The Crafty Chica Collection: Beautiful Ideas for Crafts, Home Decorations and Shrines from the Queen of Latina Style
Kathy Cano Murilla

This week’s suggestion is the ever-useable The Crafty Chica Collection. This is a fun and fabulous ode to all things red, yellow, and glittery. I met Kathy at BlogHer 07, where she was on the arts and crafts panel. Her effervesant personality lit up the room as she encouraged us to go beyond the pink-and-chocolate-brown color combo trend and play with the colors of Latin heat. The general feel behind everything that Kathy creates is “have fun” and “use what you love.”

In the The Crafty Chica Collection, I especially like her idea for outdoor candle lanterns using tins from imported stewed tomatoes and Guatamala wedding beads. (I wear the set I found at a garage sale with some outfit almost every week – I’d have to hunt up more to make patio lights!) The crafty Chica Collection, or Kathy’s new book Crafty Chica’s Art de la Soul will give you lots of visual ideas for our next Creativity Challenge – matchbox shrines! You can find lots of free project ideas at Kathy’s super helpful website.

Hmm….I think I need to go buy the Mexican Folk Art Coloring Book and some glitter….

The War of Art
Steven Pressfield

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
-p. 39

Living the artist life is hard. No one gives you a business card and a plaque on the door to help you feel official. There’s not a regularly salary. It comes with no overtime pay.

While we artists may turn up our noses at bourgeois needs like a pay raise and a corner office, the reality is that in our culture these things convey value. They tell us and others that we are legitimate–that we have a license to practice art, that someone has given us permission. In short, cash and clout confirm that we have cajones.

Without these cultural permission givers, artists often find themselves adrift and never progress professionally. Steven Pressfield would like us all to please, knock it off.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles takes the rose colored lenses off our romantic notion of what it means to be a writer/painter/poet/etc and gets us all prepped for battle. What are we fighting? Resistance, mostly –our most prevalent foe. In this pithy book, Pressfield teaches us how to move beyond being amateurs. More than any other book, The War of Art taught me to become a professional artist.

Go ahead, get your marching orders.

Loudon Wainwright III
Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up

Paul and I are one of those couples who stay in the movie theatre until all the credits have run. We got into this habit because the kids always think there is going to be some funny little extra at the end of the latest feature length cartoon if you just wait long enough. (Remember when Ferris Bueller would tell you all to go home if you hung around long enough after the movie?) But even when the kids aren’t with us we hang around so we can find out who performed what songs in the movie. It’s a great way to find new music to love.

This madness of this method lead us to discover a beautiful song at the end of Knocked Up (a sleeper hit of a movie– but that’s for another review). The tune that plays over the credit is Daughter from Loudon Wainwright’sStrange Wierdos. I instantly fell in love with this sweet tune, which seemed to be written just for my daughter Eden. I snagged the whole album and was presently surprised to find that I liked most of the songs on the rest of the album CD well. Grey is LA captures the zietgiest of the area perfectly; X or Y is a funny take on the random nature of babymaking; the honkytonk vibe of Feel so Good will get your toes tapping, and Valley Morning is just…nice. All the tunes have that nice storytelling aspect that can only come from a practiced singer-songwriter — are rare gift in this radio pop world. Check ‘em out and let me know what you think.

Today’s Flavor: Folk pop meets the honkytonk blues

Wreck This Journal
Keri Smith

I’ve been a big fan of Keri Smith’s illustrations-and-ideas ever since my beloved Jen sent me home from Maryland with a copy of Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life. In this first sprial-bound tome I learned how to make Keri’s “magic book,” which was the basis of my free love give away project last February.

Now I’m head over heals in love with one of Keri’s latest magic tricks, Wreck This Journal — a book designed to bust you right out of the strangling perfectionism that keeps you from living creatively. Each page urges you to mess it up…rip it to shreds, punch it full of holes, cover it with staples, and so on. While some people are making art of this destruction, others are gleefully playing along and just making a mess. Yesterday I burned a page inside the house, only to find my whole kitchen was magically dusted with grey ash “snow.”

Cate, my seven year old, loves this book as much as I do and has gleefully spilled drinks on it, smashed it full of blackberries, and thrown it into the sea. Keri even has a flickr pool set up for you to show off your handy work. Go ahead, give it a try! I trip dog dare you!

Anyone who posts a page of their wrecked journal in Keri’s pool in the next month, and drops me a note in the comments below will be in a drawing to win a copy of Living Out Loud.

P.s. Congratulations to last week’s winner Melissa (from a drawing of two!), who gets my copy of Water for Elephants.

Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen

When I finished all the books I’d brought on vacation, I wandered into Cloud and Leaf (Manzanita, Oregon) to find a new read. A long day on the beach and one late night reading-fest later, I’d already finished the whimsical, romantic Water for Elephants.

I’m an unabashed fan of all things circus-y : Circus Contraption, Cirque de Flambé, and the Aerialistas being three of our favorite local haunts. But after the second season of Carnivale turned out to be a disappointingly creepy follow up to its fabulous first season beginnings, I’ve been left high and dry for stories of redemption and belonging among the freaks and roustabouts. The historically-backed folklore of Sara Gruen’s third novel was just the thing to feed my jones for dust bowl era tales of traveling with The Show.

