Marisa Hopkins: Living the Creative Life

Breaking Up is Hard To Do (In Which I Talk About the Comma)

2012-02-09T10:24:00.012-06:00

I'm just going to go ahead and talk about the comma. Or more importantly, HOW MUCH I HATE THE COMMA. (riveting stuff, I know)

Here's something to know about me: I am a comma user, and abuser. In fact, I don't even know if my previous sentence should have a comma or not. Should it? I don't know. I think I use Google for punctuation and spell checks more than anything else.

I was agonizing over my punctuation incompetence with my good pal Jonny a long while ago, and he recommended:

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss.

Which I bought, and began to read, and my eyes glazed over, and.... well, I flashbacked to my school days, when I ignored all lectures on punctuation in order to read the book I was hiding under my desk. Then promptly set Eats, Shoots, and Leaves down, and grabbed a different book.

Gracie ignores punctuation of every sort - which makes following along as she's reading aloud nearly impossible. And it's funny to me that I work with her on it (and by funny, I mean crazy) because when I get critiques from my awkward-sentence polishing crit partners, it's obvious I'm the last person who should be showing my 6-year-old where to place a comma.

Commas are hard, yo.

When I was in college I volunteered in a 6th grade Core class (language, literature, social studies) a few hours a week. I loved it. The kids were awesome, the teacher was awesome, and I can barely go a single day without remembering Mrs. T's lesson on the dreaded COMMA.

"Breaking up words is hard to do," she told her students. "There's even a song about it."

The kids looked at her like she was insane, so she put a tape in the tape player, and the music began.

Mrs. T sang along, all the way though, emphasizing the comma comma down doobie doo down down part in the background, and the chorus. The kids giggled, and the braver ones joined in. And I have had this song stuck in my head every day that I have corrected a misplaced comma in one of my manuscripts since.

Which means this song is constantly stuck in my head.

I've decided I need to a new goal on Marisa's Great List of Goals for 2012. Make it all the way through Eat, Shoots, and Leaves, and actually apply the information.

Because my comma woes are bad... but don't even get me started on the apostrophe...

Also, I might need to begin with the illustrated kid's version first - maybe I'll be less likely to set it down.
How about you, folks? Are you a punctuation lover, or hater?

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The S-H Word Edition

2012-02-08T16:22:00.008-06:00

Setting: 6-year-old Gracie in the car with Will, coming home from school.

GRACIE: My friend said a swear word today.

WILL [brows high]: Really? What swear word did she say?

GRACIE: The S word. [pauses seriously] The S-H word.

WILL: Oh, wow. Have you ever heard me say that word?

GRACIE [Scandalized and defensive]: “No, Dad! You would never tell anyone to shut up!”

---------------------

Oh, these kids. So innocent. So entertaining.

Hope you're having a great week so far, folks!

xoxo,

Happy Birthday to the Baby

2012-01-31T07:59:00.004-06:00

There's a slight possibility that last night I had one of those nervous breakdown cry fests brought on by the fact that this tiny little chocolate-covered mouse is officially FIVE-YEARS-OLD.

I mean, that's practically a teenager - or at least that's how it feels to me, knowing just how quickly the last several years have flown.

It doesn't feel like I've been blogging about my kiddos for very long, but when I look back at the first handful of posts, like the one where the above picture came from - when Annelie, only a couple months old, had her first taste of chocolate (and clearly enjoyed it) - yeah, those sappy mom tears come a-gushing.

Today Annelie woke up, saw her room full of balloons (a Hopkins family tradition) and couldn't fly out of bed fast enough. Where was she headed? Why, over to the measuring wall so she could see just how much taller 5-years-old is from yesterday's 4-years-old, of course.

Turns out, 5-years-old is at least a centimeter taller - but that might be because Gracie is the one who does the measuring.

Happy birthday, to my baby! I'm definitely looking forward to the entertainment she has in store for me in the years to come!

xoxo,

Like Mother, Like Daughters

2012-01-29T12:26:00.002-06:00

The other day, Gracie came home from school and said, "Hey, Mom, can I use the computer? I want to work on my book. It's going to be a chapter book."

Naturally, I died from happiness, and ran to my computer, and opened up a Word doc just for her.

A couple minutes later, Gracie called out, "Hey, Mom, how many chapters does your book have?"

"Thirty!" I said back.

She raised a brow at me and snorted. "Well, mine is going to have one hundred chapters."

And ten minutes later, she was asking about where to send her book because she was ready for publication.

Naturally, I died laughing. Especially when I read her story.

-----------------

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a princess who was feeding her cat. The queen said you have to let the dog out. So she let the dog out.

-----------------

Not quite a hundred chapters...

"You know, it looks like an awesome start, but maybe we should call this a practice story, and you can make it a little bit longer?"

So Gracie added another sentence - this one about a toilet.

Annelie has been wow'd by the whole idea of writing a book, so the other day, while Gracie was in school, she said, "Mom, can I write a book, too?"

"YES!" I promptly shouted with glee, and ran to open a Word doc just for her.

About ten minutes later, she called out, "How many pages is your book, Mom?"

"About two hundred and sixty," I called back.

She laughed. "That's not much. My book is going to be one thousand pages."

And a few minutes after that, she was ready to send in her story for publication - competition for me as it's a Sleeping Beauty tale, like mine.

-----------------

WOSOPONOTIMSLIPENBUOODEWOZHOMADCHEATIPOIWSANNESAPO
SHEDID

-----------------

"What does it say?" she asked me.

"Um. Why don't you read it to me?"

So she glanced over her words and said, "Once upon a time, Sleeping Beauty was home and she ate a poisonous apple. She died."

I was pretty darned impressed. And also very amused, because this is how Annelie reads. She doesn't quite have the concept of spaces-between-words figured out, and though she can read fairly well, she sounds an entire sentence out as a long string of phonemes, thinks about the sounds for a second, and then relays the sentence as it should sound - with spaces and everything.

(kids are fascinating creatures)

After I told her that her story wasn't quite ready for publication, she decided to add another story to her Word doc - a Cinderella tale. This time, she made it as far as WOSEPONETIM (Once upon a time) before she cut straight to the dialogue.

-----------------

WOTSEDRELIIAMTTOOTIRDUSHADTAKABRAK

("What's wrong, Cinderella?"

"I am too tired."

"You should take a break.")

and then a little further into the story....

WOOPWOOPZASAGODEEOKWRD

("Woop woop, this is getting awkward!")

-----------------

All I have to say is it's a good thing I have two computers, or else I might never have a chance to write again.

Also, I'm pretty sure "Woop woop, this is getting awkward!" is the best line of dialogue EVER WRITTEN.

xoxo,

Fun with Negatives

2012-01-25T13:59:00.009-06:00

After having my mind blown upon trying out THIS (thanks for the link, Alyssa!) I decided my kids would have a ton of fun with it, too - using photos of themselves.

(And for those of you who don't want to click the link, but still want to know what's going on here - well, I'll tell ya)

Stare at the colored dots on Annelie's nose for 30 seconds. Then immediately look at a solid white sheet of paper/wall/ceiling/whatever and blink rapidly.

Yeah, how cool is that?

Wanna try it with photos of your own?

Well, if you don't have a photo editing software that will do it for you, you can download Photoscape for free (which is what I use when editing photos - just google it for the download link) and then play around like so:

(red, green, blue)

(and if you mess up, the UNDO button can be found on the right)

Save, print, email to everyone you know, and enjoy!

And that's all, folks!

Have a great Wednesday!

xoxo,

The New Toothless Girl

2012-01-23T13:53:00.005-06:00

Annelie has been on a mission to remove her first wiggly tooth for several days now. As soon as she realized it was more than a teensy bit wiggly, she's been plotting ways to pull it out - most of them involving tying various toys to pieces of yarn and walking around the house with them dangling from her mouth.

"Why don't you just wiggle it?" I suggested.

"Well, I am," she said back. "But first I'm going to tie something heavy to it so it will just fall out."

She has walked around the house with a Barbie dangling out of her mouth. A Littlest Pet Shop puppy dangling from her mouth. A sparkly Snow White dress-up shoe... Her wheelie suitcase....

"Mom, please can you tie my string to the door and then slam it shut?" she begged.

I said no.

"Daddy, pleeeeeease can you tie my string to the door and then slam it shut?" she begged.

Will said no.

Well today, after much plotting and planning and dangling junk from string tied to her mouth, she decided to give the wiggling a go, and about an hour later, came running up to me yelling, "GET A LOAD OF THIS NEW TOOTHLESS GIRL!!!"

Then she struck a mighty fine pose to show off her brand new gap.

And there you have it. My new toothless girl. Pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself!

Happy Monday, folks! I hope your day is just as exciting as Annelie's has been!

xoxo,

Junie B. Jones and the Mother Who Needs to Give Her 6-Year-Old A Little More Credit

2012-01-17T18:09:00.009-06:00

When I opened up my beginner reader's first grade reading folder to find a chapter book inside I rejoiced for approximately .0007 seconds. Then I had one of those slow-motion noooooooooooooooooooooooooo! moments you often see in ridiculous sit-coms.

You see, Gracie has been super resistant to reading chapter books.

"They're hard," she says. "And boring."

Gracie is a slow reader, and I have learned the hard way that when you mix something difficult with a six-year-old who resists doing hard and/or boring stuff, you get a major headache. My headache has been growing ever since school started, when we learned that, though Gracie finds reading hard and boring, she's good enough that her teacher wants her reading chapter books at home... yet coaxing Gracie to read them has been close to impossible, especially as her folder has only had short picture books.

Hence the rejoicing, because Gracie knows that she has to read the books in her folder without question or complaint (this is how she earns TV time, after all).

The slo-mo nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! came after I saw what book her teacher packed in her folder as her first required chapter book.

Junie B. Jones and some Sneaky Peeky Spying.

Here's something to know about me: I am SO not a fan of Junie B. Jones books. The kid's a complete trouble maker. She's mean to her friends. She lies and spies and says the snottiest things to her mother. But that's not the worst of it.

The kid can't speak a grammatically correct sentence to save her life.

AND THE KID IS THE NARRATOR.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I expected the worst for my poor beginner reader who struggles with The Magic Tree House books. How in the world is Gracie supposed to get through a chapter of Junie B. Jones a night in order to meet her reading requirement? How in the WORLD is my six-year-old reading beginner going to master the English language when her example says "runned" instead of "ran?"

HOW?

Well, Gracie and I sat down and began chapter one, and I learned a little lesson called: Give the 6-Year-Old a Little More Credit.

In fact, give her a LOT of credit, because Gracie can totally handle grammatically incorrect sentences. Not only that, but reading this book together has shown me that her brain automatically corrects Junie B's errors, and I have to actually stop her and have her read things again because she doesn't read them as they're written on the page.

In the first chapter, Junie B. is on a mission to spy on her sleeping brother, but she finds him a little boring, so she blows on him, and tickles his nose, and screams at him to wake up until he does.

Then "he started crying very loud. And Mother runned into his room. Only she didn't even see me! 'Cause I quick hided in the closet!"

... except Gracie read it as: "he started crying very loud. And Mother ran into his room. Only she didn't even see me! Because I quickly hid in the closet!"

- enter flabbergasted jaw-drop HERE -

She didn't even stumble over the words.

"Well, that was very well done..." I said. "But you need to read it again, because you missed a bunch. Junie B. didn't say 'quickly' or 'hid' and that doesn't say 'because.'

Gracie was stumped. "But that's wrong," she informed me.

And then we had a little conversation about character voice.

- enter excited nerdy-Mom moment HERE -

Gracie is reading Junie B's story just fine. Not only that, but she's laughing all the way through. And now that we're close to done with it, her reading speed has definitely improved.

I'm not going to lie - I've laughed a few times, too. But mostly because of moments like this:

Gracie [reading]: "First, I looked where the chocolate milk was. Then I looked where the pasketti and tomato sauce was."

[laughs and laughs] She said pasketti!

ME: And what word should she have said?

GRACIE: BA-sketti!

ME: ..... you mean ..... spaghetti?

GRACIE: Oh. Yeah. Whoops.

[laughs and laughs]

Turns out I'm not a complete Junie B. Jones hater after all.

Hope you're all having an awesome Tuesday, folks!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Short Story Loving

2012-01-13T07:52:00.016-06:00

It's Friday, folks, and about time this blog had another flashback... so today the file cabinet of curiosities has coughed up a little gem dating all the way back to 1992, when 11-year-old Marisa discovered the world of short stories.

The other day I mentioned that I'm a short story lover - LOVE them. Well, I've had short stories on the brain lately, more so than usual because on Marisa's Big Fat List of Goals for 2012 we have:

#4 - Write 3 short stories and post them on my blog
(ie be a big brave girl in public)

Which isn't a huge deal, other than the fact that having my fiction read by anyone other than my trusted crit partners makes me feel like I'm standing in front of the world in my undies - which isn't something I imagine I'd enjoy.... but as I'd love to be an author with a whole world reading my stuff, it's about time I get over my issues - or at least make sure I'm wearing super cute undies!

When I was in 6th grade, my English teacher passed out a short story for dissection, called Midnight Snack by Diane Duane. (part of an anthology called Sixteen, which you can find HERE)*

Unicorns, people, UNICORNS.

(squeeeeeeeeeeee!)

Aura - baby unicorn by R. Wake
SovaeArt on Etsy

I love unicorns.

I do.

I really, really do.

But not only that, Midnight Snack was a YA urban fantasy, which tickled the fancy of middle school Marisa more than any other genre (yeah, things haven't changed much), and sparked a whole slew of urban fantasy stories in my notebooks - though none about unicorns because I was still too much in love with the ones in this story to attempt writing unicorns of my own.

And because of this story, I fell in love with the entire world of short stories. See, before this one I had only experienced the short stories found in our class textbooks - stories so boring I didn't even read them all the way through, and would instead turn to the back of the book where the longer stories, such as Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, could be found.

(oh man, I remember reading that one in class when I was supposed to be doing anything other than secretly reading ahead in the textbook, wiping and wiping and wiping at my never-ending stream of tears)

Not too long ago, I picked up the short story anthology Zombies Vs. Unicorns -

(click to add to your Goodreads list)

- Which is filled with awesome short stories by a whole slew of my current favorite authors, like Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Carrie Ryan. (I love zombies, but I'm totally Team Unicorn)

And I liked it - it was a quick, fun read.... but not a single unicorn story grabbed hold of my heart quite like Midnight Snack did.

Short story lovers out there, tell me, what stories hold your heart? I'd love to know!

*if you google it, you can find it on teaching sites online - though I hope you'll pick it up from your library or purchase it for your bookshelf, too!

Happy Lucky Friday the 13th, folks!

As I was born on Friday the 13th, I refuse to believe it is anything other than lucky... despite what this previous flashback might tell you.

xoxo,

Writing a Hot Mess (in 14 years or less)

2012-01-11T08:23:00.008-06:00

"Born from the Mess"
by jb0xtchi on Etsy

The story I'm working on now is one I've been working on - well, on but mostly off - since I was 18. It began as a short story - my best friend from my high school days said to me in the summer right after high school, "Hey, I found a short story contest and the theme is 'Magic.' Let's enter!"

To which I replied, "OKAY!"

Well, me and short stories aren't really friends. Oh, I love them - reading them is a bit of an addiction of mine - but writing them is a different story. Every short story idea I have tends to fizzle into nothing or blow up into something much bigger (like my newly finished and currently being queried book, SLEEP, which began as a short story almost 3 years ago)

After about 6 pages of writing my 'magic' short story, I knew I had something much bigger on my hands. So, in usual Marisa fashion, I grabbed a notebook and worked on it through college when I was supposed to be listening to my teacher's lectures. I even brought it to England with me when I studied abroad, with big intentions of finishing it and finding a crit group and finally getting my dream of being a real live WRITER started.

(but the cute Welsh boy I met was too distracting, and I only managed a couple pages before I packed my book up and decided to finish it when I got home.... But then came love, and then came marriage, and two little babies in the baby carriage...)

I picked the book up for NaNoWriMo in '08, and my awesome blog readers cheered me on as I wrote the world's sloppiest pre-draft. (Which blinds me whenever I attempt to read it, because it is just. so. AWFUL, and the only fate it deserves is being stabbed with the tooth of a basilisk)

And then I picked it up again during NaNo '10. And ... well, the first couple chapters I managed to write weren't AWFUL, but they certainly weren't as good as I wanted them to be.

So here I am, back together with these characters who I have LOVED for almost 13 years - and their story, which has changed a lot in 13 years, but which still follows the same magical backbone I imagined for it when I was 18.

And I figured that all my experience in the last couple years would make all the difference - that I would pick it up and suddenly know exactly how each scene needs to go, and exactly what every character is thinking and saying when they are tossed together in the bathroom of a taqueria, or the basement of a crack house (two of my favorite scenes. Yup).

But writing it now makes me feel just as awkward and stumbly as I was when I first attempted to write it back in 1999. Which has brought on all the "WHY do I think I can actually be a WRITER?!" angsting I have been doing for years now.

-insert head banging against keyboard HERE -

Today my friend Dianne Salerni, author of We Hear the Dead (Sourcebooks 2010) and The Caged Graves (coming from Clarion), blogged about her latest project, saying:

"If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past couple years of writing, it’s that my first draft is usually a rambling, maze-like monstrosity. Kind of like the Winchester Mystery House in California."

And it made me think that maybe I'm not too terrible at this after all. That maybe it's just the way writing is for some people. I thought I accepted long ago that I'm not a writes-a-book-and-snags-a-top-agent-in-six-months-TOTAL kinda gal, a la Stephenie Meyer.

I'm more a writes-a-rambling, maze-like monstrosity kinda gal, like Dianne. Only instead of accepting that part of my process, I've been pretending that I have, but really angsting hard.

There's a little thing called the internal editor that I have been advised to turn off while drafting. But I also think the internal self-hater needs to be turned off, too, because that's the one that keeps me from turning the hot mess I've been working on for years into something finished I can pass on to my crit partners - who I KNOW will help me turn it into the shiny, queriable gem I believe, deep down, it will one day be.

In the words of Joseph Chilton Pearce, "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - a quote I love, love, love. Not a quote I always live by, but hey - it's a new year.

