shop update

dusting ye olde blog off.....soon I will be posting some book reviews and other assorted goodness. For now though just a few quick things that are new in my shop, new postcards, new bookmarks, and bookplates.

I am very excited about these.

♥
Jenn

Are You There Blog...it's me, Margaret?

Hello all....

so anyone know what my blog title is a reference to, or am I showing my age in a really horrible way.

anyway, I know I have been missing in action but I swear to you all....I've been working on something that was taking a chunk of time.

It has long been a dream of mine to self publish a small book of selected poems and art to accompany it....the problem being....I am petrified to show my poetry to anyone.

it was a conundrum

now, I know....I know when I am scared of something that means it is something I really need to do.

so, as of right now, my first small collection of Poetry is available in my shop, it is called "Words & Pictures" and I hope you like it very much.

phew...ok, it's scary even blogging about it.

anyway...I have more exciting news that I will be posting about tomorrow and the new Petite Heights strip will be posted later today as well.

xoxoxo
jenn

(pictures are some of the pages from the book)

Book Love

Morning!

ok first...an update on Scribble, he is doing much better, he's a trooper so I knew he would be fine, it's just going through the cycle.

For those who expressed concern and asked why the poor puppy was always sick, well the answer is IBS, yup...just like a nervous little person might get. We just have to be very careful, as he is small and things can go from bad to worse, awful quick. We do the best we can to make sure it does not happen, he never gets new food, no people food ever, and the only treats are special "easy on the stomach" treats.

But, nevertheless, he's a dog and he will lick the ground and eat dirt occasionally, so bad things happen. Also if he gets very upset, like the other day on a walk he came face to face with his first "mean dog" in this case it was a giant barking thing, chained up outside the neighbors house. You see we share a big looping driveway and we were walking up the path and the dog darted out from behind the house and "came after" Scribble.

My little puppy love was safe, but PETRIFIED. I had never seem him like that.

It was both funny and sad to see him bolt back down the path the way we came, pulling me on the leash behind him.

So...that's the story on Scribble, he's good...but neurotic. Sort of like me.

Now on to my latest treasure...As you know I am a bookish sort of girl, and I have to say if I was only allowed to buy one type of thing for the rest of my life (besides art supplies) it would have to be books....yup, they even beat out fashion.

Crazy, I know.

Shortly after moving to our house and out of the ghetto, my bubs and I were wandering the new town when we stumbled upon what could possibly be, the bookstore of my dreams, the kind I always pretended I owned when I was little and would spend hours playing "bookstore". The shop, quite simply called "The Little Bookstore" is up a cobblestone street and resides in an old house, with a beautiful slate roof. Run by and elderly man, the place is filled with books and other vintage posters and whatnot.

I could spend hours there.

A couple months ago when going through the children's books I found the most beautiful book I had seen in ages, "The Royal Book Of Ballet", printed in Italy the book is basically a fairy tale book, telling the stories of the great ballets, Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty.

The illustrations were like peaking into dreams I wish I could have.

just stunning.

But, being a very starving artist, buy the book was just not really an option. It has been in my head ever since. So the other day was the 2 month anniversary of our wedding, and my bubs and I ventured into town for ice cream and books, and my dear bubs bought it for me.

It's mine now, and I could just die. Isn't it dreamy??

Is this it? Is it over??

So all you other online artsy types...is the Christmas rush over???? The past couple days there have been actual tumbleweed blowing through my shop.....I am afraid the rush is over and it's still a good 9 days before the shipping cut off date for Priority Mail in the United States....

hmmmm.

ok sorry I am wondering out loud again, and by wondering out loud, I mean worrying out loud.

So, how are you all?? Are you good? All busy preparing Holiday good cheer???

Oh, the other night my bubs and I went gallivanting in town and we stumbled into a bookshop that we had never been in, I swear the bookstores in Westerville keep multiplying (it's fabby) and I swear it was like a little wonderland, my bubs found an old copy of a Lone Ranger novel, I left with an Amelia Earhart bio.

But let me tell you, the place was a treasure trove the walls filled with vintage lovelies for sale....I almost left with an autographed photo of Merle Oberon (she starred in Wutherng Heights with Lawrence Olivier), anyway....we have to go back, because at the time we were being the customers from hell...you see the store was closing and here we are gasping and squealing over the books.

