I'm happy to report that since my last post in 2011, which was a picture of a pile of books, that only two of those books remain in my TBR pile still waiting for me. My to-read lists are very long (endlessly long), but I do eventually get to them.

In 2015, I changed things up a bit, and read a whole slew of new books. That's fun too.

I think I might revive this blog. I got an "adult colouring book" for Christmas. They're super trendy right now, and it's very much a jumping on the bandwagon sort of vibe. However, as you can see from my published stamped cards, colouring is not a new thing for this adult. So not so much a bandwagon for me as it is with others. Last time I saw adult colouring as a trend was in the 70s with DoodleArt. My adult family LOVED it. I did too, but I was a child. I actually remember the "educated opinion" in the 70s was that colouring was bad for children--stiffled imagination or something. I thought that was nonsense then; still do. Anyways, with several year gaps inbetween, I've always coloured, so this is not a "trendy" thing for me. It's fun, I like it. It does feel indulgent though. Must get past that, because that is just negative talk. Viva la colouring!

This is the book my daughters picked for me. Excellent choice. Not only is the art fun, but the theme is forests--forests are one of my favourite things ever!:

My Big Book Reading Challenge

Every year I set reading challenges for myself. Mostly it’s just for fun, but I’ve also found it an effective way to manage my ever-expanding To-Be-Read pile. For 2011 I decided on a Big Book Challenge. On the first of each month, I will start a book that I've been avoiding because its size. Sometimes that means the book is really long, but sometimes the book isn't necessarily so long, but my edition is large. There is no page number that defines a "big" book--it all depends on the size of the page, the font size, the amount of white space and the density of the language. Who knows where it will lead, other than to some open space in my book shelves!

Virginia Woolf Altered Book

Last year I had to do a presentation for my class on literary criticism. Wisely, my prof forbade us from using PowerPoint (I guess he's seen as many painfully bad PP presentations as I have!). However, this made for some pretty dull presentations. When my turn came around, I was determined not to bore my audience, and I thought it might be helpful to give them something to look at. I had already grabbed the best of the available subjects: A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf, and I knew I could make that interesting. But I wanted more. I've always found that Virginia Woolf inspires my artistic side, so the idea to make a small altered book on the theme of A Room of One's Own came naturally. And it was a lot of fun to make!

I started with a small children's board book: 

The book I used had six page spreads, and there are six chapters in A Room of One's Own, so I did one collage for each chapter.

Chapter One: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to writer fiction" 

 behind closed gates

"Gate after gate seemed to close with gentle finality behind me. Innumerable beadles were fitting innumerable keys into well-oiled locks, the treasure trove was being made secure for another night. I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out, and I though how it is worse perhaps to be locked in."

Chapter Two: "Cats do not go to heaven. Women cannot write the plays of Shakespeare."

Chapter Three: "The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of the emancipation itself."

"There was an enormous body of masculine opinion to the effect that nothing could be expected of women intellectually."

Chapter Four: "Jane Austen pervades every word that she wrote."

 "Charlotte Bronte . . . she is at war with her lot."

 "Freedom and fullness of expression are the essence of the art."

"Aphra Behn . . . made a living by her wits."

"She should have been taught to look at the stars and reason scientifically."

 
Chapter Five: "Chloe liked Olivia."

"Women are shown in their relation to men."

Chapter Six: "As people mature they cease to believe in sides."

"It is necessary to have five hundred a year and a room with a lock on the door if you are to write fiction or poetry"

"That five hundred a year stands for the power to contemplate that a lock on the door means the power to think for oneself." 

Back cover: My favourite words of wisdom from Virginia Woolf:

 "I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of though dip deep into the stream."

"You must, of course, go on bearing children but, so they say, in twos and threes, not in tens and twelves." 

My Career as a Published Stamping Artist

I haven't had much time for stamping the past few years (and any time I do have for art I'd rather spend making altered books). However, a few years ago I was a passionate art stamper. I aspired to make beautiful cards, and have them published in glossy magazines. My favourite publication was always the Stamper's Sampler. At first I thought I'd start small and submit to some less glamorous magazines, but then I thought "why not just start at the top?" And so I've only ever submitted stamping art to Stamper's Sampler. It didn't take long before they started publishing my work--what a thrill!

Here is a list of my published stamp art: