A mountain of magazines!

A manga-loving friend of mine gave me about 2 or 3 years worth of Shojo Beat magazines yesterday.


The mountain!

She said I could do whatever I wanted with them so I decided to look through each one and pull out any articles on Japan, their culture, crafts, and recipes :)


My stack of articles with Hello Kitty sticky notes with websites I want to visit for cute Japanese fashion!

I only kept one issue that had an article about shojo author Osamu Tezuka and his manga Princess Knight from 1953.

What do I plan on doing with these mags now? I will be dropping them off at my local Goodwill tomorrow. I'm sure manga fans won't be disappointed because the articles are missing from the mags when all the manga series are intact ;)

In other news, my aunt and I were leaving for work yesterday morning and we looked over and saw 20+ robins in a neighbor's front yard! Hark the start of Spring (hopefully)!

Librarians ROCK!

Guess what? I got the best news today; it brighten up my work day for sure! You know how I was on a mad search for Rosaline Woodbridge: or A Midnight Visit by Hannah Maria Jones? Well, a friend of mine who is a librarian at one of my local universities was able to ILL it for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy! Just goes to show that librarians have mystical powers ^___^ The book should come in next Friday!! I'm so giddy over a book.

I haven't had the time to stitch on my sampler today, but I hope to work on it tomorrow. I think I might be able to finish it up this weekend, which leaves the border.

With being so close to the end, I'm a bit sad. Overall, I liked working on this sampler. It was my first project on linen...I don't think I can ever go back to Aida fabric after this.

I have two more Anagram Diffusion patterns in my stash O_o"


Four Seasons Sampler


Les Arts

I don't think I will attempt either one for the present. They are quite large, about the size of my Elements sampler or larger! I love the look of red/white thread on olive green Belfast so I will most likely pick those colors again when I start one of these samplers :)

In other news, I ran across this bit of Jane Austen goodness! Emma is being re-adapted by the BBC. I can't wait to see it later this year. I loved the latest versions of the other Jane Austen films that the BBC put out in 2007 when I was in England and I'm sure that the newest version of Emma will be fabulous!

Well, I'm off to bed. I've got to stop by the library tomorrow to pick up my hold on The Tudors season two! I'll be watching that while stitching on my sampler.


Thanks to everyone who commented on my sampler!

Sweet dreams!

Dragon progress!

Much to my surprise, the dragon isn't as fearsome as he seemed in November when I had a head cold and couldn't see straight! I've got all of the white areas done on the body that make up his wings and scales. Now comes the rest of his red body and the flames shooting out of his mouth O_o"



After I finish him up, I have a small motif to the left.......and the crazy border around this sampler to finish......as Scarlett O'Hara says, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow," or in my case, the day after that or the next, etc., etc. ^____^

In other related stitching news, my aunt and I stopped by Books-A-Million after work to browse the craft magazine section. I couldn't resist the latest issue of The Cross Stitcher.



They have a lovely pattern for Quaker motifs that you can stitch to make notecards! And since the issue is geared towards Spring, it has a very adorable bunny design called Bunny Hop ;)

Also related to stitching is a website that I found randomly last night when I was researching Regency sewing patterns. This antique auction website has some gorgeous purses! My fave is the pettipoint purse dating from the 1940s....but who has $450 to drop on a purse?!?! Not me, though it is a beautiful piece of stitching! While you're at this website, check out the other ladies' accessories, especially the lace and hats.

I hope everyone has a great Friday!

Talk about well-loved!

I was reading a post on a Blog of a Bookworm and decided to share a few pictures of a set of books that were well-loved by my sister and I when we were growing up! They were given to us by our aunt Snowbird.


Little House on the Prairie bookset!! LOL If this isn't well-loved then I don't know what is ^___^


Back of the box set :)

Like Ms. Ingrid, my sister and I were blessed with a mother who knew the value of reading. We made trips to our local library every other Saturday, coming away with armfuls of books!

