New in Reader

Remember how everyone posted their favorite blogs last Monday? Well there's probably still some I haven't visited, but I've been keeping track of the new blogs. Here is a partial list (ie, the ones I thought to make a list of after having added quite a few.)

Persnickety Snark (does the name make you want to click?)
Kiss a Cloud (I admit it, I haven't read much yet, but the picture of books rock)
Lakeside Musing (SUCH a beautiful header. My dream spot, seriously!)
beauty that moves (not about books, but still lovely)
Lit and Life (another Lisa!)
Dolce Bellezza (it's true, somehow I'd missed her!)
My Year of Reading Seriously (I think we have very similar taste, and can't wait to explore further)
Serenehours (more YA)

Tina Says... (I actually added her before this, but thought I'd throw her on the list anyway!)

Who did you add to your reader this week? Anyone I need to know about?

(The picture has nothing to do with anything, I just don't like not having a picture.)

I won a prize!

A while ago I won a giveaway at My Aunt June. We exchanged a few emails and then I promptly forgot about it. A few nights ago, Mike finds a package for me on the doorstep from Aunt June. ("Aunt June? I don't have an Aunt June, do you?") This was my first (and so far only) win of a crafty nature, and I could not wait to break into it.

Look at all the goodness that she sent !

There are some little linen-y scraps. A largeish piece of a striped heavier cotton? (I can't identify fabric well, sorry.) A few coordinating fat quarters. Some zippers, which is awesome cause I just learned how to put a zipper in and I'm dying to figure out how to make these. Three very yummy candles. Some little decorative papers (I'm not sure what one does with those.) And see the plate in the middle there? Hand-painted! I think I'm gonna use it to put jewelry on. If you want some lovely hand-painted goodness, she has an Etsy shop where you can get some for yourself, along with some brand new scarves. Check out that little birdy bowl, how cute is that? (sorry, it's sold, but it's still CUTE.) I think she needs to do some mugs...

Thanks, Lauren, for the awesome gift!

I'm hoping to have time later for a proper post about crafting blogs, of which there are many (just like book blogs.) I had wanted to do it in this post, but the Bug feels that would be a waste of perfectly good time we could be spending together, so I guess I'll go snuggle. It's a hard life.

A bloggy resolution

Lately there has been some talk around the blogosphere about blog reviews being worse than paper reviews (will that controversy ever die?), especially those of the blogspot variety. In another paper review, women's writing, and by association women readers, are brushed off as pretty insignificant- eaters of tea and cucumber sandwiches. I'll save you the discussion on this, you can find them all over the web, but it does make me think about my own reading and blogging. (Not that the discussions are bad, just that I don't have anything new to add. Here's a nice one from Caribousmom, and one at another at minds alive on the shelves, and chris at book-a-rama talks a bit about it.)

I've become a bit unenthused at my own reviews. If I were reading myself on a Reader I'd never click through (for the reviews, for the stunningly cute boys, yes, yes I would!) I've been reading a lot of easy books lately, Evanovich, and Jim Butcher and the like. I've got a good excuse, I think, with two small children and a full time job it's hard to focus. But I'm not so happy about it. I've decided to step it up a little and stop skipping the hard stuff. I'm not swearing off on the easy stuff by any means, but the occasional non-fiction or literary fiction or classic wouldn't kill me. I'm also on the lookout for a nice set of guidelines for questions. Something generic to every book- I know there is a blogger who I read all the time, one who reads tons of books, who uses such a thing, but do you think I can remember who it is? Help me out here, someone who can remember needs to give me a link. And if it's you, I'm sorry, I think you're great. I just can't remember who you are!

However, this doesn't mean that I agree with the columnist. I think bloggers do a much better job of spreading a love of books than an paper review ever did. I think there is a niche for every type of book blogger, whereas you never see romances (for example) reviewed in mainstream print. I think that women's fiction is some of the best writing out there. Anyone can do war, I'd like a little emotion with my books, please. (Wait, was that a stereotype? Should I take it out?)

Anyway, my point, as I struggle to make it, is that on MY blog, the standards have slipped and I'm gonna fix it. EVERYONE ELSE'S bog though, still great. I'd rather read a hundred of them than a handful of print. I'd rather be friends with the writer, and I feel like I'm friends with many of you. I'd rather be able to respond, and get a response. I love being able to compile notes on the same book. I've added way more books to my TBR from the blogging world than I ever did from my NY Times book review subscription.

