Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Words on a page

While winter is protesting its change into Spring, I'm working on the sequel to Sweet Tea and Southern Grace in the comfort of a padded office chair in a warm house with Banana Nut Bread in the oven. The timer says ten minutes left, and the aroma tells me that in exactly ten minutes, I'll be ready for a break from writing. The thoughts of a big slice with a glass of cold milk keeps me plodding forward..

Sometimes when I look at what I've written, I just see words on a page. My fingers are flying trying to capture the words ahead of me, not behind me - the words coming out of the mouths of my characters so fast that if I don't get them down on paper, they'll dissipate right there in front of me - and they won't come back no matter how hard I coax them. At that moment, everything thing behind them are just random words all thrown together, but when I finish with a page, a paragraph, a chapter or a book, the words are no longer just words. They're a story - a sense of accomplishment.

Good night, my friends. The oven timer is calling me.

Yum!

Friday, March 14, 2014

"Shades" of Blue

We live in a 1920's home with a huge converted attic - about 900 square feet of space that is now our guest bedroom with a large sitting area, a bathroom, a large closet and front and back dormers - one of which I've been wanting to convert into a small reading nook with a window seat and some bookshelves. It has a double window which is a little off center for some unknown reason, so I was hoping to do a wall-to-wall roman shade for the window covering - and I want my favorite color, blue. I finally found the look I want - I think. Oh, there are so many shades of blue! It was mind-boggling to see them all when trying to pick the right shade....for the shades. Check out this below:

Photo courtesy of CoCoCozy.com

It's perfect - even with the built in book shelves! Blue, blue and more blue! North and South Carolina inhabitants are in love with the color blue. From our Carolina Blue skies to North Carolina's finest basketball teams' colors, Carolina and Duke, we just can't seem to get enough of it. As I was thinking about all the shades of blue, I started looking at all my digital snapshots I've taken recently. Nature is full of my favorite color. I hope you'll enjoy the "blues" - not sad blues, but happy blues in the photos below.

This was taken at our vacation place at the beach - overlooking the Lockwood Folly River near Holden Beach, North Carolina. I love how the blue of the ocean and the blue of the sky is separated by the golden marsh grass.
Marshland blues
The one below was taken on a recent trip to the North Carolina mountains near Boone. 

Mountain Blues

I took this photo just yesterday. The background of our South Carolina blue sky brings out the crisp fresh plum tree blossoms - one of our first signs of Spring.

Spring Blue


I took this last summer on the beach at Holden Beach, North Carolina. I love how the shades of blues in the beach cabanas and the ocean make our Carolina blue sky pop!
Beach Cabana Blues


A little different beach blue below! The shades of pink in the setting sun separates the gray-blues of the sky as the clouds roll in from the West and the surf, sand, and sea reflect its glory.
Beach Sunset Blues

I love to make bird photos and this lovely little bluebird was polite enough to pose for a wonderful winter blue photo op during our recent February snowstorm. Here in South Carolina, we don't get a lot of snow, but when we do, we get out and enjoy it!

Winter Blues


The next two photos are "Family Blues". My teenage granddaughter was having fun dressing up for a costume party representing the sixtie's.  The other photo is of three of my favorite people all dressed in blue for Father's Day last year - my hubby, and our two daughters.


Peace sign blues
My girls and their Dad dressed in Blue

And finally, the reason I haven't blogged much in the last year. The blue shade of color on the cover of my newly released book! The cover photo of the blue porch with the cozy rockers was taken at a local estate, The Ivy Place. Sweet Tea and Southern Grace is available at Amazon.com in both Kindle and paperback. A Christian / Southern novel and it's my favorite shade of "blue".


Hope you've enjoyed my happy blues today. Now I need to start planning my reading nook!






Blessings to all of you as you participate in Kathryn's Anything Blue Friday over at The Dedicated House.