Hello! I’m a Renaissance Girl!

Being a chauffeur is very interesting. To be honest, I only drive the same lady around once a week, on Tuesdays. She gave up her license awhile ago for vision problems and recently asked me to drive her around. So, I complied. After all, I had posted on my community forum that I was available for odd jobs. Plus, I get to catch up on a lot of reading and writing between her errands. For example, right now she’s in a salon getting a mani/pedi and I’m sitting in the parking lot, mooching off of McDonald’s free Wi-Fi to post to you guys. But, just prior to logging on here, I was reading “Fairest of All” by Serena Valentino. It’s a book published by Disney Hyperion and it’s the backstory of the Evil Queen from Snow White. So far, it’s interesting, but more on that later….

To be honest, I really like to work on odd jobs like this. I consider myself a sort of Renaissance girl. “Renaissance” being used in the same way Da Vinci is described as a Renaissance man. Someone who is capable and knowledgeable in more than one field. I love to learn new things, from needlepoint, to cross-stitching, to baking and cooking, to fixing the plumbing for a sink, to tiling a roof! I find it all interesting! I’d like to learn as much as I can!

If you ever asked me, I could easily help you to throw a pot (that means make one on a spin-disc), fire it in the kiln, and glaze it for you. I could make teacups or tea pots or plates or bowls. I can make vases, and busts and statues. From wood, I can make you picture frames, or chairs, or tables, or even a bookcase or bedframe! Want something carved or etched out of wood or stone? I can do that, too! My next endeavor is to take a class on stained glass making and glass-blowing. My Aunt and Uncle in Massachusetts own a stained glass shop where they make everything they sell and they have offered to teach me all they know if I stay with them for a summer. As for glass-blowing, well, I live near a village that does all of that, including making bottles, lamps, china, etc. all from glass! They have regular classes on how to do make all sorts of things from glass.

I like to work outside and with flowers and plants. I like to fish and swim and kayak and canoe. I can sail a boat (though I really should renew my boating license for verifiability’s verifiability’s (is that even a word?) sake), and I can teach you how to camp. I can whistle with my hands like an owl (and a few other bird calls), I can drive a manual or automatic vehicle.

If I don’t know how to do something and someone asks me for help, I teach myself how to do it. Like I said, I find odd jobs and work like this entertaining.

Actually, I was just telling my mother last night how happy I am to be not working in the car dealership industry any more. I worked in two different dealerships in the past year and I didn’t realize how unhappy I was there in those environments until now while looking for a new job. Of course, now I have a new job in Interior Design (which is way more up my alley with my art degree), but I’ll continue my odd job escapades.

Look for my words again soon!

-Soleil

What’s In A Name?: A Custom Design Commission!

Today I finished painting the name onto the boat, as I had planned. So….TA-DA:

Since the sailboat is a Western White Potter sailboat, they decided to name it Harry’s Potter, you know, after the Harry Potter books and movies. I’m pretty sure that I said that in my previous post…. XD

Anyway, that’s my design and they love it! So, yay! Got a portion of my payment today and picking up the rest tomorrow. I’m also going to Red Robin tomorrow to see if they had a chance to review my application and to hand in my resume. It would be nice to have a steady job again instead of side jobs. -fingers crossed here- Not that I mind side jobs. They’re fun!

For finishing my commission today, I treated myself to ramen at the ramen bar “Hiro’s Ramen” in Philadelphia again. I took my youngest brother, Jae, with me. We got there a half hour before they closed, but they were kind enough to let us come in and order. We ate as quickly as we could so as not to hinder them too long. It was delicious!

Philadelphia is pretty at nighttime because everything is lit up! Also, there isn’t as much traffic at night.

Ah, home now and it’s nice and relaxing. Mom has HGTV on and it’s one of those “International House Hunters” shows. The couple in the show is looking for a home in Warwick, England. It looks so pretty! I love those thatched roof homes with the timber-styled woodwork. -sigh- It’s so pretty.

