Monthly Archives: February 2012

For the Creative Book Club….

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Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience:  this is the ideal life.        ~Mark Twain

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a book review for Keeping the House by Ellen Baker.  If you’re looking for some creative ways to make your book club discussion of this book fun and interesting, I have gathered some ideas to make it festive!

As a member of a book club that has been meeting for 15 years, I know that sometimes finding a good book for discussion can be a challenge.  So, that’s why I’m suggesting this book as your next selection.  You will be talking about a wide variety of things…. The role of women in the early-to-mid 1900′s; the impact of both World Wars at home and abroad; the way small town life can be a blessing as well as a curse; the importance of communication in a marriage; and the way things have changed as well as how they have stayed the same!

First of all, head over to Ellen Baker’s website for some excellent background of the book including great discussion questions as well as some fun recipes from the book.  I think the recipe for Dolly’s Lacy Raisin Wafers would be perfect! In fact, take a look at these free recipe-card printables. Wouldn’t it be fun to print out the recipes on these cards and give them as favors to your guests?

LACY RAISIN WAFERS
Dolly brings these cookies to her first Ladies Aid gathering to try to make a good impression…

¾ cup sifted all-purpose flour
½ teasp. baking soda
½ teasp. salt
¼ teasp. nutmeg
¾ cup light or dark raisins
½ cup salad oil
¼ cup water
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teasp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups uncooked rolled oats

½ cup chopped nuts

Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg.  Rinse and drain raisins; mix with salad oil, water; mix in sugar, vanilla, oats, nuts, then flour mixture.  Refrigerate 1 hr.  Start heating oven to 350 degrees F.  Drop dough by teaspoonfuls, about 2” apart, onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 to 12 min., or till crisp around edges.   Makes 3 ½ doz.
From the Good Housekeeping Cook Book, 1949

Are you feeling extra crafty?  Perhaps you could get some of these cute clothes-pins from Etsy, or make some using this tutorial,  and add a magnet to the back so your guests can display their recipe cards at home. How darling would these be, holding your recipe cards nestled next to your table settings?

When it comes to setting the table, there are so many great options. Aren’t these dishes great?  You can pick up lots of retro dishes at thrift stores, of course.  Perhaps your relatives have some to borrow. I know my mom has some really great pink melamine coffee cups and saucers. (I wonder where they are….)  These lovely ones are available online.

I have a co-worker who collects vintage tablecloths, and once in awhile I run across one at a thrift store for a good price, but they are a little hard to come-by.  Maybe you have one waiting for a good excuse to show it off!  (Since Dolly is a member of the ladies’ sewing circle working on a quilt throughout the novel, you could also cover the table with a quilt!)  One of my favorite bloggers, Dottie Angel, is a master when it comes to finding and re-purposing vintage linens.  I wish I had this one for book-club!  In fact her blog is full of inspirational ideas that would be perfect for this book-club gathering!  Her dishes, her linens, her aprons… Go visit her site now!

I can’t think of anything more fun than having each book-club member join-in the theme by arriving in a vintage-inspired apron.  The cover of paper-back version of the book, with its colorful apron, is so charming!  Most ladies will have a lot of fun finding an apron to wear to book-club.  Check out the inspiration for vintage aprons like this one.

Finally, I adore the idea of using graphics for display that include cover images of the magazines and journals quoted in the book.  If you can get color copies of covers from Ladies Home Journal or Good Housekeeping, place them around the house along with some of the quotes from the book that you type-out and print on vintage inspired paper. I just love this picture of a ladies sewing circle from a vintage magazine.  It looks almost exactly how I envisioned it in the book.  Or how about this picture of a wife happy in the kitchen?  I found it on an article entitled: From a 1950′s high school home economics textbook, teaching girls how to prepare for married life.    Take a look at the suggestions given, and find a way to print them out and incorporate them into your creative book-club gathering!

My favorite?  #7 Make him comfortable: Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.

Finally, in the novel, Dolly was so determined to be the perfect wife that she ended up resenting the fact that she couldn’t follow her dream to fly an airplane.  By the end, we are happy that Dolly will fulfill that wish.  Encourage your book-club members to follow their dreams and “fly” by giving each one a mini-charm to remind them that they have wings!

The sky’s the limit (no pun intended) with your creative book-club for Keeping the House!  If you try some of these ideas, please send me a note and a few pictures of your festive gathering!

