I'm MOVING!!

Well folks....I'm moving ....yes I have decided to move my blog over to Word Press...I'd love to see all my fans (yes all 4 of you) checking me out over there.  



http://joykeeney.wordpress.com/

Roses are Red...and so on and so on

It's All About the Roses

Roses are red, yellow, pink and just about any other color you could possibly want. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner area florists are preparing for one of the busiest days of the year. They’ll be delivering arrangements of all shapes and sizes all over NW Arkansas. Chris at NWA Florists says that Valentine’s Day orders start coming in around February 1^st and that it’s best to get your orders in by February 10^th for delivery orders. “We make somewhere between 600 and 800 deliveries for Valentine’s Day.” Chris stated. They do take orders up until Valentine’s Day but as the date gets closer there is a chance that delivery orders will have to be cut off. “We’ve already have a few orders and it’s only January 12^th.” Most deliveries are made on the 14^th, but some people have them delivered the day before and sometimes even the Friday before spreading it out a little bit for them. They also take orders through February 14^th for those wanting to pick them up.

Chris from NWA Florist stated that the most popular flower for Valentine’s Day is still the red rose. “We sell more red roses than all the colored roses combined.” Chris says that men have gotten a little more creative in the past few years and seem to be sending out more pink roses followed closely by lavender and white roses. The most popular items being ordered by women for their special man are balloons or arrangements of mixed flowers in yellows or oranges in rustic containers with willow branches for a more masculine touch.

Did you know that each color of rose has a different meaning? As if picking the right arrangement to send wasn’t hard enough hopefully this list will help you make sure you send the right message to your valentine this year.

RED- is the traditional symbol for love. Red roses will be the perfect to say: “I love you” to your valentine.

PURPLE- says the giver has fallen in love at first sight.

CORAL- is a symbol of desire.

ORANGE-is a symbol of enthusiasm

YELLOW- is a symbol of friendship

WHITE- is a symbol of humility

PINK- is a symbol of elegance and grace.

PEACH- is a symbol of gratitude.

**Light versions of Pink and Peach are also used a lot as symbol of sympathy**

Once you pick out what color roses to send to your sweetheart the next questions is how many are you going to send? Did you know that there are meanings behind the number you send as well? Here is the list that someone somewhere put together to show just what those meanings are.

1 Rose – depicts utmost devotion to a single person.

2 Roses – Mutual feelings

3 Roses – Stands for those 3 magical words. “I Love You”

5 Roses – I love you very much

6 Roses – I love you, I miss you

7 Roses – I’m infatuated with you

9 Roses – Together as long as we live

10 Roses – You are pretty

11 Roses – You’re my treasured one

12 Roses – Be my steady

13 Roses – Secret admirer

15 Roses – I’m really sorry

20 Roses – I’m sincere towards you

21 Roses – I’m committed to you

24 Roses – You’re always on my mind – 24hrs a day

36 Roses – I’ll remember our romantic moments

40 Roses – My love is genuine

44 Roses – Pledge an unchanging love

50 Roses – Signify a love that has never been regretted

99 Roses – I’ll love you till the day I die

100 Roses – Signifies a happy union of two loving souls till death or till 100 years

101 Roses – You’re my one and only

108 Roses – Will you marry me?

365 Roses – I love you every single day

999 Roses – My love will last till the end of time

1001 Roses – Faithful love that will live on forever

Wow, so many choices...Oh and don’t forget the chocolates.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Singles Guide to Surviving Valentines Day

Are you single, unattached and spending February 14^th alone? Does the thought of Valentines Day make you want to call in sick to work and spend the day eating triple chocolate ice cream from the container while watching a movie marathon on Lifetime?

We all know it’s a day filled with bouquets of roses, heart shaped boxes of candy, hugs and kisses. With everything focused on couples it’s a constant reminder to those who are single that they are indeed SINGLE. Don't fall into that pit of depression after all it's just ONE day and being single isn't the end of the world. So get up and embrace the day and enjoy being single there are a lot of things you can do alone.

Treat yourself to a movie. Just think you get to see the movie you want with no argument. You can have popcorn with or without extra butter and get Reese’s pieces instead of M&M's...it's your choice.

Go see your favorite local band or musician. There will be no debating on where to go or who to see because it's all up to you. See being single isn't all that bad.

Spend the day at the new beautiful Crystal Bridges. So much to see in one place you'll forget all about what day it is. You can even enjoy dinner for one at their restaurant …I heard that the chicken is good.

Weather permitting head outside and hit the trails. NW Arkansas has some very nice bike trails you can spend the day on a nice long peaceful bike ride. If hiking is more your thing... you're in luck there are plenty of hiking trails to enjoy in NW Arkansas as well.

Go shopping ...no I don't mean go to Wal Mart!! Check out the flea markets and antique stores located all over NW Arkansas. Who knows you might find yourself the perfect Valentines gift.

If you’ve got single friends get together and throw an Anti-Valentine’s Day party. Yes an Anti-Valentine’s party, all you have to do is invite your single friends over for a gathering to celebrate being single together. Have everyone bring their favorite comfort dish you know the foods that make you feel good even though they are oh so bad for you.

The group could also hit it the town and show the couples that being single doesn’t mean that you can’t go out and have fun on Valentines Day. Take in a dinner and a movie as a group and afterwards hit a local club to see a local band or musician.

However you decide to spend Valentine’s Day have fun!!

Write First.....Edit Later!!

Hello my name is Joy and I edit as I write. There I said it, I've admitted that I practice a writing no no. I am 110% guilty of editing as I write!! Yes, I've been told and I've read it time and time again...."write first....edit later" I have tried....no really I have...it's just not that easy...at least not for me. In fact to be totally honest...I've already stopped a couple of times to edit this piece. I can't help myself!! No matter how hard I try I just stop and fix it. It's so easy to hit the back space button on my laptop or simply flip my favorite pencil over and erase my boo boo and fix things when I'm writing. After all isn't that what they are for?

