Confused yet? I was. On Remembrance Day, 2017, I spent a few hours contemplating things. The people that are currently serving their countries, the people who are now at home as veterans, and the people that did not get to go home. I thought about innocent victims of war, both people, and animals. I thought about heroes, and my own grandfather, who is no longer alive but lives on in my heart and fond memories. He came home a veteran and lived for many years with his family. Not everyone was as lucky as he was. I thought about people that I know, including one of my cousins, currently serving our country and a colleague that often shares memories with me on breaks at our day job.
When my internal alarm clock, also known as my bladder, woke me up on Sunday morning, I knew that I was going to have to find my pen and notebook. Inspiration found me in the early morning on November 12th, and I know better than to let it be without writing it down. My early morning thoughts can be lost if I trust them to my memory alone.
I found my book and pen and started writing. The final result of my early morning scribbles are polished to share with the world, now, but it took me a few days to figure out how to get my message out in the right format.
I looked online to see how to submit it to local and online papers. That is harder than I thought it would be, and one had the restriction of no political letters. I asked for advice, and everyone said to put it on my blog. I wasn’t sure. To be honest, I didn’t even know if I should sign it before putting it out in the world, because as sad as it may be to read, and therefore write this, my message may not be taken as seriously when I sign my name at the bottom. I hate to admit it but being a woman with a message that needs to be delivered may not get the attention it deserves because a woman wrote it. I see it in publishing, and many female authors have pseudonyms or pen names to have a fair chance of publishing success. Others choose to use an initial instead of their whole name, and there are plenty of examples of this in the publishing industry.
My point here is not that I am fighting for equality. That is for another day, along with environmental issues, violence, abuse to oneself or others and a variety of things that are wrong in the world that we live in today. My letter was written to achieve a request for World Peace.
Do I believe it could happen? Yes, with prayer, guidance and humility. Humanity has the greatest potential to make changes that affect all of these things. Cynics will laugh and say it is not going to happen. I refuse to sit back and watch the world end without trying to do something to make it better.
Enter my blog. I am making my own world a little better every time I write. Especially when I have a plan, and surprisingly, even when I don’t. Sometimes I don’t have any ideas before I sit down to write, but I sit down anyway. I have three regular categories I am writing in every week, now, and I don’t want to let myself or my followers down. I just write. I make it important because it is important to me to keep building this blog up to be at its fullest potential and then break the next milestone with something even better. It lights me up, gives me something to look forward to, and makes me feel proud to hit that publish button.
World Peace is achievable, and it is an attainable goal. It wouldn’t be an easy thing to get the whole world to agree to stop fighting in wars, I am not kidding myself about that. It would be an extremely complicated thing to do, not that it would have to be that way. The reason it would be so complicated is that so many people would be involved in making it happen. They all have demands, rights, and opinions. It is hard for me to even imagine some of my friends at the same party together, but if I could make them all get along, I would love that. Essentially, that is the end goal. We don’t all have to like everyone all of the time, but we all would be better off if we could just all get along with each other.
World Peace is something that I pray for every day. It is something that matters to me and is close to my heart. I am asking you to read my letter below, and if it makes sense to you as something that more people need to see, then do not keep it to yourself. Share it wherever you can, as many times as you like. I believe that if people just read this, and stop for a minute to think about it, changes could happen. This blog has grown to be so much bigger and better because I am constantly working to make it that way. Think of what we could do if we work together on a project like this. We can take this letter, and make sure it goes where it needs to be. I know this in my heart, and I am trusting that after you read my letter, you will feel the same. I have to get this message out, I am counting on all of you to help me do that.
Happy Halloween Treasure Seekers! I am writing at the end of my day. I got up and put on my costume and makeup. I came home and handed out treats. It is so much fun to open the door in costume and see the reactions of the kids, and even some parents. I got a few compliments and was swarmed by a mob of little, costumed people as they didn’t want to miss out on their treats. It was not scary, most of that crowd was under 5 years old. Their parents had a small bit of panic that they were being rude, but I am from a small rural community (this is a hint about my trilogy-the location-not a real place, but a familiar one) and we used to go into people’s homes for our treats when we were kids. It was how things used to be, in a small, rural community.
