What I made, by Sharon

 W elcome to part 23 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that have eclectic taste and endless curiosity.   I can't believe I'm up to part 23, this was just a place to put these reviews, but now I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore. Today we have two books about clothing and one about meditating. Custom Sneakers: Everything You Need to Personalize Your Kicks by Trasfi Kenza The long-awaited guide to upcycling your sneakers into unique kicks by French artist and TikTok star Kenza Trasfi (@knz.tv)! Packed with fresh designs for 5 iconic sneakers, easy step-by-step instructions, photos by Alexi Pav, a technique F.A.Q., and bonus inspo you to feed your i...

 Things looked like they were back on track after reading the wrong book last week. I read (and loved)  S arah Painter's  The Gilded Nest . But then  I am started  The Divorcetante , for   Netgalley and I hated it. The writing was fine, but I hated the plot. I stopped 20 percent it, which I dislikedoing for review books, because what if it gets a whole lot better. I only left a review on NetGalley, and moved on.  I'm going to cancel Kobo Plus after this month, and focus on review books, library books and the dozen books that are on my Kobo, some of which I brought with me when I switched from Kindle nearly a year ago. So, for the next two weeks it's going to be Kobo plus all the time. I'm halfway through  Solomon's Seal by Skyla Dawn Cameron . It's a ludicrous romp of a sci-fi adventure novel, and is giving me very strong Matthew Riley vibes, but with a single mother as our kick-arse hero. It's the first of a series of (so far) six books, and it...

  On Friday night we hosted my parents for Shabbat dinner, and I finally remembered to get a photo! And here's my mother, with sitting on her lap. Saturday was gloriously quiet. We slept in and lay around reading and then cleaned the house. I went to practice time at Pole and then the supermarket. It really was a blissfully quiet day! I did finish plying my latest spinning project. It's Australian Polworth and I got 800 metres from 200 grams, so it's a light fingering. It puffed up a lot on finishing, and I am so looking forward to knitting with it. I'm going to make The Beeswax Shawl  for the Richmond Knitters Bendigo knit-a-long. I'm obsessed with how pretty it is, and don't even want to put it away, I just want to leave it on the coffee table and admire it. Sunday was another gloriously slow start. I did start my next spinning project, sampling some long draw. More on that when i work out what I am doing! d then we went down the road to see Lulu. I'd call...

I said last week I was going to read book nine of the Crow Investigation Series, and then promptly went to Kobo plus and borrowed book eight. At about 25 percent through I was thinking 'this is very similar to the last book" and then something really distinctive happened and I realised what I had done. It was probably a good idea, since I clearly didn't remember anything! So this week I'm reading S arah Painter's  The Gilded Nest .  Then  I am going to read  The Divorcetante , a  Netgalley review book that looks like rom-com. I've been spinning a bit, which is a great time to listen to audiobooks. I'm currently plying these singles and they are looking so pretty. I've also got a very large and very boring task at work (archiving the last 15 years worth of files) which is dull enough that I can listen to an audio-book while I work. this week I've been enjoying  The Winning Formula by Cara Veloce,  a very fun rom-com (free on Audible Plus, bonus!). I ...

 We had a fabulous week and weekend, finishing the 23 pubs that made up this year's Pint of Origin. We had a variety of friends join us for different days, and I failed to take any pictures of any of them!  After every six venues you get a bonus - sometimes it's a beer, one time it was pizza! There are not a lot of exciting stories form this year - we had a pot of two of generally very good beer at each venue, enjoyed the company of our mates and moved on. The only odd thing was that I couldn't get dessert. I love dessert, but everywhere we went the kitchen was closed, or on one mysterious occasion there were 5 people behind the bar, they served us beer and then turned away and wouldn't talk to me. The QR code menu suggested they were not serving food but it was 7.30 PM. No dessert for me!  Despite this minor issue there were no hangovers, few late nights, and  lots of moderate day drinking. Perfection! Now that we are back from holidays, and Pint of Origin is over, ...

