1999 was a good year, apparently.

Things are finally slowing down a little here in the Books. Lists. Life. house. We have one more holiday weekend this weekend and then things are back to normal. I have some projects to show you and a couple bookish posts (best books, final tally, that sort of thing) that I want to post next week. I also have a handful of reviews I'd like to get posted, if even briefly.   In the meantime, the lovely TRISH made me this beautiful bar chart and I thought I'd go ahead and share it.

Some interesting things to note:
-I graduated from high school in June 1993.
-I graduated from college in 1998.  I was a history major, so it was very reading intensive, but generally giant, dry books. 
-I worked at Books-A-Million from 1996-1998.
- in late September 1999 I started playing EverQuest, the online game in which I met Mike. I did not read a single book after early October of that year.
-in 2002 I moved to South Dakota.
-in 2004 Mike and I were married and the Pirate was born in 2005.
-the Bug was born in 2008.
-the Princess was born in 2010.

(There, that post oughta help any stalkers find me.)

Post holiday crafting: play kitchens

One of the things the Princess got for Christmas was a little set of wooden pans from Melissa & Doug. It came with a little cardboard stove, but I knew I could do better. The kids have this little table that was the perfect size, so I made a kitchen. I used felt to make a fitted table cloth and fashioned a sink at one end and a stove at the other. It still needs a few details added with a paint pen, but the kids already love it.

This has led to an idea percolating in my head about play kitchens for tiny spaces, once I finish up a bit of fun sewing I'll be showing you a brand new shop item!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snowmen for school

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas owl

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy Valentines Day

Wait, I thought it was Christmas this week? (picture taken last night at work. )


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Holiday break from words

(An in progress shot of one of the gifts I'm making for my own kids.)

For the next week or so I'm taking a little break from writing blog posts. I'm hoping to post little pictures of our holiday preparation as I take them. I hope you all have a great week and a happy holiday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Virtual Advent Day 14: Not So Wordless Wednesday

It's that time of year again, the time of parties, trees, lights, cookies and fudge. It's also the time of year where we frantically scrounge through our pictures looking for a good one for the Christmas card. We put the kids in their best clothes and convince them all to smile at the camera (hell, to LOOK at the camera!) all at the same time. Adding a third child to the occasion didn't make it any easier.

This year we decided to take my brother-in-law and his fancy camera to the Pierre Capitol Building for a little photoshoot. In December, the Capitol is always decorated with dozens of trees and lights, and is open to the public to view. In the evenings there is live music, the library sets up an area and reads stories, and there is a little station to decorate an ornament and hang it on a nearby tree.

In the end, we bribed the boys with Happy Meals and we still didn't end up with a smiling happy family picture. We did end up with the picture shown above, which certainly has it own charms.  Now I'm impatiently waiting for the cards to show up in the mail so I can start the process of picking out my favorite 50 friends and family.  (I kid!) (Kinda!)

Please be sure to visit the other bloggers on today's tour, and stop by the main page of the Virtual Advent Tour as well.

Rob Crompton @ Tales From the Snig's Foot

Nicole @ Linus's Blanket

Sheree @ The Eclectic Reader
L.R. Knost @ Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting Resources

Random Yesterday

• Hey! Did ya'll hear? Yesterday was Friday! Whoops.
• And Christmas is only two weeks away.
• Did I tell you guys about my $8 Christmas tree? Really nice looking fake tree from the thrift store for $8! SCORE. (Also, $2.50 cowboy boots! Can not WAIT to wear them!)
• I have two days off between now and Christmas (the 16th and the 24th.) I work until Midnight all the other nights.  Then I get up and watch kids all day. *yawn*
• I have bought one gift. I have sewn none.
• The Bug swallowed a coin this week. I called Poison Control, since I couldn't get through to the clinic (AT&T's fault, not the clinic's.)  They said I had to have him x-rayed in case it were a penny. We waited 24 hours to see if it would uh, reappear, and it did not. So Mike took him in last night where they x-rayed him and determined it was a) not a penny (likely a game token) and b) safely in his stomach. $100 copay for the priviledge of waiting for him to poop. Merry Christmas!
• On a related note, apparently he charmed all the nurses and they kept having to go back and "say hi to the cute little boy."
• One of my two BFFs from high school (yes, we're still friends now) is having her first baby in the next week. I haven't made her anything yet either and I feel guilty. 
• I should be sewing now instead of blogging!
• Or cleaning! My house is disgusting.

What I Read This Week:

• Salvation in Death by JD Robb. These are so compelling while I'm reading them, but afterwards they all blend together. This is not a bad thing.
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Jamie and Claire are finally married!

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

Wordless Wednesday: Painting Baby

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I've been stalking my library for quite a while, waiting for Lola to show up on the shelves. I really enjoyed Anna and the French Kiss a lot last spring and was hopeful that Lola and the Boy Next Door would capture the same feeling for me. Unfortunately, while I did enjoy it, I don't think Stephanie Perkins will make my autobuy list*.

Lola is charming and quirky. She lives in San Fransisco with her two dads and has a much older (22 to her 17) boyfriend. She's convinced that Max is The One, until the day that next door neighbor Cricket Bell moves back home. Lola has to decide if what she feels for Cricket has changed or if he is still the one for her.

I really loved that Perkins nails how I felt as a teenager with my first boyfriend. He was also The One, no question. I was going to spend forever with him. We broke up with I was 16 and then I married boyfriend #2 at 21. He turned out to also not be The One.  I thought that Perkins did a great job with Lola and describing how this felt to me. I clearly remember feeling that way about both my guys, even as I know in hindsight that I was so so wrong. 

