My original intentions to be blogging more often went out the window last month with a lot of changes happening. Some in my health with some things lacking causing exhaustion that made me sleep more than usual. As you can imagine, that put me behind in everything.

So there are changes in diet, changes in supplements, and changes in…

Yep, that’s right. Part of the business was a couple trips to Melbourne to sort out getting our new car. I call it the TARDIS because she’s such a beautiful blue. Yeah, I refer to it as a ‘she’. I know how that must sound, but this is my (our) first new car and I’m still a bit excited.

Along with that, I’ve fixed up my camera, so more pictures of projects will be happening.

So, plenty happening and more on the way…

Well, I seem to have made it through the wilderness. What wilderness, you ask? Well, tattoo recovery.

I know tattoos aren’t everyone’s favourite subject, but I have them and I plan on getting more. I’m usually not anyone’s first idea when it comes to tattooed people, but I had my third done on Friday. It was rather a massive project that completely exhausted me – not to mention made me endure levels of pain like I’ve never experienced before.

But back to tattoos.

When it comes to tatts, I’ve encountered plenty of people who hate them, dislike them, think they are discusting, etc. But it’s through tattoos that I’ve truly known what following your bliss means. I smile, nod and accept that what I am doing to my body is considered absolutely disgusting by others. But that is their opinions, and I happily continue on my way. Because tattoos are my way.

I am an artist. My life is about creating. To be able to express and commemorate important things in my life through art makes my life complete. So when people say tattoos are disgusting, I can only accept and move on. Because to me, making my body into art… It is the epitome of who I want to be and how I want to express myself.

Most of my friends will remember that I have a Celtic knot butterfly tattoo on my right wrist and the Chinese symbol for ‘night’ on my left wrist. For my third tattoo, however, I wanted something much bigger.

Years in the planning and months into creating and approving the art, I finally took the first step to my massive back tattoo on Friday. It consisted of spending four hours in the chair with a few breaks thrown in. Very painful, but very worth it when I saw the end product – which, by the way, is only half of the entire design.

I’m going to put it after the ‘more’ tag simply because not everyone likes tattoos or will want to see my bare back with a tattoo on it.

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The Bloke is currently on the train back home from Melbourne after two days of training. He’s done two levels of barista training, Responsible Service of Alcohol and Resposible Service of Food.

I couldn’t be prouder.

Often in life, we don’t pursue our true dreams because surely we couldn’t really make a living out of something we consider fun and pleasureable, right? Wrong. Haha. While I am not making a living off writing, I am doing well.

And I know The Bloke will do well.

Since quitting his 9-5 and taking up working from home as his main work, we decided that it would be best for him to get a casual outside of home job. He’s a social kind of guy, and I knew it would only do him well to have some work that kept him meeting new people.

We just so happen to be friends with a local pub owner, and the pub already selling my brownies, so it was only natural to welcome The Bloke when he asked to come in and sling coffees every now and then.

A lot of our relationship has been about me, my life and my past, so I am so happy we’re finally shifting focus to The Bloke and his dreams.

If you’re local, I’ll try to let you know when his first shift is so you can grab a coffee from him and a brownie from me!

I hate this time of the month with bills to pay and finances to sort. All part and parcel with the domestic life, I suppose.

After a lot of stress, we finally got our electricity bill sorted. They sent us two at once for some reason, so we had to call up. And I’m glad we did, or we would have overpaid. It turns out one bill included the other bill or some nonsense like that.

I’m boring myself just thinking about it.

We’re well and truly covered not only for The Bloke to go to Melbourne on the train and have a couple days to complete his courses. I wish I could go with, but someone needs to take care of the dogs. Haha. I’m thinking of saving up and treating myself to a day or two in the city. As I have friends in the US, I’m already thinking about Christmas shopping that I need to do.

As for the ‘schedules’ part of the title, I’m currently working on a schedule so we can just drop into it when The Bloke is officially working from home (starting next Monday). It’s easy to procrastinate in the ‘working from home’ life, and we both agreed that a schedule would be good.

It will include a daily morning walk with the dogs, so they’ll be quite happy about that.

Now let’s just see if we can stick to it…

Today was all about ignoring the fact I’m trying to have a healthier lifestyle and giving in to my Achilles heel: chocolate-covered pretzels.

I love chocolate-covered pretzels. It took me ages to find them in Australia, and I indulged. But then I was good and stopped. But today I saw freshly baked pretzels in chocolate and, before I knew it…

One small indulgence. And I won’t be doing it again. For an Australian company, it doesn’t use good enough chocolate, IMO.

In other news, I’m going completely insane with NaNoWriMo. I am already quite far behind. The irony is that I have been getting to my minimums… I just happened to start getting to my minimums a little late, so I am stuck behind where I need to be.

Thankfully I have stopped faffing about and finally have – what I feel is – a solid beginning to the sequel to Echo Falls. (Tentatively titled Fading Echoes.)

I’m feeling quite like I’m being a horribe housewife, as a bad period of depression left me feeling even more behind in the housework. I’ve been keeping up with most things, but I want to get everything spanking clean by the 26th, when I *think* I will be hosting a “write in” for NaNoWriMo. Maybe. If my anxiety doesn’t get to me.

