Stacyverb

Camp NaNoWriMo

So, all of a sudden I'm writing a novel.  Which is really weird, because as of about 21 hours ago, writing a novel was not in my immediate plans at all.

It's all Carrie's fault.  She casually posted something about Camp NaNoWriMo (something like, "This is cool.  You should do it."), and even though she made it clear she wasn't going to participate herself, suddenly a bunch of our mutual friends and I are signed up to do it.  That Carrie--such a sorceress she is! 

Anyway.  Maybe you've heard of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an event that takes place every November.  The idea is that you sign up, and you write 50,000 words (about 175 pages) in one month.  The site helps you keep track of your word count and cheers you on.  Last year, more than 256,000 people participated.

Camp NaNoWriMo (motto: "An Idyllic Writers Retreat, Smack-Dab In The Middle Of Your Crazy Life") is the new summer version of that.  In theory, I'll have 50,000 words of a novel finished by 11:59:59 on June 30.  Let's be clear--I expect this novel to be a big steaming pile of crap.  But the idea is to get words on paper (or screen, really), then worry about editing and all that stuff later.  Even if I don't reach the word count goal, I'm hoping I'll still be pleased with my attempt and will be able to build on it from there.  We'll see.  I honestly have no idea what will happen!  I'll keep you posted.

St. Vincent at Variety Playhouse

Last night some friends and I went to the St. Vincent show at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points. 

We've had these tickets since January.  It had been a long time since I'd bought tickets to an event way in advance and then waited for the night to arrive.  The anticipation of something like that adds an extra layer of excitement, I think.

St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is a ridiculously talented guitarist, songwriter and singer.  Her music can be plaintive and lovely, and it can be visceral and aggressive.  She's also very stylish (bonus!).

I totally stole borrowed this photo from Wikipedia.  But by coincidence, this is the outfit she was wearing at our show!  How convenient. :)

The show was really thrilling, with Annie and her band playing songs from all three of her albums.  So much energy and creativity and skill--what an awe-inspiring way to spend a late spring evening.

Blogging the Bloggess

You know what's one of my favorite things to do in the whole world?  Laugh my face off.  And one person who consistently brings that kind of funny is Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess.

If you've never read The Bloggess, and you need to inject some absurd humor into your life, go there as soon as you're done reading this.  Laugh.  Cry.  (Frequently at the same time.)  That is, unless you're squeamish about profanity.  Or you have a thing against taxidermy-related shenanigans.  Or for some unfathomable reason you hate giant metal chickens. 

Jenny made a stop in Atlanta last night, promoting her book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, which just came out a few weeks ago and has been burning up the NYT best seller list.  I was so excited about this book coming out, I pre-ordered a copy (and you KNOW what a library-using girl I normally am, so that's really saying something).  It's just as funny as I expected it to be.  Even the sad parts are funny.  THAT'S how funny this woman is.

 

Terrible picture.  The color is wack.  And all the shots I took during her reading and Q&A came out blurry because I was shaking with laughter, but this was the least blurry.

 

Yes, Bloggess fans, be jealous.  That's me not only meeting Jenny herself (she said she loved my dress--we're practically BFFs now!) and getting her to sign my book, but also petting Copernicus the Homicidal Monkey.  Talk about a celebrity encounter! 

Go read The Bloggess now.  Buy Jenny's book.  Tell your friends.  Go on now.

"Bye Bye Brooke" shawl

For the past 6+ years, I've had the pleasure of working with, and being friends with, a great woman named Brooke.  My workplace is like a second home to me, and my co-workers are like a family, so we're all very sad right now because Brooke is leaving us to live near her actual family on the west coast.  (Pout.)

Last week we had a going-away party for Brooke, and knowing that her departure is a big deal for all of us, I decided I needed to make her a gift and give it to her at the party.  This is the "special project" I mentioned in yesterday's post.

 

The pattern is called Omelet, and this shawl is by far the most complicated lace knitting project I've ever undertaken.  There were definitely some moments when I thought I might be in over my head with this.

 

I pressed onward, though, and really, it was a pleasure to knit.  The yarn is a hand-dyed silk--luscious, slinky, gorgeous. 

This took me eleven days to knit, which is insanely fast for me to make anything this...involved.  At times I wondered aloud, hands frantically knitting away, why I hadn't started Brooke's gift sooner, since we'd all known for a long time that her departure was approaching.  Our mutual friend Carrie answered that question without pause: "Because we've all been in denial about Brooke leaving."  Too true, too true.

 

Well, we can't deny it any longer (but we don't have to like it, either!).  And so I gave my dear friend Brooke this parting gift, and I hope that whenever she looks at it, she'll remember all the great times we had working together at the yarn shop.  Things just won't be the same without her.  (Pout.)

Scenes from a wedding

This weekend we had the pleasure of celebrating the wedding of one of the coolest couples we know. Thanks, Joe and Rebecca, for inviting us to this fabulously fun party.  May your marriage be filled with this much joy and laughter for many years to come!

 

Author Talk: Anne and Sam Lamott

Last night, as part of the Dekalb County Public Library's Author Talks series, I went to a reading by author Anne Lamott and her son, Sam.

When I learned about the event a week or two ago, I debated about whether or not to go.  Lamott's book Bird by Bird is a classic about the craft of writing, and I've owned a well-loved copy of it for years.  But to be honest, I haven't read any of Lamott's other books and wasn't particularly interested in the topic of the talk, the new book on which she collaborated with Sam about the birth of his son and her own transition into grandmotherhood.  So I was torn, but in the end I decided to go.

