kindled

Since last Wednesday, I've pretty much shut off all communications with the outside world. I've rarely left the house, I've lost interest in meals, and I haven't done anything creative at all. It's all because that was the day I finally received a Kindle. Since then, I've been holed up in the house, speaking to almost no one and reading so greedily you'd think that I hadn't had access to books in months!

I will forever be devoted to the printed page, but this device has changed everything about the way I read. For children's books, I'll certainly still be buying hard copies, and I'll never stop haunting secondhand bookshops...but for newer books and YA books where the tactile and visual pleasure isn't nearly as important, the Kindle is the absolute perfect reading experience. A few of the things I love best about it are:

Trim Ergonomic Design
You never quite realize how heavy and cumbersome books are until you start reading on a Kindle. The tablet is amazingly thin and lightweight, and it holds up to 3500 books. I also like that it's not backlit, because it doesn't strain your eyes when you're reading for long periods of time. The e-ink technology really does make it seem as if you're reading a printed page, so it's much easier on the eyes. (Plus the size and shape make me think of Captain Picard sitting behind his desk with his silver tablet...but that's neither here nor there.) I also really appreciate that they've designed this in such a way that it doesn't feel like an electronic device, in that the fonts are friendly and the screen savers feature lovely scientific illustrations or author portraits. The wizards at Amazon did a great job of creating a really pleasurable reading experience.

Free Book Samples
I never read a book without skimming the first few pages, so having the ability to sample chapters and to order books so quickly and easily is astounding. I read 13 books in the first 5 days and sampled so many more...the whole process of researching, acquiring, and reading that many books would normally have taken weeks, if not months. And now I have new authors I love!

Instant Gratification
The Kindle is incredibly fast and responsive. Unlike every other electronic device I've ever used, including computers, Blackberries, iPods, fax and copy machines, etc, this device responds so quickly, you don't even have time to process your next thought before what you want is already there. This applies to page turns, turning it on and off, and even charging it. Downloading a book on the 3G-WiFi model takes literally less than a minute, which is just mind-blowing to me.

The very few quibbles I have with it are minor. I wish sorting books were a little easier, and it's a little too easy to mis-type on the rather widely-spaced QWERTY keyboard. But they really don't affect my enjoyment of the Kindle at all. This is a wonderful, wonderful device that I really think will be in many more homes in the future.

I'm so glad my husband got me one for Christmas--it's changed a huge portion of my life, and is literally one of the best presents I've ever gotten.

tea party invitation

If you were going to create an imaginary party, who would you invite? That question was posed in the form of a challenge in our children's lit group recently, and everyone was to decide upon a guest list, menu, entertainment, and send a party invitation.

I decided to do a tea party, because both my partner and I are both fond of tea. I'd recently re-read The Little Princess, and Miss Sara Crewe seemed like she would be the perfect person to host a gathering of children from other British children's books.

The guest list included:

--Mary Lennox
--Jane Banks
--Lyra Belacqua
--Lucy Pevensie
--Kanga
--Sara "Screamer" Wiggins
--Wendy Darling

The menu recreates the beautiful banquet that appears as if by magic in Sara's attic room on the night that she needs it most, along with some other choice tidbits that appear throughout the book. The entertainment includes storytelling by Sara, a visit with Ram Dass and his monkey, winter gardening with Mary, flying lessons with Wendy, and gingerbread star hanging with Jane. I've always loved that anecdote in Mary Poppins when the stars are hung up in the night sky with a ladder, and I like to think that Jane picked up enough tips to be able to teach the other girls how to do it. I included all this in a programme of sorts printed on fine linen paper, thinking that with Sara's involvement, this might be part of a series of events to benefit the Ladies Aid Society, with each hosted by a different character.

