Kristin Cashore's Blog, page 13

Two Seven-Year-Olds Write Two Letters

My twin nieces live in Jacksonville, FL, an area that generally votes red, but only by a couple percentage points.

After the election, one of my nieces noticed that the neighbors had taken down their Hillary sign, and she worried that the neighbors were sad. So she wrote them a letter.

from: your neighbor [name redacted]
I Loved your Hilary sine

We are glad you Love Hiorlory.
We do too. I Loved your
Clinton Sine. and we
are Sad Trump won.
He is soooooooooooo
oooooooooooooo
ooo mean. But
were Glad Hilary
tride. I hope you saw
her speches?

(Final version of the letter, edited to strike a more positive note:)
We are glad you Love Hiorlory.
We do too. I Loved your
Clinton Sine. and we
are Sad Trump won.
We Hope He lernds
to Be nise. But
were Glad Hilary
tride. I hope you saw
her speches?
My other niece also wrote a letter (and you can too).
go Hilray
you are the Best
you tryed
Thank you for making us proud.
Hillary Clinton
PO Box 5256
New York, NY 10185-5256

SNL's beautiful tribute to Hillary and Leonard Cohen

In a week during which we lost both the election and Leonard Cohen, SNL's response was perfect. Press play. (And don't read the comments.)

Love Still Trumps Hate

"Are you fighting the Black Thing?” Meg asked.

“Oh, yes,” Aunt Beast replied. “In doing that, we can never relax."

—Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

An article in the Huffington Post that helps: What Do We Tell the Children?

(Thanks to Jess and Catherine.)

Sara Bareilles and Leslie Odom, Jr.: "Seriously"

This American Life asked Sara Bareilles to imagine what President Obama might be thinking about the current election and that horrible person, but can’t say publicly. Leslie Odom, Jr., performs the song. (There's a lot of hatred and bitterness in the youtube comments. Skip them.)

To my grandmas, my great aunts, and all the women who never got a chance to vote for a woman for President....

We went to the polls today for you.

Today's Election-Free Zone: Fall Foliage in Mount Auburn Cemetery

Leaf season this year has been (1) late and (2) more muted than average. My walk through the cemetery on Tuesday wasn't as spectacular as it is some years -- but it was still beautiful. Especially for those of you who don't get to experience a New England fall, here are some pictures :o)

Today's Election Free Zone: Halloween Pictures!

This summer I turned 40. This means that my life has become a model of solemnity and propriety.





So yes! This year we were the White Rabbit...

...and the Mad Hatter.

The genesis of this costume was this fascinator at Doramarra's shop on Etsy, which I've owned for a while but been stymied by. It's certainly evocative of the Mad Hatter, but it looks nothing like the hat the Mad Hatter wears, so I was afraid it wouldn't work as a costume. I'm glad we decided to try it, because this ended up being a lot of fun. I added a ribbon and the sign to the fascinator. I made the shirt and the corset, and even made spats. The ruffle on the shirt and decoration on the spats is one of those fabric ribbons with wire running through each edge, for wrapping fancy presents. The wire gave me control over the shape of the ruffles, which was great.

I found the leggings and the wig online, slapped on some sparkly makeup, and that was it. Kevin wore his own suit, carried one of my umbrellas, and got his hat/ears and pocket watch online. We made him a matching bowtie, painted his hair white using face paint (works much better and is much less disgusting than colored hair spray), and painted him a nose and whiskers. Done!

Thanks to Tim Correira for the photo booth, and LuQ and Irina (Mad Hatter #2 and Edward Scissorhands) for joining us!

Today's Election-Free Zone: Slow Blanket in Progress :o)

For those of you who read my blog posts via Twitter, sorry if I've been flooding you with old posts. The feed I used to use (Twitterfeed) is shutting down soon, so I've had to start a new feed (dlvr.it). I'm pretty sure it re-posted a lot of stuff right away. Apologies, too, if new posts tweet twice for a few days. I want to make sure the new feed is 100% working before I cancel the old feed.

So, I knitted someone a blanket last Christmas. It was my first ever non-washcloth knitting project and it was a massive undertaking, not to mention a great success.

And after I gave the blanket to its intended recipient... I missed it. :o)

So I decided to make a blanket for myself, slowly. I'm knitting 63 individual squares, each lined in black crochet. Here's where I am so far...


Most of the squares have a simple pattern of vanishing squares.

But some of the squares are specialer.
Since I don't expect you to be able to tell, that's a hummingbird.
That's a turtle,
that's an umbrella,
and that's a Dalek.
I'm honestly not sure how much I like it. It's sort of like a book; until I finish it -- like, really finish it -- I can't quite see what it is and am mildly suspicious that it's dreadful.

Which is of course no reason not to proceed.

After that? I am dying -- DYING -- to get the world's fattest wool and knit one of these blankets, possibly using my arms as my knitting needles. I have no idea how to do this or what it costs (I can't imagine that yarn is cheap), and I don't have time to research it at the moment. But hopefully one of these is in my future.

More irrelevant randutiae when I get a chance :o).

Today's Election-Free Zone: Incredible Body-Painting

Japanese artist Chooo-San does the most incredible stuff with face- and body-paint, some of it creepy and scary, some of it just plain beautiful. Here's a representative collection of her stuff at My Modern Met.

Reminds me that I need to sort out the makeup for my (much less spectacular) Halloween costume, which I promise I'll post pictures of here, provided it all comes together :o). Here's a hint.

Today's Election-Free Zone: Paris's Independent Shopfronts and their Owners

At The Guardian, I love these gorgeous photos of the Parisian owners of indie shops standing in their own doorways. A chocolaterie, a patisserie, a pharmacie that makes me think of the TARDIS (sorry), a shop of homemade marionettes and toys, even a shop for pesticides and rodent traps (Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles). Photos taken by German photographer Sebastian Erras. Here at Snapshots: the shopfronts of independent Paris.