Wednesday, September 25, 2013

French Inspired Swatches

 Recently I took part in a swap through Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group hosted by the fabulous Tabitha of Creative Wings
 We were to make 12 French inspired 4 x 3 swatches that could be sewn together into a large piece once everyone's were swapped out.
 I made one set with soft pinks and creams featuring lovely women.
 And added lots of vintage lace, flowers and buttons to them.
 For my second set I went with a soft blue vintage fabric my grandmother left to me.  She made a lovely dress for me out of it when I was little.
 Again I stuck with vintage laces but used seam binding and a floral appliqué to enhance them.
I have received the swapped out pieces and have a plan of how I am going to put them together, now I just have to find the time. 
This was a fun swap and I am so glad I took part.

Friday, September 20, 2013

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.
This book is among one of the worst books I've ever read.  I am seriously starting to wonder about award winning books.  Does it have to suck to win an award?
 
The Round House is what I call a "boy book."  You know those books that are about boys and probably only appeal to boys (like A Separate Peace).  But the big issue is what boy would want to read about how another boy deals with his mother being raped?  So it fails even that criteria (yes it is my own but I have to have some criteria's).
 
Louise Erdrich did something rather unusual in her writing style, she used absolutely no quotations.  A number of times I had to read read sections to figure out what was actually being spoken out loud by the character, what was internal thought and what was just descriptions.  It was really annoying.  It broke up the pace (not that she had an edge of your seat pace, which a mystery book in my opinion should have).
 
None of the characters seem to have any redeeming qualities.  Again I feel like another author tried to make their characters more realistic by giving them flaws but went overboard.  The Catholic Priest in this book is particularly scummy, come on people stop picking on the Catholic's they are not all bad. 
 
As I'm sure you can tell from my tone I am absolutely disgusted with having made myself read this entire book and am loosing faith in the literary world.  I am ready to go back to my mind numbing teen vampires!
 
I'm linking up, come join us! 
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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

In 1810, a sister and brother uncover the fossilized skull of an unknown animal in the cliffs on the south coast of England. With its long snout and prominent teeth, it might be a crocodile – except that it has a huge, bulbous eye.

Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning, who has a talent for finding fossils, and whose discovery of ancient marine reptiles such as that ichthyosaur shakes the scientific community and leads to new ways of thinking about the creation of the world.

Working in an arena dominated by middle-class men, however, Mary finds herself out of step with her working-class background. In danger of being an outcast in her community, she takes solace in an unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Philpot, a prickly London spinster with her own passion for fossils.

The strong bond between Mary and Elizabeth sees them through struggles with poverty, rivalry and ostracism, as well as the physical dangers of their chosen obsession. It reminds us that friendship can outlast storms and landslides, anger and jealousy.
 

 
I found Remarkable Creatures, remarkably boring.  This is the third novel I have read by Tracy Chevalier and I am starting to think that Girl with a Pearl Earing was a fluke since it is the only book I've liked.
 
In the video Tracy says the book is about Mary and Elizabeth's friendship. Well, she missed that mark.  Tracy spent too much time harping on the fossil aspect of this book (which she obviously did extensive research on) for anything but the fossil's to be well developed.  Every time I read about a new fossil discovered by Mary I thought, wow there are a lot of fossils on this beach.  It might be historically correct, but it was hard to swallow as a reader.
 
Another thing Tracy seems to be proud of is her discovery that Mary was struck by lightning as a child.  She writes this into the book but it seems out of place.  It adds nothing to Mary's character or the friendship the book is supposed to be about.
 
Overall this was a very dry, extremely slow moving book.

I'm linking up with, come join us!
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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Parisian Gargoyles

 It's time for another fabulous Alpha Stamps Swap!
Click on the above image to go to the swap details page.
 As soon as Leslie said Paris and Gargoyles I was sold!
I decided to take the two different style chipboard cut outs and make a book.
 My idea was kind of a morbid cupcake theme. 
What if Marie's "Let them eat Cake" had gone more horribly wrong?
 To create the blood splatters I used a cupcake stencil, this was the best stencil I have ever used. 
 Added some bat wings to the Marie images and the bugs are another cupcake stencil.
It is hard to see in this image but the center chipboard gargoyle has texture like stone. 
This was so much fun to make!
Come join in the fun swap.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

He's Gone by Deb Caletti

“What do you think happened to your husband, Mrs. Keller?”
 
The Sunday morning starts like any other, aside from the slight hangover. Dani Keller wakes up on her Seattle houseboat, a headache building behind her eyes from the wine she drank at a party the night before. But on this particular Sunday morning, she’s surprised to see that her husband, Ian, is not home. As the hours pass, Dani fills her day with small things. But still, Ian does not return. Irritation shifts to worry, worry slides almost imperceptibly into panic. And then, like a relentless blackness, the terrible realization hits Dani: He’s gone.
 
