Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Waiting on Wednesday: Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Waiting on Wednesday is a way to showcase books that are not yet released but I am excited to see they are coming out. It's hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap series is one of my favorites. LOLAs chatted with Ms. Trigiani early in our book club years. I've read all of her books and have enjoyed them all.

So I was excited to see that she has another book scheduled for release on February 3rd. It's called Very Valentine.

Here's the summary: This first-in-a-trilogy is a frilly valentine to Manhattan's picturesque West Village, starring a boisterous and charmingly contentious Italian-American family. Valentine Roncalli, adrift after a failed relationship and an aborted teaching career, becomes an apprentice to her 80-year-old grandmother, Teodora Angelini, at the tiny family shoe business. While Valentine struggles to come up with a financial plan—and shoe design—to bring the Old World operation into the 21st century, her brother, Alfred, is pushing Gram to retire and sell her building for $6 million. It's not all business for Valentine, of course: handsome and sophisticated Roman Falconi, owner and chef at a posh restaurant, is vying for her heart. Bestselling Trigiani channels ambition and girl-power, but is surprisingly reserved—and retro—when it comes to romance: “[O]ur relationship has to build slowly and beautifully in order to hold all the joy and misery that lies ahead,” thinks Valentine. Still, this genteel and lush tale of soles and souls has loads of charm and will leave readers eager for the sequel. —Publisher's Weekly

See other books that folks are waiting on at Breaking the Spine.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Sunday Salon: Post-Christmas Edition


It's been a month since I've written a Sunday Salon post. I've been missing myself! LOL

We had a wonderful Christmas week. We had two families over for Christmas Eve dinner. Years ago when we decided to stay home for Christmas instead of doing the trek to all the families, we started inviting anyone who was in town to come for Christmas Eve dinner. The two families that came this year were ones that were our 'regulars' and it was so nice to have them. I started to say something about being our family here in Indiana but got all choked up when I started as we won't be having Christmas Eve in Indiana again. I just loved having them here with us.

The next two days - Christmas and Boxing Day (no, we aren't in Canada, but I love the idea of the second holiday) - were spent holed up in our house. The four of us played alot of the new Wii games we got - my favorite is Super Mario Galaxy! We listened to new music, got our mp3 players working, etc. Just a wonderful time for the four of us to spend together - especially nice with being separated and stressed so much the past months.

Amazingly I didn't take a single picture of any of the Christmas festivities! Thus, none to share. Sad, huh?

I didn't get any new books from my husband or kids. I am definitely hard to buy books as I'm not a 'keeper' of books and read so much, they never know what to buy. But I did start a new book on Christmas day - Breathing Out the Ghost by Kirk Curnutt. It's set in Indiana just 30 minutes from my house! I am reading it for a book tour in January. Mr. Curnutt even signed my book - first signed book I've gotten! It's good so far - about halfway through (too much Wii playing and not enough reading). I look forward to finishing and then chatting with Mr. Curnutt about the book.

This past week I posted my reviews of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Not sure what I'll read next. I've still got a bunch of books in my book basket to choose from. The library is missing me! And I am missing it as there are some new books by my favorite authors recently released that I haven't read yet. But I am determined to whittle down the basket before returning to the library.

Tell me about your books. What did you get for gifts? What books should be on my list for the library when I return in January?

I'll be posting my top 2008 reads later this week. I will be looking for your lists as well to add to my tbr list.

Have a good Sunday!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by

I have heard lots of good things about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. So much so that I asked my mother to get it for me for a Christmas present. I am glad she did!

Before I started reading it, my twelve-year-old daughter picked it up and flipped through it. Wrinkling her nose she asked if all it contained was letters. Having not read it, I could not answer but she was sure it was not going to be good. She of the email age and not capable of writing a decent letter.

She was wrong.

From the author's website: January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. Born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.


I absolutely loved this book! I fell in love with Juliet very early on in the book and could see the ending in the first letters. But that did not deter me but rather made me extremely curious as to how she's get there.

The letters were a unique twist on writing a story from multiple points of view. I was able to learn about the writer as well as the story moving forward all while 'hearing' the different characters.

And the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are quite lovely! As are the other members of Guernsey that we get to meet. Guernsey sounds like a beautiful island that I love to visit sometime.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. I think there's something in it for you. It would be great to discuss within a book club, with a reader's guide provided by Random House.