Of course, being booked in for the first step to getting my massive back tattoo doesn’t really help the cause for doing a write-in. I have yet to figure out if I can do something about my boobs, as I’ll likely have to go braless for a few days after the tattoo so it can heal properly.

I’m hoping to get back into mail art and letter writing sometime soon here. I absolutely and completely love getting non-junk mail, and receiving it means sending it…

Other exciting things are happening for us. The Bloke will finally be going down to Melbourne to get his certification for barista work. It’ll be a quick trip without me, but it’ll mean that he can pick up some casual work here and there at the local pub.

I’m incredibly happy for him (and, of course, looked up the courses so he’d get his rear end into gear). With him doing that and things going well at CRS for me, we could be looking at an entirely new lifestyle compared to what we came up her doing.

Until next time…

When enough people tell you that you should write a sequel to your book, you begin to take them seriously.

After all, they are your readers. And your readers usually only ask for sequels when that, you know, want them.

Because I never meant Echo Falls to have a sequel, the next book takes place seventeen years later with Charlotte (the giggling, bubbly toddler in Echo Falls) as the focus. She’s nineteen years old now (subject to change, given it’s the first draft), and though she can’t remember much of what happened to her as a toddler, she bears the scars.

Benjamin Baker is a young medical intern who has come to Echo Falls for his residency and to explore the town his grandfather grew up in. The youngest in a big family, he’s always been self-motivated and eager to make his own way. He’s funny in a dopey sort of way, which makes his chosen specialty, pediatrics, a natural choice.

So I have my main characters, I have my setting, I have big plots and subplots… and a severe case of second novel-itis.

Second novel-itis is when you’ve released a book, seen some successes, sit down to write the second and then find yourself finding a whole different kind of pressure to the kind you felt when sitting down to write the first.

Of all the problems to have, it’s not a bad problem. But it’s still a matter of trying not to stare at the screen to long without at least typing something.

Today, after getting all my other work done, is for mind-mapping. When all else fails, I sit down and map out all the things I think I want to happen and release my brain to make its own connections. I’d say about a quarter to a third of my mind-mapping doesn’t make it into the book I am writing for various reasons. But the process itself is very important, if for no other reason than to relax into the story.

While this will probably put me even further behind for NaNoWriMo (how am I already behind on day three?!), one does what one must…

No, not these kind of pies…

These pies!

It would seem that The Bloke and I have both come right in time to be able to go out and celebrate our team getting to the Grand Final! Woohoo! I’m still mostly unable to hear out of my right ear due to ear infection and The Bloke is pretty well exhausted from recovering from the flu and starting his new job in the same week, but we will still be out and about to support the Pies.

Life has been pretty busy with catching up after being so ill. The yard is in severe need of a lawn mower, a weed whacker and me with some clippers… The recent severe storms have moved that down my to-do list (yay!), though, so it’ll be a while before any pictures featuring the yard…

I also have to get some new pictures of Brin and Asimov. Brin seems to have evened off on the growth side of things, but he’s still a little tank. Not much phases him. He’s also getting more assertive with other dogs, which is a big plus. He’s not so quick to roll over and show his belly.

I call him our little peacemaker, too, because he seems to know exactly what other dogs need to feel comfortable around him. He stays still and low with jittery/scared dogs, doesn’t have the time for tiny dogs with big barks (and attitude problems) and can keep up with the most energetic of them.

Asimov is being Asimov. Though he’s gotten a bit more sooky lately and loves ‘mum’ time.

In other news, things might be getting interesting in short order… I have been talking to people recently about possibilities for me, and I might be going back to school for a few courses! Nothing is close to being set in stone yet, but there is a group that work with people like me (let’s leave it at that, shall we?) and gets them into courses and training.

I’m finally starting to spread my wings in that way, and I am looking forward to the prospect of slowly moving into a job in Bendigo.

Changes, changes, changes. Woo!

In July 2010, I caught the influenza virus from The Bloke and spent two weeks eating Japanese bento boxes because he and I had it at the same time – and neither of us had the energy to cook.

Despite having moved to the country and gotten all this good country fresh air…the flu has me two for two.

Yep, got the flu again, and this was even worse than last year. Three weeks all up with the last week turning into a blur of fevers, pain and other miseries. I am only now just starting to recover, though I still have to take a mid-day lay down because I get exhausted.

All my well-laid plans are now up in the air. I don’t think I’ll be recovered enough for Melbourne this weekend, so we’re putting that trip on the shelf indefinitely.

Poor Brin knew all along that mum was sick and has been extra quiet and cuddly while all this has been happening. Asimov… stopped sleeping on me for a while. Haha.

The Bloke has been an absolute champion, taking care of me and getting me the little extras that helped make things tolerable (apple juice, strepsils, cough syrup). He has escaped the flu, despite close contact, kisses, etc. If that isn’t proof that zinc (and vitamins) helps prevent illness, then I don’t know what is.

I’m scrambling around to catch up with myself at the moment, but I’m already yawning again… Maybe one more lay down… Just a short one…