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ten on tuesday -- uh, make that thursday: the jewelry edition

I meant to get this post up on Tuesday, but I just didn't get a chance to finish it Monday night. We've had several busy weeks here, and to be honest, I was too busy enjoying a lovely night with my family. I know you understand. :)

I've had my eye on several new jewelry pieces lately, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite pieces with you. Enjoy!

1. Leather Cuff by Lisa Leonard Designs
I love personalized jewelry, and I've always been a fan of leather wrist cuffs. There's something just a little bit hippie about them, and this one is so beautiful and simple. It's at the top of my wish list for Christmas, and I've already chosen the phrase I want to have stamped on it.

2. Peace...Picture It necklace by Tiny Token Designs
I'm pretty much a sucker for any type of jewelry with a peace sign on it, and this one, combined with the photography charm, is just so cute and whimsical. I love that you can choose the color pearl as well -- I think I'd go with green, perhaps, though turquoise or red would be nice too.

3. Sterling Silver Mini Peace Sign necklace by Rock My World Inc.
Anyone noticing a trend? Silver? Check. Peace sign? Check. :) I really love the handcast look to this one, and I'm drawn to how simple and unobtrusive it is.

4. Poteau Studs -- The Shallows by Trove Designs
I've had my ears pierced for a long time. At one point, I had two piercings in one ear and three in the other, plus the cartilege was pierced for a short while in one ear. All of those have closed up with the exception of the original piercings in each ear. I normally forget to put in earrings -- at one point, I had a pair of silver floral studs from American Eagle that I adored and wore ALL.THE.TIME. But somehow they were lost, and I'm always looking for something with which to replace them. These beauties are definite candidates, don't you think?

5. Your Answer to Life the Universe and Everything Stud Earrings by Kathryn Riechert
The sci fi / fantasy geek in me loves these earrings. I enjoy jewelry that's just a tad bit quirky, something with a story behind it, and these fit the bill. 

6. Customized Secret Poetry Bangle by deliasthompson
I would love to have 2 or 3 of these, inscribed with some of my favorite lines of poetry or song lyrics, to wear along with the beautiful leather cuff at the top of the page. Words carry so much meaning and power for me; I could never go far enough to have them tattooed on my skin, but this would be another way to carry them with me.

7.  Pear necklace by dindi
Another fun and whimsical piece with a message that I'm constantly trying to embrace. This would be a beautiful reminder to wear.

8. Little Discs earrings by Yuki Jewelry
I'm always searching for turquoise jewelry, but it's hard to find pieces that I like. I don't want anything that's too Native American looking (there's nothing wrong with those types of pieces, but it's just not the look I'm going for), and most handmade earrings are too dangly or formal or something...nothing ever looks right. But this pair -- this pair I LOVE. 

9. Poppy Garden Ring by Autumn Leaves jewelry
I love big chunky rings, but don't often wear them since gaining weight after my thyroid issues. I'd love to have a piece like this, though, to wear as a statement ring -- just something fun and funky and totally unique to pair with jeans and a fun shirt.

10. Titanium and Cocobolo Inlay ring by robandlean
This last piece is actually one I've had bookmarked on Etsy for ages. I'd love to buy it for my husband, to replace his original wedding band. I love the mix of wood and metal, and I think this is simply a gorgeous piece of work.

As always, feel free to share links to your own favorite jewelry designers (or your own shop, in fact) on Etsy or elsewhere on the Interwebs.

today

To be a person is to have a story to tell. —Isak Dinesen

a couple more layouts to share

One of my goals is to start getting photos off my hard drive faster -- so I'm working on either editing/printing them or scrapping them as soon as I can.

I took these first shots at Cassidy's JV soccer showcase over the weekend. She got to play quite a bit, since there were three games over the course of the tournament on Saturday, so I got several great shots. I wanted to put together a simple graphic layout that focused on her making the high school soccer team as a 7th grader, and this is what I came up with. She really liked it too -- which is the important part.