When I'm at home I wear comfy clothes. Trackies or Pyjama pants, ugg boots and a comfy jumper. No bra, no glasses and no rings. I am very particular about my comfy jumper. It has to be loose and warm and just right. For the last few years it has been the Treetops jumper . I don't know when this became my go-to jumper, but it's looking rather tired. When I saw Blanko - the day it was released - I queued it immediately. Something about the shape of it just looked so snuggly and comfortable. I bought yarn when we were in Adelaide , and decided it was the perfect pattern to knit on our recent Sri Lanka trip. I was right about that! It was quite mindless, just kilometres of grey stocking stitch in the round. No shaping, no variations. Here's a pic from the second last day.  By the time we got on the plane I was most of the way down the second arm. On the plane I got sick. I didn't read, or knit I just sat as still as humanly possible and waited for it to be over. Additi...

 I haven't had as much time to read as I would like this week - I don't think any of us have as much time as we would like to read any week, do we? The main reason for my busyness is trying to get to 23 pubs in 10 days. (I explain what is going on here:  Weekending - the first Pint of Origin 2025 weekend ) I'm reading a review book:  The Master Jeweler  by Weina Dai Randel . It's an historical, set in Shanghai between WW1 and WW11 and it's about a master jeweler.  I'm enjoying it, but there is something missing here for me - I can't quite connect with the main character, who is not like the other girls. It's certainly not bad, unlike  the audiobook I have been listening to for three weeks  Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran . It's a highly rated book, but I'm finding it fairly tedious - trauma, trauma, trauma followed by a lecture on racism. I'd quit, but I've only got two hours to go and I'm no quitter.  The being out...

  As usual for this time of year, it's Pint of Origin (PoO) week, where pubs all around Melbourne get beer from different regions and we go and drink it. this year there are 23 pubs. Leon and I are intending to go to all of them. We made a good start this weekend, with 9 pubs crossed off. Today I finally got to catch up with my faves (Elise, Kris and Katie), and next week we'll have company for many of the pubs. The other highlight is that, when walking between pubs we stop at every op-shop (charity shop / thrift store) and look for ties for Bad Tie Mondays. While in a Vinnies today, I found 6 skeins of 100% cotton sportweight in pink and teal! It's a thick and thin yarn, and I'm particularly excited because I have been thinking about making more fitted summer tops. A great score on top of a winner of a weekend. And just a little stashcount, because I finally got the numbers below 15kms, and now it's 16,314 and I can't be sad about that because pink and teal cot...

I did a brief holiday report yesterday ( here ) and today I'm going to report on the books I read while I was away. I haven't reviewed any of these yet, so that's my task for the next few days. When we left I was reading  The Hungry Ghosts  by Shyam Selvadurai , which is a book about a Sri Lankan family, power, and the emigrant experience (available on Kobo plus if you subscribe).  In my last book post I commented that I had yet to find a Sri Lankan rom com. the day before we left I found and requested  The Star of Ceylon by Clare Flynn  on NetGalley. I got approved before we left. It's an historical romance, and was really good. It was very enjoyable being in Kandy and seeing the tennis courts at the lake and then reading about tennis courts at the lake! That's just a minor detail, but it was very evocative. I then took a break from Sri Lanka books, with a review copy of  Moonrising by Claire Barner.   This is a near future ecothriller, with some ro...

 We just got back from Sri Lanka, and what an amazing trip it was. We started with an Intrepid tour - they have an 'active' option, so as well as doing cultural things we hiked and camped and bicycled and kayaked.  It was a great group of people, and a really fun way to do the things that can be a bit tricky to organise, like camping in the Knuckles National Park. The bicycling was through tea fields, and I was glad to have a guide on Sri Lankas crazy roads, but it was really fun and such a pleasure to be riding for something other than commuting. After the tour was over we went to Tangelle beach and spent four nights staying in a tree house - which was essentially a floor and a roof and a bed with mosquito nets. Our first night there there was a massive thunderstorm right on top of us, which was terrifying. Other than that it was very relaxing, we did some more kayaking and went to a temple. Mainly we ate, drank, swam and I took lots of photos of palm trees. Then we headed to...