Welcome to The Land of Melted Clocks

Welcome all my new friends from BlogHer `12! I'm so happy you stopped by!

The Land of Melted Clocks has been around almost 1 1/2 years and I outside of a few things, I never really spoke about who I was or what this blog is about. I think it is now time. For starters, the name Land of Melted Clocks was inspired by my favorite painting, Persistence of Memory by the great Salvador Dalí. I picked this painting to represent me and my blog, because most days I feel like the world is melting around me and I'm just standing still. It's also a little out there, sort of like myself.

This is me.

Now on to me. Writing about myself is always pretty hard to do, mostly because it makes me admit to certain things I may be in denial about. But here goes, I'm April Baker, a blogger, an artist, a toy lover, and a geek. I'm 30 something years old and I live in Connecticut about 45 minutes West of New York City. I'm single, kidless, and the owner of the greatest cat in the world. I'm obsessed with toys, Disney, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I adore wearing jeans, tees, Chucks or flip flops, and funky rings & bracelets. I'm pretty average in just about every way... except one. I'm not the most healthiest individual. I suffer from Crohn's, fibromyalgia, an anxiety disorder, and issues with my back. I'm really just a big mess. But I have a great support system that really helps cope with everything. I could tell you more, like I was an Air Force brat, have two associate degrees, and I have a brother... but then what stories would I have to write about in the future? ;)

Most days you can find me blogging, taking pictures, or doing some kind of craft. Or playing video games and watching tv if I'm not feeling all that great. But mostly I'm on the computer. I run four other blogs besides this one, and I'm in the process of creating two more. The Magic Family is a group of three blogs - Scrapping the Magic, Crafting the Magic, and Enjoying the Magic. All are more or less Disney blogs with their only sub-specialties, namely scrapbooking, crafting, and life. Then there is The Toy Box Geek, a newer site that is getting ready to launch in September. Toy Box is all about toys and things related to toys. Little Pink Pumps and One Brick, Two Bricks are Barbie and Lego blogs, respectively. I'm hoping to get those up by the end of the year.

I'm also very active on Facebook, sometimes on Twitter, and participate on all your standard social network sites. And I have a Tumblr blog called April in Progress. That's were I post all my projects in process and things like Doctor Who images, memes, etc. Stuff that I don't want to clog up this site with.

So what will you find on The Land of Melted Clocks?

• Photography - I love photography and I plan to fill this blog with it. Photo projects, challenges, and whatever else photo wise that inspires me.
• Travel - If I ever manage to take a trip, you can expect to read about it here.
• Art - Talk of art, my art, artsy things. Just art type topics.
• Crafts - The occasional craft project will show up here. 
• Geeky Stuff - I love all things geeky and I love talking about them even more!
• Book & Movie Reviews - If I ever find the time to read a book or go to the movies.
• Other Blog Stuff - Updates on all my other blog projects.
• Friends - I love my friends. And I plan on talking about them more.
• Me - My life, my health, my cat, just things I have going on.
• Randomness - Really I tend to write what I feel and what I like at the moment. And since I'm all over the place in my mind, it's only natural that you can expect this to be all over the place.

What you won't find on this site is adult content, swearing, politics, or religion.

Another thing you'll see on this blog is tales of its' mascot, Dalí. Dalí the Amazing BlogFox. He'll be coming with me to BlogHer and having a bunch of adventures of his own, so he'll be a regular feature on the blog. And I really need to thank my friend Kerri of The Maven of Social Media... she coined the term "The Amazing BlogFox".

So to sum everything up, I'm a geek, I have a lot of blogs, and I'm an artist. Oh, and I love toys. That is the nutshell that is me.

If you would like to get in touch with me, friend me on Facebook, message me on Twitter, or email me at abaker413 [at] gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!

A Life Updated and My 100th Post

What? An actually blog post? It's been what, 4 months? That is a sign of how things have been going lately. There has been a lack of inspiration, no motivation, and just a lot of frustration. I lost most of April and a bit of May to two bulging discs in my lower back. The disc issue combined with my dislocated vertebrae, well, let's just say me and my bed got very close. I also became very friendly with most seasons of Grey's Anatomy, Doctor Who, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was a great bonding experience for us. And Leo, the stuffed lion that hangs out on my bed.

I also thought a lot. I mean seriously... A LOT! Which, has its ups and downs. And I kind of came to some realizations. The big discovery... I wasn't really being honest with myself. I found myself pretending to like things - and certain people - for the sake of "fitting in". I also discovered I was very burnt out on Disney and crafting. Still am burnt out. So much so that the future of my Disney/Crafting blogs is unknown. I'd hate to throw away so much work... but part of me just doesn't want to work on them anymore. For now they are just sitting there. I have given myself a goal of July 1 to decide their fate. I think I'll end up keeping them, but that thought changes from day to day.

