Making it Up As I Go

I’m thinking about Brandy, since she’s the one who reminded me that I haven’t posted for a while. 🙂 I love her and wish she lived closer to me. There are a bunch of people I wish lived closer to me. If only I had a million billion dollars and could just own a whole city that just my friends and loved ones could live in.

I’m listening to Fiona Apple’s new album . It’s incredible, powerful, and raw, with unexpected moments that are just glorious. I love her too. She would be welcome to live in my city as well.

I’ve been in a strange mood when it comes to music lately. I’ve been drawn to a lot of French, Italian, and Spanish music- the soundtracks from Amelie, Midnight in Paris , Vicky Cristina Barcelona ; collections of music from those countries from the 40s and 50s. It’s so pretty and light and the girls love it too. And I like that I don’t have to worry about lyrics. We’ve been listening to a lot of “world music”- music from India, and Cuba, and bluegrass, so much variety, and I love it. And I love that the girls are learning the words to “Man of Constant Sorrow”. 🙂

I’m rereading Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d’Art by Christopher Moore, which I read for the first time last month, and it’s JUST SO DANG GOOD. Seriously. It’s one of those books that you keep saying “How did he just do that?” as you read. It has to do with art and painters and muses and the color blue, and the hidden history of the world. Henri Talouse-Latrec is one of the main characters, and he is so brilliantly written and alive in this book. And completely hilarious. I hope he was actually as funny as people make him out to be, because it would be sad if he wasn’t.

In the last month I’ve  read

Tea by Stacey D’Erasmo

Losing Clementine by Ashley Ream

Treasure Island!!! by Sara Levine

The Help by Kathrynn Stockett

The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy D’Art by Christopher Moore

Paris Portraits: Stories of Picasso, Matisse, Gertrude Stein, and their circle by Harriet Lane Levy

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Blue Nights by Joan Didion

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Since reading Sacre Bleu I’ve been fascinated even more by the time between the wars in France. I already loved the stories of the Lost Generation expatriates- Hemingway, Fitzgerald, the Murphys. But realizing that the time right before that in Paris was so full of talent- it’s so interesting how clumped up all of that talent was- all in one place.

Right now I’m also reading Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company by James Mellow to get more knowledge of the time period, and it is taking so. long. It’s excellently written, and full of fascinating information, but I read non-fiction MUCH slower than I read fiction, and it feels like I’ve been reading this book for years. I read everything on the list after The Paris Wife at the same time I’ve been working my way through Charmed Circle; I get depressed at my slow pace otherwise.  I’m excited to get to The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe.

I’m supposed to be working on a NaNoWriMo novel this month, but I’m not. I should- I have a murder all planned out, but I can’t seem to make myself sit down and work on it.  Regardless, it’s a main component of my inspiration screen this month. Would you like to see?

One of the main characters is an actress, and it takes place in an island hotel.  Now to write it.

As you can also see, I went to Mary Poppins this month, which was truly magical. I highly recommend it. It was also Z’s birthday, and she had a butterfly party. It was lots of fun, and she’s enjoying being 6.

Posting that, I realize that I never posted April or May’s boards, and I’m sure you were dying without them. 🙂 Would you like to see them?

Here’s May: (I made it late in May, so a lot of it was planning for the novel)

And April:

Again, these are intended to be collections of things that are inspiring me for the month, and things I want to do/read/ make/focus on. I don’t do all of them, but they’re there on my screen every time I turn on my computer.

And that’s all I’ve got for now. I’m hosting a crock-pot mini class at my house in 1/2 hr. I know next to nothing about cooking with a crock pot, luckily my friends do, and they are teaching. All I’m doing is providing the venue. 🙂

What’s going on with you at this moment?