YA Book Signing

Yesterday, there was a Young Adult (YA) book signing at the Bookworm in Powder Springs. Hannah loves to read, so I looked up the books/authors that were going to be there. I was quite impressed. One of the authors is being compared to John Greene who wrote The Fault in Our Stars. Another one just had her latest book listed as one of the most exciting YA books by Teen Vogue. Hannah asked some of her friends to come with her to the book signing to support these authors and one of her favorite book stores!

Here are the girls outside the Bookworm.

Author #1 was Jennifer E. Smith. She has written several teen romances.

Her most recent book is called The Geography of You & Me. This title is one Teen Vogue's List of the 15 Most Exciting Books Coming Out This Year.

Here is author #2, Adi Alsaid.

 

Let's Get Lost is his first book. He is being compared to author John Greene.

And author #3 was Vernell Chapman.

She has written a series of books called the The Fountain Books. Her latest book is The Journey of Maggie Mission.

The girls enjoyed talking with the authors about books, school, and their Reading Bowl team.


The girls had to spend time with the Bookworm kitties! These babies are up for adoption through Fancy Feline Rescue of the South.

Here are the girls in the children's section of the book store.

Hannah with her stack of books. She bought one book from each author which she got signed, then she found another 7 paperback books that she just had to get.

Attack of the Morning Glory

Back in 2012, I posted a blog entitled "Attack of the Wisteria Vine" . Now, 2 years later and a new house, we have "Attack of the Morning Glory".

I have never grown Morning Glory before & I have been enjoying them. The previous home owner had the vine under control. I have not. My husband has asked that I get them under control, so I took some pictures this morning before I work on them.


Here's a view of my deck. The vine has worked it's way up to the second floor deck.

It's found it's way in more than one spot, too.

Here's the view from down below.

It sneaks around the patio.

It's taken over other plants.

It's getting caught up in our lights.

And our wind chimes.

Behind the hot tub.

I really do like them. I just need to train them to wrap around certain things. Not chair legs, or other plants. They are very pretty. And I love how they open & close depending on the time of day.

Athens Maker Fest

Chris' birthday was this past week and instead of presents, he wanted to do something as a family. School has just started & marching band is underway, so family time is definitely limited.

Chris has been subscribing to Make Magazine for years. Make is geared toward DIY projects.

There are Maker Faires held around the world. From the Maker Faire website, "Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth - a family friendly festival of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the maker movement."

Chris has been wanting to attend a Maker Faire, but he hasn't been able to yet. But on this free post birthday weekend, he found a related event in Athens, Georgia, "The Athens Maker Fest". So we took the 2 hour drive to Athens this past Saturday.


We started our afternoon in Athens with lunch at Fuzzy's.

My sweet babies!

Then it was off to the Lydon House Arts Center.

The kids were excited to see 3-D printers/Maker Bots in action.

There were lots of craftsmen & artists show casing their talents.

 

 

There were some hands-on activities. 

Trying out the camera obscura.

There were artists and such.

An interior view of the place. There were exhibits set up on both levels of the art center.

This woman hand paints silk.

The Atlanta Maker Faire booth.

Weaving

Wood carver

This was an exhibit in the art center & not part of the Maker Fest, but the family enjoyed seeing it.

And playing around with it.

Playing with pretty lights is always fun.

The Atlanta Maker Faire is scheduled for early October. We hope our busy fall season allows us to attend.

Duran Duran Appreciation Day

Yes, today is Duran Duran Appreciation Day. I didn't know it even existed. Evidently it's been a thing for several years now.

Back in the 80's, I was a huge Duran Duran fan. Here are a few pictures of what my bedroom looked like circa 1985.


I had a few Duran Duran posters on my walls.

 

Here's a picture of me.

Unfortunately, Duran Duran never toured in Indianapolis back then, so I never had the chance to see them. That is until 2005 when my sister invited me to Las Vegas to see them at the Hard Rock. So of course, I did what any self respecting nearly 40 year old mom would do. I took my kids out of school and we flew to Vegas. In all fairness though, James was in 1st grade and Hannah attended a MMO program.

Bethany was able to get me into a small, private acoustic performance of the band.

Here's a picture to show how close I was to band.

There was a Q/A session with the band.

And here I am (far left). John Taylor had his arm around me, but that was cut out of the picture.

Here's my sister with the band.

That same evening, we got to attend a full on concert while seated in the VIP section which was very cool. Duran Duran came to Atlanta in 2011, so I got to see them in concert again. I blogged about that concert here.

Date Night at the Braves Game

We were recently invited on a date night to an Atlanta Braves game with our friends. It had been a while since we had been on a date night, so we were extra excited about a night out.


We had club seats for the game which was especially nice because it was lightly raining during a lot of the game!

Here's Sue enjoying her yummy peach cobbler.

Here is a picture of Sue & me.

And Chris & Eric.

The Braves won the game and we had a fun evening with our friends. It was a Friday night, so there were fireworks after the game.