Sparkles and Sticks

.new flowers in bloom.

There are some new flowers in the garden...

I love making these Secret Garden inspired journals- it's so much fun!  There are lots more in the shop...

.i want to be a robot.

Hi gals!  Apparently I needed to take a week long break from blogging.  But I am back now, ready to celebrate more crafty and monstrous cuteness!  Let's start with Polka Dot Robot .  Isn't it the cutest shop you've ever seen?

These are my favorite items in their shop right now:

Garden Party Beret

Herbie the Horriffic

.how to come up with a good scary story.

Below the bold title just a few lines down is the second post I wrote on my first blog back in 2006.  Word for word.  I felt inspired to post it because I was talking to a teenager the other night, and she was telling me about how her favorite philosopher (from the era they were studying in class) was Mary Wollstonecraft.  I had to rush on and explain how she was kind of the grandma of the Romantics family tree, and then tell my favorite story about my favorite period in literature.

So without further ado, here is the story:

When Would You Go? The Summer of 1816

Bryan Adams may sentimentally croon about the first real six string he bought in the summer of ’69 and Jay Gatsby can spend all the time he wants reaching desperately towards a green light on the other side of the shore, but if I could go back in time, I would visit Geneva, Switzerland in 1816. Granted, 1969 would probably come in a close second if I could visit Height-Ashbury, but 1816 still gets the number one slot, hands down.

The weather in Switzerland in the summer of 1816 was very weird. At first everyone was enjoying nice sunny summer weather, but then a volcano in Indonesia erupted and they were suddenly subject to stormy, depressing, eerie, and England-in-the-winter-esque storms. The change in weather was only appropriate, considering the gothic events that were about to transpire.

Mary Shelley, her stepsister Claire Clairmont, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Byron’s physician John Polidori were staying in the Geneva District, an area that many people considered to be a sacred area of enlightenment. On the evening of the 16th the weather proved too awful to safely travel home, so the crew stayed at the Villa Diodoti, the home Byron had rented for the summer. They spent the evening reading German ghost stories aloud, and at the end of the evening Byron challenged everyone in the room to a scary story writing contest. The next evening they gathered again. Percy Shelley shared a story that no one seemed to care enough about to remember and Byron wrote a short bit that he never expanded on, but Polidori wrote the beginnings of The Vampyre, the first modern day vampire story. Mary Shelley did not write anything just then. Several emotions were stewing inside her, feelings of guilt were haunting her and she was depressed about her inability to have a baby, but she could not articulate those feelings into a story just then.

The next night, Lord Byron gave a reading of Coleridge’s haunting poem, Christobel. Percy Shelley became so frightened that he began seeing the villaness’s face transposed on his wife’s face, and he ran screaming from the room. I think this event alone deserves time travel, by the way. I’d love to sniff around and see if there were any other reasons, other than sheer terror, that made Shelley hallucinate so dramatically.

Finally, a week or so later, Shelley had a dream in which a student had created a creature. She wrote in her diary, “I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life…” The next morning she woke up and wrote the first few lines of Frankenstein.

I am a huge fan of Gothic Literature and Romantic Literature, and the events that transpired during that week and a half period in the summer of 1816 had an influence on both of these literary genres. I also love the dynamic of this group of legendary writers. I think the best way to observe these events would to be from a sort of Romantic/Gothic writer Band Aid: a lucky girl who was somehow invited to hang out with her stars for the summer.

.if vampires get to go to heaven...

This is what it will look like:

(cred.)

And he will be there too,

otherwise its only a faux heaven.

.my creative hero- joss whedon.

(photo cred.)

Not to get too fan girl on you or anything, but Joss Whedon* sort of changed my life last year.

*For all you weirdos who live in a cave in Pylea and don't know, Joss is the the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and now Dollhouse.  He has a ridiculously loyal fanbase and makes amazing shows that people still talk about years after they have gone off the year.  Proof: this blog post.

Well, to be fair, it actually kind of started with Twilight .  *ducks rotten tomatoes that people are throwing at me right now.*  Last summer I spent just about a whole week lounging on our back porch, drinking red wine, and reading the entire series of the Twilight books.  They sucked me in the way that any good vampire seduces his victims.  And after I had finished all four books I was requesting "More vampires, please."

The only other vampire story I could think of was Buffy, so I added it to my Netflix queue and began watching.  I almost stopped requesting more discs after the episode where Xander is seduced by a demonic bug teacher (there is this scene where she eats a bug sandwich and bugs totally gross me out) but I decided to recognize my severe aversion to bugs, not watch that episode again, and keep on keeping on with Buffy stories.

After that, Buffy kind of took over my life, for lots of reasons.  I was living in a new area and everyone I knew (besides the people I lived with) lived at least 30 minutes away.  It was dark and wintry, so there wasn't much opportunity to go outside.  I was making all my Christmas presents, so I spent a lot of time sitting in the house bent over needles and yarn, and Buffy offered some company.  But most importantly, this was a time in my life where I needed a really, really good form of escapism.  The wit, impossible romances, deamons that are nearly impossible to kill, and the way that the last few sounds of the show always carried over into the first note of the credits (cliffhanger-like), kept me hidden from my own problems just fine.  And yes, a certain tortured British immortal  who likes to call himself "The Big Bad" helped too. : )

After I finished watching all the Buffy DVD's (and then bought them and watched them all again), I knew I had a new taste in stories.  I sought out modern fantasy, fairy tales, and scifi.  Whether they were books, movies, or tv shows, I wanted those stories.  And as I consumed those stories, their influence spilled over into my own creative work.  I started making vampire journals, slayer stuff, and monster toys that come with their own clever little stories.  Virtually every thing I made was magic inspired.

So, that's why Joss Whedon is one of my creative heroes.  His addictive and rich talent for storytelling opened me up to a whole world that I am drawing endless inspiration from.

.feetsies.

My grandpa and my feet at Bev's funeral.

(photo a day for September 16)

.mermaids.

I love mermaids.

That's all.  Have a nice Thursday. : )

.creative heroes- tim gunn.

Who doesn't adore Tim Gunn?

Tim Gunn is one of my creative heroes is because of his approach to mentoring the creative process.  He manages to draw the designer's attention to aspects of their work that he thinks need attention without crushing their spirits or destroying their vision for that piece. 

And his mantra: "Make it work" is excellent advice for anyone with a creative soul.  After all, don't we come up with some of our best work when we have to make do with limited resources? 

.my creative hero- tom hanks.

Tom Hanks is not just one of my creative heroes, he is kind of an ultimate hero of mine.  I have been watching his movies ever since I was a little kid and have thought of him sort of as my favorite uncle that lived only in movies.  I have never heard anyone say anything bad about him (whether in magazines, reports from other actors, or fans who were lucky enough to get to meet him): his reputation as a great actor and great person is impeccable.

The reason I view him as a creative hero?  He uses his creativity to tell important stories.  

To remember important people.

And he makes some fun movies too. : )

 

What is your favorite Tom Hanks movie?

.photo a day catch up.

.september 9.

.september 10.

.september 11.

.september 12.

.september 13.

.september 14.