Books.......an explaination

A question was posed on a friends blog......how do you treat your books?

 Well some would say not really well.
I am breaking a lot of rules here but I am being brutally honest, I lay them open on the page. 

However I NEVER turn a page down and crease the paper, that was drummed into me by my librarian father. 
That was the ultimate sin.....and what I am doing here was a close second.
My daughter is an avid reader and buyer of books so when I have run out of material I ask her what she has for me!

 And then I get to read some very eclectic titles. 
Note when I borrow books from other people I do not lay them open willy nilly. I am very respectful of books that have been entrusted to me. 

 I will grab whatever is handy to act as a bookmark.
This being a very sweet card from my husband. 
(must remember to take that out before handing the book back...)

This book is quite funny, as I know a few lazy folk. 
The story is patchy but well worth just sticking with it for the human observations. 

 Then there are the books that I would take with me on a desert island. 
I actually dont own a lot of books, I beg and borrow and then return them. Strangely I have a fabric library but have whittled down books to a select few. 
This was a story that was a theme through my childhood of searching for strong characters, those who struck out on their own and made their life independently of others who sought to control them. This was an outstanding book of its time published in 1963 with a female hero, who fought her Victorian father for the right to an education.

 

Whats more it was set in my hometown of Melbourne Australia!

 These are some of my other keepers. 

"Three Men On a Boat" makes me laugh out loud.
"Gormenghast" has the best descriptive passages of pure writing I have ever experienced. 
I think Mervyn was on strong substances when he wrote this, its bizarre but so well written. I identified with the hero being ambivalent to inheriting a title, it was just so angst ridden...but I saw his pain. I recommended it to a family member who hated the character, thought he was weak and soppy.
I was hurt, it felt personal. I really fall in deep with some books and sometimes its a risk to put it out there.....like a piece of your soul.
I can only imagine how writers feel after bad reviews. 

 "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" made me sob...which was awkward as I was reading it at 3.00am...as I do when I cannot sleep.
"The Dark Room" opened my eyes to the German experience of WWII. 
As a child of English parents I only heard one side. This is a great human perspective of what it was like to live as a German then and now. 

 "Wind in the Willows" my only friend as a preteen...I read and reread and reread....I never stopped returning wishing I too could escape on the river, find a true friend like Ratty....oh this book!

Its very broken and precious I have upgraded and bought a new copy but it doesn't feel like this book....this book holds my heart. 

 AA Milne a complete delight. 
Loved this poem

Loved Winnie The Pooh....he often made me laugh, and Eeyore....well I only have just understood him...and I adore his melancholy...

 I was given a lot of secondhand books as a child, read this a lot. Fairy Tales are actually quite gruesome and these were no exception!

Found these at my local thrift shop. They bought back memories of school reading. 
"cough, cough" I was actually a very advanced reader and had progressed from all set texts by age 8...was often just sent to the library and told to pick whatever I wanted! But I still have fond memories even so. 
 These texts are just so Australian...whereas my home reading was almost all English. 

 I hope you enjoyed this little foray into my books. 

My new hobby.....

Oh dear, it seems I have may have been infected lately, not by any nasty virus I hasten to add.......was a tad poorly last week as in feeling listless. All good now. But by the crochet thing. Seriously I thought I was stuck on stitching with thread and needle. Quilting being the main passion. 

But no it seems that after mastering a granny square, I see them everywhere and I LIKE them. Then I saw all those cute amigurumi and I thought I would not understand those patterns.

Well be prepared to have your little world rocked because I did a small project from Mollie Makes and my skills are going up a notch. mind you only if its in DC and SC and not too much increasing and decreasing.

 

 Loooook, see what I have did there!
This was an adorable pattern from Mollie Makes and it was easy.
I put it on my instagram and got 19 likes...I KNOW  19!!!! 
It was basically a circle as the base and then up the sides. Then two ears which are sewn on.
Not bad for this beginner. I now want to increase my repertoire and make a larger basket, because I love baskets.

Then I noticed this little blanket tossed on a pile in my local opshop, I didn't grab it straight away as it was falling apart and unravelling. I certainly didn't need another project on my list but the price was only $4.00. I slept on it and the next day it was still there, so I grabbed it then. I planned to make a few cushions from the squares. By carefully unpicking and redoing, this was the result.

Having some fun with filters on picmonkey, little distracting at times, tell me if you approve or not.

So as I was saying. chopped out some squares by carefully unpicking and this was the happy result.

Magnificently modelled by Maxi the chihuahua, in his normal position on my daughters bed. I have now completed two cushions and had quite a bit left of the blanket. My plan now is to sew them into a square and crochet a new border to increase the size and for $4.00 and some spare time I have fashioned two cushions and a throw rug. Well, yes there is the cost of cushion inserts and a few balls of yarn but still I will have these items done quickly because someone spent most of the time crocheting this neglected little throw to start.

Love the little gems one can find, one mans trash.......you know the rest.

I um had to stop when this huge butterfly was attracted to this huge gerbera.............see told you I was distracted by the photo shopping one can do these days

Also waiting to read this book recommended to me by Denice from

Denice's day. I was taken by some of the books she has reviewed as well as the fact she is a interesting person with a chatty blog.

Hello Denice!

Then I decided I had better start chopping up my summer wardrobe.

 Dress done!

 I actually had bought this as quilting fabric and luckily as it was on sale I bought a few meters. Enough for my dress YAY. 

A blouse and some linen pants. 

I think they will go well together. So now the hard part is done I hope to make some start on them during the week because there 'aint nothing on the TV to watch so I may use some good productive time to get my projects under control.

This is my current TV watching project, loving it but I MUST get some other things done to a finish....I MUST....

I haven't bought any more projects or fabrics without purpose so that's good, but seriously I am starting to get nervous as I am not finishing too many lately.
And I have a definite to do as a gift for my bosses retirement, that's in July next year but if I don't get a wriggle on...