Anne McCaffrey, master of science fiction reading :)

Before I start today here's a picture of aki and her newest toy.. she has discovered paper bags :) now I cant throw it away cause that would just be mean.

Now onto todays book review... still no stitching done by me, just havent been in the mood.. I finished reading the harper hall trilogy by anne mccaffrey recently. I'll do all 3 at once because they were fairly small and very well connected. First thing I have to say is these books helped to spark my interests in reading, fantasy and science fiction many many years ago. The first time I read them I was in middle school and I can remember reading them a few times in middle school, then again in high school. They are some of the first books that I bought myself after I became an avid reader, and even now after so many years and having read them many times in the intervening years I still love them. I would recomend them to anyone who loves fantasy, dragons or science fiction (even though they aren't as science oriented as many other sci fi books) I would also recommend them if you are trying to get your child into reading. this particular trilogy in a series of many is often found in young adults section of book stores and is shorter than some of the others. Also the main characters of this trilogy are young adults themselves in their teens and becoming adults. Most of the people I have met that read this series found themselves wanting to read more, find out about the lives of other characters that were mentioned and have gone on to continue reading the books about PERN. anyway onto the review.


The first 2 books are about the same character, menolly. In the first book starts with a forward explaining a little back story. Basically it tells you that this world is in the saggitarian sector orbiting a G-type star with 4 other planets, a asteroid belt and a stray planet that was cought and held in an odd orbit. When humans colonized the world they didnt think anything about the stray planet because its orbit only brought it near the planet every couple hundred years. Turns out the red stray planet when it was close enough brought a spore like life form that ate its way through all organic life. The colonists took a lifeform that already existed on the planet resembling dragons of old earth and bred them to be big enough to be ridden. these "dragons" can go from one place to another instantly and can breath fire to burn the spores called thread out of the skies. these books take place many hundreds of years after the original colonists. the planet is called PERN.

the first book "Dragonsong" is about menolly who is the youngest daughter of a seaholder (a holder is the lord of the hold basically the leader, usually a strong willed individual since keeping panicking people calm during threadfall would be difficult, and also they would need to manage everything to do with life inside the hold which would be kinda like a town or village). Menolly is a bit tall and gangly to be a proper girl and she also spent alot of time with the holds harper. Harpers are basically the keepers of history and law. they use song to teach the young of their history, to teach also of duties to weyr (dragons and their riders reside in weyrs and protect the people from thread, in return the hold tithe food and goods to the weyrs) harper songs also are entertainment to some extent. The old harper encouraged menolly to write songs because she had a natural talent for music both in the singing/playing of it and in writing songs that were educational and catchy. Unfortunately harpers were traditionally male so when the old harper sent her songs back to the harper hall as his appprentices work he didnt tell them she was a she nor did he ever name her by name. After the old harpers death while waiting for the new harper Menolly finds herself at odds with her father. He allows her to teach the children their lessons only to keep the children from falling behind but forbids her to play any of her own songs for fear that the fact she is female will bring shame to the hold and to his family. One morning while hunting for seaweed she stumbles upon a fire lizard (small creatures that look like the large dragons and thought to be a myth) trying to save her nest of eggs from the unusually high tide. having fallen down into the cove where the nest is the little fire dragon queen wouldnt let her out till she helped move the eggs to a cave higher up. Menolly finds herself writing a song about the little queens plight and later she accidentally finds herself humming a new verse to the song earning herself a belt lashing from her father which makes her feel more and more alienated from her family. Eventually she cuts herself gutting fish and while its never specifically stated you get the feeling they let the cuts heal wrong to prevent her from playing. About this time the new harper arrives and her family does their best to insure she never sings in his prescence fearing he will figure out she taught the children their lessons, sending her on errands to keep her away from him and pinching her every time she starts to sing. She starts to leave the hold early in the mornings and one day finds herself out as thread starts falling.The nearest shelter to her at the time is the cave where the fire lizards eggs are which she manages to barely get to in time. Here she accidentally impresses (forming a bond with) 9 of the little lizard. She decides to live in the cave with her new friends who provide her with the companionship she missed at home instead of returning home. Then one day she is out when thread fall starts and as she is attempting to run to safety is rescued by a dragon and taken to the weyr where she is discovered by the masterharper who it turned out had harpers out looking all over pern for her. The book ends with her being taken to the harper hall as an apprentice.

Now for the second book "dragon singer". I won't need to tell as much detail for this story because its basically just a continuation of the first. It starts with her arrival at the harper hall. She is put with the girls in a cothold (which I guess is just basically a freestanding house inside the compound) Unfortunately she finds herself at odds with these girls for several reasons. 1st she has 9 fire lizards and had been living holdless for several weeks. leaving her less polished than the other girls. the girls are also afraid of the fire lizards.2nd the girls are not apprentices they are being fostered of sorts, they are just there to learn for a while and then will go home. Menolly is and apprentice and the girls don't think she belongs in their home. this book is basically Menolly finding her place in the new life she finds herself in. Finding new friends mainly Piemur (who is more important later) and becoming comfortable in the fact the things she was forbidden to do in the past she is now encouraged to do. This fact doesn't really sink in till later. The impression she made with the fire lizards is a bit telepathic and a bit empathic, fire lizards are quite as intelligent as the dragons so they don't think in sentences and language as such more feel things. there was an incident with a dragon and his rider (explained in a different book, which I can't recall off the top of my head) and since she has 9 lizards to feel off of she wakes screaming in terror that they were feeling. Later that day during thread fall she finds herself subconsiously creating a song about the cry she heard through the lizards in that moment of terror. She turns around thinking she should write it down she finds the journeyman in charge of her training writing it down as she sang it. At this point it sinks in for her that things really have changed for her. this book ends with her becoming a journeymany and much more secure in her new life and roll.