I was browsing at Books-A-Million over Christmas looking for a set of the Little House books and they now have a set that has color illustrations?!?!?! I'm jealous! I can't wait to pick up this set for my cousin Emily when she gets older. She already loves to read so I think this set will be great :)

Other well-loved favorites of my childhood:

The Little Princess

A Secret Garden <-- I loved reading this story while listening to a tape of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker/Swan Lake! Yes, I know, I was a strange child ^__^"

All American Girl series (especially the stories of Molly and Samantha)

Any fairy tale collections!

As an adult, I still like to browse the kids section of my local libraries and pick up some of my favorites to reread them! My favorite authors are still my childhood faves likes Frances Hodgson Burnett, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Charles Dickens among many others :)

Happy Reading everyone ^____^

Marie Antoinette goodness!

I found this link through Twinkle Pink's blog!

A new magazine by Somerset called Marie! Looks great and if my local Barnes and Noble has it I will mostly snatch it up, LOL even though I don't create art at all. LOL That gene passed me completely :)

Blasted dragon!

On my last day off from work, I got all of the backstitching done throughout the sampler so now all the names of the zodiac, etc. are in place :) Now I have a small motif in the lower left corner to stitch and to finish the crazy dragon beside that!!

I won't even talk about the border! I started it in the upper right block....it's going to take a couple of eons to finish it around the whole sampler!!

What will I start after finishing this sampler?

I was thinking about this one....



Autumn Acorns #PAD27 by Patricia Ann Designs. One of my stitching resolutions for the New Year's was learning more specialty stitches. This design features one of my favorite themes the Fall season and includes specialty stitches such as the smyrna cross, square rhodes, alternating scotch stitch, and modified kloster block.

It is small design measuring approx. 5" x 5" so it shouldn't take too long and it will nice to learn a new stitch every night that I plan to work on this sampler!

Patricia Ann Designs also has a lovely one called Winter Holly, which would be another nice sampler to stitch up and display during the season.

I found Autumn Acorns at Hobby Lobby in their clearance section about a year ago, unfortunately they haven't had a good cross-stitch clearance section since that time :**(

In other news, I received a comment about the toile I found at Wal-mart. I found a nice store online that sells toile! Wow!! Gorgeous examples of toile, but so expensive! I can see why someone could spend $200 for a couple of yards of toile, especially when a yard is $60 on this website O_o" But I figure that if the fabric is well used then it is definitely worth it ;)

Speaking of toile, please go and check out Fashion is My Muse! The lady who writes this delightful blog makes some gorgeous mixed media artworks with toile :)

Happy Stitching everyone ^___^

Stitching update!

I'm sure everyone is sick and tired of hearing about books for the moment so I will try not to mention them in this post....if I digress, please forgive me ;)

First off, I just finished the Eau block of my Elements sampler! Tomorrow I will be backstitching areas around the whole sampler that I decided to wait to do until the end. Hopefully, I can get all of that finished tomorrow so I can finish up the Feu block during the rest of the week. Remember how I mentioned being sick in November with crazy head colds? Well, I stopped working on the last couple of motifs in that block so now I have to go back to them!! (sigh) Oh, well....I have to tackle the dragon sooner or later!


Sorry about the blurry photo!

Second of all, thanks to Ms. Ingrid for her comments on my ramblings about books! LOL And there I go talking about books....sorry O_o" To answer your question, where do I keep them all? I have a storage unit for them. When I read a whole bunch of books, I pack them up and store them away until I have a nice, big house/apt to display them all. My book collection always reminds me of the scene in Disney's Beauty and the Beast when Belle is gliding across the bookstore in town! LOL Everytime I see the scene when the Beast shows her the library at his castle, I want that library!!! Gliding ladders and books up to the ceiling is definitely my idea of geeky heaven!

Right now, my bookshelves contain books on art history, history, various classics in literature, and some of the antique books I have purchased. LOL One shelf is devoted to books I have bought, but haven't read yet. I have a bad habit of doing that....but I hope to get better at finishing more of them before buying again!

Where do I buy my books from?

1. eBay = great source for obscure titles and classics that are no longer in print
2. Amazon = I have a love/hate relationship with this site, I always come away with too many books, especially when I was just looking for one title (see previous posts!)
3. The Mad Sampler Company = an online family-owned book company that deals in new and used craft books! You never know what they are going to find to put up for sale :)
4. Rose Tree Crafts = an eBay store that I love! The lady that owes this store deals in Japanese craft books! The great thing about Japanese craft books is the fact that are very well illustrated so even if you can't read the text, you can follow along easily!

