funeral planning for those who don’t plan to die

aka write your own obituary while you’re still alive

the first time I ever wrote an obituary was back in about 1968 or 1969 when one of my Journalism instructors had us write one for ourselves, projecting ahead to some future date.  oh my, what a life I ended up with, lol.  I can’t remember the specifics, it’s been too many years since I wrote that ode to a fantastic, generous, fulfilled life.  the hubris of youth, eh?

the next time I had occasion to write an obit was 1991, and that year I wrote 3 of them.  that was a good year, all right.  my father was the first of the lot, and actually it wasn’t the obit I wrote, it didn’t occur to me to do so.  but I wrote out a eulogy for the memorial mass, and that’s almost the same thing.  I included personal reminiscences and threw in a maudlin poem for good measure.  side note: five years later, to acknowledge the anniversary, i asked my younger brother in Ireland to write a poem for the obit section.  it was wonderful, and what a great way to commemorate a life!

but back to 1991,  I lost two very close friends, Dennis in the Summer and Dorothy in the Fall.  both had been active in the hot air ballooning community, so I wrote a couple of “life well-lived” pieces for the balloon cub newsletter.  I enjoyed doing that, because it provided me the opportunity to inject some of their personalities into those pieces.  

while I don’t read the obit section as a habit, I’ve always been befuddled by the tendency for obits to be stiff and dry.  “name” was born, married mr. x, had 3 children.  survived by parents, siblings and their wives/husbands, and friends too numerous to count.  services will be Friday at noon.  I find it sad that someone’s life is condensed into basic sound bites without any indication what the person was really like.  what did they like to do, what activities were they involved in, what were their dreams? 

since 1991 I’ve written several other obits that actually were printed in the obit section of the newspaper.  I always feel pleased when someone asks me to do so, it’s just a way for me to help them during a difficult time.  plus I get to act like a sleuth, digging for the details that will ultimately blossom into a friendly profile that will mean something to the family and friends of the deceased. 

sometimes, though, it’s like pulling teeth.  about a year ago a friend asked me to write her sister’s obit.  I had plenty of lead time, since she didn’t need it until they were set to travel to Texas to bury her ashes in the family plot.  I’ve inquired several times for background details, but have yet to receive anything except a picture!  I told my friend I don’t write well under pressure, so to please not call me the night before they drive to Texas and expect the output the next morning, ha!

several years ago, my sister-in-law’s mother died.  I knew her very well and spent a lot of time not only visiting with her, but interviewing her for a family recipe memoir book I had just started.  as a result I had lots of basic details, fleshed out with tidbits of historical and geographical references as well as family anecdotes.  here’s one excerpt:

“Phyllis loved being involved in all the family activities, the visits from her grandchildren, making new friends, and of course continuing her lifelong tradition of cooking wonderful meals for family and friends.  The kitchen was the epicenter of Phyllis’ life, and her thoughts always revolved around planning menus for upcoming visits, special occasions, and family get-togethers.  The family has many warm memories of Phyllis’ favorite dishes, especially her fried chicken, potato salad, and of course her famous peanut butter cookies.   Her granddaughter’s favorite was shoo fly pie, and she fondly remembers how her grandmother  pronounced pie as “pah”. 

 here's another excerpt, this one posted by a long-time, online friend about her brother-in-law:

“Putty's lifelong career was with Chevron/Texaco, but his heart was in Little League, where he proudly coached decades of players, including his son and grandson, and energetically argued with the umpires. He loved baseball and playing golf with his boys, and he loved barbecuing for family and friends. He loved eating. And if you knew Putty, you know this is true: he loved talking. Putty loved to talk and he loved to argue. He could, and did, talk to anyone about anything, and he was indefatigable. It was best to just listen and nod.”

and one more snippet, from another online friend and blogger, writing about her favorite uncle.  this one appeared in the New York Times: 

“Another milestone in the happy history of Rolly’s life on Earth occurred on October 16, 2013 when, at the age of 86, he walked across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time in his life.  The trek would have taken half as long if he hadn’t stopped every few minutes to pronounce that this view, or the one a few paces further, was the most terrific, most beautiful view of New York , of civilization, or of humanity that he’d ever seen.  Rolly is survived by a legion of family and friends who have to figure out how to live in a world without him.”

to quote the blogger/artist/author friend (Vivian Swift) who wrote that last obit above, sage advice:

“You know the most famous obituary story, don't you?  About the rich businessman who was mistakenly obitted (yeah, I made that up, and isn't it brilliant???) and he, reading this premature obit, realized that he didn't want to be remembered for having the world's biggest dynamite factory so he funded philanthropic awards in his name and that's how Alfred Nobel is now mostly known for his Prize.  So maybe writing your own obit will reveal a life's mission, or not.  You never know.”

final analysis?  give some thought to writing your own obituary.  at least that way some semblance of how you’d like to be remembered will show up in the newspaper and the family's genealogy records.  how do YOU want to be remembered?

