Still alive! - now with photos!

I hadn't realized it had been that long since I updated the craft blog!  Oh noes!!  We survived Sandy with incredibly good fortune.  The only damage was a torn-up porch roof and a few pounds of spoiled ground beef (the power was out for nearly a week).  It was cold, dark, and tough at first, but we realized how lucky we were.  Our home is in NJ, and we're north of the shoreline, but not by much.  So think a kind thought and donate a buck or two (or some warm clothes and food) for our neighbors in the rest of the state and in NY, who are going through a lot.

In the meantime, we've been going on business as normal here.  Crafting took a hit since without artificial light, I found it too hard to bead.  Instead, I borrowed Husband's nib pens and india ink and tried to re-learn calligraphy.  I used to have a way with gothic and uncial, but I am woefully out of practice!!  Instead, I mucked around a bit, and started my own hand (Script) which is really a more elegant version of block lettering.  I've been trying to develop it further, as I have a fun project in mind....making miniature books!

In addition to jewelry and such, I also write poems from time to time.  But I have come to the conclusion that noone is going to publish anyone's anything anymore - unless you're already published.  To that end, I have decided to William Blake it, and make my own books completely by hand.  I don't have the fine arts skills Blake did, so my little volumes will be much more spare, but I will be hand lettering and sewing each booklet.  Photos are pending - I'll take care of those after today's errands otherwise I'd never leave the house!

Portions of one of my poems, named after one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Eudoxia, which is replicated (or symbolized by?) an intricately worked carpet.  You can wander and wander through Eudoxia and the carpet patterns for ever...

This next one is from a quickie book I sewed during the power outage.  I was keeping dawn/dusk hours, so I made use of my daylight to practice the stitching.  It wasn't the best, as I was going from memory, but that's ok for now.  The book is composed of little envelopes, and each contains a tiny, more or less playing-card sized piece of paper with a particularly beautiful line of Symbolist poetry on it.

EDIT: Here's some photos of other stuff!

More at the Picasa Album

In other news, I will have another post featured in BlogHer's money section on the 27th!  I must figure out how to cross post between ViW here and the little in-house BlogHer blog I keep.  I've also got to start adding photos to my BlogHer posts, so I've opened up a flickr account as well, with a link on the sidebar.  What hi-tech sorcery we must do!

So there we are, fully recovered and ready for Thanksgiving.  I'm typing this on the laptop, snuggled in bed with a sleepy spouse and two warm cuddly puppies, feeling very very lucky.