full command over the world and characters you’ve built, they are a lot more willing to follow your lead and focus where you want them to focus. Sometimes you want them to doubt what they’re reading and when it’s by design, it can be really powerful and engaging but inaccuracies breed mistrust and when that happens, readers start to spend more time looking for other mistakes rather than enjoying the ride. 

Trust is a good word for it. Along with living abroad, you’re also an extensive traveler. I’ve lost count of how many countries you’ve been to at this point—what from your travels finds its way into your work?

The last seven years have been an absolutely wild ride. When my wife was able to transfer to Paris, we sold almost everything we owned, I quit my job as a teacher, and we made a pact to explore the world as much as we could for as long as we could. We haven’t looked back. 

When I travel, I often take a notebook with me (or just take notes on my phone) and I devote a little time to scene scouting as I explore both new locations and old favorites. I write down the sounds, smells, flavors, mood, and any other specific details that seem to make a given place unique. Sometimes it’s a matter of just taking mental notes but I always keep myself open. Even if I don’t plan on using the location in any current projects, I try to capture something that may prove useful. In RADIO, and really all my work, the atmosphere of a scene matters as much as any character and my research while traveling has been so helpful. Sometimes being able to describe the right smell or sound can really make a scene pop and help readers immerse themselves. 

All that said, one of the most important writing lessons I’ve learned from traveling is that the world is much more similar from place to place than one might assume. I’m so lucky that I get to travel but I don’t think it’s a necessity to be able to write nuanced scenes set in far off places. We often hear the phrase “write what you know” and for a lot of topics, that can be sound advice, but I don’t think it’s very applicable to setting. The thing is, we all know a lot more about the world than we think. For instance, where I live now in Switzerland is very similar to the Pacific Northwest where I grew up and first adulted. Sure we have castles here and you have volcanoes there but seasons, weather (generally), greenery, large bodies of water, mountains, even social interaction styles, all are close enough to be easily understood and described by someone from either location. Lazy writing is always going to be bad writing but if a writer is willing to do the research, a rich setting can be built using a combination of our own experiences and a healthy dose of new learning. Everyone’s mileage will vary (pun intended) but I don’t think writers should feel limited to only their personal travel map. The world and the internet are big places, explore them.

I’ve done a more in-depth write up on the subject over at my own blog.

That’s a great point. I mean, how many people write novels set during specific periods of the past and never live during that era, you know? Research matters. Did you find that your research happened en masse, or was it something that you would dive into as you wrote?

Almost entirely as I wrote. Big picture items like opium, jazz, 1920’s slang, the city of Paris, these were always going to be important areas of study so they were researched in large chunks though I still supplemented that research as I went along. Everything else happened on a scene by scene or character by character basis. I won’t pretend that a strategy like this doesn’t slow my writing down but it just works better for me. It forces me to find the right details while I’m in the moment and inspired rather than just settling on the available details I have from past notes. 

I also tend to research as I write. Especially since I’ve become more exploratory in my writing rather than sticking to a strict outline. Research is one angle, but stories—all art, really—aren’t created in a vacuum. Is there a specific set of authors or creators who have influenced your writing? I know a few just from our discussions, but let’s get specific to RADIO.

Absolutely. A lot of influences made their way into RADIO from Agatha Christie to Cormac McCarthy but the most obvious influence pertaining directly to RADIO is probably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The dynamic between M (Marduk) the protagonist and Bernie, or Bernard as M calls him, is built off of the framework of Holmes and Watson. I say framework because I wanted Bernie to be more assertive and challenging toward M and more active in the story than Watson is with Homes. That said, I really enjoy Watson’s role as the reader’s proxy in the story and I tried to emulate that. Bernie is the moral hero of RADIO and as such, readers can attach themselves to him more than any other character. He’s the anchor just as Watson always was.   

Another big influence for me is Chuck Palahniuk, specifically for both tone and his ability to make unlikeable characters likable, or at least sympathetic. A prime example of this is Victor Mancini from Choke. The bleak, stained atmosphere of Fight Club was also a big influence however The Cypher by Kathe Koja does this even better. There’s a beauty to the dark, dirty negativity in that book that really resonated with me. The Cypher has that mid-90’s David Fincher vibe, but on steroids. That aesthetic is all over RADIO to varying degrees. Fincher meets Poirot. 

Hunter S.Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a clear influence for the drug scenes but not for the reasons one might expect. While his descriptions of drug trips are wild and fun, they lean toward an Alice in Wonderland-esque rabbit hole. I was more influenced by how immersive his descriptions were. You can’t read them without feeling the disorientation. My depictions are meant to be accurate but strive to be as enveloping as Thompson’s. I will add that in one early scene in RADIO, I take a few liberties with the effects of opium but there are other, fantastical circumstances involved that heighten the experience.

Lastly, I’d like to mention Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love. That book is so good for so many reasons. She did such an amazing job creating characters and a culture (in her case, a family culture) that is totally closed off to the outside world while operating in plain sight. It’s also a culture filled with humans who are unique and who fill every role from hero to villain. It’s a culture that is different, and vile, and follows its own rules. All of these elements helped inspire the Mentium, the clandestine group of gods Marduk is both a part of, and who he is his fighting to stop in RADIO.

I still need to read The Cypher. It sounds right up my alley. I’m glad you mentioned Marduk. There’re a lot of interesting choices for the gods that make up the Mentium, some obscure others less so, what made you settle on Babylon’s Marduk as the choice for the main character? I have to admit I found it a refreshing alternative over the tired Odin and Loki archetypes.

Marduk is one of the most important ancient gods in a pantheon that nobody knows about or at least pays attention to. Mesopotamian religion and others from the Fertile Crescent are the source of many of the stories from the Abrahamic religions. Eden, the flood, most of the Old Testament stories are repurposed versions from the Torah which in turn drew heavily from Mesopotamian sources. Western religions trace their roots back to Mesopotamia so it felt fitting that the central god in RADIO should come from there as well.

In many ways, that connection through history is another sub-theme that runs throughout the narrative. Music is a big part of this book, and we wouldn’t have the “pantheon” of music we see today without the explosion of jazz and the use of radio to spread it throughout the world. You’re a musician yourself and have gone as far as building your own guitars, how did that knowledge help you when you approached the musical elements of RADIO?

Music is a huge part of my life. I’ve been playing guitar since I was eleven years old and spent many years playing saxophone in middle and high school concert and jazz bands. It just made sense to have the two jazz musicians in the book follow suit and play guitar and sax. One of the most beautiful aspects of music is how, no matter how deep your understanding, you can feel it and move to it, and appreciate it. If all you understand is that you enjoyed it, wonderful. If you’re waiting on the edge of your seat for that Ab7 to finally resolve, wonderful. Both people are having a great time together. In RADIO, I tried to build the musical scenes in such a way that a layperson can still feel immersed in the music while those with more musical knowledge can dive a little deeper. 

I also spent years in college playing on stage in a local rock band so the interactions between the musicians in front of a crowd and under the lights is something I have first-hand experience with. Most people have no idea what being on stage would even feel like. I made it a point to try and make those scenes as vivid as possible to give readers the chance to see what it’s like looking out at the crowd vs. up at the stage. 

I think you did an excellent job, as you know I’m a jazz fan but a non-musician. That said, I thought the music scenes were evocative—you captured that frenetic energy that lives within jazz. You know, I realize he didn’t make a name for himself until about 30 years after RADIO, but you really should have referenced a Jimmy Rushing song in the book. I feel like that was a missed opportunity.

I actually have a story about him. When I was in high school, a friend of mine worked at a framing and poster shop at the mall. One day he came by my house with probably a three by four-foot poster board of Jimmy Rushing. At that time, I hadn’t seen him before and my friend was hiding the name on the poster so I was confused why I was being gifted a massive picture of a sweaty guy pouring his soul out into a microphone. I love Jimmy Rushing’s voice. He has this syrupy transition technique from phrase to phrase that is just so satisfying to listen to. I wish I still had that poster. Actually, I should check some of the closets at my parent’s house. 

He’s an incredible vocalist. I’ve always dug his work with Count Basie, but I really enjoy the album he made with Dave Brubeck. Brubeck’s cool jazz piano and Rushing’s rich vocals work so well in tandem. Okay, enough jazz talk. We’ve certainly covered a lot: RADIO, Paris, research techniques, ancient religions, and so much more. I hope our discussion got my readers excited about your book and writing. I don’t want to keep you too much longer, but why not share what’s next for you?

In the near future, my focus is on getting the paperback edition of RADIO to market and continuing trying to navigate the intricacies of launching a book in the middle of a pandemic. A lot of people have a very doom and gloom outlook about publishing right now but I see our current situation as both a challenge and an opportunity. I will mention just how glad I am that I chose to self publish. I can be so much more dynamic and responsive with marketing than any big publishing house. Right now, I think that’s a huge advantage.  

In the coming months I’ll be settling into a new project. While the idea of RADIO being the first of a series is a possibility, it was written as a stand-alone novel. I have ideas for sequels but they’re in their infancy and I want to wait until they mature enough to start those endeavors. In the meantime, I have a few open projects and I’m trying to decide which will fit best as my next WIP. One is a near-future post-apocalyptic series that involves both bio and eco themes. It’s more than fitting for our current state of affairs but also a bit serious. The other is a contemporary urban fantasy which, while still dark, is a lot more fun. Once I make up my mind, I’ll dive in headfirst.

I’m excited to see where you go next. I started rereading RADIO a few days ago [Disclosure: I was an early beta reader for Jim], and I can’t wait to continue. Knowing what I know, the possibility of a sequel is an interesting one. (Maybe Jimmy Rushing can still make an appearance.) Thanks for participating in the first Prose Palaver and giving us a little more insight into your process and RADIO. Good luck with the launch!

Thanks. There’s still a lot to do but I’m really excited for the work. This was a lot of fun. Thanks for having me.

Purchase RADIO

J. Rushing’s RADIO launched April 4th and is available as an eBook for any of the platforms I’ve linked below. (Paperback is coming soon, I’ve seen it and it’s real pretty.)

Kindle • Nook • Kobo

More about J. Rushing

J. Rushing is an American writer whose work blends elements of adventure, fantasy, science fiction, and horror to create worlds that feel as familiar as they do foreign.

He is a musician, amateur luthier, and former teacher who first traded the microbreweries and Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest for the bustle and beauty of Paris. After nearly three years in the City of Light he and his wife settled near Zürich, Switzerland where they spend much of their time traveling and immersing themselves in the outdoors.

Jim is active all over the internet and I recommend connecting with him. You can find all the pertinent links below. Give him a follow.

Website • Goodreads

Twitter • Instagram

Thanks for reading Prose Palaver!

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[boyversusworldblog]

As mentioned in a prior post about my first day in Havana Cuba, I visited the country of Cuba for the very first time. Travel to Cuba had been somewhat off-limits to Americans for some time, so that might explain the huge influx of U.S. travelers to Cuba to see what the country has to offer. The majority of my time in Cuba was spent in Havana.

We arrived in the port of Havana by cruise ship and headed out to explore the city of Havana. Let me first say that we almost didn’t make it to Cuba due to a very intense hurricane season in the Caribbean. Luckily, all three of the major hurricanes that hit Cuba died out and finally left us in the clear to travel. We had been watching our cruise line’s website by the hour in the event they canceled our cruise or would divert us to other islands. The problem was that a larger majority of the islands that the cruise line usually diverted to were also badly hit.

We were also slightly aggravated by the talk by the Trump administration of rolling back Obama era regulations regarding travel to Cuba. The main concern was whether we would be allowed to book our excursions ourselves and travel as individuals or if we have to book a group tour. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Tip: If you’re a U.S. citizen, I would highly advise that you check the US travel website for any recent changes for travel to Cuba before you book your tickets to anything. The regulation changes were actually pending after we had booked our cruise and our excursions, so needless to say we were kind of on edge. As far as tours go, we decided to not book our tour through the cruise line as it was actually more expensive than picking a local tour company on our own. If you are worried about getting back to the cruise ship on time or have a tight schedule and/or don’t feel comfortable booking tours outside of cruise line, then you may want to consider the excursions through the cruise line.

Usually, my sister and I can figure out an itinerary on our own and just make an experience in line with what we like to see. This time we decided to be a bit lazy and let someone else navigate and do all the talking as we did all the walking. You may still be okay to navigate on your own if just get a detailed map of Havana. Be aware though that you most likely will not have cell or internet service in Cuba as it’s regulated and pretty spotty in most areas, so print your maps prior to coming or buy one when you get there. There are certain spots that have Wi-Fi and there have been talks that due to increased tourism there may be changes to allow more Wi-Fi access. I will say that all of the key sites are reasonably close to each other so you won’t have to travel far. If you’re trying to get out of the city a little further, you might need a lot more than just a map.