Ms. Ingrid also wanted a link to the Huntsville Museum of Art. The museum is in Huntsville, Alabama, which is at the top of the state. The city of Mobile where I live is located at the bottom of the state so planning a trip to see friends and the museums in Huntsville is an ordeal. My sister and I usually take a few days off from work and drive up that way so we have time to enjoy ourselves.

Here is the schedule for the Royal Holloway Victorian painting exhibition. I checked to see if there were any museums showing the exhibit remotely close to Ms. Ingrid in Ontario, Canada and the Yale Center for British Art, Yale University (New Haven, CT) from May 7-July 26 is the closest that the exhibition is going to get to Canada.

Enough rambling for the night, I hope to have a photo of my sampler later this week if my stitching timeline goes according to plan!

Happy Stitching everyone :)

Historical shojo romance!

I have been keeping an eye on eBay for a couple of years for these books to come up for sale! They came up recently and I was bidding like crazy to get them for my book collection!


Rose of Versailles (Berusaiyu no Bara) by Riyoko Ikeda was written between 1972-73. The story is the fictional story of Marie Antoinette and Oscar François de Jarjayes, one of her personal guards.

The first two volumes of this series was published in North America by Frederik L. Schodt in 1981. They were the first 'translated' manga volumes by the U.S. branch of Sanyusha. Interestingly enough, they only translated the first two volumes so the manga is incomplete in English. Fans of Riyoko Ikeda's works can only hope that her manga series will be eventually published by an U.S. company in the future.

Luckily, you can still get the manga from Amazon.ca and Amazon.fr because the manga was published in French! You might be able to find used copies of the anime in France, but they lack English subtitles. My French isn't good enough to watch them!

Yes, I know.....extreme geekiness!

Is there an AA group for book addicts?!

I was looking on Amazon for a copy of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell and by the end of my browsing, my cart was full of other books!



I bought some Gothic novels, two of which were mentioned in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, which was in fact a satire of Gothic novels that were so popular during that period.



I also came away with several novels by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Bibliobazaar is a great company that publishes classics and hard to find novels. They had two collections of Burnett's books so you know I was going to buy them!


More Frances Hodgson Burnett!

I have an antique copy of The Shuttle, but I didn't want to ruin it by reading it so I thought I would get a recent copy of it to read :)

My sister saw the Amazon boxes when they came in the mail and she said, "Ok, Jefferson!" <-- LOL A reference to Thomas Jefferson who was a book addict as well!!

The amusing part is the fact that the Wives and Daughters hasn't come in yet because it hasn't been 'released' yet by OUP. I think I might cancel my order on it and get a Penguin copy of the book instead!

Happy reading ^___^

Yummy French toile ;)

Look what I found at my local Wal-mart?


Beautiful pink toile!

I usually never shop at Wal-mart, but my mother needed to go by the store today for a few groceries and I wondered to the fabric section while she was looking at some skillets. I found this gorgeous 'decorative toile,' it is thicker than your normal cotton fabric so it would be great to make a pillow or two ;)

I love toile, but I can't find it that often so I lucked out on seeing this toile at the store!!

Victorian paintings from Royal Holloway, University of London

I've recently found the loveliness of Romantic Homes magazine. I bought the latest issue today. They always have a section called 'We Love: Agenda,' which features places to visit for 'romantic' paintings, etc.



Today they had a small blurb on the Victorian paintings from Royal Holloway's collection!!! Woohoo :)

It is currently at the Delware Art Museum until April 12. Luckily it will be at the Huntsville Museum of Art from November 21- February 15, 2010!!! I have some friends in Huntsville so you know I will be planning a visit to see them and taking a trip to their art museum to see the Victorian paintings!

