katiesbooks.org

Hi!! How are you?? I haven’t seen you in so long, oh my God! I know, I know, I’ve been awful. It’s so good to see you, though - you look great! Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Reading

• I’m reading the third book in the original Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey. Good stuff, man!
• My latest from LT Early Reviews was Olive Kitteridge - I found it so-so. You can find my review on LT, and I may post a bit more about it here.
• I’ve just begun Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts, and it’s promising to be another pleaser.
• I read Libba Bray’s Rebel Angels over the holiday - and I preferred it to the first in the series

I’m working in general on being nice to myself, and that includes not judging my own reading. I wish I was reading all highbrow literary fiction, heavy-hitting history, poetry both modern and ancient, but nope. I’m reading mysteries and historical fiction and young adult and fantasies. I think I’ll always have at least a little problem with this - but I’m trying!

Crafting

• One of my biggest craft projects recently has been the little gifts I gave out to my co-workers. I made paper bird ornaments with pretty decorative papers and lots of glitter, and attached them to Paper Source pillow boxes filled with a Trader Joe’s nut mix. It was more work than I thought it would be, but also a lot of fun. And the leftover birds went on my tree!
• The log cabin throw has slowed down a lot, but I’m still moving. Hopefully I’ll be on the last round soon.
• I’ve been making a lot of bookmarks, and I’m going to use my Christmas gift certificates to get more papercrafting materials. Hopefully some neat stuff will be posted soon.

Speaking of posting, one of the reasons I’ve been posting so little recently is the photo issue. I’m finding taking/managing/posting photos to be a real pain. I’m going to look around and see if anyone has any good advice about workflows for this…

Oh! And I’m on Ravelry finally - I’m ladypeter there, as I am on LT.

Reading gained on knitting when I started The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, but knitting hit back hard yesterday. I’d finished my first Sugar N Cream hand towel, and not started another traveling project yet, so I didn’t bring any knitting with me to work. I felt just as naked and vulnerable as if I’d not brought a book with me!

What’s happening to meeee?? Will this end? It feels odd to have more than one passion, but I certainly do. On top of making and reading, I started the new chorus season last week. At least I’ve given myself a pass to not be at all ambitous about singing. I like it, so I’m doing it. I’m one of the slow kids in that class, and that’s alright. Funny note about chorus: a woman in my chorus works at Windsor Button!

In other craft  news, last Friday while M was out at a work party I played with papercrafts stuff. I made a bunch of little cards/bookmarks out of business cards and scraps. They’re kind of like tiny patchwork quilts. I like them! I also made some larger things.

As I said, I finished my first hand towel, put up a hook by the sink, and it’s already saved numerous paper towels! I tried to start the slightly fancier striped towel made with Lion cotton-ease, but I had to give up because the metal needles don’t work at all with cotton that slippery! I could barely work it and was dropping stitches left and right. So that’s on hold until I can get plastic or wood needles in the same size. Instead I wound up one of my new balls of variegated Sugar N Cream. This one will be stickinette with a rib border. Pictures of all the above to come…

And meanwhile, the shawl is coming along well. It is as plain as plain can be, but lofty and warm and not without its charms. I’m hoping to be done soon.

Aaand, I’m almost ready to jump into socks and sweaters. I think I’ll try a Mason Dixon “perfect sweater” in the next month or so…

As promised, pics of German scrap that I got (super cheap) at the Clay
Bookstore in Clay, PA.

Fairy tales:

Nature:

Decorative motifs:

Christmas:

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday. Whoopee! Things I loved:

Professor McGonagal herding a band of school desks into battle

Harry’s reception by the former headmasters after the battle of Hogwarts

Radio Free Wizard, or whatever it was called

Snape’s memories, even though it was a bit heavy-handed. I liked that we got to see everything from his point of view finally, and that Harry finally understands

when Harry begins calling Voldemort “riddle”.

OK, I just was typing that and seriously thought, “oh wait, we can’t say the name! They’ll trace us!” I guess that’s a book really getting ahold of you.

In other news:

Crafts: I’m working on a knitting project that’s a gift, so I won’t talk about it much now (like anyone’s reading this, right?)

I was taken on a birthday crafts shopping trip by M (my DH) on Friday. I got:

• a 5″ Xyron machine to use for making bookmarks
• a paper punch in a nice floral shape, for the “seal” portion of my bookmarks
• some decorative papers, also for bookmarks
• yarn and needles for this gift project
• some fabric embellishments. Not sure what I’m going to use them for, perhaps as decoration on a bag
• a circle cutter, for bookmarks and other papercrafts

As you can see, I’m heavily into the bookmarks and papercrafts at this point. I also have sewing on the table too (literally!).

I got two shipmets from Etsy sellers yesteryday:

A pendant from Modflo

Another pendant from Littleput Books

I love pendants!

I’m still waiting on the Nana pincushion from Kup Kup Land; I can’t wait!

Greetings, fellow denizens of the Internet.

What does it take to get me to start a blog? Getting assigned an early reviewers copy by LibraryThing, that’s what! I’m getting “Gifted”, by Nikita _____. So excited! So I’ll write about that when I get it.

Here’s what I’m excited about right now:

Craft blogs. I just updated my ma.gnolia page with a ton of them! I’ll list some here soon.

 Etsy. I’m hoping to begin selling in the not-too-distant future, but for now, I bought a few things for my birthday yesterday.

Harry Potter: Of course. We’re going to Porter Sq. Books at midnight to pick up the last ever Harry Potter!

Making things. I need to finish this skirt that’s been sitting on my table, becoming a bed for the cat. I have a knitting project with a deadline that I’m going to start soon. AND there is the bookmark project.

 Shipwrecks. I’m just about to finish “Shadow Divers”, and I added a whole bunch of related books to LT with the tags “the sea” and “shipwrecks”.