"but you can't put a bookmark in it" or "my american sister"

My American sister (I only call her that to annoy her) is a kindle pusher and this week she had a success because she convinced my (not the most technical person in the world) mum to buy one.  We have been arguing the pros and cons for a while now.

cons (as I see them)

I like books

I buy second hand books which are cheaper than kindle books

I use the library which is free

pros

it has an amazing screen that is a dream to read and therefore I don't need my (extremely annoying) reading glasses

did I say pros plural, I meant pro because that's the only one there is.

My American sister says she still buys books and proved it by buying about thirty from a library sale recently so in her opinion books and kindle are not mutually exclusive

but now I think I have her

Bookmarks!  You can't use a bookmark in a kindle, in fact it would be pointless

and just look at this beautiful bookmark that I bought from carol's crafts.  There's no question it would scratch your kindle but it looks beautiful in my book.  I already know what her answer will be... You can still buy books.

I have added punctuation to my title because my lovely partner insists it doesn't make sense.  All I can say is it makes sense inside my head!

books and books and more books

Reading is just about all that's happening in our house at the moment.  The weather has turned grey and cold so all we want to do is snuggle up and read

I should be writing an essay on Orlando but instead got caught up in Hermione Lee's biography of her. 

This is our book club book.  The children voted to have book club once a fortnight so I tend to read the book to them, otherwise we would have to get two copies.  And I am enjoying this one.

Annis is reading the time wreccas which she has just started and says 'it's funny and I like the names of the characters, snot and scratch and killjoy'.  Ours is a library copy, for some reason the copies I found on the internet are hugely expensive but maybe it's awaiting a print run.

Teague who cannot be photographed is reading Clive Cussler The Chase which is an adult's detective story set in 1906.  He really likes the historical aspect of it and finds it exciting. 

Did I miss two days?  So early in February?  Hmmm I think so.

it's cold outside

so I'm thinking about knitting.  Of course I'm getting ahead of myself as I am still knitting my socks but they are almost ready for the grand tadah!  and I can start dreaming about my next project, which will be from this lovely book

I have already knitted a few pairs of wrist warmers and one pair of fairisle gloves from here but now my daughter has asked for something a little more complex, isn't that what daughters are for (and sons for that matter)?

fingerless gloves with little hats for the tips of your fingers when it gets really cold

the only problem is that I would like to make these with all that lovely cable and those bobbles

and I only have one ball of luscious wool from Loop.  I was quite worried about this when it occurred to me that I could order another ball!!!  and then we can both have our luscious gloves.  Am I being ambitious?

Is this really likely to stay long enough for me to finish my socks and knit two pairs of complicated gloves?  Oh well, mine will fit next year I suppose

stuff we're enjoying right now

I have been very slack with my blog recently.  My laptop is utterly unreliable at the moment and I may have underestimated the ammount of work needed for a level three literature course!  But I'm starting to organize my time a little better and all of a sudden I find I have a few minutes spare to share some home ed stuff.

I wrote about the scientist cd in this series a while ago, we are still listening to that one.  We are often distracted, and rarely do anything in any kind of order.  I like to think that this leads to interesting connections in our learning!  Anyway we love this explorers cd just as much as the scientists one.  It's great for those mornings when we all just want to curl up on the sofa, I can feel as though we're learning while we're lazing.

Annis is obsessed with fashion, she absolutely wants to be a fashion designer.  We saw this great book on fashion illustrating by Bethan Morris in the Tate St Ives at the weekend.  Unfortunately it was about £7 more in the Tate than it is on Amazon so we will be ordering it for christmas.

Back to essay writing and sewing after this brief interval.

The Athena book club

Now my children would have called it 'Penzance book club' or 'home ed book club' but there was some lateral thinking at the first meeting of this children's book club set up by our very efficient and lovely friend Jojo. 'Is there a god of books' said one bright spark, to which another replied 'Athena is the goddess of wisdom' and so their book group was named, 'The Athena Book Club'. I especially like the fact that Athena is a she and the book club is all boys apart from Annis.