The third book "dragondrums" isnt really about Menolly but about her friend Piemur and his coming of age. In the second book Piemur is the first friend she makes in the harper hall, he is young and mischievious but not malicious. He is an apprentice to the voice master because of his clear high-pitched voice. he also is very good at the technical aspects of singing till one day his voice breaks as happens to boys during puberty. he is 14 turn (years) old when this happens. this book is about his coming of age of sorts. After his voice breaks he is apprenticed to the master harper because of his ability to put together clues from around him. His job is basically to listen for changes and things going on around him due to conflict going on in other areas. Since noone is suppose to know about this duty of his he is passed off as a drum apprentice. He very quickly finds himself at odds with the other drum apprentices because of his past reputation and his ability to learn quickly and well. The fact that anytime the master harper or his journeymen need a messenger they always ask for him does not help the situation. He has a strong wish for a fire lizard of his own leads him into trouble. He discovers during a mission for the master harper that a holder is passing green fire lizard eggs (which tend to either be all green or not hatch) off as queen lizard eggs, steals a queen egg and accidentally gets sent to the southern continet in a smuggled batch of goods to the weyr of banished dragons and their riders. He escaped and finds himself lost and wandering the southern continent. Eventually the egg hatches at which point he and his queen firelizard start to go towards the friendly hold, finding along the way a baby runnerbeast he names stupid. Eventually he ends up at the hold at the same time Menolly and Sebald(the other journeyman) arrived hoping to find him. This book ends up with Piemur getting his journeymans badge as a drummer (these drums are huge man sized drums used to send messages from place to place) and finding a home on the southern continent. The southern holder accepted him because he had managed to live through 3 threadfalls without shelter marking him as southern continent material..

As usual reading these books has left me with a desire to read more. the world of pern is a very engaging and enthralling world. the books are written in a manner that grabs you and doesn't let you go even after you've finished reading it. Even though I've read it many times I found myself thinking that it couldnt be the I needed more. so now I've picked up another pern book. I am currently reading The chronicles of PERN: first fall. its a book of 5 short stories involving this world of pern. The first story of which is the original survey of the planet before it was colonized.

On a random end note I was showing my southern roots today after work. Went to the diner across the street from my house and had a good southern breakfast. Steak and eggs.. mmmmm good my steak was medium well (closer to medium rare than medium well) eggs sunny side up, gotta love the runny yolk of the egg especially when you dip your steak in it. Grits with enough butter and sugar to kill a horse, I'll admit I'm a southern girl and eat my grits with lots of sugar and butter on them. and buttery toast with jelly.. I don't think it fit into my supposed low fat diet and now I kinda need a nap.

Leaping lizards

Here's a random funny short work story for you all. We were all laughing for quite a while afterwards.

Here in southern Louisiana one of the things we have in abundance is lizards, both big ones (crocs) and the little lizard, and sometimes they manage to get into your house, car etc. There's been a few mornings I've had to catch and release a few before starting my day, I'm a bit country and lizards don't really phase me frogs neither. spiders are a different story one of those get into the building and you are so on your own cause I'm running for the hills. Anyway as I was getting close to the end of my day I notice all the girls in the kitchen running and cowering, while the owner is obviously trying to sweep something.I go out into the kitchen to figure out what is going on and turns out that she's chasing a lizard with the broom. thats kinda funny cause she picked the broom with the softest bristles so she wasn't actually accomplishing anything just basically chasing it from corner to corner.. Yes I quit laughing long enough when they chased it under the salad table to catch it. Everybody was first shocked because I just went right up to it and then amazed at how quickly I caught it. They were almost as freaked out that I caught the thing as they were about it being in the building. Now I'm known as the go to person to catch those mean little lizards.. LOL poor thing was as scared of them as they were of it. unfortunately it wasnt one of the cute little pinkish ones we often find, just one of the semi ugly brown ones. If I had let them continue chasing the thing they would have been at it all week with that soft broom, I'm not sure if they were trying to kill it or catch it in the dust pan, neither of which would have worked but were definately kinda funny. I know its been hours but I'm still snickering under my breath about it, almost as much because of their reaction to me catching it as their reaction to the lizard itself.

UNRULY!!!

Heres a few pictures of my unruly collection of books that I am currently trying to read my way through.

the mostly empty one is where I'm moving ones I've read.. although the top shelf is ones I know I'm not gonna get rid of but haven't read yet. top shelf has my christine feehan dark series and jayne castle harmony/st helens series basically. the bottom shelves are mostly pic albums and cross stitch. this is probably the cleanest part of the collection.

