On "Some of Me": A Book Review

Title: Some of Me
Author: Isabella Rossellini
Genre: Autobiography

About the Book...

Isabella Rossellini's reflections on her family, modeling, acting, and living life.

What I think...

I picked this up with the intention of just wanting to read the portions about Ingrid Bergman, as I've only seen one movie with Isabella Rossellini for a film class, but found myself so thoroughly enjoying the beginning of the book that I just kept reading and managed to finish in a couple of sittings.

I like how real and relaxed Rossellini comes across in her writing. This isn't what I'd call a serious biography and, while it's broken into categories, I wouldn't describe it as being a linear autobiography either, primarily due to all the musing she does. It's more a series of reflections in vignette form. 

She's very funny and witty, bluntly stating that she will lie about certain things she tells us (and then promptly admits to having lied after she does so) and teasing the reader with various stories about family and the unique things she grew up with. It interestingly contained conversations that she imagined having with dead relatives (her mother and father, more often than not) on various topics, which allows her to provide a nuanced and amusing perspective on certain topics.

Less interesting to me, but still interesting none-the-less, were the stories about her work in modeling and acting. Some of it was a little candid for my taste, but I appreciated that she tried to be real about some of the more serious matters in her life.  

To sum it all up...
A pleasant and interesting read that had me promptly adding her other book about raising chickens to my to-read-in-the-future list! ♥

On Christmas Trees, Cats, Candy Canes, and Knit-Wit Decorations (Part 2)

And now to wrap up this year's Christmas crafting...

At this point of the month, my crafting veered away from Knit-Wit-ing things and I went for my 1960s Fun With Craft Sticks book that I made angels from last year because I knew there was a tree craft in there. It was a large three layered tree craft. 

 

I went small again and reduced it to six popsicle sticks, four beads (rather than 114!!!), and a few short pieces of floral wire, with the addition of green metallic paint, red seed beads and a star eyelet. They ended up a bit lopsided because I wasn't putting much effort into cutting the popsicle stick for the trunk evenly.

After that I decided to go back to my aforementioned felt craft: holly leaves. I had purchased a pack of small metal treat bucket from the dollar store not too long ago with the intention of  making little Christmas floral decorations. I only ended up making one, so chances are you will be seeing more buckets in the future. 

Each leave has a pipe cleaner sewn to it and then I wrapped fake berries around them (here is where I learned when wire is involved safety scissors are not always safe). Then to get them to "stay", a word to be used loosely because they like rearranging themselves, in place I filled the base of the bucket with fiber-fill and tucked them in. Some sort of styrofoam base inside would have probably been better, I just really don't really like using it.

After making the snowman, it was suggested that I could make a tree, similar to a macrame tree my grandma made in the 1960's or 70's. For this one, I added beads to the center.

It was a bit of a nightmare getting the three rows connected into a tree shape. I didn't do it while it was on the Knit-Wit since the connecting rosettes were going to be on the diagonal and after knotting it on the wrong petal loop, I accidentally cut one of the edging stitches in attempt to get the two disconnected, but I managed to get it to work out and ended up with a very cute little tree! The star was created by making a rosette with fewer petals and for some sparkle, gold thread.

My final Christmas craft, completed Christmas Eve, ended up being a bit silly and Carrollian. I sewed Candy Cane bugs! They live on hot cocoa and eggnog, in case you were wondering. 

And with that, the below image concludes this year's Christmas crafts!

 ♥ ♥ ♥

On Christmas Trees, Cats, Candy Canes, and Knit-Wit Decorations (Part 1)

I was intending to spread out my Christmas crafting in multiple posts throughout the month, since I started promptly after Thanksgiving, but clearly time got away from me and so this year I'll be splitting my crafting into two post of what pretty much amounts to another year of mostly 1960s crafts.

The first craft of the season was a Holly Berry cat! This pattern is part of the 1960's Woman's Day cat pattern set that I used to make my Cheshire Cat and I have to say they really did not go out of their way to make it easy to do the legs on these patterns (which is probably why there is an option with a body that looks more like a bowling pin without distinct legs). Turned out awfully cute, though!

Following that I became interested in doing some felt crafting, but then dropped that project and didn't finish for a few weeks, so that will be for post 2.  

However, having moved on from that, I became very enthusiastic about using my Knit-Wit (previously mentioned here), which I think I finally have the hang of when it comes to making circles (I have yet to try making a pom pom)! 

When I first bought it, I had come across a few ideas of what to make with it online, including, as mentioned previously, an old magazine page with a Santa ornament. I couldn't find where I had saved the image when I set out to make these, so I did my own thing and managed to leave off the mustache, but still think it turned out cute. Then I made wreaths as pictured in one of the Knit-Wit books (see the linked post for the image, from what I think was from the "Yarn Sculptured Fantasies" book) and designed the reindeer myself. Definitely have a lot of ideas of what other circular items I could make now!

One of the Knit-Wit books also had a pattern for a standup tree made of rosettes stacked up on a folded over pipe cleaner, which looked appealing to me. 

Mine is quite a bit smaller than the book one, which involves making nine rosettes and then trimming the loops. I think I ended up with five rosettes in mine and I used a loose piece of yarn looped in and out at the top to make it more tree shaped. I also used an empty ribbon spool for a more supportive base.

After the simple ornaments and the tree, I then moved on to learning how to connect the rosettes and made a slightly lopsided snowman. I am still working on the skill of connecting them as you'll see in the next post.

To be continued...

♥ ♥ ♥

On a Very Merry Christmas to You!

 A very merry Christmas from me and Santa Claws!

(Grumpy look truly has nothing to do with the hat-it's the delay in getting dinner.)

 ♥ ♥ ♥

On Two Turkeys: A Photo Post

I have been remiss in posting the conclusion of my autumnal crafting, so here are two coffee filter turkeys to stare at before my Christmas crafting starts to make an appearance!

♥ ♥ ♥