As a lover of books I can find it way too easy to acquire them. As a result, bookshelf space in my house is always scarce. For this reason, I am a huge fan of the public library; you borrow books, and then you give them back! And it's free (yes, my taxes at work, but still...). But from time to time, I can't resist the lure of the book store, Amazon, etc., and/or present time comes around, and books just seem to be a natural choice for me. So here I sit, surrounded by 13 new books! And I don't have to give them back!
Tea Books - Some chance finds from Borders, and gifts that, by chance, I didn't already have!
The Perfect Afternoon Tea Book byAntony Wild
Crumpets and Scones by Iris Ihde Frey - a gift upon completion of the semester at Swarthmore
Tastefully Small Finger Sandwiches by Kim Hendrickson
The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook by Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss
The World in Your Teacup by Lisa Boalt Richardson
A Passion for Tea by Hattie Ellis
Other Food/Entertaining type books - all purchased from used book dealers through Amazon. I believe the shipping for each of these cost more than the actual book did...
Supermarket Confidential by Joanna Pruess - I wanted this one especially because it gives you tips on how to navigate the jungle that is your grocery store
Simple Flower Style by Paige Gilchrist - because someday I will have the money to have fresh flowers at all times, and the time to go fetch them.
The Epicurean Collector by Patrick Dunne - to help me learn the difference between a teaspoon and a coffee spoon
Other Books
Serendipity - Fried de Metz Herman's last collection of dances
Good Mail Day by Jennie Hinchcliff - a book about mail art, a craft I love
Tiaras Past and Present by Geoffrey Munn - not my only book about tiaras, I'll have you know
...and finally
Extraordinary Chickens by Stephen Green-Armytage - a gift from Susie, of course. And they are!!!
What were your recent book purchases you couldn't resist??
5/17/2010
3/18/2010
Changes afoot...
One exterior, one interior...
In the apocolyptic storms of last weekend, the backyard went from essentially this:
to this:
and then finally to this:
The section nearest the house comes down this weekend, once I figure out how to get it unbolter from the decaying fence that's sort of still on my neighbor's side. If nothing else, at least I'll have a little bit more sun for a while. And while a new fence wasn't in the plan for the immediate future, this forces me into thinking about what kind of yard surround I really want back there. At least until the folly goes in. Maybe something like this:
And now for what's new in the house. I have a small list of purchases I want to make for inside the house (well, okay, I have a gigantic list, but only a few that a even remotely realistic in the near term). I made the first of them yesterday - a cabinet for the dining room. I need just a little more storage space for bottles of wine and other serving pieces I don't want sitting out collecting dust and/or on a bookshelf in the living room that could be otherwise holding books! So I troll Craigslist and ebay waiting for just the right thing. I wanted a piece made of solid wood, but one that wasn't heavy in volume, something made of cherry, or at least a wood of similar coloring to the dining room set, and a piece small enough to fit along a wall no wider than 50". Here's what I found...
What was there:
What is there now:
Now to clean and fill it! I'm guessing the latter won't be difficult...
In the apocolyptic storms of last weekend, the backyard went from essentially this:
to this:
and then finally to this:
The section nearest the house comes down this weekend, once I figure out how to get it unbolter from the decaying fence that's sort of still on my neighbor's side. If nothing else, at least I'll have a little bit more sun for a while. And while a new fence wasn't in the plan for the immediate future, this forces me into thinking about what kind of yard surround I really want back there. At least until the folly goes in. Maybe something like this:
And now for what's new in the house. I have a small list of purchases I want to make for inside the house (well, okay, I have a gigantic list, but only a few that a even remotely realistic in the near term). I made the first of them yesterday - a cabinet for the dining room. I need just a little more storage space for bottles of wine and other serving pieces I don't want sitting out collecting dust and/or on a bookshelf in the living room that could be otherwise holding books! So I troll Craigslist and ebay waiting for just the right thing. I wanted a piece made of solid wood, but one that wasn't heavy in volume, something made of cherry, or at least a wood of similar coloring to the dining room set, and a piece small enough to fit along a wall no wider than 50". Here's what I found...
What was there:
What is there now:
Now to clean and fill it! I'm guessing the latter won't be difficult...
2/15/2010
Just another quiet weekend...
This past weekend, Valentine’s weekend, President’s weekend, I wasn’t planning on going to NY State for the Dance Flurry, nor NYC for the Sword Ale, but in the opposite direction, to VA to visit my friend Susie. But Mother Nature played her part, with the City of Philadelphia right beside, and I decided that it was a better idea, and safer to stay put. My car was clear, but still pretty stuck, and the streets in my neighborhood don’t get plowed. It would be folly to attempt it.
Last Friday it was finally back to work after the storm. I mailed off my valentines and started planning the now free weekend. Friday I would treat myself, run over to Borders after work, and then catch a movie at the Ritz. If I caught the 8:30 train home, fine, if I had to wait for an hour, I would run up to Chinatown for a quick dinner first. Sounds like a plan...
But no. I sprinted out of the movie, not even catching the ending credits, and onto the subway so I could make the train. And I likely would have made it. Had the trains been running. But due to the ever-mysterious signal problems, not only were the trains not running on schedule, there was no notion of how often and when they would be running. And the Septa employees either didn’t know, or weren’t allowed to say. So I waited. I had a book, so I was okay. And waited. Did I mention that I was standing up the whole time? And waited. Finally after more than an hour of waiting and watching trains that were not the Chestnut Hill trains come and go, I decided to expand my horizons: I would take the bus. The 23 goes into Chestnut Hill and stops on 11th street, right outside Market East Station. Armed with a schedule and a supposed 5-minute wait time, I head outside. And wait.
A clump of us are on the corner, waiting for the bus, when a woman bustles across the street, small child in tow (it’s now 10PM), and tells us that the bus has been rerouted and is now running up Broad Street. I’m annoyed about not knowing, but fine; Broad Street is really only a few blocks west. Off I go.
Now, I don’t take buses very often. I grew to hate them back when I lived in a 2-fare zone in NYC and spent what felt like half a lifetime waiting for the Q13. But apparently, there are rules about buses in Philadelphia that I don’t understand. Like when a bus runs along Broad Street, even if it’s been rerouted there, not every bus stops at every stop. So there I am, waiting for the bus at the first bus stop on Broad Street. It’s late and dark and cold. But, the bus comes! I’m excited! The driver sees me. It’s a red light. And he won’t stop and open the door to let me in. He goes on. I give chase. At the next light, I catch up with the bus and knock on the door. The driver won’t let me in. Finally, at the next light, two women see me and stand in the doorway of the bus so it won’t leave me behind while I catch up and run around the snow bank and finally achieve a way home.
Starting out at 8:30, I made it home by 11:45pm. And this is only Friday night!
Saturday seemed more promising. I met a friend for breakfast, and he not only generously took me to the grocery store afterwards, but then helped me free my car from the grips of the snow. So while I still wasn’t going anywhere by car because of the condition of my street, it was nice to be free. My plan for the rest of the day included a lovely concert downtown, followed by a dinner out. I had to take a chance that Septa would get me there and back, but I made sure to bring a book against the inevitable waiting times.
All started well. I got downtown. The concert and the dinner were lovely. I walked across the river to 30th Street to wait for the train, happy that I hadn’t missed the last train home. I grabbed a coffee and sat down to wait. At one minute to train time, I went up to the platform. The group of us up there watched the train come into the station, and pass us by, stopping only at the very end of the platform, as if it missed. A few folks went down to investigate, but that wasn’t our train apparently. Our train was, in fact, no longer listed on the schedule, as if it had come and gone, but yet we were all still waiting. Did I mention that was the last train home?
So we troop down to the Septa desk, where the slightly belligerent employee does make a call to find out what happened. She tells us to go back to the platform (again, late and cold) or we will miss the train. She will not answer my question about when the train is due. We go up. No train, no train posted. Finally, the train makes an appearance on the schedule as 20 minutes late. And then 14 minutes late. Finally more than 14 minutes late, it comes, and I get home. It’s 12:45am.
