Weekend Traffic Jam - Week 171

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!

My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

Can you believe that August is almost over?
A while ago, I still said I couldn't wait for September and now it's just a few days until then! I'm not sure if we'll getting the fall weather that I have been dreaming of right away, though. Fingers crossed!

A fall leaf inspired bracelet I bead loomed
for a good cause some years ago.

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Suzy Turner - The Grey Brunette.

Suzy from Suzy Turner - The Grey Brunette says: "I’m Suzy Turner — a British-born author, blogger, and YouTuber living a magical life in sunny Portugal with my husband and our little family of four-legged mischief-makers: Myrtle, Shannon, Sadie and Luna.
After moving to Portugal at the age of ten, I fell in love with the slower pace, the beauty of everyday life, and the feeling that anything was possible here.
Now in my 40s, I’m passionate about showing that life only gets more magical with age — whether that’s through the clothes we wear, the stories we tell, or the way we embrace change and creativity. ...
I believe life is about celebrating the magic in everyday moments — whether that’s finding the perfect dress, writing a new chapter, or simply sharing a cup of coffee with a kindred spirit.
If you’re a brand, fellow creator, or just someone who loves the idea of living a more whimsical, soulful life — I’d love to connect.
Let’s make everyday life feel a little more magical, together."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Laura shares how to style jeans with cute tops.

Ann is getting ready for fall by making a pumpkin pillow cover.

Karin's kitchen table and chairs needed a makeover.

Deb has turned an old cabinet into a faux fireplace and decorated it.

Amy shows us a cute ladybug.

Vanessa is telling us about the cat café in Athens.

Angie has a hidden insect game for us.




Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Silent films - By Might of His Right

I only learned about Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew about two weeks ago.
Mr. and Mrs. Drew were a comedy team that ... but wait, actually there were two Mrs. Drews, Gladys Rankin and Lucille McVey. After Gladys died, Sidney married Lucille who produced and co-directed and co-wrote a lot of their nearly 150 marital comedies.
I picked one of those - randomly, like so often - and ended up with "By Might of His Right" from 1915.
Sidney was the uncle of actors Lionel, Ethel, and John Barrymore, by the way, and John's granddaughter is Drew Barrymore. Now you know how she got her name.

First the plot.

When Henry comes home from work, he finds they have a houseguest, Lucille's brother who's on vacation (played by character actor Donald Macbride).
He has all the spirit of a college boy, rah-rah-rah included, which amuses Lucille greatly, but Henry really just wants some peace and quiet.

No such luck.
The youngster shakes Henry's hand like crazy, he makes fun of his hat before sitting on it, gets very familiar with the maid, takes a cigar off Henry, then his paper, and finally his chair ...
 

... before demonstrating on his unsuspecting brother-in-law how to perform a tackle and a knockout.
The next morning, he slips Henry's cigarette case in his pocket and then announces he intends to stay for his whole vacation!

Henry has to do something to get rid of the young man. He enlists the aid of his friend Tony Trexel who trains at a boxing studio and helps him find a boxer who will fake defeat for 50 bucks (that's about 1600 today, so you can see how desperate Henry is).
At home, he says that Tony has invited them to a novelty boxing party.
Once there, they learn that "Knock'em Dead" Jones is indisposed and that an opponent for the "Battler" is needed. Of course Lucille immediately thinks of her brother, but suddenly he's not as keen anymore as he still was at home.

So, much to everyone's surprise, Henry gets up. After a hilarious "fight" in which the two don't even touch one another at first, Henry "knocks out" the "Battler".

Back at home, his brother-in-law isn't quite as confident anymore. Actually, he's so scared of Henry that he claims his mother has called him back, packs his bags and leaves.

Henry had already told his wife about his bluff and they break out in laughter when the door closes.
Being a big sister myself, that totally makes sense to me (although you can see in one picture that she also feels sorry for her little brother, but just a bit)!

Drew himself said: "There are many who prefer knockabout work, but since there is a field amply able to support an appeal to more refined intelligence, we cater to that clientele" and I really enjoyed that.
Henry uses his brains - okay, and a good deal of money - to get rid of his houseguest. He's teaching him a lesson not to underestimate other people or should I say older people, but without humiliating him too much. After all, he could have made him go into the ring.

