Dear, Sweet Stupid Girl

            Alas, dearest Alice, do we not know you so well now? 

            We went to see Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland yesterday.  It was interesting, indeed.  I cannot believe this is a Disney movie though…even though the nudity is …non-existent, though the ol’ poke in the ribs, nudge nudge, wink wink, was there a sly bit of poitrine to laugh at.  The violence at the death of the jabberwocky was …not nearly so bad as it could have been, but judging from the reaction of the younger ones in the crowd, it was far far too graphic.  I do appreciate how there was no subterfuge when Alice grew or shrank…her clothing did not…although she was decently covered and/or hidden the entire time.  I love the dress the Mad Hatter made for her while she hid in the tea pot.

            All in all, a decent flick, but not the end all be all of Alice.  I will not ruin the entire movie for you.  It is definitely worth a look see.  There were some historic inconsistencies in the opening sequences, little things like the length of certain hems that were inappropriate for that time period, that bothered me to no end, but overall, they didn’t matter.  Again, I am struck by the happy ending garbage.   I hate that.  My knitter’s eye was busy…especially as someone who still to this day loves to wear gloves…I feel a knitting pattern coming on…but it’s a generic thing w stripes, so no real worries there.  I feel a sewing frenzy coming on…and I do believe I already own the necessary patterns.  That Mad hatter’s dress for Alice is something coming soon…once I procure the fabric…and make it longer…

            Alice fashion…Sandra got my attention with the title of her post, but she and Little Red are more in tune…and no, I have not yet finished knitting the Little Red for E (Suss Cousins little red riding hood scarf). 

            I always look out towards fashion there.  I know of some beautiful and elaborate knitting patterns for the fairy tale theme at Purlescence.  I foresee enough patterns of my own, both sewing and knitting, coming out, sooner or later.

            A trip through ravelry  yields plenty enough to keep me busy for now.

            Alice, dear Alice.

            I am absolutely in love with what Pie Bird has found for tidbits and whatnots with the Alice theme.  You really must give that a go, see what she has to offer you as treats there.

            Maybe a tea party theme is exactly what we need if ever we get around to our house warming party.  At least we know then we can accommodate everyone and their various needs.  That would mean actually finished the house, finishing that last bit of unpacking, staying at home for a good bit of time…but that is what we are planning to do.

                        One word about the bigotry towards rabbits please.  Now, I have been doing a great deal of rabbit research this weekend.  I am appalled by some of the things I have read.

            Our local rabbit rescue, House Rabbit Society of Missouri St Louis Chapter, has this blurb on their front page:

“Even in our present, modern day, there are sadly still a few people who are superstitious about the color of an animals fur or eyes etc.  Please help us educate people that these precious New Zealand bunnies are no better or no worse than any other bunny.  They are not "bad luck" or "good luck". “

Scroll down—it’s there.  Then we walked into a local target and I stopped.  They had “the easter bunny” picture on their door—a big white rabbit—with nice dark brown eyes.  I found no less than five other sources this week-end w the same results—all the white bunnies had brown eyes of one shade or another.  No pinks.  Not even on the Cadbury egg commercials on television.

Turns out, my great grandfather used to raise New Zealand giants, like those rescued by the society recently.  If I were not so set on angoras, I might look into adopting a pair.  But then, I think giants are too big to introduce to Kendall…if it’s it too large, it’s a friend to play w, and although she has calmed down a lot, I am not allowing her near any creature if I don’t think she can behave herself.  I have a nice soft fluffy spot for buns in my heart now.  I will defend them as manically as I defend anything else as I believe in…so…be warned.  

Little Blue Book (Pictures Forthcoming Upon Finish)

My altered Alyce book is coming along. I am not really happy with it though. I really should have waited for the gesso. 
First I removed half the pages of the book.
Then I painted with blues and white for the backgrounds on each remaining page.
I pulled out my rubber stamps and stamped things, using black ink pads.
I glued on various pictures in various fashions.
I glued the metal pieces on for the closure.
I glued in buttons for one scene. Fabric for one scene. Leaves on one scene. Etc. I am not yet done gluing—or drawing.
I began to add the poetry in this morning—with a regular black marker. Not a special permanent ink one or anything. The ink bleeds through the pages too much. Only here and there. But still. It’s bleeding through. Which annoys me.
Some aspects I do like though. In places the black of the ink pad cancels out the black of the marker but for a shadowed affect. I like that.
I really like the way some of the glued-in pictures turned out.
I haven’t finished gluing things in, colouring certain bits in w coloured pencil, or adding poetry. I will post the poetic bits later on, probably under photos of the pages.
But at least I am working on it, a little bit every day.

Board Book Adventure

I have the pre-prepared and ready to go board book that I started last year before the move. All the backgrounds are covered, painted and ready to go. All I need to do is set the story and embellish away.

