I found a new reading challenge for 2010.

It's called The Colorful Reading Challenge and it's hosted by Lost in Books. You are required to read 9 books in 2010 with 9 different colors in the title. Here are the books I found in my library that may qualify:

blue
Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
Under the Duvet: Shoes, Reviews, Having the Blues, Builders, Babies, Families and Other Calamities by Marian Keyes

black
The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing by Thomas Hauser
Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead

white
Lily White by Susan Isaacs

may be a stretch
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
4 Blondes by Candace Bushnell
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Ruby by Ann Hood
Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" by Alexandra Ripley
Wonder Woman: The Golden Age of the Amazon Princess by Les Daniels

Should be fun...anyone else want to play along?

Colorful Three is by strangerswithkandi.

Thanksgiving is my favorite.

So Very Happy was made by dazeychic.

In honor of my last day being 33...

"Tomorrow's just an excuse away." 33 was a year of procrastination. Something to work on for 34.

Today I looked up "carpool" on Wikipedia...

...and discovered this World War 2 propaganda poster...and laughed out loud.

They are not called "The Greatest Generation" for nothing.

I made Barbara Kingsolver laugh.

I kind of already told you about my evening with Barbara (we're on a first name basis now), but I still have more to share. Here is a picture of her with The Boots:

So after the auditorium portion came the signing portion. As I was in line waiting with my book club, we were discussing questions we might ask or how dorky we might become in her presence. As we were standing there this woman comes out and exclaims, I blew it! I told her that her glasses look like Sarah Palin's!

Um, pardon me?

If anyone has read a single book by Barbara then they know 1. Other than vaginas, those 2 women have nothing common and 2. That to imply that they have anything in common besides vaginas is an insult to Barbara, and a compliment to Sarah. I felt bad for Barbara. Imagine!

As we got into the room I overheard the guy ahead of us asking Barbara if she would ever go on The Daily Show. I wish I could remember the exact wordage she used, but she said, No, there are some things I will never do.
And then she implied she didn't think she was entertaining enough. How humble.

So then it was our turn and I blurted out, We don't think you're anything like Sarah Palin! And Barbara laughed a lot! And her handlers laughed too! I think that now we are BFFs. Look how cute we are:

one thing you did not know about Barbara Kingsolver

I've been meaning to blog about Thursday night, when I met Barbara Kingsolver(!), but have been too lazy, etc. I'm going to, but for now I thought I would share that she had on the cutest outfit, white shirt, black jacket, short black skirt, sassy scarf, and black tights with the above boots made by Frye.

First she read from her book. We were in the front row on the right side, so I divided my time between watching her boots as she read, shifting weight, standing on one foot, and watching her. When she finished she then allowed the audience to ask questions. The second question, obviously one of many in my mind, was where did she get her fabulous boots? Barbara shyly answered Zappos.com. I decided then and there I would go buy me some Barbara Kingsolver boots.

Upon going to their website tonight, I discovered if I was going to buy some Barbara Kingsolver boots, I would need Barbara Kingsolver money. $517.50 on sale.

Now may be a good time to mention my birthday is in 10 days, and I'm a size 10.

Anthropologie

I was in Anthropologie on Thursday. I love looking around Anthropologie, but as I've already ranted on here before, it is a love/hate relationship. Love the homemade look, hate that it's almost all made in China. And the prices are not usually in line with my budget. But on Thursday I came across this sign which matches our master bathroom colors, and...it's made in the USA! I had to put my money where my mouth is.

When I showed it to Corey and told him where it was made he said, Wow. We can still make metal with paint on it.

I also found a dress there that I wanted to wear to my nieces wedding, but it was too big for my boobs and it was the last one. But I have a sign for my bathroom door.

I like November.

Tomorrow night I get to see Rufus Wainwright with my friend Jon! I'm so excited!!!

This tree likes Rufus too. I can tell.

I'm a winner!

