A slight break here to talk about my hobby.

While wool felting is something I enjoy, a real hobby is escapism without purpose.  Like golf.

My friend and junk journaling mentor, Rebecca, taught me the joy of vintage dictionaries.  I bought just part of a large dictionary set, only 4 letters, and instead of just cutting out pages found myself reading it. Rebecca also likes to cut out the dictionary definition and use them in her art.  She’s the inspiration behind this book.

There were references to people I had never heard about in my entire life, which is not that short a life.

We all learn about John Stark who wrote “Live Free or Die”, but what about the author that wrote “What If Christ Came to Chicago?”  I’d like to read that!

Who were these people?

At one time, perhaps everyone knew their names.

I always love saints without heads, as I feel they should at least get their heads back after death (in the proper location).  This saint has a cat head as it’s better than none. 

Today, while many are still well known, so many are not.

This man LOOKS like the “last of the Goths” to me.

A lot of religious writers were included in this dictionary from the early 20th century.

I honestly just want the last name “Puffendorf”. As a child perhaps not….

I decided to do my own dictionary.

I tried to find ephemera that reminded me of the person.

The name “Superbus” isn’t bad either.

I learned so much about history reading these snippets.

The only President not renominated by his party….maybe not for much longer?

Also, it was very difficult to find anything about women.

They seemed to be entertainers, or authors, or royalty.

I’m not sure “cut off by cholera” is quite correct

Then I read about some women that were amazing.  Why did we never learn about these women in school?

Are they totally forgotten today?

This woman helped preserve the culture and language of Native Americans. 

There was a passionate love story.  So sad.

During the French Revolution, after his wife was killed, her husband killed himself. I tried to find illustrations that would reflect their life together in Paris.

There was a suicide, what happened?

I admit the “fun fact” was a bit much, but being a DC girl, I wanted to include my thoughts that the weather did him in.  It’s miserable in August.

Also, there was a mysterious death….

A rich woman dies while on a trip……

The book is falling apart and I felt no qualms about cutting this book apart and repurposing it as my NEW dictionary of famous people.

I’m sorry but the Battle of Butt’s Hill cracks me up (oh geez a pun!)

Matching a painting or photograph with each name was really fun and relaxing.  Which is what a hobby is supposed to be.