Halloween is full of fun, adventure and maybe a scare or two. Some costumes are scary. Some are fun! I like the creative ones, and one boy liked my costume. He was wearing all black, and used glow-sticks to decorate himself, had them as glasses and different parts of his outfit. I returned the sentiment. Being dressed as a leopard, I was more tired tonight than I have been in other years. I know this because when the kid in the Scream mask asked, “Whassup?” My reply was a cranky sounding “Me-yow.” I listened to music, asked preferences of chips or cheesies, and ate the bag of microwave popcorn I got at work today so I didn’t get too hungry before supper.
Before I washed my face, I made a short facebook live video to say hello to people and show that my makeup lasted for the whole day. I was glad to be able to wash my face. I never noticed how many times a day I wanted to scratch my nose before. LOL. Then I made some sandwiches, and I am preparing to go to bed. On the Eve of NaNoWriMo.
I am going to be writing a book in November, with a lot of other people. I am going to need to edit after because I don’t think slamming 50,000 words in 30 days will be the kind of writing that is ready for publishing. I do want to write 1,667 or more words every day in November to win and get to the 50,000 word goal for the month. I have tried before, but I have not won. This year, I have the inspiration generated from thinking about the loss of a friend, who regularly participated in NaNoWriMo. She will be featured. I was originally going to write the whole book about her, but it is less pressure and research if I write about what I know. So the concept has its origins but has evolved. That is how I roll.
This week I am writing about writing. I am preparing to embark on a journey to test my skills in a new format with goals and ideas. As I wrote this I had to stop and make a note. The thoughts are percolating. The ideas are coming out in bits and pieces. This year I am going to win!
I have also made an arbitrary decision that November is MY month. It is the month when I get things together, make changes, try new things, and move forward in my life. It happened last year, and although I am not launching my new website yet, I am getting ready to do it. A year ago I started blogging. This year I am writing books, and building a website. ME! By myself, with coaching and guidance from friends I know or have met on this journey.
What are you going to try this November? Let’s make it a winning month together. I told you what I am doing. How can I help you? Let me know below. Have a great week!
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
Hi. I am so glad that you took a few minutes out of your busy day to read my blog. I am humbled and honoured every single time I get feedback and new statistics. Every time you take time to read one of my stories, you impact my dreams. You reinforce my beliefs to follow my dreams and make them into a reality. I am discovering my purpose here on this Earth. I am so glad that I am making it happen, and I am just as happy that you are sharing my journey with me.
I have always had a creative spark within. It was not enough. I have worked on cross stitches, embroidery, drawing, painting, beadwork, knitting and crocheting, and now I have rediscovered my love for writing. I didn’t work on my writing very much since high school. When I was in English classes, it turned me off writing as a career. I had to read books I never would have chosen to read, then I was forced to find hidden meanings that were a stretch for me to believe. I like things to be at face value. I also like to be funny, punny and clever. Dissection belongs in science class, not in English class.
After high school, I chose a path to science. I started a pre-vet program. I never made it to vet school. I did finish my Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, with an Animal Science Degree. It was an honours degree. It took me longer than the average four years to complete it, but that makes me all the more proud to hang it on my wall.
I met my husband while studying for that degree. We met through a group of mutual friends. When we decided to start dating, things clicked. We are happily married, and that is something that I can wish for all of you to find. Love. It is an adventure that we all need to grab onto and hold tight when it happens.
If you are not in that kind of relationship at the moment, please do not despair. It is not your time yet. Things happen for a reason, and I truly believe that. Your story is not yet finished, and it is up to you to get up every day and see where it takes you.
I did not find a job with my Bachelor of Science. I went back to school and trained to be a Pharmacy Technician, who currently earns her living by working in a call center. Is this the career path I would have chosen for myself ? No. Would I jump at the chance to go back into the world of pharmacy? Absolutely. I enjoyed using the scientific side of my mind. It was a satisfying career choice. But it was not the reason I ended up taking that course.
