Today's visit is to the blog home of the award winning author Elaine Marie Alphin. Elaine's books include, Ghost Soldier, Counterfeit Son, and The Perfect Shot. Elaine's posts might be sporadic but every one of them is rich in the details of her writing life. A couple of my favorite posts are Father's Day Stories which goes right to the root of her storytelling past and Inviting Readers to Read about the importance of creating doors through which we writers can invite readers to begin their journey.

Tell Elaine hello from me when you stop by.

Does anyone have any ideas for making buttons? Not buttons like this, but actual buttons to use on clothing.

I tried to google, but I keep getting stuff for buttons like in the link or crafts to use buttons in.

ETA: Just saw the post a few down from mine. Those are awesome, but I'd still love to see some other ideas as well.

Before:

( After: )

Salt dough tips PLEASE!
I’m working with salt-dough ( baker’s clay) for the first time. If anyone has any experience please give me some guidance. For example what kind of flour do you think works best. Wheat? White? What sealers work best? What doesn’t work at all?

Little info: I volunteer at my local animal shelter and I wanted to make something I can sale at my salon during the Christmas season to help raise money since they are building on at the shelter and are really needing any extra funds they can get. I’m making primitive looking dog biscuit ornaments (people in my area are really into the whole primitive thing). Basically wire, torn ribbon and I will put the persons pets name on the bone with a paint pen. I thought that salt dough would look more like a milk-bone than polymer clay and is a heck of a lot cheaper on me since I’m giving all the proceeds to them. Just so you guys know what I’m trying to make. Thanks for any help at all!!!

Remember the roaches that colonized a bunch of movies? We'd thought they were all dead, but apparently not.

We came back from Thanksgiving holiday yesterday and the movies looked okay. This afternoon we found that the roaches had invaded the repair station and set up shop in a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with a broken spine. We discovered this while trying to fix some other books. Cue a slapstick moment as the branch manager and I try to kill a dozen or so roaches with our bare hands. Well, we do have other copies of GoF, so we didn't really need that one anyway.

Be right back. Washing my hands until they bleed.

Hush, Hush is about a girl named Nora Grey who finds herself wickedly attracted to a "bad boy" named Patch, a fallen Angel. The story plot is about her finding out who he really is (a fallen angel) and who the person is who has been trying to kill her. This book starts out and almost ends with sooo many questions. When you start getting towards the end you want to just call the author and yell "WHEN AM I GOING TO FIND OUT ANYTHING!!" but by the end you find everything out. This book was seriously sooo good. I found myself wishing i could be Nora for a day just to see how Patch acts in real life. I read this book in one day, which is really good considering my busy high school schedule.

I am seriously recommending this book to everyone i know. My friend Amanda was talking about buying it, but i think i might just let her borrow it as long as she promises to take good care of it and to not bend the pages. I will kill her!! lol Books are like my kids.

Rating:♥♥♥♥♥5/5


Disclaimer: I dont know if the new FTC disclaimer law relates to book reviews or not, but just in case, because it goes into effect today.
1. I did not get this book for free. I bought it with my own money
2. I am not getting paid to write a review for this book.
3. I do not have any affiliation with Borders inc.
4. This is my honest opinion about the book and it was not coaxed in any way by anyone.

Here's some things I've made recently.

( crafty things )
Thanks for looking!

New crochet covered stone necklace
( Read more... )

I finally finished baby girl's Christmas stocking. I started with a mariner's compass idea and a general star and quilt inspiration. I made it up as I went along.

( Read more... and see pictures )

I'd made a bunch of quilt style duvets, but nowhere near the level of intricacy required for a "proper quilted quilt".

I was kind of excited when I happened up on a wierdo thing called a Jelly Roll -- which is a precut series of strips from various manufacturers that contain all of the fabric in the line/color/series. So you get a lot of variety for less money than you would be able to buy 1/4 yards of all the fabrics.

Its also targeted at abetting my personal weakness... straight and accurate cutting.

