September Scavenger Hunt via Lilly My Cat

I can't believe that September is saying goodbye and it's going to be October!  It's always a joy to join in with Greenthumb at Made with Love for her monthly scavenger hunts.  And, as always, I enjoy meeting new friends.  This month I took all my photos from my garden.   It was a very warm September morning when I took these pictures (with the exception of one of them).   I hope you will enjoy.

Woven design in this little table reminded me of my current needlepoint project...

Repeating blue tiles on the barbeque area...my succulents love this sunny area...

Greedy black crows ate all our figs from our fig tree...here's one lonely fig left...

Flower of bird of paradise.  I have lots of these and they do very well in the hot, dry weather...

Curly center of my sago palm tree that has grown huge...the new fronds are so amazing when they appear...

Adventures today when we moved the garbage can and found this gecko who had  lost his tail...

Line of the backyard fence...luckily it's narrowly spaced so Lilly can't fit through the fence...

Mesmerizing ripples from the pool this morning while the pump was running...

Triangle shapes from my home's chimneys...

Dreamy evening sky with lights reflecting on the pool ...

Day(time) at it's brightest with blue skies and palms fronds showing all their splendor...

Whatever you want - I just wanted Lilly to smile for the photo this morning but she is so stubborn...

I hope you have enjoyed these photos.  I look forward to seeing what you have shared.

My best to each of you,

Pat

Five on Friday Fotos Featuring Needlepoint and kNitting

Hello my friends. This past week my little grandson stayed two "sleeps" at our home so I was busy.  He started kindergarten this year and I had to take him to school and pick him up each day.  It was really very pleasant to be needed.  It brought back great memories of my own children during those early school years.  Right when I got used to our routine, he returned back home.  But, he's expected to stay with us again next week.
 
Last week's post about the magazine review was not my usual kind of post.  If you've been reading Lilly My Cat for awhile, you know my passion is Needlework.  I was kind of burned out with my knitting and crocheting until my friend introduced me to needlepoint.  I thought I'd show you what I've accomplished so far.

Here's my first piece of Needlepoint that I've finished.  I bought this "kit" on ebay for $20.00.  It's a kit from Germany and it was a good starter piece for me.  Although, now that I kind of know what I'm doing, the yarn was not the best.  I do like this type of canvas; penelope canvas I think it's called.

Here's the second piece that I bought. Again, from ebay and the tapestry wool was included.  I love the Royal Paris canvas designs and the wool is so nice. It's DMC wool from France.  This particular piece is small though as it will measure 9" x 12" when it's completed.  I'm thinking of making a handbag out of this piece.

Here's my latest purchase from ebay.  I've bought on ebay for many years now either by placing a "bid" or "buy it now" option.  This piece was listed also as "make an offer".  I'd never done that before.   The list price was $39 and I "made an offer for $25 shipping included".  The buyer accepted my offer and I'm so pleased with this new kit. 

The canvas and tapestry wools are made in England.  It's really very nice quality and the size will be a bit unique since it is oblong. I'm excited to get started on this piece after I finish my current canvas.  And, best of all, this one actually came with directions.  How I could have used those directions when I started my first piece of needlepoint!

I still haven't forgotten about my kNitting though.  Here's the sweater I'm currently knitting for myself. The yarn is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  It's nice in that it's 80% cotton & 20% wool.  But, it has no sheen whatsoever and it likes to split.  I tweaked the pattern since I'm using a different type of yarn and a different size needle.  It's pretty easy knitting now that I have the sizing correct.

If you've enjoyed these five photos I've shared, then please pop over and visit Amy at Five on Friday. I'm also linking to Victoria's Handmade Monday    and  Keep Calm Craft On. I wish to thank my dear daughter, Heidi, for updating my blog photo and design.  The header photo was taken by Heidi when we were in Paris two years ago.  If you have time, please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what's happening in your part of the world.  I read each and every one of them.  

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Pat

Review of Taproot Magazine via Lilly My Cat :)

Greetings my friends.  First, let me tell you that we received some much needed rain here in southern California.  That's right, glorious, refreshing, green making rain; over one inch in our area.  The weatherman (& woman) said that we may receive more next week.  We're keeping our fingers crossed...

Today, I'm joining in with my friend Amy at Five on Friday.  And, I'm also linking to Victoria's fabulous Handmade Monday.

I thought I would give you my reivew of Taproot magazine.  I discovered this magazine a few months ago via another blog (sorry, I can't remember which blog).  I subscribed for one year at the exorbitant sum of $27.00 for four issues.  Ah, I remember, why I subscribed.  Do you remember the popular barn sweater? It was featured in issue 11 of Taproot.  I love this sweater and I hesitant to purchase the pattern.  Instead, I thought if I subscribed to Taproot, I would receive another great pattern somehwere along the line.  No such luck so far.

Above is the current issue of Taproot that I received in the mail this week.  I'll tell you why this magazine is popular; is has no advertising.  That's right, each and every page is filled with something that will appeal to someone.

This month's copy came with an address book.  Here's the cover of the address book.  I don't know about you, but this is not a pleasant picture to look at.  It's way out there in my thinking.

 

To my surprise there was a proper pattern for a knitted shawl in the current issue.  But, I'm not sure if I will make it or not.  Since discovering  http://www.ravelry.com/ is there any need for any other place to find patterns?