I need to go back because they had a splendid almost falling apart collection of Hans Christian Anderson Fairy tales complete with illustrations including one of The Little Mermaid killing herself....yup the good old days before Disney convinced little girls that the prince loves her and they live happily ever after....call me crazy but I like it when the stories are a tad darker....

anyway so that is really all I have been thinking about, books and reading, books and reading, why oh why can I not be paid to curl up and read books, I mean I don;t want to review them or anything just read them and maybe tell all of you how dreamy or not dreamy they are.

I guess that's kind of a review.

for example, the last book I read was The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (finished it 2 days ago) it was dreamy.

there, review done.

read, for serious you will love it.

one last thing before I stop blah blahing (see I am putting it off I swore I would draw today, actually I swore I would draw yesterday but I put it off) the picture today is of a new set of prints I have in my shop, they are very different than my "normal" pieces and are digital collages I did in an old Victorian silhouette style.

hope you enjoy.

The Perfect Day Off Goes Somehting Like This

Happy Thursday

So, my bubs had yesterday off from work so we decided to have a "real" day off...we decided to walk into Westerville and roam around the book stores and the antique shops. It was bliss, knowing we did not have to be anywhere or do anything, just walk and roam...

It started with a visit to the "nice" post office where everyone is friendly and they help you, also when there is a long line people don't start stealing stuff off the walls, like at the post office I usually go to.

Then we headed to a wonderful little used book place called "The Book Manor", now you need time to go through the book manor as it really does not appear to be in any kind of order, sure there are "sections" but those seem vague and there are books piled everywhere. I scored a good vintage Nancy Drew (I opted for The Haunted Bridge, rather than the Haunted Showboat)...then we wandered to an antique shop and then decided to have lunch.

We decided on The Old Bag Of Nails pub, because we have gone there for drinks a lot and the atmosphere is great....though much to my chagrin the menu reads like a vegetarians worst nightmare....there was nothing for me to eat.

Needless to say I ended up eating a plate of mozzarella sticks, I could have gone for a salad but you know me and the cheese.

now.....after the meal we wandered a bit more and actually made our way over to an establishment that I have been meaning to check out....now I don;t want to say the name, as I'm positive the owner "googles himself" an awful lot...and that's not all he does to himself I'm sure.

So anyway, I will just say that this is a theme bookstore...right when we walk in I am at once overwhelmed with the smell of cat. You know that mix of pee and funk that happens when there is a cat in a small space.

Yet...............the space was huge it being inside an old Victorian house. But why? Why would a bookstore smell like cat, so of course I don't edit my brain monologue and say out loud, "it smells like cat", and when I turn the corner I see....that there is a GIANT cat laying on the front counter almost hiding the GIANT man who was click clacking on the inter web right behind it.

ugh, it was not a pleasant site...now I really don;t have anything against cats at all, other than being deathly allergic to them, but why??? Why would you have a cat in a store....and why would a big building smell like cat pee so much.

I wander a bit as does my bubs, the place seems cool, but the kitty stink is overwhelming. The carpet is covered in cat hair, there are tumbleweed size cat clumps everywhere....and that's when we see it, a separate wing of the shop devoted to cats...a cat gift shop...and that room...the carpet looked white with cat clumps.

ugh, by then my throat is closing and I am fearing that we will need to rush me to the hospital, so I bolt from the cat haven, bubs on my tail (note the pun), then we are back into daylight and the normal world.

I turn to my bubs and say, I bet he lets his cat just pee all over him, and my bubs agrees and mumbles something about the man loving it...

it's all bad, it's awful.

From there we went in to a couple more places and then headed home to drop off goodies and then head out again to get ice cream so we could have a sitting on the front porch date together. I usually refer to them as "swing dates" but I was afraid if I wrote that you would all get the wrong idea.

So there you have it, a single day.

the photos today are of two collages I have done, based on the Romeo and Juliet ballet, they are listed separately in my shop but they look wonderful together.