Look for my words again soon, I’m going to do some writing.

-Soleil

Between Errands

Yesterday morning and this morning, I woke to find that our youngest dog (she’ll be 2 in October) had piled all of her toys on top of me in my bed. She then sat down next to my bed staring at me until I sat up. Obviously, it was time to play. So, I collected her toys, set them aside momentarily to go through my morning routine of getting dressed and feeding myself (she’d already been fed so that was one less thing to do) and then commenced a lovely play session. Her favorite thing to do is to play fetch.

Then I went out to begin working on a sailboat. I’ve been commissioned to paint the name onto the port and lee sides of the hull at the stern of the boat. Since it’s a Western Potter sailboat, the family has decided to name it “Harry’s Potter” since they enjoy the Harry Potter books and movies so much. I managed to draw the design onto both sides before it began to grow dark, so my plan is to return to the boatyard and paint the designs today. Once it’s done, I’ll be sure to take pictures and share them with you all! I really do like the design I came up with for them. They wanted it to have Harry Potter and Nautical influences and they really love the design I drew. So, as soon as it’s painted, I’ll share the completed project with you all!

Right now, I’m sitting in my car, waiting. On Tuesdays, I drive around an old schoolmate’s stepmother so that she can do her errands. She can’t drive anymore and gave up her license a bit ago, so I help out and take her out on Tuesdays. It’s a nice little break in my schedule. Anyway, I’m waiting because she went into a shop and I have time to waste before she needs me to pick her up. Although, I never go far. Since I don’t have any errands to do myself today (aside from go paint a name on a boat), I decided to wait in the parking lot and play on my laptop. =)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! It’s very hot here today. I have my windows down but the fact that my laptop is burning my legs doesn’t help with the whole heat factor. This post is done. It’s too hot to keep my laptop here. Haha!

Look for my words again soon!

-Soleil

Playing With Fire: A Writer’s Life for Me!

For anyone who would like to get to know me better, know this: I like bonfires.

Not those massively large ones that people of yore (or maybe they still do?) dance around, but a nice simple campfire-sized bonfire. Like the one I’ve made tonight:

I made it myself, I’m so proud! I spent an hour prior to this accomplishment, walking around my yard (my 2.5 acre yard…so exhausting! whew!) collecting twigs and sticks to use as fodder and feed so as to keep my fire burning well after dark.

I like to sit outside on my patio furniture, which I set up in the small courtyard out of my back door, because I don’t have a patio to use. So, I sit at my iron-wrought table and on a wooden chair (with matching benches and footrests) that my Pepere made for me and my family a few years back, and I write. I love to write outside, with a fresh pad of paper or an already in-use notebook, and a pen with ink (I’ve come to find that over time and multiple presses of pencil on paper, that pencil fades quickly and by the time I’m finished filling my notebook, the words I wrote at the start are much fainter than the ones I just finished).

I often struggle between my two passions of art and writing. Both are vying to be dominant in my life and I’m not sure which I want to make a career of, yet. I’m 25, I really should get the ball moving here….

Oh, Richard Hammond seems confused. Yes, yes, 25, still attending college (3 semesters left, but hey! I’ve been paying out of pocket, no loans please (although, I had to break down and take out a small loan a year ago…BUT, only $7,000 in debt! I can’t say I don’t pity those students who have racked up $70,000+ in student loans) …of course, that makes it take longer….)

Anyway, I like to write. I write a lot…A LOT! I prefer to write fiction, fantasy, and adventure, although, I’ve been dabbling in some sci-fi lately. My favorite things to write about are myths and legends and fables and fairytales, like fractured fairytales! Actually, fractured fairytales are some of my favorite reads nowadays! E.D. Baker is an exquisite fractured fairytale writer and my favorite, if anyone is interested in looking into the genre….

Let’s see, I really do write a lot. I always have a notebook and pen with me (one that can fit in my bag. (I usually have a backpack, though). I write while I’m standing in line at the store, or when I’m riding the bus, or am a passenger in a car. I write when I’m exercising on a stationary bike, during TV commercials, and the list really does go on from there.

