skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips - This was really good. It takes place in Korea in the early 1950s and then in West Virgina in the late 1950s. I enjoyed it for the story and the characters, especially Lark, Noreen and Lola. Others (especially book-clubbers who look for stuff) will enjoy it for all the symbolism, "coincidence" and common themes. It's a great read, with many mysteries and questions woven into the story to keep you reading. They come together in many different ways to please and satisfy the reader.
In the meantime, it's been a crazy week. I sewed every day except for yesterday when there just wasn't a minute to do so. My cherries fleece jacket is finished, button and all, and I'm about to cut out a blue fleece with hood per a Vogue pattern I've owned for ages. This will be my first Vogue pattern, so we'll see how it goes. I also have every intention of starting the next nightgown. A few things have gone out of my closet; next do I put them on Craigslist or save them for my garage sale? Oh, so much to do, and so little time once again. I also bought a new (new to me) Expedite bookcase for my bedroom. I'll take pictures and post before and after photos if it stores things as beautifully as I think it will. Yea! This will be progress. Here goes.....
It's so sad that my font is back to black! It's because I have so much crap piled up on my closet shelves that I never switched officially from summer to winter on the shelves or with the shoes on the floor that I'm not going to show. Here's the dirty little secret:
I'm going downstairs to eat now. It's 2:10. My plan is to read the paper and eat and be done by 2:30. Back upstairs to spend 1 hour in that closet. And to get rid of 20 of those items. Out of there. I don't know where they'll go, but I'll try to get things out that I never wear. Maybe they will go into the back bedroom closet in the space where the fabric was! I hope not. At 3:30, I want to be immersed in fleece embellishing.
OK, I went downstairs, had a quesadilla with swiss cheese/mayo/pine nuts, read the paper, and was only 15 minutes behind schedule. Came upstairs, put on my iTunes full volume in the office, and emptied the shelves:
This is not easy for me. However, I do have 12 items going out. I hope permanently, but then I think....I could use this cotton as a lining for one of those sweater purses I plan to make. And I don't like the lining in the one I have, I could change it out. Will I, though? Especially since I have real lining fabric in the stash. ANYWAY, it's 3:40, I'm 10 minutes behind schedule, and half the job is complete:
To me this is still a messy looking closet. There are way too many tee shirts. Going all the way back to college daze. Maybe one of these days I'll make a plan for how to part with them. They are nothing special. Almost all 50/50 cotton and pretty beat up. I wish my nieces would come and think they are cool and wear them. You know that's not going to happen, though. I showed them to Peter one day. No go. Maybe I'll pull them out one day, take pictures of them one by one, and post the pictures here with the story behind the shirt. These stories will not be interesting, but then maybe I could part with the tee shirts. OK, now it's almost 10 to 4 so I'm 20 minutes behind schedule and there is another section to go. Here goes. I hope I can find 8 more things to give away.
It's now 4:35, an hour and five minutes past my deadline. However, the second part of my closet project is complete:
This is going to feel so great when I need something on those shelves. I think I'll work on the floor tomorrow. Right now I'm going to use the waning light to look at all my fleece patterns and fleece and get going on the fleece jacket.
For me there is nothing like order. Order from chaos might be good for some, but I like constant order. I'm really trying to get there again.
Purple in honor of the purple flowery nightgown I just cut out. It feels good to have it ready to sew. I also tried on a number of tops that I bought at Macy's yesterday with gift cards and a little cash thrown in. And I want to do some desk work today and also start on a fleece house jacket: Cut it out and start embellishing the pattern pieces before sewing it together. I'd love to keep all the tops, but that entails emptying out my closet of some things I don't wear anymore and that don't get to take up precious space in there anymore. Can this really be done? On a Saturday morning? Oops, it's almost 2 O'Clock! On a Saturday afternoon? Oh no. So much to do, so little daylight. I have found time to play in a number of my Scrabble games. Claudia seems to be playing this afternoon; the others were catch up.
Hurry, Dianne!
Sarah Palin's Alaska - We watched the one about Tod passing his Salmon fishing business to Trac last night. Sarah and her gang are just taking taking taking from nature. How much fish do these seas have? Is it really limitless? Does anyone care?
Not to mention the part about killing living beings. Some of the fish got away, and I was so happy. She's all into her family which is a good thing, but I don't know how she had time to read a thing on that 4th of July weekend at her in-law's house. I don't see this woman as a politician or leader. Especially of the greatest country in the free world! Notice I didn't put this review in my post title. Couldn't do it. Not because I wouldn't want anyone to know I watched, but because I wouldn't put her name in a title! Her little daughter Piper was my favorite. I hope that girl grows up into a democrat. So far she's the presidential material in that family.
I'm Still Here - This wasn't the Joaquin Phoenix dvd, but rather a dvd about teenagers who wrote diaries during the holocaust. This was produced by MTV, and follows the writings of each teenager, showing pictures where available, and reading the words which were written during their experiences. It's very moving and real.
Then co-incidentally, I was watching Family Jewels, and Gene Simmons and Shannon traveled to Amsterdam where a young boy interviewed Gene and took them to the Anne Frank Museum. Gene's mother had been in a concentration camp, and he had never spoken about it, so that show was very moving as well.
