TBR

Whoa, December already? 
Let's not talk about the gap in posts, let's get right into the swing of things. As I was reading one of the many blogs I subscribe to (and constantly question where they get the time to constantly blog as well as wondering how they get so many subscribers, seeing as how i have possibly a negative number at this point, ha) I read about the TBD double dare. It lasts from January 1 to April 1, i think? Basically just a New Year's resolution ("I WILL read more books this year") but I'm going to do it. I have about 60 - 70 books at home silently begging to be read. So it's happening. Everything from the medicinal uses of leeches to the rise of American film to Irish folk stories to Nero Wolfe mysteries. And it's all going to be read. Well, most of it will be read. Well, a lot of it. Well....some of it. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love to read. There just aren't enough hours in the day. ::sigh::


W

New work!

Today is a cruddy rainy day. I have the day off. I was able to sleep in (and I definitely needed it, because I'm getting over a cold and I've been keeping myself up all night coughing) and generally just bummed around. It feels good.

 

I figure I'd finally post these three new beauties. I've been holding onto them for a bit and have just gotten around to taking their pictures. I have Common Foxglove (for those of you who remember that 'Eve' episode of The X-files, two of the Eve clones poison their father with this. I remember learning that Foxglove is also known as digitalis. It's definitely one of my earlier tv memories.)

I also have Hippeastrum. It's greek for Horseman's star, or knight's star. It's commonly known as the Amaryllis, but that seems to be a misnomer. If you buy an Amaryllis around Christmastime, chances are you've got yourself a Hippeastrum. No matter, it's a beautiful flower. Oh yeah, it's also poisonous. Well, the bulb is. 

And then I have Hellebore. I think I base most of my life off of television, because when I think of Hellebore, I think of an episode of Bones, The Devil in the Details. You know, the Christmas rose? It's also known as black hellebore. This one is also, you guessed it, poisonous!

I like poisonous things. I enjoyed making these. I got to experiment with different colors schemes and I think they all turned out really awesome.

W

Education never ends, Watson.

So I've been saying forever that I'm going to post pictures of things that I'm working on, and I'm not going to disappoint today. Please ignore how bad the pictures are, it's a crummy day outside and my kitchen is filled with smoke.

My driving rabbit and nautilus. You can see my two embroidery hoops, a 7 inch and a 4 inch. The 4 inch hoop is so tiny but I find it really easy to use.

Here is a close-up of my driving rabbit. I love his little paws.

And a close-up of the nautilus. He proved to be more difficult as I lost my reference drawing for a few days. I ended up filling in an entire section of his shell in black and when I found my sketch I had to undo it all. I haven't decided what to do next or what colors to use. I also have yet to read the book I wanted to read, but I guess that's acceptable, considering the debacle with the turkey today. Plus I finished a puzzle. A Norman Rockwell dual cover puzzle, no less. Having Wednesdays off is awesome.

W

boom boom boom...muffins

It's not that I'm crazy, so much, as it is that this quote is just too catchy, and I have it stuck in my head constantly. I haven't even watched that episode in weeks. I guess Shawn really would make catchy commercial jingles. So, job well done.
I've determined that most people have the ability to keep up a regular pace when blogging. I can't say the same. I finished reading a book this week, and I've started another. So at least I'm not completely slacking!  I finally finished reading Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes. I love her books. I found out about her through my printmaking professor, who remarked once (after a particularly snarky comment by me) that I reminded him of her. We (and by we, I mean, my entire printmaking class) listened to an excerpt of her on NPR's This American Life. It was amazing. There I was, laughing OUT LOUD in class while she lamented over marching band. Meanwhile everyone else tried hard not to listen. They smirked at some parts, but mostly just didn't find it funny. Weirdos.

So I decided to learn more about her work. I've read Assassination Vacation and The Wordy Shipmates (thank you, public library!). During one of my staggeringly numerous trips to Borders in the past few weeks, I saw this one.

Here, a picture for you.
And it was a total 'yep'. It was interesting and informative and I laughed out loud way too much. I kept trying to explain the funny parts to my mom, who wasn't there, and you just had to be there, I guess. Whatever, it was good. She's definitely got a life-long reader in me.

