Art Update - Trying to get jewelry and writing done when my vision is much like a funhouse mirror

Haven't been doing a whole lot of art recently; mostly I've just been restocking a few things for craft shows. I've been doing them pretty much every weekend- 'tis the season! Otherwise I've been trying to not do too much close-up stuff. I needed bifocals, which I just got this weekend and am still trying to get used to, so my vision is rather wonky at the moment. Moving my head quickly or moving my eyes not straight ahead means I end up seeing the world through a funhouse mirror. And my animals have a bad habit of getting directly under my feet- precisely the place I can't see clearly at all. Is that white fuzzy blob my pekepoo or did we get a new pet sheep? Is the black blob my cat or did I leave a pair of boots there? LOL!

I did make and list a few things recently, though!


This cell phone charm was a custom order for someone who wanted my druid one minus the word. Yay, leafies and trees!


My only newly listed chainmaille thing recently, a stretchy rubber purple and black bracelet. That's here on Artfire and here on Etsy.


Just lots of jewelry and charm things. The random small things at the bottom left are going to go on chain earrings as soon as I can see clearly enough to see tiny jump rings again. Arg, what a pain this vision thing is.

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On the other hand, I have been doing a lot of writing for the next Fantasy Big Bang challenge. I fell really behind with this from the vision problems and a respiratory infection that wouldn't leave me alone last month, so now I'm scrambling to get what I need done for the rough draft deadline on the 15th. Luckily my writing muse seems to love a rapidly approaching deadline (why, I don't know) and has given me 10k words in about two weeks. Whew! I still have about three scenes to write, but I have lots and lots of notes and outline, so I should be fine.

This story doesn't have a lot of plot, per se, but it does have a lot of characters; the narration switches between four: an inept young wizard from the past, a talented but unlucky Illusionist from the present, a wood elf wild mage whose magic is powerful but unreliable at best, and her centaur brother who is the only non-wizard in this whole mess. What ties these characters together is a protective magical item that keeps switching hands and causing more problems than it's preventing. Fun times. ;)

Since my eyes have been wonky, I'm writing it out on paper where I can see it better, then typing this up on the computer. This is a change because I'm used to just writing on the computer for the whole thing, but knock on wood my muse is fine with paper and ink.

The good thing about paper is that not only do I have all my writing in one place (that's the outline), I can also draw maps in the same place. That's a map of my kingdom there. Still working on that, too, so I'm sure I'll make a mappy blog post soon.

So yeah, hoping this post is at least somewhat coherent! I'll just be grumbling over here about needing bifocals at 27. If my mom calls me "grandma" one more time, I may throw a skein of yarn at her head.