suziebeezieland

last book club

Tonight our last summer book club meets at my house. For June we read Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, and for July we read The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, and for August we read The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. 

(Last summer we met every two weeks, but it felt a bit much, although the books were great. So this summer I thought once a month was enough, and it was. It has been exactly the right amount of book club this summer, I think.)

My favorite Austen novel is Persuasion (which we read last summer), and my favorite Goudge novel is The Scent of Water (which we were going to read but then skipped last summer, but which perhaps we'll read next summer), but The Inimitable Jeeves is actually my favorite Wodehouse novel, so there is really no rhyme or reason to the exact choices, other than that they feel summery to me, somehow. I want it to be fun each year here, and carefree, and not like homework in the least bit. :)

For treats tonight I made the chocolate chip scones again, because they always taste good, and some people are afraid of eggs right now, and these don't have any in them.

Bob is hoping for leftovers. :)

the house cleaning playlist

Hi, ladies. I thought I'd share my official house-cleaning playlist with you, in case it suits. This is a high-energy, cheerful playlist to get you motivated to clean stuff, and it's all available on iTunes. Claire helps me, so I include some stuff especially for her, too. 

We listen to regular playlists when we clean, too, but this one is fun if there is a lot to do.

Minor Swing by Django Reinhardt
If I had to guess who gets the most airplay in my house overall, I'd say Django.  Gypsy jazz is just such a good living-your-life soundtrack to have on in the background.  We listen to Django almost every single day.

It's the Hard Knock Life from the Annie Original Broadway Cast Recording
Of course you have to listen to this while you clean. Pretend Miss Hannigan has just yelled at you that you'll stay up 'til this dump shines like the top of the Chrysler Building!

Jambalaya by Lucinda Williams
I had never heard this song until Catherine Thursby stuck it on her blog playlist. It has become a housecleaning staple around here.  Son of a gun, we're gonna have big fun on the bayou. :)

A Cookie as Big as My Head by Lunch Money & Tiny Dinosaurs by Lunch Money
Claire and I discovered Lunch Money (we discovered them for ourselves, I mean . . . we didn't discover them for everyone) when we heard It Only Takes One Night to Make a Balloon Your Friend in the beginning of 2009 on XM Kids Place Live.  (We've learned about a lot of good kids' music that way.)  Now we all love Lunch Money around here for their clever, clever lyrics and cheerful tunes. I dare you not to get A Cookie as Big as My Head (By the way, my cookie policy is chocolate chip only/Raisins and oatmeal sounds like cereal/I already had breakfast/Don't I look healthy?) and Tiny Dinosaurs (We are the Tiny Dinosaurs/We'd fit right through your doggy door/We're not as big as your kitchen/We're only about as big as a chicken) stuck in your head while you mop the kitchen floor. :D If you order a CD from them (we have both and love them both), they send you a link to download the album online while you wait for the CD to come in the mail.  And you can ask Molly to add a message.  They're so cool.  

Hungarian Dances No. 5 in G Minor by Johannes Brahms
Very good Swiffering music.  When it slows down, do under the furniture.  When it speeds up, do the wide open spaces.

Happy Working Song from the Enchanted Soundtrack
Of course you have to have this one. (Come and roll your sleeves up/So that we can pitch in/Cleaning crud up in the kitchen/As we sing along)

The Lonely Goatherd from The Sound of Music Original Movie Soundtrack
Yodeling makes house cleaning much more enjoyable.  Trust me. :D

Waterloo by Abba
I still remember the dance I made up to this song when I was about ten. I'm so glad nobody but Claire can see me when I clean house.  :D  

Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance) by Leo Sayer 
This is the dishwashing song. :)  

The Magic Song (Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo) with Mary Martin
I can't quite handle the Verna Felton version of this from the soundtrack, but Mary Martin's cover on Walt Disney Records Archive Collection Volume 1 on iTunes is very enjoyable. It lacks the energy of the original, but is good for doing a chore you hate and need to feel mellow about. I find it good for ironing.

Fisher's Hornpipe with Alison Krauss, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor and Yo-Yo Ma
This is from Appalachian Journey.  You can spritz Windex in time to this if you're good.

Waltzing Matilda with Dan Zanes & Debbie Harry
This waltz lends itself to rhythmic chores such as window-washing.  Don't let its lilt fool you. A guy is getting arrested for theft in this song. It's edgy.

The Hoppity Song by John Ondrasik
We admittedly don't get much cleaning done when this one comes on. But we do get lots of hopping done.

Dust Bunny by Keith Munslow
This is about a boy who makes a dust bunny into his pet. (And I named him Fred/And I used a shoebox for his bed/"You're pretty weird," my brother said.)  It's our vacuuming song. If you listen to the lyrics, you will know why. :)

Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On) by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
This is our grand finale. :)

For the Beauty of the Earth from the Little Women Movie Soundtrack
And in perhaps the strangest segue ever, this is our cool-down song. :)

something to ponder: Father

from Sinclair Ferguson:

You cannot open the pages of the New testament without realizing that one of the things that makes it so "new", in every way, is that here men and women call God "Father". This conviction, that we can speak to the Maker of the universe in such intimate terms, lies at the heart of the Christian faith. Through Christ, says Paul, we have "access to the Father".

magic style

I am eager for November, because a few days after I turn 45, the new Harry Potter movie will come out, and the excitement I will feel as I stand in line with my ticket clutched earnestly in my hand will remind me that even though I'm old, I'm actually still young.