I loved Lola and her quirky style of dress and her amazing sewing ability. I loved Cricket for being so much fun and consistent and his too short pants and his rubber bands.  I loved Lola's two dads and her interactions with her birth mother and I loved the theme of questioning how your genetics make you into who you are, based on her birth mom versus her dads. That's a lot to love in a book.

I did not love that both books by Perkins center entirely around being with the wrong guy (or girl.) In Anna and the French Kiss St. Clair takes way way too long to ditch the girlfriend who is clearly wrong for him. In Lola, it's clear from the beginning (and from the title, and from the synopsis, and from the cover picture) where the book is going. I'll admit that love triangles are my least favorite of plots, so it's not surprising that I wasn't thrilled with it. Perkins is now two for two on using this as the basis of her story, so while I'll probably still read her next book, I'm my dying with excitement to see what she has coming.

This next bit is going to see contradictory to what I said above, so bear with me. Anna and St. Clair were both characters in Lola. I loved to see them again and didn't feel that they were out of place (nor did I feel that it would ruin their story if you read this one first.) They are a terrific couple and their interactions were a pleasure to read. However- I know I just said I loved that Perkins captured how it feels to be with The One when you're in high school. I felt uncomfortable about Anna and St. Clair being so firmly on the path to marriage in a young adult book. This probably has more to do with my failed marriage to my high school sweetheart than with the idea in general, but it seems like a bad idea to have them so unquestionably together so young. Clearly, this is something I need to process a bit on my own, but I wonder how you feel about this type of situation? Do you prefer your YA couples to be definitely and romantically together or do you like it when they are already picking out their apartment and china? I think that a Happily Ever After is required in an adult romance, and I enjoy it in YA as well, but I don't want to think about 18 year olds planning their future together in definite and concrete ways.


*I don't actually buy books any more, but I like the idea of autobuy authors.

Lola and the Boy Next Door
by Stephanie Perkins
Dutton Books
2011
338 pages

Source: Library


I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

One year ago today

One year ago yesterday the moving truck showed up at our house in Rapid City. One year ago today we moved into the blue house that we ultimately lived in for 4 months before relocating to this apartment. It's been a crazy year.

•  We've gone from a 3 bedroom house with a full basement to a 4 bedroom house with two big living rooms to a 2 bedroom (3 room total) apartment.
• We sold our house.
• We've gone from 3 cats to 2.
• The Pirate turned 6 and the Bug turned 3.
• The Princess turned 1.
• We fell in love with our local library (Rawlins Library in Pierre, SD.)
• The Missouri River flooded the town of Pierre.
• I temporarily worked online doing freelance for Xbox. (Yeah, that was cool.)
• I expanded the shop to try to makeit a full time job, only somewhat successfully.
• I passed the 100 mark for Facebook fans and the 100 mark for items sold.
• I took a part-time job working evenings in a big box store.
• We went camping a couple times.
• Mike worked harder than he's every worked.
• I started the hexagon quilt.
• My mom visited for a full month.
• I got an iPhone. Still taking suggestions on apps!

It's been a year of crazy ups and downs. Some things didn't turn out the way we expected, at all. Some things were even better. I can't wait to see what happens next year.

Random Friday: Free Shipping this weekend!

• I ran a Black Friday/ Cyber Monday Special in the shop and sold a few owls.
• Then I realized I should offer a deal to you guys too. So from now til Monday (or longer if I forget) you can have free shipping too, just use BLLFREE and I'll give you FREE First Class shipping! Buy enough stuff that First Class and Priority are the same price, and I'll give you free Priority!
• Non-US Residents- No free shipping for you, but I will refund the cost of the US portion of the shipping so you only have to pay the difference.
• Gotta get going on my day, so that's all for today. Have a great weekend!

What I Read This Week:

• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I finished this up last night, as expected. I need to say something about this one, so will try to write it up this weekend.
• Only His by Susan Mallery. Finished this one too. It's my least favorite of the series. It felt too much like it was tying up all the loose ends of the series.

Year end reading plans, a list.

A few nights ago Mike and I were looking at our respective books read in 2011 lists (links go to said lists.) We're currently running neck and neck at about 34 books each for the year, which is cool, since we don't keep up with each other in an competitive way (until about this time of year.)  This got me to thinking about what books I'd like to wrap up before the end of 2011. In all likelihood, I'll only finish one or two more. I'm about to embark on a little Christmas sewing, and I'm working 4 or 5 nights a week, but in an ideal world here's what I'd finish, and why:

• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I read half last night. I'm off tonight so it's likely that I'll sit down and finish it up today.
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I am enjoying it, really. It's just so BIG to lug around! And I kinda have to pay attention.
• Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. I am not very far into this one. I have it on my phone as a .pdf and it's so tiny. I want to read it and enjoy it, but the setting has to be just right and and I can't read it in bed or I fall asleep from the effort of the tiny print.
• Salvation in Death by JD Robb. I haven't started this, but lately I'm in the mood for a little Eve and Roarke.
• Only Mine by Susan Mallery. This is the only one of the series I haven't read yet. It's not looking likely that I'll get it any time soon either- it was due back at the library on September 16th.
• Sweet Talk by Susan Mallery. I started this one while I was waiting for the next in the previous series. I'm only 4 chapters or so in, but so far everyone in the book is just so mean. I understand the need for conflict, but if it doesn't break soon I'll be returning this one unread, and happily.
• Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. I'm about half done, which is where I've been for months. I don't see any chance of finishing the series before next year, but I hate leaving unfinished books.

I'm sure there are more. I have a good 30 books checked out from the library. These are just the unfinished ones that I'd like to see wrapped up. 7 books in 4 weeks? Seems completely doable...