The Gypsy

I sit alone and dream dear, dream of you night and day,

Once you were here beside me, now you are far away.

I’ve had my fortune told me, can I believe it’s true?

Soon we shall be together, living our life anew.

In a quaint caravan there’s a lady they call The Gypsy,

She can look in the future, and drive away all your fears.

Everything will come right if you only believe The Gypsy.

She could tell at a glance that my heart was so full of tears.

She looked at my hand and she told me, my lover was always true,

And yet in my heart I knew dear, somebody else was kissing you.

But I’ll go there again ’cause I want to believe The Gypsy,

That my lover is true and will come back to me someday.

Vintage Hats and Tea Time

Where have I been all week? Well planning for my soon-to-be sister-in-law’s bridal Garden Tea Party of course! We had a lovely time. My sister and I hosted at our parents home. Countless hours of planning, cooking, arranging, borrowing, and putting together, but it was all worth it…

My sister purchased several antique tea tins and I chose and arranged the flowers.

Cucumber and dill butter, smoked salmon with capers, and curried egg salad sandwiches

Jicama and Blood orange salad

White bean and tomato salad

Rosemary and cheddar ice box crackers

Just to name a few…

And of course, dessert!

My dearest friend was in town for a visit and helped me make the homemade chocolate dipped marshmallows.

One of the most charming elements of the party was that we all wore hats! One of my mom’s dearest and oldest friend’s (and my “adopted” aunt!) has an amazing hat collection and she generously outfitted those of us who might otherwise be hatless. It was so much fun I kept changing mine.

(Me, my future sister-in-law, my sissy, and my sister-in-law)

(one of my sweet nieces)

And the end of the party…

I was sad to say good bye to all the lovely hats!

So… I was allowed to keep just a few for future hatted excursions.

Ladies we should all start wearing hats again!

On Ophelia

The other day I started feeling a little melancholy. I think it was the return of the rain, or possibly the seeming end of summer, or perhaps just the general passing of time that late summer early fall always brings. Whatever it was, I felt the desire to collect some images of one my favorite literary characters, Ophelia. I have long been both fascinated and scornful of her. In a scornful period I wrote a paper for a lit class titled “Frailty, thy name is Ophelia!”. It’s rather dramatic to say, but this lady haunts me. There are so many reasons I could expound upon as to why this is, but instead I will offer some artwork…

Are you ever haunted by literary figures?

Book List

On Lisa’s blog Lit and Life she posted this wonderful list. I love lists and literature so I was compelled to fill it out myself!

Instructions: Copy the list. Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.

1. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (-)
2. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (-)
3. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (-)
4. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (-)
5. The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (X)
6. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (X)
7. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (X)
8. Dune by Frank Herbert (-)
9. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (-)
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (-)
11. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (-)
12. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (-)
13. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (-)
14. O Pioneers! By Willa Cather (X)
15. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (-)
16. My Antonia by Willa Cather (X)
17. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (-)
18. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (-)
19. Little House on the Praire by Laura Ingalls Wilder (X)
20. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (-)
21. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich (-)
22. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (X)
23. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (-)
24. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (-)
25. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (-)
26. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (-)
27. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (-)
28. The Color Purple by Alice Walker (-)
29. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (X)
30. The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (-)
31. Roots by Alex Haley (-)
32. The Secret Life of Bees (-)
33. Katherine by Anya Seton (-)
34. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (-)
35. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (X)
37. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (X)
38. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (-)
39. The Collected Stories of Katherine Ann Porter (-)
40. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (-)
41. The Stand by Stephen King (-)
42. Carrie by Stephen King (-)
43. Walden by Henry David Thoreau (X)
44. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (X)
45. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (X)
46. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (-)
47. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (-)
48. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (X)
49. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (X)
50. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (-)
51. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (-)
52. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (-)
53. Mystic River by Denis Lehane (-)
54. American Pastoral by Philip Roth (-)
55. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (-)
56. Rabbit Run by John Updike (-)
57. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (-)
58. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty (-)
59. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (X)
60. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (X)
61. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (X)
62. Sandman by Neil Gaiman (-)
63. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (-)
64. World’s Fair by E.L. Doctorow (-)
65. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (-)
66. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (-)
67. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (-)
68. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (-)
69. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (-)
70. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (X)
71. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (-)
72. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (-)
73. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (-)
74. Deep End of the Ocean by Jacqueline Mitchard (-)
75. John Adams by David McCullough (-)
76. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (-)
77. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult (-)
78. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (-)
79. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (-)
80. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut (-)
81. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (-)
82. Native Son by Richard Wright (-)
83. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos (-)
84. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (-)
85. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (-)
86. The Bridge of the San Luis Ray by Thornton Wilder (-)
87. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (X)
88. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (-)
89. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (-)
90. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (-)
91. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy (-)
92. Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (-)
93. Beloved by Toni Morrison (-)
94. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (-)
95. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (-)
96. So Big by Edna Ferber (-)
97. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (-)
98. The Awakening by Kate Chopin (X)
99. The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty (-)
100. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner (X)

