Our poor, neglected blog!

We have met for book club twice since anyone has posted, but life happens, and so our blog has been sitting.  I finally got around to uploading pictures from my camera to my computer, and so I found these forgotten photos from July 29th.

Oh, for the days of summer again!  I remember when we met on this day that Katie and I were already feeling the pressures of getting ready for a new school year, and Kayla was in the midst of the last 1/3 of the summer at Camp.  Karla was just working at the library like normal.  But, it was still summer, and I remember as Kayla, Katie and I enjoyed dinner that night that I felt like summer was already over, and boy, was I mourning that feeling!

Well, here we are, almost 3 months later, and yes, life has been busy.  Yes, summer is definitely over now, but I am ever so thankful for my book club friends and for the joy that we can share when we get together.  Whether we are discussing Jane Austen novels, watching one of the movies based on the books, or just getting together to share a meal like we did this week (When none of us had kept up on our reading of Persuasion we decided to just have dinner together without the book discussion!), we love getting together and have kept it a priority over the past year.

The books

I do not remember where this book came from or what the story behind it was, so someone else will have to enlighten me!

A relaxing Sunday afternoon discussion at Thirty-Thirty Coffee

A Non Book Club Book Club Event

I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday afternoon this weekend. 

What was so enjoyable, you ask?

I got to continue to celebrate my birthday by making crafts and hanging out with my dear book club buddies.  As this was not an official book club event (Jane was not invited, nor was she discussed), I was not sure that it warranted a  place on the blog, but here it is anyways.

It was a lovely afternoon- the girls brought some delicious Italian themed food (hopefully they will share the recipes here soon), we got to work on some fun sewing projects (them ruffled pillows and me upcycled aprons), we made plans for a future endeavor (more on that soon), and they brought me some super thoughtful and fun gifts.  Top that off with the great company, and it was hard to beat.

Pictures were taken on various cameras, so I have quite the montage.  The girls will have to post their photos too.  One thing that we forgot to do was take the standard timer shot of the four of us.  But, I guess that it was not an official event :)

Dinner started with us almost polishing off a pan of delicious spinach artichoke dip made by Kayla.  She accidentally put in extra sour cream- like that could be a bad thing.  It was awesome.

We eventually ate real dinner: Caesar salad made with fresh lettuce from Kayla's garden and Betsy and Karla's baked spaghetti.  I understand now why it is a family favorite.

Dessert at the end of the evening was a chunk of rich chocolate cupcake and gelato (!).  I had no idea that you could buy gelato in Peoria. This could be dangerous.

Karla wanted to bring Italian Sodas, but found IBC Cream Sodas, which were sooo good.  She stuck them in the freezer to get them really cold...and we left them in a little too long.   FYI, partially frozen soda + glass bottled = mess.  But it was a tasty mess.

As for the crafting, we were all sewing using one machine, so we had to take turns, but we all finished at least one project. 

Kayla made a fun ruffled pillow with a black and white hexagon print.  It ended up having a really cool effect that unfortunately didn't translate in the picture.

 Betsy and Karla worked together and made this off white beauty.  They also made a couple of simple pillows for Betsy's classroom and have the strips all cut out for another ruffled pillow.

And my projects (which were also worked on before and after the girls were there) were these aprons.  They are made from "upcycled" fabric.  The black and pink one used to be two different skirts and the denim and lavender one is made from two old sundresses.  I really like the black one, but the denim one, eh, let's just say the 4-H judges from my past would not be giving it a blue ribbon.  One outta two in an afternoon isn't bad.

Thanks, girls, for the lovely non book related afternoon!

Mansfield Park- The Viewing Party

In honor of Mansfield PARK- we took our picture outside.  I imagine that the view at Mansfield was much nicer than the view in my apartment yard.

Ambiance

We met for this Book Club at a very prestigious and unique local coffee shop.  It had great ambiance, sunny windows, and a big table for all of our Book Club necessities.

 

Do you see that painting?  I think that it was commissioned from an Italian artist.  One of a kind.

We were surrounded by smells of fresh baked artisan bread, and newly brewed coffee...

Ok, fine.  We were just at Panera.

This is only Peoria.  What did you expect?

Sense & Sensibility Viewing Party

We are running out of pose options.  There is only so much you can do when you are using a camera with a timer...

Sense and Sensibility

A few photos from the morning... which turned into the better part of a day... which is what happens when the four of us get together to talk about Jane Austen, and eat food, and talk about life. 

Don't we look happy to be enjoying our coffee on this snowy, slushy morning?   

Yum. Those mochas were delicious!

We also sampled a very fresh-tasting strawberry croissant.  

Katie, always the industrious one, spent some time crocheting while we talked.  

We forgot to take a picture of all of us at Thirty-Thirty (There even would have been the possibility of having a real, live person take our picture!), but Kayla's roommate Mary was generous enough to be our photographer once we relocated back to their house for lunch.  

The Pride and Prejudice Viewing Party

The Projects- P & P Viewing Party

I (Betsy) spent a while on the not-so-exciting task of measuring, cutting, and tying (Thanks for the help, Kayla!) embroidery floss for 17 students to make friendship bracelets during a special event at school this week.  I am just hopeful that the students will be able to follow the directions that I show them and not all of the bracelets will end up in knots.

 

I (Katie) worked the whole time on my Christmas cards...and only got about half done.  Here is the finished result.  It took a couple more days, but they are finally ready to mail.

I love the mess that we made over the course of the evening :)

One of the things that I (Betsy) love about our Book Club is how we have utilized the idea of keeping our hands busy while we visit and discuss our books or watch the movies.  We feel useful when we can multitask and work on projects that we enjoy while also maintaining good discussion and fellowship.  

When my dad asked how our day was yesterday, I told him how we were all working on various craft projects throughout the afternoon.  He was unimpressed, but I argued that our craftiness was not unlike how our ancestors would have spent their time crocheting, mending, knitting, snapping peas, etc. while visiting with their neighbors and catching up on each others' lives.  

In our technology-driven world of Facebook, cell phones, and so many other forms of impersonal communication, I'm thankful that we can take a few hours a month to sit with each other and enjoy face-to-face discussions.  The fact that we are able to creatively use that time to work on projects makes it all the more richer, in my opinion. The projects on which we were working will become gifts for our family and friends, who will hopefully be blessed by our handiwork, in the same way that we each were blessed by one another's company while we made them. 

P & P Pictures

Four Books:

Four Friends:

More than four hours of conversation.

What the Film Crew Heard…

The Scene Was Set:

There Was a Feast Prepared:

Hot Drinks Were Brewing:

And the Friends Were All There:

It was time for book club to begin!

Some comments to be remembered:

·         “I’m not advocating the buddies!” ~Betsy

·         “I’m…well...I don’t want to seem girly and irrational…” ~Kayla

·         “This is the Jane Austen Book Club.  You can be as girly and irrational as you want.” ~Katie

·         “…there are occasions…when I have interactions with certain individuals…” ~Betsy

·         “We are waiting for a social setting in which we can say, ‘He’s a 5 E,’ and leave a party.”

·         “My audio book must have left that part off.” ~Betsy

·         “Well, she’s pretty E.” ~Karla