:)

Anyhow, because I am so hip, with-it, and on-the-cutting-edge, I have just noticed this article over at Apartment Therapy from July 29, 2005 (yes) about "Harry Potter style."

Maxwell Gillian-Ryan notes everything that follows until you reach the photo:

Rowling's "Harry Potter Style" is at once old fashioned, comfortable, cozy and disheveled, and signals (to us) a refuge from and a reflection of the troubling times brewing within (and without) the books.

Here's a typical passage from page 38:

The room was strewn with various possessions and a good smattering of rubbish. Owl feathers, apple cores, and sweet wrappers littered the floor, a number of spell books higgledy-piggledy among the tanged robes on his bed, and a mess of newspapers sat in a puddle of light on his desk.

This comforting and even attractive clutter is Rowling's hallmark (it is even in the design of her personal website), and it is followed by many more descriptions of old, cluttered and worn rooms where food smells great and you don't have to worry too much about keeping your elbows off of the table. It's friendly, familiar and -- most importantly -- safe from the dangers outside the door.

{The living room and kitchen from the Weasleys' house, The Burrow, located on the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon}

I (Suzanne) am happy to say that my life was enhanced immeasurably by the fact that I was, in fact, on the ball about reading the H.P. books as they each came out, and about rereading them, and rereading them again, so it's not Harry Potter I'm behind on.

It's that somehow I missed the fact that people were paying homage to J.K. Rowling's amazing design sense.

Really, she is a wiz :) at evoking mood through setting.  And she does it all with WORDS. :)

You might be surprised to see, if you reread the books, how brief Rowling's initial descriptions of a place sometimes are, but how immediately evocative.  It's lovely when she does that -- chooses words that appeal to more than one of your senses at a time, and places them strategically, like tent poles or cornerstones or the branches of a tree -- and then allows you to fill in the rest inside your own brain.

Then sometimes she comes back later, after you've got your own picture of the place, and gives you more details, to make it even better.

Do you have a vision of Harry's cupboard under the stairs clearly in your head?  Here's Rowling's sole description of it:

Harry got slowly out of his bed and started looking for socks.  He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on.  Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

A bed, socks, spiders, and a cupboard under the stairs.  Those are relatively few concrete words, but that was enough for me to get a complete and absolute idea of how that space looked. How about you?

How about our first glimpse of The Leaky Cauldron? She says,

It was a tiny, grubby-looking little pub.

So we get a bit of an idea in our heads, and then she gives us a minute to think, and then we get a descriptive paragraph as immediately suggestive as the cantina scene in Star Wars:

For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut.  The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in.  Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the barman reached for a glass, saying, 'The usual, Hagrid?'

So here we get tiny glasses of sherry, a long pipe, a top hat, a man "like a gummy walnut," and a buzz of chatter.  And yet you are seeing more than those things in your heard, aren't you? Are you seeing the whole place?

How about Ollivanders? This gets more description right off.  Look at her judicious use of adjectives here:

The last shop was narrow and shabby.  Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC.  A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had just entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling.  For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

So here she's wanting to guide the reader more, perhaps because her own vision of Ollivander's was strong and specific, and perhaps because of its significance in the long-term story of Harry Potter.

Look at the words that imply age (in addition to the specific "382 BC", ha): narrow, shabby, peeling, faded, dusty.

Look at the words that suggest a tradition and importance that would go along with that old age: fine wands, gold and purple (both royal colors), a spindly chair (hard to slouch in one of those, and a nice, prim, and formal juxtaposition to the massive and casual Hagrid who sits in it), and a neat pile of narrow boxes (to fit in the narrow shop).

Look at the words that connote a dark secrecy or something more than meets the eye: "somewhere in the depths of the shop," silence, and "secret magic."

What is the proprietor of this shop going to be like?

And what about the single wand and the single chair?  Those are melancholy, lonely images.

Really, she's so good at what she's doing.

How about Hogwarts itself?  I was positive that her very first description of Hogwarts had been at least a page or two long, because my view of it was so detailed.  And over the course of all seven books, we do get some very rich and detailed descriptions of the place.  But that very first view the first-years catch of Hogwarts is simply described as follows:

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake.  Perched atop a mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

Look how generously J.K. Rowling is allowing you to make the exterior of Hogwarts to your exact specifications.  You are enamored not only because of the words she uses to describe it, but because she knows just what to say to evoke some of your oldest memories of castles and magic and wonder.  You are charmed by your own imagination! :)

And all the books inside your head (along with images you've seen) are talking to each other.  Your Narnia is talking to your Lord of the Rings is talking to your Cinderella is talking to your Harry Potter is talking to your vacation photos from Disneyland or Neuschwanstein, as your brain scrolls through the database of castles and magic in your head.  The more you read, the more you get out of the books you read.  See how cool that is?

