Creativity, Crafts, Books, Movies, Greyhounds & Favorite Things

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How do you decide what to read?

They say “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” but that’s exactly what I do when I stroll through a bookstore.  Here are some other ways I pick my next read.

Magazines – Bookmarks is my favorite magazine about books.  They give in-depth reviews, interview and survey writers (old and new), look at best books in specific categories/subject matter and much more; and you can get reading guides on their website.

Books – I love to read books about books.  A good one for picking your next read is Book Lust:  Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl.  She creatively links books in almost 200 categories like, “Action Heroines,” “China Voices,” “The Moon’s My Destination,” and “What a Trial that Was!”

Blogs – S. Krishna’s Books is my favorite book blog.  She give a summary, a review and a rating.  Swapna’s site is easy to navigate and the review database is excellent.  You can also search her site by book title.

Book Clubs – This is my favorite way to get out of your comfort zone.  Whether it’s a club you attend or a club like Oprah’s Book Club, read what’s selected whether you think you’ll like it or not.  I guarantee you’ll be surprised at what you get out of it.  I’ve been a member of the Eclectic Women’s Book Club since 2006.  We meet on the third Monday of every month (except December) at Barnes and Noble, Mishawaka, IN.  The picture is from 2007; for me, several hairstyles ago.

Community Initiatives – I’m new to this idea but I like it!  One Book, One Michiana is a program to get the whole community reading and talking about the same book.  Fun fact:  Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust, was the first person to promote the idea of a community reading the same book, at the same time and discussing it.

I love reading!  How do you pick books to read?  I would LOVE to hear your ideas and stories.

What happens when you’re young and you do something but don’t fully understand the far-reaching ramifications.  That and how we atone for our sins is what drives the story in Atonement by Ian McEwan.  If you love beautiful language and unforgettable characters, this is a must-read.

The book gives you beautiful words, the movie gives you beautiful images.  Atonement was nominated for seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) in 2007.  Atonement won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Ordinary People was Robert Redford’s directorial debut.  It is a story of how a family adjusts to tragedy, and it is a taut yet sensitive portrayal of suppressed emotion and the masks we wear.  It deals with an extreme circumstance, but the uncomfortable family dynamics will be familiar to almost anyone with a family.  The film is simple yet complex…like families of ordinary people.  Ordinary People won the Academy Award in 1980 for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

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Inspiration:

The Goodey Knot – Buttonniere

Supplies:

Buttons

Wire (I used 24 gauge green florist wire)

Wire Cutters

Glue

Green Excelsior

Clay Pot

1.  Arrange the buttons into flowers.  Cut wire for each flower.  I cut my lengths about 12″ long.

2.  Using the wire like thread, assemble your flowers.  Twist the wire together to create the stems.

3.  Arrange the flowers into a bouquet.  Twist the stems together.

4.  Trim the excess wire from the bottom.  Apply a generous amount of adhesive and glue the bouquet into the bottom of the clay pot.

5.  Add a little green excelsior or moss.  What a sweet little pot of flowers.  All ready for Spring!

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One of the great things about adopting a retired racing greyhound is the care and concern the adoption groups have for the dogs.  Their goal is to get a very deserving dog into a well-informed home.  To assist in that process, my group (Allies for Greyhounds of West Michigan)  lists three books as required reading before you adopted.  These are the three:

Retired Racing Greyhounds For Dummies.  There are “Dummy” book for everything!

Adopting the Racing Greyhound by Cynthia A. Branigan.  Considered the “Bible” by many greyhound adoption groups.

Child-Proofing Your Dog by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson.  Important information about having a dog and children together in your home.

It’s ideal to learn about your breed’s specific advantages and challenges before you adopt; but even after, checking out some good books will give you fun facts and valuable insight.  A happier home for you and your dog(s).

Scott 1000 Tissue

When I don’t have this, it seems like I’m replacing the roll every other visit.

PetSmart Think Twice Reusable Tote Bag

I bought this because it was so cute and large enough for taking bowls, food, water, poop bags, leashes and anything else needed when we travel with the houndies.  It’s a doggy diaper bag!  Come to find out, PetSmart Charities receives 10% from the price of every tote bag purchased…bonus.

Jacqueline Kennedy Jewelry Collection

This is a collection of jewelry reproductions sold on QVC.  What’s really fun…watching the shows, because Kennedy historian Philip Katz gives the story behind each piece.

Easy Fold Step Stool

I have one of these in every room that has anything stored up high.  They fold flat for easy storage and give you a little extra height when you need it.

This week we look at recovering a sense of strength; the strength required for artistic survival.

