January Books and Reviews

Wow...I can't believe today is the last day of January! It is ending just like it started - Snow on the ground. I don't have school tomorrow so we are on day 7 of snow day makeups. At this rate we will be in school until July!!!

So I have finished 10 books this month. I am proud of that!!! I read a mixture of Mysteries, Romance and real-life books.

Mystery list:

Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joann Fluke- I have to say I love the this mystery series. However, it makes me hungry when she is describing all her cookies/pies/muffins. Her sister is so funny....and her mother, all I can say is UGH!! She would drive a saint crazy. I think it is really funny when her mom says "Hannah, you have just got to quit finding dead bodies. No man will want to marry you if you keep this up!!"

Thai Dye: This is the 12th book in the Monica Ferris Cross stitch mystery series. I love her books...I would love to meet Betsy and Godwin!! The characters are wonderful and she makes it where you want to visit the Crewel World -the LNS. In this book Betsy has to help her friend Doris stay alive. It seems someone is out to kill Doris over something she brought back from her trip to Thailand.

Wild Goose Chase by Terri Thayer: For all you Quilters this is the book for you!! This is a Great quilting mystery. Dewey is really a computer person but her mother left her her quilting shop when she passed away. So now Dewey is running the quilt shop while her SIL is trying to sabatage her every step of the way. She is at a big quilting Fair when she stumbles upon a dead body. Great read and comes with a quilting pattern!

BookPlate Special by Lorriane Bartlett: This is the 3rd book in her Booktown series. Tricia owns a mystery bookstore and has had her freeloading college roommate living with her for 2 weeks and she is sick of her. Pammy, the freeloader, gets a job with Angela, Tricias sister, at Angela's diner. Pammy goes out back and winds up dead. It is up to Tricia to solve the murder! Mr. Everett is back and so is Ginny. I did learn something new in this book..the word Freegan. I have to say when I learned about this term it gave me the creeps. Might sound terrible of me...but it does so there! I did not figure out who the murderer was....it SHOCKED me!!!

Romance List:

The Care and Feeding of Unmarried men: I love books with strong leading women. Eve is all that and a bag of chips!!! Her grandfather is an actual Godfather!! I mean you know she has to be tough when her grandfather is in charge of the Mob. She is known as "The Party Girl" and she meets her match when she meets Nash "The Preacher" of the Monster Truck Circut. Great Chick Lit Romance book.

Rendevous by Amanda Quick: Historical Romance- Augusta is very outspoken and cannot belive the stuck up Earl of Greystone wants to marry her. She has a tendancy not to follow social rules. She even sets out to tell him so but he puts her in a very compromising position and they must marry!! If you like trashy historical romances...then you will like this one.

Wisconsin Wedding - Carla Neggers - Book 3 in the Welcome to Tyler series. Liza and Cliff from book 1 are getting married. Liza invites Cliff's family to the wedding without telling him...lots of issues with that because his brother had an illicit affair with the town prude!! I like this series...very easy to read!

Real Life Books/Young Adult

Twighlight Children by Torey Hayden: Torey is an actual Sped Teacher and Therapist. Her books about her children that she has helped. In this book, she is a therapist in a treatment center. One child has been sexually, physically and emotionally abused by her father who kidnapped her from her mother. The other is a child who refuses or can;t speak. His grandfather is tyrant who expects her to "fix" his grandchild. You will need kleenexes for this book!!!

Boot Camp by Todd Strauss: Garrett is an extremely bright teenager. He is bored in school and this gets him in trouble. When he is 15, his parents just can't control him. The final straw was when he had an affair with a much older lady. They ship him off to a book camp to break him down and become the model child they have always dreamed of having. This book is about his life in boot camp and all the struggles he faces. I know it isn't true but the thing is ....there are boot camps out for bad kids and parents do ship them off to them...It is a great read.

Med Head: My Knocked down drag-out, drugged up battle with my Brain by James patterson...OMG!! this is a must read! This is a true story about a young man who suffers from Tourettes (SP?) Syndrome. His symptoms started when he was five and the story follows his life up until 22. Good lord the things this child suffered, struggled through and all the mediciations. I think he was on about 60 different medications....FABULOUS BOOK!!

Mother's Wisdom Finish

This was an RR piece that we stitched in the Stitch it Quick group. It came home last spring but I just put it away until I felt like stitching on it. I was digging in my stash and needed to see what I could finish quickly. I found this and thought..why not. I am very thankful to everyone who help me stitch on this and I love how it turned out on the fabric.

I wish more of my groups would do RR. I am currently in one on my Ozark Samplers group...I always enjoy seeing what people pick for RR pieces.

On the home front, it has snowed and snowed here. I have about 8 inches of snow in my yard. It snowed all day yesterday and that hasn't happened in a long while. We didn't have school on Friday and I was able to stitch and stitch yesterday. I did decided to start with page 9 on my Faery Tales (I thought it was 10 but was mistaken) so I am stitching Cinderella and her Prince.

How many of you like to do Round robins? I am just curious. I have been very lucky and have not been burned by someone keeping the project and threads for themselves.

