Book Reviews Part 2

So I cleaned out my book shelf a couple weeks ago to prepare for my year of reading. The hubby and I are also just finishing our "no buy" month to help stop the flow of stuff into our apartment. This left me with very few book choices to get me through this month, so I dug through and found a couple books that I had bought because they looked interesting and then promptly never read.

The first was the first book in the Morganville Vampire series called Glass Houses by Rachel Caine.

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I didn't realize until I actually read the front cover of this book (probably actually the reason I bought it, who knows it was so long ago) that I have actually read the Weather Warden Series by this same author. Anyways on to this book. After struggling through Maine, all I wanted was a super short book I could just power through in a couple days. This definitely delivered. It was quick with just enough detail to keep me going. It is a teen book with vampires and ghosts, not really in the Twilight vein, which I liked. It's about "normal" teens living through normal things like bullies and work and college, with a little supernatural and some plot twists thrown in. I haven't decided yet if I liked it enough to read the next one, but it was so quick and easy, I will probably come back to this series later in the year when I need something quick to catch up, or unwind from book hangover.

The other book I finished last week was The Hollow from Hollow Trilogy by Jessica Verday.

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I was renewed after my quick read of Glass Houses, so I moved on to another teen supernatural book (are you noticing a pattern in my reading habits? If not you will soon :) ) that was on my shelf, but had never actually been read. It was also a surprisingly quick read even though it has nearly double the number of pages. This book uses the Sleepy Hollow legend, which was new and refreshing for me. I enjoyed this book until the end. I haven't decided yet if I'm ok with where she is taking the story, but again I'm sure I'll circle back to the second book later this year when I need something fast to read.

Have you read either of these books, or do you struggle with book hangovers?

Maine Book Review

So I decided to start a new blog series reviewing the books I read in 2013. I already kind of did this for "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" in this post. The second book I read this year was Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan.

Image from J. Courtney Sullivan's site

I love the beach, or maybe the coast is a better way to describe it... Being a Pacific NW girl I like the cold, choppy water and near constant wind, rolling in to rough sand and pebble beaches. Therefore I'm up for pretty much any beach themed book, which is what I was thinking when I picked this one up. The story is about four women, 3 generations in a traditional Irish Catholic family, with the main setting as the family beach house on Cape Neddick in Maine. 

I had a really hard time getting into this book. The character development was very good, which is normally what I struggle with in books I'm not instantly hooked by. The characters were just hard to like or root for. They are mostly very selfish and awful to each other. They each have a few redeeming moments, which helped me get to the end of the book, but it's not a book I will read again. This book was definitely a family portrait character study, in that the book really focused on the struggles of individual characters and the family dynamics between them. There was not a true over arching story line, and therefore not a strong ending to the book. 

This would be a good book for readers who enjoy character heavy books, and/or life like dramas/family portrayals.

Have you read Maine? What did you think?

Where did the weekend go?

I really don't know what to talk about this Monday. I finally finished reading my second book of the year yesterday, and am working on a review of it for Wednesday. I jumped into my third book last night as well since I started this challenge a little late and need to play some serious catch up.

Mostly I spent the weekend catching up on chores. The hubby and I did try a new movie theater this weekend though. It's another one of those fancy 21 and over movie theaters where you can order food and alcohol from your seat. We weren't super impressed with the food or the service, but we did like the movie. We saw the Last Stand with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Image from IMDB

 It was entertaining; funny, a little cheesy, a straight forward action movie with a few twists thrown in to keep you engaged. It was nothing ground breaking, but I'm glad to see Arnold back on the screen. Frankly I'm glad that Hollywood is starting to move toward more action comedies with older action stars, as opposed to the over the top straight action, or action dramas with all younger stars that have been popular for the last several years.

What did you guys do this weekend?

Weekly wrap up

Damnit autocorrect moment of the week: tried to tell my husband this sucks- autocorrected me to this tucks. Awesome...

Weekly wrap up:
How is it Friday? I swear time really does go faster as you get older. Any way... I definitely struggled a little trying to balance everything this week, as you can tell from my late posts. I'm still ploughing through my second book of the year and still haven't touched my own novel in weeks. I'm happy I'm staying on top of my blogging and workouts though.

How has your week been?

Adventures in Zumba and a new craft!

Sorry the post didn't make it up yesterday. I didn't finish it until late.

So Tuesday night was Zumba again. Thankfully there were no stair related incidents this time, but our Zumba teacher was out sick, so we had a sub. I was intrigued by the fact that is was a guy, but figured since it was only my second class that I should give it a shot. He was actually very good, other than the fact that he was killing me. His style was definitely more fast paced/high energy all the way through to the end, instead of last week's kind of up and down pace. The best part of last night though, was that the instructor looked exactly like a younger version of the master I used to take TaeKwonDo from. At least he did now that I haven't been to TaeKwonDo in 3 years.... Anyways the first time he kiyuped (sp? - the yelling noise made to channel energy in martial arts) to signal a change in movement, it was all over. I spent the rest of class trying not to burst out laughing, or die. We will see what next week's adventure will be. :)

I also completed a craft this week! I made an earring holder a couple months ago, and loved it so much I decided to make a necklace holder to go with. I have seen a couple ideas for them on Pinterest and a couple blogs over the last year or so, but apparently forgot to pin them. This is how I made mine: I found a 12" x 12" picture frame that was pretty close in color to my earring holder.