The Art of Reading with Brigid Devney-Rye

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Art + Books = Bliss

Here’s what I think…. artistic, creative women are very often avid readers!  When I get together with kindred-spirits who like to make things and get crafty, we inevitably turn our conversation to what books we’re reading… we can’t help it.  One of my favorite things in the world to hear are the words, “Have you read….?”  That’s why I want to share  “The Art of Reading” with all of you.  Here’s how it goes:  from time to time (hopefully once a week!) an amazing, talented, creative friend of mine will share with you a little about her art, and a little about her reading.  It’s a little sneak peek inside the bookshelves of someone you might like to know! Hopefully, you will be able to add a few books to your “List of Books to Read,”  and you will also check out a new blog and see something beautiful and inspiring. Stop by soon for another reader profile, and in the meantime, happy crafting and happy reading!

Let me introduce:  Brigid Devney-Rye

Blog or website: Makeitbe.net

What creativity do you share with the world?  I love making knitted and felted handbags, and this is the focus of my business. I sell my bags on my website and at the occasional craft fair, but the major part of my business is custom orders. I started knitting just a few years ago and started my business six months later when I realized I had enough knitted handbags and people would pay me for doing what I love.

  • Book OR e-reader? E-reader
  • Buy OR lend from the library? Lend
  •  Hardcover OR paperback? Hardcover
  • One book at a time OR several? One fiction, one non-fiction
  • Skip ahead and read the last page OR be patient and wait? Oh my goodness, I would never skip ahead!
  • Abandon a bad book OR stick with it no matter what? Abandon if not enjoying in 50 pages
  • Laugh OR cry? cry

Cover Love:  I love the cover of Isabel’s Daughter by Judith Ryan Hendricks

How do you acquire the books you read? I get most of my books from the library. I love the library! I always have. I usually request what I want, and I love that feeling of seeing my name on the shelf with the book I have been wanting waiting for me. It’s like a free gift. During the summer when we travel, or when I have run out of something to read, I read books on my Kindle.  My Kindle has solved that anxious feeling of “I have nothing to read!”

How do you choose the books you read? I lay in wait for authors I like to publish new books (Harlan Coben, Jodi Picoult, Emily Griffin, Meg Cabot and Mary Higgins Clark among others); I take recommendations from blogs I read—these blogs are lifestyle blogs but bloggers, like crafters, are also readers; I love walking through book stores. I then write down the titles and request them from the library, AND I roam through the library aimlessly and pick up what appeals to me

What book have you read in the past year that stands out to you?  The Tale of Halycon Crane was my favorite book of 2011. It is written by Wendy Webb, the promo reads: “A young woman travels alone to a remote island to uncover a past she never knew was hers in this thrilling modern ghost story.”  Doesn’t that just sound good?

Do you have a childhood favorite?  I loved The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series, by C.S. Lewis– such an escape and fairytale for bigger kids. (The British television series is really true to the books).

What is one of your early reading memories and why is it special?  I loved reading stories with my mom, dad and sisters in the evenings before bedtime. The memories of this time became all the more special because my dad died when I was nine years old.

Who have been your reading role models, mentors, or companions over the years? I grew up with a mom that always had her nose in a book. Reading for fun was part of our daily life and I regretted having to put reading for pleasure on the back seat during college.

Here are my top ten favorite books of all time:      I have been keeping a list of books I have read for the last 22 years (I’m 50, so almost half my life). It is impossible for me to choose only 10 books but these are ones that really stand out:

  • Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  • The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
  • A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
  • The Return of Jonah Gray by Heather Cochran
  • Love Walked In by Marissa de los Santos
  • The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
  • Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
  • The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot
  • House of Fog and Sand by Andre Dubus III

Do you have a special book that you like to give as a gift to others?   I have given Creating a Charmed Life by Victoria Moran out countless of times, it looks like a cute little book but has great advice.

The last book that made me cry….  I just finished wiping the tears from my eyes from reading Home Front by Kristin Hannah. This is a book about a woman who is a mom and a helicopter pilot who is sent to Iraq and returns home changed. I really loved the way this book gave me insight into what war life is like. This is what I love about books, you get to experience all sorts of things without actually doing them. It gives you deep insights into other people.

What is your favorite place to read? I usually read in bed before going to sleep. No matter how late I might get to bed, I can’t fall asleep until I’ve read at least a few pages. Since I do read in bed I am often motivated to go to bed quite early. My daughter usually joins me in bed for a bit before she goes to bed. She’s 14 now and we have been doing this forever, it’s so cozy. But my absolutely favorite place to read is on our boat during the summer. We are fortunate to be able to get away from Phoenix for quite a bit over the summer and spend time on our boat in Canada. When the boat us underway is my favorite time to read, I curl up on the settee in the galley where I have a great view of the ocean, with an ocean breeze coming in and a blanket on my feet I feel truly at peace with my book.