Record Store Day ....

who knew?!

i was looking at a new blog last night, about including musical references in your writing, that really struck a chord with me.  that got me to thinking about how i could incorporate music into my blog, like a jukebox of some sort.  then my eye happened across this little notice: April 20 is Record Store Day.

i love, love, love music ... all kinds of music.  but the music of the 60's is my favorite because it brings back so many memories of my life back then.  sock hops in high school ... remember those?  and all my years with the USO in Milwaukee, dancing up a storm with all those cute sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station.  even today, a man in a Navy uniform, especially bell bottoms, is still enough to get my heart palpitating.  or it could be my high blood pressure medicine.  nah, i'm sticking with the bell bottom theory.

anyhoo, because it's officially Record Store Day, i've added a play list at the bottom of the right-hand column.  i will do my best to rotate the playlist regularly.  feel free to nudge me if i don't.  but for today, my FIRST mobyte play list includes, in this order, 3 of my top favorite songs EVER, 3 more that rank up near the top, and 1 that i discovered within the last few years that has quickly earned favored status:

1. Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens 
2. Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler 
3. Sunshine of Your Love by Cream (and which, whenever i hear it, i stop whatever i'm doing midstream and get up and dance!) 
4. Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding 
5. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Dusty Springfield 
6. Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers 
7. Lonely Avenue by Ray Charles 

the juggling act crashes and burns ....

don't you hate to admit defeat?!  i know i do.  i struggle along trying to balance everything even when i know i've scripted myself for failure.  in my last post i talked about all the online classes i had enrolled in suddenly coming together in a sort of cosmic convergence designed specifically to make me question my sanity.  which has been hanging by a thread of late, but that's another story for another day.   if i remember.  at my age, there's no guarantee.

so, here it is, two weeks after my last post and i finally have had to give up any pretense that i could actually do it all.  do YOU ever feel that way, like you CAN do it all, juggle all those balls in the air and manage your time so effectively that you get it all done and still have time at the end of the day to go out for drinks with your friends?  and then reality steps in and takes control and knocks you back to your senses?  kind of like life having a bit of a chuckle at your expense.

one of my classmates in my current blogging class recently wrote a post about spinning plates and multi-tasking.  she referred to that guy on the old Ed Sullivan show who would spin a bunch of plates and bowls on sticks. all at the same time.   he was a fan favorite, as i recall.  he was right up there with Topo Gigio for entertainment value on a Sunday night, right? 

her post struck a real chord with me, because i've been struggling with so many class commitments.  but i finally realized that i couldn't possibly do justice to them all, and so i narrowed my attention and energy to the two where i had actually kept up with the reading and some level of participation with the other members of the classes: blogging and journaling.  i feel good about this decision; it's created a more manageable project for me, and as a result i'm enjoying the classes more.

i'll pick up the photography class at a later date, probably in May when the other classes have completed.  the art projects workshop is one of those "work at your own pace" classes that will last through December, perfect for focusing on later.  and the research i did for this year's IFJM will be saved on my computer for April 2014 so that i can do justice to that project without all the other distractions.



i guess those words of wisdom from the White Rabbit were prophetic:  "You made it! Oh dear, it looks like you didn't make it after all, haha he-hoo!"

all together now ... haha he-hoo!!!!

i'm late / i'm late / for a very important date!

am i the only one that feels that way?!  never mind that i'm retired and have plenty of time on my hands.  but i always feel this time pressure when i go through a long spell of no activity and then suddenly find that i've over-committed myself.  it makes me want to grab clumps of my hair and run around like a crazed person, screaming "i can't do it, i can't do it, what have i done?!" ... at least i have the good sense to only do that in my head so that i at least maintain some semblance of normality to the untrained eye.

this sense of impending doom started this past weekend when i suddenly realized that all the fabulous online classes i signed up for back in February start this week.  yikes!  so the classes in journaling, blogging, photography, and art projects will all be competing for my time and energy. 