Winchestor House

Wow...we have another snow storm brewing in our area!! I have gotten the call letting me know we don't have school again tomnorrow. This will be our 6th day out of school for bad weather and we will have 6 days we have to make up at the end!!! This week I pulled out Winchestor House to stitch. I have completed 2 full sections of the house and I am just amazed about how the details just stand out!!

My husband grossed me out tonight so I just had to share. The morning our pipes burst, he almost ripped out his middle fingernail. Tonight, he came in and asked me to help him trim the nail. I looked over...instead of laying flat on his finger..he had it standing upright!! EEWWWW!!! I had to dig out my nail clippers and cuticle scissors. I am happy to report the nail is cut off and under a bandaid.

Faery Tales - Small happy dance!

I have a very small happy dance going on in my house tonight. I finished page 2 of faery tales. I only have 47 more pages to go!!!! This page took one whole skein of DMC 939!! Can you believe that?? If this one page took 2 skeins, I am wondering how many I will need to finish the whole project???? Now...to start my next page. The only question I have is do I follow the patterns suggestion and move on to page 3 and stitch the beanstalk or do I move to page 10 (which goes under page one) so I can stitch Cinderella and her prince??? What would you do in this situation?

2010 Ozark Sampler SAL

I started my new 2010 SAL this week. The design is by Debbie Draper and the Floss is Ozark Sampler Threads. The color of the border is Emerald. I was stitching it and I decided to outline it in black and WOW did the color just POP!!

I have to tell you this not keeping track of stitching is driving me crazy. I am finding it is harder than I thought. I am also not staying in my rotation...just stitching on what I feel like and this is hard too.

The weather here has been just beautiful! It has been around 55-60 degrees each day. The only problem is that I am stuck in the classroom all day. However, the I haved noticed that it is staying lighter a little bit everyday. This means that spring is just around the corner!!! I am so excited!!!

Prize from India and Faery Tales update

My mom came home from India this morning. She left on Jan 17th from New Delhi and landed on Jan 17th in Arkansas!! You have to love the time travel business. She actually came home with a bigger suitcase than when she left!! She had so much stuff to bring that she had to borrow a suitcase from my sister. She brought me home this beautiful quilt!!! I love the elephant design. My sister sent me home some loose leaf tea, and some tea seepers (the little tools you use to put the loose tea in to make a cup/pot of tea). I am not sure what they are actually called...but I LOVE THEM!! I did make me a nice cup of tea tonight.

I worked on Faery tales this week. As you can see I am almost finished with page 2. You are not going to believe this since HAED's are mainly confetti stitches...the rest of this page is one color. Yep, DMC 939- navy blue. I am not sure if that is a good thing or bad.

I joined Jazzercise on Saturday. I did the very first workout and thought...hmm..not bad. On Sunday, I felt a different story. I hurt in places I didn't know I could hurt. I didn't realize how far out of shape I was until I tried to get out of bed this morning!! I will let you know how it goes!

I was very happy to get back to work this week. The strange thing is that the kids were happy to be back too!!!!

Historical Fashions and busted pipes

There is nothing like the dog barking at 4:30 am on a Saturday morning to let you know that something strange is going downstairs in the MIL apartment. DH got out of bed, went outside, down the stairs into the MIL apartment to find one of the pipes gushing water!! Then came the fun part...we couldn't find the main water valve to turn OFF the water. We checked in the front yard by the water meter...no valvue, handle etc. After searching for an hour...we gave up and called our friends who also live in BV who in turn called his parents who live 5 houses down. They had a special key to turn off the water...seems the previous owners forgot to tell us we needed a special key for the water valve. They came down and went to the very first place we looked..used the special key and turned off the water!! We were very lucky, we don't think there was much damage. We are going to be calling a contractor friend of ours to check out the damage. Will keep you updated on our progress!!

Interesting tibit you might want to check out in your city: It is illegal in most cities to turn off your water even if you have a water break. According to our plumber, you can be arrested for turning off your water. You are supposed to call the city and have THEM come turn it off. You are to let the water run until they get there. I checked out city policy and it is true!!! However, most cities do not enforce the law. I think this is just crazy but it is the law. So check out your cities water policies..you might find some interesting things.

I pulled out Historical Fashions and worked on it this weekend. I didn't get much stitching done yesterday but today I was a different story. I decided to do them out of order so I am working on the years 1860-1867...this is couple #9. I have also made a baby blanket and burb rag for a couple at school. She doesn't know what she is having so I made it neutral.

Summer Ball

Today is snow day #4!!! UGH!!! I am actually looking forward to when I can go back to work!! We are out tomorrow also...it is either too cold or the roads..who knows. I was so bored today I organized my mystery bookshelf. Yes, I have 3 bookshelves in my bedroom....one for my romance, one for mysteries and one for the other books that do not fall in those categories. I also finished my Titanic Hidden Mysteries game on my Wii. I have been playing off and on for a few weeks now...Let me give you a spoiler ..the boat sinks. Shocking that I would give the ending but there it is!!! If you like puzzle games, this is one for you.

