Quilt Bookshelf

My little Lily cat is going nuts at the moment, squeaking at a bright light reflected up on the ceiling and scratching at the wall. Luckily she isn't leaping up or I think she'd bring a big picture down on her head.

Cats were strange last night. Woke up at five this morning with Bibi crashing around on the top of the bureau and Howler howling. And howling. Had both the little cats sleeping with me (Pokey rarely does that). Hadn't done anything threatening to explain it, no moving of cat carriers. Sigh.

Joyce asked me about my bookshelves a few days back and in particular my quilt books. These are some of them. I've kind of run out of room and books that I'm (re)reading aren't here, nor are the ones that I left in storage (I'm getting those out for the next post, darn it. I miss having them).

Those are handmade (not by me) wire camels on the top shelf.

I have made great progess stacking up piles of paper for shredding, sending broken stuff down the trash chute, and putting unused/unneeded items into the charity donation pile (currently out of control, but nothing I can do about that until my friend who takes care of that is back in town). I finally bit the bullet and gave up my Trivial Pursuit games. Since my hubby hates it and we haven't played in something like 5 years, it was time. Kept my Simpson's version of UNO even tho he won't play that either and Upwords, a fabulous word game that he will play when my Mom is in town - it's more fun with three people.

And why do I have all these cards and stationary? Do I really think I am going to start writing real letters again? So I gave up some of those to the giveaway pile, probably not as much as I realistically should have.

I just finished reading Julie Powell's book Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen. Have to say I enjoyed the hell out of it. She decided several years ago to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And to do it in one year and blog about it. The book is a little self-absorbed sometimes and not for the easily offended, but I loved reading about her trying to cook all sorts of vile French dishes that I would never eat in a million years.

It helps that I have a great fondness for Julia Child. My Mom (number one Mom) watched it all the time on PBS so I grew up with it. Turns out my hubby is a fan and so we've watched Julia's more recent series and visited her kitchen at the Smithsonian as well.

Anyway, both Julie and Julia's stories are about women trying to find their way and figure out what they really want to be in life. Julia didn't discover cooking until she was in her mid-thirties living in France, and Julie found joy in writing as a thirtysomething, helped out enormously by her blog. I understand about that because I've discovered, through blogging, how much I enjoy writing tutorials and encouraging others in loosening up with their quilting. I've found what I want to do.

[I already knew I liked writing, but didn't have the proper format for it. I'm terrible at fiction. Describe the tree. It's uh, a tree. And it has green leaves. Not good with the adjectives.]

Not all that off-topic, I don't speak French (just English with a really bad, snotty, Monty Pythonesque French accent). I did some work with learning the language on the computer after Christmas, but gave up in frustration with the accent. I'll get back to it. I think I'll end up being able to read it but speak or comprehend someone speaking to me? Aiyee. The discs will be going back with us to the states. Something to work on while we're temporarily housed.

Mrs Moody offered to send me some canopic jars. Very sweet, but trust me, I got plenty around here. Sell them at the garage sale and hopefully someone there who doesn't have ready access will be thrilled to get them.

Yes, I know I should be thrilled that an American won the Tour de France, and I give Floyd Landis much credit for courage and ability, but I was hoping maybe team CSC could do it, since they're my second favorite after Discovery Channel. Though I may have to revise that in light of DC's pitiful performance.

I'm off to sew - making great progress. Later.