Since I just finished uploading all of my lovely paper-cut bookmarks to my Etsy Shop, it is only fitting to make a treasury featuring some of the most beautiful, handy and eco-friendly book accessories. If you’re an avid reader, like myself, you know that a favorite bookmark is definitely something to treasure 
Wed, September 1 2010 » ETSY finds, blogging, inspiration » 1 Comment
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Just finished reading and still a little overwhelmed… I actually shed a few tears while on the last few pages, while reading them on a treadmill at the public gym *a little embarrassed* The story in Hunger Games Trilogy is extremely intense, intelligent and unpredictable. The atrocities that are happening to the young characters are downright awful and would be gruesome, if Suzanne Collins would handle them even slightly differently. There’s quite a bit of violence going on throughout all 3 books, and at times, it feels like we’re getting conditioned to overlook it, to preserve our sanity, just like the main protagonist Katniss does.
With brutal honesty and never-ending twists and turns in the narration, Suzanne tells us a story of struggle for freedom, power and survival. All three are connected, intertwined and dependent on each other. The kids, forced to grow up at the age of 13, are tough and resourceful, and besides the skills and talents they need to possess, they also need to figure out the finer politics of alliances, trust and lack of whereof.
The Mockingjay is as fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat up until the very last page, just like it’s predecessors. The love triangle of Katniss, her childhood friend Gale and her Games ally Peeta comes to a logical solution… maybe even too logical, for my taste. The story of uprising against the powerful President Snow and his Capitol also comes to a conclusion which is again, quite brutal in it’s honesty. As one of the characters tells Katniss “We’re fickle stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction”. But at the end, there’s always hope. Hope, glimpse of the future, and a bitter sweet taste of a story so intriguing and powerful that it makes you rush to finish it asap, yet you don’t want it to end. Add to that a guilty feeling of watching the story unfold almost as if it were… the Hunger Games, on our own tv…
Tue, August 31 2010 » blogging, books » 3 Comments
This weekend project was the kind of spontaneous “use-what-you-have -in-the-cupboard” type of thing. I haven’t prepared anything special for my girls, but they fully expected for me to deliver an exciting and creative activity on a lazy Sunday afternoon. So, I just went for it. The idea of making them create patterns out of everyday objects has been floating in my head for a while, so I just looked around, pulled out some sturdy board, glue and jar full of different dried beans. I told them that they can make a shape or just fill the entire space, using beans in certain pattern. Which they did:
Tue, August 31 2010 » blogging, crafts » 1 Comment
I have very complicated relationship with infamous Moleskine journals. I like pretty much everything about them, from the simple covers to handy bookmark & convenient stiff covers. They come in sizes that encourage dragging them around everywhere inspiration might strike you and the pages are as smooth as butter, nudging you to fill them with your scribbles or sketches. So, what’s not to like, right?
Right, and don’t get me wrong, I do, but for stupid personal superstitious reasons I haven’t bought one in a few years. Now, I think the time has come that I can give it another try Bought a two-pack of the smaller plain black books & already pimped one up for myself (using hand-painted and doodled upon cutouts from an old discarded book), and even filled in the first two pages. *insert a round of cheering-on here, please!*
Now that I showed you mine, show me yours! Especially if you’d like to win a (similarly) decorated “little black book” that came with mine! So… You have until midnight on Monday, Sept. 6th to leave a comment with either a scan of your own sketch book/notepad or just write about your “on-the-go” scribbling habits. Either way it will earn you an entry to receive a small plain Moleskine decorated by yours truly (I’ll send it anywhere USPS ships). Subscribing to the blog (and mentioning it in another comment) is another extra entry. Spreading the word about this giveaway (via Twitter, your blog or any other venue) is highly encouraged and appreciated. Ready, set… GO!
Some of my favorite Moleskine Links:
Mon, August 30 2010 » Freebies, blogging, inspiration » 11 Comments
Thu, August 26 2010 » doodles » 1 Comment
I have to get it out. Some of you, who follow the True Blood on HBO for the 3rd season please, don’t hesitate to chime in as well!!!
