Purring Cottage: Literary Libations

Showing posts with label Literary Libations. Show all posts

Dreams and Goals January 13

I am happy to report that I actually got lots of things done on my project list from last week!

I didn't get into the sewing room much at all because Mom {who turns 90 in a week} was visiting and she brought a nasty cold, possibly pneumonia, with her and it made her confused and unsteady on her feet. So I didn't feel that I could leave her for long.

So, I sat in the living room a lot with her, dispensed her meds and herbal teas, and did handwork.

I finished my knit washcloth...

This is about all the knitting I seem to be able to do. 😑

...worked at getting caught up on Melisa's Stitch-along, but I'm quite far behind...

...and after she was well enough to go back to her new home at my brother & sis-in-law's, I did the hard work of drawing in all the lines on my old Everyday Embroidery project.

It took a lot of bending over, figuring out where I was in the plan, and calculating how to make it all fit on the fabric. As it is, I'm going to end up having to make a very narrow hem at the bottom. I think I'll survive.

So, now I want to get all the lines embroidered on before I start in on the designs in the blocks. That will be pretty mindless and I'll be able to watch some Youtube or TV while doing it. I also want to relisten to our pastor's sermon from Sunday because it was so encouraging and helpful in living a grace-filled life, as usual.

Some other projects have been dehydrating some apple which we enjoy snacking on or putting in granola,

collecting quail eggs and getting the incubator started for more meat birds, sending six birds to freezer camp {which I did not photograph - you're welcome},

and prepping more eggs for sale. Aren't the little eggs and carton so cute?!

So, now fortified with a new order arrival of Literary Teas from Simpson and Vail Tea, I can set my new goals.

The Doyle tea is a new {and very tasty} one for me, but the rest are refills.

New Goals

In the sewing room

* Continue cutting scraps as I refill the woodstove by the sewing room & hopefully other times

* White block framing borders on diamond quilt for grandbaby

In the embroidery/cross-stitch basket

* Do the lines on Everyday Embroidery

* Finish frame for PinkernPunkin SAL

* Hopefully do first block/stamp on SAL

* Trace Jennifer's BOM onto fabric for embroidering & continue cutting needed fabrics

In the crochet basket

* Keep working on baby sweater for Pregnancy Care Center

On the homestead

* Attach a quail feeder to new grow-out cage

* Get the brooder ready for new chicks

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

New Year Goals

Now that I've had time to think about the new year {in a way today feels like New Year's Day for me since I've been too busy with Mom's care to do much thinking about it}, these are some things that I hope to implement this year.

* Read through the New Testament Gospels four times, in a different translation each time. Since there are 89 chapters in all, this fits quite well into a year leaving some wiggle room. I made myself a chart to keep myself on track. It's not fancy because I'm not a techie, but it does the job. I'm also continuing to read a Psalm a day and will no doubt keep on with specific Bible studies as they come along.

* Actually make use of the elliptical that's taking up space in the basement. I started slowly today and enjoyed listening to a P.G. Wodehouse novel.

* Try to draw, even if it's just a little thing, every weekday because I really want to learn that skill. {And I just heard Barbara O'Neill say that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. 😄} So far I've done some drawing, but not daily. An artist friend loaned me her watercolor pencils, so I'm experimenting with them {the lettering} and enjoying trying things.

* I really want to make a whole lot more quilt tops to donate and hopefully learn to quilt them myself on my machine. I'm wanting to use my fabric stash in a useful way and thus declutter, too. Same with my yarn stash.

So, I'm off to get at some of this {after I figure out a healthy snack 😊}.

May your week be full of beauty and flashes of joy!

Classics Club Review - Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

Having read this book quite a few months ago, I'm long overdue with my Classics Club review, but better late than never.

This copy is part of a set of six that I own that includes the aforementioned Little Women.