And maybe if I lose my fears, if I can turn off the internal self-hater who tells me often that I'll never make it as a published author, I just might have a finished first draft of this sucker - in 14 years or less!

Only then will this hot mess be the story that made my fingers itch to write when I was a teenager, with visions of magic dancing through my head.

xoxo,

Books, glorious books!

2012-01-10T11:10:00.006-06:00

I found this vid over at Writing and Rambling, and love it.

In my opinion, this is even better than the singing, dancing food scene in Beauty and the Beast!

(I think the 3D version coming soon to theaters needs an extra scene where Beast's lustworthy library comes to life, what do you think?)

Happy Tuesday, folks!

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes.8

2012-01-06T12:00:00.000-06:00

ANNELIE [points at alphabet above the bug's head] In my picture, my bug is thinking about the alphabet. But sometimes he makes a mistake and thinks of the wrong letter, so he thinks about an X, and then thinks about the right letter.

--------------------------------------------

At back door - cat outside, waiting to come inside from the rain.

ANNELIE [face pressed against the glass door, talking to cat]: Say the magic word, first.

[waits]

That wasn't it. It's two meows.

ME: JUST LET THE CAT IN!

--------------------------------------------

In the kitchen

ANNELIE [holding recorder]: When I blow my recorder, that means hurry up. [blows recorder]

ME: How about when you blow the recorder, it means thank you for my snack, Mom!

ANNELIE [thinks for a sec.] No, it just means hurry up. [blows recorder]

--------------------------------------------

ANNELIE [waves wooden stick over my head]: This is my magic wand. You get to make a wish and my wand will make it come true, so what's your wish?

ME: I want to be a magical fairy princess.

ANNELIE [looks at stick, brows furrowed. Shakes stick]: Hold on. I need to plug in my magic wand and recharge the batteries. I'll be right back.

[runs off with stick]

ME: ....?

ANNELIE: Okay. I'm back. [shakes stick over my head] Now, what is it you want?

--------------------------------------------

GRACIE [holding picture of an angel]: Look, I drew an angel. I even put that thing over her head. I don't know what it's called, so I call it the I Don't Know.

ME: It's called a halo.

GRACIE [excitedly] Oh! So now I know! Instead of calling it the I Don't Know, now I can call it the I Do Know!

--------------------------------------------

Okay, that's all the fun for today. Have an excellent Friday, folks!

xoxo,

JanFebMarNoWriMos - Let the Writing Begin!

2012-01-02T14:27:00.011-06:00

Self Starter Necklace
by Lisa at The Empty Nest

At the start of November, when I was super bummed about not participating in NaNoWriMo this year, a few of my writing peeps who did not do NaNo this year either - or who did but now want to finish those books - were chatting about taking the months of January, February and March to write a book.

And so JanFebMarNoWriMos was born.

The rules are simple: Write a book (or finish another project, if that is what you need to do) by the end of March.

That's it.

And the other day, when I was all like, "Yay! I wrote a book and now I'm going to write another one during JanFebMarNoWriMos!" a bunch of other peeps were like, "Oh! I want to do JanFebMarNoWriMos and write a book, too!"

So here we are - 2 days into January and I have read through my unfinished NaNo project from Nov. '10, and am now super pumped to finish it. I forgot that I love these characters and their adventures EVEN MORE than the one's from the story I just spent the last 2.5 years writing. Which hopefully means racing to the end will be awesome - or at least with less head-bang-against-keyboard moments than I had with the last book.

JanFebMarNoWriMos-ers, are you still out there? Who is up for finishing a draft/project by March? Shout it loud and shout it proud!

And of course, you'll have to hold yourself accountable, but if you shout it in my comments, and want me to crack the whip to keep you going to the end of March - especially if I see you tweeting or Facebook status updating non-stop instead of writing - just say so! (although if I'm catching you doing it, it probably means I need a whip cracked, too)

*cracks whip*

Let the JaNo games begin!

*UPDATE - the fantabulous Heather Kelly just let me know there is a site called A Round of Words in 80 Days (best name EVER, imo) where you can have more structured meet ups and whip cracking if you need it - check it out: http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/blog/

xoxo,

Resolution WIN

2011-12-30T11:51:00.008-06:00

Last year around this time, I was feeling like an epic failure in the area of New Year's resolutions. I'm a huge fan of setting goals - LOVE setting goals. When New Year's rolls around, I'm always like, "WOO! Let's list some goals and meet them, and this year will be the best year EVER!"

But I'm also a huge goal-meeting failure (not a quality I love about myself) and usually around January 18th I realize I have completely left my goals by the wayside and drowning myself in the last of the New Year's champagne sounds like a mighty fine idea.

But remember last January? When I decided 2011 will be the year I pick a resolution (write EVERYDAY) and then stick with it? And for every day that I don't write, I donate $1 to the charity First Book?

YEAH, I TOTALLY ROCKED 2011.

Okay, so I didn't write every day. Out of 365 days, I wrote for only 323 days. Which means that, in addition to my base donation of $20, First Book will be getting $42 from me.

As it only takes $2 to provide a book for someone in need, my lack of resolution-meeting will provide 21 people with books that otherwise would not have had one.

Which makes me feel pretty awesome for all the days I failed at meeting my New Year's resolution.

WIN.

How about you guys? Did you set goals for 2011? Did you meet them? At least a little? I haven't thought about resolutions for this year. I've been up to my eyeballs in getting ready to query agents - like, next week - which is SOON.

But I might just try this write everyday resolution again. It certainly helped me on the days when all I wanted to do was sit on the couch, eat ice cream, and watch Awkward. marathons on MTV. Because I can't afford to buy ice cream or pay the cable bill when I'm donating all my moolah because I'm too lazy to work on my book!

xoxo,

Seven Years!

2011-12-20T11:32:00.005-06:00

Carmel, CA
Seven years ago today - our very first day as newly weds

Yesterday, my BFF Jenni congratulated Will and me on our wedding anniversary by posting pictures on Facebook that I hadn't seen before - of us as newly weds. Very sweet! (thanks, Jenni!)

Before our wedding, Will and I were apart for 5 months - separated by an ocean and an 8 hour time difference - which was torture.

I'm so glad I've had my favorite person beside me every day for the last 7 years!

xoxo,

Marisa's Adventures In Writingland

2011-12-17T19:58:00.008-06:00

Write or Else Art Print by Kathy Jeffords
www.thedreamygiraffe.etsy.com

I thought writing a 92,000 word complete novel was the most complicated thing ever.

Then I thought figuring out what my novel was about, and rewriting it as an 86,000 word novel, was the most complicated thing ever.

Then I received book-splittingly HUGE critique and had to find the backbone of my story and gut the rest, rewriting it as a 72,000 word novel. My brain melted several times along the way. I figured it was the most complicated thing EVER.

Well, I was wrong, folks. It wasn't at all.

The most complicated thing ever is taking what used to be a revoltingly bloated 92,000 word novel and condensing it's essence into two paragraphs.

TWO.

PARAGRAPHS.

SHORT ONES.

That need to sparkle more than Edward Cullen's chest.

You guys. I'm dying here. Writing a query is so darned hard.

But on a brighter note, I finished my book! The Book That Never Ends finally ended!*

So what's next on the Marisa Wants To Be An Author When She Grows Up agenda?

Querying agents. *gulp*

Then I'll be finishing the book I began for last year's NaNoWriMo. I was SO INSANELY bummed that I didn't finish SLEEP before this year's NaNo. But I have wrangled up a handful of writer friends and we're going to attempt a first ever JanFebMarNoWriMos (in which we write a complete first draft in 3 months - which to some is easy peasy, but to me - who takes a year to hack out a draft - this will border on epic)

Any one up for hopping on the JanFebMarNoWriMos train?

*okay, mostly, as I still have a light round of touch ups - and maybe rip and restitch a couple scenes - which feels like child's play at this point

xoxo,

My Week In a (very fragile) Nutshell

2011-12-16T16:32:00.009-06:00

The last picture taken before Annelie didn't break my camera

I can summarize my week like so:

ME: Annelie, please don't touch my fragile, expensive camera.

ANNELIE: Okay.

[camera breaks]

ANNELIE: It wasn't me.

-- time lapse: one day --

ME: Annelie, please don't step on the printer cord attached to the USB port of my fragile, expensive computer.

ANNELIE: Okay.

[USB port breaks]

ANNELIE: It wasn't me.

-- time lapse: one day --

ME: Annelie, please don't touch my fragile, expensive snow globe.

ANNELIE: Okay.

[snow globe breaks]

ANNELIE: It wasn't me.

.... Yeah, I am SO ready for the weekend*

*But only if nothing breaks. I'm tired of broken stuff.

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far, folks! We've been holiday decorating, holiday movie-watching, holiday crafting, and having a holly, jolly time of it. Sorry, no photos to share!

xoxo,

Creative Inspiration (for 4-year-olds)

2011-12-13T08:26:00.005-06:00

I love seeing what inspires artists to create.

Especially hip mini-artists who need iCarly sunglasses and hot pink bathrobes in order to tap into that creativity.

The other day, I came across this picture -

And Annelie laughing her head off when she caught me looking at it.

"My picture is hilarious, huh?" she wanted to know.

"What... exactly is going on in this picture?" I wanted to know.

She looked at me like I was crazy for not seeing it straight away (My kids perfected the "Oh, Mom, you are so uncool" look years ago) but got over it quickly so she could share her creative inspiration.

Behold:

She finds this delightful - grinned at me as I watched, hoping I'd find it just as delightful.

(do you find it delightful?)

Nothing quite like tribute art of the 4-year-old kind!

xoxo,

Bringing in the Snow

2011-12-05T13:26:00.006-06:00

I knew Annelie was awake this morning when the piercing shrieks of "SNOOOOOOOOW! It's SNOW! Everyone! It's snowing!" blasted through the house.

She then ran straight to her sister's room screaming, "Gracie, GET UP IT'S SNOWING RIGHT NOW!!!! SNOOOOW!!"

(Of course Gracie already knew it was snowing -- she had to trudge through an inch of it on her way to the bus stop a half hour earlier.)

Poor Annelie was so disappointed that her sister wasn't home to share her excitement.

Upon discovering that snow and SANTA HAS BROUGHT PRESENTS are not synonymous, she was disappointed further.

And disappointed even further to discover that instead of playing outside in the snow with me all morning, as she'd planned, I'm sick on the couch, hacking and coughing and dripping and sneezing. (Boooo to sinus infections and bronchitis. Yay to prescription meds that are finally starting to work!)

So she was given a minute to make a snow angel, and then we grabbed bowls and buckets and scraped the snow off the grass.

And brought it inside.

All morning, I sat on the couch under a pile of blankets, and she sat at the kitchen table, burying her toys, and digging them up, and making them each mini snowmen.

By the time she was ready for a new activity, all the snow had melted and her Littlest Pet Shop pets were swimming in a blue lagoon.

She was thrilled - she had a happy snow day after all.

Happy Monday, folks! Hope you're all warm today, because baby, it's coooold outside!

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes: Another Annelie Edition

2011-12-02T13:47:00.002-06:00

4-year-old Annelie finding creative inspiration
in Baby, by Justin B
as she draws a picture of Justin B
to mail to Justin B

My kiddo, cracking me up as usual. Here are some bits and pieces of our life.

---------------------------------------

ANNELIE: Mommy, know what? When I grow up, I want to be a TEENAGER!

---------------------------------------

WILL [to Annelie]: You're so cute. Did you know that?

ANNELIE: Yeah. I know everything. [pauses] Well, I know everything except how to turn on the stove.

---------------------------------------

ANNELIE [at pediatricians office]: Hi! I'm Annelie. And this [gestures at me] is Daddy's wife.

(she went on to introduce me like this several times)

---------------------------------------

ANNELIE [pointing at a picture of me from when I was in 5th grade]: Is this a picture of me when I'm all growned up?

---------------------------------------

ME [listening to Annelie humming]: That's a nice song.

ANNELIE: Thanks. Did you know I was humming in Spanish?

---------------------------------------

ANNELIE [pointing at our phone]: Florence and the Answering Machine has an answering machine just like us.

---------------------------------------

ME: Hey, what's that white stuff on your face.

ANNELIE: Oh, that's just white stuff. It isn't frosting at all.

---------------------------------------

After overhearing Gracie call Annelie a mean name.

Annelie: Don't call me names. [clap clap] Don't call me names. [clap clap]*

*sung to the tune of That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings

---------------------------------------

ANNELIE [picking petals off a flower]: He loves me. He loves me more. He loves me. He loves me more.

---------------------------------------

ANNELIE: Mommy, is it Happy 8th Day, again?

ME: What is that?

ANNELIE: You know. That day where we joke around.
---------------------------------------

ANNELIE: Can I have a banana?

ME: Sure.

ANNELIE: That's good. Because I already opened one.

(not going to lie - glad this conversation didn't begin with "Can I get my tongue pierced?"

---------------------------------------

Okay, that's all!

Hope you all have a great weekend, folks!

xoxo,

Getting a Hold of the Holidays

2011-11-29T13:09:00.012-06:00

I'm the kind of person who LOVES holidays. I love holiday-themed food. I love holiday-themed decorations - especially the obnoxious ones that light up and make sounds and are generally on Earth to annoy mankind.

And the holiday-themed craft opportunities! Heart - be still!

Boy oh boy, do I love the holidays.

Except lately, they always pass before I've had a chance to notice. And then I think, "Well, boo. I'll have to remind myself to actually glance at the calendar and see what the date is next year, since this year that didn't happen until it was too late."

If you're anything like me, you can imagine I forgot to remind myself. Lame.

Well, NOT THIS HOLIDAY, FOLKS!

Check it:

That's right - not even December and we've done Christmas cookies! Woo!

Now before you go thinking this is getting a head start, I'm just going to go ahead and say there is a huge possibility this is all I'll remember to do. But that's okay. Because if the kids are like, "But Mom, we didn't even decorate a Christmas tree, just like last year! And like how you forgot to buy us a pumpkin to carve until Halloween was long over!" I can show them this:

and not feel so bad. Because surely this counts - it's a decorated tree, a holiday-themed crafty project and holiday-themed food!

*dusts off hands*

(also, we go out of town to spend major holidays with family, so if I forget to have holiday cheer, we have back up)

Hope you all had an awesome November, everyone! Mine went by so fast I'm not sure what's going on right now. Between going out of town two weekends this month and finishing the last of the book I didn't finish in time to participate in NaNo (boooo) I feel like David after the dentist and often find myself wondering Is this real life?

I hope December is more relaxing!

xoxo,

Free Shipping in Elegant Snobbery!

2011-11-28T10:07:00.005-06:00

I was all set to announce FREE SHIPPING FOR CYBER MONDAY in my Etsy shop and then I thought, Let's be real for a second, Marisa. How likely is it that you'll remember to put your shipping settings back to normal when Monday is over?

Yeah, not likely.

So.

FREE SHIPPING FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

Woo! I'll be leaving my shop, Elegant Snobbery, open until Dec. 15th so Christmas orders can arrive in time for Christmas.

My shop is getting close to empty - from over 150 listings down to under 50! Woo! But also kind of sad. It's been nearly two years since my non-stop drawing days, and I just realized today that it's been SEVEN months since I even sketched a picture, let alone picked up my colored pencils and had fun.

Sad.

I might need to add "draw lots and lots" to my list of New Years resolution this year.

Have a great week, folks!

xoxo,

How to Have a Happy Thanksgiving, the British Vegetarian Way

2011-11-25T12:02:00.023-06:00

pic source

My husband is British. And a vegetarian. Every year he is asked something like, "But you eat turkey, right? I mean this is Thanksgiving we're talking about."

And he replies with something like, "Yeah, but I'm British. And a vegetarian."

And they reply with something like, "Yeah, but it's THANKSGIVING."

And he replies with something like, "Yeah, but I'm BRITISH. And a VEGETARIAN."

And then begins another round of food-related questions, such as, "So... if you don't eat turkey for Thanksgiving, do you at least eat chicken?"

I am not making this up!!!

(Not everyone 'round these here parts seems to get being vegetarian)

(Especially not when good ole Texas BBQ is concerned)

So, what do British vegetarians living in America eat come Thanksgiving time? Well, okay, I can't speak for all, but I can speak for our resident Brit:

CASHEW NUT ROAST with MUSHROOM GRAVY.

Let me just say, I'm about to share a delicious recipe. Let me also just say that when our first Thanksgiving came around and I had to find something to prepare for my hubs that would make this meal as special and delicious and once-a-year as Thanksgiving is for me and my family, I had no idea where to start.

And then I stumbled across a recipe for a cashew nut roast on the Co-Op's website (think: British version of 7-11) and I knew I just HAD to make it. Because I am easily amused and found the idea of a convenience store fancy meal absolutely hilarious.

Unfortunately, I can't find the original link, but I wrote the recipe down. My hubs LOVES it much more than any other nut roast he ate growing up... Convenience store recipe For The Win!

Also, I probably could have shared this recipe a little sooner, considering you'll all have to wait a good 364 days to enjoy a British vegetarian Thanksgiving of your own... but this makes a lovely Christmas dinner as well, so here we go.

Ingredients:

1 med onion, finely chopped
1 and a half cups hot water or vegetable stock
1 teaspoon yeast extract (I use Marmite because *cringe* we always have the gnarly stuff on hand - but look in the specialty/import section of your grocery store for this one)
3 cups ground roasted cashews (actually, I just crush them a little)
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons fresh herbs. (I use thyme because I have no clue what Winter Savoury is and that's what the original recipe called for)
3 cups white bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 oz butter/margarine
2 chopped celery sticks
mushrooms (optional)

(Note - sometimes, when I'm feeling cheap and cashews cost a fortune, I half the cashews and double the bread. Cashews are expensive, yo! And no one notices.)

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large pan and cook the celery and onion for a few minutes. Mix the Marmite into the hot water or vegetable stock, and add this to the onion and celery.

Stir in the flour, nuts, herbs, bread crumbs, salt and pepper and mix well. Allow to cool slightly while you grease a loaf tin.

Place the mixture in the tin and press down well. Bake in the oven at 360 degrees for 40 minutes. To remove from the pan from the loaf pan, put a plate over it, then turn it upside down. Or else, you can just leave it in the pan. It is a bit crumbly, so I just leave it.