OK, enough cat blabber for today....catch you all tomorrow.

xoxo

PS- yesterday I ate cookies for breakfast, then had cheese sticks for lunch, then had some root beer and then more ice cream with a cookie (as a garnish) last night....yeah, as you see there was no "dinner" on that list, nor anything healthy so I must drag my butt over to the exercise bike for a bit.

On a dark and rainy Thursday...

oh I know....how very droll, I have a title that discusses the weather...are you wondering if I have run out of things to say...

well the answer dear ones is...no.

It is just one of those sleep in days, you know...it's rainy, and very dark frankly it still looks like night and there are no hopes of seeing any sunlight today.

It looks like Mordor (little shout out to all those Lord Of the Rings Fans out there....our "Ringers" in geek lingo).

OK so this is what is going on in my head, I am thinking I should not work today, as it is too dark, bad light equals bad art, right?

I should very well spend the day reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" (which is beyon words good) and watching my movie bubs in "The Village".

right? That is what I should be doing, at the very least maybe start packing up my book cases before the mean cheese arrives tomorrow.

I was going to do a fantastic Zine review today, but I am thinking I will do that next week sometime.

right now....crazy mid west weather is pounding down on us, and the thunder is rolling in, strange as it has been cool here the pas few days, but this air, this sky, this very moment in time is down right tropical.

Oh....and before I forget.....Happy Birthday Karen Beth!!!!!

(throws imaginary confetti in the air and blows one of those annoying birthday party noisemakers...in my brain it's Transformers themed)

please, please, go on over to her blog, or her etsy shop and shower her with birthday wishes!!!

Love you Karen Beth!!!

ok, now thunder is beginning to roll in....and I am getting off the computer before we lose power.

The piece today is up in my etsy shop!! It's called "Now I break Into Pieces"

don;t forget my sale, Just write summer07 and wait for an invoice, receive 20% off items in my shop and 30% off sale items.

xoxo

So Much...Just so, so much

wow...I fear this will be epic, or maybe not...but I feel like this morning I have a lot say so please don't judge me too harshly if I switch up subjects like crazy, crazy, crazy...

• Thank you to everyone that read the first ever Petite Heights Sunday strip....there are loads more to come, and we are hoping that perhaps sometime after Fall and Winter that Petite Heights might be come a daily strip. If you missed the comic you can read it here or here.

• Petite Heights Contest............that's right you heard it here first..my bubs and I need a Petite Heights logo, we also need a nice little graphic for the credits. So, this is what I am asking...I want one of you to design it, it does not have to be fancy, it could even just be a wonderful typeset. The winner will become a character in the comic (well you as a child) and will be featured in one of the upcoming holiday strips, you get to pick the holiday!! You will also get to keep the original comic art as well!! How cool is that??? Well, I think it's pretty cool. I know most of you are pretty creative so get to creating. I will give you until next Monday...if you have any questions let me know.

• The new house....in our stalker rounds this weekend we drove by the house again to chat with the landlords who are gutting and redoing the place...not only in the front porch and front of the house re-painted....but, there is going to be a porch swing installed....OMG!!! Can you believe it,I can see me know, sipping whiskey drinks and sitting on the swing, a little piece of heaven attached to my house.

• During our weekend adventures we ended up at the used book store a block from the new house, and I treated myself to a couple new books, one being....(drum roll please) The Time Traveler's Wife, which I know so many of you have told me I need to read, well, it was there staring me in the face, and I bought it. I was up a bit late last night reading too, and it is wonderful. Also purchased at the bookstore was French in 10 Minutes A Day, I would really love to be able to speak French, I took it in school when I was little and hated it, but lately it has become important to me to learn it. Maybe it is because I am getting older, and I am thinking about my heritage, and my Mom, and the fact that she spoke French the majority of my life and hers...she now speaks only English, but growing up when she and her friends would talk it was always in French...and it was always a mystery.

• Yesterday we went to a comic show in the morning where I got a few dreadful old Gothic romance paperbacks...basically I got them because the covers were ridiculous and beautiful at the same time....and I could not resist, picture women with beautiful long hair, and crazy old houses (always up on a hill) and dark and moody skies...perfection.

So, as you can see...I have been busy, though as you can also see....I have not mentioned packing, oh that's right, I have not been packing at all (that is a lie, I packed my purses and shoes the other night), so I still have a lot, a whole lot to do...but I work well under pressure so I am not really going to sweat it, not yet.

