Posts Tagged ‘books’
Books, books, wonderful books!
Posted on: February 8, 2010
- In: books
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My library had a box sale yesterday and so we loaded up the kids, drove downtown, and took home a green tub with about 50 books. All for $10!
When we got home we had to find a place for all of these books though. So I reorganized my sewing room and voila!
Here is our very own personal library. I still have many books in storage and all of our fiction books (including all of the kids books) are in a separate bookshelf so what you see is just our reference books! And at the very, very bottom right corner, some scrapbooks and baby books.
This morning I spent almost an hour creating labels and dividers for the bookshelf. It looks so good and it makes me feel so good. I have always been a book-a-holic.
I love books! I love my library!
To infinity and beyond!
Posted on: February 7, 2010
- In: books | Space | Unshooling
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The theme around our house right now is space (outer space).
We have a solar system on our computer desktop, we also have one hanging in our entrance. We have a Solar system on a poster in the living room above our globe. We also have a pile of books on various planets that we borrowed from the library and we have a couple of books at home on star gazing/astronomy.
My husband took the kids to the library and when they found the space section Trey just kept pulling off book after book off the shelves. Kevin had to put a bunch of them back. 
Another place to find good illustrations of space is the Hubble Telescope website (thanks Taryn). Www.hubblesite.org.
And yesterday, when the local homeschooling store had a 20% off sale, I found this constellation kit. It is pretty neat. It needs to be really dark in the room for it to work but it does work.
I couldn’t get a good picture of the lights since the room has to be quite dark but it did cast off little stars on the ceiling. I am even contemplating moving some mattresses into the living room and camping out under the stars in our living room. I love it when the boys get really interested in something and we can really roll with it. I loved it when Trey got interested in fossils and we took him to the dino museum a few hours away. He still talks about it. And we’ll likely take him there this summer again.
He is really into fossils still. So he grabbed some books about dinos when he was at the library but he mostly cares about the fossils and not so much about the illustrations of dinosaurs.
And he is also interested in people bones too. So we have him playing with some book models etc.
I love when he asks questions! This is what I have been waiting for for years.
A house full of sickies.
Posted on: February 6, 2010
- In: books | sewing
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I don’t have a lot to talk about since we have all been sick for three or four days now. That means a lot of time on the couch watching movies.
My kids have all spent many hours sleeping on that couch which is why I have encouraged movie times. It gives them a great excuse to lay down with their blankies and get some much needed rest.
We did go to the book sale at the Public Library here and we will go again for the box sale ($10 a box!!!). It’s a great place to get reference materials.
Otherwise we aren’t doing much at all. I have been reading a lot about religion and nonviolent communication. Can’t wait to get back to normal.
To wrap up this non-post, here is a picture of Anna using chop sticks. I was using them and she wanted to use them too. What a sweety!
And here is one of my unfinished sewing projects that I started a couple of days ago (won’t get finished until I find time to take my machine in since it has been eating fabric):
Things I love.
Posted on: January 31, 2010
Productive trips to the library. 
Seriously though. Are there any other kind?
I love the library. It often makes me sad though. I think of all of those works of creativity or philosophy or research sitting mostly unused in a city full of people who don’t appreciate them.
We have become a generation of Internet users who want our information to be found quickly, be summarized in as few words as possible and if convenient, accurate or unbiased. Tall order right?
Here’s to all of my fellow library perusers who love books for being books!
I also love my dress form, my new yellow sweater and my many unfinished sewing projects. You know, the ones you start during a moment of inspiration but rarely find the time/inspiration to finish.
I have more of those than I’d care to admit. The problem with this pink top is that my machine started eating the fabric when I was trying to insert some darts on the sides. So frustrated I set the whole thing aside about a week ago and I haven’t picked it up since. 😦
I have to figure out what’s wrong with it since the needle is new and everything has just recently been cleaned.
And the last thing on my list of things I love today is my newly replenished acrylic paint stock. Doesn’t it look so cheery?
Hope your day is a colourful as mine was!
The last few days.
Posted on: January 15, 2010
- In: books | Me
- 4 Comments
I’ve been a little busier these days so I haven’t posted in a a couple of days.
The first thing I want to talk about is the Olympics. Unlike L, I don’t care for it much. I am just not into it I guess. But I never thought the day would come where the Olympics would be an inconvenience for me. Ha ha ha.