These next two layouts are just a small part of a larger album project that I'm working on. I used Liz's new Snapshots No. 2 album templates, and I really love how everything came together. This is a project I can wait to do more work on.

If you are interested in the album, Liz is giving one away to a random commenter. Visit her blog here for more information.

book review: City of Glass

taken from Goodreads:

"To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters -- never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadow-hunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadow-hunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her new found powers to help save the Glass City -- whatever the cost?

Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the final installment of the New York Times bestselling trilogy The Mortal Instruments."

My thoughts on the first two novels in this series (City of Bones, City of Ashes) were notably mixed -- there were things I loved, and things I absolutely despised about each of them. Taken as a whole, I love the concept for this story; I love the variety of characters; I love Clare's style. But there were enough little things with each book (and sometimes the little things combined into some BIG things) that took away from my overall enjoyment.

That's why I'm so happy to report that I had none of those issues with the third novel -- I think it is, by far, the best of the three. It's as though Clare really paid attention to remarks and comments about the first two, and used those to make #3 a better book. (Okay, so I'm totally sure that didn't happen, but it would be nice to think it could.) Really, it felt like Clare finally came into her own as a writer with this book -- that this novel is what the first two could've been, had she had a little more experience and skill. Does that make sense? It's not that I'm knocking the first two, really; it's more that this feels like the realization of this series and what I had imagined for it all along.

I'm not saying that this book is leaps and bounds better than the other two. That's not the case at all. This one is just subtly overall better, in that the characters feel fully developed (and we're finally seeing how everything from the first two novels plays out with them and how they've changed as a result), and the plot lines all come together nicely (even the most annoying aspects -- hello brother-sister love triangle!) and even satisfyingly, in most cases. Many of the characters really come into their own in this novel: Simon is heartbreakingly perfect and by far my favorite character in the series; Magnus is truly delightful (with many more subtle layers to his development in this one); Clary and Jace are still hard-headed and snarky, respectively, but with more awareness, at least, of the consequences of their actions; Alec and Isabella also get added dimension, too; and there are many new characters to add to the list.

With the plotting, things were pretty balanced. There were things that happened that I saw coming from a mile away, but that didn't matter so much to me, because they were things I expected and wanted to happen, so I was glad that the author and I were on the same wavelength. There were other events that really snuck up on me and seemed to come out of nowhere, but nothing seemed completely random or illogical, so again, that sat fine with me as a reader.

I wish, in many ways, that book #3 was just the beginning of this series -- I would love to see what Clare could do with these characters as they are right now, with these changes as part of their baseline, just to see where she could take them. Overall, though, this was a much,much better conclusion to this series than I was expecting, which always turns out to be a good thing.

book review: Impossible

taken from Goodreads:

"Lucy has nine months to break an ancient curse in order to save both herself and her unborn daughter.
Inspired by the ballad "Scarborough Fair", this riveting novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance for an intensely page-turning and masterfully original tale.

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child's birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won't be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?"

I'm not sure I can begin to convey just how disappointed I was in this book. The premise is fantastic, and reminds me of several novels that have become all-time favorites of mine (Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, which gets hugely mixed reviews but is adored by me, for example) -- I LOVE LOVE LOVE it when an author melds fairytales or folktales into an otherwise ordinary novel.  What's funny, now that I think about it, is that the thing that made me love Tam Lin in the exact thing that made me dislike this novel so much: namely, that nothing happens until the book is more than halfway finished.

In Dean's novel, though, everything leading up to the action (which is crammed into the last 150 pages of a 450-page book) is totally compelling to me, while everything in Werlin's novel seems to fall flat. I understand the need to establish a baseline, to present an idea of character normality, so that when the "out-of-the-ordinary event" that kicks off the conflict(s) occurs, we as readers are able to track how this conflict affects the main character -- or not, as the case may be. In this instance, though, so much of that baseline was just plain boring. There's nothing really interesting about Lucy, and I really got tired of hearing the author explain over and over and over again just how rational and logical Lucy is. You know what? I get it. I understand that things have to make sense to her, which means that the suspension of disbelief she's going to need later on, when things get weird, is going to be part of the struggle. You don't have to hit me over the head with it -- but that's exactly what I think Werlin does.

