Pompoms!

I recently picked up a slouchy beanie type of hat at the craft store.  It’s great and warm and comfortable.  It also matches my coat and other winter accessories quite well.  However, it was lacking something.  It needed a pompom – a little fluffy ball for the top to really complete it.

So, I pulled out a yarn that was a close match in color and my pompom maker.  I can remember making pompoms when I was a kid – using those little cardboard circles and fighting to get the yarn into them the right way.  My pompom maker is so much easier than that!

It has two plastic “wings” on each side of a metal pin.  You wrap the yarn around one pair of “wings” until it’s very thick.  Then, you do the same for the opposite pair of “wings”.  You close up both “wings” and cut the yarn along a little groove.  Then, you wrap yarn through the grooves and open the “wings” back up.

At this point, the pompom maker can come apart and you can tighten the wrapped yarn down.  Once you tie a knot, you have a fluffy, perfect pompom.  It took several tries before I got enough yarn into my pompoms to make them look right.  However, now I doubt that I’ll ever by a premade pompom again.  The best part is that you can make pompoms to match projects – because you can just use the same yarn for the pompom as you did for the rest of the project.

The Light of Hope

We were supposed to create an image of darkness or death for our Lenten Journey this week.  Maybe it’s because I’m an optimist, but when I think of darkness and death, I also think of light and life.  I can’t create an image of one without the presence of the other.

 

In the darkest times,
we just need to raise our eyes
and we’ll see the stars.

Without rain showers
we wouldn’t see a rainbow
arcing through the clouds.

Under the deep snows
there are tiny seeds waiting
to burst into bloom.

Just when all seems lost
the cocoon will break open:
a butterfly wakes.

Even in our death
there is resurrection
through belief in Christ.

Cause for Thanksgiving

The topic that we are supposed to write about this week for our Lenten Journey is thanksgiving or joy.  We’re also thinking about homes and the homeless, so the two ideas combined to give me this little poem/song.

How often are we truly thankful
for the blessings we possess?

It seems to me that, too often,
we just seem to feel the stress.

We want bigger or better.
It’s a sign of our success.

Instead of hoarding what we have,
we should think of those with less.

Share out of our abundance
and show the love that we profess.

Editing? Oh no!

The blog circle topic for this month is editing…

What’s your plan of attack for editing? Is it a chore for you? Do you enjoy it? What’s the hardest thing for you in the editing process?

Bonus:

What’s the best and/or worst editing advice you have ever received?

 

Editing is at the top of my list of things to do this year.  I have a long list of stories that I’ve written over the last few years that I’d like to edit.  One, I’d like to get a few passes through, with an eye to publish it.  So… yeah, editing is definitely a chore.  If it was something that I loved, I don’t think I’d have so many stories stuck at that stage of the process.

My main plan of attack when I edit is to read through the story one time – fix small mistakes and figure out what needs to be added to/taken out of the story.  Once I have that list to work with, I start the “second pass” – the thing that many people would actually consider editing.  I start adding in sections that I didn’t write, rearranging sections to make better sense and taking parts out if they no longer fit.  That, sometimes, is the hardest part.  When I’ve spent time writing something and… now it doesn’t fit.  It’s tough to let it go.

The hardest thing, beyond taking out parts that don’t fit anymore, is to actually get started in the first place.  Half the time, I never do get beyond the first read through.  However, when I finish, I find that I have a story that I can enjoy reading over and over again.

The best advice that I’ve ever gotten with regards to editing is to let the story rest before you start.  Half the time, if I go directly into editing, I’ll hate everything that I’d previously written.  If I let it rest, I can look at it with a more critical eye – and actually see the parts that are good, as well as the places that need work.

Hunger

Another of my small poems for my Lenten Journey.  It’s actually a couple days late, since I was supposed to write it on Tuesday.  Instead, I made a carrying case for my embroidery and cross-stitch supplies.  However, I’m actually glad that I wrote this today instead, because I don’t think I had the words on Tuesday.

It means emptiness
Not only of the stomach
But of the soul too.

A Spring Haiku

My second Lenten Journey poem.  Today, as part of my Lenten Journey experience, I was supposed to do something creative relating to hope and expectation.  With the weather turning and the time change coming up this weekend, my mind is on spring.

Warming sun and rain
Spring will be here very soon
Then flowers will bloom.

Poetry for Lent

My sister and I decided that, as part of our Lenten Devotions, we’d be exploring our creative sides.  We’re following a plan that encourages us, once a week, to take a picture, draw or write a poem on a specific topic.

We’ve also got readings and journaling and thoughtful prompts to follow.  One of the ones my sister has specifically been doing is a photo prompt.  For yesterday, the prompt was “walk” and for today, it is, “disciple”.  This little song came out of that.

 

I sing about my Holy Lord –
Of how I wish he’d walk with me.
Here’s something I’ve never explored:
Turn that around – how would it be?

Rather than asking my Lord to be
Walking beside me every day,
I followed his word more closely?
Let him be potter; me the clay?

Isn’t that what we’ve been called to?
Aren’t we meant to follow our Lord?
To be considered Christians true:
Follow the one whom we’ve adored.