Who is the Freak of Your Household?



Card Catalog - Goshen Public Library

Did you ever use a card catalog in your local library? I remember when our local library went digital - I was amazed that I could look up all sorts of books on the computer. Some were by author, some were by subject...ahhhmazing. But I did use the card catalog prior to that.

Apparently, I am the freak of our household. While watching The Big Bang Theory tonight (which is a lot funnier after a couple of glasses of wine, incedentally), I noticed there's a card catalog in the apartment. I told James that I want one in our home, if we ever move to a larger place. Not to locate books with, just to store stuff in. (Like wine bottles.) And we had a discussion about how I remember using one, and James does not.

Also, I used to go to my elementary school's library and re-organize the magazine racks. First alphabetically, then chronologically. This was while I was in grades 1 through 3, so ages like 5 to 8.

As I said, I am the freak of our household.

Which brings me to what I'm reading this month.




Such a great story. I read this on a looong car journey that I'll tell you more about later.



Usually I like twists at the end. I didn't like the twist at the end of this. I just felt like the whole book was nothing but twists, and I wanted it tied up nicely. Maybe I was just impatient.




Maybe I've just been out of it, but I'd never heard of this series until I saw a preview for Beautiful Creatures at the movies last weekend. I whipped out a pen and paper right in the middle of the preview to write down the name, looked it up on my phone after the movie (Pitch Perfect - way better than Bridesmaids), and bought the book that night. Yes.



I love Francesca Lia Block. I found this in my local B&N, and was SO EXCITED beause I haven't seen her books in bookstores in YEARS. I'm anxious to see how this one reads, I'm more of a fan of her older works.



I'm such a sucker for the books in the craft section. Especially ones that talk about inspiration. This one got me thinking that I might actually be able to impact the world one day. It made me think that the possibilities are endless. And that was just from flipping through it, who knows what will happen when I actually sit down to read it!

 Who's the freak of your household? If it's you, be proud, because there's nothin' wrong with that!

Time Travel

Let's travel back in time together, to, oh, two or three weeks ago...



The Getty Center

 

Gustav Klimt drawing exhibition



Gorgeous L.A. day

 

Hansel & James



Yummy Itallian coffee in Beverly Hills

 James and I went to The Getty with our friend, Hansel. We wanted to see the Gustav Klimt drawing exhibition, and there were some beautiful pieces in there. I think my favorite was an oil study of the Hygeia, because I've never seen any of Klimt's paintings in person and this was probably the closest I've been to his actual brushstrokes. We had a fabulous lunch at the Getty's restaurant and then spent some time in the gardens. Hansel directed us to a coffeeshop in Beverly Hills after our museum time so we could avoid the traffic, and then we headed home. Badda bing, badda boom.

By the way, how awesome would it be to wake up and have access to a time machine when you've, ahem, overindulged the night before? Someone should get on that. You know, for the kids. Not me.

September Reading

Green Day has it right: "Wake me up when September ends." Cause it's STILL HOT!! (I'm such a southern California wuss...)



Such a horrible, gut-wrenching story. I couldn't put it down.



A dear friend gave this to James. I, of course, elbowed in and read it first.



This book was not at all what I expected. I liked the plot twist, and I especially liked the imagery of leading a small horse up the stairs into the house to draw its silhouette on the wall.





This was one of my favorite books when I was younger. When I saw this gorgeous bound copy at my local Barns & Noble, I couldn't resisit. It's both new and familliar at the same time.



Haven't gotten to this yet, but I'm sure I'll reach it by the end of the month. Perfect to see me into October!



Now that I've shared what I'm reading this month, I want to know: What are YOU reading these days?

$5 Shipping Doesn't Count - It's Like Fake Money

Look what I got in the mail today!

Moo

A pack of 100 Mini-Moo cards, all with my jewelry designs on them - sweet!



Collect 'em all!

There are 13 differnt designs, some made of paper, some of fabric, others of photographs, but they're all FUN, and best of all, they were totally free (except for $5 shipping but that doesn't count, it's like fake money).

Hooray for Moo, because not only were these free, they were fun to design, AND they arrived a full week ahead of schedule. Fab-u-lous!

