Elbit Blog

Book Review - The Shakespeare Thefts

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:07:00 +0000

I received The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios by Eric Rasmussen from LibraryThing as part of their Early Reviewer program. When I saw this one in the list of books for that month, I knew I had to request it and hoped that having a large collection of Shakespeare indexed in my account on the site would help me snag it. Fortunately it must have because I ended up with a copy. ;)

First I'll copy a description from the LibraryThing page to give a summary of what the book is about:
The first edition of Shakespeare's collected works, the First Folio, published in 1623, is not only one of the most valuable book, it is also a favorite target of thieves. Of the 160 First Folios listed in a census of 1902, 14 were subsequently stolen-and only two of these were ever recovered. In his efforts to catalog all these precious First Folios, renowned Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen embarked on a riveting journey around the globe, involving run-ins with heavily tattooed criminal street gangs in Tokyo, bizarre visits with eccentric, reclusive billionaires, and intense battles of wills with secretive librarians. He investigates the uncanny sequence of events in which a wealthy East Coast couple drowned in a boating accident and the next week their First Folio appeared for sale in Kansas. Part literary detective story, part Shakespearean lore, The Shakespeare Thefts will charm the Bard's many fans.

That is why I had to request this book. I studied English in college and absolutely loved renaissance literature, particularly Shakespeare, so a description like that caught my eye and I was excited to jump right in as soon as I received the book. Despite being quite familiar with Shakespeare's works, I never really knew much about the plays in physical form, if that makes sense; when I studied them, the folios and what the plays were written on rarely came up as it was the plays themselves that we concentrated on. This book really opened my eyes to just how valuable the original folios are and all the mystery and intrigue that occurred as those books changed hands throughout the years. I found this incredibly interesting and was a bit disappointed that the book was less than two hundred pages because this is a subject I'd gladly have read much more about.

Reading this book I realized part of what made it so captivating for me: the author clearly loves what he does and that shows through in his writing. I liked all the personal anecdotes about his team's experiences as they worked on tracking down different copies of the folios. While I do realize that frequently Rasmussen gives his own opinions about what could have happened in the past rather than cold hard facts about missing copies, I didn't find this to be a problem and thought it made the book more accessible to a wider audience than if it had been more scholarly.

There are only two real flaws I could see with the book. The first is that it is just a sort of introduction into the subject. It isn't particularly in depth and the author does include a lot of personal opinions and speculations, but I do think this to be a really good introduction. It ensnared me and has me wanting to find out more on the subject, anyway! The other problem is that the book was somewhat disjointed; maybe with a bit more editing, the chapters could have fit better together or something like that. Regardless of these two flaws, I really enjoyed this book and I'll give it 4 stars.

I did find it amusing that the book I read right before this one was The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I didn't plan it that way but apparently late 2011 was my time for books about book thefts! It was neat going from a very fictional book about books being stolen for nefarious purposes to a non-fictional book about books being stolen mysteriously throughout the past few centuries. Goes to show that reality can be just as strange as fiction!

Art Update - Cat hats and embroidery

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:48:00 +0000

I don't think I ever shared these things when I finished them, so here's an update with the embroideries I finished earlier this year and my most recent cat ear hats. Eventually I'll get this blog caught up with all the art I've been working on. ;)

These two hats are in my Artfire shop here and my Etsy shop here. I only have these two online, but at some point I'll be remaking the black, grey (wolf), and rust (fox) hats that have sold. I'm also going to poke around and see if I have other colors of fun fur in my yarn bins to try other colors, too. :)

And here are three of my embroideries, a dragon, trees and a fox:

These are in my shops here on Artfire and here on Etsy. I started a phoenix months ago but haven't worked on that in a while; I'll have to finish that after the holidays. I'll blog that one once I get back to work on it.

I've been working on a few custom orders and presents over the past few weeks, so I'll share those soon, too. :)

Art Update - Lots of cartilage earrings and ear cuffs!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:43:00 +0000

Still trying to catch up and share art I've made recently, so here's a quick post of my newest cartilage earrings and ear cuffs. :)

These are all for sale in my Artfire shop and my Etsy shop.

Clicking these will take you to the flickr pages where you can view the photos larger:
1. Silver and Turquoise Dragon Ear Cuff, 2. Simple Silver Feather Ear Cuff, 3. Green and Silver Dragonfly Ear Cuff, 4. Christmas Tree Ear Cuff, 5. Wood Leaf Ear Cuff, 6. Blue and Silver butterfly ear cuff, 7. Green and Black Dice Connecting Chain Ear Cuff, 8. Moon Ear Cuff, 9. Fleur de Lis Ear Cuff, 10. Turtle Ear Cuff, 11. Dolphin Cartilage Chain Ear Cuff, 12. Purple Fairy Ear Cuff, 13. Pink and Silver Chain Ear Cuff, 14. Silver and Blue Wing Chain Ear Cuff

And here's a peek at the rest of the earrings I made in the last batch; some I shared above, some will go online later, and one or two I might keep for myself. ;)

Art Update - Chainmaille Necklaces and Handflowers

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:58:00 +0000

Sale time! How about free shipping? :)

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:40:00 +0000

Another quick blog post here. For the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday thing, I'm doing free shipping to the US in my Artfire shop from Thursday Nov 24th through Monday Nov 28th (okay, technically. If you head over there now, Wednesday evening, it's already started). Prices are adjusted with this, so just check out normally.

And I'm expanding on this- I'm also offering free shipping on all my jewelry to all countries. Same thing; just check out normally and the shipping price has already been removed. (Why just jewelry? Because it's light enough that this'll work for an international sale.)

So free shipping on everything to the US and free shipping on jewelry to everyone else through the 28th.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope those who celebrate it have a great time with family and friends. :)

Book Review - A Spell for Chameleon

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:48:00 +0000

Time for another book review, this time A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. This isn't one I won from LibraryThing (those are what I usually review), but something that was recommended by friends.

To start, here's the description of the book from Amazon:
Xanth was the enchanted land where magic ruled--where every citizen had a special spell only he could cast. That is, except for Bink of North Village. He was sure he possessed no magic, and knew that if he didn't find some soon, he would be exiled. According to the Good Magician Humpfrey, the charts said that Bink was as powerful as the King or even the Evil Magician Trent. Unfortunately, no one could determine its form. Meanwhile, Bink was in despair. If he didn't find his magic soon, he would be forced to leave....