I printed the invitation at home using cardstock and mounted the printed portion onto the brown backing using the new Scotch Adhesive Dot Roller, which was kindly sent to me by the company to try out. It's very similar in concept to white out tape corrector applicators, except that it's much easier to handle. The shape of the roller fits really nicely in your hand, and it's made of sturdy, smooth plastic that's both attractive and pleasant to handle.  The clear adhesive strips go on smoothly and cleanly, and leaves behind no glue residue. It's pretty much like thin, permanent double-sided tape in a roller, which is pretty handy when you're doing paper crafts and need finer control. All in all, the roller made making the invitation much easier, and I'll definitely be using this little tool again, especially for making paper cards and tags.

After adhering the card stocks together, I stamped on a little Indian elephant with an inked Paper Source stamp, which I thought was appropriate given Sara's origins, and added a little bit of extra color and glimmer. (The photo above was snapped of the prototype, which sadly has a grammatical error! Grrr.) To finish off the set, I put in a few packets of tea for my partner to enjoy in a pretty salmon-colored envelope, and voila, a little tea party, all in one small piece of mail. I can't wait for my partner to receive her invitation...and I really do wish I could go to this party myself!

halloween packages

Two dreadful packages will be departing from the honeybee household this week: spooky, spooky mail and Halloween cupcake toppers.

Halloween is such a fun holiday, and we used to throw lots of parties and decorate like mad. We've toned it down a bit in the last few years just because it's been so busy and we have to pull everything out of storage. But this year I'm compensating by having a ball with mailing decorated packages instead.


For the first swap, I put together a parcel of spooky Halloween goodies that included:

-- decorated and embossed straws
-- tea-dyed "destroyed" tags that were stamped + glittered
-- stamped mini Trick or Treat tags
-- a ghastly postcard with scary movie suggestions
-- a recipe
-- a spidery pad
-- stickers
-- a little tin of vintage Halloween images
-- candy
-- and a few other fun items.

I decorated the bubble envelope with tons of stickers, stamped images, and black skull CAUTION tape from the Martha Stewart 2010 Halloween collection.

The second package was also really fun to do. The last cupcake toppers swap got such a great response that I had to hold another one, this time with a Halloween theme.

My partner is actually Rachel, the wonderful founder of Swap-Bot, and I made two sets of Halloween cupcake toppers for her using images from Martha's Halloween stamps. For the candy ones (and for the decorated straws above), I used the MSL heating tool to emboss each topper, which created a cool and shiny raised effect. (By the way, I've tried to use a hair dryer to do this...it doesn't work. The tool is very easy to use and the images set fairly quickly.) I also included a set of 6 Halloween invitations that I stamped and packaged up in a glassine envelope.

I hope both partners enjoy getting their Halloween packages! They were lots of fun to make.

shopper alert: decorative packing tape

On sale at Michael's right now: very cool decorative packing tape.

This is the stickier 2" wide tape that you would use to put on shipping packages, rather than the less tacky deco tape that you might use for crafting, but they are still super fun for decorating big envelopes and boxes and such.

I hadn't noticed these before, but on a trip to salivate over Martha Stewart Halloween goodies yesterday (which I'll share later), I found them in the dollar bin. But wait wait, there's more! Even better--the packing tape rang up at 50 cents for each 9' 8" roll. 50 cents! Big big score.

I really like the colors, and had to restrain myself from buying all the different designs. Don't you just love finding things you like at bargain prices? I know I do...

shopper alert: martha stewart craft punches

Spotted at Marshall's today: Martha Stewart craft punches from both the Kmart and Michaels lines. Rotary paper cutters, edgers, and shapes are available at significant discounts (even more discounted, I think, than the price indicated on the tag).

I snapped up a several items, which I found near the bath section. I'd seen some scrapbooking materials at these discount stores recently, but I'm very excited to see MSL brands there as well. I would guess the pale green Kmart stuff is probably liquidation from that dissolved Martha-Kmart relationship, but the white Michaels stuff was a nice surprise.

My husband's already been forewarned there will be other Marshall's trips in our future, since I have sniff out what else is available. Happy shopping! But please don't buy out the ones in L.A. until I get to them. ;)

Update: oops, those green craft punches are from Wal-Mart, not Kmart! Either way, good news for us magpies.