I am waiting to receive the pdf file of Alice in Wonderland images so I can print them out and see what we have and how I am going to combine them. (this post was written days ago and just now posted)

I am using Alice templates and pictures—but I am not doing an Alice in Wonderland book.
I want to play on the outrageous and bizarre angle. The sweet little girl stuck in a strange land surrounded by the strange.
Not necessarily Alice at all.

And then as I was pondering the Alice board book theories—I remembered a cache of goddess imagery that I have had since before we left to move to MD. In between pondering the Alice layouts, I had a lot of ideas about the goddess images. If the Alice images had not worked in the current ready board book—I would have used that book for the goddess images.

So—I have two board books in the wings. The goddess book—which I have only partially prepared—as in E tore some of the glossy bits off the pages, but not entirely. Si it still needs to be gessoed and prepared and everything. And the Alice book, which is fully prepared and ready to go.

Basically what all of this leads to is the fact that I have to go through and pull out all my glues and pencils and markers and paints and everything else available that I have packed up and packed away—which I have actually been looking forward to the past efw days—since this idea originally began to germinate.

One thing that has helped push me forward is the arrival of my copy of ‘ The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Altered Art’ by Allyson Bright Meyer. Why did I buy this? I saw it for sale at Edward R Hamilton – but since they don’t accept credit cards any longer (I haven’t ordered from them in nearly two years, when they first started to take credit cards it seems) I went to amazon and half.com to see about getting it—and although it is very simple—it really helps me to focus on certain things—and I am hoping it will help me when I approach different techniques and applications.

Again I will keep you updated as things progress. First of all—I have to figure out where I put all those goddess images. Then I will decided where to go from there. 

Either way, my Alice book will be worked on and finished before all of that. I am sure.

Ciao.

February Delight

I know what it is about February—I know what it means to me.

I am trying to remember what I did last year in February—and I know that’s when I bought the beads and everything else for the beading process.

This year, thanks to a wonderful client who tipped me well, I started out by buying the baby knitting books.

Then of course Valentine’s Day – and I knew I would have to get something for myself for Valentine’s Day from the kids (even though I do so love the artwork by my son that currently hangs on our refrigerator)—the whole thing was precipitated by my excursions through ebay and etsy looking at Alice In Wonderland stuff. The bracelet from my kids came a couple days ago—and it is so beautiful. My light-switch plate came that day as well— it is ugly as sin up close and way thicker than I had thought it would be—but I love it.
I’ve been having those thoughts and wishes and desires about making my own doll—which caused me to order a lot of beautiful handspun yarn—and now I am awaiting its arrival.
It makes me glad that I ordered the yarn swift and the yarn ball winder. earlier this month.

Today I was unpacking more—this past week I had made a great deal of progress in the storage room. All the kids toys are out of the den—and the floor is now scattered with all my own things—papers and pens and bits and pieces.
But I was more than happy to find a great stash of things that I had just forgotten I had had—and many things I knew I had somewhere and just hoped that I had brought with me when we moved—rather than it being at dad’s waiting for me.
I found paints—oils and acrylics and water colour. I found paint brushes. I found stamps and ink pads. I found my bamboo reed pens. My tin of doll faces. Soft oil pastels. Brads. Blank ATC cards. Prepared tags.

See, my board book for Alice is bearing down on me—and I had been wondering about where my pencils and markers are—well—my pencils seem to be at my dad’s—but my markers are all here and accounted for—and I have my lesson book as well too—that will come out later on. Alice is why I originally started poking around tonight.

I am so very glad I did.

My printer is running low on colour ink—but I have been printing things out with the mediocre inks—and I have been loving them deeply. I spent a bit cutting the tiles and squares out this evening before I started poking around.

When I saw my tin full of small prepared tags I kinda got giddy. I have some very small Alice images. Things that would be so perfect for these tags.

I have had bits of poetry and stories and imagery flowing in and out of my brain ever since the Alice In Wonderland escapades online.

I am a very happy woman tonight.

So many avenues and mediums at my fingertips tonight.

One thing worse though—most of my supplies came from ollies in OH—and they were quite inexpensive—and now I have two stores to whine about not being able to get to while in St Louis—but then again—that’s what trips to visit family are for, right?

All right—so enough for tonight—as my goofy little girl is getting squirrelly about the dog not laying right here beside us for a change.

Ciao.

Alice In Wonderland

A few nights ago, I couldn’t sleep. The weather was in the process of changing—and that always keeps me awake, pushes me a little off-balance. Yes, I am that connected to the world around me. Do you know how long I once worked to not be so connected—and then conversely how hard I worked to regain that connection? It takes a mighty lot of work—in both directions. And, yes, it is harder to regain what you have fought to throw away than it is to throw it away in the first place.

