Planning and things

I know, I haven't done any of my "catch up" posts for my 1083 Days project yet. I will, I will.

I've been really sick (STILL not fully diagnosed, this is starting to really stink!), and tired, and working a whole lot, so my husband and baby and I can do something fun soon. It'll all be worth it! But need to have some extra overtime done to make it happen. That, and we really need a new car. We're on the lookout right now, and I want to know I can set aside the down payment for a lease when we find "the one" as it were.

Plus, we're still working on opening Onto Paper later this year, so lots on our plates!

Speaking of which, I'm cruising Pinterest for some "freezer meals", which seem oh so popular these days, but I really see why. I have good and bad days with my health. Today is leaning more to "bad", unfortunately, but I still go to work and do all the things, while baby and daddy explore the world and have a good time. Except for the whole terrible twos thing, but we'll pretend he's an angel child and that doesn't happen, ha!

But it'd be nice to know that if I prep 80 things, the husband can fling one into the crock pot before baby's nap time, and when he gets me home from work at night, food will be ready. Perfect. :) A little more work for me on a "good" day, and not have to worry about the husband burning down the house. HAHAHA. Ahem.

Not much else to say right now, and I have a bad headache coming on, probably from sneezing (oh what a life) but what can you do? :)

Projects!

So the other day I mentioned how busy I am. I decided to make a list of things I'm working on, which I'll edit as I work on things!

Books

Otter - A novel about a girl who wakes up, confused about where she is, and who she is. She ends up realizing she's in a weird time loop... With strange results.
About 2/3s of the way done writing this one! When it's done, my husband is going to be my editor (best) and it'll be up on Channillo!

Voice/Memory - A novel series (probably a trilogy at this point) that hints that mental illness isn't what it seems.
Have been working on this one for literally years, finally figuring out how to make the plot work for me. Don't you hate when that happens, that the story wants to do its own thing? Sigh.

The above books will be released in their various forms (someday, into real live books, I hope!) under a pseudonym, which I'm tweaking (because my husband said it sounds weird lol) and will release out into the world soon as well. It's like getting to be an all new person! Yee!

Once the pseudonym's pages have been set up, my writing stuff will be located elsewhere, but I will link to it. :)

I also have other story ideas floating in my head, but they're a lot less... concrete than anything else listed here.

1183 Days

This started as a 'bucket list' sort of project back in September, with my 33rd birthday lurking around the corner (my birthday is in December) and me feeling like I wasn't doing enough in my life. Which is ridiculous, I'm such a busy chick!

As of today (April 20th, 2016) I've done 16/169 items. Why 169? That was the amount of weeks in between my start date, and my 36th birthday! I'm kind of slacking, I should be about 29 tasks in, due to it having been 29 weeks since I started, but a few things on the list will happen all at once. Like most things related to Onto Paper (our business we're hoping to open later this year!) or the things that are all in California (I want to attend the Ellen show, and maybe go check out a game show or two, lol) and such.

This is actually a really important thing for me to do with my time. There's so many little things I do, or want to do, that I never thought mattered, but they do, to me. And maybe to some of you!

When it's all done, whether or not I finish everything, I'm thinking of putting it out, pictures and all, as a book. Just to prove to myself that I and my life are important. :)

Onto Paper

This is my and my husband's idea, which started as a small creative lounge concept (a place for people to write together) and is blooming into a much bigger idea, with painting and crafting on site, and customers' works being sold right in-store.

Originally planned for in the San Antonio, TX area, we've had some bumps along the way (mostly related to my health taking a major dive, I'm currently in the middle of testing to figure out what's going on!) but we're still pushing forward, now in the Niagara Region of Ontario!

It'll start small, as many great things do, but I dream of it becoming a franchise-worthy place, where creativity can grow. We have plans for a charity through it as well, to benefit art programs for children. That's obviously coming up further down the line, but we're excited for it!

* * *

There's so much more that I'm working on, but these are the big three. Some smaller projects are linked to 1183 Days (one including painting rocks, heh) and some are just life things in general. But these are the ones that matter to me most!

Onto Paper

I actually am really excited to have a place to talk about Onto Paper! I get asked what it is, or rather will be, pretty often. So having somewhere to direct everyone (other than our website that is just a placeholder right now!) is a great feeling!

It all started out when the husband and I realized we wanted somewhere quiet to write, and share ideas with people. We looked around (in San Antonio, because that's where we are at the moment) but didn't find anything we liked. We found a writer's guild, but they meet once a month, and are almost all already published authors. Which we are not. We found an arcade we LOVE (RikRic OtakuCafe in San Antonio) and even held a couple of meetings at it for NaNoWriMo 2015, but in the end, it can get crowded for gaming (duh!) and often is louder than we'd like. So while it was a fun gathering place, it wasn't really what we wanted either.

So the wheels in our brains got turning, and a bunch of research went in. We threw ideas back and forth, what did we want? Who are we, in the creative sense? Writers, artists... We needed a place that people like us, could just hang out with us, and create!

Creative lounges exist in various forms, I came across a neat one that also doubles as a bar. I've been to a paint-along type place, where a painting is done, and you're supposed to copy it. (I deviated from the design, I'm a troublemaker. That's how I failed Art class, though, heh.) But we want something more us...

So Onto Paper has been rolling for a few months now. We intended on opening it up in San Antonio, but my health took a major dive, and eventually I wound up in the hospital. We'll be going back home (for me) near Niagara Falls, soon, and opening it up there, where I'll have "free" healthcare.

But despite my illness, we haven't given up on it.

We know we want to invite writers of all levels to come together, and write together. To be offered prompts, writing sprints, theme nights, contests... as well as a small bookstore, to sell their published works, keeping it all local.

We know we want to have artists be able to not only have space to create, but show off their creations, whether by selling original works, or prints, or whatever may have you. A mini art gallery, of sorts.

Over time, we've also decided to showcase crafters, selling items that most people these days only sell online through sites like Etsy, or every so often at a Farmers Market or the like. People who don't want a full brick-and-mortar store, but still deserve to get noticed.

For brainstorming time, we intend on having board games and card games at the ready. We're big nerds, and love all sorts of gaming, but opening an arcade isn't part of our plan, sorry to say! We really are trying to get back to basics, making things that are going out of style thanks to electronics, and giving them a platform at the ready.

So yeah! I'll be posting our milestones along the way here. When we get a space, when we start decorating, when we actually open for business (obviously a lot of this will go on the official site, but here you can get more detailed, behind the scenes stuff, oooohhh fancy, hahaha!)