From that summary (well, the similar one on the back cover of the book) and the glowing recommendations of my friends about how much I'd enjoy the Xanth books since I love fantasy and humor, I cheerfully began to read A Spell for Chameleon, the first in the series. That cheerfulness, however, didn't last more than a few pages in. Alas, my friends were mistaken.

This book had the potential to be something I should have loved: an interesting storyline, a novel kind of magic, puns and humor... but all that could not make up for the sheer misogyny that was continuous from start to finish. I know the book was written in the 70's by a male author and I could have forgiven this if it was at all in moderation, but it wasn't so I can't.

Pretty much from the moment we meet Bink I wanted to shake some sense into that fool head of his- or possibly give him some sort of potion that would invoke maturity, since this is a magic world he exists in, so why the heck not? He was supposedly twenty-five, but that's a laugh. He acted more like fifteen: an immature, sex-crazed teenager, not the adult he should have been. (Why the author didn't just make him a teenager, I have no idea.) By the time he's placed into serving on a rape trial (this is within the first fifty pages) that was nothing but a farce, sitting across from a girl we keep hearing is gorgeous and we get the wonderful passage "Bink felt sorry for his opposite. How could she avoid being seductive? She was a creature constructed for no other viable purpose than ra- than love" I wanted to shove the sex-crazed boy off the edge of that chasm he'd so recently encountered.

If this had been it, I could have gotten past the sexism, but no. The entire book is in this vein. Despite the fact that Bink is clearly disturbed by the idea of humans mating with the intelligent animals, as we learn from him later in the book, even the female centaur becomes little more than a sex object to ogle (and fondle). The only time we get a halfway decently portrayed female character, we learn that she's actually a facet of two other characters- the hideous one that's super-intelligent, but so ugly that the protagonist won't stop talking about that fact, and the gorgeous one that he wanted to ravish because she's so gorgeous. And does that character stay in one of her more intelligent facets for long? Of course not; the narration instead switches to where she's pretty and stupid while Bink constantly laments his woes about needing to find a perfect woman (even her “normal” side of normal intelligence and normal appearance wouldn't be enough and he'd get bored of that). Eventually he decides that he likes the fact that she shifts from week to week, but does so when- surprise- she's in the moronic/beautiful side. There's far more about this book that irked me, but I'll leave it at that rather than continue to rant.

I am wondering what exactly the target audience of this book might be. It seems to be Young Adult (the youthfulness of the protagonist can attest to that) but there are a lot of things in there too mature for a book in that age group, not to mention the rather large words used throughout. It's as though the author went crazy with a thesaurus, which is actually fine with me as I love words, but seemed out of place in a YA-type book.

The only thing that got me through to the end of the book was that fact that I liked all of one character. I found the “evil” magician Trent to be the only truly likeable and interesting one; a villain who wasn't very villainous. He had depth that the others did not and his questionable alignment intrigued me (sorry, D&D term, but I couldn't help thinking “Chaotic Neutral” when reading this; in it for himself, whatever the consequences, but almost good at heart). It was too bad that he wasn't the actual main character. If the narration had been from his point of view, I would have enjoyed the book because... well, he wasn't Bink.

I used to pride myself on being able to read and enjoy pretty much anything, but I may have to revoke that claim. The constant misogyny in this book has left such a sour taste in my mouth that I don't think I'd want to read anything else by this author. I'm going to give this book 1 1/2 stars: partly for the basic plot and partly for Trent, I suppose, but I'm almost thinking that's too high of a rating. As an adult woman reading this book in 2011, I am clearly not whatever the target audience was originally intended to be, which is odd when the series had been recommended to me by other adult women. Either I'm missing the appeal, misogyny and annoying gender stereotypes bother me much more than they do anyone else, or this book is just more terribly written than the rest and I should have started at the end of the series where they say it's better and worked my way back. Probably a combination of the three, but I'm moving on to the next author. I don't want to read more of the same until I get to something in the series I might actually like, not when there are so many authors out there who won't make me want to throw their book across the room in disgust. I apologize to those who love this series, but this is most definitely not my cup of tea.

Craft show on Saturday!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:09:00 +0000

Just a quick update (someday I'll update this blog more frequently!) to say that I'll be taking part in a craft show tomorrow!

Penncrest High School
Media, PA (Delaware County)
Saturday November 19th, 10am to 4pm

I heard that more then 130 crafters are expected to be there, so this is going to be a big one! I'll have my usual stuff with me (ear cuffs, chainmaille, cartilage earrings, hemp jewelry...) but this time around I've also finished up new cat eared winter hats that I'll have on my table.

Here's a peek at some of my newest chainmaille necklaces:

And here's a look at the fox hat I made myself- I'll have one like this for sale, as well as a few others in other colors, too. :)
I'll try to update this blog again at some point in the near future. This has just been a really chaotic month (year?).

A Rather Lovely Soirée - Silk and Satin

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 05:00:00 +0000

A Rather Lovely Soirée
for
Talk like Jane Austen Day
Event production by
Random Magic Tour
Sasha Soren (Random Magic)
Oct. 30, 2011
Silk and Satin