Artistic risk-taking means gains and losses.  The reading “Survival” talks about surviving and healing those losses.  “The Ivory Power” considers the scholarly appreciation of art and how teachers, mentors and our own intellectual selves can often be deadly to our creative spirit.  “Gain Disguised as Loss” presents a tool for dealing with loss.  What if we were to ask the questions, “How can this loss serve me?” and “Where does it point my work?”  It encourages us to look at the work differently and be willing to walk through another door.  “Age and Time: Product and Process” was the next section and deals with issues we use as blocks such as age (I’m too old or too young) and time (I work full-time or I don’t have any time to spare).  Here’s my favorite quote from this section, “We like to focus on having learned a skill or on having made an artwork.  This attention to final form ignores the fact that creativity lies not in the done but in doing. “  The final section,  “Filling the Form,” reminds us to take the next small step instead of skipping ahead to a large step that we may not yet be prepared for.  It encourages us to ask, “What can I do, right now, in my life as it is currently constituted?” then, do that thing.

My favorite exercises were:  1.  Goals Search.  Writing out goals is nothing new, but I appreciated the process I had to go through in this exercise.  Instead of coming up with a list of outcomes, the exercise exposed the “true north” or emotional center of my goals.  2.  Color Schemes.  Here I picked a color and wrote a few quick sentences describing myself in first-person as that color…fun!  3.  List five things you are not allowed to do.  Now do those things on paper.  This wasn’t an exercise I was comfortable with and that’s why I did it.  It’s interesting to me that I still resist something like this, even though the writing is private.  After I’m done, I find that it is a great stress-reliever, is often silly and fun, and sometimes even reveals an unnamed  hurt or feeling…and there’s why I resist.  Unnamed hurts and feelings have incredible power.  They don’t like to be called out because then they start to lose that power.

This was one of my favorite weeks.  The reason?  As I move forward, I do find myself becoming anxious about where my creative journey will lead.  When I’m not worrying about it, it feels so good to just do and experience the journey.  It was wonderful to be reminded that that is always the important part.  How true this is in all aspects of our lives.

The Dream

I would post a picture of my future creative space.  I would set out the goals.  I would accomplish the goals (perfectly and in their entirety).  I would post a picture of the miraculously transformed room (calls from HGTV would soon follow).  My readers would be awed by my incredible powers and would be inspired to create their own creative spaces (because it was so easy, right?).  I must also mention that apparently in the dream, I was someone other than myself because NO WAY would I be able to accomplish this unless I was some other person (I guess I thought writing a blog had miraculous, transformative powers).

The Reality (Part 1)

I painted the room (white…how original) and planned to re-purpose a piece of furniture, but was completely stalled after that.  I posted an apologetic post promising the miraculous transformation NEXT month.

The Reality (Part 2)

Writing a blog doesn’t transform you into a superhuman (drats!).  So, in the spirit of making lemonade from lemons, I’ve decided to make this a year-long journey (that’s what this year’s all about anyway).  Here’s where I stand this month:

Goal 1 – A pretty, fun and inspiring place to create work

It’s getting there.  I love color, and I always paint my walls with a color.  I painted this room white because I wanted to have the freedom to play with color in another way.  Right now, I’m kind of stumped on how to do that.  The plan is to used the colors of my inspiration files.

Something I love…see that picture of the sweet, little girl.  That’s me!  This picture hung over my family’s piano the entire time I was growing up.  When my mother gave it to me I was grateful, but I put it in the closet because I couldn’t imagine where I would hang a large picture of myself as a little girl.  As I’ve been going through The Artist’s Way, I have written about myself as a little girl…before the world convinced me of who it thinks I am.  I’ve kind of fallen in love with this little girl who was so adventurous, creative and open.  I think she’s very inspiring.

Goal 2 – Storage for my supplies

Not much progress has been made here.  I was so confused about how to arrange the furniture, that I didn’t do much work in this area.  I’ve started to move things into the room but there’s a lot more to come.  Stay tuned.

Goal 3 – Work spaces

I set up a folding table to create an L-shape with the desk.  I’m going to work with this for a bit and if I like it, my husband said he would make a table for me that looks nice in the room (he’s a sweetie!).

Goal 4 – An inspiration board and files

I hung up a cork board and a magnetic board…nothing on them yet.

Goal 5 – Move the houndies’ crates into the room

They’re moved in.  Now what!  They look horrible.

I love to hear your ideas for my creative space or things that work for you in your creative space.  Check back and see the next installment, “Creative Space – After (Part 3)” on April 17.

A rich, gothic romance, Rebecca is not the name of the young, current wife of Maxim de Winter, it’s the name of the late Mrs. de Winter.  Although dead at the start of the novel, the memory of Rebecca reaches beyond the grave and holds sway over the living.  This is a wonderful book with characters you won’t forget.

The movie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine won the Academy Award in 1940 for Best Picture and Best Cinematography, Black and White.

A Beautiful Mind is based on the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr. a Nobel Laureate in Economics.  It is the story of Nash’s adult life and his battle with paranoid schizophrenia.  Not only is this the story of a remarkable man and his wife, but the telling is imaginative and touching.  A Beautiful Mind won the Academy Award in 2001 for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.