Folk of the Air
I finally took the opportunity to read a book. I’ve been denying myself the opportunity so I wouldn’t be tempted to read when I should be working on Christmas presents. Well, Christmas is over, I have one more little girl dress to finish and some cookies to bake, but on the whole I’m finished with presents. I decided to grab a book from to my “to read” pile that I normally would’ve skipped over. I wanted something without too much commitment. I decided on Folk of the Air by Peter S. Beagle. I have only read a few books by Beagle, The Last Unicorn, Tamsin and I think I read The Innkeeper’s Song, but I can’t remember. I loved Last Unicorn, and Tamsin was pretty good. I thought I would at least enjoy Folk of the Air. I did like all the pretty language, but at the same time the pretty language was a pain the butt. I found myself so caught up in the superlatives, I lost track of the meaning. Frankly, the actual story is boring, a little weird, but mostly boring.
Farrell, the main character, arrives back to the town he went to college at to stay with a friend who is now living with a much older woman, Sia. He runs into an old girlfriend who introduces him to these Rennaissance Festival type people who basically dress up as lords and ladies in their free time. He starts getting involved with the group as a lute player. He runs into Aiffe, their pretend witch, who is summoning Nicholas Bonner. Nick Bonner is not a demon or any other kind of magical creature. He knows spells and magice, and teaches Aiffe a few things all in the hopes of using her to get back at his mother, Sia (yes the older woman that Farrell’s friend, Ben is shacked up with). Sia is a goddess who is losing her powers after millenia, and she is afraid of her son.
Aiffe is a fifteen year old girl who is only interested in power so she can be the powerful or most popular one in the Medieval recreationist group. In trying to attain that, she drives one man insane, and causes the death of another. All this seems inconsequential to the main story. Like I said, I enjoyed it. I just had a problem with the flowery language and the unsatisfying ending. Farrell does not endear himself as a character. I did not care about him or what he was going through. He felt superficial. Ben turned out to be a jerk, using the powers attained by sleeping with a goddess in ways that hurt someone. Julie, Farrell’s old flame, tends towards hystrionics and then to being more placid. Aiffe comes across as a scared child one moment, then an annoying pratt the next.
In all, I wouldn’t exactly recommend this one, but I wouldn’t stop somebody if they wanted to borrow it from the library. In all Beagle writes in varied styles. Of the few books by him I’ve read, I haven’t come across one that’s been written the same or even in the same vein.
Denim Afghan
As promised albeit a bit late, the picture of the finished afghan. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to take a picture of the afghan unfolded. I think it is quite beautiful.
I adapted this particular pattern from a pattern I found online. It called for a P hook and well I couldn’t work with a hook that size. I used an ‘I’ hook instead. It’s basically, chain until it is 60″-65″, then single crochet 12 rows of the denim (multicolored), and 6 of the ivory until it is 43″-46″.
Christmas gift number… I lost count
I finished the afghan for my friend Serena this morning. I gave it to her when I got into work. I’ve been showing off to everyone at the office. My boss tried to wrestle for it, but I told him he would have to wrestle the pregnant lady, and he back off.
I will post a picture tonight since I forgot my camera. I’m very proud of my efforts. Unfortunately, it will be another few weeks before I will start another project. I’ve got at least three more to go this year, and then I’m done.
Wish me luck!
Merry Christmas
Cars little man shirt
I finished my sewing for my niece and nephew last night at 10:30 pm. I do not want to work on another boy’s button shirt for a very long time. The collar is a little wonky, but I think it’s because I couldn’t understand the directions all that well. Anyway, the part I was dreading wasn’t so bad. I managed to get all the button holes done and they don’t look half bad. The hardest part was getting the buttons done. The instructions would have you sew the buttons through the button holes which worked great for the first button. After that, I kept sewing through either the top or the bottom of the button hole instead of right in the middle. I think you’re supposed to do the buttons without the presser foot on my machine, but without it my material tends to slip from under me. No matter it’s done and here for your enjoyment (or amusement) is the final product:
Christmas gifts
I obviously bit off more than I could chew when it came to making Christmas gifts. I finished my niece’s dress today. I had to slip stitch the bodice lining. At least that’s one project completely finished. It now only needs a wash. My nephew’s Cars shirt nearly killed me today. I thought since it was a boy’s shirt, it would be easy and quick. It took longer to get as far as I have. I screwed up the collar somehow. I don’t think I understood the directions there. Now I have the buttonholes to put in. The very possibility of having to go back into my sewing room to make 5 buttonholes fills me with dread. I have decided that sewing for boys is not fun. I will not be doing that again for a while at least. I was about to cut out a second shirt for my friends baby boy, but I decided to buy him a coloring book instead. Now what to do with a yard of Cars fabric? I’m thinking a couple of pillows or something. I have batting, and I don’t need a pattern. I could maybe do that. I took the day off to make this shirt, and I couldn’t even enjoy it! Oh well, I’ll work on the pillows tomorrow after we make the rounds of Christmas shopping for my mother-in-law and my husband’s best friend.
