I heard this on the "Man of Steel" trailer recently. While I love Marvel more than DC, I'm looking forward to seeing it (if only because it is Hans Zimmer's newest score- even if he didn't write this piece I'm featuring today).
This Music Monday brings you "Storm", a GORGEOUS track from the OST of "Elizabeth: The Golden Age", starring the amazing and ethereally beautiful Kate Blanchett. I didn't get to see the film in its entirety, but I got to see enough clips to know that she more than deserved the awards she garnered for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I.
This is some of what is playing in the background for me today as I tackle laundry, paperwork, sewing, housework, errands, and life in general. I hope it inspires you as it does me.
It's Wednesday, May 1st. (ALREADY?!?! Wasn't it just the end of January like, last week?!)
I got about halfway through the A-Z Challenge on time and then all sorts of things got in the way. I love you all, but I have a life outside of the laptop. I'm only missing N, O, P, Q, S, T, V, W, X, and Y. Most of these are drafts that are waiting on photos. It's not as easy to keep within a theme as it first appears! However, when I start a thing, I like to finish it. So thanks to Blogger's schedule feature, I'll be retro-posting what I missed as I have time.
Keeping with a Snail Mail theme has been fun, though, and I hope it has made you smile! Don't forget to check the archives for the missing letters very soon! I'll be snapping photos this weekend and finishing up the drafts as soon as possible.
I'm off to get some replies written and mailed before I go to work.
Thanks for reading, my lovelies, thanks to all who visited me from the Challenge, and everyone write more letters!
God Save the Queen, I have SO FREAKING MUCH to do this week, and it's going to be AWESOME! More details after this little gem...
... I think that about the birds outside, too!!!
So, CGtY is officially 5, which means she's promoted herself in her make believe play to CEO and Supreme Ruler of DisneyPrincessBarbieFairyLand. She's a gracious monarch, though. She lets me be in charge of the Mermaids, and CGtE is now the Head of the Department of Entertainment (a promotion from last year's Lead Servant and Scapegoat). He and I can't help but agree that the pay is lousy (we are rewarded for our loyalty with more and bigger messes to clean up), but the creative license perks are pretty sweet (I can make the Mermaids stage a rebellion and flood DisneyPrincessBarbieFairyLand unless Her Majesty meets their demands. Like, eating all of her dinner or getting her pajamas on, say.) Her subjects (who, among the masses, include Cinderella, Rapunzel, Merida, 5 of those Ty animals with the freakishly big eyes, and about a dozen Littlest Pet Shop critters that hurt worse than Legos when I step on them in the dark) adore her and have good cause to place their (inanimate) faith in her ability to rule; there hasn't been a flood yet. Unless you count the bathtub, which we don't- that's Her Majesty treating them all to a vacation at the beach.
Anyway, yeah, back to my metric ton of stuff to do this week:
Tomorrow is a full day of finishing the Spring Cleaning. Every blessed thing in the house has been disturbed, dusted, wiped down, disinfected and rearranged. I wish I had taken a photo of the area under the stairs before I redid it, to show the difference. It looks amazing now! I still have the dining room and downstairs bathroom to complete, as well as detail mopping the kitchen. (Detail mopping- on my knees with a cloth and bucket, a la Cinderella. Good time for prayer and worship, that!)
Aside from those couple of things, most of the stuff was done last week and just needs "touchups". Well, except for my room, which always needs to be done- but no one is going to see it, as it's in a permanent state of reinvention so it doesn't really figure in. And I'll have to repeatedly pick up the trail of toys that the CGs strew behind them as they go. Cleaning a house with young kids in it is like trying to file and organize papers on a desk while a fan blows on them. Or brushing your teeth while you are eating Oreos. Ok, no, ew. The first thing. The second one may be an effective analogy, but it's still a really gross mental image!
Tuesday evening, some friends of ours will be visiting from Leeds, UK. I can't wait to see them! It's going to be fantastic! Later in the week I'm going to be meeting another friend I haven't seen in a long while for a late dinner, so I'm looking forward to that as well. Nothing is better than good food and good friends gathering to visit! :)
Also this week, I've got to solidify my posts for the Annual A-Z! I'm doing a "Snail Mail" theme (well, of course I am! What else would it have been!) and I still have to come up with a few of the trickier ones. You know. Q, V, X, Y. Surprisingly, U, W and Z were all easy ones.