Book Review: “Keeping the House” by Ellen Baker

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“A house, exactly like a dog, must be loved before it will show the best side of its nature.” -Popular Home Decoration 1940 (from Keeping the House by Ellen Baker)

First  of  all, I selected this novel because I liked the cover (yes, I am prone to do such things) and I really have a little bit of a house-fetish. I love houses!  I love looking at them, dreaming about them…. Just like the main character of this novel, Dolly Magnuson.     Dolly is a young housewife in the conformist 1950’s and the details of her life are most-likely accurate, but absolutely entertaining in their “antiquity.” Readers will be amused at how drastically expectations have changed for married women, yet will be shocked at just how many things have remained the same.  Like many modern day wives, Dolly wishes her husband were more complimentary of her cooking; she wishes he would paint the bathroom like he promised, and she yearns for him to spend the day with her instead of going fishing with the guys.

Dolly’s sense of angst in her role as wife and member of the Ladies Aid Quilting Circle only fuel her fascination with the beautiful, grand home perched on a hill overlooking her small town.  She imagines that if only she could live in this house her life would suddenly be different.  The object of her desire is the former home of the wealthy Mickelson family. Now, however, the house sits abandoned and neglected.  Slowly, Dolly learns snippets of the Mickleson’s story as she suffers through afternoon quilting sessions at the home of the town busy-body who has lived next to the Mickelson home for decades.  Dolly’s boredom compels her, via a broken window, to enter the home and begin uncovering not only its secrets, but also its faded glory.

Woven alternately with Dolly’s story are chapters highlighting the plight of the Mickelsons. We see the arrival of Wilma Mickelson as a new bride to her lovely new home on the hill, and we marvel at how Wilma’s story closely parallels that of Dolly.  We follow the heartbreaking stories of the Mickelson children and grandchildren as they endure war, betrayal, and ultimately love.

A few moments are slightly over-done and mildly far-fetched, but are forgivable in what ultimately resonates as a compelling family-saga. The shift from past to present is done well and adds to the story, while small moments of suspense kept me eager to find out more.  Furthermore, there were times when I was particularly captivated by Ellen Baker’s writing.  Notably at the end of a chapter, she would sum up the situation or events in a way that was strikingly beautiful, and I found myself re-reading small sections just to enjoy her words and descriptions.  This book feels like a slice of small town America.  If you’re craving a wholesome book that is not all fluff, you will enjoy entering the complicated, yet hopeful, worlds of these characters.

Happy Reading!

My New Love…

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“Words of comfort, skillfully administered, are the oldest therapy known to man.”
-Louis Nizer

The above quote is certainly true, but lately, the comfort I have been enjoying is that provided by my soft, cozy, warm new neck warmer!

Valentine’s Day is just a couple of days away, and all of the people I love the most are getting their own cuddly bit of comfort.  I have always wanted one of these, but just never broke down and bought one because I thought it would be easy to make.  So, I searched for some simple directions and liked the one on a cute blog called “Make It Do” (http://www.make-it-do.com/make-it/make-it-do-gift-cozy-bed-warmers/ )  I have been experimenting with the directions and trying different shapes as well.  The picture I am sharing is one I made for my best friend’s mom who has been in terrible pain from a shoulder injury and is anxiously awaiting her 17th birthday…on Feb. 29th.  (Actually, she’s in her 70′s! Since she’s a leap-year baby, she professes to be much younger than the rest of us who get to celebrate our birthday each year!) I hope this gift will bring her some therapeutic relief and that the cheerful fabric will bring a smile to her face.

I stopped at my favorite thrift store and picked up some really cute pajamas in soft flannels and pretty patterns.  I have been repurposing the fabric for my warmers, which makes me feel very thrifty.  Furthermore, the $13.00 I spent on the 50 pounds of feed-corn at a ranch-supply store is significantly less expensive than using rice from the grocery store and will be enough to keep me busy for quite awhile!

The bags are made out of 100 percent cotton and filled with whole feed corn. To enjoy the neck warmer, simply pop in the microwave for approximately 2-3 minutes depending on the strength of your microwave and delight in the way the corn holds the heat for such a nice, long time.

Here’s what I have planned for the rest of the day…. a cup of tea, a good book, a warm, cozy neck-warmer = I’m in LOVE!  Happy Valentine’s Day 2012!  Wishing you all much warmth and comfort.

Finding the Perfect Balance!

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Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.                 -Robert Fulghum

I wanted to whip-up a little birthday gift for my friend, and this is the perfect quick and easy handmade present!  I don’t know if it’s a by-product of being a former English teacher, a librarian, and of course, a lover of books, but I adore any project that uses letters and words. So, I’ve been collecting board games from the thrift store and using the pieces to make Scrabble tile message boards for the special people in my life.  Today, I met my dear friend for a birthday breakfast, and wanted to reminder her to cut-back, just say “no”, and quite simply make more time for herself!  (Good advice, wouldn’t you say?)  Just take a Scrabble tile holder and a little glue (I use E-6000) and admire your “instant message.”  Once you start, you will be thinking of all the important words you want to share!