Music and Poetry

Today has been pretty laid back so far. Geoff and I ran to the post office so I could finally mail off at he portraits from my little give-away - hope you like them ladies! And we also had to pick up a package Geoff's best friend Patrick sent him. It is a double album from Akron Family - which is a fantastic group and an all around great album.  Plus it has a sweet volcano on the cover which is always a plus.

Afterwards we stopped by the little Sun Prairie farmers market and walked around a bit. Not as impressive as the Madison on by half, but we got some good stuff. Upon arriving home I was determined to make my own Vinyl Record Bowl. I followed the instructions (loosely) from about.com's diy fashion. I used one of my extra copies of Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album and set it on top of an oven-safe bowl. The directions say to place these on top of a cookie sheet, but I don't have one so I used a muffin tin. Side note, I am not sure why I do not have a cookie sheet as I seem to bake cookies every other week but I have muffin tin when I cannot remember ever actually making muffins.

I put these in the oven at 200 degrees and made sure to open all the windows because blech that smell is gross. I am super impatient so I kept checking it and trying to take it out before it was ready. I shaped it a bit around the inside of the bowl and pinched the parts that were forming together like a star. Afterwards it looked like this:

We are going to use it to throw our keys and my work ID because I am always misplacing that sucker. I want to try this again with a smaller oven-safe bowl but I guess I will have to find one first. And some more records because I am not done listening to all of those Disney records I have yet. 

While cleaning the house I noticed one of my crazy collections I have going and thought I would share that too. As some of you may know, I love buying books and have too many to fit in all of my bookcases. But I have weaknesses for certain ones. 

I have a huge stack of Poetry magazines that I have collected. Many are from when I had subscribed and the rest are ones I bought either at retail or at used bookstores. I love picking one up randomly and reading either a poem or a commentary on the nature of poetry. Sometimes they feature artists as well and I have been known to frame some pages and put them on my walls. Check out their website, poetrymagazine, as they have an interesting blog and podcast.

And next to these fine magazines rests a book I found at a half-priced bookstore

Dear Editor is a history of Poetry magazine that I am dying to actually read one of these days. This magazine has a long history and I am very interested in it. Anyone else love literary publications? I know, I know, everyone does.

Links I like

I've had a couple of low-key days and have just been trucking along with work and getting organized, so I thought I would share some of my favorite things on the internet at the moment.

The Maria Bamford Show! Seriously Maria is one of my favorite comedians and this reenactment of her breakdown stay at home with her parents was wonderful to watch. It also has me jonesing for a diet coke and the great state of Minnesota. And a fat pug.

Watch this one and then try not to watch them all.

D.I. Y. Projects - specifically this one

Wine Cork Bathmat

 I have a large collection of wine corks that I have toted around with me through several moves for some reason and decided to go ahead and make this one. CrafttyNest has a walk-through of it and I'm working on it! So far I have just been working on cutting all of my corks in half and getting rid of the non-cork corks and  broken ones. Here is my progress:

I'm really looking forward to getting this together.

Kate Beaton, of Hark, a Vagrant is amazing and wonderful and I could spend hours and hours (and maybe have spent hours and hours) reading and laughing and getting inspired. Her comics are not only hilarious but smart and you should look her up and buy a t-shirt of hers while you are at it. I did. After all, you put the Brontes on a t-shirt and I am all over that like Bronte heroines on broody men.

Bronte Garden Party

Also I am finally caught up on True Blood Season Three and cannot wait to watch the season four opening episode tonight (late I know) with the man. I was way into the books for awhile, so much so that I drove to a 24 hour grocery store at 2 am to get the fourth book because I COULD NOT WAIT. I love the difference that are in the TV show, especially anything with Eric Northman. SWOON.