10/31/2011

The Monday collection - I vant to suck your blood

Today is Halloween and I think it wouldn't be Halloween without vampires (again my first time celebrating comes to mind and I almost started telling you about it, but I remembered just in time I already did before). We had the bats and now we have the human, but undead kind.
So enjoy and I wish you all ....



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10/30/2011

Quote of the week

Imagine your highschool reunion. People talk about what they have been doing the last years, about their jobs, their careers, their kids, houses, pets and cars. Harmless fun, isn't it? Not that exciting, though, unless one of your old buddies happened to become the president of a tiny state in the South American jungle ....
..... or a paid hitman.
Now if you happen to have been in love with said hitman who just left you standing for your prom, this could get an exciting reunion, even more so when his new assignment is to go after your Dad.

Marty is not sure about his job anymore and therefore seeks help of a therapist who is afraid of him unfortunately.

Marty: Don't you think maybe you're just upset because I told you what I do for a living and you got upset and you're letting it interfere with our dynamic?
Dr. Oatman: Woah! Martin, you didn't tell me what you did for a living ...
Marty: Yes, I did!
Dr. Oatman: You didn't tell me what you did for a living for four sessions. Then you told me, and I said "I don't wanna work with you!" And yet you come back every week at the same time. That's a difficulty for me. On top of that, if you've committed a crime or if you're thinking about committing a crime, I have to tell the authorities.
Marty: I know the law, okay? But I don't want to be withholding. I'm very serious about this process. And I know where you live.
Dr. Oatman: Oh, now see. That wasn't a nice thing to say. That wasn't designed to make me feel good. That's a kind of not-too-subtle intimidation and I, uh ... I get filled with anxiety when you talk about something like that.
Marty: Come on, come on.
Dr. Oatman: I mean, that's ...
Marty: I was just kidding, all right. The thought never crossed my mind.
Dr. Oatman: You did think of it, Martin. You thought of it and then you said it. And now I'm left with, uh ... with the aftermath of that ... thinking I gotta ... I gotta be creative in a really interesting way now or Martin's gonna blow my brains out.

I don't want to be a spoilsport, but Dr. Oatman is actually one person who survives ...


10/29/2011

A glimpse into the past

You might know that I collect books, new and old ones. But like all collectors sometimes I have to let go of something because of space. The neighbors are stubborn and won't give me their apartment to store my books in it ... even worse, they store their own hundreds of books there! It's a good thing I like them.

So when I find there are books that don't really fit my collection because I won't read them again, because they don't belong to a series or - and that's rarely the case - because I never even read them, they have to go, to a used book site, to a library, to a book project.
The books I'm talking about today are children's books from the 30s and in Gothic print, so I couldn't think of anyone spontaneously who would want to have them. Many people can't read that print anymore.
When I picked up one, a little note fell out, a note from 1937 when a grandmother gave the book to her grandson. Some words I could read right away, with others I struggled a bit and for one I thought I'd need my Mom's help, but then it suddenly came to me.
Am I proud? Heck, yeah! I can read Gothic print just fine and without hesitating. I also did learn Sütterlin in elementary school (yes, so I'm old, shoot me), but just so we would get an idea of it, not really thoroughly.

Wanna give it a try, too? The only word that is missing half in the picture is the town mentioned on the second page ... Donaueschingen. That's all you'll get ;-)


You know what's weird? I don't want to keep the books, but I want to keep the note. Ungh.

10/28/2011

The hermit

It has been one of those weeks where things just don't go quite right. I have been told it's my age's fault that I lose patience easier. I never knew that happens at 25 already!
Kidding aside, you know I don't need to make myself younger, but at the moment I sure wish I could make myself a little calmer. Don't worry, this is not going to be a rant. Well, not more than it has been already if you can read between the lines ;-)
My plan - that I put before different people - was to grow a beard and become a hermit. The people I talked to have not entirely been helpful. One of them for example doubted my ability to grow a beard and it's true. If we were talking legs, oh my, but my chin doesn't play along.
Then the question of electricity was brought up. It seems caves usually don't have electricity. You can tell I'm still in the very early stages of that hermiting thingy because I hadn't thought of it myself right away.
Another problem is that there seem to be quite few caves on the housing market. Can you imagine I couldn't find any caves that are close enough to a supermarket? And sometimes you even have to bring your own goat. I wonder if I could dress the cats up as goats. Ponder sounds like a sheep sometimes, it's a start, right?
Maybe I'll wait until spring, though. It'll give me time to get things organized ................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................
oops, sorry, I need a time out for a good laugh. Organization and me are not on good terms at the moment.

At least today I tried to catch up on things. I put my new book aside (a new Pratchett at that! *whimper*) and actually listed something, did the litter boxes and cataloged a few books, then snuggled the cats. Oh, and I got my hair trimmed and my bangs, so I can actually read what I'm writing here.
My hopes are very high for getting some important things on my list done tomorrow.

Here's one of the pieces I listed today. A friend suggested it looked like a portal. Maybe I could find my cave somewhere in that forest? ;-)

Portal to the forest

10/24/2011

The Monday collection - A black cat crossing your path ...

... signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
Pretty smart of you to say that, Groucho Marx. Of course it could also be that said black cat crosses your path back and forth whining like a baby to get your attention and ... oops, I think I was a little distracted here by something that is happening right this minute and that will make me need a straightjacket if it goes on for much longer ...

I proudly present some great black cats, #5 of my Halloween collections.


