moodling and dawdling

Brenda Ueland (seen left looking rather frail and rather old and rather wonderful), in her brilliant book If You Want To Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit writes:

"the imagination needs moodling
--long, inefficient, happy idling,
dawdling and puttering".

how cool is that? kind of goes along with that "no time you enjoy wasting is wasted time" that Bertrand Russell said.

so today, here's to lots of happy moodling and inefficient idling dawdling and puttering!

for those who don't know, here's a bit about her that reads as fabulously as her book:

For many years of her adult life she lived in New York, working mostly as a freelance writer and disliking her work. Returning to Minneapolis, she wrote three books and was a long-time teacher of writing. She was knighted by the King of Norway and set an international swimming record (for over-80-year-olds). She lived by two rules: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. She died in 1985 at the age of 93.

how great is she? the king of Norway? wow. when i grow up i want to be just like her.

Elvira, the Tri-Cornered Bag

LATEST HANDBAG SCOOP: following yesterday's "Scary Handbags" segment, a handbag expert has written in telling me,

"That triangle thing is named 'Elvira'. I threw her away in 1960. How did she end up on your blog?"

I don't know exactly. It's a very good question. Turning up like this 47 years later.

Except that nasty bad handbags do have a way of turning up when you least expect them. Take Clasp for instance. But that's another story (well, it's The Handbag Friends' story, to be exact).

Regardless, that big show off bag has a name and it is ELVIRA.

Of course it is.

What else could it be?

(I happen to know for a fact she is best friends with Clasp--seen below in full swing scaring one of the poor Handbag Friends.)


Quick, all this talk of nasty handbags, we better sing the Handbag song again. Just in case.

Scary Handbags

I've come across some frightening handbags in my time. But have you ever? Just look at them. Sitting there like that. They have to be some of the worst handbags I've ever seen. Quite awful. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turns out they're Friends and Relations of Clasp herself. (If you don't know who Clasp is, never fear, you soon will.)

I don't know their names (if you do, please let me know). But I do know one thing: they are up to no good looking like this. (Particularly that "tri-cornered" one at the bottom. What a horrible show off she is.) And I know one thing else: I wouldn't want any of these dangling off my arm--would you?


This concludes Part 1 in our Handbag Series. In Part Two we will be meeting some more unsavory bags. But no posting about handbags is complete without a recital of the famous, the notorious, the completely addictive... the song everyone is singing... the song that belongs to The Handbag Friends--and to... YOU!

Get ready ... (really, it's the only sensible thing to do when faced with such dreadful handbags) ... sing!