How A Compulsive Reader Rolls

My name is Mare and I’m a compulsive reader.  When there are none of the below outlets for me to peruse, I read posters in the doctors office, signs in the windows of fast food places, those little A-frame advertisements on restaurant tables for seasonal drinks and desserts.  And I’ll read them over and over again until the doctor or the traffic signal or the meal arriving interrupts my obsession.  I’m not looking for a way to cure myself.  Far from it!  I’m embracing all the ways to read!

Books will never go the way of the dinosaur.  There will always be people like me and Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise who will have a soft spot for paper in this increasing age of technological libris. 

Or the people of Milton Keynes, who staged a campaign to empty their library of books, to show the evil town council the need for the Stony Stratford branch library (read story:   http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/14/stony-stratford-library-shelves-protest).

Our house is filled with shelves of books and piles of magazines.  I have a standing Saturday morning date at my local library, dropping off what I’ve finished that week and picking up new material.  It thrills me to be the first to put a Newly Acquired book on hold. Sometimes I stop into the bookstore on the ground level and a few times a year they hold book sales, too!  And still, this is not enough for me, the compulsive reader. 

I love the Kindle app on my phone, because even if I’ve found myself in a situation where I don’t have a real book (??!!), I always have something to read (yes, I always have my phone with me…).  I buy books for my Kindle that aren’t in the catalog of my local library.  What my library does have, though, are e-books you can download through Amazon to the Kindle app, which I’ve done several times.  Also, there’s a trend recently for authors to write short stories or novella’s exclusively as e-book content.  They usually run from .99 cents to around $5.99 and serve as welcome little treats between full books.  Read my latest Old School Mare blog post to see how I’m using my actual Kindle device for school: http://oldschoolmare.blogspot.com/2013/07/bonjour-mes-ami.html

  

I have a problem with magazines.  I find them a great temptation and, as stated, have heaping piles of them wherever I sit for more than 10 minutes…  When I bought the Kindle, I was hoping to use that for magazine subscriptions.  What I didn’t realize is that the black and white Kindles don’t support magazines…  Someday I will get a Kindle Fire but for now, my local library has a subscription to Zinio, an online magazine system.  Their selection is limited at this point but I have been able to access issues to read the one or two articles I was interested in without having to pay the $4 or $5 to do so.  Awesome!

The other thing I’ve been doing lately is getting books on CD’s at the library.  I download them to my phone and listen when I’m walking or at other times when I can pay them most of my attention (making jewelry, washing dishes, shaving my legs).  Usually, the books I find on CD’s are things I may not have noticed in my usual sections of the library (mystery and non-fiction/travel), like The Girls of Murder City about the women who the play and movie Chicago are based on and Then Again, Diane Keaton’s autobiography read with good humor and emotion by Keaton herself.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve gone to the Dark Side by embracing alternative reading methods.  My father ran a printing press for most of his working life (it was at a box factory, but a pressman is a pressman…) plus my Day Job is doing payroll for a local shoppers publication that has seen a sharp downturn in recent years.  But I think as the world changes, some things diminish and other things expand in a natural progression.  Writers still write and readers still read and the variety of ways we can partake of words and sentences and paragraphs will always keep the Force strong within us.

Do What You Love!

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How Did All This Work Get Done?

Even though I was fighting a cold this week and working my butt off at The Day Job, I managed to make a few things and list them on ArtFire and Etsy. I kinda took a miss on Valentines Day. I intended to do a bunch of new ATC’s but that never happened… Since I had a couple of strings of these cute green shamrock beads, I worked with them to get a jump on St. Patrick’s Day. So, here’s an Irish themed bracelet on ArtFire:

And a cute pair of earrings on Etsy:

And I also experimented with gold and silver and made this flower design chain with a gold heart toggle, also on ArtFire:

And I FINALLY finished the travel themed Charm N Bead necklace I’ve been working on for weeks. It was one of those times, I guess, when I’d come up with ideas and just work on them, "you know, really quick… I’ll get back to the CNB tomorrow… " So here’s a sneak peak at the Travel necklace. It’ll be going on ArtFire soon.

The weather here is ridiculous! It was over 80 degrees today. We were driving around in shirt sleeves with the windows rolled down. My Massachusetts friends curse me, since they’re having a really cold winter. The subject line of my BFF’s last email was, “My face is freezing off.”

Well, back to work tomorrow for a week of craziness. They’re merging two companies into the payroll system, so there’s going to be a lot of checking and double checking of all the info that we’re importing for all these new people. I’ll be cross eyed by the end of the week.

Have a good one. Stay warm or cool, whichever applies!

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Badge Leashes on Etsy

The Husband has been encouraging (nagging??) me to list my badge leashes on Etsy and I finally did. Yippee!

So many people have to wear badges for their Day Jobs now, why not have some style and protect your clothing at the same time? I purposely created a very simple design so the leash doesn’t clash with any necklace you might want to wear to work.

They’re made to order and you get to pick the length, color of the beads and color of the clips. You can find the listing here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17362964

I also listed a couple of new necklaces:

This is an awesome focal bead (1 1/2") that I bought ages ago from an artist in Louisiana.

Handmade chain in a flower pattern.

The latest Charm N Bead Necklace in my fave color, purple. I've been calling the charm on the right an overstuffed chair but it may be a sofa... I loved the grandfather clock! This also has a couple of kitties and purple roses that I cannabalized from a bracelet. It's called The Comfort of Home necklace.

Come on by soon with your Christmas lists. The free earrings with purchase is still in effect, till December 15. Just tell me in the Comments Section at checkout whether you want pierced or clip on. 1 pair of earrings for each item ordered!

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*Sigh* Paris Dreams

It’s been a rather uncreative August. I have a few things in progress but here’s one thing I’ve actually managed to finish:

This ATC encompasses my own personal Paris Dreams (see my sister blog, maresjourney.blogspot.com, for more on that…), eating at sidewalk cafes, the iconic Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, the cute little gargoyle. Someday…

I’m sure this must be someone else’s sigh inspiring dream too, so pretty soon it’ll be on Etsy.

Last week I was finally experimenting with some molding paste I've had for months. It’s interesting to work with because it’s a soft consistency, like un-sticky marshmallow fluff, and you can make waves with it, stick things in it to make designs and paint on it, among other fun things. I’m planning to play with it some more, as I create backgrounds for some of my favorite words and inspirational sayings on ATC’s.

The Day Job is going well but we’ve already been warned there’s going to be a ton of OT during September as we’re merging a couple of units together, so creativity will be a challenge. But life, and art, will go on!

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