I started working on Summer Ball last night and then worked on it this afternoon. I started in the upper left corner and am currently stitching the wall paper and paneling. I am telling you it is very exciting stuff. I plan on pulling out my Historical Fashions tomorrow. I picked out all my stitching mistakes last week so I am ready to start another couple. Hopefully, I can get it right this time.

10 book challenge Winner!!!

I had 9 people email/post they finished the challenge. I put their names in an excel sheet and had the Random number generator pick a number... #7 which is SUSAN from sew and so blog! Susan if you email me your address I will get your GC in the mail. Thanks for all those who participated!!

Patchwork Sampler

I am so mad at myself tonight. I pulled out my patwork sampler that I have been stitching using Ozark Sampler floss. I figured that while I was on a snow day I could stitch the 3rd square. I made great progress until I realized I couldn't find my DMC pearle #12 in black for backstitching. I have a WHOLE ball of this thread that I bought just for this project. I have looked everywhere and it is no where to be found. I guess Jag thought it would be a great play toy. Sigh, I put up the design until I can purchase more threads.

I got out of the house tonight and I was amazed at some of the streets. I couldn't even get up the small incline at my moms. It was a covered sheet of ice. My car started sliding sideways and my tires spun out. I have to say it was very scary. I decided to go to the high school to get some copies ready for classes on Wednesday if we have school (WE DON"T) and the street in front of hte school was a solid sheet of ice. It was like skating. I couldn't believe how bad it was since this is one of the major streets...talk about crazy. I managed to stop by the local grocery store and bought milk, butter, and cokes!!! I was going through coke withdrawals. There is nothing better than the first drink of a cold coke!! We are looking for more snow tomorrow. I don't like this weather..I have to say I prefer hot summer weather.

Since I can't work on my patchwork sampler...I am going to bite the bullet and start my Summer Ball design!!!

Faery Tales, Cabin Fever, and Reading Contest

I pulled out my HAED Faery Tales on Saturday and started working on the clock portion of page 2. Since I have been on Christmas Break and now Snow Days I was able to finish the clock. You would think this would be a big accomplishment, however this is only page 2 of 49 so I still have tons more to stitch. I know I am not supposed to be getting track of how much I stitch but I am doing it on my HAED so I have finished 4% of this project. Tomorrow, I plan on working on my patchwork sampler.

I have to tell you...I have Cabin Fever. Since it snowed on Saturday I haven't left my house since then. I can't get down and/or up my hill!! It is just crazy. I really am craving a Sonic Coke or just any coke but Mark drank the last one. I am having caffine withdrawals. I did mix up a pitcher of sweet tea and I mean I like a little tea with my sugar type tea. My entire house is clean. I even cleaned out my laundry room, spare room etc. Tomorrow is another snow day which means I think I will clean out my bookcases and start putting my books in order so I can get ready to read!! I am actually bored. I can't go anywhere...my mom is in India so I can't talk with her (she is having a blast), my other friends are at work (they don't get snow days) and Kim has been out of town so I can't IM her. I am actually considering talking with Mark..HEE HEE.. Jag has sat at my sliding door meowing because we have several feathered friends and furry squrriels that love our birdfeeder.

The reading challenge...Yes audio books counts. I hope so because I LOVE to listen to a book while I stitch or while Mark watches a sporting event on TV. I can't list which one because he watches so many sporting events it isn't easy to pick one. This reading challenge is to be fun and to encourage people to read more. You are on the honor system and I just ask that you email me when you reach your goal. I will be posting my list of books read at the end of each month. I will also be posting reviews of books I have read so you may get some ideas there.

Snow Day from Mill Hill

I put the final stitches in my first project for 2010. I stitched Snow Day by Mill Hill Designs. I do not like stitching on perforated paper so I switched to 28 count Jazlyn with sparkles. I LOVE how it turned out!! The design just pops on this fabric.

Mark and I spent the day watching TV. He controlled the remote while we switched back and forth from Arkansas Basketball to any bowl game on TV. Then we watched the Razorbacks play in the Liberty bowl. Basketball lost and Football won!!! I did take another nap in my chair today. I love this relaxing lifestyle I have...but it all ends on Monday morning. I have to report back to work! UGH!!!

Now...what do I pull out to stitch???

10 Book Challenge and the Olympic Reading Challenge

Out ten book challenge ended last night. I was excited to see so many people who participated in sitting a goal to read 10 books. I have heard from: Karin, Carol, Susan, CJ, and Betty. Did anyone else finish??? Let me know so I can draw and send you the prize!!

I am setting up another challege for the 2010 year. Since this is the year of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC, we will have a Bronze, Silver and Gold Level. There will be no prize for this challenge. You keep a record of your books in your notebook. blog, etc.Since this is a year long challenge...you do not have to preselect your books!! Email me when you have FINISHED your Challenge. To win a reading medal just pick a level:

Bronze: 25 Books in 2010

Silver: 50 Books in 2010

Gold: 100 Books in 2010

I can't wait to see who participates!!!