Austenland

by Shannon Hale



Different. Funny, though, if you have just finished reading a really long Victorian novel. And I have.

Craftiness

Matt and I made Christmas stockings. We went down to his parents' house and borrowed the sewing machine and kitchen table for several hours, and this is what we came up with.

Matt's first:



He scientifically engineered it for maximum lootage. Seriously. Equations and everything.


Matt did this by hand, so that there would be no mistake as to whom the stocking belonged. As if the orange and blue wasn't enough of a giveaway.

Here's mine:





It has come to my attention that sewing is not one of my strong points.

However, I have proved somewhat competent in the area of knitting. I bought this yarn in Germany two or three years ago, and finally found someone I think it goes with. I just finished turning it into a scarf.





Happy day!

Finally!

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray



Man, this book was a lesson in perseverance--700 pages, of which maybe 150 were relevant to the action. The story was interesting enough when the author felt like sharing it, although it was really two different stories that sort of collided with each other every once in a while. I didn't really like either of the main characters; Becky was too conniving and Amelia was too much of a milquetoast. Now, if their personalities could have been combined, that could have been something. Imagine somebody who is intelligent and moral, or is that too unbelievable?

Bookcases

I have already made plans for a bookcase/staircase like this to be in my home someday.

Also, I want a bookcase/fort.





It's like some sort of igloo-ish shrine to reading. I think I could use one.

Ikea!

We went to Ikea over the holiday weekend in order to buy a shelf to organize the back room. That's the room where everything goes that we can't find any other logical place for. And because Ikea is so amazing, we found exactly what we were looking for. Behold the organization:



Only look at the organization, not the stuff. Some of those things are hoping to be presents one day. In particular, the gray blob on the top right. We got that at Ikea, too. You can't just buy furniture; sometimes you have to buy incredibly soft, giant roly-poly bugs...



...with mouths that zip open.