Unfortunately this is my only built in bookshelf, if I ever get enough money I'll probably have several built into my dining nook area. the top half is most fantasy including all my Pern, anita blake, sookie stackhouse, merry gentry and most of my books about dragons. the bottom behind the doors is a hodgepodge of books that mostly havent been read. ( I buy alot of books sometimes in grabboxes and used bookstores and mail clubs.)

these 2 are of the catch all desk in the front room. currently it acts as a storage space for the books I'm planning on reading soon..

I love this thing I have 3 of them one of which I use as my night table. they have a hard top and 4 shelves just perfect sized for paperbacks, I usually put the ones I don't read as often. the 1st 2 pics are the one in the living room the 2nd 2 pics are of the one in the bedroom. I mostly keep my old romance novels in it. I went through a phase in high school where I subsribed to 3 or 4 different mail in clubs that sent me romance novels every month..

The next is a cabinet in the bedroom, I have an identical cabinet in my closet but it actually has something other than books in it. :)

My night stand also has books in it..

Even my entertainment center has books. I have my harry potter and magical creature books with the gargoyles bookends. this also has my harry potter movies. the taller shelf has my mangas that are also animes mostly Inuyasha, petshop of horrors, ranma 1/2, FAKE and fruits basket

Random drawers and stacks.. I have books every freaking where...

And just for random funsies... here is Aki faceplanting into her scratch box... apparently she really likes the little bit of catnip that I sprinkle onto it every now and again

Today at work I actually forgot to mix my first batch of bread.. I went on and started my things I usually do while waiting for it to rise and when I came back to check on the dough there was nothing there. I really think I need a few days off. The last few weeks have been crazy 4 weeks in a row I made over-time. one of those weeks I made a whole day and then some over. I usually work 6 to 6 1/2 hour days 6 days aweek and that week I had 8 hours overtime. this week I'm working an 11 day stretch it was originally suppose to be a 12 day stretch but we are in the middle of switching my sunday baker and my old one wanted saturday off so my new one is gonna work friday. Its a bit confusing even to me.

I'm trying to decide which book I'm gonna start when I finish "dragondrums" I'm trying to choose between "the elvenbane" by andre norton, "orphans of the sky" by robert heinlein, "dark descendant" by jenna black, "dreamsnake" by vonda n McIntyre, or "you slay me" by katie MacAlister.. any requests? If anyone sees a book in the collection that they would be interested in me reading and reviewing let me know and I'll move it into my next to read pile. :)

Massive Brain cramp!!! and book reviews

I had to laugh at myself at work today, it was either that or cry while banging my head against the wall. :P I bake buns at a restaraunt for a living. I don't know if any of you have ever baked in a commercial setting but it can be a bit complicated in the steps. Takes about an hour and a half just to bake one batch of bread and I do at least 6 a day. So anyway I get to my last batch do the first couple of steps and when I get to the second to last step I just randomly spaz out. We have this machine called a humidifier that we use to rise the bread for a second time before putting them in the oven. the machine uses water and heat to create a warm humid space to rise. Instead of putting them in the humidifier I put them in the oven.. Talk about PANIC!! I quickly grabbed them out of the oven and prayed it was quick enough.. luckily the owner let them pass cause I didnt really didnt want to spend another 1 1/2 hours at work.. It was kinda funny yet definately severly panic inducing.

On a different note I've finished a couple more books since my last post, I'm steadily working my way through the utter chaos that is my book collection. When I say my collection is unruly I am putting it mildly :) I've always been a reader. unfortunately with the discovery of computer games and the internet I don't spend as much time reading as I use to. Last time I actually counted my books i had just a little over 3000, its been about 13 years and tons of book sales since then.

the first book I finished is one from a new author (Delilah S Dawson) called "Wicked as they Come" here's a link to the blog of this author http://delilahpaints.blogspot.com/p/books.html .This book falls into the paranormal romance genre. In case you haven't noticed I have a fondness for suprenatural/fantasy/horror type books. This book is a vampire/steam punk/ dimension traveling story and is the first part of a new series. In the story the heroine Tish Everett wakes up in an alternate dimension after accidently stealing a locket. Turns out the locket had a spell on it to bring the heros perfect lover to him. the hero criminy stain is a blud man which in the other world is basically a vampire that can either be made or born (criminy was born). This other world use to have a balance use to have a balance between the blud (there are also blud animals) and the non blud often called pinkys. The locket takes her from world to the other till someone steals it from her while she was sleeping. the two set out on a quest to get it back and end up uncovering a plot to kill all the blud in the world. Of course being a romance in the end she falls in love with him. But during their journey they meet many other characters including ghost that save trish, then tries to trap her in the ghost place of death because she was lonely. The steam punk bit comes in with moving vehicles (the old kind that you have to crank the engine) dirigables, and clockwork animals that act as guards, messagers and companions. this was definately and interesting read and I hope to see more from this author.