Rating: 5/5 stars!!!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Review: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

Scheduled to be published in early January, Tiffany Baker's The Little Giant of Aberdeen County kept me intrigued throughout.

Summary (from the author's website):When Truly Plaice—part Behemoth, part Witch, part Cinderella—is born larger than life into a small-minded town, her birth rocks the pillars of tiny Aberdeen, New York, and breaks her family into smithereens. Truly spends a painful childhood in the shadow of her older sister Serena’s beauty and is teased mercilessly for her enormous physique. But when Serena unexpectedly leaves her son in Truly’s care, she must become the woman of a house she did not choose. Her brother-in-law, Doctor Robert Morgan, was one of her childhood tormentors and, as an adult, subjects her to brutal criticism, cruel medical testing, and degradation to the breaking point. It’s only when Truly finds her calling helping townspeople with herbal remedies that she begins to regain control of her life. However, unearthed family secrets will lead to a devastating betrayal that will break the Morgan family apart forever, and as Truly reckons with her own demons, she must come to terms with her role in Aberdeen’s destiny and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

I read the book in amazement at the way their father and the town treated Truly and her sister so differently. I was disappointed but could easily see it happening. It was a unique look at how the world sometimes uses exterior beauty and their 'lot in life' to determine a person's 'worth'.

Ms. Baker is an awesome writer. She was able to portray Truly's feelings of inadequacy, sadness and bits of joy so accurately. With her words, she drew amazing portraits of Truly's friends and her enemies. I am not one who loves lots of description but I didn't feel 'overwhelmed' with words. Rather I felt like I was just hanging out with Truly seeing what she saw, feeling what she felt.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed a bit by the end - didn't wrap up some questions I had. But it answered others. This is one I want to chat with someone about! I think it would make a great book club book - lots to discuss!

Thanks to Miriam Parker and Hachette Books for sending me this lovely book to read!

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I wish you and yours a very happy holiday!

Remember that Jesus is the reason we celebrate. Please keep the Christ in Christmas!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Blogger Secret Santa

Joanne at Jo-Jo Loves to Read was my blogger secret santa! I was so excited to open the gift as I love getting gifts! She did a wonderful job of picking out things for me. The Debbie Macomber book will be fun to read over the next weeks. The plaque will be great for the new house! Of course the cookies did not last. She had said in the card that I could share the cookies with the kids. While I did share some, they didn't get too many!

I had already had Joanne's blog on my reader but now I have more of a reason to keep up! Thanks Joanne!

Tuesday Teasers: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

My two 'teaser' sentences are from page 56 of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

I have an idea for a new book. It's a novel about a beautiful yet sensitive author whose spirit is crushed by her domineering editor. Do you like it?

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
- Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
- You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
- Please avoid spoilers!

Check out other teasers around the blogs.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Book Expo Convention or What?

A few months ago a bunch of bloggers went to a book expo/convention thing. I read all about the fun they had. I read about the authors they met. I read about all the other bloggers they met.

My friend Julie also read all about it.

She suggested we try to attend next year! What fun would that be! So! Where's the info? Who went? Where did you go? (Cause of course I can't find any of the info now when I am looking for it!) Did you like it? Where did you stay? Going again next year? Wanna join us?

Review: Testimony by Anita Shreve

Testimony by Anita Shreve was interesting. The book starts out with a graphic description of a video made by teens at a private school. The video is of three boys and a girl having various forms of sex. It is being viewed by the headmaster of the school.

The rest of the book then takes us through the what happened, the why and what happens after. It was hard on everyone involved, as you can imagine.

The story is written from many points of view - the various participants in the video, the headmaster, parents of the kids along with other kids affected. It is written by some in present time and some as it occurs. This sounds like it might be confusing, but it really isn't. Ms. Shreve does a great job with the writing to allow an easy transition between characters and time.

This book made me uncomfortable. And it made me think. Both of which were the intent, I believe.

I am giving it a four star rating - I am definitely glad I stuck through the difficult beginning and read it all the way through.

A big thanks to Miriam of Hachette Books for sending me this book. And check out other books by Anita Shreve. She has written many books that I've enjoyed and more that are on my tbr list.

Other reviewers: J.Kaye, The Book Lady, and The Sleepy Reader.
If you'd like your review linked here, just let me know!

