Tart

A new embroidery piece.  A just because I'm feeling these colors piece.

Reviews

Reviews!  It's been a minute since I've done any, and I've got a few books to share.

Loon Point by Carrie Classon (Adult Fiction)

Though I was appalled by how much Lizzie was yanked around by her mother, and Wendell's character completely drug me down each time he had a chapter, I still found myself giving this book a higher rating.

Lizzie's mom is an addict. When a loved one is an addict there are good days and bad days. If we are lucky, they fight the addiction and come out in one piece, but usually over a bumpy, extended period of time. Lizzie's experience is sadly on the realistic side of things. Lizzie doesn't just get to go live in a stable environment where she is loved and taken care of. She's back and forth between the two worlds living a life no child should have to live. But she is an incredibly resilient character who has an angel of a dog looking out for her every step of her journey.

Wendell reminded me too much of a loved one. My loved one is forever stuck in a bitter place where they are always better than everyone else and no amount of kindness will ever uproot them from their place of paranoia and unhappiness. Wendell, however, may be a different story. He is a late bloomer. He started to come around with a bit of connection, nurturing, and a unicorn notebook. Hey maybe that's what every deeply unhappy person needs to turn their life around - a unicorn notebook!

So why did I give this book a higher rating? Well, my crusty old heart found comfort in Norry's resort. Each time Lizzie found herself at Norry's, I was deeply relieved and I couldn't leave the book until I knew Lizzie was safe. Norry is quite the character. She took over her father's resort. She takes people in. She's self-reliant but also finds herself realizing she's missing connection with others. I also loved the dog's character too, how he kept Lizzie going in the blizzard and knew when she got off the bus. Details like that kept me completely invested and unable to walk away.

Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe (Adult Fiction)

It is end of July, but there is a clear theme in the books I’ve loved this year. They have been so stinking cute! Cute, cute, cute! It could be dystopians, death, and betrayal the rest of the year, and I would be completely unaffected by it, because of all the adorable, lovely things I’ve read so far.

Stay for a Spell is cozy, hilarious, and has plenty of magic, bookstore details, and interesting characters (a cat with tentacles!). In addition to the main character, a princess cursed to live in a bookstore until she discovers what makes her happy, there’s also a cursed barn pirate who has an ironic water curse and cannot be near large bodies of water.

Sometimes I form strong visuals of characters in my mind and sometimes there’s just nothing. I couldn’t really picture the main character, but whenever I thought of the barn pirate, either Carlos Santana or Mandy Patinkin’s Montoya character from Princess Bride would come to mind. When I realized this was happening, I would have such a huge laughing fit. I am now going to pay more attention to who I’m mentally seeing as a character and whether anyone else is on the same page.

Shockingly, Carlos Santana AKA Inigo Montoya AKA barn pirate was a supremely irritating character. He was lazy, uninvolved, and couldn’t have a serious conversation to save his life. Despite my complete dislike for him, I still thoroughly enjoyed this story and really liked Tandy and Sasha’s characters. I appreciated and understood Tandy’s struggle between familial/kingdom commitments and her happiness, which had nothing to do with these commitments and everything to do with planting herself in a community where she could settle and make connections. Sasha was just a complete ray of sunshine. This book would have been nothing without her character.

In addition to Sasha’s character, the details really made this a stellar read. Librarian bluecaps who knew how to find anything that could be found, a cat that was neither here nor there but was an undeniable comfort, the bookstore, which was almost a character itself.

I also jotted down words I wasn’t familiar with prior to reading this book – imprecation, doddle, deshabille…Each one a complete delight.

Each prince who comes to kiss and break Tandy’s curse is an absolute treat. Eventually they all ran together for me, but the moments with the princes had me laughing about ten times the amount of kisses Tandy received. In the acknowledgements, the author talks about how she wrote this book during the sleepness nights of her mother's cancer diagnosis and treatment, and I immediately thought of the princes. I do hope that on the worst days the author was like, "I've had the shittiest day. I'm creating another prince to help me through it."

Some of the princes’ dialogue had me hooting out loud, almost in tears:

“I’ve been on the road since receiving your parents’ desperate missive, and must partake of refreshment, and wash the dust from my boots, before we sanctify our tender union.”

Towards the end I was ready to push Barn Pirate down the stairs. If only there was reader magic to do so! Tandy’s parents also had me hardcore rolling my eyes at the end, and I was a little mystified by the boy band booksellers the seven princes had become, but the book left me wanting more. Really, I just want to read the story of Sasha and Amaritha, whatever they do next, as long as the bluecaps are along for the ride.

The Best Dog in the World by various authors (Adult Nonfiction)

Well, another cute book here. A devastating book, as I’m sure you surmised from seeing the handful of authors listed on the cover and the promise of a dog essay from each of them. But also, dogs, so definitely cute.