I love Dina Wakley's blog because of her beautiful, splashy art, and saw she had a contest to win a pass to her online class. I entered never thinking I would win, BUT I DID!!! Check me out.

Stay tuned for my art journaling here!!!

I like the orange one. Or brown.

I can't help myself. I have been coveting this Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S camera. It's an instant camera, and the pictures are about the size of a credit card. Because that's what's missing from my life: credit card sized instant photos.

Starry Night

The October challenge from the ladies at ARTastic was to use van Gogh's Starry Night as inspiration. I thought of the night not too long ago when I saw the owl (Bob or Terry?) in our neighborhood. I love using stars on my scrapbook pages and have a million star brads so I decided to use those for embellishments.

My journaling, which I wrote in all caps because I love the font in the Where the Wild Things Are previews, says, Seeing this owl in our neighborhood put me in the Halloween spirit. Although the pictures aren't so great, when I see them I remember the night Captain and I followed it as it flew silently from rooftop to rooftop.



Which reminds me that in January I wanted to paint our spare bathroom like Starry Night and Corey went along with it. It was more work than we expected but I think it's fun to go in there.

Here's the before:

After:


I love standing in the mirror with the door closed, seeing the swirls and moon behind me.

If you want to make a Starry Night bathroom too, you only need a gallon of blue, and a tiny bit for the stars. I got a quart of white, yellow, and black, and it was way too much. Also, when making the stars just dab, dab, dab.

The hardest part is trying to find a shower curtain to match! I think I'm going to buy a white one and continue the mural across it with the leftover paint.

quote of the day

"In my whole life I've never seen a guinea pig pee before."
- a student (who will be 7 next week), after seeing Ratatouille pee this morning

good junk email day

One of my favorite authors (maybe my favorite), Barbara Kingsolver, has not only written a new novel, but she will be here to talk to me (and others I suppose), pimp her book, and autograph it on November 12th!!!!!!!!!!!

The email said:
In The Lacuna, her first novel in nine years, Barbara Kingsolver, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, tells the story of Harrison William Shepherd, a man caught between two worlds -- an unforgettable protagonist whose search for identity will take readers to the heart of the twentieth century's most tumultuous events.

Barbara Kingsolver's books of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction include the novels The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. Translated into nineteen languages, her work has won a devoted worldwide readership and many awards, including the National Humanities Medal. She lives with her family on a farm in southwestern Virginia.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are the books I have that I've read. Each one is something special.


Who wants to go with?

Tomorrow it's back to school.

I had a relaxing stay-cation this week with Corey and the Captain. Our short trip to Oak Creek Canyon and Flagstaff gave me a taste of traditional fall that I needed.

Prudence and Pinecone is by Emily Martin.

too much t.v.

This week Scrapping the Music challenges us to make a scrapbook page inspired by the Gilligan's Island theme song. I spent about half an hour digging out pictures of me in my Gilligan Hat. That's what I call it. My students' faces are covered to protect identities.

I was about to read my old, used copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles that I've had forever and discovered pages 243+ were missing. I always like to read the end of a story, even if it's bad, so Friday I went to Borders and got a new copy for only $3.46! Sunday Corey and I watched Bored to Death and the intro inspired me for the 3rd time.

I recalled that ScrapMojo's challenge is to use a book page on your layout. This morning Captain snuggled up to share the hound story with me and I got the idea to cut apart my old copy of the book and make this page:

I traced the hound from a Basic Grey template onto a book page. I was going to trace the tree from book pages too, but it was way too intricate so I used the Basic Grey tree and punched leaves out from the book instead. The cool thing is that I tore out the telling of the tale of the Hound, randomly punched out the leaves, and these are the words on them:
cruel
profit
escaped
fortune
farm
evil days
The facts
head
evidence
foul play
untimely
Also if you pull out A Word to the Reader you can see my journaling:

Does anyone want some vintage pages of The Hound of the Baskervilles?