What am I Reading?

 I read Stephanie Bond's 6 1/2 Body Parts. I have been a huge fan Bond's Body Movers series and have been waiting patiently for the next book. I was so excited to learn that she had written a novella in the series. The main character in the Body Movers series had to raise her brother when her parents disappeared during a fraud investigation. This novella explores how things might have turned out if her parents hadn't disappeared. It was a fun read and the author is promising more books in the series.

Seal of My Dreams is a collection of short stories by various romance authors. All proceeds from the sale of the book are going to the Veterans Research Corporation which supports veteran medical research. There were some really enjoyable stories all involving Navy Seals.

I read the third book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series called Death by the Dozen. This one had a "Cupcake Wars"/"Iron Chef" theme to it. It was fun and I am looking forward to the next title in the series.

Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City was the second Holly book. The entire book is written in emails. In the current age of technology, it's interesting to see how much happens via emails. The book is very thick due to the format of the emails, but it was a quick read.

I read another Stephanie Bond book called Three Wishes. It was a cute modern day telling of Aladdin and the Lamp. I have never read any contemporary fairy tales, but it was very entertaining. I was afraid that it might be a bit silly, but it wasn't.

Are We Still on for Tonight by Evelyn LaFont was a short story about a woman who is trying to get to a first date with a handsome doctor during the zombie apocalypse. I can honestly say that it was the first zombie book that I have ever read. Although a bit unrealistic in my opinion, it was entertaining.

We recently booked a cruise for the summer, so I decided to read this Kindle Freebie that I had called Cabin Fever by Sheila Claydon. One of the owners of a luxurious cruise line fills in as cruise director at the last minute, but doesn't reveal who he really is. He falls for a last minute dance replacement on the cruise. It was a typical romance story, light and fluffy.

Not Without Her Family by Beth Andrews was a Kindle freebie that I have had for a while. It's a "Count on a Cop" romance. The heroine was a sassy and likable character. Some of the events were a little far fetched in my opinion, but I liked it well enough.

Another Kindle freebie that I read was Much Ado About Madams. It was a historical romance that took place in the wild west. It was about a man who inherited a "house of ill repute" from his estranged father. He treats the women who work there very well and is hoping to get them prepared for real jobs so he can close down the establishment. The women get a young teacher to come and teach them to read and write. I really enjoyed the history of the story. I don't know how accurate it was, but it was very believable.

I am currently reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender.

Happy Reading!

Missing My Kitties

The kitties are being spayed/neutered today. We dropped them off at the vet yesterday afternoon and we get to pick them up tomorrow morning. It's been strange not having them around. After only 4 months, they have become part of the family.

Because I am missing them so much, I thought I would blog about them. So enjoy these pictures of our kitties.


Here's a cute picture of Kay-C. We've folded Hannah's old pink rug and placed it on the dog's crate. Then we have the kitty bed on top of that.

Here are both of the kitties sleeping on my bed. Notice all of the kitty toys underneath Scout. Both cats, but especially Kay-C, like to carry toys in the mouths. We're always finding different kitty toys on our bed each morning. They carry the toys downstairs to the basement if we're down there. They just drop them on the floor. It's funny to hear the sound of the sticks from their toys hitting each of the wooden steps. 

They were trying to sleep, but I kept taking pictures.

This picture is from January, but it's still cute. I love the variety of positions they sleep in!

I'm not sure if this post helped or not. I'm missing them even more now! In another half hour I can call the vet's office to see how they are doing. And we can pick them up first thing tomorrow morning.

Happy Spring!

I am just loving this spring (or shall I say summer) weather that we have been having in Atlanta. It is officially spring, so I thought I would post a few pictures of spring in Georgia for my out of town family and friends.


My azeleas. We've had the white ones forever. The red one was transplanted last fall. It was hidden behind a bunch of other bushes. We're glad to see that it's doing well.

Pretty pink blossoms.

I was about two days late on this picture. The leaves have started to come in. Over the weekend, it was all white blossoms.

The clematis blooms just came out of nowhere. It is amazing how fast it has sprung up. 

Then of course, we have the layers of yellow pollen dust everywhere. 

Pollen counts have been very high this week. I remember the first year we lived here about how strange it was to see the yellow dust everywhere!

We've had several days over 80 degrees this March. The A/C has been turned on a couple of times already.

New Ratties!

Introducing Sophie and Sadie, the newests members of our family.

We have 2 new fancy rats in our household. Rats are very social, so we wanted to get a pair this time. When we had Scampers, he was the only one. We had intended to get two, but there was only one at the pet store when we got him. He seemed to do well being alone, but just knowing that they are such social creatures, we made sure to get two this time.

This one is Sophie. Her coloring is darker and the texture is soft like velvet.

And this is Sadie. Sadie's fur is lighter and coarser.

We introduced the ratties to the kitties. Sophie is the one checking out Scout.

Here is Sadie with Scout. The cats' visit was supervised closely. They seem interested in the ratties, but did not try to swat or attack them.

Here they are in their new home.

Scout is paying them a visit.

Hannah is so happy with her little ratties. She has shed many tears over the loss of Scampers.

Scrapbooking Goal {Week 19}

I have not done any scrapbooking since the end of January. The new flooring arrived in early February, so soon after my last post, I had to pack up all of my scrapping supplies. I'm still not quite finished unpacking everything, but I did manage to finish another week's worth of pages.


Over the Christmas holidays, I was talking with my mom about my blog. She said that my scrapbooking goal posts seemed like they were advertisements for the page kits that I use. I want to clarify that I am not advertising anything! All of the kits that I have used are ones that I have personally purchased. I have not been given any discounts or freebies. With that being said, I don't want to take credit for a page that is not my original work, so I like to include the name of the company and a link if one is available. These kits have simplified my scrapbooking life tremendously. I honestly don't think I would have done so well with my goal if I did not have them. So enough of that.......

This first layout uses a kit from Lott's to Scrap About.

The rest of this week's layouts use kits from Out on a Limb Scrapbooking.

Goal Update: 163/188 pages.

Hannah's Art Work

Every year, Hannah's school holds a little art show. It's through a company that frames the students' art work. The framed art work is put on display and parents can purchase it as a fundraiser for the school.

Here is Hannah with this year's art work.

And here is the art work. It is a drawing of the students at her art table.

We have hung all of the kids' framed artwork in the stair way leading to the basement.

The last few are at the bottom of the stairs.

I'm not sure if these are in the right order or not, but here's a look back at Hannah's earlier work.

 

Scrapbooking Room Re-Do

Back in May, I wrote about my scrapbooking room. It was a teeny tiny room, but it was working for me. Then in February, we got new flooring in the basement. We had to completely empty out all of the items in my scrapbooking room. When it was time to move everything back, my wonderful husband decided to use that teeny tiny room as his home office and let me have a larger room. For the last few years, the larger room housed his desk and work area along with my stamping room. As an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I have needed space to hold monthly card making classes. So now instead of having a separate stamping and scrapbooking room, I have one huge beautiful craft room.

Here is my old teeny tiny scrapbooking room:

And here are pictures of my new larger craft room.

Chris just hung up the white embellishment organizer, so that's no longer on the floor. And it looks like I was so eager to take pictures that I didn't even put the broom or cleaning wipes away!

The left most door leads to a closet. Pics of that are below.

The old scrapbooking room is on the other side of the wall with the paper racks.

Here are some views of the closet. I still need to do something with the top shelf, so please ignore.

And I bought a new desk for my computer.

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