TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2008

I have been humming 'My Favorite Things' from

The Sound of Music a lot lately!

The song has just been stuck in my head.

So, when it came to wrapping presents yesterday

I decided to do "Brown paper packages tied up with string".

The brown paper was easy to find, but red string

(which I wanted) was nonexistent in our town.

I remembered later that I had red & white variegated yarn

in my stash.

It's fine yarn and I'm passing it off as string.

The photo in my December Daily album is the photo above

that I cropped to 6x6 and put in my album.

What a difference lighting makes when I'm taking

photos of album at 11:00 at night. YUCK!

The page across from the photo was a semi circle

of green & white polka dot paper with a pinked edge.

I added the words to the song,

"My Favorite Things".

I mentioned the other day that I wanted to have you meet...

ELOISE!

If you already are familiar with the character and the books,

then you are a lucky person.

~~~~~~~

This is the original book from 1955

written by Kay Thompson with drawings by

Hilary Knight.

The TV shows have not done the book justice!!

Eloise is written for precocious

grown ups.

"I am Eloise/I am six." So begins the well-loved story of Eloise, the garrulous little girl who lives at New York's Plaza Hotel. Eyebrow raised defiantly, arm propped on one jutting hip, Eloise is a study in self-confidence. Eloise's personal mandate is "Getting bored is not allowed," so she fills her days to the brim with wild adventures and self-imposed responsibilities. An average Eloise afternoon includes braiding her pet turtle's ears, ordering "one roast-beef bone, one raisin and seven spoons" from room service, and devising innovative methods of torture for her guardians.
Eloise's exploits are non-stop, and--accordingly--the text uses nary a period. Kay Thompson perfectly captures the way children speak: in endless sentences elongated with "and then ... and then ... and then... "



Eloise is not yet pretty but she is already a person.
Henry James would want to study her.
Queen Victoria would recognize her as an Equal.
The New York Jets would want to have her on their side.
Lewis Carroll would love her (once he got over the initial shock).
She knows everything about The Plaza. She is interested in people
when they are not boring.
She has Inner Resources.
If you take her home with you, you will always be glad you did.

~~~~~~~~

Her room.

There are a number of Eloise books.
I'll share some of them tomorrow.
~~~~~~~
I have loved Eloise since I was a kid and my mom told
me stories about the Plaza Hotel
(my parents were New Yorkers).
She was great at reading Eloise with
a variety of enchanting voices for the
characters.
~~~~~~~~
Years later, I had the opportunity
to spend Easter at The Plaza.
On the wall was a portrait of Eloise
painted in oils.
I felt like I'd come home.
~~~~~~~~


XOXO
Joni