Calligraphy

I used to do a lot more calligraphy than I do now. I do little things, and I like to embroider calligraphy, but I have been trying to be different than the things I find available in stores and craft shows. I make my little calligraphy into bigger collage things now. I realize this isn't a clear picture of the collage, but it gives you the idea.


I like using fabric instead of mats, and I embroider the borders and any titles. I used vintage postcards and some older first day of issue commerative envelopes by various companies or artists, and sometimes doing my own. These pieces make up a greater part of what I do at my art shows. I hope you will visit my crafty blog if you come here first. I meant for this one to take up all the other things I do besides crafts......I needed a blogger blog for posting reasons, but I already have an established typepad blog
that perhaps you haven't visited. Well, I must be on my way....have a good day!

A good Book and a Dog.......

This is a first edition Howard Pyle, "The Garden behind the Moon". My boys enjoyed reading "The Adventures of Robin Hood and His Merrymen" by Pyle. He authored a four volume "Story of King Arthur and His Knights" and "Book of Pirates", but I did not have this when they were still home. It is in sad shape with what appears to be fire damage---soot surrounding the exposed areas, as if it was on a shelf when it happened. Water damage on the cover back.......could be a story in itself.....who knows? I don't remember where I purchased it, I just picked it up browsing through my bookshelf looking for something new to read or re-read......

And here be the dog.......my barista set it before me and said enjoy the "dog"......perhaps you can see the little circle around his eye? All of the sudden it reminded me of my gLove dogs
that I make. The barista knew nothing of my glove dogs, so it was like a little secret "wink" from them....you know what I mean? lol. I can be such a child at times.....tee, hee.

I wish I had that latte right now........it looks yummy....... Well, here is to Chere' who found a new home today......I had fun packing her up......and wish to send off many more.........

Alyss Wonderland Wars

So, my youngest son and I are big Alice in Wonderland fans. I purchase all of the versions of Alice I can find, and am thinking about other Alice collectibles, but prefer the books right now. I have an old Card Game that has Tenniel's illustrations. This weekend I found a neat Alyss book. This started with "The Looking Glass Wars" by Frank Beddor.


This is a modern version, or alternate version of Alice in Wonderland, only it is Princess Alyss of Wonderland. This weekend I found her scrapbook. What a neat eye-candy for Alyss fans, and Alice fans alike!




Frank Beddor wrote another sequel to the "Looking Glass Wars" titled "Seeing Redd". You should check out these books if you are an Alice fan. Meant for young readers, my son, (24) and I found them fascinating.

Life of a Bibliophile

Oh yeah. You thought I was kidding. Well the next few posts will show you I am not. I really have a book problem, only, I really, really read them and if I like them, several times.....and if I really, really like them, I wait to be alone and read them aloud.......if I can't be alone, I pretend I am reading for another person.......


This is only a sampling of what I own in books. Many have made their way to other places, and many I have borrowed and had to buy another because I forgot who I borrowed them to. If you borrow a book, unless someone says "I don't want it back", you should be sure to bring it back.......


My bookshelves are not in their best order right now, but I wanted to post before I leave for the weekend, and fixing them would have entailed time I don't have this morning.

My bookshelves are a mixture of children's books, nature books, many many devotional type and biblical study type, and lots of "character building" ones---which I am not sure one would testify have affected me....lol. I hope they would, but, I fear that I display far too many social weaknesses to prove it.

Funny, when the blogger asked what my favorite books were, I was stumped, because first of all, they would probably be "B" side books, ones you never heard of, and probably because I tend to have favorite "authors" vs favorite "titles".

I enjoy reading turn of the century writing the most. My library consists mostly of that, but I have learned to appreciate some newer writers also. I stopped reading novels quite awhile ago, first of all because I couldn't find a novel writer I liked with the exception of Victoria Holt and all her alias'. But, I find my reading time is so limited that I tend to read "learning" type things.

Well, I must be off now and pack for the weekend, but I hope you leave a comment if you drop by. Let me know if you love books as much as I, and if you blog about it, I would like a link. Thanks.

For the love of Reading

I cannot look at this book without feeling the excitement I felt the day I opened a new one in my one room school house. I believe it is the book that I learned to read with as I have no memory of another before it. Just looking at it now I can remember and relive the wide-eyed entering of a new life, one where I could discover words for myself, instead of memorizing the script.

I had long been able to read a book to you, but it is because I had it read to me so many times that I had it memorized. Honestly, it is probably the richest I have ever felt, when I learned to read.



I still feel the flush in my cheeks as I page through the illustrations and simple dialogue. Of course, I could not help purchase the volumes one by one as they transported me back in time at each stop where I found them. It wasn't that my childhood was so romantic-----I used reading to escape a very unhappy real life. Reading has become an obsession with me. I found the word "bibliophile", and though it sounds like I wouldn't want to be called that, it is indeed what I am. I cannot live without a book tucked somewhere on my person.



Unlike a lot of others, I do not mind waiting for a train, waiting for a meeting of another, waiting for someone I am with to do an errand....as long as I have a trusty volume of something to read. It is a little like "bonus time" to me. Time I don't get to read otherwise.



Of course, the internet works wonderfully for me, a reader, so much at my fingertips, so much in my own home. But, alas, there is nothing like a good old page turning. There is nothing like the yellowed page with hand-written notes in the margin. Did you ever watch "84 Charring Crossroad" ? Oh, my what a good movie! It is a story for those who love, love, love books. It is with Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.......

Ann's character chides the bookseller for sending her a book as a gift without as much as writing a to/from in it. He, afraid to "ruin" the book. Oh, it is a love story too, but the love of books is the star of the show.

Anyway, all this is to say, that I think the purpose of this blog is to discuss my love of books, which ones I love, and why I like them. I especially love good illustrated children's books.

I am a word freak, so I especially like books that are delicious to read aloud. It is a test of a good book, when reading aloud is necessary to get all the joy from it.

Today, I read in William Barclay's Gospel of Mark, this delicious sentence: "The experts in the law were hoist with their own petard". It is a sentence that I want to use someday, in some conversation to make me look smart. LOL. I am going now to look up the silly words, they make me laugh, but somehow, I know the writer cut to the quick.