Nose in a book

Well, I didn't intend to, but I somehow spent most of today reading, and just finished the book I was working my way through. Of course, I have about four more lying around the house to read...

Also got a little more work done on Cthulhu, though not as much as I should have. I'll be able to dedicate more to him tomorrow, as I don't intend to start another book yet.

Books, lots and lots of books!

Chris is out of town on a business trip, which means that I'm spending a lot of time reading. Not only do I have three novels to work my way through (I suspect I'll only get through 2), but a great big stack of books just arrived from the Interweave Hurt Book Sale. If you're a beader or other crafter, you may want to check out the sale. Books are marked down as much as 75%, and for supposedly being "hurt" the ones that I ordered are in better shape than the ones on the shelf at Barnes and Noble.

I got a little greedy with the sale and ordered nine books. It's going to take me a while to get through all of them. I have:

200 Braids to Twist, Knot, Loop or Weave
Beading with Peyote Stitch
Bead Romantique
100 Beaded Jewelry Designs
Fabulous Fabric Beads
Create Jewelry Stones
Create Jewelry Glass
Create Jewelry Pearls
Create Jewelry Crystals

I'll post reviews as I make my way through the stack, reading and perhaps trying out a project or two.

In the meantime, I'm reading Mainspring by Jay Lake, and I think it's time that I crash out on the couch with the puppies and find out what happens next!

Oh yes, before I go, Unlock My Secrets is today's Daily Special!

I made something - AND - took a picture of it

Look at this... I finished a bead project and took its picture! Ok, so it's not much of a picture. I took it right here in the office, with it just sitting on my current beading work surface, so the colors are a little off and the reflections are weird, but you get the idea.

This is the rivoli necklace that I was working on last week, and having a bit of trouble with. I managed to make it work after all! I thought the top two stones were both Deep Lagoon color, but the middle one is actually erinite, upon closer inspection. They're somewhat similar, but the Deep Lagoon has a warmer base color and odd, dark flashes due to having one of those special after-market coatings. It's one of the many custom colors that Betcey at Beyond Beadery carries, and the base stone is actually vintage. Oh, and the bottom rivoli is emerald. The strung section is an assortment of emerald and erinite crystals in various shapes, with the same Delicas I used for the bezel serving as spacers. The washers are actual hardware, from Home Depot, and the idea is to slip a ribbon through them and tie it at my neck, making for a nice adjustable length and a mixed-media feel.

A couple of things about this necklace: One is that it was almost free. The rivolis all have little chips or scratches on the edges, which can be hidden by bezels but which Betcey didn't feel right selling, so my co-workers and I at gem show got to take them home as a bonus ;) The crystals are all from various birthday presents and surprise packages from my friends, who know how much I love green (especially erinite and emerald!). The Delicas were from a friend who was destashing, the 15s were inherited from my friend Layne. I think I may have bought the Czech 15s from my first gem show employer, but they might also be from Layne. The only things I paid for were the thread, Beadalon, crimps and washers.

The other thing is that this is an attempt to make a necklace with steampunk inspirations, without it being obvious. Though I had the idea to do these rivolis with golden and bronze bezels before I moved, the impetus that got me moving was my new goggles. It doesn't quite match (the lenses are definitely more like the discontinued Medium Emerald Swarovski hue than the true emerald I used), but it coordinates nicely. And the genuine brass hardware washers are a nice, subtle touch, I think. I have two more that I want to turn into earrings, as soon as I find the bronze-hued titanium findings that I bought at gem show. The idea is to be able to wear it with my goggles as a nice accent to a steampunk costume, but for it to also be at home with other styles.

In other news, my website is still down. Bah. And since I was feeling a little down (physically and mentally!) yesterday, I read Jumper. All of it. I started at 3:15pm and ended before 1am, and that was with taking an hour break to play some Guild Wars, and some time for dinner. So I basically devoured the book. It was much different from the movie, better in lots of ways, worse in some (the movie is cooler, the book is deeper).

