Whoops, it’s been a few weeks again. I’ve been a bit distracted by my “Christmas present.” It’s in quotations because I bought it for myself – I have a Kindle!

I love my Kindle. I love books, as you can see by one end of my basement:

The more I researched the Kindle, the more I realized that it was probably the best way to go for me. I just don’t have the storage room anymore. I read very quickly, so if I travel even for a long weekend I end up taking 4-5 books with me and that is ridiculously bulky and heavy. I went with the Kindle Wi-Fi because
a. It was reasonably priced at $139
b. It is small enough to tuck into my purse so I can read while in line at the bank, or on lunch at work
c. It has wi-fi (not 3G) so I can connect when I’m at home or at work, or anyplace else that has an accessible wireless network.
d. It is from Amazon, a company that is NOT having financial issues (this is one of the reasons I did not choose the Nook from Barnes & Noble)
e. It uses e-ink (no backlighting) which is much easier on your eyes

Speaking of the Nook, I had a chance to compare the two side by side (we received a Nook at work as a promotional gift) and although the Nook is prettier in an i-something kind of way (it’s white and shiny, while the Kindle is dark gray and matte), in every other way I thought the Kindle was the better product. It was lighter, faster at downloading (we downloaded the same sample at the same time, and I had finished reading the sample before the Nook finished downloading it), and easier to use. I’m very satisfied with my choice.

Practically the first thing I did (okay, first I charged it, then I downloaded a few books) was make a case for it. You can buy cases but they cost $25 – $50 and, well, that’s just silly. There are a ton of sleeve tutorials on the web but I didn’t want a sleeve. I ended up rigging up something using my own imagination and I’m so happy with it that I haven’t even made a better version. I had intended the first one to be a temporary cover, something to experiment with and learn how NOT to make a cover (note the black thread!). There are a few things I’d fix (placement of the velcro, width of the pockets inside) if I were to make another, but it works and I’m happy enough.

One accessory that was absolutely necessary was a booklight. Because it isn’t backlight, you can’t read in the dark without one. I looked at a number of different kinds, but ended up with this, which I bought at Target:

I like that it is a bar, not a flexible arm. I don’t have trouble with bright spots and it’s nice and compact. Would you believe the brand is not on the light anywhere? I don’t have the packaging anymore, so I can’t even tell you what kind it is. I did NOT see it on Amazon, though.

Okay, moving on to the ambition portion of this post…

Remember when I talked about the Dear Jane project? I’ve made my first few blocks! I charted out the colors for each block and I’m doing three easier blocks in the same color each week. I’ll work up to the more challenging blocks, but I wanted a dozen or so blocks under my belt before I started upping the difficulty level.

As for accomplishment, my aunt had a major charity project in the works and needed help finishing it. Actually, she needed help starting it! Karen, my mom and I spent about 17 hours over Saturday and Sunday working on this quilt. It’s a relatively easy quilt – just half square triangles and four patches – but it’s going to finish at 84″ x 110″ so it took a lot of work. I cut almost all of it, pressed and trimmed the HSTs, and sewed a good portion of the pieced border. By the time Karen left Sunday night, we were this far:

It just needs the last couple of borders sewn on – the pieced border, another skinny brown border, and then a wide green print border. They’ll be tying it and using it for a raffle quilt in the next week or two.

Finally, the gratuitous cat photos:

Buttercup is completely oblivious to the world. Why?

Because the fireplace is on.

Yeah, I wanna be a cat.