I Have Several Excellent Excuses

I've been trying to write. Honestly, I have, but I just don't seem to have the time lately.

I blame Captain America. 

First, it was Valentine's and he bought me flowers so I kept my nose buried in roses all day.

Then he invited me to meet him for a 24-hour layover in the Big Apple. Fun and cold!

Then it was my birthday and he bought me this really cool microphone for my motorcycle helmet. So we had to go riding, right?

And then he took me for a Sunday swing around the neighborhood--at 3,000 feet.

And if it wasn't Captain America, it was Rudy and Richard Parker. In those immortal lines from the Stylistics, first they break up...

...then they make up...

...That's all they do. It's exhausting.

And if live animals weren't enough, I was also dealing with not-so live ones. As I've mentioned before, life at my house would not be normal without an uninvited--dead--critter showing up on a regular basis. This one was on my front porch the other day.

I'm guessing bunny.

But in my spare time I have been making stuff, too. I'm frantically trying to get ready for my first craft show on March 20. I'm folding, folding, folding so I have enough stuff to fill my table.

And then last week I had three (count 'em, 3!!) custom orders from Etsy. One of them was for a drama teacher, so of course I had to go to the bookstore and find some Shakespeare.

Me in a bookstore. That took some time.

And then there was last week. You've all met my crafty friend, Debbie. Well, her brand-new granddaughter was christened this weekend. Debbie made her this beautiful gown and bonnet.

Check out that exquisite lace and beading on the bonnet!

Debbie had lots of company coming in from all over to see the baby, and of course her house was decorated to the nines.

Remember that wreath I made her for Christmas?

Well, the furry animals and glittery balls didn't really go with the christening decor. Debbie needed something a little more white, so...

I made her a new center.

I put silver crosses on little-bitty shoes, surrounded them with flowers and pearls, and added a sparkly M for the baby's name. Then I topped it off with a Bible verse, 3 John 1:4.

I think it looked very pretty on Debbie's wall. 

Something like this might look really cute on a new mom's hospital room door (maybe with a little added pink or blue), and then make an easy transition to a nursery. I'm not sure how to ship it, so probably couldn't sell it on Etsy, but if any of you near me know someone who would like one, give me a shout. Let's talk.

Quick, before Captain America steals me away again...

Thank You Very Munch

Have you ever had one of those days when you just wanted to...

...scream?

Me too.

There are just some days when it's all you can do to keep your head...

...on.

When it seems like everything around you is just...

...wrong.

Speaking of wrong, it was hard to get this guy to look right. When I set up him originally he looked, well, kinda stretchy.

 

So I made one of these to hold in the sides. Actually, Captain America and I made it together.

 

Here he is using power tools to cut the edges of the frame.

It took us several attempts to get the angles right.

Math was never our strong suit.

It makes us go

But eventually we got it right. See how it holds the edges of the book in?

And how nicely the book fits?

Munch better.

Book Review: Moll Flanders

Title: Moll Flanders
Author: Daniel Defoe
Format: Kindle/Audible Whispersync
Reading Dates: Jan 7, 2013 - Jan 26, 2013
Rating: ***

Moll Flanders led a scandalous life back when most people thought that was a bad thing. In this book she relates her life from her inauspicious birth in the Newgate prison, to her industrious rise in society as a young woman, and through her years as a thief and whore. Her words, not mine. OK, maybe mine, too.

I found the first part of the book entertaining as Moll always seems to find herself associated with the wrong type of men. About halfway through the book she is forced into thievery and at that point I thought the book really slowed. There seemed to be a non-stop catalog of all the things she stole and how.

The final part of the book, which Moll herself says will be less interesting to the reader, was indeed less interesting, but Defoe does a nice job of tying up all the loose ends before the end. There are better classics, but I'm glad I read this one.

Used Whispersync to both read and listen to this book via Audible. The technology worked better for me this time than last, but there were still a view glitches. Davinia Porter's narration was great as always, but the audio quality of this recording seemed to be lacking. Porter's voice seemed to get quieter and the end of many sentences and I wouldn't be able to hear exactly what she said. That being said, it was a free book, so for that it was definitely worth it.

