spring, music and library books

This week I've been ...

• looking for Spring
• knitting - lots of long, repetitive rows of garter stitch which I've been enjoying very much - possibly in a therapeutic way. The wool is 'Zara' by Filatura di crosa that I bought from here. 
• listening to Harry Nilsson after hearing this
• trying to get my library books back on time.

How's your week been? What are you listening to?

Watching Forbrydelsen + Listening to Nilsson Schmilsson + Shooting with Instagram

Mr Fox

Last week a student set up a table outside the local library. She had a list of books that people felt had influenced their lives in some way. She'd written the individual titles onto strips of paper, folded them and dropped them into a box. The idea was that passersby would randomly select a title from the box - a bit like a lucky dip - then go in to the library and borrow the book.

I drew 'Fantastic Mr Fox' by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake. I decided that somehow this was serendipity and that I should borrow and read this book. Maybe something joyous would happen. So I did borrow it and read it. And I enjoyed it. I'm sure if I were seven years old I probably would've loved it.

I'm not sure of the purpose of the student's project. If you borrowed the book you were meant to return the slip to a different box inside the library - presumably for the student to collect later. Anyway, I think it was a nice gesture. It was an opportunity to read something you probably wouldn't normally read. Maybe even broaden your experiences. It lead me to rediscover my own Mr Fox and to borrow the DVD. So... not bad at all. Thanks.

Treasures from the library book sale

Our library has a book sale twice a year and there are indeed treasures to be found. With Xmas coming up, I was looking specifically for books with images I could use to make cards and gift tags.

The cards I made are quite small (11.5 cm x 7 cm) but I had some old tracing paper see-through envelopes that were the perfect size to match. Once I decided how I wanted the cards to look, they were quite easy to make - cut out picture, glue onto card, trim and round the corners.

• I recently bought a corner punch so the cards had to have rounded corners.

• I also used aerosol spray glue for the first time and it is the best thing ever.

I think I'll keep some of the cards for myself and gift some as notecard sets.


These pages are from 'Wild flowers of Britain' - also from the library book sale - but I can't bring myself to cut the pages. The photographs are just too fascinating and too beautiful.

Not that 'Looking after cage birds' isn't also a nice book ...