It's time for a new post!

Let's get straight into it, shall we? No waffling about how I haven't posted in over a month - I've got news and pictures to share and don't want to waste any time.

But first - lambs!!!!

Happy Spring, everyone!

Now, in our last episode, I had just met some creative people in Hay-on-Wye. That led to my joining the Marches Book Arts Group (MBAG), which meets monthly in the beautiful little town of Clun, near these fine gentlemen.

sculpture by Jemma Pearson

The group is preparing for an exhibition in Hay-on-Wye in April, the Hay Book Arts Trail, which will have displays in shop windows around town. It'll be up in time for Bookstagram 2017, a weekend of events celebrating Hay's 40th anniversary of 'independence'. It is going to be amazing!

I'll have some work in Timeless Treasures, an antiques shop. But if you can't make it to Hay - maybe you live 5,000 miles away - let me show you my little treasures.

The first one is Alt Album. I made a little photo album using scans of my own travel photos circa 1990. I cut and pasted, analogue-style, little pictures of my grandparents into the scenes - my grandfather is carrying a suitcase, ready for their journey.

cover material taken from old Larousse French encyclopedia - Je seme a tout vent means 'I sow to all winds'

at the White House

in Rome

by the Parthenon in Athens

The next one returns to one of my favourite mediums - an Altoid tin.

I made another Petit Bibliotheque. I really love this one!

The other two are simple small journals. This one is dos-a-dos style with two sets of pages.

The next one has a bird theme and uses repurposed papers for the pages, some with little pockets.

So, that's what's been keeping me busy - and sane and happy. That, and long walks in beautiful scenery, in all kinds of weather.

See you in Hay!

Val

Flashing hot harridans

In response to one of the best posts from Melanie (hell, they're all good posts from Melanie), I really wanted to join/spread/viralize a new meme she kind of started - Hot Harridans Reading. I love reading, and as I'm typing this I'm feeling a hot flash coming on, so excuse me while I take off my cardigan.

Whew, better.

Here's a picture of me (just turned the fan on, too) reading. So, hot harridan reading, with polka-dot leggings.

The photo is staged because I haven't actually started reading this book - have you read it? Is it good? It's the next book for my book group.

These are the women in my book group. 

I haven't asked if I could put them on my blog, so I'm disguising their faces. They're all funny and vibrant and smart, and I really enjoy our get-togethers.

In actuality, I'm just finishing a book on my Kindle, which isn't as photogenic as a real book. I'm reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, which is really good - I wanted to sit up late last night to finish it and find out what the hell happened to Megan, but I needed to get some sleep. Next on my list, after The Tennis Player, I'd like to read the book Melanie is reading in her photo (and she is way more hot than me, except when I'm having a flash) - All Is Vanity by Christina Schwarz.

And if I may be so bold, let me recommend some of my favorite books I've read in the last year - if you want chick-lit type Australian comedy, there's The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. For a supernatural/psychological British ghost story, try The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. If you want an American legal thriller, there's Defending Jacob by William Landay (evidently they're making a movie of this). And for a funny, feel-good story I highly recommend The Revised Fundamentals of Care-giving by Jonathan Evison.

What are you reading?

Val

T3 - Plaid and Paisley

I'm struggling a bit to come up with something for Thoughtful Third Thursday. It's all about books, and although I've been reading almost constantly, I've only finished a couple of books in the past month. I ditched two books before I even got halfway through. Funny, they were both set in Washington State - my old stomping grounds. They were recommended by a colleague with whom I share lots of book and movie recommendations, but we don't actually have the same taste at all. Except I turned him and his wife on to Donna Tartt and Kate Atkinson, and they turned me on to Tana French and Gillian Flynn. Other than that we haven't been having much luck. I'll tell you more about the rejected books at the end of the post, for anyone who's interested in my sweeping and subjective opinion.

Right now I'm reading Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn. It's the second in her series of Jackson Brodie crime novels, and it's pretty good. I'm not a huge crime fiction fan, but I generally like her writing, although not always. She tends to throw in lots of characters and their musings and history while they're doing other things. It's easy to lose track sometimes.

The book is set in Edinburgh, so I decided to go with tartan for an outfit. Here's a quote from the book:

"The hotel was surprisingly cheap and unsurprisingly awful. Anything that could be decorated with tartan was, even the ceiling had been papered in a funereal Black Watch. On the walls were hung framed prints of Old Edinburgh and heraldic clan insignia mounted on wooden shields."

I mixed the tartan with paisley - another Scottish association. The design is Indian, but when it became popular in Great Britain quite a lot of paisley patterns were produced at mills in Paisley, Scotland.

The style of the book is kind of sardonic, wry, and self-deprecating. There's a bit too much death and blood for my taste, but I do like Jackson. The BBC has made a series of three Jackson Brodie books, and the character is played by Jason Isaacs - aka Lucius Malfoy of Harry Potter fame.

My shirt is a Michael Kors men's shirt, the scarf is Ray Strauss, which I bought from Bella at The Citizen Rosebud on Etsy. The yellow jeans are thrifted Shylo, and the suede leopard sneakers are Born.

Now, about the other books.

I started reading The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, and I didn't like it at all. The style was very aloof and pseudo-poetic in a spare kind of way. Lots of sentences seemed very clunky and immature, and I just didn't get into the characters. Glad it was only a library book.

I read two books by Jonathan Evison, well, one and a bit. The first one I loved - The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving. It was a funny, sweet, heart-wrenching tale about a man's life being put back together (in spite of himself) after a tragedy. I definitely recommend this book, as well as another Evison book, All About Lulu. But the one I didn't finish is West of Here. I think it's more of a man's book, long descriptions about wild scenery and men moving through it. And mud. Just not enough human interaction to hold my attention.

Come on over to My Closet Catalogue or A Bibliophile's Style and see the other visual book reports!

Update April 30 - now linking up to 52 Pick-me-up for Yellow Fever.

Val