President Elect Barack Obama!!! Thank you for taking on this job – I can’t imagine how hard this is going to be but we trust you’ll do a better job than your predecessor.
Just in time for the Halloween Ball!
Yes, Minerva did go out every so often and this is what she carried tied to the belt of her gown – one has to have one’s hands free for broom flying and wand waving and what-not.
This Harry Potter inspired bag is a delicate envelope style pouch suitable for carrying a few essentials when out for the evening (especially suitable for a Halloween evening out). It can be worn over the shoulder, wrapped around your wrist or tied to the belt of your gown. It is made from a velvety red burgundy colored fabric with gold thread trims (the Gryffindor house colors). The inside is lined with a sheer burgundy fabric. The bag measures 6 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches.
Its on sale for only $8.00! plus only $1.00 shipping. Just in time for that Halloween ball. See it at my Etsy store – just click on the picture – its a portkey.
Velcome, come eeeen……
three repurposed computer mice and harry potter inspired purse – click on them to learn more about them
Fairy Tale Ramblings and ACEO’s
I’m finding that working within the ACEO* constraints has reignited my desire to draw. I’ve always drawn. I think every child starts off as an artist and then through lack of encouragement or perhaps too much discouragement children just stop expressing themselves through art. Fortunately, some get that little bit of needed encouragement just at the right time that keeps them working to get better and then there are some of us who are just too stubborn to be discouraged. …. But wait, I digress.. I was saying, I enjoy drawing within the confines of the ACEO dimensions. Why look, here’s one now…
I read all the fairy tale books I could get my hands on as a child from the Blue Fairy Book through the Lilac, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen. And as light hearted as Danny Kaye’s film portrayal of Hans was, in re-reading Andersen’s stories as an adult – well, wow – he tackled some serious issues and frightening subject matter in those stories that probably would not be rated acceptable for children in this day and age. Actually, fairy tales are our most ancient stories and carry mythic themes and universal truths … Uh, but I digress again… I remember this wonderfully illustrated version of the Snow Queen that I checked out of the library as a child. It was beautiful. The illustrations were pencil colored, just beautifully blended, something like the style of Jan Brett. I remember trying to figure out how to blend colors that way. I wish I had paid attention to the artist’s name but I was probably about 8 or 9 and that didn’t seem as important back then. The Snow Queen itself is a very creepy story – its available on line if you’d like to read it. Here is an annotated version: ”The Snow Queen”
If you’d like to see more of my shop, just click (no, not your heels – click on the Snow Queen).
ACEO stands for “Art Cards, Editions and Originals”. These cards have one main rule – they are 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches – the size of a trading card.
I’ve got the theme song to the Hans Christian Andersen movie going though my head now thanks to that YouTube link above…. be warned its very catchy.
Blog Whoring? (or WWRD – What would Ripken do?)
I have found myself rather obsessed. I keep track of the traffic on this site almost obsessively – okay, not almost, I am obsessive about it. I do the same at my Etsy store (that’s the equivalent of product placement in a movie, huh?) I don’t know what the sense of it all is. Traffic does not necessarily equate with sales at the store or any validation of my blog. I have only been “seriously” writing on the blog for about a week and a half. In that period of time, I have noticed that any time my tags include celebrity names, the traffic goes up. I noticed this specifically with Clay Aiken. Apparently his fans really, really, truly, really keep track of his appearances in blogs. Now, do I tag this post with Clay Aiken in order to get traffic? Do I tag this post with Sex and the City in order to get traffic? What’s the point of getting traffic through the blog if its meaningless? The Washington Post ran a piece on Cal Ripken a few years ago that stated:
As a youth, he said, he was so consumed by winning, even at card games, he would sneakily deal himself extra cards. But he said he learned from that. ”Ultimately, at the end of the day, you couldn’t say you were better than the other person because you knew you had a secret,” he said. “You knew you had cheated.”
I love Cal and all he represents – the work ethic, the honesty, the Orioles (btw, come on, Orioles, we sooooo need a winning season!) So, how will I tag this? Do I put in Clay Aiken’s name and draw in the Claynation? Do I draw in the Sex and the City crowd by tagging it with those. Obviously I’d be well within my rights to do so since I have discussed them both. But what would be the point? Check the tags and see what I decided. I wonder if its the tags or the actual names within the blog – just by using certain names will Google crawl through and pull those out anyway. Don’t know. We’ll find out.
Anyway, the point of creating this blog was to push the craft store, right? So, here without further ado is an entry from my store. Here take a look, buy it … buy it…. (said in my best Stimpy voice)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12373321
Simplemente Carrie – A Sex and the City Rant
HERE BE SPOILERS: Please scroll down to my post from a few days back about the Indiana Jones movie. What I said there applies here. If you haven’t seen the movie and want to remain virginal, read no further.
Let me preface this by saying that I never saw the series as it was originally broadcast in all its supposed bawdiness. I watched the series when it went into syndication and I could tell there were things being censored out for us simple and innocent non-HBO types. If the movie is any indication of what was cut, the censors weren’t cutting the sexy scenes, they were just trying to shorten up the darn thing. This movie is way too long and has the plot (and the pacing) of a Spanish soap opera. I swear I think I heard the theme music to “Simplemente Maria” when Carrie is beating Big with her wedding bouquet. I mean, come on, Big can’t get out of the car until he looks at Carrie’s face? I know this is sacrilege to die-hard SATC fans, but I never liked Big. I think Carrie should have stuck with Aidan – now that was a great guy and much cuter too. I know its all in the eye of the beholder but, come on, John Corbett is adorable – Northern Exposure, My Big Fat Greek Wedding….. I’ve even forgiven him for taking to singing country music.. …. where was I? Oh yeah, Sex and the City. Also it struck me as the height of stupidity to blame Miranda for “scaring” Big the night before the wedding with her anti-marriage comment. Carrie seems to think that this explains Big’s behavior – its all Miranda’s fault. These don’t seem to be the same strong women that I enjoyed watching on T.V. Perhaps the premise, the characters, and the story are only good in small chunks. After two and half hours (at least that’s what it felt like) and a lot of eye-rolling (from me at the sappiness of it all) I was just disappointed. Its not a horrible movie – certainly its not as bad as say “The Mothman Prophecies” (I don’t care what the IMDB says that was just a bad movie). It just felt contrived and actually a little dated. With the state of the economy and the price of gas, the glitzy, designer name dropping, expensive shoe buying, jet-setting nature of the characters seemed a thing of the past. I know its only been 4 or 5 years since the show ended but a lot has changed. Frankly, I was more worried about Samantha’s carbon footprint than with whether she could remain faithful to Smith. The acting is, well, let’s just say that I’d be extremely surprised if any one is nominated for anything come movie award season. Simply put, its long and has no zazazu.