I then painted a design on the frame in silver acrylic paint so it would match a little closer to my other frame, which came with a silver design already painted on it. 

Next I took the backing- in this case a piece of 12" x 12" cardboard, though I'm sure you could use whatever backing came with your frame. I poured a couple tbsps of rubber cement (this amount with vary depending on how big your frame is) onto the cardboard and brushed it out to cover the entire piece of cardboard. I next took a piece of 12" x 12" cork and fitted it on top of the cardboard. I weighted this down with several heavy books while the glue dried and sealed the adhesion. Mine took about 10 minutes to dry.

I forgot to take a picture of this next step, but it's pretty simple. You can either leave this as is, or you can take a piece of fabric (in my case burlap) and cut it with a border large enough to allow you to wrap the fabric around the edges and glue to the back of the cork/backing piece. My cork was only about a 1/4 of an inch thick, so I made my square of fabric 13" x 13". I snipped the corners of the fabric in on a diagonal in each corner to make them lie flat. I then took my hot glue gun and glued the fabric to the back of the backing on all four sides.

Once the fabric was attached I fitted the cork and backing back into the frame. The frame I used has the bendable tabs. I would highly recommend using a frame with these to make it easier to fit this back into the frame.

After I put the frame back together I needed to choose my hangers. I have seen these made with thumb tacks and picture hangers, but I wanted something silver in color to match the surrounding design. I decided to go with thin finishing/picture hanging nails. I decided how far apart I wanted the nails based on how bulky most of my jewelry is (which is pretty much not bulky at all) so I made my nails just less than an inch apart. Because my backing was cardboard I was able to just push these nails through until I could just feel the tips reach the back. I don't recommend using anything too long, because you do want this to hang pretty flush with the wall. If your frame had a harder backing you may need a hammer or a screw gun for this step.

I placed the nails all along the top of the picture frame at mostly even intervals as I hate actually measuring things. I then hung the picture frame and started hanging my necklaces.

And this is my finished product! :) I love it! The only thing I think I'll change, is I think I'll add two more nails under the two I am using for bracelets so I can hang a couple more.

What do you think? Have you done any fun crafts lately, or had any weird flashbacks?

Monday Monday

Because I now have the Mamas and the Papas stuck in my head...

Sorry for the late post. How was your weekend everyone?

Mine was pretty busy. Friday night was girl's night out and I went to dinner and a movie with my mom and aunt. We went to dinner at Red Robin, so all was well and yummy. We were enjoying our time and conversation. We had decided that we were going to see Les Mis that evening, being that we're French and none of us have ever seen it before, this obviously needed to be rectified. I was check my clock before the first hour was up, not believing that not only did I still have another hour and a half of movie to watch, but that I was not enjoying it. AT. ALL. I kept thinking that Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, and Annie had not properly prepared me for a full 2 and half hours of straight singing. I am apparently not a musicals person. I kept feeling bad thinking that my mom and aunt were sitting there next to me enjoying the movie, while I was painstakingly counting down the minutes until it was over. As we were walking out, someone piped up to ask how we thought it was- and surprisingly we all hated it. It was too much singing, as in all the lines were sung, not just songs sung throughout between the spoken dialogue. And frankly if you don't know what the story is about going in, it's depressing. The best part though, I got to watch it again not 24 hours later....

So Saturday was my MIL's birthday. We went out to lunch, and then my SIL's present to my MIL was to buy her ticket to see Les Mis. I, unfortunately, had already said that I would go see it with them, and I have a weird compulsion that I HAVE to follow through on plans I make unless the other person changes them. So off I went to sit through this movie AGAIN only 16 hours later... And I have to say, it was better the second time around. I knew what to expect as far as the singing and the length. I also didn't feel bad about drinking my whole water and getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle, because I already knew what would happen. My MIL and SIL liked it significantly better than the rest of us, to each their own. They did agree with me though that it was a lot of singing, and a little awkward that not just the songs, but the lines were sung as well. We went to dinner afterwards, and then over to the in laws  to play Bang- which if you haven't played, I highly recommend it.

Have you seen any good movies lately? What did you think of Les Mis?

Weekly Wrap Up

So, I had my first belly dancing class on Wednesday night, since I'm on this health kick, and I thought it would be a fun way to exercise (Really I just wanted to learn how to belly dance). Anyways, it's a six week class, one night a week, about the fundamentals of belly dancing. I figured it would totally be something I could do, since I've always had pretty flexible hips. One thing I did not count on was needing to be able to move my arms and my hips at the same time while WALKING! Considering the fact that I almost fell down the stairs of my gym after Zumba on Tuesday, I'm not sure this is going to be pretty. Plus apparently my flexibility apparently does not extend from my shoulders to my elbows, and therefore when I try to do the pretty rolly move, it looks like I'm just failing my arms for help. It's the ultimate rub your belly while you pat your head kind of test, and so far I am FAILING. :) Luckily it was only week one, I have to get better from there, right?

For my weekly wrap up, the blogging is still going well, noveling is still pretty much non-existent. We'll see how it goes this afternoon. I did decide to add a new resolution to my list: read 100 books in 2013. I finished  "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" this morning as my first one. I think I'm going to start "Maine" for my second book by J. Courtney Sullivan.

Do you have any recommendations for me?