once upon a time: a fairytale in photographs

 

Query

I’m writing a novel this November. What are you doing?

*not my image, and I don’t know where it originally came from. If you know, let me know so I can give credit where it is due.

Happenings – a picture post

Morning coffee in my favorite mug. I stuck it in the very dirty back window for this picture.

I managed to get my hands on the label maker at work today, and now all the little Marshalls employees are running around with code names on their name tags. Mine is Gwendolyn, along with a stupid nickname from my brother that I refuse to tell you. Grace…you can find out what yours are when you work tomorrow. They’re kind of awesome. I want your names.

The head manager gave me a long-suffering eye-roll but a smile, and let me carry on. The second manager would have stopped me, but I told her earnestly that it was all in the name of associate morale, and that code names helped keep the employees happy. Naturally she saw the sense in it, and let me carry on. I work with some pretty awesome people.

I turned the nametag Gwendolyn side out for a while, and as I was ringing up this one man, he asked me if I ever had difficulty spelling my name when I was a little child, because Gwendolyn is a hard name to spell. I explained that Gwendolyn was my code name for the day, because I just felt like being Gwendolyn today. He seemed to find this very amusing, and told me that his wife was the same – that her name was Cheryl, but sometimes she just really felt like being Jill for the day.

Fabric is yummy. This is destined to turn into tote bags for Etsy. I have so many ideas for my little shop, and not nearly enough time! Actually, my roommate Grace and I are putting our heads together and coming up with something pretty neat…hopefully we’ll be able to turn our plans into reality!

This song is really beautiful.

Inspiration!

I’ve been obsessively updating my Flickr faves lately; trolling Flickr for images that speak to me. These are my recent favorites; methinks the gray color theme might be a reflection of the weather here – overcast and chilly! Despite the color, I don’t find it at all dreary, though. Even rainy, overcast days have their appeal. Normally I adore them, but these days I’m just not in the appropriate mood to enjoy them the way they deserve to be. Sunshine, come out, come out, wherever you are!

1. Brittany, 2. bluebirds, 3. pajaritos, 4. maggie, 5. Selina Lake – Peaches&Cream, 6. Tea for One, 7. Newly painted guest room, 8. bike, 9. Happy Pretty Pink Tuesday!!, 10. for the love of polaroid, 11. the wall through the hassie, 12. Ella ya no está, 13. Moonlight beach, 14. bedroom2, 15. autumn on the porch, 16. bodyfull, 17. Untitled, 18. Going_final shots-6, 19. sorting, 20. windowsillinmontmartre, 21. Mirrored Dressing Table, 22. knitting in the windowsill, 23. strawberry cupcakes, 24. Untitled, 25. Untitled

The blank squares are from protected images. They’re still worth a look though – they’re numbers 9 and 13 in the link list above.

I’m Still Alive!

I really am! And here’s a little quiz thing to prove it. Stolen from The Graceful Lady.

What is your current obsession?
Spring! It’s been beautiful here lately, and the fact that today is the first day of spring makes me very, very happy. My roommates and I drove to the park in Bex’s little red convertible and played tennis for an hour or so. I think we’re getting better at it! And even if we aren’t, it’s so much fun.

What are you wearing now?
Jeans, black tank, grey shirt. And my cherry necklace wrapped twice around my ankle.

Do you nap a lot?
No, never. Only in very extenuating circumstances – i.e. I’ve been up for twenty hours, or I’m horribly sick. 

Who was the last person you hugged?
I think it was Bex. She plopped down on my lap so I kind of had to. *nods*

If you were a tree, what tree that would be?
A tall silver birch.

What’s for dinner?
Macaroni with cheese toast and mixed vegetables.

What was the last thing you bought?
A latte. It was yummy.

What are you listening to right now?
Nothing. It was Rascal Flatts earlier, though…

What is your favourite weather and why?
I absolutely adore fog. But they don’t seem to have very many foggy days in CO…so, warm and sunny with a nice breeze.

What is one thing you have always wanted to do or learn?
I would love to learn to play the piano, but as of right now, I just wouldn’t be willing to put forth the time or effort. Ballroom dancing! I want to learn that. A lot.

What is your most challenging goal right now?
Finding out who I am, really, and staying true to that. Growing in my faith. Becoming less…intimidated. It’s a big scary world out there, you know!

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where you wanted it to be?
On the East Coast by the ocean – a little blue-and-white beach cottage with a green lawn where we sit and have al fresco lunches, and play tennis and croquet afterwards. A narrow little path bordered with salt roses that leads to a secluded beach area – not too much sand, there’s quite a lot of rocks to explore too…nights are warm with sweetly scented salt breezes, and the daylight hours are idyllic and joyful, with strains of some familiar music filtering out through the opened windows of the house.

Favourite vacation spot:
Anywhere so long as it’s with my best friends.

What movies can you watch over and over?
Oh, way too many to list! But just off the top of my head:

Daniel Deronda
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Arsenic and Old Lace
Anne of Avonlea

What is your favourite tea flavour?
Twinings of London’s Earl Grey! But I’ve developed a liking for their Ceylon tea lately, too.

What are you reading right now?
“The Complete Sherlock Holmes” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I just finished “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” by Suzanne Clarke. I like big books.

What is the landscape of your mind?
Lilacs and roses and dandelions and yards of linen and embroidery floss and Earl Grey and coffee and jellybeans! Vintage patterns and all my favorite books, old and new! Late nights and playdates at the park and blue skies!