I haven't yet touched on any of the "cozy and disheveled" spaces Maxwell-Gillian referred to besides The Leaky Cauldron (unless you thought the cupboard under the stairs sounded cozy), so let's look at the Griffindor Tower Room and Hagrid's cabin.

Here is our very first view of the Tower Room:

At the top of the spiral staircase -- they were obviously in one of the towers -- they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep-red velvet curtains.  Their trunks had already been brought up.  Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.

I always like her descriptions of beds.  They make me sleepy. :)

And here is Hagrid's cabin:

Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest.  A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.

When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, 'Back, Fang -- back.'

Hagrid's big hair face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.

'Hang on,' he said. 'Back, Fang.'

He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.

There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

I have long wondered if J.K. immediately thought about those two, simple details of "crossbow" and "galoshes" outside Hagrid's door, or if she struggled with them.  They're so perfect.  She always does such a lovely job of juxtaposing Hagrid's massive size and strength with his tender heart, doesn't she? A copper kettle and a patchwork quilt are as about as welcoming and domestic as you can get.  And yet she keeps things from getting syrupy, because there is that crossbow and that boarhound and that game hanging from the ceiling.

Why do you think she chose to add so much detail, right away, to the description of Hagrid's cabin, which is such a small place? I think it's because she is relying heavily on the description of the cabin to help us better know Hagrid. He would have been an uninteresting character if he lived in a wimpy house.

How about the Gryffindor Common Room:

'Caput Draconis,' said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it -- Neville needed a leg up -- and found themselves in the Gryffindor common-room, a cosy, round room full of squashy armchairs."

A few pages later, we get a bit more:

They pulled on their dressing-gowns, picked up their wands and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase and into the Gryffindor common-room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows.  They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them: 'I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry.'

A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink dressing-gown and a frown.

If you've read the books and/or seen the movies already, you're filling in even as you read this post, and fleshing these descriptive paragraphs out into a full-fledged universe.  But pretend, if you can (it might be impossible) that you don't yet know about this world, and notice how much information a few carefully placed words that appeal to your senses can give you.

Reading is magic.

why sally is the greatest cat ever

She starts out on the floor.

But then when I get settled on the couch, she jumps up and lies on the back cushions.

And stretches out her paw so that it touches my leg.

If my leg moves too far away, she just stretches further.

"What?" she says. "You are my person. I am your cat. This is how we do things around here."

helpful health reminders

{image from kindra is here}

These are in Czech.  You can tell because that looks exactly like Czech. :)

I don't speak Czech, but I still have a little Polish, and as you may know, once you get one Slavic language, you can kind of wing it with the rest of them.  Czech seems to me like impatient Polish.  (Or maybe Polish is patient Czech?) You just remove some of the unnecessary vowels and get right down to the framework, to the consonants, and you're speaking Czech. :)

Here are some Communist-era health reminders.

That first card up there, with the guy smoking, says something along the lines of "health requirement" up top, and then underneath his photo, it says "never."  This is good, sound advice that no one in that part of Europe actually followed at the time this photo was taken.  I would have smoked, too, if I had lived in CZ during 1968.

The toothpaste picture says "health rule" or "health law" up top (the Russian Marxists were very bossy) and then underneath it says "morning and evening."  Maybe more, if you're smoking.

Then the smiling picture says "health advice" (because they knew they were being bossy about the teeth brushing as a "law", so now they're trying to tone it down and just say "hey, we're just offering advice . . . take it or leave it") and underneath it says "all the time."

I can't help but think that an admonition to smile all the time would have gone over better if Russia were not invading Czechoslovakia with two hundred tanks and two hundred thousand troops at the time.

The last one with the guy doing what appears to be Semaphore without his flags says "health requirement" or "health need" up top, and then underneath it says "every day."

Let's review:

• Never smoke
• Brush your teeth morning and night
• Smile all the time
• Exercise every day

The Central European Marxists were so banal with their propaganda, you just want to scream.  Milan Kundera writes about this time in his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being:

Anyone who thinks that the Communist regimes of Central Europe are exclusively the work of criminals is overlooking a basic truth: the criminal regimes were made not by criminals but by enthusiasts convinced they had discovered the only road to paradise. They defended that road so valiantly that they were forced to execute many people. Later it became clear that there was no paradise, that the enthusiasts were therefore murderers.

Then everyone took to shouting at the Communists: You're the ones responsible for our country's misfortunes (it had grown poor and desolate), for its loss of independence (it had fallen into the hands of the Russians), for its judicial murders!

And the accused responded: We didn't know! We were deceived! We were true believers! Deep in our hearts we are innocent!

In the end, the dispute narrowed down to a single question: Did they really not know or were they merely making believe?

Tomas followed the dispute closely (as did his ten million fellow Czechs) and was of the opinion that while there had definitely been Communists who were not completely unaware of the atrocities (they could not have been ignorant of the horrors that had been perpetrated and were still being perpetrated in postrevolutionary Russia), it was probable that the majority of the Communists had not in fact known of them.

