I wear my regular glasses at night. (And February's "Do One Thing")

Gap tunic, Old Navy coat and scarf, Prana leggings, Chelsea Crew wedges

See what I did there? I wear my regular glasses all the time.

I'll keep this short because I'm craving sugar like a pregnant lady and it's making me grumpy.

Yes, I realize it's not February yet. But since I started January's Do One Thing late, I figured I'd start Febrary's early? I guess?

Anyhoo. I've started the slow-carb diet. Yay. Another fun food project. (Not my first.) I'm already drooling over the foods I get to eat on my "cheat day." And it's only day two.

The end.

December: Do one thing.

I did not finish my novel for NaNoWriMo. Phew! Glad I got that off my chest.

I won't make any excuses. I could have finished, but I didn't. The good news is I have a story. With characters and a plot and all that good stuff. I even know--mostly--how it's going to end. Right now, I'm at 28,000 words, which I think is still awesome. And I'll probably finish it one of these days. But if I don't, that's OK, too.

And now it's December, and time for me to choose another thing to do. This month, I'm getting crafty.

No, seriously, I'm going to do several crafty things and then tell you about them. I've already finished one (what?), so just you wait.

My friend and I threw a crafting party last week, and I guess it just got me motivated to explore my crafty side. I'm no Martha Stewart, but I enjoy having a project. We'll see what I come up with this December.

Are you crafty? I'd love to hear about any fun crafts you've done, or any projects you'd like to do.

Target sweater dress, H&M scarf, Gap socks, Old Navy boots, F21 belt, Banana Republic jacket

Speed reading? Try speed writing.

With NaNoWriMo in full swing, blogging has become a secondary priority. I apologize for the neglect, but it's a necessary neglect, you know?

As for my progress, I'm doing better than I expected, which means I'm still about 10,000 words behind. But I have learned something about myself. I'm a speedy writer, y'all! Well, as long as I have an idea, I'm a speedy writer. For instance, I just spent about 25 minutes writing over 1,000 words. If I keep it up, I can actually finish NaNoWriMo, which is the goal, after all.

The really cool thing is that I'm actually enjoying my story now. I think I've got something. It may not be terribly original, but it's a story. A cohesive story with characters, settings, action, drama... and I'm really enjoying it.

I still don't know if anything will come of it. In other words, I'm not sure that I'll be showing this story to anyone but myself and maybe the hubs, but I'm at least proving to myself that I can formulate a story and get it down on paper (Word doc). That's pretty cool.

I hope to at least share an excerpt with you blog readers sometime soon. I think you deserve that for sticking around here, even when I neglect you.

To give you a quick idea, I'm writing a young adult fantasy/adventure novel (surprised?) about a boy who has adventures in his daydreams (not to be confused with night dreams, of course). He enters a world and meets lots of characters and has to figure out who is lying and who's telling the truth, and who is evil and who is good. I'm having fun crafting a fantasy world and characters, I tell ya.

Top from Azalea (I forget the designer), Gap jeans, Old Navy boots and bracelet

Support System

Well, we're more than halfway through NaNoWriMo, and I'm nearly 1,000 words behind. Hey, that's not so bad! Especially considering I didn't even know what my story was about a couple of weeks ago.

Today I have a plot, characters and a developing story. (I even have a spreadsheet to help me remember the names of characters and places.) For those reasons, 1,000 words doesn't seem like to big of a hurdle. I also have a support system. Two of my coworkers are doing NaNoWriMo. I mean, it makes sense. They're also writers at work. And apparently gluttons.

We're all at different stages, as far as word count goes, but it's nice to know I have a couple of people I can check in with from time to time.

I should be writing right now, but I'm too busy blogging and catching up with "The Walking Dead." (Have you seen this show? It's pretty amazing. That is, if you zombie apocalypse dramas. I, for one, do.)

Gap tunic, Prana leggings, Old Navy booties, gifted scarf

November: Do one thing

You know what the easiest excuse in the world is? "I don't have time."

So I'm bringing a different excuse to the table: "I'm a bad beginner."

It was an awesome and inspirational October. Two things specifically inspired me as a writer (both of song and otherwise):

1. John Vanderslice's house show, put on by KC Turner. JV--yeah, I know him. So what?--is quite the inspirational songwriter. He tells stories about his songs (or just about being a musician in general) that are so compelling, so endearing. And it makes me want to tell stories with my songs. Like Patty Griffin tells stories. (Have you ever heard her song "Makin' Pies"? It's beautiful. And haunting. And it tells a story.)

I wrote down several song ideas while I was enjoying the sweet sounds of John Vanderlice's music on someone's back lawn.

But have I actually made any of those ideas into songs? No. And I'll tell you why. It has to do with my second inspiring event.

Gap cords and top, Madden boots, F21 necklace

2. CAFe Salon Talk #1. It's an artist series curated by my church here in the city. CAFe (City Arts Fellowship) wants to connect artists so they can connect with and inspire one another. I went to the first "Salon Talk," which was basically a dinner at one artist's home (in this case, a blogger--love it!), during which we shared what we're interested in art-wise and our struggles with being a "poor beginner."

And I realized something while I was there. Karl--an amazing musician and our church music director--talked about how when you hear an amazing song, there are never any liner notes that say, "This song took six months to complete." You don't know how much work went into it and how long the songwriter had to struggle with getting started with the writing of it.

I felt relieved when I heard that. Maybe the beginning of writing a song really is just having those ideas scribbled down. And eventually one or more of them will become a song. But it's ok that it didn't happen in a month's time.

Speaking of things happening in a month's time, I have my "do one thing" for November. Are you ready for this? I'm doing NaNoWriMo. I'm writing a novel (or, at least a lot of little vignettes). My main idea is just to start getting ideas out there. I have several, many of them autobiographical in content. So, tomorrow starts my goal to average 1,666 words per day.

This will be interesting, and I'm really excited about it.

OH, and on the style front, I can't wait to show you my new shoes.

Do one thing.

So, you want to know what my new plan is, now that Give Up / Take On is over? No? You just stumbled upon this blog and now you're thinking, "Who's the chick in the red pants asking me so many questions?" Well, I'll tell you who she is. She's me. And this is her blog. So either respond "Yes" to the first question, or leave.

Just kidding. You can stay. But I'm still gonna answer that question.

This month I'll be starting my "Do one thing challenge." What the heck does that mean? It means that, each month, I'll aim to accomplish one goal. Just one. It won't be so simple as "wear underwear everyday" (check!), but something that's been on my brain's to-do list for a while. Like, learn to make preserves. Or go fly fishing. (OK, that last one's not on my list, but wouldn't it be fun?)

So this month's goal is: Write a song. I used to write songs. And I'm pretty good at putting together a catchy melody, if I do say so myself (and I do!). So stay tuned, because I might even sing it for ya.

Gap cords, Old Navy boots and top