Oh, and today for lunch I had cucumber sandwiches. Cream cheese, cucumbers, and ham. It didn't seem to affect my intelligence AT ALL.

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On link love and coffee and camping.

Over at Bookfoolery and Babble we are having a rousing discussion (ok, rousing might be too strong) in the comments section of this post about having a blogroll on your blog. Obviously, I don't have one. I haven't in a long time because it got too dang hard to keep up with. I am subscribed to hundreds and hundreds of blogs! But, I am thinking of adding one. I thought I'd start with blogs that comment on MY blog and run from there. I'm going to start from the commentors on my contest and start adding. Want a little love? Leave me a comment! Show me who my REAL friends are! (And then make a wish and forward this to 827 people and your wish will come true in the next 10 minutes!) (Ok, so I might just start adding people too, but it would really help if you'd leave a comment. K?) I noticed that blogger lets you do a list that updates and puts people with new posts at the top, has anyone tried that?

I've been avoiding caffeine for several months now because the Bug doesn't sleep so well when I have caffeine. Every morning I have one little tiny cup of coffee and that's it. I *thought* I was drinking caffeinated coffee, but this morning I looked and it turns out it's decaf. I haven't been having any caffeine at all! The obvious response to this is to immediately run out and GET coffee. I had a small vanilla iced coffee from McDonalds. AND I AM WIRED. Can you tell?

We are taking the boys camping this weekend. Just one night in a campground with bathrooms and showers, but still camping. In a tent. On the ground. Should be a total blast. The Pirate is beyond thrilled. We're making smores and cooking hotdogs and burgers. Someone will bring a ton of cookies and snacks. Someone else will have the watermelon. We'll have beer. Anyone have any good suggestions for camping with kids and babies?

Did you enter my contest yet? What about this one? Go go, do it now!

Some Bloggy Questions

Lately I've been pondering my blog and trying to think of ways to make it more appealing, both to myself and to you all. I've decided that I am tired of my current look and want something new, but can't find the time or energy to learn how to change it and can't find the money to pay someone. I'd like something super simple this time around, so in theory I COULD do it- right? I have an idea in my head of what I'd like, I just have no clue on how to put it onto a blog. I don't even know how to add text to a picture to make a header, perhaps this doing it myself idea isn't so good.

I've also been pondering the scope of my topics. I feel like I lost a lot of readers (or at least a lot of commentors, I have yet to figure out how many people are subscribed via Reader) when I broadened from mainly books. I've been thinking that I should go back to separate blogs for sewing and reading. What about kid topics? Should I have a THIRD blog about that? Should I just not blog about the boys? Not everyone wants to hear about kids all the time. I DO have three blogs. I could brush the dust off the two others. Or have two and just mention them sparingly? I'd really like to use a platform that has the ability to link them all under one main home page while keeping the page elements the same for each (same theme, etc.) Any suggestions? Do you (as a reader) typically follow blogs who change URLs? What if I had a giveaway of something (books? bags?) when I changed?

And, how do you feel about ads? I really don't noticed the ads in the sidebars of blogs or at the end of a post.I do dislike blog posts that seem to be a paid advertisement. My husband says I can quit my job when the blog pays the mortgage. (yeah, like that'll happen...)

So please, leave comments, let me know what you like. Do you like multiple topics? Dislike it? What do you like in the sidebars? What do you actively dislike? (No worries, there will NEVER be music on my blog!) I don't want to make changes if people don't like it. Change is hard! Help me out here.

Edited to add: A super sweet someone volunteered to help me here, so you guys gotta pony up and tell me what you like! Super sweet someone- I will email you later this morning!

A Random List of Things

Good thing I don't have a partial feed because I suspect the beginning and end of this list won't have anything to do with each other!