But, he said to himself, whether they knew or didn't know is not the main issue; the main issue is whether a man is innocent because he didn't know. Is a fool on the throne relieved of all responsibility merely because he is a fool?

and Judge on Trial by Ivan Klima:

when confronted by idiotic rulers and stupid laws, almost everyone feels enlightened and discovers within himself the capacity for useful counsel

and Open Letters by Vaclav Havel:

True enough, the country is calm. Calm as a morgue or a grave, would you not say? (Letter to Husák)

I'm sorry that I cannot recommend Kundera's or Klima's novels to you with a clear conscience, although in another time of life I read everything and anything either of them wrote.  And I still believe they are both astonishingly good writers (Kundera more so than Klima), but somehow the older I get, the more the substance matters, too, and I feel unwilling to steep myself in a moral code I disagree with.  I don't admire or wish to emulate Kundera's cynicism (I mean his cynicism about love and women and life in general -- I think his cynicism served him well when it came to politics, and I found much to agree with there) or Klima's romanticism (although again, his political observations are so astute), and both authors are fond of developing protagonists who are pathologically unfaithful to their spouses.  But both books (and other books they've written) give a very clear, very stark view of life in Central Europe during post-war Soviet rule.  The strength of their books are in the daily details, I think.  You get a sense of trapped, claustrophobic plodding along.

But Havel! Almost anything he wrote (either his plays or his non-fiction) is worth the time it takes to read.

The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.

a fairly dry & uninteresting post in which i discuss statistics

Two different women this week have asked me how many women read suziebeezieland, and what the community here looks like.

I think the best way to know what the community is like is to read the comments over there --> in the sidebar.  I would say the community is NICE and funny and interesting and warm. :) That's what I'd say.

(If I haven't said it enough lately, I appreciate you very much, and love hearing about your ideas, plans, hopes, dreams, desires, worries, enthusiasms, convictions, projects, families, pets, jobs, and lives in general.  Thank you for frequenting suziebeezieland and making it a nice place to be.)

For you "just give me the bottom line" gals, I can tell you that suziebeezieland averages fifty daily regular visitors (people who are regular visitors, coming here on purpose, on a daily basis). I can also tell you that 149 people subscribe to the suziebeezieland RSS feed. I do not know how many "regulars" we have here who visit less than daily.

This doesn't include me. :D  I am excluded from all stats that follow.

If you'd like some raw, pure data about suziebeezieland, here is more below.  I have used Performancing Metrics for a few years to keep stats for suziebeezieland traffic, and I am happy with their service.  I really encourage using such a service if you blog, to keep a safe eye on your blogging community.  It provides all kinds of information.

If you look at the chart below, you can see that in the past 90 days, suziebeezieland has had a total of 7,392 visitors.  Some of those visitors are people coming back multiple times in one day, so "unique visitors" (people coming no more than once each day) equals 6,078.  There have been 2,289 new visitors to suziebeezieland in the past three months.

You can see that the bounce rate is 30 percent.  This refers to people who "bounce" in and out of suziebeezieland very quickly.  This is usually people who are searching for something else on Google, come to suziebeezieland, and don't find what they're looking for. So they touch down for a second and take off again. :)

In the past three months, the average visit to suziebeezieland has lasted about three minutes and five seconds.  The total time people all told have spent in suziebeezieland in these 90 days has been 15 days and 21 hours.  (That is completely useless information to me, but it's fun to know.)

Performancing Metrics breaks this down down very specifically into individuals visiting, but we'll skip that and just look at the big picture. We here at suziebeezieland HQ respect your privacy. :) (There isn't really any "we." Just me.)

Most of our visitors come from the United States, and from California in particular.  This makes sense, since that's where I live. :D

For instance, here are the top ten locations of visitors to suziebeezieland yesterday:

And here is an overview of visitors from the past three months.  (Again, it is just showing the "top ten" countries that visited suziebeezieland.)

These have been the most popular Google searches that have landed people in suziebeezieland in the past three months (I'm using "three months" to give you an overview, but I can see data for any amount of time during the past three months):

To me, this is the single most important reason to use a statistics program . . . if you see that you have inadvertently used a phrase or discussed a topic in your blog that is attracting undesirables to your site, you can delete those words or posts.  This hasn't happened here (we haven't had anybody searching for anything creepy), but I think it's really important to know how people are finding your site.

This also suggests to me that perhaps I should spend less time discussing Mr. Darcy and Edward Cullen. :D Ha. (This post will probably get a thousand hits because I just said their names.)

On a daily basis, things are pretty constant.  Yesterday (August 17), for instance, we had 105 unique visitors, but 49 of those were new.  The day before that, we had 113 unique visitors, but 47 of those were new.  That's pretty typical.

So to answer the original question about "how many people visit suziebeezieland," we average fifty daily regular visitors (people who are regular visitors, coming here on purpose, on a daily basis).

I'm not sure how many regular visitors suziebeezieland has on a less-than-daily basis, although the feed subscribers give us a clue.

Currently, according to Feedburner, 149 people subscribe to the suziebeezieland feed.  Of course, that doesn't mean 149 people read suziebeezieland regularly, but it lets us know how many people are getting the feed and at some point wanted to know what was going on here.