So, how were your weekends....has everyone been busy reading Harry Potter??? Nothing against the little wizard but I never got into the books, again I blame my no good ex husband for that (he was obsessed) also the fact that a comic by the name of Books of Magic which came out years before anything Harry Potter related, does have quite a similar character set up, and Harry looks just like the lead character in those comics, and they were HUGE in England as they were written by Neil Gaiman....but I digress, I have nothing against Harry Potter, but I would like it if someone...ANYONE would send me an email and tell me if Hermione and Ron end up "getting together" at the end....seriously, are they, are they not....it's all I care about.

one last announcement kind of thing before I bid you a very fond adieu (FRENCH!!)

Don't forget the sale I am having in my etsy shop, 30% off Sale Items and 20% off the rest of my" shop, please write "SUMMER07" in the message to seller section and I will send you a new invoice!!

until then....enjoy some of the new pieces I have done.

xoxo
jenn

Book OCD

Good morning campers...

yes, I have just decided as I type this that I am going to pretend that this is summer camp (in my brain), I never went to summer camp but always wanted to....I had these sill fantasies of becoming best friends with my bunk mates, and during a dance with the boys camp across the lake (because you know there is always a boys camp across the lake) I would have my first kiss.

None of it happened...but right now for some reason I wish I had some camp stories to tell...well ones that happened to me, not the girls in the original "Parent Trap" movie.

wow...I have just begun to write and all ready I am all over the place.

First, I really need to thank you all for putting up with the "cock talk" of yesterday, really it means a lot, and I am glad you all loved (and were haunted by) the term "flailing cock" as much as you were...sadly my bubs and I actually use that phrase more that we probably should...we're grownups after all...we should start talking proper...like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

So....the drowsy summer is beginning to really set in for me....sales have slowed completely in the past two weeks and all I want to do is read...

as you know I have been on a total historical fiction bender as of late, and I actually just finished The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, which was beautiful....after that I moved onto The Clue in the Crumbling Wall....it's a Nancy Drew book I got at the used book store down the street, it is the same vintage of the ones I read when I was a kid...so it was amazing to re-read the book...it's so adorable, and really I forgot how many times during mystery solving that Nancy quite literally takes a break to eat cookies or a cake.

I have decided to collect all the Nancy Drew books, but they have to be the vintage of my childhood books...I already have managed on Ebay to score a bunch of them....I will be getting one duplicate book though so if any of you want it...just let me know, if there is a demand I will will give it away raffle style.

You see...I am a book person, well, strike that...I am a reader, completely voracious, and for a few years when we had the comic shop I had no time to just sit and read to my hearts content...but now I have a bit more time...and I love it, nothing gives me more joy than falling into a world or words.

So in honor of that, I made this piece called "I Am Too Shy", it is available in my etsy shop....I can just imagine in a library or above a bookcase or even in a little girls room...

books are dreamy...

ok, enough of that....tomorrow is letters to celebrities day but...it is also the 4th of July so I amd not sure if I am going to bother with a letter or not....I am assuming that many of you will actually be out and about enjoying a day off...I am planning on sleeping in with my bubs and then going to see the Transformers movie with our friend Clemencia....and Clem....if you are reading this, bring cookies, I am already starving.

Happy 4th of July everyone....or as I like to call it in my neighborhood..."Wait was that a firework or a gunshot" day.

xoxoxo
jenn

I am so not a morning person

argh.

blech

yuck

you know, I really don;t like the morning time, I know I know, it's beautiful and all that, and I really should love the freshness and beauty of it all, but this morning (hell, all mornings) I don't.

This morning especially, as I stayed up too late reading my new book, so I was feeling extra groggy this morning. My bubs is a morning person, so this morning he was in bed a little longer than usual as he did not have to be at the restaurant until 8:00...he was being awfully chatty.

Don;t get me wrong, it's adorable, but you see, I was having this dream that I was an eccentric old lady living in a hotel, I was wearing a Chanel suit and there were lots of people around...it was both creepy and delicious.