Also, I still can't find all my little spools of beading thread. Right now all I have at my disposal is my huge spool of black, and the little spool of olive that I've used for my last two projects -- neither of which are suitable for the bronze and golden brown lariat I want to start. Guess I know what I'll be doing today!

Website temporarily down

I somehow always manage to forget that my domain registration expires before my web hosting does. As such, my site went down sometime today, and I'll need to get Chris to help me bring it back up tonight.

I'm probably going to switch hosts this month, too. I don't know if there will be any downtime involved in that. I've been more or less content with the host that I've had for the past few years, but Chris says the host he uses for his business is much better, and since he does more back-end stuff with my site, I feel I should be using the host that has the options he likes.

While I was quiet all last week, I was getting some things done: beading rivolis, writing my book, considering a second blog project, and preparing to adopt a dog. Yes, as little as my cats will like it, it is time to add a canine member to this household. There are a few more things I need to do to get the house ready for a dog, but in the meantime I spent most of Saturday reading Dogs For Dummies. I learned a lot of nice little things that will make dog-ownership easier for Chris and I, and better for our pets, too. Stay tuned for more on this story as it progresses.

One other thing I did was finally go see The Dark Knight with Chris. I enjoyed the movie, but I didn't find it to be quite as awesome as everyone said it was. In fact, I found that it really dragged on, especially at the end. I guess it didn't help that by the time we factored in the trailers, we were in the theater for nearly 3 hours to see the movie. It practically needed an intermission, though I suppose that might have removed some of the tension from the movie. Over all, while it was good, I didn't find myself wowed like I expected to be. Hellboy II gave me much more bang for my buck.

Today is feeling like a good day for some beading, so I think I'll go do that now.

Away from the computer

No, no, this isn't a post about another hiatus. It's just a post about my efforts to waste less time on the computer, and the things I've been doing over the past few days instead of wasting my time on Facebook.

There's been some housework, but no one wants to hear about that.

I've read two books recently. The first was The Family Trade by Charles Stross. I read it on a friend's recommendation, and I really enjoyed it. Despite being marketed as a fantasy, it's really quite grounded in reality and features a main character who is strong and capable, but who also makes some believable mistakes. The second (which I just finished an hour and a half ago) was The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. I read it because I needed something to read while waiting for panels at Comic Con and none of the publishers had more free novels to give out. It looked interesting, but ultimately turned out to suffer from rather weak writing. It probably doesn't help that it was a Teen novel, and while I know there's a lot of good Young Adult fiction out there, I think that the current demand for YA/Teen fantasy leads to some stuff getting published when it could really use a bit of tightening up first. It wasn't a total waste of time, and I did enjoy some parts and a lot of the concepts in it, but I won't be picking up the other two books in the trilogy. I'll have a full review in Collector Times next month.

I picked up my beads again yesterday, and finished the necklace that I started back before I moved. It turned out really nice, so now I need to pick a good spot to take some pictures. I'll probably work on a little rivoli pendant for myself while I'm straightening out the beadroom and deciding on my next major project.

Today I unpacked some stuff from Comic Con, and put all my review materials in one spot here on the desk, so I can read through them over the next few months and write lots of reviews. I've also got a big stack of postcards, fliers, and other promotional items to look through to decide if I want to visit any of their websites for more info.

I didn't just bring back comic books and novels from Comic Con, however! I've got a new piece of art to hang in the living room (and half a dozen to frame and hang) tonight, and some plant cuttings to pot. Plants from Comic Con, you say? It makes sense, honest. An on-line beading friend of mine gave me some cuttings from her very prolific garden to take home and plant. I bought some really cute pots for them, although I have more cuttings than I thought, so I need to go get more pots.

In fact, I think I'm going to go get to those cuttings now, and then maybe get a bit of tidying-up done in the beadroom.

Boxes and Beads and Books.

