Wednesday, July 27, 2011

back to normal?


I don't know about you, but I've found that it's taken the last few weeks for the postal system to get everything sorted out, following the labour dispute. Much of my mail has taken longer than usual (like 10 days for an envelope to go from Parry Sound to Huntsville - normally a 1 hour drive by car). Maybe it's just the summer....and little bit my imagination, but everything seems a little sluggish lately, including me.

In need of a little pick-me-up, I placed my first order with Alewives a few weeks ago. I've visited their site many times to gorge on the lovely eye candy, but I always seemed to feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the choices and had a hard time deciding what I really wanted. It's difficult to complain about having too many beautiful fabrics to choose from......but I do find I get easily overwhelmed by attractive selections -- finding the rose among the thorns is so much easier!

In any case, I finally took the plunge, chose 10 different batiks and placed an order, and the slow-poke mail service finally delivered the last of my fabric at the end of last week. It's been spread out on either the counter or the coffee table ever since, and cheers me up each time I look over at it. There is so much promise in a pile of fabric...

Meanwhile I'm busy planning my trip to England, hence the book that's usually by my side. It's hard to believe I'll be leaving in less than 7 weeks -- there is much to do between now and then. Including finalizing where I am going, staying, seeing, etc. Any and all recommendations welcome for Amsterdam (I a 12 hour stopover en route), London, Yorkshire, _______ (anywhere else I should go for a good 3-day adventure in September? Scotland? Wales? _____?)

Once I finish knitting my new sweater (hopefully this weekend), next up on the project list is sewing a pocket-protector for my iPad. I love the thick felt Christine used for hers, but I think I will try to make something from my stash - either wool fabric with batting and then contrasting free-motion quilting or maybe a little pieced top using some different batiks.... Luckily there is still time for me to decide and/or come up with a new plan :-D