Just Read(ing): The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, by Caroline Preston

[a page from the book]

Caroline Preston loves vintage ephemera.  According to her bio, she spent hours in the attic of her parents' home with generations of scrapbooks as a girl and worked as an archivist as an adult.  This love of ephemera and archives grew into The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, which is something like a graphic novel--it's a story told through an artful mix of 1920s memorabilia and captions typed on a vintage Corona typewriter and assembled by Preston.  It is also really fun to read.  I'm only two chapters in, but this book is so different and fun that I wanted to share already.  I got a copy at the library, but I might have to buy it for myself if the rest of the book is as fun to read.

Your Brain on Fiction

[by Madeline Tosh on Flickr]

Oh, hey there.  I haven't had much to say lately, just other things to do.  I'm not a regular blogger anymore and finally admitted it to myself.  Now I'm admitting it to you.  So hello again.

Here's something I couldn't help sharing: a New York Times article about the brain on fiction.  This morning, Kathrin of Annekata shared this article by Annie Murphy Paul.  The article presents the results from studies of brain activity while reading.

I particularly love the concluding lines of the article:

"Reading great literature, it has long been averred, enlarges and improves us as human beings. Brain science shows this claim is truer than we imagined."

How wonderful is that?

Imagination

Emerge, by Fréya Eté

My imagination has been slow lately.  Ideas seem to be just on the other side of a gauzy curtain--I can see their shapes but not well enough.  So I've gone searching for inspiration, and found Freya Art.  These words and illustrations, paired together, are stirring those creative thoughts now.  Good words and good art have a way of doing that, no?

Good Words

please send good into the world print by Jessica Swift

Sometimes, I need some good words.  Sometimes, they're inside me; other times, they're in a book.  Every now and then, I stumble across them.

Yesterday, I was craving some good words, and found them in my google reader, two posts in a row.  One was a post on Oh, Hello Friend about a marriage retreat Danni attended with her husband.  The other was some poetic prose, musing on how we live in a world like this one, from Elizabeth Lives.  Both resonated with me, with their simple honesty about living and loving, about believing what is true about yourself and your life and your beloved.  So I don't have any more words for you today.

Weathering the Weather

Some crazy and some horrible weather ripped through the south and midwest on Friday.

One town, Henryville, is just twenty miles from where I live and was decimated.  A friend of mine grew up there--her family home was south of the tornadoes, but her high school and other places she knows well are shattered. 

My home church has a retreat center/summer camp just outside of town that is still standing and recently got power back.  They are providing shelter and food to those who need it.  You can see what work is being done--and what needs they have--by visiting Country Lake's facebook page.  

Now, we have snow on the ground.  Louisville is quiet and peaceful--and thankfully in the right position to provide help to our neighbors in the state and just over the river.  

Found: Bean Forest (and happy Friday!)

I almost broke my spending freeze (on day two!) to pick up a few of these buttons from Bean Forest on Etsy.  I probably will, later.  For now, I'll just laugh at the humor that perfectly suits an English major.  Check out the art/lit/history/music section if you love books and could use a laugh.  Oh, and have a very happy Friday and weekend!

Sidenote:  Unfortunately, I don't love the whole shop.  Some of the buttons have a mean-spirited social/political bent to them and that is one of my biggest pet peeves .  Actually, it IS my biggest pet peeve.  It doesn't matter if you're partially right--you can still be polite!  And don't generalize about people!  Ugh.  Still, these particular buttons made me laugh so much that I had to share them anyway.

Freeze Two

Spring is approaching, we have unseasonably warm weather, and I am finally going outdoors with fewer than three layers.  We never had a proper winter, but I still enjoy the advent of sixty-degree days.

As the weather warms and freezes become a thing of the past, though, I'm starting a new freeze.  Last year, my spending freeze only lasted a month.  This year, I'm taking on a longer challenge: from today, the beginning of a new month, through the end of April, I will not make any purchases besides groceries, gas, and actual necessities (medicine, soap, and the like).

I might try a freeze or two in other areas of my life, like this really delicious looking orange freeze.  It looks quite simple, too.  The recipe (originally from Parents magazine) is available here.