March: wasn't overly exciting

 [Note: WHAT has blogger done to my cute little pictures? They're all squished! And I spent so long on them!]

It's the end of March (almost), and while I've had this blog for less than one month, I've read enough to figure out that end-of-month recaps are apparently the way to go.

Excuse me while I search my brains for momentous happenings this month.

*scratches head*

I may have to resort to some creative lies for colour.

So!

I've been preparing for Camp NaNoWriMo! My WIP has the working title Three Sisters. (I will not keep that title. For some reason it makes me think of A Tale of Two Cities. Which I haven't even read.) You can read a bit more about protective older sister Billie here on Camp, if you like; I'll keep it short here and just say that I started with Beauty and the Beast (whatever it may end up by the time Camp's over). My cabin has been really welcoming - they found me through a comment I'd written on a GoTeenWriters article, too, which I thought was cool. :)

For my blog, I tried to write a few posts to have up my sleeve for April (hasn't worked so well). Because seriously. My official goal is 15k (I know it's low compared to some of you guys' goals... but if I aim much higher I give up once I get a few days behind). I hope to get 20k, though. And obviously I'm not going to have the time or energy or inspiration to write many posts.

 

Not a lot to report. My family's fine. We've had a heap of late (out-of-season) rain, which has been really relieving because summer was pretty dry and I was getting nervous (we use rainwater and I didn't want to go into the dry season with the tanks half empty).

I started a bullet journal - got all my ideas off Pinterest - and so far it's been pretty cool. I also toured a dairy farm, continued working on my tertiary education course (about libraries), and read less than I'd like.

 

I can't find enough good new books to read! (Recommendations welcome. I like twisted fairytales - magic's fine, but nothing too dark - and modern runaway stories - Gordon Korman's On the Run series is one example. But I'll read across genres; just no vampires, gone-too-far romance, things like that.)

Reread some of John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series, and Jennifer A. Nielsen's Ascendance (False Prince) trilogy. Read the latest [last?] two of Melanie Dickerson's fairytale series, The Golden Braid and The Silent Songbird, because I'm always looking for fairytale retellings; this series is sometimes predictable and historically unlikely (oookay, a little more than sometimes) but can be a cute, fluffy medieval romance read without too much kissing (fine a lot of kissing but nothing further) or fairies (no fairies). I actually would have liked some fairies.

Rewatched Avengers and An Unexpected Journey. Watched The Force Awakens and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Oh, and season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow (rated M for good reasons; I do not approve of all the content. But I adored Captain Canary!) (...too bad the kiss that established my OTP was promptly followed by Snart's death like WHAT.)

Music: I've been listening to Piano Guys, Peter Hollens (Mary Did You Know, Loch Lomond, Amazing Grace with Home Free - this one's awesome), Mission Impossible cover/medley by Piano Guys and Lindsey Stirling, and a Star Wars medley by Peter Hollens and Lindsey Stirling. 

Also (I'm not sure where to put this, but it's on YouTube, so here?) Studio C's comedy channel. My cabinmates recommended it and I binge-watched for about two days straight. Then I ran out of internet data. 

 

[Again with the squishing of my picture like I SPENT LITERAL HOURS DOING THESE. huh.]

Newsies: the Musical. I'd never heard of it before, but this was on several blogs.
Captain America: Civil War was already on my list... I've been putting it off because I DON'T WANT TO SEE MY BABIES FIGHTING OKAY.
Testament of Youth. Don't know much about this one, but I watched a YouTube trailer and it looks... heartbreaking.
Amazing Grace - I want to rewatch it because I don't remember it very well. (Also because I was not familiar with Benedict Cumberbatch or any of his work back then. Which brings me to - )
Sherlock season 4. I've read spoilers. From them I have concluded that Moffat thought we were too happy. Because [ killing Mary and having John blame and utterly hate Sherlock]? That isn't nice. (Although I look forward to seeing baby Watson... baby, uh... you know, I've quite forgotten her name... *wizard voice*)
The Lego Batman Movie. I watched three trailers and cried genuine tears of laughter. It looks like it might be better than The Lego Movie. (Which had... different humour to the kind I enjoy. But my young male cousins loved it.)

For Love and Honor, by Jody Hedlund. Micaiah's review is entirely to blame! :)

(Yes, there are a lot of movies here. and not a lot of books. as I said, recommendations welcome... and if there's a movie you think I should see, mention that as well.)

Volunteering for a local comic-con. It's only in its second year, but I've never been to any kind of comic-con, so it will be a completely new experience for me. (It has steampunk, too, and dollhouse miniaturists, and a viking/medieval history group. And it's free. Pretty good, I reckon - especially if it could get big enough in the next decade to attract some big names. That would be excellent.)

And of course - Camp NaNoWriMo! *stresses and promises to plot next time* *like I promised myself last NaNo* *and the Camp before that* Okay, I don't plot.

