Peggy likes plaid. So do I. Peggy also likes bows. I like bows. I like bows in my hair; on my shoes; adorning my purses; bows as a brooch. I do not like bows on my waist or hips. Sorry Peggy, you may be my favorite, but our thoughts on bows & men differ greatly.
{From 1962, Butterick 2137. Available on etsy here and here and here.
Look! No bow and it is still a beautiful dress. You don’t agree? Fine. Here are some dresses with bows Peggy might approve:
Wait a moment. The dress on the right has brought to mind one of the greatest costumes ever created and suddenly I am rethinking my stance on bows.
Okay. Bows are acceptable, but only if worn above your bust and below your hips. Audrey has declared it so.
Happy Friday everyone! Do you have any special weekend plans? This will be my first Saturday off in a very, very long time, so I plan on sleeping in until noon, laying in bed with a book for 6 hours before finally dragging myself into the world of the living for a dinner of bacon & waffles. Whatever the weekend brings you, I hope it brings a smile to your face.
~The majority of all the crafty skills I’ve picked have been due to the fact that I am a huge nerd. I wanted to dress up for the Lord of the Rings midnight show; I taught myself how to sew. I wanted a Harry Potter scarf; I learned how to knit. This awesome elven brooch requires simple crochet skills, so I think I just found a reason to pick up a new craft. {via Geek Central Station}
~This series of photos from a Disneyland pancake flipping contest is highly amusing. Who knew flipping pancakes required such concentration! I am also quite taken with the two girls in the back in the plaid skirts. I think I may need some of those for my fall wardrobe.
~I know I’m not the only one who yells “Accio!” when I’m searching for my phone, keys or the TV remote. So what could be better than using a wand to turn up the volume during your favorite part of Harry Potter & the Sorcerers Stone? Hmmm, let me think about that. Aside from actually going to Hogwarts, nothing comes to mind.
~For Buy A Friend A Book week, I suggest the new “classic couture” edition of Pride & Prejudice from Penguin books. I have seen it in person and it is exquisite; the illustration extends to the inside flaps and the pages have a lovely rough, uneven texture which I find to be a lovely touch.
Hope you all had a lovely Wednesday. I can hardly believe September is over! October is going to be good—I can feel it.
I am a homebody. Given the choice to go out or stay in, I will choose to stay in, especially if there is a book calling my name. I reckon I will be even more of a hermit this October with all the read-alongs and online book clubs I’ve decided to participate in this month. I know it is a bit last minute, but anyone care to join me?
~I know I said I wasn’t going to participate in the Meet Me At Mikes book club this time around, but I lied. It’s been years since I read Jane Eyre and I am thoroughly enjoying revisiting Thornfield Hall.
~Have you been hearing a lot about “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”? It seems to be popping up on recommending reading lists everywhere as of late and if you want to discover what all the fuss is about, might I suggest joining the book club in the Pink of Perfection forums? I tried to place a hold on one of the copies from my library and discovered there were 95 people ahead of me. Wow! I suppose I’ll just have to buy my own copy now.
~Infinite Summer was such a success, the community has decided to continue on with more read-alongs, hurray! Quite appropriately, we are reading Dracula during the month of October. I’ve never read this classic, so I’m really looking forward to the discussions and commentaries.
~(Right, I know this isn’t related to books, but this is the last day you can sign up and I wanted to let you know about it. Okay? Okay.) Do you like getting mail? Are you intrigued by the idea of a crafty pen-pal? Quick! Join the Meet Me At Mikes crafty pen-pals swap! My best friend and I started out as pen pals over 10 years ago, so you never what kind of person you could meet.
Finally, apparently the first week in October is Buy a Friend A Book week. It’s pretty self explanatory: buy a friend a book for no other reason other than books and friends are awesome. That is an idea I can get behind.
I’m going to change things up a bit and move Mad Men Monday to Friday. This should give me more time to watch the episode and gather photos, patterns & links and actually write a coherent post for your reading pleasure. Hope you don’t mind the slight delay. In place of Mad Men Monday, I shall be sharing a picture of my relatives from the early 20th century for the next few weeks. I think they are lovely, but I’m a bit biased.
