Tag: books

Thrifting treasures

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

I needed a little break from my thoughts, my grocery shopping and my todo list, so on my way from one supermarket to the other, I decided to stop at the thrift store. You know, just to look around and maybe pick up a book or something small.

Ahem. Six books? Yeah… Couldn’t help myself. I already picked up Gulliver’s Travels at the supermarket (they have a free library), but I couldn’t resist a novel by Nora Roberts that I haven’t read yet (Sanctuary in English). And I discovered Corina Bomann last year. I love all her books and I’ve been binge reading every one included in my ebook subscription, so finding two I haven’t read yet was a treat. The other three books are non-fiction, about hunger, food and changing habits. Because that is what I need to work on. If I could only get myself to actually read books like that… I have a few more in my TBR piles.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the stuff I found. Those wooden leaves… I don’t know. They look like the broke off something, but I just like them very much. I’m sure I will find somewhere to put them. The orange/red bowl is from Pyrex and it’s dirty (still soaking at this point), but in good condition. I usually don’t pick up colors like that, but… I don’t know… I just wanted it.

The little basket had a broken handle, so I took the other one off too. Which was harder than I thought it would be, but I got it done. This will be perfect for drying herbs, or just for decoration. Isn’t that spiral lovely?

When we moved here, I discovered baskets are hard to find here, especially thrifted. I never expected that, given the mountains of baskets I was used to see in thriftstores in The Netherlands, but I tried to accept it as part of living in the tropics. But the past year, I’ve gotten lucky and I have a nice collection now. They are all meant to be used, but they also look great as decoration, I think.

Out of all the linens they had I picked up this cotton tea towel. I don’t know what I’ll use this for, but I really like the sunflowers.

My favorite find is this little glass pitcher (the right one is the one I bought this time)… I try to stay away from collecting things, but I have to be careful with these. I know, two isn’t a collection yet, but I looked at another one in the shop and I would have bought it if it hadn’t been chipped…
To be honest, I don’t know what I could use them for, but gosh, they’re so cute. I do wonder what they are meant to be used for though. Oil and vinegar (which means the corks are missing)? Sauce? Milk?

Oh well, I like them. And since I paid 13 guilders (about 7 dollar) for the whole lot, I’ll just consider it cheap therapy.

Keeping notes

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

One of the recurring items on my list of resolutions or goals is to start journaling or at least keeping notes more. But I never really do. I started often, but the perfectionist in me was always dissatisfied with how things looked and then I stopped writing and destroyed it all. I’ve done that as long as I can remember, even as a child. And that makes me sad. Not that I would have kept boxes and boxes of notebooks and diaries over the past 50 years (or would I?) but getting rid of (some of) them because it’s time to let go, is a whole different story than doing it out of self criticism.

A few days ago, I was cleaning out my knitting basket. I still had the leftovers of the grandson sweater in it, and wanted to make space for new projects. As I was laying out the contents of the basket, I realized I had to write a note about that sweater in my knitting notebook (the red notebook in the picture above). I found I hadn’t written anything in it in 2024, but that was a quick issue to resolve. Apart from two simple headbands (just some ribbing in the round), it was only that little sweater…

Oh well. That’s not what I wanted to talk about today. What I realized when I leaved through the notebook, was that I started writing in it in 2015 and scribbled notes about my knitting projects in it ever since. That’s almost ten years!
I have to admit, I don’t like the way it looks on the inside. It’s anything but consistent (ink colors, layout) and most of the pages look very messy. It’s nothin like the beautiful layouts I see on the internet. But I haven’t stopped using it and I didn’t destroy it. That’s a first for me.

I don’t really know why this little book was different than all the ones before, but I think it has something to do with already accepting that it would be messy when I started writing in it. It’s such a beautiful book that everything I would do with it would be wrong in my perfectionist mind. But the girls gave it to me for Christmas and I wanted to show appreciation by actually using it. So I popped it into my knitting basket, carefully wrote down the pattern for the Honey Cowl, messed up writing the last rows and stopped caring about perfection after that, because it would have been such a waste to destroy that book.

