Weekend Travels

On the way to State College, Pa.

So, this happened at the Penn State Arboretum!!!

The Penn's Cave Tour was so good. I loved that you got to ride in a boat the whole time. The caves were really beautiful. I highly recommend Penn's Cave if you are going to be in the area.

Getting ready to ride The Racer with Sarah at Kennywood.

This is our cat Lala's silent protest that we were going to leave her for a the second weekend in a row.

It has been so  busy around here for the past two weekends. I have had so much fun. It was really nice for Dante and me to get away for a long weekend, and I am so excited that were are engaged. I had a great time last weekend hanging out with our family in Ohio. I wish I would have taken more pictures of that weekend, though. As much fun as it was, I am so glad to be back home and back to our regular routine. I missed my bed.  Hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend.

Peace Love and Trees,

Kelli

Exploring: Beauty and the Beast

Hi everyone! So, before we begin, I just want to tell you about my obsession with fairy tales, myths, and legends. I love them. I love that they expose human emotion in a magical way, both the good and the evil. I love that they are often dark. I love the symbolism they use. They are always the books and stories I go to first, and this has been the same for my entire reading life.

So, I just finished an amazing book: A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas. And because the book was cleverly inspired by the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast, as well as some other great fairy tales, I have become obsessed with the tale. So, today we're going to explore the myth!

Full of destiny, love, and violence, Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairy tales. It was originally written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756, but drew heavily from many other fairy tales. "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" is one of my favorite versions, starring a polar bear in place of the 'hideous beast', where the beauty must save her Prince from the clutches of a troll queen.

Even farther back, the tale of Beauty and the Beast draws heavily from the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, where Eros and Psyche fall in love, but thanks to a cruel twist of fate, Psyche is betrothed to a hideous snake-like dragon, who nightly comes to her bed. It is too dark to see her lover, but her sisters devise a plan. They tell her to bring a candle, and when the nightly visitor arrives, she lights the candle to see what he looks like. She does just that, scaring away the beast (who is Eros, of course). Thus begins the tale of Psyche desperately trying to find Eros, so they can be reunited.

The retellings of Beauty and the Beast (and there are so many!) almost always include these things: a beast (or hideous creature), a young beautiful girl (usually the youngest of three daughters), a Prince under a spell, the girl has to leave her family because _______, she almost loses her beast husband because ______, she finds/wins him in the end and they marry.

One analysis of the tale is that it was written to explain arranged marriage. The woman sees her husband as a 'beast' because she does not know him. He is foreign and terrifying, but once she gets to know him, she finds happiness with him- and he is magically transformed into a handsome prince! Happily ever after is obtained.

I hope you found this post interesting! What is your favorite fairy tale? Leave your comments below!

-Sarah.


For more Beauty and the Beast inspired tales, check out these great stories:

Beauty by Robin McKinley
East by Edith Pattou (A "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" retelling)
The Bloody Chamber and other stories by Angela Carter
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold by Francesca Lia Block
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier
The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey

Top five tools I use for Paper Crafting

Hello everyone.Today I want to share my go to tools for all my paper crafting projects. These are the five items I cant live with out. When I could I attached a link to the product name so you could see where I purchased each item.

Elmer's Craft Bond - Extra Strength

I cant say enough good things about this glue stick. When it comes to paper on paper gluing action this is the best one. The hold is so strong. The glue goes on blue so its easy to see but dries completely clear so you don't have to be super precise. 

Stamp Cleaning Pad

Bear with me here folks, this is a weird one. I do not usually use this pad to clean my stampers. Sometimes I will embroider a design on paper. Since paper doesn't have the natural holes that fabric does for embroidery you have to make the holes before you start stitching. The foam backside of the stamp cleaning pad is perfect for this task. I just set the paper on top of the foam and punch tiny holes with a needle that follow the design I created. It makes the task super simple.

Darice Crafting Knife

This has been a good solid crafting knife for me. I have been able to cut out some pretty detailed items, like the feather in  the picture above. I also really like that the other end of this knife is pointed. It helps pop out the piece that I cut. 

Darice Self-healing Cutting Mat

This one kind of speaks for its self. I use this mat when using the craft knife to cut out my designs. The best part about this particular one, is the size. The mat measures 11"x 8" which is a pretty good size when working with standard size card stock. I like that it isn't as big as some of the other mats out there.  It fits nicely on my Martha Stewart Scoring Board, which in turn fits nicely on my lap, for those times when I want to craft sitting on the couch.

Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Seriously I don't know what I would do with out this thing. I have always has a hard time measuring paper precisely with just a ruler. If I did manage to draw the lines straight,  I still have a hard time cutting in a straight line. This board solves both problems. It makes it really easy to measure out what size paper I want. Then after scoring the lines the scissors sit nicely in the grove which helps keep them on track. Win, win!!

Hope everyone enjoyed this list, I would love to hear what your go to paper crafting tools are. Please let me know down in the comments section

Peace, Love and Trees

~Kelli

Get to Know us Q and A

Hello everyone!! We are are so excited to post out first blog entry. We wanted to let everyone know a little more about ourselves other than what we have posted in our About section. To make it a little more interesting, we each came up with ten fun questions for the other person to answer. Let's jump right in.


First up are the questions that Kelli asked Sarah:

1. If you could be any character from a book, who would it be?

Harry Potter

2. Favorite condiment?

Hot sauce! I love it on practically everything.

3. Which would you prefer happened: Hostile Alien Invasion or a  Zombie Apocalypse?

As much as I hate zombies, a zombie apocalypse. We are actually somewhat prepared for this.

4. What did you have for breakfast today?

Instant peaches and cream oatmeal and two turkey sticks.

5. Favorite Disney villain?

Hades

6. Biggest pet peeve?

Bad drivers

7. Best vacation you went on?

Going to Dublin for school. It was so beautiful!

8. OK, you just got your hair did. You step out of the salon and its starts pouring rain, what book do you sacrifice to protect your new hairstyle?

Hahaha, the book wrapped in the protective layer of my purse! No book will ever be harmed by me, even bad ones.

9. Cake or Pie?

Pie, anything tart like cherry or raspberry.

10. Favorite comedian?

Robin Williams 

And here are the questions that Sarah came up with for Kelli:

1. If you could choose to be any mythical creature, which would you be?

Fairy

2. What is your favorite snack?

Chips, I love a good salty snack

3. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go? And if you could get there ANY way you wanted how would you choose to travel?

Ireland, I would take the Nautilus submarine from The League of Extraordinary Gentleman

4. What is you favorite movie series?

Indian Jones

5. Which book would you be most happy to have if you were ever deserted on an island?

The Otherland Series By Tad Williams. Sorry, I cheated. I cant pick just one book.

6. Name three things you have to have if you know you are going to be bored somewhere

Book, cell phone and a notebook

7. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?

Marine Biologist

8. If you could choose a super power of the person you most dislike, what would you give him/her?

Mind reading, That way they could read my thoughts to know all the mean things I was thinking about them

9. Deep Space or Deep Sea:Which would you prefer to explore and why?

Deep Sea, hands down.There is so much to explore right here, no reason to go anywhere else

10. If you could have power over one of the elements, which would you choose?

Earth, how cool would it be to reach your hand down in the soil and make something grow.

Hope you enjoyed this post! How would you answer the questions? Leave some comments down below!