My great-grandfather, Ludvig Bernard, who immigrated to Los Angeles from Norway in 1911. Or was it 1910? I’m sorry, mom, I’m getting my dates mixed up again. But back to the photo. I love the Norwegian flag on display in between the California & Los Angeles pennants hanging on the wall. This may sound silly, but it makes me think about embracing both the past & the future; the old & the new. So often we cling to nostalgia or go running blindly into the future. Personally, I like having one foot firmly planted on either side.
Today it is the 22nd of September, or as it is known in my world, Bilbo & Frodo’s birthday, hurray! This is also the day our beloved Hobbits set out on their adventures through Middle Earth and to commemorate the occasion, I have started a re-read of The Hobbit as it has been far too long since I read Bilbo’s story from start to finish.
I find that plans, schedules and routines are useful and helpful in my life—but sometimes you need to ditch them for a bit. This explains the shocking lack of posts this week. For one reason or another, I felt that my time was better spent watching Battlestar Galactica with my brother & helping out during the final stretch of Operation Convert Storage Shed to Studio. I am happy to report that progress has been made and with a little luck, it may even be finished by the end of next week, hurray!
This week, I also learned…
~While I do like Jane Eyre, I will never love Charlotte Bronte like I love Jane Austen. Also, I think the chapter when Mr. Rochester dresses up like a gypsy is absurd.
~Grapes are the perfect late night or tv watching snack.
~When you finish watching season 2 of Battlestar Galactica at 11:15 and you have to know what happens next before you can get any sleep, living 1.3 miles away from an independent video store that is open until midnight is awesome.
~Battlestar Galactica is awesome and I’m sad it’s over. I will miss speculating who the final 5 cylons are with Daniel (he was positive Starbuck was a cylon & I was positive she was not) but I am definitely looking forward to the new prequel movie being released next month. This essentially brings me one step closer to becoming Dwight Schrute (Bears, check. Battlestar Galactica, check. Beets? Eh. Not a big fan.).
~Family is important. Friends are nice. Having your brother as your best friend is the best of both worlds.
Last week, I was saddened to hear that after 26 years, one of my favorite TV shows from childhood, Reading Rainbow, was going off the air. I don’t have kids and I don’t babysit anymore, so I haven’t kept up with the show. Still, I was upset, outraged, sad and disheartened to hear the news. I don’t quite understand the philosophy that we need to focus on teaching children how to read before we teach them why we read. Don’t they go hand-in-hand? If we don’t try to instill a love of reading a young age, how can we expect to kids to enjoy reading when they are older? Granted, this is something that should be taught not just from a TV show, but from teachers and especially parents. But should there not be at least one program on air showing kids how awesome books and reading can be? I can vividly recall watching LeVar Burton talk about a book and being so excited about it I wanted to check it out of the library right away. And who wasn’t insanely jealous of the kids who came on at the end of show to recommend a book?
(I would have done a much better job than that kid. First of all, I would have picked this book by Robert Ballard, which is, like, a THOUSAND times better then the book he recommended. Even 8 year old Christine knew that. But don’t take my word for it. *ba dah dum*)
The same evening I heard about Reading Rainbow’s demise, I went to my favorite bookstore to find a couple board books for a certain someone I know who will be turning two next month. I scoured the shelves, looking for old favorites and discovering new books I wanted for myself. I was ecstatic to find a title I dearly loved when I was a wee little girl and a great, enormous smile broke across my face when I pulled it off the shelf and saw the cover:
I’ve never met you LeVar Burton, but you and Reading Rainbow made my world a happier place. Thanks for all the books and the great memories.
I decided to have a very lazy and relaxing Labor Day, full of reading, sleeping, free Chick-fil-A, more sleeping and listening to my brother mix the first three songs of the new LP. You might see a belated MMM post later this week, but I’m not holding my breath. The only thing I’ve got to say about last night’s episode, The Arrangements, is this:
Great-Grandfather Paulsen does not approve of nice Norwegian girls fraternizing with the Swedes. Nor does he understand why Peggy’s name is spelled “Olson” instead of “OlsEn”. Also, why would a nice Lutheran boy marry a Catholic girl? These are just a few things Great-Grandfather Paulsen ponders.