You've arrived at a rather lovely soirée in honor of Talk like Jane Austen Day. Talk like Jane Austen Day is an annual event, but October 30, 2011 is a particularly special day, as it marks the 200th anniversary of the first printing of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Austen's first published novel. In honor of the day, we've assembled a delightful collection of interesting features on all things Jane Austen and her times.

~~~~~~~~
Welcome to Silk and Satin, part of A Rather Lovely Soirée for Talk like Jane Austen Day. I'll be talking a little about women's fashion in the time of Jane Austen (1775 - 1817). I was curious why clothing from that time had a few different names, but fortunately wikipedia came to my rescue and explained this:
In this period, fashionable women's clothing styles were based on the Empire silhouette — dresses were closely fitted to the torso just under the bust, falling loosely below. In different contexts, such styles are commonly called "Directoire" (referring to the Directory which ran France during the second half of the 1790s), "Empire" (referring to Napoleon's 1804–1814/1815 empire, and often also to his 1800–1804 "consulate"), or "Regency" (most precisely referring to the 1811–1820 period of George IV's formal regency, but often loosely used to refer to various periods between the 18th century and the Victorian).

Dresses from the era of Jane Austen have always interested me, likely because of their simplicity compared to other styles of the past; in this time, women were actually able to wear something relatively comfortable! These light, high-waisted dresses were neoclassical, inspired by ancient Greek and Roman clothing, which I also find interesting, being a fan of that ancient era. "More comfortable" doesn't mean "easy", however! Fashion was still a very important thing and women, like the characters in Austen's books, had a great many kinds of dresses that they would wear throughout the day.

Some of the types of dresses that women like Austen's would wear throughout the day were morning dresses, afternoon dresses, walking dresses, riding habits and evening gowns.

Morning dresses were only worn around the home and were often older or made from older reused fabrics. These dresses were quite different from ones worn later in the day, having high necks and long sleeves and being plain. Here's an example I found on wiki of a dress like this from 1820:

Afternoon dresses differed from morning ones in that they were meant to be seen, but these also kept the chest/neck covered. During this time of day would be clothing for walking, riding and traveling. Here's a picture of riding dresses:

What I found somewhat strange (and rather amusing) while doing research on this subject was that the day dresses, which were never seen in public, were the ones that covered the most skin- but wearing those were considered a state of "undress" or "half dress". As far as I gathered, this doesn't have to do with the amount of clothing, but because the evening wardrobe was more complete and elaborate.

Speaking of evening gowns, here's a description from the wiki page: Evening gowns were often extravagantly trimmed and decorated with lace, ribbons, and netting. They were cut low and sported short sleeves, baring bosoms. Bared arms were covered by long white gloves.

Enough talk- onto some pretties! Here's a gallery of dresses from the time of Jane Austen:

Do you have a favorite picture of Regency clothing? Feel free to share it in the comments. :)

I tried to keep this brief but there is a lot of information out there on Regency clothing. Here are some sites that I found incredibly informative:
http://www.rakehell.com/article.php?id=387&Title=Introduction-To-Regency-Dress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1795%E2%80%931820_in_fashion
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/undress-half-dress-full-dress-making-sense-of-it-all/
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/walking-dresses/

~~~~~~~
As a special gift connected to the celebration, please enjoy a complimentary download of a delightful work by Jane Austen:

Sense and Sensibility
About: Sense and Sensibility (1811) was Austen's first published novel, which she wrote under a pseudonym. She tells the story of two sisters - Elinor (sense) and Marianne Dashwood (sensibility). Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm, while her sister is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for a partner, but neither Elinor's reason nor Marianne's passion alone will help them find happiness. (More)
Download this book

Additional goodies available:

WIN this book at A Rather Lovely Soirée, offer open through November 4, 2011 (GMT). Book offer by vlogger Sable Caught, play to win this book by watching a quick Jane Austen quiz and replying with your answers. (Watch video)

WIN this book at Bookie Brunch, offer open through December 15, 2011.
About: When publisher Thomas Cadell declined an unsolicited manuscript offered to him by a Hampshire clergyman in 1797, he made one of the biggest mistakes in publishing history, for the manuscript was an early version of Pride and Prejudice, and the clergyman's daughter was destined to become one of the most recognizable names in literature... (More)

And, just for fun - find out which of Jane Austen's characters is most like you.

You might also have a nice time at another Jane event coming up this November:

INVITATION to Pemberley Ball, Nov. 14-19, 2011
You're also invited to another charming Jane Austen event, the annual Pemberley Ball, held every November and hosted by vvb32reads (@vvb32reads).

More information on Pemberley Ball Pre-event reading from Pride and Prejudice: Listen
Last season: The Party Scouts | Gallery of Gowns | Dance Card
RSVP: Reply to RSVP for this year's ball

Event production for A Rather Lovely Soirée by Random Magic Tour.
About Random Magic: Trailer | Print | Kindle

A Rather Lovely Soirée - Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 02:19:00 +0000

A Rather Lovely Soirée
for
Talk like Jane Austen Day
Event production by
Random Magic Tour
Sasha Soren (Random Magic)
Oct. 30, 2011

Shadow and Light
Being a video gallery of excellent Austen movie adaptations
Splash of our Worlds (@SplashOOWorlds)

Silk and Satin
Being a gallery of charming Regency gowns
Elbit Blog (@MeriGreenleaf)

Wit and Wisdom
Being a top 10 list of Jane Austen quotes
Tina's Book Reviews (@BooksAtTinas)

Screens and Pages
Being a video reading from Sense and Sensibility
Video channel: I Love Books (@Booklover_622)
Blog: The Book Addict (@christina_622)

Worldly and Otherworldy
Jane's Ghost
Being a sweet mystery related to that late worthy, the writer Jane Austen
vvb32reads (@vvb32reads)

Tea and Sweets
Being a visit to Jane Austen's home
The True Book Addict (@truebookaddict)
Note: Music here is auto-play but can be shut off, player is on right sidebar.

Ink and Pixels
Being a video reading of a Jane Austen work (excerpt)
Pre-event: Video reading from Sense and Sensibility
Video channel: Coffee and a Good Book
Blog: Inky Pages
Inky Pages (@InkyPages)

Past and Present
Divine Jane: Reflections on Austen
Being a video featurette on Jane Austen's literary influence
Songs and Stories (@LiederMadchen)

Quizzes and Quizzicality
Being a video quiz for Austen lovers (incl. goodies)
Video channel: Sable Caught
Sable Caught (Twitter N/A)
Event video hosted at Random Magic Tour - The Coven
Watch: Quizzes and Quizzicality

Travel and Translation
Being a photo gallery of Jane Austen lovers from around the world
El Salón de Té de Jane/Jane's Tea Room (@SalonJaneAusten)
Event video hosted at Random Magic Tour - The Coven

Audio and Artistry
Being a collection of audio book treats
Random Magic Tour - The Coven (@RandomMagicTour)

This event will arrive on October 30. In the meantime, please feel free to enjoy a pre-event reading from Sense and Sensibility by @InkyPages: Watch

*****More Jane! *****

WIN this book at Bookie Brunch, offer open through December 15, 2011.
About: When publisher Thomas Cadell declined an unsolicited manuscript offered to him by a Hampshire clergyman in 1797, he made one of the biggest mistakes in publishing history, for the manuscript was an early version of Pride and Prejudice, and the clergyman's daughter was destined to become one of the most recognizable names in literature... (More)

WIN this book at A Rather Lovely Soirée, offer open through November 4, 2011 (GMT). Book offer by vlogger Sable Caught, play to win this book by watching a quick Jane Austen quiz and replying with your answers. (Watch video)

INVITATION to Pemberley Ball, Nov. 14-19, 2011
You're also invited to another charming Jane Austen event, the annual Pemberley Ball, held every November and hosted by vvb32reads (@vvb32reads).