The GOOD:
King Russell Edgington is absolutely delicious in his pure evilness He has no kind bone in his ancient skinny body. He’s elegant to a fault, he’s so dramatic it’s ridiculous, yet nobody’s laughing. King’s entrances and costumes are theatrical, his relationships (including his pretty boy-toy Talbot) are turbulent and complex. Like all dictator-wannabes he’s ruthless, vain and ambitious, what’s not to like, right? He’s so old and powerful, that even Eric AND his queen Sophie Ann can’t overpower him… When the death of his lover brought him over the edge of sanity, Russell’s character only got better, imho, climaxing in the bloody manifesto on TV screen one episode ago…
Another anti-hero is Tara’s “how-shall-we-call-him” self-proclaimed and enforced lover. Franklin in the book was just some older (in human years), nondescript and unattractive vampire, who at the end almost kills Tara, but only after being a legitimate and attentive Sugar Daddy-type boyfriend to her for a while. On HBO, Franklin turns into a total psycho, so unpredictable and dangerous, that just following his and Tara’s ups and downs makes your head spin. Yes, we understand pretty early in the game that he’s missing a few screws in his head, but still, he seems to be somewhat caring and Tara certainly has some hots for him. Then all of a sudden, we see the creepy sadistic cuckoo Franklin peering through the outer layer more and more with each episode, until he kidnaps her with an intention of making her his “eternal vampire bride”. How he met his “true death” didn’t sit well with me, but, I suppose Allan Ball really-really wanted to tie the still loose Eggs story line.The BAD:
Not nearly enough of Alcide. They had a real “spark” in the books! Spent a lot of quality time, risked their lives together, he was the one to make her start questioning her future if she sticks with the undead boyfriends. Alcide, sort of like Jacob in Twilight, represents “life”, daylight, sunshine, children, all those good things. And the fact that he IS a supernatural as well and hot as hell doesn’t hurt either… What did we get in here? A few scenes with Alcide pining for his horrendous ex, a few scenes of him and Sookie having screaming matches and a scene or two with some kind of mumbled “attraction” which felt more like “oh, it’s not happening anyway, so why bother”. Grrr…
Last but not least The BLOODY HORRIBLE:
And finally… I know it’s all about blood… I get it. It’s in the name, in big crooked capital letters… But was it really necessary to have Bill and Sookie look like they’re having a joined period in the shower? The amounts of guts and glory in this season waaaaaaay overpower clever dialog, local quirks and smart story lines this year. And it makes me so, so sad 
Tue, August 24 2010 » blogging, books » 3 Comments
I’m a self-proclaimed paper whore… I collect paper scraps for “potential” future use, hoard stacks and stacks of discarded board, tissue and paper from work. Plus, being a graphic designer, I can get my hands on lots of lovely paper samples… And if I see some of them being thrown away, my little paper-loving heart bleeds and I rush to the rescue. Such was the case with these beauties. Some Korean company’s 3 nifty samplers were on their way to the dumpster, and I just couldn’t resist…
The results are in the pudding, so to speak:
Yesterday, I settled in front of tv, with re-runs of Harry Potter movies with my girls, and lazily, instead of doing a creative project with them, grabbed the papers, trusty x-acto knife and started cutting. The size and shape of the papers suggested that they could become perfect bookmarks, especially if I overlay 2 colors and glue them together. What do you think?
I also put together a really neat new Etsy Treasury – with beautiful prints and illustrations literally “Jumping Off the Pages” of old books.
Apparently quite a few Etsy sellers enjoy messing with the yellowish papers as much as I do.
Mon, August 23 2010 » blogging, books, crafts, inspiration » 2 Comments
I’ve got 2 things for today’s post. First and foremost, I give you… The Duchess:
She joins the cast of other characters that I am drawing on pages of discarded Alice in Wonderland book.