Despite this one reeler being over 100 years old, I think we can all relate to it in some way. It doesn't always have to be a houseguest who stays too long, it could also just be someone who doesn't get that the party is over, for example.

This is another film thought lost until a copy turned up in New Zealand which was preserved through a partnership of the New Zealand Film Archive, the American archival community, and the National Film Preservation Foundation.
I'm looking forward to exploring more of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew's universe of marriage.


Sources and further reading:

1. By Might of His Right (1915). On: National Film Preservation Foundation. Preserved Films
2. Fritzi Kramer: By Might of His Right (1915) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, November 27, 2023

Kites and cubes - The big ones

A week ago, I posted about using tiny 1.8 mm cube beads for a kite shape and announced this post about using the 3 mm cubes.

These bigger beads and I have a bit of a fraught relationship. When I started out crocheting and then knitting with wire, a friend told me that she had big cube and triangle beads which would be just perfect. They were leftovers from her beading days - that should have been a warning, if she didn't know how to use them, how would I? - and she would make me a good price.
In the end, I gave in and literally regretted it for years. The triangle beads were easier to use, but the cubes - there were loads and they were too heavy to use really many of them in pieces of jewelry ... I can't even tell you how often I tried something and ripped it up again. Finally, I used quite a few in my "pineapple slices" aka Christmas ornaments.
 

One experiment from when I also started bead looming was using them for that. Where the tiny cubes worked quite well, though, the big ones just didn't look and feel right at all.
Eventually I cut up the one bracelet I had made and the big tube of beads went back into the tin with all my tiny cubes where I found it again now.
Years ago I had a regular "tackle that stash" day on my blog to motivate myself to use up really old supplies - maybe it was time to tackle this bead tube ...

So this is how these two pairs of earrings were created (and now there are only about a dozen beads left which I call success).
I'm sure you have seen the earrings which have a beaded triangle on top, sometimes a diamond with four sides of the same length, in one or more colors, sometimes with a pattern, and a fringe.
 

My own "Jaws" design

This is the same idea, only with "cube kites".
For the fringes I dug into my stash of tiny crystals - and promptly threw a bunch of them all over the place 😂
It's difficult to catch in a picture, but I quite like the contrast of matte and sparkle.
Which version do you like better?

Weekend Traffic Jam - Week 170

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!

My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

The other day, my pal and I made it back to the Lauter spring which I mentioned several times before. Given the temperature at my own place, it was just incredible there. Peaceful and quiet, wonderful and cool air.
We always park at the church and for the first time the gates of the small cemetery stood open. Now I regret that we didn't have a look around.

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa.

Amy from Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa says: "Where I chat over coffee and cocktails about fashion, food, and fun!"

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Barbara shares pictures of her Moomin mugs with us.

Marsha tells us about a day when she works at the museum as a docent - and about Jack.

I love brownies, and Esme has a recipe tested by Preshana for us.

Lisa talks about AI detection.

Nancy's and Shelbee's Good Buy/Good Bye Book was about maxi dresses this time.


Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Silent movies - Danse Macabre

Another week, another short (sorry, but it's still too hot, and while it's fine to shut your eyes for a bit during a TV show, but weirdly that doesn't work while watching a silent movie ...).
It's an experimental one today, oooh.
Get ready for "Danse Macabre" from 1922.

"Midnight in plague-ridden Spain - - Youth and Love flee from Death who follows their path -
Love feels his uncanny breath and swoons - - - Youth despairs and prays, - when lo! - the cock of dawn crows and Death fades away into the shadow of his tomb."

The skeletons move until they form the title words.

Youth and Love enter a room. Youth lights a candle and the lovers embrace.

If they had thought to be safe here, they are wrong as Death is already following them.

Youth gives Love a shawl and a fan and they dance together.

Love begins to sense Death being close. She feels weak and asks Youth to open the windows.