I add an optional layer of chopped mushrooms that have been grilled in olive oil and garlic to the middle of the loaf for my mushroom-loving husband. I don't eat mushrooms, but everyone else I know prefers this roast. Also, I reserve some of the mushrooms for the gravy, dicing them up and mixing in veggie stock, flour and herbs.

Slice and eat!

Also, this recipe is loved by more in my family than just my hubs, so I always make two!

Aaaaaaand..... Speaking of Thanksgiving and food..... here we have, as a special bonus: a funny sketch featuring my SUPER RAD friend Holly Medell as the brunette Salad.

(the party was obviously missing nut roast)

I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday. Enjoy your weekend!

And if you're all about Black Friday sales, don't forget to shop handmade!

xoxo,

Buggy Besties

2011-11-07T11:42:00.014-06:00

Butterfly Princess - Halloween 2011

The sassy little missy I spend 100% of my time with has a huge thing for bugs.

*gags*

I'm not really a bug person. I used to be - back in the day, the snails in my backyard and I were tight. And I went through a phase in kindergarten where I spent most of my afternoons with my hand in the drinking fountain, bawling my eyes out because I'd been stung by another freshly caught bee (they don't make the best playmates, turns out).

Of course this buggy BFFness all came to a crashing halt after the Yellow Jacket Hive Attack of 1988. I haven't loved bugs since.

Which is why I spend mass quantities of time shrieking and jumping and flapping and pointing at the door, saying, "Get those bugs out of your hair! Get them off of the kitchen table! Get them OUT of your room! GET IT OFF OF MY BACK!" and so on.

This morning, I was hard at work doing writerly things (no, not updating my Facebook status - not this time) and watching Annelie play outside from my studio window. After a while, she came back in and turned on the TV. Plonked herself on the couch to watch some Sponge Bob en Espanol (she doesn't speak more than a Dora's episode of Spanish, but that doesn't stop her from robustly singing the theme song - with lyrics that sound like something from Cirque Du Soleil).

And the rest went down like so:

Setting: Walking from studio to kitchen for another mugful of coffee. Finds Annelie cuddled on the couch, a leaf on a Littlest Pet Shop lounge chair beside her.

And on the leaf... something brownish greyish white]

ME [stops in place]: What is that?

ANNELIE [innocently]: What?

ME: That. On the leaf.

ANNELIE [puts arm around lounge chair]: Oh, this is just my BFF.

ME: Your BFF? [leans. blinks at BFF. shrieks.] EW! Is that BIRD POO?

ANNELIE [horrified]: My BFF is not bird poo!

ME [points at door]: Get whatever that is outside right now.

ANNELIE [bursts into tears]: It's a caterpillar! He's my best friend!

ME [heart panging at sight of adorable crying kid, resembling former bug-loving self]: Um... well... Okay, fine. You two can finish this episode, but as soon as it's done, he's going back outside. and then you are NEVER bringing nature of any kind, dead or alive, in the house again. Okay?

ANNELIE [joyously]: Okay.

----------------------------------------------

So. They finished their show, which they both seemed to enjoy very much. Then Annelie ACTUALLY LISTENED TO ME FOR ONCE IN HER LIFE and put the caterpillar outside.

----------------------------------------------

Time lapse - one Sponge Bob en Espanol episode.

ANNELIE [runs outside, calling out]: I'm going to check on my BFF!

Time lapse - one minute.

ANNELIE [running inside, wailing]: MY BFF IS GONE!

ME [patting poor child's head sympathetically]: Yeah, he probably went off somewhere to make a cocoon so he can be your Butterfly BFF.

ANNELIE [sniffs. nods]: Yeah. I think so. [smiles sweet, teary smile] Wanna see the little inch worm I found?

[waggles white maggoty-looking inchworm under my nose] This is my new BFF.

[maggoty-looking inchworm rises on back feet and prepares to attack my face]

ME [shrieks. shudders. gags]: GET THAT OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW!

-----------------------------------

Oh, the thrilling adventures of Monday. Hope you all had a great weekend, folks!

xoxo,

Great Explorations

2011-11-04T07:30:00.006-05:00

It is afternoon, and all is quiet in the land of Hopkins.

It's a strange sort of quiet - a quiet that usually involves spilled paint on carpets and scaling mattresses to swing from curtain rods (approximately 92% of the time).

But not today. Today, the Source of the Quiet comes from....

Can it be? No, surely not.

It appears the Source of the Quiet comes from none other than a typically loud, often found yelling and fighting and calling her sister names, Little Girl (loudis girlis).

But wait! That's no ordinary Little Girl... No, that's ...

... Let's zoom closer...

That's a Mini-Writer Girl, hard at work on a Very Important Project.

Quiet, now. Be very still. It looks as if the Mini-Writer Girl is going to act.

Her head is turning... she's...

Firing her Evil Death Stare!

And wait - she's going to speak.

"Mom, please can you stop?"

Um. Yeah. Okay.

*walks off*

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes.7

2011-10-26T07:50:00.007-05:00

(oh, the darling pictures I find whilst looking at my hub's phone...
aka future blackmail material)

My kids. They crack me up. Here are a handful of snippets from around Chez Hopkins

-------------------------------

WILL: Gracie, did you see who came in while you were sleeping?

GRACIE: I already know. It's Uncle Tom. I was staring at him when he was sleeping in the middle of the night.

WILL: O_o That's kind of creepy.

GRACIE: I know! Uncle Tom IS creepy!

------------------------------------------------

ANNELIE: The movies' not over, Mom. There aren't letters all over the TV yet. That's how you know.

---------------------------------------

ME: Hey, Annelie. You have a dentist appointment tomorrow.

ANNELIE [excitedly]: I do?

ME: Yup.

ANNELIE [more excitedly than before]: To have all my teeth pulled out of my head!!?

ME: Um.... no? Why.... do you want all your teeth pulled out?

ANNELIE: YES!

(anyone else seeing Little Shop of Horrors dentist in this kid's future?)

------------------------------------------------

ANNELIE [fighting with her sister]: I am mad at you! Mad and sad! And those words RHYME!

------------------------------------------------

ANNELIE: I'm having a staring contest with my boyfriend right now.

ME: Your imaginary boyfriend?

ANNELIE: Yeah. But he always wins.

------------------------------------------------

GRACIE: This song is really great. What's it called?

ME: Broken Jaw.

GRACIE: Oh. That's sad. But at least it's not called Broken Heart. Now THAT would be REALLY sad.

(my 6-year-old, such a hopeless romantic)

And for your listening (and viewing!!!) enjoyment:

------------------------------------------------

ANNELIE: Mom, you talk different.

ME: Different than what?

ANNELIE: Different than Spanish.

------------------------------------------------

Okay, that's all, folks! Hope you're all having a great week!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Best Roommate EVER and Bacon

2011-10-21T12:06:00.017-05:00

My husband bought me a package of bacon the other day.

I know. Oh, believe me, I KNOW. He's amazing.

When it comes to bacon - more importantly, bacon slapped between two slices of mayonnaise-slathered Wonder bread - I'm a total nutjob. Let me just say, I've never been particularly trendy until worshiping bacon became the trend.

I WORSHIP BACON. There I said it, folks. I am a bacon-worshiper.

Of all the people who could tell you this fact about me, my former roommate Jean aka Best Roommate EVER, would say it best.

(and by say it best, I mean with a classic Jean-lives-with-Marisa look: eyebrows high, eyes wide - the "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression on her face...)

Jean was my roommate during my last semester of college, when I was engaged to Will (who still lived in the UK at the time), was writing out mass quantities of wedding invitations (like, 50, but that felt like a ton), and, to my surprise, was in the middle of shape-shifting from a mostly cheerful college student to a neurotic preggo-monster (anyone who lives with Pregnant Marisa deserves a trophy, I'm telling ya).

Because of all this - and because my grandma loves me and bought me a ginormo Costco-sized slab of bacon - Jean was witness to extraordinary amounts of bacon consuming.

OMG, you guys, BACON!

One night, Jean, on the phone with her boyfriend, came out of her room and into the kitchen, sniffing the delicious air. She was already wearing her "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression.

"I smell bacon. Are you making bacon?" she said. And into the phone: "Marisa's making bacon. Right now. An entire Costco package of bacon."

"Yeah!" I exclaimed, swinging my fork around like a magical bacon wand. "Want a bacon and mayonnaise sandwich?"

"Ew. No. You're making an entire package of bacon."

"I know!"

"Did you notice it's THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT???"

I looked at the clock. It was the middle of the night.

"Oh. Yeah. Look at that. Hmmmm... Guess this isn't the best time to make a slab of Costco bacon." A lie! A total lie! It's always the right time for bacon! "Are you sure you don't want some bacon?"

Insert another "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression HERE.

"Yeah, okay, I'll have some. But not in a mayonnaise sandwich," she said.

And then we ate lots of bacon and lived happily ever after. The end.

To this day (and I literally mean THIS DAY, since I just made bacon about 5 minutes ago) I can't make bacon and mayonnaise sandwiches without seeing Jean's classic "I am in the presence of a nutjob" expression.

Bacon lovers, SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!

And just a note: If you consume mass quantities of bacon when you're pregnant, you'll gain 45+ lbs. Only a little of that will be baby weight. Not a lot of Weight Watchers recipes include mass quantities of bacon. You have been warned.

Happy Friday, folks

xoxo,

NaNo '11: 18 Days and Counting!

2011-10-13T11:40:00.002-05:00

Let me get this straight - we are thirteen days into the month of October and I haven't yet posted about NaNoWriMo '11?

STOP THE INSANITY!

You see, I'm a mighty big lover of the month of November, which is the only month that brings 30 days of rabid writing craziness AND pumpkin pie at the same time.

But this year... I'm not quite ready for November to come. My BRING IT attitude when it comes to NaNo is more like, Um, could you just give me a few extra weeks? Which is no attitude to have when you intend to write 50k words in 30 days.

But YOU GUYS.

You know the Book That Just Won't End, Dang-it! that I have been slaving over for the past two years? Well, this baby is getting very close to query-ready and by golly, if I can break my fingers and push my brain to get it finished in the next 18 days, I will be so pumped... but until then, my NaNo plans are on hold.

And as I do not like to put my plans on hold, I am seriously pushing to finish this thing in 18 days so I can participate.

Now, the rational part of me says, "Oh heck no, this isn't possible! You still have two-thirds of this revision to sort through!"

But here's something to know about me. The irrational part of me is WAY MORE FUN and she's like, "I triple dog dare you!" and there is just no way I can back away from a triple dog dare.

Besides, if there is one thing that's really driving me to finish my WIP by Nov. 1st, it's the fact that I'm so sick of my current main character's indie Baroque and folk alternative music choices, and the music for my GLITTER-BLINGING NEW IDEA (which is way better than a Shiny New Idea, I'm telling ya) is so much more fun.

For those who are curious about my NaNo '11 music, here are my main drafting songs, which helped me set the tone, create the world and characters and sort out the plot of my book -

So, folks, I'm ready to throw off the emo-sounding tunes and bring on the awesome.

Who's with me? Any other NaNo-obsessed fools out there, ready for a month of sheer crazy? Let's harass each other with our daily updated word counts! You can find me {HERE}

And if I don't finish my current WIP in time, you are welcome to throw tomatoes at me and flaunt your word count. I promise to cheer you on!

xoxo,

Eye Twitch

2011-10-06T07:26:00.005-05:00

www.annetaintor.com

Someday, Gracie is going to call me up and be like, "Mom, you will NOT BELIEVE what your granddaughter just did!!"

And I'll be like, "Oh, did she use up an entire roll of toilet paper firing wads of wet paper at the bathroom ceiling when she was supposed to be in bed, like you did when you were six?"

And then I'll chuckle.

Today?

NOT CHUCKLING.

xoxo,

On Face Washing...

2011-10-04T08:12:00.006-05:00

Wash Your Face art print
by Lot No.2

My skin has decided that 30 is the new 13. I have not been happy about it. In fact, we have had words, but you know what 13-year-olds are like - impossible to reason with.

So. I found a link on Pinterest (the love of my life, by the way) about the Oil-Cleansing Method, where you basically slather your face in oil (castor and extra-virgin olive) and cross your fingers and hope for the best.

I know. It sounds terrifying.

But you guys!! I tried it and my skin is very happy indeed! Like, insanely happy. It seems to think I've been spending my days relaxing at the spa - which I can assure you I have not.

I'm one of those lazy people who cringes at the idea of a 3-step skin regimen, because seriously, who has time to wash your face in 3 steps? This cleansing method has 2 steps - 1.) slather face and 2.) stick a warm cloth on face until it cools down (about a minute) which sounded very high maintenance, but has turned out to be fairly low maintenance. Also, I haven't needed moisturizer after washing my face for the first time since I was 13 - AND my skin isn't covered in an oily residue. Sweet.

Will it stay all shiny and fresh and cleansed with clear pores for all eternity? Only time will tell. But so far things are looking good.

How about you, folks? Does your skin hate you more and more the older you get, too? And if so, what do you do about it?

*Update - a couple months later, my skin is still very happy, although I have had to add extra olive oil around my forehead and eyes after washing, because winter dries my skin out.

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes: Afternoon Edition

2011-09-23T16:39:00.006-05:00

GRACIE: Hey, Annelie. Did you know that 'leg' begins with 'k?'

ANNELIE: Yeah.

ME [gives Gracie weird look]:...?

GRACIE: I mean 'knee.' Did you know that 'knee' begins with 'k?'

ANNELIE: Yeah.

That's all! We're going to the hot air balloon festival tonight, which should be awesome. And then my hubs has a show tomorrow night, which should be awesome. And Annelie's training wheels are coming off on Sunday, which should be... interesting. And awesome.

Happy weekend, folks!

xoxo,

Ice Cream for Breakfast!

2011-09-19T09:15:00.011-05:00

I'd say the biggest downside to having kids is that they eat breakfast. When you're the kind of person who likes to sleep until noon everyday, this is some serious style cramping. Even after 8 hours of sleep, if my eyes are open at 6 AM it's guaranteed I'll be a coffee-drinking zombie until closer to normal waking hours (ie. noon).

My kids are used to Zombie Mom. Heck, they love Zombie Mom! She lets them watch Sponge Bob AND eat cereal straight from the box... on the COUCH. Afternoon/Evening Mom is closer to Tiger Mom, and doesn't allow TV of any kind watched unless supervised reading has been done. And NO WAY is food allowed on the couch (especially not after finding 2 half-eaten apples and a peanut butter sandwich mashed into the cushions).

Which means that breakfast at Chez Hopkins gets about as fancy as dry cereal, a container of yogurt straight from the fridge, and a banana.*

Well, no longer, folks! After finding this super awesome grilled cheese sandwich ice cream picture on Pinterest the other day, I thought, HEY! Even Zombie Mom can make something like that for breakfast! (only minus the cheese sandwich)

And she did. 1 cinnamon waffle cut into a triangle, 1 banana stacked like ice cream, 3 scoops of vanilla yogurt as faux-whipped cream, and a handful of walnut sprinkles.

Breakfast was gobbled up in aprox. 3 seconds.

*pats self on back*

Happy Monday, folks!

*except Sundays. On Sunday, Zombie Mom pretends to be a baker and manages to pop a can of Pillsbury orange danishes in the oven. Bon Appetit!

xoxo,

Tampon Crafting!

2011-09-13T07:22:00.017-05:00

*WARNING*
To those who are sensitive (i.e. my husband): this post contains the word "Tampon"

***

Every once in awhile, I get an email from my mom with the subject line: We should make these for everyone for Christmas!

This is usually my indication she has linked me to a website that is equal parts hilarious and horrific. Such as the site Tampon Crafts (http://www.tamponcrafts.com/) where you can make yourself a fine tampon toupee or, if you're feeling especially festive, a tampon nativity and/or menorah!

Tampon crafting - so silly.

OR IS IT?

"Mom," Annelie yelled, yesterday morning, hard at work on a Fruity Cheerios rainbow. "I'm ready to glue the clouds!"

Panic set. There I was, rummaging through the bathroom cabinets, holding an empty bag of cotton balls.

(Why do people leave empty bags of cotton balls sitting in the cabinets? WHY?)

"Moooooom!" she yelled, again. "I'm ready to glue the clouds!"

*flails*

*grabs box of tampons*

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! I need my clouds!"

*rips package open*

*shreds tampon into fluffy strands*

"MOM I'M READY TO GLUE MY CLOUDS!"

"Here you go, sweetie!"

*tosses shredded tampon on table*

Thanks to my own Mom for her horrendously funny links, our preschool craft hour was saved!

xoxo,

Proof I Lead A Glamorous Life...

2011-09-06T18:00:00.011-05:00

I'm pretty sure I know what you have all been thinking.

"Wow, that Marisa. Her days must be so exotic! So exhilarating! So glamorous!"

Right? Am I right?

Well, you're not too wrong, folks. Much like the celebs you see in your grocery check-out line tabloids, my every move is under scrutiny by the paparazzi.

Translation:

Looking in her drawer.
Typing on her computer.
Looking through her stuff.

(this 6-year-old paparazza aced her spelling test on Friday.
Just in case you're wondering)

And a thumbnail to make sure everyone knows it's ME being paparazzi-stalked - looking much like a super glamorous celeb, that's right.*

I live a glamorous life, indeed!

*super glamorous celeb on her down time - sloppy clothes, messy hair, make up free, completely exhausted... not inaccurate that she drew me looking like Pig-Pen from the Peanuts gang.

xoxo,

Nerding Out

2011-09-03T17:44:00.003-05:00

As if this isn't fantastic enough....

There is also this to enjoy.

Happy Saturday, folks.

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Fern Ridge (or My First Writing Retreat)

2011-09-02T11:58:00.010-05:00

The summer between 5th and 6th grade, I joined my childhood BFF Molly and her family on a trip to Oregon. I couldn't get over how lucky I was. A super long drive (I love road trips), my first ever vacation without my family, the loft of the Holbrook's rental house all to our 11-year-old selves, and, as Molly was my writing buddy, guaranteed non-stop story writing and reading for an entire week.

Best. Trip. EVER. I had never felt like such a grown up.