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

200th Post Celebration Winners and Traditions

The rules of the giveaway were to post about your family traditions. It was so fun reading everyone's traditions. Some of my favorites were Linda's "Wild Goose Chase" to find a gift, cookie swaps, and Sheri's singing in the worst and best voices.

Reeva's family tradition reminded me of one of ours: "Traditionally around this time of year, the family sits around eating homemade tea cakes and donuts and play the "what if" and "i wish" game on saturdays. Its a great time to just bond with the family without any judgements and get lost in the 'wish' or 'what if' scenario each family member has." Our family would write down our desires/goals for the year and seal them up together. There had to be at least one personal goal and one desire for someone else written down. Then we would look at them the next year and see. It's been a few years since we did this - might be time to resurrect it.

Now for the winners!

The winner of the gift card to Borders is Cristina Alves!

The winner of Beat the Reaper is Becca.
The winner of The Brass Verdict is Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag.
The winner of Blackbird, Farewell is Alyce.

Congratulations! You should all have an email from me. If not, please email me.


Thursday, December 18, 2008

Returning from the abyss

Good grief! I feel like I fell off the face of the earth both in my personal life and as a blogger! Apparently the whole house selling, single mom during the week, hubby/wife communication issues (fun stuff over the phone), and what to rent or buy at the next place combined with typical December weather and holiday blahs to set me up for some serious blues/apathy whackiness! I want to give big hugs and thanks to Ang and Julie for checking on me (more like harassment by Julie).

The lack of blogging was an extension of my lack of reading books, reading posts (have over 1200 in my Reader), responding to comments here, participating in rl groups and internet groups, etc. I am hopeful we are on the upswing, but not yet clear on that.

No, the house hasn't sold. No we haven't rented or purchased anything there. Communication with hubby is improving. The craziness of the holiday school and other stuff is almost over and then I can just enjoy the family and friends.

Okay, enough about me and my whackiness! It's time to talk books!

First - I need to announce the winners of my 200th Post Celebration giveaway. Look for that announcement and some fun holiday traditions tomorrow.

Second - The only book I've actually finished since before Thanksgiving is Anita Shreve's Testimony. I can't say I enjoyed it but it was a good book, if that makes sense. Look for a review on it over the weekend. I wonder if my thoughts would be different if I read it in a different time of my life.

Third (why am I counting?) - I am reading The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker. It's a new book coming out in January and I am enjoying it.

Finally - I participated in a blogger secret santa. I received my gift and want to give a shout out to Joanne for a great one. I will be chatting about what she sent in another post. I am sure my blogger is wondering if she'll ever receive something but I promise it's going out today! Not that she knows who I am but she will eventually!

Hope you are having a good December! I look forward to catching up with everyone!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Digital Scrapbooking: Part 4 - Making a Page

I've talked about The Paper Years, going from Paper to Digital, and What I do. Now it's time to walk through how I actually make a page. My sister said I could put pics of her boys on the blog so I am going to use those sweeties to make this page!

I use a scrapbooking program from Lumapix called Fotofusion. What I am about to talk through is only a small set of the ways this software can be used. I highly recommend going through the tutorials and information. It's fun!

First I determine what size page I want to make. This depends on what I am going to do with it and where/how I will print it. Usually, I'm making 8.5 x 11 pages to go into the yearbook. I also set up the page to have a half inch border all around as a 'safe area'. This reminds me not to much closer to the edge to eliminate any issues in printing or not being able to view everything in in middle of the book (especially since I don't want to crack the spines).

I select the pictures I want to start with and place them randomly on the page. Fotofusion has a great tool - Autocollage - that will automatically place the pictures, using the original size of the pictures. I can ask it to fill the whole page or leave some space (Sparse option), ask it to rotate the pictures a bit (Jumble), include borders or shadows or not. For most every page I start with filling the page using borders and shadows. I can keep hitting the Autocollage button to get different layouts. Here's one option.
Next let's resize the pictures to fit better and make a space for some text. I like the layout of the pictures on the bottom and the left side so will leave them alone for now. But I'd like to have a picture of the baby that is the same size as his big brother. And that means resizing it and the picture of the two of them.

