Books - Catch Up

 August

Live the Dream by Josephine Cox - It's 1932 and Luke Hammond is doing the right thing by his wife Sylvia who has been ill for a while and things are not improving. She has dark moods and their servant Edna is home to take care of things while Luke runs his business in Blackburn.

On Tuesdays, he takes refuge in a cottage in the woods and paints. He has lunch at a cafe in the village near the cottage.

Daisy runs the cafe and her friend Amy with her small son drops by to help when she can.  She must work to provide a roof over their heads.

Along the way, Daisy and Amy wonder about the man who comes in for lunch every Tuesday. Who is he? Where does he come from? Where does he go?

Luke has noticed Amy and eventually he invites her to the cottage to see his paintings.

Luke's factory suffers a major fire. Sylvia and her sister Georgina continue their push and pull relationship to a disastrous end. Amy finds love in the end.  Great book.

October

The Orphan Sisters by Shirley Dickson  - In 1929 Etty 4 years old and Dorothy eight years old are dropped off at Blakely Hall Orphanage by their mother.  They await her return but it never happens.

In 1940 both girls are finally released from the confines of Blakely Hall but freedom comes when the country is in the grip of WWII. 

Both girls find love in the midst of war and the difficulties that brings with it. Husbands off to war for home and country.

Babies are born, the war is over, celebrations take place everywhere.

Etty receives Olga and friend of her mother's in 1920's. She brings news of why the girls were brought to Blakely Hall and why she did not return.

Another great book.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish - Set in London in the 1660s and the early 2000s. It is the story of Ester Valesquez, an immigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi before the plague hits the city and Helen Watt an ailing historian with the love of Jewish history.

Helen is called to see a newly discovered cache of seventeenth century Jewish documents she find a young man Aaron to help with the work. He is American and needs an intervention in his life and Helen provides it.

Ester and Helen separated by centuries have life choices and sacrifices to make to reconcile heart and mind.

Wonderful book!

The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin.

Sara Smith runs her little bookshop "The Bookshop on the Corner" in Ashford in a low key style with a warm community of friends close by. Business is slow.  Her long distance boyfriend Ridge calls from his across the world job as a correspondent/journalist.  How exciting!

Sophie owns a bookshop in Paris called "Once Upon a Time" located along the banks of the river Seine.

Sophie has had a big break up and wants to swap places with Sara.  Sara's is stuck so jumps at the chance to be in Paris for Christmas. Her first plane rides take her to the City of Lights.

The Paris bookstore is a hopping place.  The city is huge and runs at a maddening pace.  The shop has a variety of employees.  There is daily paperwork to do and reports to be sent to Sophie in America.

There are many bumps in the first months of Sara's stay in Paris. Slowly she turns the corner on the employee relationships and the business.

Christmas is coming and Ridge has only visited 1 day while Sara has been in Paris. Very disappointing!  A wonderful surprise comes with Christmas day!

The Sum of our Days - Isabel Allende - one of my favorite authors.

This was a different read because it was not a novel but a collection of events from Isabel's life. Written often as recollections to her daughter Paula who passed away.

I learned about her early years in Chile and husband #1 Paula and Nico father. 

How she found husband #2 Willie Gordon and their life in California.

How she loves to have her large extended family close to her.  The adoption of friends into this large circle as well. 

The separations, divorces, travels, trips, births and deaths in the large family.

Very interesting dynamics between Isabel and her children  and grandchildren. 

I will be looking for novels!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Nice to have a cool Christmas story in the middle of a summer heat wave.

A Baxter Family Christmas by Karen Kingsbury.

I am not familiar with the family but there is a very good summary at the beginning of the book.  

John the patriarch of the family has invited the recipient of his precious Erin's heart, Kendra Bryant for Christmas Eve dinner.  Erin, her husband and 3 of their 4 children were killed in a car accident. Some of the siblings don't want to meet her and make different plans.  It will be a different Christmas than the one everybody has celebrated in the past.

Flanigans are friends of the Baxters but due to changes which have taken place in the last few years they have not recently joined the family for the traditional Christmas Eve dessert and Pictionary evening.

Maddie West a granddaugther has been helping with the Christmsas children's play organized by Bailey and Brandon. Connor Flannigan has been asked to judge the auditions for this years show by his sister Bailey.  There is instant chemistry between Maddie and Connor but there will be some trials between Thanksgiving and Christmas that they will need to navigate.

