Guest bathroom reveal

There's just a little more painting to do around the new tile in the tub, but the vanity area is all finished.

Here's the left side of the vanity.  I still have sanding to do in our bathroom before I paint in there.  Pictures will go up when that's completed.

"Small Saturday": Love the concept

Victoria Vargas who blogs over at Smaller Living has proposes that rather than participating in the hysteria of Black Friday, we think about supporting local businesses and independent artists when buying Christmas presents--something she's calling "Small Saturday."  I love this concept and we certainly have tried our version of it over the years.  I would also encourage you to make as many presents as you can.  I think people really appreciate handcrafted gifts more and more.

Last month, I attended the annual pottery show at our local Farmer's Curb Market in Greensboro.  I found some amazing work by Leanne Pizio at Three Dogs Pottery in Oak Ridge, North Carolina.  Now I have several unique and beautiful gifts for family members AND I've helped support a local artist.

When Dan and Anna were growing up in Indiana, Black Friday became a traditional day for us to take the kids shopping in downtown Crawfordsville so they could buy our gifts.  I took one child, Jim took the other, and after shopping, we met for lunch at Arthur's Café.  After lunch, we switched children and found the other gifts.  The children enjoyed it so much, that we kept doing this even through their college years.  We all got to spend a calm, quiet family day AND support local businesses.

Last year, I made lots of fold-up cloth shopping bags for Christmas gifts.  These were very simple to make, but were truly appreciated by the recipients.  This year's gifts will have to remain secret for now, but I will reveal lots of them in a Christmas Day post.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and please, leave me a comment about your thoughts and ideas on "Small Saturday."  Thanks to Victoria for inspiring this post today.  The photo above was taken by Jim and is of Anna and Dan in front of our house in Crawfordsville probably around 1983.

Nerd Alert

I'm in the movie theatre waiting for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 to start. Color me excited!

Bathroom painting and HP 7

This will be a short post.  I am painting in the guest bathroom and still working to take that awful wall paper paste off both bathrooms.  Once the painting is done, I will reward myself by seeing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1."

 Here's hoping you all have a wonderful weekend.  I'm certainly looking forward to Thanksgiving and some serious vacation time.  Quilted Librarian is back to the paint ladder.

Gorgeous gingko

Jim and I took our lovely niece out for lunch today to celebrate her 21st birthday, then we went to a matinee at UNC-G.  Right outside Jim's office is a beautiful little courtyard made spectacular in the fall by this incredible gingko tree.

I love the shape of the leaves and the way they are clustered on the branch.

We have enjoyed another warm and beautiful weekend here in the Piedmont Triad.  I hope yours was wonderful in your part of the world as well.

New Woobie revealed: Happy birthday, Jim

Happy sixtieth birthday to my dear husband.  Here he is modeling his new woobie of which he highly approves. The weather is just chilly enough here to make him happy to have it around him in the evenings. You can check out the posts about the construction by clicking on woobie quilt over on the right under Labels.  This is the second quilt I've made using the "Single Girl" pattern.  You can also click on that to see posts about the first quilt.

Guest posting on a library blog and other librarian news

I hope you will click over to Melissa's Librarian By Day blog where I have the guest post today.  She put a call out for posts on historical fiction for young adults and I wrote one about a Margaret Peterson Haddix novel I really liked.

In other library news, Stephen Abram published the results of his librarians' hobbies survey on his blog,
Stephen's Lighthouse.  Not surprisingly, recreational reading topped the list.  Knitting was tenth, but quilting was really an "also-ran," way down on the list.   I suspect there are more of us out there, just from the people I've heard from and met at conferences and quilt shows.

Why I always vote

I always exercise my right to vote because so many of my sister ancestors, the American suffragists, devoted their lives, ruined their health, and suffered countless disappointments to secure it for me. Pulitzer prize winner,  Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote a column in 2004 after see the HBO presentation of "Iron Jawed Angels" that more than went viral on the Internet. She wrote an update in 2008 that I recommend you read if you are hesitating about making the trip to vote.