In Praise of the 'Boob Tube'

People used to call TV the "idiot box" and it was a mindless way to occupy your mind. People who were "readers" often looked down on those who would prefer to watch the "boob tube" than pick up a book. There used to be talk of shows that "intellectuals" watched because it was considered "smart TV."  But lately, as in the last several years lately, more and more television is becoming less idiot box, less boob tube, and is just compelling as books.

I, for one, know I've watched more TV in the last several years than I have in my entire adult life. My access to Netflix and the ability to binge watch TV has heightened my awareness for what I think is good TV, and I'm willing to sacrifice my reading time to watch. Netflix is my hook. I didn't watch WEEDS when it was on; instead I watched hours and hours of it at a time. The same with LAW AND ORDER SVU and THE WEST WING. I became addicted, a junkie. If I wasn't at work or sleeping, I was watching. Because I could. Because it's GOOD. Because of my need to have the occasional instant gratification.  I didn't watched DEXTER or BREAKING BAD or TRUE DETECTIVES one episode a week, for years and years. No I waited and now I watch in big gulps.  I think we all now, have a tendency to binge watch a TV show, since we can stream entire series or seasons at a time- thank you technology for all the streaming capabilities!

The only television show I watch week after week, retiring to my chair, stopping the world, is to watch MAD MEN. Even with that, I didn't see the first 2 seasons when they originally aired. No, I rented them one season at a time from either the local library or video store but since then I've been hooked and I watched every Sunday night. And when it comes back on in February for the series finale, you can find me glued to my chair on Sundays at 10 pm to watch Don Draper and crew play out the advertising game to the bitter end, win or lose.

Let's face it, TV is good. It really is, and I know I don't even like most of the stuff that wins Emmys but I do LIKE lots of TV now. Good TV is a crack in the levee, but a flood is coming to Hollywood and the world of entertainment. There's going to be less theater movie watching (because TV is good AND movies are soooo bad right now!) and less reading. Records are showing that books sales are low and so are theater ticket sales. I know, that for one, because I'm watching more TV, I'm certainly reading less. In 2009 I read 117 books. Compare that to last year when I read a total of 67 books. This year, as of today, I'm at 51 books read. My other hobbies are being hit hard as well, but my reading is the one suffering most. When I have time to relax, I find I'm not minding spending some of that rare down time watching good television.  I think TV is better developing characters and story arcs, diving deeper into backgrounds, providing such rich visual details, plots evolve, characters evolve--- there's less stock characters and stereotypes, there is more textures to a story... some TV shows are taking on that book-like quality which leaves me wanting to watch.

 

I'll never abandon books for they are my true and constant companions, and I do love my other hobbies but right now, I'm enjoying what television has to offer. Bring on the 'boob tube.'

Yours,

Maggie

10- Take a scrapbook class

I took a scrapbook class, quite by accident. And for free. Yes, free.

This last weekend, Archiver's, a scrapbook chain store, was hosting a free 'make & take' project day. I happened to stumble in the store that day and had forgotten that was going on. Forgotten, I say because I get their online newsletters and knew it was scheduled but it had slipped my mind.

I was looking for a Mother's Day gift for Daddy-O (hey, he's the only parent I have left and often has to take on the role of mom AND dad to me, even though I'm almost 40 yrs old.) and the clerk asked if I wanted to do the 'make & take' of the day. Well, heck yeah I did.

Only ITSam with was with me. And it was to take an hour. And he had just spent 40 minutes waiting for me at Lane Bryant while I tried on pants. Which was not pretty.

But he said for me to go ahead and he would watch.

And he ended up helping!!!

It was cool. I got to use all their papers and supplies. I punched stuff out and got to play with some of the scrapbook/ card making toys. I used ribbon and buttons to make a flower, which I had never done before. It was pretty cool.

Everything we did was standard. What I mean is that every single person who came in was given the same materials and showed how to use the same tools and shown the template and then we could arrange it any way we wanted. It was actually 2 scrapbook pages- two completely different styles of scrapbooking. And one came with a sleeve protector.

It was pretty easy and fun to do.

I apologize in advance for my crappy pictures. I'm having camera issues (gee, how nice, just in time for graduation, damn it.) so I can't do lighting for crap (with or without the flash or plastic cover. It really seems to be a camera issue rather than a user one this time). But here's an attempt to show what I did.