I can't say that I enjoyed this story as much as I did Little Women. It seemed much heavier on the moralism and seems to preach the gospel of good works as sufficient to get people into heaven. That goes against all that the Bible teaches and contradicts its message of salvation through grace and faith alone because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

But the characters are loveable and the care that Jo (Mrs. Bhaer) takes of the young men in their boarding school is inspirational. Some lessons had to be learned the hard way, but relationships were put to rights as quickly as possible and love ruled the day. The story of the wild orphan, Dan, is rather endearing.

And, as I enjoy sipping on tea as I read, I'll again mention the delights of the Alcott literary tea from Simpson and Vail Tea.

It was interesting to see the boys grow up and see what became of them as adults in Jo's Boys, but that's a separate book for later.

This review is for Classics Club as well as Belle's Library Victorian Reading Challenge.

Classics Club Review - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

While some may consider this book moralistic, I thought it was encouraging, helpful, fun, and the moral lessons were tucked in here and there in an inviting and realistic way.

The cast of characters are loveable, warts and all. They are real, at least to the culture and time in which they were set, and in many ways remind me both of my childhood in the boonies of a third-world country and my children's childhoods where TV and internet were very limited in order to foster imagination, reading, and other creative activities.

This is not a pie-in-the-sky kind of story and the March family faces some severe trials and heartaches, but we're shown how they walked through those things with help from God, family, and friends without becoming preachy, just a little big-sisterly sometimes.

Since I used an audiobook for this one, I'll say that I enjoyed the rendition given by C.M. Hebert as she put good inflection in her voice and used believable accents and differing voice tones throughout. I really liked the book far better than the movies, though I did enjoy the Winona Ryder one a long while ago. For the rest of the set of Alcott books that I own, I do hope to read them in hard copy since I like the old set and want to use it.

So, now I'm on to Little Men. I think I will order some Alcott Literary Tea from Simpson & Vail Tea to go along with my endeavor. I sure enjoy their other literary teas.

To quote Tigger: "TTFN!"

This review is for Classics Club as well as Belle's Library Victorian Reading Challenge and fulfills Brighter Winter Reading for New-to-You (though I knew much about it, it was new in that I'd actually never read it).

Wonderful World of Color Blog Hop (Tea Cozy)

For many years now I've stated that the things that make the world go 'round are color and harmony. And I mean the many facets of both those words. I love to wear colorful clothes, even in the white of winter when traditionally you're supposed to wear dark clothes. And I love to sing harmony, particularly alto or tenor, especially when making up a trio. And I love it when people get along in peaceful harmonious living.

So I'm tickled pink to participate in this blog hop about color.

The last hop I was in was all about winter and I made myself a little bottle cap trivet for my little teapot which helps me stay warm in the winter. Well, this time I made something to keep the teapot warm - a small cozy. Not only is it colorful, but it features the artwork of one of my favorite authors, Beatrix Potter.

I actually already had the fabric and batting cut out since I'd wanted to make a regular sized cozy some time ago. So I just trimmed it down to a size that would fit this little pot better.

I had 2 sets of my "sandwich" of outer fabric, batting, and inner lining fabric all the same size.

Then with my disappearing ink pen I drew some cross-hatching lines 1" apart on both sandwiches, machine-quilted along those lines, and then sewed the two quilted shapes together, wrong sides together.

I had thought I might use bias tape or make some from matching fabric instead of hemming along the bottom edge, but decided to use a zigzag stitch to hem it and then covered that with wide ric-rac.

Quite a few years ago my daughters and I experimented with making glass beads using a gas torch. I found one of those beads and used it as a handle and decoration.

Simple, but just what I need and want (and it took care of a UFO). Now to fill the pot with this excellent tisane:

I hope you have a wonderful, colorful, harmonious day! Visiting these other participants should help with that.