In the meantime, I made great progress with the piles of stuff on the floors of my house today. I also took down the two small Christmas trees, put a bunch of stuff on Craigslist, made a Pacific Cloth holder for GC's grandmother's silver lidded soup tureen, and generally made things look a little better around here.
Now I have every intention of working on my nightgown. At last. I can't believe that I put it off all day. The thing I'm putting off is attaching the lace to the yolk, gathering the gown, and sewing it all together.
Somewhere - I saw Sophia Coppola's latest movie yesterday, after skimming a good review and seeing some pretty trailers. Oops. It was somehow not a bad movie, but it never had a story or purpose, and is just a series of pretty scenes of the actors interacting. My friend Susan didn't know what she saw, either, and not wanting to miss anything, said that she'd read some reviews when she got home. Which is what I just did. Essentially, the reviews say that this is a minimalist, modernist movie about a time in the life. In this case it's the time in the life of an actor, Johnny Marco, and some time he spent with his 11 year old daughter. This is a perfect late night, romance channel movie for when you can't sleep. It will put you right out!
I did work on sewing my nightgown yesterday by making the buttonholes
on the yolk. Here's a picture of the lace trim at the neckline. 
It turned out beautifully Today I plan to finish it and cut out another nightgown as well as cut out a fleece house jacket. Yea!
The barest minimum is happening with getting the house together - it's the worst it's ever been. The worst. Really the worst. So bad that I don't know where to start to feel the least bit of accomplishment or pleasure from it.
But my reaction today is to be OK with that. Slowly I'll get this done.
The Jewel of St. Petersburg by Kate Furnivall - I just finished the last of my vacation reads, and I think it is a cleverly disguised romance novel. If you're into romance novels as a genre, then here you go; I think you'll enjoy this one. I liked the setting of the early 1900s leading up to the Russian Revolution. The main character, Valentina (I love that name, too) is spunky and clever. I think I read The Red Scarf by this author, and might have liked it a bit better.
I'm thinking of separating out some of my book reviews into an additional category that will include only the book review posts of those books I've really loved reading. The ones you wish wouldn't end. The ones you couldn't put down because you had to know what would happen. The ones that still give you a start when you hear the title years later. The ones that you might read again someday because you couldn't get enough. The downside is that a number of good books that don't quite reach the heights might be forgotten. Hmmm.
As for my Resolution to sew every day in January....Let's see.....I cut out the fabric on the first, didn't sew at all on the second, made good progress on the third, and today's the fourth. I could finish this nightgown today if I choose buttons, make the buttonholes, attach the yolk to the body of the gown, finish the sleeves and hem.
BUT I'm out the door to see a movie first, so we'll see....If I can get back to the nightgown before dusk, I'll be fine. I need the light to choose the buttons.
The Company of Heaven Stories from Haiti by Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell - I do love short stories, and these were no exception. The characters in the stories appear throughout the book from different perspectives. These stories center around the family of an eccentric judge and his home across the river from a settlement of poor people. The themes are family, the quirkiness of people, nature, different types of love and island life. Some of the stories are more short essays and choruses. The one about daughters is wonderful, and the one called the Third Eye is about loss. My favorite line from the book is "I am full with empty".
The Sonderberg Case by Elie Wiesel - Reading Elie Wiesel is easy on the surface, yet it's challenging underneath the words. I think he is the preeminent philosopher/author of our lifetime. This is the story of a critic, his father, his grandfather, his wife, a trial, a defendant, and values. Wiesel asks questions of his characters and therefore his readers....his writings are about a story but about ideas. He makes the reader think as well as read.
Look! I've cut out the pattern pieces of the nightgown and it's time to sew, except I'm starving and the sewing machines are blocked by stuff. I'm going to see if there is a newspaper outside and have a little couscous. I also unpacked my suitcase which isn't saying too much in the overall scheme of needed unpacking around here. Still it's better than nothing. And I'm playing Scrabble. Claudia and Marie are playing and they're tough but I'm holding my own. I've won 70 games so far, on my way to 100. My poor little brain!
When downstairs I'm going to find the two books I finished on vacation and review those, too. That's the one thing about blogging....since the freshest material is at the top, you've got to start at the bottom to be chronological. I'm not going to think about that though, because if I've already written those reviews, then you've already read them.
I love fabric. This is a flannel that I bought ages ago I don't remember where. My new year's resolution is to sew through my fabric stash and get rid of all the old stuff that's holding me back. To that end, I've already posted my old cutting cardboard on Freecycle and am using my new one starting now, all the time. I'm going to make a Lanz style nightgown with my trusty Butterick Pattern. Flannel and fleece take up a LOT of space, so a few nightgowns and fleece house jackets (I need a catchy name for these) will give me a quick start to my goal. I don't know whether I'll be wearing the nightgown tonight, but maybe I'll try. Tomorrow night for sure.It's another New Year's Day, and my resolution for the day is to sew and unpack. We arrived home from Florida last night, unpacked the car, cleaned up and went to Valerie's for New Year's Eve where we had a great fun time. I love seeing the new year in with our friends. It's a happy and relaxed way to begin. I forgot to take pictures, though, so here are a few from Naples with my mother and her husband, whom we affectionately refer to as G.C. (btw Mother started the GC thing).
On the road yesterday, with nothing but my thoughts for company, I pondered Her Heart On Her Sleeve and whether to go deeper. I just don't know. I think the question is to what end? OK, here I go to sew! Happy New Year!
