Further craftiness of the lobster

[elettaria]

I delivered it to the synagogue on Friday evening and it was received with a round of applause and much gratifying marvelling over it, especially the apparently wondrous fact that I hand-sewed it in just over a fortnight. I hope they work out a way to use it as a wall hanging for the High Holydays, they could really do with having something that looks a bit more Jewish in the church that they borrow for those services. Don't get me wrong, that Unitarian church is lovely and as churches go, it's relatively unchurchy-looking, but still, it's a church rather than a synagogue.

In other news, not only am I absolutely bloody shattered from spending four hours at synagogue (I'd forgotten how excruciatingly uncomfortable those chairs are), but I have what has been described by Gerald Durrell as a "rich, bubbling cold" and I want none of it. On the other hand, I've discovered that Potter's Life Drops (tincture of chilli, elderflower and peppermint, very useful stuff but HOT) go well in peppermint tea, and even better when you leave the used peppermint teabag in for the next cup and add a licorice teabag. Electric heating pads are also wondrous things.

I am also rather bored. Audiobook recommendations, anyone? You can see the books I have access to here.

Comments

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

That is amazing.

[altglas.livejournal.com]

where did you get the spotty fabric??
again, well done. it's beautiful.
aren't synagogues quite... specific sort of buildings? like, with an area for the women, one for the men, and a bit where the tora goes etc...?

also, what are these life drop things?
NOM NOM liquorice tea.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Sorry, "synagogue" was a bit misleading. I used to be a member of the Liberal Jewish community here, which is small, relatively new, and doesn't have its own premises yet. So it holds services in community centres, churches and the like. The only synagogue in Edinburgh is Orthodox (and therefore segregates the men and women; Reform and Liberal synagogues don't do that), and it won't let the Liberals hold services there because they feel they shouldn't condone such shocking things as letting men and women sit together, allowing women to conduct services, or allowing people to be involved whom Orthodox Judaism does not consider to be technically Jewish (they have rather odd regulations about this).

Spotty fabric? Which one do you mean? I started off with the Makower Cascade collection, which is discontinued but can still be found if you hunt it down, then added fabrics from a few other collections. The two lightest blues are from Luminaries by (I think) Country Casuals, there's the Tivoli Scrolls from Makower again, and the Graceful Geishas from Lonni Rossi, who designs for Andover, aka Makower. I can't remember where the gold pine cone fabric originates, but I bought it from the Tabbycat, and you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere.

Life Drops (http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/924917_Potter_s_Eldermint_Life_Drops__50ml.html) are a herbal tincture designed for flu and such, though they're also useful for a few other things, I use them when I'm exhausted and cold. Chilli tincture is pretty potent stuff. It says on the bottle to put 11 drops in 1-2 tbs water, but if you value your life I'd suggest making it at least half a glass of water, if not a whole one, as it's bloody hot.

*sneeze sneeze sneeze*

[ilikerivers.livejournal.com]

Your hanging is amazing.

I want an electric heating pad but they are another thing we don't really have in Aus. I love licorice tea too. I hope you get better soon.

[millennialhippy.livejournal.com]

It is seriously gorgeous. Did you design it as well?

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Sympathies on the cold. I've been dealing with its little brother for the past few days - J met an old friend who was suffering from the same kind of evil cold you've got and hugged him goodbye while she was staying here, and now I've got a milder version of the same evil thing.

RNIB site will not let me have access to anything without being logged in. Woe!

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Nope, I found the design here (http://www.qnm.com/articles/feature20/).

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

You should be able to browse the catalogue without being logged in, you just can't add books to your bookshelf.

[altglas.livejournal.com]

I mean the one that fills in the triangles of the star between the yellow stripes (if that makes sense).

[leenah.livejournal.com]

i suggest Agnes Grey, and Emma. Emma has problems - it was unfinished by charlotte bronte and has been 'fleshed out', but i still found it interesting.

i adore the brontes. the only thing i haven't read is Shirley - i wonder if an audiobook of it would get me thru? i just can't get past the first chapter.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Oh, how beautiful!

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see now. Okay, the last book I completely fell head-over-heels for was Phillipa Forrester's _The Other Boleyn Girl_ (it's Tudor fanfiction, and it's not exactly great literature, but oh I could not put it down, I swear, DO NOT JUDGE ME). Also, I don't know if you're a Raymond Chandler person, but if you are it looks like there's a good selection on there.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I've never got past the first chapter too. I'm not really in the mood for older lit right now, though. Or at least, not *more* older lit: I'm already listening to Clarissa, and I think that's enough for the time being! I've been subsisting on a diet of Pratchett, thrillers, that sort of thing.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Hang on, there's an unfinished novel by Charlotte Bronte called Emma? You're not referring to Austen? Tell me more about it! I've read Anne Bronte once or twice, interesting but as I said, not really in the mood at the moment.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

And that is also used for the side triangles next to the diamonds? Makower Cascade range, Tutti Frutti in blue. You can get it in red as well, it's rather lovely. I think there are still a few shops selling it if you snoop around online.

[leenah.livejournal.com]

yes!!! NOT austen.

Emma *Brown*, sorry.

it ends up being a bit more modern than bronte, but it's not pratchett. :)

i'm sorry, i know you might punt me, but i feel i need to tell you that i really do not like pratchett. i read him as trying too hard to be witty.

i've been reading comfort food lately, or thick stuff. Earthsea was a reread this weekend. and i've got a book by Joseph Campbell about Oriental Mythology that i am slowly plowing thru.

i don't like the selection at your library. they don't seem to have campbell. they do have the earthsea books, though apparently NOT the fourth, which is my favorite.

[leenah.livejournal.com]

okay, if you're doing Clarissa, then yes, you have your quota of old lit.

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

lovely! and i completely agree re: licorice and mint tea. :)

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I'm currently 43 min into a novel by Tom Sharpe called Ancestral Vices, and bloody hell, is that man trying too hard to be witty! I suppose it's such a personal thing, humour.

My support worker (carer, basically) is reading Earthsea for the first time. I hated the fourth book, I have to say. She wrote it, what is it, several decades after the first three, and I find the change in style is too great and it just doesn't work. But then, most people agree that Le Guin's work is very mixed, although which bits you love and which bits you hate varies enormously.

The selection isn't great, I know, and the categorisation is beyond a joke. Still, it's a fantastic service they're providing, doubtless on minimal funding, and they've not been at it very long.

Emma Brown does look intriguing, I've added it to my bookshelf.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I'm currently listening to a bit of The Chrysalids, as the librarian at RNIB told me it's one they're thinking of rerecording because it's so bad it's beyond a joke. This was probably just after I mentioned that the narrator for The Day of the Triffids is quite audibly drunk for most of the recording. There are strange wibbling noises and random wind howling in the background for this, pretty much constantly, and it's not precisely an alluring recording, with a middle-aged man speaking conservative RP in a very pausy way. Not as bad as it could have been. Oh dear, he just paused to tell us how to spell solanaceae, and spelt it wrong, too. Yes, it is rather odd. Boozing was at least appropriate for The Day of the Triffids, and really brought out the theme of, "The world's ending! Let's get hammered!"

Anyway, The Other Boleyn Girl is now added to my bookshelf. I could possibly fancy some nice science fiction. Recommendations, anyone? I go for "soft" rather than "hard" SF, the stuff that's more interested in sociology and so forth.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Very nice! Hrm. have you read the Wrinkle in Time books by Madeline L'Engle? I liked 'em.

[millennialhippy.livejournal.com]

Still, I think your choices of fabric vastly improves on their example!

[king-laugh.livejournal.com]

That is stunningly beautiful!