I hope this has been of interest to those of you who like numbers and statistics, although I would have to guess that the regular suziebeezieland visitor is more of a right-brained gal like myself. Ha.

something to ponder: the vikings (do hard things)

from Alex and Brett Harris:

Unlike the Romans, who used galley slaves to row their great warships, the Vikings took full responsibility for this strenuous activity. This tells us two things: 1) the Vikings didn’t feel that rowing was beneath them—they pursued competence in every area pertaining to their success, and 2) they were seriously ripped. No wonder the people of Europe were afraid of these guys—their muscles were moving twenty-ton boats through the water!

Do hard things. Learn a lesson from the Vikings. Do hard things and you will carry the battle every time. If you are willing to take on responsibilities that others delegate or neglect you will gain the benefits of that exertion.

Too often we delegate the responsibility for our education, our character, our future, etc. to others who hold far less of a stake in how things turn out. And more often than not a failure to perform in the areas of character and competence are due to a lack of past exertion.

One of the innumerable beauties of the gospel is that it is Truth for all of life. Character and competence matter for Christians, because we are called to be salt and light to a lost and dying world. The integrity and quality of everything we do matters. (Matthew 5:16) And doing hard things is not only a testimony to a watching world, it’s also the way we grow in character and in competence.

french general

Faith, who gave me Kaari Meng's lovely book Home Sewn awhile back, had the very fun idea of inviting a group of us who have expressed interest in visiting French General to actually go there.

Faith has really good taste, and I would love to live in a house she decorated.  I would love to live in her house, actually. Whenever I go over, I don't want to leave, but I don't want her to have to kick me out, so I do leave. But I don't want to.

French General used to be in Hollywood but is now closer to us, in the hilly, modernist Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, not far from Dodger Stadium.  It's only about half an hour away, or less if the traffic is light.  I was astonished at myself for not going there sooner.

So yesterday morning, fortified by some of Faith's delicious coffee and some Trader Joe's Mini Morning Buns, Faith and Texanna and Danielle and Tash and Claire and I jumped into two cars and made our way over.

Faith and Texanna are my sister's husband's sisters, but I prefer to think of them as my sisters-in-law, too, because we have known each other a very long time, and that is what it feels like to me. They are family. There should be a word in English to explain the relationship of your sister's husband's sisters to you.

Some of you may recall my dear and very beloved church friends Danielle and Tash from their criminal activities, which were previously alluded to here in suziebeezieland.  I should note that Danielle also housesits for us, and Tash also babysits for us, besides having their own busy jobs and lives.  They just moonlight as art thieves.

And then Claire is my daughter, who was very excited to be out and about with the big girls. :)

The store is open from 11 to 4 on Mondays.  We got there just after 11.  I was so excited. :)  I have been a French General fan since before Claire was born.

The store is full of beautiful notions for making jewelry, and exquisite linens and fabrics, and so many little treasures to make sure not to miss that you could happily spend an hour or more in there in a little cloud of euphoria.

Which we all did.

All of the glasses on this table were full of beautiful metal charms and other parts for making jewelry.  I don't know about jewelry making so I don't know all the correct terms, but they were really neat to look at.

The store has workshops, and I think it would be fun to go and learn how to make a bracelet or necklace. (If any of you Minnesota gals are close to Minneapolis, you could make a Petite Coeur cushion with Kaari at The Creative Connection event in mid-September.)

Here is Tash perusing the charms, while Claire peruses her second or third snack. They had awesome snacks set out.

Faith, I'm so glad you organized us to go.

These ribbons made me want to be a milliner, and also reminded me of this movie scene in Pride and Prejudice:

Jane: What are you up to, Liddy?

Lydia: We just happened to be looking for some ribbon.

Kitty: White, for the ball.

Mr. Wickham: Shall we all look for some ribbon together?

Lydia and Kitty: [laughs and giggles]

Lydia: Good afternoon, Mr. James.

Milliner: Good afternoon, Miss Lydia.  Miss Bennet.

Mr. Wickham: I shan't even browse. I can't be trusted. I have very poor taste in ribbons.

Lizzie: Only a man truly confident of himself would admit to that.

Mr. Wickham: No, it's true. And buckles. When it comes to buckles, I'm lost.

Lizzie: Dear, oh dear. You must be the shame of the regiment.

Mr. Wickham: A laughingstock.

Lizzie: What do your superiors do with you?

Mr. Wickham: Ignore me. I'm of next to no importance, so it's easily done.

The two ladies who worked there were soooooo nice. They were really helpful and really fun.  The way you shop there is so neat, because you get a little tray and a bunch of glassine envelopes (I always want to call them glycine envelopes . . . when science and crafts collide) and stickers, and you count out any tiny notions you buy into the envelopes and seal them up and label them, and write up your own receipt as you shop.  It was fun.  I've always wanted to do that.

Everything got wrapped up carefully.

