Part of my Gala outfit was a birdcage veil. I made it myself-I didn’t have French or Russian netting (and there is no millinery shop in Bozeman to buy it at), so I just used coarse tulle, which worked pretty well.

I have decided that it might be a good idea to sell these puppies. All the supplies for the one I made cost me $6 (and that includes enough tulle for about four of them). When I looked online to get inspiration and ideas on how to construct it, I found shops online selling these little veils for $0, $60, $100, $200+!! Wow. I am glad I decided to go the DIY route instead of looking to buy one.

The birdcage veil

Seriously...this took 10 minutes...I think people overcharge!

If this whole writing thing doesn’t pan out, I am totally getting into the veil business!

I kid. I kid.

Happy Birthday, Bubba! You are the greatest husband ever, and I love you to pieces.

Let’s make your next year even better than the last.

Sadly, I think the above graph is way more accurate than it should be.

Life is a wonderful thing. There is so much surrounding us all to be happy about. Negativity just breeds more negativity and gets you nowhere. Sure, bad things happen in life, and everyone has rough times, but being negative about these things helps no one. A positive attitude alone doesn’t fix problems, but it sure helps put one in the mindset to go about fixing them.

Today, in honor of National Positivity Day (or, as it may be, Rachel’s Positivity Day), I am taking a few minutes to mention the things I have been blessed to have in my life.

• Bubba. Seriously, he is the best husband ever. I am lucky to have him.
• A great job. I have fun at work every single day. Would I rather be at home writing all day? Probably, but it will be hard to say goodbye to this job when the time comes. I love it.
• Timothy. He might not be much of a car, but he is reliable and gets me from point A to point B just fine. Oh, who am I kidding? Timothy is kind of an eyesore. But he is MY eyesore, and I love driving him!
• My writing. I am not published, and I don’t have an agent. For some, being where I am is devastating. All that hard work and nothing to show for it! Well, agent or no, publishing contract or no, I am blessed to be able to write.
• My brain. I love to learn. It makes me all kinds of happy to know that, as long as I apply myself, I can learn whatever I want.

Five seems like a good number. The list goes on and on (and on and on and…). There is so much for me to be happy about, I just don’t have the time to be negative.

**Warning: cliche’ city ahead**

When live throws the proverbial curve ball, wind up and knock it out of the park. Or, if you do swing a strike, learn from it so you can hit the home run next time around.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or lemon meringue pie. Just be sure to share some with me!

YOURS TRULY: How is it even possible that I am still so tired?

BUBBA: Aliens are harvesting your energy for their nefarious plans.

Oh how I love my geeky husband!

Anyway, he read my paragraph and immediately went to work helping me make it better. He honed in on the parts that gave me the most trouble (apparently my trouble spots show) and helped me figure out how to make them better. Bubba=great editor. I love having him on my team!

The paragraph has been updated on the blog if you are interested in seeing my husband’s wonderful editing ability at work! (Of course, if you didn’t read the original version, you will never know how much better he made it. You will just have to take my word for it.)

And now, I am off to read hush, hush. For the record, the cover is even better in print than it is on the screen. It is shimmery. And we all know how a little shimmer makes things better!

I get asked occasionally if I only read YA, since that is what I write. Answer: absolutely not. I love YA-I wouldn’t write it if I didn’t-but there are way to many great books out there for me to limit myself to just young adult. (For the record: I also have  a notebook with many, MANY non-YA plots jotted down in it-they are just not the ones I feel compelled to write right now.)

Yesterday, Nathan Bransford challenged his blog readers to support an author by going out (or going to Amazon.com) and buying a book. So, during lunch break, I headed to my friendly neighborhood bookseller and got FOUR new books. Bubba just shook his head and reminded me of the stack I already have to read. He is very patient with my book-buying tendencies.

The stack of to-be-reads...only the ones that don't fit on the shelf.

As you can see, in my stack of to-be-reads, the YA is far outnumbered by the non-YA. I will learn from each though, and my writing will be helped by my reading them-YA or not.

I better get some reading done before the stack takes over the house! Stephen King once said his ideal work day would involve four hours of reading and four hours of writing. I would like to live good ol’ Steve’s ideal.