Someday, I hope to be a well-established author, like E.D. Baker, Brian Jacques, or the guy who writes those “Game of Throne” books, uh…George R.R. Martin (and yes, I had to Google his name, and no, I have not read the books, nor do I watch the TV series that airs on HBO). There are other books and shows on my list that I’m trying to catch up with, so “Game of Thrones” is currently on the backburner. No worries, I’ll catch up eventually and give it a chance.

Of course, it would be nice to be as successful as J.K. Rowling and have a book I write (or a series, which I am currently working on) become a movie. Really, I think that would be thrilling! I’d want to work with the screen writer’s, though. I’ve taken classes on script writing for movies, TV, and theater. I think that’d be interesting, too.

Well, there you have it, I like to write. AND, you know a few more things about me now:

1. I’m 25 and still in college (going for a B.A. (Bachelor’s in Art. I already have an A.F.A.: an Associates in Fine Art) And I’m Minoring in French.)

2. I’ve just slipped that je parle française. Mon famille est Canadienne-Française! La plupart de la famille de ma mère parle français. J’aime parler avec eux. (Maybe I’ll do some posts in French!)

3. I like to have bonfires and write.

Look for my words again soon!

-Soleil

You’re Basic, Average Update, Plus a Ramen Bar!

Hi Everyone!

I’ve been a bit lazy lately. This whole “not having a job thing” is really boring. To be honest, I really have enjoyed the time off and I’ve accomplished a lot of things around the house and caught up on most of my reading list in the short while that I’ve been unemployed. However, it is boring to not have a set schedule every day, or at least a schedule of some sort, so I’ve started applying for jobs in my area that I will be able to work while attending my college classes. Ah…yes…college will be starting back up in a mere month. Yay!

No, really, I mean yay! I love school. When I was in high school, I never wanted to leave. I just enjoy learning. Of course, since graduating and attending college classes for the past few years, I have realized that I don’t need to be in school to learn. I can do it on my own! So, yay for knowledge, too!

Anyway, back to the job thing. So far, I’ve applied for errand running jobs (I’m currently employed by an old schoolmate’s step mother to drive her around once a week when she needs to run errands), babysitting/nannying, pet care, and being a server or hostess at a new restaurant opening soon by our local mall.

Other than that, my days as of late have included going up on the roof and sweeping out the gutters (one brother has a problem with heights and the other has a busy work/college summer class schedule, so I, being the only girl but the oldest, decided to do it myself. I like going up on the roof. When I was little, I would find any excuse to go up there whenever my dad, uncles, and grandfather were working on it, like bringing them water or tools, etc.. …I’m digressing again, back to my main point), pulling weeds in our front garden, cleaning my room, making trips to Goodwill to drop off donations, and reading, writing, and watching “Ducktales” still online. =P

Oh, although today I did go to a Ramen Bar in Philadelphia! Yum! It’s called Hiro Ramen and I ordered “Hiro’s Inch of Heaven” which is a Pork Soy tonkotsu (ramen soup) with egg, nori, and scallions!

I hope you’re all doing well. Let me know how your summer holidays are going!

Look for my words again soon!

-Soleil

Too Much Stuff!

I wish there was someplace where I could take those super expensive art supplies that I never ended up using from my classes and sell them back (without a receipt), because I have a fancy illustration pen set that was $120, a $90 16-piece Niji watercolor set, and a $50 12-piece set Dermont pastel set. AND all of them are unopened and unused. They’re just taking up space in my room, along with extra canvases of varying sizes, an artist drafting table with built in light board, paintbrushes, pens, markers, brushes, paints, etc., etc..

Luckily, my friend Kel is taking the artist drafting table off of my hands (a $100 expense that I’m giving to her for free), but there’s still too much stuff in my too small room. I’m trying very hard to minimize what I have, because I do have too much stuff.