More information on Pemberley Ball Pre-event reading from Pride and Prejudice: Listen
Last season: The Party Scouts | Gallery of Gowns | Dance Card
RSVP: Reply to RSVP for this year's ball

Event production for A Rather Lovely Soirée by Random Magic Tour.
About Random Magic: Trailer | Print | Kindle

Art Update - insert joke about horns here

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:28:00 +0000

I can't take my horns seriously anymore thanks to my fiancé; whenever we're at a craft show, he inevitably breaks into salesman mode by proclaiming, "You look like a guy who could use a pair of horns!", then tossing "horny" jokes back and forth with the visitors to my table. So far it hasn't worked too well, despite Josh's charisma and the shininess of said horns. Guess most people are just too normal for fun costume bits, although they do get a blast out of cracking jokes with us!

Since it's almost Halloween, I've been listing lots of horns in my shops. Some have sold, but some are still listed. There is still a bit of time to get them before Halloween, but Tuesday would probably be the last day they'd get somewhere within the US on time.

Pink and Black Dragon Horns - Etsy and Artfire

Silver and Black Dragon Horns - Etsy and Artfire

Gold and Black Dragon Horns - Etsy and Artfire

And these horns are older ones, but figured I'd include them even though they've been listed for a while:

Orange and Black Horns - Etsy and Artfire

I had a few pairs that sold, but I can remake them (and I will at some point). These were purple, red, green, gold, blue and amber:

Like I said, I don't have all listed right now, but I can remake them- as well as making them in even more colors (hey, I love collecting glitters!). These are all about 3" tall, but I can do them in other designs, too. These blue curled ones were my biggest, these small purples the daintiest, these green curled ones the fairyiest and the green vines were my favorite. ;)

And as I was writing this post, I finished up a pair of horns for a friend- well, a friend's husband- who wanted a simple, short black pair with no shininess or frills. This is what I came up with:

I was having trouble getting the horns to really show up on my mannequin head, so figured I'd wear them. ;) These are much shorter at only about 1 3/4" tall, and I scratched and sanded them to make them rough and more natural (and manly, I suppose!) than my usual style.

I have so much fun making these things. Not a lot of art I do is messy, so I very much enjoy working with clays and glitters and powders on these.

Book Review - Greek Mythology for Teens

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:10:00 +0000

I received the book Greek Mythology for Teens: Classic Myths in Today's World by Zachary Hamby from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. This book caught my eye immediately when I saw it on the list of books up for requesting that month; I absolutely love Greek mythology and I have to say I was most definitely not disappointed with this book!

Every time I pulled this book out to read, my fiancé laughed at the title, but that is what this book is: a book on Greek mythology, targeted to teens. This is actually a textbook, complete with assignments and side lessons for students to think about, but don't let that stop you from reading this. Regardless of your age, this is a good book.

The book is arranged by chapters in a theme (for instance "Wisdom vs. Intelligence" and "Greed") and each chapter begins with a play based on a specific myth in the theme (Icarus for "Wisdom vs Intelligence" and King Midas for "Greed"). Following this are more in-depth explanations of specific myths within the theme, some modern-day examples of things related to the myths, and spaced throughout are blurbs about the different beings in Greek mythology. Also included are comic-like drawings of the different characters mentioned in the book, drawn by the author. I think this really added to the book and will appeal to the target audience- and probably anyone, since I liked the drawings, too, and I'm definitely no longer a teen. This book is written in a way that's easy to understand, but still interesting and educational. As I said, I'm a big fan of Greek mythology so I already knew most of these stories, but I still learned from this and I enjoyed hearing how the author put his own spin on the tales, then expanded on each of the themes following that.

I'm going to give this book five stars out of five. It does exactly what it's supposed to do, which is be interesting to younger readers (or at least I think it would be!) and would hopefully get them to seek out the actual myths and stories, but it also will appeal to older audiences, as well, assuming they like their mythology with a side of humor. I know I do!

As an aside, I have to say that I was very happy to see a section involving Icarus since out of all mythological characters, he's my favorite non-deity. I broke out in a huge grin when I saw the author's drawing of him and Daedalus at the start of the "Wisdom vs. Intelligence" chapter.

Art Update - Sneak peek at some plushies, clay things and earrings

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:20:00 +0000

I'll blog about the costume stuff I've been working on in a different post, but here I wanted to share some of the other random things I've been making.

Plushies:
I've been working on a doll of Meren, one of my writing/D&D characters:

She's actually more finished than this now (and since her paint's dry, her hair is now loose and she does in fact have a shirt finally), but I haven't taken a picture yet. I'll do that soon!

I also made another plushie, but that's going in my costume blog post next because well, it's for a costume. Here's a peek as I was working on it, though:

Clay:

Testing out some new stamps that I recently got on some pendants for necklaces, but also am working on a pair of simple black dragon horns for a friend (those'll be posted in a different blog post), a stamp made out of clay (a Triforce, if it works!), and that pendant at the bottom right is part of the costume that gets the mouse plushie (also will be in a later post). That was my first try baking glass in with clay and I think it worked!

Here's a look at some of the pendants after I was finished with them:

I love making these things because I get to make a mess with clay and the pearl-ex powders- that's what I use to change the clay from black to colored. :)

Book:

My elfsister still has my copy of "Wreck This Journal", but I decided to try out another book by the same author since a different friend is going to be doing this one. Not sure if I'll like "Finish This Book" as much as the WTJ since it has more of a story and directions that you have to follow, but we'll see. I do like how it keeps telling you to go outdoors and do stuff, so I'm thinking I might want to share this book with my fiancé, who also enjoys this kind of thing.

Cartilage Earrings:
Not a week goes by where I don't make cartilage earrings of some sort. Here's my latest pile:

Most of these are remakes of ones that sold, but two at the bottom are brand new. Pictures of those soon!

Art Update - New styles of cartilage chain earrings!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:53:00 +0000

Jewelry time! I've been making a lot of costume stuff lately, but I've also been working on my usual chainmaille and cartilage earrings, too. This month I came up with two new styles of cartilage chain earrings that I'm definitely going to be making more of. It's always good to try new things!

