Exuberance is beauty. - William Blake

I’m taking part in a really awesome swap, and have met a very cool girl who is not only the mastermind behind this particular swap but, by randomness, also happens to by my swap partner. Hello Dionne! Dionne writes a very funny and charming blog and also has an etsy shop (she's on vacation right now, that's why the shop is empty) where she sells the beautiful paper items (card sets, stitch prints, etc.) that she crafts. I can’t share right now what I’m making/finding for Dionne just in case she sees before her package arrives, but I’ll share after I know she's received it.

I finished What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire last week. I definitely did not love it as much as I’ve loved his previous books (with the exception of Lost which I also was not so keen on). It had it’s own charm and was a sweet story, but I just felt that the whole thing was a little slow and just not up to par with Maguire’s other work.

Last night I finished up Burning Bright by Tracey Chevalier. Chevalier is best known for her book Girl with the Pearl Earring (which was subsequently turned into a movie with Scarlett Johansson, oh and ya, our own Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth, is Vermeer...rent it...). This book had something different from her others (I’ve read them all), but it’s something that I just can’t put my finger on, something like a whisper. One of the main characters in this book is William Blake, and I found this to be quite interesting; Chevalier said that she was partly inspired to write this book after learning about Blake’s time spent in London in the 1790s. While I do feel that the characters were not quite as developed as those in Chevalier’s previous novels, I still really enjoyed it and do believe that I’ll read it again.

I started reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith once I got in bed last night, but it wasn’t grabbing me right away. I’ve heard that it’s a wonderful book with a strong narrative voice, but it just didn’t seem right somehow. I’ve put it aside for now but I will go back and read it another time. I decided this morning that I needed to read something that would make me feel good and so I decided on Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen again. I haven’t read it in a quite awhile and thought it would be nice to go back to. One of the funny things that I notice when reading Jane Austen is that I always end up with a very specific voice in my head reading in a particular way. I, of course, refer to this voice as “Jane”. I think the fact that I hear that voice is a credit to Jane, as it shows how strong her voice and style are. At times I even find myself thinking in the same style and meter that I read.

I’ve received some fun things in the mail this week. One was the official invitation to my High School best friend’s wedding (yay, so excited!) and the rest was fabric. Since I can’t share what I’m working on right now, I guess I can share some fabric that will become something in the future (most of it I already have plans for). Here’s some of it all together:

There is one set 6.5” squares and one set of 4” squares from Joel Dewberry’s Chestnut Hill collection which are going to be used to make a quilt for my Mum for her birthday in August. She doesn’t read my blog, so no worries about her seeing this!

The second set is all from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain collection; there’s one set of 6.5” squares and one fat quarter. This is one of my favourite collections ever!

I also got 3 packs of 5” squares from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern collection. Each pack contains one square of each fabric in the collection (sorry I don’t have a picture showing all of the fabrics).

I tried taking pictures of some of my vintage Lucy Maud Montgomery books to show (I have three or four right now that I want to share) but when I uploaded the pictures from my camera all except one were insanely blurry. I really would love to get a new camera; that would make me really happy!