Saturday, March 27, 2010

Some of My Newest Dollies

 the mister takes a wife




a birthday friend









Saturday, March 13, 2010

And More Little Journal Pages



And that is the end of the pages in this journal.  (One of "features" of
the updated Blogger editor is that you can "drag and drop" photos
to wherever you want them in the post. I guess I'm missing something
because it's not working for me.) Thus the strangeness of this
"layout." Plus the preview doesn't really show you what the published
post will look like. Plus I can't figure out how to get the type/paragraphs
to appear where I want them to. They always end up in no- man's- land.
I tried to drag and drop this copy block above, and then tried to copy 
and paste it and then tried to move the cursor to where I wanted to start 
typing. All...to no avail.











Thursday, March 11, 2010

A New Dolly

Finally, after a very long hiatus, I have started making dollies again. This one reverts back to some of my earliest "primitive" dollies, inspired by going to the "People Figure Show" at the New York  Museum of Folk Art on my honeymoon way back in 1966. (I still have the catalog!) But in making this dolly I used Kingei Japanese hand-dyed block print paper from a swatch book that I got at a Japanese store (Aiko's?) in Chicago, many years ago. So the "clothes/patches" are made from that paper. The body is felt...as are most of my dolls. For some reason I named this one "More Sorrow In My Life."  Why? Things just pop into my mind like that. ( I was also thinking of the  Lenka song/video "Trouble is a Friend..."  for some reason...)





Monday, March 8, 2010

Ela's Favortie Hat from One Skein Wonders


I'm trying once again to "blog this photo" from Flickr. And I guess I have to "compose" my post in Flickr instead of Blogger. Abby gave me the Noro Silk Garden Yarn (and also the book!) and I've been wanting to make this for a long time but didn't have the right size needles. And I totally don't get why you have to start off with one size needles and then switch to another size. And interestingly, if I had continued knitting with this variegated yarn it would have turned bright pink at the top!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Unpacking Dollies

I'm finally unpacking/getting out my handmade dollies that have been languishing in the "art armoire" for the past 3 years. Maybe I will actually get around to hanging them on the walls. Oh, that sounds so cruel.

Also unpacking/getting out for the umpteenth time antique/vintage dolls from my childhood and a couple from my Mom to sell on Ebay. (None, alas, in great condition.)

Oh and then there are these potential  Ebay items...2 doll rocking chairs plus 2 Pinnochios.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Crochet Inspiration

Loving this book I just checked out of the library Crochet in Color by Kathy Merrick. I want to make this Chain Lace Big Fat Scarf! The pattern looks pretty complicated to me, especially since I haven't crocheted anything in quite a long time. But the colors (more saturated than shown here) are so beautiful--Koigu Painter's Palette  Premium in about 9 different colorways.



Devil and Angel Dollies

Devil and Angel Dollies
Egg heads and tissue paper bodies, inspired by the ones hanging above in Santa Fe's Pasqual's cafe and restaurant.

