be AUDacious

blueprints: conversations in album design

 Liz (of paislee press design) and I co-wrote an article for The Daily Digi a couple of weeks ago. In it, we outlined 8 key steps to creating an album, from start to finish. As we worked through the process of putting the post together, we found that there was a lot more to be said -- not just things that we wanted to share with our readers, but questions that our readers continued to have about the process. As a result, "blueprints: conversations in album design" was born. Each Sunday, we'll share a post with you about the process of album planning. The first post is up on Liz's blog today. In addition, we want your help in defining future topics for the series, so we've each established a Formspring account where you can ask your questions and we'll answer.

Ask Audrey
Ask Liz

#book review: Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession

taken from Goodreads:

"Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she'd ever do--until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING.

Her marriage challenged by an insane, irresistible love affair, Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery. She finds her way to Fleischer's, a butcher shop where she buries herself in the details of food. She learns how to break down a side of beef and French a rack of ribs--tough, physical work that only sometimes distracts her from thoughts of afternoon trysts.

The camaraderie at Fleischer's leads Julie to search out fellow butchers around the world--from South America to Europe to Africa. At the end of her odyssey, she has learned a new art and perhaps even mastered her unruly heart."

You know that oft-overused comparison of something to a car wreck where you just can't look away? Yeah. I can't think of anything more applicable in this situation. A third of the way in, I just knew it couldn't get any worse, yet I continued to read. I just couldn't help myself...this woman goes beyond the batshit-crazy label I gave her in my review of Julie & Julia. Way beyond. This isn't the fun kind of batshit-crazy; this is the sad, pathetic kind.

It's been mentioned a time or two that bloggers must be a fairly narcissistic group of people in order to write about themselves all the time. You can add memoirists to that category too, I guess. On one hand, I'm a little impressed by someone who is willing to put everything out there -- an ongoing wreck of a marriage, a love affair with a man who is obviously bad for her, a taste for rough sex, an obvious issue with alcoholism, and enough emotional baggage to sink the Titanic. (Seriously, the first book only hinted at what a wreck Powell is. This book gives you a closer look -- way too close, if you ask me. And don't think that her sainted husband is beyond reproach -- he obviously has issues too.) But on the other hand, if you're going to put all this out there, then be ready for the backlash you are going to get (and based on the snark that's on Powell's blog, even in the blog title, I don't think she was ready...) I just can't imagine that her editor thought this was a good idea.

Then again, I'm curious as to whether her editor did much editing at all. The writing is a mess, but it seems quite appropriate for the subject matter -- overblown and lurid and hard to follow at times. The structure has potential, but the book lapses into Eat Pray Love in the second half and just never recovers. The thing is, in the hands of a better, more subtle, writer, the comparison that Powell struggles throughout the entire book to make (butchery as a picture of a relationship) could have worked beautifully. But Powell's hamfisted attempt just comes off as cringe-worthy.

I'm left wondering just how much of this memoir is fiction and just how much is real. There's a statement at the beginning of the book that warns the reader that all events are remembered from just one person's perspective, which can color the narrative. So is Powell guilty of pulling a James Frey, or is her point-of-view to be trusted? I'm not sure the reader will ever know -- and to be honest, I'm not sure I care.

#book review: Eli the Good

taken from Goodreads:

"In his timely YA debut, a best-selling novelist revisits a summer of tumult and truth for a young narrator and his war-torn family.

Bicentennial fireworks burn the sky. Bob Seger growls from a transistor radio. And down by the river, girls line up on lawn chairs in pursuit of the perfect tan. Yet for ten-year-old Eli Book, the summer of 1976 is the one that threatened to tear his family apart. There is his distant mother; his traumatized Vietnam vet dad; his wild sister; his former warprotester aunt; and his tough yet troubled best friend, Edie, the only person with whom he can be himself. As tempers flare and his father’s nightmares rage, Eli watches from the sidelines, but soon even he cannot escape the current of conflict. From Silas House comes a tender look at the complexities of childhood and the realities of war — a quintessentially Southern novel filled with music, nostalgic detail, a deep respect for nature, and a powerful sense of place."

