Inspired by Emily of Nerd in the Brain (note her new self-hosted web site) here are my Three Things Thursday. As she says…
*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*
First, our local library. I haven’t been a member of a library since I resigned from the university, but last Saturday I finally got round to calling in to our local town library and joining. Since I spend all day editing, I don’t read many fiction books (I listen to audio versions, which the library also stocks – yay), but I do make lots of use of non-fiction books. So, here is the first one I have borrowed:
Some inspiration when baking for my gluten-intolerant friends
Second, boro. I’ve been meaning to have a go at Japanese visible mending for a while. I’m quite pleased with my first attempt, which I wanted to be subtle in case it turned out badly! There is substantial reinforcement on the reverse. This is one knee of a pair of Mr Snail’s jeans.
Boro: visible mending
Third, my first pattern sale. It’s taken me ages and a lot of hard work to finalise my bird roost pattern, but it was very gratifying to make my first sale of it from my etsy store. This little boost is encouraging me to get on and finish a second pattern that I’ve been working on – knitting this time.
A roost made to test the pattern
So, those are three things making me smile this week – what about you?
The Snail of Happiness 
KerryCan
/ January 12, 2017That’s a great week of reasons to be happy! Congrats on the Etsy sale–here’s to many more!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 12, 2017fingers crossed… plus I must get more stock into my shop – I have so many things that I should list!
LikeLike
w1nt3l
/ January 12, 2017My wife is on the gluten free kick and has been for a few months. I’ve had my fair share of, well, things I’d choose not want to eat again. Some of it really is down right nasty. It’s getting better now. The visible mending is rather interesting, rather unique in it’s ability to look part of the garment but also be functional in fixing a hole.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 12, 2017Once a month I meet up with friends for a shared lunch and I always bake. Since one of our members started having to avoid gluten I have produced some truly dire baked goods, which as you say, I never want to encounter again. I am hoping that this book will contain at least one or two edible recipes – if it doesn’t I’ll try a different book from the library (actually the book would taste better than some of the things I have made!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
w1nt3l
/ January 12, 2017The book is gluten free (I think) LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
nanacathy2
/ January 12, 2017A lovely three things there and all of them make me happy too, especially going to the library. Three cheers for libraries!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 12, 2017I’m surprised that it’s taken me so long to get round to joining… I have no idea why
LikeLike
Laurie Graves
/ January 12, 2017I’m with Nana Cathy. Three lovely things, but a big Yay for libraries. Our town library makes my life ever so much better, letting me have excess to the larger world of stories and ideas. I don’t know what I would without that library.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 12, 2017Our town library isn’t very big, but I can request books from elsewhere… magic…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Laurie Graves
/ January 12, 2017Yes, indeed! Magic! Interlibrary loan opens a small town library to a world of books.
LikeLiked by 1 person
katechiconi
/ January 12, 2017I have the book in my extensive gluten free cook book library, and it’s a bit of a favourite. There are already several rather sticky and splodgy pages. Do let me provide you with some bombproof GF recipes for the gatherings if you get no joy from this one.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 12, 2017I’m going to try the ginger biscuits for next week’s get-together. One problem is that I don’t have a ready source of many of the ingredients (sorghum flour, psilium husks etc) – the joys of small town living!
LikeLike
katechiconi
/ January 12, 2017Oh, I hear you. But most of my recipes can be made with a simple commercial GF flour mix… I have to say, though, that the psyllium husk is a very, very useful thing, so might be worth grabbing next time you’re near a big supermarket.
LikeLike
sanseilife
/ January 12, 2017My mom used to mend with subtle weaving. It was lovely.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 12, 2017There are so many interesting mending techniques – I’m aiming to try a few this year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
anne54
/ January 12, 2017Three cheers for libraries from me too. I would be lost without mine. There is something there for everyone. Good luck with finding gluten free recipes that taste good. Well done on the Etsy sale too. It’s always a buzz.
LikeLike
lillibellamakes
/ January 12, 2017I love this idea and I love your 3 things. One of my 35 before 35 (it’s explained on my blog!) is to appreciate the small things so I’d really like to borrow this idea if I may x
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 13, 2017Please do – I’ve been doing it for a few months now and love taking time each week to think about the positives.
LikeLike
lillibellamakes
/ January 13, 2017I’ve already been thinking of mine so just the act of thinking about it is making me appreciate more x
LikeLiked by 1 person
katythenightowl
/ January 13, 2017I used to practically haunt the library – Brex and I have had some great books out from there, and they’re really good about ordering in books they haven’t got themselves, too. The Gluten free book would be good for Brex, as she’s gluten intolerant
You never told me that your pattern was up for sale! Yay for you 🙂
I’ve jusy downloaded it – I can’t wait to give it a go – even if I can only work the twine version! 🙂
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 13, 2017I’ll print it out for you and pop in. It’s only been available for a few days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
katythenightowl
/ January 15, 2017It was lovely to see you again, Jan 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Born To Organize
/ January 13, 2017Well…I too love mending, eating baked goods and libraries. A friend built our Little Free Library and it’s been a joy watching traffic grow over time. Books change regularly, for children and adults. Another good week. Congrats on the Etsy sale. Your birdhouses are adorable.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 13, 2017I think the library and mending will make me smile for many weeks to come. I love your little library – that make me smile too!
LikeLike
Born To Organize
/ January 15, 2017Let’s add smiling to our list, too. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Rock Vandal
/ January 14, 2017I love this post! Your boro looks fabulous, as does your birds nest. I am grateful to have seen it!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 17, 2017Thank you!
LikeLike
insearchofitall
/ January 15, 2017I wish I knew how to knit so I could try your pattern. Don’t even know anyone that does. 😦 Congrats on the sale though. You do have a lot to be happy about. I have never heard of Bono. Interesting. So many are gluten intolerant. Doc has me off all grain completely for a month. We shall see what comes of it. All sugars too. 😦 Lets hope the scale shows the amount of sacrifice.
LikeLike
Lori Fontanes
/ January 15, 2017My daughter’s appreciation of her kitten, helping a stranger thread a needle, getting to do work that I love. Yup, I’m blessed!!! PS, congrats on the Etsy thing. Love your creativity!!!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ January 15, 2017I love ‘helping a stranger thread a needle’!
LikeLike