Down the Rabbit Hole

the alices i got for christmas, and tattoos.

2009-01-27T23:56:38Z

i don't think i posted a pic of the alices my mommy got me for christmas, yet.
here they are! the one off to the right is a notebook. i've been writing in it, but am thinking of making altered art in it. (i've been plotting a scrapbooked alice for yeeears)

i also have pics of my most recent work on my alice sleeve.
teaser:

and the rest are here!

new stuff. with pictures!

2009-01-23T04:06:32Z

leaveittoweaver, maintainer of the wonderful searching for alice blog, started a group on a website called good reads for alice, called all things alice. i also saw that she keeps track of some of her alices with the site, because there is a fairly vast catalog of various editions of books on there. so i copied her. and i was able to find 45 of mine, so far. the list, or "shelf", is here: yay!. this is the best way i know of to keep track, so far.

i recently sat at my alice shelf with a notebook (an alice notebook, who'da thunk?) and wrote down all the isbns (of the ones that had them)... and tried to google them... and ran into a bounty of problems with this. some of the numbers linked to entirely unrelated books, or were not found at all! after not very long of futzing with this, i abandoned it altogether. which was a sad thing, because it took me like an hour and a half to hand-write all the numbers down! ahh well, it was at least a good chance to check for bookworms and other such problems that sometimes accompany collections of books.

i'm in florida on vacation right now. jay and i are visting his mom, and a feature of these visits tends to be that we visit many thrift, consignment, and used book stores. i am always on the lookout for alices :) last time i only found two, my alice for the very young and my ultimate illustrated edition. this time, i've found 7!
i figure this places me somewhere around 100.
eep!

i'm including pictures for once ever!

this one i got today at a place called the book lover's cafe, which is where i found my alice for the very young. jay actually spotted this first. i was happy because it was one i've been wanting. it's from 1986... it's my age :) see, however, the booworm-hole in the binding near the top :( i do not believe this is an ongoing problem, but i'll still treat it when i get home)

got this one at an antique store in mout dora. i tend to like ones that are a part of a collection of classics :) 1961.

another from the antique shop in mount dora. it has bad spine damage and the first couple pages want to fall out. 1955. possible mold on the bottom :(... not entirely sure why i paid $8 for this.

also from the same antique shop in mount dora. at one point, this cost 50 cents! from 1960 (i think it looks older by how the paper has aged), with foreword by horace gregory.

got this at a thrift store here in gainesville :) i think it was like 20 cents or something. 2005.

i probably already have this somewhere, because i had a lot of these as a kid. "let's begin now! *chime!*" books/tapes. this did not come with the tape. but it was 10 cents. at the same thrift store as the last one. 1979.

from the same thrift store. similarly cheap. just a cute little storybook. it's actually pretty well adapted. 1996.

8thsquare @ 2008-12-27T02:46:00

2008-12-27T07:46:10Z

Current alice count: 87

:)

8thsquare @ 2008-12-25T22:06:00

2008-12-26T03:06:15Z

hi! it's been a while!
about 2 weeks ago, i got more work done on my sleeve. and today is christmas, and i got a lot of alices for it. i also have more on hold for me at borders, that i ordered, mostly cheap ones i can pick up when i get paid tomorrow.
recently, it's become obvious to me that i really do need to list my alices, and keep the list up to date. an old one that i got for christmas i was briefly scared that i might already have, and one my mom got me i did indeed already have, and she just took it back.
i think a good way to do this would be to catalogue them by isbn... and the ones i don't have the isbn for, i'll just get as complete info as i can otherwise... a picture, the year, the publisher, etc.
so, be looking for that.
i want to make a lot of updates to my alice site, which i hope to do when i get a ftp client that actually works. the about-me page is so out of date.... just two years ago i had "over thirty" copies, and now i have "around ninety"! that is INSANE. but i do seem to acquire at least a few each month, now. it's wack!

and that's all for now, i think!

pics!

2008-10-13T02:03:27Z

finally took some pictures of my alice shelf thing. i remembered that i HAVE a modular shelf unit already, that i decoupaged with the alice in wonderland issue of vogue, and that makes a perfect large-book holder, so no longer must they lay on the floor!

ok, picture time!

close-up of 3 paper dolls

my hello kitty plush set! got at hot topic, in 2003 0r 2004 or so.

another sheet of those paperdolls (my daddy got it for me whilst on a business trip in san francisco), and my american mcgee's alice figure.

crazy shot of the alice and mad hatter and queen of hearts barbies, paper dolls, the top of my vogue shelf, a random little alize doll i got at blockbuster sometime in 2003-04...

the tall books chillin in my vogue shelf, and my pig-baby, which i made for halloween two years ago (well, i made his bonnet!)

queen of hearts barbie, toddler alice doll from wal-mart, cheshire cat cat-toy... he's got catnip and he shakes when you pull his tail! and "the red king's dream", a book about lewis carroll, that i bought from the author at the philadelphia flower show this year.

the top shelf of alices... they're all by height, these are on the top shelf for no reason other than that they fit there! the 12th one from the left, that's all taped up and pink at the top, yellow in the middle, and blue at the bottom was my first copy.

middle shelf... books too tall to fit on the top shelf!