Cartilage earrings:
To start, here are the new styles. This first one is a regular chain earring, but it has three dangles instead of just the one from the lobe. For this first try, I decided on leaves (yay, leaves!).

Green and Brown Connecting Leaf Cartilage Chain Earring - Etsy and Artfire

The other new style I think I'm going to call a "reverse cartilage chain earring" since the dangle is from the cartilage, not the lobe. Here's my first in that style:

Silver and Red Heart Reverse Cartilage Chain Earring - Etsy and Artfire

This month I also had a few custom orders for cartilage chain earrings. I just love getting to make these custom since it gives me ideas I hadn't thought of before. Fun!

This one was for an awesome customer who wanted a sky-themed earring:

Blue and White Pegasus Connecting Cartilage Chain Ear Cuff

These were for someone who wanted a pair with very long lobe dangles in earthy colors:

Green, Brown and Orange Pair of Cartilage Chain Earrings

And these were a pair of chain earrings that connected between two lobe posts rather than connecting up to the cartilage, with a double chain. (That was the first time I'd done a double chain at the lobe- I like it!)

Red and Black Double Lobe Connecting Chain Earrings

Also remade some older earrings recently. I ran out of the original goddess charms so had to make it with a new one:

Green and Silver Celtic Goddess Cartilage Chain Ear Cuff - Etsy and Artfire

And I changed up the beads and the color green on the chain of this earring:

Sea Blue and Green Double Cartilage Chain Earring - Etsy and Artfire

I'll share my chainmaille in a different post. :)

Art Update - Let down your hair...falls (Dreadfalls!)

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:50:00 +0000

Dreadfalls are a lot of fun to make, but I never seem to get around to making them nearly often enough! I did spin up some yarn earlier this year to use on them, but I think the only pair I've made since then are the mermaid set below, and those were actually with a different of my handspun blues. Note to self: make more dreadfalls!

These were made a while ago, I mean, but I hadn't gotten pictures of them yet, so I figured it was time to share. ;) The first two are Halloween/goth ones (I love the skulls in them!) and the other is more of a Summer color scheme. All are made from yarn (the blue pair has some of my handspun) and some with ribbon and are attached to elastic hair ties.

Orange, Black and Grey Halloween Dreadfalls - Etsy and Artfire

Black and White Skull Falls - Etsy and Artfire

Blue and Purple Mermaid Dreadfalls - Etsy and Artfire

Whenever I get around to making more, I'll share those, too. :)

Trove Thursday - Magical Mermaids

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:24:00 +0000

'Magical Mermaids' by merigreenleaf

Here are some of the lovely aquatic items in the current FAEteam exhibition "Siren Song". You can find the exhibition here. You can find more items from the Fantasy Artists of Etsy by searching faeteam on Etsy.

Octo-Femme Mermaid ... BunnyKissd $17.00	Aine- Lady Of The L... rainwaterstudi... $36.00	OOAK Original Artwo... phoenixartstud... $55.00	Beach Wedding Hair ... mermaidencreat... $25.00
Seahorse Bracelet tangocatgems $58.00	Sea Diamond - OOAK ... fairymermaid $35.00	Wire Crochet Neckla... FaerieKat $35.00	American Mermaid an... aquariann $3.00
Rock Pool - fantasy... deannabachart $12.00	Three Fates Art Big... juliafinucane $12.99	The Ocean's Emb... Never4gottenFa... $25.00	Beaded Mermaid Pend... beadmask $34.00
Luminescent bead an... ShambleRamble $13.00	OOAK Faerie Mermaid... JordanRou $75.00	Infant fairy wings ... OnGossamerWing... $25.00	Mermaid Whiskers, B... faeriefeelers $26.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

This treasury features items in the current FAEteam exhibition "Siren Song".

Click the pictures to go to the listings for the items. :) You can visit this treasury on Etsy by clicking the title above the blurb or click here.

Here's a list of who's who since the tiny font is hard to read. I featured:
BunnyKissd, rainwaterstudios, phoenixartstudio, mermaidencreations, tangocatgems, fairymermaid, FaerieKat, aquariann, deannabachart, juliafinucane, Never4gottenFantasy, beadmask, ShambleRamble, JordanRou, OnGossamerWings and faeriefeelers

Book Review- Imperial Hostage

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:45:00 +0000

I haven't done a book review in months and months, have I? But since it's a requirement to review LibraryThing Early Reviewer books, I won't procrastinate on this one. ;)

The book I received this time is Imperial Hostage by Phil Cantrill. Here's the description from the back cover:
From the moment 12-year-old Prince Erechtheus docks in Poseidia, capital of the Empire, to be a hostage for 13 years, nothing in his life is easy - or safe.

An unexpected and foreboding prophecy, uttered by a blind seer, puts the prince immediately in the crosshairs of Al-Jinn, the powerful and paranoid High Priest from the Temple of Bel. In a fit of perverse desperation, Al-Jinn and several other priests ravenously abuse Erech before placing him on an altar for ritual sacrifice to Lord Bel. Only last-minute intervention from Kul-Kan, High Priest of the rival Temple of One, saves the prince from a gruesome fate. At the Temple of One, although he remains a hostage, Erech is befriended by others his age as they are all educated in the Empire's arts and sciences. The Temple offers relative sanctuary, but the prince is repeatedly attacked. He survives with the help of his new-found friends and hand-to-hand combat training from Myriné, heir-apparent to the Queen of the Amazons.

Erech gains exceptional fighting skills and an understanding of the natural world as he matures, but he suffers a series of crippling, heart-breaking losses - most as a result of the many attempts on his life. At the twilight of his captivity as a hostage, the 25-year-old prince encounters one last trial, a trial that could very well lead to war between his native land and the Empire.

Now onto the review. This was a book that was a bit slow to get into at first; from the beginning we're thrown in with a group of evil priests who kidnap and try to harm the main character, who at the time was a kid. This was... jarring, to say the least, especially since it was in the same chapter as events happening elsewhere to a different character. I stuck with it, though, and soon the book really did pick up and the plot lines all tied together. The evil priests were still the antagonists, but the hero prevails, although at some cost.

The only real problem I had with the book was the names. Ye gads, I couldn't recall who anyone was because most of them had short, hyphenated names. Thank goodness there was a glossary in the back, but I don't really like having to keep flipping back to that as I read. Eventually I just started going by context to figure out who was who. I just wish the author had developed some of the characters more; I think that would have helped with my inability to remember names. The main ones were pretty well developed, but the secondary ones could have used a bit more fleshing out.