What Is The Question?

You know I love my RDCBs, the rainbow of colors, the patchwork quilt of covers.

They are a little bit amazing when you think about it. Always four stories in each volume, each 144 pages. It takes a special kind of talent to condense a book in exactly 144 pages. Every time. Think about that guy's job!

But sometimes you need to step your game up a bit. You can't settle for the condensed version. You need the real thing in all its unabridged glory. I'm talking about literature, people.

See...

I was reminded of this the other day when I ran across this copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare at the Goodwill Store. I got it for a good price because apparently Shakespeare had a ghost writer named G.B. Harrison and this is one of the few copies where his name was accidentally printed on the spine.

I took it home and set it on my table. What should I make of this book? I asked myself. That is the question. 

No it's not.

That is the question (in 3 fonts).

Circle Work

I didn't put up very many Christmas decorations this year. That doesn't mean that I had my house put back together any earlier than I normally do. 

Remember these guys? 

They finally came down yesterday. On the 33rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Don't judge me.

One of the reasons it took me so long to take down the wreaths is this guy. Remember him? 

Well, he went in the attic a long time ago, but he haunts my dreams anyway. In a good way. I think. 

I'm hooked on those little circles. I love the way the book circles set off the colored circles and visa versa. 

So instead of putting up the rest of my Christmas decorations, I might have got a teensy bit obsessed with those circles.

Because I covered this apple.

And then I made this teal flower...

and I liked it so much, I made a brown one, too.

There is something calming about taking all those kitschy pictures from the RDCBs and punching them into nice pretty circles. 

There's a quill for the center and then another between layers to give the flowers some dimension. 

Before I knew what was happening, January was almost gone. I looked at the calendar and realized that February was less than a week away and I still had Christmas wreaths on my front door, so yesterday I finally took them down. 

But I kept looking at that center. The one with all the Christmas stuff on it...

...and I covered it with circles.

Four layers of circles. 

The colored ones came from a hardback atlas I bought awhile back. There is something calming about taking Venezuela, the Indian Ocean, and parts of Canada and punching them into nice pretty circles.

I hung the wreath near one of my bookshelves.

"Straighten up!" I heard one of the books whisper. "The lady is obviously crazy and you don't want to end up like that guy."

Butterflies and Flowers

Many years ago I applied for a job that required me to take a battery of tests--IQ, aptitude, personality--the whole gambit. When I had filled in all the bubbles that could possibly be filled in, the HR guy sat down with me to analyze the results.

"I'm guessing," he started, staring at the print-out and then looking directly in my eyes, "that your desk is pretty messy."

Wow, I thought, that's a heckuva test.Which questions told him that? And is it in my best interest to agree or disagree with that statement?

"But," he continued, "I bet you're like me. Every now and then it just gets to be too much and you have to stack it all up and clean it all out."

Has he been talking to my husband? To my mother? That little piece of insight was dead on. Sometimes I like things nice and clean and sometimes I like a big jumble.

Example #1:
 

Chair in my living room                                                   Chair in my TV room

Example #2:

China we eat on sometimes

China we eat on other times

Example #3

                         

    My Christmas tree 2 years ago                                             My Christmas tree this year

Example #4

This very clean and simple Valentine's book

My latest creation that would look right at home in a Victorian bed and breakfast

Ladies and gentlemen, there's a lot going on here. We have butterflies. Plural.

 

Big butterflies...

...and little butterflies 

...and flowers.

Lots of flowers made from pictures I tore out of RDCBs, each with its own jeweled center.

And, of course, those botanical end papers, because let's face it, there just isn't quite enough going on already that a few dozen more flowers won't fix.

This English garden wannabe is made from a copy of Bruce Wassterstein's Big Deal, an insider's account of the high-flying world of mergers and acquisitions.

And now it's butterflies and flowers. Cleaning up a mess indeed.