I didn’t love every essay, but the ones I loved had my heart soaring and me sobbing into my dogs’ fur. My dogs are always mystified by random crying but open to any affection, even the sloppy kind.

The book begins with Emily Henry’s essay about her dog, Dottie. Emily Henry lets her readers know right off the bat that it’s a full-circle essay, but that didn’t stop me from finishing the essay.

Emily Henry writes, “So here it is. The way this fits into my theory of everything, the thing this depressing essay has in common with all my romantic comedies and everything else I’ve ever written: We are so fucking lucky to get to love someone so much that it tears a hole in the world when they’re gone. The dog dies at the end. The dog dies at the end and it breaks your heart, and you wouldn’t change anything. Not one moment.”

Bonnie Garmus has the absolute BEST essay in this book. Bonnie does an extraordinary job bringing her dog’s character to life. When her dog, who started life with the name, Cake Angel, expresses herself, I see so much of her in my dog, Margo, who has given me an encyclopedia of stares communicating language that has me relieved she can’t speak English.

I also liked a moment from Jodi Piccoult’s essay when she writes about her dog, Alvin. “There was no question that Alvin suffered our existence.” I have never found the right words to explain exactly this. I love Margo to death. We get along pretty well, and when we don’t, she lets me know about it. But I’ve always wondered if we weren’t meant to be her people. We are so beneath her!

This is one of those sayings that will make your eyes roll, but it’s true for this book. You will laugh. You will cry. You will see so much of yourself and your dogs in these essays. And you will feel ever so grateful for the short time we have with some of our most valuable teachers. Even the ones who want to murder us in our sleep but don’t, because they know they can probably convince us to take them for a walk to the cookie library the next day.

everything from silkies to blankies

Going to try to do a weekly best moments kind of thing.  Although the next two weeks will be tough so no promises for a bit.  😆💩

Not sure who is a fan of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, but he wrote a new book.  I didn't love it like the first one, but I still enjoyed a few snippets here and there.  There was one page that was a great reminder of my achilles journey.

On that note, I officially reached level one of my return to jogging plan.  I didn't realize that when I was given the jogging plan my physical therapist wrote a level just for me.  Level 0!  When I was ready to move on to the next level (finally!) I saw the note on the sheet and had a pretty big laugh.  This is going to be quite the journey if level 0 kicked my patootie. 😂

I have not moved from a 16 something minute mile, but man I'm proud of it.  Prior to jogging I was doing 20-22 minutes, sometimes slower.  I am definitely moving faster.

Work has been much more manageable for everyone.  I am officially feeling like I can sink into the work and really enjoy the customers, my coworkers, and the incredible work created in our shop.  One of my recent favorite interactions was a small order but oh so big on charm.  A proud grandmother wanted some custom ribbons for her granddaughter who won some awards with her silkie chicken but did not get any ribbons.  One evening, as I was scrolling through emails and mockups I had the delight of seeing the initial mockup that one of the designers sent the customer.  It was too good not to do a quick screenshot for my gratitude journal.  

I had some lovely moments this week.  I ordered a cafeteria tray for myself at work.  I chose the one that had the most slots (five!) and have been having the best time choosing my five things each lunch.  I'm a kraut/kimchi/all things fermented person, and it makes for a happy gut.  I no longer worry about my very different pickled things touching each other.

I had a particularly tough PT session on Friday.  I walked out in the pouring rain and slothed my way to my car.  There was a familiar-looking car next to mine.  It was Robert!  He brought me a treasured cereal milk latte, which is a weekend only drink.  Robert said he was sad when he heard it was weekend only, but then the barista said that they count Friday as the weekend.  Heck yea!

I also designed my first keyboard ever!  I happen to know a keyboard geek, Josh who has made a handful of keyboards over the years.  He is not only a childhood friend of Robert's, but he also works with him.  He helped me customize a keyboard, everything from layout to how clackety clacking loud I wanted the keys to sound (Loud of course!).  The best part was picking the key colors.  I wanted to do a somewhat random layout.  It's very nerdy how I got a random layout so I won't go into all the details, but once I had all the colors, I was able to go key by key and make small adjustments.  I don't have the actual keyboard yet, but I took a picture of of one of the random sets of colors.

Lastly (it's been a big week), Robert and I bought a blankie just for Josie and put it on her living room dog bed.  Josie is one of those special dogs that digs around in blankets to make a nest (dogs who do this are THE CUTEST).  I've been on the lookout for something that's easy to clean, as close to golden retriever in color as possible, and also still snuggly.  We found the perfect blankie!  Naturally, Margo, who has an entire boat for her dog bed, took one look at the blankie and didn't understand that it was for Josie.  For a couple days, Margo, who loves her boat bed more than she loves her humans, only laid in Josie's bed.  Robert and I were a little grumpy about this but did not intervene.  Finally, at the end of the week, we walked into the living room and saw that Josie was fast asleep on her bed.  The only downside is that she just thinks it's an additional bed to move around.  We already have rugs everywhere for the dogs.  Now, more than half our living room floor is a patchwork of dog beds. 