This is a young adult book, but there are some things a bit iffy about that which might bother younger readers. It's pretty much inferred that the protagonist was raped as a child. There's also a lot of mention of sex, which surprised me in a YA book.

Overall, though, I really did enjoy this book! The story was good, it was well-written, and the characters were interesting even if some of them weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked. I enjoyed the fact that the book spanned about thirteen years because it was neat getting to see the main characters grow up and face different challenges. The author did well at letting the reader know just how much time had passed, which is good because that could have been a confusing problem.

I'll stick with this series and read the next one when it comes out. I'll give this 4 stars out of 5. I think the author definitely has great potential; this is his first published book, so I'm thinking the next will be even better.

Craft show time!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:42:00 +0000

This weekend (3rd-5th) I'll be at the Granite Run Mall in Media, PA. This runs during mall hours all three days, so I think it's 10am-9:30pm on Saturday and Monday, and 11am-6pm Sunday. I'm pretty sure this is the lower level of the mall, and is usually towards the center court. If you live near Delaware County, stop by!

Next weekend (the 11th) I'll be at Delaware County Community College (DCCC) in Media, PA for an outdoor flea market. This one runs from 9am-4pm. This was supposed to be last Sunday, but the hurricane rained us out. Fingers crossed for better weather here!

I'll have more shows coming up soon, too, but these are the next ones. :)

In preparation, I've been making tons of jewelry and art this week. My latest are clay pendant necklaces, chainmaille necklaces and dragon horns. Here's a quick peek at them:

My tables at craft shows are always colorful, if nothing else! ;)

Hurricane, hurricane, go away!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:23:00 +0000

Good ol' Hurricane Irene is going to be heading through my area later tonight, so I'm expecting to be without reliable power and internet access for a few days. I put my friend on the west coast on check-in duty, so she'll be posting to my plurk, FB, etc for me, should the power not be on here for a few days. (Thanks, sis! Loves ya!)

My neighborhood is always one of the last to get power back on and it goes off even without reason (lost it for 5 hours while it was sunny the other day...), so not so optimistic about it getting put back on in a timely manner. :-/ However, my fiancé's parents' house rarely loses power for long (he's about 45 minutes away from here), so I'll likely be over there for as long as the power is out here in Media. Hoping this means I won't be entirely without internet access and power for long! (This is one of those times I really wish I could afford to have a smart phone...)

Fingers crossed everything goes well here in the Philly 'burbs and that everyone on the east coast stays safe! Good luck, everyone- be smart, and we'll get through this fine!

Edit: 6:30pm Sunday
We really lucked out in the area- we were in a tornado watch area and they were spotted nearby, I think (from what I could tell from the radio news), but they stayed away from us. We lost power and cable for a while, but for the first time EVER after a storm, it came back within 12 hours. I don't get it- it goes out longer for no reason. I guess because more people were out than just the neighborhood we were higher up on PECO's priority list. ;) But hey, won't complain! The cable's been flickering in and out all day, so I'm not going to call my internet connection reliable yet, but the winds have finally stopped, so that should be fine, too.

I'm just so glad the storm stayed mostly away from here! Our basement flooded a bunch and my dad and my fiance were up all night using shop vacs (hooked up to generators as the power went off and on at different times), but they did well and kept out as much water as they could. It's fine now. :)

I just hope most people were as lucky as us!

Art Update - Plushie time!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:03:00 +0000

Umm, yeah, my blog. I had one of those at one point, didn't I? And I used to actually update it regularly, I think. ;)

Today I'm sharing some of the plushies I've made recently... although some are from earlier this year, so I suppose that's not really "recent".

First up is a Dumbseeker. This is from the Henry Hatsworth video game, like the horde of plushies I've made over the past few years.

It's rather strange looking, but it's supposed to look like that. ;) It's about 6" tall and made from acrylic and bamboo/wool yarns and felt (the mouth). It's filled with stuffing, but also pellets to make it floppier.

Next up is Illia, a D&D half-elf bard played by one of my best friends. This was a present for her earlier this year:

She's mostly made from acrylic yarn, but I used felt for the straps of the quiver and the harp. The longbow, harp and sword-in-scabbard are polymer clay that I painted with acrylic paints. She has a tiny plastic star that I painted to look like a flower glued to her head (to look like she has a flower tucked behind her ear).

Now another present. This one was a very very late birthday present for my best friend; it's supposed to be her favorite wrestler:

As I know nothing about wrestling, I based this off of pictures online. Hopefully I got it close! I painted little crosses onto his shorts and shoes with fabric paint, painted his mouth, eyebrows and facial hair, and painted the eyes. The body and hair are acrylic yarn and the axe is polymer clay.

And two more! These were for a writing/art challenge over on livejournal and are two of the characters from another author's story:

You can find the story here and see the scenes I put together with the dolls over on my livejournal. Here's my favorite of those pictures, so I'll share that:

The boy doll has two tiny books that I sewed together from linen and leather fabrics and the girl has a tiny chain and bead necklace. I really enjoyed making the girl's pants because in the story a plot point is the character turning a skirt into pants, so I made those wider than usual.

I've been working on a few other dolls, too, so I'll share those later. :)

Art Update - Mario Bros and D&D plushies

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:41:00 +0000

This has also been Crazy Plushie Making Month... although it's rapidly turning into Summer Plushie Making Madness. I finished six and am working on two more for a art/writing challenge I'm in by next month and another for an order (will blog those soon!), and have two I want to make for myself at some point. And there's still one I need to start for a friend's order and another (or two) for another friend's birthday... *swims around in yarn, doll eyes and stuffing*

First up are the Mario Bros fire and ice flowers I made my friend's son for his birthday:

Not so happy with the eyes on the fire one; my paint got all runny in the humidity and was difficult to work with. I'd made that design before, but this time I didn't make the box below it. One of these days I'd like to create a pattern for this in a larger size- didn't have time this month, so had to work with a pattern I'd found on Ravelry.

Next up is the kobold plushie I made of Whiffy, my fiancé's "Dungeons and Dragons" character. I don't have a good picture of this one yet (gave it to Josh before we had a chance to make Whiffy's dagger), but here's my fiancé making the same face as the kobold:

And I'll share this picture, too, because it not only makes me giggle, it shows the kobold I made Josh last year and a few goblins in the background:

I'll get a better picture of El Whiffo later, now that his dagger is made.

