I'm moving!

Well, not in real life, just in blog world.

Why? Just because I feel like it.

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Love you!

Leather and London

I think someone needs to invent a camera that uploads wirelessly. Actually, they probably have, so let me rephrase that: someone needs to give me a camera that uploads wirelessly. Oh, the doors that would open for me if only I wasn't held back by my laziness to hook up my camera to my computer via a wire....

So instead of updating you on new things which are documented by photos that are still on my camera, I'll update you on London:

We went to visit the Harmatan Leather Company, where we buy all of our most awesome bookbinding leather. I won't go into details, because really tanneries are kind of gross, but I want to give an idea about the huge amount of leather here

So much leather!

Found this sign. Just needed to share.

And if you're in London, visiting Borough Market is a must. If you like food, it's more or less heaven

See, tomato heaven

I have lots more great Borough Market photos, I'll share later

A long delay....

I didn't mean to disappear for such a long time, really! Stuff came up, bookbinders went on a trip to England, Easter celebrations, and the fact that it is WARM means I can be outside, instead of inside puttering away on the computer.

So I thought I'd talk about organic free range eggs. I never bought them before because I usually buy eggs at CVS and they, surprisingly, don't have a huge selection of eggs (eggs at CVS? Why yes, there are no grocery stores in my area, I buy a lot of food at CVS). But last week I was at Whole Foods (a mile away, so I haven't been going during the winter as much), and I bought some free range eggs. I bought them because I thought it was the humane and healthy thing to do, but I was surprised to find that they taste so much better than regular eggs. It's amazing. I never really even liked eggs that much, but these eggs are fantastic. I don't care if you're interested in organic, or humane, or health, or anything, you should buy these eggs just because they taste so good!

That's all, I hope you enjoy your eggs.

Things in Boston

I love a lot of things about being home in PA. I love trees and open spaces and grass and not being able to hear my neighbors.

But what I love most about Boston are subways. I like Boston a lot for many reasons, but I think that subways are one of the best inventions ever.

On that note, here are some messages I found in the subway:

Also, here is one last photo of winter. We had some wet snow on a warm day a few weeks ago. It stuck to everything and was pretty.

The other day I was walking past this statue on my way yoga. Two guys stopped me and said "Hello, we are visiting from China, who is this man on the horse?" I then tried to very concisely summarize the American Revolution. Finally, my history degree came in useful!

Woof.

I really want a dog. Really. Sadly, my apartment building doesn’t allow dogs, and I really love my apartment. Also, since I go home via train, I would need to find something to do with Mr. Doggie when I went home. So really it’s not a good idea right now, so for now I just oogle at the pretty puppies that are around my neighborhood.

But then last night I had a dream that I impulsively purchased a baby dachshund from the pet store. Now, I realize that buying pets on impulse and from a pet store are both very bad ideas, but my judgment was a bit impaired – I was asleep. But the dachshund was tiny…. Really really tiny, about the size of my thumb. Pretty much the cutest thing ever, and I could probably have one of them in my apartment. Could someone please invent a dog that’s the size of a hamster??

<---my Pennsylvania dog, Quinn

Now I'm going to go somewhere outside my apartment, because the hallway is being painted and it doesn't smell great.

Also, I've had cereal for breakfast and lunch today. What's for dinner?

What I found....

I found these while walking through Longwood Gardens last year, they're called Buddha Hands (if I remember....)

And then I saw them at Whole Foods the other day. Terrifying. Or maybe delicious.

Finally, a FO. And a Chinese New Year.

A very belated FO, the Slinky Ribs sweater from Custom Knitting – I finished this back in August! This is a great book, and this is a great pattern, and I really like how it turned out. I fell in love with the picture of the sweater in the book so I used the exact same yarn in the same colors with no modifications. Which I guess defeats everything Custom Kitting was trying to teach me….

In other news, I started to repair this book:

So much electrical tape!! Do not put electrical tape on your books! Or any type of tape for that matter. On anything. Pressure sensitive tape is a nightmare to conserve, and is probably the number one way to permanently damage your object. If you want something (anything) to last for more than a year or two, stay away from adhesives, especially tape!! Even if it says “archival” on it, that’s a lie, there is no such thing as archival tape.

This tape actually came off pretty easily after applying a bit of heat, but it left this gummy mess. I managed to get it all off with a pick up square, but it took a whole long, sticky, disgusting day. And the sad thing is after I removed the tape I found that this book was in very good condition, the covers were still both securely attached to the spine. Why, oh why would someone do this to a perfectly stable book?

I might feel strongly about pressure sensitive tape.

Moving on....

I just got back from a Chinese new year festival – why it happened a week after the new year I can’t say, but it was really great. The dancing dragons visited each business in Chinatown, and if the store was big enough they even went inside!

And finally, I just finished making these cookies for a fundraiser tomorrow. Mmmm….

I also made a vegetarian sheperd’s pie yesterday. It’s delicious, I highly recommend!