Showing posts with label Pinterest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pinterest. Show all posts

Monday 16 April 2018

A Vintage Break...

That title sums up my weekend.

Sunday I attended Lou Lou's Vintage Fair held at the Albert Hall (no not that one in London);this one is in Nottingham City Centre next to the Playhouse (the smaller of the two theatres in the city).

Going Vintage...
I was looking for a few 1920's pieces for inspiration  on one of my future projects.

Now I love brooches. I have a few inexpensive costume jewellery brooches that my mum wore on her dresses or coat when I was a child, but rarely wear myself.

Possibly that's why I started a board on Pinterest just for Brooches - old and new,

I took it as a good sign for the story, that in my first ten minutes at the fair I got a lovely Art Deco brooch and a postcard of the poster for the New Pullman Express, The Southern Belle, which travelled from London to Brighton in the early 20th Century- this was one of my initial research areas for the idea.

It's unsettling to see clothes and household items that were so familiar when I was growing up, but equally disturbing when the clothes from the 1970's were now considered vintage- though perhaps it's not so bad if you call them retro instead!

There was a wonderful selection of cakes on sale to go with tea in proper cups- no plastic there...

I found a few items of 1920's clothes on one of the rails, a black coat with a high velvet collar, and a couple of dressing gowns with beautiful red/plum silk linings. Even though they were aged (and on a coat hanger) they still exuded that suggestion of elegance. Sadly they had to stay on the rail...

It was a fun and relaxing few hours and has certainly reignited my interest in collecting brooches.

From a research point of view vintage fairs are especially useful for 1930's-1950's household items, clothing and jewellery.

(Etsy seems to be another useful place to look.)

Also there will be true aficionados attending; they dress up with the clothing, hairstyles and jewellery of their chosen decade.

When I stopped for coffee and cake I shared a table with two ladies, one dressed 1940's and the other 1950's. I felt quite overdressed in jeans and a jacket!

Have you been to a vintage fair or similar event and did you enjoy it?


image from Pixabay

Sunday 27 September 2015

Getting On With It - Editing...

After my down spell last week I'm pleased to say equilibrium has been restored and I'm getting on with the first chapter rewrite.

Keeping Balanced...
The deadline for the competition is Thursday night, and I honestly don't know if I will have it ready in time. It's fortunate entry is by email so I don't have to take the post into the equation.

I experienced one of those editing moments where I cut a phrase-well actually a couple of lines that I thought were good. But looking at them closer, they just didn't work.

When I stop worrying about the editing and just go with it, I find the analytical editing side of my brain switches in, but not to the exclusion of the creative part.

The longer you are away from a writing project, the clearer you can see it when you come back to it.

As the weekend rarely gives me quiet time to write I've started to use that noisy time to do all the other things that lurk around the edges of my conscious, as it helps clear my mind for the editing.

I've created a 20th century Fashion and Beauty board on Pinterest. One of the ideas that has been lurking in my head for years but wasn't fitting into my usual time periods, finally started to make connections once I moved it into the 1920's.

While the majority of pins on the board are 1920's, it also covers 1900 to the late 1950's.

It will be some time before I can give the idea proper attention, but I think it may turn out to be a longer short story...

I've also discovered some of the new changes in Blogger which have made a few things easier.

I now have all my Social Media links showing under a tab- much tidier than being in the side bar.

There's now a tab for My Writing. I still have one thing to add yet, so it's half done.

So, now that's all done it will be back to the chapter one rewrite Monday morning...




Image courtesy of Vlado & www.freedigitalphotos.net

Thursday 9 July 2015

Multi-Tasking...

Very pleased that the temperature has gone done to nearer normal for this time of year. Last week it was a struggle to do anything, even writing was difficult.

I took a picture of the moon last Thursday night as I wanted to catch the polluted tinge that hung across it, but it was too low. By the time it was high enough it had gone above the that layer so looked a lot cleaner.

Early July Moon...
This week has been good so far. I've managed to get a couple of hours to write each day this week so I've added about 1,600 words.

It may not seem a lot but as I don't touch type that was a big improvement for me.

It's always difficult to write in the summer when it's sunny outside and there's lots of things you need to do- the plants need water and the grass needs cutting again to name but a few.

At least I'm on the downward path to the end of my current work in progress. Okay it's still only a first draft stage, but I can already see where I need to insert scenes, and make changes in the second draft.

At the moment my brain seems to be juggling thoughts on each of my three projects.

My Dorset novel has a synopsis and first four chapters. I needed to give myself some time to work on a few of the characters, to round them out a little. It's been a couple of years- longer than I intended- but now I know what works for me, I'm looking forward to getting on with it.

My Nottinghamshire novella has a complete first draft and is waiting for a complete read through before I start the second draft. I've pinpointed a few things that need changing, major and minor.

Then there's my current story, making steady progress.

There's at least another four ideas in varying stages, but fortunately those characters aren't hassling me.

(I've got a Pinterest board for each of the three stories, and adding to when I have time, but they're remaining secret.)

I'm also putting together the writing session for the writers' club next Wednesday- putting names to faces and creating bios. Hopefully some of the writers will use them as inspiration for a story...

Plus the final thing I need to do is get my entry sorted for this year's Festival of Romance, New Talent Award 2015. You can read more about it over on the website.

I'm going to enter the first chapter of my Dorset novel. It's an historical romance so fits within the specified 'romantic novel (of any kind)'. I just need to look at the word count of my first chapter as there's a maximum 2,500 word count.

So there's lots to do over the next few months.




Thursday 5 March 2015

Pinterest at Last...

Hope everyone is well.

It's been taking me longer than usual to get over this latest bug, and actually I think it was a slight bout of flu - considering how worn-out it's left me.

Having lost a couple of weeks writing time I now need to catch up, so I'm going to have to be very strict with getting back to the work in progress.

The end of last week wasn't totally wasted though, as I finally got around to doing something with Pinterest.

I'd actually signed up toward the end of last year, but hadn't had time to actually learn how to do anything. Once I understood the mechanics of it, it isn't that difficult.

(Though there's a lot I haven't yet explored.)

I've created a few boards, begun to follow boards, and other writers I know. Pop over to look at my boards if you are interested.

If you've not looked into Pinterest before, I'd describe it as an online scrapbook, but you aren't restricted to just looking at your own version...

My creative mind does work better with visual stimuli, but of course if I saved every link that triggered something it would be pages and pages long. :D

So now I can assign it to one of my boards- or create a new one.

You can even put together a private board that only you can see, or allow certain people to see it too.

My favourite is my Costume board. There are so many sources of costume and accessories around, so I'm probably adding to that every day because I see something in passing. I haven't just limited it to 18th or 19th century items, but included early 20th century pieces too.

No doubt I will eventually discover why I felt the need to make a board about chocolate; types of, the history of and pictures of chocolate in lots of forms. :D

A couple of weeks ago, on her blog, Rosemary Gemmell was talking about how she uses Pinterest, and how her works in progress benefit from its use. Read her recent post over on her Reading and Writing blog.

Pinterest seems to have developed quite a bit since it first started, and it now has a useful place in social media.

If you're on Pinterest do let me know, and I'd enjoy hearing what you like about it...