I've heard Eastern Kentucky author Silas House read from his novels and answer questions twice; both times I've been completely enamored with him (the attitude, the accent...he's just adorable -- and would likely cringe if he ever read those words). He's another author whose work (much like Wendell Berry's) is heavily imbued with a sense of time and place, but still has a timeless appeal.

And for me, that timeless quality is just one of the many things that catapults this book to the top of my 2010 Great Reads list. This may easily end up being the best book I read all year. I will admit, though, that my affinity for this book is based on just how much of my own childhood, in both general and specific ways, I saw in this novel; I'm not sure I can express just how strongly I identified with it.

Much of the novel's content, I assume, is autobiographical. I've heard House speak about growing up in Eastern Kentucky, and I've heard him talk about his own development as a writer, so it's pretty safe to assume that the driving force (if not the specific details) behind this novel are pulled from his own experiences. But that's the beauty of it, too -- that even with a very specific setting and plot events, House's book captures the magic of summer on the cusp of adolescence in a way that will tug at the heartstrings of anyone who grew up in a small rural town during the 70s.

There's so much to applaud here -- fully-developed characters that are rich in detail and realistically flawed, prose that evokes nostalgia without falling prey to sentimentality, and a story that can hold the attention of both young and old. That, for me, is the kicker. House doesn't work off the assumption that because it's YA fiction, then it's somehow easier to write or "less" than adult fiction. This story is just as full and rich and deep and probing as any of his adult novels, and telling the story from Eli's point of view adds a poignancy to it that would be lacking had any of the other characters been responsible for the telling.

#book review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

taken from Goodreads:

"A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history-the Salem witch trials.

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation."

The popular success of The Da Vinci Code sparked a subgenre that continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and Howe's book, in my eyes, fits right into the middle of that continuing growth. I've never been a fan, personally, of historical fiction, but in the hands of the right author, historical mysteries, especially if they involve arcane knowledge, dusty research libraries, and a touch of romance, do usually capture my attention.

For the most part, though, Howe's book is just so-so. The premise is interesting, the writing is okay, the characters are engaging....but it just lacks that something extra to get it over the hump. One of the key problems is that everything about this book is too formulaic. Within thirty pages, I knew what to expect -- everything was just too obvious, from the motivations of the secondary characters to the patterns that emerged throughout history. I'm even on the fence about the witchcraft in the book, and I'm usually extremely able and willing to suspend my disbelief for twists like this; something about it just didn't work with the main character's personality and character development, though, so it seemed "off."

One thing Howe does well is to establish an undercurrent of the relationship between mothers and daughters that serves as the backbone of the novel. Aside from the the unbalanced feel of the alternate historical perspectives, this idea is developed quite nicely through a number of scenes, including some very revealing phone conversations.

Unfortunately, there's just too much here that makes me feel like I've "been there, done that," which is unfortunate as the premise of this book shows a lot of promise. Still, Howe is a young writer, and this book does show the potential she possesses.

#book review: Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen

taken from Goodreads:

"With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child+s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul. Julie Powell is 30-years-old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that+s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother+s dog-eared copy of Julia Child+s 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year. At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crpes, she realizes there+s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye. With Julia+s stern warble always in her ear, Julie haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She sends her husband on late-night runs for yet more butter and rarely serves dinner before midnight. She discovers how to mold the perfect Orange Bavarian, the trick to extracting marrow from bone, and the intense pleasure of eating liver.And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life+s ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance."

I have had this book sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now; I kept meaning to pick it up and read it, especially once news of the movie version was announced, but there were always other books that seemed to catch my eye first. So it sat, collecting dust, until I saw Powell's most recent book at the library and checked it out. Now, I'm anal enough about my books that I knew I'd have to read the first one first, so I did. And there's so much I want to say about this book and this author and this whole blog-to-book concept, that I can hardly put it into order in my head. So I'm just going to put it out there in bullet-point format and let you make of it what you can.