This is why I'm horrible at free writing....I start out fine ...words start popping out and things are going just fine until the first typo happens...grrrrr erase....delete...fix and continue. NO NO NO....keep writing ....keep writing fix it later. This is one of the reasons I get stuck at times...I stop to fix and when I do I end up thinking and thinking....slowing myself down sometimes even stopping a work in progress.

I think I've come up with a great idea to help me write without stopping to edit. Since I prefer to actually sit down with notebook and pencil to write I'm going to try using an ink pen(ugh) instead to see if I can break my bad habit. Since a regular ball point ink pen doesn't have an eraser or a back space button...perhaps I'll be able to just write...and write and edit later! It's worth a try.....no guarantees.

So until next time....I'm off to write.....with my ink pen...UGH!!



never give up!

Finding My Place

So here I am after some much needed encouragement writing my 1^st blog in a year. Yes I know I know….this is supposed to be a weekly event ….but ….no buts about it I really don’t have a good excuse. I could say I just haven’t had time….I could claim writers block….this has been on my to-do list for ….well a while now. Good news is I’m here now…that counts for something….right?

My only actual reason for not blogging is I had no clue what to blog about…I hadn’t found my niche’ or my place in the writing world. Even though my love of writing goes back as far as I can remember I just hadn’t found my true place.

As a child I would interview my granny pretending to be some big shot reporter after the next big story. Growing up I filled page after page in my journals. Somewhere along the way I decided I was a poet and began to enter every poetry contest that I could find. I actually did pretty good, a few honorable mentions, a few poetry award certificates and have a couple of my earlier poems published in anthologies. At one point somewhere in my teens I decided I was writing a book. I sat down and planned it all out, characters, setting, somewhat of a story line then grew bored with it and put it away…I actually ran across the folder containing all my notes, maybe one of these days I’ll dust it off and see what I can do with it. For some reason somewhere in my mid to late 20’s my love for writing got lost in the shuffle of life. I packed away all my notes, journals and works in progress and did whatever it was I thought was more important than writing…honestly I don’t know what it was.

Lucky for me I have the worlds greatest BFF who I’ve looked up to since….well let’s just say a while now. Over the years the distance had come between us….only miles….not our friendship. One weekend a couple of years ago when she was in town visiting family and friends we were doing what we do best…..talking. While chatting we discovered something about each other…we share the love of writing. Listening to her talk about things she was working on, pieces she had published in her college magazine sparked something in me. I felt something I hadn’t in a long time, I felt the need to pick up pencil and write.

With encouragement from my SS (soul sister as we like to call each other) I made the decision I was going to start writing again and it felt good. Nearly 3 years later here I am still writing. I’ve taken several writing classes, attended the DFW Writers Conference in Dallas with my best friend the past 2 years and already planning on attending next years conference it’s a WONDERFUL conference. I learned a lot and met a lot of great people in the writing world. I’ve also written several short stories to enter into miscellaneous contests.

Recently I’ve started writing for a local online magazine, something I had never thought of doing before. When the editor first asked I really wasn’t sure if it was something I could do or wanted to do. I was positive I was going to spend my days writing short stories and the occasional poem. I thought about it a while not wanting to make the wrong decision for the magazine or myself. I decided to give it a try, I wouldn’t know if I could or couldn’t do it without trying it first. So, the editor gave me my 1^st assignment and I started to write and I realized…I liked it….a lot. It was soon clear that I had finally found my place. Now….enough blog ….I have articles to write. I promise to blog weekly….or I’ll be in trouble with my SS …again.

brandflakesforbreakfast: send this to the writer that you know

This is how I feel...


Check this out....


brandflakesforbreakfast: send this to the writer that you know

The Writers Struggle

Negative Nelly vs Polly Positive

Everyone has had days filled with negative thoughts "I can't do this or I can't do that". "I don't know how to do this or that". I know I have had more than my fair share. It's a lot like the story you see where the person is walking around with a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, each trying to tell them what they should or shouldn't do.

With me I've got Negative Nelly in one ear and Polly Positive in the other, each with something they are trying to tell me.

Negative Nelly is trying to remind me of all my fears as a writer...."You can't really write.".... "They aren't going to like what you've written." ...."It's been so long since you submitted that, they must really hate it.".... "You will never get that published." "You're going to FAIL."(insert evil laugh here) Is she annoying or what?

After a while of listening to her I'm ready to burn my notebooks and pencils and run as far away from the writing world as I possibly can. She's got such a BIG mouth and is so LOUD when she's nagging me to give up doing what I love the most, writing.


Then Polly Positive tries to calm me down, reminding me that Nelly is a bit over dramatic and slightly negative at times. "Don't worry, they will love it.".... "You can write." ...."You will get into Chicken Soup for the Soul." ....... "Don't give up your dream." .... "Keep writing." How sweet is she?

Just what I need to keep me writing, positive reinforcements. While I don't really think I have these two people on my shoulder whispering in my ears (rolling eyes), I'm not totally insane. This is just how it feels to me as I struggle to take my writing dream to the next level. I feel the constant pull of negative and positive as I move forward. I try to focus on what Polly Positive has to say and ignore Negative Nelly as much as possible, sometimes its just not easy.

Everyone needs a strong positive support system no matter what they are attempting, whether it we trying to get writing published, climbing a mountain, passing a history exam. I'm so glad that I have surrounded myself with those who support what I do and that I can call on for positive boost when Nelly starts.

To those who make up my Polly Positive.... THANK YOU!!!