While I was at Royal Holloway for my grad studies, I never got a chance to see the paintings in the Picture Gallery of the Founder's Building on campus. I saw them at a glance while I was going through that area during orientation, but didn't get an opportunity to see them up close. I can't wait for 2010!! Beautiful examples of Victorian art ;)

What a ruckus…

…over such a small matter as loaning a book, it really can’t be that complicated. I spent the weekend watching Victorian Romance Emma instead of stitching. I never saw the end of the series so I was very excited to watch both seasons back to back when I got the second season in the mail last week! You may ask why I can’t watch and stitch at the same time as I usually do. Well, it mostly has to do with the fact that I like to watch Asian dramas or anime series in their native language. As much as I love the fact that American companies are bringing more anime series to store shelves, the voice actors they hire to voice the characters are cringe-worthy. Needless to say when I watch dramas or anime series I have to forgo any stitching for that time period ^__^”

After finishing VR Emma, I was flipping through one of the mini booklets that the series’ box sets came with and noticed that they actually mentioned the title of the book that Emma picks up at Mudgie’s lending library. Rosaline Woodbridge: or A Midnight Visit by Hannah Maria Jones. I decided to do some book sleuthing and the book is an actual English romance novel from that time period!!

With that in mind, I frantically searched every book site I could think of on the Internet to see if any one had a copy of this book. I found a few copies, but they were about $600 a copy! YIKES!! My next bet for finding this elusive book was checking with my local universities’ libraries.

While a friend of mine who is a librarian was searching for the book in her secret library databases (LOL), she suggested that I try my local library since they also have ILL services! I emailed the department and for the first time in my life, I was extremely disappointed in the MPL! The librarian who responded only checked on the OCLC numbers that I had given her and emailed back saying that those institutions were unlikely to consider loaning the book since it dates back to 1827. She made no attempt to contact those libraries and ask if the book could be loaned as they were in the ‘regular’ section of their shelves and not in the special collections. Nope, no attempts whatsoever.

To my credit, I wasn’t mean in my response to her email. I was quite cordial about the whole situation and told her politely that I would check with my undergraduate university and see if they could loan the book out for me. Hopefully, my friend can work her library mojo and do a happy book dance and I’ll be able to loan out this book to read! I don’t mind paying $20 for a lending fee……quite reasonable when you think of the $600 it would cost to actually by the book?!?!

Geekdom!!

Guess what I got in the mail this week?


I got the second season of Victorian Romance Emma in the mail today!! The manga/anime by Kaoru Mori is one of my favorites ;) I saw a few episodes of this anime online when I was in England and I instantly fell in love with the story of upper class William and a maid named Emma. Each box set comes with a mini-book! Woohoo for Victorian geekdom ^____^



I bought some more Japanese craft books on eBay from one of my favorite stores Rose Tree Crafts! If you love Japanese craft books please visit her store. She has a great selection and she ships purchases really fast!!! Both of the books I bought feature embroidery and some cross stitch designs!! I can't wait to start stitching something up after I get finished with my Elements sampler.


I dropped by my local library today and picked up some books on floral embroidery, ribbon embroidery, initials, and a kids book on Christmas during the Victorian period! I was hoping that the second season of the Tudors was on hold, but I'm still waiting to get a copy....LOL number 6th in line O_o" I guess a lot more people like this series too despite some of the historical inaccuracies.

I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Wishing everyone a lovely Valentine's Day ^____^

An exhausting weekend!!!

What did I get accomplished this weekend? Very little in 48 hours that’s for sure. I had the bright idea of going shopping at the mall on Saturday to look for some clothes for work. I’ve never had a job before where I had to dress up and look professional. Working both as an archaeologist and then a bookseller required jeans and a t-shirt, nothing fancy so I’m in a whole new realm of clothing options for my current job.

I spent a couple of hours going between the various shops in our mall looking at blouses, button down shirts, etc. with no luck at all either because the sizes were too small or the prices were too expensive for one item of clothing. I will never understand how the fashion industry ‘sizes’ their clothing; they must assume that every woman in America ranges between 0-6 because I couldn’t seem to find anything that would fit me. I’m plus-sized up top, but petite on the rest of my body so finding shirts that fit nicely is a hassle.

My sister had told me the day before that JCPenny’s was having a sale throughout the store and I lucked out on finding a cute top and several bead necklaces. Miraculously the blouse actually fit without making me look larger on top and was reasonably priced at $19.99 when it is normally $36.

