Jim Morrison's Grave and Scavenger Hunt

I was walking around in town when a car drove by and the driver yelled out the window - at no one in particular - "Don't let them desecrate Jim Morrison's grave!!!" I looked around to see what prompted this outburst, but he just looked at me and laughed crazily as he drove away.

If only I'd had my camera ready, because one of the prompts for the Scavenger Hunt this month is A Stranger. And that guy was strange.

But that's okay - half a block later I saw this guy.

A stranger to me, but obviously happy to make friends with anyone willing to drop some cash in his case.

Without a smartphone, I've learned to always have my camera with me when I'm Out and About - another one of our prompts this month.

Some of these prompts were literally right in front of my eyes when I was walking around, like Hole.

And One.

There were so many Signs to choose from.

And some of the signs fulfill other prompts, like Pop Culture,

and Bottle.

 

I went into a bookstore that was really Big.

From one of the windows I was Looking Down to the street where the stranger was singing.

The weather was fine on that day, but another day the rain was coming in horizontally against the window screens.

With the colder weather, I've been wearing hats when I go out. This plain, white fisherman's hat is handy, but it was so boring I decided to cover it with fabric from a pretty shirt I outgrew (ahem).

I'll post the result in a day or two so I can link up with Hat Attack at the Style Crone.

And finally, Whatever you want - my most recent picture, taken at a local winery, getting me in the mood for Christmas.

Thanks to Greenthumb for hosting the Scavenger Hunt - it's always fun to try to think outside the box. December's words are already posted!

Val

All the Languages I Know

Sounds like I'm a polylinguist, huh? I'm not really, but I do enjoy learning about languages and words, and I like having more than one version of English at my disposal.

 

Although our move back to Great Britain is months away, I'm already immersing myself in all things British. I've been watching "The Great British Baking Show" (called "The Great British Bake Off" in Britain, and two seasons ahead of us in the US) and I can't miss a single episode. It's lovely, and they do bake some absolutely scrummy treats!

Source - PBS

Speaking of lovely, I've been following a British florist on Instagram, Swallows and Damsons. Check out their website, it's simply stunning.

Source - Swallows and Damsons

 Swoon, n'est-ce pas?

From the sublime to the ridiculous, we're also watching the original British "The Office" on DVD, which is so much more raw and cringe-making than the American version (I love it, especially Gareth!).

Thanks to a link Patti posted on Facebook to a British newspaper article, I've been able to brush up on my Danish. (Joking - my dad's parents spoke Danish at home in Nebraska, but I only know a few words.) And now everyone is learning about hygge, that esoteric state of happiness in comfort. I must reclaim my Danish roots!

Saturday morning hygge

I would like to learn Danish, although it isn't the prettiest of languages. The word for "beautiful" is smuk, after all.

If only I had a chance to use Italian or French, the languages of art and food and love, but my recall of those mellifluous tongues is fast disappearing. And I'll let you in on a little secret - the next language I'm going to learn is Welsh. Ni fydd yn cael hwyl?

Val

The Inertia before the Ertia

I - keep - trying - to - get - motivated. 

Since I actually opened my Etsy shop, I've hardly done any crafting/arting. I mostly sit and read or waste time on the web. Lots of time, because my old netbook is soooo slow.

I did make some holiday earrings, but so far only two pairs.

Etsy

Etsy

I've got all this other Christmasy material sitting there unused at the moment.

And people keep dumping giving me tins to transform and make into tiny little worlds.

21-tin tower

I have ideas, but I'm lacking the mojovation, the muse magic, the fire in the belly that has nothing to do with sriracha. My brushes and glue pots are dry.

I've been through these cycles before. I think right now I'm taking advantage of the calm before the storm. Our big move back to the UK is still months away, but early next year we'll need to start sorting and cleaning and deciding what to take and what to throw away, and trying to sell everything else. It's daunting and exciting, leaving behind our home here, where I see my mother and sister frequently,

Hand-painted collage I did a few years ago with an old photo of my mom, who grew up on a ranch

but knowing we'll become reacquainted with our beautiful and talented granddaughters.

"Grandma Val - in a mermaid dress!" drawn by Amelie (she wrote her name backwards)

Living in a lazy limbo, I've been perusing Instagram. Without a smartphone, it's a pain to try to add photos of my own (which I wrote about here, near the end), but I'm enjoying lurking and liking. Once we get moved, I'm going to get a smartphone, and a super-duper state-of-the-art laptop, and maybe a kitten (thanks to Bella and Francis making me want a cat again after 25 cat-free years)!

