Sunday, May 1, 2016

Sunday Salon

It's a rainy Sunday in New York, and I'm glad that we did our going-out yesterday because today is a day for staying in.

Yesterday was Independent Bookstore Day, and lots of bookstores were running promotions and having special events- probably every bookstore except the one I visited, Little City Books in Hoboken, NJ. My husband and I were looking at Hoboken as a possible alternative to Queens, and spent the day walking around and exploring this very charming enclave just a 15 minute train ride from midtown Manhattan.

It was a beautiful day- a perfect day for househunting and we stumbled on Little City Books on a side street after having breakfast and exploring Washington Street, the main commercial drag. It's a great little indie store and I bought Independent People, by Haldor Laxness.

And that was it for Independent Bookstore Day for us. When we got home it was nap time and since my husband is still a little under the weather we decided to relax for the rest of the day. We did go see "Zootopia" at the movie theater down the street, which was a solid B+ Disney flick.

Today I'm cleaning and reading. Specifically I'm weeding out a large chunk of my sewing books. I've already scanned most of my paper patterns to PDF and hope to go 50% paperless by the time we move. Going forward I'm only buying PDF patterns and sewing books. With an e-reader at my sewing machine it's very easy to work with PDF patterns and it really does eliminate bulk around the house. I have a large pile of books to sell already. I do wonder about the future of paper patterns and books given the ease and practicality of the PDF when it comes to sewing. I worry about how the change in technology will impact quilt shops too but I can't see overstuffing my limited living space when there are solutions that work better for my lifestyle.

What are you up to this Sunday?

6 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

A perfect book for Independent Bookstore Day. Laxness is from Iceland that heavily supports books. And, of course, the title.

Readerbuzz.blogspot.com

Suzanne Yester said...

I like the idea of scanning in your patterns! I never really thought about it, although most of the patterns I buy now are in PDF form. And I have to say that my "craft & sewing" books are not as bad as my fiction books, but they are a close second. I did ween them when I moved from my house into an apartment and donated what I didn't keep. It was kind of liberating.

Molly said...

I don't sew, but I do like the idea of scanning patterns to cut down on paper.
Perhaps I should start scanning all my magazine articles???

Jinjer-The Intrepid Angeleno said...

Forgive this stupid question, but I don't sew. How do you work with a pdf pattern? I thought you had to lay your material out on the floor or a table or something, put the pattern on top and cut around it with scissors. No?

Mystica said...

The saving on paper is a brilliant idea.

Marie Cloutier said...

Intrepid, yes and no. The pattern can be just the cutting instructions, which is the case with most quilt patterns, or it can also be the instructions plus the pieces you cut out. Often the pattern pieces fit on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper, so if I need pieces as opposed to instructions I can just print off the one sheet I need instead of having to store and transport pages of instructions. If the pieces are bigger, I'm keeping the pieces in a folder and scanning the instructions, again so I don't have to hold on to and store a lot of unnecessary paper. hope that's clear!