After a bit of searching on the internet to find a credible tour company, we settled on Havana Tour Company which is a sister company to Locally Sourced Cuba Tours. We didn’t want to be in the midst of all the people rushing off the cruise ship for the earlier tours provided by the cruise ship or other tour companies. Also, it was easier to get through customs later in the day since it wasn’t packed with all the cruise ship tourist. So, we slept in a bit and eased into the day and then ventured out for the Havana Afternoon Delight Tour.

There are a lot of tours to choose from but we picked this tour since it offered a little bit of everything. It’s part walking tour, part classic car ride, and lastly an interactive authentic mojito making. The tour is noted on the website to be four hours long and for groups of two to twelve, so you might be mixed in with a group that is less than twelve. We headed off the cruise ship, exchanged our U.S. dollars (USD) into the Cuban Convertible currency (CUC) and headed our the terminal. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

TIP: Exchange your USD for another currency like Canadian Dollars, Mexican Pesos, or Euros to possibly get a better exchange when you exchange in Cuba. You are automatically charged 10% just for exchanging in USD and then an additional 3% for a financial transaction charge. So you may be able to avoid the large 10% fee if you exchange in a different currency. This is only if you get a good exchange rate to begin with on the currency you originally exchange your USD from.

We didn’t know this before we went but we weren’t worried about the 13% fees since most things are pretty cheap to purchase anyway in Cuba and you may not need a huge amount of money if you’re traveling on a budget.

Anyway, we met up with our guide at the location that was noted on our confirmation email. We found out that we were the only people on our tour, so we basically got a private tour! We also learned throughout the tour that our guide was very educated about Cuban history as well as international current events. He spoke about the degrees he received in university in teaching and in history. We also talked about how many people think that Cuba is completely cut off from the world but they aren’t completely cut off. They know quite a bit about what’s going on in the U.S and U.K and worldwide. As we crossed the Paseo de Marti toward the statue of Jose Marti, our guide was stopped by the police in military clothes. He showed them his tour guide license/identification card and answered a few questions and we kept on truckin’. He advised us that this is a regular occurrence as there are tour guides that aren’t licensed to be actual guides that solicit tourists for tours and they aren’t actually valid tours and may not charge a fair price or provide a comprehensive tour. This is why it’s important to do your research and pick a company that is official.

  We walked past the restaurant bar El Floridita which was frequented by Ernest Hemingway and down the beautiful cobblestone streets of Havana. He explained the historical significance of certain structure around town and talked about the times of revolution. He also drew similarities between the history of the U.S. regarding the slave trade and the history of Cuba. It was intriguing to find out that even Cuba was built on the backs of slaves from Africa, among others. We discussed general opinions about the Obama administration and the Trump administration. He let my sister and I know that it was astounding and extremely motivating when Obama visited Cuba. He said that people were in awe of the fact that an African American, someone like themselves, was the leader of the United States and would choose to visit Cuba. He said that it was a very humbling experience and something that he would never forget. We also talked about the changes that were pending implementation from the Trump administration. It was interesting to understand the impact of actions taken by the president of the nation in which you reside and how it affects other people from the perspective of the people that actually reside in that country. The conversation wasn’t heated politically and I never got a feeling from our guide of any animosity or hatred toward one side or the other. It’s not common nowadays to just have an honest and open discussion about issues that affect the world without interjecting one’s own bias. It was a very comprehensive and eye-opening discussion.

We walked into Havana’s Old Town with it’s wonderfully laid out public squares and market areas. We stopped by a building were local artists were busy at work creating beautiful works of art and were able to chat with some of the locals about their craft. We stepped in briefly to the La Catedral and marveled at the intricacy of the ceiling and other fixtures as well as the facade of the outside of the church. La Catedral charges a small fee to walk around the inside of the church. It’s a nominal fee but just be prepared. It was around $5 CUC as of the date of this blog post. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

What I loved about this tour is that it didn’t feel rushed at all. The guide let us ask all the questions on our mind and it almost appeared that his explanations were finished just as we came upon one of the main areas of focus for the tour. I don’t know if this was strategically planned but it was really awesome to not feel rushed and really get a chance to digest the information that was being provided. There was plenty of time for photos as well. Once we made it to the Plaza San Francisco de Asis, the walking portion of the tour was over and we went to a local bar to have an adult beverage while we waited for the classic car to arrive.

When the car arrived, I chuckled a little because it looked like a short pink Cadillac. I’m not sure how much of the car was actually classic as our guide let us know that they haven’t imported any cars for several years so they have to re-use parts to keep all the classic cars running. We winded through the streets of Havana, past the El Capitolio and away from the city toward the Plaza del Revolucion.

  This seemed to be a stopping point for many of the classic cars but our guide advised us not to venture too far as there is a strong military presence within the Plaza as well as by the Monument to Jose Marti.

The military personnel aren’t to be feared, but you have to just be cautious and mind your manners. So, be respectful and don’t take any photos of military personnel without permission.

After stopping at the Plaza del Revolucion we drove back into the city as the sun started to set for the mojito making. The mojito demonstration was on the rooftop of a local house which appears to be turned into a bar once the sun goes down. The friend of our guide showed us how to make two drinks, a mojito, and a caipirinha. Let’s just say, they’re not light on the liquor and after walking all day I was ready to experience the power of alcohol other than cruise ship drinks if you know what I’m sayin’. Since we were a party of two, let’s just say the drinks were….flowing. It was such a chill vibe and our conversations continued through at least two packs of cigarettes between our guide and my sister. I don’t smoke, so don’t get it twisted.

They do have non-alcoholic options if you want to take this tour so don’t let the alcohol scare you off. I asked our guide what made him most proud to be Cuban and he said that he knows that wherever he goes on the island if he’s ever in need, people will help out as a community even if they don’t know him personally. He said he enjoys the sense of community as a nation and that in a way, he is his brother’s keeper. He said this after I answered that what I like most about being American is that we can be whatever we what and have a sense of self and individualism like no other. This was another point where I really had to stop and think because one thing that I do think is missing in the U.S. is a sense of community. We all try so hard to make it on our own that we forget to stop and ask for help from time to time or don’t try to help each other toward a common goal.

Needless to say, the sun was almost completely set by the time we left the mojito making and our guide took us to a little cafe/bar as a drop off point. My sister and I had a beer as we processed our day and talked about the entire experience. I can say that this was one of the best experiences of my life! I say this not because of the tourist attractions and the key sights but more because of the conversation and the interaction with true locals. That is the experience I yearn for. This was an experience that will leave a lasting impression and give me stories to tell to start a conversation with people who may never get the chance to do the same. I’m also happy that my sister felt the same way. I’m glad that she and I were able to share the experience together as siblings because it’s something I’ll always remember. Pardon the blurry photo with a front-facing camera on an iPhone 5.

As of the date of this blog post, the fee for the tour was $75 per person. As you can tell, it was well worth it. As I mentioned in my previous post, our tour ended up being nine hours even though it was supposed to be four. Don’t let this scare you because the guides are very mindful of your time so if you need to stick to the four-hour timeline, they will make sure you meet your time goals just in case you have other excursions planned or need to get back to the cruise ship terminal or airport. We didn’t have anything planned and I’m glad we were able to make a full day of it.

On a side note, there is also a Free Walking Tour company that operates if you’re on a budget and just want to get a taste of the city to bookmark places to go back to.

If you want to read more about My 36 Hours in Havana Cuba Day One, click on the link. I had to break it up in two parts so you can read about My 36 Hours in Havana Day Two by clicking here.

Happy Travels!

Don’t forget to save this post to your Pinterest for later reference

Review: Havana Tour Company – Havana Afternoon Delight Tour As mentioned in a prior post about my first day in Havana Cuba, I visited the country of Cuba for the very first time.

[iuniverseblog]

Daniel B. Hunt and new sci-fi novel, “Okuda!”

  Daniel B. Hunt talks with iUniverse about his new sci-fi thriller, Okuda!, and his marketing strategies.

Please briefly describe your book . . .

Okuda! is a science-fiction novel about a cloned assassin who is hired to kill the most powerful woman in the galaxy. Of course, nothing is ever that simple.

  And can you tell us a little about yourself?

I have worked in law enforcement for a long time – but a very special type of law enforcement. My job is focused on protecting facilities from terrorist attacks or criminal behavior. Like many people in the field, I have had some difficult experiences. But I’ve also had some wonderful opportunities, and I enjoy what I think is very important work. It is a huge responsibility that has taken me all around the world. I’ve lived in Germany, Bulgaria, Sudan, Greece, Azerbaijan, and India. And I’ve traveled to many, many other places. I’ve also had the opportunity to manage a major program equal to what many CEOs get to lead with 35,000 employees scattered throughout the world. So, it’s been a very diverse and rewarding career. And yes, it does influence my writing. I bring that expertise into my novels and try to keep everything realistic and human.

  Do you have any particular literary influences?  What inspired you to write your book?

I grew up reading history books, science fiction, and fantasy fiction, but I spent my early years in college writing poetry. I am still a great fan of John Keats and the Romantic poets.

Okuda! is the result of a writing challenge. Two other artists came up with the protagonist and a backstory, and then challenged our writing group (The Dryden Experiment) to write a story or novel about her. The only stipulation is that it had to be in Creative Commons and put in the Dryden Universe. I took up that challenge and two years later Okuda! was finished. But I didn’t want to just tell a slasher story with comic book violence. I wanted to tell a story about the human cost of killing, of corporate wrangling, and wrap in some fantasy while using a novel structure that allowed for multiple story lines and points of view. And I had to build in room for my character to grow but not drastically change. She is still, after all, Lucy Okuda.

  What is the one message you would like to convey to your readers?

My novels are adventures, event driven, sometimes dark, but always fun to read.

  Are you working on a sequel to your book? 

Yes. Okuda! is the second of what I hope to be a four-book series called The Dryden Universe Corporate War’s novels. The first of that series is a book called A Step Too Far, but it really started in the story collection Origins. You can find my main protagonist, Paul Thorne, in each book.

  Are there any events, marketing ideas, or promotions planned for your book?

I have a longer-term marketing strategy. I am not overly concerned about individual sales at this point. Right now I am trying to create a back catalog of books so that, as my readership grows, those people will be able to look at my catalog and pick up two or three of my other books. But that does not mean I do not advertise. I am currently exploring the advertising available on Facebook. For a small amount, I can target an audience with global reach. For example, my protagonist is from Kyoto, Japan – so I have a marketing campaign through Facebook for that city. But I recognize there is a significant difference between a like on a post and a sale. I don’t expect to make any sales through Facebook. It is for brand awareness.

  I have traditionally used Goodreads for giveaways to develop new readership, but with their new rules and charges I may have to find a different method. I am currently exploring LibraryThing as a possible outlet. When I do a giveaway, I include little extras like T-shirts, mugs, pens, and the like – all branded with the Dryden logo or artwork. To help with that, I have a professional graphic artist with whom I work. It costs me a bit, but we have a good, mutually beneficial relationship that allows us to promote each other’s works.

  I also have a brand name: Epeolatry Corner. I have a YouTube Channel and a Facebook page under that brand. On YouTube I talk about the craft of writing, and I review books that I am reading. I link those videos to my Facebook page, and then tie those into my Goodreads author page. I am considering a website of the same name. The goal is to develop some rapport with readers and writers.

  I sparingly use Manhattan and San Francisco book reviews, and I’ve just paid for a Kirkus review for A Step Too Far. I use these not as an advertising platform, though they can be, but as a reality check on my writing. I want an independent review by someone who reads a lot of books and will not be nice, if nice is not warranted.

  I also believe that a deeper back catalog, coupled to solid professional reviews, makes me more attractive for a contract with a traditional publisher.  It demonstrates my reliability and indicates that I am pretty good at this craft.

  The second part of my strategy will start when I retire from my current job. So, in about five or six years I will settle down and will be able to participate in conventions and book readings. I have been experimenting with displays, posters, and the like for when that becomes a viable marketing platform for me. I will have a developed set of merchandise by then, a back catalog of books, and have a more developed readership that should create some growth in sales.

  What was your favorite part of your publishing experience, overall and with iUniverse?

I have used iUniverse since they were Writer’s Club Press – way back in the day. Writer’s Club Press is still an imprint of iUniverse. And I’ve grown with them. As you know, this is a very competitive and extremely difficult business. While there are a lot of ways to self-publish today, for free, I keep coming back to iUniverse because I am acutely aware of the advantage traditional publishers provide their authors. They provide whole teams of editors, copy editors, interior design, and beta readers too. I can’t recreate that type of system, but I want to give my best effort to my readers. iUniverse provides me with some of the umbrella of a traditional publisher that I could not get with the free self-publishing sites. And though I only get one real pass at my novels, iUniverse is professional enough to make that pass count.

  Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring authors?