So—Alice In Wonderland the movie, with Anne Hathaway and Johnny Depp (and a slew of others), has just finished filming or is about to be released or something in between those two things (my dad sent me an article about Anne Hathaway and her cross-dressing new role)—and I absolutely LOVE Alice In Wonderland (we will get to why in just a few minutes, to be sure).

My favourite “fairy tale” is Beauty And the Beast --have you seen my past lovers/boyfriends/spouses? ‘Nuff said right there—I am not in it for looks—I am in it for love—as my past can attest—and guess what—the whole I am aiming higher thing now definitely comes into play—even though I still love Beauty and the Beast.

HOWEVER—my favourite TALE is Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Beauty and the Beast is an easy one to decipher—I always try to look for the good in everyone around me—I always have—I offer that level of trust til my hand gets bitten off. But why Alice?

We are not getting into the whole was the writer stoned (or whatever) when he wrote Alice—I do not care. We are taking just the tale of Alice and are moving on from there.

I get it. I get Alice. I get feeling like a complete alien in a world that seems to want to accept me but doesn’t--or that doesn't want to accept me but I keep trying to fit in anyway. I have felt like this my entire life. Look—I was always the new kid—I was always the strange one, the different one, the Outsider. Even in groups where I ‘should’ have fit in—I didn’t. That’s why I am one of the few people who went through high school and I was friends with everyone—the popular kids, the smokers, the geeks, the sluts, the nerds—all of them were my friends—some better friends than others to be sure—but still. I’m smart – I’m pretty – and I have always wanted to be loved (which is my real downfall in life really). In Alice—there is the whole little girl lost—and surrounded by amazing and fantastical creatures and people—I get that. Every day I get that. I am constantly surrounded by the strange and the bizarre—on so many levels.

I love the new line of Alice books that have been created – and I like that there is a larger depth to everything in these books. I want more of them too. Frank Beddor is a bloody genius.

Anyway. I spent HOURS literally going through ebay and etsy looking for nothing in particular about Alice in Wonderland.

I ended up buying some digital artwork – because I have some amazing ideas (especially after seeing all the altered art and altered jewelry – I especially love the altered globe. I even bought a digital Alice calendar—and my friend is going to help me print it out. My colour ink cartridge is low—and I don’t have the paper to make it worth-while—and I also lack the ability to divide up the pictures in the way the instructions state. I was just willing to take it to a printing place and pay them to do it. A good meal in payment for time and ink and effort seems so much better. 

I also ended up buying the bracelet (see previous post) from my children for me for Valentine’s Day—I am wondering if I should do what I have planned for my birthday or not. I bought the ex something because my driver had a possible trip out of state to make this week-end and the ex’s birthday is next Saturday—so I ordered something (both kids approve—although only one did when I bought it) because I wanted to be sure we had something for him—even though I had to tell him we have to hope it’s here in time. I so hate making the effort for someone who could care less—but I have to make the effort because it’s from the kids and it’s important to them and for them.

If all else fails I did buy a doll (again with the whole I want a doll thing that we can get into later) for myself—before I knew about Youtsuzu—I wanted a rag doll—I have even been scoping out Waldorf and Waldorf-styled dolls of late—the time before this when I couldn’t sleep, when it was storming. I wanted someone I could hold and cuddle with and sleep with—just like a little kid, yes. Sometimes it helps. So much has been taken away from me for so long that sometimes a doll can be a very comforting thing. Add in the it’s good if she’s washable factor—because my kids will touch everything (which reminds me—N really loved Elannah last night—the first time he really saw her or played with her—I was quite impressed).
I also bought this keychain by Delphine Levesque Demers. I don’t really care for the anime stylization—but I thought it was cute—and I have a GREAT deal of admiration for her work—there are actually a couple of her prints that I may go back and get once I am better able to do so.
And then—there is this card that I absolutely could NOT resist because as weird as it sounds—I treat the riddle like a koan all the time—so—why is a raven like a writing desk? One of my old writing blogs was named after this riddle—and I still have a working email address that uses this riddle in part. It was just too cute to pass over.
I was thinking of buying these prints as well—they have the utter simplicity that I love—but they were not—involved enough to make it more worth my while there.

I pulled out my old half-done altered board-book just a little bit ago. It is absolutely perfect for my Alice project.

Here’s an image for you—this is what I feel like on a normal basis—the picture of Alice being overcome by the deck of playing cards—where they swoop up in a tidal wave to overtake her. It’s a beautiful and terrifying image. And yeah—that’s me—every single day.


Anyway—since I am absolutely determined at this point to work on my Alice board-book. I will keep you updated here. At one point or another. Always a journey. I am always on a journey. 