Sunday. Valentine’s Day. A day I love. The day my car and I will escape Mt. Airy. And I do! I get the car out, manage to get down my street and Devon Street, which are both covered in snow and ice, and pitted and uneven and horrible drives. I drive out, eager to go anywhere. I go to Lowe’s to buy a boot tray for the entry and leave with $20 in peonies, ranunculus and lilies of the valley bulbs. All is once again right with the world. I am free!
I get into Mt. Airy at about 4pm, tea time. I avoid Durham Street, not wanting to push my luck, make it up the slight incline of Devon, turn around in the train station lot and aim to park in the lovely clear spot on the corner of Devon and Durham, which is luckily not full of trash cans or lawn chairs. Failure. I can’t get in. I get stuck. I attempt to remain calm.
I run back to the house for the shovel and the salt and start digging. I examine the situation, make a new plan, get back in the car. And get stuck again. Repeat. I am no longer calm. I am frustrated, sore, and embarrassed by my lack of snow-conquering abilities. Over an hour later, after several rounds of shoveling and moving the car by inches, I get out. And look for another spot. There really aren’t any unguarded. Finally, I spy something, not remotely close to the house, but off a corner, mostly legal, that I think I can get into and out of. I snag it and make my way home.
For me the weekend is officially over. I go home and get into bed at about 5:30pm and stay there.
And there’s more snow predicted for today and tomorrow. Wake me when it’s April.
Last Friday it was finally back to work after the storm. I mailed off my valentines and started planning the now free weekend. Friday I would treat myself, run over to Borders after work, and then catch a movie at the Ritz. If I caught the 8:30 train home, fine, if I had to wait for an hour, I would run up to Chinatown for a quick dinner first. Sounds like a plan...
But no. I sprinted out of the movie, not even catching the ending credits, and onto the subway so I could make the train. And I likely would have made it. Had the trains been running. But due to the ever-mysterious signal problems, not only were the trains not running on schedule, there was no notion of how often and when they would be running. And the Septa employees either didn’t know, or weren’t allowed to say. So I waited. I had a book, so I was okay. And waited. Did I mention that I was standing up the whole time? And waited. Finally after more than an hour of waiting and watching trains that were not the Chestnut Hill trains come and go, I decided to expand my horizons: I would take the bus. The 23 goes into Chestnut Hill and stops on 11th street, right outside Market East Station. Armed with a schedule and a supposed 5-minute wait time, I head outside. And wait.
A clump of us are on the corner, waiting for the bus, when a woman bustles across the street, small child in tow (it’s now 10PM), and tells us that the bus has been rerouted and is now running up Broad Street. I’m annoyed about not knowing, but fine; Broad Street is really only a few blocks west. Off I go.
Now, I don’t take buses very often. I grew to hate them back when I lived in a 2-fare zone in NYC and spent what felt like half a lifetime waiting for the Q13. But apparently, there are rules about buses in Philadelphia that I don’t understand. Like when a bus runs along Broad Street, even if it’s been rerouted there, not every bus stops at every stop. So there I am, waiting for the bus at the first bus stop on Broad Street. It’s late and dark and cold. But, the bus comes! I’m excited! The driver sees me. It’s a red light. And he won’t stop and open the door to let me in. He goes on. I give chase. At the next light, I catch up with the bus and knock on the door. The driver won’t let me in. Finally, at the next light, two women see me and stand in the doorway of the bus so it won’t leave me behind while I catch up and run around the snow bank and finally achieve a way home.
Starting out at 8:30, I made it home by 11:45pm. And this is only Friday night!
Saturday seemed more promising. I met a friend for breakfast, and he not only generously took me to the grocery store afterwards, but then helped me free my car from the grips of the snow. So while I still wasn’t going anywhere by car because of the condition of my street, it was nice to be free. My plan for the rest of the day included a lovely concert downtown, followed by a dinner out. I had to take a chance that Septa would get me there and back, but I made sure to bring a book against the inevitable waiting times.