Adieu, le Général Français! Nous y reviendrons avec plaisir!

daisy mint (again)

We went to Daisy Mint for dinner tonight. Again. It's terribly addictive.  We had the Roti and Curry for a starter (oh, my stars) and then had our usual of Green Jungle Curry with Chicken (oh, my stars) and Chicken Pad Thai (oh, my stars).

I really think we're in trouble, because we have "a usual."

Bob had the Thai Iced Tea (oh, my stars) but I can't have that at night or it will keep me awake.  It is THE BEST DRINK IN THE UNIVERSE, so I had two sips, which I hope will not keep me awake.  It's made with sugar and then some magical elixir, which must be top secret because you could enchant and rule the universe with that recipe, if you were into that sort of thing.

We managed to slip in during a very brief lull right before seven, and got the only available table without a reservation, but within a couple minutes, the sidewalk had filled up outside with people waiting.  It's so cheap and good, I bet they're all addicted like we are.

You know you have an awesome restaurant if you have these unappetizing sumo guys on the wall, and people still flock here to eat, unabashedly.

lots of pictures of cubbies

Ladies, I'm sorry, because a bunch of Pottery Barn photos is really not what suziebeezieland is all about.  This post is mostly for me, because P.B. will eventually put these cubbies on sale, and then on clearance if any are left, and then the photos will disappear off the website, and I won't be able to study them anymore, and they are giving me some ideas.  (Especially the Christmas-decorated cubbies.) So I'm posting them here so that I can see them when they're gone. :)

Thank you so much for your cubby decorating ideas, Mel and Katy and Jill and Kelly and Becky and Charity and Melanie.  You were very helpful, and I will take some photos when I'm done with them. :)

ramona & beezus, daisies, bunting, chickens, and other lively decorating (including hamsters)

{via Ramona and Beezus Official Movie Site}

Have you gone to see Ramona and Beezus yet?  We saw it while we were in Palm Desert, and I really enjoyed it.

I know that all of us who grew up with these books feel terribly proprietary of them.  I'm always wary and fretful when someone makes my books into movies, but I did really like it.  (I thought Beezus was much cooler and meaner than she is in the books, which I disliked . . . her image-consciousness in the books is poignant because she's just a regular girl rather than a stunner, and she and Ramona fight in the books but Beezus isn't so vicious, and it is usually humorous because she is entering puberty in a couple of the books and is so emotional . . . but I can't think of anything else I disliked. And there are a few really sweet Ramona and Beezus scenes together.)

But I digress, because I really did enjoy and even love the movie, and got quite weepy several times, and so did Bob, I don't mind telling you.  We will buy it when it comes out on DVD and watch it again.  (In the 80s I also really enjoyed, by the way, the Canadian miniseries Ramona with Sarah Polley when she was little. She dyed her hair brown for the role.  I was in my twenties watching those, and loved them. I don't know if they are available anywhere on DVD, but you can catch a few episodes on YouTube.  Here is Squeakerfoot, for instance. Search for "Sarah Polley" plus "Ramona" on YouTube.  They're dated but cute.) [ETA: Squeakerfoot is only parts 1 and 3, but not part 2, for some reason. Don't watch or you'll get frustrated by the missing middle. They are available used on VHS on Amazon. VHS!]

And I loved the sets in the new Ramona movie! Sweet, vintagey Portland. Long live Klickitat Street! I love how lived-in their house felt (so did Claire, who wants us to "chop" a hole in the side of the house so she can jump through it) and how cute it was.  I especially liked Ramona's new bedroom.

I read A Girl from Yamhill a long time ago (after I lived in Yamhill county, probably about the same time I was watching Sarah Polley as Ramona and watching John Corbett as Chris Stevens in "Northern Exposure"), by the way, and enjoyed it, in case you've never read it.

So anyway, my point is, what was my point?  Something about houses.  Oh.  Sometimes I like to gaze into space and think about ways to make our house more homey.  I always want things to be comfortable and clean (which are sometimes mutually exclusive, but we give it our best shot, ay?)  and recently I've also been realizing that I really like "lively."  I like our house to feel like people live here and that we are thinking and doing and living.  Which we are. :)

I like decorating with flowers and fruit and some plants.  We also have lots of pets. I don't decorate with the pets on purpose, but somehow they are decorative.  Especially the cats. :)

It has been awhile since we've had a hamster (Ham-Ham, we loved you), but I think there is probably one in our future.  Even hamsters can be decorative in their aliveness.

{via msmcporkchop}

I also like books, and chalkboards where we write notes to each other, and artwork we've made, which shows that we're alive and kickin'.

All these things seem lively to me. Who wants to live in a museum?

What do you like that is lively?

Here is some lively decor I've seen online and enjoyed.  Some of these things I already have or already do in our own home, and some I'd like to do one day, or maybe just imagine doing, because sometimes that's just as fun. :)

I especially like yellow flowers.  Very lively.

{via farm and fru fru}

{via artisan shepherd's huts}

{via real simple}

"Don't you think that daisies are the friendliest flowers?"

{via hooked on houses}

Eating outside with flowers and trees is great.  That's really alive.

{via you are my fave}

And eating inside with flowers and a view is next best to eating outside.

{via garden of simple}

And the lively chartreuse of these plants all lined up in a row, with further reminders of life right on the pots.

