Donna's Muse Papers

The past two weekends I’ve participated in writer’s events. Last weekend Jackie Dove-Miller and I traveled to Ridgeland, SC for the Second Annual “Novel” Wine Tasting, Arts, and Literary Festival. It was held at the September Oats Winery, a beautiful setting of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. We were blessed with perfect outdoor-event-weather. Over sixty authors and artists participated. Walking the grounds in their 19 th century finery were members of Sons of Confederate Veterans Charles Jones Colcock Camp 2100 and the Massachusetts 54 th Company 1. As could be expected there was an air of having stepped back in a bygone time. I met new people and had my first taste of shrimp gumbo. I am hooked and want more, more, MORE! The writers and artists were treated with a complimentary glass of wine and the wine tasting room stayed busy throughout the day.The icing on the cake was having two of my daughters, Deborah and Julia spend the day with us, helping out with

This is not a cooking blog. No way! But, after seeing a thread on Facebook about how to peel an onion and not cry I thought I’d share a tip my mother taught me on how to peel an onion without crying. It is so simple I don’t know why everyone doesn’t know it – cut the root end of the onion off first, before you start peeling it. Apparently the roots are the source of the chemical that irritates your eyes. Once it is removed and discarded you can peel and dice without crying. My second tip will tell you how to how to peel a hard boiled egg without breaking the egg. All of my life I have struggled with trying to peel a boiled egg without it ripping out part of the egg.   My mother-in-law advised not to use fresh eggs for boiling. She always had a dozen of week-old eggs on hand for making boiled eggs. That improved my performance somewhat, but I didn’t always have that extra dozen eggs on hand, and even when I did, at least some eggs would still break in the peeling. I was disc

I tried painting the same subject three times and all were destined for the trash can. No, don’t tell me, “Never throw away your art.” It wasn’t art, it was a mess. I had a hard case of artist’s block. So, I Googled “artist block” and found I am not the only one that suffers the malady. Just like for writer’s block, the advice is to either take a break or work your way through it. Since, I’d developed a headache the break sounded good. Whenever I experience creative block, whether it is writing or painting, I start to question my ability. That self-deprecating voice inside my head starts in on me with the “you’re not good enoughs.” It doesn’t seem to matter I am a published writer with six books under my belt and hundreds of articles, or have shown in juried shows and sold my art. I sold some just last week. When the block rears its ugly head I don’t feel good enough to call myself a professional writer or artist. I feel like a wanna-be. I have noticed that when I am str