I packed up the bookcases this week in preparation for the removal of the carpet later this week.

The bedroom is getting pretty full of stuff from the living room and dining room.

The heat wave has started and it was HOT all week!

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George is a book I read this week.

Monsieur Perdu runs a book shop on a refurbished barge docked in Paris on the river Seine.  He lives in a house with several other residents.  Catherine Le P. as recently moved after separating from her husband.  She has very little and the owner of the house is asking for donations, in particular a table. Monsieur Perdu has an extra table which has not seen in 20 years as it was closed off in a room when his love left him.

Catherine finds a letter in the drawer of the table which Monsieur Perdu received when Manon his love left.  He has not opened it.  He was afraid and has lived his life hiding for a long time.

After some persuasion, he reads the letter and it was not as he expected.  He has wasted 20 years and now he must find her.  He releases the barge and heads south on the Seine.

Many adventures are had.  It was a very easy read and delightful to travel France.

I was very grateful when my sister and brother-in-law agreed to come help remove the carpet.

The temperatures were soaring and it was hot and sweaty work.

I had most of the dining room done when they arrived.  We worked from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm to get the carpet and tack strips put into rolls.

We washed up, changed clothes and headed to Boston Pizza for lunch in air conditioning.  We had great food, conversation and rested for a couple of hours.

There was a lot of rubber cement and areas of adhesive that needed to scraped down with blades to make sure the surface was smooth.

The underlay was just a mishmash of different colors and remnants all just patchworked together. All the seams had been glued.  Not exactly wonderful.  They took away the 11 rolls of carpet so that was one less job for me.  Thanks so much!

The installation of the new flooring has been put on hold.

Plans to start on Monday are postponed until approval has been granted.

YUCK!

I decided to paint the dining room.

In the top left hand corner of the collage you can see how the place was painted before I moved in.

The electrical plates were not removed and the paint did not even go to the edges.

It was a very hot and sweaty job.  The paint was drying fast so I had to take it a little bit at a time to get it covered well.

It was a full afternoon of up and down the step stool and my arms were tired by the end of the afternoon.

It looks fabulous!  Worth it.

I got my COVID shot this week.

It was not like the old days, I walked into my pharmacy with my updated prescriptions and asked whether I could schedule a shot and was told we can do right away.

Filled out the paper work, got the shot and waited my 15 minutes and it was done!

Recent Photos

The novel is based on real people.

This was an interesting book based on 3 Belgium sisters who lived in Paris in 1880, Antoinette, Marie and Charlotte.   The father a tailor is dead and their mother works in a laundry and abuses drink every day.  All three girls have spent time in the ballet dance school of the Paris Opera. 

Antoinette gets into the fast lifestyle with a boy and loses her position at the school and opera.  The boy is no good but it takes her a long time to see it.  She works in the laundry, a brothel and spends time in jail.

Marie works very hard to support the family.  She works in a bakery from 4:30 am to 8:00 am when she heads to the dance school.  Dance classes during the day and performances in the evening at the Opera.  She is chosen by Edgar Degas a well known painter and sculptor and is immortalized in the "Little Dancer of Fourteen Years".  The original was done in wax and was shown in Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881.  The sculpture was in Degas studio all the time he was alive. His heirs decided to have the bronzes after his death and were made in the early twentieth century.

Charlotte is the youngest and smallest but eventually does very well in the opera.  She was the most successful of the 3 in the Opera. The author indicates in her notes that Charlotte was with the Opera 53 years as a dancer and teacher.

When Antoinette goes to prison Marie is left to fend for the family.  The girls are living at a subsistence level which is proven with she gains weight in prison with 3 meals a day.  She improves her sewing skills while with the nuns.  This contributes to success later on.

These girls are at the mercy of well to do men who attend the Opera who may take an interest in them.  That translates into better ballet shoes and dance outfits, pretty dresses but also unwanted sexual attention at times from some of the men.

I prefer the countryside of English estates to the hussle and bussle of a city setting.  I'm glad I stuck it out to the end.  It was worth it.

The can of Masala Chai Rooibos tea arrived.  I have drank there black tea for quite a few years and love it!  With being advised to cut out caffeine I approached the ladies at Chai Wallahs in hopes of them making a rooibos version which would be caffeine free.

I am in the testing phase of this tea.