I believe that I was sent in that direction for another reason. I learned how to mix IV medications and prepare chemotherapy drugs in a sterile hood. My familiarity with working with needles helped me to adapt to having to learn how to give myself insulin. Sometimes you need to figure out what led you to the path you are on, so you can decide if you want to keep on that journey, or find a new branch and follow another trail.
No matter what path you are on, it is up to you to learn what you can while you are there. When you have finished learning all that you can, if you are not still inspired to continue learning, it is time to try something different. Even if it scares you. When you do this you are pushing boundaries, and that is when the magic happens.
Now I am going to plant some seeds. Something to think about for the week, to help you on your own journey. What choices did you make to lead you to where you are today? If it was difficult, it was to make you stronger. How did it do that? If it was easy, why was that easy for you? What things do you love doing so much that you lose track of time when you are working on them? Those are the things you need to investigate further, to see where they will take you. Maybe when you do, you will find that you surprise yourself like I do when I am writing.
One last thought. When you find yourself going two steps forward, and three or even five steps back, go with it. Dance within the ebbs and flows of life. Join me, and together we will make our own paths in this world. One step at a time.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
The unedited Tuesday Treasure Seeker photo, which I took myself, at King’s Landing.
Welcome to the first “Official” Treasure Seeker Tuesday! I wrote it that way because there was a preview story a few weeks back when I was getting ready to launch this new category. While I am still holding the reins and the keyboard, I thought it would be great to write about the Treasure Seekers (YOU!) and me. We can start having adventures together while I am writing my books and working on this blog.
The first one involved thinking up a picture for this weekly category. I am aiming to make it a weekly story, like Trust Your Gut Thursday, and Weekend Warrior. I am hoping that it doesn’t become too much for me. Time will tell, as I am managing the blog commitments as best as I can so far, and the previous categories are still progressing. If I need to scale it back, it may be twice a month instead of every week, but we will see how it goes.
The struggle for finding the right picture for this category began with an online search for treasure, gems, treasure chest, maps, amongst other various thoughts and combinations. While I was looking through many pictures and not finding what I wanted, I remembered that I had the picture I shared above. It was taken at Kings Landing Historical Settlement a few years ago when I went for my first time. It is quite the experience, to walk around, and see the farms and the people in costume playing the roles of people from our distant past. We enjoyed our tour of some of the village and had a meal at The King’s Head Inn Restaurant before heading home. It was the first time I tried Naughtea, which is a local honey mead made with green tea from Pollen Angels. It is lovely.
Pollen Angels Naughtea
The King’s Head Inn Restaurant
Here are a few pics of my visit that day.
Welcome sign
A Mill by a pond.
The pond in the other direction.
Horses in the field behind a working water pump and log trough.
A working water pump and log trough.
Herb Garden
A view of a lake.
Historical General Store
A Local horse and wagon for when you need a break from walking.
Another horse picture. I like horses.
I have used this pic in my Lyrics pages. Have you recognized it?
Out for a walk
Look at all the pretty roses!
A Lady’s Flower Garden
This garden has 4 flower beds, the left two are a mirror image of the right two. The path for my main pic is in the background here.
There were two “secret garden” hedge tunnels in this garden.
The original pic for this project.
Some of the flowers.
A close up of two of the four flowerbeds. With the path pic in the background.
It’s putple. It’s a flower. Pretty!
A table set for dinner.
I was tempted to work on these projects.
A well made bed.
That wallpaper needed to be in a picture. The bureau, mirror and bonnet just happened to be there too.
A quilt on a frame ready for a group to work on it.
I liked the way the curtain was held in place.
A fancy bed
Now you can see where the inspiration for this picture came from. I think that Kings Landing Historical Settlement is a gem, waiting for people to visit and take in the experience. Now on to the “official” Treasure Seeker Tuesday business at hand.
I wanted to make a picture that invited the Treasure Seeker inside, to invite us to look for what lies beyond what is apparent in the picture. This group and category are meant to be about more than meets the eye. Not just the flash of the bling, but also about what really matters to us as a Tribe. So when it came down to deciding on this, I reached out to friends and the “Official” Treasure Seekers Group on social media.