When I click on a picture, I get yellow squares with a dotted line on the inside of the picture. And I get clear/grayish things (technical term there) on the outside. The clear/grayish things are for moving the outside of the picture, resizing it on the canvas. The yellow squares allow me to zoom in and out on the picture. It's hard to show you how these two things work in pictures, but the tutorials have videos that show it easier. The yellow star in the middle of the picture moves the picture around inside the frame. So once the frame is resized, I can move the picture left or right, zoom in or out to make it look like I'd like.

Now let's get a little more creative. Let's add some color to the page, starting with the background. The majority of my pages have color in the background that is a color in one of the pictures. I do this using the color picker - another awesome tool! To get to the background, I click on the blank space between pictures. I then click on the Frame Image choice (in red) in the tool box. Up pops the Image toolbox. Since we don't have an actual image there, not much else will do anything yet. I then click on the color box and up pops the Colors toolbox. To pick a color in my photos, I click on the color picker (eye dropper looking thing) and move it around to the different parts of my picture to decide what color I like for the background.

I can do the same thing with the picture frames, changing them from white to another color. On the Frames toolbox, I can also change the width of the frame or change it to circular or some other shape. But for now, I'll just leave it as it is, changing the color. Which is what I do the majority of the time on my pages.
Time to check in where we are on the page. Here I resized the two pictures we talked about, zoomed in on the picture of the baby and moved a few things around so that I didn't have complete symmetry (which is an improvement for my engineering brain!). I left some space at the top (hard to see with the white background) to put some text. I picked a tan for the background from the baby's pants and a light blue for the frames from his brother's shirt. I used the very cool tool Replicate tool (looks like an equal sign on the top of the Frame toolbox) to make all the frames the same.

Lastly I am going to add some text. I click on the background and then the T button in the main toolbox. The Font toolbox pops up with a box at the top to write my text. I type it in and select the color I want with the color picker. I also have many choices for which font to use. My two main choices are Comic Sans MS and Kristen ITC but I like to use others just to spice things up sometimes.

Here's our final product. I made a few changes, resizing and moving the pictures to make it fit better with the text.

It's fairly plain, not alot of embellishments or flair. But that's okay. That's what I like. Besides what else would you really want to say or do with this page? The goal is to show off the boys. I could do more journaling about the photo shoot or some fun facts about the boys, but really, what I'll want when I look at this in my book is to remember them. To bring a smile. And that's what we have here.

The purpose of my scrapbook is to showcase the people and the things, NOT my scrapbooking. You can see from some of my other pages that I do add more text, colors, different frame styles, papers, etc. The choices are endless.

Digital Scrapbooking: Part 3 - What I do

I know, I know, this is the part that you really wanted from the start. But the bonus for me is that this is my blog, I am a 'Chatty Cathy' when it comes to scrapbooking, and I wanted to do it in the right order. So, I am finally getting to the nitty gritty.

If you want the background on how we got here, you can check out Part 1 - The Paper Years and Part 2 - From Paper to Digital.

Just as there are so many ways to share pictures or scrapbook with paper, there are many ways to digitally scrapbook. I will talk about the other options in another post. I make hardbound books similar to yearbooks. I make each page and then use a printing house to print and bind. I have one for 2006, 2007, our trip to Hawaii and am working on the pages for 2008.

The first thing I do is look at each of my pictures individually. To view my pictures, I use Adobe Bridge that came with Photoshop but you can just as easily use My Computer. I delete all the really bad pictures - blurry, horrific expressions, closed eyes, etc. Delete, not move to another folder, delete. You don't need them and will never do anything with them. Really, delete! This can be done when you upload the pictures to your computer or when you are ready to scrapbook.

To do the actual scrapbooking, I use Lumapix's product FotoFusion Enhanced. Lumapix has three versions of Fotofusion and I use the middle product. There is very good information and tutorials on their website on how to choose what is right for you. I LOVE Fotofusion!

With Fotofusion I can lay out the pictures; turn pictures black and white; modify the colors of the frames around the pictures, make the shapes different or even remove the frames; put color or digital paper in the background; and add text to journal the who, what, where. It has tools to help me to lay out the pictures quickly. It has the ability to make the frames (the outside of the picture) bigger or smaller while independently zooming in or out on my picture (this is HUGE). I can make one of my pictures the background of the page - it can be full color or muted. I add other items besides pictures, like ticket stubs, maps, art work by just taking a picture or scanning them in.

Since I make a yearbook type book, I design one page at a time in Fotofusion and save them individually. I output the page as a single picture that is the size I need for my book.