You see, in 2012 I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety and OCD, but these problems plagued me since my senior year of high school (which was also the time my Memere passed away) and I not only struggled with anxiety and OCD, but also depression during that time, too. These things combined, I went through a period of time when I didn’t want to let go of anything that reminded me of her, or anything for that matter, and I collected many things and got rid of very few. It was such a tiring and stressful time.

But, finally I can say I’m better and back to my old self and now I find that all the things I thought were so important back then are really just useless and in my way, taking up space in a bedroom that is smaller than most nowadays. (I live in a house that was built in the 1940s-60s.).

Anyway, I’ve been making slow progress, but I’ve already gone through my clothes and shoes. Through books and papers, and cards, and little trinkets and thingamabobs, but I still feel overwhelmed over all sometimes, ESPECIALLY the art supplies that I had to buy for my art classes and then we never ended up using but it’s been so long I can’t return them to the store with my reciepts that I have. So…back to my starting topic of ‘I wish that there were stores I could sell these art supplies to and at least get some of my money back’.

-sigh-

Okay, I’ve gone full circle there. That will be all for now.

Look for my words again soon!

-Soleil

Let’s Go To Camp Together!

Earlier today, I admitted to not knowing what to write but having the urge to write. While I really only did get myself to sit down a type a few words (literally maybe three sentences, if that), I’m not sure that I feel satisfied with that effort. For starters, I was out driving around, running an errand and then getting dinner from Taco Bell, when a thunder and lightning storm rolled in suddenly with 70 MPH wind gusts! So, mom and I took shelter at Taco Bell until the storm let up enough for us to drive safely home. After eating, I tried to write on the paper wrappers that had held my soft-shell taco, but it was a wax-type of paper and the pen the employees let me borrow did not write very well on it.

My pen wouldn’t work….so here’s my sad face ^^^

I was determined to type what I had written into my Word document when I finally returned home and did so promptly. I also intended to keep going, but then I got sidetracked by the end of Jeopardy, then Wheel of Fortune, then trying to get the WiFi back up and running so I could get online, and then I put on my latest Korean dramedy: “Playful Kiss”. (By the way, I only watched the first two episdoes of “Shut Up & Let’s Go”. Since (Spoiler), they kill off Byung Hee (who is the only interesting character by far) at the end of the second episode. He’s the one who has the orange eyes, remember? Here’s a photo refresher!):

Anyway, “Playful Kiss” is much better and more comedy than drama. I highly recommend this show! Suffice to say, though, I never did write any more tonight. I’m planning to make a good part of the day of it tomorrow. Hopefully I can keep myself motivated enough to actually do this.

Now, only a few days ago, my best friend since 6th grade (oh my goodness, we first met back in 2001!), and one of my writing buddies, Kels, introduced me to a website called Camp NaNoWriMo! It’s an interweb-tacular (just made-up this mashed-up word) site that promotes NaNoWriMo all year long, by running “practice” months in April and July for hopeful-NanoWriMo’s to get a feel for what November is all about before the actual National Novel Writing Month comes along!

This site allows writers from all over the globe to interact and even “share” a cabin together (a cabin can include 11 writers, I think) for the month. It’s basically your own private chat room between you and your cabin-mates so you can not only bounce ideas around, but motivate, and help one another stay on track. Hey, you might even learn some new things about writing…like a more proficient way to outline, or what inspiring music to listen to as you write (I for one am a fan of classical music and movie soundtracks…really, anything orchestral).

Anyway, you can set up your “Writer Profile” and “Writing Projects”, set word count goals and track your progress through the month as you go. It calculates your daily average and what it actually should be for those days you are totallyl being a slacker (I admit to being guilty of this myself), and you can have more than one “Writing Project” going at a time.

While I’ve only just joined myself today, I can already proudly say that I want to recommend this site to any and all fellow writers or aspiring project-takers to try out. Signing up is free and so is the site. Of course, there is the option of donating, which helps the site to operate for free. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that you’re donations can be tax deductable. See this link here from their FAQ section regarding that option: Tax Deductable Option!

