The Repair Shop on Netflix

I recently enjoyed the first few episodes of season 1 of "The Repair Shop". As an American I like to hear British accents in shows and podcasts. Weird, I know, but I find it soothing in some way. In this show that definitely happens. Beyond those lovely voices I find the idea of bringing old worn treasures back to new life is so inspiring. The items The Repair Shop experts work on so successfully to restore many times bring tears to the owners eyes and to the viewers, this viewer anyway when the items are revealed all finished. 

The rest of you can get excited about that guy with the tigers as for me I will stick with the amazing work and positive vibes of watching "The Repair Shop".

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Two Books Finished This Week

Do you read more than one book at a time? I have been reading two at a time for quite awhile now. One book is always a real paper one. I have had a pretty big stash of real books from a friend who was downsizing her library at her home. I will read almost anything and it has been great fun to go through about 4 large bins of books before I pass them along to a thrift store. I have a book ready to read for a couple hours every evening while Jim has the television on. I just can't watch tv anymore. I don't like the commercials. I get the latest news from online sources and my entertainment comes from Netflix and Amazon Prime when I want something on to knit to. The other book source I use day or rather nightly is an ebook on my Kindle. Finally, after all these years of marriage and not reading in bed because the light would disturb him, I can read in bed before going to sleep each night. As far as I am concerned ereaders like Kindle may very well be the best invention since sliced bread! Who's with me on this?

So what did I finish this week?

The real book was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It has been a long time since I read a book with so many twists in it. The villain and victim were never really the same people from one part of the story to the next  and at the end they deserved each other as far as I am concerned. Don't want to spoil this so that's all I'm saying here. Just read it if you haven't already. It was a best seller a couple years ago but I don't do a good job of keeping up with the latest top books.

The ebook that I finished this week was Lake City: A Novel by Thomas Kohnstamm. According to the summary on Amazon the story begins like this....

Hunkered down in his childhood bedroom in Seattle's worn-out Lake City neighborhood, idealistic but self-serving striver Lane Bueche licks his wounds and hatches a plot to win back his estranged Manhattanite wife.

In the end you are left not knowing what happens with Lane and his estranged wife but his struggle to get there is well worth the time spent with this book. 

 

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Masks For The New Normal

With masks seeming to be the new necessity when going out in public I decided we had better stock up so we have enough around home to last between laundry days. I went shopping on Etsy of course and found a shop that I decided to order from. Forevercraftreasures is where I purchased four masks from. They make a nice addition to the masks we already have to wear for as long as this Coronavirus pandemic lasts. My goal is to be healthy until the vaccine is on the market and then I will be first in line. Wonder if I will make it. 

I was taking a chance since this shop, Forevercraftreasures, is new. There was a lack of graphics that make a shop look welcoming, there was a lack of any about shop info. I decided to buy based on good reviews, the around the head rather than behind the ears style, the ready to ship status of the items and the price. I am so pleased with my purchase and added to the shops good reviews. If you are a vintage textile lover this shop has some of those items in it as well. 

Here are the masks I bought. Two for Jim and two for me.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Two New (to me) Podcasts

Podcasts are the background sounds and voices of my daily life. I go to sleep with a couple designed to help with that. I wake up with podcasts that give me currents news and fill my curiousity needs about other interests like sewing, knitting, philosophy, outer space (NASA has some great podcasts), technology, nature and so much more. Can you tell I suffer from severe FOMO (fear of missing out)? I added two new podcasts to my queue on my Podcast Addict app this week and am enjoying them both very much.

If you like history you want to add Jon Meacham's "Hope, Through History". I like his long view of our country over time. I found an introduction to this limited series on RADIO.COM.

Welcome to Hope, Through History, with Pulitzer Prize Winning and Best Selling Author and Historian, Jon Meacham and directed and produced by Cadence13. HTH explores some of the most historic and trying times in American History, and how this nation dealt with these moments, the impact of these moments and how we came through these moments a unified nation. Season One takes a look at critical moments around the 1918 Flu Pandemic, the Great Depression, World War II, the polio epidemic and the Cuban Missile Crisis. These stories of crisis—the term originates in the writings of Hippocrates, as a moment in the course of a disease where a patient either lives or dies—are rich, and in our own 2020 hour of pandemic and slow-motion but indisputably real panic, there’s utility in re-engaging with the stories of how leaders and citizens have reacted amid tension and tumult. The vicissitudes of history always challenge us in new and often-confounding ways; that’s in the nature of things. Still, as Winston Churchill once remarked, “The future is unknowable, but the past should give us hope”—the hope that human ingenuity, reason, and character can combine to save us from the abyss and keep us on a path, in another phrase of Churchill’s, to broad, sun-lit uplands.

 

My other new podcast is "Yang Speaks" by of course the smart but light hearted Andrew Yang. I would like to know a lot more about how he sees the future for America. This weekly podcast is introduced with these words......

What do you do after you go from anonymous man to serious presidential contender, and the election is over? Well if you're Andrew Yang and you've done the math, you start a podcast. Entrepreneur, best-selling author, nonprofit founder, philanthropist, and former Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang, finally gets his chance to speak in this weekly podcast, Yang Speaks. Andrew will bring in guests he’s met along the campaign trail, from world-renowned experts, to popular celebrities and artists, to random interesting Americans from all walks of life. On this weekly podcast, the man who willed a national movement and conversation into existence around Universal Basic Income, will discuss and explore today’s biggest challenges through a variety of topics - including technology, entertainment, policy, sports, pop-culture, snacks, and anything on his mind - with a general outlook towards the future of our lives and shared humanity.

If you end up listening or subscribing to these I would love to know about it in the comments. Also if you have a favorite podcast to recommend leave a comment about that too. I would love to hear from you!

 

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!