Wednesday, June 6, 2012

My Travel Gear and Some Book Love

Oh boy, where did the May go? I try to blog twice a month and now I missed a whole month!

I was travelling for one week and here below you can see my travel gear. I feel like a real sewing queen for having self-made travel gear. On the left is a make-up roll and you can purchase the pattern from Rachel from Stitched in Color. I love it! I don't use a lot of make up, so everything I own fits in it. I made it as a gift to myself last summer and I just adore it. On the right is a cover that I made few weeks ago for my newly bought Kindle. I used a free tutorial by Whipstitch Fabrics. I was a bit sceptical would it work but it really does. I added a ruffle to cover the elastic. I'm may not be a ruffle kind of girl, but the elastic had a very ugly yellowish white colour.
Travel Gear

I'm experiment using my phone with filckr app to take pictures. I usually use my husbands fancy camera, but when I tried to blog in May about these I managed to delete all the pictures from his memory card! Luckily he could get the pictures back, but I feel more comfortable sticking to my own equipments for now.

Travel Gear

Curious about what I'm reading on my fancy new Kindle? Anne of Green Gables. It was my favourite book when growing up. I remember when I was around ten years old my teacher said she was reading it to see if she still likes it as an adult. I was completely devastated by the idea that I could grow up to be someone who does not like Anne of Green Gables! I thought to myself it is best that I never read it when I grow up so that I don't have to find out that I don't like it. But no worries - I love it! And I mean truly love it, not in a nostalgic way or anything like that. And now I get to read the original version and not a translation of it. Little story for those of you who know Anne - when I finally realised 12 years ago that my now husband is the one my exact thought was "he is my Gilbert!". His name is very similar to Gilbert as well, so it really is all meant to be:)

I wonder if I ever get to reading new books since after I have finished the Anne series I would like to read Kim by Kipling, also one of my old favourites. It is such a thrill to notice that I enjoy same books that I read when I was a child. At least my spirit is still young!

4 comments:

The Muse of The Day said...

Hi, Mari, I have so many things to say. First - your make-up roll and Kindle cover turned out wonderful! I love the play of fabrics with roses on the outside and roses-with-a-bang on the inside. Those kinds of juxtapositions always make me take a moment and reflect on the choice of fabric. You picked two different fabrics, not only because the colors went together, but also because the symbols of the rose were a theme. After cutting the blue batik for my last lampshade, i regretted, truly regretted, that i had not cut the blue fabric in the shape of a rose to go with the roses in the background fabric. I made myself a mental note to be more attentive to those kind of details in future projects. What is that yellow fabric on the inside? I hope you don't tell me it is a vintage piece of fabric so that I can buy some of it here, in the States. The second thing I want to tell you is that I once took a workshop (Anna Maria Horner) and Rachel, from Stitched In Color, also took the class. She is a VERY nice person, you won't go wrong following any of her projects or advice on her blog. The third I want to say is that I am very happy to hear that you tried a few more of my recipes. Yesterday I took a break from the backbreaking work of the garden and taught (for fun) a cooking class in my home. Three of my friends came over and we spent the better part of the day together in my kitchen. I taught them how to make Asian pork and cabbage dumplings. It was a lot of fun. After it was all done, and I had cleaned out the mess in the kitchen, I went back out to work in the garden. I can barely move this morning so I was happy to see your comment and prolong going back to the garden for a bit while I have my coffee, slowly, and read you blog entry. Lastly, I want to talk about blogging. I know all about the frustrations of picture taking with unfamiliar equipment - that alone can make parts of blogging seem like a chore. I used my iPhone, instead of my husbands equipment, for the longest time. After blogging for about a year, I graduated to my little Leica, which I love and can fit in my purse. Don't fret about how often you blog. Do what you can, when you can,mand move beyond those nagging thoughts. You are a complete woman, with a full life, blogging is just a fraction of who you are. The only ones who have to blog continuously are those that are doing it for profit. If you get to that point, then is the time to make the decisions of how often to blog. Now, at this point, they are just unnecessary stress. We have enough stress in our lives trying to get all our projects squeezed into our full lives - never mind blogging added to that. Having said that - I hate to put this in after what I just said - I DO like seeing what you are up to. I, myself, am trying not to feel like I have to have a finished project before I post. Wow, this is a long comment. I hope your Blogger doesn't kick me out when I go to post it. Good luck. Have a beautiful day. Carolina

Mari said...

The yellow fabric on the inside is Heather Bailey Wallpaper roses in canary. I love it! The yellow is so bright and shiny. What it comes to blogging twice a month is just a goal I put for myself to keep doing it despite all the fear of making mistakes with grammar and spelling. Which I do on regular bases and will keep on doing for the rest of my life :) English is not my native language and I am slightly dyslexic so it is what it is.

Minnado said...

Hi Mari,
your english is very good and I rarely spot spelling or grammar errors! I like the roll and the kindle cover, lovely colours and the make up roll seems better than a bag. I have a make up bag and things get lost and jumbled up in it. So I am thinking a make up roll would be a great future project. I loved Anne of Green Gables - I always think of how she dyed her hair green by mistake and how she hated her freckles - I have freckles and still don't like them! I hope to be able to read it with Little I in a few years.

Mari said...

Oh thanks. I work hard to eliminate them:) The roll is very handy, I love it. I'm very glad I don't hate my freckles since my face is covered with them! When I got married the woman doing my make up asked if she should cover all my freckles and my answer was no. I don't think people would recognise me without them :)