I'm almost out of boxes... but I'm almost out of places to put boxes, too! Some of them are going to have to go live in the trunk of the car until we move, just so I have some room to work in here.

Today I actually started packing my beads. A lot of them are in these two 4' tall plastic filing cabinets (aka iris carts). This is a great storage method, however, it's a little heavy and ungainly for moving. As such, I've begun the process of moving the beads into smaller containers. I'm still keeping the containers out and accessible -- next week, right before we move, I'll put them all into suitcases, which have convenient wheels and handles for easy bead-moving.

I started another rivoli project tonight, and picked out beads for the next one, too. They both involve green and earthy tones. The second one will be for me to keep, as it involves "little chippies" -- rivolis that have dings on the edges. Sure, I cover the edges with beads, but I still feel bad selling damaged goods -- especially since I got the chippies for free from my gem show job, because she also doesn't like to sell damaged goods!

The books part of the title refers to the fact that I'm working my way through some nerdy astrophysics book called Death By Black Hole. So far it needs more death and less physics, although I did like learning more about the rings of Saturn and why they look the way they do. There's also a lot about the history of physics and general and astrophysics in specific. Last night I read about people learning that we are not the center of the universe. My cats, of course, disagree. They're pretty certain that everything revolves around them, even up to a cosmic level.

So I'm probably going to go read more nerdy physics stuff, although what I really feel like doing right now is writing. I did a short little story for some gaming-related stuff this past weekend, and it reawakened my inner author. Unfortunately, said inner author can't really settle on a project, and doesn't have anything specific she wants to write, she just misses the process. Maybe I can distract her with shiny beads, or bore her to sleep with physics.

A week of reading.

I finished Iron Council before bed last night, a week after I started reading it. I've been keeping myself pretty busy, so I only had a couple of hours a day to read. In a way, that was better than my usual preferred marathon reading. It gave me more time to absorb what I was reading, and built up more anticipation for the next night. I have to say that over all, I really enjoyed the book.

I have no lack of reading material right now. There are 4 SteamPunk magazines still awaiting my attention, plus a collection of Victorian fairy tales, and a Hawaiian mythology book that is the size of a good dictionary. All that, plus I'm expecting new issues of Faerie Magazine and Simply Beads. I doubt I'll find myself bored anytime soon!

I'd just started my night's work on Locked Away when Chris came home and distracted me with something called a "Chai X-Treme." Now that I'm hyped up on caffeine and sugar, it's time to get back to beading!

I'd still rather be reading.

Iron Council is long. I've been reading it since Friday night and I'm still not done. So I'm sitting here making myself do stuff that I should be doing, instead of spending all night reading. Clearly, I have decided that I like the book after all. The third section turned out to be a helluva lot more interesting than the first and second.

Last night we took our friend Alex out for dinner and a movie in honor of his birthday. Usually we just do dinner, but we all wanted to see Forbidden Kingdom, and it was more convenient to do both on the same night. The movie wasn't as bad as I expected, and one of the things that I need to do tonight is write a review of it. I'll post a link to it on Thursday, when it should be up on the 'zine. Dinner was Thai food. Of the three Thai places I've tried in the past few months, this one was clearly the best. The food was amazing, the portions were generous, the service was good, and even though it was crowded, they brought our food quickly and kept our drinks full. All in all, a good night.

The choker has been coming along very well. It will also be posted on Thursday, when I update my site. I'd hoped to finish it today, but my eyes are feeling a little tired so I'll probably do it tomorrow. It's a bit of an unusual color palette, but I think it's very elegant. After that it will be time to finish Locked Away!

Oh, and Chris is awesome because he bought me 4 issues of Steampunk Magazine. I am a happy little geek.

Ideas spring to mind.

I'm in a somewhat better mood today than yesterday. Still overwhelmed, but that's not going away anytime soon!