When my sister got out of work, we went back to the mall to look for a nice Oxford shirt for her and couldn’t find anything out of the 20+ clothing stores in the mall. You would think that a white Oxford shirt would be a standard in every store, but apparently not. We did see some adorable cardigans at the Gap, but they were $40?!?!? All that for a brand name piece of clothing! Highway robbery!!

My sister has been reading John Adams after seeing the HBO miniseries of the same name. She and I both inherited our love of history from our mother so if we aren’t reading fiction novels we are reading something historical. She was reading Saturday night and suddenly stopped and interrupted my cross-stitching by saying, “Wouldn’t it be neat if the fashion industry went back to dresses from the colonial America period?” LOL Yes, it would, but talk about expensive clothing! (sigh) Well, the history/period drama geeks in the world can only dream ^____^

The Cut and a Kiss

Well, I finished reading Anthony Hope’s The Cut and a Kiss earlier this week. I quite enjoyed it. The premise of the novel is the sharing of various stories of mishaps in love, which are told by several gentlemen amongst themselves at a gentlemen’s club to pass the time. My favorite stories were A Stage on the Road and Love's Condundrum.

The first story concerns a young man’s struggle with his feelings for a woman who is slightly older than he is and is regrettably married. In the end, the lady flees with her family and husband to another city in England. Years later, she sees the same young man on a beach front, but he doesn’t realize his first love. The second story involves a philosopher who is more concerned with ‘proofing’ a colleague’s latest publication than a girl’s blotched attempt at proposing marriage in a roundabout way using ‘what if A’ and ‘what if B’ logic. The story had me laughing because the poor man was so intent on answering her question of logic on whether she would be more happy with A (average man) than B (a smart man aka the philosopher) that he didn’t realize that she was asking for ‘his hand’ in marriage. As my sister says you can have all the book smarts in the world, but you will still lack common sense. I can attest to that, sometimes I’m just plain silly about things.

As I was researching Anthony Hope and his various novels to see what else he had written, I noticed something quite interesting (at least to a book nerd like myself). Apparently, Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda started a new type of literary genre called Ruritanian romance. The main character of Zenda, Rudolf Rassendyll, decides to seek adventure and heads off to the fictional kingdom of Ruritania. There he is mistaken for the king of Ruritania who has been kidnapped and held for ransom; the book continues through Rudolf’s journey of restoring the rightful king to the throne, which is complicated by the fact that he has fallen in love with the king’s betrothed Princess Flavia.

With all this in mind, literary titles that featured exotic locales in Europe or the Middle East and centered around adventure, romance, and the upper classes were termed Ruritanian romances. One book that I had started to read late last year was The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

I am hoping to find more books by Anthony Hope in the future. It’s quite a shame that libraries only have his more popular book The Prisoner of Zenda and none of his other titles. If you have the luck to find a copy of Zenda, please check it out!! You won’t be disappointed!!

Plugging away

Well, I got some stitching done on Sunday night after doing some laundry and filing my taxes. I have to say that I like this block of the Elements sampler the best, I can’t exactly tell you why, but I do. Could be because it’s the last in the pattern or because my zodiac sign falls under the Air element ;)



Maybe I can have it finished before the end of the month. After I finish the Air block, I have to go back to my dragon in the Fire block and finish that motif up. I was working on that motif in November, but I kept getting head colds and I couldn’t see straight to even concentrate on the little red/white squares on my pattern sheet so I left the dragon for LHN’s Bookshelf design, which was a nice change from red and white thread all the time. LOL I don’t even want to think about stitching the border on this sampler…..it will definitely take a while O_o”

What will I start after this sampler is finished? Nothing as big any time soon, even though I have two more Anagram Diffusion samplers in my stash. I was looking through some charts that I had bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby in late 2007 when I was just learning how to cross-stitch. I liked the patterns and bought them with the hope of working on them eventually when I learned how to ‘count’ stitches on linen. I think I might attempt a pattern that has a variety of specialty stitches in it. One of my stitching resolutions this year was to work on a pattern that allowed me to learn some new stitches so I think it will be perfect along with the theme, which is autumn ;)

Happy stitching!

Another stitching update!