as everyone who knows me knows, i have a very limited supply of energy and stamina.  not to mention a short attention span when it comes to doing things i "should" be doing.  i'm easily distracted.  *grin*

add to the mix the fact that April is IFJM, which i've mentioned before.  i'm determined to participate this year, by hook or by crook.  i decided on a theme (more on that later) and have  already done most of the research, so i'm ready to make some journal pages, thank goodness.

when i take a deep breath, i actually realize that i can handle these online commitments.  but i do feel overwhelmed if i let myself dwell on what i'll need to do for each class.  i'll just have to remember these words of wisdom from the White Rabbit: "You made it! Oh dear, it looks like you didn't make it after all, haha he-hoo!" 

the alternative is to
go back to my bed
throw bedclothes over my head

--------------------------
apropos of nothing in particular: here's a little trivia gem i stumbled across when i was looking up the Alice in Wonderland quote i used for the title:

The English novelist Aldous Huxley worked with Walt Disney on early scripts for this project in late 1945. The original idea was for a cartoon version of Alice embedded in a flesh-and-blood episode from Lewis Carroll's life. Huxley's mother, Julia Arnold, was one of the little girls that Carroll used to enjoy photographing, and to whom he told the Alice stories. The project was close to Huxley's heart, but Disney found his work too intellectual, and it was not used. Huxley received no credit on the finished picture.

if it's March ....

it must be almost time for International Fake Journal Month!

holy cow, that creeps up on me every year.  last year, as it turns out, i did NOT participate.  see here for my thoughts on the 2012 IFJM.

Roz just posted a reminder about this year's IFJM so i need to get my thinking cap on NOW to formulate a plan for this year's fake journal.  two years ago it was a trip to Ireland, which was great fun.  last year i had in mind doing a sort of time travel/historical journal, a kind of "what if" exercise.  but that didn't really fit the IFJM parameters for creating journal entries in current time. 

i might do another travel journal, not sure where i'd visit though.  lots of choices, that's for sure.  or maybe i'll just "travel" right here in River City and fake write some fake journal entries.  ha!

the game is on.  i'll spend the next 3 weeks procrastinating thinking about topics, avoiding researching/googling, napping outlining my project.  the one thing i've learned from the previous years is that the pre-planning pretty much has to be done be early April in order to hit the ground running and create at least 6 entries to actively participate in the competition.  you'll know how successful i've been IF when you see my entries posted here on the blog.

cross your fingers and toes for me!!

more later

my dog Lad

august 10, 1989: that was the day i had to put my beloved Lad down.  so yesterday, on the 23rd anniversary of that sad occasion, I felt more than a bit melancholy.  yeah, even after all these years.  he was only 7 when he died, much too early.  but he had fallen ill in the spring and been through a surgery that only confirmed the diagnosis.  the one thing I felt really badly about, in terms of his treatment, was the ordeal of changing his bandages during his final months.  he bore it like a champion, but his skin was raw and it hurt me to go through the routine each time.  i thought i was doing the right thing at the time, and i do think i was, at least the best i knew how to do to hopefully save his life.  sometimes I try to second guess if it was the right thing, but in my head I know it was.

he was happy and active until the end, but he grew weaker and weaker over the summer, and one morning as I woke up I heard his weak cough and simply knew that it was time.  before he got so weak that he couldn’t stand or worse, had a crisis that might cause him, and me, acute distress.  I called the vet and made the appointment for that afternoon at a time when there would be few pets in the waiting room. 

I spent those last hours with him, just petting him and talking to him.  I lay down with him on the living room carpet, telling him I how much I loved him and how much he had meant to me.  I cried uncontrollably, and he licked my face to comfort me.  he was the best, such a sweet sweet dog.

taking him in to the vet’s office was just the most awful thing, knowing I’d be coming back home without him.  but I stayed with him through to the end.  some people can’t, finding it too hard to watch their pet die.  but I couldn’t imagine leaving him in that room with the vet to spend his last moments alone.  not my Lad. 

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

yesterday I sent a short email to my brother terry (that’s him in the pic with Lad) expressing my resurgence of grief.  he has two dogs, sisters, both quite old currently and one has a serious larynx problem.  he also had their mother and their grandmother, whom i refer to below as "grandma" and "mom".  he had a pair of border collies in the 80's, both of whom died young, one especially young and abrupty. here's his reply to my mail, excerpted: 

This doesn't surprise me in the least. I've been through the same many times.