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10/23/2011

Quote of the week

You may have wondered where I am or maybe you haven't. I've been down with a fever the last few days and while on one hand I have enlarged my knowledge on 50s movies and watched some of my DVDs again because my brain wouldn't allow for much more, on the other hand I have seemed to lost my ability to count until six. You'll hear more about that later, though ... I hope.

Today's quote is from one of my favorite TV series once again. I wonder how much longer the DVDs will hold out against my excessive use of them ;-)
I just watched this episode today and the quote made me think because it's so true.


Alan Shore: I have never ever considered myself someone who puts work before friendship. Seems I do.
Jerry Espenson: We all do, Alan. Friendships are a little like backyard gardens. We plan to tend to them. We just always seem to put it off till next week.

It's not just work, though. It can be anything. Maybe it's time to tend to our backyard gardens now?

10/17/2011

The Monday collection - Quoth the raven, Nevermore


Even if you maybe don't know the full text of Poe's The Raven (I know I don't), you have probably heard of it.
Ravens might not be the first creatures you think of when thinking of Halloween, but they make a great addition, so it's them to whom I dedicated #4 of my Halloween collections.


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10/16/2011

Quote of the week

I remember lying on the rug in the living room on the farm of my godmother's parents. I don't know how old exactly I was, but I still was a child. There was this book on the shelf I kept staring at. Until this day I connect the book with that rug and the special atmosphere in that room. A summer day, a book and me ...

There's also a movie made after this book. I think both book and movie have an important, timeless message.
This quote gives you just a little idea of what that is.

Gregory Peck is Atticus Finch, an attorney defending a black man who is accused to have raped a white woman.
One day his daughter Scout is coming home from school all upset about her new teacher.


Atticus Finch: If you learn this single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
Scout: Sir?
Atticus: Till you climb inside his skin and walk around in it.

10/14/2011

First glimpse of Christmas

Sorry, but I happened to watch one of the Boston Legal Christmas episodes and it got me in the mood to put together this one of a kind set of Christmas ornaments part of which I had already made a while ago.
You wonder what the house has to do with it? In Germany when drawing a house like this one children say one syllable of this sentence with each line "Das ... ist ... das ... Haus ... vom ... Ni ... ko ... laus." which means that this is St. Nicholas' house.
I looked it up, it has 44 possible ways and is a problem from graph theory. Who would have thought?

All ornaments are crocheted wire tubes which have been shaped, attached in the right spots and flattened. This took me quite a while and quite a few Boston Legal episodes, I'm telling you! ;-)


You can find the set in my ArtFire studio now.

10/10/2011

The Monday collection - Children of the night

Some people are freaked out by them, I think they are beautiful and fascinating - bats. I'm sorry that the three that lived in our neighborhood for a weeks some years ago didn't want to (couldn't?) stay, I could have watched them for hours.
Oh, and I still want to apologize to bats for the embarrassing picture I made in school. We had to make a bat by glueing screws, nails, bolts and stuff to a piece of black cardboard. You might remember that glue and I are no friends. Poor bat. Had it been alive, it probably would have been laughed at by its peers. Sorry ...


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10/09/2011

Quote of the week

Oh dear, oh dear ... is it Sunday already? I'm totally unprepared, to be honest. Now where to find a quote? The easy choice would of course be one of my Cary Grant movies as I'm soooo late already (who counts eight hours, though .... *cough*), but that would be really too easy.
Let me run to my DVD shelf really fast and have a look what I can come up with.
Would you believe it? Just now the phone rang and I got a complaint where the weekly quote is ;-)

Jerry Lewis - there's no grey zone, I think. Either you think he's just terribly silly or you see how well executed some of his jokes are. Take the dance in the kitchen in "Cinderfella" for example. This however is not the movie I chose for today.
Instead we'll have a quote from a movie in which Lewis hardly speaks. He's a bellboy named Stanley at a big hotel and he just does stuff without saying a word, messing a lot of things up of course.
In the end the bellboys are going to strike and Stanley is accused of being the ringleader. When being asked if he can't talk, he says that of course he can and when the manager wants to know why they had never heard that before, he says:

"Because no one ever asked me."



Oops.
I read that this movie was liked much more in Europe than in the USA. Well, I am in Europe and I like it ;-)

10/06/2011

Kitty Halloween

Halloween is creeping nearer and cats, well, they are always creeping around here (except Greebo who is snoring up a storm right now) and how things sometimes go ... I lost my Halloween witch cuff. Not really lost as in "no idea where it is, I have been looking everywhere!", but as in "ooooh, I like, did you want to keep that?". Money changed hands in a dark alley at midnight, the witch flew off with someone else and I had the best excuse to make another one for myself. Alright, baby! Or maybe alright, kitty?



P.S. The tail is crocheted from wire with beads. I didn't lose the touch for the hook, hehe.

10/03/2011

The Monday collection - BOO!!

Can you hear the chains rattle? Is that a shadow over there? What's that unearthly moaning?
Maybe you have ghosts!!
If they are as adorable as these, I don't think you have to fear anything, though!



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10/02/2011

Quote of the week

1. Today's quote is a little late. I have a severe case of head mush. For those who are not familiar with this scientific term, let's call it a cold ... the whole program, so thoughts take a little longer to make it through.

2. Today I'll do something I usually don't do. I combine the quote with something I made, something that was inspired by the movie. Let me show you a picture. This is my first extended pattern loomed cuff. In case you can't see through the shiny beads that made it so hard for me to take a picture of it, it's a shark.



3. You know the movie, right?

This quote is for my little brother. He knows why, and no, it's not because he likes to wear ugly hats.

Martin Brody, Chief of Police, to an elderly swimmer with a "smart" swimming cap on: "That's some bad hat, Harry."

'Nuff said.