The stories were interesting but mostly I could some them up with one word: sad. Sad, sad, sad. I'm looking forward to the mini-series on HBO because of Bill Murray and Francis McDormand, but would never reread this depressing assemblage of Pulitzer sorrow.
P.S. This book counts as my Award Winning book for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.
Just a reminder for people who say scrapbooking is too expensive...on this entire page I only used 3 scraps of scrapbook paper, a post it note, and some letter stickers. The rest of the materials are things I had on hand or scavenged from my life that week, + photographs. You can do it too!
Three witches, a mom and her two daughters, are trying to live the life of normal women because they have been banned from using magic. Without telling each other they each have a little slip up. One of the sisters, Freya, makes a special drink while bartending to help out a patron. The other sister, Ingrid, uses a simple spell to help a friend get pregnant. The mom, Joanna, delights a little boy by animating his toys. It's a slippery slope from there.
An easy and fun story to read, Witches of East End left me anticipating the next in the series, Serpent's Kiss.
No shocker, the t.v. show is a lot different from the book but there are some similarities. I like the t.v. show but...the book is better.
P.S. This is the first book I read this year for the Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge.
My concern before starting was that the stories of how Michael Vick and his friends tortured and mistreated the pit bulls they used for dog fighting would be too much to stomach. Although there are some horrific details about what some of the dogs went through, it is mostly presented in a manner of what evidence the police were able to collect. In addition, the main focus of the story is not on what a horrible human Michael Vick is, but on how the amazing dogs rescued from his home were rehabilitated. In fact, Vick is not mentioned much at all after the first chapters.
I knew from watching shows like The Dog Whisperer and Pit Boss, reading books like Wallace, and meeting many sweet and gentle pit bulls throughout my life that these are dogs with an undeserved bad reputation. This book solidifies that line of thinking. I was surprised when the author shared that in a litter of 12 pit bull puppies you would be lucky if you could train one to be a fighter because it works against years of evolving as pack animals. Even though their purpose was fighting, the dogs taken from Vick did not need to be rehabilitated because they were aggressive; they needed to be socialized and trained to live in a house with a family.
The story follows the dogs from rescue to rehabilitation, but we also get to meet the army of people who work to help dogs like Vick's every day. Difficult to read at times, this book left me with a good feeling knowing that for every bottom feeder like Vick in the world there are 100 good ones.
Now, for your viewing pleasure, my vicious pit bull friends:
Obi (may he rest in peace)
and Emma. You can stop being scared now.
P.S. This book counts as my Book With Lost or Found in the Title for the What's In a Name Challenge.
P.P.S. I hope the Packers break a sack record today!
Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz - for my Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge, also there is a new t.v. show on Lifetime based on this book that I want to watch
Cell by Stephen King - zombie story, to read with the Stephen King group on LibraryThing
The Walking Dead, Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars by Robert Kirkman - can't wait for the show to start again Sunday!
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling - this has been on my shelf for 5 years!
and my book club is reading A Good Fall by Ha Jin (not scary).
P.S. The cover of Haunted Horror was designed by Lee Elias.
My Favorite Season is from a Smash pad. I popped out the other seasons, put some patterned paper behind it, wrote some journaling, and stamped the date.
On the left you see Caprica Six guarding our backyard. I added the 24/7 sticker since we joke that she is always on duty. She takes her job very seriously.
On the right is a picture I took of an orange tree blossom. I love the smell of our citrus trees blooming. The quote I used came pre-printed on vellum. One of the nice things about this Project is that you don't have to figure out how to adhere your vellum without it showing. This time I just trimmed the quote and slid it in over my picture, no adhesive required!
I used some scraps of patterned paper, letter stickers, and a sticker (couldn't believe I had a sticker with the moon on hand!). The patterned paper had a star already punched out of it so I highlighted it by rubbing some white stamp ink along the edges.
Finally we have an unfortunate victim of Survivor which I printed off the internet, and the back of the Napoleon Dynamite chapstick packaging (it's as cute as the front) where I added some paper flags for journaling. Free and saved from the landfill!
I used a felt blue star border for my math star, and Lego letters for my tutoring kids. I used packaging from the Sparrow Clips to share the story of coveting the clips for so many years.