• I haven't seen the movie, but I've heard the buzz. And I can imagine that the casting of Amy Edwards (she who seems to be all sweetness and light) has likely skewed the public's opinion on the real Julie Powell (at least, continuing blog comments imply that's the case). In any case, I found nothing sweet nor light about Julie Powell; instead, I found her to be whiny, self-centered, brash, crude, and more than a little batshit-crazy. To be honest, there were times when I liked and was entertained by her personality, but by the end of the book, her meltdowns had just worn me out.
• In many instances, when bloggers are given book contracts, much of the book content is pulled directly from the blog content. (That was my main complaint with Heather Armstrong's book -- nothing in the book added to the content already on the blog.) With Powell's book, though, it seems she really expanded upon the material in the blog, so that the book comes across as a much better-written, more fleshed-out version of the material on her blog. There's a lot of transfer from one to the other, but as I wasn't a follower of her blog in the first place, I didn't feel as though I were just getting a rehashing of the blog's content.
• I'm just not sure what the point of the blog project was. Why Julia Childs? Why this cookbook? Powell addresses those questions a couple of times (because she apparently was asked them constantly) but I don't feel that she ever gave any sort of credible answer. Had the book focused more on the recipes and the food, perhaps that connection might have been clearer. Instead, it seems that Powell is just a glutton for punishment and prefers to inflict these sorts of histrionics on her friends and family as well.
• For all the hype surrounding this book as the first of the foodie-blog projects, there's not much foodie here. Yes, she talks about preparing a number of recipes from the book, but in my eyes, Powell isn't a good food writer. Not like Molly Wizenberg, for example, who writes BEAUTIFULLY about food and is able to work in great stories about her life and her family in the process. 
• I'm reminded quite a bit of Elizabeth Gilbert (who apparently raved about this bok) when I read this memoir, and my complaint with this one is similar to my complaint with Eat Pray Love. Books like this require some type of change, of transformation. The process, the journey, needs to make a difference in the author, and I just don't see that happening here. Which again, brings me back to the question: What's the point? I'm not even sure how Powell got a book contract out of this whole deal.

Eh, that's enough complaining. I was just disappointed by the whole thing. The only good that really came out of me reading this book is the fact that it's now in my "trade at McKay's" pile instead of taking valuable shelf space.

Photo 365: Week 8

February 19:

The snow is finally melting and while I'm sad to see it go, I must admit that it was the sunshine that drew me outside this afternoon. That golden light was too beautiful to resist.


February 20:

We took the girls to their first college basketball game. There was so much to watch, and I had forgotten how much I loved cheering on the home team at an event like this -- the energy was incredible.


February 21:

It just doesn't seem official until you can hold it in your hands, you know? (And I have to admit, I'm disappointed that Master's degree diplomas don't denote magna cum laude or summa cum laude status. 'Cause I rocked the 4.0, baby!


February 22:

I sometimes wonder if it wasn't the Math-a-thon (and its relationship with St. Jude's, which is Cassidy's charity of choice) that started her love affair with math.


February 23:

When you are battling your second round of strep in as many weeks, ice cream is the food of choice -- either the real kind or Play-doh, it appears.


February 24:

Listening to her read aloud is one of my favorite things. There's so much animation and expression in her little voice.


February 25:

It's become my uniform of choice: black shirt, gray cardigan, jeans, and a funky necklace. Some days you just need the comfort of knowing it works so that you are free to focus on other things.

Dollar Days @ DHD

Our Dollar Days monthly promotion is almost finished at Design House Digital; once February is over, all the $1.00 kits will revert back to the original pricing of $3.99. I just added a new product today, and here's a peek at the other products that I've listed this month. You can find them in the shop.