{via pale + interesting}

I also want chickens. No, really. I mean, we won't have them, but every time I see chickens, I think they should come live in my backyard.

Or maybe more bunnies.

{via sjaek}

I don't know why, but for some reason I think blue gingham on a breakfast table is very lively.  I need to find some blue gingham.  Also, I need to eat breakfast and sit at a breakfast table.  I've been bad about skipping breakfast again lately. Shame on me.

{via polly wreford}

{via kml design}

I would also like to sew some bunting. I guess it's ubiquitous lately, like chalkboards, and by the time I get some bunting it will be out of style.  It's probably already out of style, since I know about it. But I still like bunting.  Anything that blows in the breeze and is colorful is lively, and of course it evokes fetes and fairs and carnivals and circuses, which are very lively.

{via you are my fave}

{via red direct}

{via green wellies}

I'm acting like I know how to sew, with all this talk of bunting and gingham tablecloths. Ha.

I also think that things lined up on shelves or hung up on hooks are lively as far as decor goes, even though they're not moving, because you can see what people use each day, and imagine them using it, more than with cupboards and closets.  Signs of life.

{via we heart it}

{via kml design}

And I still love chalkboards, so there. :) Very lively. And big red monograms that say you're there.

{via the inspired room}

Here's to lively decorating.

And chickens.

{via camping 3 akers}

do you love your spouse?

This past year, the women's Bible study I am in went through the book Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change by Paul David Tripp.  (That's quite a mouthful, ay?)  We also watched a video series that went along with it.  Through the course of the year, many of us came to really respect Paul Tripp, whom we (very fondly) nicknamed "the Moustache." :) He is Godly, wise, real, down-to-earth, funny, and very honest and vulnerable about his own struggles in life and marriage.

One of the things I remember that made me laugh so hard was that he said his wife is Cuban, so she is on both Latin and island time, whereas he is the son of a man who raised him to believe that the defining virtue of a person is his punctuality. :)

Tripp (who is Ted Tripp's brother) has also written a book called What Did you Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage.  I have not (yet) read the book, but I enjoyed this recent post over at Justin Taylor's blog talking about the concept of love in this book.  (Justin was traveling, and the post was guest-written by Andy Naselli, who summarizes chapter twelve.)

I would recommend you read the whole post if you're going to read it, or you'll miss the point.  It covers the questions (1) What is love? (2) What does love look like in marriage? and (3) What should this description of love do to us?

It gave me lots to consider.  I hope it gives you lots to consider, too: Do You Love Your Spouse?

big yellow lamp

I got it into my head that I wanted a big, heavy yellow lamp on my desk . . . something that would also serve as a reading lamp for the recliner that is off screen to the right  . . .  but then I couldn't find one anywhere.  I looked around (in real life and online) for a few months, and just when I'd given up and decided to look for something else, Pottery Barn of all places came out with a big yellow lamp.

It has a distressed, glazed finish that I like, and it's big and heavy so that cat can't knock it over.

I'm sure slow at filling up the cubbies above the desk.  I'm a perfectionist, and I want each little thing to be exactly right.  That's so stupid.  I'll never finish up at this rate.

What should I put in there? I like what's in there now (two empty baby food jars from Charity, two little empty glass vials from Tash, an empty flowerpot I have had forever, and an empty little latte bowl from Anthropologie . . . this yellowy-green is still my favorite color), but you see it's otherwise bare.  And empty. Ideally, I want it to be storage for office and/or craft supplies, but also decorative.  It needs more color.

Do you have any good ideas? Since the lamp and cubbies are from Pottery Barn, it's all starting to look a bit Pottery Barny.  I want it to look more like me. :)

I know that at Christmastime we will use it as an advent calendar, because there are 25 cubby holes.  But otherwise, I'm not feeling too inspired.  All my creativity lately is wrapped up in my book, and my brain is completely blank for anything else.

I was thinking about cutting out squares of scrapbook paper and putting them in the back of each cubby hole for some color. What do you think?

This isn't something I'm giving much thought to lately, as it's not all that important in the overall scheme of life, but as I sit here so much, it dawned on me that perhaps I should finish this little area up.  I'm not thrilled with the basket of papers, either.

If you have opinions, I would love to hear them.  :)

random worldwide introductions: england + colorado + illinois + new jersey

It's time again for random worldwide introductions! :)

In the weeks ahead, we will be working our way around the globe in a somewhat random fashion :) and doing introductions in suziebeezieland.

Up today: England, Colorado, Illinois and New Jersey.  Whoo hoo!

If you visit suziebeezieland regularly and currently live in England, Colorado, Illinois or New Jersey, please take a moment to introduce yourself to us (whether you're a newbie or an oldie) by answering the following questions:

1.  What is your name? 

2.  What do you enjoy about where you live?

3.  How do you typically spend your days? (Do you work outside the home? Stay home? Go to school? What?)  How do you like to spend your free time?

4.  If you were coming over to my house for dinner and I was also inviting three other famous people to join us, living or dead, fictional or real, with whom would you want to dine?

