Shop Update: Wednesday July 25th

I'll have eleven new dolls/ ornaments available in my Big Cartel shop this Wednesday, July 25th at 8pm EST/ 5pm PST.  I'm sorry if the time is inconvenient in some regions, but I'm a bit short of time because I'm leaving on vacation next week.  The listings are all in the shop, and you can see photos below.  These will most likely be my last dolls for a while; in the fall I hope to experiment a little!

Life is What Happens to You...

...while you're busy making other plans. My dad used to say that to me when I was a teenager and I always thought it was so wise. A few years later, I learned that those are lyrics from the John Lennon song, 'Beautiful Boy', and felt a bit duped, though to be fair my dad never claimed he had made it up.  Anyway, life has happened to us in a big way in the past couple of months and we are still catching our breath. All good things, but somewhat unexpected and many other things have been put on hold, or at least turned down to low simmer in the meantime.  Also, very annoyingly, I have lost the USB cable that attaches my camera to my computer, so while I can take photos, I can't upload them.  It's been driving me nuts because I know it's somewhere in our apartment - I almost never take it anywhere - but multiple frantic searches have turned up nothing.  So I finally broke down and ordered a new one.  I'm nearly finished a group of eleven new dolls, so I hope to have photos of them on the blog in the next couple of weeks.  (My USB cable is coming from the distant shores of Hong Kong...hurry, hurry, hurry!) 

If you want to watch a very touching but rather heartbreaking video of the titular song, here are some lovely images of John, Yoko and Sean.

Six Fine Things

I know I'm nearly cribbing from the very polarizing Martha Stewart with this post title (personally, I drool over her mag at the library when I get the chance...domesticity porn), but I can't think of anything more clever or creative moment, and given that it's M.'s nap time, I don't dare spend too long trying.   I sometimes marvel at the fact that my life these days is more sedate, predictable and geographically confined than it's ever been: I seldom leave my very quiet, residential neighbourhood and divide most of my time between home, several parks in the neighbourhood, the local library and a few shops.  While I do sometimes crave a little more variety and freedom, overall I'm more content than I've ever been with my very simple existence.  To whit, I've curated a list of some of the things that have made me happy this week. 

1. Playing soccer by the Lachine canal with the boy.  It's so breezy, green and peaceful up there, with water on one side and bike paths on the other.  And my little one running with boundless energy, chirping 'ba! ba! ba!' as he chases his ball.  Balls and dolls - his two favourite things, and a nice balance I think.

2. My mother's day gift: a Kitchenaid mixer. WHAT!? I thought I'd be an old lady before I could afford one of these glorious machines, but Mr. L has been squirelling away his credit card points for years and actually had enough to get my beauteous new mixer without spending a penny. (Let us not speak of interest rates at such a magical time.)  I confess I haven't even had a chance to use it, but visions of cookies and bread and super easy pie crusts dance in my head.

3. Wolf Hall  I'm doing my best to keep my eyes pried open for half an hour before bed to do some reading (have I complained recently about how M. still wakes up several times a night?) Currently, I'm reading Hilary Mantel's novel about Thomas Cromwell and the many machinations of Henry the VIII.  Beautiful writing and a page-turning story.  Delicious.

4. The Culture Gabfest podcast on Slate.com.  I read about this on my friend Tom's blog and now I'm hooked.  A trio of hyper verbal, witty, erudite culture critics/ writers deconstruct books, TV shows, movies, poetry and news coverage and are so freakishly smart and funny about it that they manage to find interesting things to say about even the most banal of topics (eg. Titanic, celebrity baby bumps).  And there appear to be many other great podcats on Slate, such as Double X and Lexicon Valley ( a whole show about words). There are not enough hours in the day.

5. My new pressure cooker. I know - another appliance.  Do I sound like a crazed, McCarthy-era housewife?  But it really is an amazing thing if you're vegetarian, or simply like beans.  It makes the most tender, delicious beans in under half an hour and this is miraculous after many years of boiling the crap out of beans only to have them come out...edible.  I've heard from a real Italian that you can make perfect risotto in seven minutes, which I find almost too good to be true but I'm going to try it this weekend.

