Saturday, July 21, 2012


Hello everyone and welcome.  Hope you're
comfortably seated and have a nice cup of
tea or any other beverage which appeals to
you close to hand because there's lots here 
in this post to share.   

There's equal parts book news and stitching
news to report plus some reno updates so
I'd best get right into it.

I collect Folio Society books which is a
company in England who publishes
illustrated, beautifully bound editions
of classic books.   Modern classics as
well as those from the past.  Fiction,
history, poetry, short stories, biographies
and so on.   The Folio Society covers
it all.

Over the years I've collected a fair number
of these books but they are costly and so
it's not something I do often.  Perhaps 
once a year or so, especially when they
are offering good deals.

Last Tuesday I was walking home from the
train station on what turned out to be the
hottest day of the year ... thus far.  
It was brutal walking in that heat let me 
tell you!!   I got three quarters of the way
home and didn't think I was going to
make it any further.   So I popped into
a little thrift store that's a few blocks 
from my house to poke around in their
book section and to recover a little in
their air conditioning.

I wandered around and checked out the
main book section but didn't find anything
too earth shattering there.  So I headed 
back to the front of the shop to check a
couple of shelves where they keep the
more valuable or in demand books.

I was giving those two shelves a 
cursory look through when one
book caught my eye.  Life On The
Mississippi by Mark Twain ... a
Folio Society book!!  Then I 
realized that the book next to it 
was also a Folio book ... and so was
the one next to that!!

In all look what I found ....


The six books to the left of The Greek
Myths were in the thrift store.  All of 
them in mint condition in their boxes.
 for $10.00 each.   I started frantically
snatching books off that shelf, six of
them in all!!!   The total of those six 
books is what one of them would 
normally cost!!!  I had to haul 
them the rest of the way home in
the heat but somehow that didn't
seem like much of a hardship.

Friday night, on my way home from
working out at Curves I stopped at
The White Rabbit second hand book
store just to do a quick (yeah, right!!)
browse through to see what might 
be there.  Got chatting with the 
owner and mentioned my incredible
Folio haul from a few days previously.
Guess what!!   He mentioned that 
they had received a few Folio 
Society books to sell as well and would
I care to see them??   

They had three books or book sets
and I had a hard time deciding which
one to buy.   The folks at The White
Rabbit had a better idea of what the
books were worth so they'd priced 
theirs accordingly.   But still, the
Greek Myths by Robert Graves 
that I chose was still a third of the
price I would have paid from the
Folio Society themselves.  Plus
no shipping charges to add to that.
(Same for the books from the thrift
store for that matter!!)

I am a very happy camper today!!!!



I have bought a few newly published books 
recently too including the sequel to A
Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
which I am desperate to get into as soon as
I finish my currant read.  I've heard good
things about The Chaperone so am curious
to read that soon and Seraphina is a young
adult fantasy that sounds really, really good.


And then last Saturday I hit a couple of garage sales
during my morning walk and came home with this
lot.    I'm halfway through the Bob Hope book.
It's hilarious!!!

I have no idea where I'm going to put all these 
new books.   Well, the Folios will go on the
shelves of the new built in bookcase in the 
living room with the rest of my Folio collection
 but the others???    The library shelves 
downstairs are full to bursting ... again.   It 
might be time to do some culling ... again.



Last Sunday the last touch was added to our
main floor renovation.  The two area rugs
arrived.   We set them in place and were
then able to celebrate the official conclusion
to our reno!!    Started mid February and 
finished the beginning of July.   Not too bad.
And the best part???

Phil and I are still married!!

Above is a picture of the dining room all
decked out.


And here is the living room.  I think we'll
designate the single chair to the right of 
the photo (next to the book shelves) as
my downstairs stitching chair.


Speaking of stitching ... a few updates
are in order here.   Finished the square
and added a bit more border to my
P.S. Summer Sampler.


Close up!!!


I've put a few stitches into a project that
was abandoned for a year which I 
suppose makes it a UFO?   Drawn 
Thread's Game Sampler which I'm
suppose to be stitching with Maggie.

This thing is going to be huge (if I ever get
around to actually finishing it).  Every time
I work on it I wonder what the heck I'm
going to do with it when it's done.  It
would cost a fortune to frame and it's a
bit too big for a pin keep ....



I don't think that I've ever shared anything
about this project.   Another rather big design
which I pick up once in awhile to put a few
more stitches in.


Here's the chart.