I know so many people who flit from idea to idea and never finish what they have started. Stick to one story at a time. That doesn’t mean that you will not have a e-file or drawer full of ideas and snippets of stories, but rather that you ignore those and focus all of your productive energy on your current project. Finish it. You have to have that discipline. Random scenes on a page don’t make a novel either. Have some sort of a plan and develop and revise it as your write. And then don’t fall so in love with what you’ve done that you will not take the brutal and necessary editing pen to it and chop out all those bits that really don’t push the story forward. But that is not the toughest battle. Do not listen to all those people who tell you that you cannot write a book. You can. Books are not written by gods but rather by men and women just like you who have spent hours, weeks, months, and years working and reworking their books and learning their craft. It does take work, but it is possible. You can do it too.

  Make sure to check out the iUniverse site for more advice and blogs, as well as iUniverse Facebook and iUniverse Twitter. For a FREE Publishing Guide, click here!

  The post Daniel B. Hunt and new sci-fi novel, “Okuda!” appeared first on iUniverse Blog.

[greggreaen]

I GOT MARRIED!!! How I Planned my Wedding | Enchanted Oasis Part 1

AHHHHHH!!!!! I am officially married to my best friend, the love of my life, and my partner in everything…Sam Livits! After 10 years of being together, we walked down the aisle, said our vows in front of all of ur friends and family and had THE MOST MAGICAL day of our lives! The ceremony was so emotional for both Sam and I. I don’t know what it is about weddings, but it heightens all the feels. I was laugh-crying (but like a different kind than I had ever experienced) as I was walking down the aisle. I am so grateful to have found my soul mate and am soooooo happy that we got to spend our day with the people we care about most.

I am currently in a state of bliss but also majorly crashing from the high. No one tells you about these post wedding blues. Ugh. I never wanted it to end!! So that’s why I NEED to do a lot of blogging – to keep the happy feelings alive!

So, this is part 1 of the Enchanted Oasis Wedding series! In this post, I will tell you everything I did to plan the wedding of my dreams! And let me warn you…I let my creativity and extra-ness run wild! Ready!!???

#1. FINDING THE DRESS

As soon as I got engaged in Kauai, my sister IMMEDIATELY booked some bridal gown try on appointments in LA! OMG I cannot tell you how fun this was. I truly felt like all my princess dreams were coming true. Like, can I just do this for fun all the time as a hobby!!???

I decided to keep my “audience” small for this. Low drama. Not too many opinions. So the only people in attendance were me, my sis, and the person helping me put on the dresses! The mission? To find 2 gowns. An ultra grand one for the ceremony and a whimsical, romantical one for the reception!

The designer we ended up choosing was Galia Lahav! Walking in to her store was like walking into a haute couture dream. Here are some of the stand outs I tried on!

This is the Gia. I was so close to getting this one! The corset fit so well and the skirt was just so flowy.

Okay, I just had to try this on. A bridal cape!!??? Why not!!!

As soon as I put the Lidya, I knew this had to be my reception dress. I loved the little polka dots and how the dress hugged my silhouette. It was the definition of romantic. I ended up customizing the dress by adding fluttery drop sleeves to soften the look.

The train on the Ms. Elle was DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA and I LOVED IT. I mean, when else in life can you really drag a huge train behind you?!!??  I loved how the exquisite little beaded details on the dress elegantly complemented the low back before it waterfalled out into a longest tulle train I have ever seen!!! This was TRULY GRAND.

To customize the gown, I ended up changing the color to blush, I added in a dramatic low V detail to the sweetheart in the front, changed the low back to a V shape as well (to help make my booty stand out!), and then added fierce side cut outs to accentuate my waist.

Then I waited several months to even get a first look at my gowns! They were all hand crafted in Tel Aviv!

#2. FINDING THE VENUE

This was really hard. We spent several weekends driving all over California trying to find the most magical, whimsical venue that “hadn’t been done” before. I basically wanted a modern day castle on the West Coast. So, my sister and I looked into renting out private estates.

The problem? Well, at first, a lot of the listings we ran into were fake! Some websites collected pictures of gorgeous venues in Italy and France and then put it in a gallery to trick brides! Then when contacted, they told me to pay a fee to see the venue. Like…what!!??

So after running into a bunch of those scammers, scouting numerous hotels, countless wineries, and some beautiful homes – nothing felt right.

I was exhausted from looking, so I took a break for a couple months.

Then one night…I came across a random real estate listing that ended up leading me to the PERFECT venue: The Solomon Estate in Rancho Mirage, CA.

When Sam and I first walked onto the property late January 2018, we fell in love!! It oozed glamour, class, and Gatsby vibes all with a west coast feel.

The best part? We found our dream wedding planner. When I first met Laurie Lund of The Events Department (she’s the planner for this specific estate), I was drawn to her positivity and her energy. She’s such a happy person!

I told her everything I wanted to do (which included miniature horses and other crazy wild ideas at the time), and she was ALL IN. To be completely honest, I do not think our dream Enchanted Oasis wedding would have happened as seamlessly as it did without Laurie. Not only is she an experienced veteran in the wedding planning business, she’s so giddy and happy about all the details as if it were her own wedding! The woman is amazing and truly made my journey to wedding day as fun as can be.

(Oh yeah, and just for fun, there’s a “mini” lake in the front :P)

Finding the venue is what set the tone for the wedding theme. Three themes that really stuck out to me were “Enchanted Forest”, “Boho Desert” and “Tropical Jungle”. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent on Pinterest (probably thousands) trying to figure out what I wanted. When I couldn’t find a theme that was exactly what I was going for, I decided to mesh them all together to create our own: “Enchanted Oasis”.

#3. THE INVITATIONS

Now that we had our venue, and we knew what the theme was going to be, the next step was to create the invitations! I wanted to set the tone for Enchanted Oasis RIGHT AWAY so that our guests could start dreaming up what was waiting for them!

I knew from the beginning of time that we HAD TO  have acrylic invitations! (Thanks Pinterest.) I also wanted it shipped in a classy box so that the whole opening process would feel luxurious.

The logo you see of “Sam & Cassey” came to be from a bunch of doodles I was making back in February. I had an issue with “Sam” looking like “Jam”. It took a while to figure it out!

I am fortunate to have learned graphic design and how to use Adobe Illustrator back when I was an intern at a fashion design company in college. Those are the same skills I use today at work! And the same skills I used to draw the custom monstera leaf cut out for the acrylic. (The leaf was my sister’s idea by the way.) There wasn’t anything like that on the market (boy don’t I just make wedding planning so easy on myself…LOL) so I had to find someone to custom laser cut the acrylic leaf shapes for me!

Then I ordered supplies, DIY’d hard, and made an assembly line at home. My sister became a pro at folding cardboard boxes and I fine tuned the art of stuffing small boxes with live moss. It was tedious labor.

Though oftentimes unsure of why I have to make things so complicated for myself, Sam understands my hunger to embrace art and design. He’s always so supportive! I am proud to say that Sam and Jackelyn’s boyfriend Nick helped on the assembly line too!

#4. THE FOOD

Sam and I are foodies. We love eating. A lot. In fact when we first met, we both gained so much weight because we explored restaurants and even fast food joints as a hobby. Hahaha.

Since Sam and I are of two totally different cultures, we wanted to unite our guests through food. So, we worked with Fusion Flair to create a totally authentic menu that would represent both the Chinese and Vietnamese flavors for my side while also paying tribute to the Israeli and Jewish side for Sam. Instead of doing a sit down plated dinner, we got everyone up and tasting “cultural tapas”!

Ah yes, the tacos. No they are not Asian or Mediterranean, but they were there to represent our life in LA okay!!??! And we didn’t end up going with the tomato soup and grilled cheese (though it was super good) and opted for a vegan gazpacho instead to be more veggie friendly!

The tasting was SO MUCH FUN and we were SO FULL. Chef Heng did an incredible job with the food. Everything was extremely flavorful and delicious.

#5. THE CAKE

The one cake that Sam and I both equally love is Blue Velvet Cake. Have you ever tried? If not, YOU MUST. We first discovered it at MILK in LA when we first moved here together. It’s so buttery and dense! With fresh blueberries and thick cream cheese frosting (ugh I am salivating as I write this), you cannot go wrong!

So we knew even 5 years ago that our wedding cake HAD TO be blue velvet! I called up MILK to ask if they could make our wedding cake, but unfortunately they’re not in that business. So we asked our wedding planner to help us find a bakery out in Palm Springs that could help make our cake. Laurie recommended Exquisite Desserts and they did not disappoint!

Here’s what our tasting looked like. All sorts of cake flavors and a wide variety of frosting flavors. Everything was SOOOOOOOO GOOD. But nothing beat the blue velvet. So, we decided to go all in and get the ENTIRE 4 tiered cake all in blue velvet with cream cheese frosting!

#6. THE MATCHA BAR

Sam and I LOOOOOOOVEEEEEE matcha!!! So much so that we even made a shirt that is one of our best sellers on POPFLEX:

Since I don’t drink alcohol, and I know some of our friends don’t either, I wanted to create a unique bar experience. We thought that in addition to the regular bar bar…why not also have a matcha bar!!??

I reached out to my friends at Midori Matcha and asked if they’d be down to make this happen. They had never done a matcha bar for a wedding before, but were excited to make it a reality for our cocktail hour!

Midori also catered the matcha desserts table for the reception! Above is a photo from our initial tasting. OMG everything was SOOOOOOO GOOD – but ESPECIALLY that matcha croissant. I basically LIVE for it.

If you guys are ever in Southern CA, check out their newest Midori Matcha Cafe location in Old Town Pasadena at 165 S. De Lacey Ave #1049, Pasadena, CA 91105! They also have a cafe in Little Tokyo and Orange County!

#7. THE FLOWERS

Did you know that the amazing person who did the flowers for our wedding also did the flowers for the Bridal Bootcamp series?

Jeany, the owner of Lovesome Blossoms is also a POPster and she reached out when she found out that I got engaged! It was so special to have a florist who I felt connected with!

The photos that inspired everything floral for the wedding were this cupcake photo from Baker P (OMG look at that color palette)…

…and this whimsical chuppah photo from Mark’s Garden.

To create the “oasis” look, we decided to incorporate some tropical greenery! We specifically chose to decorate with the Monstera leaf – yes, the same leaf that I drew out for our acrylic invitations  – to bring out the tropical-ness!

#8. THE LIGHT BOX TENT

In 2016, Sam and I went to Australia for my POP Pilates tour and while there, we walked through one of the most beautiful structures I had ever seen!

This light tunnel was so magical. It never left my thoughts. So when it was time to design the outdoor tent for our dinner reception, I knew we had to recreate some version of this!

Here’s a picture of me admiring the tent construcuted by BRIGHT 2 nights before our wedding. At this point, it was totally still in progress and did not have the hanging florals and glass orbs that Jeany would later suspend from the top!

#9. INCORPORATING PETS

Before we got our puppy baby love Sir George the Magnificent, I wanted to have a miniature horse walk down the aisle with our flower girl! Yes, totally leaning in to that magical theme. But then…in January 2018 we were blessed with our first puppy, so we canceled the horse idea and began thinking of interesting ways to have Sir walk down the aisle!

(Don’t mind his back arm – he just got a shot at the vet and they had to shave him!)

At first I was like, maybe he should float down the aisle in a hot air balloon! Then we deemed it too dangerous.

Next, I was like, let’s have 4 men in tuxedos carry him down the aisle in a Cleopatra style bed! Jackelyn and Sam were like NO.

I thought I was close when I decided that we should construct a mini rose parade float for him to ride on! But there was no way we could find someone small enough to “drive” the car beneath the float.

Finally, Jackelyn had the genius idea of having him drive down the aisle in a fancy car.

BOOM. So that’s what we did.

#10. THE FIRST DANCE

Sam knows I love dancing, so when it came time for first dance discussions, there was no negotiation that it would be a choreographed number! I was so surprised at how much Sam embraced the lessons and the rehearsals. In fact, most of the time, it was HIM who initiated dance practice at home!!!

“New Light” by John Mayer was our song of choice. Why? We just liked the song! We learned a fun two step by our dance teachers at Your Night Choreo!

#11. THE CALLIGRAPHY

My goal for 2018 was to learn how to do calligraphy. I NEVER expected to do it for our wedding, but when the person who was supposed to do the calligraphy bailed on us, I was left with no choice but to do it myself! Through numerous YouTube videos, one live class, and tons of practice, I eventually got here:

Not bad, eh!?

I am still trying to find my style, but I am proud of how far I’ve come in less than a year! I’m glad that person bailed because the situation made me a better calligraphist!

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  A post shared by Cassey Ho (@blogilates) on Oct 13, 2018 at 10:08am PDT

#12. THE SURPRISE

Concerned with cocktail hour (I’ve been to so many weddings where this time period is just so awkward and boring), I wanted to have an activation that would get everyone talking and having a good time!

First I thought…tethered hot air balloon? We tried, but then found out we didn’t have enough space.

Ferris wheel? Eh, but then kinda scary.

Maybe a rotating swing set!? Someone’s gonna be whacked.