Lucy Jane has been hibernating for too long and has to get busy on some stock pieces for the upcoming Hydrangea Fest! Only 8 ish weeks to go! Yikes! More giraffes and hippos and sea turtles and stuff to make. The CGs think it's done by magic. Oh, they've seen the machine going, and they have seen the process from start to finish. But usually the main work is done while they are at school or asleep, so one minute it's a pile of fabric and then >POOF!< there is a shelf full of cuddly plush animals (that, ironically and maddeningly, they are not allowed to touch and/or play with! LOL!) I'm making them some of their own. CGtE hasn't decided what he wants yet, but CGtY is painstakingly choosing the fabric for her custom unicorn. Someone made a comment somewhere- the cobbler's children being barefoot... or something along those lines. Well, fine. Now my CGs will own Lucy Jane made Funky Friends. I can't wait to show Pauline (the pattern maker) when I get them done. :)
(Just so we are clear, it's not as if the CGs don't have a bunch of loved plushies already. They do. But somehow my love of sewing Funky Friends and my compulsory need to be a sometimes indulgent parent seem to have collided.)
And I'm working on my backlog of letters to answer. I have it down to around 30 now. This past week was awesome and brought letters in from as far away as Hungary, plus a stack from all around the US. I am loving the new friendships I have made through LetterMo, and the continued correspondence from long-established pen friends. It's a wonderful and important part of my daily life to send and receive letters!
Then Friday I'm hosting a 31 Gifts party! I LOVE 31 stuff. I have a demi purse in "peacock paisley" (now retired, sadly) that I use ALL the time, but I have my eye on that Cindy design, and that drool-inducing Organista bag... !
Ok... I've rambled on long enough! Time to crash in the bed and tackle that list of awesomeness in the morning at 6 a.m.! Goodnight, my dears!
Again, there is a lot going on here to where I sometimes can't catch the game. I was sewing Halloween costumes for the Cute Gremlins and mostly there were personal things that I can't talk about yet that were crowding out everything else "normal". Anyway, this image from my Facebook news-feed roughly sums up the big GA/FLA game:
Final Score: 17-9. I love you, My Bulldogs! :)
Auburn Update: Stomped by Texas A&M. 63-21. Owie! Not a good season for the Tigers at all. :(
I had a very busy Saturday that included getting everything prepped for making a ton of apple-flavored- whatever from the bushel of apples I brought back from our trip to N. GA last weekend, sewing more stock for the Nov. 3rd arts show that's approaching way too quickly, and finally caving in, even though it was getting late, and actually making the first apple thing on my list- WASSAIL. (Mmmmm!)
So I didn't catch most of the game and relied mostly on friends' Facebook updates and an SEC mobile app to keep me posted on the score. GA was down 7-14 at the start of the 2nd quarter (NO!), got their act together and got the lead by halftime (YES!) and held on through the rest of the game to win it 29-24 Final. (YAY!!!)
Next week it's WLOCP (World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party)- The big game against the Fla Gators. While a lot of people I know hold this to be the biggest "rivalry game" with all manner of trash talk and hoopla, I'm rather indifferent. As I've already explained, my energies and fandom are super concentrated during the face off against Tennessee (Done and won this year- I LOVE YOU, My Bulldogs!) and Auburn (still to come in 3 weeks time). So the GA/FL game... of course I want my Bulldogs to win, but I'm not going to be hanging on the edge of my seat about it.
Auburn Note: Another loss. Vandy beat the Tigers 17-13. Well, dang. This is just not a good year to be hollering "War Eagle". :( Kind of makes me feel bad about rooting for GA on Nov 10. (But only just. :P )
Lucy Jane has a recent post you may all be interested in. It hints at a GIVEAWAY COMING UP HERE SOON!!! (So subtlety was never my strong suit!)
Read all about it HERE and please pass Lucy Jane's blog along to anyone you know who may like it. Please, please, please! And thank you! :)
Off to fix supper (Flounder fillets with herbs, parmesan pasta salad, green beans, garlic italian toast), and then back to work in the studio for a bit before bed. :)
Apparently I didn't realize just how bad my fall off the letter writing wagon had been. [I think I broke something in the process. :/] Anyway, I have no idea what week this is. I could find out where I last logged it on my calendar and count up from there, but I'll do that later.
Right now, I wanted to show some stuff that has gone out. Just to... you know... prove that I've sent something through the mail recently. :P There are only 2 photos because as I've mentioned before, things have been a little chaoticstressfulinteresting around here and I haven't bothered had time to take pictures when I dropped by the post office in with my other eleventy billion errands.
Letters to Olivia C., Su in Ireland, and Becky P.
Packages to Taylor P. in North GA, and Marilyn M. in FL.
This is what was in Marilyn's. A New Baby gift custom made by Lucy Jane.
