Don’t miss my interview yesterday with poet Millicent Borges Accardi: https://writersite.org/2023/02/06/from-mrs-virtue-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-an-interview-of-millicent-borges-accardi/ Millicent talks about the teacher who instilled her love of poetry as a kid. It so happened that the teacher was the daughter of a famous poet. She talks about her Portguguese heritage, both generally and the literature as well.
In January, I had another ekphrastic piece, this time a poem, taken at Visual-Verse. I neglected to mention last time that we only get one hour to write these to the art prompts. It’s a very intense process. https://visualverse.org/submissions/the-tournament/
Are you interested in a Giveaway for Rooted and Winged? LibraryThing is running one right now. https://www.librarything.com/ner/detail/46725/Rooted-and-Winged
Main Street Rag has published my review of Justin Hamm’s Drinking Guinness with the Dead. While I can’t post a copy of the review as it’s a print issue, I can tell you I give it two thumbs up. Hamm’s work is really tied to the Midwest and its vast once-farmland, so while anyone would love it (I think), Midwesterners would especially cherish it.
My daughter’s wedding was a year ago this coming Sunday. So look what I made for daughter and son-in-law. A wedding junk journal.
I had to find this nifty little suitcase after I realized that with the fragility of the book (cuz junk) and their lifestyle the book wouldn’t last long without protection. I was able to add in their wooden ring boxes, little place cards, extra photos, and the napkins from their previous courthouse wedding where we drank blue prosecco and ate cookies. Last year’s wedding was the whole shebang because that’s what they like.
See inside on the left? That’s a little clutch I made out of plastic grocery bags to store the cassettes of their wedding music.
That project was loads of fun, but now I’m about hearted and laced and sweetthinged out.
Your anniversary present is lovely, Luanne. Thy should be pleased to receive it.
Thank you! I gave it to them already, and while I know SIL appreciated the work in it, daughter was thrilled. SIL is a chef so I gave them a box filled with high quality spices 😉 because I knew he would like that.
I’m glad to hear that the contents of the nifty little suitcase were well-received!
Me too!!!!
A thoughtful present, Luanne.
Thank you. It took a full year, but it was a labor of love. Now I have lots of Valentine-y ephemera left over heh.
🙂
You are so talented, Luanne. Is there anything you can’t do? What a thoughtful and original gift for your daughter and her husband. A treasure.
Thank you so much for calling it a treasure. I was so happy to make it for them. Haha, there is plenty I can’t do and others I can’t do as well as you: quilting, baking, novel-writing, and photography for starters.
It’s a good thing we all have something we’re good at or at least that brings us pleasure.
That’s for sure!
What a beautiful gift!! How thoughtful!
Thank you! I enjoyed working on it. Plenty of challenges arose, and I had to work my way through each one haha.
I’d be interested in hearing how the LibraryThing promo works for you in terms of getting reviews. I haven’t had much luck with them. I did better with BookSirens.
Yikes. OK, I will let you know. Were you disappointed in the number of reviews it netted you or the number of requesters?
Both. I had the sense that the best responses are for genre fiction.
No doubt!
Congrats on your poem! And … WOW … what a gift!! So much love went into it and it’s definitely the kind of gift that they’ll enjoy for years and years. (By the way, how did you make a clutch bag out of plastic bags??)
Thank you! So you cram a lot of plastic bags into a metal tray, and then you iron it with an iron until you make a plastic sheet that can be folded into a clutch. Then I painted it and made a fastener. Darned if I can remember how I fastened the sides. My memory is not what it used to be.
Beautiful gift, Luanne! I can’t believe their one-year anniversary is coming up…that’s crazy!
It seems unbelievable to me. And the courthouse wedding was almost two years ago! They did that because they had to postpone a wedding with guests because of Covid.
Your creativity (and energy) constantly astonishes me, Luanne! What a wonderful anniversary gift. Clever ekphrastic poem.
Good grief, Luanne! Is there no end to your creativity??
What a lovely present!!! You go!!
Hahaha. Thank you! Daughter loved it!
Luanne, a precious gift with so much thought and hard work (plus sweetness, heart & lace!) Presents like this are the best and ones that will be treasured!
Thank you so much, Annika. I knew daughter would like it because years ago she made me a scrapbook of my poetry which was really sweet.
And life is good. So many blessings to give and receive. Love the journal in the sweet little suitcase. You are a wonderful MIL to think of how your SIL would react.