( the story continues and then pictures. )

I've been a long-time watcher, but I decided I wanted my own rubber stamp blog just like all the other great stampers out there. Today I decided to make one here, as I've had my own lj for 8 years now. I'd like to share some of my paper crafts. Here are some cards I made in the summer using Stampin' Up! stamp sets. If you like what you see, feel free to add my new journal! Thanks for looking! Oh, this ideas was cased from the SplitCoast stampers site, and specifically this image. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1440944

I am amused to note that a) I seem to have started a #Iwritefantasy hashmark on Twitter and b) everyone's retweeting other people as saying it. Such is the ego-squish dished out by the Internet....

hello craftgrrrrrl land!

so, i'm kind of in a rut with making scarves. you might recall me posting some photos of some scarves that i attached fabric rosettes onto. and while i like them and all, that's a whole lotta commitment! so, duh, why not make rosette brooches that are REMOVEABLE?! i is so smart! and dupioni silk is so darn wonderful, in it's shapeable goodness. see? see??






( and more! )

Wow. Talk about not only biting the hand that feeds you, but taking it off at the elbow...

TERRY GOODKIND has been cruelly misjudged: 'First of all, I don't write fantasy. I write stories that have important human themes. They have elements of romance, history, adventure, mystery and philosophy. Most
fantasy is one-dimensional. It's either about magic or a world-building. I don't do either.' (_USA Today_ interview, August 03)

(via Ansible)



Comments?


EtA: yes. See date on quote. Not new. We know. But being discussed today because it came up in Ansible for the mocking.

[[ All the Copper Pennies In My Pocket. ]]

Pennies made before '82 (and the ones from early '82) were all copper. The ones from late '82 onward are zinc with copper plates. I handled so many, I can tell the difference. This book is made from 8 all copper pennies from my pocket, the week after I made the previous penny book.

These date from 1972 to 1982.

Things to do this month:

- Write approximately 30,000 new words on Bonnie #3
- Read over Bonnie #2 to make sure everything's in order, timeline and plot-wise
- Start plotting out Vineart3 while waiting for M'amselle Editrix's notes on V2.
- Work on compiling the Cosa Nostradamus material for Bookview Cafe
- Get Boomerang to the vet at some point
- Start actually, y'know, planning the trip to Dublin.
- Make a dent in what's left of my TBR in 2009 pile
- Sell some books, industry and agency willing, so I don't starve in 2011.


oh yeah, and do the Holiday/Social Thing. Am keeping it intentionally low-key this year... for the first time in years I'm not traveling in December/January*, and I need to see how it feels (I suspect I'll hate it, and be back to my "new city every new year" routine in 2011!)




*although, technically, this is my first time ever celebrating in NYC....

Anyone know where you can buy it? Has anyone ever used it on furniture? Is it easy to maintain? I plan to cover a sideboard with the stuff. I'm looking for something that is light (i was hoping for zebrawood) and not super expensive. Thanks!

I stole this idea from Greg Pincus who, back in April of this year, gave us 30 Poets in 30 Days for National Poetry Month. Every day, for 30 days, he highlighted a different poet and by the end of the month I had a great many new poets to follow. What a great idea!

When I was trying to think of what kind of gift I could give my blog readers the holiday season I thought I could introduce them to some blog they might not know about but that I think are worth checking out. So I introduce the first (for me) of 31 Blogs (You Might Not Know) in 31 Days. Every day in December I will post a little teaser about a blog that perhaps isn't as well known as some of the other blogs we tend to frequent. There will be writers and poets and maybe an illustrator or two. I hope you enjoy the journey.


Many of you are already familiar with author/illustrator Teri Sloat's beautiful picture books (I'm a Duck, There Was an Old Man Who Painted the Sky, and many more) and her exquisite art. What you might not know is that she is a brand-new blogger.

Her blog, Painting the Sky is all about her creative journey. A couple of my favorite posts are Julie and Julia and the Invisibile Audience where she talks about the lessons she took away from the movie Julie and Julia and Walking Through a Story where she talks about her love of creation stories.

Say hello from me when you stop by.