The second book I read was Grave Witch by Kalayna price. this book is a fantasy book. It was an excellent book I picked it up when I got home from work yesterday and finished it the same day. Its a bit reminiscent of the anita blake universe but not enough to be a unimaginative. this book is the first in the alex craft series and I will definately be getting the next few soon. In this book the Fae were declining and so decided to come out to the world.soon after witches come out also. The story is about alex craft who is a grave witch, someone who call shades (not ghosts) and see the world of the dead. shades are more just the memory of the person who died, the soul isnt actually present. Alex starts the story by losing a client to death, whom she can actually see and is on good terms with (apparently death is a good looking man who looks fantastic in jeans). Then she agrees to a job for her estranged sister, gets shot at and saved by death. The police believe the attempted shooting is in connection to a case in which she will raise a shade for court (which she hopes will get her a permanent consultation with the police). this starts several days of kidnapping attempts, run ins with fae out to kill her and much time spent with a detective who acts like he hates her but keeps trying to keep her safe. the case for her sister ends up getting her involved with a body snatching fae, the ghost of the body he was in when he was murdered, the detective who turns out to be fae who is an undercover FIB (fae investigation bureau), and a fae that tries to enslave her. I was really intrigued by her grave sight, which is how she sees the shades she raises. basically its a second sight type thing where she can magically look into the land/realm of death. When she uses this she sees everything as a dead decayed world, but she can also see under fae glamor when using it. Unfortunately using it comes at a price of her normal sight, any time she uses it afterwards she has trouble seeing and if she uses too much power she can be almost blind afterwards. here is the website for this one
http://www.kalayna.com/alexcraft.html . If you enjoyed the anita blake, sookie stackhouse or merry gentry series you will most likely love this book. Its very well written and once I started reading it I just couldnt put it down till I finished, and it left me wanting more. the world was very vivid to me.

I also finished reading two smaller books but they are part of a trilogy and I'll most likely review them when I read the 3rd one. Its anne mccaffery's harper hall trilogy that I've always loved. I was wondering if I should continue reviewing the books as I read my way through the collection? and is anyone interested in pictures of how unruly the collection is?

darkborn and new kitty

Still no stitching done by me but lately I've been trying to read through my book collection.. :P I currently have 3 going ( I think, its entirely possible that i have other going that I will remember when I find them) but I just finished one called "darkborn" by alison sinclair. This was an unexpected find, was one of those dollar store impulse buys. The story is apart of a trilogy and now I must get the next two. The story takes place in a world divided by a curse. the curse called Imogenes curse has divided the people into two kinds Darkborn who are blind and will burn and die in the sunlight and the lightborn who can see but sicken and die in the darkness. Before you think its about vampires cause of the burning in sunlight thing its actually not. the darkborn are born sightless and use something call Sonn to "see" their environment I guess sonn is kinda like a magical version of sonar(they can actually see colors and such), their other senses are stronger. The lightborn are sighted but their other senses aren't as strong as the darkborns. Darkborn fear and shun magic while the lightborn use it freely. Instead of magic darkborn use preindustrial technology. the book takes place in a city where the two live side by side. the hero of the story is a darkborn doctor who one morning takes in a pregnant darkborn woman from his past just before sunrise offering her sanctuary from the sun. this action leads him and his family into danger when people come seeking the babies born. there is kidnapping, attempted murders, and other dangerous happenings. In the end the doctor and his wife are drawn into saving not only their own family but part of the darkborn nobility uncovering a danger to everyone darkborn and lightborn alike from the shadowlands. I actually enjoyed this book even though i don't usually enjoy books set in the preindustrial or victorian type setting. On a more personnal note I took in a stray that was hanging around our laundry room. I've never owned a female cat before but she was just so sweet and loving for a stray that I just couldnt let her starve. She was all bones when I took her in. I named her Aki (the japanese word for autumn) because her coloring kinda reminds me of fall, falling leaves and halloween. this is her in this picture : She adores me apparently. she has to scent mark me anytime I've been out of the house, tries to pull me out of the shower (apparently the shower scares her, she cries and tries to pull anypart of me that gets to close to the edge out) She also likes to lay on my chest and stare at me from the end of my nose when I try to sleep. Although I have to admit my favorite thing that she has done to bring a smile to my face so far is one night I woke up and she was using my knee as a pillow. Woke up with a stiff knee the next morning but it was the kinda thing I missed about having a pet. book total currently at sell/get rid of 6 and keep 15 (collection not really getting smaller)

Back from the dead and OMG BOOKS!

