Wonderland

For those of you WONDERING where I've been, see this post entitled "Back from the Dead and Feeling Inspired" on my shop blog.

Now on to the wonder that was this weekend...

I found this perspicacious, little mushroom today.

I didn't see him at first but he certainly noticed me and seemed to be calling to me, urging me to come hither and adore him.

Which I did, of course, with a few tasty pictures.

Wouldn't it be WONDERFUL to get lost in a forest of mushrooms just like this one?

Tall necks stretching up to the sky, blooming into warm, golden, illuminated flesh.

Soft, protective yet curious giants...

Speaking of forests, I recently discovered the Twilight graphic novel.

I guess I wasn't paying much attention when Stephenie mentioned this project (remember, I have been hibernating for the past couple months) so I didn't jump up and buy it when it finally got on the shelves.

However, once my friend ranted and raved about it, my interest was peeked and then when I saw the graphics, not only was I completely SOLD but totally floored by the images!!

No, seriously.... the scenes in the meadow brought me to my knees.

There I was

on the ground

chanting "Oh, MY GOSH!

It's too pretty and real!!!"

You see, not only are these images completely STUNNING, the illustrator, Young Kim, has captured EXACTLY the images I had in my head while reading Twilight, from the characters to the settings to the most detailed facial expressions.

I'm telling you - THIS IS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE!!!

Everything about it is wonderful but a few highlights for me are:

1) The Cullens are SPOT ON and they all actually look like they could be related. Alice is truly a tiny pixie with shorter hair, Jasper is actually really tall and has THE CORRECT JASPER HAIR (unlike the movie's sad, sad version), Rosalie is a breathtaking model that makes you hurt a little just looking at her, Emmett has curly locks and Edward, well he is PERFECT - dark, mysterious, dangerous with a bit of ancient sadness, handsome in a god-like manner, regal, pure, charming, protective, extremely polite and attentive, romantic, a little bit of a tease to Bella yet still regards her softly like his own brand of heroine - rare, precious, beautiful, his.

Robert and Henry are impostors, folks. THIS is the real Edward.

Enough said. Go buy the book.

But I will go on anyway...

2) Most of the graphics were done in black and white with the exception of a few choice scenes: The dream of Jacob and Edward Bella has after Jake's scary stories

and

the Meadow scene.

There are also a few splashes of color here and there for emphasis in particular parts.

Other aspects of the art that are noteworthy are the crystalized branches that seem to crawl across the pages every so often, the layering of pencil sketches on top of real photographs, and the depth of emotion and movement in the images and expressions.

3) The meadow scene and kissing scene that follow are HOT!

Looking at them is like a visual assault on your heart and mind - much like the butterflies that flutter in your stomach the first time you read those scenes in Twilight the novel.

So.... GO BUY THIS BOOK!! You will not be disappointed.

It will be your new favorite Twilight treasure.

And guess what? This is just volume 1 up through the meadow scene so there are more to come!!

I'm hoping the whole series will be transformed into graphic novels.

We had Kaiya's friend birthday party this weekend as well. I took Kaiya and two friends + Trooper to see Alice in Wonderland.

The kids throughly enjoyed this zanny, strange, and mad yet WONDERFULLY beautiful version of the classic "Through the Looking Glass".

The one part I could have done without was the Mad Hatter's Futterwacking at the end - it was a little too cheesy and over-the-top but happened to be 8 year old Trooper's favorite part.

My only other complaint was that some of the special effects they did on the actors to exaggerate their features didn't jive to a discerning eye and seemed unnecessary in the end when I found myself connecting better with the normal looking humans.

But overall, the movie whisked me away to another place and time - to my own adventure vicariously experienced through Alice.

Mission accomplished.

To top off the evening with a sweet ending, we made our way over to Maggie Moo's where the girls picked out ice cream cupcakes with little Mad Hats on them.

They savored their sweet confections, then ran around the grass and fountains

reenacting their own version of

WONDERLAND.

And I basked in the WONDER of it all...