I'd always opt for a chance at life. I didn't interfere with [mom dog] for an extra day in the hope she had Vestibulitis rather than a stroke. It happens. My neighbor's dog, right here on the road, has had it twice and recovered fully after a few days. He's around 16 or 17, a very long life for a border collie. But, as it turned out, [mom dog] didn't recover and actually had a dreadful passing.  I could - and do - weep over it. But I can't second guess my decision, not really, except as an excuse to torture myself. I held off similarly with [grandma dog] and she died peacefully in her sleep and loved life up to 36 hours before the end. Even a mere 12 hours before the end, she surprised me by getting off the bed to go with the others, daughter and pups, for a walk and then coming home and (unexpectedly) still wanting her share of sausage.

So there's no telling. I couldn't deprive [grandma dog] of a moment of it. Nor [mom dog] of the hope. We wouldn't for a human and we'd never look back, so why do we think we should for a dog?

There's no way out of it. You get an animal and if you love the animal, you will suffer in equal measure. You will be judge, jury, and executioner over and over and over again. No matter what you did or didn't do.

You make a contract with the animal to take care of him/her for subservience, obedience, loyalty, devotion, and attachment. Ok. The animal lives up to his or her part (well, ahem ... except for obedience, maybe) but in the end you can't live up to your end of the bargain. You're not god. Yet, in a way, you promised to be. You lied. Shit, we can't take care of ourselves in the end, never mind anyone else.

Life just sucks, that's all. For them and for us. Maybe if they weren't so cheerful about it all, it wouldn't feel so bad. :-) But they wouldn't fight to live so hard no matter how much they suffered if they got no joy out of life.

All I can say is that I know it well, it can hit at any time. I've wept 20+ years after the death of a border collie for all that went wrong and for all I did wrong. I wept for a death to come for dogs still living because its inevitability made it as real as if it had already happened.

For what it's worth, he probably loved you - there's no accounting for taste (j/k) - and you permitted him those three months of doing what he loved: eating and being around you. :-)  

[sister dog A] has been having trouble breathing for a year now. It can't be very pleasant. But then she also has been really happy sometimes, all through that period. Could I deprive her of that? I feel miserable myself often enough, and yet I laugh at things in a day - should I give that up?

I met Lad only once.  For me, he was not only loveable, but instantly loveable.  That's how I remember him.  I'm glad I didn't have to go through what you went through.  But as i said at the beginning, I have indeed been through it.  There is no remedy.  

So I can't comment on Lad. I have no idea. But maybe second guessing yourself is always a losing proposition. Ask the expert! :-) 

if it's June, it must be time for ICAD ...

it's June 1, official kick-off day for the 2012 index-card-a-day project.  i participated last year and loved working on index cards.   somehow 3 x 5 white space is not nearly so daunting as a blank journal page!  for the 2011 project, i dug out my collection of watercolor pencils, dusted them off, and dove in.  i had a blast working with the w/c pencils, especially in my new w/c Strathmore Visual Journal.  you can't beat the fun of smushing color around on your page with your favorite waterbrush pen. 

my stash of fabulous blank index cards from Levenger's is sitting in the middle of the table, ready for my first brush strokes, pen strokes, pencil strokes of the 2012 ICAD season.  of course my colored pencils, pens, crayons, calligraphy pens are sitting there waving at me, going "me too, me too" ... 

this year i'll try to post some samples so that you can see what i'm creating as the summer progresses. 

let the games begin!!  oh, and feel free to join in the fun.  just sayin' .... 

** thanks to Tammy at DaisyYellow for kicking it off with the guidelines.  on, what else, an index card, lol 

if it's April, it must be International Fake Journal Month

funny how that rolls around again each year and manages to catch me off guard!

i had an idea for this year, but after exchanging some emails with Roz to clarify the ground rules, i realized that my idea was not really suited to the concept of a fake journal.  Roz suggested i tackle my concept during NaNoWriMo in November, so i may very well do that.

as of now, six days in, i'm still undecided if i'll actually participate this year.  last year i "armchair traveled" to Ireland, and that was great fun.  this year i'm low-energy and behind already on my writing classes, so i hesitate to take on another writing project.  but you never know.  stay tuned ;)

of paper and pens and such

so, we all know how addicted i am to blank notebooks, journals, pens, colored markers, Washi paper tapes, stickers, ephemera, and .... well, it's an endless list.  i'm nothing if not obsessive-compulsive anal-retentive, or as i fondly refer to myself ... OCAR.

today, i'm going to share some sites i particular enjoy.  let's call it Link Love, if you will.  my goal is to enable share with other addicts paper/pen lovers like myself.  i want to spread the addiction love ;)

here are the links, in no particular order of importance ....