I have not had much time to just sit down and enjoy a good cup of it yet.

I have been getting ready for the Abstraction Show at the Gallery in December.  That is now all firmed up.  Those will be blogged once delivered to the Gallery.

We had our first big snow storm on the November 11 Remembrance Day long weekend.  The rained Friday night and snowed Saturday and Sunday.

I did take an hour's walk on Sunday at about -14C.  I bundled up and took the camera.  My fingers and tip of my nose were ready to head inside.

It was nice that the wind had not yet removed the snow from all the tree limbs.  

The challenge of Flickr Macro Monday was Reflections.  I had a hard time with subject matter this week.  This is a small ceramic snowman I made in class in the 1970s.

I used my mirror tile as a background to get several reflections of his back.  I like the fact that the reflection does not mirror the front.

You can check my photo stream to see the photo I submitted on Monday.

You can check the entries to Macro Mondays.

Linking up with Through my Lens Challenge #214 hosted by Mersad.

Recent Photos

I have been asked for barns in winter so on my way to a craft sale out of town on the weekend I stopped and snapped a few shots.

It was late afternoon and the sun was catching the grass in the front and make it brighter.  The white on the barn was also brightened.

Of course most folks would prefer a red barn and as luck would have it there was one of those as well.

There is not much snow yet but  there will be opportunities later in the winter for more snow in the shot.

Breakfast was near the couch this morning.  I have a new to me teapot.  I decided a needed only one more teapot and it should work with the blue dinnerware.  At the second hand store yesterday there it was and on sale to boot!

I prepared Earl Grey tea in it this morning.  I brought breakfast out on a large oval golden yellow tray.  I am using a bowl and mug from the said blue dinnerware.  Works well.













I found the book at another second hand store the other day.

I have not found much information about the teapot.  The label on the bottom has Signature Housewares Inc. on it. I see that Costco carries this brand so that may be it's origin.  It is a 4 cup which a perfect size for 2 people.

This is a book I read recently.

This girl is fed up with her job and has a dream to live in Paris when someone poses the question. "How money would it take for you to quit your job?" What an idea.

She applies herself to the numbers, once the number is determined she goes about to achieve it.

She does get to Paris but I will not give you the whole story in case you want to read.  I believe it is a true story and the Paris Letters were a small way to raise funds to support her stay there.

I am sharing with

Share Your Cup #274 hosted by Jann at Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson

Friends Sharing Tea hosted by Bernideen

Tuesday Cuppa Tea hosted by Ruth at Antiques and Tea Cups.

Recent Happenings

I have been out of the joining on line parties for nearly a month. November is always craft sale month for me so it is a very busy time.  I made the time today even though there is still a to do list waiting.

We had a great Welcome to my Kitchen fellowship time last week.  A couple of ladies shared the responsibility where one hosted and the other provided snacks.  We had home made cinnamon buns, pistachio cool salad, a variety of cheeses and great crackers.

The tea was hot and plentiful.  We made at least 3 pots for 13 ladies in attendance.  We had a few coffee drinkers as well.

We had a wonderful time as we always to getting caught up and sharing about getting through tough times.

I met my sister half way between our homes recently to pass stuff to her and bring home stuff from her.  It cuts down on time and gas money and we were able to visit a few thrift stores while we are there.  I was glad that I had just had my all weather tires put on for the trip out of town.

One of the things that came to my house is my updated plate rack.  I had a near disaster with this wire rack about 2 months ago.  I really enjoyed having the plates vertical instead of horizontal so asked my handy brother in law if you could stabilize it with wood supports on either end. He applied tung oil to the surface before he assembled it was it was all done when I got it back. It looks fabulous and as you can tell it does the job wonderfully.  Thanks Brian!  I owe him lunch next time I see him.

I placed it on the freezer between the 2 cupboards so it breaks up the white surface without limiting the air circulation.

The kitchen is really coming together and with a new dishwasher it is staying tidy!!

It was not tidy for most of the day today.  Flour, butter, and savory and sweet elements went into 3 batches of baking for the fund raiser Bake Sale tomorrow.

I made variations on the tea biscuit recipe in the Puritan Cookbook.  The first was Buttermilk Biscuits, then Savory Cheese Biscuits (my favorite) and then a try at Cinnamon Pinwheels. I baked them in silicone cups in the muffin tin.  The dough was not what I thought it should be but with no experience they look like they turned out okay.

