fingers crossed

quote of the week

My favorite quote from last week's episode of Project Runway comes from the great Tim Gunn.

"I smell chaos and bedlam!"

(re: a team who did not agree on a color scheme before shopping)

What do you think of the team angle this season?

Who thinks they should design for Thunder from Down Under every week?

P.S. I got this picture from this little mama.

Top Ten Books On My Spring 2013 TBR list!

Happy First Day of Spring! I found this list idea on Avid Reader's Musings and decided to play along.

1. Dead Money by Steve O'Brien - an Early Reviewer

2. Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich - Eclectic Reader Challenge

3. From a Buick 8 by Stephen King - LibraryThing group read

4. The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman - love these

5. Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - book 3 in the trilogy (must read during appropriate season)

4. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - been meaning to read this since last year

5. Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom by Jennifer Holland - ABC challenge

6. Zarafa by Michael Allin - ABC challenge

7. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom or Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato - my book club is going to read one of these next

8. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby - What's in a Name Challenge

9. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan - What's in a Name Challenge

10. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - Colorful Reading Challenge

What are your top ten for spring?

P.S. This picture came from red lips and ice cream.

The Midwife by Jennifer Worth a.k.a. Call the Midwife

The Midwife is a memoir about...A Midwife!...in 1950s London helping women deliver their babies. I learned a lot about the world of healthcare before there was healthcare, a new scientific word to describe part of my lady bits, and also a little about workhouses. For instance, I was not aware that families were separated upon entering workhouses. Sad.

My book club read this book and chose it because most of them watch the show, so I thought I would like it a lot. I'm sorry to say that I just thought it was o.k. I think part of the reason is that I never had kids nor do I want to have kids. To me reading about that stuff was gross, especially the chapter when she talked about smelly vaginas. Vomit. I was also surprised to learn how poor the sanitation system was back then, inspiring some more disgusting descriptions of living conditions. Gag me.

The final chapter was the last bummer for me. So the whole time she's living with these nuns. At the beginning she mentions that she's agnostic, at Christmas she mentions how much she likes the holiday church festivities, and then BAM! Last chapter she's a total convert. It bugged me that the whole story was about midwifery and her friends, but secretly it was just a means for her to prosthelytize.

The stories are interesting and move at a good pace, but I would recommend childless agnostics and atheists stick to James Herriot.

P.S. This book fulfills my memoir requirement for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I'm reading Dragons of Winter Night (DragonLance Chronicles, Volume 2) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and it's awesome! It was one of Corey's favorite books in high school.

P.S. Sorry, I can't find where I got this image from on the internet.

musings on a day listening to shuffle on my ipod

I thought I liked Gordon Lightfoot, but every time he comes up on shuffle he bothers me. Time to remove most of his songs. Sorry Gordon, if you're reading this.

Contrarily, I love when AZ band, The Format, comes up on shuffle, but it also makes me sad because they broke up. My big regret is that I didn't go to their show when I had the chance. I couldn't get anyone to go with me and now I wish I had just gone by myself! They were awesome. At least I can still enjoy them on my ipod.

P.S. Fiona Apple on shuffle is always good. Her illustration is by Kareena Zerefos (who I also love) and it came from an interesting interview on Pitchfork.

quote of the week

Yesterday during tutoring after school a little boy from my class said, "I wish I was your mom because you're SO nice!" Ha ha, I thought he must mean that he wishes I was HIS mom so I tested him.

"I wish you were my mom too. You would make such a good mom." etc. etc. And he never corrected me and went along with everything I was saying.

It's always nice to get an original compliment, even if it's just a compliment that didn't come out right. Or maybe I'm the first person he's come out to. Either way I think he's sweet.

P.S. Disney Gaga is by Helen Green.

Happy Valentine's Day!

bound to you is by vol25.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were 2 of my favorite books I read last year. I was so excited to read Mockingjay, the final installment in the series! Now that I have read it I am sad to announce that it fell far short of my expectations.