Last night I got a bit more finished on the Air section of my Elements sampler. When I get home from work, I usually get something to eat and then I stitch for an hour or two while multitasking by watching tv. Last night my sister and I were watching American Idol ;)



I won't get a chance to stitch on it tonight....but at least I was able to catch Hollywood week on American Idol ^___^

Hope everyone is staying warm tonight on the Gulf Coast! We have brought Sam in the house, he is sleeping in the laundry room tonight since it is too cold outside in his doghouse! LOL We also have two cats inside too!! They belong to our neighbors, but no one cares for them so we brought them in for the night.

Book geek!

I had purchased a book by Anthony Hope several weeks ago on eBay and it finally made its way to my mailbox today! U.S. Media mail is very slow!





A Cut and A Kiss by Anthony Hope. This edition is from 1899....can you believe I bought it for $7.50 on eBay?!?!

I can't wait to get started on this book, but I have to be good and finish what I am currently reading, Silas Marner by George Eliot. The book is quite good so far, but it can bog you down a bit in parts. When I first started reading it, strangely it reminded me of The Scarlet Letter in writing style. I looked up Nathaniel Hawthorne I realized that he and Eliot were roughly contemporaries so there's one reason for similarity in style!

If you haven't read Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda, please head out to your local library or bookstore and pick it up. Luckily this book is still in print unlike some of his other works. A few of them can still be bought, but usually in hardcover for about $30 a book O_o" Anyone who loves sword fights, mistaken identities, and forbidden love will enjoy The Prisoner of Zenda ;)

Jane Austen goodness!!

Look what my sister found at Target!!



I had gotten the newest version for Christmas and had been wanting to get this one eventually and 'lo and behold, there it was at Target, which is surprising because usually they only have newer movies.

I can't wait to watch it, even though I've since it a couple of times already!

The world of fairy tales

I can't quite remember what blog I was reading late last week, but they posted about a children's illustrator named Kinuko Craft. When I browsed through the photos on that blog, I realized that I actually had some of the artist's illustrations on some fairy stationery that I had bought a few years ago.

With my mind on fairy tales, I had put some of her children's books on hold this morning at one of the libraries near my work. My aunt and I carpool to work so she was kind enough to indulge my book craziness by stopping by the library so I could pick up the books I had put on hold when she picked me up this evening.



While I was waiting to bid on some items on eBay, I read the three books I had checked out from the library. I love the illustrations, Ms. Craft is amazing. They have a few galleries on her website that sell her oil paintings!!! What I wouldn't give to have one, but they are quite expensive. Though I won't begrudge the price of them, they are exquisite. Just to see one in person would be enough for me.

Ms. Craft is definitely a Renaissance-woman in the modern world with her delicate details. Her depictions of fabrics remind me of Bronzino's portraits and many of the other master painters of Renaissance with the way they could capture the look of fabrics. I was always amazed at how life-like they looked, it definitely made you think you could reach out and touch them. .....LOL Sorry, geekiness..... ;)

(sigh) I can't wait to get the other books I had put on hold by Ms. Craft.

No fair!

I'm so jealous! I got home from work today and happened to catch a bit of CNN. Apparently, London got 8 inches of snow today?!?! LOL Though when I thought about it, even if I was in England right now, I would be in Egham and wouldn't be able to get to London because of the trains possibly not running ;)

In honor of the occasion, I thought I'd post some pictures that I took while I was in Egham early in 2007 at Royal Holloway. I woke up one morning to students screaming outside my dormitory. I looked outside and the whole area was covered in snow. By the time I was outside, almost everyone was out and about enjoying the chance to have snowball fights or make snowmen.



This has to be one of my favorite pictures that I took that day. I don't know how I got such a lovely one of the snowfall while some of the undergrads were having a snowball fight :)



The clock at RHUL covered in snow!


Commemorative sculpture of Queen Victoria in one of the quads.

LOL Since it was Groundhog Day today I walked into work this morning and asked one of my coworkers about the groundhog's shadow. (sigh) Six more weeks of winter.

I hope everyone is bundled up tonight and enjoying some nice, hot chocolate!

Air block :)

Just a quick post to show my progress on the Air block of my Elements sampler.


What do you think?

Hopefully, I can get more of the Air block done this week :)

Happy Stitching!