Then I thought…wait a minute…a carousel!!! A carousel would be so whimsical and magical! The imagery of our friends in their evening gowns riding the horses with their legs swept to one side was all I needed to lock down the idea!

This was no easy feat though. The Solomon Estate did not have a carousel. We had to bring it in. It was almost impossible at first because we were told that the big semi truck could not fit through the side of the house to get to the backyard.

But then Laurie had an incredible idea. Bringing in the pieces one by one, by hand. Amazingly, Christiansen Amusements agreed and made it happen!!!!

YESSSSS now that is the level of commitment to excellence that I’m talking about!!!!

Oh boy.

That concludes part 1 of the Enchanted Oasis Wedding series! The planning!

If you loved the visuals but want EVEN more, watch me and my sis talk ALL wedding deets with over the top giddy-ness in my latest YouTube video!

Until part 2…tell me…what would your dream wedding be like?

The post I GOT MARRIED!!! How I Planned my Wedding | Enchanted Oasis Part 1 appeared first on Blogilates.

I GOT MARRIED!!! How I Planned my Wedding | Enchanted Oasis Part 1 published first on http://www.blogilates.com

[vixykitten]

Before I begin my blog post, I’d like to thank Meenu & Pawan Deol from Living Atman, Patricia Tallman, and Sony for providing me with the amazing opportunities that this retreat to India has afforded me, with particular thanks to Gustav Kiburg and Leo at Sony for allowing me to use their amazing camera equipment to capture the journey. As well as a huge shout out to my roomie Melissa! Without whom I might’ve gone crazy and helped me with some of the details in this blog! *Posh British accent* Thank you my Darling!

In February/March, I travelled to India, and whilst I’m home again now, I’m still on that journey in a way…. Unpacking and processing everything that happened.. As well as dealing with the emotions and feelings that came up during the trip. Maybe that’s why writing this took so long. 

If I’m honest with you, I’m not entirely sure where to start when it comes to my time in India. But as I look back on it, and go through the thousands of images I took over my time there (no I’m not joking, it was thousands), I think ‘chaos’ is the word that comes to mind. But don’t get me wrong, the chaos of India is beautiful, rather than depressing. It forces you to rethink the way you look at life and changes your perspective. There is immense joy to be found amid the bright colours of the country. Sometimes it can seem hard to believe from a Western perspective, when you find yourself confronted with different hygiene standards and a higher level of poverty than you’re used to. But it’s true. 

Seeing a whole family on a scooter, not wearing helmets and with maybe a blanket to protect the little one was a shock. The drivers zip into apparently non-existent spaces, and the vehicles clog the roads. It’s a wonder that they get anywhere. And I found myself wondering just what you had to do to pass a driving test there, or if anyone taught road safety. Vendors would rush past with whole stacks of merchandise on a cart, people would hurry by carrying things on their head, these are the things a photographer dreams of, but also the things that scare those of us who aren’t used to them.

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Children grabbing at your arm, begging for food and money, people sleeping in train stations and on the streets, the slums, toilets that are literally just holes in the floor; but all the while the people are dressed in the same bright colours that are rich throughout the landscape itself, and often have smiles on their faces. There’s a striking contrast between the lack of provisions and the simplicity of their happiness that you don’t find present in the West. I think it’s part of what makes Northern India so unique and beautiful.

I arrived early in Delhi, a few days before most of the retreat group, and it gave me a chance to explore with a friend who was also on the retreat. Our first day was spent exploring the area around our hotel, taking a tuk tuk to a shopping centre getting those last minute supplies we had invariably forgotten to bring with us and grabbing some lunch. Neither of us expected to see cows walking through the centre, that’s definitely something you don’t see back home! 

During those first few days, we also visited Akshardam temple where we weren’t allowed to take photos (unfortunately), as well as the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib temple (Sikh), a stepping well, and Kashmiri Cottage Industries where we were introduced to the craft of making carpets, scarves and saris. We’d visit the Sikh temple and Kashmiri Cottage Industries again, with our retreat group, later in the trip.

The stepping well was called Ugrasen ki Baoli and it was an ideal place to take some of my first shots of India. Birds and bats inhabited the area, with the latter flying like the birds but also hanging from the ceiling in the former well, the way in which the light fell gave it a sort of mystical effect. The only downside was the very steep steps and a LOT of dust! 

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The Gurudwara Bangla Sahib Sikh temple was surreally beautiful from a photographic perspective. The colour clothing of the people doing service in the kitchen contrasted with the white of the temple and the blue of the water to create a picture book effect that I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to see and capture. Wherever we travelled on our journey through India, one thing that struck me was the way in which people were willing to help each other, regardless of what they themselves have. It’s something that we could learn from here in the West.

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We took a Rickshaw through the Old Delhi Markets. The markets of India are where everything comes together. The chaotic rhythm of life that flows through them is magnificent. Everything erupts with colour, each individual market is a lively community all of its own where stallholders all have their own stories to tell and will happily haggle with you over the cost of their wares; music plays from so many different places within the market creating a chaotic crescendo amid the chatter and the hagglers, there is beauty everywhere, and those insanely rich smells that fill your head (although as with all things, sometimes those smells make you want to move on by rather quickly), I just wanted to keep taking pictures.

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The Jama Masjid Mosque made us feel like we’d joined the Indian Hogwarts! We were handed colourful robes on entering and each one felt like it was representative of our own house colour… is peach the colour of the Indian equivalent of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor? Who knows? Inside the gate, the sunlight glints off the marble detailing of buildings surrounding an inner courtyard hidden from the view of the outside world.

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The Taj Mahal, There’s this moment when you stand in the grounds and it’s like standing in the middle of a postcard or movie, you’re not really sure that you’re standing there, in the shadow of this iconic landmark. The gardens are beautiful, and were definitely my favourite part of our Taj Mahal experience, contrast between the white of the Taj, the green of the garden, the blues of the sky and fountains… add to that the flower and it’s beautiful wherever you look. Inside the Taj l itself, I got a little claustrophobic. It IS a mausoleum and once you get inside, it gets really small and crowded. To be honest, I was longing to get back outside to the open air, but it was definitely worth the experience, and I’d recommend doing the whole thing. There are 2 identical buildings on each side of the Taj made from sandstone which you don’t really expect to see. They are rarely shown in the photographs that we see online or in magazines.

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The Red Fort is somewhere I could’ve gotten lost in for DAYS. Construction work started on it in 1639 and was completed in 1648. Up until 1856 it was the main residence of the Mughal Dynasty. I’m European, so I’m used to seeing older buildings, but I had never seen anything like this! The architecture is superb and there is a clear respect for such an ancient part of India’s heritage. The natural light here was so different to anything I had yet experienced. The way it bounced off the building, created shadow play with the arches, and the views from the fort itself, all of them could, if given the time, create an amazing photography book that I would love to shoot. 

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The Golden Temple was an interesting experience. It was one of the places that I had been most eager to see, and one of the ones that I wanted to take full photographic advantage of. But, as tends to happen, my plan for the day didn’t quite go the way I wanted. It’s what happens with travel, no matter how good your intentions, something comes up. Well, I ended up falling ill, so had to take some time out, sitting under a tree to build my energy back up. But as luck would have it, whilst my original plan changed, serendipity came knocking, in that way it does. I was fortunate enough to watch a young girl catching berries from a jujube tree, look out in a calm zen-like state across the water, and watch locals go about their business, seeing things that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. I did love doing Seva (service – selfless service for the betterment of the community) there as well. Learning how to make roti and naan from locals was a foodie’s dream and will definitely stay with me for a long time to come. 

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A seven hour train ride, an hour by car through a forest, and we arrived in Rishikesh, where everything was so very different from the hubbub of our previous stops. It was so quiet, so peaceful, and so picturesque. Here I was thankful to take early morning walks where I could collect my thoughts and welcome a new day, do yoga admist breathtaking views, and join in morning prayers which were chanted rather than said. Participating in the aarti ceremony by the Ganga River was particularly memorable. The evening Satsang was an incredible revelation for all of us I think, something none of us had ever thought about participating in, but we came away from it with evolving perspectives on things. All of those spiritual moments in a place that still holds a part of me, reverberated through my very core, and when I look back on them, continue to do so now.

I’d definitely recommend attending an Aarti ceremony by the Ganga (Ganges River) I saw one right by the Parmarth Niketan Ashram and a bigger ceremony in Haridwar where we were allowed to sit on the walking bridge to get a better view of the whole ceremony. If you don’t like crowds though I’d recommend the the one at  Parmarth Niketan.

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Dharamsala in the Himalayas remains one of my favourite parts of this retreat. If you hadn’t figured it out from the above, I love nature. And in Dharamsala we were able to enjoy some hiking. That early morning view when you walked out of your room in the WH Grace Hotel was breathtaking, and it made my heart sing. There’s no other way to describe it. Where else in the world would you be woken by a monkey sitting in the tree outside your hotel room?

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The hiking opportunities in this area of India are amazing. Seeing prayer flags out in the open up in the mountains was something that was literally breathtaking. Each one bright against the natural backdrop. The villages are full of life but it’s a slower, more gentler way of living than in the cities like New Delhi. Goats and hens seem to pop up in every direction, living in harmony with the farmers and village people who use them for their meat, milk, and eggs.

One thing none of us expected from this trip was literally once in a lifetime. We went to a Mcleodganj for a meditation class and were fortunate enough to be invited back the next day to a ceremony that was being hosted by the Dalai Lama. Well, let’s be honest, if you turn that sort of chance down, you really don’t know what you’re missing! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos of that ceremony for security reasons. There are so many moments that I wish I could have taken a picture of, but at the same time, there are somethings that are better off remembered rather than captured. After all, as much as I love to take photographs, I also love to stop for a moment, put down the camera, and just take in what is happening around me.

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Locals love having their picture taken! They are more than happy to let you take a picture, which means I was really able to get some amazing shots. One lady in a village near McLeodGanj even invited us into her house and let us take pictures! But by the same token, when they see obvious foreigners, you can often find them queuing to have a picture with you! It was a bizarre fact of our trip that everywhere we went, local people were literally waiting in line to have their photo taken with people from our group. I’m a photographer, I’m used to being behind the camera, and it was all a little surreal for me.

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I loved our Safari adventure at Rajiji National Park! While we didn’t see any elephants or tigers on the bumpy trip, we did find tiger footprints, evidence that elephants had been through the area, deer, stags with huge antlers, stunning tropical birds, a peacock flying overhead, and so many beautiful creatures and so much plantlife. I did mention I love being in nature, right? Standing on the back of the jeep, hair in the wind, looking at the rays of sunshine breaking through the clouds and reflections in the little pools of water, searching the landscape for wildlife, it felt like such an adventure. Life was definitely good that day.

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Our stay at Norwood Green (a tea plantation) in Palampur, included Holi. The Bundla Tea Estate was peaceful and beautiful, continuing our calming theme of the Himalayas.  There was a family staying there as well, so before setting off to Sujanpur to celebrate Holi, we had our own little party in front of the apartments. On arrival in Sujanpur we went to a bright and colourful fair and afterwards ran into Minister of State who gave each of us a beautiful scarf, there was another opportunity for photos, this time with the Minister of State, and we even ended up on his Facebook page! 

Holi itself was an experience! I managed to stay relatively clean of the colourful powder that gets thrown on everyone whilst I had my camera out. Everyone was too scared of damaging it. However, the moment the camera was put away, I got covered. 

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A unique part of the trip, which I have to admit, I’d rather not do again, was our stay in a tent on a field in Anandpur Sahib. No one should sleep in a tent in a the middle of a field in a thunderstorm with a cow passing by to wake you up, and panthers potentially prowling around outside (which wasn’t mentioned until later), and that was just the first night. But the morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and a pleasant local breakfast. Although after all that chaos, all I really wanted at that point was a coffee.

We saw a Hola Mohalla display by Sikh warriors (the Nihang) who were demonstrating their fighting skills, in the style of Gatkar. The Nihang are a semi-nomadic people who have separate beliefs and practices from the mainstream Sikh community but are still a part of it. Their fighting skills are mainly for ceremonial purposes, and with no disrespect to the Nihang, I find myself feeling a little grateful for that. We witnessed one of the men being shot in the leg by an arrow. And with the traditional clothing that is worn, which can include massive turbans, their attire can appear rather bulky for fighting purposes. 

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There are so many other things I could share with you from my time in India. But I could be here for a very long time. So instead, I’m going to leave it here, and share my tips and pics from the trip. If you’ve been to India, why don’t you add your own tips in the comments, and if you’re one of the amazing group of people that I travelled with and feel like I’ve missed out something you’d like to mention, why not add it in the comments?

Tips:

Use your scarf to protect from smog/dust in the air if you don’t have a proper dust mask – and if you’re asthmatic make sure you have your inhalers with you, as well as antihistamines.

Hire a car with guide if you’re on your own/not travelling with a group. It’s a cheap and safe way to see India. However be prepared to be stuck in traffic.