That's about it for me! (I even managed to restrain myself from telling those creative lies.) Now I have to go catch up on everyone else's March wrap-up summaries. Instead of working on Three Sisters. Which I should be doing because it's April.

What cool stuff did you do this month? I'd love to hear! (And of course: Have you ever been to a serious comic-con?) And tell me, HOW STRESSED ARE YOU FOR CAMP? and if you're not, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS.

Bullet journal + Habitica

Halfway through March, I gave in to Crazy Me's pressure and started a bullet journal.

(I haven't explained about Crazy Me yet, have I? Maybe I'll write a post on her later. For now, let's just say she wants to attend a Comic-Con and travel to England and act and sing in musicals and meet famous actors like Chris Hemsworth and Benedict Cumberbatch. She wouldn't have anything to say to them, though. Also she's probably the driving force behind this blog, and she wishes I'd do those artsy photographs you other girls do. You know, the gorgeous artsy photographs? Those ones.)

I'd seen bullet journals on Pinterest. And ignored them. Because seriously, they're so... fabulous. Perfect. The writing is tiny and neat, the doodles are gorgeous. I couldn't do that.

Crazy Me put on the pressure.

Okay, so I liked them; the more I saw them, the more I wanted to do it; but I was discouraged at the same time. I'm not artsy and my handwriting is chicken-scratch and my doodles are more like scribbles.

 

 My Bullet Journal

But I did it. 

 

Probably not how you're supposed to do it, but I'm working on making it work for me. The point, after all, is organisation, not art. (Not that I'm criticizing those who have beautiful art - I want to encourage those who don't. Like me.) It isn't perfect, but I like it a lot more than I thought I would. I've even managed to get a leeetle bit artsy by getting ideas from Pinterest.

But now I have a problem: I used to write down to-do lists on scraps of paper, which I don't miss, but my 'collections' were scattered across notebooks, which I now have no purpose for. (And they're nowhere near full! *very upset*) I think this means I may not be able to justify such a large notebook collection in future... although I will need more for my future bullet journals!



While I'm talking about organising, there's another thing I use; this one is more for to-do lists and forming habits. 

Habitica 

Before I began bullet journaling (journalling? journaling?? spell-check doesn't like either!), I discovered Habitica. Its tag line is "Habitica - Your life the role-playing game". You make to-dos, daily to-dos, and habits; then when you tick one as done, you get gold and XP. With the gold you can buy armour and equipment, which can increase the rate of gold/XP you get ticking things off. Or if you tick what you've marked as a negative habit, you lose health.

I'd never tried anything like RPGing. I still wouldn't know how. But I find Habitica really motivating. I love ticking off lists, and this gives me 'rewards' for doing that. (Plus the site is clear and colourful and you get to dress up a little avatar.)

I was concerned that Habitica and my journal would double up, but they don't very much. The bullet journal is for organisation and a record, and Habitica is for motivation. So I'm keeping both for now.



Do you have methods for organising? Are you motivated by ticking lists, or not really? If you have a bullet journal, tell me! I'd love to hear any recommendations for collections or ways to improve it. :)

Mug cakes!

[I meant to write a blog post this week but I haven't - so I brought this one forward. It was meant to be a backup for during Camp. #oops]


As I said in my very first post, my new favourite thing is mug cakes. MUG CAKES. CAKE in a CUP and you eat it with SPOON. I don't know why I love the idea so much, but it's so cute.


And since this is the Camp preparation season, I figured it would be a great time to share a few recipes for a three-minute (roughly) cake that you can eat at your desk (or wherever you write). Because food = motivation. Especially rich food. And this lava mug cake is very rich.


(You will need a microwave. Or you could probably cook it in the oven - but I don't know how long for. You could work it out, though - this is in no way an exact science!)



All credit and everything to the blog I got the recipe from (the pictures, too).

* * * * *

Microwave Chocolate Lava Mug Cake

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 small pinch salt
4 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder


Melt the butter in a coffee mug. Add water, vanilla and salt and stir until smooth. Add sugar, cocoa powder and flour and stir until all the lumps are out. Cook in the microwave for 30 seconds. If you want less "lava" and more cake you can cook it for 10 seconds more.



...Variations:


- Peanut Butter Lover. Add 1 teaspoon peanut butter.

- Chocolate Covered Berry. Add 1 teaspoon raspberry or strawberry jam.

- Gimme S'More. Add 10 mini marshmallows and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs.

- A La Mode. One scoop of ice cream and you've got yourself a rockin' dessert!

- Caramel Lover. Add two square caramel candies.

- Mint To Be. Sprinkle with mint baking chips or crushed up candy canes.

- Nuts For Hazelnuts. Add one teaspoon of Nutella.

- Chocoholic. Add a handful of chocolate chips or pieces of a chopped up candy bar.

