robinmaderich

Every Picture Tells a Story

Don’t it?

I’m listening to Rod Stewart’s cd of the same name right now. It was a birthday gift, along with Gasoline Alley, Dan Fogelberg’s The Innocent Age, and a FunkoPop Dobby—actually holding a teeny, tiny sock! This past weekend, I celebrated my birthday with all my kids (three sons and two significant others). Four of us started out with dinner at Red Robin and then came home, where the other two met us.

Derek made a dee-licious Black Magic cake (coffee/chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream icing), which we consumed in small quantities after how much we stuffed ourselves with our meal. Gifts followed 🙂

Crafting with little hands

My kids are all grown and I have fur-baby grandkids. As for the latter, their lack of opposable thumbs means I can’t do Christmas crafting with them. However, for those of you who do have children around at the holiday season, I found this Good Housekeeping article with 50 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids. Some of them look like fun, for sure.

I just might have to teach the dogs and cats how to use those dew claws.

50 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids.

Happy crafting!

Christmas Tree Advent Calendar

I may have mentioned elsewhere that I love to craft. I used to try selling my crafts on Etsy, but because I love to do so many things I really didn’t have the focus I needed for my shop. One of these days, I might just pick one and get back to it, but in the meantime, I decided to start posting crafting videos on YouTube. As of this post, my most recent is about making a wooden Christmas tree advent calendar.

Crafty Season Has Begun!

And so, it begins. It is November after all. Christmas is next month! Here’s a pretty simple craft I am sharing from my YouTube Channel, Tumble Creek Christmas. I am always in possession of multiple gold-colored cat food cans, thanks to having kitties (crazy, but not childless, cat lady that I am). I like their color and their size, and one day it hit me how I could utilize them for the holidays. The cans, holiday plaid scrapbook paper, scissors and glue are basically all you need. Just be sure to either file or otherwise seal any sharp edges on your cleaned cans. Have fun and let me know if you give this craft a try.

Humanity

We are all one race: Human.

This is a truth. Whether creationist or evolutionist, we all understand we started somewhere, grew into what we are today. I don’t purport to know or understand every religion in the world, but I believe most of them have their theory of creation. We started. We are.

Girls, Girls, Girls

Okay, I know that title got someone’s attention. More than Old Ladies, Old Ladies, Old Ladies might have at any rate.

This past weekend was a “girls’ weekend” with my cousins. None of us are spring chickens. We all called ourselves old ladies multiple times during conversations. Sometimes bemoaning certain facts of our age, sometimes just busting on each other, sometimes, well, sometimes because, to those who are younger, this is exactly what we are.

Release Day

After some unavoidable delay, the finale in my Shadow Journey series is finally out. Saying goodbye to these characters is basically like watching your kids grow up and leave home. Sort of. They are, after all, created by my imagination and not my flesh and blood. Even so, I’ll miss them. However, never fear, next year a collection of short stories will be coming out, revealing back stories related to the teens you’ve come to know so well. So be patient and wish me luck!

Thank you, readers, for following Grace, Duncan, Carina, Mika, and all the others through their trials and tribulations, their growth and the bonds of lasting friendship they’ve created. You all mean so much to me.

Robin (aka Jo Allen Ash)

The series finale! Final-ely

It’s been, if not a long time coming, at least longer than I had originally anticipated. But yes, the finale to the Shadow Journey series, In Darkness We Break, is finally releasing on October 15th! Twenty-twenty-four, in case you need clarification, because I actually could have meant next year. That’s what it felt like, anyway.

Les Mis-adventures!

What a wonderful day I had yesterday. Early on in my posts (perhaps the second I ever made), I talked about a day spent with one of my daughters-in-law–a day spent at yard sales and a garden center (see: The Chicken Teapot and the Fantastically Lovely Day). Well, here’s a post about our day yesterday, when we went to see Les Miserables in Philadelphia.

Sharing a little inspiration

Here’s an inspirational quote I thought I’d share for all you writers out there! it’s like a gentle kick in the butt. 🙂

It’s worth any writer’s while to get a draft onto the page, because truly, editing in your mind isn’t quite the same in terms of progress. And if you’re like me, you end up forgetting a lot of what’s up there in the gray matter without some physical notation to provide you with a placeholder.

The blank page is your nemesis, believe me.