On "The Emerald Circus": A Book Review

Title: The Emerald Circus
Author: Jane Yolen
Genre: Fiction, Short Story, Fantasy

About the book...
A collection of 16 of Jane Yolen's short stories with fairy tale, folklore, and fantasy based poetry themes, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Arthurian legends, encompassing stories first published in the 1980's up until present day. These stories also range in the age group they were written for with some being aimed at a younger audience and others at an adult audience.

What I think...
I want to like Yolen's stories, I really do, but despite how much I love her non-fiction book Touch Magic, enjoy watching/listening to videos of her talking about writing, and, in general, tend to agree with her views on writing and fairy tales, her fiction books (picture books excluded) just don't appeal to me as much in comparison to other writers.  Out of all the stories I only ended up liking "Andersen's Witch" and "A Knot of Toads". In the first one, Yolen takes the idea of Andersen struck a deal with the Snow Queen to be a famous writer, which I thought was a really cool idea (no pun intended). The other story, while slightly predicable in some ways had a nice build of suspense and made me think of M.R. James type stories (I don't have the book anymore, but she may have mentioned him as inspiration, though I read something else recently that made a comparison to him, so I could be wrong).

Given my feelings about her non-fiction works and her viewpoints on fairy tales and writing, it should come as no surprise that the other thing I really enjoyed about this book was that the end there was a "Story Notes and Poems" section that was very reminiscent of older fairy tale books, like those of Joseph Jacobs, that had a section that gave background for each of the tales included. While I didn't always care for the story, reading what inspired Yolen to write them and why she chose to go the direction she did with them, as well as finding out where they were originally published added an extra layer of depth to the stories.         

To sum it all up...
Not something that I would re-read, but if you're interested in re-tellings of classic tales or folklore it's worth at least looking into. ♥️ 

On Finishing Up New Curtains!

With only a brief period of free time remaining at the end of my summer I was excited to get to work on several clothing items I started making over the past few years, but never got around to finishing for various reasons. Instead I managed to get a cold, which curtailed my plans for a weekend fully devoted to sewing.

However, among the unfinished dresses, the bolero, and the vest/skirt set, I also had curtains, which I started two years ago and in my stuffy nosed state was the only thing in the unfinished bag that didn't require much effort, nor would a minor mistake lead to a complete disaster.

Now you might wonder why so simple an item has taken me so long to finish. In part it's because the print fabric I chose was too thin alone and rather see-through (defeating the purpose of having the curtains), so I needed to back it with something which then turned into the idea of having the thin top layer pull back from the bottom layer using ribbon, as well as trying to figure out how I wanted the top part the curtain rod slipped through to look. I just wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to do either. 

The other reason is that I really, truly, hate the process of hemming things. While I had the selvages and the bottom edge hemmed on the printed fabric from when I started the project that was where I decided I had had enough hemming, leaving the purple under layer unhemmed.

Moving back to this past weekend, I managed to get everything hemmed, decided on having the back layer come down over the top to create the casing, and created button holes to slip the side tying ribbon giving me the option to pull either both layers of curtains back or to pull back just the top layer! Now I have lovely new curtains that produce a marvelous purple glow and that I'm quite happy with!

Inside the curtain!

Outside the curtain! (Pulled forward for your viewing pleasure and because standing on the 60's children's rocking chair to take the photo did not seem intelligent.

Yes, I know it's dark! Just wanted to show what it looks like closed and no matter what time I took the picture or if the light was on there was some issue with the photo.

 ♥️♥️♥️ 

On "Frogkisser!": A Book Review

Title: Frogkisser!
Author: Garth Nix
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

About the Book...


With Princess Anya's evil stepstepfather, Rikard, plotting to gain control of the kingdom and to rid himself of both her and her childish older sister, Princess Anya has a lot on her plate between dealing with him and his habit of turning her sister's suitors into frogs. When she unexpectedly must go on the run to avoid meeting certain doom, she ends up finding herself on a quest she didn't ask for that involves not only trying to save the kingdom, but attempting to find the ingredients for a lip balm to turn her sister's now frog suitor back into a prince. Faithfully accompanied by one of the talking royal dogs, along the way she joins up with an array of creatures and magically changed people that help her have an eyeopening experience in regards to herself and the kingdom where she lives.

What I Think...
Having last read Nix in my teens (I liked The Keys to the Kingdom series), I wasn't expecting much more than a fun light read when I picked this up and, as expected, that's what I got. 

His twisting of a lot of the typical fairy tale themes and tropes was often quite funny. I loved the fact that the princess was going on an unexpected quest to get the ingredients for a magical lip balm that would allow her to turn a frog back into a prince without having to be in love him.Other elements such as multiple Gerald the Heralds (think of it as a job title where they're all called Gerald), a wizard who couldn't directly interfere, but could indirectly help, and a flying carpet that rolled everyone up inside in order to take them places were also quite fun. 

Some parts do seem to drag on long than they should and other parts get repetitive, but given the length of the book it wasn't enough of an issue to annoy me or make me want to give up on the book. 

To Sum it All Up...
Not world's greatest book, but a fun and quick fantasy read with fairy tale themes that I don't have any regrets about having spent time reading.♥️ 

On Bookbinding (Round 3): A Photo Post

Well, I guess this month I will only be sharing bookbinding photos and the usual book review post. 

This is my last set of books for my book binding class. 

First is a sewn board binding book with pics of what it looked like inside after sewing it (linking stitch and kettle knot at end), once the Japanese tissue was put on it, and then the final product once the spine cloth and cover paper were wrapped around everything (three layers inside that cover) and the endsheets were glued down. I'm not confident that I did the spine part right, since it seems to extend past the text block too far, but I followed the measurements in the instructions and once it was glued there was nothing I could do about it. 

Next is my final project, which is a tunnel book I have entitled "The Sewing Room". I went way overboard on it, but am pretty happy with the results. All the images, aside from the pattern pictures and fabric swatches, are pictures of my actual sewing supplies and notions. :)

♥️ ♥️ ♥️