5.  If you were coming over to my house to visit and could have anything to drink that you wanted, what would it be?

I'm excited to see your answers. :)

doughnuts (super gross.)

Claire and I made doughnuts this morning. They were completely disgusting. I do not think I have ever tasted anything sweeter in my entire life, except maybe during the summer of '78, when Christy and I experimented with mixing powdered sugar into Hershey's chocolate syrup and adding chocolate chips.

I only managed to eat one-eighth of one doughnut, and I only let Claire eat one.

She ate the whole thing and thought it was perfect. :P

betsy mccall paper dolls

Let's just say for fun that I am old enough to remember Betsy McCall paper dolls in the back of McCall's magazine.  Not that I am, but if I were, I would tell you how it was so exciting each month, to see that magazine come in the mail and see those paper dolls, and sit down and cut them out with your mom.

So exciting. So exciting that when you see scans of Betsy almost four decades later, you get all crazy and want to tell your suziebeezieland ladies about it.

Or so I've heard.

Some nice woman has been kind enough to scan the first ten years of those paper dolls, and you can print them out for your own daughters. (Or your own selves, if you are like me and enjoy cutting out paper doll clothes. I think these would be really cute decorations pinned to a bulletin board or decoupaged onto something.)

She has made both 150 dpi and 300 dpi versions available, depending on how big and how clear you'd like the dolls to be.  If you feel confused about how to print them, come back here and leave a comment on this post and I'll talk you through it.

They are so adorable.

(And for the record, even if I did remember Betsy, I would not remember this first decade of Betsy.  I would remember well into the second decade.  If we were not speaking hypothetically.)

There are more printable vintage paper dolls here.

nigella's doughnut french toast

To the degree that I dislike Martha Stewart, I love Nigella Lawson.  I find her to be warm where Martha is cool, and self-deprecating where Martha is arrogant, and relaxed where Martha is uptight.  Also, I like that she always generously and enthusiastically credits her sources and inspiration, whereas Martha always pretends she invented every recipe herself.

Nine or ten years ago, when Bob was in the Navy and Claire wasn't yet in existence, I used to sit down in our basement television room in Virginia and watch Nigella Bites for hours on end.  I was just mesmerized by her prettiness and her accent and her command of English.  (She has an MA in English and medieval languages from Oxford.)  I loved her kitchen.  I loved her dining room with a fireplace in it. I loved her midnight snacking.

And of course the food.  Oh, the food.  Nigella seems to really understand the emotional aspect of food and eating. "Food is love," she says.

I was 3,000 miles away from my mom (who is a cook extraordinaire), and this really resonated with me. :)

All this to say, I was pretty excited to download the Nigella Quick Collection app ($3.99) for my phone recently. It's really neat.  There are about seventy recipes (ten are exclusive to the app, and the rest are from her cookbooks), and lots of videos and little tips.

The design of the app is really lovely, and there are some smart features . . . for instance, you can activate the voice command option for each recipe to tell it "forwards" or "backwards" so that you don't have to put your messy fingers on the phone screen when scrolling through the directions.

This morning Claire and I decided to make Nigella's Doughnut French Toast, which is from Nigella Express.  On first glance, it just looked like a regular French toast recipe, but it comes out crispier on the outside than any French toast I've made before.

I should mention that all we had around the house as far as bread goes is regular ol' white bread (American, mushy, flavorless, nutrient-poor), and if you leave two slices of it in the mix for five minutes per side, as she says, it will soak it all up completely.  So I guess these slices count as "large."  I cut them in half diagonally.

So I doubled the recipe to have enough for four slices of regular ol' white bread.  I'm sure it would taste better with a more substantial loaf, and of course American white bread gets so soggy when it's wet, but it still worked.

It makes for a very hearty breakfast, because you're getting two slices of bread, two eggs, a quarter cup of milk, and a bunch of butter and sugar in each serving.

It's really good. :)

Nigella's Doughnut French Toast

2 eggs

1/4 c. milk

4 tsps. vanilla extract

4 slices from a small white loaf OR 2 slices from a large white loaf, each large slice cut in half

2 Tbsps. butter, plus a drop of flavorless oil for frying

1/4 cup superfine (powdered) sugar

Beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla in a wide, shallow bowl.  Soak the bread in the eggy mixture for 5 minutes a side.  Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan, and fry the egg-soaked bread until golden and scorched in parts on both sides.  Put the sugar on a plate and then dip the cooked bread in it until coated like a sugared doughnut.

something to ponder: the goal of god's love

from an article entitled The Goal of God's Love May Not Be What You Think It Is by John Piper:

This is shocking.  The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God.  True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy.

palm desert

We're spending a few days in Palm Desert.  Last year when we came it was 116 degrees F, but this year it has cooled down quite a bit and has been 104.  It's lovely here, and relaxing.  

I've been messing around with the Hipstamatic app on my phone since I don't have my regular camera with me. I'm not a Hipsta :) but it's fun to play with.  I had a camera when I was little that took photos that looked very similar to these.

It is amusing to me how nostalgic and significant and deep and melancholy and important even the most mundane things become when you "vintage-ize" them. :)