Circle-ish themed envie to pen pal Cathy T. in Ohio
Cylindrical package to Emily B. in Michigan
To motivate me to send more out before this week is over, I'm holding my new issue of Tea Time magazine hostage from myself. I don't get to discover the recipe to the "Exquisite Strawberry French Madeleines" on the cover until I've replied to at least 10 back-logged letters or 5 countries. Or both.
(Not that replying to the letters isn't motivation enough to write, but sometimes you just want tasty noms, n'est-ce pas?)
This weekend we will be moving me downstairs to the second floor from the attic suite (no AC and it's hot up here!!!) and I will have a better, more organized and well lit space in which to create my letters and mail art.
I have horribly fallen off the letter writing wagon the last 2 or 3 months! I loved doing the Month of Letters project in February and so many beautiful letters from all over the world have been pouring into my mailbox since.
I know I should have at least replied with a postcard, but when things really took off for Lucy Jane, I barely had time to breathe! (The Hydrangea Festival was a success, by the way, and there will be a post on that when I have time to sort some photos and whatnot.)
So I am offering huge apologies to anyone who reads The Modest Peacock who has written me a letter and not received an answer yet. This week I am taking a vacation and going to spend a few days with some good friends down in Savannah, GA. I'll be on my own during the day, and am taking a bag full of my stationery along. I'll be writing you while wiggling my toes in the sand and surf on Tybee island! (I LOVE SUMMER TIME!!) :D
Here is what I have to reply to: an even 30 in all!
Off I go, then! Going to blare Steam Powered Giraffe's CDs as loudly as I want all the way down there. It's around a 5 hour trip, so I will get plenty of mileage out of the albums. (That was a PUN!) ;)
Much love to you all, my readers!
I didn't disappear! I'm just working like mad. Being 2 people is hard work!
I have my costume for the first day of the festival cut out and ready to sew. Should only take a few hours from start to finish, so that's exciting. If I get finished with EVERYTHING else, I will make a second dress, but if and only if. It would be super awesome, but I want to make sure the must have stuff is ready first. We will see on Friday where everything stands.
While I'm working, I listen to random mixes on my iPod. Most of the mixes have Steam Powered Giraffe in heavy rotation. I simply can't get enough of them! The 2¢ Show album is due out any day now.
If you missed my previous posts about how awesome SPG is, you can find several of them in the April archive during the A-Z Challenge. I think SPG got 5 or 6 letters to themselves before it was all over. :)
Over on their website I came across this gem and I just love it. I'd vote for him. :D
I hope you all have a good week, and I will try to check in as often as work allows! There will be loooottsss of photos coming in about 3 weeks! :)
No, I don't look this pretty while I'm working. :}
I am feverishly working in the studio.
I have a to do list 3 miles long.
Unfortunately, it all has to be done before I am allowed to blog. :(
Thanks for hanging in with me and I promise I will be back soon and get all caught up.
More Music Monday, Illustrator Tuesday, Video Wednesday and General Mayhem and Nuttiness, plus a few puns thrown in for good measure will return, as soon as these deadlines have been met.
My 10 minutes are up now, so I have to go.
Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!
Hugs!
Where would I NOT go?!
You already know about my plans for England, but I thought I would share a few other places on the bucket list:
Cities in The US:
New York: A show on Broadway; general sightseeing
San Francisco: The Golden Gate Bridge; general sightseeing
San Diego: After the last few posts about a certain band, do I really need to explain this?
Seattle: General sightseeing
Boston: Boston Harbor, general sightseeing
Charleston: Historic homes; general sightseeing
Colonial Williamsburg: general sightseeing
Other Countries:
France: Paris; the palace at Versailles; general sightseeing
Prince Edward Island, Canada: The birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery; general sightseeing
There are more, but that's a start. All that stands between me and crossing these trips off my list are three words: Airfare, Childcare and Time to Spare. (Yes, ok, technically 5 words, but you get the point!)
Well, I tried and tried to find a children's book illustrator with an "O" last name that I liked well enough to fill today's Illustrator Tuesday. But.... I didn't. Sorry. I don't mean to be difficult, but for me to feature an artist on an IllusThurs, I have to know and support their work and I just didn't find anything that jumped out at me.
So what can I post for "O"? I really haven't been doing anything but being Lucy Jane, so I don't have any photos or news to share, really....
How about showing off my favorite precious stone, OPALS? Yeah, that'll work! :D
It's October's birthstone, not mine. But I like them anyway. Here are some pieces I wouldn't mind owning and wearing. Feel free to buy them for me, if you have piles of extra money laying around needing to be spent. ;)
I know I sound like a broken record about The Other Me, but that's pretty much all I've been working on lately! I just got new business cards in the other day and I'm looking forward to giving those out at the Hydrangea Festival. (5 working weeks left! AAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!)