 

The first book was a difficult choice because at least one of the children had already read whatever was suggested but in the end they all wanted to read Teague's suggestion of Stormbreaker, a spy book.  But Teague has already read it so he is starting the second book choice

Eragon, which sounds like fun.  They decided most things between themselves and it was a joy to see a group of boys getting excited about books or at least being in a club.  Teague managed to drag one of his book shy friends along and the library have asked if they will hold occasional meetings in the library.  I think this is a fantastic idea, they were very supportive and have offered to get hold of extra copies of their book choices so we don't have to buy the books.

We do love books in this house.  Books form the basis of our home education, and as long as they are reading or being read to I feel happy that they are learning.  So I am so so pleased that they all enjoyed the book club, in fact they were so keen they want to meet up in two weeks rather than the usual month.  Better get them reading!

Stuff we're enjoying right now

Every year around this time we seem to get a lot more reading and bookish learning done.  Today in particular it has turned colder so we don't mind staying in and cosying up with a good cd

and this is a great one, it's entertaining and informative enough to make us want to find out more.  Today we listened to the piece about Galileo and it has inspired us to look for a galileo telescope kit so if anyone knows of a good one please let me know

I have begun my Open University course and am back to reading and then reading again, oh and then reading in a bit more detail!  But I'm enjoying Chekhov ( I can't say I have ever read or seen his plays before).

and Annis has bought a fabulous Julie West embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching that is so cool and funky, that coupled with gold thread... who could resist.

oh and there's nothing I like to see more than a teenage reader.  The oldest (now at college) enjoyed reading but it's been a bit more of a struggle with this one.  Percy Jackson and the lightening thief seems to be doing the trick though.

and Annis has been crafting all by herself (poor thing) with her autumn finds from a lovely walk this morning in Morrab Gardens.

What are you finding to do now it's getting colder?

We love this book

J read the adult version of this book and recommended it, he even tried to read bits to the children but, even though it was funny, they couldn't really engage with it.  Then I saw this children's version of it in Smiths.

We've only just started it but we love it!  Even I understand it.  Bill Bryson is a funny man.

He begins by talking about a school text book he was given as a child which he thought was going to be amazing because of this image (he does admit it was because he imagined cars driving over the edge of the removed wedge and crashing into the burning inner core!)

but when he got the book home he was utterly disappointed because it was dull and didn't answer any of the questions he wanted answering (he now knows that they didn't know the answers then but being a school text book they didn't let on that they didn't know). 

His enthusiasm bursts out of the book, I feel that he is just as excited now about the idea that there is a burning ball in the centre of the earth as he was when he was ten.  This is perfect for my thirteen year old who is going through an 'I'm not interested in anything except sleep' phase at the moment.

The book is Bill Bryson's A Really Short History of Nearly Everything and we thoroughly recommend it to other science phobics (like myself rather than my children!)

Gorgeous new books

i have been meaning to write about this lovely new book that I received for my birthday, the new alabama chanin book

i loved her first book and have used the handsewing techniques she describes on many of the things i make.  sadly i still haven't made a skirt from it (time?)  but i am about to begin a camisole top from the new book.

there are quite a few more recipes in this book but there are also lots of things to sew and the ones that grab me the most are the place mats and doilies

i think these are just beautiful and am searching for old grey and white tshirts, but too many tshirts have things printed on them these days!

i also love these mats, the stencil for these is included in the book (precut)  there is another stencil used throughout which is much more complicated and needs enlarging called angie's fall, a flower and leaf stencil.  i have to say i would rather have had the second stencil ready made, i don't like having to enlarge from books and am nervous of my cutting out skills!  but i can see that this might have presented practical problems.

the thing that has excited me the most, though, is this method of applique.  the appliqued piece is cut larger than the shape it's going to be sewn on to and then scrunched, i love the effect and am going to try to give it a go this week (i will blog about the difficulty/ease, success/lack of success!).  all in all this is a beautiful book, as a lover of handsewing over machine, i find her writing inspiring and the gorgeous stitches can be used on non jersey sewing.  this book has left me desperate to make 'put-up tomatoes' so i can make proper southern bloody marys, has anyone got a canner?