After choosing my printing house (Shutterfly, Creative Memories, My Publisher, etc), I download their free software. I use the one picture per page option and drop each of my pages into it with no additional editing or work. I usually will do this as I go along making pages to see how it looks, if my next page will be a right-hand or left-hand page, etc.

For a step-by-step walk-through of making a page, check out Part 4 of this series.

In future posts, let's talk other programs for scrapbooking, how to print, organization. What else? What questions am I not answering yet?





Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Digital Scrapbooking: Part 2 - From Paper to Digital

I started out scrapbooking over 12 years ago. In my first post about scrapbooking, I talked about the paper years. You can go here to check it out and get caught up.
Twister - January 2007 - family book
In 2004 I bought my first digital camera. As a photographer, I had resisted going digital as I felt that it was not as good as film. But by mid-2004, the digital SLR cameras were out and fairly reasonable and I decided it was time. (If anyone is interested, I can talk cameras in another post - just let me know.) It took me awhile to get used to the camera, how to get the pictures I wanted and knew I could get with film, etc. I printed my pictures through my local lab just like I had been with my film. And then just scrapbooked the 'normal' way - on paper in books.

The problem was that digital allowed me to take so many more pictures that I had with film. And, the thing is, all of my friends and former customers (I sold Creative Memories for five years during my paper scrapbooking days) would tell you that I already took LOTS of pictures with film. So, basically, the number of pictures I had with digital was tons!
Ice in trees - February 2007 - family book - left side - small
Why was this a problem? Because there was no way I could afford to print all of these pictures out. Nor did I really want to. But I also grew weary of all the extra steps in the process of scrapbooking. For example, with film, I printed everything. I would gather all the related pictures, figure out how I wanted them on the page, ditch the ones I wouldn't use (almost as many as I did), then scrapbook them.

Now with digital there was the added step of culling through the digital pictures and deciding which to print. On the surface this doesn't sound like alot of work. But for me, each time I look at a set of pictures I can come up with a different way I'd like to use them. So it was very difficult to decide which pictures I would want to use at some point in the future when I had time to scrapbook. It was all too time-consuming and I just didn't do it. I ignored it.

So my friend convinced me to try out digital scrapbooking. And I became hooked.
Sonny & Cher - family book - right side
Just like with paper scrapbooking, there are so many different ways to digitally scrapbook. In my next post coming tomorrow I will detail the process and products I use today.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Tuesday Teasers: The Year of Living Biblically

My two 'teaser' sentences are from Kindle location 616 of A.J. Jacob's The Year of Living Biblically:

I think Amos just made another joke. You haven't seen deadpan delivery till you've seen the Amish.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
- Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
- You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
- Please avoid spoilers!

Check out other teasers around the blogs.

Don't forget to sign up for my 200th Post Celebration Giveaway!

Tuesday Thingers: I want to be Popular!

From The Boston Bibliophile - What's the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it?

Okay, I must admit that the Wicked song Popular immediately jumped into my head. I need to buy that CD for me and my kids - I think we'd all enjoy it. May even be a reason to go back to Chicago to see the show!

Anyway!

I think we've answered this question before, but the most popular book in my LibraryThing library is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1 of the series). And, yes, I've read it. More than once, even. My entire family has read it. Well, my boy has only made it halfway through, I think. But he's seen the movie - does that count? LOL

I imagine this book will be tops for alot of Tuesday Thingers this week as it's so popular. 37,389 libraries in LT have it included with 363 reviews. In fact the entire series is the tops for my library.

The next 'most popular' book in my library is The Kite Runner. I definitely recommend that book - great writing, excellent story and you will learn and grow from it.

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you sign up for my 200th Post Celebration Giveaway!

Monday, December 1, 2008

NY Times: 100 Notables for 2008

S. Krishna shared that the NY Times published their 100 Notable Books for 2008. I went to visit and discovered I have not read a single one. Not one. None. Nada. Granted, half the list is non-fiction, but still!

Sadly, I really only have interest in one from other reviews - The Good Thief. It's on my list of things to read. But none have I read. Seriously, none.

What does that mean? Do I care? Should I match the NY Times? I'll have to ponder.

What have you read from the list?

Celebrating the 200th Post!!!

This is my 200th post!!!!