Take a ride in a rickshaw or tuk tuk, it’s a fun adventurous way to see the city. I especially enjoyed taking a rickshaw through old Delhi.

Bring your own TP! And wipes! I’m not joking, believe me you’re gonna need it! And if you’re going with a friend, make sure that you both have some in your bags. You will be thanking me later.

Bring moisturiser, maybe even a mask. the dry air and dust doesn’t do your skin any favours. Plus it’s a nice way to relax at the end of the day. By the same token, sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen, before you leave your hotel in the morning. It’ll add a layer of moisture protection as well as that important SPF.

Don’t eat meat if you can help it. It increases the chance of Delhi Belly and it’s a lot more fun to experience the real local cuisine.

Avoid getting your meals from food vendors on the street. Unless you know that it’s a trusted vendor, or you have something to sanitize the meal with. I’m going to say this again, you really don’t want Delhi Belly.

Try the Lassi (if you’re not lactose intolerant), and try it in every flavour you can, but especially the mango.

Don’t be surprised that rice comes with most meals. You should be able to find other options, but it will be there, at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Walking shoes – make sure you have comfortable shoes to explore in. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world this should be a given, but in India this means something that’s going to support those arches, cover those toes, and protect those feet. Your feet will thank you after you’ve climbed a steep hill, a million stairs, or walked a very dirty street.

Pack a bar of soap so you can wash your clothes in the tub if you’re going to be travelling and staying at places where there isn’t a laundry service. The lighter you can travel the better it will be for you.

In train stations, make sure you know how much it’s going to cost for that porter to carry your suitcase, and your travelling companion’s on his head before you let him walk of with it, and if you really don’t want him to carry it, be firm, keep your hand on it and don’t let go.

Bottled water. Keep it on you, buy it from a reputable source (not street vendors), and don’t drink the tap water. Not even to brush your teeth! (if you keep forgetting, put a post it on the mirror with a reminder)  You do not want Delhi Belly (yes there is a theme here). And trust me when I say that the quality of tap water is not the same as it is in the West. But yes you can shower in it.

The Beauty In The Chaos Of Northern India Before I begin my blog post, I’d like to thank Meenu & Pawan Deol from Living Atman, Patricia Tallman, and Sony for providing me with the amazing opportunities that this retreat to India has afforded me, with particular thanks to Gustav Kiburg and Leo at Sony for allowing me to use their amazing camera equipment to capture the journey.

[whiskeychick]

When the time came to collect all the amazing women I know and work with into one digital space, I knew I would have to find a low-maintenance, low-budget way to create a turn-key online clubhouse that I could later hand over to a board of leaders within the group. With that in mind I set out in a single weekend to craft The Legendary Women’s ClubThe Legendary Women’s Club website and membership portal.

I knew that if we pooled our resources and started making even one decision a day with a “Members First” mentality, we could help make each other’s lives easier down the road and more rewarding than they are today. The challenge was to create a centralized tool that is easy to find and use, but still exclusive to our members, and low-maintenance enough that it could continue to run endlessly without becoming a burden on those who run it. Now I’d like to share with you HOW the LWC went from idea to reality in just 72 hours. It may not be the path you need to reach your goals, but I hope it serves as an example of what we can accomplish if we have access to the right tools, knowledge, and helping hands.

*disclaimer: Links with a ~ after them are affiliate links. They cost you nothing, but if you decide to make a purchase from that link, the commission goes to support the minimal cost of operating this site.

Step 1: Claim the Land

Setting up an inexpensive and unified online identity by committing to a brand name, buying the domain, and then registering it on every available free social media platform is the absolute first step to your brand’s success. Do your homework and make sure the name you choose is not only representative of the product or service you are offering, but is also unique enough to be available on major social networking sites without being mistaken for an existing business.

I chose to register the LegendaryWomensClub.com with GoDaddy~ simply because I already do business there for my other sites and would not have to learn a new set of hosting tools. I spent approximately $30 setting up the domain and hosting, and will continue to pay about $10/month to continue hosting the site. There are less expensive services out there that require you know more about web site administration, and more expensive services that do 90% of the technical work for you, but this is the solution that balanced my experience level with our available budget. I also registered for Gmail, Google Voice, PayPal, Airtable, Mailchimp, WordPress, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. This covers all areas of communication, accounting, online storage, and promotion we are most likely to ever need for the club, which I’ll go into further detail on below, but I may continue to register on other networks just to block anyone else from usurping our brand identity.

Step 2: Plant the Flag

Now that we’ve claimed our internet land, it’s time to plant a flag… a visual symbol that tells visitors that this is our land. Our space to do with what we like and use how we see fit. It’s important that your flag for your brand is consistent no matter where you plant it, It should be instantly recognizable, giving your nations’ members a sense of comfort and home when they see it.

Now I’m no graphic designer by any means. I write for a living, and no matter how pretty my words are, my artistic skills rival that of most toddlers. That is why I rely heavily on some free / freemium services to help create the custom images I use on all my websites.

The first, and my personal favorite, is Canva.com.Canva is a browser-based design tool that has a deep library of templates for all kinds of graphics with the proper dimensions already built in, ranging from book covers and flyers to social media banners and infographics. They do offer paid features, but even after using the site for a couple of years, I’ve never found a project I couldn’t complete with just their free tools.

I also use smartphone apps like Ripl, SnapSeed, and PicsArt to create engaging and unique images, all for free, for use on Instagram and Pinterest. As long as you have a good eye and a little time to spare, there’s no reason you can’t make your brand image shine like the pros.

Step 3: Nurture the Earth

The core website is the foundation of your brand and the earth from which all opportunities grow. It’s the place you touch base on to center yourself and the place you launch from when you’re ready to take your message out to the world. You have to make sure that it has the structure and tools that will help you make the most of every opportunity. For The LWC, this meant it needed to have all our member information in one place, and easily searchable, accessible, and securable. For this I decided to build the site using the open-sourced and widely popular blogging platform WordPress and a few WordPress plug-ins (like accessories) that are easy to set up and even easier for the end user (that’s you) to use. I could go on for days about the reasons I love WordPress, but let me just sum it up with this: It is hands-down the most simple to use, robust, customizable site building tool I have ever used, and I’ve been doing this since before Angelfire and Myspace were born.

If you do choose to build your brand hub on WordPress, it’s important that you identify what functions you need your site to serve, then look for highly rated plug-ins to help you bring those functions to life. Some of the free plug-ins I have in play here at The LWC are:

Paid Membership Pro – This fantastic tool is the gatekeeper that allows me to lock down areas of the site to serve only to logged-in members.

WPLinksPage – This lets me keep a separate page of link resources from the site’s more traditional BlogRoll

Simple Author Box – This is what makes that cute little section down below where each of you can highlite your projects, promote your businesses, and otherwise learn more about each other.

Dynamic User Directory – This is the tool that takes your profile information and makes our Member Directory so robust and well-formatted.

Event Calendar by Modern Tribe – This easy-to-use system for tracking and displaying events has been a favorite of mine for a while. You’ll see this in

Step 4: Feed the Crops

It used to be that the idea of sales, any sales whether online or off, was met with the cringe reaction usually reserved for slimy used car dealers and door-to-door product peddlers. That was because those scheisters only knew how to sell things one way: Forcefully. They pressed you with product demos and sold you a line of BS about how great the product is, even when it wasn’t and even when you didn’t need it. The internet is quickly changing all of that. Salesmen no longer have to chase customers. The customers are all online already, looking for what they need. Your job is to be available and ready when they look. As a brand, your job is to nurture your reputation until your brand name becomes an authority in the product or service you are selling. And trust me, even if you’re giving it away for free, you’re still selling.

You can help customers choose you when they go looking by making sure your brand name is widely visible and readily approachable. Write informative articles and blog posts on your site (like this one for example) that give your site value. Summarize the points of those posts and share those as tips on social media with hashtags that your target readers would most likely search for. Seek out questions on social media that your brand can answer and get involved in the conversation. It’s a two way street out there and so many companies make the mistake of only pushing their message out, completely overlooking the opportunities to pull potential customers in.

Step 5: Harvest the Fruit

Every brand has an end goal. Whether they are trying to sell a product to consumers, solicit donations to a non-profit, increase RSVPs to an event, or any other venture, that end goal is usually and ideally reached on the brand’s official website. Brands who are betting all their chips on Facebook or other network are missing a HUGE opportunity to remarket to their customers after the initial contact, so it’s important that all of your brand’s online activity somehow serve that end goal; Get the customer to your site and gather their contact information.

While The LWC is too new to really use as an example, I strongly encourage all brands, bands and project hands to employ free tools like MailChimp, Buffer, and IFTTT to draw readers back to your site, and eventually opt-in to your ongoing communications. The true value of what you have to offer lives on your site. Your ability to contact your biggest brand fans should live there too. The way that I usually set clients up is this: Every message you send out, no matter what the channel of communication, should always have a reason to call back to the core brand website. Each of these tools is like bait, meant to lure customers back to the shop, or in our case, the clubhouse!

To see some of the handy blogging tools I keep close by when I go out in the field, check out this collection on my Kit.com profile!

*sales from these links provide me with a small comission that helps keep my business running at no additional cost to you. I appreciate your support!

via Shauna WhiskeyChick Castorena

[the-record-columns]

Oct. 18, 2017: Columns

Ellen, Dee, Dewitte—I loved all three

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

This past Friday afternoon I was holding court at the foot of the basement steps in the catacombs of The Record, visiting with a pleasant young woman named Tara Fitz.

From where we were talking, I could see upstairs and could easily hear the bell on the front door which jingled, followed by another woman appearing at the top of the steps.

When she asked if I remembered who she was, it was easy, because it was a face I remembered from childhood, a neighbor from Hinshaw Street; younger than me, but easily familiar because she was one of the Berrong children I grew up with—Jane. All grown up and living in Wingate, N.C., Jane Hersey had stopped in to make sure I knew of the death of her mother, Ellen Dewitte Berrong, who had died on Wednesday, Oct. 11. I assured her that I knew and was deeply saddened, but quickly our brief visit turned much lighter as we began to reminisce about her amazing mother. I promised Jane that all those wonderful memories she had of her mother, and those days with all her brothers and sisters would carry her through many a long night of missing Dee. Truly, it is like a warm blanket on a cold night.

I am not exactly sure when I first met Dee Berrong, but it was as a small child. They lived in two different houses while in the Hinshaw  Street part of North Wilkesboro, but it is when they were three houses down below the apartment my family lived in that I had the most contact. Dee was 10 years younger than my own mother, Cary, and had six children. Two of her boys, Joe Don and John were the closest to my age and we often played and got into mischief together; most memorably on every Halloween night. I was the baby and the last one still at home, what with two of my brothers grown and married, and Wayne old enough to be pretty much on his own; but Dee had a houseful and clearly was up to the task of maintaining order. Often Joe Don, John and I would hide out at our apartment until things cooled down a bit, because Dee wasn't one to put up with too many shenanigans.

The Berrong's moved off Hinshaw Street after a few years, but by then our families were forever tied together by the memories of baseball on the vacant lots on Toll Road, selling pop bottles to buy candy bars and 10 cent Cokes from Joe Johnson at the Community Grocery, throwing eggs and water balloons at Goat Canter's house on J Street, and, of course, the love of our mothers, Dewitte and Cary.

From those days till now, anytime I would run into any one of the Berrongs it was like a family reunion. Once, John stopped by the offices of The Record and we must have talked for three hours about the good times and the good memories of those youthful days.

As a young woman, Dee Berrong worked at the old Goodwill Department Store for the legendary Nike Smithey. It was from her experience there that I was able to learn the “secret” recipe for the famous Goodwill bread burgers. She also spent many years as a Department Manager at the Roses store in North Wilkesboro, specifically in the huge toy department which took up a great deal of the stores floor space. As store managers came and went at Roses, all would remember Dee's ability to keep the toy department organized, clean, and very profitable. One manager, however, a Mr., Oakley, objected to Dee's penchant for a little snuff now and then, telling her that the snuff simply “...had to go.” Well, it did, and Dee went with it, but in no time Mr. Oakley was calling to welcome Dee and her snuff back to the toy department.

Some years later, my parents ended up being next door neighbor's with Dee Berrong on K Street in North Wilkesboro. I knew that my parents thought a lot of Dee, but the longer they were next door, the closer they became. While my parents never had a daughter, they were blessed with my brother, T. A.'s, wife, Pug, and with Dee Berrong. Uncounted are the times I would stop to visit with my parents and Dee would be sitting at the kitchen table with them, or I would find them next door with Dee. There was nothing my parents needed that Dee wouldn't hesitate to look after. As their health began to fail, Dee stayed even closer to them, to the point that, if mom and dad didn't answer the phone, I would call Dee to check on them. In a moment she would call back to let me know they were outside digging in the flowers or would just put one of them on the phone to let me know that all was well..

