Reading... Retro style!

If like me you follow this lovely blog, you might be currently reading a particular children's classic, 'James and the Giant Peach'.

Some of you might be wondering, why would you want to read a kids book. Well I say, why not! If you were an avid reader as a little one (as I was) you'll remember long afternoons spent cuddled up with your favorite book and falling asleep at night time with your book flopping across your little face as you literally couldn't keep your eyes open any more! Many a night my Dad had to come into my room, put away my book and switch off my light for me, as I had fallen asleep mid sentence! I confess that I still do that sometimes now... just one more page... Zzzz.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I'm reading 'James and the Giant Peach' as part of the Meet Me at Mike's Retro Readers book club, and I'm remembering just how ace kids books are and in particular how fantastic Roald Dahl is. James wasn't my childhood favorite though, this honor would have to go to 'Matilda' or the 'BFG' and don't get me started on Enid Blyton... The hours I spent reading her novels are too many to count!

So if you loved reading as a little tike jump on board and get reading with me, retro style!

Feisty Jane

Jane Eyre was one of my first literary loves. The character of Jane resonated strongly with me, I admired her and wanted to be like her; she's strong willed, independent of thought and determined not to be looked down upon because of her gender, her position or her lack of money or status. To put it simply; she kicks butt.

I saw the recent adaptation of Jane Eyre last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Mia Wasikowska gave a beautiful performance as Jane and I was pleased to see that Mr Rochester was just as handsome as he needed to be! I always thought that he should be handsome in a strangely compelling way; not traditionally handsome, or 'hunky' but oddly handsome and you should feel drawn to him. Michael Fassbender was a perfect Rochester in my eyes.


Jane and Rochester

In closing, if you haven't read Jane Eyre before, you really have to. It's a novel before it's time. I also highly recommend this film adaptation; it's probably not showing for much longer, so get down to your local cinema and grab your ticket!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I've started reading 'The Happiness Project' by Gretchen Rubin and I've signed myself up for her daily 'happiness' emails.

I'm really enjoying the book; it captures Gretchen's challenge to self to be more happy, more fulfilled and appreciative of the great life that she has. Over the course of a year, she creates her personal framework for happiness, her 12 personal commandments and each month sets herself a few themed tasks (pick up the book to find out more!).

Yesterday the 'happiness' email popped into my inbox with an incredibly tantalising subject line; 'The Joy of Craft'. As a self confessed crafter I was keen to read more. The article was about Frederick P. Brooks' book, 'The Mythical Man Month: Essays on Software Engineering'; what on earth does this have to do with crafting? Well, craft can come in many different forms; maybe software engineering is one of them and maybe knitting is another one. Each to their own, I say.

Here's the part of the article that really struck a chord with me:

Nothing is inherently fun. Some people find computer programming fun, or skiing, shopping, drinking wine, doing crossword puzzles, playing tennis, knitting, fly-fishing, watching American Idol. I find none of these things fun. But then, some people wouldn't enjoy blogging -- or reading books about computer programming! Which I do find fun.
But apart from the particular fun (or not) of computer programming, Brooks had a great list of the reasons that "craft" is fun:

1. "The sheer joy of making things." Not to be underestimated.
2. "The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people." Seeing other people take delight in what we've created, or benefit from something we've done, is enormously satisfying.
3. "The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects...and watching them work." Getting something to WORK. An under-appreciated joy. Gosh, when I finally got some songs to load into my iPod, I thought I would break into song.
4. "The joy of always learning, which springs from the nonrepeating nature of the task."
5. "The delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff." True -- but the opposite of a profound truth is also true, and I think there's a mirror pleasure to be gained from dealing with actual, physical, tangible materials.

Source: http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2011/07/i-recently-read-sort-of-frederick-brookss-the-mythical-man-month-as-i-understand-it-its-a-cult-classic-and-i-was-very.html

Like wow. How awesome is that. Reading this reminded me of why it's so important to have a 'craft', whatever it may be and how much enjoyment it can bring to your life. It feels like I'm having all of these little 'a-ha' moments over the last few weeks and this little article gave me another one.

