Ewok Scoodie

I've made an Ewok Scoodie for Halloween!  I'm so excited and frankly, impressed that I made this, and it only took a couple of days  I used  the Yub Nub Scoodie pattern off of Ravelry.com.  I used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Chunky in the Spice color for the body and some random brown wool and brown eyelash yarns for the ears.  I found a leather cord in my jewelry making supplies for the laces up the front.  Now, it's not perfect - but you can't tell, and I'm not sharing any details. 




We don't really do Halloween at our house because we are both Scrooges and who needs all that candy sitting around.  But last year we bought Magnum an At-At costume - because why have a dog it you aren't going to dress them up for holidays.  I looked at Ewok costumes online and was

too cheap to buy one.  The Ravley pattern is free so I just had to spend a few dollars on two skeins of the yarn.  Tim has a cool light saber that he made so if we did Halloween we would have a really cool costume theme for the family. 

Giving Up Facebook

Because I don't have enough things to keep me busy, I've decided I want to try and write a novel - cozy mystery genre if you are interested. Writing takes a lot of practice so I made the big decision to get off Facebook.  If you are interested in keeping up with what I've got going on start following me here and not FB.  My goal for this rebirth of my blog is to share with you those things that keep me busy - reading, crocheting, scrapbooking, and other crafting - along with photos of the cats and dog, and maybe even some writings on random thoughts.  Thanks for playing along Ladies and Gentlemen.

Currently Reading and Next Up

 

Two Mrs. Abbott’s by DE Stevenson (Bluefire)

Provence 1970 by Luke Barr (book)

Lady Alminia and the Real Downton Abbey (book)

Great Expectations by Dickens (Kindle) (Reader’s Circle)

Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon (Bookies Too)

Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall-Smith (book)

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown (best book 2013)

Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (best book 2013

Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen, by Joanna Trollope

Perfect by Rachel Joyce (audio) (Pilgrimage of Harold Fry)

Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Book Addicts, Goodreads)
Hopefully this is what I'll be reading for the next month.  I know I've made a couple of request for ARC's, so that might mean some changes in my list. I've been reading too many things at the same time, in too many different formats, that I can't remember where I'm at.

Wonderful Weekend

Happy 4th! It's been a great weekend - and it's not over yet. I finished reading two great books, made some cards, took a hike and enjoyed the outdoors, watched the Tour d'France, and there is still food, friends and fireworks yet to come.

The first book I finished was Irene Nemirovsky's All Our Worldly Goods: A Novel of Love Between the Wars. I was very glad to receive and ARC of this. I didn't like her Suite Francaise which was so popular several years ago, so I probably wouldn't have picked up this book on my own. Set in France, it is the story of Pierre and Agnes and their families starting before WWI and ending during WWII. All of the characters were so compelling that I had to keep reading to find out what would happen to them. This is a book that I will recommend to everyone.

The second book I finished yesterday. We drove up to Dark Mountain so Tim and some of his friends could ride. I took my lawn chair and sat in the shade of a tree at the ranger station and read. They finished their ride just as I finished my book. I was supposed to have finished Melissa Senate's The Love Goddess' Cooking School last week for the Manic Mommies Book Club, but I couldn't get it done in time. At first it was slow reading and very predictable. Holly's life has fallen apart so she visits her grandmother on Blue Crab Island, Maine. Her grandmother dies and leaves Holly her cooking school. Holly's first class all bring their problems with them. But then the book got much better as Holly and her students help each other learn how to deal with their problems. None of it seemed contrived like several other books I've read with similar plots. Senate did a fabulous job.

So today, I don't know what book to pick up next. So I made a few cards for my stash. Butterflies and bling, what can be better to send birthday wishes? I had the Riding Hood Red card bases laying around unused from last year's Christmas cards, so I started with them. I copied the design from the new SU catalog, but used what I had. The newsprint designer paper is SU, and the butterflies are punch from old SU designer paper that I had that needed to be used up. The birthday greeting is from Birthday Whimsy, and punched out. I did add a couple of dots of bling to the greeting. It was a quick card to whip up.

The Pig Did It

How can you pass up a book with a title like that? And the best part, it's the first in a trilogy. I received my copy as an EPub from Netgalley, and I read it on my Nook. I was supposed to read and review it for St. Patrick's Day, but life got in the way. The book is so Irish, you don't need St. Patrick's Day to get the mood. The characters are so wonderful that you'll want to go down to the pub with them. Aaron has come to Ireland to contemplate is lost love, Aunt Kitty rewrites classic novels for a living, and the pig provides humour throughout. The Irish magical realism of old tales sort of reminded me of Sarah Addison Allen's NC mountain stories. Now I must go find copies of the next two books so I can find out what happens to the pig.

National Pancake Day

March 1st was National Pancake Day and we celebrated by having pancakes for dinner. Tim makes the best pancakes and he always uses vanilla and cinnamon as his secret ingredients. I didn't take pictures this year, but here is a scrapbook page from National Pancake Day 2009. What's more fun than having pancakes for breakfast?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bookseller's Best Award

This past spring I had the opportunity to be a judge for the 2010 Booksellers Best Award, sponsored by Greater Detroit Romance Writers of America. I read four books from the Long Historical category; If He's Sinful by Hannah Howell, All He Desires by Anthea Lawson, Darcy's Passion and Darcy's Temptation by Regina Jeffers. The winner of the Best Long Historical category was Hannah Howell's If He's Wicked. The winning book is from the same series as the one I had read. I'm happy to have found a new author, and have now read all three from this series, including If He's Wild. I did enjoy all four books that I read, so if you are looking for a good romance novel I can recommend any of them.