At first I thought: well, I guess buying expensive notebooks will be the cure to my problem. And I may use that as an excuse someday 😉

But I think the real reason is just accepting that it will be messy and ugly. So I dug up a notebook from my notebook drawer (yes, I have one and yes, they’re al empty) and popped it in my knitting basket too, to use as a reading notebook. (I usually have a book and/or my ereader in my knitting basket too, so that makes sense to me. )

It’s not going to be a reading journal, a commonplace book or something artsy. I’m just going to list the books I read, maybe write down some notes about it, or some quotes from it, but only if I feel like it. Much like the knitting notes. It’s going to be messy. It already is. I messed up the very first page. But the notebook is messy too (yellowed from the humid, salty air here), so that’s good.

Now my mind is racing with other notebooks and journals I’d like to have (herbal notes, garden notes, a nature journal, a grimoire…), but I think I’m sticking with these two for now. Start slowly…

I found it!

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

I finally found the library! Yeah, I know that sounds silly, but they moved in the summer (when we were away) and I just couldn’t find the adress they listed on the website (google maps isn’t all that acurate here). But two weeks ago, I suddenly saw them, right at the side of the road I drive on almost weekly, because it connects the two supermarkets I go to most frequently. That’s so great!

I usually get books on alternative medicine or regional history and stories from the library. They have a lot of books in their collection that are no longer for sale.

What I took home with me this time, top to bottom:
– in the 60’s a priest asked local people for stories about the past and lore. He wrote them all down without comments or analyzing. His books are such a great source!
– a book about menopause. I’m still trying to figure out some facts about that.
– the first book of our famous island herbalist. I bought the other one, but this one is out of print. I have borrowed this many, many times and I’m slowly copying the information in my notebooks.
– a book about the healing powers of water. Could be interesting if they don’t go over-the-top with the spiritual stuff (that’s an extremely fine line with me)

I think they also have a good selection of fiction, but I read a lot of novels on my e-reader, so I’m never really checked those out.
Since I know people will ask what fiction I’m reading: I’m on a Morgana Best binge – if you like cozy mysteries with a bit of paranormal, you should check her out. I just finished 18 (!) books in the Kitchen Witch series and now I’m binging her Vampire and Wine series. I also read Practical Magic and it’s prequel Rules of Magic, by Alice Hoffman. Yeah, there’s theme in my reading these days 😉

Knitting and reading – childhood memories

~ Maggie ~ 9 Comments

Knitting:

The poncho is coming along nicely. I started on the second skein. I still love the color changes and I really hope these two skeins make a big enough poncho. I could add a border in a different yarn, but I’d rather let these two shine on their own.
I’m also knitting potholders with cotton. It’s the perfect project to take with me to the house. I have to do some unraveling though because I found out yesterday that I don’t have enough of that green to make two squares. Not a problem, I can add black cotton, but I already finished one square. And even though these are just potholders, I want them to be the same. So I’ll unravel the one that’s finished a bit and add some black to that one too.

Reading:

I’m reading Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek (Crusade in jeans – I think there are translations available). It’s a children’s novel (for older children/teenagers) and I loved it as a child and as a teenager. This February it was in the stores for only two Euro, so I asked the girls to get me a copy. I really wanted to read it again.

The story starts in the 20th century (the present when the book was written). A sixteen-year-old boy takes part in an experiment with a time machine and is sent back to the Middle Ages. He soon finds out he is in the time he selected, but not in the right place. He misses his window to get back because exactly at that moment thousands of children pass by and he can’t get to the right spot.  He soon finds out these children are on their way to Jerusalem (they are in Germany at that point) to free the Holy City. Rudolf decides to join the Children’s Crusade. Not because he believes the sea will part for them when they arrive at Genua, but because he and a student he met soon after he arrived want to help the children to survive.
Even though I know how it ends (I’ve read it many times as a kid) it’s still captivating to read. I’m really glad to have this book in my collection again.

Do you reread childhood favorites?

Linking up with As Kat Knits’ Unraveled Wednesday