(1)  penchant for paper's notebook system -- i just discovered this today thanks to a post over on another favorite, notebook stories.  i love the way Heather has organized her notebooks, although my personal philosophy is that consolidation is the best way to go because it presents a snapshot of your life in one place.

(2) it's almost April 1 and time for another round of International Fake Journal Month (IFJM), which is one of the reasons i check Roz Stendahl's blog regularly.  today she had a fun video about creating a journal with paper scraps.  check it out.

(3) speaking of IJFM, in my "journaling for memoir" class i'm taking, i wrote a list of things that i have nurtured me, including the fabulous new idea for this year's fake journal (last year was my fake trip to Ireland, or as my instructor Amber described it, my armchair travel).  Amber was intrigued, so i sent her links to Roz's IFJM site.  she found the concept really exciting and wrote her own posting about it.  check out Amber's IFJM post.

(4) always looking for the latest and greatest from Moleskine (let's all say it together now .... mol-a-skeen-a).  imagine my delight at discovering the latest new thing from Moleskine: postal notes.  think of it, little moleskine notebook thingies that you can write or draw or collage in and then send to someone else.  wouldn't you love to get one of those in the mail?  i know i would!  

(5) and just yesterday Rice Freeman-Zachery posted a link to her interview with Mark B Hill at Create Mixed Media.  check out his envelope project ... how fabulous is that?!  and yes, i sent my address to him in the hopes that one day, one of his fabulous envelopes will magically appear in my mailbox.  *grin*

i have hordes scads an endless supply of links to share, but i'll save those for another day.  maybe a rainy day, but there are so few of those here in the desert that it'll more than likely be a sunny day when next i post Link Love.

less is more ...

last august i concluded why have 1 when you can have 3. now i have 3 blogs sitting out in the blogosphere gathering dust instead of just 1. what's wrong with this picture? i'm rethinking this approach as a result of the blogging class i'm taking. well, ok, really i was already thinking about it and have been since i created the new blogs. you know, the old saw "do one thing and do it well", or "jack of all trades, master of none."

but Susannah's class has brought the idea back to the forefront of my lazy brain. i'm thinking to pull these other interests (artsy fartsy stuff and genealogy/memoir/family stuff) back to the mobytes home page, possibly as a link to another page, or maybe a tab. as i always say when i take too long to make a response bid in bridge, "thinking, thinking" ...

oh yeah, and i definitely to need to spruce up the "about me" bio ... the current version says next to nothing about who i am. i'll have to jazz it up, make me more interesting, lol ...

stay tuned for more exciting developments in the world of mo ;)

already in love ....

with the new blogging class, Blogging from the Heart, and we're only at day 3 of week 1!!! that says a LOT about how good Susannah is as an instructor, never mind all her other talents ;)

i'm glad to see i've at least got one of the cardinal rules well in hand: simplicity. simplicity of layout, of color, of content on the page (well, ok, that needs a spot of refinement, lol).

but just based on today's lesson alone, i have some minor changes ... tweaks as it were ... to implement that will make the page a bit more personal, a bit more reflective of me. by this weekend i hope to have them in place.

excitement abounds! at least for THIS blog geek.

new class .....

well, one of several online classes that i'm currently taking or that are about to start. but THIS one is "blogging from the heart" ... it's being offered by Susannah Conway, a wonderful photographer and instructor from the UK. can't wait to see what unfolds ;)

Susannah Conway

i did it!

and to think, those 51,921 words are but the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. lots more to write, and lots to edit and clarify. right now it's a huge mishmash of this 'n' that, or as jami puts it, "puking on the page" !! i prefer the more refined phrase: word dump ;-)

11/11/11

**

today is the date when three 11's align for the first time in a century. there's much ado on the internet about the significance of the numbers of this date, like the Mayan calendar and spiritual interpretations. i'm not going to write about it other than making this note of it. read here for some interesting factoids about 11/11/11.

November 11 also happens to be Veteran's Day, and PBS posted this blurb on Facebook today in honor of the day:

This Day in History: Today is Veteran's Day, also known as Armistice Day. On this day in 1918, on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," all fighting on the Western Front of World War I ceased. The Armistice Day agreement promised an end to fighting between the Allied powers and Germany.