What I've Been Reading

  • The Grownups...Robin Antalek
  • From Here to Paris...Cris Hammond
  • A God in Ruins...Kate Atkinson
  • Some Luck...Jane Smiley
  • Crazy Little Thing...Tracy Brogan
  • We Were Liars...Emily Burkhardt
  • Nora Webster...Colm Tobin
  • Saving Grace...Jane Green
  • The French House...Don Wallace
  • Florence Gordon...Brian Morton
  • Us...David Nichols
  • Life Drawing...Robin Black
  • Lucky Us...Amy Bloom
  • Perfectly Miserable: Guilt God and Real Estate in a Small Town... Sarah Payne Stuart
  • Paris I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down...Rosecrans Baldwin
  • Beautiful...Ruth Richl
  • The French For Love...Fiona Valpy
  • Green Angel...Alice Hoffman
  • The Husband's Secret...Liane Moriarty
  • A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman...Margaret Drabble (short stories) a
  • The Arsonist...Sue Miller
  • Table for Seven...Whitney Gaskell
  • Outside the Lines...Amy Hatvany
  • The Widower's Tale...Julia Glass
  • Still Life With Bread Crumbs...Anna Quindlan
  • And The Dark Sacred Night...Julia Glass
  • The Good House...Ann Leary
  • We Are Water...Wally Lamb
  • Three Junes...Julia Glass
  • After I'm Gone...Laura Lippman
  • The Woman Upstairs...Claire Messud
  • Death of the Black Haired Girl...Robert Stone
  • Lydia's Party...Margaret Hawkins
  • Bread and Butter...Michelle Wildgen
  • Thursdays in the Park...Hilarry Boyd
  • A Place At the Table...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Glass Wives...Amy Sue Nathan
  • Summer People...Brian Groh
  • Beautiful Day...Elin Hilderbrand
  • Carthage...Joyce Carol Oates
  • The Lovliest Chocolate Shop in Paris...Jenny Colgan
  • House of Glass...Sophie Littlefield
  • The Comfort of Lies...Randy Susan Meyers
  • The Painted Girls...Cathy Marie Buchanan
  • The Kept...James Scott
  • Tell the Wolves I'm Home...Carol Rifka Brunt
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower...Stephen Chbosky
  • The Position...Meg Wolitzer
  • Teach Me...R.A. Nelson
  • Carry The One...Carol Anshaw
  • The Bookstore...Deborah Meyler
  • The Interestings...Meg Wolitizer
  • The Union Street Bakery...Mary Ellen Taylor
  • The Girl Who Stopped Swimming...Joshilynn Jackson
  • Another Piece of My Heart...Jane Green
  • Knitting Yarns, Writers on Knitting...Edited by Ann Hood
  • Margot...Jillian Cantor
  • Fork in the Road (essays/memoirs about food/travel)...James Oseland
  • The Baker's Daughter...Sara McCoy
  • How To Be A Good Wife...Emma Chapman
  • The O'Henry Awards: 2001 Prize Stories
  • Sisterland...Curtis Sittenfeld
  • The Pursuit of Other Interests...Jim Kokoris
  • The Mourning Hours...Paula Treick DeBoard
  • Nine Inches (stories)...Tom Perrotta
  • A Country Called Home...Kim Barnes
  • The Kitchen Daughter...Jael McHenry
  • The Best Of US...Sarah Pekkanen
  • Family Pictures...Jane Green
  • The Beginner's Good-Bye...Anne Tyler
  • A Farm Under a Lake...Martha Bergland
  • Special Topics in Calamity Physics...Marisha Pessl
  • The Lost Mother...Mary McGarry Morris
  • Memories of A Marriage...Louis Begley
  • Tapestry of Fortunes...Elizabeth Berg
  • Heat Wave...Penelope Lively
  • Sag Harbor...Colson Whitehead
  • Big Brother...Lionel Shriver
  • Second Nature...Jacquelyn Mitchard
  • Medium Raw...Anthony Bourdain
  • Pieces of Happily Every After...Irene Zutell
  • The Boy...Lara Santoro
  • Lit...A Memoir...Mary Karr
  • More Than It Hurts You...Darin Strauss
  • The Burgess Boys...Elizabeth Strout
  • Tales of Burning Love...Louise Erdrich
  • A Home at the End of the World...Michael Cunningham
  • The Cookbook Collector...Allegra Goodman
  • Look At Me...Jennifer Egan
  • Shelter Me...Juliette Fay
  • The Gathering...Anne Enright
  • A Nearly Perfect Copy...Allison Amend
  • Gone Girl...Gillian Flynn
  • The Casual Vacancy...J.K. Rowling
  • The Gin Closet...Leslie Jamison
  • Dearie--The Remarkable Life of Julia Child...Bob Spitz
  • Indiscretion...Charles Dubow
  • The Marriage Plot...Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Oystercatchers...Susan Fletcherr
  • Bitter In the Mouth...Monique Truong
  • The Future of Love...Shirley Abbott
  • Flight Behavior...Barabara Kingsolver
  • The Lake of Dreams...Kim Edwards
  • Afterwife...Polly Williams
  • Daddy Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Good Family...Terry Gamble
  • Whistling In the Dark...Lesley Kagan
