In the works ...

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I've been collecting stuff for junque robots for years. I am getting it all out making what I want and getting rid of whatever stuff is left. Rosie, on the right I made maybe 3 years ago. Betty on the left is new. Almost done, she may get a base. Harold is about half done. All very, very different. Hoping to do one a week. I'll share more as I go on.

 

I want to design fabric. Am going to start by making some tea towels using elements from Wilderness Doodles. And then doing a collection of fabric. To warm up and work my way through the technical part I made some recipe tea towels using some of Mom's recipes. I created 4-up art using Spoonflower's linen tea towel fabric. I was extremely pleased with both the quality of the fabric as well as the printing. I will still need to hem and press these. But what a wonderful keepsake with a loved one's handwriting. Here is a how-to link from Spoonflower.

 

While I work I watch movies or listen to books on tape. This is the genre we listen to in the car. And I am finishing it as I work. I was really surprised that Hugh Laurie can write.

British actor and comedian Hugh Laurie's first book is a spot-on spy spoof about hapless ex-soldier Thomas Lang, who is drawn unwittingly and unwillingly into the center of a dangerous James Bond-like plot of international terrorists, arms dealing, high-tech weapons, and CIA spooks.You may recall having seen Laurie in the English television series Jeeves and Wooster; Laurie played Bertie Wooster, the clutzy hero of the P.G.Wodehouse comic novels that originated those characters. The lineage from Wodehouse's Wooster to Laurie's Lang is clear, and, if you like Wodehouse, you'll probably love The Gun Seller.

Did you ever wonder what House did before he became a doctor or even a TV doctor? Well clearly he was Thomas Lang, rumpled former officer in the Scots Guards, counter-terrorist operative and gentle, chain smoking tough guy. The book's dialogue oozes the cutting wit and self-deprecating self-awareness, self-destructiveness and self-centeredness of the good doctor in the TV series. Presciently, Thomas spends the last quarter of the book speaking with a vaguely Minnesotan accent in order to persuade a bunch of terrorists-for-hire that he is one of them. I cannot tell whether I am reading House into the pre-Housian novel or Hugh Laurie has successfully embedded his novel's dialogue into the television scripts. There is also more than a smidgen of Black Adder and Monty Python floating about. It is all highly amusing. As suggested by the dust jacket art, the book is really a graphic novel without the pictures. With plenty of action, clichés, beautiful women and rather unpleasantly evil bad guys, the plot manically twists, jumps and leaps. The abiding persona of Hugh Laurie, aka Gregory House and aka Thomas Lang holds it together. - Scribd

A little mid Century spiff....

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We got a lot done this year on our condo. Re stained the deck, new faucets,  re grouted the shower, new plants in the flower bed. By we, I mean John. I provide moral support and lunch.

 

I am still dealing with knee problems and we have almost no comfortable furniture. So it was time. Poor John, when I make a major purchase we look at things in multiple stores in multiple cities in multiple states. While we were at a local store where I was buying a new Polywood Adirondack chair that fit me John, also known as Scout on these shopping missions, headed back to the clearance corner and texted me this lime set. Needing both main floor and man cave furniture we got this. While I was really thinking about gray or black those mid Century lines totally sold me. Bonus, total time shopping for furniture less than half an hour. Go Scout!

 

I love mid-Century furniture. I like the lines and the small scale. It works here. To tie the blue chairs with the new green furniture John painted the wall behind the painting lime green. I am not allowed to paint anything. There was an incident in another town with a red wall, but that's a story for another time.

 

I do love these Bertoia Diamond Chairs. They are vintage. And were my friend Nita's. Too make our small space look bigger I use dainty legs and as much see through furniture as possible.

 

I can't decide if I ended up with a Barbie Dream House Living Room or a Mad Men Cocktail Lounge. Either way it is fun and fresh and a colorful update.

 

A true Supper Club experience...

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Last month, for our Anniversary we decided to take a little top-down Miata ride to Ishnala for dinner. For some reason I was in a Supper Club kind of mood. And it did not disappoint.

We pulled in and parked under the dense pine trees and wandered around while being serenaded by Frank, Dean and Sammy.