Here is one page. This is a clear plastic sleeve with 6 slots. I filled 2 of them with scrapped projects. You can see one is black and the other is the green one. In the remaining 4 slots, I'll slide in pictures. In the one slot you can see little flowers and butterflies- those are to be adhered to the 4 pictures I use to tie it all together. I'm also supposed to put a picture in the yellow circle (the yellow circle on the green)

Here's a close up of the decoration panel. I have no idea what this is called. I was probably told but I don't remember.

Here's a close up of the black panel.

Here's the ribbon and button flower Sam made for me. I was having no luck with sticky stuff and ribbon. I was sticking everywhere but to the ribbon and it was nothing like a flower shape, either.

Here's a picture of a 3D butterfly that I "distressed" the edges to give it 'depth.'

Another 3D butterfly, that's dimensional (how is it 3D and dimensional, I want to know...?), without being distressed.

And finally, here's the other page, in finished form! It's the more traditional scrapbook style page think of when they think of scrapbooking. I'll drop in either 2 small picture on the green or one large one. And in the thing that looks like a piece of film across the bottom? I can add either small pictures or embellishments in those spots.

Pretty cool, eh? Don't I look talented?

And it was all free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost 40 and fabulous,
Maggie

What a bust!

Yesterday Hobby Lobby's email ad came out and they had two things Daddy-O wants: toys that go with his new Cricut machine, and an end table that looks like a stack of books.

Since the ad came out yesterday, and Hobby Lobbys are closed on Sundays so today is the first day of the sale. We drove all the way to Northern Civilization, about 45 minutes on way, and we went and guess what? There was not a damn Book table in the whole place, AND there were no Cricut machine accessories to be found either. It was a wasted trip.

Well... almost a wasted trip. Daddy-O and I had good conversation, we ate dinner at Cracker Barrel, I picked up the pottery XRay Girl and I painted a few weeks ago, and I bought Dunkin Donuts for tomorrow's breakfast so all is not lost.

Any trip that involves donuts is good.

We actually wondered if the weather threw off delivery or something since a bunch of the stuff in the ad wasn't in the store. Or if everyone and her sister was at Hobby Lobby this morning at the crack of dawn because they were jonesing for a book table and a Cricut cutting pad...

It was a Monday,
Mags

Pirates, Indians, and Soldiers- oh my!

Back in 1996 I attended my first re-enactment. I worked for a nationwide not for profit, but at the local level and one of my job requirements was to assist in fund raising and one of our fundraisers was selling food at a re-enactment. I thought this was going to be hokey and stupid and ridiculous. I thought it was a bunch of grown men playing "cowboys and indians". I thought it was a reason for adults to play dress up. I whined and moaned and begged my boss to Not make me do it. She said if I would do it one afternoon that first weekend and if I hated it she would never ask me to do it again.

Because the time period was the early 1800s, there's a level of authenticity that had to be captured by all participants, according tot he rules and regulations as stated by the event organizers. All I can say is then I thought "this is STUPID!" But I knew I was going to have to dress in the period. And after going through all the costumes we had on hand to loan to volunteers, I decided to have one made for me. If I had to do something stupid, I would at least look good- and then I was going to donate my "costume" to the agency for which I worked.

And because we were serving food, that meant we were just poor colonists so I had to look like... well, a Pilgrim basically, or Ma Ingols in Little House on the Prairie rather than being English or French elegance.

So I got a chemise, a skirt, a dust cap, a lace up bodice and an apron. And I went. And it was FUN. It was one of the most exciting and fun activities I've ever done. I loved dressing up. I loved the story concocted about myself and the group I worked for. I loved the smell of the fire, the other participants, the entertainment of it all, the guests, the smell of smoke, the reenactment, the living history-- I just loved all of it. And for the four years I worked for that office I went to the re-enactment from open to close both days.


One thing I've been looking forward to since I got back to Civilization was taking a trek to this reenactment. So last weekend Curley and I went and it was awesome. I swear I can eat my way from one end of the site to the other- I love all the food cooked over the open fire pits. We had ribeye sandwiches and kettle corn. I could've eaten more- like the huge turkey leg, the fry bread with homemade applebutter, the ear of corn dipped in butter, the pork chop wrapped in new paper... and that's what I can think of that I wanted but didn't eat.