I recently finished three for someone who wanted plushies for her rpg group. This made me very happy because I don't get to make D&D-style plushies nearly often enough! First I sketched out the design for them:

(Changed it up some- gave the middle one longer hair and switched the hand the sword was in, for one thing.)

Then I got to work. Here's a peek at what they looked like as I was working on them:

And here they are finished:

I'm really happy with these! :D Two of the ones I'm working on at the moment are for a fantasy story, so they fall into the realm of D&D-type dolls, too. Yay! I'll share those soon.

Art Update - Too many cartilage earrings!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:37:00 +0000

I'm all sorts of terribly behind with blogging, huh? I have been working on art, though, so I'll just jump into that. Today I'll share jewelry (ooo, shinies!).

I had a few custom orders this past month for cartilage earrings. (I love custom orders- if you're interested, contact me via my shops on Artfire or Etsy.)

First was for the Fire Dragon cartilage chain earring, but with an ear cuff and in colors to match this gothic chainmaille heart necklace. This is what I came up with:

These kinds of earrings always look strange on my mannequin, though; her ear is smaller than life-sized, so the chain always looks like it dangles too low and the cuff won't fit on her right. I swear an earring like this looks fine on a human ear; I wear this style all the time. :)

I also had a set of four custom earrings for an awesome customer who has two lobe piercings in both ears and also a cartilage in the one:

These all have sterling silver posts. Three are remakes of designs I'd done before and that silver leaf one is brand new. She wanted something that would work with any outfit and those definitely fit the bill!

And here was a very simple coin dangle ear cuff that someone requested:

I also listed a new, summertime ear cuff in my shops:

"Summer Seahorse" Cartilage Ear Cuff - on Etsy and Artfire

And it's not jewelry, but it is beaded, so I'll share it here. I also listed another "Dungeons and Dragons" inspired geeky keychain that I'd finished a while ago:

"Blue and Silver Cleric Keychain" - on Etsy and Artfire
I tried out a new material here and used thicker wire than I usually do; this will make the keychains a lot sturdier. I think I may redo some of the other ones I have made; the downside is that I only have the wire in silver-colored.

It's inspired by Apollo, one of the important gods in my D&D game's world. Normally I'm all about Hermes, playing a cleric of that deity, but I figured Apollo would make for a much more general and generic D&D keychain because who besides me wants feathers and whoopee cushions on one? ;)

My "Wreck this Journal" is still on the west coast, so look for another Adventure post at some point in the near future. We're continuing the LotR drawing theme for July, too.

Elfsisters' Art Adventures, Week 9 - Throwing fire and drawing hobbits

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:34:00 +0000

Adventure time! Our books are still in incorrect locations, so our schedules are a bit wonky here. Ruthie currently has both books now to make up for the fact that last week I had both. ;) Our task with the swap was to do each other's "ask a friend to do something destructive to this page. Don't look" page. Since we're on opposite sides of the country, not watching wasn't a problem. ;)

To start, I colored her page in with lots of colored pencils and crossed out "friend" to write "elfsister".

That wasn't destructive enough. Nope! With very little convincing, I was able to get my fiancé Josh to join in:

(Hi, Josh!)

Why so easy to get him to play? FIRE, of course! Neither he nor Ruthie have the "burn this page" page that I have in my WTJ (they have later editions), so this gave Josh a chance for some pyrotechnics and for Ruthie to have a slightly charred book:

After dousing it with water, then setting the bottom on fire, then hitting it with more water, it eventually looked like this:

I wasn't done with her WTJ yet, though! I decided to do for her much like I did for Josh's book. I found her "hide a secret message somewhere in this book" page and followed that instruction, leaving her a message on her "page of good thoughts":

I know we usually do things in Elvish (see the numbers at the bottom of her pages?) but Old English is my favorite odd language, so I left part of the message in that. (I'm not at all fluent, but someday I'll be!)

Then I left her a message saying I did so:

Hopefully she'll find the message before seeing this blog post. ;)

Down to the wire, but I did get something LotR drawn this month for our monthly drawing challenge! Well, sorta. It's actually from The Hobbit. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, but my favorite Middle Earth thing is that book, probably because I had it read to me as a child, so I've loved it the longest.

My favorite scenes all involve Mirkwood (surprising no one), and my very favorite part is probably the "Barrels Out of Bond" chapter, so I chose to sketch that:

This isn't a particularly polished drawing, hence why I'm considering it a sketch; I'd like to draw this out better on larger paper (my sketchbook is tiny) and do a much better job with the background and everything. Basically all that green is just a placeholder for when I work on something better. :) I just had a lot of fun drawing barrels although I know the perspectives are off. I really should have added more barrels, too, because if I remember right there are a few more barrels than dwarves (I did draw a few extra, though). And yeah, Bilbo should be invisible, but where's the fun in that? ;)

I still have other ideas of things I want to draw from that book, so at some point I'll do that.

Want to join the art adventure?
Ruthie and I would love to have you along on our art adventures! If you want to know more, check out out this post and if you're playing along, feel free to join our flickr group. Each week we do a different WTJ page and every month is a new drawing challenge.

Like I said, we're both behind with our books, so there isn't going to be a WTJ page assigned this week yet. July is scheduled to be a new drawing challenge theme, but personally I wouldn't mind extending the LotR one because I only got one thing worked on, and that was at the tail end of the month.

Time for my birthday sale!

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:05:00 +0000

Once again I'm running a sale for my birthday in my Artfire shop! I'll be ~~559, wait that's my Elfling age~~ 28 on June 30th, so the sale is a good one! It's 28% off everything in my shop, not including custom dolls. :)

All you have to do is enter 28BIRTHDAY when checking out and it'll adjust the price. Easy as pie! (And now I want pie...)

SAVE 28.00 % On
All Items

Use Coupon Code:

28BIRTHDAY

Normally I run a giveaway along with this sale, but because of the headaches and glasses issues I talked about I'm really behind with everything, so I just wouldn't be able to get something made for the winner in a timely manner. I'll aim to do a giveaway later this year to make up for it, I think. :)

Elfsisters' Art Adventures, Week 8 - Waitin' on the post office. twiddles thumbs

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:31:00 +0000

'Tis week 8 of the Elfsisters' Art Adventures! This is actually a very short post because we're waiting on the post office. I've already gotten Ruthie's book and destroyed a page in it and sent it back, but she hasn't gotten mine yet. And since she hasn't gotten hers back yet, either, I don't want to blog it until she can see it in person.