• Today is my birthday. I am 33. Crazy.
• I started reading My Sister's Keeper by Picoult. So far it's easy to read, but I am terrified that the sister dies. Can I handle it if she does?
• I had a giant vanilla latte today, my first caffeine in weeks. It was lots of fun.
• I really like the way Maw Books always posts the best seller list for the week, indicating which ones she's read. I'd SO do that, but I am so far behind on best sellers it might be pointless. Here's her list from last week. I've read 6 of them. I might start doing part of it- fiction and non-fiction, not the advice or children's though.
• I'm almost done with Helping Me Help Myself by Beth Lisick. I'm having problems getting through the chapter on money. Identify much?
• I'm too lazy to link to book titles. Ya'll know how to use Amazon.
• This weekend is Father's Day. I have not yet placed my Amazon order. Shhhhh. Perhaps he won't notice?
• If I have to buy you a gift, and I don't know what you want- you get books.
• Next Tuesday my mother comes to town.
• I am going out to dinner tonight for my birthday. WITHOUT THE BOYS (the little ones, the big one is paying.)
• Did I mention it's my birthday?
• I hope someone buys me shoes.
• I love Etsy. I could spend so much money there.
• Which reminds me, the wedding sewing I did is finally done, so hopefully I'll be posting things for the shop again soon.
• No, not my wedding. A small sewing commission. Whoo! Pictures to come soon.
• New blogs on my reader: What I Wore Today, Mighty Girl, ArdentlyPinkReads (among others)
• Ok, I'm annoying myself with the lists.

One more week

I have one more week of maternity leave. I plan to take a little break from blogs for the week. The baby is getting so big and is just now getting interesting and it almost breaks my heart to go back to work. I need to wallow in him for a few days.

Baby Update, books read, book giveaway!

The baby is awesome, thanks for asking! He's just over two weeks now, and he's cuter than cute. The jaundice is no longer a problem and he seems to be eating like a champ. The pirate is still pretty ambivalent about him, but occasionally is super cute. I'm not really sure what I've been doing with my time off, it seems I must be spending all my time sitting around holding the baby cause I sure can't figure out what else I'm doing.

I have done a little reading. I finished off the third Jim Butcher, Grave Peril, and will hopefully post a review one day. Then I went out of my usual pattern to start The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. This is my first Burke, but I heard it was really good and painted a very accurate picture of post-Katrina New Orleans. It does. I'm not sure I'd want to read a lot of Burke otherwise, but am enjoying this one.

Speaking of books, Natasha at Maw Books is giving away 20 books in celebration of her 100th post. Maw Books is a new blog to me, I found a link on another blog this evening. Go check it out and leave some comments. I have already added her to my Google Reader!

I finally managed to take some pictures of the baby's room- I didn't finish everything I wanted to do, I kinda ran out of time... Here's a little peek. I made the quilt the baby is laying on and the pillows. My husband made the built-ins in the closet. I still need to do something with that big long shelf.

The "You Make My Day" Award

A week or so ago Suey at It's All About Books was generous enough to give me the "You Make My Day"Award. I was a bit shocked to find that there are actually people out there still reading my blog, seeing as I never actually post to it any more. (Or so it seems!) This little award has been going around for a couple of weeks and my Google Reader subscriptions have increased a lot because of it. This means, however, that I'm having a hard time figuring out who *I* want to give it to. I'm worried that I'll leave someone I love out! I don't have a blogroll on my blog (mainly cause I'm too dang lazy to do it) and I realize this means that no one knows who I read and love!

I am subscribed to 286 blogs on Google Reader. Now, some of those are defunct, and some of those I just glance at the topic title and skim, but there's still a good number of them that I read every day. How'm I supposed to narrow that down?? So instead of giving out the award, here's what I'm gonna do- Over there to the right, a little ways down, there is a section of shared items (Great posts from other bloggers!) I'm sometimes a bit lax about marking items shared, but I promise to be more generous in the future. If you click on the little "read more" at the bottom, you can even subscribe to a feed of them! I know, this is a bit of a cheat, but I'd rather send you off to see ALL my favorites than just the first few that pop into my head.

Thanks again, Suey, for the award. I love knowing that I do have a FEW readers left! Real content is coming soon! I hope!

In the meantime, check out my newest blogging endeavor We'd Rather Read. This one is a joint blog with some friends that promises to be a lot of fun- once we get it off the ground. If you're interested in blogging with us drop me a line, we could use one or two more readers... bookslistslifeATgmail works fine.