The character development in this novel suffers from the same problem all the way through -- Werlin as writer can't step back enough to let the characters SHOW us who they are. Rather, she spends all her time telling us, and that leaves the characters very flat and one-dimensional.

To make things worse, the writing is just plain horrible. I really struggled at times to make it through certain parts; some of the problems were due to poor editing and grammatical problems, but there were also times when the writing just fell flat. There was nothing in it that made it move, that made it come alive on the page.

You'll see that this novel gets great reviews on Goodreads (with the exception of a few low reviews tossed in here and there). Those reviews, along with the summary of the novel, are what made me seek this one out at the library. I'm just glad I didn't buy it; it's not something I would spend money on.

scrappy Sunday

A quick announcement first: Renae, you are the winner of the book giveaway. Contact me with your mailing address if you don't hear from me in a day or so.

 

Fall always brings out the urge to rearrange furniture, throw away anything we haven't used since last Fall, and just generally get everything ready for winter. It's all part of my quest to simplify and streamline as much as I can, but the urge gets pretty intensive as October rolls around. Over the past couple of years, that same urge has carried over into my scrapbooking products and supplies; I still have a couple of boxes of stuff to get rid of in terms of paper scrapping, but I'm pretty close to having my digital scrapbooking items under control. The big thing for the next few months is corralling all the photos I've taken. I'm pretty good about getting them off my camera and onto my computer, into a folder that is labeled with the month and year, as well as the location/event. But then they just sit there.

 

The goal is to work my way through them this fall and do one of two things:

 

1. Scrapbook them. Any photos that have an important story behind them that I want to remember will be scrapbooked immediately. I'm taking this folder by folder, and my process is pretty simple. Using a handy notebook, I'm making a list of the photos that need to go on each page, along with any relevant journaling ideas/prompts/details. When I sit down to scrapbook, I'll go to that list first. Once the photos have been scrapbooked, I'm deleting the folder.

 

2. Frame or print them. I have a number of photos framed and hung throughout the house. I'm also guilty of having a number of empty frames still hanging on the walls. The "best of the best" in terms of photos from these folders will be placed into a "frame or print" folder. I also plan on either ordering prints and putting them into regular photo albums, or having Shutterfly or Blurb books made, combining these photos with some of my favorite song lyrics or quotes.

 

I made a pretty good start this weekend: five birthday layouts from last year's photos created and uploaded. You'll notice that one of the layouts looks just like the one beneath it. The girls' birthdays are two weeks apart, so we always do one big birthday party for the family. I wanted a quick way to scrap these pictures, so I made one simple page using a template, then swapped out the photos and a few of the journaling details to personalize it for each girl. It will go in their personal albums, so it won't matter that the page is essentially the same. It's a quick and easy way to scrap the same topic for more than one person, which is necessary sometimes if you have more than one kid.

 

Everything you see here was created with gorgeous goodies from Paislee Press...I can't rave about them enough!

Cassidy's mini-me

Reminder: Today is your last day to enter to win a free book from me. Details here.

I took some pictures of my nephew Oliver a couple of weekends ago -- both shots of him by himself and shots with Eric and Linda. I just love how they turned out! We went to the coolest place: it's called My Big Backyard, and it's a huge children's exhibit at the Memphis Botanic Gardens that teaches kids about nature and the outdoors in a fun and artistic setting. The place is amazing, and I know we'll be making it a part of our regular visits to Memphis from now on.