This trip is so clear in my memory it feels like it happened... well, a heck of a lot sooner than 19 years ago (eek!) Even packing was exciting. I ripped apart my vocabulary notebook from 5th grade, determined to fill it with the best story imaginable. I scoured my bedroom shelves for books I hadn't read yet. (this was the summer I decided I would enrich my life with the classics and packed only stories by O'Henry, The House of the Seven Gables and Black Beauty. I got as far as the beginning of Black Beauty before I ditched my books for Molly's - Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and The Dollhouse Murders were a little more interesting to 11-year-old-Marisa)

(30-year-old Marisa thinks they sound more interesting, too)

Mostly, I remember the freedom we had to do what we liked all day long. As soon as we arrived at the house, we set up a library in our loft and ran down to the river to find the perfect writing spot which we called Fern Ridge (shown in the above sketch). If we wanted to take a break from writing, we'd row a boat across the river to the beach on the other side. We'd play Spit and BS until our fingers fell off, listen to Bob Marley on a loop, watch more episodes of Happy Days than a person should watch in their entire life-time, build wigwams out of the underbrush and pretend we were Native Americans, and talk boys boys boys (we happened to be madly in love with the cutest set of brothers who attended our church - all my boy book characters were called either Mario or Giovanni that summer).

I held on to that notebook (obviously - it's shown above). And though my story, which I titled Fern Ridge, wasn't exactly the best story imaginable...

... it's certainly entertaining.

Man, did I love sitting on the stairs of our secret writing spot (which wasn't really secret - it was the stairs down to the river) and writing like crazy. I knew even then that I wanted to be a writer someday, but having a writing friend beside me, scribbling in her own notebook, was the BEST part of my life back then.

A year ago, Molly posted this little gem on Facebook and I just about fell out of my chair when I saw it.

No way were we this little. That was the summer we were practically GROWN UPS.

I don't know if Molly is writing these days, but she is certainly releasing her creativity into the world in the form of gorgeous organic meals with her gourmet catering company Organicopia.

And lookie here - she's has her very first webisode. (yay, Molly!)

Organicopia - Webisode Pilot from Nelson Nunez on Vimeo.

Have a flashback of your own to share? Blog it! And then tell me, so I can read it!

Have a wonderful weekend, folks!

xoxo,

An Eggcellent Eggplant Parmesan Recipe

2011-09-01T12:51:00.016-05:00

(See that? I said Eggcellent - oh, yes I did)

Marrying a vegetarian was a little weird at first, especially as, when it comes to whipping up food, I'm no Martha Stewart, or Paula Deen, or Natalie Perry (whose foodie blog Perry's Plate is an addiction, folks - check it out). And when it comes to making vegetarian food I was limited to Fettuccine Alfredo and cheese quesadillas.

You guys, I could hardly grill a veggie burger without catching my stove on fire (true fact) and don't even get me started on my inability to boil water without melting kettles... So, when my mother-in-law came to visit us from the UK and filled our fridge with aubergines (the Brits get all French and fancy with their words, sometimes) and then LEFT THEM FOR ME, I was like, "What the heck am I supposed to do with THESE? They aren't steaks OR take-out Chinese!"

But after staring at the eggplants for a few days, I realized they weren't going to cook themselves.... so what's a girl to do but make a killer Eggplant Parmesan?

(by killer, I don't mean poisonous - no one has ever died from my cooking... *knocks wood*)

You guys, this Eggplant Parmesan is delicious. It very quickly became my hub's favorite meal. And because, 7 years later, I'm still not a huge fan of the kitchen, what's a mom to do but teach her kids how to make it so that by this time next year I'll have my own personal chefs?

TO MAKE:

Ingredients:

1 cup breadcrumbs (I buy the Italian-seasoned kind, because I'm lazy like that, but you can season plain crumbs yourself, if you like)
4 egg whites
2 medium eggplants, unpeeled, cut into 1/2 inch slices.
Olive oil cooking spray
Your favorite pasta sauce (aprox. 3 cups)
Mozzarella cheese (aprox. 2 cups)
Garlic bread (okay this has nothing to do with making the Eggplant Parmesan, but garlic bread is kind of the best, so be sure to have some)

Preheat oven to 400.
Stick bread crumbs in a bowl, and egg whites in a separate bowl. Coat both sides of eggplant slices in egg white, then in crumbs, then place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Spray the tops of the slices and bake for 15 minutes. Turn, spray the tops again, and bake for another 15 minutes.
Assembling the casserole - In a 9 x 13 baking dish, have your personal chefs (or you) layer:

sauce
eggplants
sauce
cheese
eggplants
sauce
cheese
Italian herbs to make it look like you cooked something sort of fancy

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

VOILA!

And if you are anything like me, you'll try to get one good picture of your personal chefs SMILING with their creation, but will instead get two monkeys scowling like thugs and throwing down gang signs.

There you go, folks! An Eggplant Parmesan recipe you and your kids will love!*

*and by love, I mean your kids will say, "EW, THIS TASTES LIKE SNAILS!"

Enjoy!

xoxo,

Getting Work Done (Or Not...)

2011-08-29T12:30:00.021-05:00

Long ago, my kids decided life is BORING without Mommy devoting 99.9% of her day to their non-stop amusement. In addition to the usual daily domestic activities (ie, the super lame stuff, like cleaning and grocery shopping and endless laundry) I used to be able to get my creative work done with the girls underfoot. This was when I was an artist and my days consisted of sitting at the table with colored pencils all around and my diapered kiddos sitting next to me, scribbling in sketchbooks of their own.

Then I stopped drawing and started focusing more on writing and my kids decided I didn't need to get anything accomplished ever again.

Nap-times ended after age 1 when both girls decided sleeping is overrated and they wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Quiet-times ended after age 1.5 upon discovering they were being used for tea parties with fresh cups of pee, instead of for resting quietly. (And when the girls weren't doing that, they were ripping their sheets, cutting their hair and eyelashes with purloined kiddie scissors, or pushing toddler mattresses up against the window of their room so they could climb and then pull the curtain rods straight out of our apartment walls. Yep)

Let me just say, using my brain to write intelligible things is impossible when said brain is exploding from children shouting in my ear, 30 thousand times a day, "LOOKIT ME, Mom! I have a CUP ON MY HEAD! (and such)"

If I don't get this dang book finished and begin querying agents soon (very soon!) this girl's gotta put the kids in daycare and get a proper job to help support the family. So... when do I get my creative work done? When do I find the time to write when every free minute sounds like this -

ME: Okay, Annelie. We've played 600 games and read 600 stories and you've had 600 minutes of computer time and now it's MOMMY'S turn for a little bit of work time, okay?

ANNELIE: Okay.

ME [types]: ....

ANNELIE [stares at me]: Wouldn't it be really funny if I had glasses and I opened the dishwasher when it was still going and it fogged up my glasses and then my hair turned yellow?

ME: Yes. Now go play and let me get some work done, okay?

ANNELIE: Okay.

ME [types]: ....

ANNELIE [stares at me VERY INTENSELY]: I'm doing my laser eyes on you. Do you want me to do my hot laser eyes on you or my cold laser eyes?

ME: How about instead of doing any kind of laser eyes, you go and play outside? Or play in your room? Or watch a movie? Or draw?

ANNELIE: Okay.

ME [types]: ....

ANNELIE [stares at me]:....

[time lapse 7 seconds]

I wrote you a song, and here is how it goes.

[sings]
I love my mommy
she is the best
and her cupcakes are yummy
and I love my mommy
then you would be the best for me and you
and the day will be as white as meeeeeee.

ME: That was lovely. Now go PLAY.

ANNELIE: Okay. But first I have to play my new song on the guitar for you, okay? [whips out guitar]

ME: *BRAIN EXPLOSION*

(this video is from last year... but it's pretty much exactly how I'm entertained on a minutely basis even now)(and when I say now, I literally mean THIS VERY SECOND)

Well, I'll tell ya when I get my creative work done ... Lately, I've resorted to printing out my pages and editing them whilst sitting on the bathroom floor until "MOM, I'M GOING TO WET MY PANTS IF YOU DON'T LET ME IN!" is shouted from the hall.

Creative work-at-home peeps out there, enlighten me, please - how in the world do you manage your household, spend time with your kids and significant others, cook, clean, AND get creative stuff done!?* Because as much as I love laser eyes and serenades from 4-year-olds for 14 hours a day... I also need to finish this book!

*besides taking it away from TV time - that time pretty much ended for me years ago.

xoxo,

Pinkie-Pie-A-Licious Candy Sprinkle Flower Candy: A Snack for Writers (the 4-year-old kind)

2011-08-25T10:54:00.020-05:00

Pinkie-Pie-A-Licious Candy Sprinkle Flower Candy:

A recipe created for you, by Annelie Hopkins
(age 4)

Annelie: They are really yummy. You should taste them. You should also make them. And be sure to wash your hands after they are gone.

Ingredients:

a whole bunch of Honey Nut Cheerios.
some pink. (ie natural pink food dye - colored with beets, not Red #40)
candy. (ie white melting chocolate)
sprinkles.

Directions:

Melt the candy.
Add pink coloring.
Stir.
Add Cheerios.
Stir.
Spoon onto wax paper-lined tray.
Add sprinkles.
Put in fridge to cool.

You can lick your fingers but don't let Mom see

And that is all!

(In case you're wondering, these taste just as toxic as they look. Blech. But Annelie loves them)

A bonus:
Free fiction for all of you to enjoy - A story called THE FAIRIES

Happy Thursday, folks!

xoxo,

It's That Time Again!

2011-08-22T15:48:00.009-05:00

Yup, it is indeed that time again. You know, the time when I kid myself that I'll actually accomplish stuff when it comes to my book while one kid is out of the house all day and the other kid is... well, sitting behind me while I try to work. On the same chair. Giving me a massage.

(And by massage, I mean poking me in the neck with one paint brush and two foam brushes while telling me that she's already bored and wants her hair in a million braids)

In other words, Gracie's back to school! First grade, this time!

(she's quite excited)

(also, 1st graders have strong muscles)

(and vampire fangs)

Which leaves me, once again, with my littlest duckling. One who misses her sister immensely, but feels better when her hair is in a million braids.

Happy 1st day of school to all you folks out there going back to school, teaching school, or shoving your kids in school!

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes.6

2011-08-18T11:36:00.009-05:00

ANNELIE [laughing hysterically]: Check me out. I look like Justin Bieber.

---------------------------

My kids. They make me snort into my coffee on a regular basis. Here are a handful of clips from around Chez Hopkins.

--------------------------

ANNELIE [passes me a popsicle stick and a ribbon]: Can you tie a bow on the stick?

ME: Sure.

[ties bow, passes stick back to her]

ANNELIE [takes stick, passes it back to me]: Here, Mom, I made you a stick!

----------------------------

ME [in a coughing fit]: Ugh. I feel terrible.

GRACIE: And you look old, too!

---------------------------

ME: Today we're going someplace special!

ANNELIE: Is is PARIS?!

ME: Um... no.

ANNELIE: Is is AFRICA?!

ME: Um. No. It's the swimming pool.

ANNELIE: Oh.

(yeah, not as cool... sorry, kid)

----------------------------

ANNELIE: This is a game. Guess who I am. I have two eyes, I have one nose, and I look like a hooker.

ME: Uh... what's your definition of hooker?

ANNELIE: Someone who lives on a pirate ship and has a hook.

----------------------------

ANNELIE: Mom! You have to see my really awesome penny! It's the best penny in my whole collection. It's a GIANT [pauses for dramatic effect] SILVER [pauses for dramatic effect] PENNY! Isn't it the best?

ME: That's a quarter.

----------------------------

ANNELIE: For Christmas, I'm going to be Daphne from Scooby-Doo!

ME: People don't usually dress in costume for Christmas.

ANNELIE: Oh.... you mean I have to dress PLAIN?!

----------------------------

ANNELIE: Mom, you always make the best food.

ME: Thanks!

ANNELIE: ...except some of it. Some of it is really gross.

---------------------------

ME [to Annelie]: Sometimes you make me very tired.

ANNELIE [cheerfully]: And sometimes you make ME want to listen to Chuck Berry.

---------------------------

ME: Bedtime, kids. Brush your teeth.

GRACIE: But how can it be bedtime? Nobody gave us dinner!

ME: Um.... Daddy didn't give you anything?

GRACIE: He gave us pancakes (crepes) with lemon and sugar.

ANNELIE: And you gave us ice cream and pie.

ME: O_o Oh. Okay. I'll make dinner.

-----------------------------

I'm sure my pal Alyssa is rolling her eyes at the last one. But honestly, who needs dinner when you can have two desserts??

xoxo,

On Being a Magical Fairy

2011-08-17T10:00:00.003-05:00

I've pretty much decided that being the Tooth Fairy is the #1 coolest part of being a parent so far. I'm sure more coolness is to come, but seriously. When I was a tiny grade schooler with a mouth full of wiggly teeth, nothing, I repeat, nothing was as cool as the Tooth Fairy. (well, besides Santa)(and the Easter Bunny)

She:

1.) is a MAGICAL FAIRY. Probably in a pink sparkly dress, with sparkly shoes, and beautiful long curly hair.

2.) is able to FLY. With wings that most likely sparkle. (This was all I wanted when I was a kid. I used to have fantastic dreams of flying and the Tooth Fairy... she can do it.)

3.) gives out ICE CREAM MONEY for something as simple as sticking a tooth under a pillow and falling asleep.

Are you kidding me? I still love her.

And now I get to BE her.

Last night, after much tooth-wiggling, Gracie lost her other top tooth (world's cutest smile) and placed it in the designated Tooth Fairy box. There was excitement, there was cheering, there was jumping up and down. And, as it was well past bedtime, I had to calm her and wait, with ears pricked, for her to fall fast asleep.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz....

Once again, my job description became extra awesome. (minus the scrounging for change part - why does my kiddo always lose teeth when my wallet has nothing less than a five dollar bill?) Out came a square of purple sparkly paper for a note signed by the Tooth Fairy herself. I called her Twinkle Bell last time, right? Yeah, that sounds like something I'd name the Tooth Fairy. Twinkle Bell it is...

And then I went into super stealth mode for the tooth/money switch out.

I had to be sneakier than I've been since the days I used to come in waaaay past curfew with hopes of my mom being asleep (she never was). Then maneuver around ten billion Barbie dolls, plastic dress-up shoes and board games.

In pure silence.

In the dark.

Must. Not. Wake. Sleeping. Child. And. Destroy. All. Childhood. Magic.

Do you know how hard it is to maneuver around ten billion Barbie dolls, plastic dress-up shoes, and board games in pure silence, in the dark? I'm sure this is exactly how Harry, Ron, and Hermione felt sneaking around Fluffy, the three-headed dog. Thrilling.

I'm just going to go ahead and toot my own horn here for a moment - I totally rocked at being a stealthy magical fairy. And yeah, okay, I was in sweats and a t-shirt instead of a sparkly dress with sparkly shoes. And my hair was in one of those lazy half pony tails and more frizzy than curly and beautiful. But this morning, Gracie was pretty darned excited to show me her money and little note from everyone's favorite money-bringing fairy, Twinkle Bell.

Except she said:

"This must be from the Tooth Fairy's sister. Because last time, the Tooth Fairy was called Lola."

Whoops. Sometimes, I have a terrible memory. Hey, it's a hard job being a mom AND moonlighting as a super stealthy Tooth Fairy.

Happy Wednesday, folks!

xoxo,

Senior Moments and Drama Queens

2011-08-15T16:26:00.008-05:00

Gracie, our resident drama queen, is quick to roll her eyes and look as horrified as humanly possible whenever Will and I do just about anything. She began channeling her inner teenager at about 10 months old and has had the OMG, Mom and Dad you are ruining my LIFE look perfected for years.

Mostly this is annoying, as I'm not particularly a fan of 6-year-olds with attitudes. But sometimes... Well, sometimes I can't blame the poor girl.

-----------------------------

Setting: Kitchen. After overhearing advertisement for the movie Rio.

ME: That movie wasn't too bad.

WILL: What movie?

ME: Rio. The one with the blue parrots.

GRACIE: Yeah, that was funny. And the baby parrot was so cute!

WILL: I don't remember a movie with blue parrots.

ME: We just saw it. Seriously, like a couple weeks ago.

GRACIE [rolling eyes]: Uh, yeah.

WILL: Do you mean the one with the funny brother and the dad from the movie where he's the art teacher?

ME: No, that's Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We saw Rio sometime after. But not that long ago, seriously. Like, we just saw it.

WILL: ... No, I don't know.

GRACIE [disbelieving]: You really don't remember?

ME: Come on, you have to remember. We saw it in 3D. I'm not sure why. [stopping to think] We were there for something...

GRACIE [horrified]: Um. Yeaaaaaah, we were.

ME [still thinking]: Hmmmm... why did we go to the movies that day?

GRACIE: WHAT? You don't remember? [with OMG, Mom and Dad you are ruining my LIFE look on face]: That was my birthday.

ME: Uh...

WILL: ... Uh.... And what a special day it was!

GRACIE [raises brows, shakes head]: Yeah.

---------------------------

Whoops. Poor girl.

And poor us - shouldn't ages 27 and 30 be too young for senior moments?

xoxo,

Guess what I do for adventure? I hang glide on a Dorito.

2011-08-03T10:19:00.004-05:00

I have some pretty awesome friends who share pretty awesome videos with me - and this one is pretty much my new fave (thanks, Molly!)

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: My 7th Grade Horror Fiction

2011-07-29T11:00:00.025-05:00

(Today's Friday Flashback is highly influenced by the blog posts of both Kathy aka The Dreamy Giraffe, who shared one of her 7th grade stories today, and Tessa Gratton (author of Blood Magic) who blogged her new collection of 90's teen horror books today - Christopher Pike fans in da' house say "hey!")

Middle School Marisa gobbled up 90s teen horror faster than cones of Baskin Robbins Gold Medal Ribbon. That's saying a lot considering I eat ice cream when I angst and my 12-year-old self lived to angst. And, as I wanted to be a writer, my file cabinet of curiosities had it's own file labeled: HORROR STORIES.

This sample is pretty typical of a 7th grade Marisa story. It contains everything my 12-year-old self loved - an historical preface, a modern-day (circa 1993) tween girl who declares she hates her life in a super dramatic way, evil porcelain dolls, and death angels.

This is fiction that should never see the light of day, you guys. You have been warned. Yep. Here we go.