An abundance of sub plots, mundane details, characters introduced only to be killed off a few pages later, and outright implausibility kept me from enjoying this book. Incidentally the ending I'd been hoping for not only didn't happen, but came to an abrupt, screeching halt. I almost feel like Suzanne Collins died and her husband finished writing the series for her.

Of course if you've read the first two books I recommend you read this one. You have to find out how it all ends, right? I'm honestly hoping you won't be as bitterly disappointed as I am.

P.S. At least this book counts toward my Dystopian genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

Ah yes indeed it's fun time!

My principal sent us a link to this today and it made me laugh out loud more than once! For all the teaching Beastie Boys fans out there:

Congratulations Laura

True XOXO Scrapbooking asked us to use Audrey Hepburn as our inspiration this month. Easy.

The biggest Audrey fan I know is Laura Beth so I decided to use her pictures from graduation last year. I'm so proud of all her hard work. She truly deserves everything good that comes her way.

I busted out some really old die cuts for this page but I think they work here. Then I used a quote on my page which XOXO provided:

I believe in pink.

I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.

I believe in kissing, kissing a lot.

I believe in being strong when everything else seems to be going wrong.

I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.

I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

~Audrey Hepburn

walking those dogs

Just got back from walking the mini pack. We missed a few walks because we had four days of rain in a row! Unheard of! They did pretty good and it felt nice to be moving our legs again.

P.S. Rainy long walk is by holli.

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

I requested this book as an Early Reviewer because I read the author's first book, The Day the Falls Stood Still, a few years ago and loved it. The Painted Girls did not disappoint!

This well-researched historical fiction novel takes place in Paris 1878. It follows the van Goethem sisters as they struggle to survive after their father dies. Luckily the oldest sister, Antoinette, once trained in ballet for the Paris Opera and uses her mischievous ways to get auditions for her little sisters. Little did I know, but they used to pay girls to train for the ballet.

Every other chapter is told from the middle sister, Marie's, point of view, although the story mainly centers around her. She wants nothing more than stability for her family. Marie is a hard worker who loves music and her family, which makes her accessible to almost all of us. One way she makes extra money is by posing for Edgar Degas. He has a smaller role in this story but is still well developed as a character.

This is an excellent sister story, but I also felt the author was making a commentary on our roles in the world. Can you truly pull yourself up by your bootstraps or were you born to your lot in life? Don't tell. I'm not supposed to quote an advanced copy of the book but I feel in sharing this you will understand an underlying theme:

Monsieur Zola's tale is not about getting a washhouse or a chance upon the stage. It is about begin born downtrodden and staying that way. Hard work makes no difference, he is saying. My lot, the lots of those around me, were cast the moment we were born into the gutter to parents who never managed to step outside the gutter themselves.

Read this book and you will be magicked away to a time and place very different from our own. Fortunately the characters will make you feel at home.

P.S. This book counts as my book Published in 2013 for my Eclectic Reader Challenge.

quote of the day/how I know my class is going to fail state standardized testing

Me: {pressing play}

State Approved CD Instruction Deliverer: Write your full name on the line.

Girl: I don't have a full name!

P.S. I got this picture from Private Arts.

2012 End of the Year Book Survey

Time for end of the year book quizzes! Yay! On this one you're supposed to answer the questions with titles of books read in 2012.

Describe yourself: The Girl Who Played With Fire

How do you feel? Serenity

Describe where you currently live: East of Denver

If you could go anywhere...? The Voyage Out

Favorite form of transportation: Ruffian (she was a racehorse)

Your best friend is: I, Robot

You and your friends are: Catching Fire

What's the weather like? Day of Honey

Your favorite time of day is: After Dark

What is life for you? The Penultimate Peril

You fear: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Best advice: Animals Make Us Human

Thought for the day: You Shall Know Our Velocity!

How you would like to die: The End

Who else wants to play?

P.S. Books is by Emily Martin.