   When my parents died in 1995 Dee Berrong was about the same age as I am now. Clearly, she grieved them like the wonderfully loving daughter that she had become. Whenever I would see Dee out somewhere or visit at her apartment in North Wilkesboro, it wasn't long until remembering mom and dad was a great part of our time together. She would always remind me that she loved my mother and dad like her own and that she knew they loved her.

As do I.

Ellen, Dee, or Dewitte—I loved them all.

                                             Ellen Dewitte Berrong

                                   July 16, 1926 – October 11, 2017

                                               Rest in Peace

  Rethinking ourselves

By LAURA WELBORN

When it comes to feeling better about ourselves, and our place in the world, the biggest and most complex obstacle we have to overcome is our mind.  If we can overcome that, we can overcome almost anything life throws at us.

The key is in accepting the fact that while we can’t control exactly what happens in life, we CAN control how we respond to it all.  And in our response is our power to grow and move forward.

Bring awareness to the story you’re telling yourself, about yourself — You have a story about yourself that you recite to yourself daily.  This is your mental movie, and it’s a feature film that plays on repeat in your mind.   Start to pay attention when your movie plays—when you feel anxiety about being who you are—because it affects everything you do.  Realize that this movie isn’t real, it isn’t true, and it isn’t you.  It’s just a train of thought that can be stopped—a script that can be rewritten.

Rewrite the script (edit the storyline of your mental movie) — Your new script will replace that played-out one that keeps running in your cerebral theater.  And this time you will consciously craft it.  Start with the fact that you are a good person who is learning and working on getting better.  Then ask people who love you to tell you why you’re lovable.  And ask people who respect you to tell you why they do.  Use their stories as scenes in your new movie script.  Then fill in the blanks with recent moments and outcomes in your life that you are grateful for.  Try to focus on the things you don’t celebrate enough, and the things you don’t give yourself enough credit for.

Practice your new lines — Learn to recognize the worn-out flicker of your old movie starting up, and then stop it.  Whenever you catch yourself reciting lines from your old script, flip the script and replace those lines with lines from your new movie script.  This takes lots of practice.  Just keep practicing, and forgiving yourself for making mistakes along the way.

Deflect external negativity by taking it less personally — Various kinds of external negativity will attempt to distract you from your new script — comments from family, social media posts… lots of things people say and do.  When you sense negativity coming at you, learn to deflect it.  Give it a small push back with a thought like, “That remark is not really about me, it’s about you.”  Remember that all people have emotional issues they’re dealing with (just like you), and it makes them defiant, rude, and thoughtless sometimes.  They are doing the best they can, or they’re not even aware of their issues.  In any case, you can learn not to interpret their behaviors as personal attacks, and instead see them as non-personal encounters (like a dog barking in the distance, or a bumblebee buzzing by) that you can either respond to gracefully, or not respond to at all.  (Marc and Angel Hack life blog)

Then ask yourself:

Can I be ABSOLUTELY certain this story is true?

How do I feel and behave when I tell myself this story?

What’s one other (more positive) possibility that might also be true?

It all goes back to our thoughts are just our thoughts and quite possibly are not reality, although we convince ourselves they are.  I think back on how many times I have confronted someone with "my thoughts" and found that was not what they meant at all.  I tend to take my insecurities and magnify them into someone else's mind which is never healthy.  I hope I will check in with people more and above all give people the benefit of the doubt. 

Laura Welborn, Mediator and Addiction Counselor at DonLIn Counseling.  contact laurawelborn1@gmail.com

   Pity the Palestinians

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

I’d like to talk about the Palestinians—apart from the question of statehood. One should be provoked to compassion for the Palestinian people, because they are being destroyed by lies and strong delusion. Their leaders cause their young men to err by dangling the lie of beautiful virgins waiting to award them in paradise for the “honor” of murder or violence—and their own bloody and terrifying deaths. The Palestinians are destroying with their own hands those who in other circumstances could have been their brightest, bravest and most valiant young men—to lies.

Then there are lies about money: Instead of seeding $693 million in aid for 2017 toward needed infrastructure, education, and shoring up social and medical services, the Palestinian government will funnel roughly half—$334 million—to pay “salaries” to jailed or released terrorists and suicide bombers’ families. That’s not to mention the charges against PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his sons for corruption and misuse of public funds, or his jealously guarding his successorship to preserve his son’s business empires—a form of deception that deprives his people of governmental accountability. These examples are hard evidence that many in the current government have little compassion for their own people.

Political lies, many outlandish—are also rampant. According to Palestinian Media Watch, libels include: Israel steals organs from Palestinians; Israel seeks rule from the Euphrates to the Nile; Israel murdered Arafat (Abbas and rival Mohammed Dahlan accused each other of the same crime).

Instead of using schools to build strong academic foundations that encourage creative thought and expression, to give their children hope and a future, they enforce learning by rote with an inflammatory mix of distorted history and geography, false claims, propaganda, and incitement to violence. For example, a review of new UNWRA textbooks shows that “for the next generation of Palestinian kids, there is no Israel, it doesn’t exist,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Simon Wiesenthal Center associate dean told The Algemeiner. Instead of training young men to solve societal problems, they major in Stone Throwing and Kitchen Daggers 101, while their young women are traumatized by violence at home.

The Palestinians well understand the Temple Mount’s long, rich Jewish history. That’s why they go to great efforts to sabotage or destroy Jewish artifacts and other archeological evidence. That’s why they claim the Temple Mount is “in danger” of being restored to its original owner—Israel (see 2 Sam. 18-25; 2 Chron. 3:1).

If a terrorist with Israeli blood on his hands survives, he is promoted to leadership, calcifying the self-destructive cycle—just as terrorist Saleh al-Arouri was recently appointed deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau. Future leaders, who under other circumstances might have the potential to excel, and live normal, fulfilling lives, are caught in the vicious cycle.

If a child learns that the “right” way to deal with a disagreeable situation is by lying or turning violent, how will he cope with any disagreement? Palestinian violence is already turning inward to shred its own society. “People have forgotten the meaning of tolerance and resort to shooting to solve any small problem,” an Arab told Ynet News during a spike in Arab vs. Arab violence.

What can one expect when a people’s basic tenets of worship and law condone lies and deception? According to Quran 8:39, Muslims have a "divinely sanctioned" right to deceive, until "all religion belongs to Allah"–-that is, until they take their global caliphate by force. While Islamic ideology normally channels lying and deception toward non-Muslims, habitual lying and deceit seems to have seeped into relationships with their fellows.

Lying is not the exclusive domain of Muslims—but its danger lies in systematic practice. And certainly, lies and deception are an unstable foundation for any government, let alone a potential state.  

By contrast, consider the attributes of G-d for both Jews and Christians: He extols truth, and withholds life and blessings to “whoever loves and practices a lie.”

[endlessarchite]

Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!)

Ready for fall? Check out this fall tree cross stitch that is easy enough to make in just a few days. In this tutorial, I also cover how I create my own cross stitch patterns and provide a free download for this pattern.

In the blog world, it seems pretty commonplace for DIYers to create things out of embroidery hoops. From decorative wreaths to wall hangings and terrariums and light fixtures — even spider webs! But what about actual cross stitch? I know I’m not alone in having a love for this craft, but I’ve only ever shared sneak peeks of my patterns in IG stories before. It wasn’t until a few people reached out about their own crafting that I thought, “hmm, maybe I should show people how I create my own!”. So, here I am with today’s tutorial after this little DIY fall tree cross stitch.

*some links to products are affiliates. thanks for supporting the UDH!*

I first learned how to cross stitch from my Granny as a kid. She would spent hours and hours stitching gorgeous Lavender & Lace angels (those of you who are fans of cross stitch will know this manufacturer well… but those of you that don’t, here, here, and here are some great examples). She lovingly made one for each of the women in my family, including me and my younger sister Emily (or Em, as you’ve seen me mention her before). As a kid, I was fascinated with her craft and eager to learn how to do one myself. I picked out a very tiny pattern (with some beading, since I was ambitious as hell) and made my first angel out of a small kit (wow, I can’t believe I found that online too).

I made a few more, but during high school and college, I pretty much dropped it while I did lots of other crafts (painting, drawing, upholstery, scrapbooking, clay, etc.). Then seemingly random, I decided I wanted to start cross stitching again. I have an old kit from my Granny that I still use today, but when it comes to making patterns, I use a much more modern process!

How I Create My Own Cross Stitch Patterns

For creating my own cross stitch pattern, I use pic2pat.com. I’m not even sure how or when I found the site, but it works insanely well for such a complex process.

Step 1: Find and upload a photo or clipart.

I find that vector or clipart images work great, but I’ve also done some photorealistic patterns as well. In this example, I found a free clipart of a fall tree (I’m not a lawyer obviously, but for copyright reasons, ONLY use images that you have created yourself or are “Creative Commons CC0” — Google images may seem like a good resource on its face, but a great deal of those are still under copyright protections… which means using them can get you into a lot of hot, expensive water… try a site like Pixabay for lots of good free-use options instead).

Step 2: Select settings

On the next screen, you’ll have multiple options to set your pattern, which are based on the type of floss used(which is just the name used by cross stitchers, but it’s just multi-strand thread), the number of stitches per inch (the more stitches per inch, the tighter and more detailed the image can look), and the actual size of the end design (the size of the finished product). The “floss” brand I use is the best DMC. Most of the cross stitch fabric I pick up is size 14, but I also use 16 and 18 when I know I’m doing something more complex (the higher the size, the smaller the stitch… but that also means you can do more photorealistic patterns and not have to make the canvas HUGE to get enough detail).

The thing that also contributes to the overall quality of the pattern is the physical size of the pattern you want, which is the next selection on the drop-down menu. The dimensions will auto-generate based on the shape of the image uploaded, so if for example you want a square pattern, be sure to upload a square file. It will start at around 2 inches (which will greatly pixelate the image because it’s so small), and go up incrementally. Since I wanted this one to be relatively small and was fine with it looking more abstract, I picked an option just around 5×5 inches.

Step 3: Generate and download pattern

Once I click “next”, the pattern generates with multiple options. They go from the highest color variation (say, 70 colors) and on down, so you can choose how complex of a pattern you want to stitch. I usually settle in somewhere around 40 or so colors (when you hover with your mouse, it will indicate how many colors).

When you click on any of the options, it immediately downloads a PDF copy of your cross stitch pattern, along with a list of the colors you’ll need!

(I always skip the background color, which is why this one is crossed out.)

With the pattern printed out, I just start stitching. I don’t always have the colors I need, so I’ll sometimes match a thread that’s “close enough” and use it in the pattern as a substitute. For example, in my pattern, I didn’t have color 301 (Mahogany Medium), so I used a color 780 (Topaz Ultra Very Dark) instead. I just plain don’t like running out for other thread colors if I’m missing one, so this happens with my patterns pretty frequently.

For more photorealistic designs (I’ll show you guys those in the future, but they take MUCH longer to complete), I do even more than that. I often use both a printout of the actual picture and the generated pattern, side by side, to use as reference and get as close to the real thing as I can (there are plenty of colors in the DMC family, but sometimes you have to use your own eye to make sure house colors/flesh colors are accurate).

Fall Tree Cross Stitch Pattern – Free Download

So that’s it! Any fellow cross-stitchers out there? Or anyone who has ever wanted to try? This is a great starter project because it’s all really simple x-stiches. For every thread you see pictured, I used 2 strands (the DMC thread comes with 6 intertwined, so you cut some of the floss, separate the individual threads to be 2 strands each, and then start stitching).

And bonus: subscribers get access to my pattern for free. All you have to do is click the image below and follow the prompts, and you’ll get an email that allows you to download a PDF version of my pattern. The fall tree pattern comes in 2 versions: one that has a lot of color variation (like mine), and one that’s more simplistic with fewer colors (which also has the benefit of not having to track down as many colors).

If for some reason that image doesn’t work, you can also get it here.

Happy stitching!

Other Patterns I Love

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Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!) published first on http://ift.tt/2qxZz2j

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Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!)

Ready for fall? Check out this fall tree cross stitch that is easy enough to make in just a few days. In this tutorial, I also cover how I create my own cross stitch patterns and provide a free download for this pattern.

In the blog world, it seems pretty commonplace for DIYers to create things out of embroidery hoops. From decorative wreaths to wall hangings and terrariums and light fixtures — even spider webs! But what about actual cross stitch? I know I’m not alone in having a love for this craft, but I’ve only ever shared sneak peeks of my patterns in IG stories before. It wasn’t until a few people reached out about their own crafting that I thought, “hmm, maybe I should show people how I create my own!”. So, here I am with today’s tutorial after this little DIY fall tree cross stitch.

