February Reads

Reading Goal: 150 books
Books read to date: 19

I am a little late but I did want to share what I have read this past month. I read some really fantastic must reads. I am going to give a small review and just to torment you I am going to hyperlink them to the BN website.

Cozy Mysteries:

Eggs in Purgatory by Laura Childs: Suzanne and her two friends run the local cafe/bookstore/knitting store. They have afternoon tea's where big ole' trucker men just love to attend (it's all about the scones!). They have weekly booktalks and knitting nights. On top of all this, they have the cheapest breakfast around that if you ate if would probably give you a heart attack. Suzanne and her friends are learning to stand on their own feet after their husbands died, placed in a nursing home or ran off with the local hoochi-mama. Of course there is the murder of a very prominant citizen that leads Suzanne on a sluething mission to find out who did it. Great book...characters make you laugh. I recommend this read and I can't wait to read the second book!!!

Mourning in Minature by Margart Grace: I just love this series probably because I have always wanted to put together a Victorian dollhouse. Gerry is off to the local High Schools 30th reunion with her friend Rosie. Rosie is excited to see one person: David, the high school quarterback and her first kiss. Unfortuantely there is a murder at the reunion and Gerry must solve the crime with the help of her granddaughter Madison. The minitures they build in this book sound just heavenly. I would just love to build one!! This is book 4 of this series.

Murder of a Small Town Honey by Denise Swanson: Skye left Scumble River in a HUGE fashion by insulting basically the entire town. She has now been fired from her job and came home with her tail between her legs. The town has really been less then welcoming with her. Her Uncle Charlie, big man in a small town, basically forced the school board to hire her as the school psychologist. None of the principals like her and do not have a problem letting her know about it. She is helping out at the local county fair and happens upon a dead body. She is then sucked into this twisty mystery that if she doesn't solve, her brother will be tried for murder!! I really liked this book... I think because I work with School Psychologists all the time and I understand the workings of the good ole' boy club. I recommend this book....

Murder of a sweet old lady by Denise Swanson: Skye is back to solve another murder!! This is just not any old murder...it is of her sweet granny who Skye has been visiting everyday so she can learn the family history. Skye's family is driving her insane. The police chief is very upset with her and the local funeral director is no longer her bridge partner. I have to say...I enjoyed the second book just as much as the first one!

Romance Books:

Don't Bargin with the Devil by Sabrina Jeffries: Charolette Harris finishing school for young ladies is turned upside down!! She finds out her dashing spanish neighbor is about to put in a pleasure garden next door to her school. She has a new teacher, Lucy, spend time with Diego so he can understand why he shouldn't put in a pleasure garden. Well...Diego has his own mission and it does involve some pleasure!! This is the 5th book in this series and I love it!!

Wed Him before you Bed him by Sabrina Jeffries: With the tragic death of one her former students, Charolette is forced to spend time with the man she jilted years ago! She didn't just jilt him, she bascially made him the town scandal for years!!! We also finally find out who the mysterious cousin Michael is and why he has remained so secretative all these years!! This is the final book in the series and I am sad that it is over!

Teen Books:

No Choirboy-Murder, Violence and teens on Death Row by Susan Kuklin: Wow!! What a very powerful read! This is a book of 6 teenagers who killed someone and have been placed on death row. The first 4 stories are from the teens themselves, one story is from a teen that has already been excuted family, the next story is from the victims family and their thoughts. The final chapter is of the lawyer who represented them all on appeals and such. I didn't get to read the last chapter because one of my really tough, wants to be in a gang, kids saw it and they asked to read it (this is a BIG DEAL) so I just handed him the book. He loved it!!! Now one of my seniors is reading it (this is the kid no one thought would graduate) and he says it Kicks ASS...so that is a good thing. I recommend this one!!!!!

Inside Out by Terry Trueman: Another moving very quick, very quick read!!! Zach is a very troubled young man who happens to be in the local diner when it is robbed. You get pulled into this story and you actually feel sorry for the boys who robbed the store. FANTASIC READ!!!! My kiddo's LOVE THIS AUTHOR!!

Response by Paul Volponi This is a real eye opener. This is a total HATE CRIME book. Noah and his buddies are in a "white" neighbor where he planned to boost a car. However, he is attacked by 3 white boys and beaten with a bat. This story goes into how the boys are prosecuted, he has to go to school with all these kids who believe the boys were innocent. It just shows his life and how unjust and downright mean this world can be to people of different races. Once again, my streetwise kids LOVE this book! They told me I HAD to read it!!