I had a nice flash of inspiration in the shower (my mind wanders a lot when I'm washing all this hair!), and I figured out how I wanted to do a certain necklace... The one involving the pretty hammered brass key that I bought at gem show. I'll probably make it tomorrow. I thought of taking it to the game today, but I'd rather do it at home where I can change things around more easily if need be.

Last night I went ahead and started Iron Council, because I couldn't sleep. I'm finding that it's not quite grabbing me in the same way that the previous two books did. Maybe it will get better. One thing that I do like is that the author chose to let his city evolve and change in the 20-25 years between the first two novels and this one. Some fantasy worlds get locked into too much of a status quo, and they feel stagnant. There was just enough change that it feels like a believable level of advancement, and keeps the same feel of the city. New technology, social changes due to events in previous books, interesting stuff like that. If only the characters didn't feel so boring and distant.

I need to go get ready for today's game. I'm playing a totally atypical character for me, in many ways. We'll see if that works out.

Tug of war.

Ugh. I feel like I have too many things to do, and that I can't focus on any one thing. I want to bead, but when I go into the beadroom, I see the mess and I start to try to clean and pack, but then there's no place to put things, or I can't get to where they belong, or I'm worried I might need it before we move...

So instead I spent most of today working on a character for a game that I don't even know if I want to play anymore.

I'm really not in a great state of mind today. I did go to B&N and finally pick up Iron Council (the next Mieville book). I think I might go start reading it, which pretty much guarantees that I won't feel like packing or gaming or beading.

Willpower? What's that?

I want to play with clay!

I'm not going to talk about more house stuff, but this is a picture that I took outside of the house. Isn't it a pretty flower? I should really learn to use my macro mode, so pictures like this would come out even nicer.

Today I received my copy of Christi Friesen's Down Under book, which shows how to make lots of Australian-themed polymer pieces. It was fun to read, and now I want to make an echidna. I fell in love with them years ago, when I read about them in some school book. I really don't have a good spot to work with clay right now, though. Maybe once I get things a little more cleaned up.

I'm feeling pretty tired. I'm glad that it's Friday, so Chris won't be getting up early and phoning it up all morning, so maybe I can get some good sleep. We also don't have any gaming, so I think we'll be home-bound for most of the weekend, other than a couple nearby errands. I have a lot of things I want to do around here, including hopefully some work on Locked Away, which I haven't touched since I posted the last update on it.

Winding Path.

Winding Path is the name of this new bracelet. It's a little brighter than my usual work, but it seemed fitting for the season. Actually, it matches a couple of the new Spring/Summer shirts that I bought a couple of weeks ago. It's so nice to see greens "in" this season. Gives me a good excuse to play with all of my green beads. The seeds and triangles were both among my purchases from gem show in February.

Most of my triangle beads are very subdued colors, so it was nice to find some more vibrant colors at work. I also got a nice purple, a nice aqua blue, and a deep, rich red. I'll probably be working with them sometime soon. I've been feeling the need to do another herringbone spiral with an art bead at the center, like Night Shift. I just haven't decided on a bead yet.

So anyway, last week was pretty crazy. On Wednesday, I spontaneously decided to start some Spring Cleaning, which I'll continue this week. The clutter has built up and it's time to clean it up and weed it out, in preparation for hopefully moving within the next few months. Thursday and Friday were spent dog-sitting out in Marana, and let me tell you, the desert is really beautiful and green after the rain we had last weekend! Saturday was gaming. Sunday was the Renaissance Faire, which was awesome. I'll give that its own post tomorrow, I think.

While I was dog-sitting, I read The Scar. When I say read, I should really say "devoured." I think I spent about 9 hours reading on Thursday. I had all kinds of plans for while I was up there, and really, all I did (other than taking care of my three doggie pals!) was read and make one bracelet. Needless to say, the book was pretty good. It had a slightly Lovecraftian edge to it, which doesn't surprise me. I first encountered China Mieville in the Children of Cthulhu anthology, after all. For the record, his was one of the few good stories. I don't recommend that particular book.

