Ah L'Amour

Many a year ago - okay a few years ago - I thought books by Louis L'Amour were just "books my grandpa used to read." Or I thought they were "man books" or something - maybe because I only knew of men reading them - grandfathers in particular. But all that changed when a fellow teacher (yep, a man and yep, a grandfather) handed me a copy of Last of the Breed and told me he thought I'd like it. I was a bit skeptical, but then again he and his wife had gotten me hooked on the Horatio Hornblower movies done by A&E (and subsequently the books) so I figured he had good taste!

Last of the Breed has become one of my most recommended books.



It took me by surprise firstly because it's not about a cowboy as I thought all L'Amour books were (so. not. true.) but rather an Air Force pilot! I loved it and wanted more.

My neighbor George has all the L'Amour books and has read them all at least a couple times so he started loaning me stacks of them. I worked my way through the entire Sackett series lickety split (my favorite is probably Ride the Dark Trail) and branched out to others like The Walking Drum (also not about cowboys) and one of my other favorites The Lonesome Gods, an epic about the early days in California.

My stack of L'Amours is mostly inherited from my grandpa and barely scratches the surface of this prolific writer.

You can see I don't have a copy of Last of the Breed - I've bought that book probably four times and I keep loaning it out and people end up keeping it. I like to think it's because it's just that good.


Another surprising thing about L'Amour's books are that he is quite the philosopher.

“Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity and movement and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds.”

I usually keep a notebook handy when reading so I can jot down lines that I found particularly inspiring (or funny, because there's plenty of that too).

I even made art out of one of my favorite quotes and you can check that post out here.

Now that I've waxed poetic about his great writing are there some that aren't so great? Yep. I just finished Fair Blows the Wind, a swashbuckling tale - which is why I chose it! - and it turned out to be my least favorite so far. And there are some that make me raise an eyebrow in disbelief; like the one where the shy man who isn't good with women "just happens" to find a beautiful, abandoned woman in the middle of the mountains of nowhere and they fall in love. Riiiiiiiiight. Somehow that is less believable to me than the supernatural angle in The Haunted Mesa.

All in all? If you haven't given a L'Amour a try I heartily recommend it, even for women. While plenty of the stories are filled with manliness (honestly I have a crush on half his characters) and gunfights, there is so much more to the stories and it's that wonderful blend that keeps me coming back for more.

Mosaic Monday - damp and fog

Click image to enlarge.

It has gone from frosty, chilly, and clear skies to wet, chilly and foggy here. I love a good fog (as long as I don't have to travel in it!) to make the yellow and red leaves really stand out, but the wet creeps up my pants legs and into my shoes. I suppose I can suffer a little for art. :)

And are my roses the only ones who decide to bloom again every November? Do your roses do this?

Be sure to visit Little Red House to see all the beautiful mosaics!

Look what I won!

It's a beautiful Halloween mansion candleholder (by Home Interiors) and a gorgeously hand-painted egg. She even initialed and dated the egg which I think is always important for an artist! The mansion has all this great glitter and sparkle detail that you can't tell in my horrible photo because the weather was so gloomy. Suppose I can get away with leaving it out until Thanksgiving? :)

Thank you Melissa! Check out her blog here.

Fashion accessories from what's on hand - "free" necklace

I've been reading and enjoying the posts over at Gothique where Grey blogs about beauty and fashion. She reviews lots of indie companies and etsy shops, but best of all I've really learned a lot about makeup, ingredients, etc. More on makeup later, this post is about fashion accessories.

Going through Grey's style diary I came upon this post which was all about my two favorite colors to wear: gray and pink. One of her accessories was a large circle link necklace. I'm forever noticing everyone's jewelry anyway and thinking "oooh!"

Since I have more jewelry-making supplies than my containers can contain I decided to try making my own version with supplies I had on hand. What I discovered was that I had just a small piece of my large circle link chain left...


So I decided to extend it using some black ribbon.


Securing ribbon to soldered chain is an easy way to make your chain scraps go a little farther. And it adds a nice softness to it I think! If you try adding it to unsoldered chain it tends to wiggle its way to the opening and slip through, so either don't do it, or be careful.

If you can't figure out how to knot it, I made a confusing diagram to "help."



I ended up cutting my ribbon a bit shorter than I wanted, but also didn't want to waste it so I added some ribbon crimps to the ends so I could attach more chain. The ribbon crimps come with several in a package and are simply secured by clamping with pliers.

A jump ring connects the chain and ribbon bits on the other end.

I found another tiny scrap of chain in my "bits and bobs and leftovers" container, cut it in half and added a spring ring clasp. Now the necklace is just the right length, I used up some weird bits, didn't spend money on anything new and...


Now I have a fabulous new accessory for my new gray sweater (a four dollar steal earlier this spring from a clearance rack)!

Yep, that's the flour canister. The only place in the house with decent enough lighting for photos on a day as dreary as the one I made this necklace, is the kitchen. I'll work with what I've got.

And I've already worn it! Er...the necklace, not the flour, just to clarify. :)

And if you can open and close a jump ring, squish a ribbon crimper and have some small (smooth) pliers and a few basic jewelry supplies, you too can have a fabulous fashion accessory.

Linking to:

Today's Creative Blog

A costume designer I'm not

In {this post} I told you how I was inspired by my Cheshire Cat bag to have an Alice in Wonderland Halloween and I made a large bow headband. I admit this was partially inspired by Alice and partially inspired by over-sized, fun headwear I've seen in some fashion things lately.

Since I was unwilling to spend money on clothes that looked Alice-ian I ended up grabbing things from my wardrobe...a black shirt with a ruffled white center, a black cardigan a black skirt, some humongous false eyelashes and other makeup.

I kinda just looked like a schoolgirl in mourning. Except for the smiling. :)


I did get to wear my fun striped socks (since my friend doesn't allow shoes in her house anyway, fun socks were a must)


And I previously mentioned I bought some Manectric eyeshadow from Shiro Cosmetics to match the beautiful shimmery aqua-blue that was on my inspiration piece.

It was perfect!

And here you can see how many freckles I got gardening all summer without a hat. Oops.

I'm also wearing Maybelline New York Shadow Stylist in Urban Gray (this link takes you to the US English site), Benefit lipstick in Ginger Snap (not made anymore) and ELF moisture care lip color (now called luscious liquid lipstick) in Baby Lips.

As long as I can still wear big false eyelashes and beautiful shimmery shadows I will never stop dressing up for Halloween, I don't care if people see it or not. :)

But maybe next year I'll see if I can't actually look like what I'm going for...