I love the public library service for what it did for me as a child and as a student and as an adult. I love it because its presence in a town or a city reminds us that there are things above profit, things that profit knows nothing about, things that have the power to baffle the greedy ghost of market fundamentalism, things that stand for civic decency and public respect for imagination and knowledge and the value of simple delight. Philip Pullman reacting to UK library closures
Fashion Query For Fashionistas
"For an island look choose a pareo or sarong which can be easily wrapped around your waist.. Find the perfect swimsuit to get ready for the beach or pool parties. Purchase a versatile cover-up that can take you to the pool and lunch." But how does normal, sane women dress for summer?
A long-term goal of mine is to refashion my wardrobe through sewing a lot of it myself. Figuring out The Summer Wardrobe is one of my first hurdles. Every summer I end up looking through my wardrobe and struggling to find anything to wear. My natural inclination is to hide as much skin as I can which leaves me feeling and looking positively Victorian every year. I'm slightly fortunate that I live in Scotland, so I do not have to cope with constant sunshine and high temperatures, but even Scotland has the occasional summery day during which I cannot wear jeans and a long-sleeved tee.
But what do I wear then? If I were to define my personal style it would be along the lines of "minimalist librarian chic with a retro feel" (even if that makes me feel all pretentious and such). How do I get away from tweed skirts, leather boots, and woolly cardigans into something I can wear at the height of summer - and not feel completely exposed or like I'm playing dress-up?
Pointilism
It has been a hell of a week, quite frankly.
- A lot of work. I don't discuss work here so let's leave it at that.
- A lot of travelling across Scotland meant some truly great views from my train window.
- A lot of knitting got done on train journeys. My purple cardigan needs to be assembled and then it is done.
- Come to think of it, my red cardigan needs to be assembled too. I didn't reknit a thing, so I have no idea if I should commit to assemblage.
- My loo was finally fixed after being broken for four weeks. I was terribly excited.
- I've booked myself in for some sewing machine demonstrations/trials. I may commit to a model this decade.
- I really, really, really to catch up on sleep or my brain + body will fry.
Zzzzz...
Pause
"So sudden loss causes us to look backward - but it also forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships with those who are still with us. We may ask ourselves if we've shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order. We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame - but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others."
- Barack Obama, Tucson Memorial Speech, 2011.
Sorting the Stash, pt. 2
So. So I am standing there with two giant balls of acrylic bouclé yarn (very similar to this yarn). They were a gift and I'm surprised you even had to ask.
Anyway.
I am standing there holding two balls, each bigger than my head, and I am about to put them into the discard/trade/wtf pile when my darling D. comes into the room, takes a look at the two balls and says: "Oh, I love those. They'd make a really nice throw, don't you think?"
And so I put the two balls of yarny doom back into my yarn closet.
Help.
Fail!
We're having ongoing plumbing problems.
When we returned from Christmas holiday, we found a note in our mailbox. The top flat's toilet outflow had frozen and broken over the holiday period. An emergency plumber was called out and he ripped out part of the outdoors outflow pipe. A few days later another plumber came out and fixed the broken pipe.
Except..
.. can you see our problem?
It's almost worthy of FailBlog.
All I'm saying is that I'm deeply appreciative of our nearby 24-hour supermarket. I used to have huge issues about a 24-hour supermarket - who really needs to shop for carrots at 3am? - but I have made a huge U-turn in recent days.
Right now I'm trying to get hold of a plumber who is a) registered with our rental agency and b) willing to pick up his phone. Wish me luck.