I made three bracelets between Wednesday and Saturday, and I think all three of them will go into the Etsy shop throughout the week.

Faerie Stones and Faerie Tree.

This necklace features a bead by one of my new favorite artists: Michele Gabriel. I bought a much Gothier tree pendant from her, and then after I got it, I realized that I should have bought one which would go with these pretty mottled Czech glass beads... so I did. When it arrived in yesterday's mail, I saw that it was the perfect match, so I put the necklace together before I went to the game.

The Czech beads were among the stuff I purchased at gem show and then forgot to photograph. They're a lentil shape with a mottled, stone-line look. They're also matted, but it's a very smooth etching. They feel simply amazing. I want to make myself a bracelet with just them and some small spacers, because they feel so nice against my skin. There's also some amber-topaz firepolished beads, some copper-lined olivine faceted beads, and some dark turmaline Swarovski crystals.

Because the pendant was named "Fairytale" and the lentils look like magical stones, I've named the necklace Faerie Stones and Faerie Tree. Now I just need to decide if I'm going to sell it on Etsy, on my website, or greedily keep it for myself!

While I'm here and blogging, I'd like to wish a belated happy birthday to my favorite blog* Art Bead Scene, which turned one year old yesterday. Woohoo! To celebrate, they're having a mega-contest with a new prize every five days. I've entered a few of my pieces, and I recommend that you do, too!

Now, as I said last night, I finished reading Perdido Street Station on Tuesday night. I did have a couple of quibbles with the ending, but over all I enjoyed the book and I hope to pick up The Scar next time I'm at a bookstore. I enjoyed the sci-fi/fantasy fusion. And contrary to the rumors I heard, things did happen in the book. They just took a really, really long time to happen. My next order of business, of course, is to circulate the book among my friends.

*In all fairness, ABS is tied with my other favorite blog, InsectPOD. There's enough room in my heart to love both of them!

The Inventor's Gala Ball.

Check it out! My first piece of steampunk jewelry! I call it "The Inventor's Gala Ball" and if you follow the link, you can see a couple more images. I made it on Friday night, and it started with a few beads that were sitting on my desk. I'm really happy with it, and in fact, I want to keep it... but I've got to learn to let go, so it's up for sale.

I used one of the new Earthenwood Studios "steam stones" as the focal. I can't wait for Melanie to have these on her site so I can order a whole bunch and go wild designing with them. In the meantime, I'll be happy with what I have. I like the warm brown glaze on this gear. It reminds me of leather upholstery.

On the subject of steampunk, I'm still reading Perdido Street Station, and I'm really hooked on it. Yeah, the story is a bit slow, but I'm still fascinated by the setting. And of course, the plot feeds into my obsession with wings. I'm a little more than halfway into it. I'll probably finish it by the end of the week, but it's hard to say, since Chris will be off on Thursday and Friday and he might want to go out and do things. I'm enjoying having a book that's dense and wordy enough that I'm not done with it in one, two days tops.

On a completely different subject, don't forget to check out this week's BFAC auctions! I have two favorites this week: Protector (the eye necklace) and Evening Out (the evening bag). Both are still at a ridiculously low price for the amount of work and artistry that were put into them.

Not a whole lot else to say. I'll probably list some more leaf beads on Etsy today, and then work on a necklace for a bit.

Lacking a witty title...

The above bracelet is titled "Misty Isle" and is hanging out over in my Etsy shop, waiting for a good home. This is what I was talking about when I said I was going to use the seafoam beads with something else. The tube of seafoam seed beads was sitting next to the flippy box of shadow crystal Swarovskis, and I was struck by how pretty they were together. Hopefully, someone else will agree.

I didn't end up listing anything on Etsy today, because by the time I finished all the other things I was doing, I was feeling kind of beat. I'm used to spending my Saturdays having fun and gaming, but since both of our GMs are in Phoenix for work, I stayed home and got things done. Important things, like advertising, networking on Facebook, and writing BFAC stuff.