Interesting list… Of the books I havn’t read: some I would really like to read and some I’m not so interested in.

What do you think? Do you feel well read?

Gypsy Folk Tales

I’ve been on a bit of a book buying binge. I am a HUGE fan of Half Price  Books. I highly recommend them if you have one in your area. I picked up this irresistible book the other day:

So far I have only had the chance to read one tale. Initially I was disappointed as it followed the predictable story of an innocent girl, a mean witch, and a boar that naturally ends up being a handsome young man. Nearly everyone ends up happily ever after, and just as I was about to roll my eyes and feel cheated by my purchase, the tale ended with this little line:

“And I deserve a pudding for telling thee this lie.”

I was charmed and expect to find some fine little tales after all!

A Weekend in the Library

After a long week of the new job I am now working a 12 hour shift at my old one. I would much rather spend my weekend lounging in this space and reading all weekend long! Doesn’t that sound lovely? Right now I am reading Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Have you ever read it? It’s quite unusual, but still very interesting. What are you reading?

Gratitude and Awards

First of all: I just wanted to say THANK YOU!!! Your encouraging and congratulatory comments are so very much appreciated. It meant a lot to me to read them in my nervous pre-first day state. Now I am about to finish up my first week and so far it’s been a great experience. I have had a lot of early mornings and I’ve been really tired, but I’m just so very happy to be working! I plan to be posting here regularly again as soon as I get into the swing of things.

I was also delighted to receive two lovely awards from two very lovely bloggers. From The Girl in the Bay Tree I received The Lemonade Award.

From Lisa at Daily Lit I received The Heartfelt Award.

Thank you very much ladies! Both of these awards are meant to be passed on to other blogs that you love and look forward to reading. I’m combining these together a little, and I would like to offer a list of some blogs that I enjoy reading and would suggest you check out as well! Happy reading!

*Little Brown Sparrow-I was hooked from the first line that introduces the blog: “This is the journal of a Dickens faery…”

*Forest Bound- The blog of one of my favorite Etsy sellers. I covet her bags something dreadful!

*Heart of Light- A recent discovery. A beautiful blog full of recipes, DIY projects, and wonderful photography.

*ShutterBean- An incredible food blog with wonderful pictures and delightful recipes that I actually use!

*Vintage Vixen- Another new discovery. This is a gorgeous blog full of wonderful fashion written by ” A vintage seller and hat collector extraordinaire. “Now aren’t you intrigued!?

On the Cusp

I start my new job tomorrow. I feel nervous then excited then nervous again… One of my brothers went salmon fishing earlier this week so my big crazy family is getting together in a couple of hours for a good old fashion salmon bake. I’m looking forward to it. I’m feeling a little like this is my last official “day” of summer. Despite the record breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, I’m feeling a little like fall is just around the corner. (But don’t worry! It really isn’t!) Have you had a memorable summer so far?