My friends are my estate. -Emily Dickinson

I am almost wiped out! Alex moved into our new apartment this past weekend (I’ll be moving in slowly over the next few weeks since my lease isn’t up until June). We had six friends helping us out (Yay Caitlin, Laura, Lesley, Julie, Dilan and James; you guys rock!), and it didn’t take too-too long but it was pretty tiring. I also had to go over to my current apartment for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday to clean and straighten up because my landlords want to start showing it soon. I cleaned the oven…which is something I don’t ever want to have to do again in my whole life; I have at least 10-12 cuts and scratches on my hands from the rust, etc. Tonight’s goal is to get the kitchen all unpacked so that at least we have somewhere to cook. Once I get all of my stuff moved in and unpacked maybe I’ll post a couple of pictures.

One of my favourite blogs to read is LollyChops and if you haven’t checked it out, you definitely should! Lolly is a great crafter, really inspiring, and a truly wonderful web-friend. Last week I found a package from her waiting in my mailbox. Here is what it contained:

I love the fabric covered magnets; and the cork butterflies are for this doing THIS tutorial on Lolly’s blog. She also sent a nice little note and one of the inside packages was sealed with a very cute sticker that I know Lolly made herself. Lolly is having gallbladder surgery tomorrow; I know that she’ll come out with flying colours. There may just be a crafty-fun care package headed your way within the next couple of weeks Lolly! Extra big pre-surgery HUGS!!

It was Laura’s birthday on Friday. I got here these really neat Monster Magnets made by Mudpuppy:

I finished up Pride and Prejudice last weekend. Of course it was amazing; it’s one of my favourites! I can never say enough about it. No matter how many times I read it, it never seems stale or loses any of its brilliance. I also read Star Sullivan by Maeve Binchy in about an hour last Saturday. I didn’t like it as much as I’ve liked others by her. The ending was kind of depressing; I get what she was trying to say about the main character and about who she had become, but it fell a bit flat. Still, it was a super-quick read and I love Maeve’s style. All in all it was time well spent. Currently I’m reading Katharine Graham’s autobiography Personal History and I’m enjoying it so far.

My fabrics also arrived last week, but I forgot to take a picture of them to share. I’m trying to figure out what fabrics I need to order for various things around the new apartment. Alex and I had decided on one of the prints from Moda’s Arcadia collection for the living room pillows, but then when we moved in we realized that the living room walls were more of a sage green than a blue-gray like we thought. I recall the colour being a tad different, but I think it really depends on what time of day it is. I’d really like to do them in the Moss Painter’s Palette from Erin Michael’s Lush collection, but I think mostly because I’m in love with the fabric and can’t think of anywhere else I could use it. I know…my name is Kaye and I have a problem.

Because I mentioned it last time, here is my 1917 (26^th impression) edition of Anne of Avonlea. As far as I know it is the earliest pirated edition (Grosset & Dunlop) of this book. Here’s the cover (sitting in front of my sewing machine):

The frontispiece is badly foxed and the tissue paper overlay was torn out when I got it, but I still love it:

Just for fun here is the front cover of my 1940 edition of Anne of Ingleside:

You can see just a small part of my Lucy Maud Montgomery collection in that picture also (some astute readers may see three copies of Irene Gammel’s Looking for Anne in the picture. I explain what happened in THIS post and THIS post). My 1911 edition of Kilmeny of the Orchard is actually being hidden in this picture; maybe I should take pictures of it to show too! I can’t wait until I’m finally moved all into the new apartment so that I can take pictures of whatever I think of when I think of it.

Before I forget, Lolly and FujiMama have teamed up and are doing a whole week devoted to cupcakes! You can check out either of their blogs to get the scoop.

May the 4^th be with you (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist). Happy Star Wars day!