WIP: Christmas dresses
As promised here are the pictures of the nearly completed dresses for my niece and my friend’s youngest.
Dragon dress
I managed to finish (or almost finish) one more little girl dress this weekend. I just have to slipstitch the bodice lining and I’m done! I will post pictures tonight or tomorrow of the dragon dress and the butterfly dress. All that one needs is the bottom of the zipper area sewn in and then that one will be done. I am quite happy about the turn of events. Now if only I could crochet faster! I’m in the middle of crocheting a beautiful blue denim and cream stripe afghan for a friend. It’s about at the halfway mark looks like. I think I needed a much bigger hook, but it’s looking quite gorgeous and boy is it warm! It’s been nice to have the thing draped over my lap while working on it in the evenings. No matter that the heater is on and the gas fireplace is burning. Every time my husband steps in and out of the house he lets in a blast of cold wind. We’re having some lovely below freezing temperatures up here in the Northwest. I know you Northeast people are probably laughing at us here in the Seattle area, but we’re not used to this kind of weather. I’m not used to it much myself since I’m from Florida!
Dark Angel aka I Come in Peace
I watched Dark Angel or as I knew as a child I Come in Peace this weekend. A friend of ours bought a bootleg DVD and brought it over. What a wonderfully awful movie! Who didn’t love Dolph Lundgren in the 80’s? There is very little that is quotable in this movie, but here are the top quotes:
“If you touch this, I will hit you very, very hard.”
“I come in peace.” “Then you’ll go in pieces, asshole!”
I can’t remember much more. I saw it on Saturday, so most of the movie has dribbled out.
I Come in Peace was then followed by another Dolph Lundgren flick, The Punisher. No, I am not mistaken. There was a Punisher movie before the Tom Jane 2004 Punisher. I am telling you Saturday night was a wonderful night for corny 80’s Lundgren movies. I wanted to put on Showdown in Little Tokyo to finish out the night, but Randy was waiting to watch it when he received his next Netflix delivery, so we ended up watching New Frontier. I’m not complaining, but Little Tokyo would have rounded out the evening so much better!
Movie Round up: The Happening
Like I mentioned previously, I will be doing a round up of recently watched movies. Today’s review is for The Happening directed by M. Night Shyamalan. First of all, it is not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, although it is Shyamalan’s weakest. My biggest contention with the film comes from the poorly written dialogue. The concept was a good one, not a great premise, but good. I also felt that the cast was great. I’ve loved Zooey Deschanel ever since I saw her in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galazy and the Tin Man miniseries. She was good in this movie. She even made the one of the many endings seem not so bad just with the way she uses her eyes. Mark Wahlberg’s character, Elliot was just a little too unreal, too “good guy.” John Leguizamo was great even if his character was difficult to care for.
By far the most disturbing and chilling scene in the whole movie was when Julian (Leguizamo) and the group he left with to New Jersey arrived in the town his wife was supposed to have escaped to. As they arrived in the small town, they found all the gardeners hanging from the trees from their hoses. I have goosebumps just remembering this particular scene.
All in all the movie was not terrible. It was a great B-movie. There were some very chilling death scenes, terrible dialogue, a great cast, and one or two too many endings.
Recent movie round up
Due to NaNoWriMo this year, I did not get around to blogging about the new movies I’ve seen recently. I know you are all terribly disapointed! So, for the next few days I will feature one per day of the following, The Happening, Wall-E, and Kung-Fu Panda. To sum up though, the latter two were great the first not so much.
I will start with the most recent since I can remember that best, Wall-E. Wall-E was adorable, Eve was wonderful and reminded me of well, me, and even the little roach did not totally freak me out. My husband kept referring to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin when talking about this movie. I think I finally understand. There is very little dialog in this movie. Wall-E’s programming does not allow for much in the way of speech nor does he have anyone to talk to while on Earth. His one friend is the little roach he feeds Twinkie’s to and the videos he finds in the piles of trash. Eve’s a much advanced model, all sleek lines and gleaming plastic. Wall-E is smitten, albeit mostly terrified upon their first encounter (being shot at by a super charged laser blaster will that, I guess.) That’s where I relate with Eve. Irritate me at just the right moment and you will probably receive the Puertorican she-demon treatment. My husband will probably laugh about that one.
Anyway, I loved the way the movie ended with the humans returning to Earth because they finally realized how empty their existance was on board the Axiom. I particularly liked the captain and his fight to regain control from Auto (the autopilot robot).
This movie is absolutely enchanting. I recommend it to all adults, children, film lovers, and anyone else I might have left out.