Speaking of BFAC stuff, some of the auctions are still sitting at only 24.99. We can't have that happening! Go forth and bid, and be ready to look at next week's auctions tomorrow afternoon! As for myself, I'm not bidding because I'm saving my money for a couple of items that I love and suspect may result in bidding wars.

Last night I started reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, and that's what I'm going to do when I finish blogging over here. I've been warned that not much happens in the book, but so far I'm enjoying the writing and the weird setting. Haven't decided yet how I feel about the characters, I'm only four chapters in. I picked up the book because I saw it on a list of steampunk novels, and I'd already been considering it because I liked Mr. Mieville's short stories that I read.

I've actually been doing a lot of reading over the past two days. The latest issue of Simply Beads arrived in yesterday's mail, and it had cool interviews with Anne Choi and Green Girl Studios. I purchased the latest Bead and Button, and it has some rather neat looking projects in it, though I've found the quality of non-project articles in there to be lacking. I don't like their current trend of having non-beader freelance authors write the beadmaker interviews, because they often spend too much time telling me things I already know. And my other bit of reading material was a book on making broadcollars by Julia Pretl. This book snuck in like a little book ninja... I hadn't seen it advertised or reviewed in any magazines, and this was the first time I'd seen it on a shelf anywhere. It was hiding surreptitiously between two other beading books when my infamous eagle elf eyes spotted it. The copyright is 2007, but I suspect it probably didn't see distribution until the last couple of months. Anyway, the book has great illustrations and lots of cool-looking projects, nicely ordered by difficulty. I'm going to have to invest in a lot of bugle beads, as I've wanted to make a collar for a loooong time.

I think that's all I had to say today. Don't forget to go read my Pay it Forward post and sign up if you'd like something handmade by me!

Another bookstore trip.

First of all, tonight our Legend of the Five Rings game was canceled. Our host was having home renovations and forgot to tell us until today, when his home was too chaotic to have a game. Most of the group was under the assumption that we could play at our friend Alex's place... because none of them have listened for the past two or three weeks when he's been going on and on about how he wouldn't be at the game because he'd be in HAWAII! We maybe could have crammed everyone into our apartment, but I wasn't about to go into a panicked cleaning spree on such short notice. So, no game. Bah.

Anyway, Chris had another commitment, which he was going to bow out of early to run the game, so this freed him up to be there as long as he wanted, and I guess that's a good thing, because it was all the way on the opposite side of town as our host's house. The brewery that he was meeting his friends at is in the same mall as the 2-story Barnes and Noble, so I tagged along, with the idea that I would shop and read books, and we'd do dinner when he was done.

I had an AmEx gift card sitting on my desk, so I decided to take it with me and buy a couple more beading books. Ever since gem show I've had this insatiable desire for new books, because I kept hearing how good they were. Today I picked up Diane Fitzgerald's new book on Zulu beadwork, and Sherry Serafini and Heidi Kumli's book on bead embroidery.

The Zulu book was one that I hadn't really heard anything about, but really wanted. There are a lot of really interesting, unique techniques in there that I'm eager to learn. The book has a nice introduction about the Zulu people and the history of their beading tradition, and then lots and lots of tutorials. Each technique has a photograph of a piece made in Africa, and then some photos of examples that the author made. It's cool to see how the stitches and cords can look so different depending on the beads you use.

The bead embroidery book came highly recommended by Betcey (my boss at gem show) and by Charlene (who I had lunch with), and really, I just kept hearing good things about throughout the show. The two authors are both masters of the technique, and I've especially admired Serafini's work because her sense of style and color really appeals to me. There's basic how-tos, an assortment of projects, and lots of information on design and inspiration. Even if I never take advantage of the technical information, the eye candy was definitely worth the price.