Winchestor House, Historical Fashions and a House

You know, I should get some snappier titles for my blog posts. I just realiezed all I use are my stitching projects! I have been very busy trying to stitch on Winchestor House and Fashions. I had tried to finish Winchestor House before the end of February...but I got tired of stitching all that green! So my goal didn't happen.

I also worked on fashions and my couple is half way finished. The guys mustache looks so funny. I love the colors of the womans dress.

I also finished Kim's Round Robin piece. I stitched a house quilt block for her. It turned out so cute!!! Kim plans on making a wall hanging from her quilt blocks.

I want to say thank you to everyone who offered to stitch on my RR!!! My cyber-stitching friends are so wonderful!! I will probably take you up on the offer. Another group I am in is doing a RR so I am going to be using this piece for that RR. As soon as it comes home again then I hope to send it to those who volunteered to work on it if they still want to stitch on it.

I am also getting ready to start two new HUGE projects...they are in the works of my little mind....so I will be posting more information on it later. Tomorrow I will post all of my february reads...I didn't read as much this month but I mangaged to get in a few books.

Yoga Stitching- Peace, Serenity--YEAH RIGHT!!

Doesn't this picture just exhibit peace, serenity, and calmness. This is what stitching is supposed to be. Now, I know you are thinking..how can I stitch and do Yoga at the same time??? You can't...this is my new cross stitch piece for my sister. Upon first glance, I thought..easy...the woman, the designs the trees..stitch it on some tea dyed fabric and it will be beautiful. It should be a quick stitch...right??? WRONG!!! My sister wanted it for her birthday so I thought..sure then I went to print it out,. I bought it off ETSY and it is HUGE pattern!! Basically, it is 252 x 252 which is 18 x 18!! Only 12 pages.....This is going to take forever....so I told her maybe by her birhtday in 2011!!! HEE HEE!!!

I am sad today. My RR was supposed to start and I mailed it to my partner. There are only 3 people so it was going to be quick. Well..the girl I sent to went to the DR and he told her no stitching for a while. Something is wrong with her hands. So she has to rest them...and I hope she gets to feeling better soon. So that means only 1 person will stitch on my RR!! It was going to be so cute....oh well...like I told the hurt stitcher...we can do it later. This is the first part of the RR...I also have summer, fall and winter!! Isn't this just the cutest????

Hollywood Squares and new jewelry

Do you remember the TV game show Hollywood squares? It was one of my favorites becaues I loved the snarky answers the players gave the constestants. You just had to agree with them or not. This week I have stitched the Hollywood squres not once....but 4 times!!!! I was gridding the boxes for my next Round Robin piece. Talk about some boring stitching. I didn't think I would ever get finished with it.

I woke up today and found my gift from my DH! He bought me these beautiful earrings. We went to brunch at Copelands of New Orleans. This is the scene of the crime according to Mark. This is where we had our first date. The lunch was wonderful. The afternoon was spent cleaning. My house smells like bleach which is one of my favorite smells. Very strange I know, but I do love the smell of bleach and pinesol. To me this means my house is clean.

Summer Ball-floating heads

My rotation with Summer Ball ended with me having stitched just the heads of my regency men!!! I have to say this looks really funny. We have had snow and more snow. I am actually sick of snow. We missed today and now have missed a total of 8 days!! This is the craziest thing I have ever seen.

I have also been getting my round robin piece ready for the exchange I am in. It is 4 different designs -spring, summer, fall and winter. They are each 94 x 94 and require a 9 patch type border. Do you know how boring it is to stitch 4 different 9 patch borders??? UGH...very tiring. The piece is going to look very cool...but I just hate stitching borders!!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Tusk

My little Tusk turned 5 on Friday. I had several people ask me where Tusk was when I posted the picture of my sleeping furbabies. Well, this is where Tusk likes to sleep, right under Daddy's recliner. He prefers to be wher Mark is and Brigen prefers to be with me. The cats go where they want...isn't that the way they usually are???? Tusk had a very happy birthday. He played ball, got to nap on the furniture downstairs, a new paper bag to tear up and he got a couple extra treats. He also recieved lots of hugs and kisses. So I would say he had a GREAT birthday.

Patchwork Sampler

I pulled out my patchwork sampler and started working on it this past week. I am using DMC for the black outline and for the different colored oval shapes in the borders. The main design is stitched with Ozark Sampler threads. This square is stitched with "butter". Doesn't that sounds just yummy??

I wanted to share this naptime picture I took. My yellow lab, Brigen, is on Mark's pillow. My black cat, Munch, is sleeping on mine and Jag, the yellow cat, is sleeping at the foot of the bed. Just an FYI...the black cat tolerates the dogs....she allows them to live in her house so this makes this picture more precious.