  • Model Home...Eric Puchner
  • A Soft Place to Land...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Shadow of Love...Rebecca Stowe
  • Almost...Elizabeth Benedict
  • Bridge of Sighs...Richard Russo
  • Beast...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Summerland...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Ellementals...Francisca Lia Block
  • Broken Harbor...Tana French
  • So Much for That...Lionel Shriver
  • State of Wonder...Ann Patchett
  • Ash Wednesday...Ethan Hawke
  • Dark Places...Gillian Flynn
  • The Roundhouse...Louise Erdrich
  • The Loop...Nicholas Evans
  • The Next Best Thing...Jennifer Weiner
  • The Truth About Lorin Jones...Allison Lurie
  • Black Dahlia and White Rose (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates...
  • Lone Wolf...Jodi Piccoult
  • In One Person...John Irving
  • America, America...Ethan Canin
  • How I Became A Famous Novelist...Steve Hely
  • At Paradise Gate...Jane Smiley
  • The Kite Runner...Khaled Hosseini
  • Duplicate Keys...Jane Smiley
  • The Dylanist...Brian Morton
  • The Age of Grief (stories)...Jane Smiley
  • In the Woods...Tana French
  • Claire Marvel...John Burnham Schwartz
  • Breakable You...Brian Morton
  • Ordinary People...Judith Guest
  • The Safety of Secrets...Delaune Michel
  • Maine...J. Courtney Sullivan
  • Started Early, Took My Dog...Kate Atkinson
  • The Hunger Games...Suzanne Collins
  • The Family Man...Elinor Lipman
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin...Lionel Shriver
  • Mudwoman...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Dear Husband (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates
  • White Truffles in Winter...N.M. Kelby
  • The Weird Sisters...Eleanor Brown
  • Elizabeth Berg...Once Upon A Time, There Was You
  • The Last Nude...Ellis Avery
  • The Book Borrower...Alice Mattison
  • An Object of Beauty...Steve Martin
  • An Available Man...Hilma Wolitzer
  • The Marriage Artist...Andrew Winer
  • After the War...Alice Adams
  • The Leftovers...Tom Perrotta
  • Case Histories...Kate Atkinson
  • Nantucket Nights; Summer People; The Love Season...Elin Hilderbrand (o.k. I'm obsessed.)
  • My Sister, My Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Russian Winter...Daphne Kalotay
  • A Friend of the Family...Lauren Grodstein
  • The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America...Alan Ehrenhalt
  • Silver Girl...Elin Hilderbrand
  • How to Be An American Housewife...Margaret Dilloway
  • Little Bee...Chris Cleave
  • Freedom...Jonathan Franzen
  • When Will There Be Good News? ...Kate Atkinson
  • Don't Make a Scene...Valerie Block
  • The Summer of Naked Swim Parties...Jessica Anya Blau
  • The Grief of Others...Leah Hager Cohen
  • The Embers...Hyatt Bass
  • One Good Turn...Kate Atkinson
  • The Sweet Relief of Missing Children...Sarah Braunstein
  • Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie Girl Culture...Peggy Orenstein
  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum...Kate Atkinson
  • Had A Good Time: Stories from American Postcards...Robert Olen Butler
  • After You...Julie Buxbaum
  • The Year Of Endless Sorrows...Adam Rapp
  • Lately...Sara Pritchard (stories)
  • Julie and Romeo...Jeanne Ray
  • Secrets of Eden...Chris Bohjalian
  • Satisfaction...Gillian Greenwood
  • Sing You Home...Jodi Picoult
  • Eat Cake...Jeanne Ray
  • Sarah's Key...Tatiana de Rosnay
  • Unfinished Desires...Gail Godwin
  • That Old Cape Magic...Richard Russo
  • The Lake Shore Limited...Sue Miller
  • Heat...Bill Buford (memoir)
  • Joy School...Elizabeth Berg
  • Pictures of You...Caroline Leavitt
  • The Blue Bistro...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Painted Drum...Louise Erdrich
  • The Castaways...Elin Hilderbrand
  • East of the Mountains...David Guterson
  • My Father's Tears...John Updike (stories)
  • Blood, Bones & Butter...Gabrielle Hamilton (memoir)
  • Moral Disorder...Margaret Atwood (stories)
  • Grub...Elise Blackwell
  • Attachment...Isabel Fonseca
  • Snow Angels...Stewart O'Nan
  • Every Last One...Anna Quindlen
  • The Life List...Lori Nelson Spielman
  • Between Husbands and Friends...Nancy Thayer
  • Songs for the Missing...Stewart O'Nan
  • The Goldfinch...Donna Tartt
  • Someone...Alice McDermott
  • The Silent Wife...A.S.A. Harrison
  • Fin and Lady...Cathleen Schine