The Stencil Project (Day 2)

I hit a wall in the edits for Tiger Eyes. My editor pointed out something that needs to be changed, and I've been pondering just how I can incorporate what needs to be told, and the most logical way to tell it without losing the info (if that makes sense.)

So, while I was pondering, I figured I'd finish up the stenciling in the kids' bathroom. It was a crummy, gray, rainy, good-for-nothing-but-sleep kind of day yesterday, which made it a perfect day to finish.

And here it is - over the sink...

The last one was taken using the panoramic feature on my camera. The ceiling really isn't angled like this - those "angles" are where the three separate images were "stitched" together to make on picture. It's a cool feature, but I don't know how to prevent it from distorting like this.

And now, the bathroom is done. I thought about going all the way around, but my other half and I decided that would probably be overkill. However, since I know this is a relatively inexpensive and easy way to brighten up a room, I'm already planning to do the other two bathrooms and the Boy's room (once it's repainted. That's next on my list.)

Oh yes, I am a stencilin' fool...

And, I worked out my plot/edit problem while I was stenciling - so it's therapeutic and decorative!

Because I Just Don't Have Enough to Do...

I've finished up the first batch of edits on Playing with Fire (did I ever announce that Aspen Mountain Press/Aurora Regency Historicals offered a contract on the second McKenzie book? Well, if not, here it is - yay! Look for it on November 26, 2010!) Now, this wasn't the first edits in total. My editor sends them to me in chunks of five to ten chapters each. All told, I'm about halfway through the first edits for the entire book.

I've also begun edits for Tiger Eyes. But these are not nearly as bad - at least, not yet. Yay!

I'm plotting out what I want to work on for NaNoWriMo (oh, you know I'm already signed up for that.) I think I'm going to finish Aidrian's story. I think. That's always subject to change. NaNo has been good for me. Devil in Disguise was my 2008 NaNo project, Tiger Eyes was 2009. I love NaNo, because it's a good exercise in just writing. It doesn't matter if it's great prose or not, as long as the story gets written. My inner muse usually pounds my inner editor into submission for those thirty days. :)

And, since (as the title of this post suggests) I don't have quite enough to do, I took on yet another project.

We've been in our house almost three years (our move-in anniversary is October 20th.) and I'm still kind of making it my house. Every fall, I get on a cleaning-rearranging furniture-making my house look nice kind of tear. The nesting instinct at it's finest.

My kids share a bathroom. And it's a boring bathroom. Just plain. White. Walls.

It needed something.

The only spot of color in the room is their shower curtain - which is bright blue, with tropical (I think they're tropical. I don't know much about fish, really.) fish on it.

So, I was in there last week, trying to decide what this room needed. Then it came to me. Stencils of  (wait for it...)

FISH!

Now, I've never done stenciling before, so I did what I do - I googled it (don't you just love how the word google has become such a part of our vocab?) and found out that it's something even I can't screw up. I'm one of those people who wants to be all artsy-craftsy, and tries to be all artsy-craftsy, and usually sucks dirt at it. But I was up to the challenge.

I trekked to AC Moore, and found stencils that I liked. And paint. And brushes. I was off to a good start...

Got one of the stencils up...

And stenciled a fish!

Four hours later, I had the area over the tub finished...

I was pretty happy with how they came out, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be, it's just a little time consuming. Next weekend, I'll tackle the two smaller sections, and over the sink. From there, who knows... if it doesn't move, it may end up stenciled.... bwahahaha! :D