Here's what it's suppose to look like when
(ever) it's done.   I love My Big Toe designs
and this one is gorgeous!!!   

Must not dwell on the guilt of not getting
these stitched up in a timely fashion.  Must
remember to just sit back and enjoy the 
process ... which is all that matters.

Another long post.   If Blogger ever puts
a limit on the size of the posts you can 
make I'll be in big trouble.

Thanks for dropping by.   
Cheers!






Sunday, July 08, 2012


Big news people!!!   I've been stitching!!!

I know ... it's hard to believe but it's true.
Last Monday was the Canada Day holiday
and I plunked myself down in a chair on our
deck in the afternoon and stitched away on
my PS Summer sampler.   The square is
almost done.  Just some blue sky and border
to stitch.  I'm quite pleased with my 
choice out of the four possibilities offered
which is a relief.   I dithered and fretted over
which of the squares would suit me before
committing to the butterfly square.


A close up of the square.   It was so nice
to just sit outside with the birds chirping,
the sun shining ... and our neighbour's
air conditioner roaring in the background.
I haven't concentrated on a stitching
project for that length of time (an entire
afternoon) in ages.   I need to do it more
often.  


This week was a tough one at work.  It was
first of the month which is our busiest time
but this month's first was the busiest that we've
been in a long time.  Both Wednesday and
Thursday we worked late, although I don't
work as late as the others in my department
because it takes me too long to get home from
work.   

And it was stinkin' hot this week too which
made any time spent out of doors a real
ordeal.   Walking home from the train 
station was not pleasant in that heat and
especially so when it included a pretty
steep hill to hike up.   

So when I arrived home one night and found
a package waiting for me it gave me such an
energy boost.   Last month  I was the lucky
winner of a gift certificate to 123 Stitch
curtesy of the delightful and generous 
Mary Ann of Just Stitching to celebrate 
her birthday.   Now usually when it's your
birthday you're suppose to receive gifts
not give them out.  However, as I said,
Mary Ann is a generous soul and she
gave the readers of her blog the opportunity
to win a shopping spree at a fabulous
online store.   I still can't believe that I
won.

I decided on two charts from Silver Creek
Samplers, including Dandy Dreams which
I first saw on Maggie's blog a while ago.
Her's stitched up so beautifully and looked
so sweet when it was framed I just couldn't
get it out of my mind.   So now I can 
stitch my own pretty sampler whenever I
am ready to do so.   

I also ordered a few K&Co. scrap booking
embellishment packs since 123 Stitch also 
sells some scrap booking stuff.  So I
managed to cover my two crafting 
obsessions with one gift certificate!!  

Many thanks to Mary Ann for making
my week easier to bear!


I took a stroll around the deck and garden 
today and snapped some pictures of our
many pots to share with you.  And also
to keep as a record for reference when 
next Spring rolls around again and I'm
trying to remember what flowers worked
best in which pots or planters the previous
summer.


Martha Washington geraniums are so pretty, aren't
they???   


Chippy was hanging around last weekend when
DH and I sat out on the deck for dinner.  Guess
he was hoping for a handout or something.  Since
he's figured out how to   a) climb the pole to the
bird feeders to help himself to the seed there  plus
b) he's found a way to get into the shed where 
the seed bags are stored, even when the door is
shut and locked and he's helping himself to that
bounty as well.  Cheeky nuisance.   Good
thing he's cute!! 


More shots of the newly decorated living room.
The built in storage and display area with 
drawers for linens and cupboards for other
stuff plus nice deep shelves above for the
displaying of the nicer things.  


And of course there is now a built in bookcase
for my collection of Folio Society books and
my National Geographic books.  Storage 
below for CDs and photo albums.  I love
it so much!!   Note new hard wood floors.

No more carpet.   Which means the 
fur from our two cats has free range and 
tumbles across the floor like tumbleweeds
in the desert ...followed by an annoyed me 
 with the vacum cleaner hose!!!   

All that fur rolling across my floors.  I
keep checking the cats to see if they're 
cold because they surely must have lost all 
their fur and are lying around the house 
naked!!!
Nope,  just lying there ... growing 
more fur!!!!


Another view of the corner next to the
window.   Looky ... we have crown
molding!!!!    Nifty!!    

Hope all you folks down in the States
where the temperatures are much 
worse then they were here are keeping
cool as you can under the circumstances.
Take care!!

Thanks for visiting!!

Cheers!