Here is our lovely jerk of a dog, Margo claiming Josie's bed. 

And finally, Josie taking what's hers! (And Robert's foot)

We live very exciting lives here. 😆

Verdant Fusion

I enjoyed every minute making this piece, and it was definitely a new level for me.  What kind of level I don't know.  I just know it carried a different kind of weight and feeling.  I came across the words, "Verdant Fusion" on one of the tea bags that went into the piece and that's how the name came to be.

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get this piece sealed in time for the June art fair, but somehow it was ready with about two days to spare.  And it sold just like that.  I didn't even get to hang it up at home for a bit.  But it was also validating that what I felt with this piece and not only what I put into this piece, but what it gave me in return while making it, was felt by someone else.  And the connection with this person was instant.

This piece is made mostly with tea packaging, but a few other bits of packaging as well.  I used both beige and highlighter green acrylics to paint a background first (a weirdly stunning color combination), and then I just cut the pieces however I felt like cutting them and let the piece be what it wanted to be.  I decided to cover the sides as well, which I don't always do.  It's finicky work, is incredibly fragile, and sealing it is a bit of a nightmare.  But this piece required it.

Enjoying every drop of water we can find

As promised, here are a few pictures of the girls living it up.  This picture of Margo in one of our neighborhood fountains is in my top five favorites of her.  We've done a few fountain walks, joyfully raced through every sprinkler available, and made two trips to the pool that allows dogs.  It feels a little weird to have missed about a year of hiking, but I'm still wrestling with uneven surfaces and more than anything, just weirdly uncertain of even small ruts or divots in the grass.  I think we are really close to going back out on some trails.  The girls are definitely missing out on racing around spider-filled forests filled with mud and burs, but I think they're mostly content.

It's been busy, but I don't think they even know it.  They are usually right in the thick of things, tucked against someone's feet.  I think the only evidence they might have against us when it's busy is that we don't always pause at the refrigerators at work to give them ice.  It's a crime for sure, but they still want to keep us (I think).

Life Update

Since the last time I posted I've had two amazing art fairs, started tentatively jogging again, hired a full-time person, created a couple pieces of new art, and have been living life to its fullest.

A few weeks ago my physical therapist added jumping and some brief jogging, skipping, and lateral ski jumps into my routine.  I have also been doing some very brief jogging outside of PT.  Currently, I'm doing four to five sets of one minute of jogging and three minutes of walking.  It's been a slow journey.  I'll do one day then have some pain for a few days and then try again.  The goal is to be able to advance to two minutes of jogging after doing three of these jogs in a week with no pain.  I have some deeper pain (normal), and surface pain - bursitis over the scar tissue, cracking, and a wicked, persistent blister.  Though the deeper pain is the one to keep to a dull roar, the mixed bag of angry sensations in my heel has been unpleasant.  On days I'm not doing PT I walk around the house for a bit to see if I should do a jogging session.  No deeper pain and Robert and I drive up to the track at a local school.  I have not been cleared to jog on hard surfaces. If it's deeper pain with no surface pain I go for a walk with the dogs.  If there's any surface pain at all I do my mixed bag of yoga, pilates, strength training and some elliptical, which I can do in crocs (pretty much anything I can do without shoes or with the crocs so I'm not irritating all the boo boos).  I've also been swimming when everything is dry.  Sometimes all it takes is one short walk with the girls to get everything irritated again.

As you can imagine, this takes up quite a bit of time.  I feel like I can actually see tennis in my future again, so I am up for all of this weird, time-consuming exercise.  I am SO thankful it's summer and I can wear backless shoes a majority of the time.  Hopefully by the time it gets cooler I can wear shoes with backs without any misery involved.

When I haven't been focused on all the weird exercise, work has consumed much of my time.  We had a bunch of interviews, hired someone I feel hopeful about, and have been busy, busy, busy.  We are in our final week of getting all the swim and dive trophies, plaques, medals, etc. ready.  Hundreds of these awards!  We are also still moving things around, improving spaces, organizational methods, and processes.  We are keeping our part-time person, so the new full-time person needs my desk.  So where to put my desk?!?  I am going to sit out front in our POS area, which will work out just fine.  I mentioned to Robert about wanting something for my desk, and he made a really good point.  He asked, "when do you actually sit at it?"  We are very fortunate to have a job that keeps us on our feet.  I still want to nest in my new spot, because I am a nester, but I don't have to give it 100% of my devotion.  

I've also been making art!  So much art!  I found a couple new entryways into the mystery so to speak, and have been trying out different techniques and also having an easier time telling the part of me that demands order and organization to shush it.

It's been a lot of very intense, in-depth, all-consuming work, and I think I'm ok with this.  When I sit down it's usually to sleep.  I'll try to post some pictures, reviews, and other this and that soon!