Swappy Swap Swapage!

Happy Canada Day! Wow, it has been quite awhile since I last posted! My computer is broken and so I’m using Alex’s computer to do this post. I’m not going to share everything I have ready today but I really wanted to at least share what I received from Dionne in the swap.

Dionne is so sweet and I really love everything that she sent to me! I received the package last Monday (as luck would have it the same day that Dionne received mine) and this is the first chance I’ve had to post about it.

Everything was wrapped up in the piece of fabric that you can see underneath and was tied with pink ribbon. Dionne actually designed the fabric herself (oh Spoonflower, how I love you); isn’t she just so talented? I haven’t decided what I’m going to use it for yet but I have a couple of ideas. The little bag of buttons will definitely come in handy and I love the colours. The cookie cutters are super-cute; if you can’t tell from the cover off the box the cutters have a little lip in them so that when the cookies are baked they can be hooked on the edge of a mug. I almost bought a set of mini alphabet stamps a little while ago when I ordered some Heather Bailey and Amy Butler papers from Etsy, and now I’m really glad that I didn’t since the ones that Dionne sent are absolutely darling! I actually used them last week to stamp the greeting on a card that I made for my Grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary.

This bookmark and bookplate set is absolutely my most favourite thing that Dionne sent (so sorry for the blurriness, I really need a new camera). Again the ever-talented Dionne designed and made these for me too! Each bookmark has a different picture on the front and a different quote from either Lucy Maud Montgomery or Jane Austen. This set was made especially for me, but you can check out Dionne’s Etsy shop for more of her beautiful goodies. Thanks Dionne, you are awesome!

I completely forgot to take pictures of the goodies that I sent to Dionne until after I had taped up her package, so of course I don’t have any. When Dionne posts her pictures of my swap package I’ll post a link here for everyone to follow. I’m very proud of some of the things I made especially since I couldn’t use my sewing machine and had to sew everything by hand.

I didn’t get a chance to share the last of the fabrics that I bought, so here ya go! First up is a set of five inch Heather Bailey squares from her Pop Garden collection; I absolutely adore them. I’ve never been much of a pink girl, but I absolutely love it in fabric.



This next set is another grouping from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain collection. I showed a set a few posts ago that are larger and are only in the grey colourway. These ones are all four inches and are to go with the aforementioned larger set.



That’s it for now, but I will try to post again as soon as I can to share some other things I’ve been up to.

Luck is the by-product of busting your fanny. -Don Sutton

I had more fabric in the mail last night, yay! I won a giveaway from The Quilt Shoppe’s blog, In Stitches, a couple of weeks ago and I’m so happy with what arrived. The ladies at the In Stitches blog decided to do a four day giveaway revolving around the time they spent at Pittsburgh Quilt Market and I was one of the four winners of the day four giveaway. We each received ten fat quarters from the new Mill House Inn collection by Fig Tree for Moda.

The package came nicely packaged, tied up with ribbon and included a business card, handwritten letter from Lani (now this is the way you package something for a business!), and a couple of little extras…

It may be difficult to discern in the picture, but the top goodie is a quilted key ring and the bottom is a tissue cozy (for those little packages of tissue that come wrapped in plastic). I really love the little extras and they really show how much these ladies care about their customers. Thanks to everyone at The Quilt Shoppe! Go on over and take a look around their store; they always have great prices and then stop by their blog and say hi!

I’m almost done reading Northanger Abbey. I had completely forgotten about how long it takes for them to actually get to Northanger Abbey in the book; I’m almost ¾ of the way through and we’re still in Bath. I’ll be done soon, but then I have no clue what I’ll read. I definitely have some books that I haven’t read yet, but there isn’t any one that is sticking out in my mind as the one to reach for next.

Today is my last day at my current job, and I was super-worried about it this morning because I hadn’t really heard anything about any of the resumes I’d sent out. I tried to network a bit at a media party that I had on Thursday and did make a couple of contacts, but wasn’t sure that any of it had been fruitful. Well, I got a call this morning from the very first place that my resume went to (over two weeks ago) and they want to see me on Thursday! Yay, keep your fingers crossed for me!

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!

The Bakamatsu Koshashin Generator

I found this really cool picture-transformer-thing via Little Birdie Secrets called Bakamatsu Koshashin Generator It allows you to upload a photo and then convert it so that it looks like it's been aged. It's a bit different than a sepia colouring program; the photos come out looking a bit more newspapery. The photos are supposed to come out in a style similar to old Japanese photographs, and I think this would work especially well on photos of architecture. I did a couple of photos; this first one of Alex and I did not turn out too well (as you can see I came out without a nose), but the next one of my bestest Evan and I turned out a lot better.

I definitely think I'll try this out again!

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter. -Thomas Helm

After Friday’s news I had a rather busy (and slightly emotional) weekend. I’ve been feeling a little defeated as of late (more so now with this whole job thing) and it’s been difficult to not think about everything that is going on. I know that this will work out alright; as my Mum and I always say “We’ll figure it out”.

I had a mini heart attack on Saturday after the movers finished unloading and had left; I could not find my box of Nancy Drew books anywhere! I had started unpacking the den by putting all of my books on their shelves and had left a shelf open for the Nancy Drew ones (Lucy Maud Montgomery also gets her own set of shelves); I could only find one book! I opened every box in the den, couldn’t find them, and was on the verge of freaking out when Alex found them (yay Alex!). Apparently I had put them all in the box and then put a couple of DVDs on top since there was a little space. When the movers brought in the box I took a peak in the top, assumed it was all DVDs, and put the box on the DVD shelf to be dealt with later. I am so happy that they weren’t actually missing – I’m sure I would have cried.