Its been a while since I've posted anything. I haven't stitched since april (sad sad). I didnt stitch in April, may and early june because my airconditioner was broke. Here in louisiana it gets hot early so for all of may and part of june I was all sweaty all the time and I hate getting sweat on my stitch projects. Then I hurt my hand and by the time it healed I was doing other things, trying to clean house for one (bleh). a Short stint trying to lose weight (yeh that didnt succeed) and again I have started trying read/ sort my way through my book collection. BOOK COLLECTION!! is freaking huge. I didnt realize how unruly my books had gotten till I decided to read and inventory it. I have 2 free standing book cases, one built in book case, a cabinet with doors, and 3 plastic drawer things I got from bed and bath all with books in them.. thats not counting the stack in the bathroom the stack in the living room (I collected most of my current readings into one stack) the stack of books on the floor from the boxes of books my dad sent me.. I started this project last year and got distracted by the internet :P since I may have a fracture in my hand ( i bent it weird and it feels just like it did when I broke my finger, both times) I wont be doing the stitching I planned on I'll try to read a few more books. I did manage to read a few since my last review, and I even found 5 books that were doubles that went into the ebay/get rid of stack, and found one that I could even bring enough interest to start reading. I read a few that I decided to keep. the most recent 2 I finished (this weekend as a matter of a fact) the last 2 I finished were actually by the same author and part of a series of 4 Author: kathleen nance and series is her Djinn series. the series is about a race of people from a separate world called Kaf. They are Djinn and their world is full of magic (called Ma-at)Kaf is separate of earth but I guess its kinda parallel. These books are some of the beginings of the paranormal romance genre. the series are about various Djinn that find their mates(lovers) on earth. I read the 1st - "wishes come True" which use to be one of my favorites when I was younger. After reading it again for the first time in years I remembered why I enjoyed these books. The summary is basically a single mother who does not believe in magic or wishing (every wish she has ever mad ended very badly for her) at the prodding of her neighbor who is a very good friend and her 9 year old daughter accidentally summons a bound Djinn by reading a spell from a book. She only reads the spell to prove to her daughter that magic and Djinn aren't real when a naked, good-looking man appears out of nowhere. Of course she thinks its a prank till she accidently makes a wish and he grants it. He spends the whole book trying to get her to make her last 2 wishes (basically he has to be summoned 101 times to earn his freedom, because he was bound into slavery and she is number 90something) she refuses to wish. There are other problems going on during this time, a business rival trying to ruin her and an ex husband that just randomly shows up after 9 years of being gone. of course you know it had a happy ending but I wont tell you what it is.. you'll have to read it to find out. I also read the 4th ( i read it first then remembered it was part of a series) this one is titled "spellbound" unlike the first the Djinn in this one isn't bound, he comes to earth voluntarily looking for his mate. He has been having trouble with his magic and as minstrel for his world his ma-at needs to be in control. As minstrel he helps control the flow of ma-at on kaf and so he did a divining to look for his mate. the woman in this one is leery of his interest because as the daughter of a famous singer she's been used before. He spends most of the book alternating between seducing her and trying to find her stepfather who has a half of a stone tablet that used to belong to the djinns grandmother. the woman is trying to find her stepfather because her boss wants to interview him and if she can get him to agree she can keep her job. anyway Ive rambling on enough and my hand kinda hurts so I will go away now :)I think 'll play a computer game and finish reading my current book. currently reading "viking Tempest" by ashland price, "daughter of the blood" by anne bishop and "darkborn" by alison sinclair. the current totals are ebay/get rid of - 6 keep - 14

ISHW and tusal

here's my late ISHW and my late TUSAL all at one time. I actually did not get much stitching done this weekend, it's been a blah kind of month, but I did get a few stitches in this weekend I may actually finish rose drama sometime this year

very late WIPocalypse

I'm so bad, my WIPocalypse post is so very very late. :( I didn't do much stitching this month I di work on drama rose a little.

heres before




and after: I worked a little on the last few leaves and on the vase, the vase is probably gonna take a while the stitches are so far apart in places and theres quite a bit of outlining to be done in couching..

HAHA I've used some of these

Found this while using stumbleupon and thought Id share not only cause its funny but cause scarily enough I've actually used some of them either as they are or in some variation


http://marvin.cs.uidaho.edu/~heckendo/usefulPhrases.html here is the website where I found it

Some Useful Condescending Phrases
Some useful phrases to use as an Evil Overlord as given by Steve Meredith. These humorous cuts were originally listed as useful phrases to use around work but they probably only work well if you are a Evil Overlord(TM).

1.Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.
2.The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
3.I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.
4.Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
5.I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't care.
6.I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.
7. What am I? Flypaper for freaks!?
8.I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.
9.I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.
10.I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.
11.It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.
12.Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
13.No, my powers can only be used for good.
14.How about never? Is never good for you?
15.I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to worship me.
16.You sound reasonable...Time to up my medication.
17.I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.
18.I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...
19.I don't work here. I'm a consultant.
20.Who me? I just wander from room to room.
21.My toys! My toys! I can't do this job without my toys!
22.It might look like I'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level I'm really quite busy.
23.At least I have a positive attitude about my destructive habits.
24.You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.
25.I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.
26.Someday, we'll look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject.



I've use 3, 5, 9, 12, 14,16, 18, 20 and 23. some more often than others, I'll have to admit Iv use 9 (duct tape one) and 12 (about being satan's agent, or sometimes just satans spawn) and 18 (being out of my mind) frequently

Liebster blog award

:) I recieved a Liebster blog award from Nikki over at Nikki's stitching http://nikkisstitching.blogspot.ca/ which made me smile (considering not to long ago I don't think anyone had ever even read my blog little alone liked it). I did wait a few days before really looking at it cause I just have been kinda bleh lately, between the sore neck, which actually feels better now, thanks to everyone who wished me well. and just plain being stressed and bleh at work.







