Incoherent Scribblings

Booking Along

Such an appropriate post title: My weekend was all about books in one form or another!

First up, here is the progress that I made on “The Bookshelf” this weekend. I have now added the authors’ names. At first I thought it was odd that Oscar Wilde was a member of this group of female authors (well, if you know anything about Oscar Wilde, maybe not) but then I realized it was Wilder as in Laura Ingalls Wilder, not Oscar Wilde!

And because I am a stickler for accent marks over letters in words (perhaps it has something to do with the fact that my first name has one of those elusive babies) I added the umlaut symbols over Emily (or Charlotte or Anne) Brontë’s name.

I also read this weekend. I finished reading John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold for my novel writing class. I must say that out of all the books we have read this semester I was most dissatisfied with this one. Although I did find the glimpse into East Germany in the late 50s/early 60s slightly interesting from a personal point of view, overall I guess spy novels just don’t do anything for me.

Of course, considering that May is nearly here, the semester is quickly coming to an end. This means that tomorrow I have to hand in a portfolio of everything I have written this semester. This includes 45 pages written towards my novel, 16 “elements,” and any other writings that we included in our journal. Next week we hand in our final assignment which includes 15 polished, revised pages that (more or less) comprise a chapter of our novel and a reworked copy of our midterm project: A proposal to a publisher.

When we began the semester Dr. B. warned us that by the end of the term we would be sick of looking at our novel and at this stage I whole heartedly agree! Although I hope to take my novel and turn it into my Master’s project (aka “thesis”), I am also ready to take a bit of a break from it. Right now I feel that the story and the characters are a bit stagnant.

I think I need a new perspective on the manuscript. I am not sure which will help me more though: A month’s break from it or a pitcher of margaritas!

Homework Sunday

I have a major assignment due for my novel writing class today so I didn’t get a chance to work on “Harvest Witch” yesterday. However, after class on Monday nights I usually try to relax by stitching for a couple of hours, so I will work on her tonight instead.

In preparation for tonight’s class, I spent most of yesterday afternoon with my nose buried in Madame Bovary. I read an excerpt of this novel in French many years ago when I was studying abroad in Paris, but apparently had either forgotten what I had read or never understood it in the first place because I feel like I am reading everything for the first time.

The translation I am reading is the 1886 translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling and is not exactly an easy read. However, I am plodding my way through and find that I am actually enjoying myself a wee bit. In my opinion, Madame Bovary is an interesting character who I don’t exactly like, but I can’t help but pity her. Her romantic notions may make her a silly woman, but like many women of her day she is trapped in circumstances that are only partly of her own making.

Once I decided I had had enough of Madame Bovary for the day, I took a crafty break and finished “Winter Love” into a pillow-style ornament. I had originally intended to make this into a tuck-pillow ornament, but after I trimmed my stitching I realized I didn’t really leave enough room for the “border” that characterizes a tuck-pillow so I just fell back on a regular pillow-style ornament instead.

I then settled down to work on my mock proposal to a publisher and except for printing it out, had it ready for class before I fell into bed around 1 a.m.

SBQ: Favorite Pastime

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Outi and is:

What is your favorite past time while stitching? Do you just enjoy silence, listen to music/audiobooks or do you “watch” TV/movies? Do you have specific favorites you listen to/watch while stitching?

Honestly speaking, I like to do all of the above while stitching. Depending on my mood, sometimes I enjoy the silence, other times I listen to my last.fm station or my music collection, and sometimes I “watch” television shows or movies. Since I don’t own a television, I only watch a few select programs like House or Heroes on my laptop so obviously they are some of my favorites to “watch” while stitching.

However, I recently discovered the joy of listening to audiobooks while stitching.

I quite enjoyed listening to Harry Potter 1 and 2 during my drive over Christmas break a few weeks ago, which made me wonder if I would like to listen to them while stitching.

After all, if one can entertain his or her brain by listening to an audiobook while performing a mechanical task like driving, wouldn’t another mechanical task (like stitching* ) work just as well? So I set up a somewhat odd corner in my living room consisting of my stitching, my chair, and what I have dubbed my “all-purpose entertainment center” (aka my laptop) and started to listening to Harry Potter 3…

… And 4.
… And 5.

* Before anyone gets up in arms, as a stitcher I know that cross stitching is a creative outlet, but the fact is inserting a needle and thread into a piece of fabric over and over again is a pretty mechanical task… I think we all know what I mean.

Stitching and Reading

As this was the third weekend of the month, it was stitch-a-thon weekend!

Because I would really like to get “Above the Clouds” and “Poet’s Heart” finished by the end of the year, I chose to work on “Above the Clouds” this month. As you can see, not only am I nearly done with the clouds now, I also tackled some backstitching. I tell you, a happy dance is so close that I can nearly smell it!

I must confess that I didn’t stitch as much as I could have this weekend though: I spent half of the day today finishing one of the books I started back in August while I was jet-setting around going to job interviews.

I was about half-way finished with The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows fell into my hands. As a result, the story of the first two years of Elizabeth I’s reign and her affair with Sir Robert Dudley had to wait until Lord Voldemort was thoroughly defeated.

All in all, it was a perfect weekend: Drinks with friends, stitching, and reading. What more could a single girl wish for?

The Last Exchange

Well, I am finally finished with my last exchange. I saw that Terri received her package from me and I finally remembered to take a pic of the lovely heart-shaped ornament that I received from Karin.

For Terri, I stitched a Quaker-esque design in redwork from one of the stitching magazines that I got at that yard sale a couple of months ago and finished it into a diamond-shaped ornament. (I forgot to photograph the back of the ornie, but Terri has a pretty good picture of both sides on her blog.) I also included some floss for Terri and a postcard. I hope you enjoy your exchange Terri. I sure enjoyed stitching it for you.

I haven’t been doing much stitching over the past few days because I have been focused on reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I could have probably finished the book in on sitting, but I decided to try and take my time and enjoy the book… which I almost managed. I only read a few chapters at a time for a few days, but then last night I only had about 350 pages left and since it was getting good, I just couldn’t put it down anymore.

And WOW! what a ride!

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but realized that I really need to go back and read books five and six. Though I have read the first four books three or four times a piece, I have only read five and six once and though I remembered the main plot points, there are so many details that I had obviously forgotten.

Overall, I would have to say that I am pretty pleased with the way everything came together and wrapped up at the end. There were definitely a few twists, but at the same time, I was pleased to find that some of the suspicions I had concerning a few of the characters were true.

Yep, two thumbs up for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!