The entertainment was great; there was music, tons of authentic vendors and the living history everywhere was the best of all. The re-enactment was amazing. It was amazing and fun. I talked to several folks who really bring it to life. There are participants from all over the US, Canada and France. And the Indians are HOT. And when I say pirates, I want to point out that I don't mean Capt. Jack Sparrow "arugh" pirates but French Fur Trappers and traders having "pirate" like battle on the river- which is actually historically accurate as well.

Enjoy the view here since you couldn't all go with me! (And there are more pictures here!)

Love it all!

Your future reenactment participant,
Maggie Mae

Some people don't like sewing...

Hecate bought a whole bunch of super cool fabric squares on ebay and me, being the crazy friend I am said I would help her make a quilt. She being the reasonable friend that she is thought we could make something smaller to start with to see if she likes quilting since she had never quilted in her entire life. And the last time she sewed anything was about 20 years ago when she was in junior high school.

So we decided to make a hipster purse. That we would quilt first. Well, that she would quilt under my tutelage.

She came to my house and after pouring over all her beautiful fabric, we had no clue what she was going to do. She had all colors from the rainbow selected and i was trying to arrange them to make some sort of sense. We didn't have a pattern for piecing the quilted part, just a pattern for the purse itself. So I took a piece of tissue paper and traced the 1/2 yard x 45 so we just had to arrange the 4 inch squares in this space.

We arranged the fabrics over and over until we developed a pattern- then, we started weeding out the colors and she had all...pinks and reds. Now all of you know I ADORE pinks and reds but Hecate isn't a pink person. So we hauled out all the black and reds and whites and replaced the pinks and suddenly we had a design and color scheme that she liked. Now all she had to do was piece the fabric, cut the batting and the backing, pin it together, quilt it- then we could cut all the purse pattern pieces and then sew the purse together! Simple! Yeah.....right.

So I park Hecate in front of the sewing machine and I show her how to match the squares and the direction in which to stitch. She sewed them altogether, then she stitched the strips. And we found that we had worked for about...3 hours. And that's all that was done. And Hecate was done. She didn't really like sewing, or quilting. She like did picking the fabric and arranging our own pattern.

I was very excited about the whole project and those of you who know me know I can be HAPPY! and highly ENERGETIC! about things that I find FUN! Some might consider me BOUNDLESSLY ENTHUSIASTIC! and PERKY! I was afraid that I was trying to take over her sewing project by volunteering to do different parts of it, and by trying to give her helpful hints and creative ideas! Ummmmmm-- she wasn't buying.

I'll be finishing the quilt top, adding the padding and the backing and then quilting it. Then I'll be evoking the help of my dear friend that I love so much and who is creative and a wonderful seamstress who is going to help me put it together as a purse- if I need it!

Then Hecate will have a purse.

And I will have completed (with a little help from my friends...) another quilting project!

And I just can't figure out why she didn't think sewing a 4 inch long seam over 50 times was fun?!?

All sewn up,
Mags

Hobbies aplenty, but...

I have lots of things I enjoy doing that I consider hobbies but I rarely indulge in all of them. Sometimes it's because of energy level or money or just space. Do any of you have lots of hobbies but only do just a few of them, wishing and wondering why you never do all the stuff you like? Am I the only idiot who has no idea how to spend her free time? Am the only idiot who feels guilty when I don't indulge in ALL my hobbies? Oh, probably!

What weenie excuses I realize, but it is so much easier to curl up in a chair and read a book- reading is certainly a hobby of mine since I average about 10 books a month and I love trying to read new things, often straying from my favorite genre of contemporary female sleuths. I think I read so much, so often because for the last many, many years I've been teaching and much of my spare time involved reading stuff for classes that I was either taking or teaching. So though I HATE being "unemployed" (I don't have a full time professional job so I consider MYSELF unemployed, not anyone else, mind you. Just my own personal status.) I do like having all the time to read. I'm trying out new things, which you can see from my book blog.

I consider blog writing and reading a hobby. I love to write and since I'll probably never have a book published (though here lately I've had a regular reader from Random House hitting my blog- no book deal offered yet!) this is a fun way to get my writing out of my system and indulge my own self with an audience- so thank you to all of you who read and feed my dream of being an author. And I love reading blogs- people are so interesting and I love to see what's up with these "online friends" I've made.