Val

What I Should Have Done

I'm typing this and thinking, wouldn't it have been clever if I had used a Halloween theme for this month's Scavenger Hunt (hosted by Greenthumb at Made With Love)?

I do like having a little bit of cohesion in my otherwise random collection of photos. Well, at least I have that - I got most of my photos during the workday when I go out for walks. As you can see, once I get away from the boring, beige office I'm in a beautiful location, near the university and the river, and there are lots of walking paths.

Ready for the tour? Here we go!

Question

 
Cream and Ring

I really couldn't think of anything else for cream, so here's my creamy opal birthstone ring that I make a point to wear in October.



Number

Phone number? Code? Winning lottery numbers? Number of days before the end of the world?



Lattice

Lush and wet in my backyard, which ties in with the next one -



Familiar

We're finally getting rain after a long, dry summer. I've always lived in rainy places, so this is very familiar.



Today

Actually a couple of weeks ago, but when I took it, it was today.

Down

Looking down from a pedestrian bridge, downstream, at the cairns or inuksuks in the river.



Writing

Writing and wow! This is by the art buildings at the university.



Many

And many more outside the shot.



Broken

Whatever you want

"Is your refrigerator running?"

Finally, I hit the Halloween theme, and also tied it in with my workday! The group I work with decided we'd dress up for a Pajama Party for Halloween, and here we are. (Like I did last time, I'm disguising everyone else since I didn't ask if I could blog them. This time I disguised them as ghosts - you know, for Halloween.) Friday was a day of popcorn and way too much candy, Barbies and teddy bears, giddy excitement, silly games and extreme tiredness at the end - just like a real slumber party!

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

Red and Pink and Orange

My favorite colors on the color wheel are the reds. They sing to me in a way that blue and yellow never do. I always pick the red playing piece when I play a board game, and my favorite flavors come in red, too - cherry, strawberry, merlot.

I bought a new, red handbag, which I'll show you properly one day. Here I am carrying it and surrounded by red before going out to dinner for my birthday.

Guess how old I am - it's scary! Or maybe I got the math wrong.

Laughing away the years!

I've always loved pink and orange, too - red's kissing cousins. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I just had my mammo-cram the other day, I got some small pink gifts at the imaging clinic. Whheeeeee! Who doesn't want a pink plastic coin purse and a pink whistle and a pink emery board?

Now that summer's over, my bowling ball - the Pinkster - is seeing some action.

My scores are looking pretty good, too. And my favorite snack at the bowling alley is Cheetos, which brings me to orange.

October IS orange, don't you think? The leaves, the pumpkins, the O at the beginning of both words. Look at your calendar - I bet they used orange for October.

I created a Halloween brooch that has orange in it, along with black and purple. The sticky-out beads remind me of spider legs, and the twisted wires are like cobwebs - although the description I used on Etsy was a little more gruesome.

No matter the month or the color, Visible Monday is on every week, so I'll be heading over to link the pink, and the red, and the orange.

Val

I like big buttons and I cannot lie

It seems like I keep making references back to previous posts. It's a sneaky way to get more clicks, for whatever it's worth. Anyway, remember a couple posts ago I mentioned I was making buttons for this purple velvet jacket?

I did it! Buttons completed and sewn on!

Ta da!

I won't say they were altogether successful, and I'll show you why. If you're not into Mod Podge or resin or shanks, you're excused - go on to the next blog or watch Dr. Who or have a cup of tea or something.

Back to the buttons - I decided to use cutouts from pictures in an old Sotheby's catalog that I got at the thrift store, and cover them in resin. So first I had to seal them with Mod Podge.

 
Then I glued some bits of chain around the edge to help hold in the resin when I poured it. It worked on most of them.

To pour resin on the backs, I wrapped masking tape around them after the first pour had set (a little more than 24 hours). The tape also only worked moderately well at holding the resin in, but I just trimmed off the  excess.

While the resin on the back was still sticky I added shanks from self-cover buttons, which set in the resin.

I did a second pour on the top, which made them rather thick. Maybe too thick, and also blunt on the edges, so they don't slide in and out of the buttonholes easily. That's why this is called an e-x-p-e-r-i-m-e-n-t.

The other thing is that shank buttons tend to droop a lot when they're big and heavy. Lesson two - large buttons should have holes through the middle, and maybe even four holes, so they won't droop under their own weight.

So, not completely successful, and neither were the photos! It was impossible not to get reflections. But these buttons will do until I get around to experimenting with polymer clay instead.

Linking up my velvety Prince-like jacket with Visible Monday!

Val