The biscuits were cut with a nice recent addition to the kitchen of a 2 inch scallop cookie cutter.  In my opinion it makes them the perfect size and pretty too.

I love that it has a handle and it was exactly what I had in mind when looking for a cookie cutter for my kitchen.  Maybe sugar cookies will be next.

Well I could not bake most of the day and give it all away.  As it was there were 18 pinwheels and I made sets of 4 for the bake sale so that leaves two!  Imagine that.

So I took time to have tea.  I made Oprah Chai Tea in my Maxwell & Williams Fusion Yellow tea pot with the built in infuser.  It is a nice deep pink color to go with pomegranate seeds on my plate.  A mandarin orange for vitamin C and a bit of old white cheddar cheese for a bit of protein.

I have recently added these beautiful blue and white oriental napkin holders to my blue and white dinnerware collection.

It was nice to sit down for a bit before I start on the next project tonight.

 
I bought this pomegranate to share with my niece during her visit last Saturday.  It was a quick visit and it did not make it to the table.

I am reminded though how we found a quick way to get the seeds out the shell.  You can check this post out for all the details.











I have read a couple of great books in the last month. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane was excellent.  I had to wait to get it from the library but it was worth it.  I heard of the book through this book club hosted by Angela.  I hope I remember enough to offer a few comments on the book.

I got this book through our book exchange at Welcome to my Kitchen.  We bring books we have read and put them on a side table then others can browse the selection and bring a new book to them home to read.

I was not sure I would like this book but it was still on the table when the ladies left on November 16th so I thought why not!

It was a good ready with good history of Paris and when so and so lived, etc.  It is set just after the end of the Second World War. A young lady takes her life in her own hands and decides to pursue an art career in Paris. How bad can that be and of course as you can see from the cover this was a handsome man thrown into the mix for good measure.

I am sharing with the following:

Share Your Cup #273 hosted by Jann at Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson

Bernideen's Friends Sharing Tea

Anything Goes Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly

Tuesday Cuppa Tea hosted by Ruth

Paris Mixed Media Canvas

I'm preparing some art work for an event in the Christmas season.  I have only done this type of mixed media once before.  Check it out here.
I am working with Gotrick Stretched Canvas 8"x8"and Liquitex Acrylic Paint. I taped the back with painters tape to keep it clean and provide a defined edge.  I mixed this toned down pink with Winsor Newton Permanent Rose acrylic along with some white and black Liquitex.  I painted the canvas with a large brush including the sides and left to dry over night.  The next morning I applied Tim Holtz Textured Paste with a palette knife through a Heidi Swapp Stencil and just pressed some paste around the canvas with the knife. I left it to dry while I took my morning walk.  I had planned on applying some elements by printing some Paris graphics reversed on freezer paper and transferring them to the canvas.  This DID NOT work. You need a solid and hard surface to press onto and of course the canvas is not.  Plan B.  I diecut the Tim Holtz Eiffel Tower in chipboard and a black shadow layer.  I applied 3 coats of Titanium White to the chipboard making sure I got the sides as well.  I adhered the black shadow just offset a bit to the right.  The white was pretty stark so I took a chance that my printing had not dried on the freezer paper.  It printed pretty well onto the painted chipboard with using a brayer to apply even and consistent pressure.  I cut the letters with the Cricut and the Storybook cartridge at 1.5 inches.  Again white letters with black shadows to repeat what I did on the tower.  The tower and the letters were adhered to the canvas with Quick Dry Adhesive.  I have rubbed some of the edges and corners with a bit of black paint. I then spattered the canvas with some black paint using a old toothbrush and a butter knife.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Submitting to Mosaic Monday hosted by Judith at Lavender Cottage. 

Card - Challenge - Paris

I made this card for the Come & Get It Challenges - Let's Go on a Holiday.   I chose Paris as a travel destination.  The background was created with digital graphics from The Graphics Fairy.  Give Karen's site a look for vintage images. I printed the background and then layered it onto a black rectangle then onto a taupe card.  I cut the Eiffel Tower with my Cricut and the Summer in Paris cartridge.  It's a small one with just a few images.  It did not cut right through the card stock so that is why I highlighted the design with gold Perfect Pearls painted on with a brush.  I brushed my leftover onto the background with a wet brush. The tower has been mounted to the card front with 3D foam tape.