Gerbera Daisy

Ode to Chocolate

While musing on the film "Our Mutual Friend" the other day, I recalled Bradley Headstone's rather tumultuous proposal of marriage to Lizzie Hexam. And I suddenly thought that his comments would be more appropriately directed to -- chocolate!

So consider these excerpts from Bradley Headstone's proposal as if they were directed toward a new object -- say, Ghirardelli or Lindt:


"You are the ruin of me! No you are, you are the ruin of me. I have no confidence in myself, I have no control over myself when you are near me or in my thoughts – and you are. You are always in my thoughts now. Since first I saw you… that was a wretched, miserable day! There! Now I seem to have reproached you.

I can restrain myself, I can restrain myself. *with great effort* There.

Now you know what I am going to say: I love you. What other men might mean when they use that expression I cannot tell. What I mean is that I am under the influence of some tremendous attraction that I have resisted in vain. You could draw me to fire; you could draw me to the gallows; You could draw me to any disgrace. This confusion in my thoughts is what I mean by your being the ruin of me! But if you were to look favorably on me, you could draw to me to any good-—every good-—with equal force!"

A little off the wall? Perhaps...

Glimpses

One of my most treasured antique books is "The Music Lover's Treasury."

 

There truly is treasure inside this volume -- dozens of poems written on the subject of music.

Some are written about composers, some about specific pieces, and some are odes to the beauty of music.

Interspersed with the poems are beautiful black-and-white plates, each one protected by a tissue paper sheet.

 

But the best part about this book? I love this book for its own merits, I love it even more because it came from some one who cared about me enough to know my tastes -- and that person was my dear mother.

Connections

What does coral in the moonlight have in common with a garden of roses?

 

They're both in the shop today, that's what! Check out Midnight Aqua and Rose Garden.

A Certain Flare

I managed to squeeze a little time to sew something for myself, between the piles of sewing projects I have right now. Fortunately, McCalls 5431 was fantastically quick and easy to put together (just as the pattern cover advertises)! My sister, Tiffany, was the one who discovered this pattern -- I love the way it looks on her, and hoped that it would work for me, as well. I think I had always overlooked it because it had a waist yoke, and I assumed it would sit on the hips rather than the waist. I was wrong.

 

I made View D and omitted the pockets. I looked at the pattern instructions briefly, but decided to disregard them in general! To make it easier to fit, I attached each yoke piece to the corresponding skirt piece before sewing up the side seams -- that way if I need to take in or let out the seams, I wouldn't have to take the skirt apart. I wanted to keep the skirt as long as possible, so I just serged the bottom edge and hemmed it up a scant 3/8 inch. I love the "flare" -- and "flair!" -- that this skirt has, even if it uses an absurd amount of fabric. I see more of these skirts in my future... I wore it to the library book sale on Saturday, and yes, those are some of my finds I'm holding in the picture!

The Aftermath

I think I can safely call the book sale a smashing success! The final count is 53 books, 15 CDs, 3 videos, 12 pieces of music, and 1 very decrepit photo album with over forty antique photographs! Tiffany and I have been repeating this photograph for several book sales now, and it has become a tradition:

The preview sale was enjoyable -- but we found out that the prices are higher than they are on Saturday! So we put back some books, hoping that they would be there the next day (which they were!). The photo album was quite a find for me -- I passed one up several years ago, and have never forgiven myself. Although the album was no good, it had some wonderful pictures inside:

 

I did manage to find some antique books, which is always a delight! This copy of Ivanhoe was only $1, even though it was in the "rare book corral:"

And who can resist leather spines? Or Dickens?

 

One treasure was a 1930's book on high school dress for girls -- complete with illustrations and projects! I can't wait to dig deeper into that. I try to go easy on the sheet music, but the covers get me every time:

Fortunately, it's also a classic exercise book for the violin! With all my books added to my inventory (current count is 594) and put away, I feel ready for another book sale! I suppose it's a good thing that they won't hold another until Spring...

How to Prepare for a Library Booksale

With our local library booksale coming up -- the preview sale tonight and the all-out sale tomorrow -- I thought I'd share some thoughts on practical ways to prepare for a library booksale. Well, perhaps "practical" is an overstatement... 

  1. Start weight training several months before the sale You want to be in top condition for a library booksale. Strengthening your biceps and triceps is very important. After all, you want to be able to lift large stacks of books. Lunges are also vital, since you will be squatting by those boxes hidden under the tables (where, of course, they have hidden the best books).

 

2. Find a heavy-duty suitcase -- with wheels. The bag you choose for the booksale is very important. After all, you're tired of pushing around vodka boxes with your foot while juggling two other boxes in your arms, like you have been doing at previous book sales. Sometimes I wonder where they get all of those liquor boxes... You definitely want something with wheels, as your bag will certainly be too heavy to carry by the end of the sale.

3. Cover a table with rows of books, arranged spine-up. This is a very important step! Unless you become expert in finding the few good titles amidst a table full of mostly uninteresting books, your book sale experience may turn out very unsatisfactorily. I advise spending at least an hour reviewing the titles of your up-ended books, thereby training your mind to immediately recognize the books you're interested in.

4. Study the floor plan that you sketched during the last book sale. There's a chance that the books may be arranged the same way they were at the last sale, so it's worthwhile familiarizing yourself with the different sections: mysteries, children's, literature, history, etc. Make a list of the categories you want to visit and arrange them in order of preference. If you know beforehand exactly which sections are most important to you, there's less of a risk of some other crazed book buyer getting to your books first.

5. Choose an appropriate outfit to wear to the sale. This can be tricky. You want something that's intellectual, but not dowdy; business-like, but casual; practical, but stylish. Ideally, wear something that allows for plenty of manuevering. Your outfit should show you mean business, but don't make it too obvious how determined you are -- you might scare other book buyers into a frenzy if they think you're likely to buy all of the books.

6. Camp out in front of the sale location at least one night before the sale. Don't forget to bring a book. If you're serious about books, you need to make sure you're the first one in the door. This will give you a slight advantage over the other bibliophiles that are straining to get in. If you are worried that you might miss some wonderful finds, approach the "Friends of the Public Library" before the sale and offer to buy all of the books. This is really the only way to be sure that you'll get...well, everything! Happy Book Hunting!