Just minutes from Wisconsin Dells and located in the middle of the beautiful Mirror Lake State Park, you wind through hundreds of acres of meadow and forest to arrive on the shore of tranquil Mirror Lake.
 

I toasted my dearly departed Mom and Dad with their favorite drink. Dad made the best. And this one tasted just like his.

The whole kitschy supper club experience was authentic down to the great steak and salad. Ishnala has been in business for 63 years. It really did feel like we went back in time. I heartily recommend it.

Reading & Watching....

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I've been watching a lot of movies as I finished up Wilderness Doodles.

Bill Cunningham recently passed away at 87. He was a NYTimes Fashion photographer. Watch his documentary. He was so interesting. RIP Bill. Here here is his obit.

Another great is Iris Apfel. She is the grand dame of style. You can watch her documentary on Netflix streaming.

Here is some light and fun Summer reading choices for you.

A sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the page-turning spirit of Where’d You Go, Bernadette.

Reclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she’s flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies—with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane.

When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away—as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.

As she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank’s father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation—and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.

Full of heart and countless “only-in-Hollywood” moments, Be Frank with Me is a captivating and unconventional story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world. - Harper Colins

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Fredrik Backman’s novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review). Simon and Schuster

Sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal…
A murder…a tragic accident…or just parents behaving badly?  
What’s indisputable is that someone is dead. But who did what?

Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.

New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. Penguin Random House

Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbs' joint trust fund, “The Nest,” which they are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.

Melody, a wife and mother in an upscale suburb, has an unwieldy mortgage and looming college tuition for her twin teenage daughters. Jack, an antiques dealer, has secretly borrowed against the beach cottage he shares with his husband, Walker, to keep his store open. And Bea, a once-promising short-story writer, just can’t seem to finish her overdue novel. Can Leo rescue his siblings and, by extension, the people they love? Or will everyone need to reimagine the futures they’ve envisioned? Brought together as never before, Leo, Melody, Jack, and Beatrice must grapple with old resentments, present-day truths, and the significant emotional and financial toll of the accident, as well as finally acknowledge the choices they have made in their own lives.

This is a story about the power of family, the possibilities of friendship, the ways we depend upon one another and the ways we let one another down. In this tender, entertaining, and deftly written debut, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney brings a remarkable cast of characters to life to illuminate what money does to relationships, what happens to our ambitions over the course of time, and the fraught yet unbreakable ties we share with those we love. - Google

That is what I am reading and watching, anything good you have to share?

NEW! Wilderness Doodles!

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Inspired by a trip to Alaska, here is Wilderness Doodles. A collection of 30 illustrations of water, trees and mountains. Silhouettes of animals and other outdoorsy Northwoods camping items.

I've had someone ask, but Rae what do I DO with these cute little drawings? Well, I'll show you. This font really has a lot of uses. It does help if you use a program like Illustrator and know how to enlarge the font by choosing a larger point size. But I'll assume you have that working knowledge.

This one is even easier. Make a colored square. Enlarge the bear and color him. Using a digital brush create some white area over the bear’s face and shadow. Send that back, so it is behind the bear. Add and colorize the copy. I used Plz Print Bold Condensed in all caps. Seems to go with the bear and had a bit of a birthday party feel.

OK, one more.

How easy was that? Just color the graphic and add some copy.

It you made it this far you should get a medal. But you also might be interested in buying Wilderness Doodles. You can buy it here and it is 25% off. Have fun creating some wonderful wilderness graphics!

Watermelon = Summertime

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Everyone loves watermelon. But often it is messy, especially at an outdoor party. Here is your solution.

We've taken this to two parties and it gets eaten down to almost the last watermelon slice. It is perfect outdoor finger food.

You need... one watermelon, one low bowl. (I use a pasta bowl) and one cereal bowl.

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Turn your cereal bowl upside down in the middle of the pasta bowl. Cut the end of the watermelon off. Use that to cover up the bowl.

Cut the watermelon into watermelon slices as shown and arrange them in rows around the small bowl. Easy peasy. We all know it is all about presentation.