I encourage you to have a think about your 'craft'; do you have one? If not, have a think about getting one, or maybe two or three. And make sure you let me know about it!

Busy, busy, busy

This week and the one to come have one word written all over them; busy. My work life balance is definitely out of skew at the moment. I've not even had the time (or the inspiration) to blog or do much knitting. What a sorry state of affairs.

Maybe I didn't help myself by having Monday off work, but I had my Mum here for the weekend and we had a lovely time catching up and doing lots of wonderful things.  We saw the King Tut exhibition, which I blogged about here. We went out for dinner at Italy 1; it was good, but the food was not quite as special as I had hoped. We went to the movies and saw 'Something Borrowed'; again, good but not spectacular, definitely something to see with your girlfriends and not your man! We went to my favorite yarn store, Sun Spun; we browsed through the lovely patterns and yarn. Then we both made some purchases and proceeded to spend the afternoon on the couch casting on. All in all, it was a pretty great weekend.

I've also been trying to finish off a couple of items that need to be returned to the library (as much as I love the library, I dislike being on a reading/watching schedule to get things back on time). I'm reading 'One Day' by David Nichols. It's about 2 people who meet at University and then how their lives cross over, apart and hopefully back together again (I'm still reading, so not sure how it finishes!) I've also just noticed through my googling, that there will be a movie based on the book coming out later this year. Anne Hathaway will be playing the main female character, Emma Morley. Sounds like another good movie to see with your girlfriends or Mum.

The other item that needs to be returned is 'Mad Men' - season 3. I've written about why I find 'Mad Men' so interesting before. By season 3 the plot really has thickened and we know a lot more about Don Draper than I did back in March when I first started watching. I'm still loving the series; mainly for all of the cultural references and for what we see of life being lived in the 1960's. The role of women, the prejudice towards people who are not Anglo-Americans, homophobia and the lack of productivity in the office are all so interesting to me. While we don't by any means live in a perfect world now, I'm thankful to live in a time when some of these major prejudices have been largely ironed out and even legislated against.

I'm off now to enjoy my Sunday at home. Hopefully I can find some time for myself this week to write another post or two.

In the country

We've had a relaxing first night in Hepburn Springs; watching DVD's, knitting, reading, drinking wine and placating M Dog (she's confused about where we are and just wants to get outside and chase possums!)

We're about to head out for a walk and to find somewhere for a bite of lunch. Then I think it will be back to the cottage for an afternoon of restfulness.

More time for creativity

I just can't wait until the long weekend officially starts, for many reasons but one BIG reason; lots of creative time.

I want to finish my present for new baby Felix. Here's a little sneak peek at what I'm working on for him:

I also really want to start my new vintage project, as this is all I have managed so far:

I had a dream the other night that I had finished knitting the back of this jumper; wishful thinking!

So, one more work day until the lovely long Easter and Anzac weekend; I think I'll just make it! We're going away for 2 nights to Hepburn Springs and my plans are to read, knit, eat, sleep, blog, walk M dog (yep, she's coming with us) and thoroughly enjoy myself. I've been reflecting the last few days on how lovely it would be if I had more time to spend indulging my creative side.  I read so many other wonderful blogs and am envious at the time some of these creative souls have to indulge in their passions. Or maybe they just use their time better than me. (Pause and reflect...)

In other knitting news, I came across a previous project last weekend. I visited a girlfriend and her 1 year old daughter was wearing the little summer cardy that I made for her.

It's always really lovely to see one of your pieces being used and enjoyed. Thanks, Joey, for remembering and for valuing the gift.

So now M dog and I are settling in for a night on the couch; we were about to head out for a walk but it started raining. She's not impressed, but she'll be happy enough sitting alongside me while I catch up on some creative time.