Well, if you decide to join me on there, my user name is the same: Soleil Porche …so send me a message and maybe we can make a cabin together and do our best to support and help each other. I think it would be fun! Let’s do our best together!

Look for my words again soon!

Soleil

Dinner for Dad

Since Kit has to work tomorrow, we’re celebrating Father’s Day this evening by treating our Dad to a place called the “Crab Trap”. I’ve no idea where this place is, but Dad has been raving about wanting to go there all week, so Kit and I have planned to take him there, along with Kit’s girlfriend, and our Mom, of course.

Everyone in the house likes seafood, except for me. However, I’m going along with the plan since it’s for Dad. It wouldn’t be very fair of me to object when we’re supposed to be celebrating him. Actually, I’m looking forward to the trip. It’s a fair ride, apparently, and I like long car rides. It gives me time to slip into my imagination and come up with story ideas, write, read, or to chat with everyone in the car.

That being said, I should help get things ready so we can go.

Look for my words again soon!

-Soleil

It’s a Turn of Phrase

Under the weather.

That’s the turn of phrase that crossed my mind earlier this morning, since that is what I currently am. Running a slight fever and feeling more tired than usual, I figure I’ve caught the tailend of whatever bug my brother had last week.

Anyway, I began to wonder how that phrase came about. My guess is that it’s because if you stay outside in cold rain, or snow, or intense heat, you can get sick. Therefore, the weather would have made you sick. So, you’d be under the weather’s influence. Hence, you’d be “under the weather”.

So that was my main ponder of the day. What’s your opinion?

I just finished reading “Puddlejumpers” by Mark Jean and Christopher C. Carslon. I have to admit, the beginning of the book was a bit slow, but full of description, and it really didn’t start to pick up until the main character, Ernie Banks, left Chicago to go to a farm. That was about a quarter of the way through the book. It was an interesting concept for a book, though.

Well, I’m going to apologize for a short post today. Just wanted you all to know I’m still alive and as well as I can be, at the moment. Hoping to be better and back to my old health-status soon!

Look for my words again!

-Soleil

Another Dog Conspiracy (or just pets, in general) and Recommendations

My poor little Leila has not been feeling well as of late. She, of course, became sick Friday night, so of course the vet was closed until Monday. Oh, Leila is my dog, by the way. She’s just so adorable and I love her very much! I’m glad she’ll be okay. Here’s a photo of her:

So, today we got her an appointment to go in and she’s been giving medicince to get better. Yay! Sicne we gave her the first dose of medicine today, she’s a bit more lazy than usual. Probably catching up on the sleep she’s lost the past few nights from constantly waking up every night. Poor girl!

While in the office, speaking with the secretary, we were discussing how pets and kids always seem to get sick on weekends. More dog conspiracies! The secretary also informed me that horses are even more finicky, getting sick on nights, weekends, and holidays! I think pets in general like to do these things to us. I think they get a kick out of it, haha!

I really have been trying to catch up on my Netflix list, since it’s over 150+ titles. I just finished “Young & Hungry” starring Emily Osment.

I found this series really funny. I definitely recommend this if you want a good, laughable, ABC Family rom-com series. With Season 1 on Netflix and Season 2 still airing (as far as I know), you wouldn’t have a hassle trying to catch up quick!

I finished “The Bravest Princess” and am now on Book 4: “Princess in Disguise” of the “Wide-Awake Princess” series. After this book, I have to wait and see if there will be a 5th. I think the next thing I’ll read is “Puddlejumpers” by Mark Jean and Christopher C. Carlson. The title just sounds interesting, right?

Anyway, for now I’m wrapping up because I’m going to watch “Driving Miss Daisy”. Oh, I watched the original 1960s “The Odd Couple” movie yesterday. I would recommend this classic, too!

Look for my words again soon!

-Soleil