OK, it’s not a big deal. But the husband’s polygraph, which could have been done this month, has been postponed until the Olympics are done because all of the RCMP polygraphers are in Vancouver working the Olympics. Ha ha ha.
That puts his recruitment back a bit. I hope they make up the time somehow because that will put him at about three months worth of delays, all out of his control. And we are just dying for him to get in and then out onto the field. We have been putting our life on hold for over a year trying to get everything aligned to do this and it starts to wear you down. I would love to be settled in to our new house before next Christmas. Oh well, we’ll figure it all out.
The other disappointment is that his current contract MAY not last as long was we were hoping. That, coupled with the delay with his application, is making me worried that if he can’t find another job quickly enough afterwards, I may end up back at work until we sell our home or until he goes to Regina.
We have to list our place for sale in February and hope for a really quick sale. Then we can move out to my husband’s parent’s farm and stay there until he graduates and gets posted.
Anyway, two days ago I went to a friend’s house and we let our kids have a play date. It was a nice break from the norm and the kids sure had a great time. I was really grateful.
And yesterday I took the kids to the park in the neighbourhood here. They had fun but Joel fell in the snow, and got cold, and cried, so that ended pretty quickly. It was still nice to get some fresh air though.
And Anna, my little 14 month old who won’t-walk-but-can-climb-anything-in-sight climbed up on my kitchen table and did a number on my bowl of nuts. She really enjoyed plunging her hands in the dish. And when she emptied the dish out she would stick her face in it and listen to the echo as she “ahhhh”ed into it.
She is absolutely adorable.
Last night I went to the mall. The husband had martial arts and I wanted some time out.
Anyway, when we were at Chapters we picked up some clearance books.
They boys each wanted the same 3D Human Body book. Here are the boys looking through it this morning.
Crafty fun.
Posted on: December 2, 2009
- In: art | books | crafts
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The Christmas stockings have really got me annoyed. I don’t want to spend a fortune but I also don’t want to fill them with candy or useless junk.
And Anna doesn’t really have many interests. So I ended up getting her some socks and these:
The book has five different Dr. Seuss stories. The A and the Princess thing (lame I know) were raw and I painted them (and added the flower on the one).
These will be used to decorate her room when she eventually gets one. Just like the miYim teddies we gave her for her birthday.
This last week was the farewell for a co-worker of mine and I foolishly volunteered to pull something together for her. Here is the necklace that I custom made for her (the team asked me to make it because she always compliments my jewelry to them).
The flash bleaches it out. The flowers are more of a black than a blue but still. I really wanted to keep it for myself but I didn’t come up with anything better for her that day.
I also made her a memory scrapbook. It took me forever to make it and then my boss wanted more pages and in the end it was a freakin’ gong show just to get half the pages filled with well-wishes. All I can say is lesson learned!
I bought the hair for Anna’s Bamboletta/Kinder doll this past weekend. I haven’t gotten to the point of adding it in. I’ll be home soon and will be able to find more time to get that done.
The picture to the left of the above text is a pic of Anna’s birthday. We didn’t get great shots. It’s a combination of letting my husband take the photos and him not using a flash in our dark living room. As you can see our boarder is still living with us and therefore our weight room is still in our living room. 😦
Anyways, I have most of the morning off because my husband has a small phone interview this morning with his recruiter and he needs the kids out of the way and quiet. Enter me!
I am going to try to get some relaxation, reading and maybe even crafting in before I have to go back to work. Ugh!
I love my library!
Posted on: May 16, 2009
- In: books | sewing
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And I am not the only one.
My hubby and my kids also love their local library. The kids love playing in the library. It’s more of a social function to them than it is about the books but still…
Here are some real gems that I picked up today:
Gosh! I just love that I can go and pick books up for free and have a chance to really read them so that I can determine whether or not to spend the money to buy them. There have been so many books that have looked good on the web or in the book store but end up being pretty lame at home.
I am definitely buying the Sew Pretty Homestyle one. I just loved the ideas in there. It made me want to sew up my whole dang house!
I am not planning on buying the serger one but it has been a real life preserver. I was having so much trouble with my serger and a few little tips from this book and my serger is working better than it ever has. Plus the illustrations in this book are much clearer than the illustrations and instructions in my manual.
Yay for the library!