-------------------------

Preface: 1898, Williamsburg, Virginia

"Oh! Momma!" I cried as I threw open my last birthday gift. It was a doll with pale blonde curls, a soft silk blue dress, cremed rose painted lips in a scary, mocking grin. The doll had clear blue eyes, so clear it almost showed the inside of this fragile doll. I glanced up at Momma. "Thank you, Momma, Poppa. It's a beautiful doll," I said, but I didn't mean it. Not all that much, anyway. Something about her features made me shiver. It was the way she seemed to watch me as I looked at her. "I'll call her Anna-Elise," I said blankly as I set the doll down to continue with the wonderful party given to me.

***

That night, when the party ended, I took Anna-Elise onto my lap and spun her crank to make her say, "Momma!" When she said "Momma!" I smiled. She had a voice sweet and innocent, not like the wicked doll of her appearance. "Momma!" Anna-Elise said again. "Momma!" Slowly I set her down in my doll chair and climbed into bed. A few minutes later, there was a knock at my door.

"Catherine? Are you still awake?" Momma asked me.

"Yes, Momma. You can come in," I said. Momma opened the door to kiss me goodnight.

(insert a page of blah, blah, blah, how did you like your party/doll, I loved it, you're the best Momma ever, shivering because the doll is creepy, goodnight, goodnight, ect... here)

***

The morning came quickly and I got dressed and walked over to pick up Anna-Elise who had fallen over from the night wind which seeped in from my open window.

"You are one gruesome doll," I said to Anna-Elise. I turned the crank in her back. All of a sudden, her clear blue eyes turned red and she smiled at me in a frightening way.

"Mommaaaa!" Anna-Elise laughed. "Mommmmmaaaa!" I dropped Anna-Elise and backed away, only to see her climb up onto her stubby legs. "Come here, Cemitrum!" she said. I backed away. "Come here, Cemitrum!" she said again. I didn't respond. "Raycastra, Floorum, Cristornien, Traichitum, Clagrium, and Opian!" the doll chanted.

From the window, six flying skeletons dressed in shabby robes with flying skeletal birds appeared. I tried to run out of the room but the door seemed stuck.

(insert a half-page of helpless screaming, here)

"Come to me, Cemitrum. Be one of my death angels. Come to me." Anne-Elise's voice was scaring me. I couldn't bear it. I took a step toward the doll. "Good girl," she said. I took another step then grabbed Anna-Elise and flung her out the window. "Aggghhh!" she screamed, then all was silent. As quickly as they came, the death angels disappeared.

From down below, Poppa yelled, "Catherine Alexandra Castrone! Why is your new doll laying on the ground in hundreds of pieces?"

CHAPTER ONE - New York, 1993

"I can't believe you want to move to Williamsburg! I bet they make butter and soap for fun! It's not fair!" I yelled at Momma and Poppa. I was so mad. I hardly even noticed the hurt look on Momma's face.

"Catherine Alexandra Castrone! If you are going to argue then go to your room!" Poppa told me. "Gramma Susan invited us to live in her old house since she is so old, and now we're going to live there! It wouldn't hurt you to learn a little about family history. Anyway, Auntie Maria and Uncle Johnny's kids are going to live there, too. You'll like having Angela to play with. She's twelve, too."

"But Poppa! It's 1993! No one lives in an old town! Believe me!" I whined helplessly.

(insert three pages of Go to your room! I hate you and I'm not moving! You have no choice, now stop whining! But all my friends are in New York and Angela is a spoiled, conceited brat and I hate her! plus helpless crying x10, here)

The End.

------------------------

That wasn't really the end. It went on for another several pages, including a scene in which Catherine moves to Williamsburg and makes fun of "the most ridiculous hat [she has] ever seen!"

Invigorating stuff, eh?

But that's not all, folks. My notes come with a family tree. Too bad I didn't think to include a death angels name pronunciation guide.

Sadly, I was more of an ideas + first-10-pages girl and lacked follow through to the finish, so I don't know how this story ends.

Though I'm sure the final fight between middle school drama queen and evil doll and death angels would have been epic, with lots of blood and plenty of helpless screaming, helpless crying, and helpless whining.

Have a fabulous weekend, folks!

xoxo,

On Bosom Buddies, Breast Cancer, and Bookmarks with Mustaches

2011-07-25T17:17:00.013-05:00

I'm not one of those beyond-well-endowed-in-the-chest-department people, but my heart sincerely goes out to those with bosoms so ginormo their backs hurt. Therefore, at the start of June, when my critique partner and bosom buddy in the Anne-Shirley-meets-Skype-and-g-chat way, Kearsie Murphy (who has been beyond well endowed since her teen years), was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and qualified for a breast reduction, I jumped up and down and burned underwire bras in her honor.

Everything was grand. Kearsie had her reduction surgery and I went on vacation, had a splendid time with my family... and came home to an email saying: WHERE ARE YOU DID YOU HEAR MY NEWS!?

Then I heard her news.

This wasn't good news, folks. This was stomach-dropping-but-not-in-an-awesome-"I've-just-been-on-a-thrilling-roller-coaster-ride" way.

This was news in the "I-just-had-my-reduction-and-now-I'm-my-dream-cup-size-Oh-and-also-I-have-breast-cancer-and-will-be-having-a-double-mastectomy-ASAP" way.

Here's where the ground fell from under my feet. I've never had a friend with breast cancer. I've sported pink ribbons and cheered on those marching for breast cancer... but I've never had a friend with breast cancer. That makes this disease so much more real, somehow.

The good news is this - Kearsie had her double mastectomy and is now breast cancer-free. And to be on the safe side, in the event the cancer spread from her breasts before they were removed, Kearsie will begin chemo shortly.

Kearsie is a ridiculously brave, super crafty 35-year-old book lover with two adorable daughters. To help the Murphy family through this time, the all-around-awesome Winn has magically created bookmarks for her Etsy shop Vintage Umbrella. Proceeds from these bookmarks will go to aid Kearsie's family during her breast cancer battle.

I bought one. She is currently staring at me from between the pages of Pride and Prejudice.

This bookmark and I have a lot in common. We both share a love for buckled shoes. We both love regency romances. And we both have a mustache. (Seriously, remember those Our Changing Bodies classes we had to go through back in 6th grade? Why don't they have those for grown ups? Because I would have loved to have known that age twenty-nine was the year of Our Growing Mustache before it happened. What. The. Heck?)

I love my mustached bookmark.

Kearsie has been blogging her journey since she was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis {HERE} if you'd like to take a peek into her life and say hi.

And if you'd like a mustached bookmark of your own, you can find them:

{HERE}

Have a wonderful week, folks!

And I LOVE YOU, KEARSIE!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Fashion

2011-07-22T10:40:00.010-05:00

In the wise words of the Conchords, "fashion is danger."

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel - dangerous stuff, fashion. Which explains why I'm about as fashionable as last season's discount rack at Target. I don't laugh in the face of danger, I hide from it.

Gracie, the resident fashionista thinks differently. When gearing up for her 6th b-day in May, she said to me, "Hey Mom, can I shop at Justice at the mall? That's where the cool clothes are...."

And this kiddo wanted CLOTHES for her birthday instead of toys. Sometimes I wonder if she's really the daughter of my BFF Jenni, who has been known to say, "Marisa... what are you WEARING?" (this is when I dress myself. When my mom or grandma dress me, I'm pretty cool) And every cute pair of shoes that has ever destroyed my feet with blisters always met my BFF's approval.

"Beauty is pain, Marisa." That became my mantra through college as I heard it often enough. This mantra has been replaced by "Comfort is sweatpants, Marisa" and I'm much happier now.

When Gracie was four, I found this picture on the floor and wore a puzzled/impressed expression as I made sense of it.

"You're designing clothes?" I asked her. "Yup, I want to be a fashion designer," she said. Two years later, the girl is going strong. Her style can be described as "Betsey Johnson meets My Little Ponies."

(She was a fashion designer for Halloween last year and this was her monstrosity - er, creation)

So, I thought I'd dig through the file cabinet of curiosities for these: dress designs from my middle school days.

6th grade:

And 8th grade:

I've always been a sucker for wedding dresses. I love them.

When it came to my wedding, I was one of those, "Tell me when to be there and what to wear and I'll show up about a half hour early," kind of gals. I was happy to hand ALL the wedding planning over to my grandma, who did a beautiful job! and focused my attention on making sure my hubs didn't get too crazy on his stag do and wake up naked in a train car in Scotland (he didn't, phew) and finishing school (I got married the same week as finals, so I ended up with a degree and a hubs at the same time).

When it comes to Gracie and fashion, she's very much a "back away, Mom, I'll handle this" gal, and tromps around the backyard in heels and fancy skirts with hair bows erupting from her head.

She's asked to design her 1st grade back-to-school wardrobe so we've been having fun prepping for that. Making sure Gracie doesn't go to school dressed as the tooth fairy will be a challenge... but she shares my love for art deco and I'm pretty jazzed about the designs she's played with so far.

Stay tuned, folks. My 6-year-old fashionista is prepping for the unveiling of her fall collection and it's going to be pretty sharp.

xoxo,

Why I Typically Screen All Phone Calls...

2011-07-19T14:50:00.008-05:00

Green Vintage Rotary Telephone Watercolor
by Joanna of Jojolarue

I hate talking on the phone. I used to love it, especially in my teen years when I'd talk for six hours straight with one friend and when that call was done, I'd call another friend and talk for another six hours straight.

As soon as I grew up and discovered that my brain and my mouth aren't connected, and that they are further disconnected as soon as a speaker is placed in front of me, I started avoiding the phone like the plague. This all began when I was about 18 and realized that sometimes I randomly say my name like I'm signing off a letter just before I hang up. And when I'm not doing things like that to embarrass myself... I'm saying other things to embarrass myself.

Like today.

[phone rings]

PERKY GIRL ON PHONE: Hi! Can I speak with Alexis Strombone?

ME: Sorry, there's no one here by that name. May I take a message?

[silence]

PERKY GIRL ON PHONE [less perky]: Uh....?

ME: I mean... Whoops. [click]

*facepalm*

And don't even get me started on texting. Apparently my fingers and my brain aren't connected either. Which is why I enjoy When Parents Text so darned much. It's a whole website devoted to people who are as genius as me! (if you have not experienced the hilarity that is this website, you MUST)

Any other phone-challenged people out there? Please say I'm not the only one.

xoxo,

Strange Things Are Brewing...

2011-07-17T16:20:00.006-05:00

That's right, Elegant Snobbery Illustration fans - My Etsy shop is open after a 7 month hiatus, but ... I am only back for a short time to clear out my pre-printed inventory!

Quantities are VERY limited (some prints only have a quantity of ONE) So, if you see something you'd like, you better snap it up!

Come on by Elegant Snobbery and see what's left!

xoxo,

Bringing Out the Big Guns

2011-07-14T11:46:00.012-05:00

So. You know how I've been blogging about how I am ->thisclose<- to finishing this dang draft of The Book the Never Ends for, oh, I don't know, about a MONTH now? Well, I'm still only two measly scenes away from being done, but for some reason... it's just not happening.

This does not fly with me. I want to be done, dang it, and I want to be done NOW. So, much like the little donkey who needs a carrot on a handmade fishing pole dangled in front of his adorable little face (I really love donkeys), I needed to get myself a carrot.

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta = BEST CARROT EVER.

Show of hands - who has never read a book by Melina Marchetta?

*looks around*

Hey you with your hand up: Run, don't walk, to your nearest library and/or bookstore and check out/buy every book by Melina Marchetta you see. And that is an order!*

When it comes to Melina Marchetta's books, I am a fangirl of epic proportions. This book has been at the top of my to-read list since it came out, and yesterday at the bookstore I swear it sang to me like a siren luring my ship to crash upon the rocks (hmmmm... I wonder if my lame simile usage has something to do with why my book is taking so long to finish writing... the delete key is my BFF)

Actually, that's not far from how I feel after reading a Marchetta book - like I've been in a shipwreck. A really freakin' great shipwreck, but a shipwreck nonetheless. And since torturing myself with AMAZING books by Melina Marchetta is one of my favorite pastimes, I absolutely had to buy this one.

---------------------

Here is the Goodreads blurb -

Melina Marchetta's brilliant, heart-wrenching new novel takes up the story of the group of friends from her best-selling, much-loved book Saving Francesca - only this time it's five years later and Thomas Mackee is the one who needs saving.

Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.

But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle's death.

And in a year when everything's broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.

----------------------

My bookshelf is thanking me. I, however, can not believe I have a Marchetta book in my house that I am not reading at this very moment. Clearly I am bringing out the big guns.

I WILL NOT READ THIS UNTIL MY BOOK THAT NEVER ENDS IS FINISHED.

*shuts off internet*

*opens Word*

*writes like a maniac*

Hope you are all having an awesome week, folks!

*if the first book by Melina Marchetta you pick up happens to be Jellicoe Road, do not return it to the library until after you have passed the first hundred pages. I did and lemme just say, BIG MISTAKE. So glad I gave it another go - this book has been my #1 most favorite book EVER WRITTEN (excluding Persuasion, naturally) since I first finished it a couple years ago. And it gets better with every read, I'm telling ya.

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The Annelie Learns to Write Edition

2011-07-13T07:27:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, Annelie figured out how to string letters together to form words. Let me just admit, I didn't know this kiddo even knew her entire alphabet. We've been working on it for awhile and I've been wondering for some time now if my 4-year-old has learning disabilities like her dad did as a kid. Her letters are often written upside-down and she easily forgets what letters look and sound like to the point of where I say, "What letter is this?" and she frequently answers, "Um... B? No. Z? No. G? No. I forgot..."

I haven't been too worried - she doesn't start kindergarten for over a year, so I figured we have plenty of time to figure it out.

So. Saturday, we were working on her summer homework packet and Annelie's page was on the letter A. I said: Draw something that starts with A.

ANNELIE: I'll draw Annelie.

ME: Maybe you can hold something that starts with A in your picture. What starts with A?

ANNELIE: I don't know. What sound does A make?

[Makes all the A sounds]

ANNELIE: Apple starts with A! And the sound in the word PAT!

[Annelie scribbles all over paper]

ANNELIE: Look. It says PAT.

ME AND WILL [look at paper then look at each other having a Holy interplanetary yardsticks, Batman! moment]: Wow. You just wrote the word PAT!

ANNELIE: YAY, I wrote the word PAT! Now I'm going to write CAT! [writes CAT] Look! It says CAT!

ME AND WILL [.... O_O ....] Good job! It really does say cat!

ANNELIE: Now I'm going to write CUP! [writes CUP] It says CUP!

ME AND WILL [.... O_O ....]: Good job!

ANNELIE: Yay! I can write WORDS!

ME: Do you want to write another?

ANNELIE: Yeah! Now I want to write the word GINGERBREAD!

--------------------

Sunday, at dinner -

ME: Annelie, spell HAT.

ANNELIE: Huh... H! Aaah... A! Tuh.... T! [excitedly shouts] H-A-T spells hat!

ME: Yup. Spell DOG.

ANNELIE: Duh... D! Aw... O! Guh.... G! [excitedly shouts] D-O-G spells dog!

ME: Awesome. Spell BUS.

ANNELIE: Buh...B! [long, loud burp to make the UHHHHHHHHH sound] U! Ssssss....S [excitedly shouts] B-U-S spells bus!!

ME [facepalm]: ....

ANNELIE: And pardon me.

--------------------

after dinner, playing with the fridge magnets -

ANNELIE [laughs hysterically]: Gracie! Look what I wrote!

GRACIE: Um... You wrote BUT.

ANNELIE: I know. BUT! Get it? BUT! [laughs hysterically, again]

GRACIE [rolls eyes]: That's the wrong BUT.

ANNELIE [looks at word]: Oh. How do I spell the right one?

GRACIE [adds a T]: There. BUTT.

[Both kids laugh hysterically]

ME [facepalm]: ...

-------------------------

Two days later, Annelie is stringing together 8-letter words by herself. (she got PRINCESS - even with that tricky C!)

This kid. She does impress me. She also keeps me facepalming on a daily basis.

Hope you're having a wonderful week, folks!

xoxo,

WILVIS

2011-07-11T07:18:00.002-05:00

About a year ago, my hubs and I were having one of those Life-isn't-any-fun-unless-we're-doing-what-we-love,-so-let's-figure-out-exactly-what-we-love-and-then-do-it talks.

Now, I'm lucky that I get to do what I love everyday - be home with the kiddos and write and draw and do all things crafty. Will, at that time, only worked. So I said, "Well, what do you think sounds like fun?"

And he said, "I dunno. Elvis impersonator?"

I'm not gonna lie, when Will and I met, and he told me he was a huge Elvis fan, I was like, "Oh. Really." Elvis fans are kinda weird. "Well, that's cool. I know a couple Elvis songs. Like that one UB40 sang in the mid-nineties."

And then I learned that Will has a LOVELY voice, and when hunky men with lovely voices sing Elvis songs to you, you quickly become a fan, I'm telling ya.

When he said he thought he might like giving Elvis impersonating a go, I thought how perfect. We're kind of on the wacky side of normal, and how fun to raise the girls with that in all of our lives. So he got a jumpsuit, a microphone, and grew out his summer buzz cut...

And... then he grew out the sideburns.

OMG, you guys, the SIDEBURNS. On the upside, 70's Elvis totally had that Regency hunk look to him, with those high collars and sideburns and that dark rumpled hair, and I *swoon* love Regency hunks with all my heart... but man. Those sideburns.

Our friend George owns a restaurant and every month Will... ahem, I'm sorry, that's WILVIS, does a show.

He's has been performing at George's and other gigs around our town for close to a year now, and it's really funny - we'll be out as a family doing non-Elvisy family stuff and people will come up to us, recognizing Will. Like, we went to story-time at the library and a woman said, "Hi! I recognize you from the Wilvis shows. I'm Priscilla." (she really was named Priscilla)

Another time the girls and I went downtown for a coffee and Annelie struck up a conversation with a 20-something guy who thought she was pretty darned adorable. The man making our drinks said to the guy, "You know who that is?" The guy shook his head. "That's Wilvis's little girl." And the guy was like, "Oh, yeah!"