My friend Alana gave me a guinea pig calendar from Etsy a few years ago when she was my secret santa. I saved it and cut out all the cute guinea pig pics at the end of the year. I got those out to document Strega Nona getting her medicine and found the one of a pope guinea pig. Coincidentally this was the same week the pope was voted in so I had to use it. I don't know why I followed the story so closely on NPR all week, being an agnostic, but it was interesting to learn about the special shoes and all that stuff. However, Corey and I had a little off-color joke about it which is why it's covered for you. We are pretty PC people but sometimes we can't help ourselves.
I printed The Fighter movie poster from the internet but The Property Brothers came from a magazine ad. I had a marathon and graded a lot of papers that night. Probably something I normally wouldn't deem interesting enough to share but with their picture from the ad I had to do it.
When we go to Jimmy John's I try to save the tape that holds my sandwich closed for this Project. I'm sure they had a whole team of people working on that tape design which saves me some crafting time. The St. Patrick's Day card came from an old Creating Keepsakes magazine insert. I cut it out and painted the letters with watercolor paint. It feels good to bust out the paint every now and then.
There's also an 8.5x11 insert this week. I made a collage pic from the multitude of exciting pictures I took on our field trip. It's a great way to get up to 20 pictures on one page which is why I mention it, but of course I can't share it because of all the innocent little faces on there. I get my collage prints from Walgreens but you can also make one yourself using Photoshop and help from The Nerd Nest.
P.S. I found this picture of Romeo at Patriotic Dog Contest.
This week documents a Youtube video that made me laugh, a birthday bulletin I made for the break room at work, 2 pack walks, and working the scoreboard at the boy's basketball game at school.
This video was the highlight of my day so I had to document it. Of course when I googled Sesame Street Sure Shot I was able to find images from the video which I printed out at home. My favorite part was Grover playing the flute. I added a sticky note shaped like a talk bubble and wrote in some lyrics that tickle me: I've got more rhymes than I've got gray hairs! And that's a lot because I've got my share! True dat.
I was in charge of making the birthday bulletin for February. Since Arizona's birthday is in February I decided to forgo the traditional pink and red and instead created a giant paper Arizona state flag. This picture shows how I did it, by finding the flag on the computer, projecting it on my Smartboard, taping paper on top and tracing. It was a lot of work but I got a lot of compliments so it was worth it.
Finally I wanted to document that I watched the State of the Union address. I could have written my own recap but I let the newspaper do it for me. I just slipped the section into a 12x12 protector. I bet that will be fun to pull out and read again in later years. Although it wasn't free I did save it from the recycle bin.
Happy National Scrapbook Day and Happy Kentucky Derby Day! I had fun getting 13 slots done for Project Life while watching Orb win the Derby. I was rooting for Palace Malice, Oxbow, and Charming Kitten.
P.S. Singing in the rain Storm Trooper came from Wtfeck Pictures.
1. America's Best Dance Crew - I just found out this has been cancelled. No more hip hop dancing for me. :(
2. Bored to Death - so funny!
3. Caprica - Of course as soon as all the groundwork was laid they cancelled the show. This could have been really special.
4. Eastwick - girl power + magic = fun
5. Ed - I miss the bowling alley and watching Ed think of ways to woo his lady.
6. Heroes - Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.
7. Anything by Joss Whedon: Dollhouse and Firefly - as with Caprica, all the groundwork was finally laid and that's when they decided to pull the plug?! (I'm still watching Buffy which is possibly why it's not on this list)
8. Lipstick Jungle - love these actresses and thought the story was lighthearted
9. My Name is Earl - my friend Michelle and I talk all the time about how much we miss this show, but at least we have Raising Hope which was also created by Greg Garcia. Sometimes the Earl actors show up on Raising Hope, and there was even an episode this season when they acted like their old Earl characters. There was even a list:
10. Six Feet Under - I wanted to watch this family my whole life. I think I actually grieved when the show ended.
Bonus: Work of Art has been dropped from Bravo but I read the producers are still shopping it around. Someone please pick it up!
What do you wish was back on the air?