My next challenge will be Great Sea Stories, which I could not find a picture of (at least, not the copy I have) but it is proving to be a good read. I still have several thousand squares to crochet, and I have yet to figure out what to do with my embroidery. I finished the rabbit and the nautilus, and am now going to venture into using color (with disastrous results, no doubt), but what do I do with them? Of course, once I can, I'll post a picture of them. They're cool.

adventures in embroidery

So, I've been feeling like my creativity is... well, stifled isn't exactly the right word. I feel like I've put my creativity in a box because I'm too busy to find a place for it, and the box is slowly making its way up the stairs and is almost in the attic, where it will no doubt come to rest and begin collecting dust. I've been working on some embroidery for a while and I think I'm going to finish it or come very close to finishing it tonight. I also have a lot of yarn and need to crochet a few more squares for a quilt. I'm not going to make the quilt, I'm just making the squares. My mom works with a girl who is going to crochet them together, so I'm going to be helping out the homeless, rediscover some creativity (or at least, some artistic motivation) and get rid of my extra yarn. I'm killing three birds with one stone. So that's good.

North Avenue Irregulars/The Picture of Dorian Gray

I watched two amazing movies in the past week. Do you love screwball Disney comedies? Cause I know I do!
      North Avenue Irregulars (1979) is one of the best movies pretty much of all time. To keep it short and sweet, a new minister in town enlists 6 churchwomen and one reluctant male churchgoer to help fight their town's gambling problem. Yeah, it's as crazy as it sounds! This movie is about as campy as it gets, including a 60's-ish band called Strawberry Shortcake and hi-jinks that lead to an off road derby type car crashing spectacular. It's the best thing ever. Ever. EVER.
       It's so the best movie ever, because it has Edward Herrmann (pastor Michael Hill) in it. And he's so young! Cloris Leachman (Claire) is also in it, and she's pretty much as hilarious as ever. Look out for Carmel, the pastor's daughter - it's Melora Harden!! She's got to be, like, 9!
       Clearly I have some free time.

I also watched "Picture of Dorian Gray" with Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, and ANGELA LANSBURY. It's so beautiful, Hurd Hatfield plays Dorian Gray so well that you'd never know he wasn't like that in real life. The role really type-cast him forever, which is unfortunate, but the other surprising thing is he's not British.  He's from NYC. Never would have guessed that. I guess that's awesome acting for you. The other fabulous thing about this movie is that it has a commentary by a film historian, who gives you great tidbits about the movie, filming, and the actors, but also, ANGELA LANSBURY is on the commentary.  I loves it.

Peter and the Wolf

Remember that Walt Disney special where Sterling Holloway narrated Peter and the Wolf? No? Just me then? Ok well, it's pretty much the most amazing thing to happen involving Prokofiev EVER. If you haven't seen it, you should. If you haven't heard Peter and the Wolf, might I suggest listening to Claudio Addabo's version (narrated by Sting)? There are two parts (out of three) on Youtube and I'm kinda perturbed the third is nowhere to be seen, as I got nearly 15 minutes in and then realized I was very soon going to be angry....because I couldn't listen to the end... NEVER FEAR! I have interlibrary-loaned it.
           Interlibrary loan? What's that? If you were one of the people who got their MLIS degree online, you might not know what interlibrary loan is (and clearly I'm not saying this to the general MLIS online degree'd public,  but one person - and you know who you are). To clarify, let's imagine your library doesn't have an item you want. Your library may be part of a larger library system (like my county's M.A.I.N. library catalog) and can request that item from another library in its system. Colleges and universities use the same type of system, but they can request from all over the freaking place. Btw, I've decided that interlibrary loan is now a verb. You may have been saying it for years, and to that I say Woot! but now I've stated it, it's on the internet(s, kara) and it's real now.
         Also, apropos of libraries, Wil Wheaton just wrote the most super-amazing thing about librarians ever and it seriously warmed my heart. I'm not a *real* librarian with a degree and all, but I work in a library and I do catalog and reference and all other types of librarian related things... and I'm glad to have him on our side. Plus, he just got cooler, if that was possible. 

Wendi