This & That | February 10
Hello Dear Readers. I’ve been enjoying all the Valentine’s themed things lately and am looking forward to Valentine’s Day coming up on Saturday- are you? Valentine’s Day is one of my favourite days of the year: stay tuned for some more Valentine’s posts coming up!
But for today, lately I have been…
Making:
I hosted another ladies’ arts and crafts evening. There were seven of us and we worked on a variety of projects including crochet, sewing and card making…and the art of conversation, of course! These are the cards I made- I didn’t quite complete the “Thinking of You” one, but will finish it up later.
Another project was these two wooden cutting boards. They were originally one long charcuterie board with “good food, good friends etc” painted along the edge. I found it with tags still on at the thrift store, sanded off the sentiment, cut the board into two, and then finished the wood with board butter (1 part beeswax and 4 parts mineral oil) For $5 it was a pretty good bargain and a fairly simple project. And it’s lovely to have two new cutting boards! I styled the picture with an onion, but onions and garlic are banned from being used on these boards- there have been one too many melons that tasted like onion after being cut on the same board!
Loving:
Valentine’s decor, of course! I made this stuffed fabric heart garland and it looks so cute hanging on my bedroom window.
The book paper heart garland in my office is the same garland I have had for over 10 years, and it’s still going strong! I’ve still got the fairy lights up in both rooms and I’ll keep them until the batteries run out. They just make the evenings more cheery- the days are getting longer, but it’s not spring yet.
And I restyled my display shelf as well. I saved my floral, heart Valentine I got last year from my sister and put it out again since it’s so pretty!
Working on:
One of the other projects I worked on recently was reorganizing my bookshelf, and it is so much tidier now. *Almost* all of my books fit here (not including the ones I have pulled to read, my giant coffee table fashion books, and sewing books…) The shelves are not arranged according to the Dewey Decimal, but they do have some sense of order, beginning at the very top with modern fiction, then moving into classics and then finishing the fiction shelves up with Agatha Christie and mystery. The top two shelves are double rows and I used boxes to raise up the books in the back rows. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do when it comes to limited shelves and an abundance of books!
Then the bottom shelves move into non-fiction beginning with biography, memoir, Christian books and theology. Then into housekeeping, home decor and finally the bottom shelf is entirely fashion. (This shelf sits at the end of the bed in the spare room, so I couldn’t get the entire shelf in the picture.)
I did a little bit of decluttering as well. I love books, but not all of the books were still “sparking joy”. Some I did enjoy when I first read them, but realized that I won’t read them again, and some were books I “should” keep, but realized I didn’t love, and would rather make room for new favourites. I passed some of the books on to friends, and brought others to the little free libraries in my local towns.
Reading:
Speaking of reading, I mentioned that this was my year of reading Jane Austen, and I started strong with Pride and Prejudice. I forgot how very witty and funny Jane Austen is. Not all of her books are like that, but P & P is so enjoyable to read. I’m about 2/3 of the way through right now and am loving it.
I also requested from the library, My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I love the Jeeves and Wooster television series, so was curious as to whether it was similar to the books or not….it was! I loved Wodehouse’s “slangy” style of writing. I almost can’t believe it was written in 1919. It was a very quick read so I have already requested some more volumes from the library!
And that is all for now. I hope you have a lovely and love filled week, Dear Readers!