How exciting! When I started this blog back in May, I had no idea it would be so much fun! I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts about books, learned about so many other books that I never would have picked up but now are tops on my list, and have made some new friends! Yea Me! LOL

To celebrate, I am having a giveaway! I will be giving away a $10 gift card for Borders bookstore!

I am also giving away three of my latest reads. Each book will go to a different winner. The books are (with links to my reviews): Blackbird, Farewell by Robert Greer; The Brass Verdict by Michael Connolly; and Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell. If I have over one hundred entries for the giveaway, I will be adding another $10 gift card! That means there could be up to five winners!

To enter:
Today is the beginning of December and, for many, the beginning of the Christmas season. To enter, you need leave a comment* about the traditions your family follows during this season. Do you have specific foods to eat, gifts that get passed all over the family, a cookie swap with friends, or what?

Other rules:
- If you don't answer my traditions question, your comment will be deleted and you will not be entered.
- Please let me know which book you prefer to win. If it's all three, say that too.
- Please include your email address within one click of your comment. That means either include it in your comment or make sure it's on your Blogger profile. If I can't find you, you won't win.
- If you blog about my giveaway, you will earn two more chances to win. But you must put that in a separate comment so it's easy to remember and count.
- This giveaway is not restricted geographically. However, no matter where you are, I am shipping this as inexpensively as I can. In the US or Canada, that's not a big deal, but outside of that, it may be awhile depending on the method the postal service uses.

The contest ends on Tuesday, December 8th at 11pm EST. I will be posting the winners on Wednesday, December 9th.





*If you don't know how to leave a comment, email me at mawshimp at gmail dot com, replacing 'at' with @ and 'dot' with . and eliminating the spaces. I will send you directions on how to leave a comment.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Sunday Salon: Post Thanksgiving Edition


I am finally feeling a bit better! Hurray! I still have a lingering cough, mostly at night, but much better. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. My mom, my sister, her husband and two boys, my father-in-law and his wife were all here! We had a very yummy turkey dinner with all the good fixings. Well, except I didn't let my father-in-law make his oyster dressing. But I don't really consider that part of the 'good' fixings. We played lots of cards, played with the baby and his three-year-old brother, and ate lots. I even made chicken lasagna for dinner on Friday so we'd get a break from the turkey.

I did take pictures of my nephews. I will have to ask my sister first before I post them here. But they are worth waiting for! What cuties! While you are waiting, here's a picture my sister took of my girl and me.


I am eager to take pictures of my kids now. When I do, I'd better be sure to get a pic or two of me and my boy.

It was another slow reading week. Between being sick and having everyone here (and all the cleaning that goes along with that), I only finished one book: Blackbird, Farewell by Robert Greer. I have started Anita Shreve's latest, Testimony, but am having trouble moving past the opening scene. Kinda graphic and emotional. Hoping it gets...better isn't the right word, but easier to read. I posted my review of The Note by Angela Hunt.

I didn't get my next digital scrapbooking post finished so will work on getting that done this week. I also am working on a post about the believability of the action in books. Reading this week will be finishing Testimony then on to LOLAs next book - The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs.

My next post will be my 200th post on the blog!!! To celebrate, I will be having a book giveaway! Be sure to check back tomorrow for the details!

I'd love to hear about your week. Leave a comment and tell me what you are doing and what you are reading!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the United States!

I am at home with my family. My mom, my sister and her family and my in-laws are here for the long holiday weekend. We will have a turkey and all the fixings today along with lots of card-playing, laughter and singing. I'll get to play with my nephews and (hopefully) beat my father-in-law at cards. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to spend this holiday with these loved ones.

I would like to take a quick minute and also state a few more things I am thankful for at this time of year:
- My loving, caring, cute husband
- My smart, mostly well-behaved children
- The Lord God to whom I owe everything
- Good health for myself and my loved ones
- Wonderful friends that I will miss very much when we move
- A great job that's interesting, challenging and flexible
- My husband's new job that will allow us to move to Ohio
- A mom that will come and paint the trim in my house
- Our house
- My entire extended family - both those that are here now and everyone else!
- Getting to move closer to that extended family
- Nyquil (still sick...sigh)
- Our cars that travel well
- A mother-in-law that is great at buying me clothes
- The joy I get with taking good pictures



I could go on and on. But you get the point. What are you thankful for at this time of year?