American Experience's "War Letters" brings to life vivid letters from the front. Watch Lloyd, an American soldier writing to his mother, recount the emotions on the front on that historic day.

on another somber note: t-4 days until i am officially old .... wa-a-a-a-ah! :(

** thanks to imranhunzai.wordpress.com for the graphic *

it's NANO time!

it's November again and time for another month of NaNoWriMo! i had originally planned to work on the Harry story again. i'd even worked on character profiles and descriptions, site and layout information, etc. the weekend of oct 28-29 i was full prepared to continue with the pre-planning of that story. my friend jami had even given me "Ready, Set, Novel!", the new NaNo writer's workbook, as an early birthday gift to help get me going.

but then during that weekend i received an email and some tweets about memoir writing that got me really jazzed about returned to that genre. so, once again, i'll be working on my life story. i've done a prelim outline and made some chicken-scratching notes of things i want to be sure to include, memories of events that have been brought forward by some of my other writing. i dusted them off and cleared out the cobwebs. i even gathered up all my fabulous books about memoir writing and placed them right next to my desk so they're handy when i need to look something up or to get additional motivation.

and now i'm ready to put pen to paper, digitally-speaking.

i've been participating in NaNo since 2005, and only achieved the 50k mark once, in 2008. let's see what i can do this year. as always, if i make 50k it's icing on the cake. the important thing is that the whole NaNo project really pushes me to write, write, write. so however many words i manage to churn out is that many words more than if i don't participate at all. keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that i manage to sprint, or hurtle, or at least crawl across the finish line this year!

Steve Jobs RIP

Steve Jobs has been so much a part of our collective consciousness for so long that I think we all took it for granted that we would be able to continue ad infinitum to be entertained and fascinated with his seemingly endless ability to create new and advanced technological inventions. His death yesterday, October 5, 2011, has created a huge gaping hole in that consciousness.

the siren call of the library

ok, ok, i'll be the first to admit that i'm addicted to books. and that includes library books. about 4 years ago, in the middle of a project i was working on, i actually had 46 items checked out. 46!! normally i'll have a stack of 12-15 books at any given time. and don't ask me how i know it was 46, because then i'd have to explain my obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive record keeping, and that's another topic for another day.

at the beginning of 2011, i decided to return everything and start all over again, so for a brief moment in time i actually had ZERO library books checked out. that brief moment in time lasted all of a millisecond, because i was also picking up several books from the "Hold" shelf.

yesterday i returned 7 books, which the library staff processed today. so now, for a whole day, a whole 24 hours, i only have 1 book checked out. i'm so proud of myself *grin*

tomorrow i will return to the library to pick up more "holds" and the vicious cycle will start anew.

why have 1 when you can have 3?

no, no, i'm not talking about candy or cookies, i'm talking blogs. not that i'm staying current with the one blog i already have, but ....

i just created two new blogs, which i'll add to the sidebar for easy reference. one is for my riley family posts and one will be for mo's art stuff, like journal pages and index cards.

that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

words to live by

today's post on Daisy Yellow really struck a chord with me. i need to push away from the keyboard and work on my art journal or my doodle camp journal or my index-card-a-day project or my camp nano writing project or my [fill in the blank] ....

i spend WAY too much time online, it's an addiction! now, how to break the ugly cycle?

fabulous surprise in today's mail

a couple of weeks ago i ordered the latest "zine" from an artist in the UK whose sketchblog i read regularly. her name is Andrea Joseph, and you can find her blog here. be sure to also check out her "book on a blog" about the woodland folk, as well as her Etsy shop. i have all her earlier zines, too, and i've given several as gifts. everyone just loves them.

anyway, the package arrived today, yeay! notice that the mailer has "Royal Mail" stamped on it! that's probably as close as i'll get to the royal wedding. PLUS my copy was #5 of a limited edition of 75. the zine itself was inside a lovely envelope lined in rich, dark green, and included a charming handwritten note and a special acorn gift tag direct from the woodland folk. now i feel really special.

Andrea's attention to detail is just awe-inspiring, and the fact that she does 99.9% of it with ballpoint pens just adds to the inspiration and creativity. check out some of the illustrations on her blog; many of my personal favorites can be found on Andrea's Flickr page. just click on "your faves" in the right hand column. her illustrations just draw you in, you can't help it. and you'll be gobsmacked and delighted, all at the same time, i promise.

all of Andrea's designs are copyrighted, so please do not reproduce without permission. as she said in her latest zine, "You really wouldn't want to face the wrath of an angry pixie. Believe me."