Rayen

One of my creative pleasures is using a card deck for writing inspiration. Back in the day I reviewed quite a few that were created for just such a purpose, and even gave a talk about how to use them to get ideas for stories at a conference. I was intrigued when I saw the In Dreams storytelling card deck by Jamie Thul and Mike Berg on Amazon, especially as it was billed as "slightly surreal". I decided to invest in a deck to see how it worked. The deck comes in a gorgeous case, and has a little booklet of instructions on how to use the cards. There are 36 prompt cards and 18 event cards. You draw a total of eight prompt cards to determine the main character of your idea, creating them out of the prompts in the booklet and on the prompt cards. My character draw produced this: "I am from far away, and am lost, and before this dream ends I must return to another dreamer." You then draw up to 2 to 4 prompt cards to generate an encounter, which is a...

Because I have an urge to paint again I put in a bid on this lot of art supplies. Alas, I was quickly outbid and the lot went to the winner for $34.00. This 20 journal lot I bid on was to cover and make gifts. In the last few hours another bid came in, and they got it for $11.00. This little quilt has the most charming primitive applique work, and I would have loved to add it to my collection. Unfortunately I was quickly outbid, and war ensued, and the winner got it for a whopping $76.00. As always not winning any of the lots isn't a problem; I'd rather stick to my maximum than overpay. There's always a next time, too.

My guy took me to Cocoa Village again to visit -- here are my pics from that day .

After brooding for a week about the May tote for my calendar project, I got started by disassembling the black canvas bag I'm using as the foundation. I then spread it out on my cutting mat and arranged the vintage embroidered crazy quilt fragments and the heron block on it until I got the look I wanted. This will be the front side. This will be the back (I may rearrange the fragments one more time.) To give you an idea of how I'm going to put this tote together, here's a box top I embellished with a damaged vintage crazy quilt piece. I created the top by sewing the piece to some backing and batting, covered the patchwork damage with some lace, added embroidery to the places where the original needlework had worn away, and then quilted it with beads and added an old dragonfly brooch.

Although I'd never recommend Val McDermid for the faint of heart, the author is one of the best crime fiction writers on the market. It was a no brainer to pick up A Distant Echo , and while it's become a bit dated since its publication twenty-two years ago, it still kept me absorbed right up to the end. The novel is told in two timelines. First 1978, when the body of a young barmaid is discovered by four uni students in a Scottish cemetery. The only suspects in her brutal murder end up being the four boys who found her, and they all suffer greatly because of the incompetence of the police and the viciousness of the barmaid's brothers. All of them are changed forever by the incident. No one is ever charged with the murder. The second timeline is 25 years later, when the murder is reopened as a cold case. The four uni students are now grown men with careers and families; one has a pregnant wife. When two of them are murdered, it seems like the past has finally cau...

I want to say upfront that watching the Chinese historical romance drama Pursuit of Jade can become very addicting, and by the time you reach the final episode you'll wonder if you just spent a couple of years in the past watching all the fascinating characters play out their equally absorbing storylines. This series has become notorious for several reasons, including one of the most justifiably admired, show-stealing antagonists ever (my hat is off to Deng Kai, the actor who played the role, but we'll get to him shortly.) This story sprawls in different directions, but it basically follows the romance between Fan Changyu (Tian Xiwei), a female pig butcher with super human strength, and Xie Zheng,(Zhang Linghe), a wounded warrior she finds in the snow. Yes, I know, that doesn't sound appetizing, but in reality it's brilliant. Changyu believes her guy is simply an ordinary soldier who needs her help to recover and survive; Xie Zheng is in fact the Marquis of Wu...