They keep dancing, but Death keeps haunting them until Love faints and Youth lays her down on a sofa.
Death creeps closer ...

Just in time, the sun rises to a cock's crow ...

... and Death shrinks back from the light and fades while Love recovers in Youth's arms.

The lovers rejoice, they embrace and kiss, they are safe ...
 

... but are they really?

The "Danse Macabre" or "Dance of Death" is an allegory from the late Middle Ages reminding people of the fragility of life - everyone's life, king or peasant, pope or child.
In 1874, the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote a symphonic poem with this title.
The independent director Dudley Murphy and his associate Claude MacGowan had planned a series of Visual Symphonies with the films interpreting classical music starting with this piece.
Big theaters used to put on live shows with music and dance as introductions for the movies, but synchronizing film and music perfectly was more difficult at the time, and while experienced musicians could have coped, the practice wouldn't have worked as well for small theaters.
So although the film got attention, it obviously wasn't enough to keep the series going. 

That's a pity because if "Danse Macabre" was an example of their vision, it would have been great to see what else they could have come up with.
The performers are the ballet dancers and choreographers Adolph Bolm (Youth) and Ruth Page (Love, she was Bolm's student), Death is played by character actor Olin Howland.
As you can see from the pictures, the short is a mix of animation and real film, and honestly, it's really very cool. I had picked it randomly from a playlist of shorts and I'm so glad I did as I loved Saint-Saëns's "Danse Macabre" before this and love the interpretation.


Sources and further reading:

1. Rob Johnson: Danse Macabre 1922. On: The Devil's Manor, July 2012
2. Fritzi Kramer: Danse Macabre (1922) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, July 18, 2022

Kites and cubes - The tiny ones

K was a kite
Which flew out of sight,
Above houses so high,
Quite into the sky.

(From the Nonsense Alphabet
by Edward Lear)

I love tiny cube beads, so when I was able a few years ago to get a surprise assortment at a sale price from one of the bead shops I order from, I jumped right on it.
Then I remembered that as cute as they are, I always struggled a bit what to do with them. I loomed with them (the result is stiffer than with seed or cylinder beads) ...

... I wire knitted with them (so slinky) ...

... I did peyote with them, in the round and folded ...

... and I still had a box full of cube tubes (this wasn't even everything I made).
So when I came upon a quick tutorial for a beaded diamond kite shape, I thought I'd give that a try (this isn't the only tut for it, it was just the first popping up in my recommendation, but it works well) with cubes instead of cylinder beads.
I first made a test piece in Delicas and immediately decided that instead of the original design I wanted to make some variations, ripping up the test piece again.
These are the results so far.

The kite shape made me think of Art Deco patterns and inspired this design. Simple but with a bold color combination.

One theory is that kites have their name from the hovering birds of prey. In German, however, we call the bird "Milan" and the tethered flying object "Drachen" after dragons.
Inspired by the name, I beaded a smaller version of the design and added dragon charms. Readers who have been around for a while know I can't resist a nice dangle and I love these 3D dragons!

I also tried a pair of earrings using just the open V shape in a combination of clear, pearly white, and matte black cubes.
While I liked the color combination, I wasn't completely happy with the overall look and will be playing with that some more.

Delicas as used in the tutorial are very uniform beads, the cubes not so much although I cull the ones that are way too big or crooked. So it was a nice surprise how well it worked after all.

Cubes also stiffen the design a bit which isn't a bad thing for earrings.
These beads come in different sizes, so expect another post with some "big ones" (3 mm instead of 1.8).

Weekend Traffic Jam - Week 169

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

Can you spot the little visitor on my friend's balcony? 

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Handmade in Israel.

Lisa from Handmade in Israel says: "I am a graphic designer by profession who has gone 'back to basics' and I love anything handmade. I enjoy working with paper and other materials, and am always excited to try new projects."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Jeanne's third mosaic garden stepping stone might be my favorite, I love the colors!

Have you ever tried watermelon with salt? Melynda shows you a recipe.

Gina tells us about her 5 thing Friday.

Mireille has been inspired by the dress over pants trend.

Look at this cute pencil case that Soma made. 



Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter