I can haz an organized?

This is actually a really timely post for me - I recently finished a diy project I'd love to share! I've been having some trouble keeping track of dates in my head (a sign of too much stress for me - normally I have no problem remembering to, say, pay bills on time and return library books before they are overdue) so I decided what I needed was a planner. I've been without one for about two years, because really, what did I need it for? My schedule at work generally stayed the same and everything else was whenever I felt like it. But now, with all the things I'm trying to cram into this summer it was definitely necessary!

I looked into buying one, but let's face it - none of those are ever exactly what you want, or if they are they're those "build your own" kits that cost you $50 by the time you finish getting everything you want. So, I decided to make my own, using the binding skills I learned at work!  I started with what pages I knew I'd want in the middle. Obviously a weekly schedule is a must:

Then, since there's going to be a lot of studying going on, both this summer and come fall, I gave myself a two page spread devoted to assignments (eventually, they'll go on the day they're due, but right now I'm just doing what has to get done that day):

Since I am now attempting (and kinda failing) to wrangle three different blogs at once, I figured I'd better have a couple pages devoted solely to blog work:

I also hunted around the internet for a few pre-made free download type things (Oh Pinterest you lovely, useful, terrible timesuck!) I found a monthly calendar for the rest of 2013, which is right at the front, as well as a meal planner page. I also formatted some to-do lists and notes pages to match.

And then I sewed all the signatures together (an adventure, since I'm generally used to only doing one) and added a cover. It's made out of cardboard cut down to size, some pretty scrapbook paper to wrap around it, and duct tape for the binding (because I'm lazy and an actual bound spine sounded difficult. Besides, duct tape really does do everything!) Then I used double stick tape to put in some end papers and attached a piece of elastic under the back one and voila! A pretty, incredibly useful, exactly-what-I-wanted planner, and best of all I made it myself! I'm a little proud... can you tell?

Nerd Wall

Having moved in with James, I had to figure out where to display all my nerd stuff. So I made myself a nerd wall in the office:

James got a nerd wall too, but his isn't anywhere near as epic. :)

Beady!

Www.beadyband.com is my something creative. Please note that I am not on the website but I have been filling in for a few months with vocals and bass. In the time that I've been with the band we've written five new songs and recorded (in an actual studio with mixing and stuff because Beady's signed with a label!) one of them! Beady's been on local radio and next month we've got a show scheduled in Nashville to 2,000 people. Heck. Yes. I won't be with them much longer but it has been pretty fun and I'll be able to say one day that I was on the radio and a CD, because this new song is killer.

MOST awesome side note of ALL TIME: guess who has two thumbs and is debt free? THIS GIRL.

Writing Stuff!

So I went back and forth on what to share for this topic. I've got a massive ongoing fanfiction project concerning the Harry Potter next gen kids (which can be found here if you're at all interested in perusing).

But what I thought I'd actually post is part of a short story I wrote last year and have been compulsively editing ever since, because I'd like some feedback on it. I don't want to post the whole thing because of the Internet being forever and I'd like to get this published some day, but I will post about the first half, and if you're at all interested in reading the whole thing, let me know. :)

So! Without further ado:

How a Knight in Dented Armor Saved a Disappearing Maiden: A Modern Fairy Tale

My name is Darcy, and the truth is, I spent most of my life trying to disappear.
   
At school, I was a shy, quiet bookworm who sat at the back of each class, never drew attention to herself, and had a distressing tendency to stammer when forced to communicate verbally. I had no real friends, I spoke only when spoken to, and I did not get along with my peers. You wouldn’t have either, if you’d had the misfortune of being born to parents who thought it a grand idea to name their daughter after the most famous romantic male figure in literature. And even to those who didn’t know from Pride and Prejudice, Darcy was just a weird name for a girl, and teenage adolescents delight in ridiculing the weird. So I spent my days at school just waiting until I could get home.
   
At home, as soon as my homework was done (so far as my parents knew), I was 1DistressedDamsel, a member and part-time moderator of the Once Upon a Time forums, an online community for fairy-tale lovers, debaters, and afficionados. Fairy tales had been one of my escapes for years – worlds where everybody knows about the damsel in distress and the story doesn’t end until she’s found. I read them constantly, and finding an online site entirely dedicated to their discussion? Talk about love at first sight.
   
Much as I love Once, though, I can’t pretend it wasn’t part of the disappearing act. I hid myself online behind words and pixels the way I hid myself in real life behind silence and a curtain of hair. I posted no pictures of myself, didn’t reveal my actual name, and left my profile page scarce on real life details.
   
At school or online, I was invisible, the only difference being that on Once, my invisibility didn’t keep me from being noticed. I still had a presence. A strong one, too. Once was my haven, my escape, my kingdom far, far away. Its members were my preferred peers, the people I spoke my mind with, shared inside jokes with, laughed with. They were my closest friends, and for a long time, they meant far more to me than anyone in my real life.
   
Here’s where my story begins: a girl sits in a desk in the back of a classroom, spending the last few precious moments before class begins immersed in a favorite Robin McKinley fairy tale novelization, reading faster as the teacher moves to the front of the room, desperate to finish her chapter even though she’s read the book so many times it’s falling apart. But then the teacher starts to speak, and the girl abandons her story world, looking up in horror because the words she is hearing are heart-stoppingly familiar — they are hers.
   
Some background: about a year earlier, a thread had been started on Once’s Knights, Princes, and Heroes sub-forum by a bunch of radical feminists. The thread was devoted to bashing Prince Charming and all those Knights in Shining Armor types, and while I could certainly see where they were coming from – fairy tales, especially Disney’s, seem to feature a whole lot of helpless damsels who can’t think for themselves – it didn’t seem fair to place all the blame on the princes and heroes who were, after all, just doing their duty, and I said as much. I got shouted at almost immediately, which in forum terms meant that several raging responses, written in all caps and containing a multitude of unearned slurs, were posted to my comment, bashing me and everything I stood for, placing all responsibility for setting modern feminism back 50 years squarely on my shoulders. At this point, I did what I would never have done in real life – I reported them all to the moderator and got their accounts suspended for breaking Once’s Terms of Service. The moderator in question, JustAnotherVegetable, wrote me a personal apology and said I’d made some interesting points and I should consider writing an essay for the site. And that essay, “In Defense of Shining Armor,” was what Mrs. Murdoch chose one day to read aloud to my English class.

New Drawing!

I think I finally nipped my posting problem in the butt!  Here goes:

This topic has impeccable timing actually because I just drew something the other day  that I really like  =)  I can't wait to see the rest of your creations!




Copyright 2013 Katelyn Crotty

 

Creative Topic!

Next week's topic: Show us something you created!

This is can be a story, a craft, home improvement project, art, whatever - something you made and would like to share.

Topics?

So, the list that I made under the Topics tag at the top of the blog is different from the list Heidi posted last week. We'll get that sorted ASAP, but in the meantime, for now and for future reference: if we ever have a week where a topic doesn't get posted, shall we just treat it as a general update week? As in, give us a life update?