What is the latest quotation which made you impressed?
“Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around. -Katherine Hepburn”

You have one wish:
I wish I knew what to wish for. Whoops! Oh, well.

What’s in your pockets right now?
I’m still wearing my pajamas, which don’t have pockets. And my robe, which has…hm, a teabag in the right-hand pocket. Earl Grey.

 

Here are the rules:

1. Respond & rework the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.

2. Tag eight other un-tagged people.

I’m not tagging anyone. I don’t like tagging people. *sulks*

Changes

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. And since then, some seriously crazy changes have been taking place in my life – well, mostly just one, but it’s a doozy!

Short of it is – I’m moving to Colorado in January.

I live in Connecticut. So this is me, literally travelling halfway across the country to be on my own. Until this past June, I’d never been out of New England in all the twenty-one years I’ve lived here. So needless to say, it’s exhilarating and frightening and I am so scared. And looking forward to it like you wouldn’t believe. They take turns getting to be my foremost emotion. LOL!

And when I say on my own? I don’t quite mean that. I do mean that none of my family members are going with me. I am, it would seem, cutting the apron strings in the most dramatic possible way! But I’m going to be renting a house with three of the dearest girls in the world; true kindred spirits and I love them to smithereens.

So yes, that is what is taking up all my time. Plans and packing and working hard to earn the necessary moolah. I haven’t had time for any crafting! I hope, however, to revive this blog come January – fill it with, perhaps, photographs of our new little house and how we make it home.

(PS. The basement is named Panama. An imaginary prize to anyone who gets the reference!)

Tales of the ocean…

At very long last, I’ve finished my afghan!

(Sara, I’m still working on getting the pattern for you. I haven’t forgotten! Expect it up shortly.)

I meant to take a picture of the whole afghan, but the lighting was rather hideous today, and it was all I could do to get a decent detail shot.

a story without a single word

Friday Five

Friday Five : Before My Time

{link}

1. Of television programs that aired before you were born, what’s your favorite?

{I’m of the opinion that all the best TV shows aired before I was born, so there’s a fairly good sized list to choose from! I’m currently working through old episodes of Adam-12, a police show from the early 70s, so I suppose I’ll put that down, though it doesn’t count as my favorite. Fun to see how things have changed, when compared with crime dramas of the current day! I also love to watch re-runs of I Dream of Jeannie and Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Bonanza and Stories of the Century and Zorro (love that show!). I could keep going…:) }

2. What person of historical significance was from your neighborhood or city?

{Hm…well, Amos Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s father, conducted a school in Cheshire (Connecticut!) from 1825-1827, if Wikipedia is to believed. Also, Gerald R. Ford is reported to have lived in Cheshire while a student at Yale Law School}

3. What’s a story that’s often been told about someone in your family in the years before you came along?

{Well, to be perfectly honest, I can’t think of any! I’m sure there must be some, and probably they’ve been told to me, but at the moment…I’m drawing a complete blank. }

4. Which of previous generations’ dumb mistakes (in deed or thought) baffles you the most?

{Um…the 70s? And hippies? Har de har har.)

5. What aspect of life in the good old days would you love to see a return to?

{Horse-drawn carriages! And corsets and ballgowns and chivalry and rap music not existing And cravats. *nods*}

This…is a post title.

It’s been crazy hot here for the past few weeks, and it had totally killed my creativity. But the past few days have been lovely and cool (at least comparatively!) and stormy. I find thunderstorms to be extremely inspiring! And there’s nothing better than staying inside with a pot of tea on a grey, rainy day, and crafting to your heart’s content. This is after you’ve danced around in the rain with reckless abandon, of course.

The sneak peek of my last post is coming along marvelously – I shall be sharing pictures very soon.

Apart from that – and my crocheted afghan – I have been:

• embroidering (sneak peek #1, sneak peek #2; excuse the not-so-great pictures!)
• working on a Regency corset
• watching Pride and Prejudice (the good version, of course; by this I mean the 1995 version. I don’t like that I have to specify this these days. Sigh) to keep myself inspired! And Mr. Darcy doesn’t hurt, either.
• starting a new crochet project – a hunter green cardigan! Normally crocheted cardigans can seem a little…well, frumpy. Homemade. And not the good kind of homemade! But I found a pattern that looks very classy and elegant, and I have seven inches worked up already. Pictures forthcoming!

Apart from the above crafty endeavors, I have also been occupying myself with:

• studying for my GED
• working on an old novel of mine; a murder mystery set in Victorian London. You would not believe the trouble I’m having with my characters! People say, “Oh, why don’t you just make them do what you want? You’re the writer, after all,” and stare at you in bemusement. But unless you’re a writer yourself…it’s impossible to understand, and impossible to explain! Not to mention impossible to write. *wry smile* You have to plead, beg, and bargain with your characters to get them to do things, and sometimes your only alternative is to write pages and pages of drivel, before they decide to do something that corresponds with what you, the author, wants as well. And then go back and edit the drivel out. Sometimes the characters end up changing your mind, too. But I digress. Back to my list!
• job hunting! (Oh, joy.) I admit, I haven’t been doing this as actively as I ought, but that changes today. Or tomorrow, at any rate, since today doesn’t seem to be quite working out…closing time for most stores is in just about two hours.
• wedding shower planning! My oldest brother is getting married in October, and there is so much to be done.

Hm, looks like I’ve separated those two lists into more than just crafty/non-crafty endeavors! The first list is my relax over list, and the second is my stress-out over list. Except for the writing one; that one sort of hovers between the two, as does the Regency corset. Hmm.