I also wanted to brag about the second BOOK REVIEW I co-wrote with OnePushyFox on Bewitched Bookworms Blog. I am as excited about Saphhique as I was about Incarceron and you can read my neverending rant about it as proof I also wrote a review of Bel Ami Book/Movie on Eyes of Amber Blog, check it out!
With this, I am parting ways with you till next week, have a great weekend.
Fri, August 20 2010 » blogging, books, images » No Comments
The way I came up with this theme for today’s Etsy Picks is a strange and twisted path…
For one thing, there’s this:
If you can’t figure out what a bunch of drunk Russian programmers has to do with anything, don’t despair, I’ll help you out. You see, they are taking part in an annual camping trip for Linux users –> Linux traditionally uses orange as their “brand” color (getting warmer?) –> And on the top of everything, both the tees they are wearing and the flag they’re flying features MY penguins, which they purchased permission to use as their logo
Also, as much as Orange is not my favorite color when it comes to fashion, in other applications, it’s warm and sunny and full of positive emotions for me. So, why not create an orange Treasury, I thought…
One more orange-related thing is a blog that I frequent, Orange You Lucky!. Ukrainian-born Canadian illustrator and pattern designer, Helen Dardik will surely make you smile every time you visit her cheerful and bright online home
That’s it, folks. Orange you glad I didn’t pick banana for today’s post? 
(sorry, couldn’t resist repeating one of my kids’ favorite jokes). Enjoy!
Wed, August 18 2010 » ETSY finds, blogging, inspiration » 1 Comment
I’m still missing my vacation Weekend Project for a simple and stupid reason that I can’t get the photos off of my daughter’s digital camera. No cord, no pictures, no pictures – no project. Still looking though… In the meanwhile, this is what we did last weekend. I’m not sure if I mentioned, but I recently ordered and received 2 books directly connected to some of my favorite bloggers.
First one is Doodle Diary, Art Journaling for Girls by Dawn DeVries Sokol 
It’s wonderful little (perfect size to carry around in the bag or a backpack) gem, meant to inspire artistic journaling in girls of any age. Short, fun prompts on every spread will give the much needed jolt of creativity to anybody who is willing to try their hand in this exciting contemporary art form. Some pages come with beautiful colorful backgrounds, and a few even have the drawings already started for you, but it doesn’t feel stuffy or intimidating, on contrary, it makes you wanna grab your favorite pen and start doodling right along Great job, Dawn, my girls and I will have a great time using it!
The second book is the one I got yesterday’s project idea from. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun by Carla Sonheim 
Beautiful collection of fresh, creative ideas to make drawing more fun. Wonderful, simple exercises that don’t require any fancy art supplies or equipment but will surely lit your imagination on fire and get your creative juices flowing! Gorgeous colorful illustrations/samples by themselves would inspire anybody with even the slightest artistic inclination. Also, every chapter has a “featured artist” section with a short interview and work samples of some amazing illustrators and artists. Now, that is exactly how I found this book, Geninne Zlatkis is one of the featured artists and she mentioned it on her blog, which I check out with religious regularity. I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to get into the habit of drawing and have fun in the process. I am also planning to check out other books in the Lab series.
So, the project I chose is called Scribble Drawings, and it’s a quite common creative activity which was perfect for my girls this quiet summer evening. Ok, so it was quiet for about 10 minutes after they stopped arguing who’s got the best scribbles and before they fought about who did the best drawing, but still…
I made 6 random scribbles on separate scraps of paper, turned them face down and distributed evenly between the two of them (you see, I was trying hard to avoid the “fairness” debate…) Armed with a large pack of markers, they had to figure out what they “see” in the scribble, add to it if needed and color it in.
The results were very creative and fun, especially combined with lengthy explanations that accompanied them If you do this activity with your kids one day, I’d love to see the results (just send me a link!). Enjoy!
Mon, August 16 2010 » blogging, books, crafts, inspiration » 1 Comment
The latest Doodle: 
