Lately.

Just some glimpses of my life over the past week or so...

 

I stitched up this Pride and Prejudice embroidery, and I'm pretty smitten with it. Go ahead and laugh at me if you must, but P&P is my favorite book (tied with the Chronicles of Narnia series). Poor Mr. Darcy is a bit clumsy with his first proposal, but he does manage a few eloquent lines. Like this one.

 

The pattern is from Little Dorrit & Co.

 

I've been listening to She & Him's Volume One...on vinyl! I think it's the neatest thing ever when artists release new music on records. And the best thing about She & Him is that when you buy the vinyl album, you also get a code to digitally download the entire album (at no extra cost). I had already bought a few of their songs for my iPod, but now I can have all of the tracks.

I love the sunny, 60s sound of She & Him. And I love how warm and different it sounds this way.

{You can buy the vinyl version online, but I got mine at FYE. When we had one at our mall, I never shopped there because they were really overpriced. But while at a different mall last week, I was drawn in by the "We sell vinyl" sign in the window, and it was worth the trip.}

Oliver is my companion while I sew. He was my brother's cat, but now that Cody has married and moved out, I've adopted him. Ollie is ridiculously sweet. He talks all of the time and is very affectionate, always wanting attention. If you ignore him, he rolls around in the floor and curls his front paws up in the most irresistible way. He is also a polydactyl cat, which means that he has thumbs on his front feet and always looks like he's wearing mittens.

It's a bit awkward trying to sew when you've got a solemn black cat observing you, about a foot from your face, and occasionally swatting at the spool of thread.

Jack is a bit antisocial and shy. He's the most loving (and vocal) when he's hungry, and he has his eating schedule memorized and comes running within ten minutes of the times he always gets fed. :) I like to call him pleasantly plump...he weighs about twenty pounds. And even though he won't curl up and sleep in my lap like Oliver will, he's sweet in his own way and I'm biased about him because he was here years before Oliver came.

{I wonder if blogging about my lovely cats is the first step of becoming a Crazy Cat Lady.}

I'm rereading Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, because I have the sequel, Palace of Stone, waiting to be read as soon as I finish! I adore her books...they're so well-written and memorable and satisfy my fairy tale loving self.

And as I read, I'm following along with the book club she did on her blog for PA this summer. It's such a neat idea that I wish more authors would do! It's like the book version of special features on a DVD. :)

A little package arrived from England at the beginning of the week (could someone tell me why English mail is so thrilling? Is it because it has that little blue sticker that says Royal Mail?). It contained the two latest additions to my brooch collection (I know...I have a problem).

A tiny heart-shaped one covered with a page from Pride and Prejudice. They're randomly chosen, but I was rather pleased that mine had the word Darcy on it. :)

And an Aslan-shaped one made from a page of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. {It's from the last chapter, as you can see.}

They're really bookish and beautiful...the wood makes them lightweight but sturdy, and they're covered with glossy varnish that makes them even more durable. And the packaging was adorable- they were wrapped very carefully and in old book pages! They're from House of Ismay, if you're wondering. :)

 

How was your week?

Until next time,