My bubs must have thought I was awake because he started to talk to me about a bunch of stuff, mainly I just whimpered and grunted my way though the majority of the conversation, but I did get fixated on a few things he was saying...one being that a friend of his was getting rid of his button making machine.w..my little ears perked up...until he told me that he was probably going to give it to someone else....now I am thinking only of buttons, and how much I want a machine...

Damn It!!!! I am beelining into button machine OCD and I don't have the money for one, why can't there be a button machine fairy that I could send cakes to in order to get a machine. I would make the best buttons, I could have a series of fashiony ones with the models looking all cracked out, I could have a series of vintage ladies, of paintings, of shoes...you see it would be wonderful.

ok moving on.

Yesterday I listed a bunch of new pieces in my shop, including a series of miniature collages, they are all 4x4 inches and ship with a cute little acrylic stand so you can display them at once, they are perfect for a desk or shelf. I have them all grouped together in my work space and they look like a little army of eye candy.

I also listed a new set of blocks titled "I Waited A Year For You To Return" .

I love making blocks, so very much, I am so glad that my friend Lula convinced me to do them. Today I have some fun and not so fun work ahead of me...not so fun being selling some old stuff left over from the shop (comics) on Ebay, and fun stuff meaning finishing up a couple new pendants as well as a larger collage that I am just aching over...really I am very proud of it.

ok, enough enough...must get to work..I alsomuct think of my celebrity to write to tomorrow.

until then.

xoxox

A Post about a book, a shop, a purse, and a good mail day

Good Morning people!!

ok, be warned, this post might be all sorts of all over the place today, I've got a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of attention span on my part to do it...

so hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride (said in my best/worst Bette Davis, All About Eve impersonation).

First, let's get back to two days ago...thank you all for the lovely book suggestions, I am convinced that the Time Travelers Wife will be a good choice.

So, my bubs and I had a spare 45 minutes we decided to go to the new, Used Book Megastore that has opened less that 5 minutes from our apartment.

Half Priced Books, is sort of the Barnes and Noble of Used places....complete with "comfy" chairs and a coffee pot...it's not Starbucks people, but they do try.

so anyway, we went to the new location and I was armed with my list...I have to say as they are still new that the store was overall...wonderful, with a great fashion section....but alas I was on a mission. To get a new novel.

I head over to the fiction/literature section with list in hand and.......IT'S TEENY!!!!!

One long shelf front and back, but some of the books that were classified as literature...cough...Danielle Steele...cough, really belong in the romance section.

I look through everything and find.....NOT ONE BOOK on my list, they did not even have a fall back choice of another Patricia Gregory book so I could continue with my Royal Court OCD.

I did notice they had a few Tracey Chevalier books, and I did love her book The Girl With The Pearl Earring so much, that I decided on Falling Angels....

On the way out, I noticed that they did have an over abundance of a book called "The History of Farting".

What?

I could not evn open it....and really can't imagine that a subject matter such as, would warrant a book.....but who am I to judge.

right?

(ok now we jump forward in time)

So that night when I am about to go to sleep and curl up to read my new book, I am about two pages in and I think to myself, wow...this is good, it reminds me of a book I read where two little girls play with the gravediggers son in the cemetary...

(I turn the page)

enter the grave diggers son.

I've already read this damn book.

fuck!!!!!

(now we move ahead in time again)

so last night while out and about, I find myself in conversation with someone from the Half Price Books Dynasty, I tell him of my shock and horror over The History of Farting....he tells me that book is the highest selling book at all of their locations, that the book store as a whole bought the rights to that book, and have made a virtual fortune from it.

(sigh)

Yet one more reason to hate Ohio...

(ok, now we are going back in time)

My Purse Saga....

ok so the other day I got it in my head that I needed a new purse, so I went a browsing through etsy to find the perfect lovely thing to be the replacement for my Prada for the summer, the only catch....I am painfully broke and in debt up to my eye balls.

so when I found this

I fell in love, I sent a message to the shop owner Ellene McClay, to ask if she would consider trading, and I was lucky enough that she said yes!!!!

You must go to her shop Deciduoussoul

everything in it is wonderful, wonderful!!!!!

ok, now on to the celeb letters of yesterday, I just have to thank you all for playing along in my fantasy world, I really love reading the letters, they give me such joy....plus I think we really broke new ground yesterday, we had some nice angry letters, plus our first ever letter to a fictional character.

good job!!

