I bought 31 books in February...

...and I only spent $43. Between a book sale, trade at a used store, and a gift card to Borders I am stocked for the year at a bargain price.


See any I should read sooner rather than later?

Do it for the doggies!

On Sunday we're going to do a Petsmart Charities PetWalk with Captain Skippyjon Jones and Caprica Six. We are trying to raise money for Friends for Life Animal Sanctuary, a local shelter, while socializing and exercising.

Click here if you would like to donate a dollar or more.

You can also visit Friends For Life.

The photo is of us from last year's walk. Should be interesting this year with Caprica a.k.a. Princess Unfriendly along for the ride, but hopefully she will learn to enjoy the company of others. Fingers crossed!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Corey made me a valentine with my scrapbook supplies. Cute!

P.S. Red Book, Blue Book is by Sophie Blackall. It was inspired by a real Missed Connections ad.

Luncheon of the Boating Party (the book)

I told you I was going to finally read this book and I did. What a great story! The author actually researched every person in the painting Luncheon of the Boating Party (except 1 whose identity is debatable) and Renoir himself, and made it all into a super cool historical fiction story. The story spans the 2 months Renoir took to paint it outside. Even though there are 14 people in the painting, Renoir, the paint store owners, and art dealers stories to hear, it didn't drag.

My favorite part was a story about the girl who's leaning on her hand on the railing in the painting. She recalls starving in her house during Franco-Prussian War (before the painting). She was lucky to get horse meat rationed to her. During the painting she decides to go back to that old house and finds it's now a food store. She goes inside and has an incredible moment looking at all this food and remembering starving on the floor. It was a moving scene.

Also I did not know that Renoir and Monet were friends in real life! Whoa. What a time.

I feel like I'm learning so much about history through fiction lately. It's kinda fun! And now I've read another for my TBR Challenge. This book's been on my shelf since 12/28/08.

drinking champagne

Scrapping the Music had a challenge last month to use the song Things Have Changed by Bob Dylan as inspiration. One of the lines stood out: There’s a woman on my lap and she’s drinking champagne.
It made me think of my fabulous New Year's Eve because we may have had a sip or 2 of champagne to celebrate that night.
left page:

right page:

all together now:

Good times!

it's the incredible adventures of

Last month at Screen2Scrap they challenged scrappers to use the 9 to 5 movie poster as inspiration. I loved that movie! Dolly Parton is tha bomb. For an extra challenge you could use a red title and a clock. I thought of the picture I just took on our trip to DC in Union Station that had a clock in it.



Independent of the Screen2Scrap challenge, I'm trying to finish my Chautauqua scrapbook. I got a few more pages started at my friend Angi's and finished them at home. I finally got to use my Scrabble paper and stamps I've had forever:

I just broke down and got a triangle punch so I could join the banner-making craze!

Fun, right?