I'm really excited to start putting all these new techniques to use! I got a lot of cleaning and organizing done in the beadroom today, which also has me feeling inspired. As long as I'm not coming down with the cold that Chris had (for less than 24 hours), I'm going to be beading like crazy for the next couple of days!

Movies 'n' things.

Yesterday, Chris and I returned to our Friday date routine (previously interrupted by his new job and gem show). There were two new releases that we wanted to see for the movie part of our date: Jumper, and Spiderwick Chronicles. Well, due to timing, Jumper won out.

Jumper was everything I expected it to be, which is to say it was silly, shallow action entertainment. While I would have liked for the movie to go deeper into the characters and the central conflict, I knew that it wouldn't, because basically the film was just an excuse to have lots of teleport-heavy action sequences. I think it was a pretty interesting and realistic example of how people would use and abuse such an ability. I just wish that the characters had been a little more likable and believable. Well, that and I wish that almost every single cool scene hadn't already been shown in the trailers.

It's reached the point where too many trailers show you all of the best parts of the movie, and then when you actually go see the film, it just fills in the blanks and establishes a chronological order. There's no longer that "WOW!" moment of seeing an awesome sequence on the big screen, because you've already seen it over and over again in the teaser.

That's why Cloverfield still stands out as an example of an excellent trailer, despite being a lousy movie. The trailer told you everything you needed to know: there's some people at a party in NY. Their party gets ruined by a monster attacking Manhattan. Chaos and madness ensue. If you wanted to see the monster and the chaos, you had to go see the movie.

I think another example of a pretty good marketing campaign (despite having not seen the movie!) was I Am Legend. The animated shorts were designed to set the tone of the film, and give you an idea of the backstory, without giving away all the good parts of the movie itself.

Anyway, I did have fun watching Jumper, and while it could have been better, it wasn't a huge waste of time.

After that, we went to the bookstore where I picked up that Laura McCabe book on beading with crystals, mainly rivolis. It looks pretty awesome, and I might take it to gaming today to read while things are slow. As I've mentioned before, the lighting there is too bad to really bead all night, I end up with a nasty headache.

I'm hoping that if I pick up one beading book a month, that I'll catch up with everything I've missed and not fall too far behind on the publishing schedule. I also want to pick up some sewing books, I saw some pretty good looking ones at B&N last night. I might fill out my polymer book selection, too. Not that I have room for the books I have, so most of this will have to wait until I move into a house and can have more bookcases than I have now.

Anticraft review.

So, the other night I curled up on the couch and read through that Goth-y crafting book that I mentioned on Sunday.

The book is called "Anticraft: Knitting, beading, and stitching for the slightly sinister." This title, on a black, white, and gangrene cover, was what caught my eye as I was leaving the craft section of Barnes and Noble. There's something I need to make clear about myself: I am very easily distracted, especially by visual things. A normal conversation in the car goes like this:

Chris: So, what do you want to eat tonight?

Me: Well, I was thinking we could have -- ooh, nice, a Mustang -- sandwiches, or maybe we could splurge and go to -- CORGI! Awww! So cute! Can I have a puppy? Hey! That guy didn't use his turn signal. Oh, there's a new book store, we should check that out. What was the question?

And it's also pretty normal for us to be in a store, talking, and I suddenly veer off to look at something shiny. Chris is used to this, and doesn't mind it, except when I randomly shout out "Puppy!" or "Kitty!" and he thinks that one is about to dart in front of the car.

Anyway, I picked up the book, flipped through it, and saw that it was mostly knitting and crochet, so I was going to put it back. But then he saw Cthulhu in it and insisted that I should buy it. Note to self: carry Cthulhu post-its and stick them on anything that I want to buy, thus ensuring no arguments from Chris.

While most of the projects ARE knitting, with a little crochet, sewing, and jewelry thrown in for good measure, the book is pretty entertaining. There's a lot of general craft info, including some helpful first-aid hints for those inevitable craft disasters. There's also recipes, a guide to throwing a party, and silly comic strips throughout. Because the book is geared towards Goths, Punks, and anyone else who likes to craft but doesn't like the frou-frou pink preppie look favored by many craft books, everything is served with a healthy dose of snarkiness. And because I love to snark, this really won me over.

