A few finished projects:
A nightgown big enough for two seasons...
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| A gift for one of the bravest boys I know. Enduring leukemia treatments as a toddler makes him a SUPERHERO in my book. |
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A mermaid skirt and headscarf. I used this skirt tutorial/pattern.
And proof that Moses' little penguin lovey did, in fact, get finished for Christmas...
Also- a new towel. FOR...you guessed it....Ineke.
It's not my fault though- the one she got as a gift last year looked like this:
I mean...seriously... it's not my fault that poor little unicorns and God-given rainbows have been highjacked by insanity.
I still love them both- but maybe not together.
Wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong impression.
So I bribed Ineke with MERMAIDS instead. (Low, I know.)
As you can see- Ineke is a spoiled girl.
When you make two different gifts for other people out of two different girlie-girl fabrics and have *just enough* left over to make something small from each of them... the littlest girl of the bunch gets spoiled rotten.
And not EVEN for a birthday!
Just because Mama FINALLY got sick of the leftover fabrics sitting on the sewing table, pieces cut and getting dusty.
I think Adele' needs a little handmade lovin' next, she turned positively green with envy as I was working on these. But unfortunately, a teeny bit of leftover fabric can only be stretched so far.
It's lucky to be little!
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If you want to know how I manage to get so much crafting done, the key is to begin a project, then set it aside for, oh..... at least several months. Possibly years.
Finally finish the job after you get sick to death of moving or looking at the unfinished piles another dozen times or so.
Then...make sure to take many months to blog about them and do so ALL at the same time.
You will look very productive indeed.
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Book chatter... I started this post while reading The Turn of the Screw...here's what I had to say about that:
I finished reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Wow. Have you read it? This was a dark book and difficult to interpret. I believe that Henry James masterfully created a story that could be interpreted several different ways, each outcome entirely plausible. It was as if he wanted the reader to make up his mind as to the truth of his tale. But, the thing is, I hate subjective truth. I guess I lean toward books that tell it to me plain... I find its' ambiguity makes me feel stupid. I want to know WHAT was Mr. James saying... precisely?! Am I not smart enough to be able to tell? IS the governess mad? Was she protector? Were the ghosts real? Who, in the story, was perverse? I think my sympathies lie with the governess. How else would Miles' have known who she saw at the window? Any thoughts?
Since then...
I gobbled up Death By Living by N.D.Wilson.
I finished All Art is Propaganda by George Orwell (which was interesting.)
Just Show Up: The Dance of Walking Through Suffering Together by Kara Tippetts and Jill Buteyn (which was heartbreaking.)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (which was well written and engaging but I hated it. The ending....REALLY?!? So dumb.)
The Constitution Made Easy (which was educating. Wish more people were reading that these days, lemmetellyou)
And now I am doing a dance between Slave Narratives by the Library of America (which is profound) and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which is just plain pleasant...and a nice diversion.)
I am trying to make a list of books to read that lovers of literature would expect me to have read by now but which I haven't. You know, those books that reside in the "Books You Must Read Before You Die" bucket list of worthwhile reads or "Books Everyone Should Know". If you had a list like these, what would your list include?
As for crafting/creating.... I need to get working on several projects that I'd LIKE to do but lack total motivation in starting. Ineke wants a birthday mermaid. I have THREE baby gifts to make. Three children have birthdays in September. And as fast as time is flying...Christmas is in about three seconds.
Wouldn't it be nice to not procrastinate? Or rather, 'procraftinate'?
Or maybe it would be nicer to just go curl up with a book.
9 comments:
I'm not much of a reader. A book has to grab me from the beginning. I didn't grow up in a reading household. My parents were always busy with other aspects of life. My mom used to say (you might need to sit down) "Put the book down and do something productive". Yes, I know how bad that sounds. Although they didn't discourage reading in our spare time, there was always something more important to do: pull weeds, practice my embroidery/sewing/knitting, clean (ugh). Anyway, she made up for it after retirement and there was hardly a time when she wasn't working on a book. I just finished three of the four books in the Call the Midwife series by Jennifer Worth. I think you would like them. All true events told by the author. Heartwarming, happy, tragic, and sad, they cover it all. Some parts were very hard to read, and I even had to skip two parts completely. I also have The Guernsey Literary book. Saw the movie and am looking forward to starting that when I'm done with #4 of the Midwife books.