Liebster is a German word, meaning favorite, dearest or beloved, and the Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to spread the word and help the new(er)bies gain wider recognition. The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting:

1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.

2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.

4. Share five random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

I am not sure if any of the blogs I picked have gotten this already or not, but if so, that just means you are extra special!


for the five I've chosen to give the award to ( hard to decide which ones cause most of my favorites have very large followings already:

1. cat-ladders http://catladder.blogspot.com/ - cause I just love anything with pictures of cats

2. stitching under the sea http://stitchingunderthesea.blogspot.com/ I really love some of the pieces she's working on

3. to food with love http://tofoodwithluv.blogspot.com/ because it has lots of recipes that I want to eventually try cooking YUM!!


4. rahenna at crafty rahenna http://rahenna.blogspot.com/ she's working on such intricate and ineresting projects
and

5. anime stitching blog at http://animestitching.blogspot.com/ what better combination than cross stitching and anime?


and for 5 random facts about me?

1. in highschool I once learned to dance the bunnyhop for an assembly (oh the things friends will talk you into)

2. I believe shoes and bras were created by evil people that hated others :P

3. I have huge calf muscles do to the fact I walk alot ( once had a body builder amazed at them in relation to the rest of my build)

4.I moved to lousiana to volunteer at the alexandria zoo. which I did for a year.

5. volunteered at the lafayette science museum for several months during which the titanic exhibit was shown. (I love museums)

TUSAL march

here's my late TUSAL for march. I know shame on me for being so late but it was just one of those weeks. Sore neck although its feeling a little better now, hard week at work etc etc. :) for most of the month I worked on mai but i did get a little done on snow white, and started working on rose drama. Hopefully I'll get a little more done this upcoming week

March IHSW after

I didnt get much done for IHSW this time around. I worked fri and sat and planned on stitch sunday , but ended up pulling something in my neck. Looking down hurts quite a bit so not much stitching got done. I did add a little bit of greens and browns. a tiny bit of blues above the roof.











hopefully my neck will quit hurting and I'll be able to stitch soon. :)

March IHSW before

It's the 3rd weekend of the month which means its ISHW again :). I'm working on snow white discovers the cottage again for this months weekend. Here's my before picture .




I'm looking forward to stitching for the weekend and then seeing everyone's progress come monday

WIPocalypse # 3 March

For this month I actually only worked on one project, Mai. I got alot done but didnt finish it as I had hoped, but made alot of progress, finishing the bottom half and quite a bit of the background (which is probably the hardest part)




http://www.flickr.com/photos/30249625@N05/6819359296/in/photostream/


on an related note and probably slightly nuerotic (which I admit I can be). something that has always driven me absolutely crazy is vegetarians who eat fish. I mean really? fish are an animal too ya know how can you claim to not eat meat if you eat an animals. When I first moved to louisiana the catholics kept trying to convince me that eating fish during lint because it wasnt an animal and I kept saying but it is an animal.. LOL eventually someone just decided to tell me that its land animals that they can't eat during lint. but the vegetarian thing drives me absolutely nutters.. I think between being a nutter and taking to many science classes during school that I can be just to literal.

Rant over

some giveaways

Everyone seems to be in a giving mood:) theres a few giveaways goin right now and since I'm home all day I'm catching up on my blog reading cause the last few days I haven't read much. Since I'm reading and catching up thought I'd list a few of the give aways going right now. I'll probably be adding to the list as I stumble into them.

As always victorian motto has several giveaways going so I just put the blog here instead of listing all of them.
http://victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.com/


Rahenna is giving away some of her finished patterns which I think is a great idea. Maybe I'll do this when I finish some of my current projects
http://rahenna.blogspot.com/2012/02/stitch-share-giveaway.html

There's a great giveaway at whispers of autumn. No stitch items involved but who doesn't like chocolate?
http://thewhispersofautumn.blogspot.com/2012/02/time-to-giveaway-more-chocolate.html

february TUSAL

Its time for TUSAL again, and I got quite a bit done this month. :) heres my jar this month, and I turned it sideways in the hope that the little handles would show. I still havent found a bigger jar but I did buy another jar of the mandarin oranges so I will probably just use that one when this one fills.



here's my current project. I'm currently working on Mai (shes an oriental lady). today I'm working on the lazy daizys, I only have 4 more to do then I' probably finish outlining the Obi part of her outfit

Monday, mardis gras and Kimono!

Bleg mondays, why exactly is there a monday? I couldnlt sleep so of course I'm really tired, the delivery guys (they deliver our stuff in the middle of the night with noone to supervise them) blocked every conceivable door and walkway, making getting started this morning a pain. Bleh I hate mondays really I do.

an I forgot to post a pic of the kimono pattern I got with my last post so here it is for nicola who wanted a better look at it.





And tomorrow is mardis gras which kinda sucks. Everyone will either be crazy or drunk by the time I leave work which will make going anywhere in this town dangerous. Everyone starts partying early early and parties till late late, there has been years where everyone has partyied till like 2 or 3 in the morning. I'm just glad that I no longer live on the parade route which is where the worst of the partying goes on, especially downtown and by cajunfield (which usually has the fair every year) but on the upside, mardis gras day marks the end of the parades and life will start getting somewhat normal wednesday, well as normal as it gets here in louisiana :P ... here in louisiana their is a festival somewhere every weekend and we don't let things like rain stop us .