 

guest blogger: Laura Kurz

I don't really remember when I first came across Laura's work; it must've been shortly after I discovered 2Ps (that's where most of my scrapbooking crushes started). Laura is another scrapper with an impeccable sense of design; she's queen of the minimalist layout, but with a unique flair that makes me instantly recognize her work. I particularly love the way she scrapbooks travel and heritage photos, and the interesting ways she incorporates titles and journaling into her overall design. When I found out that Laura is working on her Master's degree in Nonfiction Writing, I asked her to share some tips she's gleaned not just from her own journaling experience but also from the memoirs she's studied for her coursework.

1. If you are having trouble writing, use a writing prompt. Try to remember your first memory. Remember a time you were scared. One I had my last semester was to write about an altercation/argument I had witnessed. You don't think about writing about this kind of stuff until prompted! I just googled and found this website: http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/# - they have a lot of great prompts (some are for writing fiction - check out the ones for non-fiction).

2. Ask questions of your family and friends. I am constantly e-mailing my mom and dad asking them to remind me about something about our family or my childhood. I have a really, really bad memory and rely a lot on my mom's excellent memory. (Audrey's note: These emails have resulted in some of my favorite posts on Laura's blog -- I love looking at pictures of her from high school or college and reading the stories that go along with them.)

3. Use photos as a prompt. For my 365-day blog, a lot of the things I wrote about people came to me by looking at pictures of a time when these people were part of my life.

Here are some of my favorite layouts by Laura.

Laura lives in an old house in an old neighborhood of Baltimore with her husband, Ken, son, Charlie, and golden retriever, Charmer the dog. She will finish her master’s in writing from Johns Hopkins University in 2010.She is a member of the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame, a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket, and was recently named a new addition to Studio Calico's design team.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Wow! I was so surprised to see that Lee nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award. I usually end up flying under the radar when it comes to these kinds of things, so it's weird and fun to see my name out there. Here's how it works:

1- Thank the person giving you the award: Well, of course! Thank you, Lee, for considering my blog something you find inspiring and read-worthy on a regular basis.

2- Copy award to this blog:

3- Place a link to their blog: Lee blogs at The Linar Studio, and her posts are a daily source of inspiration for me. They are thought-provoking, real, genuine -- and her photography is stunning.

4- Name 7 things people don't know about you: I feel as though I share random details about myself all the time, but here are a handful that you might not know:

• I was the Kentucky FFA State Vice President for 1993-94; in fact, I was involved in FFA throughout high school and won a state speaking contest my sophomore year. I credit my involvement with that organization for many of my leadership and speaking skills.
• I am a picky eater. I prefer most of my foods plain and would be content to eat the same thing for every meal, every day.
• I have really big feet. Size 11. But I'm only 5'6". Yeah, fun.
• I'm really not very good at small talk. However, if I do have something to say, I am very outspoken about it. Of course, most people who know me well would say that I talk a lot, but that's not really true. If we've known each other for a while, then I can chat all day, but with people I know only slightly, it makes me quite uncomfortable.
• I hold my nose when I swim. It's something that started when my dad took me to my first swimming lesson. I refused to get into the water so he bought me ear plugs, nose plugs, and goggles. I tossed everything at some point except for the nose plugs. I wish I'd never learned to rely on them.
• My feet must hang over the edge of the mattress at the foot of our bed, which means that when I sleep in a queen or king-sized bed, I wake up about halfway down the mattress.
• I made a 32 on my ACT; however, my scores were so uneven. I had perfect scores (36) in Reading and English, as well as a 35 in Science, but my Math score was only a 19. (I include this only because I couldn't think of another fact, and the ACT is all I've been doing lately at work).

