Busy Times Were Had by All

I meant to have a post up with my predictions about Clara before The Name of the Doctor aired. They were mostly wrong, though, so you didn't miss much. The only bit that I got right was that Clara was somehow

SPOILERS

an echo throughout time.


SPOILERS


And I keep forgetting to write thoughtful book reviews until so much time has passed that I fear I will not be able to get all of the details right. I am about to begin reading Salamander by Thomas Wharton and it promises to be a great one to review on here. A brief summary is that a man is asked to write a book that has no end.

One of the main reasons I haven't been getting as much done on my blog as I would like is that I have been wrapped up in projects for Swap-bot. I have been making artist trading cards, "upcycled smash bits"--I bet the post office people are really going to be wondering what on Arda that means!, and doing layouts in my Smashbook to photograph and share for swaps. Here are some of the results.


Spring Mermaid ATCs: Even Mermaids Love Spring Fashion

I'm especially proud of this next one. Thank you, Picmonkey, for helping me to get it to stay turned the right way round!


Rex Family Heirloom.

My Smashbook spreads took a LOT of my time after The Precious went to sleep. I had to do two: one that was a top ten list, and one about my favourite colour.

For my top ten list, I went with books, naturally!


So Many Books, So Little Time!

I used a doily from a swap and a printed clock face and hands (Graphics Fairy)to make the clock, then googled for images of the books and found the copies that I have, or the closest that I could find, to print out and put around the clock. I also included why my nickname is Jo, as in Jo March.



I like this spread a lot, but not as much as my green page!


Paint it Green!

To see the photos better, go to my Flickr stream!

In the midst of all of this making, crisis after crisis has taken place. Perhaps the most annoying has been the death of our hot water heater, which, for reasons that make no sense at all, lived in the attic and was accessible only by the climbing rickety shelves of a closet. The fun thing about having a hot water heater in the attic is that when it starts leaking, you get indoor rain. Nothing like splashing in rusty puddles in your hallway. Then when we finally got the new water heater installed (NOT in the attic this time, obviously), the pipes on it kept leaking and my poor husband had to work on it day after day until they stopped. Finally, they have.

My job at the independent bookstore at which I have worked for most of 7 years ended on May 4th, when we closed the doors early and had a party complete with champagne and lots of chocolate. Friends, family, and frequent customers took part, and even The Precious tried some nonalcoholic cider but decided strawberries and chocolate were more to her taste.


She was one sleepy party animal, and she went through about 3 outfits in an hour!

The only picture I could get of my friend and boss, Liz, was this one, as she was pouring up the drinks.


My husband, Doldin, was a bit easier to photograph, to say the least. (Note Tammy and James, fellow bookstore workers and relatives of mine, in the background).



Getting evreryone into the picture was pretty much impossible, because everyone immediately fell into deep conversations about the store, books, and, in my case, Hot Wheels cars, right off the bat. Anyone remember how Hot Wheels came up?



This post keeps getting longer, so I will conclude it with a bit of good news: it looks as if the new owners of the store would like my help after all, and seem to be really nice folks with similar interests. They have painted the front door Tardis blue already and are planning to build a full-size Tardis in the back! So I will get to keep working at the store, and have a chance to be even geekier than I already am. I think I can live with that!