Fun Locator

     Fun Locator "it's a job... for a doll!"
Spike's tip: "look for the squishy stuff and the curlicues".

I was inspired by Maira Kalman's illustrations for Food Rules that I posted yesterday... and the idea that food can be playful. One of the book's rules is "Eat snack foods only if you make them yourself."

Could you even make a Hostess cupcake? (An English person said these are like "choc rolls" in the UK.)
There are recipes online < that one looks delicious
––but a true one would include propylene glycol monostearate and sodium stearoyl lactylate, and where do you even buy those?

You know what words were not in the "best books of the 21st century" NY Times reviews I mentioned yesterday?
(Words I'd jotted down included "devastating, urgent, human debris, silenced"--and so forth.)
Was there even one word signifying fun? Laugh, guffaw, lighthearted, amusing, raucous, ribald, hilarious? Any mention of, godforbid, humor?
Maybe? but none I recall that stood out from the litany of disaster.

My sister had posted her top-10 novels of the 21st century on FB--that's what gave me the idea to choose my own-- and her choices were all grim. (Two by Colson Whitehead.)
I texted--would she recommended anything lighter?

"I looked at my Good Reads list" she replied, "and there isn’t a single not-heavy title there!"
So this morning she posted Captain Underpants. She volunteer tutors grade-schoolers in reading, and a second-grader had turned her on to this series.

I started off my "favorites of this century" with Maira Kalman on purpose, to set the mood:
she is like beaten egg-whites, air lifting even a heavy batter.
Some of the books I'll list are dark--but I can't tolerate absolute despair, so not that dark.

BELOW: I love bink's drawing, from this morning:
"All the Things"––the Fun Locator, a paint box, strawberries (from the farmers market), geranium, girlettes--and that's me in the center.

Marz (below, left) joined us in the side-yard too. I got out my calendar and determined that her college classes start four weeks from tomorrow!
(I go back to work in five weeks.)

It's not always easy between us in a small apartment, but I'm going to miss her as a roommate. And miss her being in town. Not that she'll be all that far away--I could take a bus day-trip to Duluth (150 miles each way), but that's a lot farther than across the room.

I'm excited for her, for sure though. A new endeavor, entirely with the intention of learning new things. Fun! I'm envious--which spurs me to look for more art classes this fall.
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Yesterday in part-2 of the glass wire-wrapping class I learned--or confirmed--that I do not care to work with glass. My sun catchers turned out nicely, but I don't even want them.
I tied up a green baboon toy from the 1970s instead.

I was bad at it--it's futzy--but I'm glad I learned some tricks. I'd never realized that you can braid wire, wrap it, construct shapes with it, and so forth. That might come in handy for toy projects.  I never did find the broken window glass I'd saved from the thrift store, but if it turns up, now I could make earrings.
And I might wear the baboon as a necklace.