6. Revenge.  Well, perhaps not a fine thing, but a deeply satisfying guilty pleasure.  It's got very rich people, very vengeful people, very bad people.  It's got beautiful women kicking ass (literally). Everyone is always impeccably dressed, shooting death stares at their various enemies and being super fake, rich-style, while they plot to destroy one another.  There's a moral centre, of course, but that's besides the point.  It's terribly silly and I love it. 

PJ & Paper Tales

It's been a rough couple of weeks here at casa Black; pink eye, the stomach flu and a nasty cold have all ripped through and my poor little bunny bore the brunt of it.  Fortunately, he seems to be on the mend now and I'm hoping to take him to the park later today for the first time in days.

Anne Bachelier

I haven't had much time to to work on dolls (the laundry, oh the laundry!) but I've been thinking quite a bit about them and I'm excited about trying a few new things.  I'm planning on basing the next batch on some of my favourite fairy tales (think 'The Wild Swans', 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'Jorinda & Joringel').  I've been looking at the stunning illustrations of Anne Bachelier for ideas. I'm also planning to make their clothing almost entirely from paper.  I've done a lot of paper bodices before, but I think it will be fun to try paper skirts as well. 

I've also been digging up photos to use as inspiration for faces because I want to try a few that are more detailed.  In the past, I've looked at photos of models simply because they're easy to find, but they never worked for me; models' faces tend to be very symmetrical and conventionally beautiful - far too 'perfect' for my tastes.  I'm drawn to faces that are unusual, that have somewhat exaggerated or asymmetrical features.  Lately, I've been particularly interested in women with striking profiles and strong noses.  One of my favourite (stranger) faces is also one of my favourite musicians, so I will making the beautiful PJ Harvey into my muse for at least a couple of my next dolls. I love that her face is both gawky and lush, severe and sweet.  Here she is performing my favourite song from her new album live.  It sounds quite different from her previous albums...gorgeous.  (And check that crazy head thingy.  Love her!)

Tom(my) Wrote That

Thank you for all the kind comments and emails about the new dolls, and thank you of course to all who adopted them - they are now on their way to their new homes in Canada, the US, France and - for the first time - Norway.  I love thinking of the dollies living in places in the world I've never seen. 

Now for a Big Pimpin' edition of the Black-Eyed Suzie blog.  I'm super-excited about the release of my friend Tom Ryan's first book, Way to Go, from Orca Book Publishers.  Woot!  Congratulations, Tommy! I'm so proud of you!!  Tom's family are our neighbours in Cape Breton.  His parents are good friends of ours, and Tom is one of my favourite people. We have spent many nights driving around dirt roads trying to amuse ourselves.  Our houses are connected by a long, wooded dirt road, and at the risk of sounding all sentimental and nostalgic, there is even a shortcut we can take through the woods to get to one another's houses.

Tom lives in BC now, but I keep tabs on him through his very well-written and funny blog, Tom Wrote That; it even has these very fancy, new-fangled things called 'vlogs' (musings via video) that I'm very impressed by.  His book is currently available on Amazon and IndieBound.  Though I usually order books online, I'm going to go to an actual bookstore this weekend and buy a copy because I feel like this is an event worthy of traveling beyond the boundaries of my sleepy little neighbourhood.  So, while I haven't read it yet, here are a couple of glowing reviews:

"This book is a truly life-changing one. It will make you question your views and the way you inflict them on others." (YALSA YA Galley Teen Review )

"A very well done book about a front-burner topic, it makes a fine addition to the 'I think I'm gay' genre. Danny is very believable, and unlike so many 'issue' novels, the supporting characters are fully realized and multi-dimensional...A lot of kids will benefit from reading it...It's a story that absolutely needs to be told, and the author's approach succeeds beautifully. Excellent." (John Wetterholt Follett Library Resources )

Can't wait til you're back East, Tommy dear!