So here's just a peek. This is Ruthie's book when I got it:

I have to say, hers is GROSS. It had chocolate or something squirting out of it, and I had to be careful how I carried this so it wouldn't get on anything. I already asked her not to do anything food with mine. I know I'll have to do food in mine eventually, but that kind of thing really grosses me out, so I'm going to use non-sticky/squirty foods in mine! ;)

And here's my book:

This isn't actually how I mailed it, though- I was going to, but the post office has been misplacing my packages (grumblegrumble), so I actually had my fiancé mail my book at the same time I mailed Ruthie's back to her, and he put them both in a box. Saved postage and it's not like I could really afford to buy us both new books if they got lost, ya know?

If it wasn't obvious, my color of choice is green. Ruthie's is purple. :)

And here are our books together:

I thought this was neat because even though Ruthie is one of my bestest friends, I haven't been able to meet her in person yet (we're on two different sides of the country), but our journals have hung out. I'm amused that we have vines on the same side, although mine are also on the top. Her name's flipped from mine, but the books are facing the same way, I think.

Next week I'll blog the page I destroyed in her book (as well as a secret message I put in it. Shhhh!). ;)

And STILL haven't drawn anything for the LotR challenge. I feel so bad about that because LotR is my favorite thing ever, but I just haven't had a chance. :( I'll really try this week, though! I've been itching to draw something from the "Barrels out of Bonds" chapter from The Hobbit, so we'll see for next week. With all The Hobbit news going on, I want to do stuff from that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to join the art adventure?
Ruthie and I would love to have you along on our art adventures! If you want to know more, check out out this post and if you're playing along, feel free to join our flickr group. Each week we do a different WTJ page and every month is a new drawing challenge.

Did you join us this week?
Below is the link list/blog hop thingy. Did you do the Lord of the Rings June challenge and/or the WTJ "mail" page? You have until Tuesday (the 28th) to blog about either challenge (or both), then come back here and add your name and the link to your blog post.

The Next WTJ Challenge
I'm not assigning a page in the WTJ since Ruthie and I still don't have our books, and I have no idea if Josh and Diana have swapped yet- probably not. So look for the next challenge on Ruthie's blog next Wednesday (the 29th) or so for the next WTJ page.

But hey, don't forget the Lord of the Rings drawing challenge runs until the end of the month!

Elfsisters' Art Adventures, Week 7 - Fun with a funnel

noreply@blogger.com (Meri Greenleaf) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:13:00 +0000

Hooray, it's week 7 of the Elfsisters' Art Adventures! This week we mailed out our journals (I'm swapping with Ruthie for a short time and my fiancé is swapping with my friend Diana) but before doing so did the "Make a funnel, drink some water" page so we had something to blog about this week (next week we'll blog the mail page). And can I say, this one was messy and fun! Or, rather, it was messy for me, but not for Josh- he took the more boring route.

This was taken before it became a cup- it's all pretty and normal-looking still. On it I drew two wonky beach balls (one looks like an Easter egg because apparently I'd forgotten how to draw a beach ball), two rubber ducks, a toy sail boat, lots of water drops, and my fiancé drew a water elemental (that wave looking thing). You know, aquatic things- er... minus the accidental Easter egg. LOL!

I used washable crayola markers in the hope that I could have some fun with that. And it worked out exactly like I wanted it to: messy and colors all over my hands.

This was as I started to drink from the cup- as you can see, it immediately sprung a leak from the bottom.

Sipping from the cup lasted all of about three seconds before it completely broke apart in my hands. And then proceeded to leak marker all over me. As an artist who usually has her hands and clothing covered in art supplies, this was fun and par for the course. ;) In hindsight, I should have waited for the marker to dry before taping it and filling it with water, but I've never been known for my patience.

This is the funnel when it was mostly dry- as you can see, the washable marker did smear like crazy and I had to use a paper towel to sop it up so it wouldn't stain everything around me. I don't mind my hands being odd colors, but I figured my fiancé's mom wouldn't want her kitchen counter blue. ;)

And here's the funnel flattened and taped back into the book. It was actually really easy to make flat again; the tape had mostly unstuck as I was drinking from it, so it wanted to go back to flat on its own.

The one rubber duck I drew you can still see, and the wonky beach balls are kinda visible, but the bottom duck and the water elemental are almost completely smeared. It's hard to see, but the first few letters in "Make" and "Funnel" ended up over top of that lower yellow blob that was once a ducky.

All in all, lots of smearing and blurring, which was exactly what I was hoping for! :D My fiancé drank out of his cup before doing anything to it- I thought that was rather boring, but be said he didn't want to drink marker. Sheesh, there wasn't much marker that got into the water while I was drinking it, and it's just crayolas.

I've found that Josh is taking a much different approach to his Wreck This Journal than I am. Where I'm trying to make it as colorful and randomly artsy as possible, he's just doing what he can to wreck it and plans to have no book left over when he's done. Which I know is the point, but I'd like to be able to keep this journal (hence why I'm not putting food into it like he is; I know there's a food page, but even for that I'm not going to use anything sticky. I can't keep a book if it attracts bugs!) and to me, just having it fall apart isn't fun. I want color and lots of it! Then a way to keep that color so I still have it in the future, ya know? I'm making a mess, but not so sure if I'm wrecking. Maybe I needed more of a "Mess This Journal" or "Smear this journal in too many art supplies". Heh.

And crud, I still didn't get anything Lord of the Rings done for our June drawing challenge yet! Don't worry, though- I really really want to do something for my dad for father's day, so I'll have something LotR next week. And if it helps my case any, I did also take my dad to see "Fellowship of the Ring" at the theater Tuesday night for an early father's day present. So I did get my fill of LotR this week! ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to join the art adventure?
Ruthie and I would love to have you along on our art adventures! If you want to know more, check out out this post and if you're playing along, feel free to join our flickr group. Each week we do a different WTJ page and every month is a new drawing challenge.

This week Ruthie is going to be hosting the WTJ page and you'll be able to find the page we'll be doing next on her blog soon. If you're joining us, you'll be able to drop off your blog link there for your "funnel" page (or the LotR drawing challenge) once she gets that post up.