Pretty Earrings

 These earrings are made from flower components in Wendy Ellworth's Monet's Garden Lariat:

I don't like lariats, so after making two of the flowers I spent a good amount of time trying to come up with another way to turn them into a necklace, but dissatisfied with every idea I had, I finally set them aside. I found them again a few weeks ago and decided the simplest (and funnest) thing to do would be to turn them into earrings. They are super fun to wear.

These cuties are two of Anna Lindell's Wildflower Bouquet Pendants:

The perfect use for two porcelain beads I didn't otherwise know what to do with.

Finally, I realized I needed a pair of small gold and ruby earrings to wear with certain necklaces. Easily remedied:

Well, except I didn't have a bunch of fancy ruby beads lying about, just lots of garnet chips.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

The paradox of choice can become a problem in online dating. With a prevalence of apps and a plethora of choices on those apps, some people struggle to make any decision at all, fearing the wrong choice. Others cannot settle down with the good choice they make, always looking for someone better. This is the plot of Gramazio's The Husbands, only the problem here isn't that Lauren can't stop swiping; instead, every time a husband enters her attic, a new one comes out.

This was initially big surprise for the single Lauren, who comes home tipsy from a bachelorette party to discover she has somehow acquired a husband. It takes a few trips up and down the attic stairs but she eventually figures out (sort of) what's happening, and eventually she delights in the opportunity to try out new men (and new lives -- each husband represents in effect an alternate universe). If one husband is too annoying or mean, she sends him up to the attic to fetch something and waits for the next one.

But after accidentally losing a husband she really liked, Lauren sets about trying to find the best husband, rapidly cycling though many of them as she sends them off to the attic for trivial faults, or because the world is a little too different from her original one, or because she can't shake off a general air of dissatisfaction. Rather than find the right life to settle into, however, she becomes increasingly lost and anxious -- the paradox of choice at its most extreme.

The parallels to online dating are obvious (hence my opening paragraph), but this is just one facet of a larger societal problem we have. As our technology advances and our ability to shape our lives and our environment increases, we become ever more focused on trying to make sure everything goes exactly as we want it to. Life doesn't work that way, though. No matter how much we might want to, we cannot control every outcome, we cannot plan for every eventuality, we cannot avoid suffering. It's a necessary part of being an adult to become comfortable with uncertainty, which is why I thought Gramazio's divisive ending to the story worked perfectly.

2 Necklaces and a Wrap

 My December Necklace, so of course I finished it in January.

It consists of three strands: African "Christmas" beads, turquoise crystal with a little red mixed in, and gemstone rondelles that remind me of a string of lights on a tree. I debated adding a pendant (maybe a Christmas tree), but this way I can wear it all year.

Pretty crystals with charms:

I got this strand of crystals a while back, and not knowing what to do with them I knotted them on a strand of novelty yarn. After some pondering I thought a cluster of charms, Candie Cooper-style, would make a good focal pendant. 

This wrap bracelet/very long necklace was made with the Pear Festival mix from The Beadshop.

I kept it simple but added some beads of my own for contrast -- opaque red faceted glass, ecru size 6 seed beads, bronze glass pearls, and a vintage button for the clasp. I can't wait to wear it (in the Spring, when I no longer need to wear oversized wool sweaters).

Book Round-Up: Where Did the Time Go Edition

It's been a hell of a month.

Murder by the Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles: another collection of short stories published by the British Library Crime Classics, by authors well-known and forgotten. The stories were, for the most part, enjoyable. Some of the weaker ones highlight a problem with mystery short stories -- it takes a writer of great skill to create a satisfactory tale given there is little space for characterization and motive.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu: I absolutely loved this brilliant take on race relations. It's written in screenplay form, about Generic Asian Man who hopes his stint on the procedural show "Black and White" (get it?) will allow him to become Kung Fu Guy, movie star. It's bitingly satirical but also moving as it addresses the immigration history of Asians (and how they are never considered Americans no matter how long they have been here) and, most touchingly, the role of parenthood.

The Annotated Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Douglas A. Anderson: my paperback copy having long since fallen apart, I treated myself to this handsome book with the aforementioned annotations, essays on the creation and publication of The Hobbit, and oodles of illustrations by Tolkien himself and the illustrators of different translations.

Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint: I first read these short stories back in college? Law school? De Lint is considered a master of the urban fantasy subgenre; this first anthology shows the the development of his fictional city Newford (maybe Canadian, maybe American, maybe coastal, maybe not) and the various fairy denizens who are only rarely noticed by human residents. I had forgotten that some of these tales are straight up horror. I had not forgotten that de Lint has a chip on his shoulder about anyone one who lives a conventional life. Still, they are fun to read.

North Woods by Daniel Mason: another novel I loved. Taking place in western Massachusetts (where I grew up), it follows the history of a house originally built by a Puritan couple fleeing persecution and all the people who subsequently stay in that house, however briefly. Those people are all considered outsiders by society (some deservedly, most not), and Mason writes movingly about the peace they find in the house and its surrounding woods. It's fascinating to compare this to Richard McGuire's Here, which has the same concept but tells it in comic form.

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić

I went through a bit of effort to track down this entry in the Canongate Myth series, and I'm so glad I did. Ugrešić was a Croatian writer who chose the myth of Baba Yaga for her novel.  It's structured as a triptych; the first section opens with a dreamlike section about all the little old ladies moving almost invisibly through the world before settling on one old woman and her daughter as they come to terms with the end of her life. The second takes place at a luxury spa run by a male scientist who is determined to defeat old age; he is no match, however, for the trio of elderly women who unwittingly disrupt his plans for his clients. (One of the clever things about this section is how sidelined and secondary-to-the-lot all the male characters are; it makes for a nice change of pace.) The last section is a disquisition on Baba Yaga and all the elements that have accreted to her myth. Through out it all, repeated images of birds and eggs recur, highlighting both the physical transformation aging bodies go through and the creation of new life. 

 Ugrešić absolutely nails the way old women (or even middle-aged women) are ignored, dismissed, and condescended to, even by loved ones who mean well. She movingly depicts the feeling that the world is moving on without you -- childhood homes are smaller, hometowns become unrecognizable, memories cannot be relied on. It's also a funny, bawdy tale, as befitting the way age forces all of us, sooner or later, to confront the reality of our bodies. Aging is hard and messy and sometimes ugly, but it can't be avoided, no matter what doctors and marketers tell you. And then there's the rage at having to deal with all of this.

The novel ends with a feminist cri de coeur for women to rise up and use all that rage, ugliness, and weirdness to reject patriarchy and find a new/old goddess, the Golden Baba, to worship. This is the weakest part of the narrative; Ugrešić (or perhaps just the academic narrating the last section) relies on outdated archeology and anthropology to posit that Baba Yaga and related figures derive from the goddess of an old, matriarchal culture in Europe. It's a theory that has been taken for granted in popular culture despite the lack of evidence supporting it, so I can't really fault Ugrešić (who was neither an archeologist or anthropologist). It certainly doesn't diminish the power of this novel, or Baba Yaga.

Book Round-Up: Emily Edition

 Twelve Percent Dread by Emily McGovern: I generally love McGovern's comics but I couldn't get into this one. I did appreciate her satire of modern technology  and relationships, however.

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones: The Welsh mythology-based story -- about a gravedigger who has to figure out why bodies are crawling out of their graves -- was great; the overwrought, angsty, YA prose was not.

Funny Story by Emily Henry: It seems I'm destined to love every other Emily Henry novel, which means I found this one completely delightful. I really enjoyed the development of the main characters' relationship.

The Wood Wife by Emily Terri Windling: My second time reading this. It's a wonderful story about artists, fairies, and the desert, inspired by the art of Brian Froud.

The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini (pretty sure there was a character named Emily): The latest contemporary novel in the Elm Creek series (I've been skipping over the historical ones). It was fine. I admire Chiaverini's commitment to writing about social justice issues, particularly given how conservative a segment of her audience is, but her approach can be didactic.

Día de Muertos

 Much of my Día de Muertos handiwork was ruined last year by water and mold, so I made something new.

This was very loosely inspired by a project in Quilting Arts magazine from many years back, made using what I had on hand -- assorted milagros medals, cheap but all-wool flowers acquired from a big box store, two wool marigold flowers that I made for a craft fair booth, and, of course, lots of beads. All that's left to do is attach the panel to the backing with a blanket stitch (probably).

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.