That was a very odd, but awesome-for-my-hubs moment. (Also, after a family recognized us while we were all out for dinner at the pub, I realized just how small my city is)

AND I'm happy to say I have a song for you to hear!

He's pretty darned awesome, isn't he?

We have a lot of fun.

Happy Monday, folks!

xoxo,

The Cutest Music Video EVER

2011-07-06T15:43:00.005-05:00

'Nuff said.

I'm TOTALLY going to call him Pom-Pom.

(Thanks to Jonny for sharing this with me)

You guys, I'm two scenes away from being done with this draft of my never-ending book! It is consuming my life which is why I have been very, very scarce lately. But when it is done, CELEBRATION TIME. (which means I'll probably just go to bed early, because seriously, I'm tired.)

Hope you are all having a great week!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Teeth

2011-07-01T11:45:00.010-05:00

Gracie lost her third tooth this morning - one of her two front teeth, which are my favorite teeth for kids to lose. I'm crossing my fingers that the other one will hurry up and fall out because, in my opinion, nothing is cuter than a ginormo top-teeth gap on little kids.

When it comes to pulling out teeth, Gracie and I are polar opposites. (or molar opposites. har har.) She's very timid. This last tooth wiggled in her head for a good two months until it fell out on it's own.

Me at age 4, with my big brother, Dan - my first lost tooth.
How RAD is that wall paper?

I, however, was of the 'will inflict physical pain on self if it means a visit from a real live FAIRY and a handful of shiny coins' variety. And so, at the age of four, I pulled my first tooth out of my head during nap time at preschool when it wasn't even wiggly. (I was of the 'will inflict physical pain on self it if means NOT NAPPING' variety, as well, which got me in a lot of trouble as a kid)

Eventually, my grandma taught me a short cut - the string-tied-to-your-tooth-and-then-to-the-door-and-then-you-SLAM-the-door-and-VOILA! short cut. Which is brilliant! Teeth come out SO easily this way!

Fortunately, there is no photographic evidence that I had a monstrous mouth of scraggly teeth. I smiled with my mouth closed in every close-up shot until my teeth looked normal again in fifth grade...

...thus avoiding looking like my adorable scraggle-toothed hubs....

...who eventually turned into an adorable Jr. Bugs Bunny.

What will Gracie's mouth look like? Only time will tell...

But in the meantime, she's pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself!

Have a FANTABULOUS 4-day weekend and 4th of July (or Good Riddance Day, as my Brit of a husband likes to call it)!

xoxo,

Running For My Life

2011-06-21T11:17:00.005-05:00

Remember two weeks ago when I was like, "Will I finish draft 2 of my never-ending work-in-progress while my kids are at their Grandma's for a week? Will I? WILL I?"

Well. I didn't finish. But I've got wings on my heels, yo, and lately I've been looking like these guys (especially the really intense ones):

So. Close. To. Done.

(and seriously ready to begin draft 3!)

Hope you're having a great week so far, folks!

xoxo,

In Which I Say, "YAY for ME!" and then Leave for Vacation

2011-06-07T14:35:00.016-05:00

You Deserve a Rip Roaring Fiesta 5 x 7 doodle print

by Aimee of Artsyville

The time has come for me to throw a handful of biodegradable confetti up in the air and shout "YAY! I HIT THE 2/3rds MARK ON MY 2nd DRAFT!"

Why would Marisa be doing that? some of you may be asking yourselves.

Well, I'll tell ya - BECAUSE I HIT THE 2/3rds MARK ON MY 2nd DRAFT!

*throws confetti*

Okay, when it comes to successes worth celebrating, the 2/3rds mark on the second draft (and I'm pretty sure I have a minimum of 3 more drafts when this is done before my never-ending beast of a book is query-ready) might not seem like a celebration-worthy milestone. But you guys, I'm a really slow writer. And as it turns out, a really, really, disgustingly slooooow editor. It certainly doesn't help that I've been stuck editing the same two chapters for the last 2.5 months. But those pages that were the bane of my existence on paper (but so good in my head!) are done! And better than when they were in my head. SO I'M CELEBRATING, BABY!

*throws more confetti*

This book is seriously taking it's toll on my sanity - just this morning I found myself standing in the kitchen, looking at the microwave, thinking, "Wait - did I really just shut a wet dish towel in the microwave for no reason and start to walk away?"

Yes, yes I did.

But I'm going out of town this weekend with my BFF - who I have been friends with since we looked like THIS:

(Sorry Jenni, I totally had to post that again. Bwah-hah-hahahaaaa)

and I am SO ready to put this editing hoopla out of my head for a couple days and relax with our families. And when I get back, my mom is taking the girls for an ENTIRE WEEK. Life is truly wonderful!

Which brings me to the questions that are on everyone's mind (well, on MY mind, at least):

Will Marisa Hopkins rise to the challenge and finish her entire 2nd draft while her kids are at their grandmother's house for a week? Will she be temporarily DONE with the beast that is her free-time's #1 life-suck? Will she finally be able to work on her other WIP, which has been whispering sweet nothings into Marisa's ear since the last NaNoWriMo?

dun-dun-dunnnnn.....

Tune in, in a week and a half, for the pleasant - or unpleasant - reveal!

Enjoy the rest of your week, folks!

xoxo,

The Good Old Days

2011-06-05T11:32:00.011-05:00

Gracie's a nostalgic l'il thing, often talking of 'the good old days' - before she started school, when her days were with me and Annelie and Will, who often worked in the evenings so he was home with us during the day.

For months Gracie's been talking about how excited she is for summer vacation so things can be as they were before. She definitely takes after her dad and me - we're always talking about our dating days, and the days when the girls were babies and toddlers.

And looking through old family photos, with Beirut's Postcards From Italy playing in the background to add to the nostalgic mood, is always favorite past time. (Love, love this song and video)

Well, it's summer vacation now, and yesterday was a beautiful day by West Texas's standards - only in the 90's - so Will and I decided a nature hike with the girls would be just the thing to add to the memory collection.

We had a fun day - and wouldn't you know it, when we got home Gracie gave me a huge hug and announced that her days were finally just like the good old days again.

Well, Gracie, you're in luck - Summer vacation is three LOOOOONG months, though I'm hoping by the end of it, you'll be desperate for the good old days of school to start.

I know I will!

But in the meantime, it's awesome having more adventures to look fondly back at!

xoxo,

Illustration Friday - Asleep

2011-05-31T09:13:00.004-05:00

Let me just say, going 6 months without picking up a colored pencil is a CRIME. I didn't even know how much I missed the suckers until last weekend when I picked them up to work on a project for my friend's dissertation (which I shall share another day). Seriously, heaven. I love my pencils.

When I saw this week's prompt for Illustration Friday, I knew sweet Consuelo needed a colored illustration, not just the occasional sketch here and there.

Raise your hand if you can guess my inspiration picture for this one?

The fair Consuelo,
dreaming of her sand and sea-glass cottage by the sea.

By the way, I want to live in this cottage.

I have a companion piece that is going on my drawing board someday. Hopefully sooner than later. I don't want to go 6 months without picking up a pencil again!

Happy Tuesday, folks!

xoxo,

Make a Board Game and Clean This Mess!

2011-05-27T07:50:00.016-05:00

My kids figured out long, long ago that there are approximately ten thousand and five better things to do than clean. Which means when it's cleaning time, I get nothing but resistance. Parents out there - unless your kids are on the OCD side of cleaning, I'm sure you're in the same boat - especially if you are a creative-type with little creative-types running around your ankles.

When it comes to my kiddos' creativity and the materials it takes to create, I don't limit - they've always had free reign of the art supplies. They love it and make the most amazing things - bird beak masks, wings, paper dolls, doll houses, they write and illustrate books, snip paper like it's going outta style... and they make the BIGGEST MESSES. Bigger than mine! When it's time to clean up, I get so much resistance that simple pick-up-your-stuff requests turn into fights with time outs and me putting them on art probation. I hate that.

And then there's the whole clean-your-room business. Oh man.

Well, something needed to change, so, inspired by the book Time Management For the Creative Person, by Lee Silber, who gives ideas for turning boring to-do lists into more creative ways of accomplishing the necessary items in life, I got the idea to make a board game for the girls - heck, the whole family - and now we have CLEAN THIS MESS.

A mess-cleaning board game that is colorful like Candy Land and a silly-fun way to get things done. With a winner's circle - definitely a goal my kids want to reach - and fast!

MAKING THE GAME:

Materials -

Sturdy cardboard about the size of a Candy Land board (shape doesn't matter!)
Colored card stock for squares and game piece backings
Double stick tape
Clear contact paper
Optional magazine cut-outs

I figured that for my kiddos (ages 4 and 6), 12 tasks were about the limit they could take in one clean session, so I have 12 squares on my board. Because of my board size, I made my squares 1.5 inches then arranged them in a wiggly shaped path to the winners circle. Around the path, I taped the magazine cut outs.

When all items were loosely taped down, I covered the board, front and back, with clear contact paper.

MAKING THE GAME PIECES:

Snap a couple full body digital photos.
Print them out (ours are 4-5 inches)
Cut them out
Tape them to colored card stock
Cover them in clear contact paper - front and back
Cut them out again, this time with a base for the feet

MAKING THE GAME PIECE STANDS:

Cut thin strips of card stock like so:

Give them two little snips - then connect the slits so that you have a little hoop stand.

Make two snips in the base of the person game piece and stick it on the stand. Admire your merry band of cleaning warriors.

(I was being fierce - dust bunnies, BEWARE!)

MAKING THE GAME CARDS:

I made a stack of cards that can be reused. When we played, it was a Clean Your Room game, so my cards had tasks like:

Pick up all blue toys and put them in the toy box
Put all My Little Ponies on the shelf
Gather all dirty clothes and put in laundry room
Throw away ten pieces of garbage

Mixed with funny cards:

Dance while cleaning for one whole song
Clean for two minutes while holding a book on your head
Pick up ten pink things and put them away while hopping on one foot

Mixed with non-cleaning cards (everyone needs a break!):

Make up and sing a silly song
Recite the Preamble to the Constitution
Spin around in a circle while counting to 20
Brush your teeth

Definitely write cards to suit your needs - you will need enough cards for each person to have a card for each space on the board.

When making the cards, fill them with the necessary items on your to-do list, only make them even shorter tasks than you'd ordinarily give your kids. You can do this by having them do tasks by color or limit the number of items they'll pick up per card. I had three garbage picking up cards - one for throwing away 10 items, one for throwing away 6 items while wearing a princess dress backwards, one for throwing away 8 items while singing the alphabet. MAKE IT EASY AND FUN and most of all, NOT OVERWHELMING. Give them the ability to move their game pieces quickly from one square to the next in order to keep the interest level up!

ADAPT THE GAME TO SUIT OLDER KIDS by giving them cards that allow them to steal the space of other players, or force them to lose a turn by taking a break while the other people work. Build on my game idea to suit your own needs!

AND THAT IS ALL

My kids played yesterday and Gracie's insanely messy room was cleaned up in an organized manner in only 15 minutes.

YOU GUYS! It usually takes about two hours - kicking and screaming included - to accomplish the same amount of cleaning.

I am a happy mama once again.

If you want to make CLEAN THIS MESS, too, and have questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

Have a great weekend, folks!

xoxo,

Fare-thee-well, Kindergarten

2011-05-26T07:33:00.014-05:00

I'm in constant disbelief that my kids are growing up - Gracie's last day of kindergarten is today and I SWEAR it was only 6 minutes ago that I was wiping off her strawberry cream cheese mustache before taking her to school on her very first day.

(my ickle baby)

She's grown three shoe sizes. She's grown two clothes sizes. She's moved past the days of knowing only the alphabet and is full on reading.

And writing!

(Her journal from September 21st - the G represents Goldilocks)

Her journal from May 16th - about her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun b-day party
"I got to do wat I wonid to do"

(I'm seeing NYT bestselling memoir writer in her future)

(perhaps the James Frey kind...
about 90% of her journal was made up)

(all grow'd up!)

This past weekend Gracie said, "I'm glad it's summer. It will be like the old days again."

She often talks about how much she misses "the old days." (I do, too, little duckling - you grow way too fast).

So, in honor of the good ol' days, we're prepping our summer for the HOPKINS FAMILY (virtual) WORLD VACATION (inspired by Michelle at Michelle's Charm World) in which we spend the summer traveling the world through music, food, art and science projects.

Annelie begged to make a working replica of Mt. Vesuvius - why does this not surprise me? - and Gracie begged to make a paper mache globe. I see a messy future for us all.

I know a bunch of my mama blogger pals are saying fare-thee-well to their kindergartners and welcoming home their brand new first graders today. Congrats to you on surviving this first school year! And good luck to you, as well - three months of summer vacation! I'm already wondering how I'm going to cope...

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The Harmonica Edition

2011-05-24T11:30:00.004-05:00

Just an average conversation with my four year old...

ANNELIE [plays a little tune on her harmonica]: So can I?

ME: Can you what?

ANNELIE: I just told you. Let me do it again. [plays a little tune on her harmonica] There.

ME: What was that?

ANNELIE: I wanted something to eat.

ME: Sure. What do you want.

ANNELIE [plays a little tune on her harmonica]: That's what I want.

ME: I have no idea what you're asking for.

ANNELIE: Listen carefully. [plays a little tune on her harmonica] Can I have one?

ME: Annelie. I don't speak harmonica. Please tell me.

ANNELIE [impatiently]: Oh Mom, just listen. This is what I want. [plays a little tune on her harmonica]

ME: Do you want a banana?

ANNELIE [plays a little tune on her harmonica]: That means no.

ME: Do you want a sandwich.

ANNELIE [plays a little tune on her harmonica]: That means yes. I want this kind. [plays a little tune on her harmonica] Got it?

ME [ready to grab harmonica and chuck it out the window]: If you don't tell me now, I'm not making anything at all.

ANNELIE [plays a little tune on her harmonica]: That means I want a peanut butter and frosting sandwich.

ME: Nope, not an option.

ANNELIE [plays a little tune on her harmonica]: That means I want a peanut butter and honey sandwich.

ME: That I can make.

ANNELIE [plays a little tune on her harmonica]: Do you know what that means?

ME: Please?

ANNELIE: No [plays a little tune on her harmonica] that one means please. This one [plays a little tune on her harmonica] means thank you.

*eyes twitching*

At least she's polite....

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: A Midnight Beach

2011-05-13T15:24:00.016-05:00

I'm still planning on taking a mini blog hiatus because I have over-committed myself just a tad and need to catch up with life, but I'll toss in a Friday flashback first.

So. I've blogged about my wretched (but amusing! - to me at least) poetry from 7th grade in previous flashbacks, and here I go again. Only this poem was my 7th grade Young Author's Faire submission so it has fancy pictures!

A Midnight Beach

And in usual Marisa fashion - a page in which I dedicated my book to one of my childhood cats.

And, in case you aren't sure whether you just read a truly terrible poem or a REALLY AMAZING poem, I'll just go ahead and show you the reviews:

That's right you guys - my poem is one of the greats.

Best. Poem. EVER.

Seriously, though, I hated this poem when I wrote it. I might have had a ginormous love for writing and poetry back then, but my self-confidence was atrocious. It was supposed to be a descriptive poem, and even now, writing descriptions usually ends with me banging my head on my desk and blubbering that I'm a no-talent hack.

Although I am happy to say that my teacher liked my poem more than I did - every teacher picked two books from each class to enter the Young Author's Faire, and my poem was one of her choices.

But I will add that even then I was positive my teacher picked my poem because of the illustrations - this is the same teacher who announced to the class, while looking directly at me, that book reports and other non-artsy class assignments (she was also my history teacher) were not allowed to have illustrated covers because they will NOT count toward the grade.

This is also the teacher who, ten years later, saw me working at the elementary school her daughter attended, remembered me, and asked if I was still into art. That was pretty cool - she was one of my favorite teachers. I felt awful that I didn't recognize her. I also can't believe that at age 23 I looked enough like my 13-year-old self (eeek!) that my teacher recognized me.

Have a flashback of your own? JOIN IN THE FUN and hop on over to Tia's blog while you're at it.

Happy weekend, folks!

xoxo,

MIA for some R&R

2011-05-12T11:01:00.000-05:00

I have been over-committing myself lately which is something I am really good at. If there is an award out there for people who take on too much and end up stressed and insane, I'm totally going to win this year. So, I may be scarce 'round these here parts for awhile -- I'm ready for a little rest & relaxation!

(I use the words rest and relaxation very loosely, as I don't really know how to do either)

In an effort to enjoy spring, Annelie and I been spending our days outside. I figure the Texas sun will be too intense to keep this up once summer is in full swing, so I'm getting my vitamin D while it's only, oh, a hundred degrees out.

And spending my days outside with my kiddo and my cat is as close to a vacation as I get.

And it is nice and relaxing.... although I do find myself saying more and more each day:

"Annelie, please don't torture the cat."

"No, really. I'm not kidding around, here. Please don't. torture. the. cat."

She doesn't help in the relaxation department, but one of these days she'll listen.

I keep telling myself that (weirdly, all the cats like her best).

Are you guys enjoying spring where you live? I hope so!

Happy Thursday, folks!

xoxo,

BLOOD MAGIC by Tessa Gratton (or a post in which I admit I'm a crazy fangirl)

2011-05-10T07:35:00.022-05:00

WARNING: Content shows fangirlying of epic proportions. You have been warned.

Once upon a time (a little over two years ago) I was having a BAD day. You guys, this day sucked royally and went right on sucking into the night where I sat in my room, at my computer, bitter and alone. Will was working late, late, late. The girls, practically babies back then, were finally asleep - or else they'd knocked each other unconscious in their usual bedtime fighting - I was too grumpy to check. That night, I was wallowing in my bad-day misery pretty hardcore.

Now, I'm a firm believer in the whole 'every cloud has a silver lining' thing, and I typically find my silver lining when I'm shopping online. This day was no different, but what to shop for, what to shop for?

A book - that's what. But not just any book - I wanted an incredibly fantastic faery story - something modern yet fantasy, something a wee bit gory, definitely creepy, dark yet funny... Oh yeah, and it had to be YA fiction. I had no idea where to even begin searching for a book such as this.

And then I stumbled upon the blog belonging to the Merry Sisters of Fate.