And also meant to say I love your finished projects! The skirt and scarf are now on my list for my granddaughters! Good job on all of it. The cape is special! Feels good to get stuff done!
Ulli- I have to admit that I have said those same words to the children in my home who would be perfectly content to read all day when there is work to be done. I have also said them to myself. ha!
I didn't know there was a The Guernsey Literary movie. I have heard good things about the call the midwife series but I have to admit, I don't love the last major hurdle of bearing children- labor and delivery...it kinda freaks me out. Also- I do not enjoy sad and tragic things because they affect me tremendously and then stick with me for a long time...so while I have heard great things about the Call the Midwife series, I am afraid to actually check them out! Maybe someday though. Maybe after menopause! ha!
I LOVED the Guernsey book and agree with your assessment of When Crawdads Sing. Congratulations on all those completed projects. It's always hard for me to keep going once the excitement of starting is gone.
Love those projects--my youngest daughter tends to get more of the produce of my sewing machine and knitting needles than my other kids, mostly because she will wear the stuff and happily. My other kids are so fussy about their clothes it just isn't worth the bother.
Saw the Gurernsey movie but haven't read the book (although it is on my shelf). The movie is fine, but I've heard great things about the book!
My book bucket list would look a bit different I think, because I read so many different things! Women's Work was such a paradigm shifter for me, in terms of understanding domestic labor over a really long period of time, and The Making of Home was another such, about what we can glean about domestic economy through the objects of use in the home for the past 500 or so years. I also highly highly recommend the whole Outlander series (the Starz series started out well, but has been uneven for me the past couple of seasons...mostly because they are straying more from the books as time goes by). There is so much life wisdom in the books, though. And what an epic story of a family! Thorn Birds, English Patient, Master and Margarita, Dead Souls (hilarious), Anna Karenina (War and Peace is good, but there is a lot to slog through in between the drama of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys. He should have stuck to the family narrative and skipped the LONG military commentary and musing). Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick is an excellent primer on the waning years of the USSR, and Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie is wonderful, with the added bonus of being the best explanation of the origins of WW1 I've ever read. Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck is a great story, and The Robe by Lloyd Douglas (upon which the old movie is based) is so so good, about the centurion who won Jesus' robe at the foot of the cross, and what happens to him.
Obviously, I can talk books all day!
I made a pillowcase for my four year old niece out of that very same kitty fabric! Our family consists of boys, and teenage ones at that. I enjoy have a few little girl nieces to sew for. While there are things to make for teen boys, they tend to fall on the more practical side. Ah well.
I agree with your opinion to the end of Crawdads. It was like the author wanted to hurry and wrap things up, but it also made me lose trust in the character. Otherwise it was a good book.
Happy Crafting...and Reading!
I always enjoy your blog. One of my favorite books is Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, A Year of Food Life.
It is an account of her family abandoning the commercial food pipeline to live a year eating locally through their own food production, purchasing locally, or doing without. It is an easy read and very interesting.
Carrie
Thank you all for the wonderful book selections! I have a new list started!
Bekah- yes, boys are DEFINITELY harder than girls in the handmade department! Thank goodness for nieces. ALthough- every time Ineke wears that pj, I think I wish that I HAD ONE TOO. Really....are we too old for kitty fabric?
I love that Ineke Mermaid! She could use some long pink hair, but, otherwise, she's perfect. ;)
The gifts are wonderful, too. I especially love that towel! You know my fondness for appliqued bathroom accessories, and I kept gushing over it in person to Ineke the first time I saw it. So well done! (Sew well?)
And whenever you feel behind on baby gifts, think of me. As Moses approaches his ONE-YEAR BIRTHDAY, I have yet to make him his gift, which now must be different than I'd planned because he's grown a wee bit in the last nine months. Sigh.
p.s. YOU'RE the one who gave me Turn of the Screw, yes? It was in our van for about a month, and I thought John had stored it there for some Unknown John Reason until I remembered a late, sleepy night through brain-fog...and realized it was a book I'd borrowed to read. For Pete's sake. I obviously have not read it yet, but you'll get it back someday. Let me know if you need it sooner rather than later. I'm three months behind on my shared paper books with John (which is only three books, but still...), and my nighttime reading lately has consisted of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, begun on a whim from the many books John loaded on my Kindle. I had no idea what it was about but have been thoroughly captivated each night, so Turn of the Screw is going to have to wait a bit.
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