I have decided that sometime over the summer I am going to self publish a book/zine, a compilation of the best of the letters, it will be like the Post Secret books, except instead of deeply emotional and honest, well it will be vapid and hilarious.

The other day I also got some wonderful, wonderful mail....Not only did I get two fashion magazines, W and Harpers Bazaar but I also got an amazing present in the mail from the lovely and talented Jody. You may be familiar with her shop or her blog....I stalk both on a regular basis.

Well she sent me a documentary about Gia, no not the movie starring my favorite person ever, Angelina Jolie....but an actual documentary.

How hot is that?

I will watch it today while I do a bunch of stuff that is not fun, such as laundry, packaging things, and what not.

I really wish I could get an unpaid intern to do my packaging and stuff for me, that way I would be free to paint all day.

Because I am really enjoying what I am doing lately, check out my latest piece, it is not in my etsy shop yet,but later today it will be. It is called "I Never Spoke About You"

I am also listing several art cards, all about my latest obsessions, a Gia card, a Boleyn card, a NYC card, and a vintage lady card.

so excited.

ok, you have read enough of my babble for now, I probably should have saved some of this for tomorrow's post when I will no doubt have nothing to write about.

xoxo

* * *

good morning...

uh oh....this does not bode well, when I went to type a cute title for this morning's post...I had nothing, total and complete writers block.

apologies in advance if this goes astray somewhere.

So yesterday I wrote too soon about how well I was feeling because no sooner than I was done typing when I got very sick again, though by about 11 or 12 I was feeling better and was able to work all day!!

That was the first day that I was able to work all day, no time to lie down and read, just work, work all day.

It was also the first days I did not have any kind of creative block, in fact there was not enough time to do all I wanted to do.

So, though I have writers block thins morning, I seem to be over (knock wood) my creative block.

I stayed up to the wee hours last night finishing "The Other Boleyn Girl" and I am still very much caught in its spell...I need a new book, and quick.

I am hoping my bubs and I will be able to head out later to find something for me...we have a zillion things to do, none of which are fun, all of which involve going to places we hate (Post Office...Bank...grocery store).

So please, let the book suggestions come rolling in!! I will tell you honestly that I am leaning towards just getting another of Patricia Gregory's books, because I am totally enthralled with the whole "court" books, and I am thinking that I might need to read her book about Elizabeth I...though I would really like to read about Marie Antionette too, so here's your chance...load me up with suggestions.

also please take into consideration that I will be going to a used book store to buy the book, so nothing that just came out please.

I know two people told me to get The Time Travelers Wife, but I will be honest...when I saw the word time travel...I was really put off, I know , I know...I shouldn't be.

OK book guidelines...

NO science fiction
NO fantasy (though I do like King Arthur kinds of things)
NO romance
NO bad Horror (Dean Koontz and Steven King I am talking to you)
NO books that could be made into Lifetime movies...so no women getting beat by their hubby's then finding strength to move on...
NO HARRY POTTER (I am not dissing the potter, but I just don't want it)

I do like historical fiction especially things that are "class dramas", I am fascinated with all of that.

I also like books about the fashion industry (duh).

Oh, and speaking of "class" I am thinking of retiring my Prada Purse for the summer, yes, I know it's a shock to me too...but I am leaning towards getting something hand made at etsy, though I have no money....so I believe that I might offer up original artwork as a trade for a cute bag.

If that doesn't work, I will sell my soul for an adorable purse.

so yesterday I spent most of the day working on the piece I have shown here...this was just a quick photo of it I took last night, it is listed in my etsy shop . It is called "Lavinia".

I sketched out the idea before I started but as I was doing it I was feeling really good about it, proud of the fact that it was different than what I have been doing lately, it feels good to be trying something new, though when I was making it all I could think was "what if people hate it", I usually don;t think things like that, I did show this piece to darling Aimee last night and she gave it a wonderful response so I am feeling better about it now.

ok, tomorrow we are writing to celebrities, so get your thinking caps on my lovelies.

until then, a million kisses and a million hugs.