Water for Elephants features Jacob, an ivy-league trained vet who starts riding the rails after a personal tragedy and ends up living the life fantastic with Benzinzi Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Brutal, psychotic managers take Jacob into their motley crew where he finds himself embroiled in a tale of wonder, mystery, murder and romance. A quick but yummy read, this 300+ page novel reads like a short story. Some reviewers have found the twist-ending a bit too neat given the dire realities of the setting, but I say there’s nothing wrong with a bit of a potboiler ending and a little romance when you are reading in the dog days of summer. You’ll be glad to have read this in paperback or from the libary, and eager to pass it on to a friend. In fact, I’ll pass my copy on to one lucky reader who submits their favorite summer read in the comments below. (I’ll draw a name next Wednesday.) Happy Reading!

Hear an NPR review of this book here.

The Devil in the White City
Erik Larson

Paul and I could hardly put down this page turner of a book, eventually buying it in paperback so we could stop fighting over whose turn it was to read the library’s copy. In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses his journalism chops to research the story of America’s first documented serial killer, and the simultaneous construction of the world’s fair that brought him such a large choice of prey. This unappealing topic is shaped into a tastefully written true crime story that is cunningly juxtaposed with the tale of massive cultural change during the building of Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair. The fair, nicknamed “The White City” for its opulent architectural center piece, has since been lost to the great Chicago fire, but Larson manages to bring it back to life only to have it steal the show from the gorier biography of Dr. H. H. Holmes, sociopath M.D. Sensitive readers can easily skim over the relatively few graphic details and sink into the fascinating tale of determination which brought the Chicago Exposition to life.

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
James Patterson

It’s the near distant future and the fate of humanity is in the hands of ….a bunch of kids with wings???? In this fast-paced ‘tween thriller human/bird hybrids escape from a group of mad scientists in order to save themselves – and half the world’s population – from extinction.

Best selling author James Peterson, best known for his upcoming book-turned-tv-series The Women’s Murder Club, into the youth market with the first in this series, Maximum Ride – School’s Out, Forever. Now with a website driven pre-teen following Peterson is rounding out the series while simultaneously prepping the whole thing for Hollywood.

Maximum Ride has been pitched as “what to read after Harry Potter,” but it doesn’t have the fantasy charm of Harry, nor is Patterson as skilled at writing to, but not down to young readers. This fast, fun book would be more accurately pitched as “Buffy meets the Transformers,” with a teenage heroine “Max” Ride taking the lead over a gang of six specially gifted child heroes. Kids 8-13 who like sci-fi and high tech thrillers will enjoy this book which includes everything that age group loves – teenage rebellion, a bit of kissing, and grown-ups who take the backseat to their brilliant, misunderstood children. Techy kids will especially enjoy the accompanying website which features a blog from Fang, one of the book’s main characters, along with pretty spiffy CG movie clips and lots of advance info on the series finale and the upcoming movies. (It’s brilliant marketing, to say the least. Maybe a mad scientist is working for the publisher…?)

Got a kid who would like this read? Maybe a reading-reluctant pre-teen boy you’re trying to entice into some summer reading? Tuck your email into the comments and one lucky reader will get to join Max and her gang on thrill seeking ride.

This review is sponsored by MotherTalk, but the reviewer has forgone any compensation for the review.

Bitter Sweet: The Remix Game

This band came pre-loaded onto my Zune at Christmas, and they’ve been consistently growing on me ever since. It’s sort of dance club dj meets Austin Powers. Most of the songs are heavily re-mixed with looping rhythms and female vocals reminescent of a the songs used in vintage James Bond films. I especially like The Mating Game and Bittersweet Faith. Most of the songs have a swaying groove that melds into you subconcious and gives it a nice little massage.

Todays Flavor: rum and coke meets the jagermeister generation

Corinne Bailey Rae

There aren’t many albums as perfect for Summer as Corrine Bailey Rae’s self-titled debut. I first fell for Corrine when I saw her sweet self singing on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. By the time she guested on Saturday Night Live I was in love! My kids love to sing along to Girl Put Your Records On and Momma loves to get her grove on with I’d Like To. Even the sentimental Butterfly makes you think of your grandmamma and captures your heart. You’ll put this disc on repeat until the dog days of Summer drift away.

Today’s Flavor: sweet crooner for nights on the patio.

Back to Black

I love this debut cd by singer Amy Winehouse. Put it on and you’re instantly in the golden age of American Bandstand….but wait! Is she singing about going to Rehab? Track two, You Know I’m no Good, will make you want to tango with its sassy brassy horn section. By the time you get to Me and Mr. Jones you’re ready to put on some tassels and do the shimmy. Swaying on a lantern lit patio in the Catskills? Try tuning into Love is a Losing Game. And wait…is that the Solid Gold dancers ready to make an appearance during Tears Dry on Their Own? Go ahead, buy the whole album.

Today’s Flavor: vintage shows a little cleavage.