February IHSW

Its sunday evening and i"m going to bed soon so I thought I'd post my IHSW for this weekend. I actually had a very productive weekend this month. So snow white was my project for the weekend and this was the before pic:



and after stitching fri, sat and today this is what it looks like now. I'm actually starting to see shapes, its the cottage in the seen and part of the tree.

a little too much ebay :)

I've been at the ebay again :P. ive recieved my last 2 lots of ebay purchases which included quite a bit of loot. I got:

lots of kits and patterns, I think the one I really wanted was the Kimono greeting card.












a bit of of fabrics, which I'm glad to have gotten because I have patterns that either require different colors or that I think would just look better on different colors.










I also ordered some stuff from polstitches.com and 123stitch so that I could start Joan Elliots "fire goddess" Some of the specialty items are really hard to find like the kreinik blending filaments and millhill seed beads.



of course I also got a grab bag of fabric just cause I could.





Really I should quit spending so much time on the computer shopping.

IHSW february

whoo hoo that time of the month again,, IHSW (what did you think I meant?) Its friday afternoon I'm off work for the day with only 1 more day till my day off and getting ready to start stitching. I think for the weekend I'm going to concentrate on Snow white. :) so of course here is my before the weekend picture:




hoping to get enough stitching done so that something in the picture can be identified :)

cross stitch, legos, trade and insane ramblings

This weekend I got a little stitching done but not much. so far this year I've been rotating my larger WIP between WIPocaplypse postings. For januarys posting i worked on drama rose, februarys post was Mystical wizard, and this month I'm working on Mai. I got in a few stitches here and there, mostly blues, blacks and greys. But I did put in a few brown, red and cream. This is the before picture



and this is the after picture:



I've been thinking of possibly offering some of my cross stitch patterns for trade. I buy quite a bit of things from ebay so I always end up with leaflets and patterns that I will never stitch, usually I put them up on ebay but If people are interested I might put them up for trade here instead. Anyone possibly interested? I tend to prefer patterns involving Cats, halloween, gothic and mystical things(mermaids, fairys, unicorns etc)And oddly enough castles and scenes of historical buildings. It seems I always end up with an excess of christmas (which I'm not overly fond of) baby things, samplers , dogs (which I'm actually scared of) cutesy etc. If I did this it would be an even swap type thing, basically pattern for pattern (not necessarily same size) leaflet for leaflet, magazine for magazine type thing. Whats everyone think?

this weekend I broke the legos back out and started sorting again. Years ago i had my legos stored in a couple of rubbermaids and a repair man that was working on the window apparently stole one of the rubbermaids. Boy was I pissed. luckily I had them in 2 different ones and the second one had the instructions so I only lost several hundred dollars worth of legos and not the instructions. Anywho I started going on ebay and buying lots of legos to try to get the lost ones back because most of the sets were disontinued . now i have lots of legos and always end up with instructions too so I started sorting them and then put them away then started sorting again. Basically what I do is is take out an instruction set go thru all the different legos, put all the pieces I have for each set in a ziploc with instruction and then list what I need to complete. Eventually when I have all the sets complete and put together I'll sell the excess on ebay. so thats what I did this weekend instead of stitching.

and as for the insane part of the title I had to laugh at myself because yet again I found myself wondering about stupid things. This morning it was eating habits. One of the girls at work is a vegetarian and I sometimes find myself wondering why people do that? Don't get me wrong I don't condemn people for being vegetarians or even vegans, I think thats one of those things that people should decide for themselves. i just wonder why sometimes and my brain is weird so the wonderings go something like this,,, (yes you'll probably laugh):

why not eat meat? are bodies are meant to be omnivores so we must need all the diff foods. where do vegetarians get there needed protein? what other food other than meat and beans provide protein and iron we need? why do we eat things we don't digest? I mean really peanuts? ( yeah I ate a whole bag of peanuts yesterday) my body doesnt digest peanuts and now I have sore bottom from eating peanuts. And hey why does my body put them back together after I eat them? I know I chewed the damn things. which leaves me to try to chew them even more the next time I eat them. And corn why does corn taste so good only to not be digested? MMM corn I think I need to buy some corn sounds really good, corn on the cob even better. Wonder how my bosses finger is doing? she really should have paid more attention when using the slicer (she cut off a big chunk of finger working the slicer at work sat, and really why when thinking about vegetarians do I end up thinking about my bosses bloody finger?) Oh hey cough drop!!

and know you know why I call it insane ramblings.. following the finding of the cough drop I went wondering thru the store looking for a soup ladle that I had forgot to put in the soup when I made it. I swear sometimes I think my mind has a mind of its own

Its time to hope for patience

It's that time of the year again, time to hope and pray for patience and wish I had some sedatives to stay calm. Signs that that time has come again?

