The Alchemist - International bestseller, in my opinion, a skip

I just finished reading "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, the first book chosen for a brand-spanking-new book club I joined. I had seen and heard of this book for quite a while and always intended to read it someday way down the line. If you've been thinking the same, consider yourself liberated of that mental note. For being named an international bestseller I was quite disappointed. The book is similar to a folk tale chalk-full of your grandmother's pearls of wisdom about a boy and his journey to fulfill his Personal Legend. It contains plenty of inspiring advice, but new? Definitely not. There is a lot of boy becoming one with nature stuff and communicating with the wind and sun and so on. Personally, I can't stand that stuff. I found it redundant and better suited for children. Maybe that is how it is intended to be, but it did not hold my interest. If you read it, feel free to comment.

Tonight we are having our bookclub meeting, at which I will share just as I did here. The biggest disappointment is that the girl who suggested our first read didn't even read it!!! Bah! I'll be wary of her next choice.

Sew! Sew! Sew!

I've recently been in a sewing kick, much thanks to my Biff. For my birthday he bought me a snazzy, computerized sewing machine, the Singer Advance. This thing makes sewing foolproof. It has about twenty buttons to press that create different stitch patterns. I can press a button, push down on the pedal and the sewing machine will create a detailed vine stitch, or a stitch with stars, a floral stitch, or a wiggly stitch. And I can say to people, I sewed that. It ups my sewing cred quite a bit.

Since I've been so excited about it, I signed up for a sewing class and splurged on some fun new fabrics. A friend told me about, fabric designer, Amy Butler, at www.amybutlerdesign.com. She makes the prettiest fabrics! Her website is full of fun sewing ideas and she has free patterns you can print out as well. I ordered the Fresh Poppy fabric in Ivory (pictured) to make a half-sized robe. A little tip: you can find good deals on her fabric on www.Etsy.com. I'll let you know how the sewing project goes.

P.S.

The only problem with having my fancy Singer Advance is that my sewing class uses ancient, heavy duty, manual sewing machines. Eek! I'm a little scared of those suckers.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I feel it is important to make your surroundings a place you enjoy being. For me, the place I go to relax at home would be my bedroom. I love coming home from work to a room that I like and is pleasant. I achieved this by adding little details to things I already had, like adding pretty knobs to an old, dull dresser. Here are a few of my favorite little details:

I love these little photo hangers I found at a vintage boutique!

Whether cleaning or reading a book, I like to burn a sweet smelling candle to make the experience all the more enjoyable. My favorite is Santiago Huckleberry by Voluspa. And they come in pretty jars!

If you're like me then you probably have photos displayed on every wall, tucked into the corners of your mirror and frames. Pictures are very important to me but I also don't like a lot of clutter. So I took all the pictures around my room that lacked a proper home and made a photo collage above my sewing table. (That's my lovely sewing machine under its cover in the left corner.) The photo collage was inspired by a Pottery Barn catalogue (wink) and makes for something cheerful to look at while brainstorming sewing projects. Love it!

These are mercury glass votive holders. It's nice to have a little something shiny here or there.



A dear friend sent me a post card with this poem by Robert Creeley on it. Isn't it sweet?




And finally: Nothing beats a friendly companion.

To add to that...

***One of my gracious first readers just made a valid point: In the previous posting I never mentioned why I liked "The Time Traveler's Wife" so much. I guess that would be appropriate seeing as I am demanding everyone read it.

Simply put, the book is incredibly romantic with a unique and engrossing story line. I was hooked from the first page. Even though it is about a man that time travels, it is not fanciful. It is mysterious, thought provoking and beautiful and you cannot help but fall in love with the characters, Henry and Clare. I can't explain much more than that, I liked it in every way.

A clue to help you follow along with the time traveling story line: When, lets say, 38 year old Henry travels to the past to when he would be 18, he does not appear in the past as an 18 year old, as happens in Zac Effron's movie, "17 again." He remains the age he time traveled from and can even have conversations with his 18 year old self. Trust me, that will help. Don't get too caught up trying to understand everything about the time traveling, some things, like non-existent time travel, just can't be understood completely - but still well appreciated.

I am Hooked on this book!!!

I have been avoiding posting to this blog since I created it in March for fear that I will ruin it with tedious rambling that no one could care about. Now that I am finally posting something it will probably be another six months before I tell anyone that it exists. Timid? Very. I've never been comfortable with people reading my writing nor with having personal things on the internet. Yet, somehow, when thinking about creating a blog I thought, why not? This will be an uphill battle.

P.S.
If anyone is to ever read this, please forgive my horrible grammar and sometimes interpretive spelling.

For my first ever post I am sticking to a safe topic: My favorite book of all time!

August 14th 2009 is the release date for the movie "The Time Traveler's Wife," starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana (whata hunk!.) That means that you have, I think, 57 days to buy the book, by Audrey Niffenegger, and READ IT!!! I loved, loved, loved this book! I can be a little obsessive about a good book but I promise it will not disappoint! I would often go to a cafe or bookstore to read it and while doing so women would approach me and excitedly tell me how amazing the book was. Now, I have become one of them.

I would recommend reading the book before watching even the movie trailor, but, if you need something to get you excited about it check it out: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2784428569/

If you read it, tell me what you think!!!