If you aren't familiar with this blog, let me fill you in: FANTASTIC FREE FICTION. Short stories posted regularly by three gals with a love for all things magic and creepy, dark yet funny. Fantasy, fairy tales, monsters (OH MY!)... I could go on forever.

I spent the rest of the night reading story after story by Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff and Tessa Gratton - made my feel-good purchase when I saw that Ms. Stiefvater had a published book called Lament, about homicidal faeries and an evil queen (O_O!!!) and I thought: this BETTER be good.

Uh. Yeah. The book came in the mail a couple days later. Good ended up being a bit of an understatement. Though she might tell you otherwise, I'm pretty sure Maggie wrote this book specifically for me.

- insert fangirlying of epic proportions -
(this includes but is not limited to me jumping up and down, hands flapping, eyes twitching, and OH EM GEE, OH EM GEE, OH EM GEE repeated for dayz)

I decided then and there that these three gals would share my fangirlying equally because if I focused my attentions on one of them specifically, I'd probably end up with a restraining order. Well, okay, not a real one, but they might block my IP address or something, so they wouldn't have to deal with my embarrassing amounts of fawning. Actually, that's not true. I mostly fangirl from afar with an occasional OMG I WANT TO BE YOU GUYS WHEN I GROW UP! thrown into a blog comment or tweet. But still.

Maggie's other books came out - all fantastic (you might be familiar with Shiver - a NYT bestseller for a billion consecutive weeks). Brenna's book The Replacement came out - also a NYT bestseller (if you haven't read it, go on!)

And now, coming May 24, 2011:

If you haven't guessed yet that I'm excited about this book, let me go on and tell ya:

I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK!

Only two more weeks to wait, but until then, here is a book trailer to whet your appetite.

I know. That was blood. Blood Magic features BLOOD.

And if you would like a little sample of Tessa's beautiful (and creepy FTW!) writing, check out my favorite short story of hers:

PUDDLES <- click that.

You guys, if you haven't read a book by one of the three Merry Sisters, don't follow my example and wait for a terrible day to do it. Do it now! You don't need to be a young adult to love and adore YA fiction. You do, however, have to be awesome -- are you up to the challenge?

And if you want a chance to win an advanced reading copy of Blood Magic, hop on over to the blog of Natalie C Parker and enter her contest. (I'm totally on it)

Happy Tuesday, folks!

xoxo,

Happy Day-After-Mother's Day!

2011-05-09T18:03:00.010-05:00

During playtime in class today, Gracie asked her teacher if she would help her type up a poem.

And with it - a portrait!

I said to Gracie, "Thanks! This looks just like me!"

She rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, Mom. It doesn't look just like you. You never wear pink lipstick."

Well, if I did wear pink lipstick, I'd look exactly like this. It's an awesome likeness.

And a totally awesome poem!

Mother's Day should be every day!

xoxo,

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T12:43:00.013-05:00

Today we're celebrating the moms in our life with a little poetry:
Though they might sound exactly like the super sophisticated poems I write, these poems were written by my daughters. I must admit the lines - I love my Grandma/ with me and you (by 4-year-old Annelie) are my favorite.

For all you moms out there - have a wonderful day! For all you daughters and sons out there - have a wonderful day, as well! As for me - well, after hosting Gracie's b-day sleepover last night, I look like I've been smacked repeatedly in the eyes with a stick and I'm ready for bed! We also have a new rule - no sleepovers until second grade. I'm pretty sure it will take me at least a year to recover from this one...

Happy Mother's Day!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Middle School Marisa's Book Covers

2011-05-06T09:14:00.013-05:00

I've blogged before about the stories I used to write in fifth grade, middle school, my freshman year of high school... well guess what, folks! Some of those stories have BOOK COVERS! And attached to those book covers are the stories that go with them and, oh man, they crack me up. I might need to share samples from some of those stories in another flashback.

This post is about book covers, so I'll begin with THIS:

From 5th grade - check out those eyebrows.

I didn't get my first set of fancy colored pencils until 6th grade, so I made do with crayons. And check out the calligraphy in that title! Practicing calligraphy was one of 11-year-old Marisa's favorite pastimes.

From 6th grade - a sci-fi story about doppelgangers found in an alternate universe.

From 7th grade - another sci-fi about an alternate universe inside a mirror and a girl who falls in and has to convince the dorkiest, smelliest boy in her class - who she and her friends made fun of - to help her find a way out (he's the one who has the mirror). This story was about unexpected friendships - I was big into writing stories featuring unexpected friendships.

(for those who recognized the frightening girl in the mirror - yes, that was me. You'll find brown-haired, blue-eyed, moley-faced characters on a lot of my covers because I learned how to draw people from looking in the mirror. Also, I never finished the drawing because I thought it was so darned ugly)

Also from 7th grade (1993) - how NINETIES is this book cover?

In this story, my main character's BFF dies. Her name was November Shane. I was a huge Guns N' Roses fan, you guys.

Also, I killed off someone in just about all of my stories. I loved killing characters. In fact, here is a little clip from the diary I kept when I was in 5th grade:

(my character in this particular story was called Capulet Montague, by the way. 11-year-old Marisa was fascinated by desperately sad love stories)

(also, in case you are wondering, this entry was from March - my diary did a great job of reminding me of those missing summer pages in that when I came to them, they were missing!)

From 8th grade - the main character spends the summer suffering from a horrible illness, confesses her love for her very best friend who confesses his love for her, too, and then she dies.

Also from 8th grade - a ghost story. This one featured a haunted doll that was made as an effigy of a girl who had been murdered by her tutor - the girl's bones and dress were found in a locked trunk that was in the basement, hidden behind a brick wall, The Cask of Amontillado-style. I had just read that story and it freaked me out so badly I simply HAD to include my favorite part in a story somewhere.

According to my notes, I planned for the doll to have the hair and eyelashes of the dead girl... but how that could be when she disappeared and her body was found a hundred years later locked in a trunk behind a brick wall, I have no idea. But hey, not too bad for age 13!

And because it amuses me: The title page, complete with publishing information.

And another ghost story from my 8th grade days:

This one was Scooby-Doo-like in that the ghost was a hoax in order to bring guests into the haunted inn where the characters were staying.

This was my 8th grade Young Author's Faire book.

I didn't win. Heck, I wasn't even chosen from amongst my classmates to participate in the actual Faire - my story was pretty darned boring, despite the mildly interesting title. However, I wasn't upset. Only one book was chosen from each class to be entered into the contest, and the girl who won from my class asked me to do the illustrations for her book, which I did. That made me happy.

And now for a mermaid story (because there has to be a mermaid story somewhere - these are MY stories, after all):

This was the very last book cover I made in my middle school days, drawn just before freshman year, and I worked on this story off and on through high school.

Sadly, I cannot find the other book covers I drew, though I know they are around my house somewhere. Most of these I found in a file marked: MARISA'S TAXES '02. My organization skillz are clearly lacking.

Have a flashback of your own to share? Head on over to Tia's blog and join in the fun!

Have a great weekend, folks!

xoxo,

Gracie is SIX!

2011-05-05T07:55:00.008-05:00

Go, go, go, go

Go, go, go shawty
It's your birthday
We gon' party like it's yo birthday
We gon' sip Bacardi - er, grape juice - like it's your birthday
And you know we don't give a ...
It's not your birthday!

Well, it might be your birthday...

But today in Chez Hopkins we are celebrating the resident six-year-old!

Yesterday Gracie woke up and the first thing she did was call out, "TODAY IS THE LAST DAY I'M FIVE!"

Today she woke up, saw her room full of balloons (balloons on the floor is our b-day tradition - nothing like waking up to a sea of rainbow balloons on your birthday!) and informed me that as she is now six, she will be nice to everyone, including her sister, every minute of every day.

Look at my little lady - amazingly mature in less than 24 hours. Six is a very grown-up age to be.

Gracie's school doesn't allow cupcakes to be brought in on birthdays, and though I was tempted to make them and bring them in anyway and say, "Ooops, I forgot that I can't bring cupcakes!" (like the other kindergarten mothers do - despite the many notes home saying don't bring in cupcakes!), I figured that since her teacher is our next door neighbor and I don't want to find any vengeful yard clipping dumped over the fence between our yards, I'll follow the rules.

(Not that I think she'd actually do that - she's a nice neighbor - but still.)

We opted for goodie bags instead and Gracie spent yesterday afternoon helping me stuff them full of balloons and blowers and twisty straws and candy.

I love goodie bags.

Happy happy b-day to my six-year-old. It's a little bit amazing to me that I've been blogging about this kiddo since she was two, and here she is, all grown up.

*sob!*

MY BABY! WHERE DID MY BABY GO AND WHO IS THIS GROWN UP IN HER PLACE!?

*deep breath*

Okay, whew. I just had to get that out.

xoxo,

On Time Management, Organization, and Super Cute Bookends

2011-05-03T13:00:00.009-05:00

Lately I have been stuffed into very narrow closets, trying to give a little order to my insanely messy studio. And the reason (besides the fact that my studio is an insane mess) - This book: Time Management for the Creative Person, by Lee Silber.

I'm one of those people who picks up a book on time management and organization, has a rush of optimism and dreams of success, immediately rolls up sleeves and gets to work, then fizzles out with a half completed project.

All you creative types out there - are you like that, too? Then read this book, which specifically caters to the right-brainers. I've been reading it for the last month and I'm LOVING it.

But does reading this book mean I'll find myself permanently organized and super time managed and all that?

Well, I don't know, but in the last month I've been more productive than usual, with a tidier house and more time spent with my kids, and outdoors in the sun. And that's in addition to my creative projects. I'm a fan of this book, to say the least.

On a cuter note - check out my new (to me!) bookends:

I can't take it - they're just so cute!

Recently (like, this weekend), I discovered the joy of garage saling.

Seriously, where have I been for the last 3o years?!?! Garage sales! A treasure trove of awesome junk!

Usually it's Will who goes to garage sales, coming home with antique record tables that smell old and don't work (but look cool?). This time it was me that did the garage saling, which means I now have oodles and oodles of new craft supplies (because of course you can never ~~hoard~~ have enough of those) and these ridiculously cute ceramic book ends.

I just want to smile at them all day long, but alas. I have narrow closets to stuff myself into as I organize.

What have you been up to lately?

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: Desperately Seeking Susan

2011-04-29T08:38:00.010-05:00

I'm just gonna go ahead and say I love the movie Desperately Seeking Susan. Have you all seen this movie? If not, what are you waiting for! It's so quirky and cute and Madonna and Rosanna Arquette are awesome!

Here is the description from Amazon: Bored New Jersey housewife Roberta fills her days by reading the personal ads and following an ongoing romance between "Jim" and "Susan", a mysterious drifter who leads the kind of free-spirited life about which Roberta can only dream. And dream she does, until the day she actually shows up at the couple's prearranged rendezvous in New York City...and after a bump on the head, a bout of amnesia turns Roberta into Susan and opens the door to intrigue, laughter and love!

I love screwball comedies.

The other day I was talking awesome 80's fashion with my pal Alyssa, and mentioned I went to my Homecoming dance when I was seventeen dressed Madonna-like a la Desperately Seeking Susan and she said, "BLOG IT!"

Then, funnily enough, yesterday my pal Tina blogged her love for this movie, and how it influenced her 15-year-old self when it came to fashion. (Seriously, Tina, I love and adore you even more, if that's possible!)

Now, I wasn't about to rock the parachute pants and though my mom still had her leather pants from the 80's, which looked exactly like the pants Rosanna is sporting on the movie cover, I wasn't about to rock those either. So my mom helped me come up with a skirt alternative.

Costume shopping with my mom is so fun, you guys. We went to Victoria's Secret for a black lace body suit, black bra, and lacy thigh-highs. Hit up the Goodwill store for costume jewelry. Bought lace socks which I painted gold.

And the pièce de résistance: My pyramid jacket! (which my mom made)

Okay, so I don't quite look like Madonna... And I'm not sure how many people at my school had seen this movie (it came out 14 years before) because no one knew what the heck was going on with my outfit.

And the ticket collector took one look at me and said, "It's Cyndi Lauper!"
But whatever. That outfit was so totally me and I loved it.

You know what else I love? This song:

(which is in the movie)

So, Alyssa and Tina - what do you think? Did I do 80's Madonna-inspired fashion justice?

Have a flashback of your own to share? Join in the fun at Tia's blog!

Happy Friday, folks!

xoxo,

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The Discipline Plan/ Concept of Time Edition

2011-04-28T09:59:00.008-05:00

ANNELIE [Looking at discipline chart]: Hey, it says I'm on 'no art' but I didn't move my clip today!

ME: That was left over from yesterday.

ANNELIE: No, it wasn't yesterday. It was today tomorrow.

(she has no concept of time in any form - and I love how that leads to many Alice In Wonderland-esque conversations)

Hey mamas out there who remember when I blogged about my latest discipline plan in my constant battle to find something to keep my kids from pitching epic fits in public libraries and cutting bedsheets and eyelashes and giving the other a black eye and being all around Queens of Destruction:

Guess what! The plan has been in effect for a grand total of four months and currently we STILL have a handle on the discipline situation! With the exception of Annelie's self-cut hair-do which she rang in the new year with, we've been destruction-free for months. YIPPEE!

You can read all about our discipline plan {HERE}

I've got to say, I sort of missed having fantastically appalling stories to share about my adventures with two high-energy little monsters (- er, I mean angels!). But then, the other day, I overheard this:

GRACIE: Hey Annelie, remember when we used to play sword fights with Mommy's knitting needles and when she'd say, "What are you doing," we'd say, "Nothing!"

...and the horror came flooding back and I am SO glad I haven't had a story to share in ages. Also, my friend Starr reminded me that the best is yet to come, as I'm sure to hear this someday:

GRACIE: Hey Annelie, remember when we stole Mom's car and went to TJ for that weekend and the car broke down, and when we got back she said, "Where's my car?" we said, "I dunno, I think it got stolen"...............

(Thanks for that, Starr! But I hope not!)

Happy Thursday, folks!

xoxo,

Marisa the Princess Wastes Time

2011-04-27T08:50:00.007-05:00

ATTENTION: Fellow time wasters who also love princesses - you are gonna LOVE this.

My writing partner Shauna mentioned this princess-making site {click here!} yesterday, and I shouldn't have clicked the link but I am weak-willed and couldn't help myself and was instantly sucked in.

You guys! I turned myself into a princess!

I thought I looked just lovely, but Gracie took one look at my picture and said, "That's not even pretty. You're wearing black." So after a discussion on black being classic (in which Gracie didn't agree that black was classic) I turned myself into a different princess...

(This one passed Gracie's princess test)

As I was supposed to be working on my book whilst all this princess-making was going on, I figured turning my book characters into Disneyesque princesses sorta counted...

So I turned my character Lia (from my Sleeping Beauty story) into a princess.

And then Hallie, who is my main character from my gods and monsters story. (Although she wanted nothing to do with all the princessy garb and settled for killer boots and a mini skirt)

After that, I turned my computer over to the kids, to make as many princesses as their hearts desired, and finally stopped my time-wasting.

But that might have been because it was time to stop putting off cooking dinner...

Happy princess making, all you princess lovers!

xoxo,

How I Write: On Inspiration and Perseverance

2011-04-25T10:11:00.034-05:00

Vintage Pink Olympia DeLuxe @ Brooklyn Retro

The other day, I had a comment with a question from Jamie, and I thought I'd it share it here:

I have dappled in fiction writing a little bit over the last few years but I have a hard time developing an original idea, sticking with it, and turning it into a legitimate work in progress.

I was wondering if you could share how you find inspiration for the main ideas for your books and how you continue to enhance those ideas over the course of multiple years.

That's a great question, Jamie, and I'm going to answer it in two parts - how I find my ideas and develop them and how I turn those ideas into a legitimate WIP (work in progress).

First, I have to say, the more writing friends I meet, the more I learn that everyone writes differently! Some plan their books in detail, some fly by the seat of their pants while they write (I plan much more than I pants). So if you're interested in writing, and haven't already started, keep in mind that what works for me, might not work for you AT ALL! I'm just sharing.

1.) How I find my ideas and develop them.

I'm going to go ahead and admit that finding ideas and inspiration has never been a problem for me. When I'm bored or need a break from thinking about a project I'm stuck on, I pass the time by challenging myself to come up with ideas based on things I'm interested in learning more about. That's in addition to the ideas that fly at me when I least expect them to.

If you're really stuck on the finding of ideas, try this game which I used to play for fun in high school:

Pick a non-fiction book with lots of random information (I like using encyclopedias or dictionaries for this). Grab a pen and paper and open the book to pages at random and write down at least one thing that mildly (or totally) interests you, and a couple notes on it - just a couple! Do this about 12-15 more times until you have a bunch of random stuff on a page that all interest you.

Do any of them inspire you to learn more about them? Do they remind you of other things you love that you might want to learn more about? If so, write down those notes, too. Can you make connections between any of these items? Even randomly weird connections that might turn into plot, setting, or interesting characters? If so, take what is useful to you from this exercise and stick it in a notebook in case you want to develop it further.

Every time I have a potential story idea, I write it down. I'm a notebook junkie so I have spare notebooks everywhere (at back-to-school season, you can usually grab coiled notebooks from places like Office Max for as little as $.12 a book!) and for each idea that I want to develop further - not necessarily to write a book, but to at least see if I want to write it - I give it it's own notebook.

If I'm already working on a project, I only spend an hour here and there over the course of a few months, or even years, writing down small ideas and inspirations along the way - usually in the form of songs or poems that mesh with the characters or tone of the story, so I can recall them when I am ready to work. Also, if characters pop into my head, or dialogue or subplot ideas, I have a place to put them before I forget.

Shiny new ideas are shiny! But if you are already working on a project, don't set it aside! Finish it first and then take on those shiny new ideas.

The most important thing about finding ideas and writing about them is that you write for YOU. My next project, which I'll begin in November for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) combines my interest in the French Revolution and the ethics of cloning, with this as my theme song (picked as inspiration for tone and pace):

Do I think anyone else will give two hoots about a book like this?

Well, I hope so, but if not, that's okay - I'm so excited to write it that the idea of waiting until November to begin is brutal. Don't be afraid to tell the story you are insanely excited to tell regardless of whether you think it will be marketable. If I worried overmuch about the marketability of of my stories, I'd be too timid to write them!

2.) How I turn my ideas into a legitimate WIP

If you haven't guessed that outlining is important to me, I'll just go ahead and tell you: OUTLINING IS IMPORTANT TO ME.

That doesn't mean I fence myself in with an outline. Oh no, I certainly don't. If I did, the end of my fairy tale WIP would be drastically different because of a character relationship I changed halfway though the first draft (and frankly, that original end would have sucked).

I outline because I need to know the beginning, the middle (including several scenes I am excited to write), and the end. I need to have something I am excited to work toward or else I struggle to find the motivation to get me there!

If you are a pantser, outlining might hold you up. If you aren't sure what you are, grab a few books on writing craft and experiment! I only know my process because I've taken the time to figure it out.

Only after I have outlined and researched until I've reached the point where waiting even one more hour before sitting down to begin my story is too excruciating to handle, I open up my word doc and write.

And that brings me to the number one most important piece of advice when it comes to writing:

WRITE.

There are days when I love my book and my words flow and the sky is blue and the birds sing, and sitting in my chair and working is fun and easy and my book loves me and there are rainbows and sparkles! You guys, I love sparkles!!

There are days when I hate my book and my words won't come and the sky is dark and hateful and the only bird around is a mocking bird and it's ME he's mocking, that little bastard! There are no rainbows and definitely no sparkles. Writing is hard, yo.

But I stick my bum in that chair anyway and I write. And I also delete. And smash my head against the keyboard like that guy from Sesame Street who bangs his head against his piano. I stare at the wall. I cry because I'm frustrated and I always cry when I'm frustrated. I also eat lots of carbohydrates and then hate myself for being a stress-eater. But still I write.

So many people say they want to write a book more than anything but they don't have the time...

Guess what? Me neither! Therefore, I sacrifice in order to have that time. Because being a writer is important to me, I know that in order to be successful, I have to write when I want to, but most importantly, when I don't want to. I have to write when there are better things to do. When it's an awesome TV night. When my muse is being a jerk. When I should be folding the laundry. When my hubs and daughters are at the movie theater watching Gnomeo and Juliet, which I really want to see, but which if I don't see, I'll have two hours to write without interruptions!

Only by writing will you see those shiny ideas to completion!

This post is long, but hopefully helpful?

Happy Monday, folks! Hope you have an excellent week!

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: The Easter Adventure

2011-04-22T11:51:00.012-05:00

In fifth grade, my class was assigned a creative spring project and one of the options for the project was to write and illustrate a book, and read it aloud to the first graders at my school.

Write a book!

FOR HOMEWORK!!

And read it to my very first audience!

By age eleven, I was pretty darned positive I would grow up to be an author, so naturally I was pumped by this option. Exuberantly, I pulled out my binder paper and markers and got right to work. I ripped off a storyline from one of my favorite cartoon Easter movies, using my collection of stuffed animals as characters instead of the characters from the cartoon.

(Because if you rip off a storyline that has already been proven to be great, yours is automatically great, too. Didn't you know?)

(Also, I didn't understand the concept of plagiarism until middle school)

My story is long, but here is a sample:

The story is about a group of curious animal kids who are excited by the idea of the Easter Bunny coming and decide to go on an adventure to find the Easter Bunny's workshop.

They fall down a rabbit hole...

Find the workshop (although for some reason they do not recognize the workshop as a workshop. You'd think the painted eggs, candy, toys, and the fact that the head office door has a sign reading: MR. EB would give the Easter Bunny's workshop away, but nope).

They wreak havoc.

And at the very end, they have a story they can pass on for generations of enjoyment.

An EPIC adventure tale, I tell ya.

Gracie had me read this story to her the other day, and she thinks eleven-year-old Marisa was brilliant. It's so very nice having fans. However, in usual Marisa fashion, I then proceeded to give her a lecture on plagiarism and after a couple minutes, her eyes glazed over and her head exploded and she shouted out, "BOING!"

(In our house, BOING! is the girl's mercy word, which they came up with in order to handle situations in which Mommy talks too much about boring, over-their-head subjects)

Sometimes I forget she's only five.

Have a flashback of your own to share? Head on over to Tia's blog and join in the fun!

Happy Easter to all you Easter celebrators out there! And to everyone else - have a great weekend!

xoxo,

SLEEP Theme Song: Rabbit Heart

2011-04-21T08:13:00.010-05:00

I've blogged before how much I love (and need) to write to music, and my current work-in-progress, a modern Sleeping Beauty retelling (which I call SLEEP) is no different.

After blogging my love for The Lady of Shalott yesterday, I thought it appropriate to share the #1 song I listen to whenever I need to get into my main character's head:

Rabbit Heart by Florence + the Machine

(click the picture to be magically transported to the video on YouTube)

I've been writing my book for a year and a half now and in that time I've listened to this song over 400 times (according to my iTunes). And the rest of Florence + the Machine's LUNGS album I've listened to close to that much. Oh man, Florence is just so great and this album never stops being amazing.

Also, it amuses me that my other work-in-progress has a bit of an Alice in Wonderland theme to it (only instead of mad hatters and angry queens my character finds herself in a world of gods, monsters and virgin sacrifice. YAY!)

Happy listening, folks!

xoxo,

National Poetry Month: The Lady of Shalott

2011-04-20T07:37:00.009-05:00

The Lady of Shalott - John William Waterhouse

Hey! It's National Poetry Month! And guess what? I love poetry.

Of course you wouldn't guess this based on the poems from my 7th grade poetry folder which I occasionally share (like this little gem). And if I were to share the dreadful poems I currently write, you DEFINITELY would not guess that I love poetry. I butcher the art form in embarrassing ways.

My mom read Romantic and Victorian poetry aloud to me when I was young, and for a long time in middle school, I read poetry more than anything - especially heartbreaking love poems and In Memoriams. Sadness and suffering appealed to me very, very much when I was an angsty thirteen-year-old with horrendous hair and no fashion sense to speak of. Now that I'm a mom, I make sure to read tons of poetry to my girls, and wouldn't you know it, Gracie's favorites are the ones that have twisted and sad endings. Like mama, like daughter.

My favorite poem, if you haven't figured it out yet, is The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson. It's too long for me to post here, so I'll just go ahead and leave you with this:

At the age of seven, I was pretty darned positive that Gilbert Blythe was going to one day rescue me from drowning in a super romantic way. Admit it, folks - you had the very same dream.

I like my artwork as I like my poetry - filled with romance, sadness or suffering (bonus when it's all three!) - so it's probably no surprise that my favorite painting is The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse.

When Will and I had been dating for about a month, he said, "I have a surprise for you," and proceeded to drag me around London (yes, really drag. I was wearing super cute boots that day, but they KILLED my feet). When we reached the Tate Britain, I thought, "Art gallery? I have a date at an ART GALLERY?"

*swoon*

But it gets better. You see, I had told Will at one point in the four weeks we'd been dating that The Lady of Shalott was my favorite painting. Will knew it was in London. I did not. When he pulled me in front of the ginormous painting I think I stared at it for close to a hundred years. In case you don't know this, The Lady of Shalott is even more incredible in person. I probably cried. And if I cried, Will laughed, because he thinks my cry is the funniest thing he's ever seen. (It's too dramatic to even look real, he says)

The way to this girl's heart is depressing artwork and poetry, that's for sure. And Will won my heart yet again when he called a cab for the trip home from the Tate (seriously, those boots were killer).

Happy National Poetry Month, folks!

And now a question for you - What's your favorite poem?

xoxo,

The Illustrated Girl in the Garden

2011-04-19T13:37:00.004-05:00

The spring flowers are a-blooming and Annelie and I have been taking time to smell the roses.

Is there anything cuter than tattooed knees?

My sources say no, but I might be a little biased.

xoxo,

Kids Draw the Darndest Things

2011-04-18T08:49:00.005-05:00

Setting: Crack of dawn (ie 9:30 am) on a Sunday. I'm sleeping, Gracie is bouncing on the bed next to me.

GRACIE: I drew you a picture, Mom!

ME: Ughshgfklaehhwa (I'm not a morning person)

GRACIE: Look at it! I drew you as a mermaid on a surfboard! Aren't you cute? I drew you KISSING.

ME: Umghhaweroug [looks at picture of MERMAID MAKE-OUT ORGY, eyes widening]

Um. Wait. Who am I kissing?

GRACIE: That's Daddy.

ME: And exactly WHO is kissing Daddy?

GRACIE [laughs]: ...

ME [panics]: !!!

GRACIE: That's also Daddy. I drew that one first, but he was too far away to kiss you so I crossed him out.

Phew!

And on the back, just in case I wasn't sure if she loved me or not:

She does x12!

Nothing like waking up to mermaid orgy art and a huge array of I Love Yous.

xoxo,

Love Notes and Writing Critiques

2011-04-16T11:16:00.025-05:00

When author Maggie Stiefvater posted a writing critique partner loooove connection on her blog the other day, I thought, "Too bad I'm not done with my revision. This would have been a good opportunity to meet other writers and receive unbiased feedback on my story."

And then I thought, "Stop being a big fat baby, Marisa. Your first 50 pages of this draft are ready to go and that's all you're supposed to share anyway. You're really just scared that the only people who like your book are your friends - who only tell you they think your story is good because they like you too much to watch you fling yourself off a cliff." *note: I will not fling myself off a cliff.

And then I thought, "Yeah, that's true. And life is all about taking chances. Besides how else will this story get better? Let's do this thing." So I held my breath and posted an ad. My mind has been whirling ever since.

In the last week, I've read some great manuscripts by other writers - stories that I'm excited to watch these writers grow into something so amazing they get agents and book deals and I'll stand in a long, long line to get my copy signed.

I've also received critiques that have renewed my faith in the beast that has consumed my life for the last year and a half. (Not to mention a critique in which the reader did not like one. single. thing about my book. Ouch.) And though the critiques have been at times overwhelming, I'm relieved to have feedback I connect with and direction for making my story even better.

I know my kids have been picking up on my stress this week. Gracie has been slipping me more love notes with big fat kisses on them than usual.

How much do I love my kids? There aren't enough words in the world to answer that question.

Enjoy your weekend, folks! I'm going to be drinking lots of coffee, listening to lots of music, going on lots of walks with the girls to feed my muse, all the while thinking long and hard on how to tame my beast of a book.

It's going to be a great weekend!

xoxo,

School Portraits

2011-04-13T08:24:00.013-05:00

When Gracie handed me her first school portrait envelope, my palms started to sweat. I kid you not. I'm pretty sure the trauma from a decade and a half of awkward school photos is everlasting. I can't even take my family to get posed portraits at the mall because the idea of forcing a smile while a camera person says, "Okay, everyone, say STINKY FEET!" or whatever, makes me want to binge eat at the food court.

But I was relieved when I opened the package. Her kindergarten photo is pretty adorable. One portrait down - no more until first grade! Woo hoo!

Or so I thought... A couple days ago, Gracie came home with ANOTHER ENVELOPE. Unbeknownst to me, her school takes three awkwardly posed portraits a year. THREE! And this little spring portrait is definitely awkward. I haven't purchased yet. I still have two more days to decide whether I want to torture my kiddo for life by framing school photos around the house or not. And if I do buy, here's the million dollar question....

WHICH PORTRAIT SHOULD I CHOOSE?

Option A: Awkward pose just before getting mugged in creepy alleyway

Option B: Awkward pose in front of entrance to Mary Lennox's secret garden

Option C: Awkward pose along haunted railroad whilst waiting for zombie apocalypse

Option D: Awkward pose in front of generic faded grey background, reminiscent of my own 80's/90's era traumatically awkward portraits

Option E: Awkward pose in front of ... I have no idea. What in the world is Gracie awkwardly posed in front of?

I'll never forget the first day of 6th grade when, after my teacher took attendance, a boy who hadn't gone to my elementary school and therefore didn't know me or my awkward portraits said, "Wait, you're MARISA MYERS?"

To which I said, "Um. Yeah?"

And the next day he brought in a booklet that had THIS PICTURE:

Preschool Marisa.

At age 11, I took one look at his booklet and was completely mortified. Then I got my 6th grade portrait back and was mortified all over again.

I have triangle hair! I look like Zira from The Planet of the Apes!

But I guess it could have been worse. It could have been as bad as my second grade portrait:

Or the next year - seventh grade:

Luckily by sophomore year of high school, I had the school portrait thing figured out: Wear a dark shirt, give a bored smile while the photographer calls you Wonder Woman (why do they do that?), and when the yearbook comes out with pictures in black and white, NO ONE WILL NOTICE YOU.

Yup, I had it all figured out.

And then came senior portraits. Now I'm not going to say my senior portrait sucked because it didn't. But COME ON - why the weird velvet cape thingie? I didn't have a choice - I HAD to turn my body in angles that my body didn't turn, tilt my head, smile my rehearsed gazing-into-the-distance smile, desperately hope my velvet cape thingie won't fall off and humiliate me.

Ugh. Awkward.

And when this portrait is framed next to awkwardly posed sport photos... well. It doesn't matter how decent your hair and smile are when you're sitting uncomfortably.

At least the photographer didn't make me rest my hand under my chin. I'm so glad my school portrait days are over.

Lucky for me, none of my photos were bad enough to make it into this HILARIOUS list of 30 Awesomely Bad School Portraits.

(you have to click that link. I'm serious, folks. You. Have. To. Click. That. Link.)

And as for Gracie and her spring portrait - I'm really tempted to buy Option C. I mean, what five year old doesn't want a picture of herself standing in front of a haunted railroad track? I might purchase the largest size possible and theme my living room around it. Maybe stick a brain in an apothecary jar on top of the piano.

Happy Wednesday, folks. I dare you to blog about your worst school portrait. Yeah, that's right. You have been DARED.

xoxo,

I Wish!

2011-04-12T21:44:00.007-05:00

YUP!

(This website kills me. I love it)

xoxo,

Friday Flashback: 8th Grade Fiction

2011-04-08T07:37:00.009-05:00

When I was in 5th grade, I was advised to keep every scrap of my writing. "You never know what you'll need for inspiration later," my mother said as she gave me a file cabinet to keep it all in.

I took that advice to heart and as a result, I have EVERY scrap of my writing - especially my middle school writing, which, let me just say, is the most boring writing ever.

At the age of 14, I was obsessed with naming characters and made sure to have at least twenty main characters per book just so I could name all of them. And list all those names within the first two pages. Invigorating stuff, I tell ya! Who needs plot?

If a story survived those first two pages, the rest of it tended to look something like this (a sample from my 8th grade fiction folder):

Your heart was hammering in your chest as you read this, wasn't it? Palms tingling with fear? Scream caught in your throat? Yeah, that wildly lurking mirror of night... you gotta watch out for it. At the tender age of fourteen, my two biggest writing influences were VC Andrews and Victoria Holt. Is that obvious?

Sadly, the only writing I finished back then was my About the Author page...

How funny that a decade later I graduated college with a degree in Creative Arts, my emphasis being art, English lit and children's theatre. I haven't changed much...

Happy Friday, folks! I woke up today thinking it was Thursday, sulked for a few minutes and then remembered it was Friday. Oh, happy day! I am ready for the weekend, how about you?

xoxo,

Marisa Hopkins: Living the Creative Life

Breaking Up is Hard To Do (In Which I Talk About the Comma)

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The S-H Word Edition

Happy Birthday to the Baby

Like Mother, Like Daughters

Fun with Negatives

The New Toothless Girl

Junie B. Jones and the Mother Who Needs to Give Her 6-Year-Old A Little More Credit

Friday Flashback: Short Story Loving

Writing a Hot Mess (in 14 years or less)

Books, glorious books!

Outta the Mouths of Babes.8

JanFebMarNoWriMos - Let the Writing Begin!

Resolution WIN

Seven Years!

Marisa's Adventures In Writingland

My Week In a (very fragile) Nutshell

Creative Inspiration (for 4-year-olds)

Bringing in the Snow

Outta the Mouths of Babes: Another Annelie Edition

Getting a Hold of the Holidays

Free Shipping in Elegant Snobbery!

How to Have a Happy Thanksgiving, the British Vegetarian Way

Buggy Besties

Great Explorations

Outta the Mouths of Babes.7

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Friday Flashback: Best Roommate EVER and Bacon

NaNo '11: 18 Days and Counting!

*Eye Twitch*

On Face Washing...

Outta the Mouths of Babes: Afternoon Edition

Ice Cream for Breakfast!

Tampon Crafting!

Proof I Lead A Glamorous Life...

Nerding Out

Friday Flashback: Fern Ridge (or My First Writing Retreat)

An Eggcellent Eggplant Parmesan Recipe

Getting Work Done (Or Not...)

Pinkie-Pie-A-Licious Candy Sprinkle Flower Candy: A Snack for Writers (the 4-year-old kind)

It's That Time Again!

Outta the Mouths of Babes.6

On Being a Magical Fairy

Senior Moments and Drama Queens

Guess what I do for adventure? I hang glide on a Dorito.

Friday Flashback: My 7th Grade Horror Fiction

On Bosom Buddies, Breast Cancer, and Bookmarks with Mustaches

Friday Flashback: Fashion

Why I Typically Screen All Phone Calls...

Strange Things Are Brewing...

Bringing Out the Big Guns

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The Annelie Learns to Write Edition

WILVIS

The Cutest Music Video EVER

Friday Flashback: Teeth

Running For My Life

In Which I Say, "YAY for ME!" and then Leave for Vacation

The Good Old Days

Illustration Friday - Asleep

Make a Board Game and Clean This Mess!

Fare-thee-well, Kindergarten

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The Harmonica Edition

Friday Flashback: A Midnight Beach

MIA for some R&R

BLOOD MAGIC by Tessa Gratton (or a post in which I admit I'm a crazy fangirl)

Happy Day-After-Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Friday Flashback: Middle School Marisa's Book Covers

Gracie is SIX!

On Time Management, Organization, and Super Cute Bookends

Friday Flashback: Desperately Seeking Susan

Outta the Mouths of Babes: The Discipline Plan/ Concept of Time Edition

Marisa the Princess Wastes Time

How I Write: On Inspiration and Perseverance

Friday Flashback: The Easter Adventure

SLEEP Theme Song: Rabbit Heart

National Poetry Month: The Lady of Shalott

Eye Twitch