The entire time I was taking pictures of Oliver, I was inwardly marveling at how much he looks like Cassidy when she was his age. I wish I had a couple of older pictures of her scanned, so that you all could see the resemblance too. I'm amazed at how much that resemblance tugs at my heart strings -- Cass is so far from being a little girl anymore (she'll be 13 in November), and there are times when I just miss her at that age, even though I'm fully enjoying her right now as she is.

a little more macro practice

I'm completely in love with finding tiny things to take photos of. Remember this vase of flowers I bought earlier this week?

I spent 30 or 45 minutes on the back deck one afternoon, just snapping away. Love how some of these turned out. I'm honestly thinking of decorating my bedroom in a pretty golden yellow with gray and white, and maybe a touch of wine/maroon, just to coordinate with these pictures -- that's how much I love them.

book review: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

taken from Goodreads:

"In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed "Hansel" and "Gretel." They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called "witch" by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children.
Combining classic themes of fairy tales and war literature, this haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children, and tells a resonant, riveting story."

I taught a unit on Holocaust literature in 8th grade, because The Diary of Anne Frank was a key part of the curriculum at that level. As a result, I've read a lot of novels about the Holocaust. There are only a handful of novels, though, that I think really bring something new to their treatment of this horrific event; of course, Elie Wiesel's Night is one, and Jane Yolen's Briar Rose is another. The latter reminds me of this novel, to an extent, in that both authors use fairy tale themes to structure their stories and to get at the deeper truths that exist within these stories -- both the fairy tales and our shared histories.

Murphy's take on Hansel and Gretel really plays off the more disturbing aspects of the fairy tale, but she also uses those same aspect to set off the small moments of humanity and hope that come to light even during the most horrific atrocities. She uses even the smallest details from the fairy tale, and in such a clever manner. Several of the fairy tale's stereotypes focus on negative views of women, but Murphy takes the Stepmother and the Witch and instead creates two compelling portraits of love. In the end, that's what this novel is about in many ways, and the opening and closing monologues serve to drive that point home.

I found myself completely engrossed in this novel and caring about each of the characters, even though at times they are nothing more than brief sketched portraits. Still, Murphy's unflinching approach, even to the most graphic events, presents this story in such a way that you can't help but be pulled in completely. The language is spare and even brutal, but brilliant and clear too -- almost like the cold brilliance of a diamond, with each facet giving another perspective to the tale. (I did have a small issue with the switching of POV at times, but again, that is so minor in the context of the entire story.)

I don't normally mark passages in novels as I'm reading; it's just something I don't like to do. But with this one, I did find myself marking several spots. One in particular is worth mentioning. One of the things you hear about the Holocaust over and over, in literature, in memoirs, in articles, and more is the recurring refrain of "How could God let this happen?" One of the book's characters makes the same comment and another character replies, "You can't expect God to come down and do our living for us. We have to do that ourselves." (p. 207)

This is a novel that I highly recommend. It's graphic and disturbing, but it also takes a resonant look at war and the effect it has on families and children, and Murphy does it with such a haunting, sparse beauty and style.

Katy, Mindy, and families

I've known Katy and Mindy for a long time. They both went to school in the neighboring county, and when you live in a small town, it's inevitable that you'll meet kids from the neighboring schools quite frequently -- at ballgames, at regional club events, and just on the weekends in general. Mindy and I were both cheerleaders, so we saw each other frequently, and I just knew Katy by association, as the little sister.

When I started teaching at Carlisle, Katy joined the staff right around the same time I did -- or maybe a year later. That's when Rob, Katy's husband, came on board too. I've known Rob forever as well, since he was best friends with my sister's high school boyfriend, and just a year behind me in school.

(Don't you love those small-town high-school connections? It always amuses my husband to listen to me explain who someone is, because I have to recount all those different connections. "Do you remember Wanda who works at the convenient store? Well, Mike is her daughter's best friend's stepson..." ha!)

Anyway, it was such a pleasure to hang out with Katy and Rob and their two girls, and Mindy and her little boylie. Such a gorgeous family, and everything was so relaxed. We just hung out and talked and laughed and enjoyed the afternoon. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Here are some of my favorite shots from the day: