I Love Bookstores

I thought I'd share the ottoman I've refurbished since I've ironed it. Looks great to me. I am very pleased with it now.

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A sweet fellow blogger, Claudia, did a post on bookstores recently. She and I are avid readers. I'd bet I read more than she reads though. But I read so much and am rarely without a book to read. Once I get down to 2 books left, I start visiting the local used bookstores or order on Amazon. Claudia was extolling the virtues of small or individually owned bookstores as opposed to the giants that dot our cities now. Frankly, I'll buy a book wherever I can find it, but I do love the 3 we have in our town that I visit. But since I may have read all the ones I'm interested in here in town I have to order online. But I love perusing bookstores and getting recommendations from the knowledgeable owners. It has opened my mind to a lot of books I may never have read had it not been for their recommendations. For instance, Janet Evanovich.

I had never read or heard of her until a man at Bent Corners Used Books mentioned her. The first book had me hooked. I went back and bought every single book of hers he had in stock. She is one of the funniest writers I've ever read. I laughed myself silly reading about Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, and her sidekick, a former...uh...woman of the night. Hilarious!

I love Jeffrey Archer and have read every single book he's written so far. To me, he is the best writer alive who writes about different things. Most authors stick to one subject. Not him. He is a fantastic author.

Then there's David Baldacci, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, James Patterson, Daniel Silva and a few more. But these are my favorites and I buy everything they write. But I digress.

There is nothing like going in to the one downtown here called Yesteryear Book Store. It looks like it may have been an old department store at one time because there are 2 levels. Actually, it's more of a mezzanine but it has books all over the place. There must be hundreds of thousands of books in there. So many that there are stacks on the floor even. I love going in there and the books are pretty cheap also. But I'll always read books I can hold in my hand to feel the paper. I doubt I'll ever succumb to e-books; I just love holding the book too much.

My go-to bookstore. Not very big but I can usually find 10 or 12 books in there to buy.

This one is in the basement of an old church but the books cost a bit more and it's hard to navigate around in there as you can see. I have a friend that works in there a few days a week and she helps me locate books, but I'd spend more money in that one than Bent Corners, which is very, very cheap.

This truly is the biggest supply of books I've ever seen. Our local library doesn't even come close to it in size or number of books. Actually, our town library is rather pathetic and there is parking for a very few cars only, just not worth the time going there.

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Now on to the beautiful photos.

 Apparently, a lot of people, me included, loved this fabric enough to make tea towels out of it.

It's pink, what can I say?!

Roses and laundry hanging on the line. My favorites. ;-)

Beautifully photographed close-up of a flower.

Pretty pin.

One of the most beautiful entry staircases I've ever seen.

Mexican foliage. Beautiful.

They're even doing these craft folded roses on haute couture now. Lovin' it!

Benches with pillows instead of chairs.

Prettily made up vignette.

Nice night for a picnic. :-)

And your favorite: French chateaux.

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Tidbit:
The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. Found in 1905, the original 3,100 carats were cut to make jewels for the British Crown Jewels and the British Royal Family's collection.
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Cottages, Flowers, Tutus and Jewelry

This post is a little off from what I usually post but one I think you'll enjoy.

I recently was looking for beautiful images of...well, just about anything beautiful or exotic or red or pink, you get the idea. I came upon a website that held my interest for hours. This woman had ball gowns, shoes, jewelry, scenery, vignettes, flowers or any and all kinds—just gorgeous stuff. I loved it. The colors were every color in the paint store! It was true eye candy—lush, vibrant colors, photos of all kinds. Wonderful!

I don't do a lot of fashion or couture postings because it just doesn't interest me. Jewelry is the same way. I have some jewelry and like it but I'm not a jewelry person and certainly don't lust after it. I have a huge gold band with diamonds and I lost one of the diamonds and just haven't ever had it replaced. I just don't care. I prefer other things much more than a diamond.

But these things intrigued me and I'm going to share some of them with you today. Ooooh, there are lots more to come, but be patient. I can't show you everything at once.

These lovely hollyhocks caught my eyes. I don't think I've seen any quite this pink and pretty.

A small mannequin done up in diamond jewelry, roses and PARIS.

I knew you'd want to see more English cottages also, so here is one you'll love.

Also, another small camper caught my eye. Hubs is still fixing up our pop-up tent camper. It sustained some major water damage this past winter with the heavy rains we had. I'm not urging him on to finish this project as I normally would because that would mean he'd want to go camping and it's just not going to happen this year with a problem I've having that is requiring some surgery plus the sciatica I'm experiencing. As the new readers of my blog will learn: I hate camping!!!

This photo reminds me greatly of a favorite Mexican restaurant we used to eat at in San Diego. I loved it. We'd sit outside under banana trees and eat some of the best food in the area. Reminds me of Mexico also. I love Puerto Vallarta best of all the places we've been to in Mexico.

An exquisite drop down desk with the roses I'd want on it if I had one. Beautiful.

I'd love to have one of these bags but I can't remember what they're called at the moment or even who might sell them.

A lovely ballerina outfit. Wouldn't you love to have this little stand somewhere in your home? Oooooh, I would.

Have you ever seen nails done so prettily? These are definitely a stunner. I'm sure this woman doesn't keyboard. ;-)

A ring I just had to show you. It looks huge, but gorgeous.

A pretty diamond comb for your hair.

The colors of these earrings just struck me as unusual.

The most extraordinary cuff I've seen. Magnificent.

If I could duplicate this lamp, I would. Nothing like it that I've seen.

And last but certainly not the least is this beautiful table setting and magnificent cupcake.

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Pink Shoe for Pink Saturday 11/21/09

Welcome to Pink Saturday once again. Please go visit with Beverly at howsweetthesound and view all the pink you can handle for one week.
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Now for the other shoe. Some photos were taken inside and some outside on a very cold snowy morning!

As I said, I think this one should be pink since that's my favorite color. Then a couple of layers of pink tissue paper were glued on. I'm still working on more layers.

The heel was painted white but I decided to do it in iridescent silver. That's taking a lot of coats. So far I have applied 5 coats at this point.

I keep forgetting to take photos as the work progresses but you get the idea. Lace, roses, vintage jewelry and a little chick.


The back has some little poseys and a paper rose. I can't sell this because I actually did wear these shoes at one time and who in the world would want my old scuffed worn out shoe?!
:-)

After looking at the shoe critically I asked for some feedback from my sweet eBay group. I agreed with them; it wasn't exactly what I wanted and a bit over the top with the grass and chick. So I revamped it and this is what I came up with finally. I must say I like it a lot better, although I'll have to adjust the stuffing a bit. I was in a hurry to get this on since I've been known to forget. It looks "cleaner" now. Perfect for a place in this pink house!


If I ever do another shoe, and there's much doubt about that, I'll never use tissue paper again. I believe I'd use fabric. I like working with it much more than anything else.




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Miss Molly Moo!

I took a "hint" from a comment - sorry cannot remember whose it was - and jazzed up Molly Moo a little bit!

Now, Molly likes ribbons - PINK ribbons - hanging on her bell. She also LOOOOOVES flowers, in particular roses because of the meadow.......uhhhhh, smell so we gave her a little remembrance for her "necklace" in the form of a garland of roses. She also adores being remembered by her name so we wrote it on her jewelry for all the world to see. Now, we know that Molly isn't really a "chick" but we're giving her "Honorary Membership" into the "Hot Chick Club" headquartered (in Molly's case we might call it "hindquartered" ;-) ) right here in IDAHO.......round of applause please. Thank you...... You may be seated, please.

Her "motto" is on the back side of the bell. Moooooo! Molly isn't hard to please at all - just an everyday morning "teat squeeze" and she's purring.......uhhhhhh, I mean MOOOOO-re than satisfied for that day. Loooove chick cows that are easy to please, don't you?! This positively makes her quiiiiiver in her little hooves. (Author's statement as Molly is just too embarrassed to admit to this. She's a bit bashful, ya know. But I've seen that "contented" look in her cow eyes.)