Buttons, Bows and Scarves

Once more, a serendipitous situation for this harried crafter--my two favorite Christmas Card Challenges, Bah! Humbug! and Jingle Belles unknowingly coordinated their challenge so I could use one card for both ;-)

I had been putting this card together already for Bah! Humbug! who had asked for Buttons and Bows when I found out that Jingle Belles was asking for scarves, mittens, hats or earmuffs, and guess what my snowman buttons are wearing?  Voila--hats and scarves LOL!

No clue where the snowman and snowflake buttons originated--they are from my quilting days when I collected funky buttons, as are the tiny navy buttons.

The top fold card is Stampin' Up! Naturals Ivory, with a Whisper White Top Note die cut that was then run through the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder.  Not Quite Navy Ink was used direct-to-paper on the die cut and sponged around the edges of the card.  I'm not usually fond of using wide ribbon on cards, but the Not Quite Navy striped ribbon loosely knotted here so resembles a scarf that I feel it is the perfect finish to the card.  I didn't use a sentiment because if I send it to OWH or From Our Hearts, it could be used for a winter anniversary or birthday or "thinking of you" type card...hope you enjoy it!

Alan Bradley--the Flavia de Luce Series

Mystery Fanfare's current contest is to win a copy of Alan Bradley's third Flavia book, "A Red Herring Without Mustard".  Flavia de Luce is an eleven year old girl in 1950 London, and Mr. Bradley won the Macavity Award for the best first novel at the 2010 Boucheron with "Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie."

I'm a big fan of Mr. Bradley as he was 70 when "Sweetness" was published which makes me hopeful for publication, since I'm only 55 LOL!  One of my best friends read "Sweetness" last year and has passed it to me saying that it is a "must-read", so I'm moving it up the TBR mountain (she also claims it is a quick read--we'll see...my reading time is so limited with this snow.  You would think snow would mean snuggling in front of a roaring fire with a good book, right?  Not if you work from home---grrrr--but I digress LOL)

Now, I need you to vote--do books set in 1950 count as historicals?  After all, that was over fifty years ago...heck it was even before I was born ;-) 

What do you think?  Historical or not?  Whichever you believe, pop over to Mystery Fanfare and enter the contest...

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Thanks to the Lauren Willig "Pink Carnation" series, I have gone back and rectified a serious error in my recommended reading list for high school and college.  Believe it or not, I never read many of the classics (tested out of several years of English and therefore missed many Literature classes).  This series, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, was included in the "skipped" list until now.  I had seen the Leslie Howard movie version of course, as well as a TV adaptation once upon a time, but I'm happy to say, I've finally read the novel itself on Kindle (like many classics, it is free for various e-readers and probably as a PDF if you go looking; undoubtedly it would also be available on Paperback Swap).  This is being counted toward both my 100+ Book Reading Challenge and my Historical Fiction Challenge.

Wow.  Once you get past the period writing style (and the small errors in transcription), the story really moves quickly.  The plot line is short, sweet and to the point, and contains several false leads--I can see why the character became so well-loved and why so many adaptations have occurred.  I'll read the rest of the Baroness' novels to see what happened to the rest of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel simply because they are fun reading, but I honestly like the Willig League of the Pink Carnation better ;-)

Altered Notebook (since Anything Goes) for Paper Players

Paper Players' Challenge this week is Anything Goes, so I chose not to make a card.  I am a notebook junkie, but I hate using plain, boring composition notebooks, especially when working on my novel.  I've wanted to use this Stampin' Up! Newsprint DSP for quite a while, and I needed a new notebook specifically for trivia about New Orleans...this paper just seems to put me into a New Orleans circa 1862 frame of mind LOL. 

The lace is the Raven Lace (recently retired from the Holiday Mini) and after cutting the Top Note die and using the outside to frame part of the paper, I took the actual die cut shape, turned it 90 degrees, and die cut it again to make the wonderful square medallion on the bottom (it also gave me a set of parentheses/brackets that will show up soon on a card...)  And once more, my apologies for the photo; the book looks much better in person.  The Take Note oval stamp is from the Notably Ornate stamp set.

The Paper Players Blog Hop is also still active, so go check it out and then play with us, since "Anything Goes"...they are a fun group of ladies!

Here's the video that inspired the new way of cutting my Top Note:

Not MIA yet...But Close (AKA Why I May NOT be Posting Much This Week)

We have snow and ice--it's 19 degrees right now, with a wind chill factor making it 9 degrees.  I've teased with a few folks this week that we are doing this on purpose here in North Texas so the Packers fans and Steelers fans will feel more at home next weekend for the big game; after all, it was sunny and 76 degrees here Sunday LOL.

As usual, weather like this keeps people from coming to work.  That's probably a good thing in some cases, since many folks here don't really understand the concept of "drive slowly and carefully in ice" and many more don't believe in "do NOT tailgate the driver in front of you". 

So, our already shorthanded office is limping along without our two closers until the weather clears.  When I finish this post, I will be going back to work (i.e., walking into the back room and logging back in) and will work by myself the last few hours we are open.  No craft projects made today and no reading done towards my challenges and no research done for my novel.  Oh, well.  Things could be much worse--I have said this before, LOL--I have a job I enjoy and the world's shortest commute (approximately 20 steps, depending on whether I'm leaving my kitchen, my living room, or my bedroom).

But, if I don't post for a day or two, I've not fallen off the face of the earth--I'm just doin' the day job that pays for the fun stuff LOL.  I'll be back as soon as I can--and until then, y'all stay warm, dry, and safe, won't you?