I'm not trying to be discouraging but I really don't think I have gotten anything out of my Taproot subscription.  Issue 13 and 14 really didn't have anything that I could use (there was a tutorial on how to make your own soap or make crocheted jackets for rocks).  And, sometimes, the art work is really avant garde.  Here's what I think:

1.  The magazine is way overpriced for what is included.

2.  The art work is way out there sometimes. For example, do you like see an artist's rendition of a mother having a child?  Women have children so be it. You don't need to constantly draw pictures of how it happens.  And breastfeeding?  Hey, I had my child in the 70's and the doctor didn't even ask me if I wanted to breastfeed. He said  "you want a shot don't you since you won't be breastfeeding"?  I said "yes"....(he was an old, ex army doctor, by the way).

3.  I kind of feel it's a hippie era wanta be magazine.  Don't get me wrong; I would love to grow my own vegetables, make my own bread from my own ground wheat, dye my cloth from natural plant dyes.  But, today is 2015 and not a lot of people have these resources.

4.  The magazine is headquartered in Vermont.  A lovely state that I have yet to visit. I have wonderful visions in my head of what Vermont looks like.  

5.  It's just a bit too out there for my taste.  Yes, I'm in my early 60's but remember, I was a teenager during the hippie years so I'm not out of tune.  I didn't embrace that lifestyle although many things appeal to me like growing your own food, eating healthy, etc.

I don't think I will renew my subscription.  I live in a ramblin' house on a small lot here in southern California.  I can't have a chicken coop and I can't grow a large garden (unless there's someway it can be hydroponic via my swimming pool) haha.   Seriously, it would be heaven if the pool could be filled in and we could have a proper lawn with fake grass. That would make my husband so happy!

Maybe I've just had a busy week so far and was too tired to really tune in to Taproot.  But, if you enjoy learning things and discovering new ideas, then I suggest that you give Taproot a try.

Before I sign off, Lilly thanks everyone for your good wishes.  She is a healthy, happy cat and always enjoys hearing from you as do I.  If you have time, please feel free to comment.  I do read each and every one.

My best to everyone :)

Pat

Old Books and a Rare Book

Hello my friends.  Thank you so much for your kind wishes on the arrival of my new granddaughter.  Little Sadie is doing great.

Are you a book lover?  I love books and reading (although my reading has taken a back seat to my needle crafts right now) but I especially like "old" books.  Growing up, my parents didn't read a lot books.  We had a wonderful set of encyclopedia and of course I had my books that I loved.  My parents worked full time so maybe there wasn't time for them to enjoy reading.  Although, they were devout readers of newspapers.  When we moved from Washington to Idaho when I was a child, my grandmother used to send the local newspapers to my parents via the mail.  I had a Barbie doll back then, and she would hand knit little sweaters and clothing for my doll and wrap it up in the newspaper bundle.  I still have those Barbie sweaters she made for me.

I'd love to have a library filled with old books to the ceiling and have one of those "ladders" that crawl across the book shelves.  I can just picture the room with parquet wood floors, old Persian carpets, a well worn leather chesterfield couch, the smell of old waxed wood and dusty burgundy curtains hung across the window.  But, instead, I have a small book case with an eclectic collection of books.  And, a few of them are very old indeed and one is a bit rare.  Here...I'll show you a picture of them...

When my daughter and I were in England back in 2013, we were staying with friends in Rubery, West Midlands.  I bought this little book of Common Prayer in a charity shop ...

It fits in the palm of my hand and has a leather cover.  From the coat of arms that is shown, I believe it is from the time of King Edward VII.  Written in the inside cover is "K. Haywood, Xmas 1919" and written in pencil on the back cover is "Duncombe St., Wallaston Stourbridge".  It was quite interesting to read it as there are numerous sections such as morning prayer, evening prayer, order of confirmation, order for the burial of the deal, and thanksgiving of women after child-birth just to name a few.

Years ago, my daughter brought home from England  this little collection of small books featuring the classics ...

This is a small book of Aladdin that I picked up at one of my Danish Sisterhood events a few years ago ...

As you can see, it's in Danish (which I can't read) and dates from 1876 ...

I picked up this book at the same event.  It doesn't look very interesting and it's in very bad shape but once you look inside it's amazing what you'll find ...

It's dated 1733!  It is Volume 1 of an 8 volume set. 

It's written in English but not the kind of English that I read ...

The star of my collection is this book entitled Adventures of an Orchid Hunter.  I've googled it and found that it's worth in the range of high hundreds to one thousand (I'm sure depending on how they grade the condition).  I purchased this book years ago at a Friends of the Library book sale in my small town for a vast sum of 25 cents!

It was published in 1891 and is in very good condition inside ...

It features a lovely chromolithograph of  an orchid (and many more lithographs) and tells of the author's travels through the jungles of Columbia in search of orchids ...

 I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into one of my collections.  It's probably not worth much but to think of how old these items are and who they once belonged to one day is quite intriguing to think about.

We are in the midst of another heat wave.  I can hardly wait until winter makes it's appearance and maybe we will receive our much needed rain.  I'll sign off with this photo of Lilly.  She sends you her meows and good wishes.

Again, thank you for your kind comments and for taking the time to visit Lilly My Cat.  I hope that you and every one of you has a wonderful day.

my best to you,

Pat

Links:
It's Friday so I'm join in with Amy at Love Made my Home for  Five on Friday ...
Willy Nilly Friday 5