It occurs to me that I might be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
That's right! I wear mismatched earrings, I read children's books in public, and I exist solely for the purpose of helping my love interests find their true calling. Okay, maybe not so much the last one. My life-changing advice to be-loved ones usually turns out to be "Stop being a nerfherder and get out of bed" and "Go read [Michelle Tea, Grace Llewellyn, Kate Bornstein]; she'll rock your world." Not so much the stuff of classic movies, alas.
That said, I do like body adornment. Having been a fan of mehndi since the body art craze of the late nineties, I recently got my hands on a Mini Henna Body Painting Kit from Earth Henna. The contents: a cone of henna, a tiny bottle of solution, an even wee-er bottle of eucalyptus oil, some reusable tattoos as starters, and a couple of q-tips and toothpicks to do cleanup work on the designs themselves.
Being a real girl and not the fevered imaginings of a lonely director, I did my research on the subject to determine whether or not I felt it appropriate to undertake henna painting as a medium. My final thoughts on the subject that while I would feel uncomfortable using other culture's motifs on myself, I don't believe it is wrong to use the material, any more than it would be wrong for another culture to use egg tempera or gold leaf in their art. Besides, it's much safer than the beautifying materials of my ancestors. (The Romans favored lead and tin oxide in their cosmetics. Ouch.)
The instructions are simple. Pour the solution into the powder, seal it up (it ziplocks closed), and roll it around in your hands to get out the lumps. Wait two hours, and then squeeze it into the bottle the solution had come in. I managed to get through all of that easily until the bottle part. My advice: shove the cone as far down into the little bottle and fill from the bottom up. If you get any henna paste in the bottle neck, it's going to make things infinitely harder.
Once that's done, you attach the decorating tip and have at any bare bits of skin. I chose my foot, googling some Roman decorative motifs to practice with (as I'm a quarter Roman myself). It's a bit tricky to get used to, as painting with paste uses different hand movement than sketching or watercoloring, both mediums that I've grown up with. Catherine Cartwright-Jones has a beginner's guide to the technique of creating different tradition motifs that was incredibly useful.
After you've created your design, it takes about a half hour (for thin small designs) to an hour for the paste to dry fully. To get a dark stain, Earth Henna recommends leaving the paste on for 6 hours. I put a sock on and went to bed, waking up to a nice dark orange stain when I washed off the paste on Sunday morning which deepened to a beautiful shade of blood orange on Monday.
I would recommend Earth Henna to anybody curious to dip their toes into henna body art but not quite ready to deal with the nuances of mixing their own. Everything in the kit is naturally derived, but as with everything you stick on your body, do an allergy spot test first. My usually rather sensitive skin suffered no ill effects. The solution does use Walnut Oil, so do not use this kit if you have nut allergies. The decorating tip is very, very small; it looks as if I'm going to need to use a beading needle to clean it. As it was, I used a bit of E-string, as it was the thinnest piece of wire I had in my room. (Don't worry, Laura...your Christmas present is still intact.)
My kit was overpriced at 21 dollars, 6 bucks over the MSRP, purchased at the East/West Bookstore. I was disappointed, especially since their prices and selection of products are generally good for what you get.
Overall: it's messy but fun, and not a bad way to get started. My recommended reads on the subject are Mehndi by Carine Fabius for technique, Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting by Loretta Roome for history, and The Art of Mehndi by Sumita Batra for beautiful photography and patterns. Catherine Cartwright-Jones offers a number of free henna and body art related ebooks on her website, along with information about different kinds of body painting such as gorgeous Zardosi henna (done with glitter gel) and Celtic woad.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Review: Mini Henna Body Painting Kit by Earth Henna
Monday, August 18, 2008
Be Interesting:The Manny Files by Christian Burch
The manny told Lulu to wear lots of feathers and sequins like Liberace. India told me that Liberace is a fancy French cheese that is served with red wine. I guess you wear feathers and sequins when you eat it.
I'm going to order it the next time I'm at a fancy restaurant.
This book is wasted on the young.
Harsh words from a sunshine-and-daisies blog, I know. But truly. The Manny Files, by Christian Burch, is a book for cool aunts, savvy librarians, and well-meaning older sisters to gift to their lucky younger charges. When they do, the kid will enjoy the over-the top exuberance, crazy family situations, and general warm fuzziness.
The adults, however, will get all the jokes.
Keats Dalinger is a misfit, even in his own weird, artsy, loving family. Oldest sister Lulu is precocious and knows it, a girl who dresses like Frida Kahlo for Halloween (complete with papier mache heart) and . India, the next in line, charms all with her flashy outfits and assertion that she'll "get by on her looks." Youngest sister Mirabelle, called Belly, likes making potions in the kitchen but doesn't like wearing clothes. Keats loves three things: writing, making art, and quality clothing. (His birthday purchase? A pair of red cashmere socks.)
Enter the male nanny, called Manny: the long-lost child of Auntie Mame and the Tenth Doctor, bald, bespectacled, and with enough savoir faire and manic energy to charm 3/4s of the Dalinger clan. He picks the kids up from school in costume, holds theme dinners complete with surprise pinatas, and packs tropical fruit in their lunches. His charm and genuine love for life touches everyone they meet.