Here is my completed sewing project for the evening:
It looks rather boring. I am thinking it needs some embroidered accent or something but since I plan on wearing it to the office I am a little hesitant to get too creative. Hmmm…any ideas?
Obviously it needs some ironing too. Ha ha ha.
Another thing I am loving about my library is that it lets you borrow CDs. I like being able to listen to new artists this way. I would never buy a CD from an artist I didn’t recognize and this is a fun way to try some new styles.
Plus, I really like the documentaries too. All of this for the price of three or four movie rentals.
Giddy with anticipation.
Posted on: April 9, 2009
- In: books | crafts
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Why am I bouncing in my chair with glee?
Because I bought my very own copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The recipes look so delicious that they kept me up last night! OK, not really but they certainly look so delicious that I am getting anxious to get my hands on some ingredients that I am short on and make about three batches of these bad boys.
I was showing Kev these last night and he was pretty enamoured by the cookie one and some of the ones with icing on the inside. He loves icing for those of you who don’t know Kevin that well. When I am done icing cakes etc. he will grab the bowl of icing, sit down with a spoon and eat the leftovers. Gross!
But yeah, I took a trip to the busier part of the city with the boys today and hit the clearance sales at Chapters and picked these up.
I was ready to dump knitting forever but I was so thrilled with my bowl yesterday that I have given knitting another chance and I am more eager to learn how to do some different kinds of projects.
I am also giddy because my sister is coming today which means we might be able to get some scrapbooking done. At least we will have someone to talk to whilest we knit.
I am hoping to do two more bowls and then maybe making something with the left overs. And L, I kind of thought that my multicoloured yarn is thick enough to use for felting so next time I see you I can give you some of the scraps and you’ll have some oranges, greens and pinks etc.
There likely won’t be much learning and exploration (unschooling wise) until my sister gets here because I have a messy house that needs attention…again.
But for once I have the motivation for cleaning. Let’s hope Anna is OK playing on her own so that I can actually get some of what I need done done.
A quick post.
Posted on: April 2, 2009
- In: books | parenting | Unshooling
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I just wanted to do a quick post for today. I am really hoping the sun will come out and I can get some fresh air today.
Here are Anna’s chubby fingers playing with the teether that daddy made for her Christmas stocking.
I am always thrilled when my children meet a new milestone.
This milestone gives me a little more free time as she spend more of her alert time examining her surroundings.
I also picked up some books on clearance when I was out for a bit of groceries last night. Kevin picked up the magical creatures one and it is quite interesting. If covers all sorts of magical creatures from legends and old historical accounts. It examples how each animal or whatever is used a symbol for different things in different places or religions. It is very informative.
Some of the items in the Simple Science book are pretty silly (like why balloons grow bigger) but there are some good ideas for playing with batteries and electricity. I also liked the section on magnets.
Thrifty finds.
Posted on: March 27, 2009
- In: books | crafts | sewing
- 3 Comments
I was very inspired by the vintage finds of some of these crafty online mamas out there that I decided to do a little thrifting of my own.
I picked this thermos looking thing up today. It has a Tiffin in it! Granted it’s not a real Tiffin but it’s as good as and the thermos dealy helps keep everything at the right temperature. The lid doesn’t seal and I can’t figure out if it was ever supposed to but it’ll be perfect for events like pic nics.
Each container has a seperate lid so the lid could conceivably double as a mini plate too.
<-I also found these items.
A colourful scarf, some items to get the boys and I started on embroidery and some knitting needles (my sister can show me the basics) and some yarn.
I would have never seen myself learning how to knit but lately I have been seeing the cutest things being knitted and then felted and it is really the felting that convinced me to try.
Other projects I will enjoy doing will be hats.
We also took a trip to the library today. Here are some books I borrowed.
A quilting for baby book, a knitting project book and Grimm’s Fairy Tales (I am pretty curious to see what those are like). The Wishing on a Star one is one I bought at Save On Foods when I was there picking up dish soap and it is about finding constellations and explaining the story behind them. I think it’ll be great for camping trips.
And last, but definitely not least, Fabricland is having a 50% off sale so we went and stocked up on piles of goods. These are prints and patterns for Anna. I am hoping to be able to sew all of her clothes. At least it’s my goal. I also bought four metres of denim so that I can make overalls etc. for my boys. We’ll be busy bees for a while.
Adventures in Unschooling 