Sunday, April 10, 2011

Biting off more than I can chew

I'm on a roll with Power Trio. Only 8 more pages of garbled mess to sift through until I can officially say that I have finished the first draft. So, with this entire day free, what better to do than work, right? But then I had this great idea... I mean I have 15 hours! That's more than enough time to accomplish a bunch of stuff.

I live in a rental house, and when I moved in there was this ugly mirror on the bedroom door. It was curvy and in a whole bunch of pieces that rattled every time I shut the door. I didn't really like it, but it looked like the mirror was attached really well, so I figured I'd just have to live it.

A week ago, I shut the door and I heard something tiny hit the floor. A small little ting, hardly noticeable above the sounds of my two cats chasing each other around. I opened the door and crawled across the floor, but I couldn't find anything. Then, the next day when I shut the door, I heard a much louder crash. One of the mirror panels had fallen, but luckily it didn't break. And, even more good news, it turns out all I had to do to take it down was pop off a few plastic caps. Yay!
To cover the peeling paint!

However, I finally figured out why someone had put the mirror up in the first place:

I wasn't sure what I wanted to put up, so I searched for some options for covering a door. I thought about painting it with chalkboard paint or wrapping fabric around it. Then I found an article about covering a door with French memo boards. Perfect!

So with this huge 15 hours of unplanned Sunday time, I decided to spend a few of them making something to cover the ickiness. Then I'd get right to work on Power Trio. 
They look done, but they still need
the buttons on the bottom right
added to every place the ribbons meet.

Eight hours later, I am still working on these French Memo boards. Things always sounds so easy on paper. I do have Power Trio open right now, and I am going to put in a solid hour or two before bed. These memo boards will have to wait.

Kind of like writing a book, right? I keep reading these stories about people who write a book in two months, edit it in two, then get signed to an agent and published within a year. I'm almost three years from the start of Power Trio. (I can remember because I had the idea during an annual conference that I am about to head to tomorrow morning.)

Reading the instructions for these memo boards, the process sounded so easy, but then once I was into the process I realized it was not going to happen easily. It was going to take work. I had to troubleshoot a few times, but every thing gets me another step closer to finishing! Before long I'll be able to say that I've finished a book and four memo boards! And you guys will be the first to know.

Okay, time to get some editing done. Wish me luck! Hope that you had a great weekend too! 

6 comments:

  1. Isn't that the truth! I'm on year three with my manuscript, and my third attempt at a rewrite. Come to think of it, it seemed easy the first time around. Now it's a labor. Still fun, though!

    ~Tara

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  2. Ooo those will look darling! Are the buttons going to match the ribbons or contrast?

    I can't label actual time on my manuscript because I use to only work on it during semester breaks (winter and summer). So collectively it's been three years but in actuality it's only been a year of time spent on the thing.

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  3. Sometimes a little handiwork is exactly what you need :) Good luck with the writing! :)

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  4. Good luck on Power Trio! And also your door! I spent this morning's writing time pulling up the toilet because SOMEONE flushed a cat toy last night.

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  5. Good luck with the writing! And show us pictures of the French Memo boards when you're done!

    I do that sometimes when I have the entire day to write. I think "I have all day! I can do this too!"

    But it never works and I wind up having less time to write than on a workday. So now I try to get the writing done before everything else.

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  6. Thanks for the encouragement! To answer Steph's question, the buttons are going to contrast. The fabric is beige with blue flowers, the ribbons are blue, and the buttons (technically they're faux pearl brads) are white with gold rings around them.

    I think I need to take Elizabeth P.'s advice and do the writing first!

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