I am learning so much as I work on this blog. I am not the type of creative that needs courses to prove what I can do. I jump in, and likely because of the way I approach my projects, I feel like yelling and pulling out my hair sometimes, but I figure things out. Usually the hard way, first. I am neither a photographer nor an editor, but I do the best I can. Sometimes, people guide me to where I need to find the tools I need to accomplish what I need to do. Other times, people pitch in and lend a helping hand.
That is what is so great about my whole blogging adventure. I have friends that I know personally, and friends from around the world that are willing to help me out when I am stuck on something. It humbles me when people open their hearts and minds to help me figure things out. It also amazes me when a friend has the very answer I am seeking. I treasure you all. (See what I did there? I couldn’t help myself)!
There were a lot of attempts by myself to get this done. I am now going to insert a slideshow of my own photo editing journey, then I will share the work of two friends that pitched in to help, crediting their work and sharing their online links for you to check out what else they are working on.
Here is my progression:
Great Vibes Font in Purple
Great Vibes Font in pink
Great Vibes Font in yellow
Great Vibes Fontin peach
Lobster Two Font in Purple
Great Vibes Font in purple, larger font
Great Vibes Font, in brown, large.r font
Great Vibes Font in brown
Great Vibes Font in purple with a misty effect
Lobster Two Font Yellow
Lobster Two Font Bold, Italics
Lobster Two Font in purple Italics
Lobster Two Font in Brown Italics
They are made with two different fonts. I thought Great Vibes was a really pretty font. I chose the other font, Lobster Two because it was a bolder font. The Great Vibes was hard to read for some people, and the Lobster Two seemed to be easier for people to see on this pic. I was then offered help.
Kirsty Allen, who hosted my first guest blog story, offered to give it a whirl. You can find my introduction to that guest blog story here. There is a link to the guest blog story at the end of my introduction story. Kirsty is an author also. You can find her blog, The Ramblings of a Madwoman with her writing and tips for other writers in this link.
Kirsty submitted two edited pictures for my review.
Kirsty Allen 1
Kirsty Allen 2
She used a different font, similar to the pretty Great Vibes I was working with, but it was even more elegant. She also shared that she used, “…the wonders of Photoshop. Basically, I applied a filter in the second image, increased the contrast, and played around with the colour balance of the leaves to give them more of a blue saturation.” I don’t understand what most of those terms mean, but I can see what they look like after she applied them.
Another friend, a former roommate Noa Price, also wanted to help. She is living abroad now, and we were friends before and after we were roommates. If she lived closer, I might be seeking her help out more often. She is an artist, so she has a different background altogether. She has studied her art in both New Brunswick, Canada, and also in Australia. Her photo editing programs include adobe photoshop, but she shared that she prefers to use inkscape for illustrator and gimp for photoshop. After a few trial runs, she sent her edited pictures for me to review.
Noa Price 1
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
Noa did some editing work on the original picture to fill in the hedge adjusted the colouring of it. In her words, “I changed it a bit leaving some of the path so people would “come in” and also made 70% opacity just behind the hedge so any text would be easily readable without losing the bush appearance. ” You can see other examples of my friend Noa’s work at Noa Price’s Designs website.
After I carefully reviewed all of my options and considered the comments from social media gathered after this project, I made a final decision. It was certainly a process, and as you can see, I am putting a lot of thought and effort into this picture, to get the correct one for this purpose.
This is the one I chose:
Noa Price 2
While I was working on this project, I played with different fonts. Lobster Two seemed to be one I kept going back to. Up to this point on my blog, I have used the font, Lora, with a tiny sprinkle of the font, Cabin Sketch. I realized that Lobster Two really resembles my own personal handwriting style while working on this project, and I also really LOVE eating lobster. It is my absolute favourite food on the planet, closely followed by chocolate and pizza. So for me to see all of these things lining up, I have to go with my gut on this, and it is telling me that this will be the Treasure Seeker Tuesday picture moving forward. Also, as I am building a new website, I think it is fair to expect a major font change on the new website. At least until I find a chocolate or pizza font to mix in there. I hope that you agree with this picture as being the overall winner, and I look forward to writing in this category in the future.
If there are any topics or ideas that you would like to explore in a future Treasure Seeker Tuesday, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below. I can’t wait to see what we can discover together.