There's really only one project in here that I'm likely to make, and that's the duct-tape corset. I don't even know when or where I'd wear it -- maybe to Comic Con, or to whatever haunted house we go to next Halloween. There's just something appealing in the idea of being able to say that I made a corset out of duct tape.

Since I haven't tried out any of the directions, I can't say how well-written they are. There are few how-to illustrations, except for the basic techniques section in the back, which has copious photos. Even if the insutrctions do prove to be not so great, I'd say the book is humorous enough to go on the bookshelf of any "slightly sinister" or otherwise darkly inclined crafter.

By the way, this book is the product of the website www.theAntiCraft.com which I have not yet checked out, but will soon. I'd imagine that a visit to it will help you decide whether or not you're interested in the book.

We now return to our regular scheduled programming

After a fun jaunt into the realm of movie reviewing (which is one of my numerous hobbies), I'm back to what you expect from me -- talking about beads and beading.

Today Chris and I went over to the 2-story Barnes and Noble across town. I picked up the latest Beadwork magazine, which has some great techniques in it. I'm glad that they've had more innovative beadweaving in there recently. Don't get me wrong, I love spiral rope, but there's only so many variations I can see published before I'm tired of it.

I also picked up a cool Gothy crafting book that I'll post about in more detail after I've read it. It was a total impulse buy. If I was going to buy any sort of how-to, it probably should have been "Sewing For Dummies" or that new Zulu beadwork book that I've had my eye on, but oh well. Chris talked me into buying that instead.

Chris picked up "The Deep" which is a huge coffee-table type photography book of creepy deep sea critters. He spied it back before his birthday and hinted about wanting it, but I bought him other presents instead. So today I told him he should buy it for himself (in addition to the usual science nerd books that he was picking up). He's sitting there reading it now, and telling me about the various freakish jellyfish contained therein... thus further convincing me that I should stay on the land.

I've been working on some spiral rope bracelets for the Etsy shop. Not sure what I'll put on the website tomorrow. We'll see what I feel like making when I get up.

A trip to the bookstore.

Last night before the game, we made a quick trip to Borders. Usually Barnes and Noble is my bookstore of choice, but their selection of day planners isn't that great, and that's what I wanted to buy. I finally got the pretty, shiny green one that I've wanted for years. Of course, I think that next year I'll be a good girl and buy one from an Indie artist. I just didn't think about that until AFTER I'd bought said green one.

I also picked up the 2008 Bead-A-Day calendar. So far it's disappointing, but I heard that the 2007 was fairly good, and I'm only 3 days into the year, so it could get better. Besides, it only cost a little bit more than a bead magazine, so I'm not out too much if it does turn out to be lame.

There were a few other things I wanted, but I didn't want to be late to the game. I need some more reading material. I was hoping that maybe Chris would get me The Ladies of Grace Adieu for the holidays, and since he didn't, I'll have to pick it up myself. I also need to hunt up some new authors to read, as my current crop of authors hasn't been producing new work fast enough to sate my hunger for books.

The last book I read, which I finished a few days ago, was The Difference Engine. I wanted to read it because it's a steampunk book, and I would like to get into that genre (other than just reading Girl Genius), but man, that book was dense. I couldn't get into the characters or the story, and at times it felt like although I understood all the words being used, I didn't understand the way they were strung together. At first I thought it was a problem with me, but Chris said he'd been similarly unable to fully get into the book, which is why he hadn't whole-heartedly recommended it. Oh well. My every random reading decision can't prove to be an awesome one.

Anyway, I think I'm going to do a little beading before bed tonight, start working on things for Monday's update. Well, I do already have a necklace and a few pairs of earrings... but I also need to start setting things aside for Etsy. I need to step up production!