All started well. I got downtown. The concert and the dinner were lovely. I walked across the river to 30th Street to wait for the train, happy that I hadn’t missed the last train home. I grabbed a coffee and sat down to wait. At one minute to train time, I went up to the platform. The group of us up there watched the train come into the station, and pass us by, stopping only at the very end of the platform, as if it missed. A few folks went down to investigate, but that wasn’t our train apparently. Our train was, in fact, no longer listed on the schedule, as if it had come and gone, but yet we were all still waiting. Did I mention that was the last train home?
So we troop down to the Septa desk, where the slightly belligerent employee does make a call to find out what happened. She tells us to go back to the platform (again, late and cold) or we will miss the train. She will not answer my question about when the train is due. We go up. No train, no train posted. Finally, the train makes an appearance on the schedule as 20 minutes late. And then 14 minutes late. Finally more than 14 minutes late, it comes, and I get home. It’s 12:45am.
Sunday. Valentine’s Day. A day I love. The day my car and I will escape Mt. Airy. And I do! I get the car out, manage to get down my street and Devon Street, which are both covered in snow and ice, and pitted and uneven and horrible drives. I drive out, eager to go anywhere. I go to Lowe’s to buy a boot tray for the entry and leave with $20 in peonies, ranunculus and lilies of the valley bulbs. All is once again right with the world. I am free!
I get into Mt. Airy at about 4pm, tea time. I avoid Durham Street, not wanting to push my luck, make it up the slight incline of Devon, turn around in the train station lot and aim to park in the lovely clear spot on the corner of Devon and Durham, which is luckily not full of trash cans or lawn chairs. Failure. I can’t get in. I get stuck. I attempt to remain calm.
I run back to the house for the shovel and the salt and start digging. I examine the situation, make a new plan, get back in the car. And get stuck again. Repeat. I am no longer calm. I am frustrated, sore, and embarrassed by my lack of snow-conquering abilities. Over an hour later, after several rounds of shoveling and moving the car by inches, I get out. And look for another spot. There really aren’t any unguarded. Finally, I spy something, not remotely close to the house, but off a corner, mostly legal, that I think I can get into and out of. I snag it and make my way home.
For me the weekend is officially over. I go home and get into bed at about 5:30pm and stay there.
And there’s more snow predicted for today and tomorrow. Wake me when it’s April.
2/08/2010
A scary amount of rubber stamp geekiness...
This past weekend as I was preparing for this year's valentine-making party (that never got off the ground due to the 700 inches of snow that fell this weekend) and puttering around in the craft room, I decided to find space for the new stamps I'd acquired over the last year. As I began fitting stamps into the new sets of drawers seen in the photo below I pondered a stamp organization problem...
Fitting the stamps in drawers and then noting down in my catalog which stamps are in which drawer is great, but occasions like the valentine party present another challenge: what happens when a drawerful of stamps gets dumped out, and the same stamps just won't fit neatly in the drawer again. The puzzle has become undone.
Enter the digital camera! It suddenly hit me that I can now photograph the contents of each drawer, print the photos, and not only have a catalogue of stamp images, but also a record of how precisely they are stored.
Photographing all of the drawers, which each have 2 or three layers of stamps, will take forever, but here are my first shots:
Drawer 5 - Valentine stamps, mostly
Drawer 31, Layer 1 - Moose
Drawer 31 - Layer 2 - more moose
Can you guess what my valentines look like??
Fitting the stamps in drawers and then noting down in my catalog which stamps are in which drawer is great, but occasions like the valentine party present another challenge: what happens when a drawerful of stamps gets dumped out, and the same stamps just won't fit neatly in the drawer again. The puzzle has become undone.
Enter the digital camera! It suddenly hit me that I can now photograph the contents of each drawer, print the photos, and not only have a catalogue of stamp images, but also a record of how precisely they are stored.
Photographing all of the drawers, which each have 2 or three layers of stamps, will take forever, but here are my first shots:
Drawer 5 - Valentine stamps, mostly
Drawer 31, Layer 1 - Moose
Drawer 31 - Layer 2 - more moose
Can you guess what my valentines look like??
1/11/2010
On another spree...
One of my winter break projects was going through the mountains of paper that accumulate in my house. As a result, I finally got around to hanging more things on the walls. This is along the same lines as never does the kitchen floor need scrubbing more than when there's a chore you least want to do.