I finished The Friday Night Knitting Club last night and have now started What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire. I love Gregory Maguire, but this book (while entertaining) is just not doing it for me. I will finish it and hopefully I’ll like it more by the time I do. I really, really liked The Friday Night Knitting Club. It was a pretty easy read, which was really nice actually, and the characters were very real. All of the women were different from each other but all were able to bond and become friends. It was just a very nice book and I think I’ll read it again. I even cried at the end (damn Kate Jacobs pulling at my heart strings!) while sitting in the Muskoka chair out back.

I haven’t been showing any crafty pictures lately because I’m working on that top-secret wedding gift I mentioned for my High School best friend. It’s going to take awhile, but I will definitely post pictures after it’s done. Maybe I’ll be able to squeeze in a couple of small projects while working on this one.

I have big plans to take pictures of some more of my early edition Lucy Maud Montgomery books to post for tomorrow (or so I think). I’m hoping I’ll be able to; I’m also praying for some good light and steady hands on the camera as well!

 P.S. Have you seen this cover for the new Lucy Maud Montgomery biography that is coming out in September (I believe); isn't it fantastic? I really think they need to make a print of the cover to sell - I'd love to own it!

When angry, count four; when very angry, swear. -Mark Twain

It has been an interesting week and a half since I last posted (really the last two hours have been the most interesting). Let’s discuss the most recent news first and then move on to better, funner things. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but my current job is a contract position with a large company here in Canada. My contract was supposed to expire on July 31, then I was going to go to Alex’s cottage for a couple of weeks, and then back to school to start my Masters in September. Today I found out that the woman whose maternity leave I’m covering has decided to come back to work early and was told that I’ll be out of a job in two weeks. Really not sure what I’m going to do. I can’t afford to not work until I go back to school, but I’m also going back in three months so who’s going to hire me? I know that I’ll figure it out but right now I’m really worried. Moving on.

Alex did come home last Wednesday and I was so very happy to see him! Everything is a-okay and we’re settling into our new apartment fairly well. By the by I’m moving the last of my stuff in tomorrow; as a matter f fact I just had a call from the movers to confirm (not that I can really afford movers now, but again, there’s nothing I can do about that). Now I can show you the pictures of things I’ve made that I promised last week. This is the little pillow that I made. Nothing overly fancy; I mainly made it to keep myself busy for a little bit while Alex was gone. The birdie’s name is Walter.

And the little present I made for Alex was an owl pin. It’s now pinned to the messenger bag I bought him for his birthday. I made the pin using the cover button method, pried the button attachment off of the back, and hot-glued on a pin-back. I used a small piece of Alexander Henry’s Spotted Owl fabric in white for the cover. This owl does not have a name.

Sorry about the blurriness (this was actually the best one!) but the picture taking was not going well that day.

I finished Five Quarters of the Orange last week and it was really good. I really love the way that Joanne Harris uses food in her writing (I love food!); she’s a really engaging writer and I liked this story even better then Chocolat.

I also just finished Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King on Wednesday night. It was great! I majored in Fine Art History at University; I specialized in 16^th and 17^th century Dutch and Netherlandish art but also focused a lot on the Italian Renaissance. This book talks about the construction of the massive dome atop Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence (the Duomo). The dome was designed by Brunelleschi who oversaw most of the construction (he unfortunately died a few years before it was fully completed). Ross King is really good at writing books that contain lots of interesting history and facts, while still making his books really engaging. They read more like a novel than non-fiction. One of my favourite facts that he related is that ancient Romans used to take the wheels off of their chariots at night, and lean the chariot against a wall so that the wooden wheels wouldn’t warp under the weight. Very cool! I know that fact really has nothing to do with the dome itself (he was using it to illustrate some facts about wood warping when using centering to contract domes and arches) but I just love it!

Right now I’m reading The Friday Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. It’s definitely a lighter read, but I love how it has something crafty at its heart. I don’t knit (I can, but I don’t), but I admire anyone who creates handmade art. It’s nice to read about people who do something similar to yourself. One of the most interesting things that’s come up so far is a character who views knitting (and other so-called “domestic” activities) as an archaic tradition that seeks to keep women in their “place”. She views the resurgence of women spending their time on domestic pursuits to be a slap in the face of feminism. I find this to be a really interesting view as I’ve dealt with people like that. Just because I like to sew or bake or quilt or whatever does not make me unintelligent. Just as I can take about Einstein’s second postulate of special relativity for an hour if I need to, but that does not make me an astrophysicist. Arghhhh…sorry about that, I’m fine now.

Okay, gotta go, must get back to work. They may have screwed me over, but I’m not going to retaliate by lagging behind.

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. -Alphonse de Lamartine

I finally finished Hemingway (yay!) and I must say I think he turned out pretty cute (the pattern is an enlarged version of a Christmas ornament pattern that Anna Maria Horner has at her blog). I still feel a little badly that he took me so long to finish, but he’s done now and that’s all that matters (right?).



And here are Hemingway and Ollie together; they are now very good friends and inseparable.



I also finished a pillow last night and a present for Alex, but I’m not going to post pictures until he sees them. He’s supposed to be home tonight, but I have a feeling that that’s not going to happen. I’ll post pictures of those once he is back.

I’m currently reading Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris (who also wrote Chocolat). It’s really interesting and well-written; I’m really enjoying it and, since Alex has been gone for the past few days, I’m actually almost done with it. I accidentally left Katharine Graham’s autobiography at my apartment (I still have my old apartment through the month) on Sunday when my Mum came to see me for Mother’s Day. Lucky for me I have a bunch of books at the new apartment and was able to grab the Harris book to read.

I bought a couple of books at the thrift store on Monday. I found Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King (I was a Fine Art History major in University), The Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston, and God’s Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe by Amir D. Aczel. Books make me happy.

I think I may sew some quilt blocks tonight to keep myself occupied.