5- Nominate 7 bloggers:

• Erika. I've never met Erika, not in real life, but there's so much about her life and personality that I identify with. I love getting this glimpse into her life; she is an amazing mama to 3 amazing boys. 
• Lisa. Lisa's blog is all about living life as simply and purely as possible, in my eyes. Whether you need mental, physical, or creative inspiration, Lisa has something for everything.
• Liz. A list like this wouldn't be complete without Liz's name on it. She amazes me -- Liz is the total package.
• Amy. I don't even remember how I came across Amy's blog -- maybe via The Big Picture? Regardless, I bookmarked it immediately because Amy has a TRUE GIFT for writing. Her blog is real and genuine, and it possesses a reflective quality that I think is missing from my own work.
• Jen. Jen was another blog that I just stumbled across; there's always something pretty to look at, whether it's a new scrapbook page or the adorable Zoey.
• Elizabeth. I just love reading her posts. They are always well-written -- just the right blend of chattiness and getting-to-the-facts, and I always find out something interesting when I read her blog. Plus, we have lots in common, and it's just more fun to read a post and then say "You know what? ME TOO!"
• Jennifer at Simple Scrapper. My go-to, every day, about so many things -- productivity and scrapping and social media and inspiration and process. She rocks.

6- Place a link to these bloggers. See above.

7- Leave a comment on their blog notifying them of the award.

10 on Tuesday: Houston edition

A couple of weeks ago I had to travel to Houston for a work conference. This was my first visit to Houston, aside from one overnight stay after a late flight made me miss my connection to Memphis from Las Vegas. Here's my recap, 10-on-Tuesday style:

1. This was my first time flying out of the Nashville airport in a long, long time. Usually, I go to Memphis and let the in-laws drop me off at the airport. But I got a really cheap round trip flight from Southwest this time around, so I was on the road by 6:00 to get to the airport -- and it flurried the whole time. The flight was uneventful -- we did have to be deiced before takeoff, but once we got above the cloud layer, it was smooth sailing flying -- and very uncrowded. I had a whole row to myself on both flights, in fact.

2. No offense to those of you who live in Houston or the surrounding area, but I am not impressed. It is not an attractive city, by any means.

3. This was the view from my window. At various times during the week, the sun glinting off that building's windows would shine in through the opened curtains and fall across the desk where I was working -- and it was beautiful.

4. I met up with this girl at the hotel and we hoofed it over to a great little Italian restaurant before coming back to the hotel and talking in the bar for hours. Lauren is one of the first digi-scrappers I got to know online, and one of the very first designers I CT'ed for when I first started digiscrapping. It was so great to finally meet her after what, 3 years? 4 years?  She's so fun to be with -- very genuine, very honest, very down-to-earth, and she's one of the kindest and most generous souls I've ever met. (And she's not as bad a driver as she thinks she is...)
 

5. On Sunday, Lauren took me to the Museum of Fine Arts and, lucky us, we got in free because Target does this special promotion on the first Sunday of each month. Score! We spent a lot of time just wandering and figuring out whether or not we could take photos -- you could in some places but not in others, but there were never any signs that told you if you could or not.

I kept getting into trouble. Well, not trouble necessarily, but while I was leaned in, examining the tiny etched details in the gold leaf on one painting, I was told that I was standing way too close. Another time, I was told that I needed to remain on the walkway (this as we were walking through the huge blue neon tunnel shown below). I wasn't trying to be a rule-breaker, honest!


6. As part of the Target sponsorship, you could spend the afternoon with pencil and paper, drawing -- or being inspired by -- any of the paintings in the museum. It was really fun to see people of all ages setting up their little chairs, with clipboards under their arms.

7. By far, my favorite exhibit in the entire museum was part of a Korean-American exhibit called "Your Bright Future." In particular, Lauren and I both were completely entranced by Fallen Star, created by artist Do Ho Suh. Words can't even begin to describe how incredible the level of detail was, as well as the different concepts at work. The rest of the exhibits were really interesting as well. I think we spent as much time with this section of the museum as we did anywhere else.

8. If you ever get a chance to order the Macaroni and Cheese at House of Blues, do it. Seriously. The best mac-n-cheese I've ever eaten. Worth every penny of the $7.00 price tag.

9. We did some shopping -- mostly window-shopping -- at The Galleria; so many shoppes that I've only read about in magazines, but never had a chance to visit. Ended it with a huge slice of cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory.

10. The flight home was just as uneventful. More cancellations because of snow meant no crowding again. Arrived home to find six inches of snow on the ground.