Here are some highlights of the new decor:
A million years ago there was a candle store at the King of Prussia mall called Illuminations. It was my favorite thing to go there just after a major holiday and sccop up all kinds of stuff on sale. Alas, they went out of business, but not before I bought these two wall sconces, which have been boxed up. I had an inspiration and finally hung the mirror on the wall in the entry, instead of keeping it propped, and hung the sconces on either side. They look great with candles going.
Next up, the dining room closet, now complete with two tiles by Wendy Costa and a fairy-dancer-type figure. While coming up with this arrangement was easy, hanging it up was not. I don't know what they put in the door when they took the glass out, but it does not want to take nails of any kind. It will be great when I can restore the glass here and in the corner cabinet.
Below are the tiles in situ:
The last wall project involves my new greatest love - picture ledges. These are available, of course, at Ikea. I hit upon the idea of using them after laying out all of the items I wanted to hang up. Among these are a collection of tiles, the Wendy Costa tiles above, Motawi tiles, Suzanne Crane tiles, and tiles from the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown. Rather than hanging them, I thought a ledge might be the perfect solution to my fear of their falling (I'm missing a tile - did it fall and break some time? I can't remember.).
Now I see picture ledges, at least this kind, which are fairly wide for picture ledges, as the solution to everything. I want to hand some to display my posy vases annd other vases. I want to hang more in the office to hold my candle holders. The two that I hund don't hold all of my tiles, so more to come!
The other things I hung up don't photograph as well at night, so stay tuned for the next installment: Window Dressing...
Here are some highlights of the new decor:
A million years ago there was a candle store at the King of Prussia mall called Illuminations. It was my favorite thing to go there just after a major holiday and sccop up all kinds of stuff on sale. Alas, they went out of business, but not before I bought these two wall sconces, which have been boxed up. I had an inspiration and finally hung the mirror on the wall in the entry, instead of keeping it propped, and hung the sconces on either side. They look great with candles going.
Next up, the dining room closet, now complete with two tiles by Wendy Costa and a fairy-dancer-type figure. While coming up with this arrangement was easy, hanging it up was not. I don't know what they put in the door when they took the glass out, but it does not want to take nails of any kind. It will be great when I can restore the glass here and in the corner cabinet.
Below are the tiles in situ:
The last wall project involves my new greatest love - picture ledges. These are available, of course, at Ikea. I hit upon the idea of using them after laying out all of the items I wanted to hang up. Among these are a collection of tiles, the Wendy Costa tiles above, Motawi tiles, Suzanne Crane tiles, and tiles from the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown. Rather than hanging them, I thought a ledge might be the perfect solution to my fear of their falling (I'm missing a tile - did it fall and break some time? I can't remember.).
Now I see picture ledges, at least this kind, which are fairly wide for picture ledges, as the solution to everything. I want to hand some to display my posy vases annd other vases. I want to hang more in the office to hold my candle holders. The two that I hund don't hold all of my tiles, so more to come!
The other things I hung up don't photograph as well at night, so stay tuned for the next installment: Window Dressing...
12/23/2009
Some day it may come to this...
Isn't this amazing:
This image comes from Just Be Splendid via Teaspoon and Petals. And yes, I really love the purple one with polka-dots...
This image comes from Just Be Splendid via Teaspoon and Petals. And yes, I really love the purple one with polka-dots...
12/21/2009
Craftiness...
It never fails. Every time I undertake a large-scale craft project, say, making holiday cards, I look around my craft room, shake my head at the sheer volume of stuff there, and vow that for this project, I will use only what I have and not buy anything new. Good theory, no? Somehow it never quite works that way. Take this year's cards, for example (just finished tonight! hooray!):
I knew I wanted to do something with an embossed element. I had no ideas beyond that. Then in looking for something else a week or so ago, I came across these tags I've had since who-knows-when. The design sprang from that. I played with it, selected some stamps, made a prototype, made a plan, and I was good to go.
I tend toward dark blue or green card stock for a base. I had a bunch of navy duplex stock (a different color on each side, lue and white in this case) that was no longer flat despite laying flat continuously. Sure enough, I didn't have enough. No problem - I had some red to use up as well. Next supply: tags. I ended up having only half as many as I needed. This led to the first trip to the store, a package of 100 tags, and now as many, if not more left over than I had to start with!
