Help.

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This place needs a new tagline.  To put in place of the art of creation, which was always meant to be a placeholder until I came up with something decent.  Well, here we are nearly a year later.... 

I'd like to redo the header in time for the blog's anniversary in a couple of weeks.  That doesn't leave me much time.

Suggestions?

Red.

Version 2 of the last piece I did.

I think I like this better.

A new writing countdown.

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There's just a little over a month left until Script Frenzy begins again.  For me, script writing is a breeze* compared to writing a novel so I don't sweat so much as a drop, even in the days leading up to the start. Because of this I've never pushed beyond the basic goal.  100 pages in 30 days. 

I've written entire scripts—approximately 120 pages—in just a couple of weeks.  I think I worked about 10 days on last year's Frenzy script.  10 lazy days.  It helped that I adapted manuscripts I've been working on instead of creating something entirely new. 

This year I'm making it harder on myself.  No adaptations.  Something out of my wheelhouse.  I intend to post excerpts here so if I don't want to embarrass myself it can't be total garbage.

I don't have a plot yet or even a genre, but this is my plan.  If anyone has plot or character suggestions please share.  It can be something as simple as a visual.  When I began my first NaNoWriMo, I only had an image of a young girl—no name—holding a red balloon.  I also had a sense of the girl's personality, but that was it.  Even the smallest bit of inspiration can prove to be meaningful.  

* Disclaimer:  This does not mean that my scripts are any good, just that I somehow manage to finish them without the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, all of which are standard procedure during NaNoWriMo. 

Restoring Grandpa.

I mentioned before how I've recently come across hundreds of digital photographs of my grandparents and that I've been working on restoring—and I use that word loosely since I'm not an expert—them.  I shared photos of Grandma in this post.  Well, I've finally gotten around to working on Grandpa.

Here's an example of one pre-restoration.  Dusty, dirty, and scratched.

And here are some of my favorites after I'd finished.  I believe they're all taken in the 30s.

I didn't fix crooked horizons, although I was sorely tempted, because I didn't want to interfere with the photographer's—in this case, I think my grandma—point of view.  I left my own POV out of it and stuck to eliminating scratches, dust, and dirt.

Ok, that's not entirely true.  Many of the photos were either overexposed or faded. See post linked above.  Since Grandma's point of view probably didn't include overexposure and she had no control over fading I decided that she wouldn't mind if I adjusted the brightness levels to correct that problem.  

This last one's still a work in progress, but I thought I'd include it anyway.  There was a large scratch across the middle of his right eye and completely removing it has been and will continue to be time-consuming.

I think Grandpa had no trouble keeping up with Grandma in the style department, don't you agree? 

More typography art.

Here's a piece I did by request.

Like the last one it's also lyrics from a church song.

A lovely hunk of walnut, a basket of beignets, and one jaded gater.

Eek!  How sad is it that this is only my second time blogging this month.  My excuse this time is that D became very sick the day before Valentine's Day and he's only just starting to bounce back.  That may not sound like much of an excuse, but the thing with D is that if he's sick then he's sick.  And he's a total baby about it too and requires lots of care which means I get even less sleep than he does.  I think I averaged about 4 hours last week.  I'm worn out!

I got a break from my nursing duties on Friday to go antiquing in a nearby town.  Sadly, I didn't come home with anything except a longing for this beautiful 1930s walnut table.

Sigh.

As a consolation prize I devoured some beignet bites stuffed with bavarian cream.

For those not in the know, a beignet is like a doughnut sprinkled with confectioner's sugar.  They are the official state doughnut of Louisiana.  ;-)  I'd never had a stuffed beignet before and I feel as though my eyes have been opened.  Really fantastic.

I also had a nice chat with a gater, whose name, apparently, is Ole Hardhide. 

He seemed rather bored and sadly not impressed by my conversation skills, but then nobody is so I can't really blame him.

Fingers crossed the cat doesn't come down with something this week!

The dangers of blogging and ACV.

I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging.  Part of it had to do with being under the weather, but I'll get to that in a bit.  The biggest part is that I'm still unsure of what I want this blog to be.  So at the moment it's basically nonexistent.

I know what I don't want it to be.  Narcissistic and/or vapid.  There's always a danger of that when you're blogging about yourself.  Although I suppose there's a danger of that no matter what you blog about.  Someone please holler at me if this place threatens to become any of those terrible adjectives that describe the worst sort of blogs.  Insipid. Twee.  Self-indulgent.  Need I go on?

Ick.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way let's talk apple cider vinegar.

One passion of mine that I've never discussed on this blog is healthy eating.  And by that I don't mean low-fat, low-cal, etc.  Double ick.  That's a post/rant for another day.

For the past couple of years I've worked on eating as cleanly as possible.  No boxed meals, frozen meals, canned meals, bottled dressings, etc.  I'll go into more details another time, but basically that means cooking from scratch with whole foods, which are foods as close to their natural state as possible.

But now I'm getting slightly off-topic.  Healthy eating is indeed a passion of mine.

As I mentioned above, part of the reason for my blogging absence was that I'd been feeling under the weather.  For a couple of weeks I had stomach issues.  Anytime I'd eat, no matter what it was, my belly blew up like a blowfish and gurgled and churned constantly.  Never mind the aches and pains.  I'm not sure what was going on, but it wasn't pretty and there seemed to be no end in sight.

You can hardly be interested in healthy living and healthy living blogs without coming across praise for apple cider vinegar.  ACV is said to benefit digestion, heartburn, skin conditions, joint pain, energy levels, even weight loss.

For months I debated trying it but didn't want to get sucked into some silly health nut fad, though to be fair it dates back to Hippocrates.  I've read testimonials singing the praises of ACV and I've read reports stating that there is no scientific evidence of its claims.

Fast forward to my recent stomach issues and I decided it was worth a shot.  I dragged my achey self to Whole Foods (They don't carry the good stuff at Walmart.) and picked up a bottle of Bragg Organic Raw Unfiltered Unpasteurized Gluten Free Apple Cider Vinegar with The 'Mother'.  Say that 3 times fast.  Apparently ACV should be raw, unfiltered, and with the 'mother' (the sediment at the bottom).  Also, Bragg is unanimously, as far as I can tell, the recommended brand.

In less than a week all of my stomach woes were completely gone.  Not only that, but I never bloat after eating anymore.  I also have more energy.  It's amazing!  Next stop, an online order for a gallon jug of the stuff.

Because of the strong flavor ACV is usually diluted.   Distilled water is best, but so far I've been using tap.  I plan on going distilled soon.  Honey, preferably raw, is often added for taste and is believed to be a healing aid in its own right.  Particularly if you have allergies, raw local honey is best.

Here's how I do it:

2 teaspoons ACV
1-2 teaspoons honey
8-10 ounces warm water  

3 times a day

Some people take as much as 1 tablespoon ACV 3 times a day.  Some don't dilute the ACV at all, although it's better for your enamel if you do.

ACV is believed to help with:

MD
MS
Parkinson's
Bi-polar
Crohn's 
Epilepsy
Cancer
Rheumatism
Arthritis
IBS    
Diabetes
High blood pressure
Heart disease
Fibromyalgia
Chronic Fatigue
AIDS
and more

ACV doesn't help everyone with those diseases/disorders, but it has helped some to the point of no longer needing their medications.

In my opinion, apple cider vinegar is completely worth trying if your health is suffering or if you're just not feeling as well as you think you could.