Thought for Thursday

If you have trouble with grammar or, if you don't really know when to use affect versus effect, you should definitely pop over to Grammar Girl's blogsite and check her out.

She has some great tips, hints and tricks to help you remember when to use what.

So, if you want a little extra help in the writing department, bookmark her site and maybe watch a tutorial or two.

Good luck with your writing.

Making Minions

This is such an easy food craft that kids can do it.

INGREDIENTS:

WHITE (or yellow) chocolate
marshmallows
candy eyes
 Black frosting and/or molding dough
(candy sticks/lollipop sticks)
(a big cup to hold the sticks)

Optional:

fondant (in colors you want to use to decorate)

First you need to put the marshmallows on the sticks. I put them in a broad based cup to hold them while I decorate them.

You can microwave the chocolate until it is smooth and creamy. All you need is some chocolate (white or yellow), if you use white, you will need some yellow food coloring to dye your chocolate to the proper color for minions.

Then you dip your marshmallows in the chocolate and put them in the fridge to cool. Then use the left over warm chocolate to "glue" the candy eyes in place. You are nearly done.

You can decorate as much or as little as you like.

I also made a minion holder.

This came pre-packaged from the local craft store. All I was supposed to have to do was put it together.

But the instructions were in Spanish...:(

Still I tried.

But I had to ask my hubby to help and he actually ended up using his drill to make the lollipop holders larger.

Of course I had to decorate it with a little ribbon.

Another Exciting Weekend in the Kasch Household

I don't know how you spend your weekends but around my house it's one exciting adventure after another...NOT!

We seem to spend a lot of time remodeling...and this is something we've been doing for about 30 years.

Well, at least this weekend we made a little headway on the chimbrary...my little library behind the chimney.

And, when I say we I mean my hubby. He of course of was sitting up in that little space installing the beautiful wainscoting I wanted.

Here's a pictorial progress report:

An Agent's In-Box

Krista Van Dolzer is hostessing a contest and for any writers out there, it might just be worth your while to check it out.

Just pop over here and see if this is for you.

But for those of you who don't want to click over without knowing if it's worth it, here are the rules as they appear on her blog:

"The Rules

1. To enter, your manuscript must meet two conditions: First, it must be COMPLETE, POLISHED, AND READY TO QUERY, and second, it must be in one of the genres The Agent represents (which are listed at the bottom of this post).

2. IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN FEBRUARY’S ROUND OF “AN AGENT’S INBOX,” please DO NOT participate in this one UNLESS YOU HAVE A NEW MANUSCRIPT that meets the criteria listed above. I have a pretty good memory, and I will disqualify previous entries. If the entry slots don’t fill up by Tuesday, August 19, I may allow previous participants to enter, but I’m not going to make that decision right now.

3. All entries must include A QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. You must paste these items IN THE BODY OF YOUR E-MAIL; otherwise, I'll disqualify it.

4. THE ENTRY WINDOW OPENS AT 1:00 P.M. EDT (OR 10:00 A.M. PDT). Once the entry window opens, I'll accept the first 20 entries. I won't accept any entries sent before the entry window opens or after the first 20 slots fill up.

5. If your entry makes it in, I'll send you a confirmation e-mail with a post number. If your entry doesn't make it in, I'll still send you an e-mail, but it won't have a post number.

6. If your entry makes it in, YOU MUST COMMENT ON AT LEAST 3 OTHER ENTRIES.

The Prizes The Agent will select both the winners and the prizes. The Agent might pick 20 winners, or he or she might only pick one. The Agent might offer full requests, or he or she might only ask to see another page. It all depends on how good the entries are.

Please keep in mind that THIS CONTEST ISN'T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. I've encouraged The Agent to treat the entries exactly as he or she would a normal batch of queries. Essentially, The Agent will be answering the question, "How much of the entry did you read, and if you didn't read it all, why did you stop?" I think this process will be instructive for all of us, but if you enter, you need to be prepared to hear exactly what The Agent thinks of your query and first page.

So get those queries and first pages polished up, then meet us back here on Monday, August 18, at 1:00 p.m. EDT! At that time, you may send your entries to kvandolzer(at)gmail(dot)com. Looking forward to it!

The Genres

MG fiction (all genres)
YA fiction (all genres)
NA fiction (all genres except erotica)"

REMEMBER THIS ISN'T MY CONTEST IT'S KRISTA VAN DOLZER'S SO IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE, HOP OVER TO HER BLOG BY CLICKING HERE. 

Hawthorne Street Fair - this weekend

Hawthorne Boulevard will be closed from SE 30th to SE 38th Avenues! Sunday event highlights include: live music all day, beer gardens (located outside Bazi Bierbrasserie with a live DJ and beer tastings, and at the Eagles Lodge with live bands during the course of the day: both beer gardens are family and pet friendly, and are cash only), kids events at toy store Kids at Heart including face painting, circus activities, prizes and more! PLUS our friends at Lounge Lizard have some surprises up their sleeves! Make sure you pop on over to Hawthorne Boulevard this weekend for this fantastic street fair!

AcroYoga

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story about new horizons and looking for the good in even the worst of situations. It's also a story about love and looking for a connection with another person and loving them.

Zora Hurston wrote this novel in 1937 in seven weeks.

It's the story of Janie Crawford, a young black woman who grows up during the course of the book and her search for love and her own identity.

Zora was a woman who wrote this story in a time when it wasn't easy to be an African American female writer.

Though the text might take a little time getting used to, it is well worth the effort. I would rate this novel a 7-8 on a scale of 1-10. It was a little slow in a couple of spots (one being the very beginning) but over all it was very entertaining and interesting.