Nora at home | Fall into the Story

The holidays are seriously celebrated in Nora’s house and this weekend was the first of her many busy prep weekends. She sent me this post tonshare with you all. ~Laura

We had a lot of discussion and plenty of love for libraries on the FB pages recently. And this weekend, I pined to curl up in my own, in front of the fire, with Lost Lake–I’m a big Sarah Addison Allen fan, and I’m loving this book.

However, it’s the week before Thanksgiving, and my to-do list is loooooong. Before I can indulge, I had to take a good whack at that list.

Most of my shopping is done, but that means I have what looks like an exploded department store in what we call the One More Room. (I convinced my carpenter husband some years ago I needed just One More Room!) So I organized gifts. And bagged–I’m determined to do more gift bagging than gift wrapping this year–the gifts for my annual quick get-away/shopping, celebration with good pals that’s coming up right after Thanksgiving. Also my out-of-town gifts. All ready to go!

And since time will get away from me very soon, I sat down and addressed my Christmas cards. Yay!

Today was also bread-baking day. I generally bake every two or three weeks, and I definitely need bread for the Thanksgiving feast. So I baked a couple rounds of sour dough bread, and while it was rising, made my grocery list for Turkey Day. BW will hunt and gather. I’ll cook.

Once the bread was baked, I rewarded myself with a glass of champagne. I earned it. Tonight, grandkids are coming for dinner, so I’m doing a roasted pork loin (a fave) and rosemary potatoes, carrots roasted in butter and thyme (they eat them like candy!) probably some cauliflower as my older grandson loves it. Go figure. And there’s the bread, pretty much fresh out of the oven which will especially please my oldest granddaughter.

I have more bagging and/or wrapping on the slate tomorrow, and a couple tubs of books to sign, but I’m going to make time, no matter what, to settle down in my pretty little library with Lost Lake. If you don’t make time to read, what’s the point in all the rest?

Monday it’s back to work. And Wednesday, it’s all about pies. Yes, I make them from scratch. So I’ll be in the kitchen A LOT starting mid-week. I’ll deserve that hour or two tomorrow in the library with a lovely book, a fire, some tea in one of my mother’s adorable old Fuller Brush cups. Just thinking about it has me letting out a long, happy sigh.

But first, I have to go make dinner.

Turn the Page’s signing this past weekend was nearly as epic as the July signing. So many people and such happy faces. Here are some photos from Saturday and Nora shares how she spent her Sunday. Laura

Signing Saturday at Turn The Page with a terrific group of authors brought in four hundred people. Many thanks to those authors, to TTP’s amazing staff–and our signing volunteers–and to all the readers who hung in there for nearly six hours. That’s a loooooong day for all.

20141101_142334 — Nora’s view at the signing — from right, Krstan Higgins, Marie Force, Donna Kaufmann and Brenda Novak.

20141101_171939 — Laura’s view at the signing.

20141101_124646 — Lori Diehl won the coveted galley of Obsession in Death.

Wrapping my wrist prior to the signing meant no pain and all gain! It really made a difference. I’m going to keep my wrap handy for next month’s Holiday In Boonsboro, and the signing at TTP. Can’t wait to see the town all decked out for the holidays.

Still, wow, six hours. I decided to unwind on Sunday and make my beef stew–sort of my version of a poor man’s beef bourguignon–with dumplings. I’d planned to bake a couple rounds of sour dough bread, but discovered I was out of yeast. Don’t know how that happened, but expect my oldest granddaughter to be around in the coming week, and she loves bread. So I did a quick beer bread instead.

Stew and bread baking turned out to be just the thing for a chilly November Sunday. And today, it’s back to work–and leftovers. That’s a pretty perfect Monday for me.

Nora

Laura again: I posted a photo of a shawl I knitted up late in the summer and wrote how I loved the colorway. Then I received my copy of Blood Magick and all was explained. A lot of knitters asked after the yarn, color and pattern. It’s Malabrigio Rios in colorway 855 Aguas. The pattern is the Groovy Shawl (the link is to the Ravelry pattern — I went up a weight and only knit 10 repeats).