half of the bottom shelf. this shelf is the most full. as you can see, i love my annotated alice (far left!)

other half of the bottom shelf, with other works of lewis carroll and a book about alice to the right.

a copy of the book that i had signed by the band AFI when i met them in 2003. (there are several things that i feel link AFI to alice, so it seemed appropriate... though the band seemed confused, so maybe i'm way off!)

carroll biographies and spin-offs, and a stack of movies... i can't seem to locate my disney one, but i do have it, on vhs and dvd! and american mcgee's alice. i really wish i could find my cd rom with the book on it... that's what got me into alice in the first place, when i ws 10. best bday present ever, thanks dad!

a set of pins my parents got for me. luckily they know how much i love alice, and several of my goodies were given to me by them!

hope you enjoyed, sorry it's so jumbled and confusing! i'd like to get pictures of my alice apparel, tattoos, purses, and a couple other odds and ends i've missed, as well as someday get pictures and publisher/date info of all of my books squared away!

alice people at otakon

2008-10-12T01:30:13Z

here are pictures i took at otakon this year, of alicey people. there were so many! i was very happy. but some girl yelled at me from across the way, "you're like the 16th one i've seen!"... not in a very nice tone either. but never mind her -- i was glad there were so many, and the first time i went, in 2003, it was me and a cheshire cat girl, so she can go cry.

anyhow, here we go!

alice cosplay!

Oh, hi!

2008-10-12T00:33:57Z

I just remembered I have this lj.
Hmm.

I now have 75 copies of the alice books. The aforementioned self-service ordering system at borders has become my bff for this. I am about to need thingies to add on to my bookcase, the one I bought for my alice stuff, because it's running out of room. I had to put the taller books on the floor for now. Hoping to buy these modular cube-shelf things we sell at target, where I work now.

Speaking of target, we had these little doll sets that were little cabbage patch dolls in storybook scenes, and I got the last alice-and-the-mad-hatter one. It's a target exclusive. Scoreness.

I also, last post, mentioned the mary engelbreit alice. I got it. What a disappointment! All she did for it was the cover, and there's a little w. rabbit that appears on the chapter pages. I was really sad because I love mary engelbreit, and I feel cheaped-out-on. Not good. Thought of writing her a letter... the "big fan... so WHY?!" sort.

I AM NOT GOING AS ALICE THIS HALLOWEEN. Alert the media. I think I'm going as a mummy-lady. I got to wear the alice costume twice this year, for katsucon and also otakon (where there were a TON of alices, which made me gleeful, but some girl derisively informed me I was one too many... whatever). So, i think it's ok if I do something different for halloween this year.

I was reading mad_teaparty member leaveittoweaver's alice blog, at http://searchingforalice.wordpress.com . It's her blog for all things alice, like this was supposed to be. But hers is way cooler because it has pictures. I feel inspired!

I haven't gotten my alice sleeve worked on since june. The bottom part is mostly done. 26 hours in! Think I should be able to make a new appointment soon, though, which is happy.

And I think that is all, for now!

Lately

2008-05-13T14:14:46Z

Went to wal-mart yesterday, and saw a copy of alice for $5. I hesitated to get it, because I thought I already had it and I like to avoid duplicates, but I got it anyway, because I'd hate to not-get it and be wrong about having it. I took it home, and saw that I do already have an edition exactly like it in every way... except the new one is about a quarter-inch smaller on all sides! it seemed really weird to me! And sure enough, the isbns are different, too. I do wonder what the purpose is, of putting out a book and then putting out the same book with barely smaller dimensions... but I'm sure there must have been a good reason for it, and besides, I got to add a new (however slightly) different alice to my collection!

Ooh, and I realized that at borders, you can order books and have them delivered in the store... without having to ask an employee. I'm all about self-service kiosks, so that made me happy. I ordered 2 alices.
I wanted to order this one that was illustrated by mary engelbreit, who I love, but it said I couldn't because it was out of print. Well, I went home and looked it up online, and really, it just hasn't even been put out yet! It comes out later this month.

I bought this really cute doll that's disney's alice as a toddler. She comes with a little cheshire cat and teaparty stuff. It's adorable. I had to whip out the credit card for an impulse buy on that one. I knew I'd regret not getting her, so I'm glad I did, especially because I later looked for her online and only found her on amazon for $40! I paid about $17 for mine (yay walmart! Again! Lol!)

And this past saturday, I got more work done on my alice sleevie. I'm tired of trying to describe it, so I'm going to plan on posting pictures when I take some!

That's all!

Awwww

2008-02-18T03:49:45Z

I went to katsucon, an anime convention, this weekend, and on saturday dressed as alice. (I know she's not anime... but I still found 2 mad hatters, a queen of hearts, and another alice there, too). I took a bunch of mirror pictures, that managed somehow not to suck, and posted my favorite on myspace and facebook... and my peep carly from high school commented on the picture...
"This is the best alice outfit I've ever seen"
... AWWWWWWW!
That made me so happeh !

8thsquare @ 2008-01-05T02:43:00

2008-01-05T07:43:31Z

I scored 3 new old alices today... including an annotated alice that, as best I can figure, is a first edition from 1960. Sweet!
And I remembered that I have this journal. So I am using it for what I made it for... chronicling my alicey things. I should do more of this, in better detail.