Author? Me? + Lucky Cate McNabb

16 days. That is how long it has been since I was last here, which is completely unacceptable. Of course there have been loads of thins I've been meaning to blog about including products I will be testing, sweet gifts from friends, and things I've been up to. As a blogger and a student and an artist, however, I've found it extremely hard to make time when life gets in the way - rather, make time and remember. My lack of a camera or proper phone for photos has also created a problem. To the two lovely ladies that won my giveaway: I have not forgotten and hopefully it won't be in the latter half of the 6-8 weeks that the postcards actually reach you.

Soon enough I shall be blogging about various teas that I've tested - either from smaller, independent companies or as gifts. Along with gifts you'll get to see my crystal collection which has recently been added to by some of my lovely tumblr followers over holiday. As soon as I get all the pictures together, I'll write about my time at Holi on 8 March; amazing people, amazing time, and loads of books to read and review.

Speaking of books, I've recently started a class for Creative Writing. CalArts hosts this class and every Sunday I take a train, subway, and a bus to get to Sunset where the class is held. It's quite the experience every time. We've had a few different assignments in class, none of which I actually enjoyed the results of on my part. There are a few students that have marvelous writing, like Patrick, who has quite a way with words. I've most enjoyed how he seems to write things in poetry style, instead of paragraphs. The teachers are pretty swell, too.

The most recent assignment we've had was an out of class assignment in writing a flash piece. A flash piece is a short writing which conveys a specific moment in great detail. For this, in order to make sure we were all writing about the same amount, the piece had to fit on the back of a postcard and cold not be more than 10pt font if typed. The biggest struggle, for me, was choosing a postcard that went with my piece, was meaningful, or looked nice. This arose after I became attached to the one I had bought from Stories cafe and originally planned on using - "Ready for the big Indian pow-wow" from M36.

Postmarked 28 June 1950 from Wisconsin Dells the card was sent out to a Mr. & Mrs. J Erickson in Mundelein, Illinois, the card read:

Dear Grandma + Grandpa
Having a swell time - this will probably reach you after we get home but we wanted you to know we were thinking of you. Marie - Bob + Mary Celeste

Complete with the standard card information "NATURAL COLOR POST CARD MADE IN U.S.A. BY E.C. KROPP CO.. MILWAUKEE, WIS. -- (HEY)" as well as lot or card number 23761 and a one cent postage stamp. I found it very fascinating and decided to keep it in exchange for painting on one of the many stationery postcards I had from an old 1950's or 1960's set.

Do you see my dilemma?

These are all the different postcards I could find in my house: from LACMA, from an old scrapbook, ones my aunt sent me. The second row is the one painted by myself with oil paint and the one I had originally purchased. I enjoyed this assignment so much, I'm going to share with you my writing.

Cold fingertips, cold glass. Odd how the daily routine transformed from normal to haunting in seconds flat. In an instant her face filled with stress, eyes a window to things falling apart. Slow movements made it seem as if time had stopped. Such a blank look on her face made the heartbreak evident – the drop of her fragile heart could be felt with one glance. Through the halls she moved, distressed; tears clearly blocking her vision. Pacing back and forth only caused the small room to close in tighter. An illusion. Voices; a jumbled mess actually, turned to white noise rising louder and louder. Still the ticking of the clock stood out as immensely as her pain. Such a sorrowful sound her crying was, as it had appeared that she was no longer breathing. How could it be true? An instant, unbearable heaviness descended. Her knees giving out, the flow of tears continuing soundlessly as she sank to the ground.

21 is not supposed to be a year to die, it is supposed to be the year to live.

In the middle of writing this the postman came around with a delivery from Cate McNabb cosmetics - my favourite - from the St. Paddy's competition I won. And right on time! The eye shadows came in loose gold (You're Golden) and green (Kiss Me, I'm Irish). The packaging was so lovely, complete with a sticker for me to show off my luck and Paddy's themed confetti! For now I've done little swatches on my hand (which looks oddly swollen) but will definitely be doing other photos soon. These are the perfect colours for me and my green eyes.

Oddly, the golden seems to be showing very subtley - almost not at all on the computer - when it showed so nicely whilst I was taking the photo. Anyways! Both colours are absolutely wonderful, so I'm sure the rest of the collection is too. This is part of their just-released collection which features all new containers and colours. Each product they have is high quality, so I do recommend it. What do you think?