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House Excavations: The Makings of Childhood

House Excavations: The Makings of Childhood The sorting continues …. The past number of weeks, I’ve been packing boxes with books and décor, trying to sort as I go. There’s no sense moving stuff we no longer want. And when you’ve lived in a house for close to 30 years, it’s amazing how much stuff accumulates that you no longer have a use for or, worse yet, never had a use for and can’t figure…

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art design

Another Necklace Made

Once I’m on a creative roll with something, I tend to keep it going for a little while until I’m on to something new. I made three new necklaces within the past few weeks. After seeing them posted here on my blog, a friend expressed an interest in having one, so I made one for them this week. It was a great excuse to go bead shopping and spend time picking out a nice arrangement…

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art design museums projects

In the Flow Making Necklaces

In the midst of sorting and packing household items in order to prepare for a move, I took some time to engage in a creative project. Not that sorting and packing can’t be creative … they’re just not creative in quite the same way as making something new. I spent about four hours making three new bead necklaces. While I was making these necklaces, I listened to music and podcasts, though I was only half-listening…

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art family history reading

Seventeen – Another Novel Based on History

I posted a few weeks ago about a novel I read, “The Art Forger,” that was based on a historical event, the theft of numerous works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Since that time, I have read another novel based on a historical event. This one is called “Seventeen” by Hideo Yokoyama. I found a hardcover copy at a local dollar store and was so taken with the cover art and description…

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Teasing Out the Real History in Historical Fiction

Note: This post contains spoilers for the novel “The Art Forger” by B.A. Shapiro. I finished reading “The Art Forger” by B.A. Shapiro this week. The novel reminded me of the movie “National Treasure.” “The Art Forger” would lend itself well to being turned into a movie because of the action and intrigue. (Though there are other movies about art forgers, I could not find one based on this book.) In it, we are treated…

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