Book Release Party

Book Release Party
Friday, August 29th, 6:00-8:30
Ornamentea, Raleigh

If you are in the area please come to my book release party this Friday night. There will be yummy noshes and I would love to see you. We'll have many of the samples from the book available to see and touch, you can look over the book and I'll even sign it if you want me to. I guess that's what authors do, right, sign their books? I have no idea what I will write. My husband has offered up "I hope you'll fil-agree this is a great book" but, uh, well, he is an engineer and not a writer.

Even if you don't want me to write anything in your book, come to the party. You can see some of the projects in person and register to win a Filigree Surprise package with loads of my private stock of filigree lovelies.

What will I wear? I may see my friend Cheryl at Galatea for a dress, what do you think of this one? It has big rusty dots and I think I'd wear it for years, plus it's super-packable rayon so I will be ready for my multi-city book tour. That's a joke. Unless I do a signing at my brother's in Ohio I think my only 'tour date' will be here in Raleigh. The dress would still look good for my regular life of beading and grocery shopping and glamorous play dates with Nora and Cleo.

The tote bag dilemma

Hello my name is Cynthia and I am addicted to tote bags.

There, I said it. But really, I can't help it. I love to throw way too much stuff in a bag and just have it there with me. I am not now and have never been a tiny purse kind of woman. In high school I carried this giant neon pink bag with a huge buckle on the side one year and the next year I had a newspaper carriers bag that I dyed purple (it was the 80's.) Both bags were probably half the size of my body and would fit my disc camera, a swim suit and cap and goggles and a huge bag of hair care products. Did I say it was the 80's? I was going through an Andy Warhol phase and took pictures of everyone and everything with my disc camera and I was on the swim team. Hair care products? Again, it was the 80's.

So now I have a stable of tote bags that I can cycle through but I am always adding new ones. My husband doesn't understand why I need a new one, and when I think about it too long I could agree with him if the totes weren't so darn useful. They end up getting used as storage, not just as purses. I have one packed with my wool roving. It hangs on a hook in the studio and looks pretty and if I need to evacuate the roving in a hurry, I am set. I keep another tote filled with magazine clippings that inspired me when I saw them. It sits on a shelf in the bedroom and looks prettier than a pile of magazine clippings. Somehow keeping related crafting supplies in a tote makes me think that I will do some crafting en plein air* someday soon.

My newest addition to the tote bag stable is pictured above. We have a few more at the stores. I love the pastiche of flowers for a bit of late summer color and it was made by the very funny and socially conscious folks at Blue Q. It can hold bins filled with beads and my Rhodia pad filled with all the info on the new book...plus a bunch of hair care products if that ever becomes necessary.



*en plein air is painting outside...sounds nice, huh?