But alias... not all was gloom and doom. Thankfully, modern medicine came to the rescue in the form of two shots into my back in early June and after two days of pure hell, I was feeling pretty darn good. And I was determined to make some changes and explore some new paths.

One of those new paths I am venturing on is my love of toys. I adore toys. My favorites - Legos, Barbies, and Play-doh. To help me on this path, I started unpacking boxes. And I unpacked more boxes. Wow... there were a lot of boxes. I own a lot of stuff. The unpacking of the boxes led me to tons of toys, lots & lots of craft items, and tons of collectibles. This led me to another project... purging. So far I've sent 6 bags of clothes and stuffed animals to Goodwill and I've gathered loads of items for eBay. And I'm not even a 1/3 of the way done with the boxes.

So that's sort of where I've been lately - purging, organizing, planning. As for my New Year's resolutions, since the year is 1/2 over, I guess I will give you a little update on them.

• Do Project Life - this is going to be interesting... since I rarely leave the house - As predicted this became impossible to do. I made it *maybe* four weeks. I just really didn't have anything to record about my life... and there are only so many photos I could include about my cat. I thought I would try to start again on my birthday and record my 36th year. Well, that came and went... and I never started. Guess I'll try again in 2013. I do still plan on blogging about the whole thing and showing you what I did get done.
• Do Project 52 - going to focus this project on macro images - Made it whole 7 weeks. Again, some of my reasons are the same as with Project Life... others do to my back issue. Looks like it's another year of a failed photo project. Here's to trying again in 2013!
• Lose 50lbs - I want to/need to lose more, but I'm being a bit of a realist with this goal - Been up and down, though never more than 10lbs under/5lbs over my starting weight. Just recently I've gotten really serious about it, so there is still hope that I achieve this goal!
• Build readership on all 4 of my blogs - Not only have I not tried to get readers, I've hardly blogged this year. But I'm going to change that starting today. Also, I'm going to BlogHer `12 (more on this soon) in August and that might is going to help.
• Start up Pop Hearts Studio - HAHA. That's all I have to say about this one.
• Try to find my drawing style - Haven't even picked up a pencil and sketch pad.
• Create, Create, Create - Nope... haven't made anything at all this year. All my supplies are still boxed up.

As for my word of the year - Confidence - I've attempted. When I do things, I try to have as much confidence as I can. It's not going very well... but I'm at least trying.

But, even though it seems like I've had a number of fails so far in terms of 2012 goals, I have been working on some new things that I'm kind of proud of! I now have a Tumblr blog, April in Progress. Things you'll find on AiP are art projects in the works, photos of prep work for my different blogs, things I find pretty or cute or awesome, Legos & Barbies, and lots of Doctor Who. I didn't want to flood this blog with a lot of random items, so I figured Tumblr would be a good home for that.

I am also starting 3 new blogs - Little Pink Pumps, The Toy Box Geek, and One Brick, Two Bricks. All are still in the building stages, but I'm really excited for them! As for this blog, well I'm going to give it a little more direction, some more focus. I've started to involve myself in the hardcore blogging world. That world of PR reps and events and product reviews. I want to do all of it... as long as it fits me. I refuse to write about something that I don't believe in or that just doesn't fit me. Being the unique individual that I am, it should be an interesting experience.

Oh, and this is my 100th post. Took me awhile to figure out what I wanted my 100th to be about... figured it was a good point to do this update. It might only be a small milestone... but it's still a milestone!

Enough rambling for now. Here's hoping the next time I see you, it'll have only been a few days!

Happy Birthday to My Blog

Woohoo! Today is this blog's birthday! It's 1 year old! And it made a wish... it wants more followers!

August 17th...

Well, the month is more than 1/2 over and so far I've missed 3 days in my goal to blog everyday this month. And I'm okay with that. I've still gotten better about blogging, though I regret that most of the post haven't been the most artistic. So that is my goal for the rest of the month... MORE ARTSY POST! =0D

Take 4 or is it 5? 6?

So, here I go again. Another attempt at creating a personal blog. But this time things are different. With this one I'm going to try going with the flow. No more planning out posts and then putting them off until I get around to completing the 3 or 4 ones planned in front of it. I'm just going to post, throw caution to the wind, not care what people really think. Let's see how it goes. I imagine it'll be rough going. I expect my super creative side and my OCD will constantly be having battles in my head. If you are lucky those battles may spill out onto the screen. If that happens I at least can promise you it will be entertaining.

Here's hoping this blog attempt sticks.

p.s. It'll get prettier looking over time, but going with the flow means writing when I want to write. The rest will fall into place.