As the police work methodically through all the logical explanations—he’s hurt, he’s run off, he’s been killed—Dani searches frantically for a clue as to whether Ian is in fact dead or alive. And, slowly, she unpacks their relationship, holding each moment up to the light: from its intense, adulterous beginning, to the grandeur of their new love, to the difficulties of forever. She examines all the sins she can—and cannot—remember. As the days pass, Dani will plumb the depths of her conscience, turning over and revealing the darkest of her secrets in order to discover the hard truth—about herself, her husband, and their lives together.
 

 
I will come right out and say it.  I did not like this book. 
 
For starters when it was voted for our next read in my book club I didn't vote for it, just didn't' like the way it sounded.  But like I always do I went into it with an open mind because half the books I read I don't want to and end up loving them.
 
This book is written in first person, I usually love first person books.  But we spend over 75% of the book inside Dani's head.  Her memories of her first marriage, the affair and the second marriage with Ian.  There were long sections between when one character spoke and Dani replied.  Half the time I lost the thread of the conversation.
 
The write up makes it sound like there will be something exciting going on in regards to the missing husband.  Cop type stuff.  But there is hardly any of that and Dani doesn't really ponder what the police are doing.  There is absolutely no excitement or tension in this book just pages and pages of Dani's thoughts. 
 
When we finally do get to what happened to Ian it is insignificant and you don't really care because he hasn't been painted in the best of lights.  Heck, all the characters are flawed to the point where you can't understand why Dani had anything to do with them.
 
My advice, skip this one.  There are too many good books written about the same type of thing to waste your time stuck inside Dani's head.

I am linking up with

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Monday, August 26, 2013

Deep Blue Sea

 I've fallen in love with Tussie Mussies!
 With summer coming to an end I thought one last Beach themed piece was a must do.
You can't see if very well but the background is blue lace, where the lace and navy blue glitter so the entire thing sparkles like water.
For the finishing touches I added a real sand swirl, a message in a bottle and a paper clay mermaid.
This piece is going to one of the fabulous members of The Circle of Friends. 
I hope she likes it.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

And the Winner is...

 Well it has been a very exciting week here, school started back up, got to play with some more Halloween goodies, and we are about to start a kitchen remodel. 
 
I would like to thank everyone for the super sweet comment on my Smoke Get's in Your Eyes Shrine.  They brightened my week.
 
So without further ado, the winner is...
who said...
This is just beautiful! Thank you for the give away... love IT! ann
Congratulations Ann!
 
Please shoot me an e-mail (hit the e-mail button on the left hand column please) with your address and I will post your shrine this week.
 


Monday, August 19, 2013

Phrenologist Halloween Hutch & Swap

Halloween, yahoo yahoo! 
I've pulled out all my spooky goodies and put together a fun Phrenologist Hutch. 
 And Alpha Stamps is hosting a Halloween Hutch Swap!
 
 Made from a Mini Masonite Hutch and covered with decorative paper. 
All Supplies are from Alpha Stamps.
And this one is on Sale in my shop!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Smoke Get's in Your Eyes Shrine + Giveaway!

Alpha Stamps has come up with yet another Fabulous Kit, the Arabian Nights Kit (pictured below).  The Collage Sheets are absolutely stunning so I just had to create something with them. 
 
Not everything that I used is in the kit.
 I used the ATC Hutch Shrine Kit as the base of my piece and altered it's shape by adding House Shaped Die-Cut Chipboard.  My intention was to make it look like an audience was watching a dancer.
Originally I was going to light up the box.  However, when I drilled the hole and put the light in, the light did not disperse the way I wanted it to.  So I had to patch up the back.  Regardless I think this turned out very fun.
And I'm giving it away!
To enter please leave a comment
For additional entries, Facebook, Tweet, or post on your blog.  Make sure to come back and let me know what you did. 
Giveaway is open until August 24th
Winner announced on August 25th
 
Thanks for stopping by. 
I hope you enjoy your time on my blog.


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Family Heirloom COF Journal

 The Circle of Friends fearless leader, Sandi of CREATiveE ARTeries, selected the theme of Family heirloom for her journal.  We were asked to fill in at least 3 of the compartments using real family images or collage images. 
The above picture is how I received the journal. 

 
 I decided to use collage images since the journal already had a vintage theme and I couldn't think of how to make some of my images really fit the style.  The images I selected are all from Alpha Stamps.
I had the most trouble with this one.  Originally I was only going to use the Charlotte head but it looked to plain so I went hunting in my goodie box until I found some other items to go along with it.  Also, I am not thrilled with the rick-rack around the image.  I thought it would add something to the overall piece but it just stands out too much :( 
 
 This is my favorite image, I love it so much that I went searching for the little gun charms to add to it.  A few of the other things I did to make the images look older was fray the edges and fold them in a few places.
 
Here is how the journal looked when I mailed it out.
I hope Sandi likes what I did, I think her journal is really coming together wonderfully.