*some links to products are affiliates. thanks for supporting the UDH!*

I first learned how to cross stitch from my Granny as a kid. She would spent hours and hours stitching gorgeous Lavender & Lace angels (those of you who are fans of cross stitch will know this manufacturer well… but those of you that don’t, here, here, and here are some great examples). She lovingly made one for each of the women in my family, including me and my younger sister Emily (or Em, as you’ve seen me mention her before). As a kid, I was fascinated with her craft and eager to learn how to do one myself. I picked out a very tiny pattern (with some beading, since I was ambitious as hell) and made my first angel out of a small kit (wow, I can’t believe I found that online too).

I made a few more, but during high school and college, I pretty much dropped it while I did lots of other crafts (painting, drawing, upholstery, scrapbooking, clay, etc.). Then seemingly random, I decided I wanted to start cross stitching again. I have an old kit from my Granny that I still use today, but when it comes to making patterns, I use a much more modern process!

How I Create My Own Cross Stitch Patterns

For creating my own cross stitch pattern, I use pic2pat.com. I’m not even sure how or when I found the site, but it works insanely well for such a complex process.

Step 1: Find and upload a photo or clipart.

I find that vector or clipart images work great, but I’ve also done some photorealistic patterns as well. In this example, I found a free clipart of a fall tree (I’m not a lawyer obviously, but for copyright reasons, ONLY use images that you have created yourself or are “Creative Commons CC0” — Google images may seem like a good resource on its face, but a great deal of those are still under copyright protections… which means using them can get you into a lot of hot, expensive water… try a site like Pixabay for lots of good free-use options instead).

Step 2: Select settings

On the next screen, you’ll have multiple options to set your pattern, which are based on the type of floss used(which is just the name used by cross stitchers, but it’s just multi-strand thread), the number of stitches per inch (the more stitches per inch, the tighter and more detailed the image can look), and the actual size of the end design (the size of the finished product). The “floss” brand I use is the best DMC. Most of the cross stitch fabric I pick up is size 14, but I also use 16 and 18 when I know I’m doing something more complex (the higher the size, the smaller the stitch… but that also means you can do more photorealistic patterns and not have to make the canvas HUGE to get enough detail).

The thing that also contributes to the overall quality of the pattern is the physical size of the pattern you want, which is the next selection on the drop-down menu. The dimensions will auto-generate based on the shape of the image uploaded, so if for example you want a square pattern, be sure to upload a square file. It will start at around 2 inches (which will greatly pixelate the image because it’s so small), and go up incrementally. Since I wanted this one to be relatively small and was fine with it looking more abstract, I picked an option just around 5×5 inches.

Step 3: Generate and download pattern

Once I click “next”, the pattern generates with multiple options. They go from the highest color variation (say, 70 colors) and on down, so you can choose how complex of a pattern you want to stitch. I usually settle in somewhere around 40 or so colors (when you hover with your mouse, it will indicate how many colors).

When you click on any of the options, it immediately downloads a PDF copy of your cross stitch pattern, along with a list of the colors you’ll need!

(I always skip the background color, which is why this one is crossed out.)

With the pattern printed out, I just start stitching. I don’t always have the colors I need, so I’ll sometimes match a thread that’s “close enough” and use it in the pattern as a substitute. For example, in my pattern, I didn’t have color 301 (Mahogany Medium), so I used a color 780 (Topaz Ultra Very Dark) instead. I just plain don’t like running out for other thread colors if I’m missing one, so this happens with my patterns pretty frequently.

For more photorealistic designs (I’ll show you guys those in the future, but they take MUCH longer to complete), I do even more than that. I often use both a printout of the actual picture and the generated pattern, side by side, to use as reference and get as close to the real thing as I can (there are plenty of colors in the DMC family, but sometimes you have to use your own eye to make sure house colors/flesh colors are accurate).

Fall Tree Cross Stitch Pattern – Free Download

So that’s it! Any fellow cross-stitchers out there? Or anyone who has ever wanted to try? This is a great starter project because it’s all really simple x-stiches. For every thread you see pictured, I used 2 strands (the DMC thread comes with 6 intertwined, so you cut some of the floss, separate the individual threads to be 2 strands each, and then start stitching).

And bonus: subscribers get access to my pattern for free. All you have to do is click the image below and follow the prompts, and you’ll get an email that allows you to download a PDF version of my pattern. The fall tree pattern comes in 2 versions: one that has a lot of color variation (like mine), and one that’s more simplistic with fewer colors (which also has the benefit of not having to track down as many colors).

If for some reason that image doesn’t work, you can also get it here.

Happy stitching!

Other Patterns I Love

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The post Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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Read more http://ift.tt/2xT0GiR Areas served: Winston-Salem, High Point, Yadkinville, Mocksville, Advance, Clemmons, Kernersville, Greensboro, Walnut Cove, Statesville, NC, North Carolina Services: House painting, roofing, deck building, landscaping, Carpentry, Flooring, tile, hardwood, remodeling, home improvement, interior, exterior

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Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!)

Ready for fall? Check out this fall tree cross stitch that is easy enough to make in just a few days. In this tutorial, I also cover how I create my own cross stitch patterns and provide a free download for this pattern.

In the blog world, it seems pretty commonplace for DIYers to create things out of embroidery hoops. From decorative wreaths to wall hangings and terrariums and light fixtures — even spider webs! But what about actual cross stitch? I know I’m not alone in having a love for this craft, but I’ve only ever shared sneak peeks of my patterns in IG stories before. It wasn’t until a few people reached out about their own crafting that I thought, “hmm, maybe I should show people how I create my own!”. So, here I am with today’s tutorial after this little DIY fall tree cross stitch.

*some links to products are affiliates. thanks for supporting the UDH!*

I first learned how to cross stitch from my Granny as a kid. She would spent hours and hours stitching gorgeous Lavender & Lace angels (those of you who are fans of cross stitch will know this manufacturer well… but those of you that don’t, here, here, and here are some great examples). She lovingly made one for each of the women in my family, including me and my younger sister Emily (or Em, as you’ve seen me mention her before). As a kid, I was fascinated with her craft and eager to learn how to do one myself. I picked out a very tiny pattern (with some beading, since I was ambitious as hell) and made my first angel out of a small kit (wow, I can’t believe I found that online too).

I made a few more, but during high school and college, I pretty much dropped it while I did lots of other crafts (painting, drawing, upholstery, scrapbooking, clay, etc.). Then seemingly random, I decided I wanted to start cross stitching again. I have an old kit from my Granny that I still use today, but when it comes to making patterns, I use a much more modern process!

How I Create My Own Cross Stitch Patterns

For creating my own cross stitch pattern, I use pic2pat.com. I’m not even sure how or when I found the site, but it works insanely well for such a complex process.

Step 1: Find and upload a photo or clipart.

I find that vector or clipart images work great, but I’ve also done some photorealistic patterns as well. In this example, I found a free clipart of a fall tree (I’m not a lawyer obviously, but for copyright reasons, ONLY use images that you have created yourself or are “Creative Commons CC0” — Google images may seem like a good resource on its face, but a great deal of those are still under copyright protections… which means using them can get you into a lot of hot, expensive water… try a site like Pixabay for lots of good free-use options instead).

Step 2: Select settings

On the next screen, you’ll have multiple options to set your pattern, which are based on the type of floss used(which is just the name used by cross stitchers, but it’s just multi-strand thread), the number of stitches per inch (the more stitches per inch, the tighter and more detailed the image can look), and the actual size of the end design (the size of the finished product). The “floss” brand I use is the best DMC. Most of the cross stitch fabric I pick up is size 14, but I also use 16 and 18 when I know I’m doing something more complex (the higher the size, the smaller the stitch… but that also means you can do more photorealistic patterns and not have to make the canvas HUGE to get enough detail).

The thing that also contributes to the overall quality of the pattern is the physical size of the pattern you want, which is the next selection on the drop-down menu. The dimensions will auto-generate based on the shape of the image uploaded, so if for example you want a square pattern, be sure to upload a square file. It will start at around 2 inches (which will greatly pixelate the image because it’s so small), and go up incrementally. Since I wanted this one to be relatively small and was fine with it looking more abstract, I picked an option just around 5×5 inches.

Step 3: Generate and download pattern

Once I click “next”, the pattern generates with multiple options. They go from the highest color variation (say, 70 colors) and on down, so you can choose how complex of a pattern you want to stitch. I usually settle in somewhere around 40 or so colors (when you hover with your mouse, it will indicate how many colors).

When you click on any of the options, it immediately downloads a PDF copy of your cross stitch pattern, along with a list of the colors you’ll need!

(I always skip the background color, which is why this one is crossed out.)

With the pattern printed out, I just start stitching. I don’t always have the colors I need, so I’ll sometimes match a thread that’s “close enough” and use it in the pattern as a substitute. For example, in my pattern, I didn’t have color 301 (Mahogany Medium), so I used a color 780 (Topaz Ultra Very Dark) instead. I just plain don’t like running out for other thread colors if I’m missing one, so this happens with my patterns pretty frequently.

For more photorealistic designs (I’ll show you guys those in the future, but they take MUCH longer to complete), I do even more than that. I often use both a printout of the actual picture and the generated pattern, side by side, to use as reference and get as close to the real thing as I can (there are plenty of colors in the DMC family, but sometimes you have to use your own eye to make sure house colors/flesh colors are accurate).

Fall Tree Cross Stitch Pattern – Free Download

So that’s it! Any fellow cross-stitchers out there? Or anyone who has ever wanted to try? This is a great starter project because it’s all really simple x-stiches. For every thread you see pictured, I used 2 strands (the DMC thread comes with 6 intertwined, so you cut some of the floss, separate the individual threads to be 2 strands each, and then start stitching).

And bonus: subscribers get access to my pattern for free. All you have to do is click the image below and follow the prompts, and you’ll get an email that allows you to download a PDF version of my pattern. The fall tree pattern comes in 2 versions: one that has a lot of color variation (like mine), and one that’s more simplistic with fewer colors (which also has the benefit of not having to track down as many colors).

If for some reason that image doesn’t work, you can also get it here.

Happy stitching!

Other Patterns I Love

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The post Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!)

Ready for fall? Check out this fall tree cross stitch that is easy enough to make in just a few days. In this tutorial, I also cover how I create my own cross stitch patterns and provide a free download for this pattern.

In the blog world, it seems pretty commonplace for DIYers to create things out of embroidery hoops. From decorative wreaths to wall hangings and terrariums and light fixtures — even spider webs! But what about actual cross stitch? I know I’m not alone in having a love for this craft, but I’ve only ever shared sneak peeks of my patterns in IG stories before. It wasn’t until a few people reached out about their own crafting that I thought, “hmm, maybe I should show people how I create my own!”. So, here I am with today’s tutorial after this little DIY fall tree cross stitch.

*some links to products are affiliates. thanks for supporting the UDH!*

I first learned how to cross stitch from my Granny as a kid. She would spent hours and hours stitching gorgeous Lavender & Lace angels (those of you who are fans of cross stitch will know this manufacturer well… but those of you that don’t, here, here, and here are some great examples). She lovingly made one for each of the women in my family, including me and my younger sister Emily (or Em, as you’ve seen me mention her before). As a kid, I was fascinated with her craft and eager to learn how to do one myself. I picked out a very tiny pattern (with some beading, since I was ambitious as hell) and made my first angel out of a small kit (wow, I can’t believe I found that online too).

I made a few more, but during high school and college, I pretty much dropped it while I did lots of other crafts (painting, drawing, upholstery, scrapbooking, clay, etc.). Then seemingly random, I decided I wanted to start cross stitching again. I have an old kit from my Granny that I still use today, but when it comes to making patterns, I use a much more modern process!

How I Create My Own Cross Stitch Patterns

For creating my own cross stitch pattern, I use pic2pat.com. I’m not even sure how or when I found the site, but it works insanely well for such a complex process.

Step 1: Find and upload a photo or clipart.

I find that vector or clipart images work great, but I’ve also done some photorealistic patterns as well. In this example, I found a free clipart of a fall tree (I’m not a lawyer obviously, but for copyright reasons, ONLY use images that you have created yourself or are “Creative Commons CC0” — Google images may seem like a good resource on its face, but a great deal of those are still under copyright protections… which means using them can get you into a lot of hot, expensive water… try a site like Pixabay for lots of good free-use options instead).

Step 2: Select settings

On the next screen, you’ll have multiple options to set your pattern, which are based on the type of floss used(which is just the name used by cross stitchers, but it’s just multi-strand thread), the number of stitches per inch (the more stitches per inch, the tighter and more detailed the image can look), and the actual size of the end design (the size of the finished product). The “floss” brand I use is the best DMC. Most of the cross stitch fabric I pick up is size 14, but I also use 16 and 18 when I know I’m doing something more complex (the higher the size, the smaller the stitch… but that also means you can do more photorealistic patterns and not have to make the canvas HUGE to get enough detail).

The thing that also contributes to the overall quality of the pattern is the physical size of the pattern you want, which is the next selection on the drop-down menu. The dimensions will auto-generate based on the shape of the image uploaded, so if for example you want a square pattern, be sure to upload a square file. It will start at around 2 inches (which will greatly pixelate the image because it’s so small), and go up incrementally. Since I wanted this one to be relatively small and was fine with it looking more abstract, I picked an option just around 5×5 inches.