I'd overlooked the fact that the tags I already had had no string or ribbon on them. But I have a drawer full of ribbon. No issues, right? Wrong. I never have enough of the right color or quality. But I had almost enough of the white organza ribbon I wanted so I was content to improvise on the last five or so. Luckily all of the new tags come complete with string already attached.
Inks are always a dicey proposition for me. I have a ton of them, but they don't, in fact, last forever. I never know which ink pads will be extant when I sit down. Luckily, though not all of the inks worked out as I had hoped, I was able to regroup and not purchase anything new.
Last element - the sentiment. I tend to be minimalist in the sentiment on my cards at holiday time, not wanting them to be Christmas cards, but more generic. This year's sentiment is very brief: Joy. I tried creating the word with alphabet stamps, but none I had were the right font and size. Then in looking through my word stamps, I came across a quote that included the word. I was in business - stamp out the quote, cut out the word. Alas, that left me with a small bit of paper to adhere to the card - difficult, but not impossible, though possibly time consuming.
I'm a fan of dry adhesives, preferring them to the messy and not quick enough to dry glues out there. Double-face tape is my friend and constant companion in the craft room. But no tape I own is narrow enough for these tiny pieces of paper. Last year I had a similar issue and used a product called Glue Dots, which were perfect for sticking small pieces of paper to each other, etc. And, I had some left! But of course, the dots I had were too big for my one brief word. Another trip to the store, this time the dangerous craft store, for, yes, micro glue dots! (That's all I bought. Really.) They were perfect.
Finally, tonight, all supplies in place, all elements complete, all address labels printed and postage stamps purchased, all that is left is to write a million notes and pop them in the mail!
I knew I wanted to do something with an embossed element. I had no ideas beyond that. Then in looking for something else a week or so ago, I came across these tags I've had since who-knows-when. The design sprang from that. I played with it, selected some stamps, made a prototype, made a plan, and I was good to go.
I tend toward dark blue or green card stock for a base. I had a bunch of navy duplex stock (a different color on each side, lue and white in this case) that was no longer flat despite laying flat continuously. Sure enough, I didn't have enough. No problem - I had some red to use up as well. Next supply: tags. I ended up having only half as many as I needed. This led to the first trip to the store, a package of 100 tags, and now as many, if not more left over than I had to start with!
I'd overlooked the fact that the tags I already had had no string or ribbon on them. But I have a drawer full of ribbon. No issues, right? Wrong. I never have enough of the right color or quality. But I had almost enough of the white organza ribbon I wanted so I was content to improvise on the last five or so. Luckily all of the new tags come complete with string already attached.
Inks are always a dicey proposition for me. I have a ton of them, but they don't, in fact, last forever. I never know which ink pads will be extant when I sit down. Luckily, though not all of the inks worked out as I had hoped, I was able to regroup and not purchase anything new.
Last element - the sentiment. I tend to be minimalist in the sentiment on my cards at holiday time, not wanting them to be Christmas cards, but more generic. This year's sentiment is very brief: Joy. I tried creating the word with alphabet stamps, but none I had were the right font and size. Then in looking through my word stamps, I came across a quote that included the word. I was in business - stamp out the quote, cut out the word. Alas, that left me with a small bit of paper to adhere to the card - difficult, but not impossible, though possibly time consuming.
I'm a fan of dry adhesives, preferring them to the messy and not quick enough to dry glues out there. Double-face tape is my friend and constant companion in the craft room. But no tape I own is narrow enough for these tiny pieces of paper. Last year I had a similar issue and used a product called Glue Dots, which were perfect for sticking small pieces of paper to each other, etc. And, I had some left! But of course, the dots I had were too big for my one brief word. Another trip to the store, this time the dangerous craft store, for, yes, micro glue dots! (That's all I bought. Really.) They were perfect.
Finally, tonight, all supplies in place, all elements complete, all address labels printed and postage stamps purchased, all that is left is to write a million notes and pop them in the mail!
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