I seriously need to get a bunch of stuff that's "in the works" finished and have a photographer friend of mine do a photo shoot. It's tough sometimes, being a photographer and not really having the time or ability to do your own portraits. Self portraits are nice, but they take more time and effort than I have on hand at the moment. I have some great local colleagues, though, so I will try, try, try to get that done soon.
Here's what Lucy Jane finished up today and will deliver to the client tomorrow. We're pleased with it. :)
Made from a Funky Friends Factory pattern.
She's around 12" high.
Lucy's working on a bunch of themes to have at the festival. Military, Christmas, Autism Awareness, Music, Fall, a Bumblebee, Watermelon for summertime, Back to School prints, Breast Cancer Awareness, Bridal, Floral and many, many more! The cutting table looks like the fabric store was picked up by a tornado and dropped onto it. :)
What kinds of colors and themes would you like to see? Open to suggestions and custom orders! :)
I spent all day with Cute Gremlins #1 & #2 at Six Flags Over Georgia. We rode rides. We watched shows. We ate BBQ and curly fries and cotton candy.
AND TOMORROW WE GET TO DO IT ALL AGAIN, PLUS A CONCERT THERE!!!
(I'll take photos and post them in an edit. Never fear.)
Then we came home and watched the third Harry Potter together.
I know I'm totally phoning it in for this one. It's Spring Break week, Easter weekend, and time with my CGs. Gimme a break. I have some doozie posts planned for next week, so please don't run away just yet. Come back and visit or browse the archives and I promise there is bound to be something to make you laugh hard enough to make whatever beverage you're drinking execute an unplanned detour through your nose. (PSA: Milk is moderately painful, but carbonated sodas burn!)
Thanks for reading my insomniatic babble. I'm crashing under a micro fleece quilted bedcover. Mmmm, cozy. Happy A-Z ing! :)
I'm still here! I'm just REALLY busy with a lot of good things!!! Such as:
Lucy Jane orders are pouring in which is AWESOME, so if anyone seriously needs me, I can usually be found at the sewing machine with both it and my iPod blazing full speed ahead! Some new things just done will be posted on the Lucy Jane blog very soon. Hopefully by tomorrow.
Also Lucy Jane related, she's been booked for a hurrah-and-to-do Art thing in Marietta in August, so we have that to prepare for! :)
Cute Gremlin #4 turned 4 years old yesterday! (Picking myself up off the floor from the reality kick of that one.) We're having her party on Saturday so that Husband can be here from working out of town. (Still. More. Again. This majorly sucks. Lots. SO grateful he's back for the weekend at least.)
Cute Gremlin #2 is being inducted into Beta Club tomorrow afternoon! :D For her big project this year she's getting me to teach her how to sew a basic skirt. Cause she's awesome!
While I do all of this, I manage to do regular life on some level. Groceries. Laundry. More fun things (than groceries and laundry), like letter writing and taking the Cute Gremlins to the Zoo.
I'm trying to keep caught up here too, and I discovered this week that The Modest Peacock just hit 40,000 pageviews!!!!!! WOW! Y'all keep me amazed! I'm humbled and grateful, especially since I have been neglecting a regular blogging schedule. I promise to work on that, particularly with the A-Z Challenge and my 4th blogaversary coming up in April!
I have still been frequenting the library and reading amazing books, some of which have prompted a new scheduled feature here very soon (when I get the Lucy Jane stuff down to a dull roar and figure out the time tables. It's all a delicate balancing act...). Also while at the library, I've been borrowing the completed seasons of the TV show "The Big Bang Theory". If you've never seen it, please do! It's hysterical! I identify with the Penny character on a lot of levels (I even just figured out how to do one of her super cute hair styles!), but there is a huge part of me that is a closet nerd too, so it's a great way to de-stress. I especially love this clip*, which is what I'm going to leave you with as I fall in the bed and get back to my sewing in the morning. I still have to clean up my messiness of scraps and thread and pattern pieces and whatnot before Husband gets in at lunchtime!
*YouTube has disabled embedding, so you can watch it by following this link. Enjoy the clip!
As some of you know, I have an Alter Ego that is picking up steam as a business venture. A lot of good developments are falling into place, so I want to shamelessly beg you to show some blog love and check out
from time to time. Especially in the next 6 months, there are going to be all kinds of posts relating to costumes being constructed, Douglasville's Hydrangea Festival in June, and other various and sundry lovely things. I'll be scheduling a photo shoot or two when the weather decides to cooperate, so you can see me in my natural habitat. (In clothing that went out of style at least 100 years ago!) :)