Monday April 18

Creatin' in the Sticks

Tuesday April 19

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Purring Cottage

Stitchin at Home

Time4Stitchn

Wednesday April 20

Patchouli Moon Studio

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Thursday April 21

Beckys Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Friday April 22

Kathys Kwilts and More

Polar Bear Plunge Blog Hop - Living a Good Life in the Cold

Several things to note about me:

1. I live in cold northern Michigan where winter-type weather often reigns from the end of October to the end of April (and we all have our own definition of what winter-type weather is - anything under 40 degrees is mine).

2. The word "cold" is a four-letter word in my vocabulary. (For you young'uns, four-letter words are naughty.)

3. I like to solve problems. Coldness is a problem unless it's in the form of an occasional strawberry margarita or bottle of hard cider or other refreshing drink on a hot summer evening.

4. Tea solves many problems, including coldness.

5. I made a very cool tea tray (if I do say so myself) for my morning tea and Bible reading time. (Hutchmoot Homebound was the online conference of Christian artists, writers, and musicians put on by Andrew Peterson and the whole Rabbit Room gang. Check them out.) This tray is covered in two coats of resin which, I sadly discovered, develops a little ring when something hot is set on it. The something hot is my cute little teapot. So, that's the problem to solve so that I can combat coldness with my tea and beautiful tea tray.

6. I have solved my problem in a fun and cutesy way by making a small trivet from bottle caps (from the afore-mentioned hard ciders and my husband's occasional stout beers).

The little red center makes me think of a warm, red, glowing hearth-fire, like when former quilters used to put a red square in the center of their Log Cabin blocks. And the snowy, wintery fabric lets me revel in the fact that I'm not out in the winter, but I can still enjoy the beauty of winter.

Here's how I made it, and you can, too:

I used my Clover yo-yo maker (size 30mm) to start the cap covers, making one red one and six blue.

Remove the fabric from the yo-yo maker & put the cap in the center before cinching it up tightly. I used either doubled over thread or quilting thread to make it extra strong for cinching without breaking.

Tie a knot, taking the thread through the fabric a time or two.

With a few stitches at each place that touches, sew the covered caps together, again using doubled thread or a thicker thread.

While the backside doesn't look too bad as is, I decided to make it better by backing it with felt. This also gives the trivet a little more stiffness so it's not flopping all over as you try to put it in place. If you're giving this as a gift, you could embroider a little sentiment or your name on the felt before you glue it on.

I traced carefully around the trivet, trying not to get any ink on it, and then used E6000 glue to attach it to the bottom.

A saucer and mug served as weights to hold it together firmly as the glue dried overnight. You probably wouldn't need that long, but since I worked on this in the evening, I just left it overnight.

In the morning it was ready to go on my fun tea tray with mug and cream pitcher.

Yes, the teapot totally covers it, but I'm ok with that because it small enough that the pot sits very steadily on it and it doesn't overcrowd my tea tray. To make a larger trivet, just cover 12 more bottle caps, sew them on, and make a larger felt backing. Easy peasy.

I realize, though, that I still need a small tea cozy especially made to fit this teapot, so I'm off to the drawing board. Perhaps that will be the next blog hop project.

Enjoy your tea, or whatever warm cuppa you prefer, and don't suffer from the cold too much. 😄

Here are some more participants in the blog hop which I hope you'll enjoy and from whom you can get more fun ideas.

Happy crafting!

Monday's Musings: On The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis

Not only do I like to read, I like to read about reading. And, of course, C.S. Lewis is great reading whether fiction or not. He has such a piercing way with words and certainly doesn't mince them in his opinions.

This little book is a collection of essays and excerpts from letters addressing such topics as imagination, the comaraderie of readers, old books vs contemporary books, favorite authors, movies vs books, and so much more.

Here are a few favorite quotes:

{Which is why, at age 61, I'm rereading (audiobooks this time) the Chronicles of Narnia.}

I also underlined this one from the preface:

Literary eperience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality...In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

I enjoyed the encouragement to keep reading and to read deeply. I hope you do, too. It's great with Simpson and Vail's Ceylon Orange Peko tea.

And it's my first finish for the Unread Bookshelf Challenge.