* * * * *

So there you have an incredibly unhealthy, gooey, seriously chocolate cup of cake.

Note: when I made it, we decided that 2 tablespoons of butter, 4 of sugar, and 2 of cocoa sounded like a leeetle bit much considering we'll put that much cocoa and a cup of sugar (double) for a whole cake. And this is only a tiny cup-cake mug cake. I cut down the cocoa to one and a half tablespoons... and yet there is no way I could have eaten the whole cupful of mug cake.

Which brings me to another point: younger siblings. I have four. They all wanted my mug cake. We ended up each getting a spoon and taking a scoop (we went through a lot of spoons, because they all wanted second helpings, and we don't do double-dipping).



After all that chocolate, I thought I'd try something a little more delicate. Honey mug cake (all credit to the blog I got it from, here - again, picture included).

* * * * * 

Honey Mug Cake

Makes: 1 mug cake

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 minute 15 seconds

Ingredients:

Mug Cake
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp runny honey
1 medium egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp light brown sugar
4 tbsp self-raising flour, see notes
pinch of salt

Frosting
2 tbsp butter, softened
4 tbsp icing (confectioners') sugar
(optional) runny honey

Directions:

1. Add the butter to a mug and melt in the microwave for around 10-20 seconds.
2. Add the honey, egg and vanilla and beat with a fork until combined.
3. Add the sugar, flour and salt and beat again until fully combined and smooth.
4. Cook in the microwave for around 1 minute 15 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds (depending on your microwave power), then allow to cool to room temperature.
5. Meanwhile, to make the frosting, add the butter and icing (confectioners') sugar to another mug and use a fork to cut the butter into the icing sugar until it reaches a clumpy texture, then beat with the fork until fluffy, around 1-2 minutes).
6. Spoon the frosting into a small piping bag or a ziplock bag fitted with an open star or plain round tip and pipe a swirl onto the top of the cooled cake.
7. (Optional) Drizzle with extra honey and serve immediately.

Notes:

• If you do not have self-raising flour, substitute with plain (all-purpose) flour and add ¼ tsp baking powder.

• Don't fancy drizzling the honey? Just add between ¼-½ tsp runny honey to the frosting to taste. Hey presto, honey flavoured frosting!

* * * * *

This one did take a little longer and does contain egg. I admit I couldn't be bothered making 'frosting' (is that 'icing' in American??). I just ate the cake, although I could have simply put honey on top.

...correction: we ate the cake. Six of us. Although when everyone had had a 'dig' with their spoon, I took the remnants and ate them myself. Because it was quite nice, and smelt of hot honey.

(That's another thing! These get HOT, and stay hot for ages. But you're big kids. You can deal with that.)

*****

Hopefully I've inspired you to try your hand at a mug cake - they're so delightfully gooey! - and hopefully a mug cake is sufficient motivation to jolt you out of those sticky (that was an accident honest) spots in your Camp journey! (and besides what's camp without food?) (not that I've ever been on an actual camp)

Do you have a particular food to help you through Camp, or just while you're writing in general? And please tell me if you end up making a mug cake, I'd love to hear! :)

Coming up (way too fast): Camp NaNo! (and what I'm up to with that)

(Sorry Camp NaNo people for using your picture I hope you don't mind!)

 

Camp NaNoWriMo is in - *checks calendar* - less than two weeks!

You've probably heard of Camp. I know a lot of you people in the young-Christian-writer blog circles will have participated before. Katie Grace - a wonderful teen writer and blogger - wrote a post called 5 Reasons to Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo, which you should definitely read if you haven't already. (Again, if you're in those particular blog circles, you've probably already read it!)

But I thought I'd do a bit of an informal post. More of a chat, really. (Or a ramble. That would be more accurate.)

I thought I was set for Camp. I logged on, tried to get through all the mail I never read from last Camp, commented on a cabin-finding forum, and created a project. A superhero story, actually - I was going to branch into a new (for me) subgenre. I was - and still am - so excited about those characters.

They turned out to be the problem.

I have too many. Seven, eight? superpowered teens (no superstrength, I have to add - and only one can fly) and I wanted to get inside the heads of every. single. one. They all have awesome stories I want to tell, insecurities I want to explore, downsides to their powers I want to exploit. (Did I say exploit? I meant... protect them from.) And I couldn't do all that in one coherent story.

Sooo... I have plenty of other stories I've written a page of and not had time to work on further. I guess I'll pick one and officially change my project. But I'd like to make it a not-too-serious story... I want to be able to use the dares forum this year. ;)

Oh, and while the comment on the cabin-finding forum didn't work out, a lovely writer from over at GoTeenWriters invited me to her cabin, so that will be awesome (thanks, Sarah!!). I'm very relieved... I was not doing random cabin assignment again!

How's your Camp preparation going? Smoothly? Or have there been hiccups? What's your project? Have you found a cabin yet? I'd love to hear!