 

Sam and Anne Lamott

 

The Lamotts took turns reading passages from the new book, Some Assembly Required, and bantered a bit in between.  The readings were funny, and moving, and the familial chemistry between mother and son was clear: these are two people who genuinely not only love, but like each other.  After the readings, they took a few questions from the audience.  Some were about this book specifically, while others were about the craft of writing.  It was nice to see that I wasn't the only one who came to the event because of BbB.

Following the Q & A, the Lamotts signed copies of SAR.  As the crowd began to form a line, Anne made her way to the signing table and passed by where I was, and stopped to chat with me.  She saw I was holding my copy of BbB and graciously offered to sign it (so often, authors won't sign anything but their current book, let alone a dog-eared paperback copy of an old one).  She was very kind, and before she continued on toward the signing table, she thanked me for coming and gave me a hug.

 

Anne Lamott and me, now BFFs (well, okay, not really)

 

Hearing Lamott speak in her honest, funny way about writing reminded me that it's important for me to make time for literary "stuff" in my life--writing, reading, and talking to others who love those things.  Even just flipping through BbB while I was waiting, re-reading passages I'd underlined long ago, I found myself nodding a lot and thinking, "YES, that makes sense."  I'm really glad I decided to take a chance on this event.

"Old Man Cabbage" screening party

A few months ago, I mentioned that my husband had shaved off his goatee for his role as an extra in a music video.  It wasn't just any music video, but a 15-minute "long form narrative music video" produced by Ninja Puppet Productions and featuring the music of Atlanta's fantastic Blair Crimmins & The Hookers. 

This week we were invited to a screening party of the almost-finished video at The Goat Farm (an amazing venue that might need its own post sometime).  Director Raymond Carr introduced the film, and the band performed the soundtrack live.  It was a great evening of music, wine, and creative folks.  At the bottom of this post, watch the trailer for the video!

 

Anthony appears very briefly at 1:02, but is much more visible in the full video. :)

SSS: Days 28, 29, 30 & Review

Here we go: the last of my Self-Stitched-September photos! 

• Top: Refashioned from self-stitched shirtdress, from this post
• Necklace: Beaded by me

 

I forget what I was laughing about here.  Possibly I was just giddy because it was the penultimate day of SSS!

• Top: Butterick 3344 (OOP) (view A body with view D sleeves)
• Earrings: Beaded by me

 

• Skirt: McCall's 4783, one last time!
• Earrrings: Beaded by me

SELF-STITCHED-SEPTEMBER SUMMARY:

I'm glad it's over.  It turned out to be hard, in exactly the way I thought it would: the continued warm weather meant I had to keep wearing my summer clothes, most of which I'd already showed you during Me-Made-June.  So I got pretty bored, and felt dumb taking pictures of something that was boring to me.  (Of course, the weather was drastically cooler on October 1, and I finally wore something different!)

With all these wardrobe challenges, I always learn something, so what was the take-away from this one?  More than anything, I think it's that I need to make more summer clothes.  Or, really, make "not-quite-fall" clothes that might have similar cuts as my summer clothes, but in richer colors and more autumnish prints.  Our warm weather just goes on so long that I get sick of wearing the same things so many times.

I think this might be my last me-made challenge.  They've served their purpose for me, but I guess the thrill is gone.  This isn't a style blog per se.  I don't particularly enjoy posing for photos every day, or writing descriptions of my outfits every day.

This is not to say that there won't be outfit photos on this blog--of course there will!  Whenever I finish making a new garment, I will definitely be excited to share it with you.  But I won't be posting daily photos of myself wearing some random shirt I made ten years ago.  It's time to move on!

Once again, I want to send a grateful shout-out to Zoe for organizing all these me-made challenges and to my sweetie for taking my outfit photos!

SSS: Days 25, 26 & 27

We're in the home stretch of Self-Stitched-September now, kids.  Woo-hoo!

My Steelers shirt again!  This was the outfit I wore to work during the day on Sunday, but I got off in plenty of time to watch the game on TV that night. 

• Top: Vogue 8078, now apparently out of print
• Skirt: The ubiquitous yellow McCall's 3341
• Earrings: Beaded by me

 

Speaking of sporting events, here I am at the Braves game.  I didn't have any self-stitched Braves-related clothing to wear.  That's probably why they lost!

• Top: Ever-popular cowgirl print shirt, pattern now forgotten (have I ever mentioned that this shirt is about 10 years old? and still going strong)
• Earrings: Beaded by me

 

This is a bad photo of this outfit because a) you can't tell there's brown in the print of my shirt, and b) my pants don't look brown anyay.  I assure you these garments go together better than they appear to.  The wrinkliness of my pants, however, is sadly accurate.  (Ack.)

• Top: McCall's 4922, also apparently out of print
• Necklace: Stacybeads Mimosa design, available in my Etsy shop

SSS: Days 22, 23 & 24

Wow, I really wish the weather would cool off more, because I'm running out of outfit ideas with these clothes.  It's not exactly hot anymore, but still too warm for many of my self-stitched items.  No sweaters yet, no shorter skirts to wear with tights, no hand-knit scarves or hats.  Boo.

• Necklace: Beaded by me
• Top: Simplicity 2614 (again)

 

• Skirt: McCall's 4783 (again) (out of print)
• Earrings: Beaded by me

 

• Earrings: Beaded by me
• Skirt: McCall's 4783 (yet again) (still out of print)