Step 3: Generate and download pattern

Once I click “next”, the pattern generates with multiple options. They go from the highest color variation (say, 70 colors) and on down, so you can choose how complex of a pattern you want to stitch. I usually settle in somewhere around 40 or so colors (when you hover with your mouse, it will indicate how many colors).

When you click on any of the options, it immediately downloads a PDF copy of your cross stitch pattern, along with a list of the colors you’ll need!

(I always skip the background color, which is why this one is crossed out.)

With the pattern printed out, I just start stitching. I don’t always have the colors I need, so I’ll sometimes match a thread that’s “close enough” and use it in the pattern as a substitute. For example, in my pattern, I didn’t have color 301 (Mahogany Medium), so I used a color 780 (Topaz Ultra Very Dark) instead. I just plain don’t like running out for other thread colors if I’m missing one, so this happens with my patterns pretty frequently.

For more photorealistic designs (I’ll show you guys those in the future, but they take MUCH longer to complete), I do even more than that. I often use both a printout of the actual picture and the generated pattern, side by side, to use as reference and get as close to the real thing as I can (there are plenty of colors in the DMC family, but sometimes you have to use your own eye to make sure house colors/flesh colors are accurate).

Fall Tree Cross Stitch Pattern – Free Download

So that’s it! Any fellow cross-stitchers out there? Or anyone who has ever wanted to try? This is a great starter project because it’s all really simple x-stiches. For every thread you see pictured, I used 2 strands (the DMC thread comes with 6 intertwined, so you cut some of the floss, separate the individual threads to be 2 strands each, and then start stitching).

And bonus: subscribers get access to my pattern for free. All you have to do is click the image below and follow the prompts, and you’ll get an email that allows you to download a PDF version of my pattern. The fall tree pattern comes in 2 versions: one that has a lot of color variation (like mine), and one that’s more simplistic with fewer colors (which also has the benefit of not having to track down as many colors).

If for some reason that image doesn’t work, you can also get it here.

Happy stitching!

Other Patterns I Love

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The post Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!)

Ready for fall? Check out this fall tree cross stitch that is easy enough to make in just a few days. In this tutorial, I also cover how I create my own cross stitch patterns and provide a free download for this pattern.

In the blog world, it seems pretty commonplace for DIYers to create things out of embroidery hoops. From decorative wreaths to wall hangings and terrariums and light fixtures - even spider webs! But what about actual cross stitch? I know I'm not alone in having a love for this craft, but I've only ever shared sneak peeks of my patterns in IG stories before. It wasn't until a few people reached out about their own crafting that I thought, hmm, maybe I should show people how I create my own!. So, here I am with today's tutorial after this little DIY fall tree cross stitch.

*some links to products are affiliates. thanks for supporting the UDH!*

I first learned how to cross stitch from my Granny as a kid. She would spent hours and hours stitching gorgeousLavender & Laceangels (those of you who are fans of cross stitch will know this manufacturer well but those of you that don't, here, here, and here are some great examples). She lovingly made one for each of the women in my family, including me and my younger sister Emily (orEm, as you've seen me mention her before). As a kid, I was fascinated with her craft and eager to learn how to do one myself. I picked out a very tiny pattern (with some beading, since I was ambitious as hell) and made my first angel out of a small kit (wow, I can't believe I found that online too).

I made a few more, but during high school and college, I pretty much dropped it while I did lots of other crafts (painting, drawing, upholstery, scrapbooking, clay, etc.). Then seemingly random, I decided I wanted to start cross stitching again. I have an old kit from my Granny that I still use today, but when it comes to making patterns, I use a much more modern process!

How I Create My Own Cross Stitch Patterns

For creating my own cross stitch pattern, I use pic2pat.com. I'm not even sure how or when I found the site, but it works insanely well for such a complex process.

Step 1: Find and upload a photo or clipart.

I find that vector or clipart images work great, but I've also done some photorealistic patterns as well. In this example, I found a free clipart of a fall tree (I'm not a lawyer obviously, but for copyright reasons, ONLY use images that you have created yourself or are Creative Commons CC0 - Google images may seem like a good resource on its face, but a great deal of those are still under copyright protections which means using them can get you into a lot of hot, expensive water try a site like Pixabay for lots of good free-use options instead).

Step 2: Select settings

On the next screen, you'll have multiple options to set your pattern, which are based on the type of floss used(which is just the name used by cross stitchers, but it's just multi-strand thread), the number of stitches per inch (the more stitches per inch, the tighter and more detailed the image can look), and the actual size of the end design (the size of the finished product). The floss brand I use is the best DMC. Most of the cross stitch fabric I pick up is size 14, but I also use 16 and 18 when I know I'm doing something more complex (the higher the size, the smaller the stitch but that also means you can do more photorealistic patterns and not have to make the canvas HUGE to get enough detail).

The thing that also contributes to the overall quality of the pattern is the physical size of the pattern you want, which is the next selection on the drop-down menu. The dimensions will auto-generate based on the shape of the image uploaded, so if for example you want a square pattern, be sure to upload a square file. It will start at around 2 inches (which will greatly pixelate the image because it's so small), and go up incrementally. Since I wanted this one to be relatively small and was fine with it looking more abstract, I picked an option just around 55 inches.

Step 3: Generate and download pattern

Once I click next, the pattern generates with multiple options. They go from the highest color variation (say, 70 colors) and on down, so you can choose how complex of a pattern you want to stitch. I usually settle in somewhere around 40 or so colors (when you hover with your mouse, it will indicate how many colors).

When you click on any of the options, it immediately downloads a PDF copy of your cross stitch pattern, along with a list of the colors you'll need!

(I always skip the background color, which is why this one is crossed out.)

With the pattern printed out, I just start stitching. I don't always have the colors I need, so I'll sometimes match a thread that's close enough and use it in the pattern as a substitute. For example, in my pattern, I didn't have color 301 (Mahogany Medium), so I used a color 780 (Topaz Ultra Very Dark) instead. I just plain don't like running out for other thread colors if I'm missing one, so this happens with my patterns pretty frequently.

For more photorealistic designs (I'll show you guys those in the future, but they take MUCH longer to complete), I do even more than that. I often use both a printout of the actual picture and the generated pattern, side by side, to use as reference and get as close to the real thing as I can (there are plenty of colors in the DMC family, but sometimes you have to use your own eye to make sure house colors/flesh colors are accurate).

Fall Tree Cross Stitch Pattern Free Download

So that's it! Any fellow cross-stitchers out there? Or anyone who has ever wanted to try? This is a great starter project because it's all really simple x-stiches. For every thread you see pictured, I used 2 strands (the DMC thread comes with 6 intertwined, so you cut some of the floss, separate the individual threads to be 2 strands each, and then start stitching).

And bonus: subscribers get access to my pattern for free. All you have to do is click the image below and follow the prompts, and you'll get an email that allows you to download a PDF version of my pattern. The fall tree pattern comes in 2 versions: one that has a lot of color variation (like mine), and one that's more simplistic with fewer colors (which also has the benefit of not having to track down as many colors).

If for some reason that image doesn't work, you can also get ithere.

Happy stitching!

Other Patterns I Love

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The post Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!)

Ready for fall? Check out this fall tree cross stitch that is easy enough to make in just a few days. In this tutorial, I also cover how I create my own cross stitch patterns and provide a free download for this pattern.

In the blog world, it seems pretty commonplace for DIYers to create things out of embroidery hoops. From decorative wreaths to wall hangings and terrariums and light fixtures — even spider webs! But what about actual cross stitch? I know I’m not alone in having a love for this craft, but I’ve only ever shared sneak peeks of my patterns in IG stories before. It wasn’t until a few people reached out about their own crafting that I thought, “hmm, maybe I should show people how I create my own!”. So, here I am with today’s tutorial after this little DIY fall tree cross stitch.

*some links to products are affiliates. thanks for supporting the UDH!*

I first learned how to cross stitch from my Granny as a kid. She would spent hours and hours stitching gorgeous Lavender & Lace angels (those of you who are fans of cross stitch will know this manufacturer well… but those of you that don’t, here, here, and here are some great examples). She lovingly made one for each of the women in my family, including me and my younger sister Emily (or Em, as you’ve seen me mention her before). As a kid, I was fascinated with her craft and eager to learn how to do one myself. I picked out a very tiny pattern (with some beading, since I was ambitious as hell) and made my first angel out of a small kit (wow, I can’t believe I found that online too).

I made a few more, but during high school and college, I pretty much dropped it while I did lots of other crafts (painting, drawing, upholstery, scrapbooking, clay, etc.). Then seemingly random, I decided I wanted to start cross stitching again. I have an old kit from my Granny that I still use today, but when it comes to making patterns, I use a much more modern process!

How I Create My Own Cross Stitch Patterns

For creating my own cross stitch pattern, I use pic2pat.com. I’m not even sure how or when I found the site, but it works insanely well for such a complex process.

Step 1: Find and upload a photo or clipart.

I find that vector or clipart images work great, but I’ve also done some photorealistic patterns as well. In this example, I found a free clipart of a fall tree (I’m not a lawyer obviously, but for copyright reasons, ONLY use images that you have created yourself or are “Creative Commons CC0” — Google images may seem like a good resource on its face, but a great deal of those are still under copyright protections… which means using them can get you into a lot of hot, expensive water… try a site like Pixabay for lots of good free-use options instead).

Step 2: Select settings

On the next screen, you’ll have multiple options to set your pattern, which are based on the type of floss used(which is just the name used by cross stitchers, but it’s just multi-strand thread), the number of stitches per inch (the more stitches per inch, the tighter and more detailed the image can look), and the actual size of the end design (the size of the finished product). The “floss” brand I use is the best DMC. Most of the cross stitch fabric I pick up is size 14, but I also use 16 and 18 when I know I’m doing something more complex (the higher the size, the smaller the stitch… but that also means you can do more photorealistic patterns and not have to make the canvas HUGE to get enough detail).

The thing that also contributes to the overall quality of the pattern is the physical size of the pattern you want, which is the next selection on the drop-down menu. The dimensions will auto-generate based on the shape of the image uploaded, so if for example you want a square pattern, be sure to upload a square file. It will start at around 2 inches (which will greatly pixelate the image because it’s so small), and go up incrementally. Since I wanted this one to be relatively small and was fine with it looking more abstract, I picked an option just around 5×5 inches.

Step 3: Generate and download pattern

Once I click “next”, the pattern generates with multiple options. They go from the highest color variation (say, 70 colors) and on down, so you can choose how complex of a pattern you want to stitch. I usually settle in somewhere around 40 or so colors (when you hover with your mouse, it will indicate how many colors).

When you click on any of the options, it immediately downloads a PDF copy of your cross stitch pattern, along with a list of the colors you’ll need!

(I always skip the background color, which is why this one is crossed out.)

With the pattern printed out, I just start stitching. I don’t always have the colors I need, so I’ll sometimes match a thread that’s “close enough” and use it in the pattern as a substitute. For example, in my pattern, I didn’t have color 301 (Mahogany Medium), so I used a color 780 (Topaz Ultra Very Dark) instead. I just plain don’t like running out for other thread colors if I’m missing one, so this happens with my patterns pretty frequently.

For more photorealistic designs (I’ll show you guys those in the future, but they take MUCH longer to complete), I do even more than that. I often use both a printout of the actual picture and the generated pattern, side by side, to use as reference and get as close to the real thing as I can (there are plenty of colors in the DMC family, but sometimes you have to use your own eye to make sure house colors/flesh colors are accurate).

Fall Tree Cross Stitch Pattern – Free Download

So that’s it! Any fellow cross-stitchers out there? Or anyone who has ever wanted to try? This is a great starter project because it’s all really simple x-stiches. For every thread you see pictured, I used 2 strands (the DMC thread comes with 6 intertwined, so you cut some of the floss, separate the individual threads to be 2 strands each, and then start stitching).

And bonus: subscribers get access to my pattern for free. All you have to do is click the image below and follow the prompts, and you’ll get an email that allows you to download a PDF version of my pattern. The fall tree pattern comes in 2 versions: one that has a lot of color variation (like mine), and one that’s more simplistic with fewer colors (which also has the benefit of not having to track down as many colors).

If for some reason that image doesn’t work, you can also get it here.

Happy stitching!

Other Patterns I Love

!function(d,s,id){ var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? 'http' : 'https'; if(!d.getElementById(id)) { e = d.createElement(s); e.id = id; e.src = p + '://widgets.rewardstyle.com/js/shopthepost.js'; d.body.appendChild(e); } if(typeof window.__stp === 'object') if(d.readyState === 'complete') { window.__stp.init(); } }(document, 'script', 'shopthepost-script');

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The post Fall Tree Cross Stitch and How I Create My Own Patterns (Free Download!) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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