I also love to quilt but that's one of those things that take money and space. I do have lots of material and I could make several quilts without having to spend much actually, so I guess the "bucks" is just a bad excuse. I really like quilting, I really do but seriously, I haven't done it since I moved back here simply because it's something to lug out, spread out and then have to clean it all up. I just don't have a place where I can hook up the sewing machine and leave the fabric spread out all the time. It's just a pain in the ass to haul it out and put it back.

I feel the same way with my scrapbooking stuff. I have tons of that and love to do it, but again, it's a matter of spreading it all out. I even have all the paper, stickers, photos, but no place to just DO it.

I've decided that I consider watching movies a hobby and keep track of what I watch on my movie blog. That can count, right? I've always loved going to the movie theater and I'll spare ya'll and not wax poetic about that again, but I've been watching lots of movies on DVD. I also consider watching the seasons of some favorite TV shows as watching "movies" and a hobby. I don't really watch much TV to just sit and watch, but I have a few shows I enjoy so I like making sure I've watched them all so I rent them on DVD. That might not be so much a hobby as catering to my OCD...

Cooking is another hobby but that's a money issue. I get a few cooking mags and I love reading recipes and marking what I want to cook but that costs money and while Daddy-O is generous with groceries I hate to say "hey let's buy 2 pounds of crab so I can make Italian Bread Crab cakes" or whatever has struck my fancy. I've always loved to cook and I can follow a recipe. The thing that sucks is that Mac is a picky eater so I would rarely get experimental with cooking for him. And it's hard to cook elaborately for 1; ya end up eating the "whatever" for a week.

I do take pictures and enjoy being a VERY amateur photographer but it's nothing I do with consistency. I have an idea for another blog where I would like to photograph interesting people and then briefly highlight something unique about them, their stories. But I'm not sure of that. Part of me wants to do it anonymously but there could be a legal issue with featuring people without their permission. But as for just taking photos, I do so enjoy it.

Should I even go into gardening? Years ago I had a veggie garden and lots of flower beds. Then I became rather nomadic and gave up on gardens and house plants. But I do love veggie gardens and flower gardens. I'm armed with knowledge on how to plant vegetables, herbs and to make an English flower garden if I had the money and space to do such a thing.

Oh hell, maybe I'm just full of excuses as to why I don't do anything other than read, blog and play on the Internet, take pictures, or plop my ass in front of the movies. I do love doing all these things, whether I do them often or not. And since I do just work 2 (sometimes 3) part time jobs you would think I could find TIME to do things. I'm such a bum, a loser, a worthless layabout sometimes! Wouldn't it be marvelous to get paid for having a hobby? I'd be rather flush! So, I supposed I should sign off here and go do... something!

So much fun to do but...,
Maggie

Retail Therapy Day 4- Why I *heart* Hobby Lobby

I love to go to Hobby Lobby even if I never buy anything. I can spend hours in Hobby Lobby just walking around, wandering aimlessly through the aisles and soaking it all in.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of a Hobby Lobby experience, I pity you. But the general idea is that it's a large craft store, primarily. And I mean everything for just about every crafter: paints, bolts of fabric, patterns, beads, scrapbook stuff, wood burning, silk flowers, jewelry making stuff, skeins of yarn, colored cotton balls, doll house kits, doll house furniture, stamps, and... and... and... everything you can possibly imagine for doing crafts and hobbies. There's even a whole row of flip flops with patterns to make your own toe topper on them- and all the stuff- feathers, ribbons, beads, sparkles, bangles- you name it, Hobby Lobby has it.

Hobby Lobby also sells unique furniture pieces and things for the home like pictures, picture frames, tchotchke, pillows, vases, faux art and the like. They also sell holiday party items, bird bathes and garden statuary, greeting cards and have a section of the store that does framing. I'm not kidding when I say this place has everything!

I love to go if I need something because they always have it. I got all my quilting supplies there. I love to go when I don't need anything. It's fun to just browse because you never know what you'll find. I am not kidding, but I have literally spend hours just walking around Hobby Lobby.

This store makes me happy. So if you've never been, find one and go get lost. Even if you have no hobbies, it's worth a looky-loo!

Crafters delight,
Maggie