1.)The mobile police stations are out (we have these little trailers that the police dept parks and uses as stations).
2.)the stupid metal barricades are in the middle of the streets
3.) we now have RVs and tents set up in parking lots along the main roads.
4.)There's a large influx of tourists camping out in the middle of town and the hotels are full to max capacity
5.) Everybody Locals and Tourists alike are all wearing stupid jester hats and lots of gold, green and purple. and the plastic beads are crazy.
6.)the drunks good lord the drunks are all over the place. Everyone starts partying early

Now what time of the year could it possibly be you wonder? The opening parade of mardis gras. Grant me patience not to kill, maim or just plain go crazy on someone for the next week and a half.!? Here in louisiana Mardis gras is a big thing, and in lafayette where I live we have like the 3rd biggest mardis gras, which has gotten bigger because of the year all the hurricanes hit. that particular year there was so much damage in new orleans and baton rouge that more people mardi gras'd here and some still come back and some people never moved back to new orleans. For the next week and a half the phrase "lassaiz le bon temp roulier" (translates as "let the good times roll") is never more true.

And to top it off 2 years ago apparently I almost died. mardis gras day my boyfriend of the time (who broke up with me the weekend before thanksgiving last year) took me to the hospital to get an IV because I hadnt held down any fluids in 3 days , we didnt actually expect the doctors to be able to do anything else do to the fact none of the other times I'd gone to the hospital for that pain they had no clue. Turns out my gal bladder had completely failed, just cramped up and couldnt do anything and thats why I kept vomiting. when they ultra sounded me I had an almost solid mass of stone (20 years worth of unpassed gall stones that they couldnt diagnose) and what was stones was fluid (mostly puss apparently) Doctor said If I'd waited 24 more hours I would have died and that they hoped they could get it out without busting it, was very inflamed. It was bad enough that even though though the surgery was usually an out patient type surgery they kept me and extra day ( I spent a total of 2 nights and 2 1/2 days in the hospital cause they were worried about the fact my white blood count was very high.) So this time of the year I get a little morose and thinking about my mortality and a little depressed (I'm prone to depression anyway) and single. Bah I really need patience to get me through this.

Now that I've ranted and raved I'm gonna sort the lovely new batch of legos I just got from ebay

february WIPocalypse

this month I actually got quite a bit done. As my main already started WIP I chose Mystical wizard, I had already sorted him out and actually stitched some but had to pull them out so there is no real start pic. I did all the stitching this month.




I got a new one that wasnt on my list but had to start it anyway that was called snow white discovers the cottage. I hope that it will be gorgeous when its done.






I also started and finished 2 small starts, one was a stacked jack o lanterns bookmark and a small frog ornie. pictures of these two are on the finished page.

I'm going to have to rework my original WIPocalypse list so here it goes


previous WIP
1.) rose drama
2.) mystic wizard
3.) universal unity
4.) water dragon
5.) Mai
6.) gingerbread boy --- finished

new starts
1.) snow white discovers the cottage
2.)summer tree fairy (started but didn't get far

planned starts
1.) fire goddess by joan elliot
2.) garfield I won't shine
3.) haunted hotel (autumn series mill hill)
4.) haunted mansion (autumn series mill hill)


finishes
1.)gingerbread boy ornie
2.)my pad frog ornie
3.) stack o lanterns bookmark

snow white and a movie weekend

today was my day off and for a change I had someone working who already knew what they were doing and didnt have to call me every 10 minutes.. Was really nice. Spent the whole day working on "snow white discovers the cottage" and I think I got a pretty good amount done. the design now has some greys, tans and plenty of greens in it. and a bit more browns. I've decided to start a page for this design and will be adding pics whenever I work on the design.



this weekend I also watched 2 movies. Friday I went to the theater (which happens to be real close to my house, practically next door, only has a cemetary between the 2) and watched "the woman in black". I found this to be worth the money. It was a very creepy movie with lots of startles in it, you know what I mean unexpected little things that make you jump and possibly scream. :) speaking of screaming not far from me in the theater was what sounded like a trio of preteen girls that screamed at all the proper moments which made everyone else jump and scream to.

I also got "planet of the apes" from netflix so finally got to see that one. I was a little worried it might not be good cause the one from a few years back was kinda iffy, it wasnt bad but wasnt great either (the one from a few years back). but this one was pretty good I think. I enjoyed it and will probably watch it again before sending it back

stashings and a bit of kinkade

Got more stuff from ebay :) boy is my stash growing this year.I also took a shopping trip this week.





I got my taxes in the other day so I decided to treat myself to some cross stitch goodness, so I went to hobby lobby and michaels and did a little shopping. I dont often go to michaels because they downsized their needlework section so much. I found a couple of cute patterns including a frog one. I think I want to do a small section of frogs for one of my walls. so far I've got 2 finished ones. and at michaels they had a few fabrics on sale so I got a 25 count linen for a cat pattern that I've been wanting to do.




one of the things I got at hobby lobby was the disney dreams collection "snow white discovers the cottage. the artwork was originally thomas kinkade and its really pretty. It'll be the first time I have worked a full coverage pattern.







of course I just had to start it even though I swore I wasn't going to start anything big till I finished at least one of my big WIPs. Only got a few stitches done, but still started it.