Tag Archives: reading

Card carrying member

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I’m an avid reader or at least I think I am.

I like mysteries, autobiographies, biographies, history, humor, and classics. I can tolerate some women’s literature and chick lit as long as it isn’t too morose or giddy. I’m not much into sci-fi, fantasy, or romance.

I can read while knitting or walking but I prefer to listen to books when I’m doing those things as I sometimes need to look at what I’m doing or where I’m going.  If the story requires close attention, I just listen and walk.  No lace knitting or counting stitches.

Free ebooks and audiobooks are my go-to choices.  Keyword being FREE.  You can easily for sources in any search engine.  My local library gives me access to many books in the eastern part of the state.  But not ALL the books in say a series.  So I joined the library just across the Potomac River in the neighboring state.  My annual membership isn’t free but at $10, I thought it was well worth the price of admission especially since I can get access to all the books from the entire state.

So now I am a card-carrying member of two libraries and I’m loving it!

Do you read actual in-your-hand books, ebooks, or audiobooks?

Getting…

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gloves

…a grip.  I have taken up quilting and am almost ready to machine quilt my first one.  Question for quilters: Do you wear special gloves to get a grip on your quilt as you maneuver it while machine quilting?

cake

…older.  I had another birthday at the end of October.  Funny how they keep happening year after year after year.  I know age is just a number but I have a hard time telling people how old I am.*  My finite existence is starting to weigh on me.  I’m not as quick physically or mentally.  I forget things so I have to write everything down…that’s not really new but having to go back and refer to my notes is new.  Sleep issues have been a part of my life for 15 or so years.  Our new mattress has helped the past two weeks as I’m getting better sleep, just not enough.  Planning for the future is a real eye-opener.  We’ll need a new roof on our house in the next five or so years.  Do we look at the 20-25 year life shingles or go for the 50-70 year metal roof?  Is adding a craft room in the basement worth the time, effort and expense?  These are things I just don’t want to think about.

pizza

…a chance to goof off.  Last evening I allowed myself to goof off.  I brought home a pepperoni pizza for dinner.  That’s really a big thing for me as I’m not a much of a pizza fan but it was a quick no-brainer option and I actually had some cold paper cash with me.  After washing the dishes and reading a few emails (some I answered, some I did not), I fixed myself a pot of peppermint tea and started to read a book a friend sent me.  Thanks Leah!

tea-pot

*BTW  I’m fifty-eleven.  Ouch.  That hurt.  I need some ice…and an R&C.**

**Rum and Coke

Excitement

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I’ve got a few things to be excited about.  I found a few things in my house that I forgot I had.  Plus I received a newsletter from one of my favorite authors with the release date of her latest book.

Excitement #1

Cab-1.00

This is a little antique spice cabinet that belonged to my Mom.  I’m not sure how it came to be hers but I always thought it was so cool.

I just realized in the photo on the left is some embroidery my Mom did when she was a teenager.  She embroidered her initials, RK, on some window pane linen.  I have them on the backs of the chairs in our living room.  There’s also a photo of my parents on the far right in front a cute little Oriental Express brass lamp.

Excitement #2:

And there were still things in the drawers.

Drawer-1.00

Drawer-2.00

Excitement #3

I also found some yarn I bought a couple of years ago with the hopes of dying for socks.

There are a total of four hanks of fingering weight yarn and a knitted yarn blank.  The yarn blank is knitted with two strands of yarn.  When dyed, the resulting yarn and socks should be the same.

Yarn-1.00

Excitement #4

Some other items I found were in my daughter’s closet.  Ok, short story long:   We are transforming her old bedroom in to a REAL guest room.  I really want this room to be relaxing and fitting for guests and not the dumping ground for all my yarn, fabric, polymer clay, shrink art, etc.  When our daughter moved out into her own apartment many years ago, she left a lot of her “stuff” at our house.   When our son moved out, he took everything with him except the dust bunnies and curtain rods.   Anyway, her old bedroom at our house has two closets.  I cleaned out one of her closets and used it for the things I have from my Mom when she died.  Like the little spice cabinet.  A few weeks ago I took a car full of my daughter’s said “stuff” to her house.  Since I was on a roll cleaning things out, I started to tackle the “other” closet, the closet with MY stuff in it.   For this redecorating project  I needed a nightstand for one side of the bed in the room and remembered this corner unit she had, which was basically a large 18″ square box about 29 inches tall.  The top lifts off and you can store stuff in it.

Well, I unearthed that corner unit and opened it up.  It was full of more “stuff”!! I found old stuffed animals, a quilt Mr. Aitch’s aunt made, pillows, her old baby blanket and some children’s books.  Books I looked for when our grandchildren came to visit but assumed they were gone.  These are not all the books I found but I selected a few that were loved by both our kids and us.  I never got tired of reading these over and over and over and over (you get the picture) again.

books-first

Socks for Supper by Jack Kent is a knitting story by the way.

Excitement #5

Speaking of books…my last bit of excitement came in a newsletter.  Janet Evanovich has a new installment in her Stephanie Plum series*.  I started reading these about ten years ago.  If you aren’t familiar with this series and want to read it, start with One for the Money.  Each book kind of builds from the previous ones.  Many of the situations are laugh-out-loud hilarious.  Warning: Don’t eat or drink anything while reading or you may find food or drink spewed on your book or e-reader.

E-is-for-002

Takedown Twenty will appear in stores later this month and I must confess that I haven’t been keeping up with my reading.  I think I stopped at Eleven on Top.  Why?   Because the local library started charging out-of-state book borrowers an annual fee and I live in another state.  And I rarely purchase books.

Yes, I’m that, ah, cheap, eh, frugal.

*(As usual I don’t get any compensation for plugging Janet’s newest Stephanie Plum book….I just wish I did.)

I know these are very personal things to be excited about but this is who I am.

Anything exciting happen to you lately?

Have you read it yet?

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Mr. Aitch got the e-book version for his tablet a few weeks ago.  I borrowed his tablet, started reading the book on Tuesday and finished it today. 

Wow.

Some reviews were not favorable but I enjoyed the book.  I’m looking forward to the second book in the series called Catching Fire.

Now that that is out of the way, I can concentrate on the iPad cover.    Since I’m doing a stockinette stitch and a two-color houndstooth design on this one instead of one color and the garter stitch, I thought I should felt another swatch.  The swatch is finished and felted.  I just have to make sure the two-color knitting it very loose on the back so the stitches don’t pull too close together while being felted.  I may decide to knit a couple of stitches along the sides for a small gusset to make it a little wider just in case my knitting is too tight.

I think the houndstooth pattern will show up nicely once it’s finished.