What is NOT fabulous, however, is that my book arts class, set to start on Monday, got canceled because not enough people enrolled. C'mon y'all, support your local arts peeps! Whether it's through patronizing local art shops, galleries, craft rooms, artists, artisans, or schools, the arts NEED you! If you don't think one person can make a difference, there needed to be just one more person enrolled in the class for it to go ahead. So there you go.

So if you're in Orange County, check out the Irvine Fine Arts Center. It's a great facility with lots of classes to choose from, and the more people who enroll, the better it is for everyone.

What Happened??

Um...I woke up this morning and it was 11:30 (I would have slept longer, amazingly), and it's the second of September. What?? Where did summer go? (And why did I sleep so long??)

It's still super hot, seems like it will never cool off. It makes doing any semblence of artwork very difficult (for me, at least). This includes blogging. (Even now I'm having difficulty keeping my train of thought - I'm half listening to James speaking with a very dear friend who is due to have her first baby in just a few days. She's in London and we both miss her terribly.) So here are some pictures.

James's parents sent us a package containing a Diamond Jubilee pillow, which immediately went on the bed.



A friend took us to Chapter One, a literary-themed cafe/bar in Santa Ana. Nice wine.




To cool off, we went ice skating. I didn't fall - such a win!



Smoothing out the ice



We're doing very mundane things like going to the local post office

 

Neither of us has wanted to cook so we've been going out a lot. We tried a local Lazy Dog Cafe - yum.

 
Now I'm going to have my breakfast. At one in the afternoon. Yuck.

August Reading

I have a slight disclaimer to make. It may look as if I've been reading an insane amount, but the majority of the books I've been reading this month are children's/young adult's, so they are much shorter and I can read them in about a day. Also, the first book on my list was mostly read in July but finished this month. 



War Brides by Helen Bryan



Pink Smog by Francesca Lia Block



The Doll in the Garden by Mary Downing Hahn



The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell



The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey



There are some books I read when I was younger that I got rid of when I became older and it was no longer cool to have quite so many "youth" books. I wish now that I hadn't gotten rid of them, because I want to read them again. And there are some I just don't remember what they're called or who wrote them, but I remember roughly what they were about. The Doll in the Garden was one of those books. I hadn't given the story much thought until a few months ago when artist Shannon Richardson brought this painting into the gallery:



Little Girl one day You'll... by Shannon Richardson

(I can't figure out how to get rid of the white at the side...oopsie.) After re-reading The Doll in the Garden, I feel like this painting totally tells the story. It's sort of incredible how art can affect your mind.

I'm almost done with The Chemistry of Tears, and I really wanted to enjoy it more than I am. It's one of those storys where the author kind of glosses over things and gives vague little hints about what something might mean, and you feel like the concept probably isn't that difficult to grasp but you just cant. It makes me feel as if I'm reading through a fog, and I don't like that. I find it frustrating. But who knows, maybe the last couple of chapters will tie things up nicely and answer some questions.

Selfish Acts



Seriously.

 I need to confess something. I just did something I feel a teensy bit guilty about. And I know you'll probably think that's silly, but whatevs. I just signed up for a book arts class at the local art center. (Squeee!!) I wasn't able to get into the book arts elective the one time it was offered at my college, and I've wanted to do something like this for a long time.

So, you might ask, why the guilt?

I don't really know. I guess now that I'm out of high school and college, and "in the real world" with a "real job," doesn't doing something like this make me just a tiny bit selfish?  It's something that's done just for me, no one else, so isn't it just a tiny bit wrong? I'll be at work for 8 hours and will head straight over to the art center for a 3 hour class once a week. Shouldn't I make my home life with James a priority?

Logically, I know that signing up for a class doesn't make me selfish. I know that it's not wrong to do something that's just for me. (Who knows, I could incorporate books into my art at a later date and make some money at it. That would be for my family, not me!) James is super supportive of any ideas I have, including dying a hot pink streak in my hair, even though I can tell he hopes I won't do it. (I won't. Probably.)  He knows that me taking a 3 hour class once a week does not make our home life any less of a priority. But still, there's that tiny voice (you know the one).  It's saying all sorts of nasties. It should really shut up.

In true me-style, I acted before I could chicken out. (That's the only way I made it to England. I just didn't think about the fact that I was going to a country I'd never been to for a significant period of time until I was basically on the airplane.) I registered before I could give that voice the chance to talk me out of it. So I have to go, because I've paid for it. Ha.

What do you guys do to shut that little voice up?