It's hard out there for an elephant

And finally there was Eloise. Poor Eloise. One day
she said to one of her friends, "You know, they really just
don't want women in the business world. I'm just not
strong enough to fight it."

This page is from the 1972 book "The Day the Animals Left the Zoo" by Donata Delulio. Pictures by John Delulio, her brother. Picked it up at the library book sale for 10 cents. 

The basic plot is all the animals decide to leave the zoo and follow their passions. The giraffe wants to be a movie star, the lion wants to be a hippie in the park, and so on. For various reasons, their dream lives are not as good as the easy-going life of the zoo so they all go back and conform to society's norms.

Really? The book's message is follow your dreams but you're going to fail so you might as well go back to doing nothing? Yep, not reading this one to Will. There's already a likely chance that he'll come home after college anyway. Not to mention the sexist and other stereotypes littered through out the book. 

But poor Eloise. She'd still have it tough today. Easier but still tough.

Would you wear this?

I'd been kicking this idea around in my head for a couple of weeks. Last night I had the felt and thread out anyway so I thought I would give it a go. 

Here's a description: Vintage button layered on orange felt layered on two circles of orange tulle layered on two pieces of red felt held together with a blanket stitch. I needed a reminder on how to do the blanket stitch and found an awesome tutorial at Futuregirl.com. Finished pendant measures a little over 2 1/2 inches in diameter. 

What do you think? Would you wear it? Be honest now, I can take it.

I'm going to wear it all day and see if I get any compliments.

At least one person likes it. Will has it on right now.

Camera FAIL

I know what I'm getting for Christmas ... a new camera. My little powerhouse Canon PowerShot took it's last pictures tonight after one tumble too many. I'll give it rave reviews though. We've had it eight, nine years and it took nice pictures and videos. When Chris upgraded to a fancy, fancy camera the little Canon became mine to take in the diaper bag. Always a good idea to carry a camera.

I had just taken a picture or two tonight when Will picked up the camera and asked if he could take some. He can take a decent picture though most get delated pretty quickly. We enjoy seeing what Will has snapped; it's like peeking into his brain.

Since we were heading out for a walk, a walk Will was not in favor of, I thought it would sweeten the deal if he got to play photographer. In fact, his reply was "I'll be Mr. Photography Man." Mr. Photography Man has slippery fingers. I didn't think anything of the camera being dropped. Not the first time by him or me. It was an accident AND it kept taking pictures ... for a few minutes then it stopped working. When Will brought it to me I noticed the lens case was bent to a funny angle.

When I said we'd be getting a new camera for Christmas, Will added that he would like his own camera. Santa will be notified.

On a completely weird side note, some old lady came up and yanked Joseph's thumb out his mouth while we were shopping today. I didn't see her coming. He didn't cry or anything or I guess I would have had more of a reaction. She didn't lecture me about thumb sucking but she commented that he didn't put it back in. He actually smiled at her. I mumbled something and rolled my shopping cart away. Really, WTF? So, so weird!

Mr. Shoes, our stray. Here you can tell the camera might not be feeling good. 

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