Lulu, naturally, hates him. Thus, she starts The Manny Files, carefully noting all of his offenses. These range from fort-building to impromptu musical numbers to . With the manny's injunction to "Be Interesting" on his mind, he finds that Lulu's shadow is no place worth living in, and comes into his own talents. While dealing with unruly bullies and his beloved grandmother's illness, Keats finds that being his own person and refusing to back down from his beliefs leads to true happiness. Awww.
The Dalingers are destined to go down in kidlit history as one of the warmest, happiest families you've never met, right next to the Krupnicks and Penderwicks. Lulu's a pill, but Keats's narration always gets one over on her pompousness; if that doesn't work, saying "armpit" will send her running from the room. The parents are more of an enigma than canasta-playing Grandma or Uncle Max, who paints naked people reading books, but their love for and acceptance of Keats' unique personality is touching and very, very important. (His idea of the perfect surprise dinner guests are Elizabeth Taylor and Andy Warhol. I love him.) It warms my heart, truly, that books like this are published. The writing style is simple but the humor is quick, and pop culture reference that lose younger readers will set their elders howling. I can see how some would say that the Manny's personality is playing to a stereotype, but I know many people like him. You may know one too, someone that delights everyone they meet, always has something fun up their sleeve and takes the time to truly listen as well--and I don't think it's limited to any one orientation.
The Manny Files is funny, eccentric, and life-affirming; it's recommended with all my heart.
(P.S.: I totally want to be The Manny when I grow up. As a children's librarian.)
*Read an excerpt from The Manny Files
*Christian Burch's webspot on SimonSays.com
*His brand-new website
*His blogfest postings
*Fuse #8's wonderful review (Betsy Bird is my blogging idol.)
*The sequel, Hit the Road, Manny, comes out in September. I'll be reserving my copy!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Things Were Only Halfway Perfect: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
I picked up this one in a bookshop in Cape May, for the long drive back home after my family's annual trip to the Jersey Shore. I forget who it was that the books you read are forever after tinged with the memories of the place you read it (I think it was Inkheart). In this case, it was a fitting match: old-fashioned beauty with present-day grit showing through at the edges.
The Waverly women are gifted in a way their town quietly tolerates, especially when Claire Waverly turns her family's mysterious garden into the source of a lucrative catering business. A gifted chef, Claire's talent lies in creating recipes that have curious effects on the eater:
The biscuits with lilac jelly, the lavender tea cookies, and the tea cakes made with nasturtium mayonnaise the Ladies Aid ordered for their meetings once a month gave them the ability to keep secrets. The fried dandelion buds over marigold-petal rice, stuffed pumpkin blossoms and rose-hip soup ensured that your company would notice only the beauty of your home and never the flaws. Anise hysop honey butter on toast, angelica candy, and cupcakes with crystallized pansies made children thoughtful.
Claire is happy weaving magic into the lives of others until the handsome (and possibly magically gifted) professor next door takes notice of her, and her younger, wilder sister Sydney shows up with her daughter. She welcomes her sister with trepidation, but rejects every romantic notion Tyler tosses her way. Still grieving from the loss of most of her family, she slowly opens her heart to others as dramas great and small play out in their town of Bascom, North Carolina.
The writing reminds me so much of Laura Childs's mystery series, that gentle, domestic-tinged Southern character-driven narrative that still has its brushes with the ugly side of human nature. It's easygoing reading, full of fun supporting cast members like the Waverley's cousin Evanelle, whose gift for giving people exactly what they need works in some really creative and occasionally embarrassing ways, and Emma Clark, whose trophy wife ways and, er, unique talents are saved from one-note villainy by Addison Allen's skill with characterization. (A minor aside: there is a supporting older gay character whose story is handled with great sensitivity.) Even the mythic apple tree in the Waverly yard has its own distinct and rather charming personality. I loved all the little eccentric details that you find in good magical realism, that little unbending of reality in lines like "colorful paper napkins Claire had stored on top of the refrigerator fell over the edge and fluttered down around them like confetti, as if the house was shouting Hooray!" and "Waverleys always brought honeysuckle wine so people could see in the dark, but, whether or not the town knew it, the wine brought about a few revelations every Fourth of July."
The end of Garden Spells came together a little too easily for my tastes, with the climatic scene ringing awfully convenient, but it is sweet and fitting. Nevertheless, it's a warm and welcome addiction to the magical realist genre, and I can't wait to see what Sarah Addison Allen comes up with next.
*Sarah Addison Allen knows how to do an author website right. She has deleted scenes from her books, recipes, trivia, and a novelette in short stories called Tall Tales of Southern Belles, stories of the Waverly family through several generations
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Interview at Pink World!
As a thank you gift, I drew Ms. Lola herself. She came out pretty cute and a little bit sassy, I think.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
A Call to My Readers: Juicy Writing by Brigid Lowry
Hello!
I've had a rather exciting weekend visiting the Jersey shore and going out dancing for the first time in two years. After that was the BUST party last night, where my fantastic friend Marina shot some video I will share with you in the near future.
For now, I have a request to ask of all of you.
I am having the hardest time trying to find a copy of Juicy Writing, by Brigid Lowry, for less than 30 dollars shipped (US sellers want anything from $40 to $60! Madness!). I may bite the bullet and order it from the publisher's website, but I'd prefer to pay less than that.
Thus, the deal: Whoever helps me find a copy of Juicy Writing for less than $20 US shipped will get an art commission of their choice. (It helps if your choice is a cute girl doing cute things. I draw those best.)
